Multi-user multiple input multiple output physical downlink control channel reception

Abstract

A communication device can determine (1420) a spatial resource associated with a physical downlink control channel ("PDCCH") candidate. The communication device can receive (1430) the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource.

Description

MULTI-USER MULTIPLE INPUT MULTIPLE OUTPUT PHYSICAL DOWNLINK CONTROL CHANNEL RECEPTIONTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems and more particularly to multi-user multiple input multiple output (“MU-MIMO”) physical downlink control channel (“PDCCH”) reception.BACKGROUND

[0002] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a new radio (“NR”) network (e.g., a 5th Generation (“5G”) network) including a 5G core (“5GC”) network 130, network nodes 120a-b (e.g., 5G base station (“gNB”)), multiple communication devices 110 (also referred to as user equipment (“UE”)).

[0003] A Scheduler is an entity in the network node that decides how / what resources (e.g., PDSCH resources) to allocate to the UEs. When a decision is made, the network node may need to inform the UEs involved in the decision about specific details on how the UE can use the resources to receive or send data. The decision itself can be encoded as downlink control information (“DCI”) and it can be delivered over a physical downlink control channel (“PDCCH”). The PDCCH can be realized by a control resource set (“CORESET”) and search spaces within the CORESET. The CORESET can be a chunk of structured resources from a orthogonal frequency division multiplex (“OFDM”) resource grid that can be used to deliver DCIs. The CORESET can be configured by specifying its size in time (e.g., one, two, or three OFDM symbols) and specific locations in frequency domain. A search space defines the timing and size of the PDCCH candidates. It can specify an offset, periodicity of the occurrences, and which symbol (e.g., 0, 1, . . ., 13) the search space starts. It also specifies how many candidates of which size (e.g., aggregation level (“AL”)) there is in the search space set. The size of a candidate is the number of control channel elements (“CCEs”) it consists of. As illustrated in FIG. 2, a CCE can include six resource element groups (“REGs”) and a REG can include twelve subcarriers with one OFDM symbol. Each candidate can have an attribute indicating its AL (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs).

[0004] The location of a device-specific search space, expressed as a starting CCE number, can be defined without explicit signaling through a function of a cell radio network temporary identifier (“C-RNTI”), a device identity unique in the cell. Furthermore, the set of CCEs the device should monitor for a certain aggregation level can vary as a function of time to avoid two devices constantly blocking each other. This can randomize the location of a search space over time (with more or less independent randomization between aggregation levels). If two searchspaces collide at one time instant, they are not likely to collide at the next time instant. In each of these search spaces, the device is attempting to decode the PDCCHs using the device-specific C- RNTI identity. If valid control information is found, for example a scheduling grant, the device acts accordingly.

[0005] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of search spaces for two different devices. Each REG have demodulation reference signal (“DMRS”) inserted in subcarrier 1, 5, and 9. The DMRS is used by the UE to estimate the channel state for demodulation purposes on the resources that a PDCCH candidate is mapped.SUMMARY

[0006] According to some embodiments, a method of operating a communication device is provided. The method includes determining a spatial resource associated with a physical downlink control channel (“PDCCH”) candidate. The method further includes receiving the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource.

[0007] According to other embodiments, a method of operating a network node is provided. The method includes determining a spatial resource associated with a physical downlink control channel (“PDCCH”) candidate. The method further includes transmitting the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource.

[0008] According to other embodiments, a communication device, network node, computer program, computer program product, host, or system is provided to perform on one of the above methods.

[0009] The embodiments described herein can provide technical improvements. For example, some embodiments enable MU-MIMO PDCCH without the need for dynamic signaling over another control channel. This can increase the PDCCH capacity such that the overall chances of system capacity being limited by PDCCH decreases. If a certain candidate of one UE is blocked with another UE’s candidate, there is a certain chance that the spatial resources assigned to candidates involved in blocking will differ and hence the network node can perform MU-MIMO transmission for that candidate. This can statistically improve the PDCCH blocking problem.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0011] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a 5thgeneration (“5G”) network;

[0012] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example showing a relationship between AL, CCE, and REG;

[0013] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of search spaces for two different devices;

[0014] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of MU-MIMO for PDSCH;

[0015] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of DMRS type 1 and 2 mapping into one PRB (12 subcarrier);

[0016] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a random mapping of PDCCH candidates into CORESET CCEs and random association of PDCCH candidates with spatial resources in accordance with some embodiments;

[0017] FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a UE in accordance with some embodiments;

[0018] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a spatial resource that corresponds to a beam formed by one antenna port in accordance with some embodiments;

[0019] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a spatial resource that corresponds to a beam formed by two antenna ports in accordance with some embodiments;

[0020] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating examples of PDCCH candidate and associated antenna port mappings reduces blocking in accordance with some embodiments;

[0021] FIG. 11 is a table illustrating an example of random port assignments in accordance with some embodiments;

[0022] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a DMRS design adapted for PDSCH in accordance with some embodiments;

[0023] FIG. 13 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of signals for configuring handling MU-MIMO on PDCCH in accordance with some embodiments;

[0024] FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a communication device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0025] FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a network node in accordance with some embodiments;

[0026] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0027] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0028] FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments;

[0029] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a host, which may be an embodiment of the host of FIG. 16, in accordance with some embodiments;

[0030] FIG. 20 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0031] FIG. 21 shows a communication diagram of a host communicating via a network node with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0033] New radio (“NR”) and long term evolution (“LTE”) support multiple user multiple input multiple output (“MU-MIMO”) on a physical downlink shared channel (“PDSCH”) where beamforming is used to deliver information bits of multiple communication devices (also referred to herein as user equipments (“UEs”)) at the same time and frequency resources.

[0034] As illustrated in FIG. 4, there can be multiple ports at the network node antenna. A port can be thought of as a set of antenna elements grouped with certain setting to achieve certain spatial properties. At the network node, based on the available channel state information, a scheduler may decide to perform MU-MIMO to deliver multiple streams of data to multiple UEs. Then the scheduler can select an appropriate precoder to ensure that unwanted signals by the UEs are suppressed and wanted signals are enhanced.

[0035] At a UE, in order to receive the signal, the UE can estimate the spatial channel properties in order to demodulate the signal. In NR, a demodulation reference signal (“DMRS”) can be used to enable channel estimation (including precoder effect). Each DMRS can be mapped to the resource grid with a specific format. This disclosure generally refers to two types of DMRS mapping: mapping type 1 and type 2 (though the innovations may be applied to anysuitable DMRS mapping). The formats differ in how they occupy the resource grid affecting the resulting number of orthogonal pilots. The DMRS port multiplexing and mapping, as illustrated in FIG. 5, can be designed to generate orthogonal signals with respect antenna ports. This can enable the UEs to measure the channel state for the intended ports to their antennas.

[0036] To enable orthogonality between the antenna ports, a combination of frequency division multiplexing (“FDM”), time division multiplexing (“TDM”), or code division multiplexing (“CDM”) is used. In some examples, N orthogonal signals enable channel estimation of N ports and hence at most N layer MIMO transmissions. The N layer transmissions can be divided between (assuming favorable channel conditions) multiple UEs to allow for MU-MIMO transmissions. For example, if there are 2 ports at the network node side then one can send two layers to two different UEs thus having at most 2 user MU-MIMOs.

[0037] Different combinations of antenna port and numbers of layers per UE in MU-MIMO can be large. Thus, in the DCI carrying the scheduling decision in the PDCCH the scheduler includes information on the details of MU-MIMO decision for the UEs involved. For example, in DCI format 1-1 the DCI field “antenna port(s) and number of layers” allows the UE to determine which DMRS signals to use in order to perform channel estimation and know how many the transmission was done.

[0038] A physical downlink control channel (“PDCCH”) is a channel shared by all the UEs and no explicit signaling in allocating its resources among the UEs. Hence there is a chance of UEs blocking each other. When two UEs block each other on PDCCH, only one UE can be accommodated. This reduces the PDCCH capacity and introduces complexities at the scheduler in finding suitable resources.

[0039] The MU-MIMO can be used in order to solve the PDCCH blocking problem by allowing more than one transmission at the same time and frequency resource. However, in NR the MU-MIMO is designed mainly for PDSCH transmission and to enable it the required information (such as antenna ports and number of layers) is signaled over PDCCH. However, using exactly the same method in a dynamic way for MU-MIMO PDCCH is not possible since antenna port information required to receive the PDCCH is carried on the PDCCH and hence available only after successfully decoding the PDCCH.

[0040] Although MU-MIMO is introduced in LTE and NR, it can be suitable for PDSCH and there is no good way of applying MU-MIMO to PDCCH in a dynamic way. To apply the MU-MIMO design of PDSCH to PDCCH there must be a way of dynamically signaling the MU MIMO info to the UEs which would require another control channel. Such a solution introduces latencies and interdependency between two unreliable channels and thus reducing the gains of the feature.

[0041] Various embodiments herein describe a procedure for enabling MU-MIMO for PDCCH. In some embodiments, each PDCCH candidate is linked with a random spatial resource according to a predefined procedure. A UE decoding that PDCCH candidate can assume the reception from that spatial resource.

[0042] In additional or alternative embodiments, association of PDCCH candidates with spatial resources in a synchronous way between UE and network node can enable MU-MIMO PDCCH transmission and reception.

[0043] FIG. 6 illustrates an example in which the PDCCH candidates are pseudo randomly associated with spatial resources when mapped into CORESET. The pseudo randomness is synchronized between the UEs and the network node (e.g., by a predefined procedure shared by both UE and network node) so they both agree on the outcome of the randomization for every UE and slots. Each PDCCH candidate is pseudo-randomly mapped into CORESET CCEs and are also pseudo-randomly associated with spatial resources configured by the network node to the UEs.

[0044] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of operations performed by a UE to handle MU-MIMO PDCCH reception.

[0045] At block 705, UE CORESET is configured including, for example, a number of CCEs, location in frequency and duration. At block 710, search space is configured including, for example, how many candidates and their aggregation level. At block 715, PDCCH spatial relation is configured, for example, including antenna ports, number of layers, and DMRS configuration.

[0046] At block 720, for each CORESET and associated search space, blocks 725, 730, 735, 740, 745, 750, 755, 760, 765, and 770 are performed. At block 725, PDCCH reception is started. At block 730, count is set to 1. At block 735, CCE indices for each candidate number count is found. At block 740, spatial relation (e.g., port number or number of layers) is determined. At block 745, associated DMRS configuration are retrieved. At block 750, channel estimation is performed. At block 750, decoding DCI is attempted. At block 760, it is determined whether the count is greater than the number of candidates. If the count is less than the number of candidates, the process returns to block 735 by way of block 765 (in which the count is incremented by one). If the count is greater than the number of candidates, the process proceeds to block 765, where the process waits until the next PDCCH monitoring occasion before returning to block 725.

[0047] In some embodiments, a set of orthogonal resources r0, r1(... , rMis assigned to PDCCH transmission common to a set of UEs. A spatial resource, rm, represent a set of ports,number of transmission layers, and the associated DMRS configuration required to estimate the channel state corresponding to the that spatial resource.

[0048] FIGS. 8-9 illustrate examples of spatial resources. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a spatial resource corresponding to association with one antenna port. FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a spatial resource corresponding to a beam formed by two ports.

[0049] In some examples, where there is only single layer transmission, each spatial resource is a single layer transmission from a single antenna port. The antenna ports can be dedicated for PDCCH transmission (p1;p2, ... , pw). Each antenna port can be configured with a DMRS sequence. Two different antenna ports can have orthogonal DMRS sequences created by either FDM, TDM, or CDM. When the PDCCH candidates are randomly mapped to CCEs of a CORESET they can be associated with an antenna port. When the UE performs blind decoding and channel estimation for the blind decodes it can use the spatial information to estimate the correct channel state and attempt decoding with that. FIG. 10 illustrates examples of PDCCH candidates and associated antenna port mappings. In this example, only one PDCCH candidate is shown. It shows how the PDCCH candidate is randomly mapped into CCEs of the CORESET over slots and UEs. Traditionally, when two different PDCCH candidates are mapped into the same physical resource then a blocking event occurs and then only one PDCCH candidate can be accommodated. In some embodiments, the probability of blocking event are reduced. For example, in slot 2 both UE 1 and UE 2 have competing candidates on the same resources.However, the random assignment of antenna ports to candidates cause the UEs to be associated with different antenna ports (and thus different DMRS resource for channel estimation). This alleviates the PDCCH blocking problem by transmitting to both UE 1 and 2 using MU-MIMO (whereas traditionally the scheduler would need to redo the PDCCH scheduling or accept that only one UE can be served).

[0050] In additional or alternative embodiments, a given spatial resource can be realized with more than one antenna ports and / or layers.

[0051] Assuming that there are N number of antenna ports, one can assign n out of N antenna ports for a spatial resource. For example, spatial resource 1 is assigned port 0 and 1, spatial resource 2 is assigned port 2 and 3 and so on.

[0052] Another degree of freedom could be to assign number of layers to the ports as well. For example, if a spatial resource has 2 ports, then either a two-layer (one spatially multiplexed message), two single layer (two distinct messages) or one single layer (transmit diversity gain) transmission possible.

[0053] Another option is to send more than one DCI in the same resource by using MIMO. For example, the same PDCCH candidate can be associated with more than one port and eachport association allows two independent streams where each stream carries a distinct DCI (or the same DCI for reliability). Then the UE performs the blind decoding two time on the same timefrequency resource, one for each port association.

[0054] In some examples, ports do not have to be strictly orthogonal, in some embodiments of the invention quasi-orthogonal or independent DMRS sequences are sufficient.

[0055] In additional or alternative embodiments, the randomization of PDCCH candidate mapping into resource grid and antenna port assignment is realized by two independent randomized hash functions. The first hash function randomly maps the PDCCH candidates into the CCE within a CORESET. The second hash function randomly assigns a spatial resource to a PDCCH candidate.

[0056] In some examples, the first hash function can be implemented the same way as in LTE and NR. For the second function the first function can be modified to achieve a pseudorandom behavior of antenna port association.{(y»»+firl)mod W1where N is the total number of spatial resources for PDCCH transmission, M is the total number of candidates and m is the PDCCH candidate of interest and Yns. An example of how Equation 1 assigns random spatial resources (port numbers in this example) for a UE with radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) 134 is shown in FIG. 11 when there are 5 PDCCH candidates and two antenna ports. Note that there are many other option to realize Equation 1.

[0057] At this point, the UE knows where in frequency and time each PDCCH candidate is mapped and also the spatial relation of the candidate with respect to wireless channel and network node antenna.

[0058] The network node also is aware of the procedure and for any given UE can use the hash function to determine CCE indices of each PDCCH candidate and which spatial resources it is assigned. Based on the available channel estate information at the network node, it can transmit simultaneously using MU-MIMO or use a single UE transmission scheme if it believes that MU-MIMO will result in bad performance.

[0059] In additional or alternative embodiments, the search space sets are such that if a candidate m mapped to a set S of CCEs, then there is a search space candidate m' mapped to same set S of CCEs but associated with a different port number (or spatial resource in general) p' A p. Let Nportsdenote the number of PDCCH ports, then one way to achieve this is to modify the legacy randomization of the PDCCH candidate mapping as highlighted:where port p for the search space candidate is determined asP = ™SnCI(mod Nports).

[0060] In additional or alternative embodiments, the number Nportsthat determine the size of search space candidates that are mapped to same set of CCEs may depend on the aggregation level L. In such embodiments, the UE may be configured with a Nports(L) for each search space set with aggregation level L. In such other embodiments, formula (2) may be used where Nportsis replaced with NportsL)~ and the port p for the search space candidateis determined as

[0061] In some examples, the offset is a fixed value or a configured value. In other examples, the offset is configured per aggregation level. In further other examples, the offset is randomized. For example, let NportsL) = 2 and the total number of PDCCH ports be Ntot= 8, then the ports may be grouped as { 1,2}, {3,4}, {5,6} and {7,8}, and the offset may be a pseudorandom draw from the set {0, 2, 4, 6}. For example, let the index to offset = 0 be 0, index to offset = 2 be 1 etc., and determine the offset from a randomization of the index as

[0062] In additional or alternative embodiments, where UE has two or more search space candidates mapped to the same set of CCEs but with different port association, the UE may perform independent PDCCH reception attempts for each one of the said two or more search space candidates. In other embodiments, the UE may attempt to jointly receive pairs, triples etc of the said two or more search space candidates. By jointly attempting to receive two or more PDCCHs (e.g., one DL assignment and one UL assignment) the UE can gain reception quality since inter-layer interference may be cancelled. In some examples of such embodiments, the UE may by implementation select the reception approach. In other examples, the UE may be configured such that for some search space candidates are joint reception search space candidates. For example, UE may be configured with a first and second search space set both with aggregation level L. For the first search space set the UE cannot assume that reception can be performed joint while for second search space set the UE can assume joint reception since if network node use a search space candidate from second set then network node will also use a search space candidate that is mapped to same CCEs (but different port association).

[0063] In additional or alternative embodiments, a first antenna port has a first Quasi -Co- Location (“QCL”) association with a first reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS, SSB,. . .) while a second antenna port has a second QCL association with a second reference signal. In such embodiment, the UE may assume for a search space candidate that a joint PDCCH transmissionis to be received, i.e. a first and second network node (e.g. a first and second transmission / reception point) transmitted the same DCI on the search space candidate.

[0064] FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a DMRS design adapted for PDSCH. Without having to sacrifice more frequency resources one can use CDM to create orthogonal DMRS resources on the same time, frequency resource. This can accommodate at most two antenna ports. If the system requires more antenna ports for example four, then one ca use FDM method to create additional DMRS resources. For example port 1 and 2 are orthogonal with respect to each other due to CDM and they are orthogonal to port 3 and 4 due to FDM.

[0065] In some examples, where system need more than two antenna ports, the FDM could be over REGs instead of inside the REGs as illustrated in FIG. 12. For example, if the antenna ports are {pl, p2, p3, p4{, then ports {pl, p2{ may be present in even REGs while ports {p3, p4 } may be present in odd REGs. Compared to the case where all four ports are present in all REGs more resource elements are available for PDCCH data (DCI) if FDM over REGs is used. However, the reception quality is likely worse for “FDM over REGs” than for “FDM inside REGs”. Hence, in some scenarios it may be preferable to need more resource for ports than in other scenarios. Therefore, the UE may in some embodiments be configured with a suitable configuration of DMRS resources and a distribution of the antenna ports over the DMRS resources.

[0066] FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a signal flow that can be introduced to configure a UE, network node, or wireless communication system to handle MU-MIMO on PDCCH..

[0067] In some embodiments, configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include an indication of antenna ports for a given search space set. For example, search space set with ID #2 can use ports pO, pl for PDCCH reception.

[0068] In additional or alternative embodiments, the configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include an indication of antenna ports per ALs in a search space set. For example, search space set with ID #2 can use ports pO, pl for AL1, AL2 and only pO for AL 4,8,16.

[0069] In additional or alternative embodiments, the configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include a configuration of the DMRS for each port. Each port can be assigned a DMRS relation.

[0070] In additional or alternative embodiments, the configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include an indication of whether MU-MIMO is expected for a search space set.

[0071] In additional or alternative embodiments, the configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include an indication of how many layers a search space set expects.

[0072] In additional or alternative embodiments, the configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include an indication of a maximum / minimum number of layers for a search space.

[0073] In additional or alternative embodiments, the configuration information related to MU-MIMO PDCCH can include an indication of QCL association with a reference signal (e.g. CSI-RS, SSB,...).

[0074] In additional or alternative embodiments, configuration information may support fine tuning based on the lower layer (MAC-CE,DCI) signaling where a different option among the configured options can be indicated

[0075] In additional or alternative embodiments, the spatial resources are signaled using system information block.

[0076] Operations of the communication device 1700 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 17) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 14 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1710 of FIG. 17, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective communication device processing circuitry 1702, communication device 1700 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0077] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of operating a communication device to handle MU- MIMO PDCCH reception.

[0078] At block 1410, processing circuitry 1702 receives, via a communication interface 1712, an indication of configuration information from a network node. In some examples, the configuration information includes at least one of an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with a search space set; an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with an aggregate level (“AL”) in a search space set; an indication of a configuration of a demodulation reference signal for an antenna port of the network node; an indication of whether multiple user multiple input multiple output (“MU-MIMO”) is expected for a search space set; an indication of a number of layers associated with a search space set; and an indication of a Quasi-Co-Location (“QCL”) association with a reference signal.

[0079] At block 1420, processing circuitry 1702 determines a spatial resource associated with a PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate includes determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate based on configuration information, In some examples, determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate includes determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate based on a value associated with the communicationdevice. In some examples, the value is an identifier (e.g., a subscriber identification module (“SIM”) associated with the communication device).

[0080] In additional or alternative embodiments, the spatial resource includes at least one of a single antenna port of the network node; a set of antenna ports of the network node; a transmission layer of the PDCCH candidate; and a demodulation reference signal (“DMRS”) configuration of the PDCCH candidate.

[0081] At block 1430, processing circuitry 1702 receives, via a communication interface 1712, the PDCCH candidate from the network node using the spatial resource. In some embodiments, receiving the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource includes receiving the PDCCH candidate from the network node using the spatial resource. In additional or alternative embodiments, the term receiving includes decoding a received signal.

[0082] At block 1440, processing circuitry 1702 transmits, via communication interface 1712, an indication to the network node that the first PDCCH candidate was received.

[0083] In some embodiments, the spatial resource is a first spatial resource of a plurality of spatial resources. The PDCCH candidate is a first PDCCH candidate of a plurality of PDCCH candidates. Determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate includes mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources. In some examples, mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates includes mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a control channel element (“CCE”) of a control resource set (“CORESET”) and the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources. In additional or alternative examples, mapping each PDCCH candidate includes mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources based on a predetermined hash function.

[0084] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 14 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0085] Operations of the RAN node 1800 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 18) will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 15 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 1804 of FIG. 18, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective RAN node processing circuitry 1802, RAN node 1800 performs respective operations of the flow chart.

[0086] At block 1510, processing circuitry 1802 transmits, via communication interface 1806, an indication of configuration information. In some embodiments, the configuration information includes at least one of an indication of an antenna port of the network nodeassociated with a search space set; an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with an aggregate level (“AL”) in a search space set; an indication of a configuration of a demodulation reference signal for an antenna port of the network node; an indication of whether multiple input multiple output (“MU-MIMO”) is expected for a search space set; an indication of a number of layers associated with a search space set; and an indication of a Quasi- Co-Location (“QCL”) association with a reference signal.

[0087] At block 1520, processing circuitry 1802 determines a first spatial resource associated with a first PDCCH candidate.

[0088] At block 1530, processing circuitry 1802 determines a second spatial resource associated with a second PDCCH candidate.

[0089] In some embodiments, determining the first and / or second spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate includes determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate based on the configuration information. In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate includes mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources. In some examples, mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates includes mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a control channel element (“CCE”) of a control resource set (“CORESET”) and the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources. In additional or alternative examples, mapping each PDCCH candidate includes mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources based on a predetermined hash function.

[0090] In additional or alternative embodiments, determining the first spatial resource includes determining the first spatial resource based on a first value associated with the first communication device. Determining the second spatial resource includes determining the second spatial resource based on a second value associated with the second communication device. In some examples, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are mapped into overlapping physical resources,

[0091] In additional or alternative embodiments, the first and / or second spatial resource includes at least one of: a single antenna port of the network node; a set of antenna ports of the network node; a transmission layer of the PDCCH candidate; and a demodulation reference signal (“DMRS”) configuration of the PDCCH candidate.

[0092] At block 1540, processing circuitry 1802 transmits, via communication interface 1806, the first PDCCH candidate to a first communication device using the first spatial resource.

[0093] At block 1550, processing circuitry 1802 transmits, via communication interface 1806, the second PDCCH candidate to a second communication device using the second spatial resource.

[0094] In some embodiments, transmitting the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate includes transmitting the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate at overlapping frequency and time resources (e.g., using a common frequency and at a common time).

[0095] At block 1560, processing circuitry 1802 receives, via communication interface 1806, an indication that the first PDCCH candidate was received by the first communication device.

[0096] At block 1570, processing circuitry 1802 receives, via communication interface 1806, an indication that the second PDCCH candidate was received by the second communication device.

[0097] Various operations from the flow chart of FIG. 15 may be optional with respect to some embodiments of communication devices and related methods.

[0098] FIG. 16 shows an example of a communication system 1600 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0099] In the example, the communication system 1600 includes a telecommunication network 1602 that includes an access network 1604, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1606, which includes one or more core network nodes 1608. The access network 1604 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1610a and 1610b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1610), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3 GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the network nodes 1610 are not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that the network nodes 1610 may include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 1602 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1602 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1602, including one or more network nodes 1610 and / or core network nodes 1608.

[0100] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time RAN control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time RAN automation application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Intents and content-aware notifications described herein may be communicated from a 3 GPP network node or an ORAN network node over 3GPP-defined interfaces (e.g., N2, N3) and / or ORAN Alliance-defined interfaces (e.g., Al, 01). Moreover, an ORAN network node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance. The network nodes 1610 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting wireless devices 1612a, 1612b, 1612c, and 1612d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1612) to the core network 1606 over one or more wireless connections. The network nodes 1610 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1612a, 1612b, 1612c, and 1612d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1612) to the core network 1606 over one or more wireless connections.

[0101] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1600 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1600 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0102] The UEs 1612 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1610 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1610 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1612 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network1602 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1602.

[0103] In the depicted example, the core network 1606 connects the network nodes 1610 to one or more hosts, such as host 1616. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1606 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1608) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1608. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0104] The host 1616 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1604 and / or the telecommunication network 1602, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1616 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0105] As a whole, the communication system 1600 of FIG. 16 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low- power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0106] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1602 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 1602 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1602. For example, the telecommunications network 1602 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0107] In some examples, the UEs 1612 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1604 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1604. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi -standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved- UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0108] In the example, the hub 1614 communicates with the access network 1604 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1612c and / or 1612d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1610b). In some examples, the hub 1614 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1614 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1606 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1614 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1610, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1614. As another example, the hub 1614 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1614 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1614 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1614 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1614 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0109] The hub 1614 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1610b. The hub 1614 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1614 and UEs (e.g., UE 1612c and / or 1612d), and between the hub 1614 and the core network 1606. In other examples, the hub 1614 is connected to the core network 1606 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1614 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1604 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1610 while still connected via the hub 1614 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1614 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 1610b. In other embodiments, the hub 1614 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 1610b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0110] FIG. 17 shows a UE 1700 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0111] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehi cl e-to- vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle- to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0112] The UE 1700 includes processing circuitry 1702 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1704 to an input / output interface 1706, a power source 1708, a memory 1710, a communication interface 1712, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 17. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0113] The processing circuitry 1702 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1710. The processing circuitry 1702 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1702 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0114] In the example, the input / output interface 1706 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1700. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0115] In some embodiments, the power source 1708 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1708 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1708 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1700 via input circuitry or an interface such as anelectrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1708. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1708 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1700 to which power is supplied.

[0116] The memory 1710 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable readonly memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1710 includes one or more application programs 1714, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1716. The memory 1710 may store, for use by the UE 1700, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0117] The memory 1710 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini -dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1710 may allow the UE 1700 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1710, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0118] The processing circuitry 1702 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1712. The communication interface 1712 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1722. The communication interface 1712 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1718 and / or a receiver 1720 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical,frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1718 and receiver 1720 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1722) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0119] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1712 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0120] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1712, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0121] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0122] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connecteddoorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1700 shown in FIG. 17.

[0123] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3 GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0124] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0125] FIG. 18 shows a network node 1800 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), NR NodeBs (gNBs)), 0-RAN nodes, or components of an 0-RAN node (e.g., intelligent controller, 0-RU, 0-DU, O-CU).

[0126] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount ofcoverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0127] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi -standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0128] The network node 1800 includes a processing circuitry 1802, a memory 1804, a communication interface 1806, and a power source 1808. The network node 1800 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1800 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1800 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1804 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1810 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1800 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1800, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1800.

[0129] The processing circuitry 1802 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1800 components, such as the memory 1804, to provide network node 1800 functionality.

[0130] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1802 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1802 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1812 and baseband processing circuitry 1814. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1812 and the baseband processing circuitry 1814 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1812 and baseband processing circuitry 1814 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0131] The memory 1804 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1802. The memory 1804 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1802 and utilized by the network node 1800. The memory 1804 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1802 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1806. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1802 and memory 1804 is integrated.

[0132] The communication interface 1806 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1806 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1816 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1806 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1818 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1810. Radio front-end circuitry 1818 comprises filters 1820 and amplifiers 1822. The radio front-end circuitry 1818 may be connected to an antenna 1810 and processing circuitry 1802. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1810 and processing circuitry 1802. The radio front-end circuitry 1818 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1818 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1820 and / or amplifiers 1822. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1810.Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1810 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1818. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1802. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0133] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1800 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1818, instead, the processing circuitry 1802 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1810. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1812 is part of the communication interface 1806. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1806 includes one or more ports or terminals 1816, the radio front-end circuitry 1818, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1812, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1806 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1814, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0134] The antenna 1810 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1810 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1818 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1810 is separate from the network node 1800 and connectable to the network node 1800 through an interface or port.

[0135] The antenna 1810, communication interface 1806, and / or the processing circuitry 1802 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1810, the communication interface 1806, and / or the processing circuitry 1802 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0136] The power source 1808 provides power to the various components of network node 1800 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1808 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1800 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1800 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1808. As a further example, the power source 1808 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which isconnected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0137] Embodiments of the network node 1800 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 18 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1800 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1800 and to allow output of information from the network node 1800. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1800.

[0138] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a host 1900, which may be an embodiment of the host 1616 of FIG. 16, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 1900 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and / or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 1900 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0139] The host 1900 includes processing circuitry 1902 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1904 to an input / output interface 1906, a network interface 1908, a power source 1910, and a memory 1912. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as FIGS. 17 and 18, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1900.

[0140] The memory 1912 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1914 and data 1916, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1900 or data generated by the host 1900 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 1900 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1914 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 1914 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 1900 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 1914 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming(HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

[0141] FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 2000 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 2000 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 2000 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface.

[0142] Applications 2002 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0143] Hardware 2004 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 2006 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 2008a and 2008b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 2008), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 2006 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 2008.

[0144] The VMs 2008 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 2006. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 2002 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 2008, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV maybe used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0145] In the context of NFV, a VM 2008 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 2008, and that part of hardware 2004 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 2008 on top of the hardware 2004 and corresponds to the application 2002.

[0146] Hardware 2004 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 2004 may implement some functions via virtualization.Alternatively, hardware 2004 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 2010, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 2002. In some embodiments, hardware 2004 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 2012 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0147] FIG. 21 shows a communication diagram of a host 2102 communicating via a network node 2104 with a UE 2106 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 1612a of FIG. 16 and / or UE 1700 of FIG. 17), network node (such as network node 1610a of FIG. 16 and / or network node 1800 of FIG. 18), and host (such as host 1616 of FIG. 16 and / or host 1900 of FIG. 19) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to FIG. 21.

[0148] Like host 1900, embodiments of host 2102 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 2102 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 2102 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 2106 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 2150extending between the UE 2106 and host 2102. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 2150.

[0149] The network node 2104 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 2102 and UE 2106. The connection 2160 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 1606 of FIG. 16) and / or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

[0150] The UE 2106 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 2106 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 2106 with the support of the host 2102. In the host 2102, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 2150 terminating at the UE 2106 and host 2102. In providing the service to the user, the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 2150 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE's client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 2150.

[0151] The OTT connection 2150 may extend via a connection 2160 between the host 2102 and the network node 2104 and via a wireless connection 2170 between the network node 2104 and the UE 2106 to provide the connection between the host 2102 and the UE 2106. The connection 2160 and wireless connection 2170, over which the OTT connection 2150 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 2102 and the UE 2106 via the network node 2104, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

[0152] As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 2150, in step 2108, the host 2102 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 2106. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 2106 that shares data with the host 2102 without explicit human interaction. In step 2110, the host 2102 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 2106. The host 2102 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 2106. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 2106 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 2106. The transmission may pass via the network node 2104, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 2112, the network node 2104 transmits to the UE 2106 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host2102 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 2114, the UE 2106 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 2106 associated with the host application executed by the host 2102.

[0153] In some examples, the UE 2106 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 2102. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 2102. Accordingly, in step 2116, the UE 2106 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input / output interface of the UE 2106. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 2106 initiates, in step 2118, transmission of the user data towards the host 2102 via the network node 2104. In step 2120, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 2104 receives user data from the UE 2106 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 2102. In step 2122, the host 2102 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 2106.

[0154] One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 2106 using the OTT connection 2150, in which the wireless connection 2170 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may enable MU- MIMO PDCCH without the need for dynamic signaling over another control channel. This can increase the PDCCH capacity so overall the chances of system capacity being limited by PDCCH decreases. In case a certain candidate of one UE is blocked with another UE’s candidate, there is a certain chance that the spatial resources assigned to candidates involved in blocking will differ and hence the gNB can perform MU-MIMO transmission for that candidate. This statistically improves the PDCCH blocking problem.

[0155] In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 2102. As another example, the host 2102 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 2102 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 2102 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 2102 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 2102 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and / or transmitting data.

[0156] In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 2150 between the host 2102 and UE 2106, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and / or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 2102 and / or UE 2106. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 2150 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 2150 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 2104. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 2102. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 2150 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.

[0157] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functionsof any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0158] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a communication device, the method comprising: determining (1420) a spatial resource associated with a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, candidate; and receiving (1430) the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource.

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate comprises determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate based on configuration information, the method further comprising: prior to determining the PDCCH candidate, receiving (1410) an indication of the configuration information from a network node, wherein receiving the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource comprises receiving the PDCCH candidate from the network node using the spatial resource.

3. The method of Claim 2, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with a search space set; an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with an aggregate level,AL, in a search space set; an indication of a configuration of a demodulation reference signal for an antenna port of the network node; an indication of whether multiple user multiple input multiple output, MU-MIMO, is expected for a search space set; an indication of a number of layers associated with a search space set; and an indication of a Quasi-Co-Location, QCL, association with a reference signal.

4. The method of any of Claims 1-3, wherein the spatial resource is a first spatial resource of a plurality of spatial resources, wherein the PDCCH candidate is a first PDCCH candidate of a plurality of PDCCH candidates, and wherein determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate comprises mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a spatialresource of the plurality of spatial resources.

5. The method of Claim 4, wherein mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates comprises mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a control channel element, CCE, of a control resource set, CORESET, and the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources.

6. The method of any of Claims 4-5, wherein mapping each PDCCH candidate comprises mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources based on a predetermined hash function.

7. The method of any of Claims 1-6, wherein determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate comprises determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate based on a value associated with the communication device.

8. The method of any of Claims 1-6, the method further comprising: transmitting (1440) an indication to the network node that the first PDCCH candidate was received.

9. The method of any of Claims 1-8, wherein the spatial resource comprises at least one of: a single antenna port of the network node; a set of antenna ports of the network node; a transmission layer of the PDCCH candidate; and a demodulation reference signal, DMRS, configuration of the PDCCH candidate.

10. A method of operating a network node, the method comprising: determining (1520) a spatial resource associated with a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, candidate; and transmitting (1540) the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource.

11. The method of Claim 10, wherein determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate comprises determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate based on configuration information, the method further comprising: prior to transmitting the PDCCH candidate, transmitting (1510) an indication of theconfiguration information to a communication device, wherein transmitting the PDCCH candidate using the spatial resource comprises transmitting the PDCCH candidate to the communication device using the spatial resource.

12. The method of Claim 11, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with a search space set; an indication of an antenna port of the network node associated with an aggregate level, AL, in a search space set; an indication of a configuration of a demodulation reference signal for an antenna port of the network node; an indication of whether multiple input multiple output, MU-MIMO, is expected for a search space set; an indication of a number of layers associated with a search space set; and an indication of a Quasi-Co-Location, QCL, association with a reference signal.

13. The method of any of Claims 10-12, wherein the spatial resource is a first spatial resource of a plurality of spatial resources, wherein the PDCCH candidate is a first PDCCH candidate of a plurality of PDCCH candidates, and wherein determining the spatial resource associated with the PDCCH candidate comprises mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources.

14. The method of Claim 13, wherein mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates comprises mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to a control channel element, CCE, of a control resource set, CORESET, and the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources.

15. The method of any of Claims 13-14, wherein mapping each PDCCH candidate comprises mapping each PDCCH candidate of the plurality of PDCCH candidates to the spatial resource of the plurality of spatial resources based on a predetermined hash function.

16. The method of any of Claims 13-15, wherein transmitting the PDCCH candidate comprises transmitting the first PDCCH candidate to a first communication device using the first spatial resource, at a frequency, and at a time,the method further comprising: determining (1530) a second spatial resource associated with a second PDCCH candidate; and transmitting (1550) the second PDCCH candidate using the second spatial resource to a second communication device using the second spatial resource, at the frequency, and at the time.

17. The method of Claim 16, wherein the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are transmitted using overlapping time and frequency resources.

18. The method of any of Claims 16-17, wherein determining the first spatial resource comprises determining the first spatial resource based on a first value associated with the first communication device, and wherein determining the second spatial resource comprises determining the second spatial resource based on a second value associated with the second communication device.

19. The method of any of Claims 16-18, wherein the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are mapped into an overlapping physical resource, the method further comprising: receiving (1560) an indication from the first communication device that the first PDCCH candidate was received; and receiving (1570) an indication from the second communication device that the second PDCCH candidate was received.

20. The method of any of Claims 10-19, wherein the spatial resource comprises at least one of: a single antenna port of the network node; a set of antenna ports of the network node; a transmission layer of the PDCCH candidate; and a demodulation reference signal, DMRS, configuration of the PDCCH candidate.

21. A communication device (1700) operating in a communications network, the communication device comprising: processing circuitry (1702); and memory (1710) coupled to the processing circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are executable by the processing circuitry to cause the communication device to performoperations comprising any of the operations of Claims 1-9.

22. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1702) of a communication device (1700) operating in a communications network, whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising any operations of Claims 1-9.

23. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1710) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1702) of a communication device (1700) operating in a communications network, whereby execution of the program code causes the communication device to perform operations comprising any operations of Claims 1- 9.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein that are executable by processing circuitry (1702) of a communication device (1700) operating in a communications network to cause the communication device to perform operations comprising any of the operations of Claims 1-9.

25. A network node (1800) operating in a communications network, the network node comprising: processing circuitry (1802); and memory (1804) coupled to the processing circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are executable by the processing circuitry to cause the network node to perform operations comprising any of the operations of Claims 10-20.

26. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1802) of a network node (1800) operating in a communications network, whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising any operations of Claims 10-20.

27. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (1804) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (1802) of a network node (1800) operating in a communications network, whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising any operations of Claims 10-20.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein that are executable by processing circuitry (1802) of a network node (1800) operating in a communications network to cause the network node to perform operations comprising any of the operations of Claims 10-20.

29. A user equipment for multi-user multiple input multiple output, MU-MIMO, physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, reception, the user equipment, comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the operations of Claims 1-9; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

30. A network node for multi-user multiple input multiple output, MU-MIMO, physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, transmission, the network node comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the operations of Claims 10-20; power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

31. A user equipment (UE) for multi-user multiple input multiple output, MU-MIMO, physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, reception, the UE comprising: an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry; the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the operations of Claims 1-9; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry; and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

32. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a network node in a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the operations of Claims 10-20 to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

33. The host of Claim 32, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that provides the user data; and the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application to receive the transmission of user data from the host.

34. A method implemented in a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the network node performs any of the operations of any of the operations of Claims 10-20 to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

35. The method of Claim 34, further comprising, at the network node, transmitting the user data provided by the host for the UE.

36. The method of any of Claims 34-35, wherein the user data is provided at the host by executing a host application that interacts with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

37. A communication system configured to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the communication system comprising: a host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data for a user equipment (UE), the user data being associated with the over-the-top service; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data toward a cellular network node for transmission to the UE, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the operations of Claims 10-20 to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

38. The communication system of Claim 37, further comprising: the network node; and / or the UE.

39. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to initiate receipt of user data; and a network interface configured to receive the user data from a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the operations of Claims 10-20 to receive the user data from a user equipment (UE) for the host.

40. The host of any of Claims 38-39, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that receives the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

41. The host of any of Claims 39-40, wherein the initiating receipt of the user data comprises requesting the user data.

42. A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, initiating receipt of user data from the UE, the user data originating from a transmission which the network node has received from the UE, wherein the network node performs any of the operations of Claims 10-20 to receive the user data from the UE for the host.

43. The method of Claim 42, further comprising at the network node, transmitting the received user data to the host.

44. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the operations of Claims 1-9 to receive the user data from the host.

45. The host of Claim 44, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data to the UE from the host.

46. The host of any of Claims 44-45, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

47. A method implemented by a host operating in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the UE performs any of the operations of Claims 1-9 to receive the user data from the host.

48. The method of Claim 47, further comprising: at the host, executing a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the host application.

49. The method of Claim 48, further comprising: at the host, transmitting input data to the client application executing on the UE, the input data being provided by executing the host application, wherein the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.

50. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the operations of Claims 1-9 to transmit the user data to the host.

51. The host of Claim 50, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data from the UE to the host.

52. The host of any of Claims 50-51, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

53. A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, receiving user data transmitted to the host via the network node by the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the operations of Claims 1-9 to transmit the user data to the host.

54. The method of Claim 53, further comprising: at the host, executing a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the UE.

55. The method of any of Claims 53-54, further comprising: at the host, transmitting input data to the client application executing on the UE, the input data being provided by executing the host application, wherein the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.

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