Transmission parameter configuration

Abstract

To provide a method and an apparatus for implementing HARQ in a wireless non-terrestrial network (NTN) with large delay.SOLUTION: Methods include receiving, from a network node in a wireless network, control signaling that indicates a parameter configuration for data transmissions, by the network node or by a wireless device, the parameter configuration associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ processes. The indicated parameter configuration is one of a plurality of parameter configurations respectively corresponding to a plurality of different subsets of the HARQ processes. The different subsets include a first subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled, and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled. The methods include transmitting / receiving data associated with the subset of the HARQ processes according to the indicated parameter configuration.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2A

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] This application relates generally to the field of wireless networks, and more particularly to techniques for improving error control procedures (e.g., hybrid ARQ) for data transmissions, for example, in non-terrestrial networks where such transmissions may be subject to relatively long propagation delays. [Background technology]

[0002] Introduction Some types of error control procedures (e.g., those based on hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) at the PHY / MAC layer) require the transmitter to wait for acknowledgment feedback from the receiver before performing a data (re)transmission. This stop-and-wait mechanism, combined with propagation delay, introduces inherent latency into the communication protocol and can reduce link throughput. To mitigate this problem, some approaches allow multiple error control processes (e.g., HARQ processes) to be activated simultaneously, allowing the transmitter to initiate multiple transmissions in parallel according to different error control processes. In this way, a transmission for one error control process does not require the transmitter to wait for acknowledgment feedback for another error control process.

[0003] Theoretically, the number of simultaneously active error control processes can be increased so that the error control mechanism can cope with larger propagation delays, such as those that may exist in non-terrestrial networks. However, increasing the number of error control processes requires larger memory at the transmitter and receiver, a reduction in the maximum supported transport block size, and increased signaling overhead. Therefore, error control procedures may not be suitable for wireless communication networks with large propagation delays, such as non-terrestrial networks. Disabling error control procedures in non-terrestrial networks avoids these effects, but causes packet loss. This packet loss then triggers retransmission protocols at higher layers, which in turn introduce additional latency, thereby defeating the very purpose of disabling the error control procedures. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide certain improvements to wireless communications between wireless devices and wireless networks, including by facilitating solutions to overcome the example problems summarized above and described in more detail below.

[0005] Embodiments include example methods (e.g., procedures) for a wireless device. These embodiments may include receiving control signaling from a network node in a wireless network indicating parameter settings for a data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device, the parameter settings being associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes. The indicated parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings corresponding to different subsets of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset of one or more HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled.

[0006] In some embodiments, these embodiments may further include transmitting or receiving a data transmission associated with the subset of HARQ processes in accordance with the indicated parameter settings.

[0007] In some embodiments, the parameter settings shown are for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type, while in other embodiments, the parameter settings shown are for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled or for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled.

[0008] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; ●Transmit waveform type, ● modulation and coding scheme table, ● a time domain resource allocation table; ● Type of frequency resource allocation; ● target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling settings, The type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or • Physical uplink shared channel transmission method.

[0009] Other embodiments include example methods (e.g., procedures) for a wireless device. These example methods may include transmitting Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by the network node to a network node in a wireless network. The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook that includes: a first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgement; and ● A second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process with HARQ feedback enabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of that DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook may be a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere herein.

[0010] In some embodiments, the example method may further include receiving, from the network node via a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), a set of downlink control information (DCI) indicating respective schedules for the set of DL transmissions, and receiving, from the network node via a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH), the set of DL transmissions according to the respective schedules.

[0011] In some of these embodiments, the location of a first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a first HARQ process, and similarly, the location of a second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a second HARQ process.

[0012] Other embodiments include exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) of a network node in a wireless network. These embodiments may include transmitting control signaling to a wireless device indicating parameter settings for a data transmission associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes by the network node or by the wireless device. The indicated parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings corresponding to different subsets of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset of one or more HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled.

[0013] In some embodiments, these embodiments may further include transmitting or receiving a data transmission associated with the subset of HARQ processes in accordance with the indicated parameter settings.

[0014] In some embodiments, the indicated parameter settings may be for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type, while in other embodiments, the indicated parameter settings may be for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled or for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled.

[0015] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; ●Transmit waveform type, ● modulation and coding scheme table, ● a time domain resource allocation table; ● Type of frequency resource allocation; ● target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling settings, The type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or

[0016] Other embodiments include other exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) of a network node in a wireless network. These exemplary methods may include receiving, by the network node, Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions from a wireless device. The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook that includes: a first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgement; and ● A second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process with HARQ feedback enabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of that DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook may be a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere herein.

[0017] In some embodiments, the example methods may further include transmitting a set of downlink control information (DCI) indicating respective schedules for the set of DL transmissions to the wireless device via a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), and transmitting the set of DL transmissions to the wireless device via a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH) in accordance with the respective schedules.

[0018] In some of these embodiments, the location of a first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a first HARQ process, and similarly, the location of a second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a second HARQ process.

[0019] Other embodiments include network nodes (e.g., base stations, eNBs, gNBs, etc., or components thereof) and wireless devices (e.g., user equipment) configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described herein. Other embodiments include non-transitory computer-readable media having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry in such network nodes or UEs, configure the network nodes or UEs to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described herein.

[0020] These and other objects, features and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description in light of the drawings briefly summarized below. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0021] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates a communication network according to some embodiments. [Figure 2A] , [Figure 2B] , [Figure 2C] , [Figure 2D] FIG. 2, which comprises FIGS. 2A-2D, illustrates various methods performed by a wireless device according to some embodiments. [Figure 3A] , [Figure 3B] , [Figure 3C] , [Figure 3D]FIG. 3, which comprises FIGS. 3A-3D, illustrates various methods performed by a network node according to some embodiments. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary wireless device according to some embodiments. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary network node according to some embodiments. [Figure 6] Figure 6 shows an example architecture of a satellite (or non-terrestrial) network with bent-pipe transponders. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 illustrates the various delays associated with a Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) procedure. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary time division duplex (TDD) pattern for codebook-based downlink (DL) data transmission and corresponding HARQ uplink (UL) transmission, according to some embodiments. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 illustrates an example in which two serving cells and three physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring opportunities are configured for a user equipment unit (UE) in accordance with some embodiments. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 illustrates another example TDD pattern for codebook-based DL data transmission and corresponding HARQ UL transmission, according to some embodiments. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 illustrates an example in which a combination of the HARQ process number field and the redundancy version (RV) field is used to identify the HARQ process number, according to some embodiments. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a wireless communication network according to some embodiments. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a user device according to some embodiments. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a virtualized environment according to some embodiments. [Figure 15] FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a communication network having a host computer, according to some embodiments. [Figure 16] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a host computer according to some embodiments. [Figure 17] , [Figure 18] , [Figure 19] , [Figure 20] 17-20 are flowcharts illustrating various methods implemented in a communication system, according to various embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0022] Some of the embodiments discussed herein are described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, other embodiments are included within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein, and the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as being limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided as examples to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

[0023] In general, all terms used herein should be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field unless a different meaning is expressly given and / or is implied from the context in which it is used. Any reference to an element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. should be openly interpreted as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless otherwise specified. The steps of any method and / or procedure disclosed herein need not be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as after or before another step and / or it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, where appropriate. Similarly, any advantage of any embodiment can be applied to any other embodiment, and vice versa. Other objects, features, and advantages of the embodiments herein will become apparent from the following description.

[0024] Additionally, the following terms are used throughout the description provided below: ● Wireless node: As used herein, a "wireless node" can be either a "wireless access node" or a "wireless device." Radio Access Node: As used herein, a "radio access node" (or, equivalently, a "radio network node," "radio access network node," or "RAN node") can be any node in a Radio Access Network (RAN) of a cellular communications network that operates to transmit and / or receive signals wirelessly. Some examples of a radio access node include, but are not limited to, a base station (e.g., a New Radio (NR) base station (gNB) in a 3GPP fifth-generation (5G) NR network or an enhanced or evolved Node B (eNB) in a 3GPP LTE network), a base station distributed component (e.g., a CU and DU), a high-power or macro base station, a low-power base station (e.g., a micro base station, a pico base station, a femto base station, or a home base station), an integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, a transmission point, a remote radio unit (RRU or RRH), and a relay node. Core network node: As used herein, a "core network node" is any type of node in a core network. Some examples of core network nodes include, for example, a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (SGW), a PDN Gateway (P-GW), a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), a User Plane Function (UPF), a Charging Function (CHF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), an Authentication Server Function (AUSF), etc. Wireless Device: As used herein, a "wireless device" (or "WD" for short) is any type of device that accesses (i.e., is served by) a cellular communications network by wirelessly communicating with network nodes and / or other wireless devices. Wireless communication may involve transmitting and / or receiving radio signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information over the air. Unless otherwise noted, the term "wireless device" is used interchangeably with "user equipment" (or "UE" for short) herein. Some examples of wireless devices include, but are not limited to, smartphones, mobile phones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless cameras, gaming consoles or devices, music storage, playback devices, wearable terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, tablets, laptops, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), mobile-type communication (MTC), Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, and the like. Network Node: As used herein, a "network node" is any node that is part of a radio access network (e.g., a radio access node or similar designation as described above) or part of a core network of a cellular communications network (e.g., a core network node as described above). Functionally, a network node refers to a device that is capable of, configured to, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with wireless devices and / or with other network nodes or devices in a cellular communications network to enable and / or provide wireless access to the wireless devices and / or to perform other functions (e.g., management) in the cellular communications network.

[0025] It should be noted that the description provided herein focuses on 3GPP cellular communication systems, and therefore 3GPP terminology or terminology similar to 3GPP terminology is often used. However, the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to 3GPP systems. Furthermore, although the term "cell" is used herein, it should be understood that a beam may be used instead of a cell (particularly with respect to 5G NR), and therefore the concepts described herein apply equally to both cells and beams.

[0026] 1 illustrates a communication network 10 according to some embodiments. Network 10 may be, for example, a non-terrestrial network (NTN), also referred to as a satellite-based radio access network. In some embodiments, network 10 is a radio access network for a cellular communication network, such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) or New Radio (NR) network.

[0027] As shown, network 10 includes a network node 12, for example, within a radio access network or core network (CN) of a wireless communication network. Network node 12 may be, for example, a radio network node (e.g., a base station). Nevertheless, network node 12 as shown is connected to a ground-based base station antenna 14 that is remote (i.e., not co-located) from network node 12 in this example. Network 10 further includes a satellite 16, for example, a space-borne platform connected to ground-based base station antenna 14 via a feeder link 15 that provides a satellite-based service link 17 to wireless devices 18 located within a respective spot beam or cell.

[0028] Depending on the function of the satellite 406 in the satellite-based radio access network 400, two transponder options can be considered: In a bent-pipe transponder, the satellite 16 transmits the received signal back to the ground simply by amplifying and shifting it from the uplink frequency to the downlink frequency; and in a regenerative transponder, the satellite 16 includes on-board processing to demodulate and decode the received signal to regenerate the signal before transmitting it back to the ground.

[0029] In this context, wireless device 18 supports multiple error control processes 20-1...20-N that are simultaneously active. For example, error control processes 20-1...20-N may take the form of multiple HARQ processes, controlled, for example, by the MAC layer. This means that wireless device 18 can transmit or receive multiple transmissions in parallel according to different ones of error control processes 20-1...20-N. For example, wireless device 18 can transmit or receive transmission 22-1 according to error control process 20-1 in parallel with transmitting or receiving transmission 22-N according to error control process 20-N. If transmissions 22-1, 22-N are uplink transmissions, wireless device 18 can transmit transmission 22-1 according to error control process 20-1 without having to wait for acknowledgment feedback for transmission 22-N performed according to error control process 20-N.

[0030] In particular, some embodiments herein allow transmission parameters to be set for error control processes on an error control process-by-error control process basis, for error control processes on an error control process-by-error control process type basis, or any other basis that allows different subsets of error control processes 20-1...20-N to have distinct transmission parameter settings. Thus, some embodiments allow transmission parameters to be set differently for different error control processes 20-1...20-N. That is, parameters for transmissions 22-1...22-N for different error control processes 20-1...20-N can (but need not) be set differently. As shown in FIG. 1 , for example, a wireless device may transmit or receive transmission 22-1 for error control process 20-1 according to parameter setting 24-1 and transmission 22-N for error control process 20-N according to parameter setting 24-N.

[0031] In some embodiments, for example, any of parameter settings 24-1...24-N may include a setting for one or more power control parameters. The one or more power control parameters may include, for example, one or more of a nominal target received power, a path loss compensation factor, a delta modulation and coding scheme, a transmit power control accumulation, a number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device, or a parameter that maps a transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value. Here, the nominal target received power may be the sum of a cell-specific component and a device-specific component, the path loss compensation factor may define how much the estimated path loss needs to be compensated for by the transmit power for the transmission, the delta modulation and coding scheme parameter may define whether a factor that is a function of the modulation and coding scheme is added to calculate the transmit power for the transmission, and / or the transmit power control accumulation may define whether the power control command is applied with accumulation.

[0032] Alternatively or additionally, any of the parameter settings 24-1...24-N may include a setting for the actual transmit power level, for example, whether or not transmission should occur at maximum transmit power.

[0033] Alternatively or additionally, any of the parameter settings 24-1...24-N may include one or more settings of an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots scheduled by the downlink control information, a transmission waveform type, a modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table, a frequency resource allocation type, a target block error rate, a physical resource block bundling setting, a physical downlink shared channel mapping type, or a physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme.

[0034] Regardless of the particular parameters set by parameter settings 24-1...24-N, according to some embodiments, one or more of parameter settings 24-1...24-N may be signaled by network node 12. That is, as shown, in some embodiments, network node 12 transmits control signaling 26 to wireless device 18 for transmission parameter configuration. In this regard, control signaling 26 indicates parameter settings 28 according to which transmission for a subset of one or more error control processes is to be performed (here, subset refers to a proper subset in mathematical terms, i.e., a part of a larger set). For example, if a subset includes only error control process 20-1, the control signaling may indicate parameter settings 28 (e.g., indicating parameter setting 24-1) according to which transmission for error control process 20-1 is to be performed.

[0035] In some embodiments, the one or more error control processes in a subset may include one or more error control processes identified by one or more respective error control process identities. In this case, control signaling 26 may indicate the one or more respective error control process identities. Thus, control signaling 26 may include parameter settings 28 and the identities of the error control processes for which transmissions are to be performed according to the parameter settings 28.

[0036] In another example, one or more error control processes in a subset may include any error control process of a certain type. In these and other embodiments, for example, one or more error control processes in a subset may include any error control process for which error control feedback is disabled, or may include any error control process for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0037] More specifically, in this regard, transmission parameters according to some embodiments may be set differently for different error control processes 20-1...20-N depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for those respective error control processes. That is, in some embodiments, error control feedback for any given error control process may be selectively enabled or disabled, dynamically or semi-statically, e.g., via a MAC control element (CE) or via RRC signaling. For example, error control feedback may be enabled for error control processes associated with delay-tolerant applications or requiring transmission reliability as a primary concern, but disabled for error control processes associated with delay-intolerant applications or requiring transmission latency or throughput as a primary concern. In this context, transmission parameters may be configured to make transmission more reliable for error control processes for which feedback is disabled compared to error control processes for which feedback is enabled. Configuring transmission for a feedback-disabled error control process to be more reliable advantageously reduces packet loss and triggering of upper layer retransmission protocols, with a corresponding improvement in transmission latency.

[0038] In this case, in some embodiments, control signaling 26 may indicate parameter settings 28 according to which transmissions are to be made for any error control processes for which feedback is disabled, or alternatively, control signaling 26 may indicate parameter settings 28 according to which transmissions are to be made for any error control processes for which feedback is enabled.

[0039] Although control signaling 26 is illustrated with respect to one subset, control signaling 26 may generally indicate different parameter settings according to which transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes occur. For example, the different subsets may include a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0040] Note that in some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled for an error control process, transmissions are still scheduled using the error control process ID / number, e.g., in a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message, but the transmitting node does not expect to receive any acknowledgement feedback (explicit or implicit) or schedule retransmissions.

[0041] In view of the above modifications and variations, FIGS. 2A-2D illustrate various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) for a wireless device 18 (as shown in FIG. 1 ) according to various exemplary embodiments. Similarly, FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) for a network node 12 (as shown in FIG. 1 ) according to various exemplary embodiments. Although the exemplary methods are illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2D and 3A-3D by particular blocks in a particular order, the operations corresponding to the blocks may be performed in an order different from that illustrated, or may be combined and / or divided into blocks having different functionality than that illustrated. Furthermore, the various exemplary methods illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2D and 3A-3D may be complementary to one another such that they may be used in conjunction to provide various advantages, benefits, and / or solutions to problems, including those described herein. Optional blocks and / or operations are indicated by dashed lines.

[0042] In the example method shown in FIG. 2A, a wireless device may receive (e.g., at block 200) control signaling from a network node in a wireless network indicating parameter settings (e.g., 28 shown in FIG. 1) associated with a subset of a plurality of Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) processes for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device. The indicated parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings corresponding to different subsets of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0043] In some embodiments, the wireless device may further transmit or receive data transmissions associated with the subset of HARQ processes in accordance with the indicated parameter settings (eg, at block 210).

[0044] In some embodiments, the parameter settings shown are for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type, while in other embodiments, the parameter settings shown are for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled or for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled.

[0045] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; ●Transmit waveform type, ● modulation and coding scheme table, ● a time domain resource allocation table; ● Type of frequency resource allocation; ● target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling settings, The type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or • Physical uplink shared channel transmission method.

[0046] 2B illustrates another exemplary method for a wireless device according to another exemplary embodiment. The method may include transmitting or receiving transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings (block 230). Alternatively or additionally, the method may include receiving control signaling 26 from the network node 12 indicating different parameter settings according to which transmissions for the different subsets of one or more error control processes are to be performed (block 220).

[0047] 2C illustrates another exemplary method for a wireless device, according to another exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary method shown in FIG. 2C, the wireless device may transmit (e.g., at block 250) hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by the network node to a network node in a wireless network. The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook that includes: a first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgement; and ● A second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process with HARQ feedback enabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of that DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook may be a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere herein.

[0048] In some embodiments, the example method may also include operations of blocks 235-240. At block 235, the wireless device may receive a set of downlink control information (DCI) from a network node via a physical DL control channel (PDCCH) indicating respective schedules for the set of DL transmissions. At block 240, the wireless device may receive a set of DL transmissions from the network node via a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH) according to the respective schedules.

[0049] In some of these embodiments, the location of a first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a first HARQ process, and similarly, the location of a second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a second HARQ process.

[0050] 2D illustrates another exemplary method for a wireless device according to another exemplary embodiment. The method includes receiving a downlink control information message scheduling a downlink transmission for an error control process and including a set of one or more fields, an interpretation of the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the error control process (block 260). In some embodiments, the method further includes interpreting the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the error control process (block 270). The method may also include receiving a downlink transmission in accordance with the received downlink control information message (block 280).

[0051] In some embodiments, the one or more fields in the set include one or more of a downlink allocation indicator field, a redundancy version field, a feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field. In some embodiments, the downlink allocation indicator field indicates a size of a Type 2 HARQ codebook. In some embodiments, the redundancy version field indicates a redundancy version of a transport block transmitted to a wireless device. If feedback is enabled for an error control process, a wireless device may receive the same transport block with different redundancy versions that the wireless device can soft-combine to improve the reliability of transmissions received over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In some embodiments, the feedback timing field indicates a time offset from the time a PDSCH corresponding to an error control process is received to the time feedback corresponding to the error control process is transmitted. In some embodiments, the physical uplink control channel resource indicator field indicates which of a plurality of resources should be used for feedback corresponding to an error control process on the physical uplink control channel.

[0052] In some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation factor that indicates the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with a scheduled downlink transmission.

[0053] Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, a set of one or more fields indicates an error control process number that, in combination with an error control process number field in the downlink control information message, identifies an error control process.

[0054] 3A illustrates an exemplary method for a network node in a wireless network according to another exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary method illustrated in FIG. 3A, the network node may transmit control signaling to a wireless device (e.g., at block 300) indicating parameter settings associated with a subset of a plurality of Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) processes (e.g., 28 shown in FIG. 1), the parameter settings for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device. The indicated parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings corresponding to different subsets of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0055] In some embodiments, the network node may further transmit or receive data transmissions associated with the subset of HARQ processes in accordance with the indicated parameter settings (eg, at block 310).

[0056] In some embodiments, the parameter settings shown are for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type, while in other embodiments, the parameter settings shown are for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled or for all HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled.

[0057] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; ●Transmit waveform type, ● modulation and coding scheme table, ● a time domain resource allocation table; ● Type of frequency resource allocation; ● target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling settings, The type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or • Physical uplink shared channel transmission method.

[0058] 3B illustrates another exemplary method for a network node, according to another exemplary embodiment, to transmit or receive transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings (block 330). Alternatively or additionally, the method may include transmitting control signaling 26 from the network node 12 to the wireless device indicating different parameter settings according to which transmissions for the different subsets of one or more error control processes are to be performed (block 320).

[0059] 3C illustrates another exemplary method for a network node according to another exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary method shown in FIG. 3C, the network node may receive Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback from a wireless device (e.g., at block 350) for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by the network node. The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook that includes: a first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgement; and ● A second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process with HARQ feedback enabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of that DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook may be a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere herein.

[0060] In some embodiments, the example method may also include operations of blocks 335-340. At block 335, the network node may transmit a set of downlink control information (DCI) indicating respective schedules for the set of DL transmissions to the wireless device via a physical DL control channel (PDCCH). At block 340, the network node may transmit the set of DL transmissions according to the respective schedules to the wireless device via a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH).

[0061] In some of these embodiments, the location of a first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a first HARQ process, and similarly, the location of a second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with a second HARQ process.

[0062] 3D illustrates another exemplary method for a network node according to another exemplary embodiment. The method includes transmitting to a wireless device a downlink control information message scheduling downlink transmissions for an error control process and including a set of one or more fields, the interpretation of which depends on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the error control process (block 370). In some embodiments, the method may further include encoding the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the error control process (block 360). The method may alternatively or additionally include transmitting the downlink transmission in accordance with the transmitted downlink control information message (block 380).

[0063] In some embodiments, the one or more fields in the set include one or more of a downlink allocation indicator field, a redundancy version field, a feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field. In some embodiments, the downlink allocation indicator field indicates a size of a Type 2 HARQ codebook. In some embodiments, the redundancy version field indicates a redundancy version of a transport block to be transmitted to a wireless device. If feedback is enabled for an error control process, a wireless device may receive the same transport block with different redundancy versions that the wireless device can soft-combine to improve PDSCH reliability. In some embodiments, the feedback timing field indicates a time offset from the time a PDSCH corresponding to an error control process is received to the time feedback corresponding to the error control process is transmitted. In some embodiments, the physical uplink control channel resource indicator field indicates which of a plurality of resources should be used for feedback corresponding to an error control process on the physical uplink control channel.

[0064] In some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation factor that indicates the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with a scheduled downlink transmission.

[0065] Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, a set of one or more fields indicates an error control process number that, in combination with an error control process number field in the downlink control information message, identifies an error control process.

[0066] Embodiments herein also include corresponding apparatuses, computer-readable media, and computer program products. Examples of such embodiments include a wireless device configured to communicate with a network node in a wireless network via data transmission and HARQ feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the wireless device further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 2A-2D.

[0067] Another example includes a wireless device comprising a communications circuit configured to communicate with a network node in a wireless network, and a processing circuit operably coupled to the communications circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communications circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 2A-2D.

[0068] Another example includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a wireless device, configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 2A-2D.

[0069] Another example includes a computer program product including computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a wireless device, configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 2A-2D.

[0070] Another example includes a network node in a wireless network configured to communicate with one or more wireless devices via data transmissions and HARQ feedback associated with multiple HARQ processes, the network node further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 3A-3D.

[0071] Another example includes a network node comprising a communications circuit configured to communicate with wireless devices in a wireless network, and a processing circuit operably coupled to the communications circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communications circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 3A-3D.

[0072] Another example includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node in a wireless network, configure the network node to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 3A-3D.

[0073] Another example includes a computer program product including computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node in a wireless network, configure the network node to perform operations corresponding to any of the example methods described above in connection with Figures 3A-3D.

[0074] Embodiments further include a wireless device comprising a processing circuit and a power supply circuit, the processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device, and the power supply circuit configured to provide power to the wireless device.

[0075] Embodiments further include a wireless device comprising a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device. In some embodiments, the wireless device further comprises communications circuitry.

[0076] Embodiments further include a wireless device comprising a processing circuit and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processing circuit such that the wireless device is configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device.

[0077] Embodiments also include a user equipment (UE). The UE comprises an antenna configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. The UE further comprises a radio front-end circuit coupled to the antenna and the processing circuit and configured to condition signals exchanged between the antenna and the processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device. In some embodiments, the UE further comprises an input interface coupled to the processing circuit and configured to allow information input to the UE to be processed by the processing circuit. The UE may further comprise an output interface coupled to the processing circuit and configured to output information processed by the processing circuit from the UE. The UE may further comprise a battery coupled to the processing circuit and configured to provide power to the UE.

[0078] Embodiments herein further include a radio network node configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node.

[0079] Embodiments further include a radio network node comprising a processing circuit and a power supply circuit, the processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node, and the power supply circuit configured to provide power to the radio network node.

[0080] Embodiments further include a radio network node comprising processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node, hi some embodiments the radio network node further comprises communications circuitry.

[0081] Embodiments further include a radio network node comprising a processing circuit and a memory, the memory comprising instructions executable by the processing circuit whereby the radio network node is configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node.

[0082] More specifically, the above-described apparatus may perform the methods and any other processes described herein by implementing any functional means, modules, units, or circuits. In one embodiment, for example, the apparatus comprises a separate circuit or circuits configured to perform the steps illustrated in a method diagram. In this regard, the separate circuit or circuits may comprise dedicated circuitry for performing certain functional processes and / or one or more microprocessors coupled with memory. For example, the circuitry may include one or more microprocessors or microcontrollers and other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), dedicated digital logic, etc. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or more types of memory, such as read-only memory (ROM), random access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. In some embodiments, the program code stored in memory may include program instructions for implementing one or more telecommunications and / or data communication protocols and instructions for performing one or more of the techniques described herein. In embodiments using memory, the memory stores program code that, when executed by one or more processors, performs the techniques described herein.

[0083] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary wireless device 400 (e.g., wireless device 18) according to one or more embodiments. As shown, the wireless device 400 includes processing circuitry 410 and communication circuitry 420. The communication circuitry 420 (e.g., radio circuitry) is configured to transmit and / or receive information to and from one or more other nodes, e.g., using any communication technology. Such communication may occur via one or more antennas either internal or external to the wireless device 400. The processing circuitry 410 is configured to perform the processes described above, e.g., in FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and / or 2D, by executing instructions stored in memory 430. In this regard, the processing circuitry 410 may implement a functional means, unit, or module.

[0084] FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary network node 500 (e.g., network node 12) in accordance with one or more embodiments. As shown, network node 500 comprises processing circuitry 510 and communications circuitry 520. Communications circuitry 520 is configured to transmit and / or receive information to and from one or more other nodes, e.g., using any communications technology. Processing circuitry 510 is configured to perform the processes described above, e.g., in FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, and / or 3D, by executing instructions stored in memory 530. In this regard, processing circuitry 510 may implement certain functional means, units, or modules.

[0085] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the embodiments herein further include corresponding computer programs.

[0086] The computer program comprises instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a device, cause the device to perform any of the respective operations described above. In this regard, the computer program may comprise one or more code modules corresponding to the means or units described above.

[0087] Embodiments further include a carrier containing such a computer program, which may include one of an electrical signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.

[0088] In this regard, embodiments herein further include a computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable (storage or recording) medium, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to perform as described above.

[0089] Embodiments further include a computer program product comprising program code portions for performing the steps of any of the embodiments herein when the computer program product is executed by a computing device, which computer program product may be stored on a computer-readable recording medium.

[0090] Further embodiments are described below, e.g., with respect to HARQ processes in NTNs. At least some of these embodiments may be described, for illustrative purposes, as being applicable in certain contexts and / or wireless network types, but these embodiments are equally applicable in other contexts and / or wireless network types not explicitly described.

[0091] 3GPP Release 8 specified the Evolved Packet System (EPS). EPS is based on the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio network and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). It was originally intended to provide voice and mobile broadband (MBB) services, but has continuously evolved to extend its capabilities. Since Release 13, Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and LTE for machines (LTE-M) are part of the LTE specification, providing connectivity to massive machine type communications (mMTC) services.

[0092] 3GPP Release 15 developed the first release of the 5G System (5GS), a new generation of radio access technology intended to support use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC), and mMTC. 5G includes the New Radio (NR) access layer interface and the 5G Core Network (5GC). The NR physical layer and higher layers reuse portions of the LTE specification, adding necessary components as motivated by new use cases.

[0093] In Release 15, 3GPP began work to prepare NR for operation in non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). The work was carried out within the work item "NR to support non-terrestrial networks" resulting in TR 38.811. In Release 16, the work to prepare NR for operation in NTN networks continues in work item RP-181370 "Solutions for NR to support non-terrestrial networks."

[0094] A satellite radio access network typically includes the following components: (i) a satellite, which refers to a space-borne platform; (ii) a ground-based gateway, which connects the satellite to a base station or a core network, depending on the architecture choice; (iii) a feeder link, which refers to the link between the gateway and the satellite; and (iv) a service link, which refers to the link between the satellite and the UE.

[0095] Two common architectures are the bent-pipe transponder architecture and the regenerative transponder architecture. In the first case, the base station is located on the ground behind a gateway, and the satellite acts as a repeater forwarding the feeder link signal to the service link and vice versa. In the second case, the satellite is located within the base station, and the service link connects the satellite to the terrestrial-based core network.

[0096] Depending on their orbital altitude, satellites can be classified as low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), or geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites. Typical altitudes for LEO are 250-1500 km, with an orbital period of 90-120 minutes. Typical altitudes for MEO are 5000-25000 km, with an orbital period of 3-15 hours. Typical altitudes for GEO are approximately 35786 km, with an orbital period of 24 hours.

[0097] A communications satellite typically generates several beams over a given area. The beam footprint is usually an ellipse that has traditionally been considered a cell. The beam footprint is often also referred to as a spot beam. The spot beam may move on the Earth's surface with the satellite's motion, or it may be Earth-fixed with some beam-pointing mechanism used by the satellite to compensate for its motion. The size of the spot beam depends on the system design and can range from tens of kilometers to thousands of kilometers.

[0098] An exemplary architecture for a satellite (or non-terrestrial) network with bent-pipe transponders is shown in Figure 6. Two main physical phenomena that affect satellite communication system design are long propagation delay and the Doppler effect.

[0099] The Doppler effect is particularly pronounced for LEO satellites.

[0100] Propagation delay is a key physical phenomenon in satellite communication systems, which are designed differently from terrestrial mobile systems. For bent-pipe satellite networks, the following delays are relevant: One-way delay: Delay from the base station (BS) to the satellite and back to the UE, or vice versa Round trip delay: The delay from the BS to the satellite to the UE and back to the BS via the satellite. Differential delay: The difference in delay between two selected points within the same spot beam

[0101] Note that there may be an additional delay between the BS and the terrestrial BS antenna, which may or may not be collocated. This delay is deployment dependent. If the delay is not negligible, it must be taken into account in the design of the communication system.

[0102] The propagation delay depends on the length of the signal path, which in turn depends on the elevation angle of the satellite as seen by the terrestrial BS and the UE. The minimum elevation angle is typically greater than 10° for the UE and greater than 5° for the terrestrial BS.

[0103] The Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) protocol is one of the most important features in NR / LTE. Together with channel state information (CSI) feedback and link adaptation through HARQ ACK / NACK, HARQ enables efficient, reliable, and low-latency data transmission in NR / LTE.

[0104] Existing HARQ procedures at the PHY / MAC layer are designed for terrestrial networks where the round-trip time (RTT) propagation delay is limited to within 1 ms. In HARQ protocols, the transmitter must wait for feedback from the receiver before transmitting new data. In the case of a negative acknowledgment (NACK), the transmitter may need to retransmit the data packet; otherwise, it may transmit new data. This stop-and-wait (SAW) procedure introduces inherent latency into the communication protocol and can reduce link throughput. To mitigate this issue, existing HARQ procedures allow the transmitter to activate multiple HARQ processes. That is, the transmitter can initiate multiple transmissions in parallel without having to wait for HARQ completion. For example, with 16 (8) HARQ processes in NR (LTE) DL, a gNB (eNB) can initiate up to 16 (8) new data transmissions without waiting for an ACK for the first packet transmission. Note that there are sufficient HARQ processes for terrestrial networks, where propagation delays are typically less than 1 ms.

[0105] FIG. 7 illustrates the various delays associated with the HARQ procedure: 1. The packet first arrives at the receiver after a propagation delay Tp. 2. The receiver sends feedback after a processing / slot delay of T1. 3. The feedback reaches the data transmitter after a propagation delay Tp. 4. The transmitter may retransmit or send new data after a processing / slot delay T2. 5. To avoid HARQ stalls, the minimum required number of HARQ processes is ceil((2Tp+T1+T2) / Ts), where Ts refers to the slot duration in NR and the subframe duration in LTE.

[0106] The existing HARQ procedures in LTE / NR are primarily designed for terrestrial networks where propagation delays are typically limited to 1 ms, but problems exist when using existing HARQ protocols in environments with large propagation delays.

[0107] More specifically, if the propagation delay is much larger than the propagation delay supported by the allowed number of HARQ processes, existing HARQ mechanisms may be infeasible. For example, consider a scenario in which LTE DL is employed for satellite communications. For GEO, the RTT propagation delay may be approximately 500 ms. With eight HARQ processes, the eNB needs to wait approximately 500 ms before transmitting new data. This translates to benefiting from only a moderate percentage (8 / 500) of the available peak throughput. Even with the 16 HARQ processes supported by NR and a slot duration of 1 ms, the available peak throughput as a percentage of the total channel capacity is very low. Table 1 summarizes the peak throughput available to a UE for LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites. Therefore, without a sufficient number of HARQ processes, the large propagation delay may make closed-loop HARQ communications impractical.

[0108] The number of HARQ processes supported by existing HARQ protocols is not sufficient to accommodate the potentially large propagation delays in non-terrestrial networks. For example, Table 1 shows that the number of existing HARQ processes needs to be significantly increased to operate HARQ in a large propagation delay. Unfortunately, supporting a large number of HARQ processes (especially in the UE) is difficult for the following reasons: (i) it requires large memory in both the transmitter and receiver; (ii) it may require reducing the HARQ buffer size (and therefore the maximum supported transport block size (TBS)); (iii) a large number of HARQ buffers means a large number of HARQ receivers; and (iv) it may increase the signaling overhead for the HARQ ID. In fact, in NR, the HARQ process ID is signaled in the downlink control information (DCI), and currently, there are four bits in the HARQ process number field to signal this. Increasing the number of HARQ processes to 500 would require approximately nine bits (more than double the current four bits in the HARQ process number field).

[0109] TIFF2025143316000002.tif71144

[0110] Note that Release 15 NR supports up to 16 HARQ processes in the UL / DL, while LTE typically supports 8 processes in the UL / DL.

[0111] In summary, existing (PHY / MAC) HARQ mechanisms are not suitable for non-terrestrial networks with large propagation delays, and there is no existing signaling mechanism to disable HARQ at the PHY / MAC layer.

[0112] One solution is to use network configurable HARQ [3], i.e. the network must be able to configure the UE to turn off HARQ, and when HARQ is turned off there is no feedback on the transmission.

[0113] In the following, we consider NR HARQ ACK / NACK feedback via PUCCH. In NR, upon receiving a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in slot n from the serving gNB in ​​the downlink, the UE feeds back a HARQ ACK to the gNB in ​​slot n+k via PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources in the uplink if it successfully decodes the PDSCH. Otherwise, the UE transmits a HARQ NACK to the gNB in ​​slot n+k to indicate that the PDSCH was not successfully decoded. If two transport blocks (TBs) are carried by the PDSCH, a HARQ ACK / NACK is reported for each TB, so that if one TB is not successfully decoded, only that TB needs to be retransmitted by the gNB. Spatial bundling may also be configured, in which case the logical product of the decoding status of TB1 and TB2 is fed back to the gNB.

[0114] For DCI format 1-0, k is signaled by the 3-bit PDSCH-HARQ timing indicator field. For DCI format 1-1, k is signaled by the 3-bit PDSCH-HARQ timing indicator field (if present) or by higher layers through radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0115] If code block group (CBG) transmission is configured, HARQ ACK / NACK is reported for each CBG in the TB instead.

[0116] In case of carrier aggregation (CA) with multiple carriers and / or TDD operation, multiple aggregated HARQ ACK / NACK bits need to be transmitted in a single PUCCH.

[0117] In NR, up to four PUCCH resource sets can be configured for a UE. The PUCCH resource set with pucch-ResourceSetId=0 can have up to 32 PUCCH resources, while the PUCCH resource sets with pucch-ResourceSetId=1-3 can each have up to 8 PUCCH resources. The UE determines the PUCCH resource set for a slot based on the number of aggregated UCI (Uplink Control Information) bits transmitted in that slot. The UCI bits consist of HARQ ACK / NACK, Scheduling Request (SR), and Channel State Information (CSI) bits.

[0118] UE is O UCI When transmitting UCI information bits, the UE determines the PUCCH resource set as follows: When HARQ-ACK information and SR transmission occur simultaneously, UCI Set to the first set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId=0 when ≦2 includes one or two HARQ-ACK information bits and a positive or negative SR in one SR transmission opportunity, or ● Provided by higher layers, 2 <O UCI If N2 or less, set to the second set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId=1, or ● Provided by higher layers, N2 <O UCI If N3 or less, set to the third set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId=2, or ● Provided by higher layers, N3 <O UCI If ≦1706, set to the fourth set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId=3, or

[0119] Here, N1 < N2 < N3 are provided by the upper layer.

[0120] In the case of PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information, after determining the PUCCH resource set, the UE determines the PUCCH resource. The determination of the PUCCH resource is based on the 3-bit PUCCH resource indicator (PRI: PUCCH resource indicator) field of DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1.

[0121] When receiving two or more DCI formats 1_0 or 1_1 in the case of CA and / or TDD, the determination of the PUCCH resource is based on the PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) field in the last DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 among the multiple received DCI formats 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 detected by the UE.

[0122] NR Release 15 supports two types of HARQ codebooks, namely, semi-static (type 1) and dynamic (type 2) codebooks, for HARQ Ack / Nack multiplexing for multiple PDSCHs of one or more component carriers (CCs). The UE may be configured to use any one of the codebooks for HARQ Ack / Nack feedback.

[0123] Hereinafter, the determination of the NR type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook is considered. The HARQ codebook (CB) size (DL association set) in time is determined based on the set of configured HARQ-ACK timings K1 and the semi-statically configured TDD pattern in the case of TDD. For the PDCCH received in slot n for the PDSCH, K1 is signaled by the PDCCH, indicating that the HARQ A / N feedback for the PDSCH occurs in slot n + K1.

[0124] An example of a TDD pattern with a set of K1 from 1 to 5 and a configured time domain resource allocation table or pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList without non-overlapping PDSCH TDRA allocations (i.e., only one PDSCH can be scheduled in a slot) is shown in Figure 8. In this case, there are five entries in the HARQ codebook, one for each K1 value. For slots with no PDSCH transmission or where no PDSCH is detected, the corresponding entry in the codebook is filled with a NACK.

[0125] If the UE supports reception of more than one unicast PDSCH per slot, one HARQ codebook entry is reserved per slot for each non-overlapping time domain resource allocation in the pdsch-symbolAllocation table, otherwise one HARQ entry is reserved per slot.

[0126] In the following, we consider the determination of the NR type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook. Unlike the type-1 HARQ codebook, the size of the type-2 HARQ codebook dynamically changes based on the number of DCIs scheduling PDSCH reception or SPS PSSCH release associated with the same PUCCH resource for HARQ ACK / NACK feedback. The number of DCIs can be derived based on the counter DAI (downlink allocation indicator) field in the DCI, and in the case of DCI format 1-1, based on the total DAI field when more than one serving cell is configured.

[0127] The value of the Counter DAI field in DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 indicates the cumulative number of (one or more) {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} pairs for which there are (one or more) PDSCH receptions or SPS PSSCH releases associated with DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 up to the current serving cell and the current PDCCH monitoring occasion.

[0128] The value of the total DAI of DCI format 1_1, if present, means the total number of (one or more) {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring opportunity} pairs for which there are (one or more) PDSCH receptions or SPS PSSCH releases associated with DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 up to the current PDCCH monitoring opportunity, and is updated from PDCCH monitoring opportunity to PDCCH monitoring opportunity.

[0129] An example is shown in Figure 9, where two serving cells and three PDCCH monitoring occasions are configured for the UE. The corresponding counter DAI and total DAI values ​​after each scheduled DCI are shown. The counter DAI is updated after each scheduled DCI, while the total DAI is updated only at each monitoring occasion. Since only two bits are allocated for either the counter DAI or the total DAI in a DCI, the actual DAI value is wrapped around modulo 4 arithmetic. If the number of undetected consecutive DCIs is less than four, the UE can find the actual number of transmitted DCIs even if some DCIs are not detected.

[0130] For DCI format 1-1, the DAI field is present only if type 2 HARQ-ACK is used and can have a bit width of 0, 2, or 4 bits. For DCI format 1-0, the DAI field consists of 2 bits.

[0131] Currently, a challenge exists. The large delays in NTN scenarios can be addressed using deactivation of HARQ. However, without a HARQ mechanism at the PHY / MAC layer, transmission reliability is significantly reduced. In the event of packet loss, the receiver will rely on higher layer (e.g., RLC) retransmissions and error control protocols to recover the lost packets. However, this can introduce additional latency due to large propagation delays (i.e., for the very same reasons that HARQ was deemed inappropriate and deactivated in the first place).

[0132] Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these and other problems. Some embodiments herein include methods for improving transmission reliability (e.g., at the PHY / MAC layer) for cases where HARQ feedback / retransmission protocols / mechanisms are disabled for some HARQ processes and enabled for the remaining HARQ processes.

[0133] More specifically, the HARQ protocol / mechanism as used herein refers to a HARQ procedure at the PHY / MAC layer. As used herein, the term "feedback-less HARQ process" refers to a HARQ process in which HARQ feedback is disabled. A feedback-less HARQ process is an example of the error control processes 20-1...20-N of FIG. 1 in which feedback is disabled. When HARQ feedback is disabled, retransmissions may be effectively disabled for such HARQ process. Similarly, as used herein, the term "feedback-based HARQ process" refers to a HARQ process in which HARQ feedback is enabled. When HARQ feedback is enabled, retransmissions may be effectively enabled for such HARQ process. A feedback-based HARQ process is an example of the error control processes 20-1...20-N of FIG. 1 in which feedback is enabled. In this context, some embodiments herein use different transmission configurations for feedback-based HARQ processes and feedback-less HARQ processes. In this approach, PHY layer transmission can be made more reliable for feedback-less HARQ processes without compromising the performance of feedback-based HARQ processes. This avoids unnecessary invocation of higher layer retransmission / error control protocols in feedback-less HARQ processes, which may add additional latency and reduce throughput due to large propagation delays in non-terrestrial networks.

[0134] Some embodiments generally adapt HARQ to non-terrestrial networks.

[0135] Some embodiments introduce a method for specifying different parameter settings for HARQ feedback-disabled and HARQ feedback-enabled HARQ processes. This allows the network to configure parameters related to power control, modulation and coding scheme (MCS), waveform, etc. (e.g., via control signaling 26 in FIG. 1 ) to make transmissions over feedback-less HARQ processes more reliable. By improving the reliability of feedback-less HARQ processes, some embodiments can help reduce overall latency by avoiding the need to invoke higher layer error control / retransmission procedures when HARQ is disabled at the PHY / MAC layer. Furthermore, this additional reliability can be obtained without disrupting the operation of feedback-based HARQ processes. Some embodiments alternatively or additionally provide the UE procedures necessary to determine NR Type 1 HARQ codebook entries when both feedback-less and feedback-based HARQ processes are configured for the UE.

[0136] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages: Some embodiments introduce a method for setting transmission parameters differently for HARQ processes when HARQ is enabled or disabled. Without this distinction, the same parameter settings apply to all HARQ processes, regardless of whether the HARQ mechanism is disabled. The ability to signal different parameter settings for different HARQ processes has several potential advantages: (i) Helps improve transmission reliability for feedback-less HARQ processes; (ii) a more reliable feedback-less HARQ process means that error control procedures / retransmissions are triggered conservatively, which may help reduce latency compared to the case where RLC retransmissions are used excessively due to decoding errors at the PHY / MAC layer; and / or (iii) It helps to avoid performance degradation for feedback-based HARQ processes, since the network does not need to change the parameter settings for feedback-based HARQ processes to accommodate feedback-less HARQ processes.

[0137] Some embodiments separate transmission configurations for feedback-based and feedback-less HARQ processes. Traditionally, transmission parameter configurations signaled by a gNB to a UE apply to all HARQ processes. In contrast, some embodiments herein separate transmission parameter configurations for feedback-less HARQ processes from transmission parameter configurations for feedback-based HARQ processes.

[0138] Consider an example where HARQ feedback is enabled for HARQ process ID 0 and disabled for the remaining HARQ processes. In this case, a gNB according to some embodiments herein may configure (e.g., via control signaling 26 of FIG. 1 ) two sets of transmission parameter settings: one for the feedback-based HARQ process with ID 0 and one for the feedback-less HARQ process. The UE then applies the corresponding settings to the HARQ process depending on whether the HARQ process is a feedback-based or feedback-less HARQ process.

[0139] Some embodiments relate specifically to power control configuration, for example, by introducing new radio resource control (RRC) signaling to allow a gNB to configure power control parameters independently for feedback-less and feedback-based HARQ processes.

[0140] In one example, the power control profile may be set more aggressively for HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled. For example, the target received power may be set to a higher value to encourage the UE to transmit at higher power when using feedback-less HARQ processes. However, the normal power control setting may be used for feedback-based HARQ processes.

[0141] The following are examples of power control parameters that may be set differently for feedback-less and feedback-based HARQ processes: (i) nominal UE-specific P0; (ii) path loss compensation coefficient alpha; (iii) Delta MCS; (iv) tpc cumulative; (v) two PUSCH-PC adjustment states, and / or (vi) Mapping of the TPC command field in the DCI to absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control values.

[0142] Other embodiments herein relate to transmit power selection. One embodiment introduces new signaling to allow the gNB to directly configure the transmit power for feedback-less HARQ processes, for example. That is, instead of configuring power control parameters differently for feedback-less and feedback-based HARQ processes, this embodiment allows the gNB to directly configure the UE transmit power for a certain HARQ process.

[0143] Consider an example. Instead of relying on existing power control procedures, a gNB may directly set the transmit power for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission over a feedback-less HARQ process. For example, the power control procedure may suggest a transmit power lower than the maximum transmit power. To increase the received SNR at the gNB, some embodiments allow a UE to bypass the power control procedure entirely and transmit at maximum power. The higher the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the more likely the transmission will be successfully decoded.

[0144] In another embodiment, one bit is used to signal to the UE whether to transmit at full power or not.

[0145] In yet another embodiment, the gNB comprises: N If it is desired to select a transmit power level from a set of up to N possible values, N bits may be reserved for this purpose. For example, with N=2 bits, the gNB may signal the following four possibilities: TIFF2025143316000003.tif51128

[0146] The values ​​"X" and "Y" may be fixed in the 3GPP specifications or may be set by RRC signaling.

[0147] Generally, then, some embodiments introduce new signaling to enable a gNB to configure different transmission configurations for feedback-based and feedback-less HARQ processes.

[0148] Consider another example. To improve reliability, an aggregation factor greater than 1 may be set and applied to feedback-less HARQ processes, while an aggregation factor equal to 1 may be set and applied to feedback-based HARQ processes. As another example, to improve reliability, a more robust waveform may be set for HARQ processes in which HARQ feedback is disabled. For example, a DFT-S-OFDM waveform may be used for feedback-less HARQ processes, while CP-OFDM is used for feedback-based HARQ processes.

[0149] Other example transmission parameters that may be configured differently for feedback-less and feedback-based HARQ processes include one or more of the following: MCS table, time domain resource allocation table, frequency resource allocation Type 0 and Type 1, target block error rate, physical resource block (PRB) bundling configuration, PDSCH mapping Type A and Type B, and / or PUSCH transmission scheme (codebook-based transmission and non-codebook-based transmission).

[0150] Further embodiments herein consider the impact of the NR type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook. When both a feedback-less HARQ process and a feedback-based HARQ process are configured for a UE, some embodiments define UE procedures for determining entries in the NR type 1 HARQ codebook. In one embodiment, a UE procedure for determining entries in the NR type 1 HARQ codebook is defined when both a feedback-less HARQ process and a feedback-based HARQ process are configured for the UE. In one embodiment, the UE inserts a NACK into the NR type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook at a position corresponding to the PDSCH associated with the feedback-less HARQ process. For a PDSCH associated with a feedback-based HARQ process, the UE inserts an ACK or NACK depending on the decoding result of the PDSCH.

[0151] 10 shows an example of a Type-1 HARQ codebook with K1={1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, with NACKs inserted at positions corresponding to PDSCHs associated with feedback-less HARQ processes. In a DL association set for HARQ CB in slot n, a UE receives a PDSCH associated with a feedback-less HARQ process in slot n-3 (corresponding to K1=3) and a PDSCH associated with a feedback-based HARQ process in slot n-1 (corresponding to K1=1). Because there is no ACK-NACK feedback for the PDSCH associated with the feedback-less HARQ process, the UE inserts a NACK(N) at position K1=3, which corresponds to the PDSCH received in slot n-3. For the PDSCH received in slot n-1 associated with the feedback-based HARQ process, the UE inserts an ACK-NACK bit X that depends on the result of the PDSCH associated with the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0152] Similarly, in the DL association set for HARQ CB in slot n+5, the UE inserts a NACK at position K1=2 corresponding to the PDSCH associated with the feedback-less HARQ process. For the PDSCH received in slot n+1 associated with the feedback-based HARQ process, the UE inserts an ACK-NACK bit X that depends on the outcome of the PDSCH associated with the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0153] Yet another embodiment herein relates to efficient use of unused DCI fields. When a PDSCH corresponding to a feedback-less HARQ process is scheduled by DCI, one or more DCI fields may not be useful. For example, DCI fields such as DAI, RV (redundancy version), PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing, and PRI are not useful because there is no ACK / NACK feedback for the PDSCH corresponding to the feedback-less HARQ process. In one embodiment, one or a combination of these fields can be used to dynamically indicate other information related to the PDSCH corresponding to the feedback-less HARQ process.

[0154] In one variation of this embodiment, a list of aggregation factors may be configured for a feedbackless HARQ process, and one of the aggregation factor values ​​may be dynamically indicated by one or a combination of DCI fields such as DAI, RV (redundancy version), PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing, and PRI. For example, if a UE receives a PDSCH corresponding to a feedbackless HARQ process (as indicated by the HARQ process number field in the DCI), the UE infers the aggregation factor value associated with the PDSCH by interpreting one or a combination of the DAI, RV, PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing, and PRI fields. If a UE receives a PDSCH corresponding to a feedback-based HARQ process, the DAI, RV, PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing, and PRI fields are interpreted in the legacy manner as specified in NR Release 15.

[0155] In this regard, it should be noted that different types of data traffic may have different reliability requirements. Therefore, it is beneficial to dynamically indicate the aggregation factor. For example, a larger aggregation factor may be dynamically indicated for data requiring higher reliability, and a smaller aggregation factor may be dynamically indicated for data requiring lower reliability. This becomes particularly important in the absence of HARQ Ack / Nack feedback.

[0156] In another variation of this embodiment, one or more of the DCI fields, such as DAI, RV, PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing, and PRI, may be used together with the HARQ process number field to indicate the HARQ process number. This is useful when the number of HARQ processes is increased to more than 16 processes in an NTN scenario, in which case 4 bits in the HARQ process number field in the DCI are not sufficient. Figure 11 shows an example in which the RV field and the HARQ process number field are used to identify the HARQ process number when more than 16 HARQ processes are configured. In this example, there are 19 HARQ processes configured, of which 4 (processes 16 to 19) are feedback-less HARQ processes and 15 (processes 1 to 15) are feedback-based HARQ processes. The feedback-based HARQ processes are directly indicated by the respective values ​​indicated by the HARQ process number field. To indicate one of the feedbackless HARQ processes, the HARQ process number field indicates a particular value (value 0 in this example), and the value indicated by the RV field indicates one of the configured feedbackless HARQ processes. Thus, the example of Figure 11 shows the use of the HARQ process number field in combination with one or more of the DAI, RV, PDSCH to HARQ feedback timing, and PRI fields to identify the HARQ process number.

[0157] Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in any suitable type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in connection with a wireless network, such as the exemplary wireless network shown in FIG. 12. For simplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 12 shows only network 1206, network nodes 1260 and 1260b, and wireless devices (WDs) 1210, 1210b, and 1210c. In practice, the wireless network may further include any additional elements suitable for supporting communication between wireless devices or between wireless devices and other communication devices (e.g., landlines, service providers, or any other network nodes or end devices). Of the illustrated components, network node 1260 and wireless device (WD) 1210 are shown with additional detail. The wireless network may provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices' access to and / or use of services offered by or via the wireless devices.

[0158] A wireless network may comprise and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunications, data, cellular, and / or wireless network or other similar type of system. In some embodiments, a wireless network may be configured to operate according to a particular standard or other type of predetermined rules or procedures. Thus, particular embodiments of a wireless network may implement at least one of a communication standard, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standard; a wireless local area network (WLAN) standard, such as the IEEE 802.11 standard; or any other suitable wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, and / or ZigBee standard.

[0159] The network 1206 may include one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTN), packet data networks, optical networks, wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks that enable communication between devices.

[0160] Network node 1260 and WD 1210 comprise various components, described in more detail below, that cooperate to provide the functionality of a network node and / or wireless device, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network. In various embodiments, a wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in communication of data and / or signals, whether via wired or wireless connections.

[0161] Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., wireless access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), and NR Node Bs (gNBs). Base stations may be classified based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, in other words, their transmit power levels), and may then also be referred to as femto, pico, micro, or macro base stations. A base station may also be a relay node or a relay donor node that controls a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station, such as a centralized digital unit and / or a remote radio unit (RRU), which may be referred to as a remote radio head (RRH). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna-integrated radio. Some of the distributed radio base stations may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0162] Further examples of a network node include multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as an MSR BR, a network controller such as a radio network controller (RNC) or base station controller (BSC), a base transceiver station (BTS), a transmission point, a transmitting node, a multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE), a core network node (e.g., MSC, MME), an O&M node, an OSS node, a SON node, a positioning node (e.g., E-SMLC), and / or an MDT. As another example, a network node may be a virtual network node, as described in more detail below. However, more generally, a network node may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable of, configured, arranged, and / or operable to implement and / or provide wireless devices with access to a wireless network or to provide some service to wireless devices that have accessed the wireless network.

[0163] In FIG. 12 , network node 1260 comprises processing circuitry 1270, device-readable medium 1280, interface 1290, auxiliary devices 1284, power supply 1286, power circuitry 1287, and antenna 1262. While network node 1260 shown in the example wireless network of FIG. 12 may represent a device including the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may include network nodes having different combinations of components. It should be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and / or software required to perform the tasks, features, functions, and methods and / or procedures disclosed herein. Furthermore, while the components of network node 1260 are shown as a single box disposed within a larger box or nested within multiple boxes, in reality, the network node may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., device-readable medium 1280 may comprise multiple separate hard drives and multiple RAM modules).

[0164] Similarly, the network node 1260 may be comprised of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a Node B component and an RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), each of which may have its own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1260 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., a BTS and a BSC component), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple Node Bs. In such a scenario, each unique Node B and RNC pair may be considered a single, individual network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1260 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate device-readable media 1280 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna 1262 may be shared by multiple RATs). Network node 1260 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1260, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or chipsets and other components within network node 1260.

[0165] The processing circuit 1270 may be configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operation (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by the processing circuit 1270 may include processing the information obtained by the processing circuit 1270, for example, by transforming the obtained information to other information, comparing the obtained or transformed information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained or transformed information, and making a determination as a result of such processing.

[0166] The processing circuit 1270 may comprise one or more combinations of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit (CPU), digital signal processor, application specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and / or coded logic, which, alone or in conjunction with other network node 1160 components (e.g., device readable medium 1280), are operable to provide various functions of the network node 1260. Such functions may include any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits described herein.

[0167] For example, processing circuitry 1270 may execute instructions stored on device-readable medium 1280 or on memory within processing circuitry 1270. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1270 may include a system on a chip (SOC). As a more specific example, instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) stored on medium 1280 may include instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry 1270, may configure network node 1260 to perform operations corresponding to various example methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0168] In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1270 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1272 and baseband processing circuitry 1274. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1272 and baseband processing circuitry 1274 may be on separate chips (or chipsets), boards, or units, such as a radio unit and a digital unit. In alternative embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1272 and baseband processing circuitry 1274 may be on the same chip or set of chips, board, or unit.

[0169] In particular embodiments, some or all of the functionality described as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB, or other network device may be performed by processing circuitry 1270 executing instructions stored on device-readable medium 1280 or stored in memory within processing circuitry 1270. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1270 without executing instructions stored on a separate or distinct device-readable medium, such as in a hardwired manner. In any of these embodiments, processing circuitry 1270 may be configured to perform the described functionality regardless of whether it executes instructions stored on a device-readable storage medium. Benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to just processing circuitry 1270 or other components of network node 1260, but are enjoyed by network node 1260 as a whole and / or by end users and the wireless network as a whole.

[0170] The device readable medium 1280 may include any form of volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory, including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (e.g., hard disks), removable storage media (e.g., flash drives, compact discs (CDs), or digital video discs (DVDs)), and / or other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuit 1270. The device readable medium 1280 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including at least one of computer programs, software, applications including one or more of logic, rules, codes, tables, etc., and other instructions, that may be executed by the processing circuit 1270 and utilized by the network node 1260. The device-readable medium 1280 may be used to store any calculations performed by the processing circuit 1270 and / or any data received via the interface 1290. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 1270 and the device-readable medium 1280 may be considered to be integrated.

[0171] Interface 1290 is used for wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between network node 1260, network 1206, and / or WD 1210. As shown, interface 1290 includes port(s) / terminal(s) 1294 for transmitting and receiving data to and from network 1206, e.g., via a wired connection. Interface 1290 further includes radio front-end circuitry 1292, which may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments may be a part of, antenna 1262. Radio front-end circuitry 1292 includes a filter 1298 and an amplifier 1296. Radio front-end circuitry 1292 may be connected to antenna 1262 and processing circuitry 1270. Radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1262 and processing circuitry 1270. Radio front-end circuitry 1292 may receive digital data to be sent to another network node or WD via a wireless connection. Radio front-end circuitry 1292 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1298 and / or amplifiers 1296. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna 1262. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1262 collects the radio signal, which is converted to digital data by radio front-end circuitry 1292. The digital data is passed to processing circuitry 1270. In other embodiments, the interface may include different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0172] In certain alternative embodiments, network node 1260 may not include a separate radio front-end circuit 1292; instead, processing circuit 1270 may include a radio front-end circuit and be connected to antenna 1262 without a separate radio front-end circuit 1292. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuit 1272 may be considered part of interface 1290. In yet other embodiments, interface 1290 may include one or more ports or terminals 1294, radio front-end circuit 1292, and RF transceiver circuit 1272 as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface 1290 may communicate with baseband processing circuit 1274 that is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0173] Antenna 1262 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1262 may be coupled to radio front-end circuitry 1290 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna 1262 may include one or more omnidirectional, sector, or panel antennas operable to transmit and receive wireless signals, for example, between 2 GHz and 66 GHz. An omnidirectional antenna may be used to transmit and receive wireless signals in any direction. A sector antenna may be used to transmit and receive wireless signals from devices within a particular area. A panel antenna may be a line-of-sight antenna used to transmit and receive wireless signals in a relatively straight line. In some examples, the use of two or more antennas may be referred to as MIMO. In some embodiments, antenna 1262 may be separate from network node 1260 or connectable to network node 1260 via an interface or port.

[0174] Antenna 1262, interface 1290, and / or processing circuit 1270 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain acquisition operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data, and / or signals may be received from a wireless device, another network node, and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, antenna 1262, interface 1290, and / or processing circuit 1270 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data, and / or signals may be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node, and / or any other network equipment.

[0175] The power circuitry 1287 may include or be coupled to power management circuitry and is configured to provide power to the components of the network node 1260 to perform the functions described herein. The power circuitry 1287 may receive power from the power source 1286. The power source 1286 and / or the power circuitry 1287 may be configured to provide power to the various components of the network node 1260 in a format appropriate for each component (e.g., at the voltage and current levels required for each component). The power source 1286 may be included in the power circuitry 1287 and / or the network node 1260, or may be external thereto. For example, the network node 1260 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electrical outlet) via an input circuit or interface, such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source provides power to the power circuitry 1287. As a further example, the power source 1286 may include a power source in the form of a battery or battery pack connected to or integrated with the power circuitry 1287. The battery may provide backup power in the event of a failure of the external power source. Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also be used.

[0176] Alternative embodiments of network node 1260 may include additional components other than those shown in Figure 12 that may be involved in providing certain aspects of the network node's functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, network node 1260 may include user interface devices that enable and / or facilitate the input of information into network node 1260 and the output of information from network node 1260. This may enable and / or facilitate a user to perform diagnostics, maintenance, repair, and other management functions on network node 1260.

[0177] In some embodiments, a wireless device (WD, e.g., WD1210) may be configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For example, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to a request from the network. Examples of WDs include, but are not limited to, smartphones, mobile phones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless cameras, gaming consoles or devices, music storage and playback devices, wearable terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, tablets, laptops, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), mobile-type communications (MTC), Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, etc.

[0178] A WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, e.g., by implementing 3GPP standards for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-everything (V2X), and in this case may be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet another example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements and transmits results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another WD and / or a network node. In this case, the WD may be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may be referred to as an MTC device in the 3GPP context. As one example, a WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) standard. Examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, home or personal appliances (e.g., refrigerators, televisions, etc.), or personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, the WD may monitor its operational status or other functions related to its operation. A WD may represent a vehicle or other equipment capable of monitoring and / or reporting. Such a WD may represent an endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, such a WD may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or mobile terminal.

[0179] As shown, wireless device 1210 includes antenna 1211, interface 1214, processing circuitry 1220, device-readable medium 1230, user interface equipment 1232, auxiliary equipment 1234, power supply 1236, and power circuitry 1237. WD 1210 may include multiple sets of one or more of the components shown for different wireless technologies supported by WD 1210, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to name a few. These wireless technologies may be integrated on the same or different chips or chipsets as other components in WD 1210.

[0180] Antenna 1211 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals and is connected to interface 1214. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna 1211 may be separate from WD 1210 and may be connectable to WD 1210 via an interface or port. Antenna 1211, interface 1214, and / or processing circuit 1220 may be configured to perform any transmit operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, data, and / or signals may be received from a network node and / or another WD. In some embodiments, the wireless front-end circuit and / or antenna 1211 may be considered an interface.

[0181] As shown, interface 1214 includes radio front-end circuitry 1212 and antenna 1211. Radio front-end circuitry 1212 includes one or more filters 1218 and amplifiers 1216. Radio front-end circuitry 1214 may be coupled to antenna 1211 and processing circuitry 1220 and configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1211 and processing circuitry 1220. Radio front-end circuitry 1212 may be coupled to or part of antenna 1211. In some embodiments, WD 1210 may not include a separate radio front-end circuitry 1212; rather, processing circuitry 1220 may include the radio front-end circuitry and be connected to antenna 1211. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1222 may be considered part of interface 1214. Radio front-end circuitry 1212 may receive digital data sent to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front-end circuitry 1212 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1218 and / or amplifiers 1216. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna 1211. Similarly, to receive data, antenna 1211 collects the radio signal, which is converted to digital data by radio front-end circuitry 1212. The digital data is passed to processing circuitry 1220. In other embodiments, the interface may include different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0182] The processing circuitry 1220 may comprise one or more combinations of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit (CPU), digital signal processor, application specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and / or coded logic, operable, alone or in conjunction with other components of the WD 1210, such as the device readable medium 1130, to provide the functionality of the WD 1210. Such functionality may include any of the various wireless functions or benefits described herein.

[0183] For example, processing circuit 1220 may execute instructions stored on device-readable medium 1230 or in memory within processing circuit 1220 to provide the functionality disclosed herein. More specifically, the instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) stored on medium 1230 may include instructions that, when executed by processor 1220, may configure wireless device 1210 to perform operations corresponding to various example methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0184] As shown, the processing circuit 1220 includes one or more of an RF transceiver circuit 1222, a baseband processing circuit 1224, and an application processing circuit 1226. In other embodiments, the processing circuit 520 may include different components and / or different combinations of components. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 1220 of the WD 1210 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuit 1222, the baseband processing circuit 1224, and the application processing circuit 1226 may be on separate chips or chipsets. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the baseband processing circuit 1224 and the application processing circuit 1226 may be combined on a single chip or chipset, and the RF transceiver circuit 1222 may be on a separate chip or chipset. In further alternative embodiments, some or all of the RF transceiver circuit 1222 and the baseband processing circuit 1224 may be on the same chip or chipset, and the application processing circuit 1226 may be on a separate chip or chipset. In yet other alternative embodiments, some or all of the RF transceiver circuitry 1222, the baseband processing circuitry 1224, and the application processing circuitry 1226 may be combined on the same chip or chipset. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 1222 may be part of the interface 1214. The RF transceiver circuitry 1222 may condition RF signals for the processing circuitry 1220.

[0185] In some embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being performed by the WD may be provided by processing circuitry 1220 executing instructions stored on device-readable medium 1230, which in some embodiments may be a computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1220 without executing instructions stored on a separate or distinct device-readable storage medium, such as in a hardwired manner. In any of these particular embodiments, processing circuitry 1220 may be configured to perform the described functionality, regardless of whether it executes instructions stored on a device-readable storage medium. Benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry 1220 alone or to other components of WD 1210, but are enjoyed by WD 1210 as a whole and / or by end users and the wireless network as a whole.

[0186] Processing circuitry 1220 may be configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operation (e.g., a retrieval operation) described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations as performed by processing circuitry 1220 may include processing the information retrieved by processing circuitry 1220, for example, by transforming the retrieved information into other information, comparing the retrieved or transformed information with information stored in WD 1210, and / or performing one or more operations based on the retrieved or transformed information, and making a determination as a result of such processing.

[0187] The device-readable medium 1230 may be operable to store at least one of computer programs, software, applications including one or more of logic, rules, codes, tables, etc., and other instructions that may be executed by the processing circuit 1220. The device-readable medium 1230 may include computer memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., hard disks), removable storage media (e.g., compact discs (CDs) or digital video discs (DVDs)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuit 1220. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 1220 and the device-readable medium 1230 may be considered to be integrated.

[0188] The user interface devices 1232 may include components that enable and / or facilitate a human user's interaction with the WD 1210. Such interaction may be in many forms, such as visual, auditory, tactile, etc. The user interface devices 1232 may be operable to generate output to the user and to enable and / or facilitate the user's providing input to the WD 1210. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface devices 1232 incorporated into the WD 1210. For example, if the WD 1210 is a smartphone, interaction may be via a touchscreen. If the WD 1210 is a smart meter, interaction may be via a screen that provides usage (e.g., number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audio alert (e.g., if smoke is detected). The user interface devices 1232 may include input interfaces, devices, and circuits, and output interfaces, devices, and circuits. The user interface devices 1232 are configured to enable and / or facilitate the input of information into the WD 1210 and are connected to the processing circuit 1220 to enable and / or facilitate the processing circuit 1220 to process the input information. The user interface devices 1232 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor, keys / buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or other input circuitry. The user interface devices 1232 are further configured to enable and / or facilitate the output of information from the WD 1210 and to enable and / or facilitate the processing circuit 1220 to output information from the WD 1210. The user interface devices 1232 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibration circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input / output interfaces, devices, and circuits of the user interface devices 1232, the WD 1210 may communicate with end users and / or wireless networks and enable and / or facilitate the end users and / or wireless networks to benefit from the functionality described herein.

[0189] Auxiliary device 1234 is operable to provide more specific functions that may not generally be performed by a WD. This may include specialized sensors for taking measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication, such as wired communication, etc. The inclusion of components of auxiliary device 1234 and the types of such components may vary depending on the embodiment and / or scenario.

[0190] The power source 1236 may be in the form of a battery or battery pack in some embodiments. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electrical outlet), a photovoltaic device, or a power cell, may also be used. The WD 1210 may further include a power circuit 1237 for directing power from the power source 1236 to various portions of the WD 1210 requiring power from the power source 1236 and performing any of the functions described or illustrated herein. The power circuit 1237 may include a power management circuit in some embodiments. The power circuit 1237 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source, in which case the WD 1210 may be connectable to the external power source (e.g., an electrical outlet) via an interface such as an input circuit or a power cable. In some embodiments, the power circuit 1237 may also be operable to direct power from the external power source to the power source 1236. This may be, for example, for charging the power source 1236. Power circuitry 1237 may perform any conversion or other modification to the power from power supply 1236 to make it suitable for delivery to the respective components of WD 1210.

[0191] FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, user equipment or UE does not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the associated device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to or operation by a human user, but that may not be associated with or may not initially be associated with a particular human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to or operation by an end user, but that may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter). The UE 13200 may be any UE specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including an NB-IoT UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE. As shown in Figure 13, UE 1300 is an example of a WD configured to communicate in accordance with one or more communications standards promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as 3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and / or 5G standards. As mentioned above, the terms WD and UE may be used interchangeably. Thus, while Figure 13 is a UE, the components described herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice versa.

[0192] In FIG. 13 , UE 1300 includes processing circuitry 1301 operably coupled to at least one of an input / output interface 1305, a radio frequency (RF) interface 1309, a network connection interface 1311, memory 1315 including random access memory (RAM) 1317, read-only memory (ROM) 1319, and storage medium 1321, a communication subsystem 1331, a power source 1333, and any other components, or any combination thereof. Storage medium 1321 includes operating system 1323, application programs 1325, and data 1327. In other embodiments, storage medium 1321 may include other similar types of information. A given UE may utilize all of the components shown in FIG. 13 or only a subset of the components. The level of integration between components may vary from one UE to another. Furthermore, a given UE may include multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0193] 13, processing circuit 1301 may be configured to process computer instructions and data. Processing circuit 1301 may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operable to execute machine instructions stored in memory as a machine-readable computer program, such as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.), programmable logic and appropriate firmware, one or more stored programs, a general-purpose processor such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), and appropriate software, or any combination of the above. For example, processing circuit 1301 may include two central processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.

[0194] In the illustrated embodiment, the input / output interface 1305 may be configured to provide an input device, an output device, or a communication interface for an input / output device. The UE 1300 may be configured to use an output device via the input / output interface 1305. The output device may use the same type of interface port as the input device. For example, a USB port may be used to provide input to the UE 1300 and output from the UE 1200. The output device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smart card, another output device, or any combination thereof. The UE 1300 may be configured to use an input device via the input / output interface 1305 to enable and / or facilitate a user to capture information into the UE 1300. The input device may include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a webcam, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smart card, etc. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. The sensor may be, for example, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, other similar sensors, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

[0195] In FIG. 13 , RF interface 1309 may be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, receiver, and antenna. Network connection interface 1311 may be configured to provide a communication interface to network 1343a. Network 1343a may include a wired and / or wireless network, such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, other similar networks, or any combination thereof. For example, network 1343a may include a Wi-Fi network. Network connection interface 1311 may be configured to include a receiver and transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more other devices over a communications network according to one or more communications protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP / IP, SONET, ATM, etc. Network connection interface 1311 may implement receiver and transmitter functionality appropriate for a communications network link (e.g., optical, electrical, etc.). The transmitter and receiver functions may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or may be implemented separately.

[0196] RAM 1317 may be configured to interface to processing circuit 1301 via bus 1302 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during execution of software programs such as an operating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 1319 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processing circuit 1301. For example, ROM 1319 may be configured to store unchanging low-level system code or data for basic system functions, such as basic input / output (I / O) from a keyboard, startup, or receiving keystrokes, stored in non-volatile memory. Storage medium 1321 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disk, optical disk, floppy disk, hard disk, removable cartridge, or flash drive.

[0197] In one example, storage medium 1321 may be configured to include operating system 1323, application programs 1325, such as a web browser application, widget or gadget engine, or other applications, and data files 1327. Storage medium 1321 may store any of a variety of operating systems or combinations of operating systems for use by UE 1300. For example, application programs 1325 may include executable program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by processor 1301, may configure UE 1300 to perform operations corresponding to various example methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0198] The storage medium 1321 may be configured to include multiple physical drive units, such as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), a floppy disk drive, a flash memory, a USB flash drive, an external hard disk drive, a thumb drive, a pen drive, a key drive, a high-density digital versatile disk (HD-DVD) optical disk drive, an internal hard disk drive, a Blu-ray optical disk drive, a holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disk drive, an external mini dual in-line memory module (DIMM), a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), an external micro-DIMM SDRAM, a smart card memory such as a subscriber identity module or removable user identity (SIM / RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. The storage medium 1321 may enable the UE 1300 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs, etc. stored on a temporary or non-transitory memory medium to offload data or upload data. Products, such as those utilizing a communication system, may be tangibly embodied in the storage medium 1321, which may include a device-readable medium.

[0199] 13, the processing circuit 1301 may be configured to communicate with the network 1343b using the communication subsystem 1331. The network 1343a and the network 1343b may be the same network or different networks. The communication subsystem 1331 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with the network 1343b. For example, the communication subsystem 1331 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or more remote transceivers of other wirelessly capable devices, such as other WDs, UEs, or base stations of a radio access network (RAN), according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.13, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, etc. Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1333 and / or a receiver 1335 to implement transmitter or receiver functionality (e.g., frequency allocation, etc.) appropriate for the RAN link, respectively. Additionally, the transmitter 1333 and receiver 1335 of each transceiver may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or may be implemented separately.

[0200] In the illustrated embodiment, the communication capabilities of the communication subsystem 1331 may include data communications, voice communications, multimedia communications, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, short-range communications, location-based communications such as using a global positioning system (GPS) to determine location, other similar communications capabilities, or any combination thereof. For example, the communication subsystem 1331 may include cellular communications, Wi-Fi communications, Bluetooth communications, and GPS communications. The network 1343b may include wired and / or wireless networks such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, other similar networks, or any combination thereof. For example, the network 1343b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and / or a short-range network. The power source 1313 may be configured to provide alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to the components of the UE 1300.

[0201] The features, advantages, and / or functions described herein may be implemented in one of the components of the UE 1300 or may be divided among multiple components of the UE 1300. Furthermore, the features, advantages, and / or functions described herein may be implemented in any combination of hardware, software, or firmware. In one example, the communication subsystem 1331 may be configured to include any of the components described herein. Furthermore, the processing circuit 1301 may be configured to communicate with any of such components via the bus 1302. In another example, any of such components may be represented by program instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the processing circuit 1301, perform the corresponding functions described herein. In another example, the functionality of any of such components may be distributed between the processing circuit 1301 and the communication subsystem 1331. In another example, non-computationally intensive functionality of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware, and computationally intensive functionality may be implemented in hardware.

[0202] 14 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1400 in which functionality implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In this context, virtualization creates a virtualized version of an apparatus or device, which may include virtualization of the hardware platform, storage, and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization may be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device, or any other type of communication device) or component thereof, and relates to implementations in which at least a portion of functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines, or containers running on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).

[0203] In some embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1400 hosted by one or more of the hardware nodes 1430. Furthermore, in embodiments where the virtual nodes are not wireless access nodes or do not require wireless connectivity (e.g., core network nodes), the network nodes may be fully virtualized.

[0204] The functionality may be implemented by one or more applications 1420 (which may alternatively be referred to as software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operable to implement some of the features, functions, and / or advantages of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. The applications 1420 execute in a virtualization environment 1400 that provides hardware 1430 including processing circuitry 1460 and memory 1490. The memory 1490 includes instructions 1495 executable by the processing circuitry 1460, thereby enabling the applications 1420 to operate to provide one or more of the features, advantages, and / or advantages disclosed herein.

[0205] The virtualization environment 1400 may include general-purpose or special-purpose network hardware devices (or nodes) 1430 including a set of one or more processors or processing circuits 1460, which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry, including digital or analog hardware components or special-purpose processors. Each hardware device may include memory 1490-1, which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1495 or software executed by the processing circuits 1460. For example, the instructions 1495 may include program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by the processing circuits 1460, may configure the hardware node 1420 to perform operations corresponding to various example methods (e.g., procedures) described herein. Such operations may be attributed to one or more virtual nodes 1420 hosted by the hardware node 1430.

[0206] Each hardware device may include one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1470, also known as network interface cards, that include a physical network interface 1480. Each hardware device may further include a non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage medium 1490-2 having stored therein software 1495 and / or instructions executable by the processing circuitry 1460. The software 1495 may include any type of software, including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1450 (also referred to as hypervisors), software for running virtual machines 1440, and software that enables the functions, features, and / or advantages described in association with some embodiments described herein.

[0207] A virtual machine 1440 may include virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interfaces, and virtual storage, and may be executed by a corresponding virtualization layer 1450 or hypervisor. Various embodiments of an instance of a virtual appliance 1420 may be implemented on one or more virtual machines 1440, and such implementation may be done in different ways.

[0208] During operation, processing circuitry 1460 executes software 1495 to instantiate a hypervisor or virtualization layer 1450, sometimes referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM), which may present a virtual operating platform that appears to virtual machine 1440 as networking hardware.

[0209] 14, hardware 1430 may be a standalone network node with general-purpose or specific components. Hardware 1430 may include antenna 14225 and may implement some functionality through virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1430 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (such as in a data center or customer premises equipment (CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration (MANO) 14100, which oversees, among other things, the lifecycle management of applications 1420.

[0210] Hardware virtualization occurs in some contexts, referred to as network function virtualization (NFV), which can be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry-standard high-capacity server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage that can be deployed in data centers and customer premises equipment.

[0211] In the context of NFV, a virtual machine 1440 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that executes programs as if they were running on a non-virtualized physical machine. Each of the virtual machines 1440, and that portion of the hardware 1430 on which it runs, either hardware dedicated to that virtual machine 740 and / or hardware that it shares with others of the virtual machines 1440, forms a separate virtual network element (VNE).

[0212] Note that in the context of NFV, a virtual network function (VNF) runs on one or more virtual machines 1440 on the hardware networking infrastructure 1430 and is responsible for processing a specific network function, corresponding to the application 1420 in FIG. 14.

[0213] In some embodiments, one or more radio units 14200, each including one or more transmitters 14220 and one or more receivers 14210, may be coupled to one or more antennas 14225. The radio units 14200 may communicate directly with the hardware node 1430 via one or more suitable network interfaces, and may be used in combination with virtualization components to provide radio functionality to a virtualization node, such as a radio access node or base station. Nodes so arranged may also communicate with one or more UEs, as described elsewhere herein.

[0214] In some embodiments, some signaling may occur via the control system 1423, which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware node 1430 and the radio unit 14200.

[0215] 15, according to an embodiment, a communication system includes a communication network 1510, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, including an access network 1511, such as a wireless access network, and a core network 1514. The access network 1511 includes a plurality of base stations 1512a, 1512b, and 1512c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs, or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area 1513a, 1513b, and 1513c. Each base station 1512a, 1512b, and 1512c can be connected to the core network 1514 via a wired or wireless connection 1515. A first UE 1591 located in the coverage area 1513c can be configured to wirelessly connect to or be paged by a corresponding base station 1512c. A second UE 1592 within the coverage area 1513a can wirelessly connect to a corresponding base station 1512a. In this example, multiple UEs 1591, 1592 are shown, but the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to situations where a single UE is within a coverage area or where a single UE is connected to a corresponding base station.

[0216] The communications network 1510 itself is connected to a host computer 1530, which may be implemented with standalone server, cloud-implemented server, distributed server hardware and / or software, or as a processing resource within a server farm. The host computer 1530 may be owned or controlled by a service provider, or may be operated by or on behalf of the service provider. Connections 1521 and 1522 between the communications network 1510 and the host computer 1530 may extend directly from the core network 1514 to the host computer 1530 or may extend through an optional intermediate network 1520. The intermediate network 1520 may be a combination of one or more of a public network, a private network, or a host network; the intermediate network 1520 may be a backbone network or the Internet, if present; and in particular, the intermediate network 1520 may include two or more subnetworks (not shown).

[0217] 15 generally provides connectivity between one of the connected UEs 1591, 1592 and a host computer 1530. Such connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1550. The host computer 1530 and the connected UEs 1591, 1592 are configured to communicate data and / or signaling via the OTT connection 1550 using the access network 1511, the core network 1514, any intermediate networks 1520, and possibly further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 1550 may be transparent in the sense that participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 1550 passes are unaware of the routing of the uplink and downlink communications. For example, the base station 1512 may not be or need not be informed about the past routing of incoming downlink communications having data originating from the host computer 1530 that is to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to the connected UE 1591. Similarly, the base station 1512 does not need to know the future routing of outgoing uplink communications from the UE 1591 to the host computer 1530.

[0218] An example implementation according to the embodiments of the UE, base station, and host computer described in the previous paragraph is described below with reference to FIG. 16. In the communication system 1600, the host computer 1610 comprises hardware 1615 including a communication interface 1616 configured to set up and maintain wired or wireless connections with interfaces of different communication devices of the communication system 1600. The host computer 1610 further comprises processing circuitry 1618, which may have storage and / or processing capabilities. Specifically, the processing circuitry 1618 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or combinations thereof (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The host computer 1610 further comprises software 1611 stored within or accessible to the host computer 1610 and executable by the processing circuitry 1618. The software 1611 includes a client application 1612. The host application 1612 may be operable to provide services to a remote user, such as a UE 1630, connecting via an OTT connection 1650 that terminates at the UE 1630 and the host computer 1610. In providing services to the remote user, the host application 1612 may provide user data that is transmitted using the OTT connection 1650.

[0219] The communications system 1600 may further include a base station 1620 disposed within the communications system and comprising hardware 1625 enabling communications with the host computer 1610 and the UE 1630. The hardware 1625 may include a communications interface 1626 for setting up and maintaining wired or wireless connections with interfaces of different communications devices of the communications system 1600, and a wireless interface 1627 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 1670 with a UE 1630 located within a coverage area (not shown in FIG. 16 ) served by the base station 1620. The communications interface 1626 may be configured to facilitate a connection 1660 to the host computer 1610. The connection 1660 may be direct or may pass through a core network (not shown in FIG. 16 ) of the communications system and / or one or more intermediate networks external to the communications system. In the illustrated embodiment, the hardware 1625 of the base station 1620 further includes processing circuitry 1628, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or combinations thereof (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.

[0220] Base station 1620 further comprises software 1621 stored internally or accessible via an external connection. For example, software 1621 may include program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by processing circuitry 1628, may configure 1620 to perform operations corresponding to various example methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0221] The communications system 1600 may further include the previously mentioned UE 1630. The UE's hardware 1635 may include a radio interface 1637 configured to set up and maintain a radio connection 1670 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 1630 is currently located. The UE's hardware 1635 may further include processing circuitry 1638, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or combinations thereof (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.

[0222] The UE 1630 further comprises software 1631 stored within or accessible to the UE 1630 and executable by the processing circuitry 1638. The software 1631 includes a client application 1632. The client application 1632 may be operable to provide services to a human or non-human user via the UE 1630 with support from the host computer 1610. A running host application 1612 on the host computer 1610 may communicate with the running client application 1632 via an OTT connection 1650 that terminates at the UE 1630 and the host computer 1610. In providing services to the user, the client application 1632 may receive request data from the host application 1612 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1650 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 1632 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides. The software 1631 may include program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by the processing circuitry 1638, may configure the UE 1630 to perform operations corresponding to various example methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0223] As an example, the host computer 1610, base station 1620, and UE 1630 shown in Figure 16 may be similar to or identical to the host computers or base stations described in connection with other figures herein. For example, the internal operation of these entities may be as shown in Figure 16, and independently, the surrounding network topology may be as shown in other figures.

[0224] 16, an OTT connection 1650 is depicted abstractly to show communication between a host computer 1610 and a UE 1630 via a base station 1620, without explicitly referring to any intermediate devices and the exact routing of messages through those devices. The network infrastructure may make routing decisions that may be configured to be hidden from the UE 1630, from the service provider operating the host computer 1610, or both. While the OTT connection 1650 is active, the network infrastructure may further make decisions to dynamically change the routing (e.g., based on load considerations or network reconfiguration).

[0225] The radio connection 1670 between the UE 1630 and the base station 1620 follows the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of various embodiments may improve the performance of an OTT service provided to the UE 1630 using the OTT connection 1650, of which the radio connection 1670 forms the final segment. More precisely, example embodiments disclosed herein may improve the flexibility for a network to monitor the end-to-end quality of service (QoS) of a data flow, including corresponding radio bearers, associated with a data session between a user equipment unit (UE) and another entity, such as an OTT data application or service, external to the 5G network. These and other advantages may facilitate more timely design, implementation, and deployment of 5G / NR solutions. Furthermore, such embodiments may facilitate flexible and timely control of data session QoS, which may lead to improvements in capacity, throughput, latency, and the like, envisioned by 5G / NR and critical to the growth of OTT services.

[0226] In some embodiments, measurement procedures may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rates, latency, and other network operating aspects that one or more embodiments improve. Additionally, there may be optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1650 between the host computer 1610 and the UE 1630 in response to fluctuations in the measurement results. The measurement procedures and / or network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1650 may be implemented in the software 1611 and hardware 1615 of the host computer 1610, or in the software 1631 and hardware 1635 of the UE 1630, or both. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be located at or associated with communication devices through which the OTT connection 1650 passes. The sensors may participate in the measurement procedures by providing values ​​of monitored quantities, such as those exemplified above, or by providing values ​​of other physical quantities from which the software 1611, 1631 may calculate or estimate the monitored quantities. Reconfiguration of the OTT connection 1650 may include message formats, retransmission settings, preferred routing, etc., and such reconfiguration need not affect the base station 1620 and may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 1620. Such procedures and functions may be known and practiced in the art. In particular embodiments, measurements may include proprietary UE signaling that facilitates the host computer 1610 measuring throughput, propagation time, latency, etc. Measurements may be performed by having software 1611 and 1631 send messages (particularly empty or "dummy" messages) using the OTT connection 1650 while monitoring propagation time, errors, etc.

[0227] FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed in a communications system, according to one embodiment. The communications system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which in some embodiments may be described with reference to other figures herein. To simplify this disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 17 are included in this section. In step 1710, the host computer provides user data. In sub-step 1711 of step 1710 (which may be optional), the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 1720, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In step 1730 (which may be optional), the base station transmits the user data carried in the host computer-initiated transmission to the UE, according to the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1740 (which may be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

[0228] FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed in a communication system, according to one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be described with reference to other figures herein. To simplify this disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 18 are included in this section. In step 1810 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown), the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 1820, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass through a base station in accordance with the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1830 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.

[0229] FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed in a communications system, according to one embodiment. The communications system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be described with reference to other figures herein. To simplify this disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 19 are included in this section. In (possibly optional) step 1910, the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step 1920, the UE provides user data. In (possibly optional) sub-step 1921 of step 1920, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In (possibly optional) sub-step 1911 of step 1910, the UE executes a client application that provides user data in response to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed client application may further consider user input received from a user. Regardless of the particular manner in which the user data is provided, the UE begins transmitting the user data to the host computer in (possibly optional) sub-step 1930. In step 1940 of the method, the host computer receives user data transmitted from the UE according to the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

[0230] 20 is a flowchart illustrating a method performed in a communication system according to one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE, which may be described with reference to other figures herein. To simplify this disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 20 are included in this section. In step 2010 (which may be optional), the base station receives user data from the UE in accordance with the teachings of embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 2020 (which may be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step 2030 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in a transmission initiated by the base station.

[0231] As described herein, devices and / or apparatus may be represented by semiconductor chips, chipsets, or (hardware) modules comprising such chips or chipsets; however, this does not exclude the possibility that the functionality of a device or apparatus may instead be implemented as a software module, such as a computer program or computer program product comprising executable software code portions for execution or running on a processor. Furthermore, the functionality of a device or apparatus may be implemented by any combination of hardware and software. A device or apparatus may also be considered an assembly of multiple devices and / or apparatus, whether functionally cooperating with each other or independent of each other. Furthermore, devices and apparatus may be implemented in a distributed manner throughout a system, as long as the functionality of the device or apparatus is maintained. Such and similar principles are believed to be known to those skilled in the art.

[0232] Furthermore, functionality described herein as being performed by a wireless device or a network node may be distributed across multiple wireless devices and / or network nodes. In other words, it is intended that the functionality of the network nodes and wireless devices described herein is not limited to being performed by a single physical device, but may in fact be distributed among several physical devices.

[0233] Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Furthermore, it will be understood that terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the present specification and related art, and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly defined herein.

[0234] Furthermore, certain terms used in this disclosure, including the specification, drawings, and exemplary embodiments thereof, may be used synonymously in certain instances, including, but not limited to, data and information. These words and / or other words that may be synonymous with each other may be used synonymously herein, although it should be understood that there may be instances where it is not intended that such words be used synonymously. Furthermore, to the extent that prior art knowledge has not been expressly incorporated above, it is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety. All publications referenced are incorporated herein in their entirety.

[0235] As used herein, unless expressly stated to the contrary, the phrases "at least one of" and "one or more of," followed by a joined list of enumerated items (e.g., "A and B," "A, B, and C"), are intended to mean "at least one item, each item selected from a list consisting of" the enumerated items. For example, "at least one of A and B" is intended to mean any of the following: A; B; A and B. Similarly, "one or more of A, B, and C" is intended to mean any of the following: A; B; C; A and B; B and C; A and C; A, B, and C.

[0236] As used herein, unless expressly stated to the contrary, the phrase "a plurality of" followed by a joined list of enumerated items (e.g., "A and B," "A, B, and C") is intended to mean "a plurality of items, each item being selected from a list consisting of" the enumerated items. For example, "a plurality of A and B" is intended to mean either: two or more A; two or more B; or at least one A and at least one B.

[0237] The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the present disclosure. Various modifications and alterations to the described embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the teachings herein. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems, devices, and procedures that, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the present disclosure and are therefore within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the various exemplary embodiments may be used in conjunction with one another or interchangeably.

[0238] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure include, but are not limited to, the following listed examples, which are divided into related embodiments:

[0239] Group A Embodiments A1. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: 1. A method comprising: receiving control signaling from a network node indicating parameter settings according to which transmission for a subset of one or more error control processes is performed.

[0240] A2. The method of embodiment A1, wherein the one or more error control processes in the subset include one or more error control processes identified by one or more respective error control process identities, and the control signaling indicates the one or more respective error control process identities.

[0241] A3. The method of embodiment A1, wherein the one or more error control processes in the subset include any error control process of a type.

[0242] A4. A method of any of embodiments A1 to A3, wherein the one or more error control processes in the subset include any error control process with error control feedback disabled or any error control process with error control feedback enabled.

[0243] A5. The method of any of embodiments A1-A4, wherein the parameter setting includes setting one or more power control parameters.

[0244] A6. The method of embodiment A5, wherein the one or more power control parameters: Nominal target received power, Path loss compensation coefficient, Delta modulation and coding schemes, Transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device; or a parameter that maps the transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value; The method includes one or more of the following:

[0245] A7. The method of any of embodiments A1-A6, wherein the parameter setting includes setting an actual transmit power level.

[0246] A8. The method of embodiment A7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmit power level by indicating whether transmission for the subset of one or more error control processes should be performed at maximum transmit power.

[0247] A9. The method of embodiment A7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmission power level by indicating which of a plurality of possible actual transmission power levels for the subset of one or more error control processes should be performed.

[0248] A10. The method of any of embodiments A1 to A9, wherein the parameter setting comprises: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; Transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table; the type of frequency resource allocation; target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling configuration, the type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme; The method includes setting one or more of the following:

[0249] A11. The method of any one of embodiments A1-A10, wherein the one or more error control processes are controlled by a medium access control (MAC) layer.

[0250] A12. The method of any one of embodiments A1 to A11, wherein the one or more error control processes are one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

[0251] A13. The method of any of embodiments A1-A12, further comprising transmitting or receiving transmissions for the subset of one or more error control processes in accordance with the indicated parameter settings.

[0252] A14. The method of any one of embodiments A1-A13, wherein the transmission for the subset of one or more error control processes is performed over a non-terrestrial network.

[0253] A15. A method of any of embodiments A1 to A14, wherein the control signaling indicates different parameter settings, and transmission for different subsets of one or more error control processes is performed according to the different parameter settings, and the different subsets include a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0254] A16. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: A method comprising transmitting or receiving transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings.

[0255] A17. The method of embodiment A16, wherein the different subsets include a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0256] A18. The method of any of embodiments A16-A17, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for one or more power control parameters.

[0257] A19. The method of embodiment A18, wherein the one or more power control parameters: Nominal target received power, Path loss compensation coefficient, Delta modulation and coding schemes, Transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device; or a parameter that maps the transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value; The method includes one or more of the following:

[0258] A20. The method of any one of embodiments A16 to A19, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for actual transmit power levels.

[0259] A21. The method of any of embodiments A16 to A20, wherein the different parameter settings include: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; Transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table; the type of frequency resource allocation; target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling configuration, the type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme; The method includes setting one or more of the following:

[0260] A22. The method of any of embodiments A16-A21, wherein the one or more error control processes in each of the different subsets are controlled by a medium access control (MAC) layer.

[0261] A23. The method of any of embodiments A16 to A22, wherein the one or more error control processes included in each of the different subsets are one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

[0262] A24. The method of any of embodiments A16-A23, wherein the transmission is sent or received over a non-terrestrial network.

[0263] A25. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: 1. A method comprising: transmitting error control feedback for a set of downlink transmissions to a network node in accordance with an error control feedback codebook, wherein for any downlink transmission for which error control feedback is disabled, the error control feedback codebook encodes the feedback for that downlink transmission as negative acknowledgement feedback.

[0264] A26. The method of embodiment A25, wherein the downlink transmission is received by the wireless device via a non-terrestrial network.

[0265] A27. The method of any of embodiments A25-A26, wherein the error control feedback is hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0266] A27A. The method of any of embodiments A25-A27, further comprising generating the error control feedback according to the error control feedback codebook.

[0267] A28. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: scheduling downlink transmissions for an error control process; and 1. A method comprising: receiving a downlink control information message comprising a set of one or more fields, wherein interpretation of the set of one or more fields depends on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the error control process.

[0268] A29. The method of embodiment A28, wherein the one or more fields in the set: Downlink Allocation Indicator field, redundant version field, Feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field; The method includes one or more of the following:

[0269] A30. A method of any of embodiments A28 to A29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with the scheduled downlink transmission.

[0270] A31. A method of any of embodiments A28 to A29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an error control process number that identifies the error control process in combination with an error control process number field in the downlink control information message.

[0271] A32. The method of any of embodiments A28-A31, further comprising interpreting the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the certain error control process.

[0272] A33. The method of any of embodiments A28-A32, further comprising receiving the downlink transmission according to the received downlink control information message.

[0273] A34. The method of any of embodiments A28-A33, wherein the downlink transmission is received by the wireless device via a non-terrestrial network.

[0274] A35. The method of any of embodiments A28-A34, wherein the error control feedback is hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0275] A36. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: 1. A method comprising receiving control signaling from a network node indicating a parameter setting in accordance with which transmission for an error control process or transmission for a type of error control process is performed.

[0276] A37. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: 1. A method comprising receiving control signaling from a network node indicating parameter settings according to which transmissions are to be performed for any error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled.

[0277] A38. A method performed by a wireless device, said method comprising: 1. A method comprising receiving control signaling from a network node indicating parameter settings according to which transmissions are to be performed for any error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0278] A39. The method of any of embodiments A1 through A38, comprising: Providing user data; transferring said user data to a host computer via said transmission to a base station; The method further comprises:

[0279] Group B Embodiments B1. A method performed by a network node, said method comprising: 11. A method comprising: transmitting control signaling to a wireless device indicating parameter settings according to which transmissions for a particular subset of one or more error control processes are to be performed.

[0280] B2. The method of embodiment B1, wherein the one or more error control processes in the particular subset include one or more error control processes identified by one or more respective error control process identities, and the control signaling indicates the one or more respective error control process identities.

[0281] B3. The method of embodiment B1, wherein the one or more error control processes in the subset include any error control process of a type.

[0282] B4. A method of any of embodiments B1 and B3, wherein the one or more error control processes in the subset include any error control processes with error control feedback disabled or any error control processes with error control feedback enabled.

[0283] B5. The method of any of embodiments B1-B4, wherein the parameter setting includes setting one or more power control parameters.

[0284] B6. The method of embodiment B5, wherein the one or more power control parameters: Nominal target received power, Path loss compensation coefficient, Delta modulation and coding schemes, Transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device; or a parameter that maps the transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value; The method includes one or more of the following:

[0285] B7. The method of any of embodiments B1-B6, wherein the parameter setting includes setting an actual transmit power level.

[0286] B8. The method of embodiment B7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmit power level by indicating whether transmission for the subset of one or more error control processes should be performed at maximum transmit power.

[0287] B9. The method of embodiment B7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmission power level by indicating which of a plurality of possible actual transmission power levels for the subset of one or more error control processes should be performed.

[0288] B10. The method of any of embodiments B1 through B9, wherein the parameter setting comprises: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; Transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table; the type of frequency resource allocation; target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling configuration, the type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme; The method includes setting one or more of the following:

[0289] B11. The method of any of embodiments B1-B10, wherein the one or more error control processes are controlled by a medium access control (MAC) layer.

[0290] B12. The method of any of embodiments B1-B11, wherein the one or more error control processes are one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

[0291] B13. The method of any of embodiments B1-B12, further comprising transmitting or receiving transmissions for the subset of one or more error control processes in accordance with the indicated parameter settings.

[0292] B14. The method of any of embodiments B1-B13, wherein the transmission for the subset of one or more error control processes is performed over a non-terrestrial network.

[0293] B15. A method of any of embodiments B1 to B14, wherein the control signaling indicates different parameter settings, and transmission for different subsets of one or more error control processes is performed according to the different parameter settings, and the different subsets include a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0294] B16. A method performed by a network node, said method comprising: A method comprising transmitting or receiving transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings.

[0295] B17. The method of embodiment B16, wherein the different subsets include a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0296] B18. The method of any of embodiments B16-B17, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for one or more power control parameters.

[0297] B19. The method of embodiment B18, wherein the one or more power control parameters: Nominal target received power, Path loss compensation coefficient, Delta modulation and coding schemes, Transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device; or a parameter that maps the transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value; The method includes one or more of the following:

[0298] B20. The method of any of embodiments B16-B19, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for actual transmit power levels.

[0299] B21. The method of any of embodiments B16-B20, wherein the different parameter settings include: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; Transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table; the type of frequency resource allocation; target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling configuration, the type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme; The method includes setting one or more of the following:

[0300] B22. The method of any of embodiments B16-B21, wherein the one or more error control processes in each of the different subsets are controlled by a medium access control (MAC) layer.

[0301] B23. The method of any of embodiments B16-B22, wherein the one or more error control processes included in each of the different subsets are one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

[0302] B24. The method of any of embodiments B16-B23, wherein the transmission is sent or received over a non-terrestrial network.

[0303] B25. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: A method comprising receiving error control feedback for a set of downlink transmissions from a wireless device according to an error control feedback codebook, wherein for any downlink transmission for which error control feedback is disabled, the error control feedback codebook encodes feedback for that downlink transmission as negative acknowledgement feedback.

[0304] B26. The method of embodiment B25, wherein the downlink transmission is transmitted by the radio network node over a non-terrestrial network.

[0305] B27. The method of any of embodiments B25-B26, wherein the error control feedback is hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0306] B27A. The method of any of embodiments B25-B27, further comprising processing the received error control feedback in accordance with the error control feedback codebook.

[0307] B28. A method performed by a network node, said method comprising: scheduling downlink transmissions for an error control process; and 1. A method comprising: transmitting a downlink control information message to a wireless device, the downlink control information message including a set of one or more fields, the interpretation of the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the error control process.

[0308] B29. The method of embodiment B28, wherein the one or more fields in the set: Downlink Allocation Indicator field, redundant version field, Feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field; The method includes one or more of the following:

[0309] B30. The method of any of embodiments B28 to B29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with the scheduled downlink transmission.

[0310] B31. A method of any of embodiments B28 to B29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an error control process number that identifies the error control process in combination with an error control process number field in the downlink control information message.

[0311] B32. The method of any of embodiments B28-B31, further comprising encoding the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the certain error control process.

[0312] B33. The method of any of embodiments B28-B32, further comprising transmitting the downlink transmission in accordance with the transmitted downlink control information message.

[0313] B34. The method of any of embodiments B28-B33, wherein the downlink transmission is transmitted over a non-terrestrial network.

[0314] B35. The method of any of embodiments B28-B34, wherein the error control feedback is hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0315] B36. The method of any of embodiments B1 through B35, Obtaining user data; transferring said user data to a host computer or a wireless device; The method further comprises:

[0316] Group C Embodiments C1. A wireless device configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0317] C2. A wireless device comprising processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0318] C3. A wireless device, A communication circuit; a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A; A wireless device comprising:

[0319] C4. A wireless device, a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A; a power supply circuit configured to provide power to the wireless device; A wireless device comprising:

[0320] C5. A wireless device, A wireless device comprising a processing circuit and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processing circuit, whereby the wireless device is configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of group A.

[0321] C6. A user equipment (UE), an antenna configured to transmit and receive wireless signals; a radio front-end circuit coupled to the antenna and processing circuit and configured to condition signals exchanged between the antenna and the processing circuit; the processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuit and configured to output information processed by the processing circuit from the UE; a battery connected to the processing circuit and configured to power the UE; A user device comprising:

[0322] C7. A computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a wireless device, cause said wireless device to perform the steps included in any of the embodiments of group A.

[0323] C8. A carrier comprising the computer program of embodiment C7, the carrier being one of an electrical signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.

[0324] C9. A radio network node configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the Group B embodiments.

[0325] C10. A radio network node comprising processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0326] C11. A wireless network node, A communication circuit; a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B; A wireless network node comprising:

[0327] C12. A wireless network node, a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B; a power supply circuit configured to supply power to the radio network node; A wireless network node comprising:

[0328] C13. A wireless network node, A radio network node comprising a processing circuit and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processing circuit, whereby the radio network node is configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0329] C14. The radio network node of any of embodiments C9 to C13, wherein the radio network node is a base station.

[0330] C15. A computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a radio network node, cause said radio network node to perform the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0331] C16. The computer program of embodiment C14, wherein the radio network node is a base station.

[0332] C17. A carrier comprising the computer program of any of embodiments C15-C16, the carrier being one of an electrical signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.

[0333] Group D Embodiments D1. A communication system including a host computer, processing circuitry configured to provide user data; a communication interface configured to transfer the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE); 10. A communications system, wherein the cellular network comprises a base station having a radio interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the base station being configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the Group B embodiments.

[0334] D2. The communication system of the above embodiment, further comprising the base station.

[0335] D3. The communication system of the above two embodiments, further comprising the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

[0336] D4. The communication system of the above three embodiments, processing circuitry of the host computer configured to execute a host application and thereby provide user data; The UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

[0337] D5. A method carried out in a communications system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), said method comprising: providing user data at the host computer; and initiating, at the host computer, a transmission conveying the user data to the UE over a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the base station performs any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

[0338] D6. The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising, at the base station, transmitting user data.

[0339] D7. The method of the above two embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host computer by executing a host application, and the method further includes executing at the UE a client application associated with the host application.

[0340] D8. A user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a base station, the UE comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to perform any of the three embodiments above.

[0341] D9. A communication system including a host computer, processing circuitry configured to provide user data; a communication interface configured to transfer user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE); The UE comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, and the components of the UE are configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0342] D10. The communication system of any preceding embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a base station configured to communicate with the UE.

[0343] D11. The communication system of the above two embodiments, processing circuitry of the host computer configured to execute a host application and thereby provide user data; The processing circuitry of the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

[0344] D12. A method carried out in a communications system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), said method comprising: providing user data at the host computer; and initiating, at the host computer, a transmission conveying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the UE performs any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0345] D13. The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising receiving, at the UE, the user data from the base station.

[0346] D14. A communication system including a host computer, a communication interface configured to receive user data resulting from a transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a base station; A communications system wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0347] D15. The communication system of the above embodiment, further comprising the UE.

[0348] D16. The communication system of the two above embodiments, further comprising the base station, the base station comprising a radio interface configured to communicate with the UE and a communication interface configured to transfer the user data carried by transmissions from the UE to the base station to the host computer.

[0349] D17. The communication system of the above three embodiments, processing circuitry of the host computer configured to execute a host application; A communications system, wherein processing circuitry of the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data.

[0350] D18. The communication system of the above four embodiments, processing circuitry of the host computer configured to execute a host application and provide requested data thereby; The processing circuitry of the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data in response to the requested data.

[0351] D19. A method carried out in a communications system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: A method comprising: receiving, at the host computer, user data transmitted from the UE to the base station, wherein the UE performs any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0352] D20. The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising, at the UE, providing the user data to the base station.

[0353] D21. The method of the above two embodiments, further comprising: executing, at the UE, a client application thereby providing user data to be transmitted; and executing, on the host computer, a host application associated with the client application.

[0354] D22. The method of any of the above three embodiments, further comprising: running a client application on the UE; receiving, at the UE, input data for the client application, the input data being provided at the host computer by executing a host application associated with the client application; The method, wherein the user data to be transmitted is provided by the client application in response to the input data.

[0355] D23. A communications system including a host computer having a communications interface configured to receive user data resulting from a transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a base station, the base station having a radio interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the base station configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the Group B embodiments.

[0356] D24. The communication system of the above embodiment, further comprising the base station.

[0357] D25. The communication system of the above two embodiments, further comprising the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

[0358] D26. The communication system of the above three embodiments, processing circuitry of the host computer configured to execute a host application; The UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data for reception by the host computer.

[0359] D27. A method carried out in a communications system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), said method comprising: A method comprising: receiving, at the host computer, user data from the base station resulting from a transmission received by the base station from the UE; and the UE performing any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0360] D28. The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising receiving, at the base station, the user data from the base station.

[0361] D29. The method of the previous two embodiments, further comprising initiating, at the base station, transmission of the received user data to the host computer.

Claims

1. 1. A method for a wireless device, the method comprising: a data transmission associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes, the data transmission comprising: receiving (200) control signaling from a network node in a wireless network indicating parameter configuration for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device; the indicated parameter setting is one of a plurality of parameter settings corresponding to different subsets of the plurality of HARQ processes, The different subsets include: a first subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled; and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled; and A method comprising:

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicated parameter settings are: a single HARQ process, or all HARQ processes of a single type, The method is for one of the following:

3. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicated parameter settings are: All HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled, or all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled; The method is for one of the following:

4. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; Transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table; the type of frequency resource allocation; target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling configuration, the type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme; The method differs in one or more of the following:

5. 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting or receiving (210) the data transmission associated with the subset of the plurality of HARQ processes in accordance with the indicated parameter setting.

6. 1. A method for a wireless device, the method comprising: transmitting (250) to a network node in a wireless network, hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by said network node, said HARQ feedback being based on a HARQ feedback codebook, said HARQ feedback codebook comprising: a first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgement; a second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process with HARQ feedback enabled, indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of the DL transmission; and A method comprising:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the HARQ feedback codebook is a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook.

8. 8. The method of claim 6 or 7, further comprising: receiving (235) a set of Downlink Control Information (DCI) from said network node via a Physical DL Control Channel (PDCCH), said set indicating respective schedules for said set of DL transmissions; receiving (240) the set of DL transmissions according to the respective schedules from the network node via a Physical DL Shared Channel (PDSCH); A method comprising:

9. 9. The method of claim 8, a position of the first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with the first HARQ process; The method of claim 1, wherein the position of the second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook is based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with the second HARQ process.

10. 1. A method for a network node in a wireless network, the method comprising: transmitting (300) control signaling to a wireless device indicating parameter settings for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device, the data transmission being associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes; the indicated parameter setting is one of a plurality of parameter settings corresponding to different subsets of the plurality of HARQ processes, The different subsets include: a first subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled; and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled; and A method comprising:

11. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicated parameter settings are: a single HARQ process, or all HARQ processes of a single type, The method is for one of the following:

12. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicated parameter settings are: All HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled, or all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled; The method is for one of the following:

13. 13. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by the downlink control information; Transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table; the type of frequency resource allocation; target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling configuration, the type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission scheme; The method differs in one or more of the following:

14. 14. The method of any one of claims 10 to 13, further comprising transmitting or receiving (310) the data transmission associated with the subset of the plurality of HARQ processes in accordance with the indicated parameter setting.

15. 1. A method for a network node in a wireless network, the method comprising: receiving (350) hybrid ARQ (HARQ) feedback from a wireless device for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by the network node, the HARQ feedback being based on a HARQ feedback codebook, the HARQ feedback codebook comprising: a first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgement; a second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process with HARQ feedback enabled, indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of the DL transmission; and A method comprising:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the HARQ feedback codebook is a Type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook.

17. 17. The method of claim 15 or 16, further comprising: transmitting (335) a set of Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating respective schedules for the set of DL transmissions to the wireless device via a Physical DL Control Channel (PDCCH); transmitting (340) the set of DL transmissions according to the respective schedules to the wireless devices via a Physical DL Shared Channel (PDSCH); A method comprising:

18. 18. The method of claim 17, a position of the first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with the first HARQ process; The method of claim 1, wherein the position of the second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook is based on a slot timing offset included in a DCI scheduling a DL transmission associated with the second HARQ process.

19. A wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630), a communications circuit (420, 1214, 1311, 1331, 1637) configured to communicate with a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10); a processing circuit (410, 1220, 1301, 1638) operably coupled to the communication circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to a method according to any one of claims 1 to 5; A wireless device comprising:

20. 6. A wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630) configured to communicate with a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10) via data transmission and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the wireless device further configured to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 1 to 5.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (430, 1230, 1315) having stored thereon computer-executable instructions (1325, 1631) that, when executed by a processing circuit (410, 1220, 1301, 1638) of a wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630), configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 1 to 5.

22. 10. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions (1325, 1631) that, when executed by a processing circuit (410, 1220, 1301, 1638) of a wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630), configures the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 1 to 5.

23. A wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630), a communications circuit (420, 1214, 1311, 1331, 1637) configured to communicate with a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10); a processing circuit (410, 1220, 1301, 1638) operably coupled to the communication circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to a method according to any one of claims 6 to 9; A wireless device comprising:

24. 10. A wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630) configured to communicate with a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10) via data transmission and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the wireless device further configured to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 6 to 9.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (430, 1230, 1315) having stored thereon computer-executable instructions (1325, 1631) that, when executed by a processing circuit (410, 1220, 1301, 1638) of a wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630), configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 6 to 9.

26. 10. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions (1325, 1631) that, when executed by a processing circuit (410, 1220, 1301, 1638) of a wireless device (18, 400, 1210, 1300, 1630), configures the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 6 to 9.

27. A network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10), said network node comprising: a communication circuit (520, 1290, 1470, 14200, 1627) configured to communicate with one or more wireless devices; a processing circuit (510, 1270, 1460, 1628) operably coupled to the communication circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to a method according to any one of claims 10 to 14; A network node comprising:

28. 15. A network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10) configured to communicate with one or more wireless devices via data transmissions and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the network node being further configured to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 10 to 14.

29. 15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (530, 1280, 1490) having stored thereon computer-executable instructions (1495, 1625) that, when executed by a processing circuit (510, 1270, 1460, 1628) of a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 10) in a wireless network (10), configures the network node to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 10 to 14.

30. 15. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions (1495, 1625) that, when executed by a processing circuit (510, 1270, 1460, 1628) of a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 10) in a wireless network (10), configures the network node to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 10 to 14.

31. A network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10), said network node comprising: a communication circuit (520, 1290, 1470, 14200, 1627) configured to communicate with one or more wireless devices; a processing circuit (510, 1270, 1460, 1628) operably coupled to the communication circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to a method according to any one of claims 15 to 18; A network node comprising:

32. 19. A network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 1620) in a wireless network (10) configured to communicate with one or more wireless devices via data transmissions and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the network node being further configured to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 15 to 18.

33. 19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium (530, 1280, 1490) having stored thereon computer-executable instructions (1495, 1625) that, when executed by a processing circuit (510, 1270, 1460, 1628) of a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 10) in a wireless network (10), configures the network node to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 15 to 18.

34. 19. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions (1495, 1625) that, when executed by a processing circuit (510, 1270, 1460, 1628) of a network node (12, 500, 1260, 1430, 10) in a wireless network (10), configures the network node to perform operations corresponding to the method of any one of claims 15 to 18.

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