HARQ process selection

Abstract

To relate to de-prioritizing retransmission.SOLUTION: A device determines whether user data is present in a transport block to be retransmitted via a hybrid automatic repeat request process. The device deprioritizes the selection of a hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in the configuration grant based at least in part on the determination. This solution can avoid or deprioritize unnecessary retransmissions of transport blocks that do not have user data.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and more particularly, to devices, methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable storage media for the selection of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

Background Art

[0002] In wireless communication, UL transmission without a dynamic uplink (UL) grant may be referred to as grant-free (GF) UL transmission or configured grant (CG) transmission. In CG transmission, a communication device may be configured to transmit a transport block (TB) using CG resources without a dynamic UL grant. In the case of 5G new radio in an unlicensed frequency band (NR-U), a communication device may be required to retransmit a TB in an HARQ process to confirm that the TB has been successfully received when it receives no feedback from other communication devices. During operation, a terminal device can use multiple HARQ processes for the initial transmission or retransmission of different TBs. When CG is available, the terminal device can determine the HARQ process to be selected for transmission in the CG.

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0003] Generally, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for selecting an HARQ process for a CG. Embodiments not included in the claims, if any, should be construed as useful examples for understanding various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0004] In a first aspect, a device is provided. The device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the device to determine whether user data is absent in a transport block to be retransmitted through a hybrid automatic repeat request process, and to decrease a priority of selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in a configured grant, at least partially based on the determination.

[0005] In a second aspect, a method is provided. The method includes determining whether user data is absent in a transport block to be retransmitted through a hybrid automatic repeat request process, and decreasing a priority of selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in a configured grant, at least partially based on the determination.

[0006] In a third aspect, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes means for determining whether user data is absent in a transport block to be retransmitted through a hybrid automatic repeat request process, and means for decreasing a priority of selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in a configured grant, at least partially based on the determination.

[0007] In a fourth aspect, a computer-readable medium is provided. The computer-readable medium includes program instructions for causing a device to execute a method according to at least the first aspect.

[0008] It should be understood that the summary section of the invention is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become readily apparent through the following description.

[0009] Next, several exemplary embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0010]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

[0011] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar elements.

[0012] Next, the principles of the present disclosure will be described with reference to several exemplary embodiments. These embodiments are merely described for illustrative purposes and are useful for those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, but it should be understood that they do not imply any limitation on the scope of the present disclosure. The embodiments described herein can be implemented in various ways other than those described below.

[0013] In the following description and claims, all technical and scientific terms used herein shall have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present disclosure pertains, unless otherwise defined.

[0014] References to "one embodiment", "an embodiment", "an exemplary embodiment", and the like in this disclosure indicate that the described embodiments may include certain features, structures, or characteristics, but not all embodiments need to include that particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Further, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is considered within the knowledge of those skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic with respect to other embodiments, whether or not explicitly described.

[0015] In this specification, terms such as "first" and "second" may be used to describe various elements, but these elements should not be understood to be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiments, the first element may be referred to as the second element, and similarly, the second element may be referred to as the first element. As used herein, the term "and / or" encompasses any and all combinations of one or more of the recited terms.

[0016] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. When the terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes", and / or "including" are used herein, these terms specify the presence of the described features, elements, and / or components, etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and / or combinations thereof.

[0017] As used herein, the term "circuit" can mean one or more or all of the following. That is, (a) A circuit implementation consisting only of hardware (such as an implementation only in analog and / or digital circuits), and (b) A combination of a hardware circuit and software, for example (where applicable), (i) A combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) and software / firmware, and (ii) Any part of a hardware processor(s) (including a digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that cooperate to cause a device such as a mobile phone or a server to perform various functions, and (c) A hardware circuit(s) and / or processor(s) such as a microprocessor(s) or a part of a microprocessor(s) that require software (such as firmware) to operate, but may not have the software when not required for operation.

[0018] This definition of "circuit" applies to all uses of this term in this application document, including all claims. As a further example, the term "circuit" as used in this application includes a mere hardware circuit or processor (or processors), or a part of a hardware circuit or processor, and an embodiment of the software and / or firmware associated therewith (or therewith). The term "circuit" also includes, for example, a baseband integrated circuit or a processor integrated circuit of a mobile device, or a similar integrated circuit of a server, a cellular network device, or other computing device or network device, when applicable to a particular claim element.

[0019] As used herein, the term "communication network" means a network compliant with any suitable communication standard, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), etc. Further, the communication between the terminal device and the network device within the communication network may be carried out according to any suitable generation of communication protocols, including but not limited to the communication protocols of the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G), and / or any other protocol known currently or developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems. Considering the rapid development in communication, of course, there will also be future communication technologies and systems capable of embodying the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure should not be regarded as limited only to the aforementioned systems.

[0020] As used herein, the term "network device" means a node within a communication network through which a terminal device accesses a network and receives services therefrom. The network device may, depending on the applicable terminology and technology, be a base station (BS) or access point (AP), e.g., Node B (NodeB or NB), evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), NR NB (also called gNB), remote radio unit (RRU), radio header (RH), remote radio head (RRH), relay, integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, low-power node such as femto or pico, satellite network device, non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite, aircraft network device, etc. In some exemplary embodiments, a radio access network (RAN) split architecture includes a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. The IAB node includes a mobile terminal (IAB-MT) portion that behaves like a UE with respect to a parent node, and the DU portion of the IAB node behaves like a base station with respect to a next-hop IAB node.

[0021] The term "terminal device" means any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example and not limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), subscriber station (SS), mobile subscriber station, mobile station (MS), or access terminal (AT). Terminal devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, tablets, wearable terminal devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, desktop computers, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, game terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer premise equipment (CPE), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, watches or other wearables, head-mounted displays (HMDs), vehicles, drones, medical devices and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial devices and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in the context of a production process and / or an automated processing chain), household electronics, devices operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. A terminal device may also correspond to the mobile termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node). In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "communication device", "terminal", "user equipment", and "UE" may be used interchangeably without distinction.

[0022] As used herein, the terms "resource", "transmission resource", "resource block", "physical resource block" (PRB), "uplink resource", or "downlink resource" can refer to any resource for performing communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in the time domain, a resource in the frequency domain, a resource in the spatial domain, a resource in the code domain, or other resources enabling communication. In the following, resources in both the frequency domain and the time domain are used as examples of transmission resources for explaining some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0023] As used herein, the term "CG" may also be referred to as "CG resource" and may refer to the resource(s) configured for the device(s) to transmit without a dynamic UL grant. The terms "CG resource" and "CG" are used interchangeably herein.

[0024] As described above, a communication device (e.g., a terminal device) can be configured to use one or more CGs to transmit one or more TBs without a dynamic UL grant. By using CGs, the communication device may be able to reduce signaling overhead compared to grant-based UL transmission. Further, a communication device configured for a CG can skip UL transmission, for example, when there is no user data to be transmitted to the communication device. However, it is also specified that in some cases, the communication device may not be able to skip UL transmission in a CG. For example, when the physical uplink shared channel of the CG (CG-PUSCH) overlaps with the PUCCH (physical uplink control channel), the communication device is specified to multiplex uplink control information (UCI) from the PUCCH with the CG-PUSCH. In this case, even though there is no user data, the communication device may still generate a TB without user data, and this TB may be multiplexed with the UCI or may include the UCI for transmission in this CG. The term "UCI-dedicated TB" may refer to a TB that is multiplexed with control information (e.g., UCI) or is generated to include control information rather than including user data.

[0025] Furthermore, it is stipulated that retransmissions shall be prioritized over initial transmissions. However, recently it has been proposed that such rules need to be reexamined because in some cases, higher-priority traffic may be transmitted in the initial transmission. In NR-U, when a communication device transmits a TB in a CG using a HARQ process and receives no feedback from other communication devices, the communication device can autonomously retransmit the TB in subsequent CGs. This means that when processing subsequent CGs, the communication device may prioritize the retransmission of the TB over other initial transmissions. In other words, the communication device may select this HARQ process for transmission when processing subsequent CGs. Therefore, when a communication device transmits the above CG-PUSCH using a HARQ process and receives no feedback regarding the HARQ process, the communication device may autonomously retransmit the UCI dedicated TB.

[0026] However, always prioritizing the HARQ process for retransmitting a TB without user data over the initial transmission may be meaningless and unnecessary. For example, when dealing with an ultra-reliable and low-latency communication system (URLLC), some higher-priority traffic may be transmitted in the initial transmission. To address this issue, currently in RAN2#113e, a logical channel (LCH)-based prioritization is set, so it is agreed that priorities can be assigned to initial transmissions and retransmissions based on the priorities of multiplexed LCH(s) (multiple possible) or the priorities of LCH(s) (multiple possible) to be multiplexed. However, this solution does not apply to cases involving UCI dedicated TBs. As mentioned above, UCI dedicated TBs cannot contain user data. Therefore, it is possible that no LCH-based priority is assigned to UCI dedicated TBs. Thus, it is no longer possible to make LCH-based prioritization useful for addressing the issue of retransmission(s) of UCI dedicated TBs in HARQ process selection.

[0027] According to the above discussion, it is desirable to design an improved mechanism for selecting a HARQ process.

[0028] According to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, an improved solution for selecting a HARQ process in a CG is provided. In this solution, in order for a TB to be retransmitted through a HARQ process, a device determines whether there is no user data in this TB. At least according to this determination, the device reduces the priority of the selection of the HARQ process for one or more transmissions in the CG. This solution can avoid or reduce the priority of unnecessary retransmissions of TBs without any user data. Therefore, the retransmission of user traffic and / or other HARQ processes for the first transmission may be likely to be transmitted as soon as possible.

[0029] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0030] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary communication environment 100 in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. In the communication environment 100, a plurality of communication devices including a device 110 and a device 120 can communicate with each other.

[0031] In the example of FIG. 1, the device 110 is shown as a terminal device, and the device 120 is shown as a network device that provides services to the terminal device. The serving area of the device 120 may be called a cell 102.

[0032] The number of devices shown in FIG. 1 and their connections are not meant to imply any limitations and are for illustrative purposes only. It should be understood that environment 100 may include any suitable number of devices that are compatible with the implementation of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, one or more additional devices may be located within cell 102, and it should be understood that one or more additional cells may be deployed within environment 100. Device 120 is shown as a network device, but note that it may be a device other than a network device. For example, device 120 may be another terminal device that communicates with device 110 via sidelink. Device 110 is shown as a terminal device, but it may be a device other than a terminal device.

[0033] In some exemplary embodiments, when device 110 is a terminal device and device 120 is a network device, the link from device 120 to device 110 is called a downlink (DL), and the link from device 110 to device 120 is called an uplink (UL). In the DL, device 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or transmitter), and device 110 is a receiving (RX) device (or receiver). In the UL, device 110 is a TX device (or transmitter), and device 120 is an RX device (or receiver).

[0034] Communication in the communication environment 100 can be carried out according to any suitable communication protocol(s), including but not limited to cellular communication protocols such as the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), and fifth generation (5G), wireless local area network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocol(s) currently known or to be developed in the future. Further, this communication can utilize any suitable wireless communication technology, including but not limited to code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division duplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM), and / or any other technology currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0035] During operation, device 110 can transmit user data and / or control information to device 120 using the allocated resources and / or the configured resources. The control information may include UCI. In some exemplary embodiments, the control information can include HARQ feedback information such as hybrid automatic repeat request - acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), channel state information (CSI), scheduling request (SR), and configured grant uplink control information (CG-UCI).

[0036] Next, referring to FIG. 2, this shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 200 implemented by device 110 according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. For purposes of discussion, method 200 is described from the perspective of device 110 with respect to FIG. 1. In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may be a terminal device.

[0037] In block 210, the device 110 determines whether there is no user data in the transport block (TB) to be retransmitted through the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process.

[0038] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in any HARQ process, the device 110 determines whether the transport block (TB) to be retransmitted through this HARQ process contains user data. In some exemplary embodiments, the device 110 may further determine whether the TB is generated to be multiplexed with control information or is generated to contain only control information. In this specification, a TB that does not contain user data may be referred to as a UCI-only TB, which is generated only to be multiplexed with control information or to contain control information. In some exemplary embodiments, the media access control (MAC) of the device 110 performs HARQ process selection, and as a result, determines whether the TB does not contain user data, but rather whether the TB is multiplexed with control information or is generated only to contain control information at the physical (PHY) layer of the device 110.

[0039] TBs that do not contain user data are generated for various reasons and are likely to be transmitted at least once, almost surely, through the HARQ process. In some exemplary embodiments, such TBs may be generated in response to an overlap between resources for control information (e.g., UCI) and a CG previous to the currently processed CG. Resources for control information may include resources for PUCCH. According to some specifications, when CG-PUSCH overlaps with PUCCH, device 110 is defined to multiplex UCI from PUCCH with CG-PUSCH. The overlap may be a complete overlap or a partial overlap between one or more CGs and resources for control information. In this case, device 110 may generate and transmit a TB if there is no user data available for a previous CG. For example, the MAC layer of device 110 may generate a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) for CG-PUSCH and transmit that MAC PDU to the PHY layer. Note that the MAC PDU may be equivalent to a TB. The PHY layer of device 110 can multiplex control information from PUCCH into or include it in the TB. As an example, UCI and the MAC PDU are encoded separately. In such a case, due to the overlap between CG-PUSCH and PUCCH, a TB is generated only for the purpose of multiplexing control information.

[0040] In some exemplary embodiments, as an alternative or additional condition, when no LCH-based prioritization is set and there is a single PHY priority for UL transmission, a UCI-dedicated TB may be generated. Additionally or alternatively, the UCI-dedicated TB may be generated when PUSCH repetition is not applied and there is no dynamic grant (DG) PUSCH that overlaps with one or more CG-PUSCHs. Additionally or alternatively, if there is aperiodic CSI that is required to be transmitted via a PUSCH that overlaps with a CG-PUSCH, device 110 may generate and transmit a TB (e.g., UCI-dedicated TB) that does not include user data to be multiplexed with control information for transmission on the CG, or a TB (e.g., UCI-dedicated TB) that does not include user data that includes this control information. Additionally or alternatively, if there is periodic or semi-periodic CSI that is required to be transmitted via a PUCCH that overlaps with a CG-PUSCH, device 110 may generate and transmit a TB (e.g., UCI-dedicated TB) that does not include user data to be multiplexed with control information for transmission on the CG, or a TB (e.g., UCI-dedicated TB) that does not include user data that includes this control information. Additionally or alternatively, device 110 may determine whether a CG TB should be generated and transmitted according to the presence / value of RRC parameters such as a cg-UCI-multiplexing or cg-retransmission timer. In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may determine not to generate a TB when there is no data if there is HARQ-ACK information and / or CSI that overlaps with CG-PUSCH transmission and no cg-UCI-multiplexing or cg-retransmission timer is set.

[0041] If a TB without user data is generated and transmitted on a previous CG through a HARQ process, the retransmission of this TB may be carefully determined by device 110. Therefore, when processing the current CG, device 110 may check that there is no user data in the TB.

[0042] In some embodiments, device 110 may check whether the transport block (TB) includes one or more segments for storing user data to determine whether user data exists in the TB. If no user data is found in the TB, for example, if the TB does not include a media access control control element (MAC CE), a common control channel (CCCH) service data unit (SDU), a dedicated control channel (DCCH), and / or a service data unit (SDU) of any logical channel (LCH), device 110 may determine that no user data exists in the TB.

[0043] Additionally or alternatively, device 110 may determine that no user data exists in the TB by determining the reason for which the TB was generated and buffered for a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process. In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may check whether the TB is multiplexed with control information or is generated only to include control information and thus does not include user data. For example, device 110 may check whether the TB does not include a MAC CE except for a padding buffer status report (BSR). In some examples, device 110 may determine that the TB is multiplexed with control information such as a hybrid automatic repeat request process acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), channel state information (CSI), scheduling request (SR), and / or configured grant uplink control information (CG-UCI), or is generated only to include control information.

[0044] In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may determine whether a transport block (TB) is generated in response to an overlap between a resource for control information (e.g., PUCCH resource) and a code group (CG) that is earlier than that CG. As described above, the UCI dedicated TB may be generated in response to an overlap between the CS-PUSCH and the PUCCH in the time domain. Thus, by checking the generation history of the TB, device 110 may be able to determine whether the TB was generated in response to an overlap between a resource for control information (e.g., PUCCH resource) and a previous CG, and thus, may be able to determine whether user data is included in the TB.

[0045] In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may determine whether a CG is available for one or more transmissions of a TB. In some exemplary embodiments, the CG may be set in an unlicensed band. For example, the CG may be set for 5G NR-U. In some exemplary embodiments, one or more CGs may be set for device 110, and each CG may be associated with one or more resources used by device 110. Device 110 may determine that the CG is available based on the setting of the CG. The CG may include a resource for transmission, such as a resource for CG-PUSCH. If it is determined that the CG is available, device 110 may decide to perform one or more transmissions in the CG, provided that there is one or more pending HARQ processes with one or more TBs to be transmitted. Device 110 may determine which HARQ process can be selected and may transmit the TB associated with the selected HARQ process in the current CG.

[0046] When executing transmissions performed on the CG, in some cases, the HARQ process associated with the TB to be retransmitted may have a higher priority than other HARQ processes associated with the initial transmission. In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may determine whether there is a TB already stored in any HARQ process for retransmission before determining whether user data exists within the TB. Device 110 can first check whether there is a TB to be retransmitted. If there is no TB stored in any HARQ process for retransmission, device 110 can select an HARQ process for the initial transmission. If there is a TB stored in the HARQ process for retransmission, device 110 can determine whether user data exists in that TB.

[0047] Referring further to FIG. 2, at block 220, device 110 reduces the priority of selection of the HARQ process associated with this TB for one or more transmissions in the CG, at least in part based on a determination of whether user data exists within the TB. In some exemplary embodiments, if it is determined that the TB does not contain user data (e.g., the TB is a UCI-dedicated TB), by reducing the priority of selection of the corresponding HARQ process, other HARQ processes with TBs of useful user data or other meaningful information to be retransmitted in the current CG may be permitted.

[0048] In some exemplary embodiments, in addition to determining whether there is no user data in the transport block (TB) to be retransmitted through a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process, the device 110 may further determine whether the TB is permitted to be transmitted in a component carrier (CG), or whether the HARQ process is permitted to be used in the CG, based on one or more characteristics of the TB and / or based on the settings related to the CG. In some examples, the device 110 may determine whether the TB is permitted to be transmitted in the CG based on the size of the TB. The device 110 may determine that the TB is permitted to be transmitted in this CG if the CG has sufficient resources to carry the TB. In some examples, the device 110 may determine that the TB is permitted to be transmitted in the CG based on whether the HARQ process of the TB is permitted to be used in the CG according to the settings. It will be understood that the permission of the TB in the CG may be determined based on other characteristics of the TB. In some other examples, the currently processed CG may be set for a specific type of transmission, so the current TB is not permitted to be transmitted in this CG.

[0049] In some exemplary embodiments, in addition to there being no user data in the TB, the HARQ process associated with this TB may not be selected for transmission if the TB or the HARQ process is not permitted to be transmitted in the CG. In some exemplary embodiments, if the device 110 determines that the TB is permitted to be transmitted in the CG, the device 110 may continue to determine whether the TB contains no user data. Otherwise, if the device 110 determines that the TB is prohibited from being transmitted in the CG, the device 110 may reselect another HARQ process for transmission instead of continuing to process the HARQ process of this TB.

[0050] In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may lower the priority of the selection of the TB HARQ process without user data by assigning it a lower priority than one or more other HARQ processes for retransmission and / or a lower priority than one or more HARQ processes for initial transmission. In one example, when a TB is generated only for control information multiplexing, the corresponding HARQ process may be assigned the lowest priority among all HARQ processes having a TB to be transmitted and / or retransmitted. Thus, device 110 can prevent unnecessary retransmission of the UCI dedicated TB when there are still other pending HARQ processes with TBs storing user data or other HARQ processes for initial transmission.

[0051] In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may lower the priority of the selection of the HARQ process based on LCH-based prioritization. As described above, according to the conventional solution, since there is insufficient user data, it may not be possible to set the LCH-based priority for the UCI dedicated TB. In some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, device 110 may directly assign the lowest priority to a TB (e.g., UCI dedicated TB). For example, when LCH-based prioritization is set, each TB containing user data is assigned a respective priority based on each LCH. On the other hand, device 110 can directly assign the lowest priority to a TB without user data. In some examples, device 110 may assign the lowest priority to the TB after it is determined that the TB is a UCI dedicated TB without user data. Alternatively, device 110 may assign the lowest priority to a TB without user data when the TB is generated.

[0052] In some exemplary embodiments, device 110 may perform further HARQ process selection based on downgrading the priority of HARQ process selection. Device 110 may select a HARQ process from a plurality of HARQ processes including HARQ processes with low priority or a plurality of HARQ processes excluding HARQ processes with low priority to perform transmission in the CG. In addition to HARQ processes having TBs without user data, device 110 may have one or more other HARQ processes having TBs for retransmission and / or initial transmission. Device 110 may select a HARQ process for transmission in the currently available CG.

[0053] In an exemplary embodiment, device 110 may select a HARQ process based on the respective priority of the HARQ process. Since the priority of a HARQ process with a TB without user data is downgraded, this HARQ process may have a lower chance of being selected compared to one or more other HARQ processes for retransmission and / or one or more HARQ processes for initial transmission.

[0054] Alternatively, a HARQ process with a TB without user data may be excluded from the selectable HARQ processes. That is, device 110 may exclude this HARQ process from the selection for transmission in the current CG by downgrading the priority of the selection of the HARQ process with a TB without user data. Therefore, device 110 may exclude that HARQ process from consideration when performing HARQ process selection for the current CG. Device 110 may select a HARQ process from other HARQ processes for retransmission and / or initial transmission in the CG.

[0055] In some exemplary embodiments, the HARQ process may have an opportunity to be selected for transmission in the current CG or a subsequent CG if it has a low priority but there are no other HARQ processes with available data, or if the current CG is configured with sufficient resources for transmission.

[0056] Reducing or excluding the priority of the HARQ process can reduce the probability that a TB without user data is retransmitted, thereby increasing the probability of an early transmission of the HARQ process for the first transmission or the TB to be stored that contains user data. Generally, retransmission of a TB without user data can often be meaningless. For example, since the TB is multiplexed with control information for transmission or is generated only to include such control information, the multiplexed control information may already be outdated by the time self-retransmission occurs. For example, since the packet delay budget (PDB) is exhausted anyway, the HARQ-ACK in the control information may no longer be needed. As another example, the CSI in the control information may be outdated due to the mobility of device 110. As yet another example, the SR in the control information may no longer be needed since the associated buffer status report (BSR) has already been transmitted. In such cases, prioritizing the retransmission of the TB over the first transmission may be a waste of time and resources. The mechanism for reducing the priority proposed herein can avoid such problems and thereby enable timely transmission of user data and / or other useful control information in the CG.

[0057] In some embodiments, if it is determined that the TB to be retransmitted contains user data, the device 110 may select a corresponding HARQ process to perform the transmission of the TB in the CG. In this case, if it is determined that the TB is not a UCI dedicated TB, the priority of the selection of the corresponding HARQ process may not be lowered, especially if the retransmission of the TB in this HARQ process is to be performed. Therefore, the corresponding HARQ process can continue to have a higher priority than the first transmission, and when the device 110 processes the CG, by selecting this corresponding HARQ process, the device 110 can retransmit the TB.

[0058] In some exemplary embodiments, if the device 110 determines that the TB does not contain user data, or if the priority of the selection of the corresponding HARQ process is lowered, the device 110 may flush the TB from the buffer associated with the HARQ process. As described above, when the TB does not contain user data, for example, when the TB is determined to be a UCI dedicated TB, the selection of the HARQ process may have its priority lowered. In this case, by flushing the TB from the buffer associated with the HARQ process, it is possible to improve the buffer utilization efficiency. In some exemplary embodiments, the TB without user data may be flushed after the first initial transmission and / or before the HARQ process selection for the next CG. In some exemplary embodiments, the TB without user data may be flushed during the HARQ process selection for the next CG.

[0059] In some exemplary embodiments, in addition to flushing the TB, device 110 can further stop at least one timer for the HARQ process. In an exemplary embodiment, the at least one timer can include a CG timer. The CG timer can be started at the previous transmission of the TB in the HARQ process. More specifically, the CG timer may be started when the TB is first transmitted. When the CG timer is running, the corresponding HARQ process is prevented from being reused for the transmission of other TBs. By flushing the TB from the buffer and stopping the CG timer, device 110 can free up the corresponding HARQ process for transmitting other TBs.

[0060] In another exemplary embodiment, device 110 can stop a CG retransmission (CGRT) timer for the HARQ process. The CGRT timer is started when the TB is transmitted, and if device 110 does not receive downlink feedback information (DFI) for the transmission of the TB before the CGRT timer expires, the TB can be retransmitted. In this exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, if it is determined that the TB does not contain user data, device 110 can directly flush the TB from the buffer and stop the CGRT timer. Therefore, device 110 may not need to determine whether DFI has been received before the CGRT timer expires. Further, even if DFI is not received before the CGRT expires, device 110 may not need to perform further retransmission of the TB. The HARQ process is freed up and may be used for the transmission of other TBs. Therefore, the utilization efficiency of the HARQ process may be improved.

[0061] Alternatively, device 110 may determine whether a CGRT timer for a TB HARQ process that does not contain user data has expired. When the CGRT timer expires, device 110 can flush the TB from the buffer associated with the HARQ process. In some cases, even if it is determined that the TB does not contain user data and the priority of selection of the HARQ process is lowered, if device 110 selects the HARQ process and that HARQ process is pending, it may still be possible to subsequently transmit the TB in a subsequent CG. In this exemplary embodiment, by flushing the TB from the buffer when the CGRT timer expires, device 110 may not need to select that HARQ process to transmit the TB in a subsequent CG.

[0062] In some exemplary embodiments, a second device (e.g., device 110) capable of performing any of method 200 may comprise means for performing each operation of method 200. This means can be implemented in any suitable form. For example, this means may be implemented in a circuit and / or a software module. The device may be implemented as device 110 or may be included in device 110.

[0063] In some exemplary embodiments, the device comprises means for determining whether user data is present in a transport block (TB) to be retransmitted through a HARQ process and means for lowering the priority of selection of the HARQ process for one or more transmissions in a control grant (CG) based at least in part on the determination.

[0064] In some exemplary embodiments, the absence of user data in a transport block is determined by at least one of the following: the TB is multiplexed with control information or is generated only to include control information, and the TB is generated in response to an overlap between resources for control information and a previous CG prior to the CG.

[0065] In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for flushing the transport block (TB) from the buffer associated with the Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process in response to a determination that the selection of the HARQ process has been deprioritized, and means for stopping at least one timer for the HARQ process in response to a determination that the priority of the HARQ process has been deprioritized. In some exemplary embodiments, the at least one timer comprises at least one of a Coordinated Grant (CG) timer and a CG retransmission timer started at a previous transmission of a TB in the HARQ process.

[0066] In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for determining whether the CG retransmission timer for the HARQ process has expired in response to a determination that the selection of the HARQ process has been deprioritized, the configured grant retransmission timer being started at a previous transmission of a TB in the HARQ process, and means for flushing the TB from the buffer associated with the HARQ process in response to a determination that the configured grant retransmission timer has expired.

[0067] In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for determining whether the TB is permitted to be transmitted in the CG. In some exemplary embodiments, the means for determining whether there is no user data in the TB comprises means for determining whether there is no user data in the TB in response to a determination that the TB is permitted to be transmitted in the CG.

[0068] In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for selecting a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process that performs a retransmission of a transport block in a configured grant when at least a portion of the user data is included in the transport block.

[0069] In some exemplary embodiments, the configured grant is set in an unlicensed band.

[0070] In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus comprises a terminal device.

[0071] In some exemplary embodiments, the control information comprises at least one of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest process - ACKnowledgment (HARQ-ACK), Channel State Information (CSI), Scheduling Request (SR), and Configured Grant Uplink Control Information (CG-UCI).

[0072] In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other operations in some exemplary embodiments of method 200 or device 110. In some exemplary embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, and the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to be executed together with the at least one processor.

[0073] FIG. 3 shows a simplified block diagram of a device 300 suitable for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The device 300 may be provided for implementing a communication device such as, for example, the device 110 or the device 120 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 300 includes one or more processors 310, one or more memories 320 coupled to the processor 310, and one or more communication modules 340 coupled to the processor 310.

[0074] The communication module 340 is for two-way communication. The communication module 340 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interface may represent any interface necessary for communication with other network elements. In some exemplary embodiments, the communication module 340 may include at least one antenna.

[0075] The processor 310 may be of any type suitable for a local technical network and may include, by way of non-limiting example, one or more of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. The device 300 may have multiple processors, such as an application-specific integrated circuit chip that is time-slaved to a clock that synchronizes the main processor.

[0076] The memory 320 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 324, electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disk, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD), optical disk, laser disk, and other magnetic storage devices and / or optical storage devices. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) 322 and other volatile memories that do not persist while the power is off.

[0077] The computer program 330 includes computer-executable instructions to be executed by the associated processor 310. The program 330 may be stored in a memory, such as ROM 324. The processor 310 may perform any suitable operations and processing by loading the program 330 into the RAM 322.

[0078] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by the program 330 such that the device 300 can execute any of the processes of the present disclosure described with reference to FIG. 2. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0079] In some exemplary embodiments, program 330 may be tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium (such as memory 320) included in device 300 or on another storage device accessible by device 300. Device 300 may load program 330 from the computer-readable medium into RAM 322 for execution. The computer-readable medium may include any type of tangible non-volatile storage device such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, etc. FIG. 4 shows an example of a computer-readable medium 400 that may be in the form of a CD, DVD, or other optical storage disk. Program 330 is stored on the computer-readable medium.

[0080] In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special-purpose circuitry, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other graphical description, the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented, by way of non-limiting example, in hardware, software, firmware, special-purpose circuitry or logic, general-purpose hardware or a controller or other computing device, or any combination thereof.

[0081] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, which, for example, are included in program modules and are executed on a device on a target physical processor or virtual processor to perform the methods described above with reference to FIG. 2. Typically, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, or data structures that perform specific tasks or implement specific abstract data types. The functions of the program modules can be combined or divided among the program modules as desired in various embodiments. The machine-executable instructions of the program modules can be executed within a local device or within a distributed device. In a distributed device, the program modules can be located on both local and remote storage media.

[0082] The program code for performing the methods of the present disclosure can be described in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code can be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that when the program code is executed by the processor or controller, the functions / operations defined in the flowchart and / or block diagram are thereby performed. The program code may be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, executed as a stand-alone software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0083] In the context of the present disclosure, computer program code or related data can be carried by any suitable carrier in order to enable a device, apparatus, or processor to execute the various processes and operations described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer-readable media, and the like.

[0084] The computer-readable media may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable media may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0085] Furthermore, although the operations are shown in a particular order, it should not be understood that such operations are required to be executed in the particular order shown, or sequentially, or that all of the illustrated operations are to be executed, in order to obtain desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although details of some specific embodiments are included in the above discussion, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions and interpretations of features that may be specific to a particular embodiment. The specific features described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination within a single embodiment. Conversely, the various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented separately, or in any suitable sub-combination, in a plurality of embodiments.

[0086] Although this disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the above specific features and acts are disclosed as illustrative forms for carrying out the claims.

Claims

1. A device, comprising: At least one processor; at least one memory containing computer program code; Equipped with The at least one memory and the computer program code, together with the at least one processor, are coupled to the device, determining whether there is no user data present in a transport block to be retransmitted via a hybrid automatic repeat request process; de-prioritizing a selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in a configured grant based at least in part on the determination; and The device.

2. The absence of user data in the transport block is determined as follows: the transport block is generated only to contain control information; and the transport block is generated in response to an overlap between resources for the control information and a configuration grant that precedes the configuration grant. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of:

3. The at least one memory and the computer program code, together with the at least one processor, are further configured to: in response to determining that the selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process is deprioritized, flushing the transport block from a buffer associated with the hybrid automatic repeat request process; stopping at least one timer for the hybrid automatic repeat request process, the at least one timer including at least one of a configured grant timer and a configured grant retransmission timer started in a previous transmission of the transport block in the hybrid automatic repeat request process; The device of claim 1 .

4. The at least one memory and the computer program code, together with the at least one processor, are further configured to: determining whether a configured grant retransmission timer for the hybrid automatic repeat request process has expired in response to determining that the selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process is deprioritized, the configured grant retransmission timer being started in a previous transmission of the transport block in the hybrid automatic repeat request process; in response to determining that the configured grant retransmission timer has expired, flushing the transport block from a buffer associated with the hybrid automatic repeat request process; The device of claim 1 .

5. The at least one memory and the computer program code, together with the at least one processor, are further configured to: determining whether the transport block is permitted to be transmitted in the configuration grant; determining whether the user data is present in the transport block in response to determining that the transport block is authorized to be transmitted in the configuration grant; The device of claim 1 .

6. 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code, together with the at least one processor, further cause the device to select the hybrid automatic repeat request process for performing the retransmission of the transport block in the configuration grant if at least a portion of the user data is included in the transport block.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the configuration grant is configured for an unlicensed band.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device comprises a terminal device.

9. 3. The device of claim 2, wherein the control information includes at least one of a hybrid automatic repeat request process-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), a channel state information (CSI), a scheduling request (SR), and a configuration grant uplink control information (CG-UCI).

10. determining whether there is no user data in a transport block to be retransmitted via a hybrid automatic repeat request process; de-prioritizing a selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in a configured grant based at least in part on the determination; and A method comprising:

11. The absence of user data in the transport block is determined as follows: the transport block is generated only to contain control information; and the transport block is generated in response to an overlap between resources for the control information and a configuration grant that precedes the configuration grant. The method of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of

12. in response to determining that the selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process is deprioritized, flushing the transport block from a buffer associated with the hybrid automatic repeat request process; stopping at least one timer for the hybrid automatic repeat request process, the at least one timer including at least one of a configured grant timer and a configured grant retransmission timer started in a previous transmission of the transport block in the hybrid automatic repeat request process; The method of claim 10 further comprising:

13. determining whether a configured grant retransmission timer for the hybrid automatic repeat request process has expired in response to determining that the selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process is deprioritized, the configured grant retransmission timer being started in a previous transmission of the transport block in the hybrid automatic repeat request process; in response to determining that the configured grant retransmission timer has expired, flushing the transport block from a buffer associated with the hybrid automatic repeat request process; The method of claim 10 further comprising:

14. determining whether the transport block is permitted to be transmitted in the configuration grant; 11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining whether user data is not present in the transport block comprises determining whether the user data is not present in the transport block in response to determining that the transport block is allowed to be transmitted in the configuration grant.

15. 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: selecting the hybrid automatic repeat request process to perform the retransmission of the transport block in the configuration grant if at least a portion of the user data is contained in the transport block.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the configured grant is configured in an unlicensed band.

17. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the control information includes at least one of a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Process-Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), a Channel State Information (CSI), a Scheduling Request (SR), and a Configuration Grant Uplink Control Information (CG-UCI).

18. means for determining whether user data is present in a transport block to be retransmitted via a hybrid automatic repeat request process; means for de-prioritizing a selection of the hybrid automatic repeat request process for one or more transmissions in a configuration grant based at least in part on the determination; 13. An apparatus comprising:

19. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to carry out at least the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17.

Images