Multi-Carrier Transmission Switching Mechanism for New Wireless Systems in 5G RAN1

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and storage medium for a new radio (NR) Node B (gNB), in which the apparatus performs operations including identifying three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching by a user equipment (UE), and encoding for transmission a message to the UE to indicate the three or more bands for TX switching, and storing the three or more bands for TX switching.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 334,921, filed April 26, 2022, entitled "Multi-Carrier Transmit (TX) Switching Mechanism for New Radio (NR) Systems," and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 336,969, filed April 29, 2022, entitled "Multi-Carrier Transmit (TX) Switching Mechanism for New Radio (NR) Systems."

[0002] Various embodiments may relate generally to the field of wireless communication in cellular networks. [Background technology]

[0003] Various embodiments may relate generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly to switching of transmit (TX) chains on a user equipment (UE) side for uplink shared channel transmissions. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] 1 illustrates a communication network according to some embodiments.

[0005] [Diagram 2] 1 illustrates a cellular wireless network between a UE and an access node (AN) in accordance with some embodiments.

[0006] [Diagram 3] 1 illustrates components according to some example embodiments that are capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium.

[0007] [Figure 4] 1 illustrates a signaling diagram for multi-carrier Tx switching according to an example embodiment.

[0008] [Diagram 5] 1 is a flowchart of a first process according to an embodiment.

[0009] [Figure 6] 11 is a flowchart of a second process according to another embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used to identify the same or similar elements in different drawings. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that various aspects of the various embodiments may be implemented in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For purposes of this document, the terms "A or B" and "A / B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0011] In some embodiments, an electronic device, network, system, chip, or component of Figures 1-3 or any other Figures herein, or portions or implementations thereof, may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. One such process is shown in Figures 1-3. In some embodiments, the process may be performed by a new radio (NR) Node B (gNB) or an NR user equipment (UE).

[0012] An apparatus, method, and storage medium for a new radio (NR) Node B (gNB), wherein one or more processors of the apparatus identify scheduling information for a plurality of cells and associate one or more SCH (SCH) transmissions, the one or more SCH transmissions including one or more physical uplink SCH (PUSCH) transmissions or one or more physical downlink SCH (PDSCH) transmissions; generate a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) based on the scheduling information; and transmit the PDCCH for transmission to a user equipment (UE) on a single scheduling cell of the plurality of cells.

[0013] System and Implementation

[0014] 1-3 illustrate various systems, devices and components in which aspects of the disclosed embodiments may be implemented.

[0015] 1 illustrates a network 100 in accordance with various embodiments. Network 100 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP® technical specifications for LTE or 5G / NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP® systems.

[0016] The network 100 may include a UE 102, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 104 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 102 may be communicatively coupled to the RAN 104 by a Uu interface. The UE 102 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a head-up display device, an in-vehicle diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network-connected appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, and the like.

[0017] In some embodiments, the network 100 may include multiple UEs that are directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels, such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0018] In some embodiments, the UE 102 may further communicate with the AP 106 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 106 may manage a WLAN connection that may function to offload some / all of the network traffic from the RAN 104. The connection between the UE 102 and the AP 106 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 106 may be a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) router. In some embodiments, the UE 102, the RAN 104, and the AP 106 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LWA / LWIP). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 102 being configured by the RAN 104 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0019] The RAN 104 may include one or more access nodes, such as the AN 108. The AN 108 may terminate the air interface protocols of the UE 102 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 108 may enable data / voice connectivity between the CN 120 and the UE 102. In some embodiments, the AN 108 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as, for example, a CRAN or a virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 108 may be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 108 may be a macrocell base station, or a low-power base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0020] In embodiments where the RAN 104 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other via an X2 interface (if the RAN 104 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 104 is a 5G RAN). In some embodiments, the X2 / Xn interface, which may be separated into a control / user plane interface, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, and the like.

[0021] Each of the ANs of the RAN 104 may manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc., to provide the UE 102 with an air interface for network access. The UE 102 may be simultaneously connected to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 104. For example, the UE 102 and the RAN 104 may use carrier aggregation to enable the UE 102 to connect to multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or an Scell. In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a master node providing an MCG, and the second AN may be a secondary node providing an SCG. The first / second ANs may be any combination of eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, etc.

[0022] The RAN 104 may provide an air interface over a licensed or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in an unlicensed spectrum, a node may use LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on CA techniques using a PCell / Scell. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a medium / carrier sensing operation, for example based on a Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) protocol.

[0023] In a V2X scenario, the UE 102 or the AN 108 may be or function as an RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a static (or relatively static) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU"; and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to radio frequency circuits located at the roadside that provide connectivity support to passing vehicular UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuits that store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software that sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communication required for high speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a traffic signal controller or a network interface controller for providing a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a backhaul network.

[0024] In some embodiments, the RAN 104 may be an LTE RAN 110 having an eNB, e.g., an eNB 112. The LTE RAN 110 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: 15 kHz SCS; CP-OFDM waveform for DL ​​and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for channel estimation for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate in sub-6 GHz bands.

[0025] In some embodiments, the RAN 104 may be an NG-RAN 114 having a gNB, e.g., gNB 116, or an ng-eNB, e.g., ng-eNB 118. The gNB 116 may connect to a 5G-capable UE using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 116 may connect to a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 118 may also connect to a 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect to a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 116 and the ng-eNB 118 may connect to each other through an Xn interface.

[0026] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts: an NG User Plane (NG-U) interface (e.g., N3 interface), which carries traffic data between nodes of the NG-RAN 114 and the UPF 148, and an NG Control Plane (NG-C) interface (e.g., N2 interface), which is a signaling interface between nodes of the NG-RAN 114 and the AMF 144.

[0027] The NG-RAN 114 may provide the 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polarity, repetition, unidirectional, and Reed-Muller codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS, similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G NR air interface may not use CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation, PTRS for phase tracking of PDSCH, and tracking reference signals for time tracking. The 5G NR air interface may operate on sub-6 GHz bands, including bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz, or FR1 bands, including FR2 bands. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSB, which is an area of ​​the downlink resource grid that includes PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0028] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs may be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For example, the UE 102 may be configured with multiple BWPs, each BWP configuration having a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 102, the SCS of the transmission is also changed. Another use case example of BWPs relates to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs may be configured to support data transmissions under various traffic load scenarios for the UE 102 using different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs). A BWP that includes a smaller number of PRBs may be used for data transmissions with small traffic loads while enabling power saving at the UE 102 and in some cases at the gNB 116. A BWP that includes a larger number of PRBs may be used for scenarios with higher traffic loads.

[0029] The RAN 104 is communicatively coupled to the CN 120, which includes network elements that provide various functions supporting data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 102). The components of the CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 120 onto physical compute / storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0030] In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be an LTE CN 122, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 122 may include an MME 124, an SGW 126, an SGSN 128, an HSS 130, a PGW 132, and a PCRF 134 coupled together through interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the LTE CN 122 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0031] The MME 124 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 102 and facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

[0032] The SGW 126 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 122. The SGW 126 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other roles may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0033] The SGSN 128 may track the location of the UE 102 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 128 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by the MME 124; MME selection for handover; etc. An S3 reference point between the MME 124 and the SGSN 128 may enable exchange of user and bearer information for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle / active state.

[0034] The HSS 130 may include a database of network users including subscription related information to support the processing of communication sessions of the network entities. The HSS 130 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, name / address resolution, location dependency, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 130 and the MME 124 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data to authenticate / authorize user access to the LTE CN 120.

[0035] The PGW 132 may terminate an SGi interface towards a data network (DN) 136, which may include an application / content server 138. The PGW 132 may route data packets between the LTE CN 122 and the data network 136. The PGW 132 may be coupled to the SGW 126 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 132 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF). In addition, the SGi reference point between the PGW 132 and the data network 136 may be a public, private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network external to the operator, e.g., for provisioning of IMS services. The PGW 132 may be coupled to the PCRF 134 via a Gx reference point.

[0036] The PCRF 134 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 122. The PCRF 134 may be communicatively coupled to an app / content server 138 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for a service flow. The PCRF 132 may provision the associated rules to the PCEF (via the Gx reference point) with the appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0037] In some embodiments, CN 120 may be 5GC 140. 5GC 140 may include AUSF 142, AMF 144, SMF 146, UPF 148, NSSF 150, NEF 152, NRF 154, PCF 156, UDM 158, and AF 160 coupled together via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of 5GC 140 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0038] The AUSF 142 may store data and process authentication related functions for authentication of the UE 102. The AUSF 142 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 140 through reference points as shown, the AUSF 142 may exhibit a Nausf service-based interface.

[0039] The AMF 144 may enable other functions of the 5GC 140 to communicate with the UE 102 and the RAN 104 and subscribe to notifications about mobility events related to the UE 102. The AMF 144 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering the UE 102), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF related events, access authentication and authorization. The AMF 144 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 102 and the SMF 146 and act as a transparent proxy for routing of SM messages. The AMF 144 may also provide transport for SMS messages between the UE 102 and the SMSF. The AMF 144 may interact with the AUSF 142 and the UE 102 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, the AMF 144 may be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the RAN 104 and the AMF 144; the AMF 144 is the termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and may perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 144 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 102 over the N3 IWF interface.

[0040] The SMF 146 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between the UPF 148 and the AN 108); UE IP address allocation and management (including any authorization); selection and control of the UP function; configuration of traffic steering in the UPF 148 to route traffic to the appropriate destination; termination of the interface towards the policy control function; control of policy enforcement, charging, and parts of QoS; lawful interception (for SM events, and interface to the LI system); termination of the SM part of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiation of AN-specific SM information sent over N2 to the AN 108 via the AMF 144; and determination of the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connection service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 102 and the data network 136.

[0041] The UPF 148 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to the data network 136, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 148 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), perform transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, perform downlink packet buffering, and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 148 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to the data network.

[0042] The NSSF 150 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 102. The NSSF 150 may also determine the allowed NSSAI and, if necessary, the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. The NSSF 150 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 102, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 154. The selection of the set of network slice instances for the UE 102 may be triggered by the AMF 144 with which the UE 102 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 150, which may result in a change of the AMF. The NSSF 150 may interact with the AMF 144 via the N22 reference point; it may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via the N31 reference point (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 150 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0043] The NEF 152 may securely expose services and capabilities offered by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal publication / republication, AFs (e.g., AF 160), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such an embodiment, the NEF 152 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. The NEF 152 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 160 and with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 152 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 152 may also receive information from other NFs based on the published capabilities of the other NFs. This information may be stored in the NEF 152 as structured data or in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be republished by the NEF 152 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes, such as analytics. In addition, the NEF 152 may expose NEF service-based interfaces.

[0044] The NRF 154 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 154 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, "instantiate," "instantiation," and similar terms may refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, such as may occur during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 154 may expose an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0045] The PCF 156 may provide policy rules to the control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support a unified policy framework for governing network behavior. The PCF 156 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDRs of the UDM 158. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, the PCF 156 exhibits an Npcf service-based interface.

[0046] The UDM 158 may handle subscription related information to support handling of communication sessions by network entities and may store subscription data of the UE 102. For example, the subscription data may be communicated between the UDM 158 and the AMF 144 via the N8 reference point. The UDM 158 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 158 and the PCF 156, and / or structured data for publication and application data (including PFD for application discovery, application requirement information for multiple UEs 102) for the NEF 152. A Nudr service-based interface may be exposed by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 158, the PCF 156, and the NEF 152 to access a particular set of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE responsible for handling certificates, location management, subscription management, etc. Multiple different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown, the UDM 158 may expose a Nudm service-based interface.

[0047] The AF 160 provides application influence over traffic routing, provides access to the NEF, and may interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0048] In some embodiments, the 5GC 140 may enable edge computing by selecting an operator / third-party service that is geographically close to the point where the UE 102 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementation, the 5GC 140 may select a UPF 148 close to the UE 102 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 148 to the data network 136 via the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 160. In this way, the AF 160 may influence the UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator's deployment, when the AF 160 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator may allow the AF 160 to directly interact with the associated NFs. In addition, the AF 160 may present a Naf service-based interface.

[0049] Data network 136 may represent, for example, a variety of network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers, including application / content server 138 .

[0050] 2 illustrates a schematic of a wireless network 200 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 200 may include a UE 202 in wireless communication with an AN 204. The UE 202 and the AN 204 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, similarly named components described elsewhere herein.

[0051] The UE 202 may be communicatively coupled to the AN 204 via a connection 206. The connection 206 is denoted as an air interface enabling the communicative coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies.

[0052] The UE 202 may include a host platform 208 coupled to a modem platform 210. The host platform 208 may include an application processing circuit 212 that may be coupled to a protocol processing circuit 214 of the modem platform 210. The application processing circuit 212 may execute various applications for the UE 202 to source / sink application data. The application processing circuit 212 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit / receive application data to / from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and Internet (e.g., IP) operations.

[0053] The protocol processing circuitry 214 may implement one or more of the layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 206. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 214 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0054] The modem platform 210 may further include digital baseband circuitry 216 that may implement one or more layer operations "below" the layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 214 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include PHY operations including, for example, one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, blind decoding of control channel signals, and other related functions.

[0055] The modem platform 210 may further include a transmit circuit 218, a receive circuit 220, an RF circuit 222, and an RF front end (RFFE) 224 that may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 226. Briefly, the transmit circuit 218 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuit 220 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc.; the RF circuit 222 may include low noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, power tracking components, etc.; the RFFE 224 may include filters (e.g., surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and configuration of the transmit circuitry 218, receive circuitry 220, RF circuitry 222, RFFE 224, and antenna panel 226 components (collectively "transmit / receive components") may be specific to the details of a particular implementation, such as, for example, whether communications are TDM or FDM at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips / modules, etc.

[0056] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 214 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) that provides control functions for the transmit / receive components.

[0057] UE reception may be established by and through antenna panel 226, RFFE 224, RF circuitry 222, receive circuitry 220, digital baseband circuitry 216, and protocol processing circuitry 214. In some embodiments, antenna panel 226 may receive transmissions from AN 204 by receive beamforming signals that are received by multiple antennas / antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 226.

[0058] UE transmissions may be established by and through the protocol processing circuitry 214, the digital baseband circuitry 216, the transmit circuitry 218, the RF circuitry 222, the RFFE 224, and the antenna panel 226. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 204 may apply spatial filters to the data to be transmitted to form transmit beams that are radiated by the antenna elements of the antenna panel 226.

[0059] Similar to the UE 202, the AN 204 may include a host platform 228 coupled to a modem platform 230. The host platform 228 may include an application processing circuit 232 coupled to a protocol processing circuit 234 of the modem platform 230. The modem platform may further include a digital baseband circuit 236, a transmit circuit 238, a receive circuit 240, an RF circuit 242, an RFFE circuit 244, and an antenna panel 246. The components of the AN 204 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, similarly named components of the UE 202. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, the components of the AN 208 may perform various logical functions including RNC functions such as, for example, radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0060] 3 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies described herein, according to some example embodiments. Specifically, FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic surface of hardware resources 300 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 310, one or more memory / storage devices 320, and one or more communication resources 330, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 340 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 302 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 300.

[0061] Processor 310 may include, for example, processor 312 and processor 314. Processor 310 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0062] The memory / storage device 320 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 320 may include any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0063] Communications resources 330 may include interconnect or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 304 or one or more databases 306 or other network elements over network 308. For example, communications resources 330 may include wired communications components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communications components, NFC components, Bluetooth (or Bluetooth Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi components, and other communications components.

[0064] The instructions 350 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 310 to perform any one or more of the methodologies described herein. The instructions 350 may reside completely or partially within at least one of the processors 310 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 320, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 350 may be transferred to the hardware resources 300 from any combination of the peripheral devices 304 or the database 306. Thus, the memory of the processors 310, the memory / storage device 320, the peripheral devices 304, and the database 306 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0065] introduction

[0066] Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly sophisticated and integrated communications platforms. The next generation wireless communication system, 5G, or New Radio (NR), provides access to information and sharing of data anywhere, anytime by various users and applications. NR is expected to be a unified network / system that aims to meet vastly different and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such diverse multi-dimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. In general, NR will evolve based on 3GPP LTE-Advanced with additional potential new radio access technologies (RATs) to enrich people's lives with better, simpler, and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR will enable everything to be connected wirelessly to deliver rich content and services at high speeds.

[0067] NR supports a wide range of spectrum in different frequency ranges. Spectrum availability is expected to increase in the market for 5G Advanced, likely due to reallocation from bands originally used for previous cellular generation networks. In particular, for frequency range (FR1) bands, the available spectrum blocks tend to be more fragmented and distributed with narrower bandwidths. For FR2 bands and some FR1 bands, the available spectrum may be wider, so that in-band multi-carrier operation is required. It is important to ensure that these distributed spectrum bands or wider bandwidth spectrum can be utilized in a more spectrum / power efficient and flexible manner to meet different spectrum needs, thereby providing higher throughput and sufficient coverage in the network.

[0068] In Rel-16, 1Tx-2Tx switching was specified to enable switching between Case 1 and Case 2 shown in Table 1 for the two uplink carrier cases, Inter-Band EN-DC without SUL, Inter-Band UL CA and Standalone SUL for UEs supporting up to two simultaneous transmissions. Table 1. Rel-16 1Tx-2Tx switching [Table 1]

[0069] Furthermore, Rel-17 specified 2Tx-2Tx switching between different cases between carriers based on SUL and NR inter-band uplink CA for UEs supporting up to two simultaneous transmissions. In addition, Tx switching between cases is supported in Rel-17, where one carrier on band A and two consecutive aggregated carriers on band B, and band A is for SUL or non-SUL, and band B is for non-SUL band.

[0070] For multi-carrier UL operation, there are certain limitations in current NR systems. In particular, a 2TX UE can be configured with a maximum of 2 UL bands that can be changed only by RRC reconfiguration, and UL Tx switching can only be performed between 2 UL bands for a 2TX UE. To improve coverage performance and potentially UE throughput, dynamic Tx switching among 3 or 4 bands can be adopted at the UE side.

[0071] For example, depending on the traffic situation at the UE, the gNB may trigger the UE to switch from a band with a narrower channel bandwidth to a band with a wider channel bandwidth. With such dynamic Tx switching and resource allocation, higher UE throughput can be expected. To support multi-carrier Tx switching, specific mechanisms including mapping and switching mechanisms between UL transmission ports and Tx chains may need to be considered.

[0072] FIG. 4 shows an example of multi-carrier dynamic Tx switching. In the example, Tx switching is performed across three bands. In FIG. 4, band 0 with component carrier (CC) 0 is used by the UE to transmit PUSCH#1 in the first slot. In the first slot, band 2 with CC2 is used by the UE to transmit PUSCH#2 in the same first slot. The next slots for bands 0-2 and all of CC1-2 are empty. Then, the signaling diagram shows that the UE has switched its TX chain from band 0 CC0 to band 1 CC1 for the transmission of PUSCH#3 in the third slot, with a scheduling gap covering the second slot that exists between PUSCH#1 and PUSCH#3. Also, the UE transmits PUSCH#4 on band 2 CC2 in the same third slot, which means that there was no TX chain switching by the UE for the transmission in band 2 CC2. In addition, the UE is triggered to transmit the next PUSCH in the band with the wider channel bandwidth.

[0073] Embodiments herein relate to mechanisms for multi-carrier Tx switching for NR systems. In particular, embodiments may relate to one or more of the following: Mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains for multi-carrier Tx switching Switching mechanism for multi-carrier Tx switching · Station switching for multi-carrier Tx switching

[0074] Mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains for multi-carrier Tx switching

[0075] As mentioned above, there are certain limitations in current NR systems for multi-carrier UL operation. In particular, a 2TX UE can be configured with a maximum of two UL bands that can be changed only by RRC reconfiguration, and UL Tx switching can only be performed between two UL bands for a 2Tx UE. To improve coverage performance and potentially UE throughput, dynamic Tx switching among three or four bands can be adopted at the UE side.

[0076] For example, depending on the traffic situation at the UE, the gNB may trigger the UE to switch from a band with a narrower channel bandwidth to a band with a wider channel bandwidth. With such dynamic Tx switching and resource allocation, higher UE throughput can be expected. To support multi-carrier Tx switching, specific mechanisms including mapping and switching mechanisms between UL transmission ports and Tx chains may need to be considered.

[0077] An embodiment of the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains for multi-carrier Tx switching is provided as follows.

[0078] In one embodiment, the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains for multi-carrier Tx switching is defined according to the bands and / or carrier indexes that are activated and configured for Tx switching.

[0079] In one embodiment, for Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 1, when uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE is not expected to be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers), and when the UE performs Tx switching across three bands, i.e., bands A, B and C respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains for CA Option 1 across three bands may be defined in Table 2. Table 2. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 1 [Table 2]

[0080] In another option, for CA option 1, the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains for CA option 1 across three bands may be defined in Table 3. Table 3. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 2 [Table 3]

[0081] Note that the above options are based on the assumption that all bands support 2Tx. If one of the bands supports only 1Tx, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains for CA option 1 across three bands, as shown in Table 4. In the table, it is assumed that bands B and C support 2Tx, while band A supports 1Tx. Note that the examples listed below can be directly extended to the case when different bands support 1Tx or 2Tx, respectively. Table 4. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 3 [Table 4]

[0082] In another option, for CA option 1, the mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains across the three bands may be defined in Table 5. Table 5. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 4 [Table 5]

[0083] In another embodiment, for CA option 2, if uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE may be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers) simultaneously, and when the UE performs Tx switching across three bands, i.e., bands A, B and C respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and Tx chains across the three bands may be defined in Table 6. Table 6. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 2: Alternative 1 [Table 6]

[0084] Note that the supported mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains in Table 6 may be further restricted by additional rules. For example, if it is "1T+1T" for a pair of bands that respectively include SUL and UL carriers of the same cell, then only "1P+0P" or "0P+1P" is applicable. Alternatively, if it is "1T+1T" for a pair of bands that respectively include SUL and UL carriers of the same cell, then only "1P+0P" is applicable, and the carrier for "1P" is determined according to a predefined rule, for example, the carrier is a SUL carrier or the carrier is configured by the gNB. Table 6A provides an example. Assuming that Band A and Band B each include SUL and UL carriers of the same cell, the applicable numbers of antenna ports in Table 6 are provided in Table 6A. Table 6A. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 2: Alternative Example 1A [Table 7]

[0085] Note that the above options are based on the assumption that all bands support 2Tx. If one of the bands supports only 1Tx, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains for CA option 2 across three bands, as shown in Table 7. In the table, it is assumed that bands B and C support 2Tx and band A supports 1Tx. Note that the examples listed below can be directly extended to the case when different bands support 1Tx or 2Tx respectively. Table 7. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 2: Alternative 2 [Table 8]

[0086] In another option, for CA option 2, the mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chain 1 across the three bands may be defined in Table 8. Table 8. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for CA Option 2: Alternative 3 [Table 9]

[0087] Similar to CA Option 1, for CA Option 2, if one of the bands supports 1Tx, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains for CA Option 1 across three bands.

[0088] In one embodiment, for CA option 1, when uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE is not expected to be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers), and when the UE performs Tx switching across four bands, i.e., bands A, B, C and D respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and Tx chains for CA option 1 across four bands may be defined in Table 9. Table 9. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 4 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 1 [Table 10]

[0089] In another option, the mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains for CA option 1 across four bands may be defined in Table 10. Table 10. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 4 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 2 [Table 11]

[0090] In another option, for CA option 1, the mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains across the four bands may be defined in Table 11. Table 11. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 4 Bands for CA Option 1: Alternative 3 [Table 12]

[0091] Similar to the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains across three bands, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains across four bands when one of the bands supports 1 Tx.

[0092] In another embodiment, for CA option 2, if uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE may be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers) simultaneously, and when the UE performs Tx switching across four bands, i.e., bands A, B, C and D respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and Tx chains across the four bands may be defined in Table 12. Table 12. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 4 Bands for CA Option 2: Alternative 1 [Table 13]

[0093] In another option, for CA option 2, the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chain 1 across the four bands may be defined in Table 13. Table 13. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 4 Bands for CA Option 2: Alternative 2 [Table 14]

[0094] Similar to the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains across three bands, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains across four bands when one of the bands supports 1 Tx.

[0095] It should be noted that the above embodiments including CA Option 1 and CA Option 2 may also be applied for Supplemental Uplink (SUL) operation. In another option, the above embodiments for CA Option 1 may be applied for SUL operation.

[0096] When the UL carrier for a UE is configured on N bands, e.g., N=3 or 4, different carrier aggregation (CA) options may be applicable to different pairs of bands. In particular, in one use case of such operation, the SUL carrier is configured on one or more of the N bands.

[0097] In one embodiment, for switching between a band configured for a SUL carrier of a cell and another band configured for a UL carrier of the same cell, only Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 1 may be used, while for other pairs of bands, both Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 1 and Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 2 may be applicable.

[0098] In one option, when a UE performs Tx switching across three bands, i.e., bands A, B and C respectively, the following configurations may be supported: a SUL carrier is configured on band A, a UL carrier associated with the SUL carrier is configured on band B, and another UL carrier of a different cell is configured on band C. The mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains across the three bands may be defined in Table 14. Table 14. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for Mixed CA Options 1 and 2: Alternative 1 [Table 15]

[0099] Note that the above options are based on the assumption that all bands support 2Tx. If one of the bands only supports 1Tx, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains across the three bands, as shown in the table. In the table, it is assumed that bands B and C only support 2Tx, while band A supports 1Tx. Note that the examples listed below can be directly extended to the case when different bands support 1Tx or 2Tx, respectively. Table 15. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for Mixed CA Options 1 and 2: Alternative 2 [Table 16]

[0100] In another embodiment, for switching between a band configured for a SUL carrier of a cell and another band configured for a UL carrier of the same or a different cell, only Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 1 may be used, while for other pairs of bands, both Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 1 and Carrier Aggregation (CA) Option 2 may be applicable.

[0101] In one option, when a UE performs Tx switching across three bands, i.e., bands A, B and C respectively, the following configurations may be supported: a SUL carrier is configured on band A, a UL carrier associated with the SUL carrier is configured on band B, and another UL carrier of a different cell is configured on band C. The mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains across the three bands may be defined in Table 16. Table 16. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for Mixed CA Options 1 and 2: Alternative 1 [Table 17]

[0102] Note that the above options are based on the assumption that all bands support 2Tx. If one of the bands supports only 1Tx, a subset of the above table can be used for mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains for CA option 2 across three bands, as shown in the table. In the table, it is assumed that bands B and C support only 2Tx, while band A supports 1Tx. Note that the examples listed below can be directly extended to the case when different bands support 1Tx or 2Tx, respectively. Table 17. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching across 3 Bands for Mixed CA Options 1 and 2: Alternative 2 [Table 18]

[0103] In one embodiment, carrier aggregation (CA) option 1 or 2 for Tx switching can be configured separately for each pair of bands. For example, for Tx switching across 4 bands, i.e. bands A, B, C and D respectively, it can be configured such that only carrier aggregation (CA) option 1 can be used for "band A+band B" and "band C+band D", and both carrier aggregation (CA) options 1 and 2 are applicable to other pairs of bands. The mapping between UL transmission ports and Tx chains across the 4 bands can be defined in a table. Table 18. Multi-Carrier Tx Switching over 4-Band Mixed CA Options 1 and 2: Alternative 1 [Table 19]

[0104] Switching Mechanism for Multi-Carrier Tx Switching

[0105] An embodiment of a switching mechanism for multi-carrier Tx switching is provided below.

[0106] In one embodiment, for uplink CA option 2 of the mapping between UL transmit ports and Tx chains, the Tx switching delay is applicable in the following cases: If the current state of the Tx chain is 1 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the next UL transmission will have a two-port transmission either on the first carrier in the first band or on the second carrier in the second band. If the current state of the Tx chain is 1Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the next UL transmission will have a 2-port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; If the current state of the Tx chain is 1 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the next UL transmission will have 1 port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and 1 port transmission on the third carrier in the third carrier. If the current state of the Tx chain is 1 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the next UL transmission will have 1 port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and 1 port transmission on the third carrier in the third band. If the current state of the Tx chain is 1 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the next UL transmission will have 1 port transmission on the third carrier in the third carrier. If the current state of the Tx chain is 0Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2Tx on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission will have a 1-port or 2-port transmission on the first carrier in the first band. If the current state of the Tx chain is 2Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0Tx on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission will be a 1-port or 2-port transmission on the second carrier in the second band.

[0107] Note that in the above cases, more than one carrier may be configured or indicated or triggered in the band for Tx switching.

[0108] In another option, for multi-carrier Tx switching, a Tx switching delay can be applied for switching between different cases defined in the above table for mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains.

[0109] Furthermore, the Tx switching delay for multi-carrier Tx switching across 3 or 4 bands can also be configured separately by higher layers, which may depend on the UE capabilities. Similarly, this can also be extended to the case where one or more bands support only one TX. In this case, the Tx switching delay for multi-carrier Tx switching across 3 or 4 bands can be configured separately in the case where one or more bands support 1Tx and / or 2Tx, respectively.

[0110] In another embodiment, for CA option 2, if UL Tx switching is triggered for one-port transmission on a first carrier in a first band, and the state of the Tx chain after UL Tx switching is not unique, e.g., when the UE is in an operating state where two-port transmission may be supported on one carrier on one band, followed by no transmission on any carrier of the same band and one-port transmission on another carrier on another band, the parameters may be configured by Dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, or may be dynamically indicated in Downlink Control Information (DCI), or a combination thereof, or may configure and indicate the state and band information of the TX chain. For example, the RRC signaling may configure between at least two or more of the following: · A Tx chain state is assumed that supports 2 Tx transmissions on the first carrier in the first band. · 1Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on the second carrier in the second band are assumed. · 1Tx on the 1st carrier in the 1st band and 1Tx on the 3rd carrier in the 3rd band are assumed. · 1Tx on the 1st carrier in the 1st band and 1Tx on the 4th carrier in the 4th band are assumed.

[0111] In another option, for CA option 2, when UL Tx switching is triggered for one port transmission on a first carrier in a first band and the state of the Tx chain after UL Tx switching is not unique, e.g., when the UE is in an operating state where two port transmission may be supported on one carrier on one band followed by no transmission on any carrier on the same band and one port transmission on another carrier on another band, a parameter may be configured by dedicated RRC signaling or dynamically indicated by DCI to configure between: · A TX chain state is assumed that supports 2Tx transmissions on the first carrier in the first band. · 1Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on the second carrier in the second band are assumed.

[0112] The second band is one of the bands configured or activated for Tx switching, and the second band may be configured by higher layers or may be implicitly determined according to a predefined rule. For example, the second band may be the next band with the smallest or largest band index, or the second band may be the band used for the last transmission, or the next band after the first band (either with a larger or smaller index). The second band may be the band that the UE uses just before UL Tx switching for one port transmission on the first carrier in the first band.

[0113] In another option, for CA option 2, when UL Tx switching is triggered for one port transmission on a first carrier in a first band and the state of the Tx chain after UL Tx switching is not unique, e.g., when the UE is in an operating state where two port transmission may be supported on one carrier on one band followed by no transmission on any carrier on the same band and one port transmission on another carrier on another band, a parameter may be configured by dedicated RRC signaling to configure between: · A Tx chain state is assumed that supports 2 Tx transmissions on the first carrier in the first band. · 1Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on the second carrier in the second band are assumed.

[0114] Furthermore, additional parameters may be configured by RRC signaling to configure between: · 1Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on the second carrier in the second band are assumed. · 1Tx on the 1st carrier in the 1st band and 1Tx on the 3rd carrier in the 3rd band are assumed. · 1Tx on the 1st carrier in the 1st band and 1Tx on the 4th carrier in the 4th band are assumed.

[0115] It should be noted that the above embodiments including CA Option 1 and CA Option 2 may also be applied for Supplemental Uplink (SUL) operation. In another option, the above embodiments for CA Option 1 may be applied for SUL operation.

[0116] Switching Location for Multi-Carrier Tx Switching

[0117] As mentioned above, there are certain limitations in current NR systems for multi-carrier UL operation, which only support two UL bands and it is sufficient to configure carriers in the UL band as carrier 1 or carrier 2 and whether the switching gap is located on a carrier in the UL band. UplinkTxSwitching-r16 ::= SEQUENCE { uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation-r16 BOOLEAN, uplinkTxSwitchingCarrier-r16 ENUMERATED {carrier1, carrier2} }

[0118] However, in the case of more than two UL bands, for a carrier, the gNB may need to configure carrier X (X=1, 2, ...N), where N is the number of supported UL bands, and a new mechanism for determining the switch gap location is required.

[0119] In one embodiment, the switching gap on a carrier is configured with conditions: For a carrier in a band, the gNB may configure whether switching gap on the carrier is supported and the conditions under which the switching gap applies.

[0120] In one option, the condition may be determined by a priority indication. For example, if two carriers in two bands have different priorities, the switching gap is on the carrier with the lower priority. Assuming three UL bands, for the first UL band, uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation is enabled with priority index=0, for the second UL band, uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation is enabled with priority index=1, and for the third UL band, uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation is enabled with priority index=2. A smaller priority index value represents a lower priority. Then, in the case of a UL band combination of {first band, second band}, the switching gap is on the first band, while in the case of a UL band combination of {second band, third band}, the switching gap is on the second band.

[0121] In another option, the condition may be determined by band combination configuration. For example, the gNB may configure the presence of a switching gap for each band combination. Assuming 3 UL bands, for the first UL band, uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation is enabled for the combination {first band, second band}, so in this case the switching gap is on the first band, and uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation is disabled for the combination {first band, third band}, so in this case the switching gap is on the third band.

[0122] 5 illustrates a process 500 performed in an apparatus of a gNB according to an embodiment. The process 500 includes, at operation 502, identifying three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching by a user equipment (UE); and, at operation 504, encoding for transmission a message to the UE indicating the three or more bands for Tx switching.

[0123] 6 illustrates a process 600 performed in a UE device according to an embodiment. The process 600 includes, at operation 602, decoding a message from a NR Node B (gNB), where the message indicates three or more bands for transmission (TX) switching; at operation 604, identifying from the message three or more bands for Tx switching; and at operation 606, performing TX switching based on the three or more bands for TX switching.

[0124] example

[0125] Example 1: An apparatus for a new radio (NR) Node B (gNB) includes one or more processors for performing operations including identifying three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching by a user equipment (UE); and encoding for transmission a message to the UE indicating the three or more bands for Tx switching; and a memory for storing the three or more bands for Tx switching.

[0126] Example 2 includes the subject matter of example 1, and wherein identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration for the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocation of one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

[0127] Example 3 includes the subject matter of example 2, wherein the number of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of bands, which may be three or more.

[0128] Example 4 includes the subject matter of example 3, wherein the number of multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on a TX chain configuration of the UE.

[0129] Example 5 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 2-4, and the operations further include determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

[0130] Example 6 includes the subject matter of example 5, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0131] Example 7 includes the subject matter of example 6, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0132] Example 8 includes the subject matter of example 6, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and, on the other hand, to a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including an allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0133] Example 9 includes the subject matter of example 5, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0134] Example 10 includes the subject matter of example 9, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of Here, TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0135] Example 11 includes the subject matter of example 9, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, no antenna port for the third band, and no antenna port for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0136] Example 12 includes the subject matter of example 9, wherein the operations further include: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and a one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; responsive to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. The method includes identifying a delay for the Tx switching (Tx switching delay) by at least one of the following:

[0137] Example 13 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-4, further comprising a radio frequency (RF) interface coupled to the one or more processors and a front-end module coupled to the RF interface.

[0138] Example 14 includes the subject matter of example 13, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the front-end module for transmitting the PDCCH.

[0139] Example 15 includes one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a new radio (NR) Node B (gNB) to perform operations including identifying three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching by a user equipment (UE); and encoding for transmission a message to the UE to indicate the three or more bands for Tx switching.

[0140] Example 16 includes the subject matter of example 15, wherein identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration for the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocation of one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

[0141] Example 17 includes the subject matter of example 16, wherein the number of the multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of bands, which may be three or more.

[0142] Example 18 includes the subject matter of example 17, wherein the number of the multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on a TX chain configuration of the UE.

[0143] Example 19 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 16-18, and the operations further include determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

[0144] Example 20 includes the subject matter of example 19, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0145] Example 21 includes the subject matter of example 20, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0146] Example 22 includes the subject matter of example 20, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and, on the other hand, to a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including an allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0147] Example 23 includes the subject matter of example 19, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0148] Example 24 includes the subject matter of example 23, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0149] Example 25 includes the subject matter of example 23, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, no antenna port for the third band, and no antenna port for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0150] Example 26 includes the subject matter of example 23, and further comprising: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and a one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; responsive to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. The method includes identifying a delay for the Tx switching (Tx switching delay) by at least one of the following:

[0151] Example 27 includes a method executed in one or more processors of a new radio (NR) Node B (gNB), the method comprising: identifying three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching by a user equipment (UE); and encoding for transmission a message to the UE to indicate the three or more bands for Tx switching.

[0152] Example 28 includes the subject matter of example 27, wherein identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration for the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocation of one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

[0153] Example 29 includes the subject matter of example 28, wherein the number of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on a number of bands, three or more.

[0154] Example 30 includes the subject matter of example 29, wherein the number of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on a TX chain configuration of the UE.

[0155] Example 31 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 28-30, and further includes determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

[0156] Example 32 includes the subject matter of Example 31, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0157] Example 33 includes the subject matter of example 32, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0158] Example 34 includes the subject matter of example 32, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and, on the other hand, to a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including an allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0159] Example 35 includes the subject matter of Example 32, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0160] Example 36 includes the subject matter of example 35, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0161] Example 37 includes the subject matter of example 35, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, no antenna port for the third band, and no antenna port for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0162] Example 38 includes the subject matter of example 35, and further comprising: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and a one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; responsive to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. The method includes identifying a delay for the Tx switching (Tx switching delay) by at least one of the following:

[0163] Example 39 includes a new radio (NR) user equipment (UE) apparatus comprising: one or more processors for performing operations including: decoding a message from a NR Node B (gNB), the message indicating three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching; identifying from the message three or more bands for Tx switching; and performing Tx switching based on the three or more bands for Tx switching; and a memory for storing the three or more bands for Tx switching.

[0164] Example 40 includes the subject matter of example 39, wherein identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration for the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocation of one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

[0165] Example 41 includes the subject matter of example 40, wherein the number of multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of bands, which may be three or more.

[0166] Example 42 includes the subject matter of example 41, wherein the number of the multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on a TX chain configuration of the UE.

[0167] Example 43 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 40-42, and the operations further include determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

[0168] Example 44 includes the subject matter of Example 43, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0169] Example 45 includes the subject matter of example 44, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0170] Example 46 includes the subject matter of example 44, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and, on the other hand, to a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including an allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0171] Example 47 includes the subject matter of Example 43, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0172] Example 48 includes the subject matter of example 47, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0173] Example 49 includes the subject matter of example 47, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, no antenna port for the third band, and no antenna port for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0174] Example 50 includes the subject matter of example 47, and further comprising: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and a one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; responsive to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. The method includes identifying a delay for the Tx switching (Tx switching delay) by at least one of the following:

[0175] Example 51 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 39-42, further comprising a radio frequency (RF) interface coupled to the one or more processors and a front-end module coupled to the RF interface.

[0176] Example 52 includes the subject matter of example 51, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the front-end module for transmitting the PDCCH.

[0177] Example 53 includes a method performed in a new radio (NR) user equipment (UE) device, the method comprising: decoding a message from a NR Node B (gNB), the message indicating three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching; identifying the three or more bands for TX switching from the message; and performing Tx switching based on the three or more bands for TX switching. Equipped with.

[0178] Example 54 includes the subject matter of example 53, wherein identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration for the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocation of one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

[0179] Example 55 includes the subject matter of example 54, wherein the number of multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of bands, which may be three or more.

[0180] Example 56 includes the subject matter of example 55, wherein the number of the multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on a TX chain configuration of the UE.

[0181] Example 57 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 54-56, and further includes determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

[0182] Example 58 includes the subject matter of Example 57, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0183] Example 59 includes the subject matter of example 58, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0184] Example 60 includes the subject matter of example 58, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and, on the other hand, to a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including an allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0185] Example 61 includes the subject matter of example 57, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0186] Example 62 includes the subject matter of example 61, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0187] Example 63 includes the subject matter of example 61, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table further comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, no antenna port for the third band, and no antenna port for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0188] Example 64 includes the subject matter of Example 61, and further includes: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and a one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; responsive to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. The method includes identifying a delay for the Tx switching (Tx switching delay) by at least one of the following:

[0189] Example 65 includes one or more non-transitory computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a new radio (NR) user equipment (UE) to perform operations including: decoding a message from a NR Node B (gNB), the message indicating three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching; identifying from the message three or more bands for Tx switching; and performing Tx switching based on the three or more bands for Tx switching.

[0190] Example 66 includes the subject matter of example 65, wherein identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration for the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocation of one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

[0191] Example 67 includes the subject matter of example 66, wherein the number of multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of bands, which may be three or more.

[0192] Example 68 includes the subject matter of example 67, wherein the number of the multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on a TX chain configuration of the UE.

[0193] Example 69 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 66-68, and the operations further include determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

[0194] Example 70 includes the subject matter of example 69, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0195] Example 71 includes the subject matter of example 70, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, comprising, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0196] Example 72 includes the subject matter of example 70, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table includes: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding, on the one hand, to a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and, on the other hand, to a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including an allocation corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0197] Example 73 includes the subject matter of Example 69, and further wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmission on more than one of the three or more bands.

[0198] Example 74 includes the subject matter of example 73, wherein the three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0199] Example 75 includes the subject matter of example 73, wherein the three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table comprises: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, no antenna port for the third band, and no antenna port for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three second allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three third allocations corresponding respectively to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping comprising two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band, including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, including two or more of: Here, Tx switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmit port allocation per band in one of said multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmit port allocation per band in another of said multi-carrier switching mappings.

[0200] Example 76 includes the subject matter of example 73, further comprising: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and a one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; responsive to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. The method includes identifying a delay for the Tx switching (Tx switching delay) by at least one of the following:

[0201] Example 77 includes a machine-readable medium including code that, when executed, causes a machine to perform the method of any one of claims 27-38 and 53-64.

[0202] Example 78 includes an apparatus comprising means for carrying out the method according to any one of claims 27-38 and 53-64.

[0203] Example A1 is a method performed in a UE, the method comprising identifying more than two frequency bands for transmit (Tx) switching and providing an indication of the more than two frequency bands to the UE for use in Tx switching.

[0204] Example A2 includes a method performed in a gNB, the method comprising identifying more than two frequency bands for transmission (Tx) switching, and performing Tx switching based on the identified frequency bands.

[0205] Example B1 may include systems and methods of wireless communication for a fifth generation (5G) or new radio (NR) system, configuring, by a gNB, more than two band transmit (Tx) switching; and performing, by a UE, Tx switching based on the configured more than two bands. Example B2 may include the method of Example B1 and / or some other example, where a mapping between UL transmit ports and TX chains for multi-carrier Tx switching is defined according to bands and / or carrier indexes activated and configured for Tx switching.

[0206] Example B3 may include the method of Example B1 and / or some other examples herein, where for carrier aggregation (CA) option 1, if uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE is not expected to be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers), and when the UE performs Tx switching across three bands, i.e., bands A, B and C respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains for CA option 1 across three bands may be defined in Table 2, Table 3, Table 4 or Table 5.

[0207] Example B4 may include the method of Example B1 and / or some other examples herein, and for CA option 2, when uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE may be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers) simultaneously, and when the UE performs Tx switching across three bands, i.e., bands A, B and C respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains across the three bands may be defined in Table 6, Table 7 or Table 8.

[0208] Example B5 may include the method of Example B1 and / or some other examples herein, where for CA option 1, when uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE is not expected to be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers), and when the UE performs Tx switching across four bands, i.e., bands A, B, C and D respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains for CA option 1 across four bands may be defined in Table 9, Table 10 or Table 11.

[0209] Example B6 may include the method of Example B1 and / or some other examples herein, and for CA option 2, when uplink Tx switching is configured, the UE may be scheduled or configured for UL transmission on both bands (carriers) simultaneously, and when the UE performs Tx switching across four bands, i.e., bands A, B, C and D respectively, the mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains across the four bands may be defined in Table 12 or 13.

[0210] Example B7 may include the method of example B1 and / or any other example herein, where different uplink CA options are applicable to different pairs of bands.

[0211] Example B8 may include the method of Example B7 and / or any other example herein, where only uplink CA option 1 is used for switching between a band configured for a UL carrier of a cell and another band configured for a SUL carrier of the same cell.

[0212] Example B9 may include the method of Example B7 and / or any other example herein, where only uplink CA option 1 is used for switching between the band configured for the cell's SUL carrier and another band.

[0213] Example B10 may include the method of example B7 and / or any other example herein, where the UL CA option 1 or 2 for Tx switching is configured separately for each pair of bands.

[0214] Example B11 may include the method of Example B1 and / or any other example herein, where for uplink CA option 2 of the mapping between UL transmission ports and TX chains, the Tx switching delay is applicable in the following cases: 1) if the current state of the TX chain is 1Tx on a first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on a second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission has a 2-port transmission on a third carrier in the third band; 2) if the current state of the TX chain is 1Tx on a first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on a second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission has a 1-port transmission on a first carrier in the first band and a 1-port transmission on a third carrier in the third carrier; 3) if the current state of the TX chain is 1Tx on a first carrier in the first band and 1Tx on a second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission has a 1-port transmission on a second carrier in the second band and a 1-port transmission on a third carrier in the third carrier.

[0215] Example B12 may include the method of Example B1 and / or any other example herein, and for CA option 2, when UL Tx switching is triggered for one port transmission on a first carrier in a first band and the state of the TX chain after UL Tx switching is not unique, e.g., when the UE is in an operating state where two port transmission may be supported on one carrier on one band followed by no transmission on any carrier of the same band and one port transmission on another carrier on another band, the parameters may be configured by dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling or may be dynamically indicated in downlink control information (DCI), or a combination thereof, to configure or indicate the TX chain state and band information.

[0216] Example B13 may include the method of Example B1 and / or any other example herein, where the second band is one of the bands configured or activated for Tx switching, and the second band may be configured by a higher layer or may be implicitly determined according to a predefined rule. For example, the second band is the next band with the smallest or largest band index, or the second band is the band used for the last transmission, or is the next band after the first band (either with a larger or smaller index).

[0217] Example B14 may include the method of Example B1 and / or any other example herein, and the additional parameters may be configured by RRC signaling to configure between: 1) 1Tx on a first carrier in a first band and 1Tx on a second carrier in a second band is assumed; 2) 1Tx on a first carrier in a first band and 1Tx on a third carrier in a third band is assumed; 3) 1Tx on a first carrier in a first band and 1Tx on a fourth carrier in a fourth band is assumed.

[0218] Example B15 may include the method of Example B1 and / or any other example herein, where the switching gap on the carrier is conditionally configured. For carriers in the band, the gNB may configure whether switching gap on the carrier is supported and the conditions for applying the switching gap.

[0219] Example B16 includes a method performed by a fifth generation (5G) base station (gNB), one or more elements of a gNB, and / or an electronic device including a gNB, the method comprising: identifying more than two frequency bands for transmission (Tx) switching; and providing an indication of the more than two frequency bands to a UE for use in Tx switching.

[0220] Example B17 includes a method performed by a user equipment (UE), one or more elements of a UE, and / or an electronic device including a UE, the method comprising: identifying more than two frequency bands for transmit (Tx) switching; and performing Tx switching based on the identified frequency bands.

[0221] Example B18 includes the method of Example B17 and / or any other example herein, wherein identifying the more than two frequency bands is based on one or more indications received from a fifth generation (5G) base station (gNB).

[0222] Example C1 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of the method examples above, or any other method or process described herein.

[0223] Example C2 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of the method examples above, or any other method or process described herein.

[0224] Example C3 may include an apparatus having logic, modules, or circuitry for performing one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of the method examples above, or any other method or process described herein.

[0225] Example C4 may include any method, technique, or process described in or related to any of the method examples above, or any part or portion thereof.

[0226] Example C5 may include an apparatus having one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process described in or related to any of the above method examples or portions thereof.

[0227] Example C6 may include signals described in or related to any of the method examples above, or portions or parts thereof.

[0228] Example C7 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message described in or related to any of the above method examples or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0229] Example C8 may include a signal encoded with data described in or related to any of the above method examples, or any portion or part thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0230] Example C9 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message described in or related to any of the above method examples or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0231] Example C10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, where execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portions thereof, described in or related to any of the method examples above.

[0232] Example C11 may include a computer program comprising instructions, execution of which by a processing element causes the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process described in or related to any of the above method examples or portions thereof.

[0233] Example C12 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0234] Example C13 may include a method of communication in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0235] Example C14 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0236] Example C15 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0237] Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of the method-related examples herein, or means for performing any other method or process described herein.

[0238] Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described or related to any of the method-related examples herein, or any other method or process described herein.

[0239] Example Z03 may include an apparatus having logic, modules, or circuitry for performing one or more elements of the method described in any of the method-related examples herein, or any other method or process described herein or related thereto.

[0240] Example Z04 may include any method, technique, or process described in or related to any of the examples related to the method or parts or portions thereof herein.

[0241] Example Z05 may include an apparatus having one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process described or related to any of the method-related examples or portions thereof herein.

[0242] Example Z06 may include signals described or related to any of the examples related to the methods herein, or any part or portion thereof.

[0243] Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message, or a portion or part thereof, described in or related to any of the examples related to the methods herein, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0244] Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data described in or related to any of the method-related examples herein, or any part or portion thereof, or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0245] Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message, or a portion or part thereof, described in or related to any of the method-related examples herein or otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0246] Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, where execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portions thereof, described or related in any of the method-related examples herein.

[0247] Example Z11 may include a computer program including instructions, the execution of which by a processing element causes the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process described in or related to any of the method-related examples or portions thereof in this specification.

[0248] Example Z12 may include signals in a wireless network, as shown and described herein.

[0249] Example Z13 may include a method of communication in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0250] Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication, as shown and described herein.

[0251] Example Z15 may include a device for providing wireless communication, as shown and described herein.

[0252] Any of the examples described above may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples) unless expressly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations has been provided for illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0253] term

[0254] For purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0255] As used herein, the term "circuitry" refers to, 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-Capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), etc., configured to provide a 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 the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0256] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" refers to, is a part of, or includes a circuit that can continuously and automatically perform a series of arithmetic or logical operations or record, store, and / or transfer digital data. A processing circuit may include one or more processing cores for executing instructions and one or more memory structures for storing program and data information. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes. A processing circuit may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, and the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuit" and may be referred to as "processor circuit".

[0257] As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and / or the like.

[0258] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device having wireless communication capabilities and may represent a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, wireless equipment, reconfigurable wireless equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Additionally, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0259] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or may be referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and / or the like.

[0260] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic device, computing device, or components thereof. In addition, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0261] As used herein, terms such as "appliance" or "computer appliance" refer to a computing device or system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computing appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0262] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component in a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component in a particular device, such as a computer device, a mechanical device, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU utilization, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or utilization, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory utilization, storage, network, database and application, workload units, and / or the like. A "hardware resource" may refer to compute, storage, and / or network resources provided by a physical hardware element. A "virtualization resource" may refer to compute, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to resources that are accessible by a computer device / system via a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any kind of shared entity for providing services and may include computing and / or network resources. A system resource may be viewed as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a server where such system resources reside on multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

[0263] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, used to communicate data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous with and / or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and / or any other similar term meaning a path or medium over which data is communicated. Additionally, as used herein, the term "link" refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

[0264] As used herein, terms such as "instantiate" and "instantiation" refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" may also refer to a concrete occurrence of an object that may arise, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0265] The terms "coupled" and "communicatively coupled," along with their derivatives, are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are described as being coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other by means of communication, including through a wired or other interconnected connection scheme, through a wireless communication channel or link, and / or the like.

Claims

1. 1. A new radio (NR) Node B (gNB) device comprising: Identifying three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching by a user equipment (UE); and encoding for transmission a message to the UE indicating the three or more bands for TX switching. one or more processors for performing operations including: Memory for storing said three or more bands for TX switching. An apparatus comprising:

2. The identifying includes accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table including a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings including, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration of the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmit port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured in the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocating one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band.

2. The apparatus of claim 1.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the number of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of the three or more bands.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the number of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on the TX chain configuration of the UE.

5. The apparatus of any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the operations further include determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands before accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table.

6. 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is further based on a determination that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmissions on more than one of the three or more bands.

7. The three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding to, on the one hand, a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first assignment corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for carrier aggregation option with UL switching for the UE, including two or more of: wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

7. The apparatus of claim 6.

8. The three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding to, on the one hand, a single TX chain for a first one of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second one of the four bands, no TX chain for a third one of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth one of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a single option for UE UL transmit port assignment per band including assignments corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T and, on the other hand, a fourth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a fifth allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T and, on the other hand, a sixth allocation corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to ten multi-carrier TX switching mappings for carrier aggregation option with UL switching for the UE, including two or more of: wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

7. The apparatus of claim 6.

9. 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is further based on a determination that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmissions on more than one of the three or more bands.

10. The three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three second allocations corresponding to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for a carrier aggregation option with dual UL for the UE including two or more of wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

10. The apparatus of claim 9.

11. The three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three second allocations corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three third allocations corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P, and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to eight multi-carrier TX switching mappings for a carrier aggregation option with dual UL for the UE, including two or more of: wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

10. The apparatus of claim 9.

12. The operations further include: in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to a single TX chain (1T) on a first carrier in a first band of the three or more bands and a 1T on a second carrier in a second band of the three or more bands, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on either the first carrier in the first band or the second carrier in the second band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on a first carrier in the first band and 1T on a second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a two-antenna port transmission on a third carrier in a third band of the three or more bands; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to one antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band and one port transmission on the third carrier in the third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration is 1T on the first carrier in the first band and 1T on the second carrier in the second band, the next UL transmission corresponds to a one-port transmission on the third carrier in a third band; in response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 0 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 2 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, in which case the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the first carrier in the first band; or In response to determining that the UE's current TX chain configuration corresponds to 2 Tx on the first carrier in the first band and 0 Tx on the second carrier in the second band, then the message configures the UE to switch a next UL transmission to a one antenna port transmission or a two antenna port transmission on the second carrier in the second band. identifying a delay for the TX switching (TX switching delay) by at least one of 10. The apparatus of claim 9.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a radio frequency (RF) interface coupled to the one or more processors and a front-end module coupled to the RF interface.

14. 14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the front-end module for transmitting the PDCCH.

15. 1. A method performed in a New Radio (NR) User Equipment (UE) device, comprising: Decoding a message from a gNB, the message indicating three or more bands for transmit (TX) switching; identifying the three or more bands for TX switching from the message; and performing TX switching based on the three or more bands for TX switching. A method for providing the above.

16. the identifying step comprises accessing a multi-carrier TX switching table comprising a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE, each of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings comprising, on the one hand, a TX chain configuration of the UE and, on the other hand, one or more options for UE uplink (UL) transmission port allocation per band; The TX chain configuration of the UE corresponds to an indication of a number of TX chains configured for the UE for each band of the three or more bands; and Each of the one or more options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band includes allocating one or more antenna ports for UL transmission per band. The method of claim 15.

17. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the number of the multiple multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is based on the number of the three or more bands.

18. 20. The method of claim 17, wherein the number of the plurality of multi-carrier TX switching mappings for the UE is further based on the TX chain configuration of the UE.

19. 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising, prior to accessing the multi-carrier TX switching table, determining the multi-carrier TX switching table from a plurality of multi-carrier TX switching tables based on the number of the three or more bands.

20. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein determining the multi-carrier TX switching table is further based on a determination that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is not expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmissions on more than one of the three or more bands.

21. The three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a first TX chain configuration corresponding to, on the one hand, a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and including, on the other hand, a first assignment corresponding to a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, and no antenna ports for the third band (1P+0P+0P); a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T and, on the other hand, a second allocation corresponding to 1P+0P+0P; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including a single option for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T and, on the other hand, a third allocation corresponding to 0P+1P+0P; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for carrier aggregation option with UL switching for the UE, including two or more of: wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

21. The method of claim 20.

22. The step of determining the multi-carrier TX switching table may further include: based on determining that the UE is configured for carrier aggregation and is expected to be scheduled or configured for simultaneous UL transmissions in more than one of the three or more bands; The three or more bands correspond to three bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the three bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the three bands, and no TX chain for a third band of the three bands (1T+1T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna port for the second band, and no antenna port for the third band (1P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+1P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three second allocations corresponding to 1P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three third allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P, 0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P and 0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+1P, respectively; or a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two sixth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P, respectively; up to six multi-carrier TX switching mappings for a carrier aggregation option with dual UL for the UE including two or more of wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

20. The method of claim 19.

23. The three or more bands correspond to four bands, and the multi-carrier TX switching table is: a first multi-carrier TX switching mapping including, on the one hand, a first TX chain configuration corresponding to a single TX chain for a first band of the four bands, a single TX chain for a second band of the four bands, no TX chain for a third band of the four bands, and no TX chain for a fourth band of the four bands (1T+1T+0T+0T), and on the other hand, three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including three first allocations corresponding respectively to a first option including a single antenna port for the first band, no antenna ports for the second band, no antenna ports for the third band, and no antenna ports for the fourth band (1P+0P+0P+0P), a second option including 1P+1P+0P+0P, and a third option including 0P+1P+0P+0P; a second multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a second TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three second allocations corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+1P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a third multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a third TX chain configuration corresponding to 1T+0T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three third allocations corresponding to 1P+0P+0P+0P, 1P+0P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a fourth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fourth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+1T+0T, and, on the other hand, three fourth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+1P+0P, and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a fifth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a fifth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+1T+0T+1T, and, on the other hand, three fifth allocations corresponding to 0P+1P+0P+0P, 0P+1P+0P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a sixth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including three options for UE UL transmit port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a sixth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+1T+1T, and, on the other hand, three sixth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+1P+0P, 0P+0P+1P+1P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; a seventh multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a seventh TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+0T+2T, and, on the other hand, two seventh allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+0P+2P and 0P+0P+0P+1P, respectively; an eighth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, an eighth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+0T+2T+0T, and, on the other hand, two eighth allocations corresponding to 0P+0P+2P+0P and 0P+0P+1P+0P, respectively; a ninth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a ninth TX chain configuration corresponding to 0T+2T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two ninth allocations corresponding to 0P+2P+0P+0P and 0P+1P+0P+0P, respectively; or a tenth multi-carrier TX switching mapping including two options for UE UL transmission port allocation per band including, on the one hand, a tenth TX chain configuration corresponding to 2T+0T+0T+0T, and, on the other hand, two tenth allocations corresponding to 2P+0P+0P+0P and 1P+0P+0P+0P, respectively; up to ten multi-carrier TX switching mappings for carrier aggregation option with dual UL for the UE, including two or more of: wherein TX switching comprises switching from one UE UL transmission port allocation per band in one of the multi-carrier switching mappings to another UE UL transmission port allocation per band in another of the multi-carrier switching mappings.

23. The method of claim 22.

24. A machine readable medium comprising code that, when executed, causes a machine to perform the method of any one of claims 15 to 23.

25. Apparatus comprising means for carrying out the method according to any one of claims 15 to 23.

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