Transmitter Switching and Switching Gap for Wireless Communication

Abstract

This document generally relates to wireless communication involving a communication device that determines a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in up-link (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching. Additionally, according to the switching gap, the user device transmits and the network device receives UL transmission after UL Tx switching and / or preceding UL transmission before UL Tx switching. Additionally, this document relates to a user device that determines a limitation of PDCCH monitoring capability and reports UE capabilities of PDCCH monitoring capability with the limitation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This document generally relates to transmitter switching and switching gaps in wireless communication.

Background Art

[0002] In wireless communication, a user device can perform uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching within a maximum of two bands. Additionally, for multi-carrier operation, a user device that transmits using two transmitters (also called a 2Tx user device) can transmit in a maximum of two UL bands. Which two bands are used can be changed only by radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration. Additionally, a 2Tx user device can perform only UL Tx switching between two UL bands. However, the current UL Tx switching method may not allow a user device to perform UL Tx switching with three or four bands and simultaneous transmission with two transmitters, enabling more configured UL bands than its simultaneous transmission capability and / or supporting dynamic Tx carrier switching across the configured bands. A UL Tx switching method involving three or more bands and switching gap determination to overcome these drawbacks may be desirable.

Summary of the Invention

Means for Solving the Problems

[0003] This document relates to a method, system, apparatus, and device for wireless communication. In some implementations, a method for wireless communication includes determining, by a communication device, a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching, and transmitting, by a user device, a UL transmission after UL Tx switching according to the switching gap.

[0004] In some other implementations, a method for wireless communication includes determining, by a communication device, a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching, and receiving, by a network device, a UL transmission after a previous UL transmission based on the switching gap.

[0005] In some other implementations, a method for wireless communication includes determining, by a user device, a limitation of PDCCH monitoring capability, and reporting, by the user device, a user equipment (UE) capability with PDCCH monitoring capability with the limitation.

[0006] In some other implementations, a device such as a network device is disclosed. The device may include one or more processors and one or more memories, and the one or more processors are configured to read computer code from the one or more memories to implement any of the above methods.

[0007] In still some other implementations, a computer program product is disclosed. The computer program product may include a non-transitory computer-readable program medium storing computer code, and the computer code causes one or more processors to implement any of the above methods when executed by the one or more processors.

[0008] The above and other aspects and their implementations are described in more detail in the drawings, the specification, and the claims.

Brief Description of the Drawings

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Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

[0027] Detailed Description This specification describes various embodiments of systems, apparatuses, devices, and methods for wireless communication related to the switching of uplink (UL) transmitters (Tx) and switching gaps.

[0028] FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system 100 that includes a plurality of communication nodes (or simply nodes) configured to communicate wirelessly with each other. In general, a communication node includes at least one user device 102 and at least one network device 104. The exemplary wireless communication system 100 of FIG. 1 is shown as including two user devices 102, a first user device 102(1) and a second user device 102(2), and one device 104. However, various other examples of wireless communication system 100 can include any of various combinations of one or more user devices 102 and / or one or more network devices 104.

[0029] Generally, a user device described herein, such as user device 102, may include a single electronic device or apparatus, or a plurality of electronic devices or apparatuses (e.g., a network of electronic devices or apparatuses) that can communicate wirelessly via a network. The user device may comprise, or otherwise be referred to as, a user terminal, a user terminal device, or a user equipment (UE). Further, the user device can be, or can include, but is not limited to, a mobile device (such as a mobile phone, smartphone, smartwatch, tablet, laptop computer, vehicle or other vessel (non-limiting examples include human, motor, or engine-driven vehicles or other vessels such as cars, airplanes, trains, ships, or bicycles), or a fixed or stationary device (non-limiting examples include appliances, other relatively heavy devices including the Internet of Things (IoT), or desktop computers or other computing devices that are not normally moved for long periods of time, such as those used in commercial or industrial environments, etc.). In various embodiments, user device 102 may include transceiver circuitry 106 coupled to antenna 108 for wireless communication with network device 104. Transceiver circuitry 106 may also be coupled to a processor 110 that may be coupled to a memory 112 or other storage device. Memory 112 may store instructions or code that, when read and executed by processor 110, cause processor 110 to perform various methods described herein.

[0030] Furthermore, generally, a network device as described herein, such as network device 104, may include a single electronic device or apparatus, or multiple electronic devices or apparatuses (e.g., a network of electronic devices or apparatuses), and may include one or more wireless access nodes, base stations, or other wireless network access points that can wirelessly communicate via a network with one or more user devices and / or one or more other network devices 104. For example, network device 104 may include, in various embodiments, a 4G LTE base station, a 5G NR base station, a 5G central unit base station, a 5G distributed unit base station, a next-generation node B (gNB), an enhanced node B (eNB), or other similar or next-generation (e.g., 6G) base stations. Network device 104 may include a transceiver circuit 114 coupled to an antenna 116, and the transceiver circuit 114 may include an antenna tower 118 in various ways for wireless communication with user device 102 or another network device 104. The transceiver circuit 114 may be coupled to one or more processors 120 that may also be coupled to a memory 122 or other storage device. The memory 122 may store instructions or code that, when read and executed by the processor 120, cause the processor 120 to perform one or more of the methods described herein.

[0031] In various embodiments, two communication nodes within the wireless system 100, such as the user device 102 and the network device 104, two user devices 102 without the network device 104, or two network devices 104 without the user device 102, may be configured to wirelessly communicate with each other within a mobile network and / or a wireless access network, or via a mobile network and / or a wireless access network, in accordance with one or more standards and / or specifications. Generally, the standards and / or specifications may define rules or procedures by which the communication nodes can wirelessly communicate, and in various embodiments may include those for communicating in the millimeter (mm) wave band and / or with a multi-antenna system and beamforming capabilities. In addition to or instead of this, the standards and / or specifications may, by way of non-limiting example, define wireless access technologies and / or cellular technologies such as 4th generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) New Radio (NR), or New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U).

[0032] Furthermore, in the wireless system 100, the communication nodes are configured to wirelessly communicate signals with each other. Generally, communication in the wireless system 100 between two communication nodes can be, or can include, transmission or reception, and generally, depending on the perspective of a particular node in the communication, both are performed simultaneously. For example, in a given communication between a first node and a second node, where the first node is transmitting a signal to the second node and the second node is receiving a signal from the first node, in the case of the given communication, the first node may be referred to as a source or transmission node or device, and the second node may be referred to as a destination or receiving node or device, and the communication can be regarded as transmission for the first node and reception for the second node. Of course, since the communication nodes in the wireless system 100 can transmit and receive signals, a single communication node may be both a transmission / source node and a receiving / destination node simultaneously, or may switch between being a source / transmission node and a destination / receiving node.

[0033] Also, a particular signal can be characterized or defined as either an uplink (UL) signal, a downlink (DL) signal, or a side-link (SL) signal. An uplink signal is a signal transmitted from the user device 102 to the network device 104. A downlink signal is a signal transmitted from the network device 104 to the user device 102. A side-link signal is a signal transmitted from one user device 102 to another user device 102, or a signal transmitted from one network device 104 to another network device 104. Also, in the case of a side-link transmission, the first / source user device 102 directly transmits the side-link signal to the second / destination user device 102 without forwarding the side-link signal to the network device 104.

[0034] Furthermore, signals communicated between communication nodes within system 100 may be characterized or defined as data signals or control signals. Generally, a data signal is a signal that includes or carries data such as multimedia data (e.g., audio and / or image data), and a control signal is a signal that carries control information that configures communication nodes in a particular way to communicate with each other or controls the way communication nodes communicate data signals with each other. Also, a particular signal may be defined or characterized by a combination of data / control and uplink / downlink / sidelink, including uplink control signals, uplink data signals, downlink control signals, downlink data signals, sidelink control signals, and sidelink data signals.

[0035] In at least some specifications such as 5G NR, data and control signals are transmitted and / or carried on physical channels. Generally, a physical channel corresponds to a set of time-frequency resources used for signal transmission. Different types of physical channels can be used to transmit different types of signals. For example, a physical data channel (or simply data channel), also referred to herein as a traffic channel, is used to transmit data signals, and a physical control channel (or simply control channel) is used to transmit control signals. Examples of types of traffic channels (or physical data channels) include, but are not limited to, the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) used to communicate downlink data signals, the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) used to communicate uplink data signals, and the physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) used to communicate sidelink data signals. Additionally, examples of types of physical control channels include, but are not limited to, the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) used to communicate downlink control signals, the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) used to communicate uplink control signals, and the physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) used to communicate sidelink control signals. As used herein for simplicity, unless otherwise specified, a particular type of physical channel is also used to refer to the signals transmitted on that particular type of physical channel and / or the transmission on that particular type of transmission. By way of illustration, PDSCH refers to the physical downlink shared channel itself, the downlink data signals transmitted on the PDSCH, or downlink data transmission. Thus, a communication node transmitting or receiving the PDSCH means that the communication node is transmitting or receiving signals on the PDSCH.

[0036] Furthermore, in the case of at least some specifications such as 5G NR, and / or in the case of at least some types of control signals, the control signals transmitted by a communication node may include control information necessary to enable the transmission of one or more data signals between communication nodes and / or to schedule one or more data channels (or one or more transmissions on a data channel). For example, such control information may include information necessary for proper reception, decoding, and demodulation of data signals received on a physical data channel during data transmission and / or uplink scheduling authorization to notify a user device about resources and transport formats to be used for uplink data transmission. In some embodiments, the control information includes downlink control information (DCI) transmitted in the downlink direction from network device 104 to user device 102. In other embodiments, the control information includes uplink control information (UCI) transmitted in the uplink direction from user device 102 to network device 104, or sidelink control information (SCI) transmitted in the sidelink direction from one user device 102(1) to another user device 102(2).

[0037] In addition, in some embodiments, user device 102 may be configured to support at least one simultaneous UL transmission mode across a band pair for UL transmission. In a first simultaneous UL transmission mode (also referred to as a switched UL mode), user device 102 does not support simultaneous UL transmission across a band pair. Thus, when user device 102 transmits a UL transmission in the first simultaneous UL transmission mode, user device 102 transmits the UL transmission without transmitting simultaneously across the band pair. In addition, in a second simultaneous UL transmission mode (also referred to as a dual UL mode), user device 102 supports simultaneous UL transmission across a band pair. Thus, when user device 102 transmits a UL transmission in the second simultaneous UL transmission mode, user device 102 may transmit the UL transmission by transmitting simultaneously across the band pair.

[0038] Also, in at least some embodiments, as used herein, the first and second UL simultaneous transmission modes may be referred to as, or may correspond to, a carrier aggregation (CA) option. For example, the first simultaneous UL transmission (or switched UL) mode may also be referred to as, or may correspond to, the first CA option or the switched UL CA option. The second simultaneous UL transmission (or dual UL) mode may also be referred to as, or may correspond to, the second CA option or the dual UL CA option. Correspondingly, when the user device 102 operates in the switched UL CA option, the user device 102 does not support and / or perform simultaneous UL transmission across the band pair. When the user device 102 operates in the dual UL CA option, the user device 102 supports and / or performs simultaneous UL transmission across the band pair.

[0039] Also, in some embodiments, the user device 102 may report the simultaneous UL transmission mode to the network device 104. That is, the user device 102 may report to the network device 104 that it supports simultaneous UL transmission across the band pair, that it does not support simultaneous UL transmission across the band pair, or that it supports and does not support simultaneous UL transmission across the band pair. In certain of these embodiments, the user device 102 may report whether it supports simultaneous UL transmission across the band pair for each band combination (BC). Also, the network device 104 may be configured with a simultaneous UL transmission mode (e.g., switched UL or dual UL) for each cell group, which may be considered on a per-BC or per-band pair basis in embodiments where a 2Tx user device supports only two bands. That is, one available band pair in a band combination may support one simultaneous UL transmission mode.

[0040] Furthermore, generally, as used herein, a band combination and a band group may each include a plurality of bands. In some embodiments, a band combination includes five or more bands. In addition or alternatively, a band group may include up to three or four bands. In addition or alternatively, a given band group may be included in or be part of a band combination. Also, a band combination and / or a band group may include at least one band pair, where a band pair includes two bands.

[0041] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an example configuration of the transceiver 106 and the antenna 108. In particular, the transceiver 106 includes a first transmitter circuit 202(1) and a second transmitter circuit 202(2). Additionally, the antenna 108 may include a first antenna component 204(1) and a second antenna component 204(2). Generally, the first transmitter circuit 202(1) and the first antenna component 204(1) may form a first transmitter channel or chain, and the second transmitter circuit 202(2) and the second antenna component 204(2) may form a second transmitter channel or chain. The user device 102 may be configured to transmit a first UL transmission (or a first portion of the UL transmission) using the first transmitter channel in the configuration of FIG. 2, or may be configured to transmit a second UL transmission (or a second portion of the UL transmission) using the first transmitter channel. Also, as used herein, unless otherwise specified, the term "transmitter" is used to refer to only a transmitter circuit, only an antenna component, or a combination of a transmitter circuit and an antenna component (i.e., a transmitter channel or chain).

[0042] Furthermore, in various embodiments, user device 102 may transmit on one or two bands or carriers using two transmitter channels. User device 102 may do this in any of a variety of ways. For example, user device 102 may transmit on a single carrier using both a first transmission channel and a second transmission channel. As another example, user device 102 may transmit on a first carrier using the first transmission channel and transmit on a second carrier using the second transmission channel. As used herein, the terms "1Tx" and "1T" refer to using one channel to transmit on one carrier, and the terms "2Tx" and "2T" refer to using two transmission channels to transmit on one carrier.

[0043] In addition, as used herein, the phrase "UL transmission case" refers to a particular configuration of transmission channels used for UL transmission on one or more carriers. Also, as will be described in more detail below, user device 102 may switch between UL transmission cases during a UL Tx switching operation. Table 1 below lists two exemplary UL transmission cases, Case 1 and Case 2.

Table 1

[0044] Table 1 shows, with respect to the first UL transmission case (Case 1), that user device 102 transmits UL transmission on two carriers using one transmission channel (1Tx) for each carrier, such as using a first transmitter to transmit on a first carrier (Carrier 1) and a second transmitter to transmit on a second carrier (Carrier 2). In addition, Table 1 shows, with respect to the second UL transmission case (Case 2), that user device 102 transmits UL transmission on a single carrier using two transmitters (2Tx) to transmit on the second carrier. For this second case, user device 102 does not use any transmission channels to transmit on the first carrier.

[0045] In addition, in various embodiments, the user device 102 may perform UL transmitter (Tx) switching to perform UL transmissions. Generally, the user device 102 may perform UL Tx switching by switching from one UL transmission case to another. During operation, the user device 102 may transmit a UL transmission according to a first UL transmission case, then switch from the first UL transmission case to a second UL transmission case, and transmit a UL transmission according to the second UL transmission case. By way of example, for instance using Table 1, the user device may transmit a UL transmission according to Case 1, such as transmitting on a first carrier using a first transmitter and transmitting on a second carrier using a second transmitter. Next, the user device 102 may switch from Case 1 to Case 2 and then transmit a UL transmission according to Case 2, such as transmitting on the second carrier using both the first and second transmitters.

[0046] In various embodiments, such as referring to Table 1, the type of UL Tx switching performed by the user device 102 may be referred to as 1Tx-2Tx switching. In the case of 1Tx-2Tx switching, the user device 102 may switch from using one transmitter to transmit on a carrier to using two transmitters to transmit on a carrier, or may switch from using two transmitters to transmit on a channel to using one transmitter.

[0047] In addition, in various embodiments, the UL transmission case may also specify the number of antenna ports corresponding to a carrier. The specification may be in the form of a mapping between the respective numbers of carriers and antenna ports. In at least some of these embodiments, the number of antennas may depend on whether the user device 102 supports simultaneous transmission across a band pair. Table 2 shows an exemplary UL transmission case when simultaneous transmission across a band pair is not supported and further when the user device 102 applies carrier aggregation including a supplementary UL (SUL) band.

Table 2

[0048] In the example shown in Table 2, in the case of the first UL transmission case (Case 1), the user device 102 transmits on the first carrier using the first transmitter and transmits on the second carrier using the second transmitter. Also, based on the fact that the user device 102 does not support simultaneous transmission across the band pair, the number of antenna ports for UL transmission on the first carrier is 1, and the number of antenna ports for UL transmission on the second carrier is 0 (1P + 0P). Further, in the example shown in Table 2, in the case of the second UL transmission case (Case 2), the user device 102 transmits on the second carrier using both the first and second transmitters. Also, based on the fact that the user device 102 does not support simultaneous transmission across the band pair, the number of antenna ports for the two carriers can be either one of two options. In the first option, the number of antenna ports for the first carrier is 0, and the number of antenna ports for the second carrier is 2. In the second option, the number of antenna ports for the first carrier is 0, and the number of antenna ports for the second carrier is 1.

[0049] Table 3 shows exemplary UL transmission cases when simultaneous transmission across the band pair is supported.

Table 3

[0050] In the example shown in Table 3, in the case of the first UL transmission case (Case 1), the user device 102 transmits on the first carrier using the first transmitter and on the second carrier using the second transmitter. Also, based on the user device 102 supporting simultaneous transmission across the band pair, the number of antenna ports for UL transmission can be one of three options. In the first option, the number of antenna ports for the first carrier is 1 and the number of antenna ports for the second carrier is 0. In the second option, the number of antenna ports for the first and second carriers is 1 each. In the third option, the number of antenna ports for the first carrier is 0 and the number of antenna ports for the second carrier is 1. In the second UL transmission case, the user device 102 does not transmit on the first carrier by any transmitter and transmits on the second carrier by two transmitters. Also, based on the user device 102 supporting simultaneous transmission across the band pair, the number of antenna ports for UL transmission can be one of two options. In the first option, the number of antenna ports for the first carrier is 0 and the number of antenna ports for the second carrier is 2. In the second option, the number of antenna ports for the first carrier is 0 and the number of antenna ports for the second carrier is 1.

[0051] As described above, the user device 102 can perform 1Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching, and the user device 102 switches between one transmitter and two transmitters for transmission on the channel. Another type of UL Tx switching may include 2Tx-2Tx switching, and since the user device 102 uses two transmitters for transmission on one carrier, it switches to using two transmitters for transmission on another carrier. Tables 4 and 5 below show examples of 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching.

Table 4

Table 5

[0052] Referring to Table 4, in the first example of 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching, in the first transmission case (Case 1), the user device 102 transmits on the second carrier using two transmitters and does not transmit on the first carrier using any transmitter. In the second transmission case (Case 2), the user device 102 transmits on the first carrier using two transmitters and does not transmit on the second carrier using any transmitter. In the case of 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching, the user device 102 may switch from the first transmission case to the second transmission case, or may switch from the second transmission case to the first transmission case.

[0053] Referring to Table 5, the user device 102 may use a combination of 1Tx-2Tx switching and 2Tx-2Tx switching. For example, in Table 5, Case 1 corresponds to Case 1 of Table 2, and Cases 2 and 3 correspond to Cases 1 and 2 of Table 4 respectively. The user device 102 may perform 1Tx-2Tx switching by switching between Case 1 and Case 2 and / or between Case 1 and Case 3, and may perform 2Tx-2Tx switching by switching between Case 2 and Case 3.

[0054] Also, in various embodiments, the UL transmission case may also identify the number of antenna ports corresponding to the carriers for 2Tx-2Tx switching, in the form of a mapping between the respective number of carriers and antenna ports, similar to the above Tables 2 and 3 showing the mapping between the carriers and the number of antenna ports for 1Tx-2Tx switching. The mapping may depend on whether the user device 102 supports simultaneous switching across the band pair. The following Table 6 shows an exemplary UL transmission case with antenna port number mapping in 2Tx-2Tx switching where the user device 102 does not support simultaneous transmission across the band pair. The following Table 7 shows an exemplary UL transmission case with antenna port number mapping in 2Tx-2Tx switching where the user device 102 supports simultaneous transmission across the band pair.

Table 6

Table 7

[0055] Furthermore, in various embodiments, the user device 102 may perform 1Tx-2Tx and / or 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching with respect to the band. For example, one carrier may be on one band (e.g., Band A), and two carriers such as two consecutive carriers may be on another band (e.g., Band B). In at least some of these embodiments, the band having one carrier may be a supplementary UL (SUL) band, and the band having two consecutive carriers may be a non-SUL band or a normal UL (NUL) band. For at least some of these examples, the user device 102 may perform UL Tx switching between any two or three of the following cases for the first band and the second band (i.e., Band A + Band B). Case 1: 1T + 1T; Case 2: 0T + 2T; Case 3: 2T + 0T

[0056] Furthermore, in the embodiment where the user device 102 performs UL Tx switching with respect to the band, the UL transmission case may specify the number of antenna ports in the carrier of the band, similar to Tables 2, 3, 6, and 7 above. Tables 8 to 11 show various UL transmission cases with antenna port number mapping for two bands including three carriers, where the first band (Band A) includes one carrier and the second band (Band B) includes two consecutive carriers. Table 8 shows an exemplary UL transmission case of 1Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching where the user device 102 does not support simultaneous transmission across the band pair. Table 9 shows an exemplary UL transmission case of 1Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching where the user device 102 supports simultaneous transmission across the band pair. Table 10 shows an exemplary UL transmission case of 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching where the user device 102 does not support simultaneous transmission across the band pair. Table 11 shows an exemplary UL transmission case of 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching where the user device 102 supports simultaneous transmission across the band pair.

Table 8

Table 9

Table 10

Table 11

[0057] Also, in various embodiments, the user device 102 may be composed of three bands, UL Tx switching is performed for these three bands, and UL transmission is transmitted within these three bands. The three bands may include a first band (Band A), a second band (Band B), and a third band (Band C). For at least some of these embodiments, the user device 102 may dynamically select any two of these three bands to perform UL Tx switching. In various ones of these embodiments, the three bands can include various combinations of SUL bands and normal or non-SUL (NUL) bands, and examples of two scenarios are as follows.

[0058] In the first scenario (Scenario 1), Band A is an SUL band or a non-SUL band, Band B is a non-SUL band, and Band C is an SUL band or a non-SUL band. That is, Band C is the same as Band A. In an example of Scenario 1, Band A includes a first carrier (Carrier 1), Band B includes a second carrier (Carrier 2), and Band C includes a third carrier (Carrier 3). In a second example of Scenario 1, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carriers 2 and 3, and Band C includes a fourth carrier (Carrier 4).

[0059] In the second scenario (Scenario 2), Band A is an SUL band or a non-SUL band, Band B is a non-SUL band, and Band C is a non-SUL band. That is, Band C is the same as Band B. In an example of Scenario 2, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carrier 2, and Band C includes Carriers 3 and 4. In a second example of Scenario 2, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carriers 2 and 3, and Band C includes Carriers 4 and a fifth carrier (Carrier 5).

[0060] Furthermore, in various other embodiments, the user device 102 may be configured with four bands including a first band (Band A), a second band (Band B), a third band (Band C), and a fourth band (Band D), perform UL Tx switching with respect to these bands, and transmit UL transmissions within these bands. Similar to the three-band configuration, the user device 102 may dynamically select any two of the four bands to perform UL Tx switching. In various ones of these embodiments, the four bands may include various combinations of SUL bands and NUL bands, and examples of two scenarios are as follows.

[0061] In the first scenario (Scenario 1), Band A is an SUL band or a non-SUL band, Band B is a non-SUL band, and Band C is an SUL band or a non-SUL band. That is, Band C is the same as Band A. In the first example of Scenario 1, Band A includes a first carrier (Carrier 1), Band B includes a second carrier (Carrier 2), Band C includes a third carrier (Carrier 3), and Band D includes a fourth carrier (Carrier 4). In the second example of Scenario 1, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carrier 2, Band C includes Carrier 3, and Band D includes Carrier 4 and a fifth carrier (Carrier 5). In the third example of Scenario 1, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carriers 2 and 3, Band C includes Carrier 4, and Band D includes Carrier 5. In the fourth example of Scenario 1, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carriers 2 and 3, Band C includes Carrier 4, and Band D includes Carriers 5 and a sixth carrier (Carrier 6).

[0062] In the second scenario (Scenario 2), Band A is a SUL band or a non-SUL band, Band B is a non-SUL band, and Band C is a non-SUL band. That is, Band C is the same as Band B. In the first example of Scenario 2, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carrier 2, Band C includes Carriers 3 and 4, and Band D includes Carrier 5. In the second example of Scenario 2, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carrier 2, Band C includes Carriers 3 and 4, and Band D includes Carriers 5 and 6. In the third example of Scenario 2, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carriers 2 and 3, Band C includes Carriers 4 and 5, and Band D includes Carrier 6. In the fourth example of Scenario 2, Band A includes Carrier 1, Band B includes Carriers 2 and 3, Band C includes Carriers 4 and 5, and Band D includes Carriers 6 and 7.

[0063] Also, in the case of an embodiment where the user device 102 performs dynamic Tx carrier switching across the configured bands, it is at least one of the following options. In the first option, the user device 102 may perform dynamic Tx carrier switching across all UL transmission cases supported by the UE, based on UL scheduling, i.e., via UL grants and / or RRC configuration for UL transmission. In the second option, the network device 104 may represent two of the configured bands (3 or 4 bands) via DCI or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE). In the third option, the user device 102 may select one anchor band from among the configured bands (3 or 4 bands) and perform only dynamic Tx carrier switching from the anchor band to the non-anchor band and / or from the non-anchor band to the anchor band.

[0064] Table 12 shows an exemplary set of 10 UL transmission cases for four bands with antenna port number mapping. The second column of Table 12 represents the number of antenna ports when user device 102 does not support simultaneous transmission across multiple carriers, and the third column represents the number of antenna ports when user device 102 supports simultaneous transmission across a maximum of two carriers. [Table 12]

[0065] In an embodiment where user device 102 supports all UL transmission cases (e.g., all 10 UL transmission cases in Table 12) according to the first option above, user device 102 can switch between any two UL transmission cases without additional restrictions. For example, assume that the current transmission state of user device 102 is to transmit on two carriers in two bands using one transmitter for each band, and user device 102 switches between two different carriers in two different bands but still uses one transmitter for each band. For example, user device 102 may switch from case 1 to case 8. Corresponding to cases 1 and 8 in Table 12, user device 102 transmits a first transmission on carrier 1 of cell 1 and carrier 2 of cell 2 (case 1), and then switches and transmits a second transmission on carrier 3 of cell 3 and carrier 4 of cell 4 (case 8). Correspondingly, FIG. 3 shows a one-to-one relationship among four bands, four carriers, and four cells.

[0066] Also, in various embodiments where user device 102 performs UL Tx switching that involves only two bands or carriers and thus only one band pair, i.e., 1Tx-2Tx switching or 2Tx-2Tx switching, user device 102 and / or network device 104 may determine a switching gap that is equal to the switching period of the band pair. For example, assume a 1Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching that includes switching from 1Tx on the first band / carrier A and 1Tx on the second band / carrier B to 2Tx on the second band / carrier B. In such an example, the band pair is the first band A and the second band B, and the switching gap is equal to the switching period of band pairs A and B. As another example, assume a 2Tx-2Tx UL Tx switching that includes switching from 2Tx on the first band / carrier A to 2Tx on the second band / carrier B. In such an example, the band pair includes the first and second bands A and B, and the switching gap is equal to the switching period of band pairs A and B.

[0067] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments where user device 102 performs UL Tx switching with three or more bands, user device 102 may report a switching gap for each band pair. For example, assume that user device 102 performs a 1Tx-2Tx UL switching that includes switching from 1Tx on the first band / carrier A and 1Tx on the second band / carrier B to 2Tx on the third band / carrier C. The switching gap in the UL Tx switching may be determined by reporting the switching period for each band pair, such as the switching period of band pairs A and C and / or the switching period of band pairs B and C.

[0068] Also, in general, the user device 102 may omit uplink transmission or refrain from performing uplink transmission during the switching gap. In certain embodiments, if certain one or more conditions are met and the user device 102 is configured with uplinkTxSwitching, the user device 102 may omit uplink transmission during the switching gap. Also, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 may be represented by the UE capability uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod2T2T if uplinkTxSwitching-2T-Mode is configured, or by uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod otherwise.

[0069] Furthermore, in some implementations, for the user device 102 configured in the switched UL mode (e.g., when uplinkTxSwitchingOption is set to "switched UL"), when the user device 102 is transmitting a single-port transmission on a single uplink carrier in one band and the preceding uplink transmission was a single-port transmission on a different uplink carrier in a different band, the user device 102 may not be expected to transmit over the duration of the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 in either carrier. In other cases, the user device 102 may transmit the uplink transmission normally, i.e., without interruption.

[0070] Figure 4 is a time mask for switching between UL carrier 1 and UL carrier 2, and the switching period is located in carrier 1. Figure 5 is a time mask for switching between UL carrier 1 and UL carrier 2, and the switching period is located in carrier 2. Correspondingly, the switching period is located in either NR carrier 1 or carrier 2 as represented by the RRC signaling uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation, and the length of the uplink switching period X is shorter than the value represented by the UE capability uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod.

[0071] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an exemplary method 600 for wireless communication related to a switching gap. At block 602, a communication device may determine a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching. In some embodiments, the communication device is or includes user device 102. In some other embodiments, the communication device is or includes network device 104. At block 604, user device 102 may transmit a UL transmission after UL Tx switching according to the switching gap.

[0072] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another exemplary method 700 for wireless communication related to a switching gap. At block 702, a communication device may determine a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching. In some embodiments, the communication device is or includes user device 102. In some other embodiments, the communication device is or includes network device 104. At block 704, network device 104 may receive a UL transmission after a preceding UL transmission based on the switching gap.

[0073] In some embodiments of method 600 and / or method 700, the communication device is a user device or a network device.

[0074] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments of method 600 and / or method 700, at least one band pair includes a single band pair, and the UL Tx switchover includes that a single transmitter switches from a first band to a second band of the single band pair, a transmitter in a band that is not part of the single band pair does not switch to a different band, or that a first transmitter switches from a first band to a second band of the single band pair while a second transmitter remains in a third band that is not part of the single band pair, including at least one of these. In some of these embodiments, the switchover gap is equal to the switchover period of the single band pair. In addition to or instead of this, the UL Tx switchover comprises at least one of a switchover from one port in a first band and one port in a third band to one port in a second band and one port in a third band, or a switchover from one port in a first band and one port in a third band to one port in a second band.

[0075] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments of method 600 and / or method 700, at least one band pair includes a plurality of band pairs, at least one switching period includes a plurality of switching periods of the plurality of band pairs, each band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes two of at least three bands, and the transmitter switches during UL Tx switching between these two bands. In some of these embodiments, the switching gap is based on at least one of the maximum switching period or the sum of the plurality of switching periods. In addition to or instead of this, the UL Tx switching includes at least one of switching the first transmitter from the first band to the third band and switching the second transmitter from the second band to the third band, switching the first transmitter from the third band to the first band and switching the second transmitter from the third band to the second band, switching the first transmitter from the first band to the third band and switching the second transmitter from the second band to the fourth band, or switching the first transmitter from the third band to the first band and switching the second transmitter from the fourth band to the second band. In some of these embodiments, the first band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes the first and third bands, and the second band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes the second and third bands, or the first band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes the first and third bands, and the second band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes the second and fourth bands. In addition to or instead of this, in some of these embodiments, switching from the second band to the third band is not permitted, and the band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes the first and second bands.

[0076] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments, the UL Tx switching includes at least one of a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to two ports in the third band, a switch from two ports in the third band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band, a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band, or a switch from one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band.

[0077] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments, the preparation procedure time is increased in response to at least one of the following: the UL Tx switching involves at least one band that is not part of the band pair reported by the user device, the UL Tx switching involves at least three bands, at least one of the at least three bands before or after the UL Tx switching is an anchor band, or the band combination report includes that more preparation procedure time is required. In some of these embodiments, the band combination report including that more preparation procedure time is required further comprises that more preparation procedure time is required for all or at least a part of a plurality of switching cases involving at least three bands available to the user device for performing the UL Tx switching.

[0078] In addition to or instead of this, at least some of the switching cases within at least three bands include at least one of a switch from one port in a first band and one port in a second band to two ports in a third band, a switch from two ports in a third band to one port in a first band and one port in a second band, a switch from one port in a first band and one port in a second band to one port in a third band and one port in a fourth band, or a switch from one port in a third band and one port in a fourth band and one port in a first band and one port in a second band.

[0079] Further details of various embodiments or aspects, including embodiments or aspects of method 600 and / or method 700, are described herein.

[0080] More specifically, in some embodiments, including those that can perform dynamic transmitter carrier switching across transmission cases supported by user device 102 based on UL scheduling (i.e., via dynamic grants and / or RRC configurations for UL transmission) and / or can perform UL Tx switching across up to three or four bands and / or up to two Tx simultaneous transmissions for user device 102, user device 102 can perform UL Tx switching (e.g., switching to / from two of the six transmission cases) with three bands A, B, C using the six exemplary transmission cases listed in Table 13 below.

Table 13

[0081] Similar switching cases that can be considered for UL Tx switching using 4 UL bands are shown in Table 12.

[0082] In some embodiments, when the user device 102 operates in the switched UL mode, the user device 102 may perform uplink transmission on one band before or after the switch within the bands of the band combination. For example, assume that the band combination includes three bands A, B, and C. Also, the user device 102 may report a switching period for each pair of bands A and B, B and C, and A and C, which may have the same or different values from each other. Correspondingly, one band for UL transmission and another band for the preceding transmission may form a band pair. The user device 102 may determine a switching gap based on the switching period of the band pair. For example, assume that the preceding UL transmission is 1P or 2P on carrier / band A, and then, after the UL Tx switch, the UL transmission is 1P or 2P on carrier / band B. Next, the switching period of the band pair A and B is used to determine the switching gap. As a result, the switching gap is equal to the switching period of the band pair in SUL / CA option 1. The switching gap for UL Tx switching with four bands can be determined in the same way.

[0083] Furthermore, in some embodiments, when the user device 102 operates in the dual UL mode (for example, the transmission switching option parameter, that is, uplinkTxSwitchingOption is set to "dual UL"), the user device 102 may perform uplink transmission on one or two bands before or after the switch within the band combination (for example, the combination of bands including bands A, B, and C). The user device 102 may report a switching period for each pair of bands A and B, B and C, and A and C, which may have the same or different values from each other. When there are three bands involved in the UL Tx switch, the switching gap of the three bands involved in the switch can be determined as follows (note that the switching gap with four bands involved in the UL Tx switch may be determined in the same way).

[0084] Assume UL Tx switching with three bands (Band A, B, and C) where both of the two transmitters are switched. For example, assume that the previous UL transmission includes 1P on carrier / band A and 1P on carrier / band B. Then, after UL Tx switching, the UL transmission includes 2P on carrier / band C. This is shown in Figure 8. In this example, one transmitter (1T) (or one antenna) is switched within band pair A+C, and another transmitter (1T) is switched within band pair B+C. The UL Tx switching for each 1T can be performed over a switching period that can be determined for each band pair. Additionally, the switching gap N in the three bands involved in UL Tx switching Tx1-Tx2 may be determined by a function of the switching periods of two or more band pairs used for UL Tx switching, and an example thereof is given in Table 14 below. Note that when used herein, the switching period for each band pair can be applied to both 1T and / or 2T that are switched within the band pair.

Table 14-1

Table 14-2

[0085] In Table 14, for the first switching case, the UL Tx switching involves switching between a first transmitter (1Tx) transmitting on one port (1P) on the first carrier / band A, a second transmitter (1Tx) transmitting on one port (1P) on the second carrier / band B, and both the first and second transmitters (2Tx) transmitting on two ports on the third carrier / band C (e.g., to or from them). The UL Tx switching may include two band pairs including A and C and B and C. The first band pair A and C may correspond to the first transmitter that switches between the first band A and the third band C, and the second band pair B and C may correspond to the second transmitter that switches between the second band B and the third band C. The first switching period in the first band pair A and C may have a first value (value 1), and the second switching period in the second band pair B and C may have a second value (value 2). Also, the first switching period may have the first value (value 1) on the band A or the band C within the band pair A and C, i.e., the switching period position may be configured on one carrier / band. In addition to or instead of this, the second switching period may have the second value (value 2) on the band B or the band C within the band pair B and C. In some embodiments (displayed as Alt.1 in Table 14), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 for UL Tx switching to be the maximum value of the first switching period (value 1) and the second switching period (value 2) or based on the maximum value thereof. In other embodiments (displayed as Alt.2 in Table 14), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 for UL Tx switching to be the sum of the first switching period (value 1) and the second switching period (value 2) or based on the sum thereof. In other embodiments (displayed as Alt.1-1 in Table 14), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2may be determined to be or based on the maximum of a first switching period (value 1), a second switching period (value 2), and a third switching period (value 3). That is, the switching periods of all available / reported band pairs with a band involved in UL Tx switching are used to determine the switching gap. In other embodiments, user device 102 and / or network device 104, when the UE can switch between the first Tx and the second Tx independently, the switching gap N for UL Tx switching Tx1-Tx2 may be determined to be or based on Alt.1, or otherwise may be determined to be or based on Alt.2. Optionally, UE capabilities are used to indicate whether the UE can switch between the first Tx and the second Tx independently.

[0086] In Table 14, the UL Tx switching in the second row is the same as the UL Tx switching in the first row, except that the condition is that band pairs B and C are not reported or band A is the anchor band, or correspondingly, switching between bands B and C is not permitted. Correspondingly, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 The switching periods used to determine may include a first switching period (value 1) for one transmitter to switch between band A and C (or band pairs A and C), and a third switching period (value 3) for one transmitter to switch between band A and B (or band pairs A and B). Also, the first switching period may have a first value (value 1) on band A or band C within band pairs A and C, and / or the third switching period may have a third value (value 3) on band A or band B within band pairs A and B. In some embodiments (displayed as Alt.3), user device 102 and / or network device 104, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2may be determined. In other embodiments (shown as Alt.4), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap N such that or based on the sum of the maximum values of the first and third switching periods and the first switching period Tx1-Tx2 may be determined.

[0087] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may not know the band pair after executing the UL Tx switching instance. For example, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may not know whether the band pair after UL Tx switching is band pairs A and C or band pairs B and C.

[0088] In addition to or instead of this, the position of the switching period may be reused for the band pair. That is, for each 1T (1 antenna) switched within the band pair, the switching period position can be determined in any of various ways. For example, the carrier / band of the switching period position can be configured by RRC signaling.

[0089] In addition to or instead of this, if the switching period position on a carrier within one band pair and the switching period position of a carrier within another band pair are both carriers (e.g., carrier 1 or carrier 2) before or after the UL Tx switch, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap by the maximum value of the switching periods of the two band pairs for each respective Tx switch. For example, assume that the previous UL transmission is 1P on carrier / band A and 1P on carrier / band B. Additionally, assume that after the UL Tx switch, the UL transmission is 2P on carrier / band C. This can be regarded as 1T (1 antenna) switched within band pairs A and C and another 1T switched within band pairs B and C. The switching period position of the carrier in band A is configured as TRUE and carrier 1, which means that the switching period is located on the carrier in band A as the carrier before the switch. Additionally, the switching period position of the carrier in band B configured as TRUE and carrier 1 means that the switching period is located on the carrier in band B as the carrier before the switch. The switching period position of the carrier in band C configured as FALSE and carrier 2 means that the switching period is not located on the carrier in band C as the carrier after the switch. Correspondingly, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 can be determined by Alt.1, i.e., it can be determined by the maximum value of the switching periods of the band pairs for each respective Tx switch.

[0090] In addition to or instead of this, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 may be determined or considered in the calculation of the switching gap based on the direction or the switch. For example, the switching period may be reported for each band pair with a specific switching direction.

[0091] In other embodiments, user device 102 may perform UL Tx switching with three bands, and only one transmitter (1Tx) switches between bands. For example, in the example of Table 15, the previous UL transmission is 1P on carrier / band A and 1P on carrier / band B. Next, after UL Tx switching, the UL transmission is 1P on carrier / band C. Correspondingly, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 can be determined by 1T that is switched within band pair B and C or band pair A and C. For example, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2may be equal to the switching period of one band pair. In some of these embodiments, for example, since the state of the Tx chain after switching is not specific to a particular transmission case, there may be an ambiguity problem when the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 do not know whether a given UL Tx switch involves the switching of one transmitter (1Tx) or the switching of two transmitters (2Tx). In such embodiments, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the band pair according to one or more of various methods. In one method, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may use RRC signaling to represent one state of the Tx chain. In another method, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may assume 2Tx, and thus determine the switching gap according to any of Alt.1, Alt.2, Alt.3 or Alt.4 represented as described above in Table 14. In another method, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may assume 1Tx in band pairs A and C, and accordingly, use the second switching period (value 2) resulting from the switched 1Tx within band pairs B and C. In another method, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may assume 1Tx in band pairs B and C, and accordingly, use the first switching period (value 1) resulting from the switched 1Tx within band pairs A and C. In another method, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may assume 1Tx in two bands (for example, 1Tx is switched within band pairs A and C or within band pairs B and C), and accordingly, use Alt.1, Alt.2, Alt.3 or Alt.4 in Table 14 to determine the switching gap.

Table 15

[0092] In another embodiment of UL Tx switching with three bands, 1T in one band may not change. An exemplary switching gap determination in such an embodiment is shown in Table 16. In Table 16, the previous UL transmission includes 1P on carrier / band A and 1P on carrier / band B. Then, after UL Tx switching, the UL transmission includes 1P on carrier / band A and 1P on carrier / band C. The user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap based on 1T that is switched within band pairs B and C. For example, the switching gap may be equal to the switching period of band pairs B and C.

Table 16

[0093] In other embodiments, UL Tx switching may involve four bands, as described above. For some of these embodiments shown in Table 17, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap based on 1T switched within band pairs A and C or within band pairs B and C, and other 1T switched within band pairs B and D or within band pairs A and D. In other embodiments, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 for UL Tx switching is the maximum value of the first switching period (value 1), the second switching period (value 2), the third switching period (value 3), and the fourth switching period (value 4) or is based on that maximum value. That is, the switching periods of all available / reported band pairs that include the bands involved in UL Tx switching are used to determine the switching gap.

Table 17

[0094] In addition to or instead of this, if the switching period positions on carriers within one band pair and the switching period positions of carriers within another band pair are both not carriers before or after the UL Tx switch (e.g., Carrier 1 or Carrier 2), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may determine the switching gap based on the total value of the switching periods of the two band pairs for each respective Tx switch. For example, assume that the previous UL transmission is 1P on Carrier / Band A and 1P on Carrier / Band B. Additionally, assume that after the UL Tx switch, the UL transmission is 1P on Carrier / Band C and 1P on Carrier / Band D. This can be regarded as 1T (1 antenna) switched within band pairs A and C and another 1T switched within band pairs B and D. The switching period position of the carrier in Band A is configured as TRUE and Carrier 1, which means that the switching period is located on the carrier in Band A as the carrier before the switch. In addition, the switching period position of the carrier in Band B configured as FALSE and Carrier 1 means that the switching period is not located on the carrier in Band B as the carrier before the switch. The switching period position of the carrier in Band C configured as FALSE and Carrier 2 means that the switching period is not located on the carrier in Band C as the carrier after the switch. The switching period position of the carrier in Band D configured as TRUE and Carrier 2 means that the switching period is located on the carrier in Band C as the carrier after the switch. Correspondingly, the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 for UL Tx switching with four bands can be determined by Alt.2, that is, it can be determined by the total value of the switching periods of the band pairs for each respective Tx switch.

[0095] In short, in embodiments where only two bands and / or one band pair are involved in the UL Tx switch, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 use the switching period of one band pair to determine the uplink switching gap N Tx1-Tx2can be determined. Also, in embodiments where UL Tx switching involves three or more bands (e.g., three or four bands), one or more band - pair switching periods are used to determine the uplink switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 For two bands switched from / within two bands by one transmitter (1T), a band - pair is used, and the corresponding switching period is used to determine the switching gap. In certain embodiments, one or two band - pairs are used to determine the switching gap for UL Tx switching involving three bands. In addition or alternatively, two or more band - pairs are used to determine the switching gap for UL Tx switching involving four bands. As described and as shown in Tables 14 - 17, the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may apply one or more functions or algorithms, such as a maximum - value function and / or a summation function, to two or more switching - period values to determine or derive the switching gap. Also, as described above, the function may include or the switching gap may be determined based on the switching direction associated with one or more of the band - pairs. For example, each band - pair including a first band and a second band may have up to two switching directions, a first switching direction from the first band to the second band and a second switching direction from the second band to the first band.

[0096] Also, in at least some embodiments, when the user device 102 is configured with uplinkTxSwitching, the user device 102 may omit uplink transmission during the uplink switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 during which the uplink transmission can be omitted. The switching gap N Tx1-Tx2For UL Tx switching with two bands, when uplinkTxSwitching-2T-Mode is configured, it is represented by the UE capability uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod2T2T; otherwise, it is represented by uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod, or for UL Tx switching with three or more bands, 1Tx in one band does not change. Switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 is the maximum value of two band pairs, each of which is represented by the UE capability uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod2T2T when uplinkTxSwitching-2T-Mode is configured, or otherwise, by uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod for 1Tx switched within a band pair for UL Tx switching with three or four bands.

[0097] Also, in at least some embodiments, regarding the user device 102 representing the capability for uplink switching with BandCombination-UplinkTxSwitch or uplinkTxSwitchingPeriod2T2T for a band combination, when it is for that band combination configured with uplink carrier aggregation, and when the user device 102 transmits a two-port transmission with one uplink carrier in one band, and the previous uplink transmission is a one-port transmission on a second uplink carrier in a second band and a one-port transmission on a third uplink carrier in a third band, the user device 102 is not expected to transmit over the duration of the switching gap N Tx1-Tx2 on any carrier.

[0098] One advantage is that the switching gap can be determined by a function of the switching period of each band pair used for the 1T (or 1 antenna) that is switched within the band pair. Similarly, an additional switching period between band pairs may be avoided for UL Tx switching with more than three bands. Additionally, the current switching period for each band pair may be reused to determine the switching gap.

[0099] Furthermore, in some embodiments, including those where dynamic Tx carrier switching is performed across all switching cases supported by user device 102, based on UL scheduling, i.e., via dynamic authorization and / or RRC configuration for UL transmission, user device 102 is enabled with more preparation procedure time (or interruption time). For at least some of these embodiments, more preparation procedure time is permitted only for some specific switching cases / patterns. Also, as used herein, the preparation procedure time may include the time used to prepare for transmitting PUSCH, PUCCH, or a sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0100] For example, in some embodiments, the memory of user device 102 (e.g., the UL capacity of read-only memory (ROM) or random access memory (RAM), or the baseband procedure capacity, or other capacities including the memory used to store data / bits of carriers and / or bands) may depend on the number of bands. That is, memory is used for each band, and more preparation procedure time may be required or may be used to switch cases with at least three bands. The UL Tx switch with three bands may include switching from band A and band B to band C, or switching from band A and band B to band A and band C. The UL Tx switch with four bands may include switching from band A and band B to band C and band D. In addition, if two bands do not belong to the band pairs reported by user device 102, more preparation procedure time may be required or may be used for the UL Tx switch with two bands. That is, if only two band pairs, e.g., band pair A and B and band pair C and D, are reported by user device 102, more preparation procedure time may be required or may be used for the UL Tx switch with two bands, e.g., switching from band A to band C.

[0101] In another example, the memory of the user device 102 may depend on each switching band pair. That is, the memory is used or required for each switching band pair that can be combined with a specific switching direction. In at least some embodiments, an anchor band is introduced and more preparation procedure time may be used or required for the following reasons. (1) Switch between non-anchor bands on the condition that the anchor band is included in the band pair, or (2) UL transmission is performed only for non-anchor bands after UL Tx switching when the Tx chain state changes. Also, if two bands do not belong to the band pair reported by the user device 102, more preparation procedure time is required to switch the case including the two bands. That is, potential switching cases / patterns include cases where there are two anchor bands, the same anchor band is involved both before and after UL Tx switching, and the UL Tx switching involves at least three bands (for example, a switch from band A and band B to band A and band C, where band A and band D are anchor bands), and more preparation procedure time is used or required.

[0102] As another example, the memory of the user device 102 may depend on a threshold value. That is, the memory may not depend on the number of bands, but may be used or required for one or more bands within the threshold value. In this case, the user device 102 may report whether more time (e.g., more preparation procedure time or interruption time) is required for all switching cases / patterns or only for some of the switching cases / patterns, such as a switching case / pattern that uses three or four bands when performing UL Tx switching. In some of these embodiments, the user device 102 may report for each band combination. For example, if the memory for band combinations A, B, and C is within the threshold value, no more time is reported for this band combination. Also, the switching gap can be determined by the method in other embodiments. Additionally, if the memory in band combinations C, D, and E is greater than the threshold value, more time is reported for this band combination. This can be reflected in T for T_proc2, which is the minimum time for PUSCH preparation. switch This may be reflected in T for T_proc2, which is the minimum time for PUSCH preparation. Also, in some embodiments, the more preparation procedure time may be independent of the switching gap, may include the switching gap or switching period, or may be a function of multiple switching periods for each pair of bands used. That is, the more preparation procedure time does not depend on a specific switching case / pattern, but rather depends on whether the memory of three or four bands is greater than the threshold value.

[0103] In some embodiments, regardless of whether the memory of the user device 102 depends on the number of bands, each switching band pair, or the threshold value, the value of the preparation procedure time or interruption time can be reported and / or displayed for a band combination or a specific switching case / pattern within the band combination.

[0104] In addition to or instead of this, regardless of whether the memory of the user device 102 depends on the number of bands, each switching band pair, or the threshold, more preparation procedure time or interruption time may be independent of the switching gap, or may include the switching gap or switching period, or may be a function of multiple switching periods for each band pair used.

[0105] In addition to or instead of this, the preparation procedure time or interruption time can be, as non-limiting examples, one or more OFDM symbols, or one or more candidate values such as 210 us or 500 us.

[0106] In summary, for potential switching cases / patterns where UL Tx switching with two bands is performed and the two bands are not part of the reported band pair (for example, the memory of the user device 102 depends on the number of bands), more preparation procedure time may be required or used. In addition to or instead of this, for potential switching cases / patterns where UL Tx switching involves three bands and both before and after the switching include anchor bands and two anchor bands are introduced (for example, the memory of the user device 102 depends on each switching band pair), more preparation procedure time may be used. In addition to or instead of this, when the memory for a (band combination with three or more bands) is greater than the threshold, more preparation procedure time may be used for all or at least some switching cases / patterns (for example, the memory of the user device 102 depends on the threshold regardless of the number of bands). The report can be for each band combination (BC), regardless of whether more preparation procedure time is required for BC or potential cases / patterns of BC (for example, UL Tx switching with three or four bands).

[0107] In short, in some embodiments including those where the user device 102 operates with CA option 1 or CA option 2, more preparation procedure time (or interruption time) may be used for at least some switching cases / patterns, or for all switching cases / patterns, or only for some transmission switching cases / patterns such as those where the user device 102 performs UL Tx switching with 3 or 4 bands, on a per-band combination basis via UE reporting. One advantage may be that more preparation procedure time can reduce the complexity of the user device when performing UL Tx switching between more than two bands.

[0108] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an example of a method 900 for wireless communication. At block 902, the user device 102 determines a limitation of PDCCH monitoring capability. At block 904, the user device 102 reports UE capabilities with PDCCH monitoring capabilities with limitations.

[0109] In some embodiments of method 900, the limitations include enabling adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities to be configured, the user device discarding partial adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities, defining the maximum number of adjacent spans or PDCCH monitoring opportunities, the maximum number of spans or PDCCH monitoring opportunities within a slot, relaxing the same maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats from within one span to within two or more adjacent spans, or introducing one or more scaled (M, C) values where M is the maximum number of monitored physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates per span and C is the maximum number of non-overlapping control channel elements (CCEs) per span, including at least one of these. In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments of method 900, the limitation is applied to combination (2, 2) when there is one span with a duration equal to at least two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

[0110] Further details of aspects or embodiments including those for method 900 are described herein.

[0111] In current ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) procedures, the span is defined as follows and used for PDCCH monitoring.

[0112] User device 102 can be represented as having the ability to monitor PDCCH according to one or more of combinations (X, Y) = (2, 2), (4, 3), and (7, 3) for each of the subcarrier spacing (SCS) configurations of μ = 0 and μ = 1. The span is the number of consecutive symbols within the slot in which user device 102 is configured to monitor PDCCH. Each PDCCH monitoring opportunity is within one span. When user device 102 monitors the PDCCH on the cell according to combination (X, Y), user device 102 supports a PDCCH monitoring opportunity at any symbol of the slot with a minimum time interval of X symbols between the first symbols of two consecutive spans, such as over the entire slot. The span starts at the first symbol at which the PDCCH monitoring opportunity starts and ends at the last symbol at which the PDCCH monitoring opportunity ends, and the number of symbols in the span is at most Y.

[0113] Regarding the (2, 2) pattern, user device 102 performs PDCCH decoding symbol by symbol. As a result, the control decoding overhead under the (2, 2) pattern can be significant for user device 102. PDCCH monitoring for all symbols of the slot is not required in the (4, 3) and (7, 3) patterns, but PDCCH processing over a maximum of three consecutive symbols, especially with timing capability 2 for DL and / or UL, is difficult.

[0114] There can be two ways to solve this problem. In the first method, based on the current (X,Y)=(2,2) span, in some embodiments, additional restrictions are introduced for the (X,Y)=(4,3) and (7,3) spans as well. In the second method, a new span (X,Y)=(2,1) is introduced, and in some embodiments, the (X,Y)=(4,1) and (7,1) spans are introduced.

[0115] Based on the first method, how the additional restrictions are defined will be described below. In the second method, several additional problems can be addressed.

[0116] Regarding the first method, in one embodiment, additional restrictions may be defined according to at least one of the following options. In the first option (Option 1), the duration of the control resource set (CORESET) is limited to 1 and / or adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities are excluded. In other embodiments (Alt.1), the CORESET duration is limited to 1 and adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities are excluded. In some of these embodiments (Alt.1-1), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 are not permitted to configure and / or discard adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities (MO). The result is shown in FIG. 10. In some other of these embodiments (Alt.1-2), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 may be permitted to configure adjacent MOs and / or discard partially adjacent PDCCH MOs. The gNB may configure adjacent MOs, and the user device 102 may discard partially adjacent MOs. In some other embodiments (Alt.2), adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities are still excluded based on two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (2OS) MO. In some of these embodiments (Alt.2-1), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 are not permitted to configure and / or discard adjacent PDCCH MOs, and an example of the result is shown in FIG. 12. In some other embodiments of these embodiments (Alt.2-2), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 are permitted to configure adjacent MOs and / or discard partially adjacent PDCCH MOs, and an example of this is shown in FIG. 13. The gNB may configure adjacent MOs, and the user device 102 may discard partially adjacent MOs, for example, the MOs on symbols #6&7, 12&13. In some other embodiments of these embodiments (Alt.2-3), there are restrictions on adjacent spans and / or the maximum number of spans within a slot, for example, <7. In some of these embodiments, at least in the case of one span with a duration = 2OS, for example, in the case of a mixed 1OS span and 2OS span.FIG. 14 shows that the limit on the maximum number of spans in a slot is 6. FIG. 15 shows that the limit on the maximum number of adjacent spans in a slot is 3 (the combination with the limit on the maximum number of spans in a slot is 5 or 6).

[0117] The second option (Option 2) may relax the maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats within a span. In some embodiments, the maximum number of DL and UL unicast formats within a span is one unicast DCI scheduling DL and one unicast DCI scheduling UL per component carrier (CC) scheduled across this set of monitoring opportunities for frequency division duplexing (FDD) with respect to this set of monitoring opportunities within the same span, one unicast DCI scheduling DL and two unicast DCI scheduling UL per CC scheduled across this set of monitoring opportunities for time division duplexing (TDD), or two unicast DCI scheduling DL and one unicast DCI scheduling UL per CC scheduled across this set of monitoring opportunities for TDD, and may be determined or set accordingly.

[0118] In other embodiments, the current "maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats within a span" may be changed to the "maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats within two adjacent spans". That is, when the maximum number of unicast DCI is detected within a span, the user device 102 can skip the next adjacent span to avoid performing PDCCH decoding on all symbols, and can also meet the low latency requirement.

[0119] In the third option (Option 3), one or more scaled (M, C) values may be introduced. That is, for span (2,2), if it reports UE FG x-yyy, the reduced (M, C) value can be applied to user device 102. For example, using 0.5 as a scaling factor to define the new UE FG x-yyy, the UE monitoring capability can be reduced using half of the value of M.

[0120] Table 18 below gives the maximum number of monitored PDCCH candidates per span for user device 102 in a DL bandwidth part (BWP) with SCS configuration μ for operation in a single serving cell.

Chemical formula

Table 18

[0121] Furthermore, the scaled (M, C) value may be used only with respect to M_max, thereby making it possible not to affect M_total in the CA scaling calculation. In addition or alternatively, the scaled (M, C) value may also be used for M_total in the CA scaling calculation. That is, the number of cells may be scaled by the scaling factor for the cells constituting the scaling factor.

[0122] In short, in the first method, additional restrictions based on the current (X, Y) = (2, 2) span are introduced. In the first implementation form (Method 1), adjacent PDCCH monitoring is excluded. In some of these implementation forms (Method 1-1), the user device 102 and / or the network device 104 can form adjacent MOs and discard partially adjacent PDCCH MOs. In some other implementation forms of these implementation forms (Method 1~2), restrictions on adjacent spans within a slot and / or the maximum number of spans, for example <7, are included. In some of these embodiments, at least when there is one span with a duration = 2OS, for example, when a 1OS span and a 2OS span are mixed. In some other implementation forms (Method 2), the maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats within a span, for example, within two adjacent spans, is relaxed. In some other implementation forms (Method 3), one or more scaled (M, C) values are introduced.

[0123] Also, in the case of Method 1, the user device 102 can always be given a pause time after one or more spans, regardless of whether URLLC DCI is detected. In the case of Method 2, when URLLC DCI is detected, the user device 102 can be given a pause time after one or more spans. In the case of Method 3, the user device 102 can be guaranteed not to over-monitor due to the reduction of (M, C).

[0124] Also, in some embodiments, based on the second method 2, several additional problems are addressed. One problem is how to select one of the multiple combinations (X, Y).

[0125] In some embodiments, the user device 102 represents the ability to monitor PDCCH according to a plurality of (X, Y) combinations, and when the configuration of the set of search spaces for the user device 102 for PDCCH monitoring in a cell results in a separation of all of two consecutive PDCCH monitoring spans that is greater than or equal to the value of X for one or more of the plurality of combinations (X, Y), the user device 102 monitors the PDCCH in the cell according to one or more combinations (X, Y) associated with the largest maximum number defined in Table 18 and Table 19. The user device 102 may be expected to monitor the PDCCH according to the same combination (X, Y) in all slots on the active DL BWP of the cell.

Chemical formula

Chemical formula

Table 19

[0126] In addition, when both FG11-2x ((X, Y) = (2, 1), or a new UE function supporting (2, 1), (4, 1), (7, 1)) and FG11-2 ((X, Y) = (2, 2), (4, 3), (7, 3), a legacy UE function) are reported, the maximum BD / CCE for each span for combinations (X, Y) = (2, 2) and (2, 1) is the same, the maximum BD / CCE for each span for combinations (X, Y) = (4, 3) and (4, 1) is the same, and / or the maximum BD / CCE for each span for combinations (X, Y) = (7, 3) and (7, 1) is the same, then it is determined how to select one of the combinations (X, Y).

[0127] For example, in some embodiments, (2,2) and (7,3) in FG11-2 are reported by user device 102, and (7,3) may be selected for PDCCH monitoring by user device 102. In another example, as shown in FIG. 11, (2,1) and (7,1) in FG11-2x and (2,2) and (7,3) in FG11-2 are reported by user device 102, and one of (7,1) and (7,3) is selected based on one of the following options.

[0128] First option (Option 1): The specification is not changed and / or either one of (X,1) and (X,2 / 3) is permitted. In the second option (Option 2), the specification is changed with an additional condition including the largest Y. In the third option (Option 3), the specification is changed with an additional condition including the smallest Y.

[0129] In embodiments where Option 2 and / or Option 3 are used, the specification is updated as follows.

[0130] User device 102 represents the ability to monitor PDCCH according to multiple (X,Y) combinations, and when the configuration of the search space set for user device 102 for PDCCH monitoring in a cell results in all separations of two consecutive PDCCH monitoring spans with X values greater than or equal to one of the multiple combinations (X,Y), user device 102 is based on the largest or smallest value of Y defined in Tables 18 and 19

Chemical formula

Chemical formula

[0131] The second problem is how to determine the CA scaling. In some embodiments, the user device 102 is provided with monitoringCapabilityConfig=r16monitoringcapability for that purpose.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

Chem.

[0132] In some embodiments, the M_total of URLLC is calculated for each (X, Y). In at least some cases of these embodiments, Option 2 or Option 3 for the first problem is used. Further, Option 2 or Option 3 may have different effects when determining aligned or unaligned spans. For example, assume that Cell 1 and Cell 2 with a single symbol for each MO are matched with either (2, 1) or (2, 2). When Option 2 in Problem 1 is used, they are aligned spans. In addition, when Option 3 in Problem 1 is used, they are unaligned spans. As a result, since PDCCH monitoring for aligned spans is easier for the user device 102, the complexity of the UE is lower for Option 2 compared to Option 3.

[0133] Also, in some embodiments, Option 1 in Problem 1 is used. In such embodiments, since [Chem.] is the same, the CA scaling may be updated for each (X, Y1 / Y2). Correspondingly, the specification change may include the following. ■ Change Y to Yi, that is [Chem.] ■.... The result of PDCCH monitoring for any pair of the combination (X, Yi) and the span within the set is Y maxWithin the symbol, the first X symbol starts with the first symbol with a PDCCH monitoring opportunity, and the next X symbol starts with the first symbol with a PDCCH monitoring opportunity not included in the first X symbol.

[0134] In short, in the case of the second method, spans (X,Y) = (2,1), (4,1), (7,1) may be introduced. If both (X,Y1) and (X,Y2) are reported by the UE, since the maximum number (M,C) is the same for (X,Y1) and (X,2), how to select one (X,Y) from one or more combinations may follow the following options. ■ Option 1: Select one combination (X, Y). Either one of (X, Y1) and (X, Y2) is acceptable. ■ Option 2: The specification is changed with the additional condition, the largest Y. ■ Option 3: The specification is changed with the additional condition, the smallest Y. Furthermore, in the case of Option 1, M_total may be changed with (1) a change from Y to Yi, and (2).... results in PDCCH monitoring according to the combination (X, Yi), and any pair of spans within the set is Y max Is within the symbol.

[0135] To reduce the complexity of URLLC span-based PDCCH monitoring, a limit on the maximum number of spans within a slot may be determined. That is, there is no limit that completely excludes adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities without only restricting the duration of the grant 1OS CORESET. One advantage is that there is no need to introduce a new combination (X, Y), and the complexity of the UE for span-based PDCCH monitoring can be reduced.

[0136] In addition to or instead of this, in some embodiments, network 104 may configure a plurality of serving cells for user device 102. A primary cell (PCell) may exist within the plurality of serving cells. Network 104 may configure demodulation reference signal (DMRS) bundling for UL transmission for at least one of the plurality of serving cells. More specifically, network 104 may configure DMRS bundling for a plurality of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) repetitions or physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) repetitions for at least one of the plurality of serving cells.

[0137] In addition, in some embodiments, network 104 may configure a nominal time domain window (TDW) for user device 102. In certain embodiments, network 104 may configure the length of the nominal TDW. The configured length of the nominal TDW may represent the length of the nominal TDW excluding the last nominal TDW. For example, the configured TDW may include a plurality of slots, or a plurality of PUSCH repeated transmissions or PUCCH transmissions.

[0138] In some embodiments, there may be one or more nominal TDWs for a plurality of PUSCH repetitions or PUCCH repetitions. The start of the first nominal TDW may be the first slot determined for the first PUSCH or PUCCH repeated transmission. The end of the last nominal TDW may be the last slot determined for the last PUSCH repetition or PUCCH repetition. The start of any other nominal TDW may be the first slot determined for a PUSCH repeated transmission or PUCCH repeated transmission after the slot determined for the PUSCH repeated transmission or PUCCH repeated transmission of the previous nominal TDW.

[0139] In other embodiments, the start of the first nominal TDW can be the first PUSCH repetition or PUCCH repetition. The end of the last nominal TDW can be the last PUSCH or PUCCH. The start of any other nominal TDW can be the first PUSCH repetition or PUCCH repetition after the PUSCH repetition or PUCCH repetition of the previous TDW.

[0140] A nominal TDW can include one or more actual TDWs. Within an actual TDW, the user device 102 can maintain power consistency and phase continuity over a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission.

[0141] Also, the start of the first actual TDW can be the first symbol of the first PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the slot determined for the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission within the nominal TDW. When the actual TDW reaches the end of the last PUSCH transmission associated with the nominal TDW, the end of the actual TDW can be the last symbol of the last PUSCH transmission repetition in the slot. In other embodiments, if an event occurs that causes power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission, the end of the actual TDW can be the last symbol of the PUSCH transmission before the event (e.g., the last symbol of the last PUSCH transmission before the event).

[0142] Furthermore, in some embodiments, the start of the actual TDW can be the first symbol of the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission after an event that causes power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission. In addition to or instead of this, the start of the actual TDW can be the first symbol of the first PUSCH transmission or the first PUCCH transmission that overlaps with an event that causes power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission. This event can overlap with a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the time domain.

[0143] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include UL transmission in the second cell between two consecutive PUSCH transmissions or PUCCH transmissions.

[0144] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the first UL transmission in the second cell. In addition to or instead of this, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the first UL transmission in the second cell if there is no previous transmission with a higher priority than PUSCH or PUCCH within the most recent actual TDW before the first UL transmission. The first UL transmission in the second cell may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell.

[0145] In addition to or instead of this, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the first UL transmission in the second cell if there is a previous transmission within the most recent actual TDW. The previous transmission may trigger a new actual TDW. The first UL transmission in the second cell may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell. The first UL transmission and the previous transmission may have different transmission powers.

[0146] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a first PUSCH transmission or a first PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with a second UL transmission in the second cell in the time domain. The second UL transmission may be within the most recent actual TDW. The second UL transmission may trigger a new actual TDW. The first PUSCH transmission or the first PUCCH transmission may be after the second UL transmission.

[0147] In addition to or instead of this, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a first PUSCH transmission or a first PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with a third UL transmission in the second cell in the time domain. The third UL transmission may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission. The third UL transmission and the second UL transmission may have the same transmission power. Both the third UL transmission and the second UL transmission may be within the most recent actual TDW. The first PUSCH transmission or the first PUCCH transmission may be after the third UL transmission.

[0148] In addition to or instead of this, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a first PUSCH transmission or a first PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with the second UL transmission in the second cell in the time domain and does not overlap with the third UL transmission in the second cell in the time domain.

[0149] For channel transmission or signal transmission in a plurality of serving cells, the prioritization of channel transmission or signal transmission may be defined in descending order as follows. 1) Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission on the PCell. 2) PUCCH transmission or PUSCH transmission with a higher priority index. In the case of PUCCH transmission or PUSCH transmission with the same priority index: 3.1) PUCCH transmission with Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) information, and / or Scheduling Request (SR), and / or Link Recovery Request (LRR), or PUSCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information; 3.2) PUCCH transmission with Channel State Information (CSI), or PUSCH transmission with CSI; 3.3) PUSCH transmission without HARQ-ACK information or CSI, and in the case of Type 2 random access procedure, PUSCH transmission on the PCell. 4) Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission where the aperiodic SRS has a higher priority than the semi-persistent and / or periodic SRS, or PRACH transmission in a serving cell other than the PCell.

[0150] For example, PRACH transmission on the PCell may always have the highest priority. PUCCH transmission may have a higher priority than PUSCH transmission with Channel State Information (CSI) if they have the same priority index.

[0151] Furthermore, in the case of the same priority, for operation using carrier aggregation, the user device 102 can prioritize power allocation for transmission on the primary cell over transmission on the secondary cell.

[0152] FIG. 17 shows an example of the actual TDW determination for PUSCH according to an embodiment. The user device 102 consists of two serving cells respectively shown as cell 0 and cell 1. In cell 0, there are 7 PUSCH repetitions within the nominal TDW respectively shown as PUSCH0-6. The UL transmission is transmitted in cell 1 and overlaps with PUSCH1, PUSCH2, PUSCH3, and PUSCH4 in the time domain.

[0153] In the first case, the UL transmission in cell 1 has a lower priority than the PUSCH transmission in cell 0. Within the nominal TDW, the start of the first actual TDW is the first symbol of the first PUSCH (e.g., PUSCH0). Since the UL transmission has a lower priority than the PUSCH transmission, there is no event that causes the power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission. The end of the first actual TDW is the last symbol of the last PUSCH (e.g., PUSCH6). Therefore, the actual TDW includes PUSCH0 - 6.

[0154] In the second case, the UL transmission in cell 1 has a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission in cell 0. Within the nominal TDW, the start of the first actual TDW is the first symbol of the first PUSCH (e.g., PUSCH0). Since the UL transmission has a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission and there was no previous transmission in cell 1 which has a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission before the UL transmission, the UL transmission is an event where the power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained over the PUSCH transmission. PUSCH0 is the last PUSCH before the event. Therefore, the end of the first actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH0. The first actual TDW includes only PUSCH0.

[0155] Note that PUSCH1 is the first PUSCH that overlaps with UL transmission. Therefore, the first symbol of PUSCH1 is the start of the second actual TDW. UL transmission overlaps with PUSCH1, PUSCH2, PUSCH3, and PUSCH4 in the time domain. PUSCH5 does not overlap with UL transmission in the time domain. This suggests that PUSCH5 is the first PUSCH that does not overlap with UL transmission. Therefore, the start of PUSCH5 is an event where power consistency and phase continuity are not maintained over PUSCH transmission. Also, PUSCH4 is the last PUSCH before the event. Therefore, at the end of the second actual TDW, it becomes the last symbol of PUSCH4. The second actual TDW includes PUSCH1, PUSCH2, PUSCH3, PUSCH4.

[0156] After the event, PUSCH5 is the first PUSCH. Therefore, the first symbol of PUSCH5 is the start of the third actual TDW. There is no event until the end of the nominal TDW. Therefore, at the end of the third actual TDW, it becomes the last symbol of PUSCH6. The third actual TDW includes PUSCH5 and PUSCH6.

[0157] FIG. 18 shows an example of actual TDW determination for PUSCH according to an embodiment. In cell 1, there are two UL transmissions indicated by UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2, respectively. UL transmission 1 overlaps with PUSCH1, PUSCH2, and PUSCH3 in the time domain. UL transmission 2 overlaps with PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5 in the time domain.

[0158] In the first case, UL transmission 1 in cell 1 has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 2 in cell 1 has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2 have the same transmission power.

[0159] Within the nominal TDW, the start of the first actual TDW is the first symbol of the first PUSCH (e.g., PUSCH0). Similarly, due to the fact that the event is UL transmission 1 which has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission, the end of the first actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH0. The first actual TDW includes PUSCH0.

[0160] Since PUSCH1 is the first PUSCH that overlaps with UL transmission 1 in the time domain, the start of the second actual TDW is the first symbol of PUSCH1. The second actual TDW is caused by UL transmission 1. UL transmission 1 is the transmission before UL transmission 2. UL transmission 1 overlaps with PUSCH1, PUSCH2, and PUSCH3 in the time domain. UL transmission 2 overlaps with PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5 in the time domain. UL transmission 2 and UL transmission 1 have the same transmission power. PUSCH6 does not overlap with both UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2 in the time domain. This suggests that PUSCH6 is the first slot that does not overlap with the second UL transmission in cell 1 within the nearest TDW that causes a new actual TDW, has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission, and does not overlap with the third UL transmission in cell 1 which has the same transmission power as the first UL transmission. Therefore, the start boundary of PUSCH6 is the event. PUSCH5 is the last PUSCH before the start of PUSCH6. The end of the second actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH5. The second actual TDW includes PUSCH1, PUSCH2, PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5. After the event, there is only one PUSCH (e.g., PUSCH6) within the nominal TDW. Next, the third actual TDW includes only PUSCH6.

[0161] In the second case, UL transmission 1 in cell 1 has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 2 in cell 1 has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2 have different transmission powers. Similarly, the first actual TDW includes PUSCH0 only because the event is UL transmission 1 which has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission.

[0162] Since PUSCH1 is the first PUSCH that overlaps with UL transmission 1, the start of the second actual TDW is the first symbol of PUSCH1. The second actual TDW includes UL transmission 1. UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2 have different transmission powers. Furthermore, UL transmission 2 has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. This suggests that UL transmission 2 is an event. PUSCH2 is the last PUSCH before the event. Therefore, the end of the second actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH2. The second actual TDW includes PUSCH1 and PUSCH2.

[0163] UL transmission 2 overlaps with PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5 in the time domain. This suggests that since UL transmission 2 is an event, PUSCH3 is the first PUSCH that overlaps with the event. Therefore, the start of the third actual TDW is the first symbol of PUSCH3. PUSCH6 does not overlap with UL transmission 2 in the time domain. This suggests that PUSCH6 is the first slot that does not overlap with the second UL transmission in cell 1 which has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission. Therefore, the start boundary of PUSCH6 is an event. PUSCH5 is the last PUSCH before the event. The end of the third actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH5. The third actual TDW includes PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5. Similarly, the fourth actual TDW includes only PUSCH6.

[0164] In the third case, UL transmission 1 in cell 1 has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 2 in cell 1 has a lower priority than PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2 may have the same or different transmission powers.

[0165] Similarly, the first actual TDW includes only PUSCH0 because the event is UL transmission 1 which has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission. Since PUSCH1 is the first PUSCH that overlaps with UL transmission 1, the start of the second actual TDW is the first symbol of PUSCH1. UL transmission 1 overlaps with PUSCH1, PUSCH2, and PUSCH3 in the time domain. PUSCH4 overlaps only with UL transmission 2. However, the UL transmission in cell 1 has a lower priority than the PUSCH transmission in cell 0. This indicates that PUSCH4 is the first slot that does not overlap with the second UL transmission in cell 1 within the nearest TDW that causes a new actual TDW, has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission, and does not overlap with the third UL transmission in cell 1 which has the same transmission power as the first UL transmission. Therefore, the start boundary of PUSCH4 is an event. Before the event, PUSCH3 is the last PUSCH. The end of the second actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH3. The actual TDW includes PUSCH1, PUSCH2, PUSCH3.

[0166] After the event, the first PUSCH is PUSCH4. The start of the third actual TDW is the first symbol of PUSCH4. There is no event until the end of the nominal TDW. Therefore, the end of the third actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH6. The third actual TDW includes PUSCH4, PUSCH5, and PUSCH6.

[0167] In the fourth case, the UL transmission 1 in cell 1 has a lower priority than the PUSCH transmission in cell 0. The UL transmission 2 in cell 1 has a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission in cell 0. UL transmission 1 and UL transmission 2 may have the same or different transmission powers.

[0168] Within the nominal TDW, the start of the first actual TDW is the first symbol of the first PUSCH (e.g., PUSCH0). UL transmission 1 has a lower priority than PUSCH transmission. This implies that there is no previous transmission with a higher priority than PUSCH transmission before UL transmission 2. The end of the first actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH2 due to the fact that the event is UL transmission 2 which has a higher priority than PUSCH transmission. The first actual TDW includes PUSCH0, PUSCH1, and PUSCH2.

[0169] UL transmission 2 overlaps with PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5 in the time domain. PUSCH3 is the first PUSCH that overlaps with UL transmission 2. The start of the second actual TDW is the first symbol of PUSCH3. PUSCH6 does not overlap with UL transmission 2. Therefore, the start boundary of PUSCH6 is an event. Before the event, the last PUSCH is PUSCH5. The end of the second actual TDW is the last symbol of PUSCH5. The second actual TDW includes PUSCH3, PUSCH4, and PUSCH5. Similarly, the third actual TDW includes only PUSCH6.

[0170] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first cell, events that may cause the lack of maintenance of power consistency and phase continuity over PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission having a different transmission power from the previous PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission.

[0171] In some embodiments, network 104 may configure DMRS bundling for one of the plurality of serving cells. The serving cell configured by DMRS bundling may have a higher priority than all other serving cells. This may imply that UL transmissions in the serving cell configured by DMRS bundling have a higher priority than UL transmissions in any other serving cell. UL transmissions may include at least one of PUCCH, PUSCH, SRS, or PRACH.

[0172] Alternatively, network 104 may configure UL transmissions in the serving cell configured with the highest priority DMRS bundling. User device 102 may be able to allocate transmission power for UL transmissions by assuming that UL transmissions in the serving cell configured by DMRS bundling have the highest priority.

[0173] In embodiments, user device 102 may be able to support DMRS bundling for at least one of the serving cells in a carrier aggregation operation. This can further improve PUSCH or PUCCH performance from a reliability perspective. Additionally, uplink coverage can be improved.

[0174] In addition or alternatively, in some embodiments, network 104 may configure a plurality of serving cells for user device 102. The plurality of serving cells may be in the same band or different bands.

[0175] Network 104 may schedule or configure the first transmission and the second transmission. The first transmission is transmitted at a first time in a first serving cell. The second transmission is transmitted at a second time in a second serving cell. The first transmission may be before the second transmission. There may be a switching period between the first transmission and the second transmission. Network 104 may configure the switching period to occur on the first serving cell or the second serving cell. During the switching period, user device 102 may not perform transmission or reception. This may imply that if an uplink transmission in any one of a plurality of serving cells overlaps with the switching period in the time domain, the uplink transmission may be dropped or cancelled.

[0176] In addition, a plurality of slots, sub - slots, or OFDM symbols may exist between the first transmission and the second transmission. The switching period may be in one or more of the plurality of slots, sub - slots, or OFDM symbols. The position of the switching period (e.g., which slot, sub - slot, or symbol the switching period is located in) may be configured (or represented) by network 104 or may be specified by a protocol.

[0177] In some embodiments, the switching period may be in the slot of the first transmission or the slot next to the first transmission. More specifically, the switching period may be after the first transmission on the slot of the first transmission. The switching period may be at the start of the slot next to the first transmission.

[0178] In some embodiments, the switching period may be in the slot of the second transmission or the slot before the second transmission. More specifically, the switching period may be before the second transmission on the slot of the second transmission. Alternatively, the switching period may be at the end of the slot next to the second transmission.

[0179] In some embodiments, network 104 may represent a slot, sub - slot, or symbol during a switching period. For example, the network may represent the switching period on the first slot after the first transmission via downlink control information (DCI), media access control (MAC) control element (CE), or radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0180] Network 104 may schedule or configure a third transmission in the third serving cell. If the third transmission overlaps with a switching period in the time domain, user device 102 may cancel or drop the third transmission.

[0181] Furthermore, in some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in a serving cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include a switching period. In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in a serving cell, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a first PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with the switching period. The first PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may be after the switching period.

[0182] In some embodiments, all of the PUSCH transmissions or PUCCH transmissions in a plurality of slots, sub - slots, or OFDM symbols may be in separate actual TDWs. This implies that each actual TDW may include only one PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission for these PUSCH transmissions or PUCCH transmissions in a plurality of slots, sub - slots, or OFDM symbols. In these embodiments, the position of the switching period is determined. The network 104 and the user device have the same understanding regarding the position of the switching period and the overlap between the uplink transmission and the switching period. The network 104 can determine which uplink transmissions have been dropped or cancelled by the user device 102.

[0183] In some embodiments, the network 104 may configure a serving cell for the user device 102. The serving cell may include an uplink carrier and a downlink carrier. The uplink carrier and the downlink carrier may be coupled in a TDD mode or an FDD mode. The network 104 may further configure an auxiliary uplink carrier for the serving cell of the user device 102. This may imply that the serving cell includes two uplink carriers. One is the normal uplink carrier and the other is the auxiliary uplink carrier. The network 104 may configure the PUCCH on one of the uplink carriers. This may imply that the PUCCH may be transmitted on one of the uplink carriers. The uplink carrier configured with the PUCCH may have a higher priority than the other uplink carriers. That is, the UL transmission on the uplink carrier configured with the PUCCH may have a higher priority than the UL transmission on the other uplink carriers. For example, the network 104 may configure the PUCCH on the auxiliary uplink carrier. Then, the auxiliary uplink carrier may have a higher priority than the normal uplink carrier. The UL transmission on the auxiliary uplink carrier may have a higher priority than the UL transmission on the normal uplink carrier. If neither of the two carriers is configured with the PUCCH, the normal uplink carrier may have a higher priority than the auxiliary uplink carrier.

[0184] In some embodiments, network 104 may configure DMRS bundling for UL transmission (e.g., PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission) only for uplink carriers with a higher priority. From the perspective of user device 102, user device 102 can expect that the DMRS bundling is configured for an uplink carrier with a higher priority (e.g., the uplink carrier configured with PUCCH if one of the uplink carriers is configured with PUCCH, or a normal uplink carrier otherwise).

[0185] In some embodiments, network 104 may configure DMRS bundling for UL transmission on a normal uplink carrier or a supplementary uplink carrier. For PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in a first carrier, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include UL transmission in a second carrier between two consecutive PUSCH transmissions or PUCCH transmissions.

[0186] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in a first carrier, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the first UL transmission in a second carrier. In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in a first carrier, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the first UL transmission in a second carrier if there is no previous transmission in the second carrier before the first UL transmission within the most recent actual TDW.

[0187] In addition to or instead of this, in the case of PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first carrier, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include a first UL transmission in the second carrier if there is a previous UL transmission in the second carrier within the most recent actual TDW. The previous UL transmission may cause the most recent actual TDW. The previous UL transmission may be before the first UL transmission. The first UL transmission may have a transmission power different from that of the previous UL transmission. In some embodiments, the first UL transmission may overlap with the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the time domain. In some embodiments, the second UL carrier may have a higher priority than the first UL carrier. In some embodiments, the first UL transmission in the second UL carrier may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first UL carrier. The previous UL transmission in the second carrier may have a higher priority than the PUCCH transmission or PUSCH transmission in the first carrier.

[0188] In some embodiments, in the case of PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first carrier, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a first PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with a second UL transmission in the second carrier. The second UL transmission may be within the most recent actual TDW. The second UL transmission may cause a new actual TDW. The first PUSCH transmission or the first PUCCH transmission may be after the second UL transmission.

[0189] In addition to or instead of this, in the case of PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first carrier, events that may cause the lack of maintenance of power consistency and phase continuity over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a first PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with a third UL transmission in the second carrier in the time domain. The third UL transmission may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission. The third UL transmission and the second UL transmission may have the same transmission power. Both the third UL transmission and the second UL transmission may be within the most recent actual TDW. The first PUSCH transmission or the first PUCCH transmission may be after the third UL transmission.

[0190] In addition to or instead of this, in the case of PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first carrier, events that may cause the lack of maintenance of power consistency and phase continuity over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start (e.g., start boundary) of a PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission that does not overlap with the second UL transmission in the second carrier and does not overlap with the third UL transmission in the time domain.

[0191] In some embodiments, the second carrier may have a higher priority than the first carrier. The second transmission may be before the third UL transmission. The second UL transmission in the second carrier may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first carrier. The third UL transmission in the second carrier may have a higher priority than the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first carrier. The first carrier may be a normal uplink carrier or a supplementary uplink carrier. The second carrier may be a normal uplink carrier or a supplementary uplink carrier.

[0192] In some embodiments, network 104 may configure DMRS bundling for UL transmission for one of the uplink carriers. An uplink carrier configured with DMRS bundling may have a higher priority than an uplink carrier not configured with DMRS bundling.

[0193] In some embodiments, user device 102 may not support simultaneous transmission on a normal uplink carrier and an auxiliary uplink carrier. If the UL transmissions on two uplink carriers overlap with each other, user device 102 may drop the UL transmission on the uplink carrier with a lower priority. This implies that user device 102 may transmit UL transmissions only on the uplink carrier with a higher priority. Alternatively, if the UL transmissions on these uplink carriers overlap with each other, user device 102 may drop the SRS transmission. This implies that user device 102 may transmit only UL transmissions other than SRS. In these embodiments, user device 102 can support DMRS bundling for a serving cell configured with an auxiliary uplink carrier. This can further improve the PUSCH or PUCCH performance from the perspective of reliability. Furthermore, the uplink coverage can be improved.

[0194] In some embodiments, network 104 may configure multiple cell groups (CGs) for user device 102. Each CG may include a plurality of serving cells. Network 104 may configure DMRS bundling for UL transmission (e.g., PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission) for at least one serving cell within one CG.

[0195] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first CG, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include UL symbols or flexible symbols of the second CG. The UL symbols or flexible symbols of the second CG may be configured by the network 104 via RRC signaling or DCI.

[0196] In some embodiments, for PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first CG, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include the start of a first PUSCH or a first PUCCH that does not overlap with UL or flexible symbols of the second CG. The first PUSCH or the first PUCCH may be after the UL symbol or flexible symbol.

[0197] In some embodiments, PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first CG may overlap with UL symbols, slots, or subframes in the second CG. The user device 102 may cancel (or drop) the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first CG. For PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission in the first CG, events that may cause power consistency and phase continuity not to be maintained over the PUSCH transmission or PUCCH transmission may include PUSCH cancellation or PUCCH cancellation due to overlap with UL symbols, slots, or subframes in the second CG.

[0198] In these embodiments, the user device 102 can support DMRS bundling for at least one of the serving cells under dual-connection operation. This can further improve PUSCH or PUCCH performance from the perspective of reliability. Furthermore, uplink coverage can be improved.

[0199] The foregoing description and the accompanying drawings provide specific exemplary embodiments and implementations. However, the described subject matter may be embodied in various different forms, and accordingly, it is intended that the subject matter being targeted or recited in the claims is not to be construed as limited to any of the exemplary embodiments described herein. A reasonably broad scope of the subject matter recited or targeted in the claims is intended. In particular, for example, the subject matter may be embodied as a method, a device, a component, a system, or a non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing computer code. Accordingly, embodiments may take the form of, for example, hardware, software, firmware, a storage medium, or any combination thereof. For example, the method embodiments described above may be implemented by a component, a device, or a system including a memory and a processor by executing computer code stored in the memory.

[0200] Throughout this specification and the claims, terms may have subtly different meanings that are suggested or implied in the context beyond the explicitly stated meaning. Similarly, the phrase "in one embodiment / implementation" as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, and the phrase "in another embodiment / implementation" as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment. For example, the subject matter recited in the claims is intended to include, in whole or in part, combinations of the exemplary embodiments.

[0201] In general, technical terms can be understood at least in part from their usage in context. For example, terms such as "and," "or," or "and / or" as used herein may include various meanings that can depend at least in part on the context in which such terms are used. Typically, "or" when used to associate a list such as A, B, or C is intended here to mean A, B, and C in an inclusive sense, as well as A, B, or C in an exclusive sense here. Additionally, the term "one or more" as used herein may, depending at least in part on the context, be used to describe any feature, structure, or property in a singular sense, or may be used to describe a combination of features, structures, or properties in a plural sense. Similarly, terms such as "a," "an," or "the" may, depending at least in part on the context, be understood to convey a singular or plural usage. Additionally, the term "based on" may not necessarily be intended to convey an exclusive set of factors, and instead may, depending at least in part on the context, allow for the presence of additional factors that are not necessarily explicitly described.

[0202] Throughout this specification, references to features, advantages, or similar language do not imply that all such features and advantages must be included in any single implementation. Rather, the language referring to the features and advantages is to be understood as meaning that a particular feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the solution. Thus, discussions of the features and advantages, and similar language, may refer to the same embodiment throughout the specification, but not necessarily so.

[0203] Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the present solution may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, in light of the description herein, the present solution can be implemented without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages that may not be present in all embodiments of the present solution may be recognized in a particular embodiment.

[0204] The subject matter of the present disclosure may also relate to or include, among other things, the following aspects:

[0205] A first aspect includes a method for wireless communication that includes determining, by a communication device, a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in an uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switch, and transmitting, by a user device, a UL transmission after the UL Tx switch according to the switching gap.

[0206] A second aspect includes a method for wireless communication that includes determining, by a communication device, a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in an uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switch, and receiving, by a network device, a UL transmission after a preceding UL transmission based on the switching gap.

[0207] A third aspect includes either the first or second aspect, and further includes that the communication device is a user device or a network device.

[0208] The fourth aspect includes any one of the first to third aspects, at least one band pair includes a unique band pair, and the UL Tx switching is such that a single transmitter switches from a first band to a second band of the unique band pair, and a single transmitter in a band that is not part of the unique band pair does not switch to a different band, or the first transmitter switches from the first band to the second band of the unique band pair, and the second transmitter remains in a third band that is not part of the unique band pair, and further includes at least one of these.

[0209] The fifth aspect includes the fourth aspect and further includes that the switching gap is equal to the switching period of the unique band pair.

[0210] The sixth aspect includes either the fourth or fifth aspect, and the UL Tx switching further includes at least one of a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the third band to one port in the second band and one port in the third band, or a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the third band to one port in the second band.

[0211] The seventh aspect includes any one of the first to third aspects, at least one band pair includes a plurality of band pairs, at least one switching period includes a plurality of switching periods of the plurality of band pairs, each band pair of the plurality of band pairs includes two of at least three bands, and the transmitter switches during UL Tx switching between these two bands, and further includes this.

[0212] The eighth aspect includes the seventh aspect and further includes that the switching gap is based on at least one of the maximum switching period or the sum of the plurality of switching periods.

[0213] The ninth aspect includes either the seventh or the eighth aspect, and further includes at least one of the following: the UL Tx switching switches the first transmitter from the first band to the third band and the second transmitter from the second band to the third band; switches the first transmitter from the third band to the first band and the second transmitter from the third band to the second band; switches the first transmitter from the first band to the third band and the second transmitter from the second band to the fourth band; or switches the first transmitter from the third band to the first band and the second transmitter from the fourth band to the second band.

[0214] The tenth aspect includes the ninth aspect, and further includes: the first band pair among the plurality of band pairs includes the first and third bands, and the second band pair among the plurality of band pairs includes the second and third bands; or the first band pair among the plurality of band pairs includes the first and third bands, and the second band pair among the plurality of band pairs includes the second and fourth bands.

[0215] The eleventh aspect includes the ninth aspect, and further includes: the switching from the second band to the third band is not permitted, and the band pair among the plurality of band pairs includes the first and second bands.

[0216] The twelfth aspect includes any one of the seventh to eleventh aspects, and further includes at least one of the following: the UL Tx switching switches from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to two ports in the third band; switches from two ports in the third band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band; switches from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band; or switches from one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band.

[0217] Aspect 13 includes any of Aspects 1 to 12, and the UL Tx switching involves at least three bands, with at least one of the at least three bands not being part of the band pair reported by the user device, or at least one of the at least three bands before or after the UL Tx switching being an anchor band, or the preparation procedure time is increased in response to at least one of the band combination reports including that more preparation procedure time is required.

[0218] Aspect 14 includes Aspect 13, and further includes that the band combination report including that more preparation procedure time is required is for all or at least some of the multiple switching cases involving at least three bands available to the user device for performing UL Tx switching, and more preparation procedure time is required.

[0219] Embodiment 15 includes either Embodiment 13 or Embodiment 14, and at least some of the switching cases within at least three bands include at least one of a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to two ports in the third band, a switch from two ports in the third band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band, a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the second band and one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band, or a switch from one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band.

[0220] Aspect 16 includes a method for wireless communication including determining, by a user device, a limitation of PDCCH monitoring capability, and reporting, by the user device, a user equipment (UE) capability with PDCCH monitoring capability with the limitation.

[0221] Aspect 17 includes Aspect 16, and the restriction enables adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities to be configured, and the user device discards partial adjacent PDCCH monitoring opportunities, the adjacent span or the maximum number of PDCCH monitoring opportunities, the span within a slot or the maximum number of PDCCH monitoring opportunities is defined, the same maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats is relaxed from within one span to within two or more adjacent spans, or one or more scaled (M, C) values are introduced, where M is the maximum number of monitored Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidates per span, and C is the maximum number of non-overlapping Control Channel Elements (CCE) per span, and further includes at least one of these.

[0222] Aspect 18 includes either Aspect 16 or Aspect 17, and further includes that a restriction is applied to the combination (2, 2) when there is at least one span with a duration equal to at least two Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

[0223] Aspect 19 includes a wireless communication device comprising a processor and a memory, and the processor is configured to read code from the memory to implement any one of Aspects 1 to 18.

[0224] Aspect 20 includes a computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable program medium, the computer-readable program medium comprising code stored thereon, and the code causes the processor to implement any one of Aspects 1 to 18 when executed by the processor.

[0225] In addition to the features mentioned in each of the independent aspects listed above, some examples may show optional features mentioned in the dependent aspects and / or disclosed in the above description and shown in the figures, either alone or in combination.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: determining, by a communication device, a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching; transmitting, by a user device, a UL transmission after the UL Tx switching according to the switching gap A method comprising the steps of:

2. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: determining, by a communication device, a switching gap based on at least one switching period of at least one band pair of at least three bands involved in uplink (UL) transmitter (Tx) switching; receiving, by a network device, a UL transmission after a previous UL transmission based on the switching gap A method comprising the steps of:

3. The method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the communication device is the user device or the network device.

4. The at least one band pair comprises a single band pair, and the UL Tx switching is such that a single transmitter switches from a first band to a second band of the single band pair, a transmitter in one band that is not part of the single band pair does not switch to a different band, or a first transmitter switches from the first band to the second band of the single band pair and a second transmitter remains in a third band that is not part of the single band pair The method according to claim 1 or 2, comprising at least one of:

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the switching gap is equal to the switching period of the single band pair.

6. The UL Tx switching is at least one of a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the third band to one port in the second band and one port in the third band, or a switch from one port in the first band and one port in the third band to one port in the second band The method according to any one of claims 4 or 5, comprising at least one of:

7. The at least one band pair comprises a plurality of band pairs, the at least one switching period comprises a plurality of switching periods of the plurality of band pairs, each band pair of the plurality of band pairs comprises two bands of the at least three bands, and a transmitter switches between these two bands during the UL Tx switching. The method according to claim 1.

8. The switching gap is based on at least one of a maximum switching period or a sum of the plurality of switching periods. The method according to claim 7.

9. The UL Tx switching is switching a first transmitter from a first band to a third band and switching a second transmitter from a second band to the third band, switching a first transmitter from a third band to a first band and switching a second transmitter from the third band to a second band, switching a first transmitter from a first band to a third band and switching a second transmitter from a second band to a fourth band, or switching a first transmitter from a third band to a first band and switching a second transmitter from a fourth band to a second band The method according to any one of claims 7 or 8, comprising at least one of.

10. A first band pair of the plurality of band pairs comprises the first and third bands, and a second band pair of the plurality of band pairs comprises the second and third bands, or a first band pair of the plurality of band pairs comprises the first and third bands, and a second band pair of the plurality of band pairs comprises the second and fourth bands. The method according to claim 9.

11. Switching from the second band to the third band is not permitted, and a band pair of the plurality of band pairs comprises the first and second bands. The method according to claim 9.

12. The UL Tx switching is switching from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to two ports in the third band, switching from two ports in the third band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band, switching from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band, or, Switching from one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band The method according to any one of claims 7 to 11, comprising at least one of them.

13. The preparation procedure time is The UL Tx switching involves at least one band that is not part of the band pair reported by the user device. The UL Tx switching involves at least three bands, and at least one of the at least three bands before or after the UL Tx switching is an anchor band, or The reporting of the band combination includes that more preparation procedure time is required. Increased in response to at least one of them, the method according to claim 1.

14. The reporting of the band combination, including that more preparation procedure time is required, further includes that more preparation procedure time is required for all or at least some of a plurality of switching cases involving at least three bands available to the user device for performing the UL Tx switching. The method according to claim 13.

15. At least some of the switching cases within at least three bands are Switching from one port in the first band and one port in the second band to two ports in the third band, Switching from the two ports in the third band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band, Switching from one port in the first band and one port in the second band and one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band, or Switching from one port in the third band and one port in the fourth band to one port in the first band and one port in the second band The method according to claim 13, comprising at least one of them.

16. A method for wireless communication, the method comprising: Determining, by a user device, a limitation of PDCCH monitoring capability; and Reporting, by the user device, the user equipment (UE) capability of the PDCCH monitoring capability with the limitation A method including.

17. The limitation is is enabled to configure adjacent PDCH monitoring opportunities, and the user device discards partial adjacent PDCH monitoring opportunities, the maximum number of adjacent spans or PDCH monitoring opportunities, the maximum number of spans or PDCH monitoring opportunities within a slot is defined, the same maximum number of DL and UL unicast DCI formats is relaxed from within one span to within two or more adjacent spans, or one or more scaled (M, C) values are introduced, where M is the maximum number of monitored physical downlink control channel (PDCH) candidates per span, and C is the maximum number of non-overlapping control channel elements (CCEs) per span The method according to claim 16, comprising at least one of the above.

18. The method according to any one of claims 16 or 17, wherein the limitation is applied to the combination (2, 2) when there is one span with a duration equal to at least two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

19. A wireless communication device comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is configured to read code from the memory to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

20. A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable program medium, the computer-readable program medium comprising code stored thereon, the code causing the processor to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18 when executed by the processor.

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