Wireless communication device, system information message receiving method thereof and wireless communication system

Abstract

The invention relates to a wireless communication device, a system information message receiving method thereof and a wireless communication system. The wireless communication device includes a buffer memory and a media access control circuit. The media access control is coupled to the buffer memory, and is used for segmenting the buffer memory according to a plurality of system information messages required by the wireless communication device, so that the buffer memory comprises a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request buffer blocks, and allocating a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request programs to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device, the system information messages are received in parallel from the base station in a narrowband Internet of Things downlink scheduling period, and the hybrid automatic repeat request programs respectively correspond to the hybrid automatic repeat request buffer blocks.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to wireless communication technology, and in particular, to a wireless communication device, a system information message receiving method thereof, and a wireless communication system. BACKGROUND

[0002] In a wireless communication network, a user equipment needs to receive multiple system information messages from a base station in some cases, and register a network end where the base station is located using the content in the system information messages. However, according to the current Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication standard, the next system information message can only be received after the previous system information message is successfully received. In an environment such as a weak signal or a large coverage range of the base station, the time taken to successfully receive all the system information messages can be significantly lengthened due to repeated reception of the system information messages, resulting in a delay in the registration of the user equipment to the network end. Therefore, how to speed up the registration of the user equipment to the network end in the above-mentioned environment is one of the main goals of the related industry. SUMMARY

[0003] The present disclosure proposes a wireless communication device including a buffer memory and a media access control (MAC) circuit. The MAC circuit is coupled to the buffer memory and is configured to partition the buffer memory according to multiple system information messages required by the wireless communication device, so that the buffer memory includes multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffer blocks, and allocate multiple HARQ processes to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device, so as to receive the system information messages from a base station in parallel within a NB-IoT downlink scheduling period, wherein the HARQ processes correspond to the HARQ buffer blocks respectively.

[0004] The present disclosure also proposes a system information message receiving method suitable for a wireless communication device and including: partitioning a buffer memory of the wireless communication device according to multiple system information messages required by the wireless communication device, so that the buffer memory includes multiple HARQ buffer blocks; allocating multiple HARQ processes to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device, wherein the HARQ processes correspond to the HARQ buffer blocks respectively; and receiving the system information messages from a base station in parallel within a NB-IoT downlink scheduling period.

[0005] This disclosure further proposes a wireless communication system comprising a base station and a user equipment. The user equipment is used to divide a buffer memory according to multiple required system information messages, such that the buffer memory contains multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (HARP) buffer blocks, and to allocate multiple HARP procedures to the required system information messages, so as to receive these system information messages in parallel from the base station within the narrowband Internet of Things (IoT) downlink scheduling period, wherein each of the HARP procedures corresponds to one of the HARP buffer blocks. Attached Figure Description

[0006] To gain a more complete understanding of the embodiments and their advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0007] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0008] Figure 2 for Figure 1 An example of an information sequence diagram illustrating the process by which a user equipment acquires system information in a wireless communication system;

[0009] Figure 3 This illustrates the mapping relationship between the downlink logical channel, downlink transport channel, and downlink physical channel in narrowband IoT.

[0010] Figure 4 An example of downlink scheduling for narrowband IoT;

[0011] Figure 5 This is a functional block diagram of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0012] Figure 6 This is a flowchart of a system information message receiving method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] Symbol Explanation

[0014] 100: Wireless Communication System

[0015] 110: User Equipment

[0016] 120: Network Terminal

[0017] 122: Base station

[0018] 124: Core Network

[0019] 210: MIB-NB Information

[0020] 220: SIB1-NB Information

[0021] 230: System Information Message

[0022] 500: wireless communication device

[0023] 502: physical channel processing circuit

[0024] 504: de-rate matching circuit

[0025] 506: buffer memory

[0026] 508: channel decoding circuit

[0027] 510: CRC checking circuit

[0028] 512: MAC circuit

[0029] 600: system information message receiving method

[0030] S602, S604, S606: operations DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] Embodiments of the present disclosure are discussed in detail below. It should be appreciated, however, that the embodiments provide many applicable concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The embodiments discussed, disclosed, and / or illustrated are merely representative and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0032] In this document, master information block-narrowband (MIB-NB, or MasterInformationBlock-NB) information is referred to as MIB-NB information; system information block type 1-narrowband (SIB1-NB, or SystemInformationBlockType1-NB) information is referred to as SIB1-NB information, and system information block type 2-narrowband (SIB2-NB, or SystemInformationBlockType2-NB) information is referred to as SIB2-NB information, and so on.

[0033] Figure 1FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system 100 according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 supports narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication technology, and can support, for example, Long Term Evolution (LTE), Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) communication technology, Beyond 5G (B5G) communication technology, and / or other similar wireless communication technology (e.g., an evolution of any of the aforementioned communication technologies). In the wireless communication system 100, user equipment (UE) 110 is connected to a network side 120 via a radio access network. The network side 120 includes a base station 122 configured to provide an interface for the UE 110 to access the radio access network, and a core network 124 configured to provide network services for the UE 110 and having various core network functions. In an example in which the wireless communication system 100 supports 5G NR communication technology, the base station 122 can be, for example, a Next Generation NodeB (gNB), an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) evolved NodeB (eNB), or a Next Generation evolved NodeB (ng-eNB). The radio access network can be referred to as a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) or an evolved E-UTRAN supporting 5G functionality. The core network CN can also be referred to as a 5G Core (5GC) or an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network supporting 4G LTE technology evolution.

[0034] Figure 2An example of an information sequence diagram for a system information acquisition procedure by the user equipment 110. Upon a condition such as selecting a cellular cell (e.g., upon power on of the user equipment 110), reselecting a cellular cell, or receiving a notification that system information has changed, the user equipment 110 performs a system information acquisition procedure to acquire the required system information from the network 120 (i.e., from the base station 122), including the MIB-NB information 210, the SIB1-NB information 220, and / or the system information messages 230. The MIB-NB information 210 includes primary system parameters, parameters related to transmission of the SIB1-NB information 220, and scheduling information for the SIB1-NB information 220. The SIB1-NB information 220 includes cellular base station access related information, cellular base station selection information, and scheduling information for other system information messages. In particular, the SIB1-NB information 220 includes a system information value tag that is used to indicate whether the system information messages have changed, and the user equipment 110 can use the system information value tag in the SIB1-NB information 220 to determine whether previously stored system information messages are still valid. If the previously stored system information messages are not valid, the user equipment 110 needs to re-receive the system information messages (i.e., the subsequent received system information messages 230 shown). Figure 2

[0035] The system information messages 230 can include at least one of SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, SIB4-NB information, SIB5-NB information, and SIB22-NB information, where the SIB2-NB information includes radio resource configuration information for all user equipment, the SIB3-NB information includes cellular base station reselection information, the SIB4-NB information includes intra-frequency neighbor cellular base station related information, the SIB5-NB information includes inter-frequency neighbor cellular base station related information, and the SIB22-NB information includes radio resource configuration information for paging and random access procedures on non-anchor carriers. The network 120 can broadcast the MIB-NB information 210 on a narrowband physical broadcast channel (NPBCH), and / or can transmit the SIB1-NB information 220 and the system information messages 230 to the user equipment 110 on a narrowband physical download shared channel (NPDSCH).

[0036] ​In some embodiments, the system information message 230 includes SIB2-NB information. In various embodiments, the system information message 230 can also include SIB3-NB information, SIB4-NB information, SIB5-NB information, and / or SIB22-NB information, but is not limited thereto. Specifically, when the user equipment 110 is in a radio resource control idle (RRC_IDLE) state, the necessary system information message for the user equipment 110 includes SIB2-NB information in addition to the MIB-NB information 210 and the SIB1-NB information 220, and according to the content of the SIB1-NB information 220, the user equipment 110 can know that the system information message 230 transmitted by the network end 120 can include SIB3-NB information, SIB4-NB information, SIB5-NB information, and / or SIB22-NB information in addition to the SIB2-NB information. Therefore, in the scenario where the user equipment 110 is in the radio resource control idle mode, the system information message received from the network end 120 at least needs to include the MIB-NB information 210, the SIB1-NB information 220, and the SIB2-NB information, and can include SIB3-NB information, SIB4-NB information, SIB5-NB information, and / or SIB22-NB information. When the user equipment 110 is in a radio resource control connected (RRC_CONNECTED) state, the necessary system information message for the user equipment 110 includes SIB2-NB information in addition to the MIB-NB information 210 and the SIB1-NB information 220, and according to the content of the SIB1-NB information 220, the user equipment 110 can know that the system information message 230 transmitted by the network end 120 can include SIB22-NB information in addition to the SIB2-NB information. Therefore, in the scenario where the user equipment 110 is to enter the radio resource control connected mode from the radio resource control idle mode, the system information message received from the network end 120 at least needs to include the MIB-NB information 210, the SIB1-NB information 220, and the SIB2-NB information, and can include SIB22-NB information.

[0037] Figure 3 Mapping relationships between downlink logical channels, downlink transport channels, and downlink physical channels of narrowband Internet of Things are shown. As shown in FIG. 2, the downlink logical channels include a broadcast channel (BCCH), a paging channel (PCH), a common control channel (CCCH), a dedicated control channel (DCCH), and a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH). The downlink transport channels include a broadcast control channel (BCCH), a paging control channel (PCCH), a common control channel (CCCH), and a dedicated control channel (DCCH). The downlink physical channels include a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and a physical random access channel (PRACH). Figure 3As shown, the medium access control layer can provide user plane services such as data transmission and control plane services such as radio resource allocation to the radio link control (RLC) layer over downlink logical channels, including a paging control channel (PCCH) for carrying transmission signals, a broadcast control channel (BCCH) for broadcasting system control information, a common control channel (CCCH) for transmitting control information between the network and the user equipment without establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection, a dedicated control channel (DCCH) for transmitting dedicated control information between the network and the user equipment with an established RRC connection, and a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) for transmitting user information dedicated to a specific user equipment. Downlink transport channels are between the medium access control layer and the physical (PHY) layer, including a paging channel (PCH) mapping the paging control channel, a broadcast channel (BCH) mapping the broadcast control channel, and a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH) that can map the broadcast control channel, the common control channel, the dedicated control channel, and / or the dedicated traffic channel. The physical layer transmits user plane information and control plane information to the air interface through a narrowband physical broadcast channel mapping the broadcast channel and a narrowband physical downlink shared channel mapping the paging channel and the downlink shared channel.

[0038] The base station 122 uses a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) as an identifier for identifying the user equipment in the wireless access network. Figure 3The temporary identifiers for wireless networks shown include paging RNTI (P-RNTI), system information RNTI (SI-RNTI), cell RNTI (C-RNTI), and temporary cell RNTI (TEMP-C-RNTI). The paging RNTI is used for paging notifications and system information change notifications, the system information RNTI is used for system information broadcasting, the cell RNTI is used for unicast transmission in dynamic scheduling, and the temporary cell RNTI is used for contention resolution when no valid cell RNTI is available.

[0039] At once Figure 2 Regarding the system information acquisition process shown, base station 122 can perform operations such as cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code appending, channel encoding, and rate matching to broadcast MIB-NB information 210, SIB1-NB information 220, and system information message 230. Specifically, when transmitting MIB-NB information 210, the broadcast control channel corresponds to the broadcast channel and the narrowband physical broadcast channel, and base station 122 performs operations such as CRC code appending, channel encoding, and rate matching on the MIB-NB information 210. When transmitting SIB1-NB information 220 and system information message 230, the broadcast control channel corresponds to the downlink shared channel and the narrowband physical downlink shared channel, and base station 122 performs operations such as code block segmentation, CRC code appending, channel encoding, and rate matching on the SIB1-NB information 220 and system information message 230, and broadcasts system information using a system information radio network temporary identifier.

[0040] Figure 4 An example of downlink scheduling for narrowband IoT. Figure 4 The narrowband IoT downlink schedule shown is configured to repeat SIB1-NB information transmission 16 times, with a period of 2560 milliseconds (i.e., 256 radio frames). It includes the narrowband primary synchronization signal (NPSS), the narrowband secondary synchronization signal (NSSS), and information transmission on the narrowband physical broadcast channel and the narrowband physical downlink control channel. Figure 4In this context, "SFN" represents the sequence number of the radio frame, and each radio frame contains 10 subframes, represented by numbers 0 to 9. "SI window" represents the scheduled system information message type, which includes system information messages SI-1, SI-2, and SI-3. The window length for each system information message SI-1, SI-2, and SI-3 is 160 subframes (i.e., 16 radio frames). In this example, system information message SI-1 can be SIB2-NB information, system information message SI-2 can be SIB3-NB information, and system information message SI-3 can be SIB4-NB information or SIB5-NB information, but this disclosure is not limited to these.

[0041] like Figure 4 As shown, the narrowband physical broadcast channel occupies subframe number 0 for each radio frame period, the SIB1-NB information occupies subframe number 4 for each radio frame interval, the narrowband primary synchronization signal occupies subframe number 5 for each radio frame period, and the narrowband secondary synchronization signal occupies subframe number 9 for all even-numbered radio frames (i.e., radio frames where K is a multiple of 2). The scheduling of system information messages SI-1, SI-2, and SI-3 is shown in Table 1 below.

[0042] Table 1

[0043]

[0044] Depend on Figure 4 As shown in Table 1, during the radio frame with sequence number 0, network terminal 120 transmits system information message SI-1 in sub-frames not occupied by the narrowband physical broadcast channel, narrowband primary synchronization signal, SIB1-NB information, and narrowband secondary synchronization signal (which occupy sub-frames with sequence numbers 0, 4, 5, and 9 respectively) (i.e., sub-frames with sequence numbers 1-3 and 6-8). Since the transport block size of system information message SI-1 is 552 bits, the number of sub-frames used to transmit system information message SI-1 is 8 (NSF = 8). Therefore, network terminal 120 then continues to transmit system information message SI-1 in sub-frames with sequence numbers 1 and 2 during the radio frame with sequence number 1 (because sub-frame with sequence number 0 is occupied by the narrowband physical broadcast channel). Next, during the wireless frame number 8, the network terminal 120 transmits system information message SI-1 in sub-frames numbered 1-3 and 6-8, and during the wireless frame number 9, the network terminal 120 transmits system information message SI-1 in sub-frames numbered 1 and 2.

[0045] Next, during the radio frame number 16, the network 120 transmits the system information message SI-2 in the subframes (i.e., subframe numbers 1-3, 6-8) not occupied by the NB-EBCH, the NB-PSS, the SIB1-NB and the NB-SSS (which occupy subframe numbers 0, 4, 5, 9, respectively). Since the transport block size of the system information message SI-2 is 256 bits, the number of subframes used to transmit the system information message SI-2 is 8 (NSF=8). Therefore, the network 120 continues to transmit the system information message SI-2 in subframe numbers 1, 2 during the radio frame number 17 (since subframe number 0 is occupied by the NB-EBCH).

[0046] Next, during the radio frame number 32, the network 120 transmits the system information message SI-3 in the subframes (i.e., subframe numbers 1-3, 6-8) not occupied by the NB-EBCH, the NB-PSS, the SIB1-NB and the NB-SSS (which occupy subframe numbers 0, 4, 5, 9, respectively). Since the transport block size of the system information message SI-3 is 256 bits, the number of subframes used to transmit the system information message SI-3 is 8 (NSF=8). Therefore, the network 120 continues to transmit the system information message SI-3 in subframe numbers 1, 2 during the radio frame number 33 (since subframe number 0 is occupied by the NB-EBCH).

[0047] Figure 5 A functional block diagram of a wireless communication device 500 according to an embodiment of the application is shown in FIG. 4. The wireless communication device 500 can be, for example, a UE or a base station. The wireless communication device 500 includes a processor 402, a memory 404, a transceiver 406, and one or more antennas 408. The processor 402, the memory 404, and the transceiver 406 are communicatively coupled via one or more buses 410. The processor 402 is configured to implement methods described herein (for example, the methods of FIGS. 1-3). The memory 404 is configured to store data and / or code for use by the processor 402. The transceiver 406 is configured to communicate with one or more base stations, one or more UEs, and / or one or more other wireless communication devices via the one or more antennas 408. Figure 1 , Figure 2The user equipment 110 or other wireless communication device supporting narrowband Internet of Things communication technology is shown. The wireless communication device 500 includes physical channel processing circuitry 502, de-rate matching circuitry 504, buffer memory 506, channel decoding circuitry 508, cyclic redundancy check (CRC) check circuitry 510, media access control (MAC) circuitry 512, and system information reception controller 514. The physical channel processing circuitry 502 is configured to perform front-end processing on a received system information message, which can include functional circuitry such as demodulation, demapping, descrambling, deinterleaving, and / or demultiplexing. The de-rate matching circuitry 504 is coupled to the physical channel processing circuitry 502 and the buffer memory 506, and is configured to de-rate match the front-end processed system information message to generate a soft bit sequence corresponding to a rate matching pattern used at the network side 120, for example, by padding symbols with a value of 0 at punctured bits to recover the punctured bits, and can store the soft bit sequence in the buffer memory. In the event of unsuccessful reception of data, the soft bit sequence stored in the buffer memory 506 can be combined with a soft bit sequence generated by processing retransmitted data.

[0048] The channel decoding circuit 508 is coupled to the rate dematching circuit 504 to perform channel decoding on the soft bit sequence to obtain a decoded bit sequence. The CRC check circuit 510 is coupled to the channel decoding circuit 508 to perform a cyclic redundancy check on the decoded bit sequence and obtain the system information before the cyclic redundancy check code attachment operation at the network end, if the cyclic redundancy check passes. The MAC circuit 512 is coupled to the CRC check circuit 510 to control the access of the wireless medium according to the system information. In addition, the MAC circuit 512 is also coupled to the buffer memory 506 to partition the buffer memory 506 according to the number of system information messages required, so that the buffer memory 506 contains a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffer blocks, and a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes are allocated to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device to receive these system information messages in parallel from the base station in the NB-IoT DL scheduling period. The allocated HARQ processes correspond to the HARQ buffer blocks, respectively. In some embodiments, the size of the HARQ buffer blocks is associated with the transport block size of the system information messages, respectively. For example, if the transport block size of the system information messages is 552 bits, according to the system design of the wireless communication device 500, the size of the HARQ buffer block corresponding to this system information message can be a multiple (such as but not limited to 1104 bits or 1656 bits) or 552 bits of the transport block size.

[0049] The above-mentioned HARQ buffer blocks are used for system information transmission using the system information radio network temporary identifier. In some embodiments, at least one HARQ buffer block corresponding to the system information radio network temporary identifier is derived from other HARQ buffer blocks in the buffer memory 506 for unicast transmission and / or random access using the cellular radio network temporary identifier. Since the transport block size for the cellular radio network temporary identifier can be up to 2536 bits, which is a multiple of the maximum transport block size (680 bits) for the system information radio network temporary identifier, and the HARQ buffer block corresponding to the cellular radio network temporary identifier is only used when the wireless communication device 500 is in the RRC connected state, the MAC circuit 512 can partition the HARQ buffer block corresponding to the cellular radio network temporary identifier in the buffer memory 506 into a plurality of HARQ buffer blocks when the wireless communication device 500 is in the RRC idle state, for receiving system information messages.

[0050] The MAC circuit 512 can obtain the number of subsequent received system information messages from the scheduling information in the SIB1-NB information received from the base station, and slice the buffer memory 506 into a plurality of HARQ buffer blocks according to the number of system information messages, such that the number of system information messages is equal to the number of HARQ buffer blocks. In this way, the de-rate matching circuit 504 can respectively store the soft bit sequences generated after de-rate matching the system information messages into the HARQ buffer blocks.

[0051] For example, if the scheduling information in the SIB1-NB information indicates that the subsequent received system information messages include SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, and SIB4-NB information, the MAC circuit 512 can slice the buffer memory 506 such that the buffer memory 506 includes 3 HARQ buffer blocks, and allocate 3 HARQ processes to the SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, and SIB4-NB information, in which the 3 HARQ processes respectively correspond to the 3 HARQ buffer blocks. In this way, the de-rate matching circuit 504 can respectively store the soft bit sequences generated after de-rate matching the SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, and SIB4-NB information into the corresponding HARQ buffer blocks. Figure 4 For example, if the scheduling information in the SIB1-NB information indicates that the subsequent received system information messages include SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, and SIB4-NB information, the MAC circuit 512 can slice the buffer memory 506 such that the buffer memory 506 includes 3 HARQ buffer blocks, and allocate 3 HARQ processes to the SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, and SIB4-NB information, in which the 3 HARQ processes respectively correspond to the 3 HARQ buffer blocks. In this way, the de-rate matching circuit 504 can respectively store the soft bit sequences generated after de-rate matching the SIB2-NB information, SIB3-NB information, and SIB4-NB information into the corresponding HARQ buffer blocks.

[0052] Figure 6 A flowchart of a system information message receiving method 600 according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The system information message receiving method 600 is applicable to a wireless communication device supporting narrowband internet of things communication technology, such as the user equipment 110, Figure 1 、 Figure 2 Figure 5 ​The wireless communication device 500 or other suitable wireless communication device. The system information message receiving method 600 is described as follows. First, operation S602 is performed. The buffer memory of the wireless communication device is partitioned according to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device, such that the buffer memory contains a plurality of HARQ buffer blocks. Next, operation S604 is performed. A plurality of HARQ processes are assigned to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device. The HARQ processes correspond to the HARQ buffer blocks, respectively. The number of the system information messages can be obtained from the scheduling information in the SIB1-NB information, and the number of the system information messages is equal to the number of the HARQ buffer blocks. Then, operation S606 is performed. The system information messages are received in parallel from the base station within a narrowband internet of things downlink scheduling period. The system information message receiving method 600 can further include performing de-rate matching processing on the system information messages to generate a plurality of soft bit sequences and storing the soft bit sequences in the HARQ buffer blocks, respectively.

[0053] From the above, it can be seen that according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, even if a certain system information message is not successfully received, the reception of other system information messages within the same narrowband internet of things downlink scheduling period is not affected. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure are advantageous in speeding up the time for user equipment to register the network side in an environment such as weak signal or large coverage of the base station.

[0054] In view of the above, the present disclosure provides a wireless communication device including a buffer memory and a medium access control circuit. The medium access control circuit is coupled to the buffer memory to partition the buffer memory according to a number of system information messages required by the wireless communication device such that the buffer memory includes a number of HARQ buffer blocks and to allocate a number of HARQ processes to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device for parallel reception of the system information messages from a base station within a narrowband internet of things downlink scheduling period, where the HARQ processes respectively correspond to the HARQ buffer blocks. In an embodiment, the wireless communication device further includes a de-rate matching circuit coupled to the buffer memory and configured to perform de-rate matching on the system information messages to generate a number of soft bit sequences and to store the soft bit sequences respectively into the HARQ buffer blocks. In an embodiment, sizes of the HARQ buffer blocks are respectively associated with transport block sizes of the system information messages. In an embodiment, at least one of the HARQ buffer blocks is derived from other HARQ buffer blocks of the buffer memory for unicast transmission or random access using a temporary identifier of a cellular wireless network. In an embodiment, the medium access control circuit obtains the number of the system information messages from scheduling information in a SIB1-NB message received from the base station and partitions the buffer memory into the HARQ buffer blocks according to the number of the system information messages. In an embodiment, the system information messages include a SIB2-NB message. In an embodiment, the system information messages further include at least one of a SIB3-NB message, a SIB4-NB message, a SIB5-NB message, and a SIB22-NB message.

[0055] In view of the above, the present disclosure also provides a system information message receiving method applicable to a wireless communication device and comprising partitioning a buffer memory of the wireless communication device according to a plurality of system information messages required by the wireless communication device, such that the buffer memory comprises a plurality of HARQ buffer blocks; allocating a plurality of HARQ processes to the system information messages required by the wireless communication device, the HARQ processes respectively corresponding to the HARQ buffer blocks; and receiving the system information messages in parallel from a base station within a narrowband internet of things downlink scheduling period. In an embodiment, the system information message receiving method further comprises performing de-rate matching processing on the system information messages to generate a plurality of soft bit sequences; and respectively storing the soft bit sequences into the HARQ buffer blocks. In an embodiment, sizes of the HARQ buffer blocks are respectively associated with transport block sizes of the system information messages. In an embodiment, at least one of the HARQ buffer blocks is derived from other HARQ buffer blocks of the buffer memory for unicast transmission or random access using a cellular wireless network temporary identifier. In an embodiment, a number of the system information messages is derived from scheduling information in SIB1-NB information, and the number of the system information messages is equal to a number of the HARQ buffer blocks. In an embodiment, the system information messages comprise SIB2-NB information. In an embodiment, the system information messages further comprise at least one of SIB3-NB information, SIB4-NB information, SIB5-NB information, and SIB22-NB information.

[0056] In light of the above, the present disclosure also provides a wireless communication system including a base station and a user equipment. The user equipment is configured to partition a buffer memory according to a number of required system information messages such that the buffer memory includes a number of HARQ buffer blocks, and allocate a number of HARQ processes to the required system information messages for receiving the system information messages in parallel from the base station within a narrowband internet of things downlink scheduling period, wherein the HARQ processes respectively correspond to the HARQ buffer blocks. In an embodiment, sizes of the HARQ buffer blocks are respectively associated with transport block sizes of the system information messages. In an embodiment, at least one of the HARQ buffer blocks is derived from other HARQ buffer blocks of the buffer memory for unicast transmission or random access using a cellular wireless network temporary identifier. In an embodiment, the user equipment receives a SIB1-NB message from the base station, and obtains a number of the system information messages from scheduling information in the SIB1-NB message, and partitions the buffer memory into the HARQ buffer blocks according to the number of the system information messages. In an embodiment, the system information messages include a SIB2-NB message. In an embodiment, the system information messages further include at least one of a SIB3-NB message, a SIB4-NB message, a SIB5-NB message, and a SIB22-NB message.

[0057] Although the present disclosure has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present disclosure, and any person skilled in the art can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and the protection scope of the present disclosure is defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A wireless communication device comprising: a buffer memory; and a medium access control circuit coupled to the buffer memory, the medium access control circuit configured to partition the buffer memory according to a number of system information messages required by the wireless communication device such that the buffer memory comprises a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffer blocks, and allocate a plurality of HARQ processes to the number of system information messages required by the wireless communication device for parallel reception of the number of system information messages from a base station in a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) downlink scheduling period, wherein the plurality of HARQ processes respectively correspond to the plurality of HARQ buffer blocks. 2.The wireless communication device of claim 1, further comprising: a de-rate matching circuit coupled to the buffer memory, the de-rate matching circuit configured to de-rate match the number of system information messages to generate a plurality of soft bit sequences, and respectively store the plurality of soft bit sequences into the plurality of HARQ buffer blocks. 3.The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein sizes of the plurality of HARQ buffer blocks are respectively associated with transport block sizes of the number of system information messages. 4.The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of HARQ buffer blocks is derived from other HARQ buffer blocks of the buffer memory for unicast transmission or random access using a temporary cell radio network identifier (TC-RNTI) of a cellular wireless network. 5.The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the medium access control circuit obtains the number of system information messages from a scheduling information of a system information block type 1 (SIB1-NB) received from the base station, and partitions the buffer memory into the plurality of HARQ buffer blocks according to the number of system information messages. 6.The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the number of system information messages comprises a system information block type 2 (SIB2-NB). 7.The wireless communication device of claim 6, wherein the number of system information messages further comprises at least one of a system information block type 3 (SIB3-NB), a system information block type 4 (SIB4-NB), a system information block type 5 (SIB5-NB), and a system information block type 22 (SIB22-NB). 8.A system information message receiving method adapted for a wireless communication device, the system information message receiving method comprising: partitioning a buffer memory of the wireless communication device according to a number of system information messages required by the wireless communication device such that the buffer memory comprises a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) buffer blocks; allocating a plurality of HARQ processes to the number of system information messages required by the wireless communication device, the plurality of HARQ processes respectively corresponding to the plurality of HARQ buffer blocks; and parallel reception of the number of system information messages from a base station in a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) downlink scheduling period. ​ 9. The system information message receiving method of claim 8, wherein the number of the plurality of system information messages is derived from a scheduling information in a SIB1-NB message, and the number of the plurality of system information messages is equal to the number of the plurality of HARQ blocks.

10. A wireless communication system comprising: a base station; and a user equipment configured to partition a buffer memory according to a number of system information messages required, such that the buffer memory comprises a number of HARQ blocks, and to allocate a number of HARQ processes to the number of system information messages required for receiving the number of system information messages in parallel from the base station in a NB-IoT DL scheduling period, wherein the number of HARQ processes corresponds to the number of HARQ blocks, respectively.

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