Enhanced switching between transmission methods and mappings in simultaneous multiple transmission point uplink transmission using multiple panels

Abstract

The present disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices related to switching between physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission modes. The device may identify downlink control information (DCI) received from a communication network indicating a first PUSCH transmission mode to use in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, determine the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a two-bit code point in the DCI, where the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode, and switch from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the two-bit code point and cause transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] [CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 485,220, filed February 15, 2023, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 485,221, filed February 15, 2023, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in their entireties.

[0002] [Technical field] The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for wireless communication, and more particularly to switching between transmission schemes and mappings for multiple transmission point communication using multiple panels. [Background technology]

[0003] Wireless devices are becoming more prevalent and are increasingly using wireless channels. The 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP®) is developing one or more standards for wireless communications. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an exemplary network environment, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating simultaneous multiple transmission point multiple panel transmissions in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 3A] 1 is an exemplary spatial domain multiplexed simultaneous physical uplink shared channel transmission using multi-panel transmission, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 3B] 1 is a single frequency network simultaneous physical uplink shared channel transmission using an exemplary multi-panel transmission, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4A]1 is an exemplary simultaneous physical uplink shared channel transmission using multi-panel transmission, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4B] 10 illustrates time division multiplexing repetition of multiple transmission points using exemplary multiple panels, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4C] 10 illustrates an exemplary single-panel, single-transmission point transmission, according to one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] FIG. 1 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process for example simultaneous multiple transmission point multiple panel transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 6] 1 illustrates a network in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 7] 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a wireless network in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components according to one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 9] 1 illustrates a network in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The following description and drawings sufficiently illustrate particular embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, algorithmic, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, portions and features of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0006] For cellular telecommunications, the 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) defines communication techniques, including those for beam obstruction detection and for the use of multiple transmission / reception points (multi-TRP), which may refer to the case where a user equipment device (UE) is connected to multiple transmission / reception points (e.g., antenna panels of a network-side device) using different respective antenna beams (e.g., each beam having an antenna direction).

[0007] Release 17 of the 3GPP new release supports multiple transmit and receive point (multi-TRP) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) repetition and physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) repetition, which means that the same uplink (UL) data or control information can be transmitted to multiple TRPs as multiple repetitions / transmissions in multiple time slots or sub-slots. However, there can only be one UL transmission opportunity for a particular TRP in each time slot or sub-slot. To more efficiently utilize multiple TRPs, the Rel-18 5G NR (Release 18 5th Generation New Release) system supports simultaneous multi-TRP multi-panel transmission in the UL when the UE is equipped with multiple antenna panels. In particular, to increase overall capacity and transmission robustness against potential channel interference, a UE may transmit data and control information targeting two or more TRPs simultaneously.

[0008] For multi-TRP uplink simultaneous transmission with multi-panel (STxMP), the layer combinations for UL multi-panel transmission can be enumerated with the constraint that the total number of layers across all panels can be at most 4 and the total number of codewords (CWs) across all panels can be at most 2. For example, if x and y are the number of layers corresponding to the first SRI / PINL field and the second SRI / PINL field, respectively, then x+y<=4, i.e., the possible combinations are 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, 2+1, 2+2, and 3+1.

[0009] Furthermore, in multi-TRP PUSCH transmission, different multiplexing methods may exist, such as spatial domain multiplexing (SDM), time domain multiplexing (TDM), and single frequency network (SFN). Other PUSCH transmission methods are Rel-17 multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition and single-TRP PUSCH transmission. Therefore, how to switch between different transmission methods should be considered. This disclosure proposes a method to solve this problem. In particular, the present disclosure considers methods for 1) DCI field design for dynamic switching between a single DCI SDM STxMP and a single TRP transmission (related to IDF AE6947), 2) DCI field design for dynamic switching between a single DCI SFN STxMP and a single TRP transmission (related to IDF AE6947), 3) dynamic switching between a single DCI SDM STxMP and multiple TRP TDM repetitions, 4) switching between a single DCI SFN STxMP and multiple TRP TDM repetitions, and 5) dynamic switching between a single DCI SDM STxMP and a single DCI SFN STxMP.

[0010] In one or more embodiments, the DCI field design may be used for dynamic switching between single DCI SDM (Spatial Division Mode) STxMP and single-TRP (sTRP, single-TRP) transmission, and a corresponding SRI / TPMI field mapping is provided. In one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Table 1 below, codepoint "00" in the dynamic switching DCI field indicates single-TRP mode with a first SRS resource set, and only the first SRI / TPMI field is used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "01" in the dynamic switching DCI field indicates single-TRP mode with a second SRS resource set, and only the second SRI / TPMI field is used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "10" in the dynamic switching DCI field indicates SDM STxMP mode, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. [Table 1]

[0011] In another embodiment, as shown in Table 2 below, codepoint "00" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates single TRP mode with a first SRS resource set, and only the first SRI / TPMI field is used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "01" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates single TRP mode with a second SRS resource set, and only the first SRI / TPMI field is used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "10" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates SDM STxMP mode, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. [Table 2]

[0012] In another embodiment, as shown in Table 3 below, codepoint "00" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates single TRP mode with a first SRS resource set, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "01" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates single TRP mode with a second SRS resource set, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "10" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates SDM STxMP mode, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. [Table 3]

[0013] The present disclosure may define a DCI field design for dynamic switching between single DCI SFN STxMP transmission and single TRP (sTRP, single-TRP) transmission and corresponding SR / TPMI field mapping. In one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Table 4 below, codepoint "00" in the dynamic switching DCI field indicates single TRP mode with a first SRS resource set, and only the first SRI / TPMI field is used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "01" in the dynamic switching DCI field indicates single TRP mode with a second SRS resource set, and only the first SRI / TPMI field is used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "10" in the dynamic switching DCI field indicates SFM STxMP mode, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. [Table 4]

[0014] In another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Table 5 below, codepoint "00" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates single TRP mode with a first SRS resource set, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "01" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates single TRP mode with a second SRS resource set, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. Codepoint "10" in the DCI field for dynamic switching indicates SFM STxMP mode, and both the first and second SRI / TPMI fields are used for SRI / TPMI indication. [Table 5]

[0015] This disclosure defines switching between single DCI SFN STxMP and multi-TRP TDM repetition. In one embodiment, the single DCI SFN STxMP mode and multi-TRP TDM repetition mode are configured by RRC, and switching between these modes is RRC-based. In another embodiment, switching between single DCI SFN STxMP mode and multi-TRP TDM repetition mode can be dynamically indicated by a DCI field. For example, codepoint "11" in Tables 4 and 5 above can be used to indicate multi-TRP TDM repetition.

[0016] This disclosure defines dynamic switching between single DCI SDN STxMP and multi-TRP TDM repetition. In one embodiment, switching between single DCI SDN STxMP mode and multi-TRP TDM repetition mode can be dynamically indicated by a DCI field. For example, codepoint "11" in Tables 1, 2, and 3 above can be used to indicate multi-TRP TDM repetition.

[0017] This disclosure defines dynamic switching between single DCI SDN STxMP and single DCI SFN STxMP. In one embodiment of the present invention, dynamic switching between single DCI SDN STxMP mode and multi-TRP TDM repetition mode can be indicated by a DCI field. For example, codepoint "11" in Tables 1, 2, and 3 above can be used to indicate single DCI SFN STxMP mode when SDM STxMP is configured as shown in Table 6 below, and codepoint "11" in Tables 4 and 5 above can be used to indicate single DCI SDM STxMP mode when SFN STxMP is configured as shown in Table 7 below. [Table 6]

[0018] [Table 7]

[0019] This disclosure defines the RRC configurations of "ul-FullPowerTransmission" and "codebookSubset." In one embodiment, the RRC configuration of "ul-FullPowerTransmission" may be the same across two panels in STxMP transmission and single TRP mode. In another embodiment, the RRC configuration of "ul-FullPowerTransmission" may be in the same group across two panels in STxMP transmission and single TRP mode, where group 1 is {"fullpowerMode2," "fullpower," no configuration} and group 2 is {"fullpowerMode1"}. In another embodiment, the RRC configurations of "codebookSubset" and "codebookSubsetDCI-0-2-r16" may be the same across two panels used for STxMP transmission and single TRP mode transmission.

[0020] For multi-TRP uplink simultaneous transmission with multi-panel (STxMP), the layer combinations for UL multi-panel transmission can be enumerated with the constraint that the total number of layers across all panels can be at most 4 and the total number of codewords across all panels can be at most 2. For example, if x and y are the number of layers corresponding to the first SRI / PINL field and the second SRI / PINL field, respectively, then x+y<=4, i.e., the possible combinations are 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, 2+1, 2+2, and 3+1.

[0021] Furthermore, in multi-TRP PUSCH transmission, there may be different multiplexing methods, such as spatial domain multiplexing (SDM), time domain multiplexing (TDM), and single frequency network (SFN). Other PUSCH transmission schemes are Rel-17 multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition and single-TRP PUSCH transmission.

[0022] There are multiple antennas equipped on each panel of the UE and the TRP. Therefore, the UE can perform precoding on the data and control information to be transmitted to achieve higher data rates and reliability. The precoding matrix for UL transmission can either be predefined as a codebook or calculated by the UE. In other words, two transmission modes are supported: codebook (CB)-based transmission and non-codebook (nCB)-based transmission. For CB-based transmission, the gNB provides a transmit precoding matrix indication to the UE in the DCI. The UE selects a PUSCH transmit precoder from a set of codebooks using an indicator called the transmitted precoding matrix indicator (TPMI). For nCB-based transmission, the UE determines its PUSCH precoder based on its measurement of the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) from the downlink and determines the number of layers of transmission based on the SRS resource indication (SRI) field from the DCI.

[0023] For CB-based transmission, the UE determines its PUSCH transmission precoder based on the SRI, TPMI, and transmission rank. For nCB-based transmission, the UE can determine its PUSCH transmission precoder and transmission rank based on the SRI when multiple SRS resources are configured. The SRI is a DCI field, and the TPMI and transmission rank are given by a DCI field called Precoding information and number of layers (PINL). However, the total number of layers across the two panels is up to four, and the two panels can transmit different numbers of layers, which is different from the Rel-17 multi-TRP PUSCH TDM repetition scheme. The codepoints / bits required for SRI and TPMI indication in STxMP mode and single-TRP mode are compared in Tables 8 and 9 below.

[0024] Furthermore, in Rel-17 multi-TRP PUSCH transmission, the maxRank and / or maximum number of layers (Lmax) configured by RRC applies to both PUSCH repetitions. However, in SDM STxMP PUSCH transmission, the two PUSCHs transmitted from the two panels may have different ranks. Also, in single-TRP mode, the UE may transmit a different number of layers than in STxMP mode. Therefore, how to configure maxRank and / or Lmax for the two panels should be considered. [Table 8] TIFF2026507405000010.tif205170 (Note: For ease of comparison, max,1 and L max,2 represents the configured maximum number of layers that apply to the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively, in STxMP mode, and L max N represents the maximum number of configured layers that applies to single TRP mode. SRS,1 and N SRS,2represent the number of SRS sources in the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively, in STxMP mode.)

[0025] [Table 9] TIFF2026507405000012.tif72170

[0026] As an example where one of the first and second SRI fields is used for SRI indication in single TRP mode (as shown in Table 8 above), (N SRS,1 =4,N SRS,2 =4,L max,1 =1,L max,2 =1,L max >1) or (N SRS,1 =4,N SRS,2 =3,L max,1 =1,L max,2 =1 or 2,L max >1), the length of the first or second SRI field is sufficient for the sTRP mode with four SRS resources, which requires four bits for the SRI field.

[0027] As another example where one of the first and second SRI fields is used for SRI indication in single TRP mode (as shown in Table 8 above), (N SRS,1 =3,N SRS,2 =3,L max,1 =1,L max,2 =1,L max >1) or (N SRS,1 =3,N SRS,2 =2,L max,1 =1,L max,2 =1 or 2,L max >1), the length of the first or second SRI field is sufficient for the sTRP mode with three SRS resources, which requires three bits for the SRI field.

[0028] As another example where one of the first and second SRI fields is used for SRI indication in single TRP mode (as shown in Table 1 above), (NSRS,1 =2,N SRS,2 =2,L max,1 =1,L max,2 =1,L max >1), the length of the first or second SRI field is sufficient for the sTRP mode with two SRS resources, which requires two bits for the SRI field.

[0029] In the example where both the first and second SRI fields are used for SRI indication in the single TRP mode (as shown in red in Table 8 above), there are four and two SRS resources in the two SRS resource sets for the STxMP mode, and the maximum number of layer values ​​for both SRS resource sets in the STxMP mode is 1, i.e., (N SRS,1 =4,N SRS,2 =2,L max,1 =L max,2 =1,L max >1). When switching from STxMP transmission with layer combination 1+1 to sTRP mode rank 2 transmission, 4 bits are required for SRI indication, but only 3 bits are present.

[0030] Similar to what was observed in the SRI field design, Table 9 above indicates that if only one TPMI field is used for a single TPMI indication when switching from SDM STxMP to single-TRP mode, either the first or second TPMI field may not have enough bits for scenarios where the single-TRP transmission has a larger "maxRank." For example, as shown in green in the first two rows of Table 2, if "maxRank1" = "maxRank2" = 1, "maxRank" = 2 / 3 / 4, "fullpowerMode2" is configured, "codebookSubset=fullyAndPartialAndNonCoherent," and there are four antenna ports on both panels, six bits are required for the single-TRP TPMI indication when switching from layer combination {1+1} to single-TRP mode with rank-2 transmission. However, each TPMI field has only five bits. (Note: For ease of comparison, "maxRank1" and "maxRank2" represent the configured maximum ranks applied to the first and second SRS resource sets, respectively, in STxMP mode, and "maxRank" is the configured maximum rank applied to the single TRP mode.)

[0031] Therefore, the DCI fields for SRI and TPMI indication in STxMP transmission may be redesigned. SRI and TPMI indication for multi-TRP PUSCH repetitions are currently unavailable for STxMP PUSCH transmission. The present disclosure provides a method for designing DCI fields for SRI and TPMI indication for STxMP PUSCH transmission.

[0032] This disclosure defines an SRS resource set configuration for the STxMP scheme. As indicated by the text in brackets [[]] in Table 8 above, to solve the problem that using both the first and second SRI fields is still not sufficient for SRI indication for higher rank transmission in single TRP mode, the following method can be used. In one embodiment, the number of SRS resources in the two SRS resource sets for STxMP transmission should be the same, i.e., N SRS,1 =N SRS,2 In another embodiment, the number of SRS resources in the two SRS resource sets for STxMP transmission may be the same or different, but further restrictions should be applied to the Lmax configuration and SRI field design for STxMP, which are proposed as follows:

[0033] The present invention defines DCI fields for SRI indication and Lmax configuration for the STxMP scheme when both the first and second SRI fields are used in the s-TRP mode. In one embodiment, when both the first and second SRI fields are used in the single-TRP mode, there are four and two SRS resources in two SRS resource sets for the STxMP mode, and the maximum number of layer values ​​for both SRS resource sets in the STxMP mode is 1, and the maximum number of layer values ​​for the single-TRP mode is a configuration greater than 1, for example, (N SRS,1 =4,N SRS,2 =2,L max,1 =L max,2 =1,L max >1), additional bits can be added to the first SRI field or the second SRI field. In another embodiment, both the first and second SRI fields are used for the single TRP mode, and there are four and two SRS resources in the two SRS resource sets for the STxMP mode, for example, (N SRS,1 =4,N SRS,2= 2), the maximum number of layers in the single TRP mode should not be greater than 1. In another embodiment, both the first and second SRI fields are used for the single TRP mode, and the maximum number of layer values ​​for both SRS resource sets in the STxMP mode is 1, i.e., (L max,1 =L max,2 = 1), the maximum number of layers in the single TRP mode should not be greater than either of the maximum number of layers in the STxMP mode. In another embodiment, when both the first and second SRI fields are used for the single TRP mode, the maximum number of layers in the single TRP mode should be less than the sum of the two maximum number of layers for the STxMP mode, i.e., L max <L max,1 +L max,2 In another embodiment, when both the first and second SRI fields are used in single-TRP mode, the resolution of the SRI table may be reduced when the total number of codepoints is not sufficient for single-TRP SRI. For example, (N SRS,1 =4,N SRS,2 =2,L max,1 =L max,2 =1,L max = 2), two code points can be reduced from the SRI table for single TRP mode.

[0034] The present disclosure provides a DCI field design for SRI indication and Lmax configuration for the STxMP scheme when one of the first and second SRI fields is used for the S-TRP mode. In one embodiment, when one of the first and second SRI fields is used for the single-TRP mode, the maximum number of layers in the single-TRP mode should be less than or equal to the larger value of the maximum number of layers in the STxMP mode, i.e., L max ≦max{L max,1 ,L max,2In another embodiment, when one of the first and second SRI fields is used for the single TRP mode, the maximum number of layers for the single TRP mode should be equal to one of the maximum number of layers for the STxMP mode, i.e., L max ∈{L max,1 ,L max,2} should be:

[0035] The present disclosure provides a DCI field for TPMI indication and Lmax configuration for the STxMP scheme when one of the first and second TPMI fields is used for the s-TRP mode. In one embodiment, when one of the first and second TPMI fields is used for the single-TRP mode, the maximum number of layers in the single-TRP mode should be less than or equal to the larger value of the maximum number of layers in the STxMP mode, i.e., L max ≦max{L max,1 ,L max,2 In another embodiment, when one of the first and second TPMI fields is used for the single TRP mode, the maximum number of layers for the single TRP mode should be equal to one of the maximum number of layers for the STxMP mode, i.e., L max ∈{L max,1 ,L max,2} should be:

[0036] The above description is for purposes of illustration and not limitation. Many other examples, configurations, processes, algorithms, etc. may exist, some of which are described in more detail below. Exemplary embodiments will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0037] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an exemplary network environment, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0038] The wireless network 100 may include one or more UEs 120 and one or more RANs 102 (e.g., gNBs), which may communicate according to 3GPP communication standards. The UEs 120 may be non-stationary (e.g., not having a fixed location) mobile devices or may be stationary devices.

[0039] In some embodiments, the UE 120 and the RAN 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to those of FIGS.

[0040] One or more exemplary UEs 120 and / or RAN 102 may be operable by one or more users 110. A UE may take on multiple distinct characteristics, each of which forms its functionality. For example, a single addressable unit may simultaneously be a portable UE, a quality-of-service (QoS) UE, a dependent UE, and a hidden UE. The UE 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and / or RAN 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device, including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile device, e.g., a static device. For example, the UE 120 may be a software enabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wireless device (e.g., a bracelet, a watch, eyeglasses, a ring, etc.), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabook™ computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular telephone functionality with PDA device functionality), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a PCS device, a PDA device incorporating a wireless communications device, a mobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively small computing device, a non-desktop computer, a CSL ("carry small live large") device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID),The device may include a mobile internet device, an "origami" device or computing device, a device supporting dynamically composable computing (DCC), a context-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A / V device, a set-top box (STB), a Blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digital video disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVD recorder, an HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), a broadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, an audio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat panel display, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), a digital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier, a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera (DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, etc. Other devices may also be included in this list, including smart devices such as lamps, air conditioners, car parts, household parts, appliances, etc.

[0041] As used herein, the term "Internet of Things (IoT) device" is used to refer to any object (e.g., appliance, sensor, etc.) that has an addressable interface (e.g., Internet protocol (IP) address, Bluetooth® identifier (ID), near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.) and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wired or wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communication interface such as a quick response (QR) code, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, NFC tag, etc., or an active communication interface such as a modem, transceiver, transmitter-receiver, etc. An IoT device may have a specific set of attributes (e.g., device state or status such as whether the IoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available for task execution or busy, etc.; cooling or heating capabilities; environmental monitoring or recording capabilities; light emission capabilities; sound emission capabilities; etc.) embedded in and / or controlled / monitored by a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, ASIC, etc., and configurable for connection to an IoT network, such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example, IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, microwave ovens, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools, washing machines, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, televisions, lighting fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers, electric meters, gas meters, etc., as long as the devices have an addressable communication interface for communicating with the IoT network. IoT devices may also include mobile phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.Thus, an IoT network may consist of a combination of "legacy" internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop or desktop computers, mobile phones, etc.) in addition to devices that typically do not have internet connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

[0042] Any of the UEs 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and 135 may be configured to communicate with each other wirelessly or wired via one or more communications networks 130 and / or 135. The UEs 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly with each other, with or without the RAN 102. Any of the communications networks 130 and / or 135 may include any one of a combination of different types of suitable communications networks, such as, but not limited to, a broadcast network, a cable network, a public network (e.g., the Internet), a private network, a wireless network, a cellular network, or any other suitable private and / or public network. Furthermore, any of the communications networks 130 and / or 135 may have any suitable communication coverage associated therewith, and may include, for example, a cellular network. Additionally, either of communications networks 130 and / or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic may be carried, including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted pair wire, optical fiber, hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceiver, radio frequency communications medium, white space communications medium, ultra-high frequency communications medium, satellite communications medium, or any combination thereof.

[0043] Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one or more communications antennas may be any suitable type of antenna compatible with the communications protocols used by the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, and 128) and the RAN 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include cellular antennas, 3GPP standard family compatible antennas, directional antennas, omnidirectional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, omnidirectional antennas, quasi-omnidirectional antennas, etc. The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupled to radio components for transmitting and / or receiving signals, such as communication signals, to and from the UE 120 and / or the RAN 102.

[0044] Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and / or directional reception while communicating wirelessly in a wireless network. Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and / or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays, etc.). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and / or reception in a specific respective direction or range of directions. Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission toward one or more defined transmit sectors. Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

[0045] MIMO beamforming in a wireless network may be achieved using RF beamforming and / or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, when performing a given MIMO transmission, the UE 120 and / or the RAN 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communication antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

[0046] Both the UE 120 (e.g., UEs 124, 126, 128) and the RAN 102 may include any suitable radio and / or transceiver for transmitting and / or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in a bandwidth and / or channel corresponding to a communication protocol utilized by either the UE 120 or the RAN 102 to communicate with each other. The radio component may include hardware and / or software for modulating and / or demodulating communication signals according to a pre-established transmission protocol. The radio component may further include hardware and / or software instructions for communicating via one or more 3GPP protocols and using a 3GPP bandwidth. The radio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via the communication protocol. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A / D) converter, one or more buffers, and a digital baseband.

[0047] 1, in one or more embodiments, one or more of the UEs 120 may exchange frames 140 with the RAN 102. The frames 140 may include UL and DL frames that include simultaneous PUSCH transmissions using m-TRPs and s-TRPs, one or more panels, etc., as described herein.

[0048] It is understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not limiting.

[0049] FIG. 2 is a network diagram illustrating simultaneous multiple transmission point multiple panel transmissions in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0050] 2, UE 202 may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs (e.g., TRP1, TRP2). For example, TRP1 may include beam 204, TRP2 may include beam 206, and UE 202 may include beam 208 representing a first antenna panel (e.g., antenna panel) and beam 210 representing a second antenna panel (e.g., multi-panel). One of beams 204 may communicate with one of beams 208 (e.g., transmission beam 12), and one of beams 206 may simultaneously communicate with one of beams 210 (e.g., transmission beam 214).

[0051] FIG. 3A is an example spatial domain multiplexed simultaneous physical uplink shared channel transmission 300 using multi-panel transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0052] 3A, for an SDM STxMP transmission scheme using SDM with layer combination {2+2} and one CW (CW0), a codeword (CW0) using redundancy version (RV0) may be input to a CW-to-layer mapper 302 (e.g., in UE 202 of FIG. 2). Layer 1 and Layer 2 mapping may be duplicated to use a first TRP 304 with beam 1, precoder 1, and PC parameter set 1, and Layer 3 and Layer 4 mapping may be duplicated to use a second TRP 306 with beam 2, precoder 2, and PC parameter set 2 for simultaneous TRP transmission.

[0053] FIG. 3B is an example single frequency network simultaneous physical uplink shared channel transmission 350 using multi-panel transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0054] Referring to Figure 3B, for the SFN STxMP transmission scheme, a codeword (CW0) using redundancy version (RV0) may be input to a CW-to-layer mapper 302 (e.g., in UE 202 of Figure 2). The Layer 1 to Layer 4 mapping may be replicated for use in TRP 304 and TRP 306 of Figure 3A to generate simultaneous transmissions from the TRPs.

[0055] FIG. 4A is an example simultaneous physical uplink shared channel transmission 400 using multi-panel transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0056] FIG. 4B is an exemplary multiple panel time division multiplexed repetition 430 of multiple transmission points, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0057] FIG. 4C is an exemplary single-panel, single-transmission-point transmission 460, in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0058] 4A, two simultaneous transmissions may occur from different panels (e.g., in UE 202 of FIG. 2). For example, during timeslot N, a PUSCH to TRP1 may be transmitted and a PUSCH to TRP2 may be transmitted by the same UE.

[0059] Referring to FIG. 4B, using TDM, a PUSCH to TRP1 may be transmitted in time slot N using panel 1, and a PUSCH to TRP2 may be transmitted in time slot N+1 using panel 2.

[0060] Referring to FIG. 4C, s-TRP transmission may transmit PUSCH to TRP1 during slot N using panel 1, but no PUSCH transmission is performed during slot N+1 using panel 2.

[0061] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 500 for example simultaneous multiple transmission point multiple panel transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0062] In block 502, a device (e.g., UE 202 of FIG. 2, UE 602 of FIG. 6) may identify DCI received from a communication network (e.g., 5GC 640 of FIG. 6). The DCI may include PUSCH transmission mode signaling from Tables 1-7 above, which includes a 2-bit codepoint signaling which PUSCH transmission mode to switch to and use for one or more PUSCH transmissions.

[0063] In block 504, the device may determine which PUSCH transmission mode to switch to based on the 2-bit codepoint in Tables 1-7 that represents the PUSCH mode of the DCI.

[0064] In block 506, the device may switch from its current PUSCH transmission mode to the PUSCH transmission mode signaled in the DCI, allowing the network to control which PUSCH transmission mode the device applies.

[0065] At block 508, the device may cause one or more PUSCH transmissions using the PUSCH transmission mode in the DCI signaling.

[0066] The examples herein are not intended to be limiting.

[0067] 6 illustrates a network 600 in accordance with various embodiments. Network 600 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G / NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that would benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems.

[0068] The network 600 may include a UE 602, which may comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 604 over a wireless connection. The UE 602 may be communicatively coupled to the RAN 604 by a Uu interface. The UE 602 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a head-up display device, an in-vehicle diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, etc.

[0069] In some embodiments, the network 600 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0070] In some embodiments, the UE 602 may further communicate with an AP 606 via a wireless connection. The AP 606 may manage a WLAN connection, which may function to offload some / all network traffic from the RAN 604. The connection between the UE 602 and the AP 606 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, and the AP 606 may be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) router. In some embodiments, the UE 602, the RAN 604, and the AP 606 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LWA / LWIP). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 602 being configured by the RAN 604 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0071] The RAN 604 may include one or more access nodes, such as the AN 608. The AN 608 may terminate air interface protocols for the UE 602 by providing access stratum protocols, including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 608 may enable data / voice connectivity between the CN 620 and the UE 602. In some embodiments, the AN 608 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 608 may be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 608 may be a macrocell base station or a low-power base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0072] In embodiments where the RAN 604 includes multiple ANs, the multiple ANs may be coupled to one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 604 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 604 is a 5G RAN). The X2 / Xn interface, which in some embodiments may be separated into control / user plane interfaces, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference control, etc.

[0073] Each AN of the RAN 604 may manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 602 with an air interface for network access. The UE 602 may simultaneously connect to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 604. For example, the UE 602 and the RAN 604 may use carrier aggregation to enable the UE 602 to connect to multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or an Scell. In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a master node providing an MCG, and the second AN may be a secondary node providing an SCG. The first / second ANs may be any combination of eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, etc.

[0074] The RAN 604 may provide an air interface over a licensed or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, a node may use LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on CA techniques using a PCell / Scell. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a medium / carrier sensing operation, for example, based on a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0075] In a V2X scenario, the UE 602 or the AN 608 may be or function as an RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a static (or relatively static) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU,” an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” and so forth. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a roadside radio frequency circuit that provides connectivity support to passing vehicular UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, and media, as well as applications / software for detecting and controlling on-going vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low-latency communications required for high-speed events such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. The RSU components may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller for providing a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or backhaul network.

[0076] In some embodiments, the RAN 604 may be an LTE RAN 610 having an eNB, such as eNB 612. The LTE RAN 610 may provide the LTE air interface with the following features: 15 kHz sub-carrier spacing (SCS), CP-OFDM waveform for DL ​​and SC-FDMA waveform for UL, turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management, PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation, and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate in sub-6 GHz bands.

[0077] In some embodiments, the RAN 604 may be an NG-RAN 614 having a gNB, e.g., a gNB 616, or an ng-eNB, e.g., an ng-eNB 618. The gNB 616 may connect to a 5G-capable UE using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 616 may connect to a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 618 may also connect to the 5G core through the NG interface, but may also connect to the UE through an LTE air interface. The gNB 616 and the ng-eNB 618 may connect to each other through an Xn interface.

[0078] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface (e.g., N3 interface), which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 614 and the UPF 648, and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface (e.g., N2 interface), which is the signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN 614 and the AMF 644.

[0079] The NG-RAN 614 may provide the 5G NR air interface with the following features: variable SCS, CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL, and polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for data control and LDPC. The 5G NR air interface, like the LTE air interface, may rely on CSI-RS and PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS. The 5G NR air interface may not use CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation, PTRS for PDSCH phase tracking, and tracking reference signals for time tracking. The 5G NR air interface may operate in the sub-6 GHz band, which includes the 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz band, or the FR1 band, which includes the FR2 band. The 5G NR air interface may include SSB, which is an area of ​​the downlink resource grid that includes PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0080] In some embodiments, the 5G NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs can be used for dynamic SCS adaptation. For example, a UE 602 can be configured with multiple BWPs, each BWP configuration having a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 602, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case of BWPs relates to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs with different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) can be configured for a UE 602 to support data transmission under different traffic load scenarios. A BWP with a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmissions with low traffic, enabling power savings at the UE 602 and, in some cases, at the gNB 616. A BWP with a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic loads.

[0081] The RAN 604 is communicatively coupled to the CN 620, which includes network elements for providing various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 602). The components of the CN 620 may be implemented on a single physical node or on separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 620 onto physical compute / storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0082] In some embodiments, the CN 620 may be connected to an LTE CN 622, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 622 may include an MME 624, an SGW 626, an SGSN 628, an HSS 630, a PGW 632, and a PCRF 634 coupled together over interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the LTE CN 622 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0083] The MME 624 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 602 and facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

[0084] The SGW 626 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 622. The SGW 626 may be the local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other roles may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0085] The SGSN 628 may track the location of the UE 602 and perform security functions and access control. Additionally, the SGSN 628 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks, PDN and S-GW selection as specified by the MME 624, MME selection for handover, etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 624 and the SGSN 628 may enable the exchange of user and bearer information for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle / active state.

[0086] The HSS 630 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information, to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities. The HSS 630 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / address resolution, location dependency, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 630 and the MME 624 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data to authenticate / authorize user access to the LTE CN 620.

[0087] The PGW 632 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 636, which may include an application / content server 638. The PGW 632 may route data packets between the LTE CN 622 and the data network 636. The PGW 632 may be coupled to the SGW 626 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 632 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF). Furthermore, the SGi reference point between the PGW 632 and the data network 636 may be an operator-external public or private PDN or an intra-operator packet data network, e.g., for the provision of IMS services. The PGW 632 may be coupled to the PCRF 634 via a Gx reference point.

[0088] The PCRF 634 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 620. The PCRF 634 may be communicatively coupled to an app / content server 638 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for a service flow. The PCRF 634 may provide the associated rules to the PCEF (over the Gx reference point) with the appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0089] In some embodiments, the CN 620 may be a 5GC 640. The 5GC 640 may include an AUSF 642, an AMF 644, an SMF 646, a UPF 648, an NSSF 650, an NEF 652, an NRF 654, a PCF 656, a UDM 658, and an AF 660 coupled together over interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the 5GC 640 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0090] The AUSF 642 may store data and handle authentication-related functions for authentication of the UE 602. The AUSF 642 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 640 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 642 may expose a Nausf service-based interface.

[0091] The AMF 644 may enable other functions of the 5GC 640 to communicate with the UE 602 and the RAN 604 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events related to the UE 602. The AMF 644 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for UE 602 registration), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 644 may provide transport of SM messages between the UE 602 and the SMF 646 and act as a transparent proxy for routing of SM messages. The AMF 644 may also provide transport of SMS messages between the UE 602 and the SMSF. The AMF 644 may interact with the AUSF 642 and the UE 602 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Additionally, the AMF 644 may be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the RAN 604 and the AMF 644, and the AMF 644 may be the termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and may perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 644 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 602 over the N3 IWF interface.

[0092] The SMF 646 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment between the UPF 648 and the AN 608, tunnel management), UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization), UP function selection and control, traffic steering configuration in the UPF 648 to route traffic to the appropriate destination, termination of the interface towards the policy control function, policy enforcement, control of parts of charging and QoS, lawful interception (for SM events and interface to the LI system), termination of the SM portion of NAS messages, downlink data notification, initiation of AN-specific SM information sent over N2 to the AN 608 via the AMF 644, and determination of the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connection service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 602 and the data network 636.

[0093] The UPF 648 may function as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnection to the data network 636, and a branch point for supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 648 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), traffic usage reporting, user plane QoS processing (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), uplink traffic validation (e.g., mapping flows from SDF to QoS), marking transport-level packets in the uplink and downlink, buffering downlink packets, and triggering downlink data notifications. The UPF 648 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network.

[0094] The NSSF 650 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 602. The NSSF 650 may also determine the allowed NSSAIs and, if necessary, their mapping to subscribed S-NSSAIs. The NSSF 650 may also determine an AMF set, or a list of candidate AMFs, to be used to serve the UE 602 based on a preferred configuration, possibly by querying the NRF 654. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 602 may be triggered by the AMF 644 to which the UE 602 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 650, which may result in an AMF change. The NSSF 650 may interact with the AMF 644 over the N22 reference point and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network over the N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 650 may present an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0095] The NEF 652 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal publication / republication, AFs (e.g., AF 660), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 652 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle AFs. The NEF 652 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 660 and with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 652 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 652 may also receive information from other NFs based on the other NFs' published capabilities. This information may be stored in the NEF 652 as structured data or may be stored in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information can then be republished by the NEF 652 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes, such as analysis. Additionally, the NEF 652 may present an NEF service-based interface.

[0096] The NRF 654 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information about discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 654 may also maintain information about available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, terms such as "instantiate" and "instantiation" may refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 654 may present an Nnrf service-based interface.

[0097] The PCF 656 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them and may support a unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 656 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant to policy decisions in the UDRs of the UDM 658. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 656 may expose an Npcf service-based interface.

[0098] The UDM 658 may process subscription-related information to support processing of communication sessions by network entities and may store subscription data for the UE 602. For example, the subscription data may be communicated via the N8 reference point between the UDM 658 and the AMF 644. The UDM 658 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 658 and the PCF 656, and / or structured data for publishing and application data for the NEF 652 (including PFDs for application discovery and application request information for multiple UEs). A Nudr service-based interface may be presented to enable the UDM 658, PCF 656, and NEF 652 to access specific sets of stored data and to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of changes to the associated data in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE responsible for certificate handling, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identity processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 658 may present a Nudm service-based interface.

[0099] The AF 660 may provide application influence over traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0100] In some embodiments, the 5GC 640 may enable edge computing by selecting an operator / third-party service that is geographically close to the point where the UE 602 attaches to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementation, the 5GC 640 may select a UPF 648 close to the UE 602 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 648 to the data network 636 over the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 660. In this way, the AF 660 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, if the AF 660 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator may allow the AF 660 to interact directly with associated NFs. Additionally, the AF 660 may present a NAF service-based interface.

[0101] Data network 636 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services, which may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, application / content server 638 .

[0102] 7 schematically illustrates a wireless network 700 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 700 may include a UE 702 in wireless communication with an AN 704. The UE 702 and the AN 704 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, similarly named components described elsewhere herein.

[0103] The UE 702 may be communicatively coupled to the AN 704 via a connection 706. The connection 706 is shown as an air interface that enables the communicative coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating in mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies.

[0104] The UE 702 may include a host platform 708 coupled to a modem platform 710. The host platform 708 may include an application processing circuit 712 that may be coupled to a protocol processing circuit 714 of the modem platform 710. The application processing circuit 712 may execute various applications for the UE 702 to source / sink application data. The application processing circuit 712 may further implement one or more layer operations for sending / receiving application data to / from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and internet (e.g., IP) operations.

[0105] The protocol processing circuitry 714 may implement one or more of the layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 706. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 714 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0106] The modem platform 710 may further include digital baseband circuitry 716 that may implement one or more layer operations in a network protocol stack "below" the layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 714. These operations may include PHY operations including, for example, one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0107] The modem platform 710 may include transmit circuitry 718, receive circuitry 720, RF circuitry 722, and an RF front end (RFFE) 724 that may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 726. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 718 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc., the receive circuitry 720 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc., the RF circuitry 722 may include low noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, power tracking components, etc., and the RFFE 724 may include filters (e.g., surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and configuration of the transmit circuitry 718, receive circuitry 720, RF circuitry 722, RFFE 724, and antenna panel 726 components (commonly referred to as "transmit / receive components") may be specific to the details of a particular implementation, such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be configured with multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, located on the same or different chips / modules, etc.

[0108] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 714 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit / receive components.

[0109] UE reception may be established by and through antenna panel 726, RFFE 724, RF circuitry 722, receive circuitry 720, digital baseband circuitry 716, and protocol processing circuitry 714. In some embodiments, antenna panel 726 may receive transmissions from AN 704 by receive beamforming signals received by multiple antennas / antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 726.

[0110] UE transmissions may be established by and through protocol processing circuitry 714, digital baseband circuitry 716, transmit circuitry 718, RF circuitry 722, RFFE 724, and antenna panel 726. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 702 may apply spatial filters to data to be transmitted to form transmit beams that are radiated by antenna elements of the antenna panel 726.

[0111] Similar to the UE 702, the AN 704 may include a host platform 728 coupled to a modem platform 730. The host platform 728 may include an application processing circuit 732 coupled to a protocol processing circuit 734 of the modem platform 730. The modem platform may further include a digital baseband circuit 736, a transmit circuit 738, a receive circuit 740, an RF circuit 742, an RFFE circuit 744, and an antenna panel 746. The components of the AN 704 may be similar to, or substantially interchangeable with, similarly named components of the UE 702. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, the components of the AN 704 may perform various logical functions, including RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0112] 8 is a block diagram illustrating components that can read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. Specifically, FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic representation of hardware resources 800, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 810, one or more memory / storage devices 820, and one or more communication resources 830, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 840 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 802 may execute to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 800.

[0113] Processor 810 may include, for example, processor 812 and processor 814. Processor 810 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0114] Memory / storage device 820 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. Memory / storage device 820 may include any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0115] Communications resources 830 may include interconnect or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 804 or one or more databases 806 or other network elements over network 808. For example, communications resources 830 may include wired communications components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communications components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communications components.

[0116] The instructions 850 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 810 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 850 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 810 (e.g., in a processor's cache memory), the memory / storage device 820, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 850 may be transferred to the hardware resources 800 from any combination of the peripheral device 804 or the database 806. Thus, the memory of the processor 810, the memory / storage device 820, the peripheral device 804, and the database 806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0117] FIG. 9 illustrates a network 900 in accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0118] Network 900 may operate in accordance with 3GPP technical specifications or technical reports for 6G systems. In some embodiments, network 900 may operate concurrently with network 600. For example, in some embodiments, network 900 may share one or more frequency or bandwidth resources with network 600. As one particular example, a UE (e.g., UE 902) may be configured to operate in both network 900 and network 600. Such a configuration may be based on the UE including circuitry configured for communication with the frequency and bandwidth resources of both networks 600 and 900. In general, some elements of network 900 may share one or more characteristics with elements of network 600. For purposes of brevity and clarity, such elements may not be repeated in the description of network 900.

[0119] The network 900 may include a UE 902, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 908 over a wireless connection. The UE 902 may be similar to the UE 602, for example. The UE 902 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a heads-up display device, an in-vehicle diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, etc.

[0120] Although not specifically shown in FIG. 9 , in some embodiments, the network 900 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, a PSBCH, a PSDCH, a PSSCH, a PSCCH, a PSFCH, etc. Similarly, although not specifically shown in FIG. 9 , the UE 902 may be communicatively coupled to an AP, such as the AP 606, as described with respect to FIG. 6 . Furthermore, although not specifically shown in FIG. 9 , in some embodiments, the RAN 908 may include one or more ANSs, such as the AN 608 described with respect to FIG. 6 . The RAN 908 and / or the ANs of the RAN 908 may be referred to as base stations (BSs), RAN nodes, or using some other terminology or name.

[0121] The UE 902 and the RAN 908 may be configured to communicate over an air interface that may be referred to as a sixth-generation (6G) air interface. The 6G air interface may include one or more features such as communication in terahertz (THz) or sub-THz bandwidths, or joint communication and sensing. As used herein, the term "joint communication and sensing" may refer to a system that enables wireless communication and radar-based sensing through various types of multiplexing. As used herein, the THz or sub-THz bandwidth may refer to communication in a frequency range above 80 GHz. Additionally or alternatively, such a frequency range may be referred to as the "millimeter wave" or "mmWave" frequency range.

[0122] The RAN 908 may enable communication between the UE 902 and a 6G core network (CN) 910. Specifically, the RAN 908 may facilitate transmission and reception of data between the UE 902 and the 6G CN 910. The 6G CN 910 may include various functions such as an NSSF 650, an NEF 652, an NRF 654, a PCF 656, a UDM 658, an AF 660, an SMF 646, and an AUSF 642. The 6G CN 910 may further include a UPF 648 and a DN 636, as shown in FIG.

[0123] Additionally, the RAN 908 may include various additional functions in addition to or in place of the functions of legacy cellular networks, such as 4G or 5G networks. Two such functions may include a Compute Control Function (Comp CF) 924 and a Compute Service Function (Comp SF) 936. The Comp CF 924 and the Compute SF 936 may be part of or functions of a computing service plane. The Comp CF 924 may be a control plane function that provides functions such as management of the Comp SF 936, computing task context creation and management (e.g., create, read, modify, delete), interaction with the underlying computing infrastructure for computing resource management, etc. The Comp SF 936 may be a user plane function that acts as a gateway for interfacing computing service users (e.g., UE 902) and the computing nodes behind the Comp SF instance. Some functions of Comp SF936 may include analyzing computing service data received from users to compute tasks that can be performed by computing nodes, maintaining a service mesh ingress gateway or service API gateway, enforcing service and billing policies, performance monitoring and telemetry collection, etc. In some embodiments, a Comp SF936 instance may act as a user plane gateway for a cluster of computing nodes. A Comp CF924 instance may control one or more Comp SF936 instances.

[0124] Two other such functions may include a Communication Control Function (Comm CF) 928 and a Communication Service Function (Comm SF) 938, which may be part of the communication service plane. The Comm CF 928 may be a control plane function for managing the Comm SF 938, communication session creation / configuration / release, and management of communication session context. The Comm SF 938 may be a user plane function for data transport. The Comm CF 928 and Comm SF 938 may be considered as upgrades to the SMF 646 and UPF 648 described for the 5G system in FIG. 6. The upgrades provided by the Comm CF 928 and Comm SF 938 may enable service-aware transport. For legacy (e.g., 4G or 5G) data transport, the SMF 646 and UPF 648 may still be used.

[0125] Two other such functions may include a Data Control Function (Data CF) 922 and a Data Service Function (Data SF) 932, which may be part of the data service plane. The Data CF 922 may be a control plane function, providing functions such as Data SF 932 management, data service creation / configuration / release, data service context management, etc. The Data SF 932 may be a user plane function, acting as a gateway between data service users (such as the UE 902 and various functions of the 6G CN 910) and data service endpoints behind the gateway. Specific functions may include parsing and forwarding data service user data to corresponding data service endpoints, generating charging data, and reporting data service status.

[0126] Another such function may be a Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) 920, which may discover, orchestrate, and chain communication / computing / data services provided by functions in the network. Upon receiving a service request from a user, SOCF 920 may interact with one or more of Comp CF 924, Comm CF 928, and Data CF 922 to identify instances of Comp SF 936, Comm SF 938, and Data SF 932, configure service resources, and generate a service chain that may include multiple instances of Comp SF 936, Comm SF 938, and Data SF 932 and their associated computing endpoints. Workload processing and data movement may then occur within the generated service chain. SOCF 920 may also be responsible for maintaining, updating, and releasing the created service chain.

[0127] Another such function may be a service registration function (SRF) 914, which may act as a registry for system services offered in the user plane, such as services offered by service endpoints behind the Comp SF 936 and Data SF 932 gateways, as well as services offered by the UE 902. The SRF 914 may be considered the counterpart to the NRF 654, which may act as a registry for network functions.

[0128] Other such functions may include an evolved service communication proxy (eSCP) and a service infrastructure control function (SICF) 926, which may provide the service communication infrastructure for control plane services and user plane services. The eSCP may be related to a 5G service communication proxy (SCP) with the addition of user plane service communication proxy capabilities. Thus, the eSCP is represented by two parts, eSCP-C 912 and eSCP-U 934, for the control plane service communication proxy and the user plane service communication proxy, respectively. The SICF 926 may control and configure the eCSP instances with respect to service traffic routing policies, access rules, load balancing configuration, performance monitoring, etc.

[0129] Another such function is the AMF 944. The AMF 944 may be similar to 644, but may have additional functionality. Specifically, the AMF 944 may include potential functional repartitioning, such as moving message forwarding functionality from the AMF 944 to the RAN 908.

[0130] Another such function is a service orchestration exposure function (SOEF) 918. A SOEF may be configured to expose service orchestration and chaining services to external users, such as applications.

[0131] The UE 902 may include an additional function called a computing client service function (comp CSF) 904. The comp CSF 904 may have both control plane and user plane functions and may interact with corresponding network-side functions such as the SOCF 920, Comp CF 924, Comp SF 936, Data CF 922, and / or Data SF 932 for service discovery, request / response, computational task workload exchange, etc. The Comp CSF 904 may also cooperate with the network-side functions to determine whether a computing task should be performed by elements of the UE 902, the RAN 908, and / or the 6G CN 910.

[0132] The UE 902 and / or Comp CSF 904 may include a service mesh proxy 906. The service mesh proxy 906 may act as a proxy for service-to-service communications in the user plane. The capabilities of the service mesh proxy 906 may include one or more of addressing, security, load balancing, etc.

[0133] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components depicted in one or more of the preceding drawings may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described in the example sections below. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in connection with one or more of the preceding drawings may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below. In another example, circuitry associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the preceding drawings may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below.

[0134] The term "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" should not necessarily be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The terms "computing device," "user device," "communication station," "station," "handheld device," "mobile device," "wireless device," and "user equipment" (UE) refer to wireless communication devices such as cellular phones, smartphones, tablets, netbooks, wireless terminals, laptop computers, femtocells, high data rate (HDR) subscriber stations, access points, printers, point-of-sale devices, access terminals, or other personal communication system (PCS) devices. Devices may be either mobile or fixed.

[0135] The term "communication" as used in this document is intended to include transmitting or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving. This can be particularly useful when describing the configuration of data being transmitted by one device and received by another device in a claim, although only the functionality of one of the devices is required to infringe the claim. Similarly, a two-way exchange of data between two devices (both devices transmitting and receiving during the exchange) may be described as "communication" when only the functionality of one of the devices is claimed. The term "communication" as used herein with respect to wireless communication signals includes transmitting wireless communication signals and / or receiving wireless communication signals. For example, a wireless communication unit capable of communicating wireless communication signals may include a wireless transmitter for transmitting wireless communication signals to at least one other wireless communication unit and / or a wireless communication receiver for receiving wireless communication signals from at least one other wireless communication unit.

[0136] Unless otherwise specified, as used herein, the use of ordinal adjectives such as "first," "second," "third," etc. to describe a common object indicates merely that different instances of a similar object are being referred to and is not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given order, whether in time, space, ranking, or in any other manner.

[0137] As used herein, the term "access point" (AP) may refer to a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, an evolved node B (eNodeB), or other similar terms known in the art. An access terminal may also be referred to as a mobile station, a user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or other similar terms known in the art. TECHNICAL FIELD The embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operate according to one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

[0138] Some embodiments may be used with various devices and systems, such as a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumer device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communication station, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP), a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device, an audio device, an audio-video (A / V) device, a wired or wireless network, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal area network (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

[0139] Some embodiments may be used with one-way and / or two-way wireless communication systems, cellular radiotelephone communication systems, mobile phones, cellular telephones, wireless telephones, personal communication system (PCS) devices, PDA devices incorporating wireless communication devices, mobile or portable global positioning system (GPS) devices, devices incorporating GPS receivers or transceivers or chips, devices incorporating RFID elements or chips, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceivers or devices, single input multiple output (SIMO) transceivers or devices, multiple input single output (MISO) transceivers or devices, devices with one or more internal and / or external antennas, digital video broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard wireless devices or systems, wired or wireless handheld devices such as smartphones, wireless application protocol (WAP) devices, etc.

[0140] Some embodiments may utilize one or more wireless communication protocols, such as radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access (TDMA), Extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (DMT), Bluetooth, or global positioning system (GPS). The wireless communication signal and / or network may be used in conjunction with one or more types of wireless communication signals and / or systems according to the following standards: Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra-wideband (UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3.5G, 4G, 5GP, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, long term evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), etc. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems and / or networks.

[0141] Embodiments according to the present disclosure are disclosed in the appended claims, which are directed, inter alia, to methods, storage media, devices, and computer program products, and any feature recited in one claim category, e.g., a method, may also be claimed in another claim category, e.g., a system. Dependencies or references in the appended claims have been selected for formality reasons only. However, any subject matter resulting from an intentional reference to any preceding claim (e.g., multiple dependencies) may also be claimed, and as a result, any combination of claims and their features is disclosed and may be claimed regardless of the dependencies selected in the appended claims. Claimable subject matter includes not only combinations of features recited in the appended claims, but also any other combinations of features in the claims, and each feature recited in a claim may be combined with any other feature or combination of features in the claim. Furthermore, any of the embodiments and features described or illustrated herein may be claimed in a separate claim and / or in any combination with any of the embodiments or features described or illustrated herein or with any of the features of the appended claims.

[0142] The above description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0143] Certain aspects of the present disclosure are described above with reference to block diagrams and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and / or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Similarly, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily be executed in the order presented, or may not necessarily be executed at all, according to some implementations.

[0144] These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded into a special purpose computer or other specific machine, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions, executing on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing one or more functions specified in one or more blocks of the flow diagrams. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored on the computer-readable storage medium produce a product that includes instruction means for implementing one or more functions specified in one or more blocks of the flow diagrams. As an example, a particular implementation may provide a computer program product that includes a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code or program instructions embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in one or more blocks of the flow diagrams. Computer program instructions may also be loaded into a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus and cause the computer or other programmable apparatus to execute a series of operational elements or steps to create a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions executing on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more blocks of the flow diagram.

[0145] Thus, the blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions, and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by a dedicated hardware-based computer system that performs the specified functions, elements or steps, or combinations of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0146] Unless otherwise specified or understood otherwise within the context in which it is used, conditional language, particularly "can," "can," "may," or "might," is generally intended to convey that certain implementations may include certain features, elements, and / or operations, while other implementations do not. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and / or operations are somehow required in one or more implementations, or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for determining whether or not those features, elements, and / or operations should be included in or performed in any particular implementation, with or without user input or prompting.

[0147] Numerous modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. It is to be understood, therefore, that the disclosure is not to be limited to the particular implementations disclosed, and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

[0148] Various examples are provided herein.

[0149] Example 1 may include an apparatus of a user equipment device (UE) for switching between physical uplink shared channel transmission modes, the apparatus including a processing circuit coupled to storage, the processing circuit being configured to: identify downlink control information (DCI) received from a communication network indicating a first PUSCH transmission mode for use in physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions; determine the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a two-bit code point in the DCI, where the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode; and switch from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the two-bit code point and cause transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0150] Example 2 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the 2-bit code point indicates switching between an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and an s-TRP PUSCH mode, or switching between an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and an s-TRP mode.

[0151] Example 3 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein two Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) Resource Indications (SRIs) of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0152] Example 4 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein two transmit precoding matrix indicators (TPMIs) of the DCI configured for an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode or an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0153] Example 5 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein only one of the two SRIs of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0154] Example 6 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein only one of the two TPMIs of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single TPMI for s-TRP transmission.

[0155] Example 7 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein a first SRI field of the multiple SRI fields of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0156] Example 8 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein a first TPMI field of the multiple TPMI fields of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single TPMI for s-TRP transmission.

[0157] Example 9 may include the apparatus of Example 1 or Example 2 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is a multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition mode, and the switching is configured by radio resource control (RRC) or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in a DCI signaling the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0158] Example 10 may include the apparatus of Example 1 or Example 2 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is a multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition mode, and the switching is configured by RRC or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in a DCI signaling the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0159] Example 11 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode, and the switching is configured by RRC or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in a DCI signaling the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0160] Example 12 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the RRC configuration of codebookSubset and codebookSubsetDCI-0-2-r16 is the same across a first antenna panel of a UE device used for STxMP transmission and across a second antenna panel of the UE device used for s-TRP transmission.

[0161] Example 13 may include the apparatus of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein in the ul-STxMP transmission and the s-TRP transmission, the RRC configuration of FullPowerTransmission is the same across two antenna panels of the UE device or is within the same group. is.

[0162] Example 14 may include a computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, upon execution of instructions for switching between physical uplink shared channel transmission modes by a processing circuit of a user equipment device (UE), cause the processing circuit to identify downlink control information (DCI) received from a communications network indicating a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission mode to use in PUSCH transmissions, determine the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a two-bit code point in the DCI, where the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode, switch from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the two-bit code point, and cause transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0163] Example 15 may include the computer-readable medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the two-bit code point indicates switching between an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and an s-TRP PUSCH mode, or switching between an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and an s-TRP mode.

[0164] Example 16 may include the computer-readable medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein two sounding reference signal (SRS) resource indications (SRIs) of a DCI configured for an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0165] Example 17 may include the computer-readable medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein two transmit precoding matrix indicators (TPMIs) of a DCI configured for an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode or an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0166] Example 18 may include the computer-readable medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein only one of the two SRIs of a DCI configured for an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0167] Example 19 may include the computer-readable medium of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein only one of the two TPMIs of a DCI configured for an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single TPMI for s-TRP transmission.

[0168] Example 20 may include the computer-readable medium of Example 14 or Example 15 and / or any other example herein, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is an SDN STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is a multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition mode, and the switching is configured by radio resource control (RRC) or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in a DCI signaling the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0169] Example 21 may include a method for switching between physical uplink shared channel transmission modes, the method including: identifying, by a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE) device, downlink control information (DCI) received from a communication network, the downlink control information (DCI) indicating a first PUSCH transmission mode to use in physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions; determining, by the processing circuit, the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a two-bit code point in the DCI, the first PUSCH transmission mode being a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode; switching, by the processing circuit, from the second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the two-bit code point; and causing, by the processing circuit, transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0170] Example 22 may include the method of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein the two-bit code point indicates switching between an SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and an s-TRP PUSCH mode, or switching between an SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and an s-TRP mode.

[0171] Example 23 may include the method of Example 1 and / or any other example herein, wherein two sounding reference signal (SRS) resource indications (SRIs) of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

[0172] Example 24 may include an apparatus including means for identifying downlink control information (DCI) received from a communications network indicating a first PUSCH transmission mode to use in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission; means for determining the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a two-bit code point in the DCI, where the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode; means for switching from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the two-bit code point; and means for causing transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode.

[0173] Example 25 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of Examples 1-24, or any other method or process described herein.

[0174] Example 26 may include an apparatus including logic, modules, and / or circuitry for performing one or more elements of the method described or related to any of Examples 1-24, or any other method or process described herein.

[0175] Example 27 may include any method, technique, or process described in or related to any of Examples 1-24, or any part or portion thereof.

[0176] Example 28 may include an apparatus that includes one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or portion thereof, described in or related to any of Examples 1-24.

[0177] Example 31 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0178] Example 32 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0179] Example 33 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0180] Embodiments according to the present disclosure are disclosed in the appended claims, which are directed, inter alia, to methods, storage media, devices, and computer program products, and any feature recited in one claim category, e.g., a method, may also be claimed in another claim category, e.g., a system. Dependencies or references in the appended claims have been selected for formality reasons only. However, any subject matter resulting from an intentional reference to any preceding claim (e.g., multiple dependencies) may also be claimed, and as a result, any combination of claims and their features is disclosed and may be claimed regardless of the dependencies selected in the appended claims. Claimable subject matter includes not only combinations of features recited in the appended claims, but also any other combinations of features in the claims, and each feature recited in a claim may be combined with any other feature or combination of features in the claim. Furthermore, any of the embodiments and features described or illustrated herein may be claimed in a separate claim and / or in any combination with any of the embodiments or features described or illustrated herein or with any of the features of the appended claims.

[0181] The above description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0182] For purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0183] As used herein, the term "circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes, a hardware component such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or the like, configured to provide a described functionality. In some embodiments, a circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuitry used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code used to perform the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

[0184] As used herein, the term “processor circuitry” refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. A processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores for executing instructions and one or more memory structures for storing program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical central processing units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, triple-core processors, quad-core processors, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes. A processing circuitry may also include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. One or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and / or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous with “processor circuitry” and may be referred to as “processor circuitry.”

[0185] As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, etc.

[0186] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may refer to a device having wireless communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with or referred to as a client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0187] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to a physical or virtualized device and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0188] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic device, computing device, or component thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and configured to share computing and / or network resources.

[0189] As used herein, the terms "appliance," "computer appliance," and the like refer to a computing device or system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that is dedicated to virtualizing or emulating a computing appliance or otherwise providing specific computing resources.

[0190] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component in a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component in a particular device, such as a computer device, a mechanical device, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or usage, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, networks, databases and applications, workload units, etc. A "hardware resource" may refer to computational, storage, and / or network resources provided by a physical hardware element. A "virtualized resource" may refer to computational, storage, and / or network resources provided by a virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to a resource accessible by a computer device / system via a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any type of shared entity for providing services and may include computing and / or network resources. A system resource may be considered a consistent set of functions, network data objects, or services accessible through a server; such system resources may reside on a single host or multiple hosts and be clearly identifiable.

[0191] The term "channel," as used herein, refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium used to communicate data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous with and / or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and / or other similar terms that refer to a path or medium over which data is communicated. Additionally, the term "link," as used herein, refers to a connection between two devices over a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

[0192] As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiation," and the like refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0193] The terms "coupled" and "communicatively coupled," along with their derivatives, are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other by communication means, including through a wired or other interconnection, through a wireless communication channel or link, etc.

[0194] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element or the data element that contains the contents.

[0195] Unless used differently herein, the terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with those defined in 3GPP TR21.905 v16.0.0(2019-06) and / or any other 3GPP standard. For purposes of this specification, the following abbreviations (shown in Table 10) may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein:

[0196] Table 10: Abbreviations 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project 4G Fourth Generation 5G Fifth Generation 5GC 5G Core network AC Application Client ACK Acknowledgement ACID Application Client Identification AF Application Function AM Acknowledged Mode AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate AMF Access and Mobility Management Function AN Access Network ANR Automatic Neighbor Relation AP Application Protocol Antenna Port Access Point API Application Programming Interface APN Access Point Name ARP Allocation and Retention Priority ARQ Automatic Repeat Request Automatic repeat request AS Access Stratum ASP Application Service Provider ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One AUSF Authentication Server Function Authentication Server Function AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise BAP Backhaul Adaptation Protocol BCH Broadcast Channel BER Bit Error Ratio Bit Error Rate BFD Beam Failure Detection BLER Block Error Rate BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server BSS Business Support System BS Base Station BSR Buffer Status Report BW Bandwidth BWP Bandwidth Part C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity CA Carrier Aggregation Certification Authority CAPEX CAPital EXpenditure Capital Expenditure CBRA Contention Based Random Access CC Component Carrier Country Code Cryptographic Checksum CCA Clear Channel Assessment CCE Control Channel Element CCCH Common Control Channel CE Coverage Enhancement CDM Content Delivery Network CDMA Code-Division Multiple Access CFRA Contention Free Random Access CG Cell Group Cell Group CGF Charging Gateway Function CHF Charging Function CI Cell Identity Cell Identifier CID Cell-ID Cell ID (e.g., positioning method) CIM Common Information Model CIR Carrier to Interference Ratio Carrier to Interference Ratio CK Cipher Key CM Connection Management Conditional Mandatory CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service CMD Command CMS Cloud Management System Cloud Management System CO Conditional Optional Conditional Optional CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point CORESET Control Resource Set COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf CP Control Plane Cyclic Prefix Connection Point CPD Connection Point Descriptor CPE Customer Premise Equipment CPICH Common Pilot Channel CQI Channel Quality Indicator CPU CSI processing unit CSI processing unit Central Processing Unit C / R Command / Response field bit CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network Cloud RAN CRB Common Resource Block CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check Cyclic Redundancy Check CRI Channel-State Information Resource Indicator Channel State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator C-RNTI Cell RNTI Cell RNTI CS Circuit Switched CSAR Cloud Service Archive Cloud Service Archive CSI Channel-State Information CSI-IM CSI Interference Measurement CSI Interference Measurement CSI-RS CSI Reference Signal CSI reference signal CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power CSI reference signal received power CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal received quality CSI reference signal received quality CSI-SINR CSI signal-to-noise and interference ratio CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access CSMA / CA CSMA with collision avoidance CSMA / Collision avoidance CSS Common Search Space Cell-specific Search Space CTF Charging Trigger Function CTS Clear-to-Send Clear to send CW Codeword CWS Contention Window Size D2D Device-to-Device DC Dual Connectivity Direct Current DCI Downlink Control Information Downlink control information DF Deployment Flavor DL Downlink DMTF Distributed Management Task Force DPDK Data Plane Development Kit DM-RS, DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal DN Data network DNN Data Network Name Data network name DNAI Data Network Access Identifier DRB Data Radio Bearer DRS Discovery Reference Signal Discovery Reference Signal DRX Discontinuous Reception DSL Domain Specific Language Digital Subscriber Line DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer DSL Access Multiplexer DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot Downlink Pilot Time Slot E-LAN ​​Ethernet Local Area Network E2E End-to-End ECCA extended clear channel assessment (ECCA) ECCE Enhanced Control Channel Element Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE ED Energy Detection EDGE Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution EAS Edge Application Server Edge application server EASID Edge Application Server Identification ECS Edge Configuration Server Edge Configuration Server ECSP Edge Computing Service Provider EDN Edge Data Network Edge Data Network EEC Edge Enabler Client EECID Edge Enabler Client Identification Edge Enabler Client Identification EES Edge Enabler Server EESID Edge Enabler Server Identification Edge Enabler Server Identification EHE Edge Hosting Environment EGMF Exposure Governance tableManagement Function EGPRS Enhanced GPRS EIR Equipment Identity Register ELaA enhanced Licensed Assisted Access Enhanced License Assisted Access, Enhanced LAA EM Element Manager eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband EMS Element Management System eNB evolved NodeB Evolved NodeB, E-UTRAN NodeB EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity EPC Evolved Packet Core EPDCCH enhanced PDCCH Enhanced PDCCH, Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel EPRE Energy per resource element EPS Evolved Packet System EREG enhanced REG, Enhanced Resource Element Group ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System eUICC embedded UICC embedded universal integrated circuit card E-UTRA Evolved UTRA Evolved UTRA E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN EV2X Enhanced V2X F1AP F1 Application Protocol F1 Application Protocol F1-C F1 Control plane interface F1 control plane interface F1-U F1 User plane interface F1 User plane interface FACCH Fast Associated Control CHannel FACCH / F Fast Associated Control Channel / Full rate FACCH / H Fast Associated Control Channel / Half rate FACH Forward Access Channel FAUSCH Fast Uplink Signalling Channel FB Functional Block FBI Feedback Information FCC Federal Communications Commission FCCH Frequency Correction Channel FDD Frequency Division Duplex FDM Frequency Division Multiplex FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access FE Front End FEC Forward Error Correction FFS For Further Study FFT Fast Fourier Transformation feLAA further enhanced Licensed Assisted Access Further enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, further enhanced LAA FN Frame Number FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array FR Frequency Range FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity GERAN GSM EDGE RAN GSM Edge RAN, GSM Edge Radio Access Network GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node Gateway GPRS Support Node GLONASS GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (English name: Global Navigation Satellite System) Global Navigation Satellite System gNB Next Generation NodeB Next Generation NodeB gNB-CU gNB-centralized unit, Next Generation NodeB centralized unit gNB centralized unit, Next Generation NodeB centralized unit gNB-DU gNB-distributed unit, Next Generation NodeB distributed unit gNB distributed unit, Next Generation NodeB distributed unit GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System GPRS General Packet Radio Service GPSI Generic Public Subscription Identifier GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Groupe Special Mobile Global System for Mobile Communications GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol GTP-U GPRS Tunneling Protocol for User Plane GPRS Tunneling Protocol for User Plane GTS Go To Sleep Signal (WUS related) GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identifier Globally Unique MME Identifier GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity Globally Unique Temporary UE Identifier HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request HANDO Handover HFN HyperFrame Number Hyperframe number HHO Hard Handover HLR Home Location Register HN Home Network Home Network HO Handover HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network HSDPA High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access HSN Hopping Sequence Number Hopping Sequence Number HSPA High Speed ​​Packet Access HSS Home Subscriber Server HSUPA High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol HTTPS Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http / 1.1 over SSL, i.e. port 443) I-Block Information Block ICCID Integrated Circuit Card Identification IAB Integrated Access and Backhaul ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination ID Identity, identifier IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform IE Information element IBE In-Band Emission IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEI Information Element Identifier IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length IETF Internet Engineering Task Force IF Infrastructure IM Interference Measurement Intermodulation IP Multimedia IMC IMS Credentials IMS Credentials IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity IMGI International mobile group identity IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity IP Multimedia Private Identity IMPU IP Multimedia PUblic identity IP Multimedia Public Identity IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity IoT Internet of Things IP Internet Protocol Ipsec IP Security, Internet Protocol Security IP-CAN IP-Connectivity Access Network IP-M IP Multicast IP Multicast IPv4 Internet Protocol Version 4 IPv6 Internet Protocol Version 6 IR Infrared IS In Sync IRP Integration Reference Point ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network ISIM IM Services Identity Module ISO International Organisation for Standardisation ISP Internet Service Provider IWF Interworking-Function I-WLAN Interworking WLAN Convolutional code constraint length, USIM individual key kB Kilobyte (1000 bytes) kbps kilo-bits per second Kc Ciphering key Ki Individual subscriber authentication key KPI Key Performance Indicator KQI Key Quality Indicator KSI Key Set Identifier ksps kilo-symbols per second KVM Kernel Virtual Machine L1 Layer 1 Layer 1 (physical layer) L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power L2 Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) L3 Layer 3 (Network Layer) LAA Licensed Assisted Access LAN Local Area Network LADN Local Area Data Network Local Area Data Network LBT Listen Before Talk LCM LifeCycle Management LCR Low Chip Rate LCS Location Services LCID Logical Channel ID Logical Channel ID LI Layer Indicator Layer Indicator LLC Logical Link Control Low Layer Compatibility LPLMN Local PLMN LPP LTE Positioning Protocol LSB Least Significant Bit LTE Long Term Evolution LWA LTE-WLAN aggregation LTE-WLAN aggregation LWIP LTE / WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel LTE / WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel LTE Long Term Evolution M2M Machine-to-Machine MAC Medium Access Control (Protocol Layering Context) MAC Message authentication code (security / encryption context) MAC-A MAC used for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context) MAC-I MAC used for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3 context) MANO Management and Orchestration Management and Orchestration MBMS Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network MCC Mobile Country Code MCG Master Cell Group MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time MCS Modulation and coding scheme MDAF Management Data Analytics Function MDAS Management Data Analytics Service Management Data Analytics Service MDT Minimization of Drive Tests ME Mobile Equipment MeNB master eNB master eNB MER Message Error Ratio Message error rate MGL Measurement Gap Length Measurement gap length MGRP Measurement Gap Repetition Period Measurement gap repetition period MIB Master Information Block Management Information Base MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output MLC Mobile Location Centre MM Mobility Management Mobility Management MME Mobility Management Entity MN Master Node MNO Mobile Network Operator MO Measurement Object Mobile Originated MPBCH MTC Physical Broadcast CHannel MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control CHannel MTC Physical Downlink Control CHannel MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared CHannel MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access CHannel MPUSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel MPLS MultiProtocol Label Switching MS Mobile Station Mobile station MSB Most Significant Bit MSC Mobile Switching Centre MSI Minimum System Information MCH Scheduling Information MSID Mobile Station Identifier MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number MT Mobile Terminated, Mobile Termination MTC Machine-Type Communications mMTC massive MTC, massive Machine-Type Communications MU-MIMO Multi User MIMO MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS MTC wake-up signal NACK Negative Acknowledgement NAI Network Access Identifier NAS Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum layer NCT Network Connectivity Topology NC-JT Non-Coherent Joint Transmission NEC Network Capability Exposure NE-DC NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity NEF Network Exposure Function NF Network Function NFP Network Forwarding Path NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor NFV Network Functions Virtualization NFVI NFV Infrastructure NFV Infrastructure NFVO NFV Orchestrator NFV Orchestrator NG Next Generation, Next Gen Next Generation NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity NM Network Manager NMS Network Management System N-PoP Network Point of Presence NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast CHannel NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control CHannel NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared CHannel Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared CHannel Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal NSSS Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal NR New Radio New Radio Neighbor Relation NRF NF Repository Function NRS Narrowband Reference Signal NS Network Service NSA Non-Standalone operation mode NSD Network Service Descriptor NSR Network Service Record NSSAI Network Slice Selection Assistance Information S-NNSAI Single-NSSAI Single NSSAI NSSF Network Slice Selection Function NW Network NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, Narrowband WUS Narrowband wake-up signal, Narrowband WUS NZP Non-Zero Power O&M Operation and Maintenance ODU2 Optical channel Data Unit - type 2 OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access OOB Out-of-band OOS Out of Sync OPEX OPErating EXpense operating expenses OSI Other System Information Other system information OSS Operations Support System OTA (over-the-air) PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio Peak-to-Average Power Ratio PAR Peak to Average Ratio PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel Physical Broadcast Channel PC Power Control Personal Computer PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC PCell Primary Cell Primary Cell PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function PCF Policy Control Function PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function Policy control and charging rules function PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel Physical Downlink Control Channel PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDN Packet Data Network Public Data Network PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel Physical Downlink Shared Channel PDU Protocol Data Unit PEI Permanent Equipment Identifiers PFD Packet Flow Description P-GW PDN Gateway PDN Gateway PHICH Physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel PHY Physical layer PLMN Public Land Mobile Network PIN Personal Identification Number PM Performance Measurement Performance measurement PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator PNF Physical Network Function PNFD Physical Network Function Descriptor PNFR Physical Network Function Record POC PTT over Cellular PP, PTP Point-to-Point PPP Point-to-Point Protocol PRACH Physical RACH Physical RACH PRB Physical resource block PRG Physical resource block group ProSe Proximity Service, Proximity-Based Service PRS Positioning Reference Signal PRR Packet Reception Radio PS Packet Services PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel Physical Sidelink Shared Channel PSCell Primary SCel Primary SCell PSS Primary Synchronization Signal PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network PT-RS Phase-tracking reference signal Phase-tracking reference signal PTT Push-to-Talk PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel Physical Uplink Shared Channel QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation QCI QoS class of identifier QoS class of identifier QCL Quasi co-location QFI QoS Flow ID, QoS Flow Identifier QoS flow ID, QoS flow identifier QoS Quality of Service QPSK Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI Random Access RNTI RAB Radio Access Bearer Random Access Burst RACH Random Access Channel RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial In User Service RAN Radio Access Network RAND RANDom number Random number (used for authentication) RAR Random Access Response RAT Radio Access Technology RAU Routing Area Update RB Resource block Radio Bearer RBG Resource block group REG Resource Element Group Resource Element Group Rel Release REQ REQuest request RF Radio Frequency RI Rank Indicator RIV Resource indicator value RL Radio Link RLC Radio Link Control Radio Link Control layer RLC AM RLC Acknowledged Mode RLC acknowledged mode RLC UM RLC Unacknowledged Mode RLC unacknowledged mode RLF Radio Link Failure Radio link failure RLM Radio Link Monitoring RLM-RS Reference Signal for RLM Reference signal for RLM RM Registration Management RMC Reference Measurement Channel RMSI Remaining MSI Remaining MSI Remaining Minimum System Information Remaining Minimum System Information RN Relay Node RNC Radio Network Controller RNL Radio Network Layer RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier Radio Network Temporary Identifier ROHC RObust Header Compression RRC Radio Resource Control Radio Resource Control layer RRM Radio Resource Management RS Reference Signal Reference signal RSRP Reference Signal Received Power RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator RSU Road Side Unit RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference RTP Real Time Protocol RTS Ready-To-Send Send request RTT Round Trip Time Rx Reception, Receiving Receiver S1AP S1 Application Protocol S1-MME S1 for the control plane S1-U S1 for the user plane S-GW Serving Gateway S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier SA Standalone operation mode SAE System Architecture Evolution SAP Service Access Point SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor SAPI Service Access Point Identifier SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC SCell Secondary Cell Secondary Cell SCEF Service Capability Exposure Function SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access SCG Secondary Cell Group Secondary Cell Group SCM Security Context Management SCS Subcarrier Spacing SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer SDL Supplementary Downlink SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function SDP Session Description Protocol SDSF Structured Data Storage Function SDU Service Data Unit SEAF Security Anchor Function SeNB secondary eNB secondary eNB SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy SFI Slot format indication SFTD Space-Frequency Time Diversity SFN and frame timing difference SFN System Frame Number System Frame Number SGnB Secondary gNB Secondary gNB SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node S-GW Serving Gateway SI System Information SI-RNTI System Information RNTI System Information RNTI SIB System Information Block SIM Subscriber Identity Module SIP Session Initiated Protocol SiP System in Package SL Sidelink SLA Service Level Agreement SM Session Management SMF Session Management Function SMS Short Message Service SMSF SMS Function SMTC SSB-based Measurement Timing Configuration SN Secondary Node Secondary Node Sequence Number SoC System on Chip SON Self-Organizing Network SPCell Special Cell Special Cell SP-CSI-RNTI Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI SPS Semi-Persistent Scheduling SQN Sequence number SR Scheduling Request Scheduling request SRB Signalling Radio Bearer SRS Sounding Reference Signal SS Synchronization Signal Synchronization signal SSB Synchronization Signal Block SSID Service Set Identifier SS / PBCH Block SSBRI SS / PBCH Block SSBRI SS / PBCH Block Resource Indicator Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator SSC Session and Service Continuity SS-RSRP Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Power SS-RSRQ Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Quality SS-SINR Synchronization Signal based Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal SSSG Search Space Set Group SSSIF Search Space Set Indicator Search Space Set Indicator SST Slice / Service Types SU-MIMO Single User MIMO Single User MIMO SUL Supplementary Uplink TA Timing Advance Tracking Area TAC Tracking Area Code TAG Timing Advance Group Timing Advance Group TAI Tracking Area Identity Tracking Area Identifier TAU Tracking Area Update Tracking Area Update TB Transport Block TBS Transport Block Size TBD To Be Defined TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator TCP Transmission Communication Protocol TDD Time Division Duplex Time Division Duplex TDM Time Division Multiplexing TDMA Time Division Multiple Access TE Terminal Equipment TEID Tunnel End Point Identifier TFT Traffic Flow Template TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity TNL Transport Network Layer TPC Transmit Power Control TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator TR Technical Report TRP, TRxP Transmission Reception Point TRS Tracking Reference Signal TRx Transceiver TS Technical Specifications Technical Standard TTI Transmission Time Interval Tx Transmission, Transmitting Transmitter U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identifier UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter UCI Uplink Control Information Uplink control information UE User Equipment UDM Unified Data Management UDP User Datagram Protocol UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function Unstructured Data Storage Network Function UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card UL Uplink UM Unacknowledged Mode Unacknowledged mode UML Unified Modelling Language UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System UP User Plane UPF User Plane Function URI Uniform Resource Identifier URL Uniform Resource Locator URLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency USB Universal Serial Bus USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module USS UE-specific search space UE-specific search space search space UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot Uplink Pilot Time Slot V2I Vehicle-to-Infrastruction V2P Vehicle-to-Pedestrian V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle V2X Vehicle-to-everything VIM Virtualized Infrastructure Manager VL Virtual Link VLAN Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network VM Virtual Machine VNF Virtualized Network Function VNFFG VNF Forwarding Graph VNFFGD VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor VNFM VNF Manager VNF Manager VoIP Voice-over-IP, Voice-over-Internet Protocol VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network VPN Virtual Private Network VRB Virtual Resource Block WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access WLAN Wireless Local Area Network WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network X2-C X2-Control plane X2 control plane X2-U X2-User plane X2 user plane XML eXtensible Markup Language XRES EXpected user RESponse Expected user response XOR eXclusive OR exclusive OR ZC Zadoff-Chu ZP Zero Power

Claims

1. 1. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) device for switching between physical uplink shared channel transmission modes, comprising: a processing circuit coupled to the storage; The processing circuitry Identifying downlink control information (DCI) received from a communications network indicating a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission mode for use in a PUSCH transmission; Determine the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a 2-bit code point in the DCI, where the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode; Switching from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the 2-bit code point; causing transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode. The apparatus is configured to:

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the 2-bit code point indicates switching between the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the s-TRP PUSCH mode, or switching between the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and the s-TRP mode.

3. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is the multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition mode, and the switching is configured by radio resource control (RRC) or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in the DCI signaling the first PUSCH transmission mode.

4. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is the Multi-TRP TDM PUSCH repetition mode, and the switching is configured by RRC or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in the DCI signaling the first PUSCH transmission mode.

5. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein two sounding reference signal (SRS) resource indications (SRIs) of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

6. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein two transmit precoding matrix indicators (TPMIs) of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode or the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode are used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

7. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein only one of two SRIs of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

8. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein only one of two TPMIs of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single TPMI for s-TRP transmission.

9. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a first SRI field of multiple SRI fields of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

10. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a first TPMI field of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single TPMI for s-TRP transmission.

11. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the second PUSCH transmission mode is the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode, and the switching is configured by RRC or dynamically indicated by a last codepoint of a plurality of 2-bit codepoints in the DCI that signals the first PUSCH transmission mode.

12. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RRC configurations of codebookSubset and codebookSubsetDCI-0-2-r16 are the same across a first antenna panel of the UE device used for STxMP transmission and across a second antenna panel of the UE device used for s-TRP transmission.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in STxMP transmission and s-TRP transmission, the RRC configuration of ul-FullPowerTransmission is the same or in the same group across two antenna panels of the UE device.

14. Upon execution of instructions for switching between physical uplink shared channel transmission modes by a processing circuit of a user equipment (UE) device, the processing circuitry is caused to: Identifying downlink control information (DCI) received from a communications network indicating a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission mode for use in a PUSCH transmission; determining the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a 2-bit code point in the DCI, where the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode; Switching from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the 2-bit code point; causing transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode; A computer program containing instructions.

15. 15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the 2-bit code point indicates switching between the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the s-TRP PUSCH mode, or switching between the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and the s-TRP mode.

16. 15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein only one of the two SRIs of the DCI configured for the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode is used to indicate a single SRI for s-TRP transmission.

17. A computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program according to any one of claims 14 to 16.

18. 1. A method for switching between physical uplink shared channel transmission modes, comprising: identifying, by processing circuitry of a user equipment (UE) device, downlink control information (DCI) received from a communications network, the DCI indicating a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission mode for use in PUSCH transmission; determining, by the processing circuitry, the first PUSCH transmission mode based on a 2-bit codepoint in the DCI, wherein the first PUSCH transmission mode is a spatial domain multiplexing (SDM) simultaneous transmission with multiple panels (STxMP) PUSCH mode, a single frequency network (SFN) STxMP PUSCH mode, a multiple transmit / receive panel (multiple TRP) time domain multiplexing PUSCH repetition mode, or a single TRP (s-TRP) PUSCH mode; switching, by the processing circuitry, from a second PUSCH transmission mode to the first PUSCH transmission mode based on the 2-bit codepoint; causing, by the processing circuitry, transmission of at least one PUSCH transmission using the first PUSCH transmission mode; A method comprising:

19. 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the 2-bit code point indicates switching between the SDM STxMP PUSCH mode and the s-TRP PUSCH mode, or switching between the SFN STxMP PUSCH mode and the s-TRP mode.

20. 20. A computer program product causing processing circuitry of a user equipment (UE) device to perform the method according to claim 18 or 19.

21. A computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program according to claim 20.

22. 20. Apparatus configured to carry out the method of claim 18 or 19.

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