Resource allocation for multiple component carrier transmissions - Patents.com

Abstract

An apparatus and system are described that provide resource allocation for PDSCH and / or PUSCH transmission with multi-cell scheduling. With multi-cell scheduling, one or more of a carrier indicator, a bandwidth portion (BWP) indicator, a UL / SUL indicator, a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA), and / or a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) may be provided to a UE by an NG-RAN node. In some cases, a carrier indicator bitmap may be provided in the downlink channel information to indicate single or multi-cell scheduling and the scheduled cell.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] [Priority claim] This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 300,555, filed January 18, 2022, and Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 328,096, filed April 6, 2022, each of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.

[0002] [Technical field] Embodiments relate to 3GPP networks, and in particular to resource allocation mechanisms for data and control transmission with multi-cell scheduling in 3GPP networks. [Background technology]

[0003] The use and complexity of wireless systems is increasing due to both the increasing variety of electronic devices using network resources and the amount of data and bandwidth used by various applications, such as video streaming, running on the electronic devices. As expected, the emergence of new technologies brings many challenges, including the complexities associated with scheduling in the network, especially expanding both uplink and downlink scheduling from a single cell to a multi-cell. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0004] The figures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and like reference numbers may represent like components in different figures. Like reference numbers with different letter suffixes may represent different instances of like components. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

[0005] [Figure 1A] 1 illustrates a network architecture according to some aspects.

[0006] [Figure 1B] 1 illustrates a non-roaming 5G system architecture according to some aspects.

[0007] [Figure 1C] 1 illustrates a non-roaming 5G system architecture according to some aspects.

[0008] [Diagram 2] 1 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device according to some embodiments.

[0009] [Diagram 3] 1 illustrates multi-resource scheduling for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) according to some embodiments.

[0010] [Figure 4] 1 illustrates a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) indication for multi-cell scheduling according to some embodiments.

[0011] [Diagram 5] 1 illustrates a TDRA indication for multi-cell scheduling according to some embodiments.

[0012] [Figure 6] 1 illustrates a flowchart for receiving downlink control information (DCI) according to some embodiments.

[0013] [Figure 7] 1 illustrates a flow chart for receiving DCI according to some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0014] The following description and drawings sufficiently describe certain embodiments to enable one skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, processing, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or substituted for portions and features of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0015] 1A illustrates a network architecture according to some aspects. Network 140A includes 3GPP LTE / 4G and NG network functions that are scalable to 6G and beyond. Thus, although referred to as 5G, this should be understood as being scalable to 6G (and beyond) structures, systems, and functions. Network functions can be implemented as separate network elements on dedicated hardware, as software instances running on dedicated hardware, and / or as virtualized functions instantiated on a suitable platform, e.g., dedicated hardware or cloud infrastructure.

[0016] Network 140A is shown to include user equipment (UE) 101 and UE 102. UE 101 and 102 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a portable (laptop) or desktop computer, a wireless handset, a drone, or any other computing device that includes a wired and / or wireless communication interface. UE 101 and 102 may be collectively referred to herein as UE 101, which may be used to perform one or more of the techniques disclosed herein.

[0017] Any of the wireless links described herein (e.g., used in network 140A or other illustrated networks) may operate according to any exemplary wireless communication technology and / or standard. Any spectrum management scheme may be used, including, for example, dedicated licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, (licensed) shared spectrum (e.g., Licensed Shared Access (LSA) at 2.3-2.4 GHz, 3.4-3.6 GHz, 3.6-3.8 GHz, and Spectrum Access System (SAS) at 3.55-3.7 GHz and other frequencies). Different single-carrier or orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing (OFDM) modes (CP-OFDM, SC-FDMA, SC-OFDM, Filter Bank Based Multi-Carrier (FBMC), OFDM, etc.), and in particular 3GPP NR, may be used by allocating OFDM carrier data bit vectors to corresponding symbol resources.

[0018] In some aspects, any of the UEs 101 and 102 may include Internet of Things (IoT) UEs or Cellular IoT (CIoT) UEs, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. In some aspects, any of the UEs 101 and 102 may include a narrowband (NB) IoT UE (e.g., enhanced NB-IoT (eNB-IoT) UEs and Further Enhanced (FeNB-IoT) UEs, etc.). IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) to exchange data with an MTC server or device over a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe), or device-to-device (D2D) communications, sensor network, or IoT network. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine initiated data exchanges. An IoT network includes the ability to interconnect IoTUEs that include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) over short-term connections. IoTUEs may run background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate IoT network connectivity. In some aspects, both UEs 101 and 102 may include enhanced MTC (eMTC) UEs or further enhanced MTC (FeMTC) UEs.

[0019] The UEs 101 and 102 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 110. The RAN 110 may be, e.g., an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGenRAN (NGRAN), or other type of RAN. The RAN 110 may include one or more gNBs, one or more of which may be implemented by multiple units. Note that although referred to herein as gNBs, the same aspects may also apply to other generations of NodeBs, such as 6th Generation NodeBs, and thus may alternatively be referred to as Next Generation NodeBs (xNBs).

[0020] Each gNB may implement protocol entities in the 3GPP protocol stack, where the layers are considered to be ordered from bottom to top as follows: Physical (PHY), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP), and Radio Resource Control (RRC) / Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) (for control plane / user plane). The protocol layers of each gNB may be distributed in different units, namely a Central Unit (CU), at least one Distributed Unit (DU), and a Remote Radio Head (RRH). The CU may provide functions such as controlling the transfer of user data, performing mobility control, sharing the radio access network, positioning, and session management, except for functions assigned only to the DU.

[0021] The upper protocol layers (PDCP and RRC for the control plane / PDCP and SDAP for the user plane) may be implemented in the CU, and the RLC and MAC layers may be implemented in the DU. The PHY layer may be split, with the upper PHY layer also implemented in the DU, and the lower PHY layer implemented in the RRH. The CU, DU and RRH may be implemented by different manufacturers, but may be connected by appropriate interfaces between them. The CU may be connected to multiple DUs.

[0022] Interfaces within the gNB include E1 and fronthaul (F)F1 interfaces. The E1 interface is between the CU control plane (gNB-CU-CP) and the CU user plane (gNB-CU-UP) and may support the exchange of signaling information between the control and user planes via E1AP services. The E1 interface may separate the radio network layer and the transport network layer and allow the exchange of UE related and non-UE related information. The E1AP services may be non-UE related services related to the entire E1 interface instance between the gNB-CU-CP and the gNB-CU-UP using non-UE related signaling connections, and UE related services related to a single UE and related to UE related signaling connections maintained for the UE.

[0023] The F1 interface may be located between the CU and the DU. The CU can control the operation of the DU via the F1 interface. Since the signaling of the gNB is split into control plane signaling and user plane signaling, the F1 interface can be split into an F1-C interface for control plane signaling between the gNB-DU and the gNB-CU-CP, and an F1-U interface for user plane signaling between the gNB-DU and the gNB-CU-UP, which supports separation of the control plane and the user plane. The F1 interface may separate the radio network layer and the transport network layer, allowing the exchange of UE-related and non-UE-related information. Furthermore, the F2 interface may be between the lower and upper NR PHY layers. The F2 interface can also be split into F2-C and F2-U interfaces based on the control plane and user plane functions.

[0024] UEs 101 and 102 utilize connections 103 and 104, respectively, each including a physical communication interface or layer (described in further detail below). In this example, connections 103 and 104 are illustrated as radio interfaces for enabling communication coupling and may be compatible with cellular communication protocols such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocols, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocols, Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocols, PTT over Cellular (POC) protocols, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocols, 5G protocols, 6G protocols, etc.

[0025] In one aspect, the UEs 101 and 102 may further directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 is also referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface that includes one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH), and a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH).

[0026] The UE 102 is shown configured to access an access point (AP) 106 via a connection 107. The connection 107 may constitute a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, according to which the AP 106 may constitute a wireless fidelity (WiFi) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown connected to the Internet without connecting to a core network of a wireless system (described in more detail below).

[0027] The RAN 110 may include one or more access nodes that enable the connections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) may be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN nodes, etc., and may include terrestrial stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographical area (e.g., a cell). In some aspects, the communication nodes 111 and 112 may be transmission-reception points (TRPs). If the communication nodes 111 and 112 are NodeBs (e.g., eNBs or gNBs), one or more TRPs may function within the communication cell of the NodeB. The RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing a macrocell, e.g., a macro RAN node 111, and one or more RAN nodes for providing a femtocell or picocell (e.g., a cell with a smaller coverage area, lower user capacity, or larger bandwidth compared to a macrocell), e.g., a low power (LP) RAN node 112.

[0028] Any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 may terminate air interface protocols and may be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102. In some aspects, any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 110, including radio network controller (RNC) functions such as, but not limited to, radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. In one example, any of the nodes 111 and / or 112 may be a gNB, eNB, or another type of RAN node.

[0029] The RAN 110 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 120 via an S1 interface 113. In an aspect, the CN 120 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or other type of CN (e.g., as illustrated with reference to FIGS. 1B, 1C ). In this aspect, the S1 interface 113 is divided into two parts: an S1-U interface 114 that carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and a serving gateway (S-GW) 122, and an S1 mobility management entity (MME) interface 115 that is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and the MME 121.

[0030] In this aspect, the CN 120 includes an MME 121, an S-GW 122, a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 124. The MME 121 is functionally similar to the control plane of conventional Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MME 121 can manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 can include a database for network users, including subscription related information to support the processing of communication sessions of the network entities. The CN 120 can include one or more HSSs 124 depending on the number of mobile subscribers, device capabilities, network configuration, etc. For example, the HSS 124 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / address resolution, location dependency, etc.

[0031] The S-GW 122 terminates the S1 interface 113 towards the RAN 110 and can route data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. Additionally, the S-GW 122 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities of the S-GW 122 include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0032] The P-GW 123 may terminate the SGi interface towards the PDN. The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the CN 120 and external networks, such as a network including an application server 184 (also referred to as an application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. The P-GW 123 may also communicate data to other external networks 131A, which may include the Internet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IPS) network, and other networks. In general, the application server 184 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources in the core network (UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this aspect, the P-GW 123 is shown communicatively coupled to the application server 184 via the IP interface 125. The application server 184 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

[0033] The P-GW 123 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. The Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 126 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, in some aspects, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with the UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with the UE's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 126 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 184 via the P-GW 123.

[0034] In some aspects, the communications network 140A may be an IoT network or a 5G or 6G network, including a 5G New Radio network that uses communications in licensed (5G NR) and unlicensed (5G NR-U) spectrum. One current enabler of IoT is Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). Operation in unlicensed spectrum may include dual connectivity (DC) operation and standalone LTE systems in unlicensed spectrum, whereby LTE-based technologies operate only in unlicensed spectrum without using an "anchor" in licensed spectrum (MultiFire). Further enhanced operation of LTE systems in licensed and unlicensed spectrum is expected in future releases and 5G systems. Such enhanced operation may include techniques for sidelink resource allocation and UE processing operations for NR sidelink V2X communications.

[0035] The NG system architecture (or 6G system architecture) may include a RAN 110 and a core network (CN) 120. The NG-RAN 110 may include multiple nodes such as gNBs and NG-eNBs. The CN 120 (e.g., a 5G Core Network (5GC)) may include an Access and Mobility Function (AMF) and / or a User Plane Function (UPF). The AMF and UPF may be communicatively coupled to the gNBs and NG-eNBs via an NG interface. More specifically, in some aspects, the gNBs and NG-eNBs may be connected to the AMF by an NG-C interface and to the UPF by an NG-U interface. The gNBs and NG-eNBs may be coupled to each other via an Xn interface.

[0036] In some aspects, the NG system architecture can use reference points between various nodes. In some aspects, each gNB and NG-eNB can be implemented as a base station, a mobile edge server, a small cell, a home eNB, etc. In some aspects, the gNB can be a master node (MN) and the NG-eNB can be a secondary node (SN) in the 5G architecture.

[0037] FIG. 1B illustrates a non-roaming 5G system architecture according to some aspects. In particular, FIG. 1B illustrates a 5G system architecture 140B in a reference point representation, which can be extended to a 6G system architecture. More specifically, a UE 102 can communicate with a RAN 110, as well as one or more other CN network entities. The 5G system architecture 140B includes a number of network functions (NFs), such as an AMF 132, a session management function (SMF) 136, a policy control function (PCF) 148, an application function (AF) 150, a UPF 134, a network slice selection function (NSSF) 142, an authentication server function (AUSF) 144, and a unified data management (UDM) / home subscriber server (HSS) 146.

[0038] The UPF 134 can provide connectivity to a data network (DN) 152, which can include, for example, operator services, Internet access, or third party services. The AMF 132 can be used to manage access control and mobility, and can also include a network slice selection function. The AMF 132 can provide UE-based authentication, authorization, mobility management, etc., and can be access technology independent. The SMF 136 can be configured to set up and manage various sessions according to network policies. Thus, the SMF 136 can be responsible for session management and assignment of IP addresses to the UE. The SMF 136 can also select and control the UPF 134 for data forwarding. The SMF 136 may be associated with a single session of the UE 101 or multiple sessions of the UE 101. That is, the UE 101 can have multiple 5G sessions. A different SMF can be assigned to each session. By using different SMFs, each session can be managed separately. As a result, the functionality of each session is independent of each other.

[0039] The UPF 134 can be deployed in one or more configurations according to the desired service type and can be connected to a data network. The PCF 148 can be configured to provide a policy framework with network slicing, mobility management, and roaming (similar to a PCRF in a 4G communication system). The UDM can be configured to store subscriber profiles and data (similar to an HSS in a 4G communication system).

[0040] The AF 150 can provide information about the packet flows to the PCF 148, which is responsible for policy control, to support the desired QoS. The PCF 148 can set mobility and session management policies for the UE 101. To this end, the PCF 148 can use the packet flow information to determine appropriate policies for appropriate operation of the AMF 132 and SMF 136. The AUSF 144 can store data for UE authentication.

[0041] In some aspects, the 5G system architecture 140B includes multiple IP multimedia core network subsystem entities, such as a call session control function (CSCF), as well as an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) 168B. More specifically, the IMS 168B includes a CSCF that can operate as a proxy CSCF (P-CSCF) 162BE, a serving CSCF (S-CSCF) 164B, an emergency CSCF (E-CSCF) (not shown in FIG. 1B), or an interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) 166B. The P-CSCF 162B can be configured as the first point of contact for the UE 102 in the IM subsystem (IMS) 168B. The S-CSCF 164B can be configured to handle session state within the network, and the E-CSCF can be configured to handle certain aspects of the emergency session, such as routing the emergency request to the appropriate emergency center or PSAP. The I-CSCF 166B can be configured to act as a contact point within the network of the network operator for all IMS connections destined for subscribers of that network operator or roaming subscribers currently located within the network operator's service area. In some aspects, the I-CSCF 166B can be connected to another IP multimedia network 170B, e.g., an IMS operated by a different network operator.

[0042] In some aspects, the UDM / HSS 146 can be coupled to an application server (AS) 160B, which can include a telephony application server (TAS) or another application server. The AS 160B can be coupled to an IMS 168B via an S-CSCF 164B or an I-CSCF 166B.

[0043] The reference point representation indicates that interactions may exist between corresponding NF services. For example, Figure 1B shows the following reference points: N1 (between UE 102 and AMF 132), N2 (between RAN 110 and AMF 132), N3 (between RAN 110 and UPF 134), N4 (between SMF 136 and UPF 134), N5 (between PCF 148 and AF 150 (not shown)), N6 (between UPF 134 and DN 152), N7 (between SMF 136 and PCF 148 (not shown)), N8 (between UDM 146 and AMF 132 (not shown)), N9 (between two UPFs 134 (not shown)), N10 (between UDM 146 and SMF 136 (not shown)), N11 (between UDM 146 and AMF 132 (not shown)), N12 (between UDM 146 and SMF 136 (not shown)), N13 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N14 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N15 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N16 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N17 (between UDM 146 and AMF 132 (not shown)), N18 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N19 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N20 (between UPF 134 and DN 152 (not shown)), N21 (between UPF 134 and DN 1B )), N11 (between AMF 132 and SMF 136 (not shown)), N12 (between AUSF 144 and AMF 132 (not shown)), N13 (between AUSF 144 and UDM 146 (not shown)), N14 (between two AMFs 132 (not shown)), N15 (between PCF 148 and AMF 132 in case of non-roaming scenario, and between PCF 148, visited network and AMF 132 in case of roaming scenario (not shown)), N16 (between two SMFs (not shown)), and N22 (between AMF 132 and NSSF 142 (not shown)). Other reference point representations not shown in FIG. 1B may also be used.

[0044] 1C illustrates a 5G system architecture 140C and a service-based representation. In addition to the network entities illustrated in FIG. 1B, the system architecture 140C may also include a network exposure function (NEF) 154 and a network repository function (NRF) 156. In some aspects, the 5G system architecture may be service-based, and interactions between network functions may be represented as corresponding point-to-point reference points Ni or service-based interfaces.

[0045] In some aspects, as shown in FIG. 1C, a service-based representation can be used to represent network functions in a control plane that allows other authorized network functions to access those services. In this regard, the 5G system architecture 140C can include the following service-based interfaces: Namf 158H (service-based interface represented by AMF 132), Nsmf 158I (service-based interface represented by SMF 136), Nnef 158B (service-based interface represented by NEF 154), Npcf 158D (service-based interface represented by PCF 148), Nudm 158E (service-based interface represented by UDM 146), Naf 158F (service-based interface represented by AF 150), Nnrf 158C (service-based interface represented by NRF 156), Nnssf 158A (service-based interface represented by NSSF 142), Nausf 158G (service-based interface represented by AUSF 144). Other service-based interfaces not shown in FIG. 1C (e.g., Nudr, N5g-eir, Nudsf) may also be used.

[0046] The NR-V2X architecture can support reliable, low-latency sidelink communications with a variety of traffic patterns, including periodic and aperiodic communications with random packet arrival times and sizes. The techniques disclosed herein can be used to support high reliability in distributed communication systems with dynamic topologies, including sidelink NR V2X communication systems.

[0047] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a communications device, according to some embodiments. Communications device 200 may be a dedicated computer, a personal or laptop computer (PC), a UE such as a tablet PC or smartphone, a dedicated network device such as an eNB, a server executing software that configures the server to operate as a network device, a virtual device, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be performed by the machine. For example, communications device 200 may be implemented as one or more of the devices illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1C. It should be noted that communications described herein may be encoded for reception by a receiving entity (e.g., gNB, UE) prior to transmission by the transmitting entity (e.g., UE, gNB) and decoded after receipt by the receiving entity.

[0048] Examples as described herein may include or operate on logic or multiple components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules and components are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a particular way. In examples, circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities such as other circuits) as modules in a particular way. In examples, all or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., stand-alone, client, or server computer systems) or one or more hardware processors may be configured with firmware or software (e.g., instructions, application portions, or applications) as modules that operate to perform specified operations. In examples, software may reside on a machine-readable medium. In examples, software, when executed by the underlying hardware of a module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

[0049] Thus, the term "module" (and "component") is understood to encompass tangible entities that are physically configured, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transiently) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a particular manner or to perform some or all of any of the operations described herein. Consider examples in which the modules are temporarily configured, and each of the modules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example, if the modules include a general-purpose hardware processor that is configured with software, the general-purpose hardware processor may be configured as each different module at different times. The software may thus configure the hardware processor, for example, to configure a particular module at one time and a different module at a different time.

[0050] The communication device 200 may include a hardware processor (or equivalent processing circuitry) 202 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a GPU, a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 204, and a static memory 206, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an internal link (e.g., a bus) 208. The main memory 204 may include any or all of removable and non-removable, volatile or non-volatile storage. The communication device 200 may further include a display unit 210, such as a video display, an alphanumeric input device 212 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 214 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display unit 210, the input device 212, and the UI navigation device 214 may be touch screen displays. The communication device 200 may further include a storage device (e.g., a drive unit) 216, a signal generating device 218 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 220, and one or more sensors, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS). The communication device 200 may further include an output control, such as a serial (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.)) connection, to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.).

[0051] The storage device 216 may include a non-transitory machine-readable medium 222 (hereinafter simply referred to as a machine-readable medium). The machine-readable medium 622 stores one or more data structures or sets of instructions 224 (e.g., software) that implement or are utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 224 may reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 204, within the static memory 206, and / or within the hardware processor 202 during execution by the communication device 200. Although the machine-readable medium 222 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "machine-readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and / or associated caches and servers) configured to store one or more instructions 224.

[0052] The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by communication device 200 that cause communication device 200 to perform any one or more of the techniques of this disclosure, or capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting examples of machine-readable media may include solid-state memory, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable media may include non-volatile memory such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices, magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disks, Random Access Memory (RAM), and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

[0053] The instructions 224 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network using a transmission medium via the network interface device 220526 utilizing any one of a number of wireless local area network (WLAN) transport protocols (e.g., frame relay, Internet Protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Exemplary communications networks may include local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), packet data networks (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks. Communications over the networks may include the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi, the IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax, the IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, the Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, Universal Mobile Telecommunications (UMTS) family of standards, and the like. The network interface device 220 may include one or more different protocols, such as the IEEE 802.11b (IEEE 802.11b) System family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, next generation (NG) / fifth generation (5G) standards, etc. In an example, the network interface device 220 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas for connecting to the transmission medium 226.

[0054] It is noted that the term "circuitry" as used herein means, is a part of, or includes hardware components such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or groups) and / or memories (shared, dedicated, or groups), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high volume PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, a circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or combinations of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code used to perform the functions of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

[0055] As used herein, the term "circuitry" or "processor" means, is a part of, or includes a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations, or the recording, storage, and / or transfer of digital data. The term "processor circuitry" or "processor" can refer to one or more or multiple baseband processors, physical central processing units (CPUs), single or multi-core processors, and / or other devices capable of executing or otherwise manipulating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes.

[0056] The wireless links described herein may operate according to any one or more of the following wireless communication technologies and / or standards, including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) wireless communication technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) wireless communication technology, Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) wireless communication technology, and / or Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless communication technologies, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Freedom of Multimedia Access (FOMA), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), 3GPP LTE Advanced (Long Term Evolution Advanced), 2000CDMA2000 (Code division multiple access 2000), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, Third Generation (3G), Circuit Switched Data (CSD), High-Speed ​​Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation), UMTS(3G ... Generation)), W-CDMA(UMTS)(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)), HSPA(High Speed ​​Packet Access), HSDPA(High-Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access), HSUPA(High-Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access), HSPA+(High Speed ​​Packet Access Plus), UMTS-TDD(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex), TD-CDMA(TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access), 3GPP Rel.8 (Pre-4G) (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release8 (Pre-4th Generation)), 3GPP Rel.9 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release9), 3GPP Rel.10 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release10), 3GPP Rel.11 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release11), 3GPP Rel.12 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release12), 3GPP Rel.13 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release13), 3GPP Rel.14 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release14), 3GPP Rel.15 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release15), 3GPP Rel.16 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release16), 3GPP Rel.17 (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release17) and later releases (3GPP Rel.18, 3GPP Rel.19, etc.), 3GPP 5G, 5G, 5G New Radio (5G NR), 3GPP 5G New Radio, 3GPP LTE Extra, LTE-Advanced Pro, LTE Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), MuLTEfire, UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), E-UTRA (Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), LTEAdvanced (4G) (Long Term Evolution Advanced), cdmaOne (2G), CDMA2000 (3G) (Code division multiple access 2000 (Thirdgeneration), EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), AMPS (1G) (Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation)), TACS / ETACS (Total Access Communication System / Extended Total Access Communication System), D-AMPS (2G) (Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-Talk), MTS (Mobile Telephone System), IMTS (Improved Mobile Telephone System), AMTS (Advanced Mobile Telephone System), OLT (Norwegian: OffentligLandmobilTelefoni, PublicLandMobileTelephony), MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D or Mobile Telephony SystemD), Autotel / PALM (Public Automated Land Mobile), ARP (Finnish: Autoradiopuhelin, "car radio phone"), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony), Hicap (NTT (Nippon Telegraph and High-capacity version of Telephone), CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data), Mobitex, DataTAC, iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CSD (Circuit Switched Data), PHS (Personal Handy-Phone System), WiDEN (Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network), iBurst, LAA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), 3GPP Generic AccessNetwork, or GAN standard), Zigbee, Bluetooth (registered trademark), WiGig (Wireless Gigabit Alliance) standard, mmWave standards in general (wireless systems operating at 10 to 300 GHz or higher, such as WiGig, IEEE802.11ad, IEEE802.11ay, etc.), technologies operating at 300 GHz and THz bands or higher, (3GPP / LTE-based or IEEE802.11p or IEEE802.11bd and others) Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-X (V2X) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (I2V) communication technologies, 3GPP Cellular V2X, Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) communication systems such as Intelligent-Transport Systems (usually operating at 5850 MHz to 5925 MHz or higher (CEPT (usually up to 5,935 MHz following the proposed changes in Report 71), European ITS-G5 systems (i.e., European variants of IEEE 802.11p-based DSRC, including ITS-G5A (i.e., operation of ITS-G5 in the European ITS frequency bands dedicated to ITS for safety-related applications in the frequency range of 5,875 GHz to 5,905 GHz), ITS-G5B (i.e., operation in the European ITS frequency bands dedicated to ITS non-safety applications in the frequency range of 5,855 GHz to 5,875 GHz), and ITS-G5C (i.e., operation of ITS applications in the frequency range of 5,470 GHz to 5,725 GHz), DSRC in the 700 MHz band (including 715 MHz to 725 MHz) in Japan, IEEE 802.11bd-based systems, etc.

[0057] The aspects described herein can be used in the context of any spectrum management scheme, including dedicated licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, license-exempt spectrum, (licensed) shared spectrum (e.g., LSA=Licensed Shared Access for 2.3-2.4 GHz, 3.4-3.6 GHz, 3.6-3.8 GHz and further frequencies, SAS=Spectrum Access System / CBRS=Citizen Broadband Radio System for 3.55-3.7 GHz and further frequencies, etc.).Applicable spectrum bands include IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications) spectrum, and other types of spectrum / bands, such as bands with national allocations (450-470 MHz, 902-928 MHz (Note: allocated, for example, in the US (FCC Part 15)), 863-868.6 MHz (Note: allocated, for example, in the European Union (ETSI EN 300 220), 915.9-929.7MHz (Note: Allocated in Japan, for example), 917-923.5MHz (Note: Allocated in Korea, for example), 755-779MHz and 779-787MHz (Note: Allocated in China, for example), 790-960MHz, 1710-2025MHz, 2110-2200MHz, 2300-2400MHz, 2.4-2.4835GHz (Note: ISM band available worldwide, also used by Wi-Fi family of technologies (11b / g / n / ax) and Bluetooth), 2500-2690MHz, 698-790MHz, 610-790MHz, 3400-3600MHz, 3400~3800MHz, 3800~4200MHz, 3.55-3.7GHz (Note: Allocated in US, for example, by Citizen Broadband Radio, for example), 1710-2025MHz, 2110-2200MHz, 2300-2400MHz, 2.4-2.4835GHz (Note: ISM band available worldwide, also used by Wi-Fi family of technologies (11b / g / n / ax) and Bluetooth, 2500-2690MHz, 698-790MHz, 610-790MHz, 3400-3600MHz, 3400~3800MHz, 3800~4200MHz, 3.55-3.7GHz (Note: Allocated in US, for example, by Citizen Broadband Radio, for example), 1710-2025MHz, 2110-2200MHz, 2300-2400MHz, 2.4-2.4835GHz (Note: ISM band available worldwide, also used by The following bands are currently in use: 5.15-5.25 GHz, 5.25-5.35 GHz, 5.47-5.725 GHz, and 5.725-5.85 GHz (Note: Allocated in the US (FCC part 15), consisting of four U-NII bands, totaling 500 MHz of spectrum); 5.725-5.875 GHz (Note: Allocated in the EU (ETSI EN 301 893)); 5.47-5.65 GHz (Note: Allocated in Korea); 5925-7125 MHz, and 5925-6425 MHz (Note: Allocated in the US and EU, respectively). It is noted that the next generation Wi-Fi system is expected to operate in the 6 GHz spectrum, but as of December 2017, Wi-Fi systems are not yet permitted in this band. It is expected that the coordination will be completed in the 2019-2020 time frame.), IMT-advanced spectrum, IMT-2020 spectrum (expected to include 3600-3800 MHz, 3800~4200 MHz, 3.5 GHz bands, 700 MHz bands, bands in the 24.25-86 GHz range, etc.), spectrum made available under the FCC's "Spectrum Frontier" 5G initiative (including 27.5-28.35 GHz, 29.1-29.25 GHz, 31-31.3 GHz, 37-38.6 GHz, 38.6-40 GHz, 42-42.5 GHz, 57-64 GHz, 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz, and 92-94 GHz, etc.), the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) bands 5.9 GHz (typically 5.85-5.925 GHz) and 63-64 GHz, bands currently allocated to WiGig, such as the WiGig Band WiGig Band 1 (57.24-59.40 GHz), WiGig Band 2 (59.40-61.56 GHz) and WiGig Band 3 (61.56-63.72 GHz) and WiGig Band 4 (63.72-65.88 GHz), 57-64 / 66 GHz (Note: this band has near-global designation for Multi-Gigabit Wireless Systems (MGWS) / WiGig. The US (FCC part 15) has allocated a total of 14 GHz of spectrum, and the EU (ETSI EN 302 567 and ETSI EN 301 217-2 for fixed P2P) has allocated a total of 9 GHz of spectrum), the 70.2 GHz-71 GHz band, any band between 65.88 GHz and 71 GHz, bands currently allocated for autonomous radar applications such as 76-81 GHz, and future bands including 94-300 GHz and above. Furthermore, the system can be used secondary in bands such as TV white space bands (typically below 790 MHz), with the 400 MHz and 700 MHz bands being promising candidates in particular. In addition to cellular applications, vertical market specific applications can address PMSE (Program Making and Special Events), medical, health, surgery, automotive, low latency, drones, and more.

[0058] The aspects described herein may also implement hierarchical applications based on prioritized access to spectrum, for example by introducing a hierarchical priority of usage for different types of users (e.g., low / medium / high priority, etc.), e.g., having highest priority for Tier 1 users, then Tier 2, then Tier 3 users, etc.

[0059] The aspects described herein can be applied to different single carrier or OFDM types (CP-OFDM, SC-FDMA, SC-OFDM, filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC), OFDMA, etc.), especially in 3GPP NR (New Radio), by assigning OFDM carrier data bit vectors to corresponding symbol resources.

[0060] 5G networks will extend beyond traditional mobile broadband services to provide a variety of new services, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), industrial control, autonomous driving, and mission-critical communications, which may have ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, and high data capacity requirements due to safety and performance concerns. Some features in this document are defined for the network side, such as AP, eNB, NR, or gNB. Note that this terminology is typically used in contexts such as 3GPP 5G and 6G communication systems. Nevertheless, a UE may take on this role and function as an AP, eNB, or gNB. That is, some or all of the functions defined for network equipment may be implemented by the UE.

[0061] Thus, mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly sophisticated and integrated communications platforms. Next-generation wireless communication systems, 5G, or New Radio (NR), provide access to information and sharing of data anytime and anywhere by various users and applications. NR is an integrated network / system whose goal is to meet significantly different and sometimes competing performance dimensions and services. These diverse multi-dimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications.

[0062] NR supports a wide range of spectrum in different frequency ranges. In the 5G Advanced market, spectrum availability is expected to increase, possibly due to re-farming from bands originally used in networks of previous cellular generations. Especially in Frequency Range 1 (FR1) bands, the available spectrum blocks tend to be more fragmented and scattered with narrower bandwidths. In FR2 bands and some FR1 bands, the available spectrum becomes wider as in-band multi-carrier operation is used. To meet different spectrum needs, scattered spectrum bands or wider bandwidth spectrum should be available in a more spectrum / power efficient and flexible way, thus providing the network with higher throughput and adequate coverage.

[0063] One motivation is to increase the flexibility and spectrum / power efficiency of scheduling data across multiple cells, including intra-band and inter-band cells. Current scheduling mechanisms only allow scheduling of a single cell physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) / physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) per scheduling downlink control information (DCI). With more available scattered spectrum bands or wider bandwidth spectrum, the desire for simultaneous scheduling of multiple cells is expected to increase. To reduce the control overhead, it is beneficial to extend from single-cell scheduling with a single scheduling DCI to multi-cell PUSCH / PDSCH scheduling. More specifically, DCI is used to schedule PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions in multiple cells or component carriers (CCs), and each PDSCH or PUSCH is scheduled in one cell or CC.

[0064] Figure 3 illustrates multi-cell scheduling for PDSCH according to some embodiments. This is an example of multi-cell scheduling for PDSCH. As shown in Figure 3, one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) is used to schedule two PDSCHs in two different cells, namely PDSCH#0 in CC0 and PDSCH#1 in CC1.

[0065] As defined in Rel-15 / 16, in case of single cell scheduling, the following fields are used to indicate the time and frequency resources allocated for PDSCH and PUSCH transmission, if applicable: Carrier indicator is used to indicate the component carrier index in case of cross-carrier scheduling. Bandwidth Partition (BWP) indicator is used to activate any of the BWPs configured by higher layers. Time domain resource allocation is used to indicate resource allocation in the time domain, such as slot offset between the scheduling PDCCH and the scheduled PDSCH or PUSCH, starting and length indicator value (SLIV) of the allocated slot, type A or B mapping, etc. Frequency domain resource allocation is used to indicate resource allocation in the frequency domain, i.e., which physical resource block (PRB) in the active BWP is used for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission. Uplink / supplementary uplink (UL / SUL) indicator is used to indicate whether a supplementary uplink cell is used for uplink transmission.

[0066] In multi-cell scheduling, if the above fields are included in the DCI separately for resource allocation of PDSCH or PUSCH in different cells, the DCI payload size increases significantly. To address this issue while maintaining scheduling flexibility, a specific mechanism can be defined for resource allocation of PDSCH or PUSCH transmission in the case of multi-cell scheduling. Herein, mechanisms for resource allocation for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission with multi-cell scheduling are disclosed. The mechanisms may include, among others, a carrier indicator for multi-cell scheduling, a BWP indication for multi-cell scheduling, a UL / SUL indication for multi-cell scheduling, a frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) for multi-cell scheduling, and a TDRA for multi-cell scheduling.

[0067] <Carrier Indicator for Multi-cell Scheduling>

[0068] An embodiment of the carrier indicator for multi-cell scheduling is given below.

[0069] In one embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a carrier indication bitmap may be included to indicate scheduled cells. The bitmap size may be determined according to the number of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling. In particular, a bit "1" in the bitmap may be used to indicate that a cell is scheduled by PDSCH or PUSCH transmission, and a bit "0" in the bitmap may be used to indicate that a cell is not scheduled by PDSCH or PUSCH transmission.

[0070] Note that with this option, if only one bit in the bitmap is indicated with a "1", this may indicate that the DCI is used for single-cell scheduling.

[0071] In one example, assuming four cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling, a bitmap "1100" in the DCI can be used to indicate that the first and second cells are scheduled for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission.

[0072] In another embodiment, the carrier indication table may be configured by higher layers via NR remaining minimum system information (RMSI), NR other system information (OSI), or dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling dynamically indicated in the DCI, or a combination thereof. In particular, each row of the carrier indication table may indicate a set of carriers to be scheduled by the multi-cell scheduling DCI.

[0073] In one option, the carrier indication table can be configured by dedicated RRC signaling and one field in the DCI can be used to indicate the row used to indicate the set of carriers for multi-cell scheduling. Note that the carrier indication table can be configured for the scheduling cell.

[0074] Note that the carrier indication field of the DCI can be applicable to all scheduled cells or to cells in a cell group. group Cell A carrier indication field can be included in the DCI. Each carrier indication field is used to indicate the cell index of each cell group, and N group Cell is the number of cell groups in multi-cell scheduling.

[0075] In another option, in the carrier indication table, each row may indicate a cell index and an association between the cell index and the cell group index. The UE determines the cell index and the associated cell group index for PUSCH and PDSCH transmissions based on the carrier indication field of the DCI for multi-cell scheduling.

[0076] Table 1 shows an example of a carrier indication table for multi-cell scheduling. In this example, eight cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling. In addition, eight entries for carrier indication are configured by RRC signaling. In this case, a three-bit field in the DCI can be used to select one row of the table for carrier indication for multi-cell scheduling. [Table 1] Carrier indication table for multi-cell scheduling [Table 1]

[0077] In another embodiment, the carrier indication table for multi-cell scheduling can be configured together with the carrier indication table for single-cell scheduling. In this case, the gNB can dynamically switch between single-cell scheduling and multi-cell scheduling based on the carrier indication field in the DCI. In the carrier indication table, the first K rows can be configured for single-cell scheduling and the remaining rows can be configured for multi-cell scheduling.

[0078] Table 2 shows an example of single cell scheduling and multi-cell scheduling. In this example, eight cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling. Furthermore, the eighteenth entry of the carrier indication is configured for single cell scheduling, and the remaining eight entries are configured for multi-cell scheduling. In this case, a four-bit field in the DCI can be used to select one row of the table for carrier indication for both single cell scheduling and multi-cell scheduling. [Table 2] Carrier indication table for single cell scheduling and multi-cell scheduling [Table 2]

[0079] In another embodiment, one field of the DCI may be included to explicitly indicate whether the DCI is for single-cell or multi-cell scheduling. Based on the indication and the configured carrier indication table, the UE may determine the carrier scheduled for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission. In one example, a bit "1" may be used to indicate that the DCI is used for multi-cell scheduling, and a bit "0" may be used to indicate that the DCI is used for single-cell scheduling.

[0080] <BWP indicator for multi-cell scheduling>

[0081] An embodiment of the BWP indicator for multi-cell scheduling is given below.

[0082] In one embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a BWP bitmap is used to indicate the BWP indexes of cells scheduled or configured for multi-cell scheduling. Note that the size of the BWP bitmap can be determined according to the number of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling and the number of BWPs configured for each serving cell.

[0083] In one example, two cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling: in the first cell, the number of DL BWPs is configured as 2, and in the second cell, the number of DL BWPs is configured as 4. In this case, the BWP bitmap size is 3 bits, the first bit is used to indicate the BWP index of the first cell, and the last two bits are used to indicate the BWP index of the second cell.

[0084] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a BWP table can be configured by dedicated RRC signaling, and a single BWP indication field in the DCI can be used to indicate the BWP index of the cell scheduled for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission according to the BWP table. Note that in this option, the configured or scheduled carrier index and the BWP index have a one-to-one mapping in the order. Furthermore, the number of specified BWP indexes is the same as the number of specified carrier indexes.

[0085] In an embodiment in which the number of designated BWP indexes is less than the number of designated carrier indexes, only the first K designated carrier indexes are valid, where K is the number of designated BWP indexes, or the BWP indexes are determined according to the corresponding designated carrier indexes.

[0086] Similarly, in an embodiment in which the number of designated carrier indexes is less than the number of designated BWP indexes, only the first M designated carrier indexes are valid, where M is the number of designated carrier indexes, or the BWP index is determined according to the corresponding designated carrier index.

[0087] Table 3 shows an example of a BWP indication table for multi-cell scheduling. In this example, eight cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling. In addition, eight entries for BWP indication are configured by RRC signaling. In this case, a three-bit field in the DCI can be used to select one row of the table for BWP indication for multi-cell scheduling. [Table 3] BWP indication table for multi-cell scheduling [Table 3]

[0088] Another option is to configure the BWP indication table for both single-cell and multi-cell scheduling. In this case, the first M single This row can be used to indicate the BWP index for single-cell scheduling, and the remaining rows can be used to indicate the BWP index for multi-cell scheduling.

[0089] Table 4 shows an example of a BWP indication table for single cell and multi-cell scheduling. In this example, eight cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling. Furthermore, the eighteenth entry is used for BWP indication for single cell scheduling and the last eight entries are used for BWP indication for multi-cell scheduling. In this case, a four-bit field in the DCI can be used to select one row of the table for BWP indication for both single cell and multi-cell scheduling. [Table 4] BWP instruction table for single cell scheduling and multi-cell scheduling [Table 4]

[0090] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a single BWP indication field is used to indicate the BWP index of a scheduled cell or cells in a cell group, and the size of the BWP indication field is determined according to the maximum or minimum number of BWPs configured among the cells configured for multi-cell scheduling.

[0091] The size of the BWP indication field is determined according to the maximum number of BWPs configured among the configured cells, and if the size of the determined BWP field of the scheduled cell is smaller than the single BWP indication field size of the DCI, truncation is applied to the single BWP indication field size to match the size of the determined BWP field of the scheduled cell. In this case, the UE uses the number of least significant bits of the BWP indication field equal to the size of the determined BWP field of the scheduled cell.

[0092] If the size of the BWP indication field is determined according to the maximum number of BWPs configured among the configured cells, and if the size of the determined BWP field of the scheduled cell is smaller than the single BWP indication field size of the DCI, zero padding is applied to the single BWP indication field size to match the size of the determined BWP field of the scheduled cell. In this case, the UE adds zeros before the BWP indication field until it has the same size as the determined BWP field size of the scheduled cell.

[0093] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a joint carrier indication and BWP indication table can be configured by dedicated RRC signaling, and one field in the DCI can be used to select one row in the table for both carrier and BWP indication.

[0094] Table 5 shows an example of a carrier and BWP indication table for multi-cell scheduling. In this example, four cells are configured, and each cell is configured with two BWPs for multi-cell scheduling. Furthermore, eight entries for carrier and BWP indication are configured by RRC signaling. In this case, a 3-bit field in the DCI can be used to select one row of the table for both carrier and BWP indication for multi-cell scheduling. [Table 5] Carrier and BWP indication table for multi-cell scheduling [Table 5]

[0095] In another option, the carrier and BWP indication table can be configured for both single-cell and multi-cell scheduling. In this case, the first M single This row can be used to indicate the carrier and BWP index for single-cell scheduling, and the remaining rows can be used to indicate the carrier and BWP index for multi-cell scheduling.

[0096] It should be noted that in the above embodiment, the number of BWPs for single-cell scheduling may be configured separately from the number of BWPs for multi-cell scheduling. For example, four BWPs are configured for single-cell scheduling, but only two of the four BWPs can be indicated by multi-cell scheduling. The two BWPs that can be scheduled in multi-cell scheduling can correspond to any two BWP indices. Furthermore, the BWP or joint carrier and BWP indication table can be configured for each cell group. In one example, the same number of BWPs can be configured for each cell configured for multi-cell scheduling.

[0097] In another embodiment, the BWP indication field is not included in the multi-cell scheduling, which indicates that BWP adaptation is not supported for multi-cell scheduling and the active BWP on the scheduled cell is used for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission.

[0098] It is noted that in the above embodiment, the number of entries for carrier and / or BWP indication can be configured by higher layers through RRC signaling, in which case the number of bits of the corresponding fields in the DCI can be determined accordingly.

[0099] <UL / SUL indicator for multi-cell scheduling>

[0100] An embodiment of the UL / SUL indicator for multi-cell scheduling is given below.

[0101] In one embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, the UL / SUL indicator is not present regardless of whether the UE is configured in the supplementaryUplink of the ServingCellConfig in the cell, in which case SUL is not supported for multi-cell scheduling of PUSCH transmissions.

[0102] <FDRA for multi-cell scheduling>

[0103] An embodiment of FDRA for multi-cell scheduling is given below.

[0104] In one embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, the UE is configured with the same resource allocation (RA) type for resource allocation in the frequency domain of all scheduled cells or cells in the same cell group. In an embodiment where multiple cell groups are used for multi-cell scheduling, the UE is configured with N RA types, each of which is commonly applied to the scheduled cells in each cell group. group It consists of RA types.

[0105] In one example, the UE is configured with only RA type 0 or RA type 1 for multi-cell PDSCH scheduling. In another example, the UE is configured with both RA type 0 or RA type 1 for multi-cell PDSCH scheduling. Furthermore, one bit of DCI is used to dynamically switch between RA type 0 and type 1 of FDRA for all scheduled cells or cells in the same cell group.

[0106] In this option, the RA type configuration can override the single cell scheduling configuration in case of multi-cell scheduling. Furthermore, separate configurations of RA type can be configured for PDSCH and PUSCH transmission.

[0107] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a common FDRA indication field is applied to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group. Furthermore, the FDRA field size is determined according to the bandwidth of the reference BWP in the cell. In particular, the reference BWP of the cell can be determined based on one or more of the following options: The BWP with the largest bandwidth among all configured BWPs or among all configured or scheduled BWPs in the cell; The BWP with the smallest bandwidth among all configured BWPs or among all configured or indicated BWPs in a scheduled cell; The BWP with the largest bandwidth among all configured or scheduled default BWPs in the cell; The BWP with the smallest bandwidth among the default BWPs in all configured or scheduled cells; The BWP with the largest bandwidth among all the initial BWPs in the configured or scheduled cell; The BWP with the smallest bandwidth among all the initial BWPs in the configured or scheduled cell; The BWP with the largest bandwidth among all active BWPs in a configured or scheduled cell; The BWP with the smallest bandwidth among all active BWPs in a configured or scheduled cell; BWP with the maximum number of resource block groups (RBGs) of FDRA type 0 among all configured BWPs or among all configured cells or among the indicated BWPs in the scheduled cell; BWP with the minimum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among all configured or indicated BWPs in all configured or scheduled cells; BWP with the maximum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among the default BWPs in all configured or scheduled cells; The BWP with the minimum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among all configured or default BWPs in the scheduled cell; BWP with the maximum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among all configured or scheduled initial BWPs in a cell; The BWP with the minimum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among all configured or scheduled initial BWPs in the cell; BWP with the maximum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among active BWPs in all configured or scheduled cells; The BWP with the minimum number of RBGs of FDRA type 0 among all configured or active BWPs in the scheduled cell; or the active BWPs of the scheduling cell.

[0108] Note that in the above options, all configured BWPs or the configured cells may be dedicated for multi-cell scheduling. Furthermore, the reference BWPs of a cell can be determined separately for DL ​​and UL. If the reference BWPs are determined by the active BWPs of all configured cells, the active BWPs of the deactivated cell are considered to be the DL BWP with index provided by the firstActiveDownlinkBWP-Id of the deactivated cell and the UL BWP with index provided by the firstActiveUplinkBWP-Id of the deactivated cell.

[0109] In one option, if the size of the common FDRA field is larger than the FDRA field size determined for the active or indicated BWP of the scheduled cell, truncation is applied to the common FDRA field size to match the FDRA field size determined for the active or indicated BWP of the scheduled cell, in which case the UE uses a number of least significant bits of the common FDRA field equal to the FDRA field size determined for the active or indicated BWP of the scheduled cell.

[0110] If the size of the common FDRA field is smaller than the FDRA field size determined for the active or indicated BWP of the scheduled cell, padding of zeros is applied to the common FDRA field size to match the FDRA field size determined for the active or indicated BWP of the scheduled cell. In this case, the UE adds zeros before the common FDRA field until it has the same size as the FDRA field size determined for the active or indicated BWP of the scheduled cell.

[0111] In another embodiment, if the RA type for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission is configured or indicated as RA type 0, a scaling factor may be determined and applied to the FDRA of the indicated or active BWP for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission if the BW of the indicated or active BWP differs from the BW of the reference BWP of the scheduled cell as described above.

[0112] One option is to specify the total number of resource block groups (RBGs), N refer RBG A reference BWP with a total number of RBGs, N active RBG Assume that another cell has a directed or active BWP with N active RBG >N refer RBG Then K is the maximum value from the set {1, 2, 4, 8} that satisfies:

number

[0113] Based on the determined scaling factor K, the UE calculates K P active can be applied to determine the frequency resource allocation of the indicated or active BWP for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission, where P active is the PRBG value of the indicated or active BWP.

[0114] Another option is to use the total number of resource block groups (RBGs), N refer RBG A reference BWP with a total number of RBGs, N active RBG Assume that another cell has a directed or active BWP with N active RBG >N refer RBG Then K is the maximum value from the set {1, 2, 4, 8} that satisfies:

number

number

[0115] Another option is to use the total number of resource block groups (RBGs), N refer RBG A reference BWP with a total number of RBGs, N active RBG Assume that another cell has a directed or active BWP with N active RBG >N refer RBG Then, the maximum value K, K ≥ 1, is determined to satisfy:

number

number

[0116] In another embodiment, another option is to use the total number of resource block groups (RBGs) N refer RBG and a reference BWP with BWP size N active BWP Given an indicated or active BWP of another cell with

number

number

[0117] In another embodiment, size N refer BWP A reference BWP with size N active BWP Given a pointed or active BWP of another cell having a PRB index k, the PRB index k of the pointed or active BWP is mapped to the PRB index m of the reference BWP. For example,

number

[0118] In another embodiment, if the RA type for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission is configured or indicated as RA type 1, a scaling factor may be determined and applied to the FDRA of the indicated or active BWP for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission if the BW of the indicated or active BWP differs from the BW of the reference BWP of the scheduled cell as described above.

[0119] Size N refer BWP Reference BWP with size N refer BWP Assuming an indicated or active BWP of another cell with start = 0, K, 2 K, ..., (N refer BWP -1) The resource indication value (RIV) corresponding to K and the virtually consecutively allocated resource block L RBs =K, 2 K, …, N refer BWP · It has a length of K.

[0120] Resource indication values ​​are defined as follows:

number

[0121] N active BWP >N refer BWP Then K is the maximum value from the set {1, 2, 4, 8} that satisfies:

number

[0122] Another option is N active BWP ≦N refer BWP Then K is the maximum value from the set {1, 2, 4, 8} that satisfies:

number

[0123] Another option is N active BWP ≦N refer BWP where K is the maximum value from a predefined set, say {1 / 2, 1 / 4, 1 / 8}, that satisfies:

number

[0124] In another embodiment, size N refer BWP A reference BWP with size N active BWP Given a pointed or active BWP of another cell having a PRB index k, the PRB index k of the pointed or active BWP is mapped to the PRB index m of the reference BWP. For example,

number

[0125] In another embodiment, the above embodiment can be applied to the first step of determining the frequency resource allocation of the active BWP of the scheduled cell. Furthermore, the existing mechanism defined in section 12 of TS 38.213 can be reused to determine the frequency resource allocation of the indicated BWP.

[0126] In another embodiment, a single step based on the previous embodiment is used to determine the frequency resource allocation of a directed BWP for multi-cell scheduling.

[0127] In particular, the common FDRA field applies to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group, and the FDRA field size is determined according to the bandwidth of the reference BWP in the cell. Based on the above embodiment, the frequency resource allocation of the indicated BWP or active BWP of the scheduled cell can be determined according to the PRB number of the reference BWP, the PRB number of the reference BWP of the indicated BWP or active BWP, and the indicated FDRA field.

[0128] <TDRA for multi-cell scheduling>

[0129] An embodiment of TDRA for multi-cell scheduling is given below.

[0130] In one embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, Cell TDRA fields are included in the DCI and N scheduled by the DCI are Cell Alternatively, the PDSCH or PUSCH in N cells may be applied. group Cell N TDRA fields may be included in the DCI, where each TDRA field is jointly applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH in cells in the cell group scheduled by the DCI. group Cellis the number of cell groups for multi-cell scheduling. N group Cell Note that if = 1, it indicates that all cells are in a cell group.

[0131] In one option, the TDRA table used in the DCI for multi-cell scheduling may reuse the configuration of the TDRA table for single-cell scheduling of the scheduled cells.

[0132] In another option, the TDRA table used in the DCI for multi-cell scheduling can be configured separately from the TDRA table used for single-cell scheduling.

[0133] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a row of a TDRA table can indicate PDSCHs or PUSCHs in different cells by configuring {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for each PDSCH or PUSCH in each scheduled cell of the row of the TDRA table. Note that the scheduling offset k0 or k2 can be defined according to the subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the scheduled cells.

[0134] In this option, the cell index of the PDSCH or PUSCH transmission can be indicated separately in the scheduling DCI, e.g., in the carrier indicator field. Note that the number of PDSCHs or PUSCHs determined from the rows of the TDRA table can have a one-to-one mapping to the number of determined cells. That is, the UE expects the number of scheduled PDSCHs or PUSCHs to be the same as the number of determined cells.

[0135] In an embodiment in which the number of PDSCHs or PUSCHs determined from a row of the TDRA table is greater than the number of determined cells, the first N CellOnly N PDSCHs or PUSCHs are valid in a row of the TDRA table, Cell is the number of cells determined.

[0136] Figure 4 illustrates a TDRA indication for multi-cell scheduling according to some embodiments. In Figure 4, DCI is used to schedule PDSCH in two cells. Also, the indicated rows of the TDRA table include {S=1, L=10, mapping type A, k0=1} for PDSCH#0 in the first cell and {S=0, L=14, mapping type B, k0=2} for PDSCH#1 in the second cell.

[0137] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a row of the TDRA table can indicate PDSCHs or PUSCHs in different cells by configuring the row index from the TDRA table of the scheduled cell and the BWP for each PDSCH or PUSCH of the row of the TDRA table. This option helps to reduce the signaling overhead of TDRA configuration for multi-cell scheduling.

[0138] Figure 5 illustrates a TDRA indication for multi-cell scheduling according to some embodiments. In Figure 5, the number of rows in the TDRA table #0 of the first cell is 16, and the number of rows in the TDRA table #1 of the second cell is 8. And the SCSs of CC #0 and CC #1 are 15 kHz and 30 kHz, respectively. For DCI used to schedule PDSCH in two cells, the indicated rows include {row index=9} in the TDRA table #0 of the first cell and {row index=3} in the TDRA table #1 of the second cell. Based on the indication, the UE can determine the time domain resource allocation of the scheduled PDSCH in the first cell and the second cell.

[0139] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, the cell index and / or the BWP index may be included as part of the TDRA table, in which case the carrier indicator or the BWP indicator may not be included in the DCI for multi-cell scheduling.

[0140] In one option, for multi-cell scheduling, a row of a TDRA table can indicate PDSCHs or PUSCHs in different cells by configuring {cell or carrier index, SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for each PDSCH or PUSCH in a cell of the row of the TDRA table.

[0141] In another option, for multi-cell scheduling, a row of a TDRA table can indicate PDSCHs or PUSCHs that are in different cells by configuring {cell or carrier index, BWP index, SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for each PDSCH or PUSCH in a cell of the row of the TDRA table.

[0142] In another option, a row in a TDRA table can indicate PDSCHs or PUSCHs in different cells by setting {cell or carrier index, row index from the TDRA table of the corresponding cell} for each PDSCH or PUSCH in a row in the TDRA table.

[0143] In another option, a row in the TDRA table can indicate PDSCHs or PUSCHs in different cells by setting {cell or carrier index, BWP index, row index from the TDRA table of the corresponding cell} for each PDSCH or PUSCH in a row of the TDRA table.

[0144] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a single TDRA field is commonly applied to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group indicated in the DCI, and the same time domain resource allocation is applied to the PDSCH or PUSCH in the determined cell. In this case, a separate TDRA table can be configured for the scheduling cells for multi-cell scheduling, which can be independent from the TDRA table for single-cell scheduling.

[0145] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, a row of the TDRA table may indicate time domain resource allocation of PDSCH or PUSCH in different cells by configuring {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for all configured cells.

[0146] In this case, assuming that the number of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling is K, each row of the TDRA table includes a set of K parameters for multi-cell scheduling {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2}. After the UE determines a cell index for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission, it determines a time domain resource allocation from the indicated row of the TDRA table according to the determined cell index.

[0147] In one example, assuming that three cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling, one row of the TDRA table includes {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for cell #0, {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for cell #1, and {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for cell #2. In this case, the UE first determines the cell indexes as cell #0 and cell #2 for multi-cell scheduling from the cell indication. Then, the UE determines the time domain resource allocation of {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for cell #0 and {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} for cell #2.

[0148] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, the number of repetitions for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission in each scheduled or configured cell may be included as a set of parameters for a row of the TDRA table, namely {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2, repetition number}.

[0149] In another option, the repetition count can be applied jointly for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission in each cell for multi-cell scheduling, in which case the repetition count can be included individually in the row of the TDRA table from {SLIV, mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2}.

[0150] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, the rows of the TDRA table may indicate the time domain resource allocation of PDSCH or PUSCH in different cells by setting the row index from the TDRA table for each PDSCH or PUSCH of all configured cells.

[0151] In this option, after the UE determines the cell index and BWP index for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission, it determines the time domain resource allocation from the indicated row of the TDRA table according to the determined cell index and BWP index.

[0152] In one example, assuming that three cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling, one row of the TDRA table includes {row index #4} for cell #0 / BWP #0, {row index #3} for cell #1 / BWP #2, and {row index #8} for cell #2 / BWP #1. In this case, the UE first determines the cell / BWP index as cell #0 / BWP #0 and cell #2 / BWP #1 for multi-cell scheduling from the cell and BWP indication. Then, the UE determines the time domain resource allocation based on the TDRA table row index #4 configured for cell #0 and BWP #0, and the TDRA table row index #8 configured for cell #2 and BWP #1.

[0153] In another embodiment, for multi-cell scheduling, the rows of the TDRA table may indicate the time domain resource allocation of PDSCHs or PUSCHs in different cells by setting the row index from the TDRA table of the scheduled cell for each PDSCH or PUSCH of all configured cells. The TDRA table of each PDSCH or PUSCH is determined by the BWP index of the scheduled cell and may be indicated by the BWP indicator field and the carrier indicator field or the joint carrier / BWP indicator field.

[0154] In this option, after the UE determines the cell index and BWP index for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission, it determines the time domain resource allocation from the indicated row of the TDRA table according to the determined cell index and BWP index.

[0155] In one example, three cells are configured for multi-cell scheduling. The gNB configures a TDRA table for each cell and each BWP, and the gNB further configures the TDRA table for multi-cell scheduling using row indices for all configured cells in the row. One row of the TDRA table includes {row index #4} for cell #0, {row index #3} for cell #1, and {row index #8} for cell #2.

[0156] In this case, from the cell and BWP indication, the UE first determines the cell / BWP index as cell#0 / BWP#0 and cell#2 / BWP#1 for multi-cell scheduling. Then, the UE determines the time domain resource allocation based on the TDRA table row index#4 configured for cell#0 with BWP#0 and the TDRA table row index#8 configured for cell#2 with BWP#1, respectively. Finally, the UE determines the time domain resource allocation of cell#0 and BWP#0, and the time domain resource allocation of cell#2 and BWP#1.

[0157] 6 illustrates a flow chart of DCI reception, according to some embodiments. Additional operations may be present in the method 600 of FIG. 6, but are not shown for convenience. The method 600 may be performed by a UE in a 5G cellular network. The method 600 includes, in operation 602, decoding DCI received by the UE from a base station of the 5G network; In operation 604, based on the decoded DCI, identifying information related to time or frequency resources for PUSCH or PDSCH in two or more cells of the 5G network; At operation 606, operating in at least one of the 5G network and the two or more cells based on the identified time or frequency resources.

[0158] 7 illustrates a flow chart of DCI reception, according to some embodiments. Additional operations may be present in the method 700 of FIG. 7, but are not shown for convenience. The method 700 may be performed by a base station in a 5G cellular network. The method 700 includes, in operation 702, identifying time or frequency resources associated with PUSCH or PDSCH in two or more cells of the 5G network; In operation 704, generating DCI including an indication of time or frequency resources; In operation 706, the step of transmitting the DCI to a UE in the 5G network may be included.

[0159] example

[0160] (Example 1) An apparatus for a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) node, the apparatus comprising: a memory configured to store a DCI; and a processing circuit; The processing circuitry configures the NG-RAN node as: Determine whether at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of the multi-cell is scheduled for a user equipment (UE) in multi-cell scheduling; In response to determining that at least one of the PUSCHs or PDSCHs of the multi-cells is scheduled for the UE, transmitting downlink control information (DCI) to the UE configured to schedule the at least one of the PUSCHs or PDSCHs of the multi-cells. Configure the equipment as follows:

[0161] (Example 2) For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuit is further configured to indicate to the UE via a carrier indication bitmap in the DCI each cell among a plurality of cells in which the at least one of the PUSCH or PDSCH is scheduled. The device described in Example 1.

[0162] (Example 3) The processing circuit includes: At higher layers via at least one of New Radio (NR) Minimum Remaining System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; or Dynamically within the DCI, The device of Examples 1-2, further configured to transmit a carrier indication table to the UE to indicate a set of carriers to be scheduled by the DCI according to at least one of the following:

[0163] (Example 4) The device of Examples 1 to 3, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to indicate the set of carriers via a carrier indication bitmap.

[0164] (Example 5) An apparatus as described in Examples 1 to 4, wherein the processing circuit is configured to indicate whether the DCI is for single cell scheduling or multi-cell scheduling using a single field in the DCI.

[0165] (Example 6) For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuit is configured to indicate a bandwidth portion (BWP) index of the scheduled cell or a cell configured for the multi-cell scheduling, the device described in any one of Examples 1 to 5.

[0166] (Example 7) For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuit Configuring a Bandwidth Partition (BWP) table via dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; indicating, via a single BWP indication field in the DCI, a BWP index of each cell scheduled according to the BWP table; The device according to Examples 1 to 6, configured as follows:

[0167] (Example 8) For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuit is configured to indicate a BWP index of the scheduled cell or a cell in a cell group via a single bandwidth part (BWP) indication field, the device described in Examples 1 to 7.

[0168] (Example 9) For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuit is configured to configure a joint carrier and bandwidth portion (BWP) indication table by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and one field in the DCI is used to select one row of the carrier and BWP indication table for both carrier and BWP indication, the device described in Examples 1 to 8.

[0169] (Example 10) For the multi-cell scheduling, an uplink / supplementary uplink (UL / SUL) indicator is not present, regardless of whether the UE is configured with supplementaryUplink in the ServingCellConfig of each cell. The device of Examples 1 to 9.

[0170] (Example 11) For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuit is configured to configure the UE with the same resource allocation (RA) type for resource allocation in the frequency domain for all scheduled cells or cells in the same cell group, the device described in Examples 1 to 10.

[0171] (Example 12) An apparatus as described in Examples 1 to 11, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, a common frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field is applied to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group, and the FDRA field size is determined according to the bandwidth of a reference bandwidth portion (BWP) in one of the scheduled cells.

[0172] (Example 13) The processing circuit comprises: determining that a size of a common FDRA field is greater than a determined FDRA field size for an active or indicated BWP of one of the scheduled cells; applying a truncation to the common FDRA field size to match the FDRA field size determined for an active or indicated BWP of one of the scheduled cells; The device of Example 12, configured to:

[0173] (Example 14) The processing circuit comprises: Configuring a resource allocation (RA) type of at least one of the PDSCH or PUSCH as one of RA type 0 or RA type 1; determining that a bandwidth of an active or indicated BWP is different from a bandwidth of a reference BWP of one of the scheduled cells; 14. The device of Examples 12-13, configured to determine and apply a scaling factor to the FDRA of the active or indicated BWP for at least one of the PDSCH or PUSCH in response to determining that a bandwidth of the active or indicated BWP differs from a bandwidth of a reference BWP of one of the scheduled cells.

[0174] (Example 15) For the multi-cell scheduling, The processing circuitry is configured to include a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field in the DCI and to Cell configured for applying to at least one of a PDSCH or a PUSCH in the cells; The processing circuitry determines, by rows of the time domain resource allocation (TDRA) table, {Start and Length Indicator Value (SLIV), mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} of each PDSCH or PUSCH in each scheduled cell in the row of the TDRA table; or a row index from the TDRA table of each PDSCH or PUSCH scheduled cell in a row of the TDRA table; configured to indicate a PDSCH or a PUSCH in a different cell through at least one of the following configurations; The device of Examples 1 to 14, wherein a single TDRA field is commonly applied to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group indicated in the DCI.

[0175] (Example 16) The device described in Examples 1 to 15, wherein each row of the TDRA further includes a repetition number for transmitting a PDSCH or a PUSCH in each scheduled or configured cell.

[0176] (Example 17) An apparatus for a user equipment (UE), the apparatus including: a memory configured to store DCI; and a processing circuit, the processing circuit configured to control the UE to: receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) node configured to schedule at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of a plurality of cells; In response to the determination that the DCI schedules the PUSCHs of the multiple cells, transmitting the PUSCHs of the multiple cells, and in response to the determination that the DCI schedules the PDSCHs of the multiple cells, receiving the PDSCHs from the multiple cells. Configure the equipment.

[0177] (Example 18) An apparatus as described in Example 17, wherein each cell among the plurality of cells in which at least one of a PUSCH or a PDSCH is scheduled for the UE is indicated by a carrier indication bitmap in the DCI.

[0178] (Example 19) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions being for execution by one or more processors of a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node, the one or more processors, upon execution of the instructions, causing the NG-RAN node to: Determine whether at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of the multi-cell is scheduled for a user equipment (UE) in multi-cell scheduling; In response to determining that at least one of the PUSCHs or PDSCHs of the multi-cells is scheduled for the UE, transmitting downlink control information (DCI) to the UE configured to schedule the at least one of the PUSCHs or PDSCHs of the multi-cells. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to:

[0179] (Example 20) When executed, the one or more processors: 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 19, further configured to indicate each cell of the plurality of cells in which the at least one of the PUSCH or PDSCH is scheduled to the UE via a carrier indication bitmap in the DCI.

[0180] (Example 21) At least one machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform operations to implement any of Examples 1-20.

[0181] (Example 22) An apparatus including means for carrying out any one of Examples 1 to 20.

[0182] (Example 23) A system for implementing any of Examples 1 to 20.

[0183] Example 24: A method for carrying out any of Examples 1 to 20.

[0184] Although the embodiments have been described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broad scope of the present disclosure. The specification and drawings are therefore to be regarded in an illustrative and not a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, show, by way of example, and not by way of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The illustrated embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the techniques disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, and thus structural, logical, and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the various embodiments is defined solely by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

[0185] Subject matter may be referred to herein by the term "embodiment" either individually and / or collectively for convenience only, and without any intention of limiting the scope of the present application to any single inventive concept when in fact multiple inventions are disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be understood that any configuration calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiment shown. The present disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of the various embodiments. Combinations of the above-described embodiments, as well as other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the above description.

[0186] Herein, the terms "a" or "an" are used to include one or more than one, as is common in patent documents, independently of any other instances or uses of "at least one" or "one or more." Herein, the term "or" is used to denote non-exclusiveness. Thus, "A or B" includes "A but not B," "B but not A," and "A and B," unless otherwise specified. Herein, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as the plain English equivalents of the respective terms "comprising" and "wherein." Also, in the following claims, the terms "including" and "comprising" are non-limiting, i.e., a system, UE, article, composition, formula, or process that includes elements in addition to those recited in the claim following such terms is still considered to be within the scope of that claim. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms "first," "second," "third," etc. are used merely as labels and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

[0187] The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided in accordance with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b) to enable the reader to quickly ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It is understood that it is not intended to be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Moreover, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it will be appreciated that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure should not be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. An apparatus for a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) node, the apparatus comprising: a memory; and a processing circuit; The processing circuitry configures the NG-RAN node as: determining whether at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of a plurality of cells is scheduled for a user equipment (UE) in multi-cell scheduling; In response to determining that at least one of the PUSCHs or PDSCHs of the plurality of cells is scheduled for the UE, transmitting downlink control information (DCI) to the UE, the DCI scheduling the at least one of the PUSCHs or PDSCHs of the plurality of cells. and wherein the memory is configured to store the DCI.

2. 2. The device of claim 1, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuitry further configures the NG-RAN to indicate to the UE via a carrier indication bitmap in the DCI each cell of the plurality of cells in which the at least one of the PUSCH or PDSCH is scheduled.

3. The processing circuitry may further comprise: At higher layers via at least one of New Radio (NR) Minimum Remaining System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; or Dynamically within the DCI, 3. The device of claim 2, further configured to transmit a carrier indication table to the UE to indicate a set of carriers to be scheduled by the DCI according to at least one of:

4. 4. The device of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the NG-RAN to indicate a set of carriers via a carrier indication bitmap.

5. 5. The device of claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry further configures the NG-RAN to indicate, using a single field of the DCI, whether the DCI is for single cell scheduling or multi-cell scheduling.

6. 6. The device of claim 5, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuitry further configures the NG-RAN to indicate a bandwidth portion (BWP) index of the scheduled cell or a cell configured for the multi-cell scheduling.

7. For the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuitry configures the NG-RAN to: Configuring the Bandwidth Partition (BWP) table via dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; indicating, via a single BWP indication field in the DCI, a BWP index of each cell scheduled according to the BWP table; 7. The apparatus of claim 6, further configured to:

8. 8. The device of claim 7, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuitry further configures the NG-RAN to indicate a BWP index of the scheduled cell or cells in a cell group via a single Bandwidth Part (BWP) indication field.

9. 10. The device of claim 8, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuitry further configures the NG-RAN to configure a joint carrier and bandwidth portion (BWP) indication table via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and wherein one field in the DCI is used to select one row of the joint carrier and BWP indication table for both carrier and BWP indication.

10. 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, there is no uplink / supplementary uplink (UL / SUL) indicator, regardless of whether the UE is configured with supplementaryUplink in a ServingCellConfig of each cell.

11. 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, the processing circuitry configures the NG-RAN to further configure the UE with a same resource allocation (RA) type for resource allocation in a frequency domain for all scheduled cells or cells in a same cell group.

12. 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein for the multi-cell scheduling, a common frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field is applied to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group, and a FDRA field size is determined according to a bandwidth of a reference bandwidth portion (BWP) in one of the scheduled cells.

13. The processing circuitry configures the NG-RAN as: determining that a common FDRA field size is greater than a determined FDRA field size for an active or indicated BWP of one of the scheduled cells; applying a truncation to the common FDRA field size to match the FDRA field size determined for an active or indicated BWP of one of the scheduled cells; 13. The apparatus of claim 12, further configured to:

14. The processing circuitry configures the NG-RAN as: Configuring a resource allocation (RA) type of at least one of the PDSCH or PUSCH as one of RA type 0 or RA type 1; determining that a bandwidth of an active or indicated BWP is different from a bandwidth of a reference BWP of one of the scheduled cells; and in response to determining that a bandwidth of the active or indicated BWP differs from a bandwidth of a reference BWP of one of the scheduled cells, determining and applying a scaling factor to the FDRA of the active or indicated BWP for at least one of the PDSCH or PUSCH. The apparatus of claim 12 further configured to:

15. For the multi-cell scheduling, The processing circuitry is configured to include a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field in the DCI and to Cell and further configuring the NG-RAN to apply to at least one of a PDSCH or a PUSCH in the cells; The processing circuitry determines, by a row of the time domain resource allocation (TDRA) table: {Start and Length Indicator Value (SLIV), mapping type, scheduling offset K0 or K2} of each PDSCH or PUSCH in each scheduled cell in the row of the TDRA table; or a row index from the TDRA table of each PDSCH or PUSCH scheduled cell in a row of the TDRA table; and further configuring the NG-RAN to indicate a PDSCH or a PUSCH in a different cell through at least one of the following configurations: The device of claim 14, wherein a single TDRA field applies commonly to all scheduled cells or cells in a cell group indicated in the DCI.

16. 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each row of the TDRA further includes a repetition number for transmitting a PDSCH or a PUSCH in each scheduled or configured cell.

17. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE), the apparatus including a memory and a processing circuit, the processing circuit configured to: receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) node for scheduling at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of a plurality of cells; In response to the determination that the DCI schedules the PUSCHs of the multiple cells, transmitting the PUSCHs of the multiple cells, and in response to the determination that the DCI schedules the PDSCHs of the multiple cells, receiving the PDSCHs from the multiple cells. and wherein the memory is configured to store the DCI.

18. 20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein each cell of the plurality of cells in which at least one of a PUSCH or a PDSCH is scheduled for the UE is indicated by a carrier indication bitmap in the DCI.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions being for execution by one or more processors of a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node, the one or more processors, upon execution of the instructions, causing the NG-RAN node to: determining whether at least one of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) of a plurality of cells is scheduled for a user equipment (UE) in multi-cell scheduling; In response to determining that at least one of a PUSCH or a PDSCH of a plurality of cells is scheduled for the UE, transmitting downlink control information (DCI) to the UE configured to schedule the at least one of the PUSCH or the PDSCH of the plurality of cells. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to:

20. When executed, the one or more processors are 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further configured to indicate each cell of the plurality of cells in which the at least one of a PUSCH or a PDSCH is scheduled to the UE via a carrier indication bitmap in the DCI.

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