Enhanced uplink transmission in wireless communication

Abstract

To provide a device and a storage device operating in unlicensed spectrum as New Radio (NR-U) by a framework in order to enable flexibility in configured grants in New Radio (NR) systems and to enhance uplink (UL) transmissions.SOLUTION: A process flow by a network device for performing UL transmission with different sequence lengths includes processing 702 at least two sets of resource configurations corresponding to different sequence lengths of a UL physical channel, selecting 704 at least one of a first sequence length or a plurality of different second sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length to configure a UL transmission on the basis of one or more conditions, and generating 706 a UL transmission on the basis of the first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two sets of resource configurations over the UL physical channel.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to wireless technologies, including enhancing uplink (UL) transmission in wireless communications. [Background technology]

[0002] Mobile communications in next-generation wireless communication systems, 5G, or new radio (NR) networks, provide ubiquitous connectivity and access to information and data sharing capabilities worldwide. 5G networks and network slicing are a unified, service-based framework that meets diverse and sometimes conflicting performance criteria and aims to deliver services to highly heterogeneous application domains, from Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) to massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC), and other communications. In general, NR is based on the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long-term evolution (LTE) advanced technology and evolves with additional enhanced radio access technologies (RATs) to enable seamless and faster wireless connectivity solutions.

[0003] Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly sophisticated, integrated communications platforms. The next generation wireless communications system, 5G, or New Radio (NR), provides access to information and data sharing by various users and applications, anytime, anywhere. NR is expected to be a unified network / system, targeting significantly different and sometimes competing performance dimensions and services. These diverse multi-dimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. Generally, NR evolves based on 3GPP LTE-Advanced with additional potential new radio access technologies (RATs) to enrich people's lives with better, easier, and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR enables everything to be connected wirelessly, delivering high speeds and rich content and services.

[0004] Recently, the first release of the NR (5G) specification provided a baseline set of features and components for future cellular communication systems. Each year, the number of mobile devices connected to wireless networks is increasing significantly. To meet the demand for mobile data traffic, changes must be made to system requirements to be able to meet these demands. To deliver this traffic growth, three key areas that need to be enhanced are larger bandwidth, lower latency, and higher data rates. One of the main limiting factors in wireless technology innovation is spectrum availability. To mitigate this, unlicensed spectrum has been an area of ​​interest for extending the availability of Long Term Evolution (LTE). In this regard, one major enhancement of LTE in 3GPP Release 13 was to enable its operation in unlicensed spectrum via licensed-assisted access (LAA), which expands system bandwidth by leveraging the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced by LTE-Advanced systems. Now that the key building blocks of the New Radio (NR) framework are established, a natural extension is to enable this framework to operate in unlicensed spectrum as NR-U, particularly with regard to enabling flexibility in configured grants in NR systems and enhancing UL transmissions. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0005] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram illustrating an example of user equipment(s) (UE) communicatively coupled to a network having network components as peer devices usable in connection with various embodiments (aspects) described herein. [Figure 2] 1 is an exemplary architecture of a system of networks, according to various embodiments. [Figure 3]FIG. 1 is an exemplary simplified block diagram of a user equipment (UE) wireless communication device or other network device / component (e.g., eNB, gNB), in accordance with various described embodiments. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is an illustration of an example sequence selection based on one or more conditions, in accordance with various described aspects. [Figure 5] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a channel occupancy time dependent UL transmission according to various embodiments herein. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a conditional gap determination for an UL transmission, in accordance with various embodiments herein. [Figure 7] FIG. 1 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary process flow according to various embodiments described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0006] It is well understood that use of personally identifiable information should comply with generally recognized privacy policies and practices that meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled in a manner that minimizes the risk of unintended or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of permitted uses should be clearly indicated to users.

[0007] The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout, and wherein the structures and devices depicted are not necessarily drawn to scale. As used herein, terms such as “component,” “system,” “interface,” and the like are intended to refer to computer-related entities, hardware, (e.g., executing) software, and / or firmware. For example, a component may be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, controller, or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable file, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC, and / or user equipment (e.g., a mobile phone, etc.) equipped with a processing device. Illustratively, an application running on a server and that server may also be a component. One or more components may reside within a process, and a component may be localized on one computer and / or distributed among two or more computers. This specification may describe a set of elements or other components, where the term “set” may be interpreted as “one or more.”

[0008] Further, these components may execute, e.g., as modules, from various computer-readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon. Components may communicate, for example, via local and / or remote processes, pursuant to signals comprising one or more data packets (e.g., data from a component interacting with another component via signals in a local system, a distributed system, and / or across a network, e.g., the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or a similar network with other systems).

[0009] As another example, a component may be a device having particular functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electrical or electronic circuitry, where the electrical or electronic circuitry may be operated by software or firmware applications executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors may be internal or external to the device and may execute at least a portion of the software or firmware applications. As yet another example, a component may be a device that provides particular functionality through electronic components without mechanical parts, where the electronic components may comprise one or more processors for executing software and / or firmware that at least partially impart the functionality of the electronic components.

[0010] The use of the word "exemplary" is intended to make a concept concrete. The term "or" as used herein is intended to mean an inclusive "or," not an exclusive "or." That is, unless otherwise specified or clear from the context, "X uses A or B" is intended to mean any of all possible permutations. That is, "X uses A," "X uses B," or "X uses both A and B" all satisfy "X uses A or B." Additionally, the articles "a" and "an," as used in this application and the appended claims, should generally be interpreted to mean "one or more" unless otherwise specified or clear from the context to refer to the singular form. Furthermore, when "including," "includes," "having," "has," "with," or variations thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims, these terms are intended to be inclusive, similar to the term "comprising." Furthermore, in situations where one or more numbered items are recited (e.g., "first X," "second X," etc.), in some situations the context may indicate that one or more numbered items are separate or the same, but in general these one or more numbered items may be separate or the same.

[0011] As used herein, the term "circuitry" refers to, can be a part of, or can include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), or associated memory (shared, dedicated, or group) operably coupled to a circuit that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinatorial logic circuit, or other suitable hardware component that provides the described functionality. In some embodiments, a circuit may be implemented in, or functions associated with, one or more software or firmware modules may be performed by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, a circuit may include logic operable at least partially in hardware.

[0012] Considering various concerns for operating New Radio (NR) 5G communications in both unlicensed and licensed access as NR-U so as to coexist fairly with different radio access technologies (RATs) (e.g., Wi-Fi or another RAT), numerous issues related to uplink (UL) mechanisms can be overcome with respect to power efficiency and flexibility of UL transmissions. A UE can process at least two sets of resource configurations including different sequence lengths for an uplink (UL) physical channel. The resources may be for communications according to different RATs or shared resources between them. The UE can dynamically select a first sequence length or a second sequence length longer than the first sequence length from among the different sequence lengths of the at least two sets of resource configurations based on one or more conditions. The conditions may include at least one of UE capability, occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), UL transmission, or UL physical channel. Different approaches can be configured for different sequence lengths according to the condition(s). The UL physical channels include at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), e.g., including one or more of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic transmissions. Specifically, for the physical random access channel (PRACH), for example, the first sequence length of the UL transmission may include 139 indices or samples / symbols, and the second sequence length includes at least one of 1151 for 15 kHz and 571 for 30 kHz.

[0013] In other aspects, to coexist with another radio access technology (RAT), a gNB may configure, or a UE may receive, different sets of resource configurations of an uplink (UL) physical channel for uplink (UL)-downlink (DL) channel occupancy time (COT) sharing. An energy detection (ED) threshold may be selected by the UE from the different sets of resource configurations for UL transmission based on one or more conditions. UL transmission may then be provided based on the ED threshold, such as by indicating the selected ED in ED indication feedback or by deriving a COT based on the ED of a particular type of transmission (e.g., an ultra-low latency transmission or other transmission). Additional aspects and details of the present disclosure are further described below with reference to the figures.

[0014] 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture of a system 100 of networks according to various embodiments (aspects). The following description is provided with respect to the exemplary system 100 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G) systems), IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), etc.

[0015] As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 includes UE 101a and UE 101b (collectively referred to as "UE(s) 101").In this example, the UE 101 is shown as a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also be a consumer electronic device, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handset, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-car entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument cluster (IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an onboard diagnostic (OBD) device, a dashtop mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), an electronic / engine control unit (ECU), an electronic / engine control module ... The computing device may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device such as electronic control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" appliances, Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices, Machine to Machine (M2M), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and / or the like.

[0016] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity Services (ProSe) or Device-to-Device (D2D) communications, a sensor network, or an IoT network. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. An IoT network describes IoT UEs connecting with each other, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) over short-term connections. IoT UEs may also run background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate IoT network connectivity.

[0017] The UE 101 may be configured to connect to, e.g., be communicatively coupled to, a Radio Access Network (RAN) 110. In an embodiment, the RAN 110 may be a next generation (NG) RAN or 5G RAN, an evolved-UMTS Terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN such as a UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, terms such as "NG RAN" may refer to a RAN 110 operating in an NR or 5G system 100, and terms such as "E-UTRAN" may refer to a RAN 110 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. The UE 101 utilizes connections (or channels) 102 and 104, respectively, which each include a physical communication interface / layer.

[0018] Alternatively, or in addition, each UE 101 can be configured with dual connectivity (DC) as multi-RAT or multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), where a multiple Rx / Tx capable UE can be configured to utilize resources provided by two different nodes (e.g., 111, 112, or other network nodes) that can be connected over a non-ideal backhaul, for example, one providing NR access and the other providing either E-UTRA for LTE or 5G for NR access. One node can function as a master node (MN) and the other as a secondary node (SN). The MN and SN can be connected via a network interface, with at least the MN connected to the core network 120. At least one of the MN or SN can operate with shared spectrum channel access. All functionality specified for the UE can be used for integrated access and backhaul mobile termination (IAB-MT). Similar to the UE 101, the IAB-MT can access the network either using one network node or using two different nodes using the EN-DC architecture, the NR-DC architecture, etc.

[0019] In this example, connections 102 and 104 are illustrated as air interfaces for enabling a communicative coupling and may align with a cellular communication protocol, such as a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) protocol, a Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over-cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any of the other communication protocols described herein. In an embodiment, UE 101 may exchange communication data directly via ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as the SL interface 105 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including, but not limited to, a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), and a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH).

[0020] The UE 101b is shown configured to access the AP 106 (also referred to as a "WLAN node 106," "WLAN 106," "WLAN terminal 106," "WT 106," etc.) via a connection 107. The connection 107 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, and the AP 106 may comprise a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) router. In this example, the AP 106 is connected to the Internet without connecting to a wireless system core network, as shown (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 101b, the RAN 110, and the AP 106 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and / or LTE-WLAN Radio Level Integration (LWIP) operation with IPsec tunnels. LWA operation may involve the UE 101b in radio resource control RRC_CONNECTED being configured by the RAN nodes 111a-111b to utilize LTE and WLAN radio resources. LWIP operation may involve the UE 101b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) via IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection 107. IPsec tunneling may involve encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the IP packet's original header.

[0021] The RAN 110 may include one or more access nodes (ANs) or RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as "RAN node(s) 111") that enable the connections 102 and 104. As used herein, the terms "access node," "access point," etc. may describe equipment that provides wireless baseband functionality for data and / or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BSs, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, Transmission Reception Points (TRxPs), TRPs, etc., and may include earth stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" etc. may refer to a RAN node 111 operating in an NR or 5G system 100 (e.g., a gNB), and the terms "E-UTRAN node" etc. may refer to a RAN node 111 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100 (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices, such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station, to provide a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, lower user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0022] In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a centralized RAN (CRAN) and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN function splitting, such as a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) splitting, where the Radio Resource Control (RRC) and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; a Media Access Control (MAC) / Physical (PHY) layer splitting, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or a "lower PHY" splitting, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and upper parts of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111. This virtualized framework allows freed processor cores of the RAN node 111 to run other virtualized applications. In some implementations, individual RAN nodes 111 may represent individual gNB Distributed Units (DUs) connected to a gNB Control Unit (CU) via individual F1 interfaces. In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RF front end modules (RFEMs), and the gNB-CUs may be served by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a server pool in a manner similar to the CRAN / vBBUP.Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 111 may be next generation eNBs (ng-eNB), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals towards the UE 101 and are connected to the 5GC via an NG interface.

[0023] Any of the RAN nodes 111 may terminate the air interface protocols and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 may perform various logical functions for the RAN 110, including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0024] In an embodiment, the UEs 101 may be configured to communicate with either one another or the RAN nodes 111 using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals over multi-carrier communication channels according to various communication technologies, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or Single Carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), although the scope of the embodiment (aspect) is not limited in this respect. An OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0025] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 to the UE 101, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, also called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which represents the downlink physical resources within each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is common in OFDM systems, making radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit of the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid contains a number of resource blocks, which represent the mapping of a specific physical channel to resource elements. Each resource block contains a set of resource elements, which, in the frequency domain, can represent the smallest amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels conveyed using such resource blocks.

[0026] According to various embodiments, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data over licensed media (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed band") and unlicensed shared media (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum can include channels operating in a frequency range from about 400 MHz to about 2.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum can include the 5 GHz band.

[0027] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may operate using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may perform one or more known medium sensing and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed in accordance with a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0028] LBT is a mechanism by which a device (e.g., UE 101, RAN node 111, etc.) senses the medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when it senses that the medium is idle (or senses that a particular channel within the medium is unoccupied). Medium sensing operations can include Clear Channel Assessment (CCA), which uses at least energy detection (ED) to determine the presence or absence of other signals on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism enables cellular / LAA networks to coexist with current occupied systems and with other LAA networks in unlicensed spectrum. ED can include detecting RF energy over the intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the detected RF energy to a predetermined or configured threshold.

[0029] Typically, the current occupant system in the 5 GHz band is a WLAN based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS), such as a UE 101 or an AP 106) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. Furthermore, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where two or more WLAN nodes simultaneously sense the channel as idle and transmit. The backoff mechanism may be a randomly sampled counter within the CWS, which is exponentially incremented upon collision occurrence and reset to its minimum value upon successful transmission. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA / CA in WLAN. In some implementations, an LBT procedure for a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmission burst, including a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, respectively, can have an LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y extended CCA (ECCA) slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum contention window sizes (CWS) for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs), although the size of the CWS and maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0030] The LAA mechanism is built on the carrier aggregation (CA) technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a component carrier (CC). In some cases, individual CCs can have different bandwidths from other CCs. In a time division duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC may be the same for both the downlink and the uplink. CA also involves individual serving cells serving individual CCs. For example, CCs in different frequency bands may experience different path losses, so the coverage of the serving cells may be different. The primary serving cell, or PCell, can provide the primary component carrier (PCC) for both the uplink and downlink and handle radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS)-related activities. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell can provide a separate secondary component carrier (SCC) for both the uplink and downlink. Changing the PCC may require the UE 101 to undergo a handover, while SCCs can be added and removed as needed. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are backed by PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells that indicate different PUSCH starting positions within the same subframe.

[0031] The PDSCH conveys user data and higher layer signaling to the UEs 101. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries, among other things, information regarding the transport format and resource allocation for the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UEs 101 about the transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information for the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 101b in a cell) may be performed by any of the RAN nodes 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted on the PDCCH used (e.g., assigned) for each of the UEs 101.

[0032] The PDCCH conveys control information using control channel elements (CCEs). Before being mapped to resource elements, PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets and then shuffled using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, and each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0033] Some embodiments may use a concept for resource allocation for control channel information that is an extension of the concept described above. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced (E)PDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. As above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, known as EREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

[0034] The RAN nodes 111 can be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 112. In embodiments where the system 100 is an LTE system, the interface 112 can be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface can be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs) that connect to an evolved packet core (EPC) or core network 120 and / or between two eNBs that connect to the EPC 120. In some implementations, the X2 interface can include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U can provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface and can be used to communicate information regarding the distribution of user data between eNBs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB), information regarding successful sequential delivery of PDCP packet data units (PDUs) for user data from the SeNB to the UE 101, information regarding PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 101, information regarding the current minimum desired buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting UE user data, etc. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, load management functions, and inter-cell interference coordination functions, including context transfer from a source eNB to a target eNB, user plane transport control, etc.

[0035] In embodiments where the system 100 is a 5G or NR system, either with or without coexisting RATs, the interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. An Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs) that connect to the 5GC 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB that connect to the 5GC 120, and / or between two eNBs that connect to the 5GC 120. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data transfer and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide mobility support for the UE 101 in connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED), including management and error handling functions, functions to manage the Xn-C interface, and functions to manage UE mobility in connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111. Mobility support can include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 111 to the new (target) serving RAN node 111 and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The Xn-U protocol stack can include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layer and / or a GPRS Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane (GTP-U) layer on top of the IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack can include an application layer signaling protocol (called the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). SCTP can be on top of the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. At the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs.In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

[0036] The RAN 110 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment, a core network (CN) 120. The CN 120 may comprise multiple network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 101) connected to the CN 120 via the RAN 110. The components of the CN 120 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) architectures and infrastructures are used to virtualize one or more network functions on physical resources, including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches, or may be performed by dedicated hardware. In other words, an NFV system can be used to run a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more Evolved Packet Core (EPC) components / functions.

[0037] In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources in conjunction with the core network (e.g., Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Packet Services (UMTS PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 101 via the EPC 120.

[0038] In an embodiment, the CN 120 may be a 5GC (e.g., referred to as "5GC 120"), and the RAN 110 may be connected to the CN 120 via an NG interface 112. In an embodiment, the NG interface 112 may be divided into two parts: a Next Generation (NG) user plane (NG-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and a User Plane Function (UPF), and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115 that is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF). The core network CN 120 may also be a 5GC 120.

[0039] In an embodiment, the CN 120 may be a 5G CN (referred to, for example, as "5GC 120"), while in other embodiments, the CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). When the CN 120 is an EPC (referred to, for example, as "EPC 120"), the RAN 110 may connect with the CN 120 via an S1 interface 112. In an embodiment, the S1 interface 112 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and the S-GW, and an S1-MME interface 115 that is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and the MME.

[0040] 2 illustrates exemplary components of a device 200 according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 200 may include, at least as shown, an application circuit 202, a baseband circuit 204, a radio frequency (RF) circuit 206, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 208, one or more antennas 210, and a power management circuitry (PMC) 212, all coupled together. The illustrated components of device 200 may be included in a UE or RAN node, such as UE 101 / 102 or eNB / gNB 111 / 112. In some embodiments, device 200 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuit 202 and may instead include a processor / controller for processing IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, device 200 may include additional elements, such as memory / storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in two or more devices (e.g., the above circuitry may be included separately in two or more devices for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

[0041] The application circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor(s) may be coupled to or include memory / storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In some embodiments, the processor of the application circuitry 202 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[0042] The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. The baseband processing circuitry 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 to generate and process the baseband signals and to control the operation of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a third-generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth-generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth-generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s) 204D of other existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 204A-204D) can handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more wireless networks via the RF circuitry 206. In another embodiment, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 204A-204D may be included in modules stored in the memory 204G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 204E. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, Turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functionality.The embodiments of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

[0043] Additionally, memory 204G (as well as other memory components described herein, e.g., memory, data storage, etc.) may include one or more machine-readable medium(s) containing instructions that, when executed by a machine or component described herein, cause the machine to perform the operations of a method or apparatus or system for simultaneously communicating using multiple communication technologies in accordance with the embodiments and examples described herein. It should be understood that aspects described herein can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, functions can be stored on or transmitted via a computer-readable medium (e.g., a memory or other storage device described herein) as one or more instructions or code. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media or computer-readable storage devices may be any available medium that can be accessed by a general-purpose computer or a special-purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and / or non-transitory media that can be used to hold or store desired information or executable instructions. Also, any connection may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included within the definition of medium.

[0044] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processor (DSP)(s) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F may include elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments, may include other suitable processing elements. The components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined within a single chip, a single chipset, or, in some embodiments, may be located on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0045] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide communications compatible with one or more wireless technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may support communications with the evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), or wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support wireless communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multimode baseband circuitry.

[0046] The RF circuitry 206 can enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 206 can include a receive signal path that can include circuitry for downconverting RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 204. The RF circuitry 206 can also include a transmit signal path that can include circuitry for upconverting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and providing an RF output signal to the FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

[0047] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include a mixer circuit 206a, an amplifier circuit 206b, and a filter circuit 206c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include a filter circuit 206c and a mixer circuit 206a. The RF circuitry 206 may also include a combiner circuit 206d for combining frequencies used by the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 208 based on the combined frequency provided by the combiner circuit 206d. The amplifier circuit 206b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 206c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0048] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a in the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesis circuit 206d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 208. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuit 204 and may be filtered by the filter circuit 206c.

[0049] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a in the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a in the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be configured for quadrature downconversion and quadrature upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a in the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a in the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be configured for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a in the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a in the transmit signal path may be configured for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a in the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a in the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0050] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuitry 206.

[0051] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals in each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0052] In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 206d may be a fractional-N combiner or a fractional-N / N+1 combiner, although the scope of the present embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency combiners may be suitable. For example, the combiner circuit 206d may be a delta-sigma combiner, a frequency multiplier, or a combiner comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0053] The combiner circuit 206d may be configured to combine, based on a frequency input and a divider control input, an output frequency used by the mixer circuit 206a of the RF circuit 206. In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 206d may be a fractional N / N+1 combiner.

[0054] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not a requirement. The divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 204 or the application processor 202, depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 202.

[0055] The synthesis circuit 206d of the RF circuit 206 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on the implementation) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some exemplary embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded tunable delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal-phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0056] In some embodiments, the combiner circuit 206d may be configured to generate the carrier frequency as the output frequency; in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 206 may include an IQ / polar converter.

[0057] The FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 210. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit signal path or the receive signal path can occur solely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the FEM 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the FEM 208.

[0058] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 may include a TX / RX switch for switching between transmit and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) for amplifying a received RF signal and providing the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 206) and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

[0059] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can manage the power supplied to the baseband circuitry 204. Specifically, the PMC 212 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the device 200 can be powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE, the PMC 212 can often be included. The PMC 212 can improve power conversion efficiency while providing desirable packaging size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0060] 2 shows the PMC 212 coupled only to the baseband circuitry 204. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 212 may additionally or alternatively be coupled to other components, including, but not limited to, the application circuitry 202, the RF circuitry 206, or the FEM 208, to perform similar power management operations.

[0061] In some embodiments, PMC 212 can control or otherwise be a part of various power saving mechanisms of device 200. For example, if device 200 is in an RRC_Connected state where it is still connected to a RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, after a period of inactivity the device can enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). While in this state, device 200 can save power by powering down for short intervals.

[0062] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 200 can transition to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 200 enters a very low power state and periodically wakes up to listen to the network and perform paging, then powers down again. The device 200 cannot receive data in this state, and to receive data, it transitions to the RRC_Connected state.

[0063] For low latency / low power operation, device 200 can be configured for suspend / resume in 5G NR by utilizing the RRC_Inactive state, which significantly reduces latency and minimizes battery consumption. In the suspend procedure, both the UE and the RAN store information about the UE's transition from connected to inactive, along with the UE's radio protocol configuration. The resume procedure optimizes the transition from inactive to connected by restoring the UE's radio protocol configuration. RAN-based location management and RAN paging allow an inactive UE to move around within an area without notifying the network.

[0064] The processors of the application circuitry 202 and the baseband circuitry 204 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processors of the baseband circuitry 204 can be used, alone or in combination, to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, and the processors of the application circuitry 204 can further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., a transmission communication protocol (TCP) layer and a user datagram protocol (UDP) layer) using data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers. As described above, layer 3 can include a radio resource control (RRC) layer, which is described in further detail below. As described above, layer 2 can include a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, which are described in further detail below. As mentioned herein above, Layer 1 may include the physical (PHY) layer of the UE / RAN node, which is described in more detail below.

[0065] 3, a block diagram of a user equipment wireless communication device (UE) or other network device / component (e.g., a gNB, eNB, or other participating network entity / component) is shown. The UE device 300 includes one or more processors 310 (e.g., one or more baseband processors) with processing circuitry and associated interface(s), transceiver circuitry 320 (e.g., with RF circuitry that may include transmitter circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains) and / or receiver circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), which may use common circuit elements, separate circuit elements, or a combination thereof), and memory 330 (which may include any of a variety of storage media and may store instructions and / or data associated with one or more of the processor(s) 310 or transceiver circuitry 320).

[0066] Various embodiments (aspects) described herein may generate and output signals or messages for transmission, and / or may receive and process transmitted messages. Depending on the type of signal or message generated, outputting for transmission (e.g., by processor(s) 310, processor(s) 310, etc.) may include one or more of the following: generating a set of associated bits that encode the content of the signal or message; encoding (e.g., which may include adding a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and / or encoding via one or more of a turbo code, a low-density parity check (LDPC) code, a tail-biting convolution code (TBCC), etc.); scrambling (e.g., based on a scrambling seed); modulation (e.g., with one of binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), or some form of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), etc.); and / or resource mapping (e.g., to a set of scheduled resources, to a set of time and frequency resources granted for uplink transmission). Depending on the type of received signal or message, processing (e.g., by processor(s) 310) may include one or more of the following: identifying physical resources associated with the signal / message, detecting the signal / message, deinterleaving, demodulating, descrambling, and / or decoding resource element groups.

[0067] According to various embodiments, various mechanisms can be disclosed for enhancing UL transmissions with coexisting RATs (e.g., WiFi and 5G or legacy) to achieve various objectives related to peak data rates, particularly NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum, and to unlock increasingly important unlicensed spectrum (i.e., shared spectrum) for 5G NR system operation as a complementary spectrum source. A number of issues that can cause performance loss from a system perspective for unlicensed operation of an NR system are identified in detail below.

[0068] For example, in the first problem, to ensure fair coexistence with other RATs (e.g., Wi-Fi), one of the requirements includes an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement, which defines the occupied channel bandwidth, i.e., the bandwidth containing 99% of the signal's power, as 80% to 100% of the declared nominal channel bandwidth. To meet this OCB requirement, two longer sequences, i.e., SCS L_RA=1151 for 15 kHz and SCS L_RA=571 for 30 kHz, are introduced for NR-U operation in Rel-16. However, how to select between longer sequences and conventional shorter sequences may still be undetermined. More specifically, always using longer sequences over shorter sequences may unnecessarily increase signaling overhead in some cases, for example, when PRACH transmissions are within a gNB-initiated COT where OCB is already guaranteed in the gNB's scheduling of FDMed with other channels in the coexisting RAT. Therefore, various aspects or embodied solutions herein can improve the efficiency of UL resources by conditionally configuring the selection of different lengths of UL transmissions.

[0069] In another example, as a second issue, NR-U can support UL-DL COT sharing to improve system throughput performance when coexisting with unscheduled autonomous systems such as Wi-Fi, since it can avoid dual LBT requirements (e.g., Cat 4 LBT) at the gNB side. In the current NR-U design, when UE-initiated COT sharing is used, if DL signals / channels (PDSCH, PDCCH, reference signals) to any other UEs are to be transmitted with the shared COT, the UL-DL COT sharing ED threshold can be configured by the gNB 111. However, forcing the UE 101 to use a specific ED threshold configured by the gNB 111 may significantly reduce the UE 101's channel access probability. Here, the UE 101 can indicate the duration or total duration of the COT to the gNB 111 and utilize a shorter duration to improve resource efficiency, e.g., using downlink data for transmission. When the UE wants to configure the COT, it senses the channel based on the indicated ED threshold. The sharing threshold may be low, meaning that UE 101 loses the flexibility to indicate that it does not want to remain in or on the COT with gNB 111, for example, for latency-sensitive traffic or transmissions on the channel that are easy to transmit, especially for NR-U traffic. In this way, embodiments allow UE 101 to be flexibly configured based on characteristics of the transmission package (e.g., latency, power, type, etc.) to determine whether to use a gNB-initiated COT.

[0070] As another example, a third issue is that Rel-16 can support a two-stage RACH procedure to reduce the latency of the initial access procedure. More specifically, a gap can be defined between a PRACH transmission and an associated message transmission (e.g., Msg-A). While this gap configuration design may be feasible for licensed bands, it also poses a risk of Msg-A PUSCH transmission failure due to the LBT operation required for unlicensed bands. This issue can also be addressed to improve the efficiency of the two-stage RACH procedure for NR-U. In a two-stage RACH procedure, the PRACH and PUSCH messages are not transmitted simultaneously, which can be problematic for NR-U. Additionally, in NR-LTE, the gap between them can cause a gap in acquiring the channel when Wi-Fi senses the channel in the intermediate or gap region, potentially resulting in lost opportunities to transmit in the PRACH phase and potentially lost resources. Therefore, various embodiments enable the gap to be configured to reduce the complexity and increase the efficiency of the two-stage RACH procedure.

[0071] According to various aspects, at least two sets of resources having different sequence lengths: length X1 and length X2 (e.g., for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), PRACH, or PUCCH) can be configured, e.g., by higher layers, for one UL channel and a given UE 101. The first length X1 and the second length X2 can be selected based on one or more conditions (e.g., according to UE capabilities or other conditions, such as received indicators, package parameters, etc.). In one embodiment, the first sequence length X1 may be shorter than the second sequence length X2, e.g., in symbol index or other units / numerology. In one example, the first sequence length X1 may be a value of approximately 139 for a PRACH transmission or other UL channel. The second sequence length X2 can include one of multiple second sequences X2 that the UE 101 can be configured to select from, including a longer sequence length and a shorter second sequence length. The short value of the second sequence length X21 may be, for example, approximately 571 for 30 kilohertz (kHz), and the long value of the second sequence length X22 may be, for example, approximately 1151 for 15 kHz for PRACH transmissions or other UL transmissions.

[0072] In one aspect, for the initial access procedure, one of the two lengths can be signaled by System Information Block 1 (SIB1) depending on the presence or coexistence of another incumbent system on the same frequency (e.g., Wi-Fi) and the configuration / indicated requirements that fit / meet the occupied channel bandwidth (OCB). In other configured embodiments, UE 101 may be provided with a configuration for a given UL channel associated with sequence lengths X1 and X2 (X2 includes one or more sequence lengths longer than X1). Different operations can be configured for UE 101 to determine the sequence length for each UL transmission.

[0073] In one approach or operation, for example, different length, i.e., X1 / X2, configurations can be used for any particular one or any type of UL channel (e.g., SRS / PUCCH / PRACH) transmission, including any one or more of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic transmissions. In one embodiment, different durations can be configured for length X1 and length X2. More specifically, the second sequence length X2, as a longer sequence, can be configured with a longer periodicity than the first sequence length X1 to share resources with the initial access procedure. This can help reduce signaling overhead and maximize spectral efficiency.

[0074] Additionally or alternatively, UE 101 may be configured to verify that the corresponding UL transmission (e.g., PRACH / SRS / other UL channel) is within a gNB-initiated Channel Occupancy Time (COT) to ensure the OCB requirements of any transmission are within the OCB of the coexisting RAT for the shared transmission as the UL transmission. UE 101 may then opportunistically transmit the UL channel in the configured short sequence if the transmission (e.g., PRACH / SRS / other UL channel) is within the gNB-initiated COT. If a gNB-initiated COT is not detected based on the presence of downlink control information (DCI) on a PDCCH or other DL channel (e.g., DCI format 2_0 or other DCI format) or a dynamically scheduled synchronization signal block (SSB) / scheduled PDSCH / scheduled PUCCH transmission, the UE 101 may be configured to either skip the transmission(s) of the short sequence length of length X1 or conditionally fall back to using a second sequence transmission of length X2 for the UL transmission.

[0075] 4, an example of sequence selection 400 as a function of a gNB-initiated COT in accordance with various aspects is shown. The gNB-initiated COT 410 can be implemented with different length (e.g., X1 / X2) configurations being used for any particular UL channel (e.g., SRS / PUCCH / PRACH) transmissions, including any one or more of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic transmissions.

[0076] As alluded to above, a particular length can be configured to apply to both periodic and aperiodic transmissions, and there is no restriction as to which type or kind of UL transmission can be configured with sequence length X1 / X2. In the case before UL transmission, the transmission opportunity or COT has already been detected based on the DCI format, e.g., 2_0, or the presence of SSB or scheduled PDSCH, and the UE 101 can perform verification, specifically with the shorter sequence length X1 430, to always ensure that a predefined OCB has been established at the UE side. The UE 101 can use the short sequence only if it already knows that the transmission is within the gNB initial COT, and can then opportunistically send the UL transmission with the configured short sequence to enable resource efficiency. For example, if the gNB-initiated COT is not detected based on DCI format 2_0 or other DL channels such as dynamically scheduled synchronization signal block (SSB) / scheduled PDSCH / scheduled PUCCH transmission, the UE may skip the shorter X1 and use X2 because there is some uncertainty that it is within or outside the gNB-initiated COT 410. From the UE's perspective, this may be a band that the UE 101 receiver can simply skip in transmission.

[0077] In another aspect, the UE 101 can conditionally fold back to sequence length X2 420, such as in the absence of detection based on the DCI format or other DL channels in the presence of SSB / scheduled PDSCH / scheduled PUCCH transmissions. The gNB 111 can detect the length being used via hypothetical detection. Alternatively, the gNB 111 can already know the situation where the UE 101 failed to receive the COT for that transmission opportunity, even if originally configured with X1 having a short sequence, and accordingly assume that the UE 101 will fold back to the long sequence X2 420, without any necessary detection on the UE side.

[0078] In some cases, the UE may skip this length and conditionally fall back, so for example, there may be a mismatch between UE 101 and gNB 111 regarding COT duration. gNB 111 may transmit infrequently and may not be detected by the UE, resulting in a mismatch between UE 101 and gNB 111 in the resources used for a particular UL signal transmission. Therefore, the objective is to try to have alignment between UE 101 and gNB 111 regarding sequence length.

[0079] In other aspects, a hybrid sequence may be configured, for example, with a first sequence length X1 as length 430 and a second, longer sequence length X2 as length 420. In one aspect, the first sequence length X1 as 430 may be configured for aperiodic UL transmissions only, including PRACH and SRS channels for UEs in RRC_CONNECTED mode. In particular, the longer sequence length X2 420 may not have any restrictions but may consume more resources, since the longer sequence length X2 420 can generally always meet OCB requirements regardless of whether it is inside or outside the COT. The length X1 430 may be usable only within the COT due to its shorter length and therefore may be limited to aperiodic use and control by DCI. In some embodiments, one Sequence Length Indictor (SLI) field may be added to the legacy DCI, e.g., as DCI Format 1_0, DCI Format 1_1, or DCI Format 2_3, to select one of three lengths for a given UL transmission.

[0080] In one embodiment, the bit width of the SLI field may be 1 or zero. A value of '0' may indicate a sequence of length X1 430, and a value of '1' may indicate a sequence of length X2 420, or vice versa, where length X1 430 is indicated by '0' and length X2 420 is indicated by '1'. Thus, Figure 4 shows an example of sequence length selection by utilizing a configurable SLI field in DCI format 1_0, for example, to trigger aperiodic PRACH transmissions. DCI format 1_0 may be configured to select a sequence length between X1 and X2 (multiple different second sequence lengths) based on whether the opportunity for PRACH transmission 450 or 460 is located within or outside the COT 410. As shown, for example, the value of the SLI field of the DCI 440 can be set to "0" to select a PRACH 450 transmission of length X1 430 (i.e., a short sequence length), which allows a frequency division multiplexed (FDMed) PUSCH transmission 450 to be scheduled to improve resource efficiency in the COT 110. While a PRACH transmission 460 of length 420 is outside the COT 110, the UE 101 can still use the long sequence X2 420, e.g., to meet OCB requirements.

[0081] The gNB 111 can control transmissions with DCI based on whether they are periodic or not, and periodic transmissions can always use the X2 long sequence. Thus, the UE 101 can configure switching between short and long sequences between different lengths only within aperiodic transmissions. For example, the UE 101 can initially generate an UL transmission with the longer X2 420, and then within the COT, the UE 101 can use the short one with a PUSCH transmission 470 (e.g., for channel state information (CSI) feedback). Here, the SLI field can be used to explicitly indicate the length with the short sequence 430.

[0082] Referring to FIG. 5, an example of gap generation for COT-dependent UL transmission 500 is shown, according to one or more described aspects. For NR-U transmission, an LBT procedure can be performed before starting a RACH transmission to avoid collisions and cause interference to ongoing transmissions using coexisting RATs. Consecutive RACH Occasions (ROs) within a RACH slot 510 can cause a PRACH transmission blockage. According to certain various aspects of the present disclosure, a gap 520 can be generated between two consecutive ROs within the PRACH slot 510 by shifting one symbol later for transmission. In addition, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension can be applied to the symbol, and the preceding shifted RO is used to generate the required 16 microsecond (us) or 20 us / 25 us gap. This can be applied to a PRACH within the COT, e.g., PRACH 450 in FIG. 4, or outside the COT (e.g., PRACH 420 in FIG. 4).

[0083] For example, if an LBT operation is required to be within the COT initiated at the gNB, one symbol shift can be performed to a later symbol to obtain a first gap (e.g., 16 us), and then a CP extension 530 can be performed to generate a second gap (e.g., 20 us, or other). In this manger, the gap can be adjusted for the PRACH transmission 530 by configuring the CP extension. Thus, the UE 101 varies the gap based on the transmission conditions.

[0084] According to another aspect, the UE 101 can be configured to select between a signaled ED threshold (denoted ED1) and an ED threshold 2 (ED2) as calculated based on the transmit power of the scheduled PUSCH. In one embodiment, the selection can be utilized only if ED1 is less than ED2. The ED selection can enable the UE 101 to configure the UE-initiated COT based on, for example, packet parameters or the type of UL transmission or characteristics of the desired UL transmission (e.g., low latency, ultra-low latency transmission, transmission urgency, or other characteristics). The selected ED threshold can be signaled to the gNB 111 depending on the PUSCH type, such as PUSH or dynamically granted PUSCH in a configured grant (CG).

[0085] For example, if the PUSCH type is CG-PUSCH, the selected ED threshold (i.e., ED1 or ED2) for the UE-initiated COT is based on the selected ED, and this selected ED can be explicitly included / indicated in the CG-UCI payload using a 1-bit ED indicator field as ED feedback to the gNB 111. For example, a value of '0' can indicate ED1 and a value of '1' can indicate ED2, or vice versa. In another aspect, a COT sharing table can be utilized by adding an additional row index indicating "no COT sharing." The COT sharing table can be utilized with an index or position provided in the UL transmission to the UE to indicate whether or not COT sharing is enabled, which can enable a better possibility or likelihood for the UE to acquire the channel, particularly for the type of transmission or current demand. For example, the UE 101 can indicate the corresponding row index by using an existing COT sharing information element (IE) in the CG-UCI.

[0086] Alternatively, or additionally, the PUSCH type may be a Dynamically-Granted (DG) PUSCH. For a DG-PUSCH, the selected ED threshold (e.g., ED1 or ED2) may be indicated by a dedicated ED Indictor (EDI) Uplink Control Information (UCI) IE in addition to the HARQ-ACK and CSI Part 1 / CSI Part 2. In the case of a collision with the HARQ-ACK / CSI Part 1 / Part 2, the EDI may be jointly coded with the HARQ-ACK using the same channel coding scheme. Alternatively, an RRC parameter may be introduced to allow the gNB 111 to configure one of two of the following schemes for EDI UCI feedback. First, if the total number of UCIs on the DG-PUSCH is greater than three, the UE 101 may operate to skip EDI feedback. Otherwise, the UE 101 may configure jointly coded EDI with other UCI feedback. Additionally or alternatively, the UE 101 may be configured to jointly encode the EDI with the HARQ-ACK information bits and then piggyback or combine the encoded bits on the DG-PUSCH, for example.

[0087] Referring to FIG. 6, an example of determining a conditional gap 600 is shown, according to various aspects. Here, the example illustrates different opportunities for UL transmissions using a PRACH or any other UL transmission channel or type, which can generate different gaps 610 and 612 when a resource channel is shared between them. For UL transmissions, for example, the UE 101 can be configured to configure the gap as a conditional / variable gap between the PRACH transmissions 602, 604 and the PUSCH transmissions 606, 608 based on the configuration between these PRACH 602, 604 and PUSCH 606, 608 transmissions. When the same numerology exists and has overlapping resources between the PRACH and PUSCH due to sharing of COT, certain restrictions or configurations (e.g., the same numerology, reception time, or other parameters) can be enabled to allow the gNB 111 to utilize bandwidth with a high probability that both UL transmission(s) will be successful.

[0088] For example, if the UE 101 is only configured to transmit both UL transmission resources (e.g., PRACH and PUSCH, or other paired UL transmissions) on the LBT, the UE 101 can generate a conditional gap N1 or a conditional gap 612 at 610 between the PRACH 602 and PUSCH 606. The gap N1 at 610 can include, for example, zero or one symbol. If zero, there is necessarily no gap, and there may be a different conditional gap length of one or more symbols. The conditional gap N1 at 610 is shorter than the conditional gap N2 at 612.

[0089] In one embodiment, the UE 101 can configure 612 the value of the conditional gap N2 by reusing the value agreed upon for the licensed band. Specifically, in the case of the same numerology and overlapping frequency resources between the PRACH and the PUSCH of Msg A, the value of gap N1 can be used. A CP extension can then be configured to achieve a symbol gap of N1 and a DCI format to switch between a symbol gap of N1 and a symbol gap of N2, for example, for the PRACH ordered with the PDCCH.

[0090] The UE 101 can have a specific reception time by adjusting a clock or some other baseband component when a smaller gap value 610 may not be reasonable or feasible. If the UE 101 configures a band in UL transmission that requires a value of gap N2, or configures a different numerology, the UE 101 can have an entire package to handle this issue because it can generate a CP extension that extends the gap to the value of N2. Thus, the CP extension can inherently support configurations with no gap or with a gap 610 with a smaller gap N1.

[0091] Although the methods described within this disclosure are illustrated and described herein as a series of acts or events, it is understood that the illustrated order of such acts or events is not to be construed in a limiting sense. For example, some acts may occur in a different order and / or concurrently with other acts or events other than those illustrated and / or described herein. In addition, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement one or more aspects or embodiments of the description herein. Furthermore, one or more of the acts shown herein may be performed in one or more separate acts and / or phases. For ease of explanation, reference may be made to the above figures. However, these methods are not limited to any particular embodiments / aspects or examples provided within this disclosure and may be applied to any of the systems disclosed herein.

[0092] 7, an example process flow 700 for a network device or component (e.g., a UE 101, a base station 110, an AP 106, or other network component) for performing UL transmissions with different sequence lengths is shown. At 702, the process flow includes processing at least two sets of resource configurations corresponding to different sequence lengths of a UL physical channel. At 704, the process flow includes selecting a first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of different second sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length to configure the UL transmission based on one or more conditions. At 706, the process flow includes generating a UL transmission based on the first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two sets of resource configurations over the UL physical channel.

[0093] In another aspect, the process flow 700 can include processing an indication of at least one of a first sequence length or a different second sequence length. The plurality of second sequence lengths can include a shorter sequence length for a first frequency and a longer sequence length for a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency. The indication can include a system information block 1 (SIB1) based on OCB requirements for the initial access procedure and coexistence with another RAT.

[0094] 8, an example process flow 800 for a network device or component (e.g., a UE 101, a base station 110, an AP 106, or other network component) for enabling dynamic selection of a sequence length for an UL transmission is shown. The process flow begins at 802 by providing at least two different resource configurations including different sequence lengths for an UL transmission over an UL physical channel. At 804, the process includes providing an indication to selectively configure a first sequence length for the UL transmission based on one or more conditions, or at least one of multiple sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length.

[0095] In one aspect, the process flow may further include providing a system information block (SIB1) indicating the first sequence length or at least one of the plurality of sequence lengths based on at least one of a coexisting radio access technology (RAT) on the same frequency as the UL transmission, an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), or an initial access procedure. A channel occupation time (COT) initiated at the gNB may be provided for the DL channel to initiate the first sequence length for the UL transmission. Alternatively, or additionally, a sequence length indicator (SLI) field indicator selecting from one of three lengths: the first sequence length, a shorter of the plurality of sequence lengths, or a longer of the plurality of sequence lengths may be provided in the DCI format.

[0096] 9, an example process flow 900 for a network device or component (e.g., a UE 101, a base station 110, an AP 106, or other network component) for performing UL transmission is shown. The process flow 900 begins, at 902, with receiving different sets of resource configurations of an UL physical channel for UL-DL COT sharing to coexist with different RATs. At 904, the process flow 900 includes selecting an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different sets of resource configurations for UL transmission based on one or more conditions. At 906, the process flow 900 includes providing UL transmission over the UL physical channel based on the ED threshold.

[0097] In one aspect, the one or more conditions associated with selecting the ED threshold include a level of latency for the UL transmission, a first ED threshold, and a second ED threshold greater than the first ED threshold, and the selected ED threshold is derived from a transmit power of a scheduled physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for the UL transmission.

[0098] The process flow 900 may further include signaling the ED threshold as a selected ED threshold selected from among multiple ED thresholds based on a PUSCH type. In response to a PUSCH type including a configured grant (CG) PUSCH, the process flow 900 includes signaling CG uplink control information (CG-UCI) to indicate the selected ED threshold, or signaling a setting of a channel occupation time (COT) table indicator in a row index based on a COT sharing information element (IE) of the CG-UCI. In response to a PUSCH type including a dynamically granted (DG) PUSCH, the process flow 900 includes signaling a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE).

[0099] In another aspect, the process flow 900 may include jointly encoding a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment (ACK) and EDI-UCI using the same coding scheme to avoid collision with HARQ-ACK / Channel State Information (CSI) Part 1 / CSI Part 2. Alternatively, or additionally, EDI feedback may be skipped in response to the total number of UCIs on the DG-PUSCH exceeding a predetermined threshold.

[0100] 10, an example process flow 1000 for a network device or component (e.g., UE 101, base station 110, AP 106, or other network component) for enabling dynamic UL transmission at a UE is shown. Process flow 1000 begins at 1002 with generating at least one of an indication enabling selection of COT based on an ED threshold or DCI on a PDCCH indicating one or more different gaps between the PRACH and PUSCH. At 1004, process flow 1000 includes transmitting at least one of the indication enabling selection of COT or DCI on a PDCCH.

[0101] In an aspect, the process flow may include processing the selection of an ED threshold based on a PUSCH type, including a configured grant (CG) PUSCH or a dynamically granted (DG) PUSCH. Alternatively, or additionally, the process flow 1000 may include processing a PRACH and a PUSCH with a gap derived from a cyclic prefix (CP) extension.

[0102] As used herein, the term "processor" can refer to virtually any computing processing unit or device, including, but not limited to, a single-core processor, a single processor with software multithreading execution capabilities, a multi-core processor, a multi-core processor with software multithreading execution capabilities, a multi-core processor with hardware multithreading technology, a parallel platform, and a parallel platform with distributed shared memory. Furthermore, a processor can refer to an integrated circuit, an application-specific integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic controller, a complex programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions and / or processes described herein. A processor can utilize nanoscale architectures, including, but not limited to, molecular dot and quantum dot-based transistors, switches, and gates, etc., to optimize space usage or improve mobile device performance. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing processing units.

[0103] Examples (embodiments) may include subject matter such as a method, means for performing an operation or block of a method, at least one machine-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.), cause the machine to perform the operation of the method or the operation of an apparatus or system to perform simultaneous communications using multiple communication technologies according to the embodiments and examples described herein.

[0104] A first embodiment is an apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry configured to receive at least two sets of resource configurations including different sequence lengths for an uplink (UL) physical channel; select a first sequence length or a second sequence length longer than the first sequence length from among the different sequence lengths of the at least two sets of resource configurations based on one or more conditions; and generate an uplink (UL) transmission based on the selected first sequence length or second sequence length of the at least two sets of resource configurations over the UL physical channel. A radio frequency (RF) interface is configured to provide data for transmission of the UL transmission to the RF circuitry.

[0105] A second embodiment may include the first embodiment, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of UE capability, occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), UL transmission, or UL physical channel, and the UL physical channel includes at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0106] A third embodiment may include the first or second embodiment, wherein the at least two sets of resource configurations are associated with PRACH transmissions, and the second sequence length comprises one of at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths for the PRACH transmissions, each associated with a different frequency spacing greater than the first sequence length.

[0107] A fourth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to third embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: process a system information block (SIB) in response to receiving the at least two sets of resource configurations, the system information block (SIB) including an indication of one of the at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths; and determine one of the two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths for generating the UL transmission based on the indication in the SIB.

[0108] A fifth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to fourth embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate a UL transmission based on the second sequence length for an initial access procedure based on a coexisting radio access technology (RAT) and an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) configured for the UL transmission.

[0109] A sixth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to fifth embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate different periods for the first sequence length and the second sequence length, and a periodicity of the second sequence length corresponds to an initial access procedure for sharing one or more resources with the UL transmission.

[0110] A seventh embodiment may include any one or more of the first to sixth embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine that a UL transmission of the PRACH or a sounding reference signal (SRS) is within a gNodeB (gNB)-initiated channel occupation time (COT), and, in response to being within the gNB-initiated COT, transmit the UL transmission based on a first sequence length.

[0111] An eighth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to seventh embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: skip the first sequence length of the UL transmission or fall back to generating the UL transmission based on the second sequence length in response to a gNB-initiated COT not being detected in the downlink control information (DCI) format 2_0 or the downlink (DL) channel.

[0112] A ninth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to eighth embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate a hybrid sequence based on the first sequence length and the second sequence length in the aperiodic UL transmission including the UL transmission, and determine the sequence length based on a sequence length indicator (SLI) field of the DCI.

[0113] A tenth embodiment may include any one or more of the first to ninth embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate a gap between two consecutive RACH opportunities (ROs) by shifting at least one symbol later in the UL transmission.

[0114] An eleventh embodiment may include any one or more of the first to tenth embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: generate a gap as a first gap between at least two consecutive ROs in response to the UL transmission as the PRACH being within the COT initiated at the gNB; and further configured to generate a CP extension to increase the gap in response to the PRACH being outside the COT initiated at the gNB.

[0115] A twelfth embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a network component including a user equipment (UE) to perform operations including: processing at least two sets of resource configurations corresponding to different sequence lengths of an uplink (UL) physical channel; selecting a first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of different second sequence lengths that are longer than the first sequence length to configure an UL transmission based on one or more conditions; and generating an UL transmission based on the first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two sets of resource configurations over the UL physical channel.

[0116] A thirteenth example may include the twelfth example, wherein the operations further include processing an indication of the first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of different second sequence lengths, the plurality of second sequence lengths including a shorter sequence length for the first frequency and a longer sequence length for a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency.

[0117] A fourteenth embodiment may include any one or more of the twelfth to thirteenth embodiments, wherein the indication includes a system information block 1 (SIB1) based on an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of the initial access procedure and coexisting with another radio access technology (RAT).

[0118] A fifteenth example may include any one or more of the twelfth to fourteenth examples, wherein a shorter sequence length of the plurality of different second sequence lengths includes a first frequency, and a longer sequence length of the plurality of different sequence lengths includes a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency.

[0119] A sixteenth embodiment may include any one or more of the twelfth to fifteenth embodiments, and the operations further include configuring UL transmissions of different lengths for at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH), a sounding reference signal (SRS), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), periodic transmissions, semi-persistent transmissions, or aperiodic transmissions.

[0120] A seventeenth embodiment may include any one or more of the twelfth to sixteenth embodiments, wherein the operations further include skipping the first sequence length or utilizing transmission of the second sequence length based on a gNodeB (gNB) initiated channel occupation time (COT) not being detected on a downlink (DL) channel, wherein the DL channel includes at least one of a dynamically scheduled synchronization signal block (SSB), a scheduled physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a scheduled physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

[0121] An eighteenth embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a network device, including an access point or a next generation NodeB (gNB), to perform operations including: providing at least two different resource configurations including different sequence lengths for uplink (UL) transmission over a UL physical channel; and providing an indication to selectively configure a first sequence length or at least one of a plurality of sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length for the UL transmission based on one or more conditions.

[0122] A 19th example may include the 18th example, wherein the operations further include providing a system information block (SIB1) indicating the first sequence length or at least one of the plurality of sequence lengths based on at least one of a coexisting radio access technology (RAT), an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), or an initial access procedure on the same frequency as the UL transmission.

[0123] A twentieth embodiment includes any one or more of the eighteenth to nineteenth embodiments, and the operations further include providing a gNB-initiated channel occupation time (COT) on the DL channel to initiate the first sequence length for the UL transmission, or providing a sequence length indicator (SLI) field indicator in the DCI format that selects from one of three lengths: the first sequence length, a shorter one of the plurality of sequence lengths, or a longer one of the plurality of sequence lengths.

[0124] A twenty-first embodiment may be an apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry configured to receive different sets of resource configurations of an uplink (UL) physical channel for uplink (UL)-downlink (DL) channel occupation time (COT) sharing for coexistence with another radio access technology (RAT), select an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different sets of resource configurations for UL transmission based on one or more conditions, and provide UL transmission via the UL physical channel based on the ED threshold. A radio frequency (RF) interface is configured to provide data for UL transmission to the RF circuitry.

[0125] A 22nd embodiment may include the 21st embodiment, in which the processing circuitry is further configured to determine an energy detection (ED) threshold based on at least one of a transmit power of the scheduled PUSCH or a PUSCH type.

[0126] A 23rd embodiment may include any one of the 21st to 22nd embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select an ED threshold based on an indicator field of configured grant (CG) uplink control information (CG-UCI) of the CG-PUSCH or a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE) of a dynamically granted (DG) PUSCH.

[0127] A 24th example may include any one of the 21st to 23rd examples, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to select an energy detection (ED) threshold based on the PUSCH type by signaling the ED threshold based on a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE) of the dynamically allowed (DG) PUSCH.

[0128] A 25th embodiment may include any one of the 21st to 24th embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to jointly encode a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) Acknowledgment (ACK) and the EDI-UCI using the same coding scheme in response to identifying a collision with HARQ-ACK / Channel State Information (CSI) Part 1 / CSI Part 2.

[0129] A 26th example may include any one of the 21st to 25th examples, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process radio resource control (RRC) parameters that enable a gNodeB (gNB) to configure the EDI UCI feedback by skipping the EDI feedback or jointly encoding the EDI feedback with other UCI feedback including HARQ-ACK information on the DG-PUSCH in response to a total number of UCIs on the DG-PUSCH exceeding a predetermined threshold.

[0130] A 27th embodiment may include any one of the 21st to 26th embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to configure a gap between the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission based on the first number of symbols or a second number of symbols greater than the first number of symbols.

[0131] A 28th embodiment may include any one of the 21st to 27th embodiments, wherein the first number of symbols is utilized according to the same numerology and overlapping frequency resources between Message A (Msg_A) of PRACH transmission and PUSCH transmission.

[0132] A 29th embodiment may include any one of the 21st to 28th embodiments, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to configure a gap between the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission by switching between a first number of symbols of the PRACH transmission and a second number of symbols greater than the first number of symbols based on DCI of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

[0133] A thirtieth embodiment may include any one of the twenty-first to twenty-ninth embodiments, wherein the gap is generated according to the first number of symbols based on a cyclic prefix (CP) extension.

[0134] A thirty-first embodiment may be a tangible computer-readable storage device that stores executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a network component, including a user equipment (UE), to perform operations including receiving different sets of resource configurations of an uplink (UL) physical channel for uplink (UL)-downlink (DL) channel occupation time (COT) sharing to coexist with different radio access technologies (RATs); selecting an energy detection (ED) threshold from the different sets of resource configurations for UL transmission based on one or more conditions; and providing UL transmission over the UL physical channel based on the ED threshold.

[0135] A thirty-second example may include any one of the thirty-first examples, wherein the one or more conditions associated with selecting an ED threshold include a level of latency for the UL transmission, a first ED threshold, and a second ED threshold greater than the first ED threshold, and the selected ED threshold is derived from a transmit power of a scheduled physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for the UL transmission.

[0136] A 33rd embodiment may include any one of the 30th to 32nd embodiments, and the operations further include signaling the ED threshold as a selected ED threshold selected from among a plurality of ED thresholds based on the PUSCH type.

[0137] A 34th embodiment may include any one of the 30th to 33rd embodiments, and the operations further include signaling a configured grant (CG) uplink control information (CG-UCI) to indicate a selected ED threshold value according to a PUSCH type including a PUSCH of the configured grant (CG), or signaling a setting of an indicator of a channel occupation time (COT) table in a row index based on a COT sharing information element (IE) of the CG-UCI.

[0138] A thirty-fifth embodiment may include any one of the thirty-ninth to thirty-fourth embodiments, and the operations further include signaling a dedicated ED indicator (EDI) uplink control information (EDI-UCI) information element (IE) according to a PUSCH type including a dynamically allowed (DG) PUSCH.

[0139] A thirty-sixth embodiment may include any one of the thirty-ninth to thirty-fifth embodiments, and the operations further include jointly encoding a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) and the EDI-UCI using the same coding scheme to avoid collision with the HARQ-ACK / Channel State Information (CSI) Part 1 / CSI Part 2, or skipping the EDI feedback in response to a total number of UCIs on the DG-PUSCH exceeding a predetermined threshold.

[0140] A 37th embodiment may include any one of the 30th to 36th embodiments, and the operations further include configuring a gap between a physical random access control channel (PRACH) transmission and a PUSCH transmission based on at least one of a first value associated with a numerology between the PRACH and the PUSCH and a second value greater than the first value, wherein the first value is utilized according to the same numerology and overlapping frequency resources between Message A (Msg_A) of the PRACH transmission and the PUSCH transmission.

[0141] A thirty-eighth embodiment may include any one of the thirty-ninth to thirty-seventh embodiments, and the operations further include deriving the first value based on downlink control information (DCI) of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and generating a cyclic prefix (CP) extension to switch between the first value and the second value for the PRACH transmission.

[0142] A thirty-ninth example may be a tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions that, upon execution, cause one or more processors of a network device, including an access point or a next generation NodeB (gNB), to perform operations including generating at least one of an indication enabling selection of a channel occupation time (COT) based on an energy detection (ED) threshold or downlink control information (DCI) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) indicating one or more different gaps between a physical random access channel (PRACH) and a physical uplink shared control channel (PUSCH), and transmitting the indication enabling selection of the COT or the at least one of the DCI on the PDCCH.

[0143] A fortieth example may include the thirty-ninth example, wherein the operations further include processing the selection of the ED threshold based on a PUSCH type including a configured grant (CG) PUSCH or a dynamically granted (DG) PUSCH, or processing a PRACH and a PUSCH with a gap derived from a cyclic prefix (CP) extension.

[0144] A forty-first embodiment may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of a method described or related to any of the first to twenty-first embodiments, or any other method or process described herein.

[0145] A forty-second example may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any one of the first through twenty-first examples, or any other method or process described herein.

[0146] A forty-third embodiment may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry for performing one or more elements of a method described in or related to any one of the first through twenty-first embodiments, or any other method or process described herein.

[0147] The 44th embodiment may include a method, technique, or process described in or related to any one of the first to twenty-first embodiments, or a portion or part thereof.

[0148] A forty-fifth embodiment may include an apparatus comprising one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process described in or related to any one of the first through twenty-first examples, or a portion thereof.

[0149] Furthermore, various aspects or features described herein may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture," as used herein, is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs), digital versatile disks (DVDs), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROMs, cards, sticks, key drives, etc.). Furthermore, various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and / or carrying instruction(s) and / or data. Furthermore, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium having one or more instructions or code operable to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

[0150] Communication media includes computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transport medium. A "modulated data signal" or signals refers to a signal that has one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

[0151] An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. Further, in some aspects, the processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a user terminal. Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal. Additionally, in some aspects, the processes and / or operations of a method or algorithm may reside as one or any combination of codes and / or instructions on a machine-readable medium and / or computer-readable medium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

[0152] In this regard, although the disclosed subject matter has been described in connection with various embodiments and corresponding drawings, it should be understood that, where applicable, other similar embodiments can be used to perform the same, similar, alternative, or substitute functions of the disclosed subject matter, or modifications and additions can be made without departing from the described embodiments. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed according to the breadth and scope of the following appended claims.

[0153] In particular, with regard to the various functions performed by the above-described components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), the terms used to describe such components (including references to "means") are intended to correspond to any component or structure that performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even if it is not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure that performs that function in the exemplary implementations of the present disclosure shown herein. Furthermore, while a particular feature may be disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature can be combined with one or more other features of other implementations, as may be desirable or advantageous for any given or particular application.

Claims

1. An apparatus for use in a user equipment (UE), comprising: A processing circuit, receiving at least two sets of resource configurations including different sequence lengths for an uplink (UL) physical channel; selecting a first sequence length from among the different sequence lengths of the at least two sets of resource configurations or a second sequence length that is longer than the first sequence length based on one or more conditions; generating an uplink (UL) transmission based on the selected first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two sets of resource configurations over the UL physical channel; A processing circuit configured as above; a radio frequency (RF) interface configured to provide data for transmission of the UL transmission to an RF circuit; An apparatus comprising:

2. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions include at least one of a UE capability, an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), the UL transmission, or the UL physical channel, the UL physical channel including at least one of a physical random access channel (PRACH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

3. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least two sets of resource configurations are associated with a PRACH transmission, and the second sequence length comprises one of at least two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths associated with different frequency intervals for the PRACH transmission that are each greater than the first sequence length.

4. 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: in response to receiving the at least two sets of resource configurations, determine a system information block (SIB) including an indication of the one of the at least two different SCS sequence lengths; and determine the one of the two different subcarrier spacing (SCS) sequence lengths for generating the UL transmission based on the indication in the SIB.

5. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate the UL transmission based on the second sequence length for an initial access procedure based on a coexisting radio access technology (RAT) and an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) configured for the UL transmission.

6. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate different periods for the first sequence length and the second sequence length, a periodicity of the second sequence length corresponding to an initial access procedure for sharing one or more resources with the UL transmission.

7. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine that the UL transmission of a PRACH or a sounding reference signal (SRS) is within a gNodeB (gNB)-initiated channel occupation time (COT); and, in response to being within the gNB-initiated COT, transmit the UL transmission based on the first sequence length.

8. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: skip the first sequence length of the UL transmission or fall back to generating the UL transmission based on the second sequence length in response to gNB-initiated COT not being detected in a downlink control information (DCI) format 2_0 or a downlink (DL) channel.

9. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate a hybrid sequence based on the first sequence length and the second sequence length in a non-periodic UL transmission that includes the UL transmission, and to determine a sequence length based on a sequence length indicator (SLI) field of a DCI.

10. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate a gap between two consecutive RACH opportunities (ROs) by shifting at least one symbol later in the UL transmission.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: generate the gap as a first gap between the at least two consecutive ROs in response to the UL transmission as a PRACH being within a gNB-initiated COT; and further to generate a CP extension to increase the gap in response to the PRACH being outside the gNB-initiated COT.

12. A tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions that, upon execution, cause one or more processors of a network component, including a user equipment (UE), to perform operations, the operations including: processing at least two sets of resource configurations corresponding to different sequence lengths of an uplink (UL) physical channel; selecting at least one of a first sequence length or a plurality of different second sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length for configuring an UL transmission based on one or more conditions; generating the UL transmission based on the first sequence length or the second sequence length of the at least two sets of resource configurations over the UL physical channel; 4. A tangible computer readable storage device comprising:

13. The operation, receiving an indication of the first sequence length or the at least one of the plurality of different second sequence lengths, the plurality of second sequence lengths including a shorter sequence length at a first frequency and a longer sequence length at a second frequency greater than the first frequency.

13. The tangible computer readable storage device of claim 12.

14. 14. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 13, wherein the indication includes a System Information Block 1 (SIB1) based on an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirement of an initial access procedure and coexistence with another radio access technology (RAT).

15. 14. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 13, wherein the shorter sequence length of the plurality of different second sequence lengths comprises a first frequency and the longer sequence length of the plurality of different sequence lengths comprises a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency.

16. 13. The tangible computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise configuring the UL transmissions of different lengths for at least one of a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), a periodic transmission, a semi-persistent transmission, or an aperiodic transmission.

17. and wherein the operations further include skipping the first sequence length or utilizing a transmission of a second sequence length based on a gNodeB (gNB) initiated channel occupation time (COT) not being detected on a downlink (DL) channel, the DL channel including at least one of a dynamically scheduled synchronization signal block (SSB), a scheduled physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or a scheduled physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

13. The tangible computer readable storage device of claim 12.

18. 1. A tangible computer-readable storage device storing executable instructions that, upon execution, cause one or more processors of a network device, including an access point or a next generation NodeB (gNB), to perform operations, the operations including: providing at least two different resource configurations including different sequence lengths for uplink (UL) transmissions over an UL physical channel; providing an indication for selectively configuring at least one of a first sequence length or a plurality of sequence lengths longer than the first sequence length for the UL transmission based on one or more conditions; 4. A tangible computer readable storage device comprising:

19. The operation, providing a system information block (SIB1) indicating the first sequence length or the at least one of the plurality of sequence lengths based on at least one of a coexisting radio access technology (RAT), an occupied channel bandwidth (OCB), or an initial access procedure on the same frequency as the UL transmission; 20. The tangible computer readable storage device of claim 18, further comprising:

20. The operation, providing a gNB initiated channel occupation time (COT) on a DL channel to initiate the first sequence length of the UL transmission; or providing a sequence length indicator (SLI) field indicator in the DCI format that selects from one of three lengths: the first sequence length, a shorter one of the plurality of sequence lengths, or a longer one of the plurality of sequence lengths.

20. The tangible computer readable storage device of claim 18, further comprising:

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