Method and apparatus for multiple component carrier physical downlink shared channel scheduling in wireless communications - Patents.com

Abstract

A method and apparatus for a device that determines a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource for a user equipment device and a base station are described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device selects multiple component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a radio link established between the user equipment device and the base station. In addition, the device selects a virtual component carrier from the multiple component carriers. Further, the device determines the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates generally to wireless technologies, and more particularly to scheduling physical downlink shared channels of multiple component carriers in wireless communications.

[0002] In the Rel-16 New Radio unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) of fifth generation wireless for digital cellular networks (5G), multi-time transmission interval (TTI) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions may be scheduled by a single downlink control information (DCI) format on a single supported CC. This is done primarily to improve resource utilization efficiency by reducing the number of listen-before-talk (LBT) attempts to capture the shared channel and thus avoid potential LBT failures. For Rel-17 NR-U enhanced WIs, one of the objectives is to further extend multi-TTI scheduling by extending it from a single CC to multiple CCs, with the same motivation as Rel-15, e.g., by reducing the number of LBTs across CCs for uplink (UL) grant transmissions. In addition, multi-TTI scheduling across CCs is also listed as one of the objectives of Rel-17 RAN2 driven MR-DC / CA enhanced WI as well as RAN1 driven DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) enhancements, in order to reduce control signaling overhead for all carrier aggregation cases in general.

[0003] How to efficiently control the number and size of DCI format IEs adaptively to the number of actually scheduled CC / slot numbers while still avoiding an increase in the number of blind decodes (BDs) at the user equipment (UE) side is one of the design challenges to enable this feature in Rel-17, considering NR-U, CA extensions and CA in licensed and unlicensed bands for DSS. Summary of the Invention

[0004] A method and apparatus for a device that determines a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource for a user equipment device and a base station are described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device selects a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station. In addition, the device selects a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers. Furthermore, the device determines the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

[0005] In a further embodiment, a non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions for causing one or more processing units to execute a method for determining a downlink shared channel scheduling resource for determining a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource for a user equipment device and a base station is described. In this embodiment, the method includes selecting a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station. Further, the method includes forming a virtual component channel from the plurality of component carriers. Further, the method includes determining the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

[0006] In some other embodiments, the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band. The method further comprises grouping the pool of available component carriers into a plurality of groups of component carriers and selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers as the plurality of component carriers. The method further comprises selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers using higher layer signaling.

[0007] In some embodiments, the method selects one of a plurality of groups of component carriers based at least on a medium access control (MAC) control element. Further, the MAC control element can be identified by a MAC protocol data unit subheader having a dedicated logical channel. The MAC control element can be either a fixed size or a plurality of groups of data. Further, the method can select one of a plurality of groups of component carriers based at least on a component carrier selection field transmitted to the user equipment device.

[0008] In a further embodiment, the method forms a virtual component carrier by aggregating bandwidths of multiple component carriers, the aggregating can use at least a frequency domain resource allocation field, the frequency domain resource allocation field being of variable size.

[0009] In some embodiments, a method is described for determining a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource for a user equipment device and a base station. In some embodiments, the method selects a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station. Further, the method forms a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers. Further, the method determines the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

[0010] In some other embodiments, the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band. The method further comprises grouping the pool of available component carriers into a plurality of groups of component carriers and selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers as the plurality of component carriers. In a further embodiment, the method forms a virtual component carrier by aggregating bandwidth of the plurality of component carriers.

[0011] In some embodiments, a user equipment device is described that includes at least one antenna and one radio. The at least one radio performs cellular communications using a radio access technology that establishes a wireless link with a base station. The user equipment device further includes at least one or more processors for selecting a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with the wireless link established between the user equipment device and the base station, forming a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers, and determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources based on at least the virtual component carrier. Additionally, the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band. Furthermore, the one or more processors select the plurality of component carriers by grouping the pool of available component carriers into a plurality of groups of component carriers and selecting one of the plurality of groups of component carriers as the plurality of component carriers.

[0012] Other methods and devices are also described.

[0013] The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which: [Brief description of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] 1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 illustrates a base station (BS) in communication with a User Equipment (UE) device according to some embodiments. [Diagram 3] 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a UE according to some embodiments. [Figure 4] 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a BS according to some embodiments. [Diagram 5] 1 is an example block diagram of a cellular communication circuit according to some embodiments. [Figure 6] 1 is a block diagram of several embodiments of Rel-16 TTI PUSCH scheduling; [Figure 7] 1 is a flow diagram of several embodiments of a process for allocating resources for multiple CCs. [Figure 8] 1A-1C are diagrams of some embodiments of CC grouping operations. [Figure 9] 1 is a diagram of several embodiments of group-based CC selection and UE-based CC selection; [Figure 10] A diagram of several embodiments of a DCI format for indicating a dynamically selected CC. [Figure 11] 1 is a diagram of several embodiments of CC aggregation for frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) decisions; [Figure 12] 1 is an illustration of several aspects of FDRA size determination for a DCI-based approach. [Figure 13] A diagram of some embodiments of separately encoding the CSF field and other dependent IEs. [Figure 14] A diagram of some embodiments in which the CSF field and other dependent IEs are encoded and remapped separately. [Figure 15] A diagram of several embodiments of RBG-based rate matching patterns for resource allocation across aggregated virtual CCs with a single FDRA field. [Figure 16] FIG. 11 is a diagram of several embodiments of supported multiple CRS rate-matching patterns for a single NR CC. [Figure 17] 1A-1C are diagrams of several embodiments of resource allocation for single CC based operation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] A method and apparatus for a device that determines physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station is described. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough description of the embodiments of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known components, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding of this description.

[0016] Reference herein to "some embodiments" or "embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase "in some embodiments" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments.

[0017] In the following description and claims, the terms "coupled" and "connected" may be used, along with their derivatives. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. "Coupled" is used to indicate that two or more elements, which may or may not be in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, still co-operate or interact with each other. "Connected" is used to indicate the establishment of communication between two or more elements that are interconnected.

[0018] The processes illustrated in the following figures are performed by processing logic that may include hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (such as that executed on a general-purpose computer system or dedicated machine), or a combination of both. Although the processes are described below in terms of some sequential operations, it should be understood that some of the operations described may be performed in different orders. Furthermore, some operations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.

[0019] The terms "server," "client," and "device" are intended to refer to data processing systems generally, rather than to any particular form factor of a server, client, and / or device.

[0020] A method and apparatus for a device that determines physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station are described. In some embodiments, the device is a user equipment device having a wireless link with the base station. In some embodiments, the wireless link is a fifth generation (5G) link. The device further groups and selects component carriers (CCs) from the wireless link, and determines a virtual CC from the selected group of CCs. The device can further perform physical downlink resource mapping based on an aggregate resource matching pattern of the group of CCs.

[0021] Figure 1 illustrates a simplified exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the system of Figure 1 is merely one example of a possible system, and that features of the present disclosure may be implemented in any of a variety of systems, as desired.

[0022] As shown in the figure, the exemplary wireless communication system includes a base station 102A that communicates over a transmission medium with one or more user devices 106A, 106B, etc. through 106N. Each of the user devices may be referred to herein as a "user equipment" (UE). Accordingly, the user devices 106 are referred to as UEs or UE devices.

[0023] The base station (BS) 102A may be a base transceiver station (BTS) or a cellular base station ("cellular base station") and may include hardware that enables wireless communication with the UEs 106A-106N.

[0024] A communication area (or coverage area) of a base station may be referred to as a "cell." The base station 102A and the UE 106 may be configured to communicate over a transmission medium using any of a variety of Radio Access Technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communication technologies or telecommunication standards, such as GSM (e.g., associated with a WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), UMTS, LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 5G New Radio (5G NR), HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc. It should be noted that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of LTE, the base station 102A may alternatively be referred to as an "eNodeB" or "eNB." It should be noted that if the base station 102A is implemented in the context of 5G NR, the base station 102A may alternatively be referred to as a "gNodeB" or "gNB."

[0025] As shown in the figure, the base station 102A may also be equipped to communicate with a network 100 (e.g., a cellular service provider's core network, a telecommunications network such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and / or the Internet, among other possibilities). Thus, the base station 102A may facilitate communications between user devices and / or between the user devices and the network 100. In particular, the cellular base station 102A may provide various telecommunications capabilities to the UE 106, such as voice, SMS, and / or data services.

[0026] Base station 102A and other similar base stations (e.g., base stations 102B, 102N) operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may thus be provided as a network of cells that can provide continuous or near-continuous overlapping service to UEs 106A-106N and similar devices over a geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

[0027] Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the base station 102A may function as a "serving cell" for the UEs 106A-106N, and each of the UEs 106 may also receive signals from (where possible within range of) one or more other cells (which may be provided by the base stations 102B-102N and / or any other base stations), which may be referred to as "neighboring cells." Such cells may also facilitate communication between user devices and / or between the user devices and the network 100. Such cells may include "macro" cells, "micro" cells, "pico" cells, and / or cells providing various other granularity of service area size. For example, the base stations 102A-102B shown in FIG. 1 may be macro cells, and the base station 102N may be a micro cell. Other configurations are possible.

[0028] In some embodiments, the base station 102A may be a next generation base station, such as a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station, or "gNB." In some embodiments, the gNB may be connected to a conventional Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and / or an NR Core (NRC) network. In addition, a gNB cell may include one or more Transition and Reception Points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating according to 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs in one or more gNBs.

[0029] It should be noted that the UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate using at least one cellular communication protocol (e.g., GSM, UMTS (e.g., associated with a WCDMA or TD-SCDMA air interface), LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR, HSPA, 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), etc.) in addition to a wireless network protocol (e.g., Wi-Fi) and / or a peer-to-peer wireless communication protocol (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer, etc.). The UE 106 may additionally or alternatively be configured to communicate using one or more Global Navigational Satellite Systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one or more mobile television broadcast standards (e.g., ATSC-M / H or DVB-H), and / or any other wireless communication protocol, if desired. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including three or more wireless communication standards) are also possible.

[0030] 2 illustrates a user equipment 106 (e.g., one of devices 106A-106N) in communication with a base station 102, according to some embodiments. UE 106 may be a device with cellular communication capabilities, such as a mobile phone, a handheld device, a computer or tablet, or virtually any type of wireless device.

[0031] The UE 106 may include a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory. The UE 106 may perform the method embodiment described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively or in addition, the UE 106 may include a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), configured to perform any of the method embodiment described herein, or any portion of any of the method embodiment described herein.

[0032] The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols or technologies. In some embodiments, the UE 106 may be configured to communicate, for example, using CDMA2000 (1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / HRPD / eHRPD) or LTE using a single shared radio, and / or using GSM or LTE using a single shared radio. The shared radio may be coupled to a single antenna or to multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO) to perform wireless communication. In general, a radio may include any combination of a baseband processor, analog RF signal processing circuitry (e.g., including filters, mixers, oscillators, amplifiers, etc.), or digital processing circuitry (e.g., for digital modulation and other digital processing). Similarly, a radio may implement one or more receive and transmit chains using the hardware described above. For example, the UE 106 may share one or more portions of the receive and / or transmit chains between multiple wireless communication technologies, such as the technologies described above.

[0033] In some embodiments, the UE 106 may include a separate transmit and / or receive chain (e.g., including separate antennas and other radio components) for each wireless communication protocol over which the UE 106 is configured to communicate. As a further possibility, the UE 106 may include one or more radios shared among multiple wireless communication protocols and one or more radios used only by a single wireless communication protocol. For example, the UE 106 may include a shared radio for communicating using either LTE or 5G NR (or LTE, or 1xRTT, or LTE, or GSM) and a separate radio for communicating using each of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Other configurations are possible.

[0034] Figure 3 - UE block diagram

[0035] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary simplified block diagram of a communication device 106, according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the communication device block diagram of FIG. 3 is only one example of a possible communication device. According to an embodiment, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or station, a wireless device or station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a portable computing device), a tablet, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices. As shown in the figure, the communication device 106 may include a set of components 300 configured to perform a core function. For example, the set of components may be implemented as a System On Chip (SOC), which may include portions for various purposes. Alternatively, the set of components 300 may be implemented as separate components or groups of components for various purposes. The set of components 300 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to various other circuits of the communication device 106.

[0036] For example, communication device 106 may include various types of memory (including, for example, NAND flash 310), input / output interfaces such as connector I / F 320 (e.g., for connecting to a computer system, a dock, a charging station, input devices such as a microphone, camera, keyboard, output devices such as speakers, etc.), a display 360 that may be integrated with communication device 106 or may be external to communication device 106, cellular communication circuitry 330 for 5G NR, LTE, GSM, etc., and near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 (e.g., Bluetooth™ and WLAN circuitry). In some embodiments, communication device 106 may include wired communication circuitry (not shown), such as a network interface card for Ethernet.

[0037] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335 and 336, as shown. The near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 may also be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 337 and 338, as shown. Alternatively, the near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to antennas 335 and 336 in addition to or instead of being communicatively coupled (e.g., communicatively, directly or indirectly) to antennas 337 and 338. The near-medium range wireless communication circuitry 329 and / or the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include multiple receive chains and / or multiple transmit chains for receiving and / or transmitting multiple spatial streams, such as in a Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) configuration.

[0038] In some embodiments, as described further below, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include (e.g., directly or indirectly includes and / or is communicatively coupled to, dedicated processors and / or radios) dedicated receive chains for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR). Additionally, in some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include a single transmit chain that may be switched between radios dedicated to a particular RAT. For example, a first radio may be dedicated to a first RAT, e.g., LTE, and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a transmit chain shared with an additional radio, e.g., a second radio, which may be dedicated to a second RAT, e.g., 5G NR, and may communicate with a dedicated receive chain and a shared transmit chain.

[0039] Communications device 106 may also include and / or be configured for use with one or more user interface elements, which may include any of a variety of elements, such as a display 360 (which may be a touchscreen display), a keyboard (which may be a separate keyboard or may be implemented as part of the touchscreen display), a mouse, a microphone and / or speaker, one or more cameras, one or more buttons, and / or any of a variety of other elements capable of providing information to a user and / or receiving or interpreting user input.

[0040] The communication device 106 may further include one or more smart cards 345 that include Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) functionality, such as one or more Universal Integrated Circuit Cards (UICCs).

[0041] As shown, the SOC 300 may include a processor(s) 302 capable of executing program instructions for the communication device 106, and a display circuit 304 capable of performing graphic processing and providing display signals to a display 360. The processor(s) 302 may be coupled to a Memory Management Unit (MMU) 340, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 302 and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, Read Only Memory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and / or transfer them to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuit 304, the near field communication circuit 229, the cellular communication circuit 330, the connector I / F 320, and / or the display 360. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or setup. In some embodiments, the MMU 340 may be included as part of the processor(s) 302 .

[0042] As mentioned above, the communication device 106 may be configured to communicate using wireless and / or wired communication circuitry. The communication device 106 may also be configured to determine physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for the user equipment device and the base station. Furthermore, the communication device 106 may be configured to group and select CCs from the wireless link and determine a virtual CC from the selected group of CCs. The wireless device may also be configured to perform physical downlink resource mapping based on an aggregate resource matching pattern of the group of CCs.

[0043] As described herein, the communication device 106 may include hardware and software components for implementing the above features for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for the communication device 106 and the base station. The processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 302 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 302 of the communication device 106 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with any one or more of the other components 300, 304, 306, 310, 320, 329, 330, 340, 345, 350, 360.

[0044] Additionally, as described herein, the processor 302 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 302 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 302. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 302.

[0045] Further, as described herein, the cellular communication circuit 330 and the near field communication circuit 329 may each include one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included in the cellular communication circuit 330, and similarly, one or more processing elements may be included in the near field communication circuit 329. Thus, the cellular communication circuit 330 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the cellular communication circuit 330. In addition, each of the integrated circuits may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the cellular communication circuit 230. Similarly, the near field communication circuit 329 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the near field communication circuit 32. In addition, each of the integrated circuits may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the near field communication circuit 329.

[0046] Figure 4 - Base station block diagram

[0047] 4 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a base station 102 according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the base station of FIG. 4 is merely one example of a possible base station. As shown, the base station 102 may include a processor(s) 404 that may execute program instructions for the base station 102. The processor(s) 404 may also be coupled to a memory management unit (MMU) 440 that may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 404 and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 460 and read-only memory (ROM) 450) or to locations in other circuits or devices.

[0048] The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. The network port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access to the telephone network to multiple devices, such as the UE device 106, as described above in Figures 1 and 2.

[0049] Network port 470 (or additional network ports) may also or instead be configured to couple to a cellular network, such as, for example, a core network of a cellular service provider. The core network may provide mobility-related services and / or other services to multiple devices, such as UE device 106. In some cases, network port 470 may be coupled to a telephone network via the core network and / or the core network may provide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devices serviced by the cellular service provider).

[0050] In some embodiments, the base station 102 may be a next generation base station, e.g., a 5G New Radio (5G NR) base station, or "gNB." In such embodiments, the base station 102 may be connected to a legacy evolved packet core (EPC) network and / or an NR core (NRC) network. In addition, the base station 102 may be considered a 5G NR cell and may include one or more transition and reception points (TRPs). In addition, a UE capable of operating according to 5G NR may be connected to one or more TRPs in one or more gNBs.

[0051] The base station 102 may include at least one antenna 434, and possibly multiple antennas. The at least one antenna 434 may be configured to operate as a wireless transceiver and may be further configured to communicate with the UE device 106 via the radio 430. The antenna 434 communicates with the radio 430 via a communication chain 432. The communication chain 432 may be a receive chain, a transmit chain, or both. The radio 430 may be configured to communicate via various wireless communication standards, including, but not limited to, 5G NR, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, UMTS, CDMA2000, Wi-Fi, etc.

[0052] The base station 102 may be configured to communicate wirelessly using multiple wireless communication standards. In some cases, the base station 102 may include multiple radios that may enable the base station 102 to communicate according to multiple wireless communication technologies. For example, in one possibility, the base station 102 may include an LTE radio for performing communications according to LTE and a 5G NR radio for communicating according to 5G NR. In such a case, the base station 102 may be capable of operating as both an LTE base station and a 5G NR base station. In another possibility, the base station 102 may include a multimode radio that is capable of performing communications according to any of multiple wireless communication technologies (e.g., 5G NR and Wi-Fi, LTE and Wi-Fi, LTE and UMTS, LTE and CDMA2000, UMTS and GSM, etc.).

[0053] As described further herein below, the BS 102 may include hardware and software components for implementing or supporting the implementation of the features described herein. The processor 404 of the base station 102 may be configured to implement or support some or all of the methods described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively, the processor 404 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or as a combination thereof. Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 404 of the BS 102 may be configured to implement or support some or all of the features described herein in conjunction with any one or more of the other components 430, 432, 434, 440, 450, 460, 470.

[0054] Additionally, as described herein, the processor(s) 404 may be comprised of one or more processing elements. In other words, one or more processing elements may be included within the processor(s) 404. Thus, the processor(s) 404 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 404. Additionally, each integrated circuit may include a circuit (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor(s) 404.

[0055] Further, as described herein, the radio 430 may be comprised of one or more processing elements. In other words, the one or more processing elements may be included within the radio 430. Thus, the radio 430 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the radio 430. In addition, each of the integrated circuits may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the radio 430.

[0056] Figure 5: Block diagram of a cellular communication circuit

[0057] 5 illustrates an exemplary simplified block diagram of cellular communication circuitry according to some embodiments. It should be noted that the block diagram of the cellular communication circuitry in FIG. 5 is only one example of possible cellular communication circuitry. According to an embodiment, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may be included within a communication device, such as the communication device 106 described above. As noted above, the communication device 106 may be a user equipment (UE) device, a mobile device or station, a wireless device or station, a desktop computer or computing device, a mobile computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, or portable computing device), a tablet, and / or a combination of devices, among other devices.

[0058] The cellular communication circuitry 330 may be (e.g., communicatively coupled, directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 335a-b and 336, as shown (in FIG. 3). In some embodiments, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include dedicated receive chains (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR) for multiple RATs (e.g., including a dedicated processor and / or radio or communicatively coupled, directly or indirectly to a dedicated processor and / or radio). For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the cellular communication circuitry 330 may include a modem 510 and a modem 520. The modem 510 may be configured for communication according to a first RAT, such as LTE or LTE-A, and the modem 520 may be configured for communication according to a second RAT, such as 5G NR.

[0059] As shown, the modem 510 may include one or more processors 512 and memory 516 in communication with the processor 512. The modem 510 may be in communication with a Radio Frequency (RF) front end 530. The RF front end 530 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. For example, the RF front end 530 may include receive circuitry (RX) 532 and transmit circuitry (TX) 534. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 532 may be in communication with a downlink (DL) front end 550, which may include circuitry for receiving wireless signals via an antenna 335a.

[0060] Similarly, the modem 520 may include one or more processors 522 and a memory 526 in communication with the processor 522. The modem 520 may be in communication with an RF front end 540. The RF front end 540 may include circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless signals. For example, the RF front end 540 may include receive circuitry 542 and transmit circuitry 544. In some embodiments, the receive circuitry 542 may be in communication with a DL front end 560, which may include circuitry for receiving wireless signals via the antenna 335b.

[0061] In some embodiments, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuitry 534 to an uplink (UL) front end 572. Additionally, the switch 570 may couple the transmit circuitry 544 to the UL front end 572. The UL front end 572 may include circuitry for transmitting wireless signals via the antenna 336. Thus, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a first RAT (e.g., as supported via the modem 510), the switch 570 may be switched to a first state that enables the modem 510 to transmit signals according to the first RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain that includes the transmit circuitry 534 and the UL front end 572). Similarly, when the cellular communication circuitry 330 receives an instruction to transmit according to a second RAT (e.g., as supported via the modem 520), the switch 570 may be switched to a second state that enables the modem 520 to transmit signals according to the second RAT (e.g., via a transmit chain that includes the transmit circuitry 544 and the UL front end 572).

[0062] As described herein, the modem 510 may include hardware and software components that implement the above features or various other techniques for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for user equipment devices and base stations, as well as various other techniques described herein. The processor 512 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 512 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 512 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in cooperation with one or more of the other components 530, 532, 534, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336.

[0063] In addition, as described herein, the processor 512 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, the processor 512 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of the processor 512. In addition, each of the integrated circuits may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of the processor 512.

[0064] As described herein, the modem 520 may include hardware and software components that implement the above features for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for user equipment devices and base stations, as well as various other techniques described herein. The processor 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein, for example, by executing program instructions stored in a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 522 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively (or in addition), the processor 522 may be configured to implement some or all of the features described herein in cooperation with one or more of the other components 540, 542, 544, 550, 570, 572, 335, and 336.

[0065] In addition, as described herein, processor 522 may include one or more processing elements. Thus, processor 522 may include one or more integrated circuits (ICs) configured to perform the functions of processor 522. In addition, each of the integrated circuits may include circuitry (e.g., a first circuit, a second circuit, etc.) configured to perform the functions of processor 522.

[0066] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of some embodiments of Rel-16 multi-time transmission interval (TTI) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) scheduling. In the Rel-16 New Radio unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) of fifth generation wireless for digital cellular networks (5G), TTI PUSCH transmissions are scheduled by a single DCI format on a single component carrier (CC). This was motivated to improve resource utilization efficiency by reducing the number of LBT (Listen-before-Talk) attempts to capture the shared channel and thus avoiding potential LBT failures. For Rel-17 NR-U enhanced WIs, one of the objectives is to further extend multi-TTI scheduling by extending this scheduling from a single CC to multiple CCs, with the same motivation as Rel-15, e.g., by reducing the number of LBTs across CCs for uplink (UL) grant transmissions from user equipment to base station. Additionally, another challenge is to use multi-TTI scheduling across CCs for Rel-17 Radio Access Network (RAN) Working Group 2 driven MR-DC / CA enhanced WI as well as RAN1 driven DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) enhanced to reduce control signaling overhead for all carrier aggregation cases in general. For example, in some embodiments, multi-TTI PUSCH scheduling 600 includes a DCI 602 that references duration domain 604A, followed by duration domains 604B-D.

[0067] How to efficiently control the number and size of DCI format information elements (IEs) adaptively to the number of actually scheduled CC / slot numbers while still avoiding an increase in the amount of blind decoding (BD) at the UE side is one of the design challenges to enable this feature in Rel-17 while considering NR-U and / or CA extensions and Carrier Aggregation (CA) in licensed and unlicensed bands for DSS.

[0068] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of some embodiments of a process 700 for allocating resources of multiple CCs. In some embodiments, in the case of carrier aggregation (CA) in both licensed and unlicensed bands, the UE may determine physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduling and resource mapping across multiple CCs. In block 702, the process 700 groups and selects CCs to determine the "effective" bandwidth indicated by the downlink (DL) scheduling DCI format. In some embodiments, the process 700 groups CCs by higher layer signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), DCI format, or a combination thereof. In further embodiments, the process 700 selects CC groups by various schemes as described in FIGS. 8-10 below. In block 704, the process 700 forms a virtual CC by aggregating CCs selected for resource allocation. In some embodiments, the process 700 forms a virtual CC by aggregating the bandwidth of N CCs signaled for resource allocation by a single frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field. The virtual CC formation is further described in FIG 11 below. In block 706, the process 700 determines a PDSCH resource based on the aggregated RE-level or RB-level resource mapping pattern of the selected CC. Determining the PDSCH is further described in FIG 12 below.

[0069] FIG. 8 is a diagram of some embodiments of CC grouping operation 800. In some embodiments, configured CCs may be divided into different groups 804A-B. In some embodiments, two CC groups are shown in FIG. 8, but in alternative embodiments, there may be more or less CC groups. In some embodiments, each of the CC groups may include a scheduling CC, one or more CCs that are scheduled, and / or one or more CCs that are scheduled in two or more groups. For example, in some embodiments, CC group 804A includes CC 802A, which is a scheduling CC, CCs 802B-C, which are scheduled in a single group 804A, and CC 802D, which is a CC that is scheduled in groups 804A and 804B. In a further example, the CCs in CC group 804A (e.g., CC0-CC2 in group 1) are cross-carrier scheduled by a single CC (e.g., CC0 in FIG. 8). As mentioned above, in some embodiments, a single CC 802D may be grouped into two different groups 804A-B, which may be particularly useful for unlicensed bands to account for LBT failure on one of the scheduling CCs (e.g., CC 802A), but LBT succeeds on another scheduling CC (e.g., CC 802E) and the scheduled CC (e.g., CC 802D). By grouping CC 802D into two CC groups 804A and 804B, essentially allowing DCI from two scheduling CCs 802A and 802E to be scheduled, the PDSCH on CC 802D may be scheduled as long as one of these two scheduling CCs 802A and 802E passes the LBT. In some embodiments, each of the CC groups is shown with four CCs, but in alternative embodiments, each of the CC groups may have a greater or lesser number of CCs.

[0070] In some embodiments, the number of scheduled CCs in a CC group with a single DCI format, denoted by S, may be limited to N, e.g., S<=N. In some embodiments, N=2. In addition, self-scheduling may be assumed for other CCs in the group, e.g., DCIs that schedule PDSCH transmissions on a CC are transmitted on the same CC. In some other embodiments, when a UE is configured with more than N CCs (e.g., LTE CCs for DSS case, or NR unlicensed CCs, such as more than 4 CCs in FIG. 8), the N CCs may be signaled for data scheduling in a different manner with a trade-off between latency and DCI signaling overhead. In some embodiments, the N CCs may be selected by higher layer signals, e.g., UE-dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. In this embodiment, this may be a good scheduling design for DSS operation on licensed bands, which can achieve desirable load balancing across CCs in a semi-static manner. However, this scheduling may not be feasible for NR-U operation simply because it may not be supported for fast CC selection in adapting to dynamic LBT results.

[0071] FIG. 9 is a diagram of some embodiments of group-based CC selection and UE-based CC selection. In some embodiments, selecting N CCs for data scheduling may be done by selecting CCs using a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element identified by a MAC Protocol Data Unit (PDU) subheader with a dedicated Logical Channel Identifier (LCID). In some embodiments, two alternatives may be considered in this direction: (1) having a fixed size with one octet field; and (2) alternatively having two or more octet field sizes (e.g., up to four or more octets). In some embodiments, the MAC PDU 900 has a fixed size and consists of a single octet with a subsequent field with a Group ID 902 indicating the Group ID of the addressed CC group, as shown in FIG. 9. Furthermore, the CC selection indication 904 is a field indicating the selected CC index S (S<=N), with each bit associated with a CC within the indicated group. Furthermore, the C of FIG. 9 may be a field indicating the selected CC index S (S<=N), with each bit associated with a CC within the indicated group. Furthermore, the C of FIG. i The field (0≦i≦5) is set to '1' to indicate that the SCell with SCell index i is used for potential data scheduling, where the SCell is a secondary cell and the SCell index is configured for each SCell by RRC signaling. Note that i is numbered within each CC group and can be repeated across groups. In some embodiments, C i The field is set to "0".

[0072] In some other embodiments, the MAC CE 906 may consist of up to four (or more / fewer) octets 908 to support CC switching for multiple CC groups at the expense of increased signaling overhead. In this embodiment, the UE may not expect more than N CCs to be selected for a given CC group.

[0073] FIG. 10 is a diagram of some embodiments of a DCI format 1000 for indicating dynamically selected CCs. In some embodiments, a CC selection field (CSF) 1002 may be transmitted in the DCI format 1000 to signal selected CC indices for scheduled DL and UL transmissions. In some embodiments, the CSF field 1002 consists of M bits 1008, indicating the CCs selected for data scheduling by a CC-level bitmap, where M represents the number of CCs in the respective group. The association between the CIF value and the CC index may be configured by RRC signaling. The number of bits used for the M bits depends on how the bits are stored (1008).

[0074] In some other embodiments, the CSF field 1002 is a binomial coefficient

number

number

[0075] FIG. 11 is a diagram of some embodiments of CC aggregation 1100 for frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) determination. A virtual CC 1104 may be formed by aggregating the bandwidth of up to N CCs signaled in block 704 of FIG. 7 above for resource allocation with a single frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) field, as shown in FIG. 11. For example, in some embodiments, CCs 1102A and 1102D of CCs 1102A-E are aggregated into a virtual CC 1104. The other CCs may be available for another virtual CC. The number of bits is determined by the aggregated bandwidth 1104 and the resource allocation type as follows:

number

[0076] In some embodiments, the virtual CC t P for 1104 may be configured by RRC signaling to maximize resource utilization, or at least P CCO and P CC3 In some embodiments, P CCt =min(P CC0 ,P CC3 ), where P represents the size of the resource block group (RBG).

[0077] FIG. 12 is an illustration of some embodiments of FDRA size determination 1202 for a DCI-based approach 1200. In some aspects, one potential problem with this proposed solution is that it results in variable FDRA sizes since this size determination depends on the selected CCs in the group. For example, in some embodiments, consider that BW0=100 PRBs (Physical Resource Blocks, PRBs), BW1=50, and BW2=25. In this example, the aggregated CCs t The effective visual BW of is BW when CC0 / CC1 is selected. t=150 PRB, and BW t = 125 PRB. This may lead to an increase in blind decoding attempts by the UE to hypothetically check different DCI format size candidates. In some embodiments, a particular solution is designed to address this issue: (1) the number of bits in the FDRA field 1202 is determined assuming that the two CCs with the largest aggregated bandwidth are selected; or (2) the CSF field is coded separately using an FEC scheme. In some aspects, and in the above BW t For example, with a value of 0, the PRB will be assumed for FDRA field size determination. If the number of actual FDRA bits in the DCI format is smaller than the reserved FDRA field size, e.g., CC1 / CC2 does not have a valid BW t If selected for a transmission occasion with =75 PRB, 1204 shall be appended to the actual FDRA IE until the payload size is equal to the reserved size.

[0078] FIG. 13 is a diagram of some embodiments of separately encoding the CSF field 1300 and other dependent IEs 1308 into a set of CCEs 1306A-N. In some embodiments, to address the variable FDRA size, the CSF field 1300 can be separately encoded by an FEC scheme with both error correction and error detection capabilities. For example, in some embodiments, the CSF field 1300 can be encoded using a simplex code with repetition used in LTE for the Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH). The other fields used for encoding can depend on the value of the CSF field and can be encoded using a Polar code 1310 as in legacy. Compared to the previous solution described above in FIG. 12, this approach avoids the zero padding operation. To exploit the frequency diversity gain, the encoded CSF 1300 can be interleaved with other DCI bits and transmitted across all CCEs using interleaved bits as shown in FIG. 13. In some embodiments, the CSF 1300 is encoded using channel coding 1 (1302) to generate codeword 1 (1304). The variable length of the other IEs is encoded using a polar code 1310 to generate codeword 2 (1312). In some embodiments, a bit interleaver 1314 is used to generate the CCEs 1306A-N.

[0079] FIG. 14 is a diagram of some embodiments of separately encoding and separately remapping the CSF field 1400 and other dependent IEs. In some other designs, as shown in FIG. 14, encoded codeword 1 (1404) and codeword 2 (1414) may be mapped to separate RE sets (e.g., 1406A-B, respectively). In this embodiment, the CSF 1400 is encoded with channel coding 1 (1402) to generate codeword 1 (1404). The variable length of the other IEs 1408 is encoded using a Polar code to generate codeword 2 (1414). In addition, a separate CRC field 1416 may be attached for the CSF field 1400. To minimize signaling overhead, the CRC length of the CSF field may be kept short, such as 4 or 8 bits.

[0080] FIG. 15 is a diagram of some embodiments of RBG-based rate matching patterns 1504 for resource allocation across aggregated virtual CCs 1500 with a single FDRA field. In block 706 of FIG. 7, the UE may be configured with a rateMatchingPattern by higher layers (e.g., RRC signaling and / or another type of signaling or mechanism) that indicates which of the RBs / REs are available or unavailable for PDSCH transmission. In some embodiments, to reduce signaling overhead, the reserved resource pairs may be indicated by RBG granularity and symbol level. In this embodiment, the size of the RBG may be configured by RRC signaling or implicitly based on the minimum value of the RBG associated with the signaled CC (e.g., CC0 and CC3 in FIG. 10). Additionally, in some other embodiments, the LTE CRS rate matching patterns configured for the selected CC are aggregated, and the UE shall assume that the REs indicated by this aggregated pattern are not available for PDSCH transmission.

[0081] In some embodiments, the DCI format size can be determined based on the bandwidth of the RRC configuration or MAC-CE selected CC instead of a function of the CC dynamically scheduled for data transmission. In some other embodiments, some IEs are separate for different CCs, while other information fields can be shared in a joint grant. In some embodiments, the frequency domain resource allocation can be separate for different CCs, where the resource allocation granularity in the joint grant can be increased. In some embodiments, a scaling factor can be configured by higher layers for each CC. More specifically, separate scaling factors can be configured for different resource allocation schemes, e.g., K1 is configured for type 1 and K2 is configured for type 2, or even a scaling factor is configured only for a single resource allocation type. For example, for a 20 MHz system, a scaling factor K1=2 can be configured, and correspondingly, the RBG size is increased from 16 RBs to 32 RBs for configuration 2 to reduce signaling overhead.

[0082] In some embodiments, some IEs are separate for different CCs. Specifically, a New Data Indicator (NDI) IE is signaled per Transport Block (TB) of each CC, and the number of TBs for each CC is set per CC. In some embodiments, some other IEs are commonly shared across CCs in a group. For example, in some embodiments, a Redundancy Version (RV) IE may be shared for CCs to control signaling overhead, or one bit per scheduled CC. Alternatively, there may be two RVs for a group of CCs, or one RV for the initial transmission of a CC and another RV for the retransmission CC.

[0083] In some embodiments, some IEs are separate for different CCs, while other information fields may be shared in a joint grant. A shared MCS for all of the CCs in a set or group of CCs may be indicated by higher layer signaling, for example, depending on the frequency location of the CCs. Furthermore, for CCs with a shared MCS, two MCSs may be present in a single grant, one for the initial transmission and the other for retransmissions, to provide flexible link adaptation. In further embodiments, a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) includes where a shared TDRA field may be present in a joint grant. In some other embodiments, a per-CC TDRA may be included. For a shared TDRA IE, the UE may perform resource mapping according to the rate matching pattern signaled for all CCs.

[0084] In some other embodiments, the number of blind decodes and aggregation levels may be further limited to monitor joint DCI formats due to their increased size, for example, in some embodiments, larger aggregation levels, such as AL-4 / 8 / 16, may be configurable for joint grants.

[0085] FIG. 16 is a diagram of some embodiments of supported multiple CRS (cell-specific reference signal) rate matching patterns for a single NR CC. In some embodiments, resource elements (REs) corresponding to the indicated rate matching pattern are not available for PDSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the UE may be configured with an LTE-CRS-RateMatch-PatternToAddModList given by ServingCellConfig or ServingCellConfigCommon. Each list may be configured with up to M CRS-RateMatchPatterns per NR serving cell 1606. Each RateMatchPattern corresponds to a single LTE CC as shown in FIG. iTo facilitate the determination of the CRS location of 1600 / 1602 / 1604 and accordingly enable the UE to know which REs are not available for PDSCH transmission due to CRS transmission, it may consist of a combination of the following information: ■V-shift value indicating the value for rate matching around the CRS. ■ nrofCRS-port, indicates the number of LTE CRS antenna ports for rate matching. ■CarrierFreqDL for point A of the NR serving cell, which indicates the center of the LTE carrier. ■ BW for signaling CC bandwidth i CarrierBandwidthDL indicating the bandwidth.

[0086] FIG. 17 is a diagram of some embodiments of resource allocation for single CC based operation. In addition,

number

[0087] Portions of the above may be performed in logic circuitry, such as special purpose logic circuitry, or in a microcontroller or other form of processing core executing program code instructions. Thus, the processes taught by the above discussion may be performed in program code, such as machine-executable instructions, that cause a machine executing those instructions to perform a particular function. In this context, a "machine" may be a machine that converts intermediate form (or "abstract") instructions into processor-specific instructions (e.g., abstract execution environments such as a "virtual machine" (e.g., Java Virtual Machine), an interpreter, a common language runtime, a high-level language virtual machine, etc.), and / or electronic circuitry (e.g., "logic circuitry" implemented with transistors) located on a semiconductor chip, designed to execute instructions, such as general-purpose processors and / or special purpose processors. The processes taught by the above discussion may also be performed by (in place of or in combination with) electronic circuitry designed to execute those processes (or portions of the processes) without executing program code.

[0088] The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the operations described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes or may include a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as any type of disk, including but not limited to floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, read only memory (ROM), RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions, each of which is coupled to a computer system bus.

[0089] A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, machine-readable media include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, and the like.

[0090] An article of manufacture can be used to store program code. An article of manufacture storing program code may be embodied as, but is not limited to, one or more memories (e.g., one or more flash memories, random access memories-static, dynamic, or otherwise), optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or other types of machine-readable media suitable for storing electronic instructions. The program code can also be downloaded from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by a data signal embodied in a propagation medium (e.g., via a communications link (e.g., a network connection)).

[0091] The foregoing Detailed Description is presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the tools used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations require physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, primarily for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

[0092] It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise, and as will be apparent from the above discussion, discussions utilizing terms such as "selecting," "determining," "receiving," "forming," "grouping," "aggregating," "generating," or "deleting" throughout the description will be understood to refer to operations and processes of a computer system or similar electronic computing device that manipulates and converts data represented as physical (electronic) quantities in the computer system's registers or memory into other data similarly represented as physical quantities in the computer system's memory or registers, or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.

[0093] The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems can be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the operations described. The required structure for a variety of these systems will be apparent from the description below. Moreover, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be understood that a variety of programming languages ​​can be used to implement the teachings of the present invention as described herein.

[0094] It is fully understood that use of personally identifiable information should comply with privacy policies and practices generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining user privacy. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled in a manner that minimizes the risk of unintended or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of permitted uses should be clearly indicated to users.

[0095] The foregoing description describes only some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize from this discussion, the accompanying drawings, and the claims that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. 1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions for causing one or more processing units to perform a method for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station, the method comprising: grouping a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a radio link established between the user equipment device and the base station into a plurality of groups of component carriers, wherein at least one of the plurality of component carriers is included in two of the plurality of groups of component carriers; selecting a group of component carriers from the plurality of groups of component carriers; forming a virtual component carrier from a selected group of component carriers, the forming of the virtual component carrier including aggregating bandwidths of the component carriers using at least a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) field of variable size, the variable size being determined based on two of the component carriers having the largest aggregated bandwidth; and determining a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

2. 10. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band.

3. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein selecting the group of component carriers is performed using at least higher layer signaling.

4. 10. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein selecting the one group of component carriers comprises selecting the one component carrier using a medium access control (MAC) control element.

5. 5. The machine-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the MAC control element is identified by a MAC protocol data unit subheader having a dedicated logical channel.

6. The machine-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the MAC control element is a fixed size.

7. The machine-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the MAC control element comprises multiple groups of data.

8. 10. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein selecting the group of component carriers is based at least on a component carrier selection field transmitted to the user equipment device.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein determining the physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource uses at least a rate matching pattern.

10. 1. A method for determining physical downlink shared channel scheduling resources for a user equipment device and a base station, comprising: grouping a plurality of component carriers into the plurality of groups of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a radio link established between the user equipment device and the base station, wherein at least one of the plurality of component carriers is included in two of the plurality of groups of component carriers; selecting a group of component carriers from the plurality of groups of component carriers; forming a virtual component carrier from a selected group of component carriers, the forming of the virtual component carrier including aggregating bandwidths of the component carriers using at least a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) field of variable size, the variable size being determined based on two of the component carriers having the largest aggregated bandwidth; determining a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the pool of available component carriers comprises at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band.

12. The forming of the virtual component carrier The method of claim 10, comprising aggregating bandwidth of the multiple component carriers.

13. 1. A user equipment device, comprising: At least one antenna; at least one radio that performs cellular communications using a radio access technology that establishes a radio link with a base station; one or more processors; The one or more processors: grouping a plurality of component carriers from a pool of available component carriers associated with a radio link established between the user equipment device and the base station into a plurality of groups of component carriers, at least one of the plurality of component carriers being included in two of the plurality of groups of component carriers; selecting a group of component carriers from the plurality of groups of component carriers; forming a virtual component carrier from the plurality of component carriers, and forming the virtual component carrier includes aggregating bandwidths of the plurality of component carriers using at least a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) field of variable size, the variable size being determined based on two of the plurality of component carriers having the largest aggregated bandwidth; and determining a physical downlink shared channel scheduling resource based on at least the virtual component carrier.

14. 14. The user equipment device of claim 13, wherein the pool of available component carriers includes at least one component carrier from a licensed band and at least one component carrier from an unlicensed band.

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