Control plane design for bandwidth portions in new radios

Abstract

Techniques and apparatus are provided for control plane design for a bandwidth portion (BWP) in a new radio (NR). A technique includes transmitting information with an indication of a BWP capability of a user equipment (UE) to a base station (BS). A configuration is received from the BS indicating that a set of BWPs available for communication is received in response to the indication. Communication is performed on at least one BWP in the set of BWPs. Another technique includes receiving information with an indication of a BWP capability of a UE. A configuration is determined that indicates a set of BWPs available for the UE to use for communication. The configuration is sent to the UE.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of application number 201880073287.7, filed on November 16, 2018, entitled “Control Plane Design for Bandwidth Portion in New Radio”. Cross-reference to Related Applications & Priority Claims

[0002] This application claims the benefit of and priority to International Patent Cooperation Treaty Application No. PCT / CN2018 / 087647, filed on May 21, 2018, and International Patent Cooperation Treaty Application No. PCT / CN2017 / 111522, filed on November 17, 2017, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application and are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth below and for all applicable purposes. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to a control plane design for a bandwidth part (BWP) in New Radio (NR). Background Art

[0004] Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide a variety of telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasting. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple access technologies that can support communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple access technologies include Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, Advanced LTE (LTE-A) systems, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) systems, and Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) systems.

[0005] In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system may include multiple base stations, each of which simultaneously supports communication for multiple communication devices (also referred to as user equipment (UE)). In an LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more base stations may define an evolved Node B (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in a next-generation or 5G network), a wireless multiple-access communication system may include multiple distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmit receive points (TRPs), etc.) communicating with multiple central units (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs), etc.), wherein the set of one or more distributed units communicating with the central unit may define an access node (e.g., new radio base station (NR BS), new radio BS (NR NB), network node, 5G NB, eNB, next-generation NB (gNB), etc.). A BS or DU may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from the BS to the UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from the UE to the BS or DU).

[0006] These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate at a city, country, region, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is New Radio (NR), for example, 5G radio access. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard released by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better integrate with other open standards by improving spectrum efficiency, reducing costs, improving services, utilizing new spectrum, and using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL), thereby better supporting mobile broadband Internet access, as well as supporting beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

[0007] However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to grow, there is a need for further improvements to NR technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multiple access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ them. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The systems, methods, and devices of the present disclosure each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of the disclosure as expressed by the claims that follow, some features will now be briefly discussed. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled "Detailed Description," one will understand how the features of the present disclosure provide advantages, including improved communication between access points and stations in a wireless network.

[0009] Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE). Generally speaking, the method includes sending information including an indication of bandwidth part (BWP) capabilities of the UE to a base station (BS). The method also includes receiving, from the BS, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for communication in response to the indication. The method also includes performing communication on at least one of the BWPs.

[0010] Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communications by a base station (BS). Generally speaking, the method includes receiving information from a user equipment (UE) including an indication of a bandwidth part (BWP) capability of the UE. The method also includes determining, based on the indication, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs that the UE may use for communications. The method also includes transmitting the configuration to the UE.

[0011] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. Generally speaking, the apparatus includes at least one processor, a transmitter, a receiver, and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. The transmitter is configured to transmit information including an indication of bandwidth part (BWP) capabilities of the apparatus to a base station (BS). The receiver is configured to receive, from the BS, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for communication in response to the indication. The at least one processor is configured to perform communication on at least one of the BWP sets.

[0012] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. Generally speaking, the apparatus includes at least one processor, a transmitter, a receiver, and a memory coupled to the at least one processor. The receiver is configured to receive information from a user equipment (UE) including an indication of a bandwidth part (BWP) capability of the UE. The at least one processor is configured to determine, based on the indication, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for use by the UE for communication. The transmitter is configured to transmit the configuration to the UE.

[0013] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. Generally speaking, the apparatus includes means for sending information including an indication of bandwidth part (BWP) capabilities of the apparatus to a base station (BS). The apparatus also includes means for receiving, from the BS, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for communication in response to the indication. The apparatus also includes means for performing communication on at least one of the BWP sets.

[0014] Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. Generally speaking, the apparatus includes means for receiving information from a user equipment (UE) including an indication of bandwidth part (BWP) capabilities of the UE. The apparatus also includes means for determining, based on the indication, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs that the UE may use for communication. The apparatus also includes means for transmitting the configuration to the UE.

[0015] Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable medium having computer-executable code stored thereon for wireless communication by an apparatus. Generally speaking, the computer-executable code includes code for transmitting information including an indication of bandwidth part (BWP) capabilities of the apparatus to a base station (BS). The computer-executable code also includes code for receiving, from the BS, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for communication in response to the indication. The computer-executable code also includes code for performing communication on at least one of the BWP sets.

[0016] Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable medium having computer-executable code stored thereon for wireless communication by an apparatus. In general terms, the computer-executable code includes code for receiving information from a user equipment (UE) including an indication of bandwidth part (BWP) capabilities of the UE. The computer-executable code also includes code for determining, based on the indication, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for use by the UE for communication. The computer-executable code also includes code for transmitting the configuration to the UE.

[0017] To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] In order that the above-mentioned features of the present disclosure may be understood in detail, a more particular description (briefly summarized above) may be made by reference to various aspects, some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of the present disclosure and are not therefore to be considered limiting of its scope, as the description may admit to other equally effective aspects.

[0019] Figure 1is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example telecommunications system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example logical architecture of a distributed radio access network (RAN) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating an example physical architecture of a distributed RAN in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating designs of example base stations (BSs) and user equipment (UEs) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a communication protocol stack for implementing certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 6 Examples of downlink-centric subframes are shown, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 7 Examples of uplink-centric subframes are shown in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 8 An example deployment use scenario of a BWP in a communication system according to certain aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0027] Figure 9 Example operations for wireless communications performed by a user equipment are illustrated, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0028] Figure 10

[0014] Example operations for wireless communications performed by a base station are illustrated in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0029] Figure 11 An example call flow for a radio resource control (RRC) procedure is illustrated in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0030] Figure 12 A communication device according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown, which may include various components configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosed herein.

[0031] To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspect may be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specific recitation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable media for New Radio (NR), a new radio access technology or 5G technology.

[0033] NR can support various wireless communication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g., over 80 MHz), millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g., 27 GHz or over), massive MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC technology, and / or mission-critical services targeting ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). These services may include latency and reliability requirements. These services may also have different transmission time intervals (TTIs) to meet corresponding quality of service (QoS) requirements. In addition, these services can coexist in the same subframe.

[0034] Various aspects provide techniques and apparatus for control plane design for bandwidth parts (BWPs) in NR. Specifically, various aspects provide techniques for configuring a UE with a set of BWPs to be used for communication based on the UE's BWP capabilities. Using the aspects described herein, a UE may report its BWP capabilities to a gNB (e.g., in a UE capability query procedure). The gNB may determine a set of BWPs available for the UE to use for communication based in part on the UE's BWP capabilities. The gNB may send a (re)configuration including the BWP set to the UE. The UE may use the BWP set for one or more procedures in NR (e.g., radio resource control (RRC) procedures, mobility procedures, paging procedures, etc.). As described in more detail below, in some aspects, the gNB may reconfigure a specific BWP set for the UE based on specific procedures in NR.

[0035] The following description provides examples and does not limit the scope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes may be made to the functions and arrangements of the elements discussed without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Various examples may omit, replace, or add various processes or components as appropriate. For example, the methods described may be performed in an order different from that described, and individual steps may be added, omitted, or combined. In addition, features described with respect to some examples may be combined in some other examples. For example, a device may be implemented or a method may be implemented using any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, the scope of this disclosure is intended to cover such devices or methods implemented using other structures, functions, or structures and functions in addition to or different from the various aspects of the disclosure set forth herein. It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosed herein may be embodied by one or more elements of the claims. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects.

[0036] The techniques described herein can be used in various wireless communication networks, such as LTE, CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and other networks. The terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA network can implement radio technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, and the like. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 covers the IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network can implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network can implement radio technologies such as NR (e.g., 5G RA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, and the like. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). NR is an emerging wireless communication technology under development in conjunction with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Advanced LTE (LTE-A) are versions of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). The techniques described herein can be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above, as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies. For clarity, although various aspects may be described herein using terms commonly associated with 3G and / or 4G wireless technologies, various aspects of the present disclosure can be applied to communication systems based on other generations, such as 5G and later technologies (including NR technologies).

[0037] Example Wireless Communication System

[0038] Figure 1 An example wireless network 100, such as a New Radio (NR) or 5G network, is shown in which aspects of the present disclosure may be performed.

[0039] like Figure 1As shown in FIG, a wireless network 100 may include multiple base stations (BSs) 110 and other network entities. A BS may be a station that communicates with a UE. Each BS 110 may provide communication coverage for a specific geographic area. In 3GPP, the term "cell" may refer to the coverage area of a Node B and / or the NB subsystem serving that coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the terms "cell" and "evolved Node B (eNB), NB, 5G NB, next-generation NB (gNB), access point (AP), BS, NR BS, 5G BS, or transmit / receive point (TRP)" may be used interchangeably. In some examples, a cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of a cell may move depending on the location of a mobile BS. In some examples, BSs may be interconnected with each other and / or with one or more other BSs or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless network 100 via various types of backhaul interfaces (e.g., direct physical connections, virtual networks, or similar interfaces using any suitable transport network).

[0040] In general, any number of wireless networks can be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network can support a specific radio access technology (RAT) and can operate on one or more frequencies. RAT can also be referred to as radio technology, air interface, etc. Frequency can also be referred to as carrier, frequency channel, etc. Each frequency can support a single RAT in a given geographic area to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks can be deployed.

[0041] A BS may provide communication coverage for macro cells, pico cells, femto cells, and / or other types of cells. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., a radius of several kilometers) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a residence) and may allow restricted access by UEs associated with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG), UEs for users in a residence, etc.). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In Figure 1In the example shown in FIG, BSs 110a, 110b, and 110c may be macro BSs for macro cells 102a, 102b, and 102c, respectively. BS 110x may be a pico BS for pico cell 102x. BSs 110y and 110z may be femto BSs for femto cells 102y and 102z, respectively. A BS may support one or more (e.g., three) cells.

[0042] The wireless network 100 may also include a relay station. A relay station is a station that receives data transmissions and / or other information from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) and sends data transmissions and / or other information to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be a UE that relays transmissions for other UEs. Figure 1 In the example shown in , a relay station 110r may communicate with a BS 110a and a UE 120r to facilitate communication between the BS 110a and the UE 120r. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay, or the like.

[0043] The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network including different types of BSs (e.g., macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, repeaters, etc.). These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impacts on interference in the wireless network 100. For example, a macro BS may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 20 watts), while a pico BS, a femto BS, and a repeater may have a lower transmit power level (e.g., 1 watt).

[0044] Wireless network 100 can support synchronous operation or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, BSs can have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs can be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, BSs can have different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs can be misaligned in time. The techniques described herein can be used for both synchronous and asynchronous operation.

[0045] The network controller 130 may be coupled to a group of BSs and provide coordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may also communicate with each other directly or indirectly, for example, via a wireless or wired backhaul.

[0046] UEs 120 (e.g., 120x, 120y, etc.) may be dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, terminal, access terminal, subscriber unit, station, customer premises equipment (CPE), cellular phone, smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless modem, wireless communication device, handheld device, laptop computer, cordless phone, wireless local loop (WLL) station, tablet device, camera, gaming device, netbook, smartbook, ultrabook, medical device or medical apparatus, biometric sensor / device, wearable device (e.g., smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., smart ring, smart bracelet, etc.)), entertainment device (e.g., music device, video device, satellite radio unit, etc.), vehicle component or sensor, smart meter / sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, global positioning system device, or any other suitable device configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium. Some UEs may be considered to be evolved or machine type communication (MTC) devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., which may communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., a remote device), or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example, connectivity to a network (e.g., a wide area network such as the Internet or a cellular network) or to a network via a wired or wireless communication link. Some UEs may be considered to be Internet of Things (IoT) or Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices.

[0047] exist Figure 1 In FIG, a solid line with double arrows indicates desired transmissions between a UE and a serving BS, which is a BS designated to serve the UE on the downlink and / or uplink. A dashed line with double arrows indicates interfering transmissions between the UE and the BS.

[0048] Some wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM divide the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, subbands, etc. Each subcarrier can be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers can be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) can depend on the system bandwidth. For example, the subcarrier spacing can be 15 kHz and the minimum resource allocation (referred to as a resource block (RB)) can be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Therefore, the nominal FFT size can be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth can also be divided into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (ie, 6 RBs), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for system bandwidths of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz, respectively.

[0049] Although aspects of the examples described herein may be associated with LTE technology, aspects of the present disclosure may be applied with other wireless communication systems (e.g., NR). NR may utilize OFDM with CP on the uplink and downlink, and may include support for half-duplex operation using time division duplex (TDD). A single component carrier bandwidth of 100 MHz may be supported. NR resource blocks may span 12 subcarriers with a subcarrier bandwidth of 75 kHz in 0.1 ms duration. Each radio frame may consist of 2 half frames, each half frame may consist of 5 subframes, and have a length of 10 ms. Thus, each subframe may have a length of 1 ms. Each subframe may indicate the link direction (i.e., DL or UL) used for data transmission, and the link direction used for each subframe may be switched dynamically. Each subframe may include DL / UL data and DL / UL control data. Figure 6 and 7The UL and DL subframes for NR are described in more detail (in a reference example). Beamforming can be supported and the beam direction can be dynamically configured. MIMO transmission with precoding can also be supported. The MIMO configuration in the DL can support up to 8 transmit antennas, with multi-layer DL transmission of up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Multi-layer transmission with up to 2 streams per UE can be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells with up to 8 serving cells can be supported. Alternatively, NR can support different air interfaces other than the OFDM-based air interface. The NR network can include entities such as CU and / or DU.

[0050] In some examples, access to the air interface can be scheduled, wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., a BS) allocates resources for communication between some or all devices and apparatuses within its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, as further discussed below, a scheduling entity can be responsible for scheduling, allocating, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communications, the subordinate entities utilize the resources allocated by the scheduling entity. The BS is not the only entity that can serve as a scheduling entity. That is, in some examples, a UE can serve as a scheduling entity that schedules resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more other UEs). In this example, the UE is serving as a scheduling entity, and other UEs utilize the resources scheduled by the UE for wireless communication. The UE can serve as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and / or in a mesh network. In the mesh network example, in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity, the UEs can also optionally communicate directly with each other.

[0051] Thus, in a wireless communication network having scheduled access to time-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2P configuration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one or more slave entities may communicate using the scheduled resources.

[0052] Figure 2 Shows that it can be Figure 1 2. 5G access node 206 may include an access node controller (ANC) 202. The ANC 202 may be a central unit (CU) of the distributed RAN 200. The backhaul interface to the next generation core network (NG-CN) 204 may terminate at the ANC 202. The backhaul interface to the adjacent next generation access node (NG-AN) 210 may terminate at the ANC 202. The ANC 202 may include one or more TRPs 208. As described above, TRP may be used interchangeably with "cell."

[0053] The TRP 208 may be a DU. The TRP may be connected to one ANC (ANC 202) or more than one ANC (not shown). For example, for RAN sharing, Radio as a Service (RaaS), and service-specific ADN deployments, the TRP may be connected to more than one ANC. The TRP 208 may include one or more antenna ports. The TRP may be configured to provide services to the UE individually (e.g., dynamically selected) or jointly (e.g., joint transmission).

[0054] The logical architecture may support fronthaul solutions across different deployment types. For example, the logical architecture may be based on the transmitting network capabilities (e.g., bandwidth, latency, and / or jitter). The logical architecture may share features and / or components with LTE. The NG-AN 210 may support dual connectivity with NR. The NG-AN 210 may share a common fronthaul for LTE and NR. The logical architecture may enable collaboration between and among TRPs 208. For example, collaboration may be pre-set within and / or across TRPs via the ANC 202. There may be no inter-TRP interface.

[0055] The logical architecture can have dynamic configuration of split logical functions. Figure 5 In more detail, the radio resource control (RRC) layer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer, and the physical (PHY) layer can be adaptively placed at the DU or CU (e.g., the TRP or ANC, respectively). The BS can include a central unit (CU) (e.g., the ANC 202) and / or one or more distributed units (e.g., one or more TRPs 208).

[0056] Figure 3 An example physical architecture of a distributed RAN 300 according to aspects of the present disclosure is shown. A centralized core network unit (C-CU) 302 can host core network functions. The C-CU 302 can be centrally deployed. C-CU functions can be offloaded (e.g., to Advanced Wireless Services (AWS)) to handle peak capacity. A centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 304 can host one or more ANC functions. The C-RU 304 can host core network functions locally. The C-RU 304 can have a distributed deployment. The C-RU 304 can be close to the edge of the network. The DU 306 can host one or more TRPs. The DU 306 can be located at the edge of the network with radio frequency (RF) functions.

[0057] Figure 4 Shown in Figure 11 and 120, which may be used to implement various aspects of the present disclosure. As described above, the BS may include a TRP. One or more components in the BS 110 and UE 120 may be used to implement various aspects of the present disclosure. For example, the antenna 452, Tx / Rx 222, processors 466, 458, 464, and / or controller / processor 480 of the UE 120, and / or the antenna 434, processors 460, 420, 438, and / or controller / processor 440 of the BS 110 may be used to perform the operations described herein and with reference to FIG. Figure 9-10 The operation shown.

[0058] Figure 4 BS 110 and UE 120 (which may be Figure 1 For the restricted association scenario, BS 110 may be Figure 1 1. The macro BS 110c in FIG. 1 may be a macro BS 110c, and the UE 120 may be a UE 120y. The BS 110 may also be some other type of BS. The BS 110 may be equipped with antennas 434a through 434t, and the UE 120 may be equipped with antennas 452a through 452r.

[0059] At BS 110, a transmit processor 420 may receive data from a data source 412 and control information from a controller / processor 440. The control information may be for a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), a physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), a physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), or the like. Data may be for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or the like. Processor 420 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information, respectively, to obtain data symbols and control symbols. Processor 420 may also generate reference symbols, such as for the PSS, SSS, and cell-specific reference signals. A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 430 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, control symbols, and / or reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streams to modulators (MODs) 432a through 432t. For example, TX MIMO processor 430 may perform certain aspects described herein with respect to RS multiplexing. Each modulator 432 may process a corresponding output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 432 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and frequency upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. The downlink signals from modulators 432a through 432t may be transmitted via antennas 434a through 434t, respectively.

[0060] At UE 120, antennas 452a through 452r can receive downlink signals from base station 110 and can provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 454a through 454r, respectively. Each demodulator 454 can condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a corresponding received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 454 can further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 456 can obtain received symbols from all demodulators 454a through 454r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols (if applicable), and provide detected symbols. For example, MIMO detector 456 provides detected RSs transmitted using the techniques described herein. A receive processor 458 can process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to a data sink 460, and provide decoded control information to a controller / processor 480.

[0061] On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 464 may receive and process data from a data source 462 (e.g., for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) and control information from a controller / processor 480 (e.g., for a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)). The transmit processor 464 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals. The symbols from the transmit processor 464 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 466 (if applicable), further processed by demodulators 454a through 454r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to the BS 110. At the BS 110, the uplink signal from the UE 120 may be received by the antenna 434, processed by the modulator 432, detected by the MIMO detector 436 (if applicable), and further processed by the receive processor 438 to obtain decoded data and control information transmitted by the UE 120. The receive processor 438 may provide decoded data to a data sink 439 and decoded control information to a controller / processor 440 .

[0062] The controllers / processors 440 and 480 may direct the operation at the base station 110 and the UE 120, respectively. The processor 440 and / or other processors and modules at the base station 110 may perform or direct, for example, Figure 10 The processor 480 and / or other processors and modules at the UE 120 may also execute or direct, for example, Figure 9The functional blocks shown in FIG and / or other processes for the techniques described herein may be executed. Memories 442 and 482 may store data and program codes for BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. Scheduler 444 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and / or uplink.

[0063] Figure 5 A schematic diagram 500 depicting an example of implementing a communication protocol stack according to various aspects of the present disclosure is shown. The illustrated communication protocol stack can be implemented by a device operating in a 5G system (e.g., a system supporting uplink-based mobility). Schematic diagram 500 shows a communication protocol stack comprising a radio resource control (RRC) layer 510, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer 515, a radio link control (RLC) layer 520, a medium access control (MAC) layer 525, and a physical (PHY) layer 530. In various examples, these layers of the protocol stack can be implemented as separate software modules, as part of a processor or ASIC, as part of a non-colocated device connected by a communication link, or various combinations thereof. Co-located and non-co-located implementations can be used, for example, in protocol stacks for network access devices (e.g., AN, CU, and / or DU) or UEs.

[0064] The first option 505-a shows a split implementation of the protocol stack, where the protocol stack is implemented in a centralized network access device (e.g. Figure 2 202 in the ANC 200) and distributed network access equipment (e.g., Figure 2 208 in the DU). In the first option 505-a, the RRC layer 510 and the PDCP layer 515 can be implemented by the central unit, while the RLC layer 520, the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530 can be implemented by the DU. In various examples, the CU and the DU can be co-located or non-co-located. The first option 505-a can be useful in macrocell, microcell, or picocell deployments.

[0065] The second option 505-b illustrates a unified implementation of the protocol stack, wherein the protocol stack is implemented in a single network access device (e.g., an access node (AN), a new radio base station (NR BS), a new radio node B (NR NB), a network node (NN), etc.). In the second option, the RRC layer 510, the PDCP layer 515, the RLC layer 520, the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530 can all be implemented by the AN. The second option 505-b may be useful in femtocell deployments.

[0066] Regardless of whether the network access device implements part or all of the protocol stack, the UE may implement the entire protocol stack (eg, the RRC layer 510 , the PDCP layer 515 , the RLC layer 520 , the MAC layer 525 , and the PHY layer 530 ).

[0067] Figure 6 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a DL-centric subframe 600. The DL-centric subframe 600 may include a control portion 602. The control portion 602 may be present in an initial or beginning portion of the DL-centric subframe. The control portion 602 may include various scheduling information and / or control information corresponding to various portions of the DL-centric subframe 600. In some configurations, the control portion 602 may be a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), such as Figure 6 As indicated in . The DL-centric subframe 600 may also include a DL data portion 604. The DL data portion 604 may be referred to as the payload of the DL-centric subframe 600. The DL data portion 604 may include communication resources for transmitting DL data from a scheduling entity (e.g., a UE or a BS) to a subordinate entity (e.g., a UE). In some configurations, the DL data portion 604 may be a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH).

[0068] The DL-centric subframe 600 may also include a common UL portion 606. The common UL portion 606 may sometimes be referred to as a UL burst, a common UL burst, and / or various other appropriate terms. The common UL portion 606 may include feedback information corresponding to various other portions of the DL-centric subframe 600. For example, the common UL portion 606 may include feedback information corresponding to the control portion 602. Non-limiting examples of the feedback information may include an ACK signal, a NACK signal, a HARQ indicator, and / or various other appropriate types of information. The common UL portion 606 may include additional or alternative information, such as information related to a random access channel (RACH) procedure, a scheduling request (SR), and various other appropriate types of information. Figure 6 As shown in , the end of the DL data portion 604 can be separated in time from the beginning of the common UL portion 606. This time separation can be referred to as a gap, a guard period, a guard interval, and / or various other appropriate terms. This separation provides time for switching from DL communication (e.g., reception by a slave entity (e.g., a UE)) to UL communication (e.g., transmission by a slave entity (e.g., a UE)). It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the foregoing is merely an example of a DL-centric subframe, and that alternative structures with similar features may exist without necessarily departing from the aspects described herein.

[0069] Figure 7700. The UL-centric subframe 700 may include a control portion 702. The control portion 702 may be present in an initial or beginning portion of the UL-centric subframe 700. Figure 7 The control portion 702 in the embodiment may be similar to that described above with reference to Figure 6 The control portion 602 is described. The UL-centric subframe 700 may also include a UL data portion 704. The UL data portion 704 may be referred to as the payload of the UL-centric subframe. The UL portion may refer to communication resources used to transmit UL data from a dependent entity (e.g., a UE) to a scheduling entity (e.g., a UE or a BS). In some configurations, the control portion 702 may be a PDCCH.

[0070] like Figure 7 As shown in FIG, the end of the control portion 702 can be separated in time from the beginning of the UL data portion 704. This time separation can be referred to as a gap, a guard period, a guard interval, and / or various other appropriate terms. This separation provides time for switching from DL communication (e.g., reception by the scheduling entity) to UL communication (e.g., transmission by the scheduling entity). The UL-centric subframe 700 can also include a common UL portion 706. Figure 7 The common UL portion 706 in the example may be similar to that described above with reference to Figure 6 The common UL portion 606 described herein may also or alternatively include information related to a channel quality indicator (CQI), a sounding reference signal (SRS), and various other suitable types of information. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing is merely an example of a UL-centric subframe, and that alternative structures having similar features may exist without necessarily departing from the aspects described herein.

[0071] In some cases, two or more slave entities (e.g., UEs) can communicate with each other using sidelink signals. Practical applications of such sidelink communications may include public safety, proximity services, UE-to-network relay, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoT communications, mission-critical mesh networks, and / or various other appropriate applications. Generally, a sidelink signal may refer to a signal transmitted from one slave entity (e.g., UE1) to another slave entity (e.g., UE2) without the need for relaying the communication through a scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though the scheduling entity may be used for scheduling and / or control purposes. In some examples, a licensed spectrum may be used to transmit sidelink signals (unlike wireless local area networks that typically use unlicensed spectrum).

[0072] Example control plane design for BWP in NR

[0073] Certain wireless communication systems (e.g., such as NR) may support operations (e.g., RRC operations, mobility operations, paging / system information operations, etc.) that utilize one or more different portions (or bandwidth portions (BWPs)) of the bandwidth within one or more carriers of a cell. A BWP may be defined by a specific frequency range, center frequency, and / or numerology. Supporting a BWP may enable a communication system (e.g., NR) to support UEs with receiver bandwidth capabilities less than the entire system bandwidth and / or to optimize UE power consumption. For example, in some cases, the maximum bandwidth per carrier (e.g., in NR) may be 400 MHz, where a given UE may have a lower maximum receive bandwidth (e.g., 20 MHz, 100 MHz, etc.).

[0074] For a connected UE, one or more UE-specific BWPs may be configured via RRC signaling. In some cases, one or more BWPs may be orthogonal to or (partially) overlap one or more other BWPs. In addition, NR may support different digital schemes, frequency locations, and / or bandwidths for each BWP. As used herein, the term digital scheme generally refers to a set of parameters that define the structure of the time-frequency resources used for communication. Such parameters may include, for example, subcarrier spacing, the type of cyclic prefix (CP) (e.g., such as normal CP or extended CP), and a transmission time interval (TTI) (e.g., such as subframe or slot duration).

[0075] In Rel-15, a UE may be configured with multiple BWPs (e.g., for each carrier). However, for a serving cell, there is typically at most one active downlink (DL) BWP and at most one active uplink (UL) BWP for a UE at a given time. From the UE's perspective, a cell may be associated with a single synchronization signal (SS) resource block. When in idle / inactive state, the UE may search for SS blocks with remaining minimum system information (RMSI) and may consider the cell's associated BWP to be the initial active BWP. In some cases, NR may implement a single scheduling downlink control information (DCI) to switch the UE's active BWP from one BWP to another (of the same link direction within a given serving cell).

[0076] Figure 8An example deployment use scenario of a BWP in a communication system (e.g., Rel-15) according to certain aspects of the present disclosure is shown. As shown in this example, the maximum bandwidth of a carrier 800 is 400 MHz, and the carrier 800 can be configured with multiple BWPs (e.g., BWP1 802, BWP2 804, BWP3 806, and BWP4 808), each with a bandwidth that is a subset of the carrier bandwidth (e.g., 20 MHz, 100 MHz, etc.).

[0077] In some aspects, a communication system may use BWP to support reduced bandwidth capabilities of a UE. Figure 8 As shown in Figure 8, assuming the UE's receiver bandwidth capability is 100 MHz, the gNB can configure the UE with BWP1 802, which has a bandwidth of 100 MHz. In some cases, the gNB can quickly indicate which of the BWPs the UE can use with DCI. In this way, the gNB can support UEs with reduced bandwidth capabilities.

[0078] In some aspects, the communication system may also support the use of BWP with intra-band carrier aggregation (CA). Figure 8 As shown in FIG, a UE may be configured with BWP1 802 and BWP2 804, which may be discontinuous. In some cases, if multiple discontinuous BWPs are activated simultaneously, the BWPs may work in conjunction with the CA. In some cases, the CA may be replaced by the BWP.

[0079] In some aspects, a communication system may use a BWP to optimize the power consumption of a UE. For example, in some cases, a UE may be configured with two BWPs having the same center frequency. Figure 8 As shown in FIG, a UE may be configured with BWP3 806 and BWP4 808 having the same center frequency, but where BWP4 808 has a wider bandwidth than BWP3 806. In such a configuration, the gNB may configure the UE to monitor control channels using BWP3 806 and configure the UE to receive data on BWP4 808. Therefore, if the UE wants to receive data, it may switch to BWP4 808 to receive data (e.g., PDSCH).

[0080] As mentioned above, the various aspects described herein provide techniques for optimizing the configuration of a BWP for one or more processes in a NR. For example, such processes may include RRC processes, mobility (e.g., handover) processes, paging processes, etc.

[0081] Figure 9900 for wireless communications according to aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 900 may be performed by, for example, a UE (e.g., Figure 1 120 shown in FIG.

[0082] Operations 900 begin at 902, where a UE sends information including an indication of the UE's BWP capabilities to a base station (e.g., a gNB). At 904, the UE receives a configuration from the base station indicating a set of BWPs available for communication in response to the indication. At 906, the UE performs communication on at least one BWP in the set of BWPs.

[0083] Figure 10 1 illustrates example operations 1000 for wireless communications in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Operations 1000 may be performed by, for example, a base station (e.g., a gNB) (e.g., Figure 1 BS110 shown in FIG.

[0084] Operations 1000 begin at 1002, where a base station receives information from a UE including an indication of the UE's BWP capabilities. At 1004, the base station determines, based on the indication, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs available for the UE to use for communication. At 1006, the base station transmits the configuration to the UE.

[0085] In some aspects, the gNB may configure a UE in a connected state with a set of BWPs via RRC based on the UE's capabilities. Figure 11 An example call flow 1100 is shown of an RRC procedure between a UE and a gNB that may be used to configure the UE with one or more BWPs, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

[0086] As shown, the gNB may send a request (e.g., a UE capability query) to a UE for one or more capabilities of the UE (1102). In response to the request, the UE may send a message (e.g., UE capability information) to the gNB including the UE capabilities (1104). The UE capabilities may include at least one of BWP capabilities or CA capabilities. In one aspect, the UE's BWP capabilities may include the UE's maximum receive bandwidth. In one aspect, the BWP capabilities may include a list of receive bandwidths supported by the UE. In one aspect, the BWP capabilities may include an indication of the UE's ability to switch from one BWP to another. For example, the BWP switching capabilities may include at least one of: a list of latencies for all BWP switching combinations (e.g., between BWPs) or a maximum latency for all BWP switching combinations (e.g., between BWPs). In some aspects, the BWP capabilities may include any combination of the above. The granularity of the BWP capabilities may be per component carrier (CC) or per CA combination. That is, the BWP capabilities may include an indication of the BWP capabilities for each of one or more CCs or for each CA configuration in one or more CA configurations.

[0087] The gNB may configure a set of DL / UL BWPs based on the UE's BWP capabilities. The configured BWPs may include: a set of DL / UL BWPs along with a default UL (or fallback UL) and a default DL BWP for FDD operation; a set of DL / UL BWP pairs along with a default DL / UL BWP pair for TDD operation; a set of DL BWPs and a default DL BWP for supplemental downlink (SDL) operation; or a set of ULBWPs and a default UL BWP (or fallback UL BWP) for supplemental uplink (SUL) operation. In some aspects, the default DL BWP may be used for fallback operation (e.g., monitoring for paging messages, system information, etc.). In some aspects, the default ULBWP or an explicitly configured fallback ULBWP may be used for contention-based random access operation. For example, in some cases, if all ULBWPs are configured with RACH resources, there may be significant overhead. Therefore, the UE may use a single default ULBWP to transmit a random access channel (RACH) to the gNB. In some cases, the UE may use a default UL BWP or an explicitly configured fallback UL BWP for at least one of the following: ULOOS, SI on demand, beam recovery, scheduling request (e.g., if no PUCCH is available), etc. If the UE does not have such a configured UL BWP, it may use the initial active BWP to perform contention-based random access in both idle and connected modes unless instructed otherwise by the network. As used herein, the default (UL / DL) BWP may refer to a fallback (UL / DL) BWP or an initial (UL / DL) BWP.

[0088] As shown, once the gNB determines the BWP set, the gNB can configure the UE with the BWP set via a dedicated RRC reconfiguration message (1106). The dedicated RRC reconfiguration message can trigger at least one of the following: adding a BWP, releasing a BWP, or reconfiguring a BWP (e.g., initially or relative to a previous configuration). Such BWP release and / or reconfiguration can be used for load balancing and / or in situations where channel conditions change.

[0089] In some cases, the gNB may not be aware of the active BWP being used by the UE for communication. In such cases, when the gNB triggers the release of one or more of the configured BWPs from the UE, the UE's active BWP may be released via explicit BWP release signaling (e.g., in an RRC reconfiguration message).

[0090] In one aspect, in response to releasing the active BWP, the UE may fall back (or switch) to one or more default BWPs. For example, the default BWP may include a default DLBWP (e.g., for FDD / SDL) and a default UL BWP (e.g., for FDD / SUL) or a default DL / UL BWP pair (e.g., for TDD).

[0091] In one aspect, the RRC reconfiguration message may include an explicit indication of the new active BWP. Thus, in this aspect, in response to the release of the active BWP, the UE may switch from the released active BWP to the new active BWP. For example, the UE may perform an intra-cell handover (or similar operation) from a source BWP to a target BWP, where the source BWP is the BWP released by the reconfiguration message and the target BWP is the new default BWP given by the reconfiguration message.

[0092] In one aspect, assuming the gNB is aware of the UE's active BWP, the RRC reconfiguration message can avoid releasing any active BWP for the UE. That is, the RRC reconfiguration message can be prevented from releasing the active BWP. In these cases, the RAN can change the active BWP to another active BWP before releasing it.

[0093] In some aspects, the release of an active BWP can be implicitly triggered based on one or more conditions. For example, in a primary cell (Pcell) / primary serving cell (PScell), BWP release can be implicitly triggered by at least one of the following: radio link failure (RLF), PCell handover, or PScell change. In the event that a secondary cell (SCell) is changed and / or released, the BWP configured in the SCell can be implicitly released.

[0094] As shown in this particular example, the UE receives at least one of: (1) a set of DL / UL BWPs for FDD and a default UL and default DL BWP; or (2) a set of DL / UL BWP pairs for TDD and a default DL / UL BWP pair (1108). Once the UE receives the set of BWPs, the UE may send an RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message to the gNB (1110). The gNB may activate / deactivate the BWP via DCI (1112). The UE may use the activated BWP for communication (e.g., data transmission / reception) (1114). In some aspects, performing communication may include retuning and performing a random access procedure on one of the configured BWPs. The random access may be contention-based random access or contention-free access.

[0095] As mentioned, a UE may be configured with up to one initial BWP (e.g., used for initial access and specified in system information) and up to four active BWPs (e.g., configured via RRC-dedicated signaling after the UE is connected). However, in some cases, a BWP may not be configured with physical random access channel (PRACH) resources, as PRACH resources may be expensive. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a technique that a UE can use to select a BWP when it must perform random access in RRC connected mode.

[0096] In some aspects, the UE can be configured to always switch back to the initial BWP to perform random access, e.g., regardless of whether the currently active ULBWP has random access resources. For example, the UE can always perform RACH on the initial active DL / UL BWP of the target cell (e.g., the BWP used for initial access in idle mode). The RAN can then reconfigure the UE with a new default BWP and BWP set. However, always switching back to the initial BWP may increase the access load on the initial BWP. Because the initial BWP may have a narrow bandwidth (e.g., to support all UE categories) and therefore have a small PRACH capacity, having such an increased access load on the initial BWP may be undesirable.

[0097] In some aspects, performing communications may include retuning and, if the currently active ULBWP does not have random access resources, performing a random access procedure on a default BWP for uplink communications. In some aspects, performing communications may include performing a random access procedure on an initial active uplink BWP indicated in system information if no default uplink BWP is configured and the currently active ULBWP does not have random access resources. That is, if the UE's active ULBWP is configured with PRACH resources, the UE may perform random access in the active ULBWP; otherwise, the UE may switch to the initial BWP to perform random access.

[0098] In some aspects, if a UE has more than one UL BWP configured with PRACH resources, but the active UL BWP in which the UE is currently operating does not have PRACH resources, the UE may select one of the other UL BWPs configured with PRACH resources for random access, rather than falling back / switching to the initial UL BWP to perform the random access procedure. In some cases, the UE may select which of the configured UL BWPs (with PRACH resources) to use for the random access procedure based on the RACH opportunities associated with each of the configured UL BWPs. For example, in some cases, the UE may select the UL BWP with more frequent RACH opportunities. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may select which of the configured UL BWPs (with PRACH resources) to use for the random access procedure based on the random access response (RAR) window configured for each UL BWP. For example, in some cases, the UE may select the UL BWP with the shortest RAR window so that it can receive the RAR more quickly.

[0099] According to certain aspects, the gNB may also configure the UE with a set of BWPs to be used in mobility procedures (e.g., RACH, handover, etc.). For example, for a handover in NR, if the target cell uses wideband operation, the UE should know which UL BWP to perform RACH in and also which DL BWP to monitor for RACH responses. Such information may enable the UE to reduce access latency without having to read system information of the target cell.

[0100] In one aspect, the network may provide the target cell's default DL BWP (e.g., for monitoring RACH responses from the gNB) and default UL BWP (e.g., for sending PRACH transmissions) in the handover (HO) command. Doing so enables the UE to directly perform contention-based RACH or contention-free RACH.

[0101] In some aspects, at least one ULBWP with PRACH resource configuration and one DL BWP with command search space configuration for the RACH procedure for the target cell may be signaled in the HO command. The provided ULBWP and DL BWP may be different from the default BWP and the initial active BWP. If more than one DL / UL BWP is provided, the UE may select one of the BWPs, and the gNB of the target cell may monitor all provided UL BWPs.

[0102] According to certain aspects, the gNB may also configure the UE with a set of BWPs to be used for paging and system information and / or emergency information (e.g., such as Earthquake and Tsunami Warning Service (ETWS) and / or Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) notifications). In some cases, the gNB may not configure a common search space in each DL BWP to monitor for paging and system information. Therefore, if the active DL BWP is not configured with a common search space for paging and system information, the UE may have to re-tune to a DL BWP with a common search space.

[0103] In one aspect, the gNB may use dedicated signaling for system information delivery. For example, the UE may be configured to monitor for system information and RACH responses in the active DLBWP. In this aspect, the UE may not have to perform a BWP switch.

[0104] In one aspect, the gNB may define a retuning gap (e.g., configured by the network) and avoid scheduling data transmission / reception for the UE during the retuning gap. The retuning gap may be triggered when the gNB sends DCI to switch BWPs. In some aspects, the retuning gap may be set based on one or more retuning delays (e.g., the retuning delay may be different for different BWP switches). In one aspect, the gNB may configure a fixed gap whose duration is the maximum duration among all BWP switching combinations (e.g., BWP1 to BWP2 delay, BWP2 to BWP3 delay, etc.). In one aspect, the UE may report all possible BWP switching combinations (e.g., BWP1 to BWP2 delay, BWP2 to BWP3 delay, etc.), and the gNB and UE may maintain the same BWP switching delay table. The retuning gap may be set based on the BWP switching delay table.

[0105] In one aspect, a UE may be configured to receive system information (e.g., paging / system information / emergency notifications) in a default DL BWP. For example, system information may be sent only in the default DL BWP. In some cases, when the UE falls back to the default DL BWP (e.g., after a timer expires), the UE may receive system information. In some cases, the gNB may utilize DCI to trigger the UE to switch to the default DL BWP to receive system information.

[0106] Figure 12 12. A communication device 1200 is shown that may include various components (eg, corresponding to means-plus-function components) configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosed herein (eg, Figure 9-1012). The communication device 1200 includes a processing system 1214 coupled to a transceiver 1212. The transceiver 1212 is configured to transmit and receive signals (e.g., the various signals described herein) for the communication device 1200 via an antenna 1220. The processing system 1214 may be configured to perform processing functions for the communication device 1200, including processing signals received by and / or to be transmitted by the communication device 1200.

[0107] The processing system 1214 includes a processor 1208 coupled to a computer readable medium / memory 1210 via a bus 1224. In certain aspects, the computer readable medium / memory 1210 is configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor 1208, cause the processor 1208 to perform Figure 9-11 The operations shown in or other operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein.

[0108] In certain aspects, the processing system 1214 also includes a processor for executing Figure 9 The operations shown at 902, 904 and 906 and / or Figure 10 In addition, the processing system 1214 includes a communication component 1202 for performing operations 1002 and 1006 in Figure 10 1004 in the establishment (BWP configuration) component 1204. The communication component 1202 and the establishment component 1204 can be coupled to the processor 1208 via the bus 1224. In some aspects, the communication component 1202 and the establishment component 1204 can be hardware circuits. In some aspects, the communication component 1202 and the establishment component 1204 can be software components that are executed and run on the processor 1208.

[0109] The methods disclosed herein include one or more steps or actions for implementing the described methods. These method steps and / or actions may be interchangeable with one another without departing from the scope of the claims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions is specified, the order and / or use of specific steps and / or actions may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

[0110] As used herein, a phrase referring to "at least one of" a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. For example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to encompass any combination of a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, and abc, as well as multiples of the same element (e.g., aa, aaa, aab, aac, abb, acc, bb, bbb, bbc, cc, and ccc, or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

[0111] In some cases, a device may have an interface for outputting frames for transmission, rather than actually sending the frames. For example, a processor may output frames to an RF front end for transmission via a bus interface. Similarly, a device may have an interface for obtaining frames received from another device, rather than actually receiving the frames. For example, a processor may obtain (or receive) frames from an RF front end for transmission via a bus interface.

[0112] As used herein, the term "determining" includes a wide variety of actions. For example, "determining" may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, searching (e.g., searching in a table, database, or another data structure), ascertaining, and the like. Furthermore, "determining" may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), and the like. Furthermore, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.

[0113] The foregoing description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to implement the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Accordingly, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but are to be given the full scope consistent with the literal claims, wherein, unless otherwise specifically stated, reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one," but rather "one or more." Unless otherwise explicitly stated, the term "some" refers to one or more. All structural and functional equivalents of the elements throughout the various aspects described in this disclosure are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims, such structural and functional equivalents being known or becoming known to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. §112, paragraph 6, unless the element is explicitly recited using the phrase "means for..." or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase "step for..."

[0114] The various operations of the methods described above may be performed by any suitable unit capable of performing the corresponding functions. These units may include various hardware and / or software components and / or modules, including but not limited to: circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or processors. Generally, where there are operations shown in the figures, those operations may have corresponding paired units plus functional components with similar numbers.

[0115] For example, the means for transmitting, the means for requesting, the means for signaling, the means for sending, the means for indicating, and / or the means for communicating may include one or more of the transmit processor 420, the TX MIMO processor 430, the controller / processor 440, or the antenna 434 of the base station 110, and / or the transmit processor 464, the TX MIMO processor 466, the controller / processor 480, or the antenna 452 of the user equipment 120. The means for receiving and / or the means for communicating may include one or more of the receive processor 438, the controller / processor 440, and / or the antenna 434 of the base station 110, and / or the receive processor 458, the controller / processor 480, and / or the antenna 452 of the user equipment 120.

[0116] In addition, the unit for generating, the unit for executing, the unit for indicating, the unit for (re)configuring, the unit for requesting, the unit for triggering, the unit for switching, the unit for re(tuning), the unit for releasing, the unit for adding, the unit for determining, the unit for monitoring, the unit for avoiding, the unit for detecting, the unit for paging, the unit for multiplexing and / or the unit for applying may include one or more processors, for example, the controller / processor 440 of the base station 110 and / or the controller / processor 480 of the user equipment 120.

[0117] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the present disclosure may be implemented or performed using a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD), discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0118] If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration may include a processing system in a wireless node. The processing system may be implemented using a bus architecture. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of the processing system, the bus may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. The bus may connect various circuits including a processor, a machine-readable medium, and a bus interface. In addition, the bus interface may also be used to connect a network adapter to the processing system via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement the signal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the user terminal 120 (see Figure 1 ), a user interface (e.g., a keypad, display, mouse, joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus may also connect various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, power management circuits, etc., which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further. The processor may be implemented using one or more general and / or special purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuits that can execute software. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the functionality described for the processing system based on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the entire system.

[0119] If implemented in software, the functionality may be stored as one or more instructions or codes on or transmitted via a computer-readable medium. Whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terms, software should be broadly interpreted to mean instructions, data, or any combination thereof. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one location to another. The processor may be responsible for managing the bus and general processing, including executing software modules stored on a machine-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from and write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be an integral part of the processor. For example, the machine-readable medium may include a transmission line, a carrier modulated by data, and / or a computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon, separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed by the processor via a bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition, the machine-readable medium or any portion thereof may be integrated into the processor, for example, in the form of a cache and / or general register file. For example, examples of machine-readable storage media may include RAM (random access memory), flash memory, ROM (read-only memory), PROM (programmable read-only memory), EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory), EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), registers, magnetic disks, optical disks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage media, or any combination thereof. Machine-readable media may be embodied in a computer program product.

[0120] A software module may include a single instruction or many instructions and may be distributed across several different code segments, distributed among different programs, and distributed across multiple storage media. A computer-readable medium may include multiple software modules. A software module includes instructions that, when executed by a device such as a processor, cause a processing system to perform various functions. A software module may include a sending module and a receiving module. Each software module may be located in a single storage device or distributed across multiple storage devices. For example, when a triggering event occurs, a software module may be loaded from a hard drive into RAM. During execution of the software module, the processor may load some of the instructions into a cache to increase access speed. Subsequently, one or more cache lines may be loaded into a general register file for execution by the processor. It will be understood that when a function of a software module is mentioned below, such function is implemented by the processor when executing instructions from the software module.

[0121] Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies (e.g., infrared (IR), radio, and microwave), then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies (e.g., infrared, radio, and microwave) are included in the definition of medium. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and optical disc. Optical disks, where magnetic disks typically reproduce data magnetically, and optical disks use lasers to reproduce data optically. Thus, in some aspects, computer-readable media may include non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media). Furthermore, for other aspects, computer-readable media may include transitory computer-readable media (e.g., signals). Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0122] Thus, certain aspects may include a computer program product for performing the operations presented herein. For example, such a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having instructions stored (and / or encoded) thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to perform the operations described herein. For example, the instructions may include instructions for performing the operations described herein and in Figure 9-11 The operation instructions are shown in .

[0123] In addition, it should be understood that the modules and / or other appropriate units for performing the methods and techniques described herein can be downloaded and / or otherwise obtained by the user terminal and / or base station where applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to a server to facilitate the transmission of units for performing the methods described herein. Alternatively, the various methods described herein can be provided via a storage unit (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage medium such as a compact disc (CD) or a floppy disk, etc.) so that the user terminal and / or base station can obtain the various methods when the storage unit is coupled to or provided to the device. In addition, any other appropriate technology for providing the methods and techniques described herein to a device can be used.

[0124] It should be understood that the claims are not limited to the precise configuration and components shown above. Various modifications, changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation and details of the methods and apparatus described above without departing from the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: sending information including an indication of a bandwidth part (BWP) capability of the UE to a base station (BS); receiving, from the BS, a configuration in response to the indication, indicating a set of BWPs available for use for communication; as well as performing communication on at least one BWP in the set of BWPs, wherein performing the communication comprises: Determining that the currently active uplink BWP has no random access resources; After the determining, selecting another uplink (UL) BWP having random access resources based on a random access channel (RACH) opportunity associated with each of the configured uplink (UL) BWPs in the BWP set or based on a random access response (RAR) window configured for each UL BWP, and switching from the currently active uplink BWP without random access resources to the another uplink BWP having random access resources; and A random access procedure is performed on the other uplink BWP.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The information also includes an indication of carrier aggregation (CA) capability of the UE.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: A request for one or more capabilities of the UE is received from the BS, wherein the information is sent in response to the request.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The indication of the BWP capability comprises an indication of the BWP capability for each of one or more component carriers; or The indication of the BWP capability includes an indication of the BWP capability for each of one or more carrier aggregation (CA) configurations.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The indication of the BWP capability includes a maximum receive bandwidth of the UE.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein: The indication of the BWP capability comprises an indication of one or more reception bandwidths supported by the UE.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein: The indication of the BWP capabilities comprises an indication of the capability of the UE to switch from at least a first one or more BWPs to at least a second one or more BWPs.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The indication of the capability of the UE to switch from the first one or more BWPs to the second one or more BWPs includes a latency associated with switching from each combination of the first one or more BWPs to the second one or more BWPs.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The indication of the capability of the UE to switch from the first one or more BWPs to the second one or more BWPs comprises a maximum latency associated with switching from the first one or more BWPs to the second one or more BWPs.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein The configuration is received via a Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The RRC reconfiguration message triggers at least one of: adding one or more BWPs to the BWP set, releasing one or more BWPs from the BWP set, or reconfiguring one or more BWPs in the BWP set.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The BWP set in the configuration includes at least one of a default downlink BWP or a default uplink BWP.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The random access procedure is a contention-based random access procedure or a contention-free access procedure.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The another uplink BWP is one uplink BWP among a plurality of uplink BWPs configured with random access resources; as well as The another uplink BWP is not the default uplink BWP.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein: Performing the communication further includes monitoring the default downlink BWP for system information and random access responses.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein The BWP set in the configuration includes: BWP set for frequency division duplex (FDD) operation; BWP set for time division duplex (TDD) operation; Downlink BWP set for supplemental downlink (SDL) operation; or Uplink BWP set for Supplemental Uplink (SUL) operation.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: The BWP set for FDD operation includes a default uplink BWP and a default downlink BWP for FDD operation; The BWP set for TDD operation includes default BWPs for downlink and uplink; The downlink BWP set for SDL operation includes a default downlink BWP for SDL operation; as well as The uplink BWP set for SUL operation includes a default uplink BWP for SUL operation.

18. The method according to claim 10, wherein The RRC reconfiguration message triggers the release of a first active BWP used by the UE for communication.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein: Performing the communication further includes: in response to the releasing, switching to a default BWP to perform the communication; and The default BWP includes: a default downlink BWP, a default uplink BWP, or a default BWP pair for uplink and downlink.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein: The RRC reconfiguration message includes an indication of a second active BWP for the UE to use for communications; as well as Performing the communication further includes switching from the first active BWP to the second active BWP for the communication in response to the releasing.

21. The method according to claim 10, wherein The RRC reconfiguration message avoids releasing the active BWP used by the UE for communication.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein: Performing the communication further includes: communicating on a first active BWP in a first cell; detecting at least one of: a radio link failure in the first cell, a handover from the first cell, or a change of the first cell; and In response to the detection, releasing of the first active BWP is triggered.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending a random access preamble to another BS on an uplink BWP for the other BS; as well as Monitoring is performed on a downlink BWP for the another BS for a random access response from the another BS.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising: A handover command is received, wherein an indication of the uplink BWP and the downlink BWP for the other BS is provided in the handover command.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Active downlink BWPs in the BWP set are monitored for at least one of a paging message or system information.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a trigger for: switching from an active downlink BWP in the set of BWPs to a default downlink BWP in the set of BWPs to monitor for at least one of a paging message or system information; In response to the trigger, switching from the active downlink BWP to the default downlink BWP; as well as Monitoring is performed on the default downlink BWP for at least one of the paging message or the system information.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein The trigger is received via downlink control information (DCI).

28. The method according to claim 26, wherein The default downlink BWP is a fallback downlink BWP or an initial downlink BWP.

29. A method for wireless communication by a base station (BS), comprising: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), information comprising an indication of a bandwidth part (BWP) capability of the UE; determining, based on the indication, a configuration indicating a set of BWPs that may be used by the UE for communication; Sending the configuration to the UE; as well as Communicating with the UE over at least one uplink (UL) BWP in the BWP set, wherein the at least one UL BWP is selected by the UE based on a random access channel (RACH) opportunity associated with each of the configured UL BWPs in the BWP set or based on a random access response (RAR) window configured for each UL BWP.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein The information also includes an indication of carrier aggregation (CA) capability of the UE.

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