Method, device, and system for a scheduling mechanism

Abstract

The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications, and more particularly, for scheduling mechanisms involving multiple carriers within a cell. One method is performed by a wireless communications device and includes receiving a configuration comprising scheduling information for carriers in a cell, the cell comprising multiple carriers, and deriving a set of parameters for the configuration for the carrier. Another method is performed by a wireless communications node and includes determining a set of parameters for a configuration for a carrier in a cell, the cell comprising multiple carriers, and transmitting a configuration comprising scheduling information for the carrier.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure is directed generally to wireless communications. In particular, the present disclosure relates to methods, devices, and systems for scheduling mechanisms. [Background technology]

[0002] Wireless communication technologies are moving the world toward an increasingly connected and networked society. High-speed, low-latency wireless communication relies on efficient network resource management and allocation between user equipment and radio access network nodes (including, but not limited to, base stations). New generation networks are expected to provide high-speed, low-latency, and ultra-reliable communication capabilities and fulfill requirements from different industries and users.

[0003] Carrier aggregation (CA) is used to improve the performance of wireless communication systems in 4G and 5G and beyond. CA can increase the data rate per user equipment (UE) by allocating multiple component carriers in the frequency domain to the same UE. In some implementations employing CA, the scheduling mechanism may only allow scheduling of a single-cell physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) per scheduling downlink control information (DCI). With more available scattered spectrum bands, the need for simultaneous scheduling of multiple cells is expected to increase. To reduce control overhead, it is beneficial to extend from single-cell scheduling to multi-cell PUSCH / PDSCH scheduling using a single scheduling DCI. When multiple carriers in a cell are supported, various issues / problems exist associated with the method of scheduling the PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier.

[0004] This disclosure describes various embodiments for a scheduling mechanism involving multiple carriers in a cell that address at least one of the issues / problems discussed in this disclosure. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] FIELD This document relates to methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications, and more particularly, for scheduling mechanisms involving multiple carriers within a cell.

[0006] In one embodiment, this disclosure describes a method for wireless communication, the method being implemented by a wireless communication device, that includes receiving a configuration comprising scheduling information for carriers in a cell, the cell comprising a plurality of carriers, and deriving a set of parameters for the configuration for the carriers.

[0007] In one embodiment, this disclosure describes a method for wireless communication, the method being implemented by a wireless communication node, that includes determining a set of parameters for a configuration for carriers in a cell, the cell comprising a plurality of carriers, and transmitting a configuration comprising scheduling information for the carriers.

[0008] In some other embodiments, an apparatus for wireless communication may include a memory that stores instructions and processing circuitry in communication with the memory, the processing circuitry being configured, when the instructions are executed, to perform the above-described method.

[0009] In some other embodiments, a device for wireless communication may include a memory that stores instructions and processing circuitry in communication with the memory, the processing circuitry being configured, when the instructions are executed, to perform the above-described methods.

[0010] In some other embodiments, a computer-readable medium comprises instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the above-described methods.

[0011] These and other aspects and their implementations are explained in more detail in the drawings, description, and claims. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1A] FIG. 1A illustrates an embodiment of a wireless communication system including a radio network node and one or more user equipments.

[0013] [Figure 1B] FIG. 1B shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0014] [Figure 2] FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network node.

[0015] [Figure 3] FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a user equipment.

[0016] [Figure 4A] FIG. 4A shows a flow diagram of a method for wireless communication.

[0017] [Figure 4B] FIG. 4B illustrates a flow diagram of another method for wireless communication.

[0018] [Figure 5A] FIG. 5A shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0019] [Figure 5B] FIG. 5B shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0020] [Figure 5C]FIG. 5C shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0021] [Figure 5D] FIG. 5D shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0022] [Figure 6A] FIG. 6A shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0023] [Figure 6B] FIG. 6B shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0024] [Figure 6C] FIG. 6C shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0025] [Figure 6D] FIG. 6D shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0026] [Figure 7] FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0027] [Figure 8A] FIG. 8A shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0028] [Figure 8B] FIG. 8B shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication.

[0029] [Figure 8C] FIG. 8C shows a schematic diagram of another exemplary embodiment for wireless communication. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0030] Detailed Description The present disclosure will now be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof and which show, by way of illustration, specific examples of embodiments. It should be noted, however, that the present disclosure may be embodied in a variety of different forms, and therefore, it is intended that the subject matter covered or claimed be construed as not being limited to any of the embodiments set forth below.

[0031] Throughout this specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meanings that are suggested or implied in context beyond those explicitly stated. Similarly, the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in some embodiments" as used herein do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, and the phrases "in another embodiment" or "in other embodiments" as used herein do not necessarily refer to different embodiments. The phrases "in one implementation" or "in some implementations" as used herein do not necessarily refer to the same implementation, and the phrases "in another implementation" or "in other implementations" as used herein do not necessarily refer to different implementations. For example, it is intended that the claimed subject matter include, in whole or in part, a combination of example embodiments or implementations.

[0032] Generally, terminology can be understood, at least in part, from usage in context. For example, terms such as "and," "or," or "and / or," as used herein, can include a variety of meanings that may depend, at least in part, on the context in which such terms are used. Typically, when "or" is used to relate a list such as A, B, or C, it is intended to refer to A, B, and C, which are used herein in an inclusive sense, as well as A, B, or C, which are used herein in an exclusive sense. Additionally, the terms "one or more" or "at least one," as used herein, can be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular sense, or can be used to describe a combination of features, structures, or characteristics in a plural sense, at least in part, depending on the context. Similarly, terms such as "a," "an," or "the" can be understood to convey singular use or to convey plural use, again, at least in part, depending on the context. Additionally, the terms "based on" or "determined by" may be understood as not necessarily intended to convey an exclusive set of factors, but instead may allow for the existence of additional factors not necessarily explicitly described, again depending at least in part on the context.

[0033] The present disclosure describes methods and devices for scheduling mechanisms involving multiple carriers within a cell.

[0034] New generation (NG) mobile communication systems are moving the world towards an increasingly connected and networked society. High-speed, low-latency wireless communication relies on efficient network resource management and allocation between user equipment and radio access network nodes (including, but not limited to, radio base stations). New generation networks are expected to provide high-speed, low-latency, and ultra-reliable communication capabilities and fulfill requirements from different industries and users.

[0035] Fourth generation mobile communication technology (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advance (LTE-A) and fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) are facing increasing demands. Based on the current development trend, 4G and 5G systems are developing support for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC), and massive machine-type communication (mMTC) features.

[0036] Carrier aggregation (CA) is used to improve the performance of wireless communication systems in 4G and 5G and beyond. CA can increase the data rate per user equipment (UE) by allocating multiple component carriers in the frequency domain to the same UE. In some implementations employing CA, the scheduling mechanism may only allow scheduling of a single cell physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and / or physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) per scheduling downlink control information (DCI). With more available scattered spectrum bands, the need for simultaneous scheduling of multiple cells is expected to increase. To reduce control overhead, it is beneficial to extend single-cell scheduling to multi-cell PUSCH / PDSCH scheduling using a single scheduling DCI.

[0037] When multi-cell scheduling with a single scheduling DCI format (e.g., format 0_X and / or 1_X) is implemented for a set of cells, the DCI size of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is counted on one cell of the set of cells, and the blind decoding and / or control channel elements (BD / CCE) of DCI format 0_X / 1_X are counted on one cell of the set of cells. A search space (SS) of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is configured on one cell of the set of cells and associated with the search space of the scheduling cell with the same search space identifier (ID). To monitor PDCCH candidates for a set of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling, the value of n_CI in the search space formula is determined by the value configured for the set of cells. In some implementations, there may be only one DL carrier in a cell, and there may be no uplink (UL) carrier for a cell, or there may be one UL carrier, or there may be one UL carrier with at most one additional configured supplemental uplink (SUL) carrier.

[0038] With more available scattered spectrum bands, the need for simultaneous utilization of multiple cells within one cell is expected to increase. CA mechanisms may benefit UEs in connected mode, and / or current SUL mechanisms support only one SUL carrier. In some implementations, some scheduling mechanisms may enable single-cell PUSCH / PDSCH scheduling per scheduling DCI and multi-cell PUSCH / PDSCH scheduling with a single scheduling DCI, reducing control overhead. When multiple carriers within one cell are supported, various issues / problems exist, including, but not limited to, how to schedule PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier.

[0039] Various embodiments and implementations described in this disclosure include methods and devices for scheduling mechanisms involving multiple carriers in a cell that address at least one of the issues / problems discussed in this disclosure.

[0040] 1A illustrates a wireless communication system 100 including a radio network node 118 and one or more user equipments (UEs) 110. The radio network node may include a network base station, which may be a nodeB (NB, e.g., gNB) in a mobile telecommunications context. The UEs may each wirelessly communicate with the radio network node via one or more radio channels 115 for downlink / uplink communication. For example, a first UE 110 may wirelessly communicate with the radio network node 118 via a channel including multiple radio channels during a certain period of time. The network base station 118 may transmit higher layer signaling to the UE 110. The higher layer signaling may include configuration information regarding communication between the UE and the base station. In one implementation, the higher layer signaling may include a radio resource control (RRC) message.

[0041] 2 illustrates one example of an electronic device 200 for implementing a network base station. The exemplary electronic device 200 may include wireless transmit / receive (Tx / Rx) circuitry 208 for transmitting / receiving communications with UEs and / or other base stations. The electronic device 200 may also include network interface circuitry 209 for allowing the base station to communicate with other base stations and / or core networks, e.g., optical or wired interconnects, Ethernet, and / or other data transmission media / protocols. The electronic device 200 may optionally include an input / output (I / O) interface 206 for communicating with an operator or equivalent.

[0042] Electronic device 200 may also include system circuitry 204. System circuitry 204 may include processor 221 and / or memory 222. Memory 222 may include operating system 224, instructions 226, and parameters 228. Instructions 226 may be configured for one or more of processors 124 to perform the functions of a network node. Parameters 228 may include parameters to support execution of instructions 226. For example, the parameters may include network protocol settings, bandwidth parameters, radio frequency mapping assignments, and / or other parameters.

[0043] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an electronic device for implementing a terminal device 300 (e.g., user equipment (UE)). The UE 300 may be a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a mobile communications module located in a vehicle. The UE 300 may include a communications interface 302, system circuitry 304, an input / output interface (I / O) 306, display circuitry 308, and storage 309. The display circuitry may include a user interface 310. The system circuitry 304 may include any combination of hardware, software, firmware, or other logic / circuitry. The system circuitry 304 may be implemented with, for example, one or more systems-on-chips (SoCs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), discrete analog and digital circuits, and other circuitry. The system circuitry 304 may be part of the implementation of any desired functionality within the UE 300. In that regard, system circuitry 304 may include, as examples, logic that facilitates music and video decoding and playback, e.g., MP3, MP4, MPEG, AVI, FLAC, AC3, or WAV decoding and playback, application launching, user input acceptance, saving and retrieving application data, as one example, establishing, maintaining, and terminating cellular phone calls or data connections for Internet connectivity, establishing, maintaining, and terminating wireless network connections, Bluetooth connections, or other connections, and displaying related information on user interface 310. User interface 310 and input / output (I / O) interface 306 may include a graphical user interface, a touch-sensitive display, tactile feedback or other tactile output, voice or facial recognition input, buttons, switches, speakers, and other user interface elements.Additional examples of I / O interface 306 may include microphones, video and still image cameras, temperature sensors, vibration sensors, rotation and orientation sensors, headset and microphone input / output jacks, universal serial bus (USB) connectors, memory card slots, radiation sensors (e.g., IR sensors), and other types of inputs.

[0044] 3, the communications interface 302 may include radio frequency (RF) transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) circuitry 316, which handles the transmission and reception of signals through one or more antennas 314. The communications interface 302 may include one or more transceivers. The transceiver may be a wireless transceiver including modulation / demodulation circuitry, digital-to-analog converters (DACs), shaping tables, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), filters, waveform shapers, filters, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and / or other logic for transmitting and receiving through one or more antennas or (for some devices) over a physical (e.g., wired) medium. The transmitted and received signals may conform to any of a diverse array of formats, protocols, modulations (e.g., QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, or 256-QAM), frequency channels, bit rates, and encodings. As one specific example, communication interface 302 may include a transceiver supporting transmission and reception under 2G, 3G, BT, WiFi, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSPA)+, 4G / Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5G standards, and / or 6G standards. However, the techniques described below are also applicable to other wireless communication technologies, whether arising from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), GSM Association, 3GPP2, IEEE, or other partnership or standards body.

[0045] 3 , the system circuitry 304 may include one or more processors 321 and memory 322. The memory 322 stores, for example, an operating system 324, instructions 326, and parameters 328. The processor 321 is configured to execute the instructions 326 to perform desired functionality for the UE 300. The parameters 328 may provide and define configuration and operating options for the instructions 326. The memory 322 may also store any BT, WiFi, 3G, 4G, 5G, 6G, or other data that the UE 300 will transmit or is receiving through the communication interface 302. In various implementations, system power for the UE 300 may be supplied by a power storage device, such as a battery or a transformer.

[0046] This disclosure describes various embodiments for scheduling mechanisms involving multiple carriers within a cell, which may be partially or fully implemented on the network base stations and / or user equipment described above in Figures 2-3. Various embodiments in this disclosure may enable efficient wireless transmission in telecommunications systems, which may increase resource utilization efficiency and / or improve latency performance for URLLC traffic.

[0047] In some implementations of multi-cell scheduling, under normal circumstances, one scheduled cell may be configured with only a single scheduling cell. Figure 1B illustrates multi-cell scheduling, where a first cell (cell 1, 151) may be the scheduling cell, a second cell (cell 2, 152) may be the scheduled cell, a third cell (cell 3, 153) may be another scheduled cell, and a fourth cell (cell 4, 154) may be another scheduled cell. A scheduled cell may be configured with only one scheduling cell, and a single multi-cell scheduling DCI (MC-DCI), which is DCI format 0_X / 1_X and is carried by a PDCCH, may be used to schedule multiple PxSCHs on multiple cells, with each PxSCH on one cell. The term "PxSCH" may be used to refer to either a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). In some implementations, the PDCCH may be referred to as a control channel and the PxSCH may be referred to as a data channel.

[0048] As shown in Figure 1B, there is only one scheduling cell for the scheduled cell, and MC-DCI and / or single-cell scheduling DCI (SC-DCI) may be supported on the scheduling cell for the scheduled cell, which may be a legacy DCI format (e.g., DCI format 0_1 / 1_1). The MC-DCI may be a new DCI format 0_X / 1_X.

[0049] In some implementations, for example, in the normal case, the DCI size and / or blind decoding / control channel elements (BD / CCEs) of a PDCCH carrying a multi-cell scheduling DCI are counted on one cell of a set of cells. In some implementations, BD is the maximum number of monitored PDCCH candidates per slot / span for a downlink (DL) bandwidth portion (BWP) with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration μ∈{0, 1, 2, 3} for a single serving cell. [ka] CCE corresponds to the maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs per slot / span for DL ​​BWP with SCS configuration μ∈{0,1,2,3} for a single serving cell. [ka] It corresponds to.

[0050] In some implementations, there may be at least two conditions regarding multiple cell scheduling.

[0051] One condition: for a set of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling, the existing DCI size budget is maintained on each cell of the set of cells, the DCI size of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is counted on one cell of the set of cells (e.g., the DCI size of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is counted on the reference cell), the BD / CCE of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is counted on one cell of the set of cells (e.g., the BD / CCE of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is counted on the reference cell), and the same reference cell is used for both DCI format 0_X and DCI format 1_X.

[0052] The conditions may further include that, with respect to a set of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling, the reference cell is: a scheduling cell when the scheduling cell is included in the set of cells and the search space of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is configured only on the scheduling cell; and, when the search space of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is configured on a cell in addition to the scheduling cell, a cell of the set of cells on which the search space of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is configured and which is associated with the search space of the scheduling cell with the same search space ID, for example, it is up to the gNB on which cell the SS of DCI format 0_X / 1_X is configured.

[0053] The conditions may further include that, for a set of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling, to address BD / CCE limits for any given cell, the total number of configured BD / CCEs for both DCI format 0_X / 1_X and legacy DCI formats (if configured) for the reference cell does not exceed a predefined limit, and for other cells in the set of cells, one or more predefined limits for PDCCH / DCI monitoring and BD / CCE counting rules for legacy DCI formats (not including DCI format 0_X / 1_X) apply.

[0054] Another condition: To monitor PDCCH candidates for a set of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling, n_CI in the search space formula is determined by the value configured for the set of cells by RRC signaling.

[0055] In some implementations, there is a DCI size budget for a UE per serving cell, i.e., the UE is not expected to handle more than four total different DCI sizes for a cell that it is configured to monitor, or more than three total different DCI sizes with C-RNTIs for a cell that it is configured to monitor.

[0056] In some implementations, the maximum number of monitored PDCCHs per slot for DL ​​BWP with SCS configuration μ∈{0,1,2,3} for a single serving cell [ka] is shown in Table 1, where μ∈{0,1,2,3} corresponds to 15 khz, 30 khz, 60 khz, and 120 khz, respectively.

[0057] In some implementations, the maximum number of non-overlapping CCEs per slot for DL ​​BWP with SCS configuration μ ∈ {0, 1, 2, 3} for a single serving cell [ka] is shown in Table 2. [Table 1] [Table 2]

[0058] In some implementations, the UE is configured with a DL BWP with SCS configuration μ. [ka] configured with downlink cells, [ka] and the DL BWP of the cell to be activated is the active DL BWP of the cell to be activated, and the DL BWP of the cell to be deactivated is the DL BWP with the index provided by firstActiveDownlinkBWP-Id for the cell to be deactivated, the UE shall: [ka] Per slot on the active DL BWP of the scheduling cell from the downlink cell [ka] PDCCH candidates exceeding [ka] The UE is not required to monitor more than one non-overlapping CCE.

[0059] 4A, the present disclosure describes various embodiments of a method 400 for wireless communication. The method 400 may be performed by a wireless communication device (e.g., user equipment). The method 400 may include some or all of the following steps: receiving a configuration comprising scheduling information for a carrier in a cell 410, the cell comprising multiple carriers; and / or deriving a set of parameters for the configuration for the carrier 420.

[0060] 4B, the present disclosure describes various embodiments of a method 450 for wireless communication. Method 450 may be performed by any of the wireless communication nodes (e.g., a gNB). Method 450 may include some or all of the following steps: determining a set of parameters for a configuration for carriers in a cell, the cell comprising multiple carriers, step 460; and / or transmitting a configuration comprising scheduling information for the carriers, step 470.

[0061] In some implementations, the scheduling cell and the scheduled cell are the same cell.

[0062] In some implementations, the scheduling cell and the scheduled cell are different cells.

[0063] In some implementations, the configuration comprises a serving cell configuration, and / or the serving cell configuration comprises at least one of the following: a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier in response to the cell being a scheduling cell, and / or a scheduling cell index of the scheduling cell and a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier in response to the cell being a scheduled cell.

[0064] In some implementations, in response to the cell being a scheduling cell, the scheduling carrier index indicates that one carrier in the scheduling cell based on the scheduling carrier index is configured as a scheduling carrier and is used to schedule other carriers, and / or in response to the cell being a scheduled cell, the scheduling cell index and scheduling carrier index indicate that each carrier in the scheduled cell is configured as a scheduled carrier that is scheduled by another carrier based on the scheduling cell index and the scheduling carrier index.

[0065] In some implementations, the configuration comprises a serving cell configuration;

[0066] The serving cell configuration comprises at least one of the following: an information element indicating that the carrier is a scheduling carrier in response to the carrier being a scheduling carrier, and / or an information element indicating that the carrier is a scheduled carrier in response to the carrier being a scheduled carrier, a scheduling cell index of the scheduling cell, and a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier.

[0067] In some implementations, in response to the carrier being a scheduling carrier, the information element indicates that the scheduling carrier is configured as a scheduling carrier and is used to schedule other carriers, and / or in response to the carrier being a scheduled carrier, the information element indicates that the scheduled carrier is scheduled by another carrier based on the scheduling cell index and the scheduling carrier index.

[0068] In some implementations, the configuration comprises a downlink configuration list, comprises a serving cell configuration, and / or each downlink configuration corresponding to a downlink carrier comprises at least one of the following: in response to the downlink carrier being a scheduling carrier, an information element indicating that the downlink carrier is a scheduling carrier, and / or in response to the downlink carrier being a scheduled carrier, an information element indicating that the downlink carrier is a scheduled carrier, a scheduling cell index of the scheduling cell, and a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier.

[0069] In some implementations, in response to the downlink carrier being a scheduling carrier, the information element indicates that the scheduling carrier is configured as a scheduling carrier and is used to schedule other carriers, and / or in response to the downlink carrier being a scheduled carrier, the information element indicates that the scheduled carrier is scheduled by another carrier based on the scheduling cell index and the scheduling carrier index.

[0070] In some implementations, the carrier index for at least one downlink carrier and at least one uplink carrier is independently configured by at least one of the following: configuring a carrier index for the downlink carrier and / or configuring a carrier index for the uplink carrier.

[0071] In some implementations, at least one downlink carrier is an anchor carrier, and / or the carrier index for the anchor downlink carrier further comprises at least one of the following: a minimum index or a default index. In some implementations, the default index may have a value of 0.

[0072] In some implementations, the downlink configuration comprises at least one of the following: a PDCCH configuration release information element, a PDSCH configuration release information element, and / or a CSI measurement configuration release information element.

[0073] In some implementations, for multi-carrier scheduling, one of the following is determined: a maximum number of co-scheduled carriers, a maximum number of co-scheduled cells comprising co-scheduled carriers, and / or a maximum number of co-scheduled carriers and a maximum number of co-scheduled cells.

[0074] In some implementations, determining the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers includes at least one of the following: determining the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers in a cell; and / or determining the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers in multiple cells.

[0075] In some implementations, for multi-carrier scheduling, the control channel is located on at least one of the following: only one carrier of a cell with multiple carriers, or more than one carrier of a cell with multiple carriers.

[0076] In some implementations, the control channel is located on more than one carrier of a cell with multiple carriers, and the control channel monitors on one carrier at a time by switching between more than one carrier for control channel monitoring via dynamic indication or preconfigured patterns.

[0077] In some implementations, the control channel is located on more than one carrier of a cell with multiple carriers, and the control channel monitors the same carrier using blind decoding (BD) or control channel element (CCE) scaling factors with respect to the carrier of the cell.

[0078] In some implementations, the size budget is determined according to at least one of the following: the size budget per carrier is equal to a predefined size budget per cell; the size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to a predefined size budget per cell; and / or the size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to or greater than the predefined size budget per cell and equal to or less than N times the predefined size budget per cell, where N is one of the number of carriers in a cell, the maximum number in a cell, or a value configured by RRC signaling.

[0079] In some implementations, the size budget comprises at least one of the following: a BD size budget, a CCE size budget, or a DCI size budget.

[0080] In some implementations, the BD size budget, CCE size budget, and DCI size budget are determined according to at least one of the following: the DCI size budget per carrier is equal to a predefined DCI size budget per cell, and the BD size budget and CCE size budget for all carriers per cell are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively; and / or the BD size budget and CCE size budget per carrier are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively, and the DCI size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to a predefined DCI size budget per cell.

[0081] In some implementations, for multi-cell scheduling downlink control information (MC-DCI), the DCI size budget, BD size budget, and CCE size budget of the MC-DCI are as follows: counted on one cell, the DCI size budget, BD size budget, and CCE size budget for all carriers in one cell are equal to the predefined DCI, BD, and CCE size budget per cell, respectively; counted on one carrier, the DCI size budget, BD size budget, and CCE size budget per carrier are equal to the predefined DCI, BD, and CCE size budget per cell, respectively; counted on one carrier or one cell, the DCI size budget, BD size budget, and CCE size budget for all carriers in one cell are equal to the predefined DCI, BD, and CCE size budget per cell, respectively. The counting is performed according to at least one of determining that the DCI size budget per carrier is equal to a predefined DCI size budget per cell and that the BD size budget and CCE size budget for all carriers per cell are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively, or determining that the BD size budget and CCE size budget per carrier are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively, and that the DCI size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to a predefined DCI size budget per cell.

[0082] In some implementations, with regard to multi-cell scheduling downlink control information (MC-DCI), the search space of the MC-DCI is configured according to at least one of the following: on each cell and on each carrier or a subset of carriers in a cell with multiple carriers; on a subset of cells and on each carrier or a subset of carriers in a cell with multiple carriers; on one cell and on each carrier or a subset of carriers in a cell with multiple carriers; or on one cell and on one carrier in a cell with multiple carriers.

[0083] In some implementations, the values ​​used in the search space equation for configuring the search space of the MC-DCI are determined according to at least one of the following: based on a cell index and a carrier index, or based on a configured value for the cell in response to the cell having a set of carriers, where the configured value is different from the carrier indicator field (CIF) of the cell.

[0084] In some implementations, for multiple data channel transmissions on a cell with multiple carriers, the start and length indicator value (SLIV) of at least one of the multiple data channel transmissions is combined with a carrier index to indicate the carrier for the data channel transmission.

[0085] In some implementations, repetition with hopping between multiple carriers is configured for multiple data channel transmissions on a cell with multiple carriers.

[0086] In some implementations, for a cell with multiple carriers scheduled by downlink control information (DCI), the DCI comprises at least one of the following: an indicator indicating carrier addition, release, activation, or deactivation; an indicator indicating uplink dedicated secondary cell (SCell) addition, release, activation, or deactivation; each bit of an SCell dormancy indication representing at least one cell with all carriers, at least one carrier with paired downlink-uplink carriers, at least one downlink carrier, or at least one uplink carrier; each bit of a carrier dormancy indication representing at least one cell with all carriers, at least one carrier with paired downlink-uplink carriers, at least one downlink carrier, or at least one uplink carrier; or a control channel monitoring suitability indication applied to all carriers or combined with a carrier suitability indication in response to control channel monitoring on more than one carrier.

[0087] In some implementations, the indicator comprises at least one of the following: a carrier indicator or a bandwidth portion (BWP) indicator.

[0088] In some implementations, the control channel comprises a PDCCH and / or the data channel comprises at least one of the following: a PDSCH or a PUSCH. Embodiment Set I

[0089] This disclosure describes various embodiments in which when multiple carriers in a cell are supported, the PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier can be scheduled by self-carrier scheduling, cross-carrier scheduling, or multi-carrier scheduling.

[0090] Regarding self-carrier scheduling, as shown in Figure 5A, each carrier may be self-scheduled. This is simpler for the scheduler, especially when the SCSs of the multiple carriers are different. There is no need to consider the issues of cross-carrier scheduling within a cell or across cells.

[0091] Regarding cross-carrier scheduling, carriers without PDCCH may be cross-carrier scheduled by other carriers, as shown in Figure 5B. Both cell index and carrier index may be used to schedule one carrier.

[0092] Regarding multi-carrier scheduling, as shown in Figures 5C and 5D, carriers without PDCCH can be cross-carrier scheduled by other carriers, and multiple carriers can be scheduled by a single MC-DCI.

[0093] Various embodiments describe methods for determining the association of scheduling carriers and scheduled carriers in the same / different cells.

[0094] Method 1: Configured in ServingCellConfig, all carriers in a cell will be configured as scheduled carriers, or one carrier in a cell may be configured as a scheduling carrier. A carrier index may be used for the configuration. For example, one cell with multiple carriers may be configured as own with a scheduling carrier index and can be used to schedule other carriers. One cell with multiple carriers may be configured as other and may be configured with a scheduling cell index and a scheduling carrier index.

[0095] The ServingCellConfig may include a CrossCarrierSchedulingConfig information element (IE) as follows: [ka]

[0096] Method 2: Configured in ServingCellConfig, each carrier will be configured with scheduling information. Carrier index may be used for configuration. For example, a scheduling carrier in one cell may be configured as own and used to schedule other carriers. A scheduled carrier in one cell may be configured as other and configured with a scheduling cell index and a scheduling carrier index.

[0097] The ServingCellConfig may include a CrossCarrierSchedulingConfig information element (IE) as follows: [ka]

[0098] Method 3: Configured in DownlinkConfig. DownlinkConfig is configured for each DL carrier. At least one of the following configuration IEs may also be configured in DownlinkConfig: pdcch-CarrierConfig SetupRelease { PDCCH-CarrierConfig}, pdsch-CarrierConfig SetupRelease { PDSCH-CarrierConfig}, csi-MeasConfig SetupRelease { CSI-MeasConfig}, and / or crossCarrierSchedulingConfig CrossCarrierSchedulingConfig.

[0099] For example, carriers including DL carriers, UL carriers, or both DL and UL carriers may be configured in the ServingCellConfig. For each DL carrier, a CrossCarrierSchedulingConfig may be configured for the carrier to be own or other and may be configured with a scheduling cell index and a scheduling carrier index.

[0100] The ServingCellConfig may include a DownlinkConfig information element (IE), as follows: [ka]

[0101] Various embodiments describe a method for determining the association of DL and UL carriers within a cell.

[0102] Method 1: One carrier index is shared for one DL carrier and its associated UL carrier. Optionally, one carrier index is configured with only DL carriers or only UL carriers. The anchor carrier is explicitly configured or has the lowest index, i.e., index 0 by default.

[0103] Method 2: One carrier index is shared for one DL carrier and its associated UL carriers. Optionally, one carrier index is shared for one UL carrier and its associated DL carriers. Optionally, one carrier index is configured with only DL carriers or only UL carriers. The anchor carrier is explicitly configured or is the lowest index, i.e., index 0 by default.

[0104] Method 3: Carrier indexes for DL ​​carriers and UL carriers are configured independently. Optionally, the anchor DL ​​and / or UL carrier is explicitly configured or defaults to the lowest index, i.e., index 0. Optionally, based on Method 3, the association of scheduling carriers and scheduled carriers in the same / different cells can be configured independently for DL ​​carriers and UL carriers.

[0105] There may be various benefits associated with various embodiments. In some embodiments, when multiple carriers are supported in one cell, several scheduling mechanisms are disclosed, and methods of associating a scheduling carrier and a scheduled carrier, and associating a DL carrier and an UL carrier based on the underlying scheduling mechanisms are disclosed. It is beneficial for the network or UE to support this functionality using a flexible scheduling mechanism. Embodiment Set II

[0106] This disclosure describes various embodiments in which, for multi-carrier scheduling, the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers needs to be determined to maintain a reasonable DCI size for the MC-DCI format. The maximum number of co-scheduled carriers can be determined by one of the following:

[0107] One way to define the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers: The maximum number may be defined as an integer N, for example, N=4. Optionally, multiple carriers in one cell may be included in one set of carriers. For example, as shown in Figure 6A, cell 0 has four carriers, and the four carriers are in one set of carriers and can be scheduled by one MC-DCI.

[0108] Another way to define the maximum number of co-scheduled cells: The maximum number may be defined as an integer N, for example, N=4. That is, the maximum number of carriers depends on the carriers in each cell. Optionally, fields in the MC-DCI format for each cell are shared among carriers in the same cell. Optionally, multiple carriers in one cell may be included in one set of carriers. For example, as shown in FIG. 6B, cell 0 has four carriers, cell 1 has two carriers, cell 2 has one carrier, and cell 3 has one carrier, and the maximum number of cells is four. All carriers in the four cells, i.e., eight carriers, can be scheduled by one MC-DCI.

[0109] Another way to define the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers: The maximum number may be defined as an integer N, for example, N=4. Optionally, different carriers in one cell may be configured in different sets of carriers. It is beneficial to use the same scheduling cell during load balancing for PDCCHs on different carriers in one cell. For example, as shown in FIG. 6C , cell 0 has four carriers, cell 1 has two carriers, cell 2 has one carrier, and cell 3 has one carrier, the maximum number of carriers is four, and different carriers in one cell can be configured in different sets of carriers. In some implementations, carriers 0 and 1 in cell 0 and two carriers in cell 1 are in one set and can be scheduled by one MC-DCI on carrier 0 in cell 0, while carriers 2 and 3 in cell 0, one carrier in cell 2, and one carrier in cell 3 are in another set and can be scheduled by one MC-DCI on carrier 2 in cell 0. In FIG. 6C, carriers with thicker lines are in set 0 and carriers with thinner lines are in set 1.

[0110] Another method for defining the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers and the maximum number of co-scheduled cells. In some implementations, the maximum numbers are {N, M}, e.g., {N=4, M=2}, where {maximum number of co-scheduled carriers, maximum number of co-scheduled cells}, respectively. Optionally, multiple carriers in one cell may be included in one set of carriers. Optionally, different carriers in one cell can be configured in different sets of carriers. It is beneficial to use the same scheduling cell while load balancing for PDCCHs on different carriers in one cell. For example, as shown in FIG. 6D , cell 0 has two carriers and cell 1 has two carriers, the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers is 4, and the maximum number of co-scheduled cells is 2. Multiple carriers in one cell are configured in one set of carriers, i.e., two carriers in cell 0 and two carriers in cell 1 are in one set and can be scheduled by one MC-DCI on carrier 0 in cell 0.

[0111] In various embodiments, at least one of the following is defined: a maximum number of carriers in a set of carriers, or a maximum number of cells in a set of cells, or a maximum number of cells and a maximum number of carriers for multi-carrier scheduling. Optionally, multiple carriers within a cell are included in one or different sets of cells / carriers.

[0112] In some implementations, the co-scheduled carriers within the set of carriers may alternatively be configured by higher layer parameters, and the cell index and carrier index are used to configure the codepoint table. Taking FIG. 6D as an example, the co-scheduled carrier table can be shown as Table 3. [Table 3]

[0113] There are various benefits associated with the described embodiments. For example, when multiple carriers are supported in a cell and multi-carrier scheduling is also supported, the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers can be defined by the maximum number of carriers in a set of carriers, or the maximum number of cells in a set of cells, or the maximum number of cells and the maximum number of carriers for multi-carrier scheduling. It is beneficial for the network or UE to achieve control overhead reduction or load balancing. Embodiment Set III

[0114] This disclosure describes various embodiments in which a cell index and a carrier index are used to schedule one carrier for cross-carrier scheduling with or without multi-carrier scheduling. In some implementations, when a cell with multi-carrier is scheduled by another carrier / cell, there is no PDCCH on any of the cell's carriers. The scheduling carrier / cell can be determined by the association of the scheduling carrier and the scheduled carrier in the same / different cell. In some implementations, when a cell with multi-carrier is the scheduling cell and can optionally be used to schedule other cells, PDCCH monitoring for the scheduled carrier / cell can be located in one of the following ways:

[0115] For one method, there is only one carrier in a cell with multiple carriers. To better support simultaneous PDSCH / PUSCH transmission on multiple carriers in one cell, CCE resources may be determined by the cell index and carrier index of the scheduled carrier, or the extended carrier indicator field (CIF). For example, N×n_CI+n_carriers may be used instead of n_CI, where n_CI is the carrier indicator field value when the UE is configured with the carrier indicator field by CrossCarrierSchedulingConfig for the serving cell where the PDCCH is monitored, and N is the maximum number of carriers in one cell. In some implementations, when using the extended CIF, the value of the extended CIF may be greater than 7, and the CIF may be configured per carrier, or per DL carrier, or per UL carrier. When only a single cell with multiple carriers is supported or configured, the carrier index may be used instead of the cell index.

[0116] For another method, there may be more than one carrier in a cell with multi-carrier and PDCCH monitoring on one carrier at a time. In some implementations, PDCCH monitoring on one carrier at a time can be determined by one of the following:

[0117] (1) Switching carriers for PDCCH monitoring by signaling, e.g., by DCI, MAC CE, or RRC, switching carriers of candidate carriers configured with PDCCH for monitoring on a scheduled carrier / cell. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, cell 1 is scheduled by cell 0, and four carriers in cell 0 are configured with PDCCH. A field in the DCI format may be used to switch carriers for PDCCH monitoring on only one carrier at a time, and thus the field may be 2 bits, where "00" represents carrier 0, "01" represents carrier 1, "10" represents carrier 2, and "11" represents carrier 3. When there is no indication or monitoring on one carrier by RRC configuration, monitoring is performed on carrier 0.

[0118] (2) Configuring a PDCCH monitoring pattern for a scheduled carrier / cell. For example, a bitmap within a period may be used to indicate PDCCH monitoring on each slot (or subslot) or on N slots based on a reference carrier, where N is an integer. The reference carrier may be the carrier with the lowest index or the carrier with the lowest SCS among the candidate carriers or carriers configured by RRC, i.e., carrier 0 or the carrier with 15 kHz in the cell. For example, as shown in Figure 7, cell 1 is scheduled by cell 0, and four carriers in cell 0 are configured with PDCCHs. The PDCCH monitoring pattern is configured to ensure PDCCH monitoring on only one carrier at a time. The pattern may be configured within a period equal to one frame per slot, and the reference carrier is carrier 0 with SCS=15 kHz. Each slot may use two bits to indicate one carrier, for example, "00" represents carrier 0, "01" represents carrier 1, "10" represents carrier 2, and "11" represents carrier 3. In an embodiment, the bitmap pattern may be "00000000000101111010" for 10 slots in a frame.

[0119] For another method, there may be more than one carrier for a cell with multi-carrier and PDCCH monitoring using BD / CCE scaling factors. In some implementations, the BD / CCE scaling factors of each scheduling carrier for the scheduled cell are configured. In some implementations, the legacy BD / CCE budget / capability is maintained. For example, as shown in Figure 7, α1, α2, α3, and α4 may be configured for each scheduling carrier to scale the legacy BD / CCE for scheduling the same scheduled carrier / cell. In some implementations, α1 + α2 + α3 + α4 = 1. For example, when the SCSs of carriers 0, 1, 2, and 3 in cell 0 are all 15 kHz and α1=α2=α3=α4=0.25, the maximum BD for the scheduled cell is 44×0.25+44×0.25+44×0.25+44×0.25=44, and therefore there are a maximum of 11 BDs for PDCCH monitoring on each carrier in cell 0 for scheduled cell 1.

[0120] In some implementations, for CA scaling, division factors s1, s2, s3, and s4 can also be defined / configured for each scheduling carrier to schedule the same scheduled carrier. In some implementations, s1+s2+s3+s4=1. For example, for the CA operation of Figure 7, there are five carriers, Ncap = 4, and the SCSs of carriers 0, 1, 2, and 3 in cell 0 and carrier 0 in cell 1 are 15 kHz, 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 30 kHz, and 30 kHz, respectively, and since the scheduled carriers are counted in each scheduling carrier, s1 = s2 = s3 = s4 = 0.25, which is similar to N_cell number, and M_total_15 kHz = floor(4 x 44 x [1 + 1 + 0.25 + 0.25] / 5) = floor(4 x 44 x 1 / 2) = 88 per 1 ms slot, and M_total_30 kHz = floor(4 x 36 x [1 + 1 + 0.25 + 0.25] / 5) = floor(4 x 36 x 1 / 2) = 72 per 0.5 ms slot. The carrier number is used for CA scaling in the example, and other methods as described in other embodiments may be used as well.

[0121] There are various benefits associated with the embodiments. For example, when multi-carrier is supported in one cell and cross-carrier scheduling is also supported, PDCCH monitoring for a scheduled carrier / cell can be located on one or more carriers in a cell with multiple carriers. It is beneficial for a network or UE to achieve the same PDCCH monitoring capability even with PDCCH load balancing. Embodiment Set IV

[0122] This disclosure describes various embodiments in which, when multiple carriers in a cell are supported, the PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier may be scheduled by self-carrier scheduling, cross-carrier scheduling, and / or multi-carrier scheduling. The BD / CCE / DCI size budget may be determined per carrier and / or per cell, and one of the following methods can be used to determine the BD / CCE / DCI size budget when multiple carriers in a cell are supported:

[0123] The first method involves setting a BD / CCE / DCI size budget per carrier equal to the legacy per-cell budget. In some implementations, the throughput for one carrier is the same / similar to one cell in the legacy CA framework. In some implementations, M / C_max is defined per carrier instead of per cell. For example, [ka] is expressed as the maximum number of monitored PDCCH candidates per slot and per carrier. In some implementations, M / C_total is still applied per SCS, while the number of DL carriers is used in the M / C_total calculation, which changes the number of DL cells to the number of DL carriers, as follows: [ka] For example, [ka] In some implementations, a DCI size budget is defined per carrier instead of per cell. For example, a UE is not expected to handle more than four total different DCI sizes configured to monitor for a carrier or DL ​​carrier, or more than three total different DCI sizes with C-RNTIs configured to monitor for a carrier or DL ​​carrier.

[0124] A second method includes setting a DCI size budget per carrier equal to the legacy per-cell budget and setting a BD / CCE budget for all carriers in a cell equal to the legacy per-cell budget. In some implementations, the BD / CCE processing capability for all carriers is the same / similar to that for a cell in the legacy CA framework. Meanwhile, the DCI size budget for a carrier is similar to that for a cell in the current CA framework. This method may be beneficial because multiple carriers in a cell are configured with different RRC parameters and the DCI sizes of DCI formats for different carriers are very different, while the PDCCH monitoring capability is limited for the UE. In some implementations, the DCI size budget is defined per carrier instead of per cell. For example, a UE is not expected to handle a total number of different DCI sizes configured to monitor for a carrier or DL ​​carrier that is greater than four, or a total number of different DCI sizes with C-RNTIs configured to monitor for a carrier or DL ​​carrier that is greater than three. In some implementations, a shared BD / CCE budget for all carriers in a cell, BD / CCE scaling factors for multiple carriers in a cell are configured. For example, assuming four carriers in a cell, α1, α2, α3, and α4 are configured for each carrier to scale the legacy BD / CCE budget per cell, e.g., α1 + α2 + α3 + α4 = 1. For another example, when the SCSs of carriers 0, 1, 2, and 3 in a cell are all 15 kHz and α1 = α2 = α3 = α4 = 0.25, the maximum BD per carrier is 44 × 0.25 = 11, and therefore there are a maximum of 11 BDs for PDCCH monitoring per carrier in cell 0.

[0125] A third method involves the DCI size budget for all carriers in a cell being equal to the legacy per-cell budget, while the BD / CCE budget per carrier is equal to the legacy per-cell budget. This method is advantageous because multiple carriers in a cell are configured with the same / similar RRC parameters and the DCI sizes of DCI formats for different carriers are the same / similar. Meanwhile, the PDCCH monitoring capability for a carrier can be considered as that for a legacy cell. Optionally, M / C_max per carrier is defined instead of per cell. Optionally, M / C_total is still applied per SCS, while the number of DL carriers is used in the M / C_total calculation, which changes the number of DL cells to the number of DL carriers. Optionally, the DCI size budget for all carriers in a cell is the same as the legacy per-cell budget. For example, a UE is not expected to handle more than four total different DCI sizes configured to monitor for a cell, or more than three total different DCI sizes with C-RNTIs configured to monitor for a cell, i.e., with respect to DCI formats, the DCI size is the same for each carrier in a cell.

[0126] A fourth method includes that the BD / CCE / DCI size budget for all carriers in a cell is equal to the legacy per-cell budget. Optionally, a shared BD / CCE budget for all carriers in a cell, and BD / CCE scaling factors for multiple carriers in a cell are configured. Optionally, the DCI size budget for all carriers in a cell is the same as the legacy per-cell budget.

[0127] A fifth method includes the BD / CCE / DCI size budget for all carriers in a cell being equal to or greater than the legacy per-cell budget and equal to or less than N times the legacy per-cell budget, where N is the number of carriers in a cell, the maximum number of carriers in a cell, or a value configured by an RRC parameter. Optionally, the detailed budget may be determined by a scaling factor based on the number of carriers or configured by an RRC parameter. For example, assuming four carriers in a cell, the BD / CCE budget for all carriers in a cell is α×N, where N is the number of carriers in the cell, N=4, and α=0.5 configured by an RRC parameter. As a result, the BD / CCE budget for all carriers in a cell is twice the legacy per-cell budget.

[0128] In various embodiments, the number of search spaces per carrier and / or the number of CORESETs per carrier may be determined by one of the following methods.

[0129] One method includes being the same as the legacy budget per BWP, and optionally when the maximum number of carriers in a cell is less than or equal to 4. For example, assuming a cell has 4 carriers, there are a maximum of 10 search spaces per carrier and a maximum of 3 CORESETs per carrier.

[0130] Another method involves being identical to the legacy budget per cell. For example, assuming a cell has four carriers, there are a maximum of 40 search spaces per carrier and a maximum of 12 CORESETs per carrier.

[0131] Another method includes redefining / scaling based on the legacy budget per cell, and optionally when the maximum number of carriers in a cell is greater than 4. Optionally, the scaling factor is derived based on the number of carriers in a cell, i.e., 1 / (number of carriers in a cell), or configured by RRC configuration. For example, assuming a cell has 8 carriers, there are a maximum of α×40 search spaces per carrier and a maximum of β×12 CORESETs per carrier, i.e., α=1 / 8, β=1 / 6.

[0132] In some implementations, optionally, PUCCH can be configured only in one carrier of a cell with multiple carriers. The carrier index order within a cell may be added to the constructed HARQ-ACK codebook. Optionally, when PUCCH carrier / cell switching is supported, more than one carrier within a cell, and optionally combined with other carriers within an SCell, can be configured, but only one carrier is used at a time. For example, both the carrier index and the cell index may be involved in a semi-static pattern or a dynamic indication.

[0133] There may be various benefits associated with the embodiments. For example, when multiple carriers are supported in one cell and the PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier can be scheduled by self-carrier scheduling, cross-carrier scheduling, or multi-carrier scheduling, the BD / CCE / DCI size budget may be determined per carrier and / or per cell based on the legacy per-cell budget without extensions. It may be beneficial for a network or a UE to achieve the same or different PDCCH monitoring capabilities for multiple carriers in one cell. Embodiment Set V

[0134] The present disclosure describes various embodiments that address some or all of the following when multiple carriers in a cell are supported and multi-carrier scheduling is supported: how to count DCI size and BD / CCE of MC-DCI, and how to configure a search space using MC-DCI.

[0135] In some implementations, in legacy multi-cell scheduling, the DCI size and BD / CCE of MC-DCI are counted on one cell of the set of cells. The search space of MC-DCI is configured on the cells of the set of cells. To monitor PDCCH candidates for the set of cells configured for multi-cell scheduling, n_CI in the search space formula is determined by a value configured for the set of cells by RRC signaling.

[0136] In some implementations, the DCI size and BD / CCE of MC-DCI are counted by one of the following: on one cell, where the BD / CCE / DCI size budget for all carriers in one cell is equal to the legacy per-cell budget; on one carrier, where the BD / CCE / DCI size budget per carrier is equal to the legacy per-cell budget; or the DCI size and BD / CCE can be counted on different reference carriers or cells, where one of the BD / CCE budget and DCI size budget is per cell and the other is per carrier.

[0137] In some implementations, the search space of the MC-DCI is configured by one of the following: on each cell and on each / subset / one carrier of the cells with multicarrier; on a subset of the set of cells and on each / subset / one carrier of the cells with multicarrier; on one cell of the set of cells and on each / subset carrier of the cells with multicarrier. Optionally, the PDCCH monitoring for the scheduled carrier / cell can be located on more than one carrier of the cells with multicarrier, or on one cell of the set of cells and one carrier of the cells with multicarrier. Optionally, the PDCCH monitoring for the scheduled carrier / cell is located on one carrier of the cells with multicarrier.

[0138] In some implementations, n_CI in the search space formula is determined in one of the following ways:

[0139] The first method involves n_CI in the search space equation being determined by a value configured for a set of cells, with there being more than one cell included in the set along with at least one cell with multi-carrier.

[0140] A second method includes n_CI in the search space formula being determined by a cell index and a carrier index or an extended CIF. For example, n_CI is replaced with N×n_CI+n_carriers, where n_CI is the carrier indicator field value when the UE is configured with a carrier indicator field by CrossCarrierSchedulingConfig for the serving cell whose PDCCH is monitored. Where N is the maximum number of carriers in a cell. In some embodiments, an extended CIF may be used, where the value of the extended CIF may be greater than 7, and / or the CIF may be configured per carrier, or per DL carrier, or per UL carrier. When only a single cell with multiple carriers is supported or configured, a carrier index may be used instead of a cell index.

[0141] A third method includes another configured value for a cell when the set of carriers are all contained within the cell. Optionally, for this method, only a single cell with multiple carriers is supported or configured with multi-carrier scheduling.

[0142] There may be various benefits associated with the embodiments. For example, when multi-carriers are supported in one cell and the PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier can be scheduled by self-carrier scheduling, cross-carrier scheduling, or multi-carrier scheduling, the search space of MC-DCI is configured or the BD / CCE / DCI size of MC-DCI is counted on one cell and one carrier / subset of carriers / each carrier of the cell. It is beneficial for the network or UE to achieve the same PDCCH monitoring capability or PDCCH load balancing. Embodiment Set VI

[0143] This disclosure describes various embodiments that address how to implement multi-transmission time interval (TTI) scheduling or repetition when multiple carriers in a cell are supported and multi-TTI scheduling or repetition is supported. In this disclosure, multi-TTI scheduling may refer to multi-PDSCH / PUSCH scheduling on the same cell. Embodiments may include one of the following methods.

[0144] The first method involves single-carrier transmission combined with multi-TTI transmission. Optionally, the multi-TTI transmission may occur only on the same single carrier within a cell. Optionally, the multi-TTI transmission may occur on multiple carriers within a cell, one carrier at a time. That is, when configuring the TDRA table, each SLIV or some SLIVs of the multi-PDSCH / PUSCH may be combined with a carrier index to indicate the carrier for each PDSCH / PUSCH.

[0145] For example, as shown in Figure 8A, the PXSCH may include a PUSCH or a PDSCH, cell 0 has four carriers, and multi-PUSCH is also supported. For the TDRA table, at least one row includes multiple SLIVs for the PUSCH, and each SLIV may also be configured with a carrier index. As a detailed example of RRC parameters, the UE is configured with the higher layer parameter pusch-TimeDomainAllocationListForMultiPUSCH, in which one or more rows include multiple SLIVs for the PUSCH on the UL BWP of the serving cell, and the UE does not expect to be configured with the numberOfRepetitions in pusch-TimeDomainAllocationListForMultiPUSCH. For one row with four SLIVs, the first, second, and fourth SLIVs will be configured with carrier index = 0, and the third SLIV will be configured with carrier index = 1. [ka]

[0146] A second method includes single-carrier transmission combined with repeated transmission. Optionally, the repeated transmission may occur only on the same single carrier within the cell. Optionally, the repeated transmission occurs on multiple carriers within the cell, one carrier at a time. That is, in addition to the numberOfRepetitions configured in the TDRA table, each repeated transmission or some of the repeated transmissions may be configured with a carrier index to indicate the carrier for each transmission, or a transmission / hopping pattern may be configured for the repetitions.

[0147] For an example, as shown in Figure 8B, the number of repetitions for PUSCH or PDSCH transmission is 4, and cell 0 comprises 4 carriers. For the TDRA table, at least one row contains numberOfRepetitions=4, the hopping pattern is configured within N carriers, i.e., N=2 for carriers 0 / 1, and the hopping interval is also configured by a higher layer parameter, i.e., numberOfRepetitions / 2.

[0148] A third method involves multiple carrier transmission combined with multi-TTI / repeated transmission. Optionally, repeated transmission on each carrier within a cell may be configured using a common hopping pattern based on the cell with multiple carriers.

[0149] For an example, as shown in FIG. 8C, the number of repetitions for PUSCH or PDSCH transmission is 4, and cell 0 comprises 4 carriers. A common hopping pattern is configured for cells with multicarriers, i.e., the hopping interval is configured by higher layer parameters with the same value for cells with multicarriers, i.e., one of 2, 4, 5, or 10 slots or subslots or groups of symbols based on the SCS. The carrier order for the common hopping pattern may also be configured, for example, with paired carrier pairs within a cell (e.g., carriers 0 and 2 as a pair) and another pair (e.g., carriers 1 and 3 as a pair). In some implementations, the carrier order for the common hopping pattern may be defaulted by ascending carrier index order.

[0150] There may be various benefits associated with the embodiments. For example, when multiple carriers are supported in one cell and multi-TTI / repetitive transmission is also supported, transmission across more than one carrier is disclosed using SLIV combined with carrier index or using hopping patterns between more than one carrier for repetition. It is beneficial for the network or UE to avoid invalid symbols / slots or achieve hopping gain between carriers. Embodiment Set VII

[0151] This disclosure describes various embodiments in which, when multiple carriers in a cell are supported, the PDSCH / PUSCH on each carrier can be scheduled by self-carrier scheduling, cross-carrier scheduling, or multi-carrier scheduling. Some DCI fields used for single-cell scheduling or multi-cell scheduling may be reused or updated for scheduling a cell with multiple carriers.

[0152] In some implementations, the SRS request may be extended to apply to one or more carriers within a cell using Type 1B. That is, a single field indicates separate information for each of the co-scheduled carriers within a cell via joint indication. For example, as shown in Table 4, when there is a 3-bit Type 1B for SRS requests for four co-scheduled carriers within a cell, each row represents the joint indication status of all carriers within the cell. [Table 4]

[0153] In Table 4, SRS 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 refer to values ​​of 00 / 01 / 10 / 11, which may correspond to the SRS resource set configured by SRS-ResourceSet where no aperiodic SRS resource set is triggered, the upper layer parameter aperiodicSRS-ResourceTrigger is set to 1, or the entries in aperiodicSRS-ResourceTriggerList are set to 1, 2, 3, respectively.

[0154] In some implementations, the SRS request may be extended to apply to only one carrier in a cell using Type 1C, i.e., a single field indicates information for only one of the co-scheduled carriers of the cell, such as when there is a 2-bit SRS request to indicate SRS 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 and a 2-bit carrier indicator to apply SRS transmission on one of the four co-scheduled carriers in the cell.

[0155] In some implementations, the rate matching indicator may be extended to apply for one or more carriers in a cell using Type 1B, i.e., a single field indicates separate information for each of the co-scheduled carriers in a cell via joint indication. This may also be applied for ZP CSI-RS triggering.

[0156] In some implementations, the SCell and / or carrier outage indication may operate at the cell level as legacy, or may be extended to apply to one or a subset of carriers in a cell, optionally with paired DL / UL carriers configured / supported in a cell with multiple carriers. Optionally, this may be applied separately for DL ​​and UL carriers, which may mean that the DL and UL carriers are decoupled and the DL and UL carriers are independently configured and not paired. For example, the field for the SCell and / or carrier outage indication may use each bit to indicate one or a group of cells with all carriers, or one or a group of carriers with paired DL / UL carriers, or one or a group of DL carriers, or one or a group of UL carriers.

[0157] In some implementations, the SCell and / or carrier dormancy indication is included in the multi-cell or multi-carrier scheduling DCI. Optionally, when all carriers or cells are scheduled without actual PDSCH or PUSCH based on disabled FDRA, i.e., when all bits of the frequency-domain resource allocation per carrier or cell are set to 0 for resource allocation type 0, or 1 for resource allocation type 1, or 0 or 1 for dynamic switching resource allocation type, the HARQ-ACK feedback for the MC-DCI (multi-cell scheduling downlink control information or multi-carrier scheduling downlink control information) used for dormancy indication is associated with a first sub-codebook. Optionally, when at least one carrier or cell is scheduled with actual PDSCH or PUSCH based on enabled FDRA, the HARQ-ACK feedback for the MC-DCI including the dormancy indication is associated with a second sub-codebook. Optionally, for the second sub-codebook, the HARQ-ACK bit order is first HARQ-ACK for the scheduled PDSCH and then HARQ-ACK for the pause indication, or the HARQ-ACK bit order is first HARQ-ACK for the pause indication and then HARQ-ACK for the scheduled PDSCH, or the HARQ-ACK bit order is HARQ-ACK for the scheduled PDSCH and for the pause indication based on cell or carrier index with ascending or descending order co-scheduled by MC-DCI.For the Type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook, two sub-codebooks are generated, where the first sub-codebook comprises HARQ-ACK information bits for PDSCHs scheduled by DCIs that schedule a single cell or carrier, respectively, and the second sub-codebook comprises HARQ-ACK information bits for PDSCHs scheduled by DCIs that schedule more than one cell or carrier, respectively.

[0158] In some implementations, the PDCCH monitoring suitability indication may be applied to all carriers or combined with the carrier suitability indication in the case of PDCCH monitoring on more than one carrier. When only one carrier of a cell with multi-carrier is configured with a PDCCH, the PDCCH monitoring suitability indication may be applied for the cell's carrier. When more than one carrier in a cell is configured with a PDCCH, the PDCCH monitoring suitability indication may be applied for only one carrier if the UE only monitors the PDCCH on only one carrier at a time, and applied to all carriers or combined with the carrier suitability indication if the UE performs PDCCH monitoring on more than one carrier. For example, in addition to the pdcch-SkippingDurationList configured in the time domain, the UE may also be configured with a PDCCH skip carrier pattern, i.e., a carrier order for PDCCH monitoring at a time, optionally combined with the pdcch-SkippingDurationList.

[0159] In some implementations, the carrier indicator or the BWP indicator may be used for carrier / UL-dedicated SCell addition / release. For example, the BWP indicator can be reused for the carrier index when the number of carriers in one cell is four or less and more than one BWP can be indicated at a time. Optionally, a pair or combination {carrier index, BWP index} needs to be defined or configured, and the field is changed to Type 1B and only for multi-carrier (de)activation. For another embodiment, the carrier index is independent from the BWP indicator, and one carrier can be configured with one or more BWPs, and the carrier indicator is used for multi-carrier (de)activation, with the BWP indicator still being Type 1A for all carriers.

[0160] In various embodiments, the above method may also be applied for UL-only SCell (de)activation. It is beneficial to avoid SCell (de)activation. Note that the carrier in the embodiments may be a paired DL / UL carrier, or a DL carrier, or a UL carrier.

[0161] There may be various benefits associated with the embodiments. For example, when multiple carriers are supported in one cell, some DCI fields used for one-cell scheduling or multi-cell scheduling may be reused or updated to schedule cells with multiple carriers. It is beneficial for the network or UE to achieve reduced control overhead and less complexity.

[0162] This disclosure describes various embodiments for a scheduling mechanism involving multi-carrier scheduling for multiple carriers within one cell.

[0163] In some embodiments, the association of scheduling carriers and scheduled carriers in the same / different cells can be determined by one of the following methods: Method 1: Configured in ServingCellConfig, where all carriers in the cell may be configured as scheduled carriers, or one carrier in the cell may be configured as scheduling carrier; Method 2: Configured in ServingCellConfig, where each carrier may be configured with scheduling information; Method 3: Configured in DownlinkConfig, where DownlinkConfig is configured for each DL carrier.

[0164] In some embodiments, the carrier index for the DL carrier and the UL carrier are independently configured, with the anchor DL ​​and / or UL carrier being explicitly configured or implicitly determined by the smallest index by default.

[0165] Some embodiments include defining a maximum number of cells and a maximum number of carriers for multi-carrier scheduling. Optionally, multiple carriers in one cell are included in one or different sets of cells / carriers. Optionally, co-scheduled carriers within a set of carriers may be configured by cell index and carrier index.

[0166] Some embodiments include PDCCH configuration / monitoring: Method 1: on only one carrier of a cell with multi-carrier; Method 2: PDCCH monitoring on more than one carrier of a cell with multi-carrier, and optionally on one carrier at a time.

[0167] Some embodiments include DCI size and BD / CCE budgets: Method 1: BD / CCE / DCI size budget per carrier equals legacy per-cell budget; Method 2: all carriers are shared per cell budget; Method 3: scaling / configuring or based on number of carriers. Other methods may include subcombinations of the above methods, where one of the BD / CCE budget and DCI size budget is per cell and the other is per carrier.

[0168] In some embodiments, the search space for MC-DCI is configured over one cell and one / subset / each carrier, or the BD / CCE / DCI size of the MC-DCI is counted over, where n_CI in the search space formula is determined by the cell index and carrier index, or another configured value for the cell if the set of carriers are all contained within the cell.

[0169] Some embodiments include multi-TTI / repetition transmissions on a cell with multiple carriers, including each SLIV paired with a carrier index and / or repetition with hopping between more than one carrier.

[0170] In some embodiments, the DCI field is used for cells with multiple carriers. (1) Carrier or UL-dedicated SCell addition / release or (de)activation may be based on the BWP indicator and a change to Type 1B, or the carrier indicator. (2) Each bit of the SCell and / or carrier dormancy indication may be used to represent one or a group of cells with all carriers, or one or a group of carriers with paired DL / UL carriers, or one or a group of DL carriers, or one or a group of UL carriers. (3) The PDCCH monitoring suitability indication applies to all carriers or can be combined with the carrier suitability indication in case of PDCCH monitoring on more than one carrier.

[0171] In various embodiments of the present disclosure, MC-DCI may refer to any or all of the following: multi-cell scheduling downlink control information and / or multi-carrier scheduling downlink control information.

[0172] The present disclosure describes a method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable medium for wireless communication. The present disclosure has addressed issues related to scheduling mechanisms involving multiple carriers within a cell. The method, device, and computer-readable medium described in the present disclosure may facilitate performance of wireless communication by solving issues / problems associated with resource determination mechanisms using MC-DCI, and thus may improve efficiency and overall performance. The method, device, and computer-readable medium described in the present disclosure may improve the overall efficiency of a wireless communication system.

[0173] References to features, advantages, or similar language throughout this specification do not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized using the present solution should or are included in any single implementation thereof. Rather, language referring to features and advantages is understood to mean that the specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present solution. Thus, discussions of features and advantages and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.

[0174] Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the present solution may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. Those skilled in the art will recognize, in light of the description herein, that the present solution may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other cases, additional features and advantages may be recognized in some embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the present solution.

Claims

1. 1. A method for wireless communication implemented by a wireless communication device, comprising: receiving a configuration comprising scheduling information for carriers in a cell, the cell comprising a plurality of carriers; deriving a set of parameters of the configuration for the carrier; A method comprising:

2. 1. A method for wireless communication implemented by a wireless communication node, comprising: determining a set of configuration parameters for carriers in a cell, the cell comprising a plurality of carriers; transmitting the configuration comprising scheduling information for the carrier; A method comprising:

3. the configuration comprises a serving cell configuration; The serving cell configuration may be: In response to the cell being a scheduling cell, a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier; or In response to the cell being a scheduled cell, a scheduling cell index of the scheduling cell and a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, comprising at least one of:

4. In response to the cell being the scheduling cell, the scheduling carrier index indicates that one carrier in the scheduling cell based on the scheduling carrier index is configured as a scheduling carrier and is used to schedule other carriers; 4. The method of claim 3, wherein, in response to the cell being the scheduled cell, the scheduling cell index and the scheduling carrier index indicate that each carrier in the scheduled cell is configured as a scheduled carrier to be scheduled by another carrier based on the scheduling cell index and the scheduling carrier index.

5. the configuration comprises a serving cell configuration; The serving cell configuration may be: In response to the carrier being a scheduling carrier, an information element indicating that the carrier is a scheduling carrier; or in response to the carrier being a scheduled carrier, the information element indicating that the carrier is a scheduled carrier, a scheduling cell index of the scheduling cell, and a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, comprising at least one of:

6. the configuration comprises a serving cell configuration comprising a downlink configuration list; Each downlink configuration corresponding to a downlink carrier is as follows: In response to the downlink carrier being a scheduling carrier, an information element indicating that the downlink carrier is a scheduling carrier; or in response to the downlink carrier being a scheduled carrier, the information element indicating that the downlink carrier is a scheduled carrier, a scheduling cell index of the scheduling cell, and a scheduling carrier index of the scheduling carrier. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, comprising at least one of:

7. In response to the downlink carrier being the scheduling carrier, the information element indicates that the scheduling carrier is configured as a scheduling carrier and is used to schedule other carriers; 7. The method of claim 5, wherein, in response to the downlink carrier being the scheduled carrier, the information element indicates that the scheduled carrier is scheduled by another carrier based on the scheduling cell index and the scheduling carrier index.

8. The carrier index for the at least one downlink carrier and the at least one uplink carrier is as follows: configuring a carrier index for the downlink carrier; or configuring a carrier index for the uplink carrier; The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the method is independently configured by at least one of:

9. At least one downlink carrier is an anchor carrier; 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the carrier index for the anchor downlink carrier further comprises at least one of the following: a minimum index or a default index.

10. Regarding multi-carrier scheduling, the maximum number of carriers to be co-scheduled; the maximum number of co-scheduled cells with co-scheduled carriers, or the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers and the maximum number of co-scheduled cells The method of any of claims 1 to 2, further comprising determining one of:

11. Determining the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers includes the following steps: determining the maximum number of co-scheduled carriers in a cell; or determining a maximum number of the co-scheduled carriers in a plurality of cells; The method of claim 10 , comprising at least one of:

12. For multi-carrier scheduling, the control channel is: Only one carrier of a cell with multiple carriers, or More than one carrier in a multi-carrier cell The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the surface is located on at least one of the surfaces of the substrate.

13. The control channel is located on more than one carrier of the cell comprising a plurality of carriers, and the control channel comprises: Switching the one or more carriers for monitoring the control channel according to a dynamic indication or a preconfigured pattern.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein monitoring is performed on one carrier at a time by

14. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the control channel is located on more than one carrier of the cell comprising multiple carriers, and the control channel monitors the same carrier using blind decoding (BD) or control channel element (CCE) scaling factors with respect to the carrier of the cell.

15. The size budget is: the size budget per carrier is equal to a predefined size budget per cell; the size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to the predefined size budget per cell; or the size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to or greater than the predefined size budget per cell, or equal to or less than N times the predefined size budget per cell, where N is one of the number of carriers in a cell, the maximum number in a cell, or a value configured by RRC signaling. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the temperature is determined according to at least one of the following:

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the size budget comprises at least one of the following: a BD size budget, a CCE size budget, or a DCI size budget.

17. The BD size budget, the CCE size budget, and the DCI size budget are as follows: The DCI size budget per carrier is equal to a predefined DCI size budget per cell, and the BD size budget and the CCE size budget for all carriers per cell are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively; or the BD size budget and the CCE size budget per carrier are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively, and the DCI size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to the predefined DCI size budget per cell. The method of claim 16 , wherein the distance is determined according to at least one of:

18. Regarding multi-cell scheduling downlink control information (MC-DCI), the DCI size budget, BD size budget, and CCE size budget of the MC-DCI are as follows: The DCI size budget, the BD size budget, and the CCE size budget for all carriers in a cell, counted on one cell, are equal to predefined DCI, BD, and CCE size budgets per cell, respectively; Counted on one carrier, the DCI size budget, the BD size budget, and the CCE size budget per carrier are equal to predefined DCI, BD, and CCE size budgets per cell, respectively; Counting on one carrier or one cell, determining that the DCI size budget per carrier is equal to a predefined DCI size budget per cell, and that the BD size budget and the CCE size budget for all carriers per cell are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively; or Determining that the BD size budget and the CCE size budget per carrier, counted on one carrier or one cell, are equal to a predefined BD size budget and a predefined CCE size budget per cell, respectively, and that the DCI size budget for all carriers per cell is equal to the predefined DCI size budget per cell. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the counting is performed according to at least one of the following:

19. Regarding multi-cell scheduling downlink control information (MC-DCI), the search space of the MC-DCI is as follows: on each cell and on each or a subset of carriers within said cell with multiple carriers; on a subset of cells and on each or a subset of carriers within said cells involving multiple carriers; on one cell and on each or a subset of carriers within said cell with multiple carriers; or On one cell and on one carrier within said cell with multiple carriers The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, configured according to at least one of the following:

20. The values ​​used in the search space equation for configuring the search space for the MC-DCI are as follows: based on cell index and carrier index, or responsive to a cell comprising a set of carriers, based on a configured value for the cell, the configured value being different from a carrier indicator field (CIF) of the cell; 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the distance is determined according to at least one of:

21. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein for multiple data channel transmissions on a cell with multiple carriers, a start and length indicator value (SLIV) of at least one of the multiple data channel transmissions is combined with a carrier index to indicate a carrier for the data channel transmission.

22. The method according to any of claims 1 to 2, wherein for multiple data channel transmissions on a cell with multiple carriers, repetition with hopping between multiple carriers is configured.

23. For a cell with multiple carriers scheduled by Downlink Control Information (DCI), the DCI may include: Indicators for carrier addition, release, activation, or deactivation; the indicator indicating uplink dedicated secondary cell (SCell) addition, release, activation, or deactivation; Each bit of the SCell dormancy indication represents at least one cell with all carriers, at least one carrier with paired downlink-uplink carriers, at least one downlink carrier, or at least one uplink carrier; Each bit of the carrier outage indication represents at least one cell with all carriers, at least one carrier with paired downlink-uplink carriers, at least one downlink carrier, or at least one uplink carrier; or A control channel monitoring suitability indication that is applied to all carriers or that is combined with a carrier suitability indication in response to control channel monitoring on more than one carrier. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, comprising at least one of:

24. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the indicator comprises at least one of the following: a carrier indicator or a bandwidth portion (BWP) indicator.

25. A wireless communication device comprising a processor and a memory, said processor configured to read a code from said memory and to perform a method according to any of claims 1 to 24.

26. 25. A computer program product comprising computer readable program medium code stored on the computer program product, the computer readable program medium code, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 24.

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