Setting of Transmission Parameters

Abstract

To provide a method for improving an error control procedure for data transmission, a wireless device, a network node, a program, and a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium.SOLUTION: Methods for a wireless device can include receiving, from a network node in a wireless network, control signaling that indicates a parameter configuration for data transmissions, by the network node or by the wireless device, that are associated with a subset of a plurality of hybrid ARQ, HARQ, processes. The indicated parameter configuration can be one of a plurality of parameter configurations corresponding to a respective plurality of different subsets of the HARQ processes. The different subsets can include a first subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled, and a second subset of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2A

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application generally relates to the field of wireless networks, and more specifically, to techniques in non-terrestrial networks, such as for improving error control procedures (e.g., hybrid ARQ) for data transmission, where such transmissions may be subject to relatively long propagation delays.

Background Art

[0002] Introduction Some types of error control procedures (such as those based on hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in the PHY / MAC layer) require the transmitter to wait for an acknowledgement feedback from the receiver before performing (re)transmission of data. This stop-and-wait mechanism combined with propagation delay introduces latency inherent to the communication protocol and may reduce link throughput. To mitigate this problem, some approaches enable multiple error control processes (e.g., HARQ processes) to be simultaneously activated so that the transmitter can start multiple transmissions in parallel according to different multiple error control processes. In this way, the transmitter is not required to wait for the acknowledgement feedback of another error control process by the transmission for one error control process.

[0003] The error control mechanism can theoretically increase the number of error control processes that can be active simultaneously to handle larger propagation delays, such as those that may exist in non-terrestrial networks. However, increasing the number of error control processes requires a large amount of memory in the transmitter and receiver, requires reducing the maximum transport block size supported, and increases signaling overhead. Therefore, the error control procedure may not be suitable for wireless communication networks with large propagation delays, such as non-terrestrial networks. By disabling the error control procedure in non-terrestrial networks, these effects are avoided, but packet loss is caused. This packet loss further triggers the retransmission protocol of the upper layer. Also, the retransmission protocol of the upper layer introduces additional latency, thereby reversing the very purpose of disabling the error control procedure.

Summary of the Invention

[0004] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide certain improvements to wireless communication between a wireless device and a wireless network, such as by facilitating solutions to overcome the exemplary problems summarized above and described in more detail below.

[0005] Embodiments include an exemplary method (e.g., procedure) for a wireless device. These embodiments may include receiving, from a network node within a wireless network, control signaling indicating parameter settings for data transmission associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes, where the data transmission is by the network node or by the wireless device. The indicated parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings each corresponding to a different subset of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled and a second subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0006] In some embodiments, these embodiments may further include transmitting or receiving data transmissions associated with a subset of HARQ processes according to the indicated parameter settings.

[0007] In some embodiments, the indicated parameter settings are for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type. In other embodiments, the indicated parameter settings are for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled or for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled.

[0008] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: ● Aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, ● Transmission waveform type, ● Modulation and coding scheme table, ● Time domain resource allocation table, ● Type of frequency resource allocation, ● Target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling setting, ● Type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or ● Physical uplink shared channel transmission mode.

[0009] Other embodiments include exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) for a wireless device. These exemplary methods may include transmitting hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by a network node to network nodes within a wireless network. The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook including the following: ●A first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process in which HARQ feedback is disabled, indicating that HARQ feedback for DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgment, and ●A second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process in which HARQ feedback is enabled, indicating that HARQ feedback for DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of the DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook can be a type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere herein.

[0010] In some embodiments, an exemplary method can further include receiving, from a network node via a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), a set of downlink control information (DCI) indicating respective schedules for a set of DL transmissions, and receiving, from the network node via a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH), the set of DL transmissions according to the respective schedules.

[0011] In some of these embodiments, the position of the first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook can be based on the slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the first HARQ process. Similarly, the position of the second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook can be based on the slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the second HARQ process.

[0012] Other embodiments include an exemplary method (e.g., procedure) of a network node in a wireless network. These embodiments may include transmitting control signaling to a wireless device that indicates parameter settings for data transmission associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes, for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device. The indicated parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings each corresponding to a different subset of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled and a second subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0013] In some embodiments, these embodiments may further include transmitting or receiving data transmission associated with a subset of HARQ processes according to the indicated parameter settings.

[0014] In some embodiments, the indicated parameter settings may be for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type. In other embodiments, the indicated parameter settings may be for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled or for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled.

[0015] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: ● Aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, ● Transmission waveform type, ● Modulation and coding scheme table, ● Time domain resource allocation table, ● Type of frequency resource allocation, ● Target block error rate, ● Bundling configuration of physical resource blocks, ● Type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or

[0016] Other embodiments include other exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) of network nodes in a wireless network. These exemplary methods may include receiving hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback from a wireless device for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by a network node. The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook including the following: ● A first entry corresponding to a first HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is disabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgment, and ● A second entry corresponding to a second HARQ process for which HARQ feedback is enabled and indicating that the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of the DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook may be a type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook as described elsewhere in this specification.

[0017] In some embodiments, these exemplary methods may further include transmitting, to the wireless device via a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), a set of downlink control information (DCI) indicating each schedule for the set of DL transmissions, and transmitting, to the wireless device via a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH), the set of DL transmissions according to each schedule.

[0018] In some of these embodiments, the position of the first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on the slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the first HARQ process. Similarly, the position of the second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on the slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the second HARQ process.

[0019] Other embodiments include a network node (e.g., a base station, eNB, gNB, etc., or components thereof) and a wireless device (e.g., a user equipment) configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein. Other embodiments include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit of such a network node or UE, configure the network node or UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein.

[0020] These and other objects, features, and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent by reading the following detailed description in consideration of the drawings summarized briefly below.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0021]

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[0022] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, other embodiments are within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein, and the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments described herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided as examples to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

[0023] In general, all terms used in this specification should be interpreted according to their ordinary meanings in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and / or implied from the context in which they are used. Any reference to an element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. should be construed openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless otherwise specified. The steps of any method and / or procedure disclosed herein need not be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless the step is explicitly described as after or before another step and / or it is implicit that the step must be after or before another step. Any feature of any embodiment disclosed herein may, where appropriate, be applied to any other embodiment. Similarly, any advantage of any embodiment can be applied to any other embodiment, and vice versa. Other objects, features, and advantages of the embodiments of this specification will become apparent from the following description.

[0024] Furthermore, the following terms are used throughout the description given below: ● Wireless node: As used herein, a "wireless node" can be either a "wireless access node" or a "wireless device". ● Wireless access node: As used herein, a "wireless access node" (or equivalently, a "wireless network node", "wireless access network node", or "RAN node") can be any node within a radio access network (RAN) of a cellular communication network that is operative to transmit and / or receive signals wirelessly. Some examples of wireless access nodes include, but are not limited to, base stations (e.g., a new radio (NR) base station (gNB) in a 3GPP fifth generation (5G) NR network, or an evolved or enhanced node B (eNB) in a 3GPP LTE network), base station distributed components (e.g., CU and DU), high-power or macro base stations, low-power base stations (e.g., micro base stations, pico base stations, femto base stations, or home base stations, etc.), integrated access backhaul (IAB) nodes, transmission points, remote radio units (RRU or RRH), and relay nodes. ● Core network node: As used herein, a "core network node" is any type of node within the core network. Some examples of core network nodes include, for example, a mobility management entity (MME), a serving gateway (SGW), a PDN gateway (P-GW), a policy and charging rules function (PCRF), an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a charging function (CHF), a policy control function (PCF), an authentication server function (AUSF), etc. ● Wireless Device: As used herein, a "wireless device" (or, abbreviated as "WD") is any type of device that accesses a cellular communication network (i.e., receives services from a cellular communication network) by wirelessly communicating with a network node and / or other wireless devices. Wireless communication may involve transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared rays, and / or other types of signals suitable for transmitting information via air. Unless otherwise specified, the term "wireless device" is used interchangeably with "user equipment" (or abbreviated as "UE") in this specification. Some examples of wireless devices include smartphones, mobile phones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless cameras, gaming machines or devices, music storage and playback devices, wearable terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, tablets, laptops, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart devices, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), mobile-type communication (MTC), Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, etc., but are not limited thereto. ● Network Node: As used herein, a "network node" is any node that is part of a radio access network (e.g., a radio access node or a similar name as described above), or part of the core network of a cellular communication network (e.g., the core network node as described above). Functionally, a network node is a device configured to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and / or with other network nodes or devices within the cellular communication network in order to enable and / or provide wireless access to the wireless device and / or to perform other functions (e.g., management) within the cellular communication network.

[0025] The description provided herein focuses on 3GPP cellular communication systems, and thus it should be noted that 3GPP terms or terms similar to 3GPP terms are often used. However, the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to 3GPP systems. Further, the term "cell" is used herein, but (especially with respect to 5G NR) beams may be used instead of cells, and thus it should be understood that the concepts described herein apply equally to both cells and beams.

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a communication network 10 according to some embodiments. The network 10 can be, for example, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) also referred to as a satellite-based radio access network. In some embodiments, the network 10 is a radio access network for a cellular communication network such as a Long Term Evolution (LTE) or New Radio (NR) network.

[0027] As shown, network 10 includes network nodes 12 within, for example, a radio access network or a core network (CN) of a wireless communication network. The network node 12 can be, for example, a radio network node (e.g., a base station). Nevertheless, the network node 12 as shown is connected in this example to a ground-based base station antenna 14 that is remote from (i.e., not collocated with) the network node 12. Network 10 further includes a satellite 16, which is a spaceborne platform connected via a feeder link 15 to the ground-based base station antenna 14 and which provides, for example, a satellite-based service link 17 to wireless devices 18 arranged within respective spot beams or cells.

[0028] Depending on the function of the satellite 406 in a satellite-based radio access network 400, two transponder options can be considered. In a bent-pipe transponder, the satellite 16 sends the received signal back to the ground with only amplification and a shift from the uplink frequency to the downlink frequency. In a regenerative transponder, the satellite 16 includes on-board processing that demodulates and decodes the received signal and regenerates the signal before sending it back to the ground.

[0029] In this context, the wireless device 18 supports a plurality of error control processes 20-1...20-N that are simultaneously active. For example, the error control processes 20-1...20-N can take the form of a plurality of HARQ processes, which are controlled, for example, by the MAC layer. This means that the wireless device 18 can transmit or receive multiple transmissions in parallel according to different ones of the error control processes 20-1...20-N. For example, the wireless device 18 can transmit or receive transmission 22-1 according to error control process 20-1 in parallel with transmitting or receiving transmission 22-N according to error control process 20-N. If transmissions 22-1, 22-N are uplink transmissions, the wireless device 18 can transmit transmission 22-1 according to error control process 20-1 without having to wait for an acknowledgement feedback for transmission 22-N executed according to error control process 20-N.

[0030] In particular, some embodiments of the present specification enable transmission parameters to be set for error control processes in error control process units, for error control processes in error control process type units, or in any other unit that enables different subsets of error control processes 20-1...20-N to have individual transmission parameter settings. Thereby, some embodiments enable transmission parameters to be set differently for different error control processes 20-1...20-N. That is, the parameters of transmissions 22-1...22-N for different error control processes 20-1...20-N can be set differently (although not necessarily so). As shown in FIG. 1, for example, the wireless device can transmit or receive transmission 22-1 for error control process 20-1 according to parameter setting 24-1 and transmit or receive transmission 22-N for error control process 20-N according to parameter setting 24-N.

[0031] In some embodiments, for example, any one of parameter settings 24-1...24-N may include setting one or more power control parameters. The one or more power control parameters may include, for example, one or more of nominal target received power, path loss compensation factor, delta modulation and coding scheme, transmit power control accumulation, number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device, or a parameter that maps the transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value. Here, the nominal target received power may be the sum of a cell-specific component and a device-specific component, the path loss compensation factor may determine how much the estimated path loss needs to be compensated by the transmit power for transmission, the delta modulation and coding scheme parameter may determine whether a coefficient that is a function of the modulation and coding scheme is added to calculate the transmit power for transmission, and / or the transmit power control accumulation may determine whether the power control command is applied with accumulation.

[0032] Alternatively or additionally, any one of parameter settings 24-1...24-N may include setting the actual transmit power level. For example, such a setting may be a setting as to whether transmission should be performed at the maximum transmit power.

[0033] Alternatively or additionally, any one of parameter settings 24-1...24-N may include one or more settings of an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots scheduled by the downlink control information, transmit waveform type, modulation and coding scheme table, time domain resource allocation table, type of frequency resource allocation, target block error rate, bundling setting of physical resource blocks, type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or physical uplink shared channel transmission method.

[0034] Regardless of the specific parameters set by parameter settings 24-1...24-N, according to some embodiments, one or more of parameter settings 24-1...24-N can be signaled by network node 12. That is, as shown, in some embodiments, network node 12 transmits control signaling 26 to wireless device 18 for transmission parameter settings. In this regard, control signaling 26 indicates parameter setting 28, and according to this parameter setting, transmission for a certain subset of one or more error control processes will be performed (where the subset refers to an appropriate subset in mathematical terms, i.e., a part of a larger set). For example, if a certain subset includes only error control process 20-1, the control signaling can indicate parameter setting 28, where transmission for error control process 20-1 is performed according to this parameter setting (for example, indicating parameter setting 24-1).

[0035] In some embodiments, one or more error control processes within a certain subset can include one or more error control processes identified by one or more respective error control process identities. In this case, control signaling 26 can indicate the one or more respective error control process identities. Thus, control signaling 26 can include parameter setting 28 and the identities of the error control processes for which transmission will be performed according to that parameter setting 28.

[0036] In another example, one or more error control processes within a certain subset include any error control process of a certain type. In these and other embodiments, for example, one or more error control processes within a certain subset include any error control process for which error control feedback is disabled or any error control process for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0037] More specifically, in this regard, for some embodiments, the transmission parameters according to some embodiments can be set differently for different error control processes 20-1...20-N depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for their respective error control processes. That is, in some embodiments, for any given error control process, the error control feedback can be selectively enabled or disabled, for example, dynamically or quasi-statically, via, for example, MAC control element (CE) or via RRC signaling. For example, the error control feedback can be enabled for error control processes associated with delay-tolerant applications or that require transmission reliability as a primary concern, but can be disabled for error control processes associated with delay-intolerant applications or that require transmission latency or throughput as a primary concern. In this context, the transmission parameters can be such that the transmission for an error control process for which the feedback is disabled is made more reliable compared to an error control process for which the feedback is enabled. Setting the transmission for an error control process for which the feedback is disabled to be more reliable advantageously reduces packet loss and the triggering of the upper layer retransmission protocol, and correspondingly improves the transmission latency.

[0038] In this case, in some embodiments, the control signaling 26 can indicate a parameter setting 28 according to which the transmission is performed for any error control process for which the feedback is disabled. Alternatively, the control signaling 26 can indicate a parameter setting 28 according to which the transmission is performed for any error control process for which the feedback is enabled.

[0039] Control signaling 26 is illustrated for one subset, but control signaling 26 can generally indicate a plurality of different parameter settings according to which transmissions are made for different subsets of one or more error control processes. For example, the different subsets can include a subset consisting of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset consisting of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0040] Note that in some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled for an error control process, transmissions are still scheduled using, for example, the error control process ID / number of error control processes in a downlink control information (DCI) message. However, the transmitting node does not expect to receive (explicit or implicit) positive feedback or schedule retransmissions.

[0041] In view of the above modifications and variations, FIGS. 2A-2D show various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) for a wireless device 18 (as shown in FIG. 1) according to various exemplary embodiments. Similarly, FIGS. 3A-3D show various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) for a network node 12 (as shown in FIG. 1) according to various exemplary embodiments. The exemplary methods are shown in FIGS. 2A-2D and FIGS. 3A-3D by specific blocks in a specific order, but the operations corresponding to the blocks may be executed in an order different from the shown order and may be combined and / or split into blocks having functions different from those shown. Further, the various exemplary methods shown in FIGS. 2A-2D and FIGS. 3A-3D can be complementary to each other so as to be used in cooperation to provide solutions to various effects, advantages, and / or problems, including those described herein. Optional blocks and / or operations are indicated by dashed lines.

[0042] In the exemplary method shown in FIG. 2A, a wireless device may receive, from a network node within a wireless network (e.g., at block 200), control signaling indicating parameter settings (e.g., 28 shown in FIG. 1) associated with a subset of a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, the parameter settings for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device. The shown parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings each corresponding to a different subset of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled and a second subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0043] In some embodiments, the wireless device may further transmit or receive data transmissions associated with a subset of HARQ processes according to the shown parameter settings (e.g., at block 210).

[0044] In some embodiments, the shown parameter settings are for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type. In other embodiments, the shown parameter settings are for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled or for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled.

[0045] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: ● Aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, ● Transmission waveform type, ● Modulation and coding scheme table, ● Time domain resource allocation table, ● Type of frequency resource allocation, ● Target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling setting, ● Type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or ● Physical uplink shared channel transmission method.

[0046] FIG. 2B illustrates another exemplary method for a wireless device according to another exemplary embodiment. The method can include transmitting or receiving transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings (block 230). The method can alternatively or additionally include receiving, from network node 12, control signaling 26 indicating different parameter settings, according to which transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes are performed (block 220).

[0047] FIG. 2C illustrates another exemplary method for a wireless device according to another exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary method shown in FIG. 2C, the wireless device can transmit hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by a network node to network nodes within the wireless network (e.g., in block 250). The HARQ feedback can be based on a HARQ feedback codebook that includes: ● A first entry indicating that the HARQ feedback corresponds to a first HARQ process for which the HARQ feedback is disabled and the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgment, and ● A second entry indicating that the HARQ feedback corresponds to a second HARQ process for which the HARQ feedback is enabled and the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of the DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook can be a type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere herein.

[0048] In some embodiments, the exemplary method may also include the operations of blocks 235-240. At block 235, the wireless device may receive, via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a set of downlink control information (DCI) from the network node, each DCI indicating a respective schedule for a set of DL transmissions. At block 240, the wireless device may receive, from the network node via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a set of DL transmissions according to each respective schedule.

[0049] In some of these embodiments, the position of the first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the first HARQ process. Similarly, the position of the second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook may be based on a slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the second HARQ process.

[0050] FIG. 2D illustrates another exemplary method for a wireless device according to another exemplary embodiment. The method includes scheduling a downlink transmission for a certain error control process and receiving a downlink control information message that includes a set of one or more fields, where the interpretation of the set of one or more fields depends on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the certain error control process (block 260). In some embodiments, the method further includes interpreting the set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for a certain error control process (block 270). The method may further include receiving a downlink transmission according to the received downlink control information message (block 280).

[0051] In some embodiments, one or more fields in the set include one or more of a downlink allocation indicator field, a redundancy version field, a feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field. In some embodiments, the downlink allocation indicator field indicates the size of a type 2 HARQ codebook. In some embodiments, the redundancy version field indicates the redundancy version of a transport block transmitted to a wireless device. When feedback is enabled for an error control process, the wireless device may receive the same transport block having multiple different redundancy versions that the wireless device can soft combine to improve the reliability of transmissions received via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In some embodiments, the feedback timing field indicates the time offset from the time when a PDSCH corresponding to a certain error control process is received to the time when feedback corresponding to the certain error control process is transmitted. In some embodiments, the physical uplink control channel resource indicator field indicates which of a plurality of resources should be used for feedback corresponding to an error control process in a physical uplink control channel.

[0052] In some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with a scheduled downlink transmission.

[0053] Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an error control process number that identifies a certain error control process, in combination with an error control process number field in a downlink control information message.

[0054] Figure 3A shows an exemplary method for a network node in a wireless network according to another exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary method shown in Figure 3A, a network node may transmit (e.g., at block 300) to a wireless device control signaling indicating parameter settings (e.g., 28 shown in Figure 1) associated with a subset of a plurality of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, the parameter settings being for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device. The shown parameter settings may be one of a plurality of parameter settings each corresponding to a different subset of HARQ processes. The different subsets may include a first subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled and a second subset consisting of one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled.

[0055] In some embodiments, the network node may further transmit or receive data transmissions associated with a subset of HARQ processes according to the shown parameter settings (e.g., at block 310).

[0056] In some embodiments, the shown parameter settings are for a single HARQ process or for all HARQ processes of a single type. In other embodiments, the shown parameter settings are for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled or for all HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled.

[0057] In some embodiments, the parameter settings corresponding to the first subset may differ from the parameter settings corresponding to the second subset in one or more of the following parameters: ● Aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, ● Transmission waveform type, ● Modulation and coding scheme table, ● Time domain resource allocation table, ● Type of frequency resource allocation, ● Target block error rate, ● Physical resource block bundling setting, ● Type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or ● Physical uplink shared channel transmission method.

[0058] Figure 3B illustrates another exemplary method for a network node according to another exemplary embodiment. The method includes transmitting or receiving transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings (block 330). The method alternatively or additionally includes transmitting control signaling 26 indicating different parameter settings from network node 12 to the wireless device, according to which transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes are performed (block 320).

[0059] Figure 3C illustrates another exemplary method for a network node according to another exemplary embodiment. In the exemplary method shown in Figure 3C, the network node may receive hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback from the wireless device for a set of downlink (DL) transmissions by the network node (e.g., in block 350). The HARQ feedback may be based on a HARQ feedback codebook including: ● A first entry indicating that the HARQ feedback corresponds to a first HARQ process for which the HARQ feedback is disabled and the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded as a negative acknowledgment, and ● A second entry indicating that the HARQ feedback corresponds to a second HARQ process for which the HARQ feedback is enabled and the HARQ feedback for the DL transmission is encoded based on the decoding result of the DL transmission. In some embodiments, the HARQ feedback codebook can be a type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook, as described elsewhere in this specification.

[0060] In some embodiments, an exemplary method can also include the operations of blocks 335-340. At block 335, the network node can transmit a set of downlink control information (DCI) to the wireless device via the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), where each DCI indicates a respective schedule for a set of DL transmissions. At block 340, the network node can transmit a set of DL transmissions to the wireless device via the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) according to the respective schedules.

[0061] In some of these embodiments, the position of the first entry in the HARQ feedback codebook can be based on the slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the first HARQ process. Similarly, the position of the second entry in the HARQ feedback codebook can be based on the slot timing offset included in the DCI that schedules the DL transmission associated with the second HARQ process.

[0062] Figure 3D illustrates another exemplary method for a network node according to another exemplary embodiment. The method includes scheduling downlink transmission for a certain error control process and transmitting a downlink control information message including a set of one or more fields, wherein the interpretation of the set of one or more fields depends on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the certain error control process (block 370). In some embodiments, the method may further include encoding a set of one or more fields depending on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for a certain error control process (block 360). The method may alternatively or additionally include transmitting downlink transmission according to the transmitted downlink control information message (block 380).

[0063] In some embodiments, one or more fields in the set include one or more of a downlink allocation indicator field, a redundancy version field, a feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field. In some embodiments, the downlink allocation indicator field indicates the size of a type 2 HARQ codebook. In some embodiments, the redundancy version field indicates the redundancy version of a transport block transmitted to a wireless device. When feedback is enabled for an error control process, the wireless device may receive the same transport block having a plurality of different redundancy versions that the wireless device can perform soft combining to improve the reliability of the PDSCH. In some embodiments, the feedback timing field indicates the time offset from the time when the PDSCH corresponding to a certain error control process is received to the time when the feedback corresponding to the certain error control process is transmitted. In some embodiments, the physical uplink control channel resource indicator field indicates which of a plurality of resources should be used for feedback corresponding to an error control process in the physical uplink control channel.

[0064] In some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with a scheduled downlink transmission.

[0065] Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, when error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields, in combination with an error control process number field in a downlink control information message, indicates an error control process number that identifies a certain error control process.

[0066] Embodiments of this specification further include corresponding apparatuses, computer-readable media, and computer program products. Examples of such embodiments include wireless devices configured to communicate with network nodes in a wireless network via data transmissions and HARQ feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the wireless device being further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2D.

[0067] Other examples include wireless devices comprising a communication circuit configured to communicate with network nodes in a wireless network and a processing circuit operably coupled to the communication circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the communication circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2D.

[0068] Other examples include non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2D when executed by the processing circuit of the wireless device.

[0069] Other examples include computer program products comprising computer-executable instructions that configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above in connection with FIGS. 2A-2D when executed by the processing circuit of the wireless device.

[0070] Other examples include network nodes in a wireless network configured to communicate with one or more wireless devices via data transmissions and HARQ feedback associated with a plurality of HARQ processes, the network node being further configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above in connection with FIGS. 3A-3D.

[0071] Another example includes a communication circuit configured to communicate with a wireless device within a wireless network, and a processing circuit operably coupled to the communication circuit such that the processing circuit and the communication circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above with reference to FIGS. 3A - 3D, a network node.

[0072] Another example includes a non - transitory computer - readable medium storing computer - executable instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit of a network node within a wireless network, configure the network node to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above with reference to FIGS. 3A - 3D.

[0073] Another example includes a computer program product including computer - executable instructions that, when executed by a processing circuit of a network node within a wireless network, configure the network node to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described above with reference to FIGS. 3A - 3D.

[0074] Embodiments further include a wireless device comprising a processing circuit and a power circuit. The processing circuit is configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device. The power circuit is configured to supply power to the wireless device.

[0075] Embodiments further include a wireless device comprising a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device. In some embodiments, the wireless device further comprises a communication circuit.

[0076] Embodiments further include a wireless device comprising a processing circuit and a memory. The memory includes instructions executable by the processing circuit such that the wireless device is configured to perform any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the wireless device.

[0077] Embodiments further include a user equipment (UE). The UE includes an antenna configured to transmit and receive radio signals. The UE further includes a radio front-end circuit connected to the antenna and the processing circuit and configured to condition signals exchanged between the antenna and the processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to execute any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio device. In some embodiments, the UE further includes an input interface connected to the processing circuit and configured to enable information input to the UE to be processed by the processing circuit. The UE may include an output interface connected to the processing circuit and configured to output information processed by the processing circuit from the UE. The UE may further include a battery connected to the processing circuit and configured to supply power to the UE.

[0078] Embodiments herein further include a radio network node configured to execute any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node.

[0079] Embodiments further include a radio network node including a processing circuit and a power supply circuit. The processing circuit is configured to execute any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node. The power supply circuit is configured to supply power to the radio network node.

[0080] Embodiments further include a radio network node including a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to execute any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node. In some embodiments, the radio network node further includes a communication circuit.

[0081] Embodiments further include a radio network node including a processing circuit and a memory. The memory includes instructions executable by the processing circuit, whereby the radio network node is configured to execute any of the steps of any of the embodiments described above for the radio network node.

[0082] More specifically, the above-described apparatus can execute the methods and any other processes herein by implementing any functional means, modules, units, or circuits. In one embodiment, for example, the apparatus comprises discrete circuits or circuits configured to execute the steps shown in the method diagrams. In this regard, the discrete circuits or circuits can comprise dedicated circuits for performing certain functional processes and / or one or more microprocessors coupled to a memory. For example, the circuits can include one or more microprocessors or microcontrollers and other digital hardware, which can include a digital signal processor (DSP), application specific digital logic, and the like. The processing circuits can be configured to execute program code stored in the memory, which can include one or more types of memory such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, and the like. In some embodiments, the program code stored in the memory can include program instructions for executing one or more remote communication and / or data communication protocols and instructions for executing one or more of the techniques described herein. In embodiments that use a memory, the memory stores program code that, when executed by one or more processors, performs the techniques described herein.

[0083] FIG. 4 shows an exemplary wireless device 400 (e.g., wireless device 18) according to one or more embodiments. As shown, the wireless device 400 includes a processing circuit 410 and a communication circuit 420. The communication circuit 420 (e.g., a wireless circuit) is configured to transmit and / or receive information to / from one or more other nodes using, for example, any communication technology. Such communication can be performed via one or more antennas, either internal or external to the wireless device 400. The processing circuit 410 is configured to perform the above-described processing by executing instructions stored in the memory 430, for example, in FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and / or 2D. In this regard, the processing circuit 410 may implement certain functional means, units, or modules.

[0084] FIG. 5 shows an exemplary network node 500 (e.g., network node 12) according to one or more embodiments. As shown, the network node 500 includes a processing circuit 510 and a communication circuit 520. The communication circuit 520 is configured to transmit and / or receive information to / from one or more other nodes using, for example, any communication technology. The processing circuit 510 is configured to perform the above-described processing by executing instructions stored in the memory 530, for example, in FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, and / or 3D. In this regard, the processing circuit 510 may implement certain functional means, units, or modules.

[0085] Those skilled in the art will also understand that the embodiments herein further include corresponding computer programs.

[0086] When executed on at least one processor of a device, the computer program includes instructions for causing the device to perform any of the above-described respective processes. In this regard, the computer program may include one or more code modules corresponding to the above-described means or units.

[0087] Embodiments further include a carrier containing such a computer program. This carrier may include one of an electrical signal, an optical signal, a wireless signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.

[0088] In this regard, embodiments of the present specification further include a computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer-readable (storage or recording) medium, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to be executed as described above.

[0089] Embodiments further include the computer program product including a program code portion for executing any of the steps of the embodiments of the present specification when the computer program product is executed by a computing device. This computer program product may be stored in a computer-readable recording medium.

[0090] Hereinafter, further embodiments will be described, for example, with respect to the HARQ process in NTN. At least some of these embodiments may be described as applicable in a certain context and / or wireless network type for illustrative purposes, but these embodiments are equally applicable in other contexts and / or wireless network types not explicitly described.

[0091] In 3GPP Release 8, the Evolved Packet System (EPS) was defined. EPS is based on the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio network and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). It was originally intended to provide voice and mobile broadband (MBB) services, but has continuously evolved to expand its capabilities. Since Release 13, Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and LTE for machines (LTE-M) have been part of the LTE specification, providing connectivity for massive machine type communications (mMTC) services.

[0092] In 3GPP Release 15, the first release of the 5G System (5GS) was developed. This is a new generation of radio access technology intended to support use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and mMTC. 5G includes the New Radio (NR) access stratum interface and the 5G Core Network (5GC). The NR physical layer and upper layers reuse parts of the LTE specification and add components as needed for new use cases.

[0093] In Release 15, 3GPP started work on preparing NR for operation in non-terrestrial networks (NTN). The work was done within the work item "NR to support Non-Terrestrial Networks" and resulted in TR 38.811. In Release 16, work on preparing NR for operation in NTN networks continued in work item RP-181370 "Solutions for NR to support Non-Terrestrial Network".

[0094] A satellite wireless access network typically includes the following components: (i) a satellite that refers to a spaceborne platform, (ii) a ground-based gateway that connects the satellite to a base station or a core network depending on the architecture selection, (iii) a feeder link that refers to the link between the gateway and the satellite, and (iv) a service link that refers to the link between the satellite and the UE.

[0095] Two common architectures are the bent-pipe transponder architecture and the regenerative transponder architecture. In the first case, the base station is located on the ground behind the gateway, and the satellite operates as a repeater that transfers the feeder link signal to the service link, and vice versa. In the second case, the satellite is within the base station, and the service link connects the satellite to a ground-based core network.

[0096] Depending on the orbital altitude, the satellite can be classified as a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, a medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite, or a geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite. The typical height of LEO is 250 - 1500 km, and the orbital period is 90 - 120 minutes. The typical height of MEO is 5000 - 25000 km, and the orbital period is 3 - 15 hours. Also, the height of GEO is about 35786 km, and the orbital period is 24 hours.

[0097] Communication satellites typically generate several beams over a given area. The footprint of a beam is usually elliptical, which has traditionally been regarded as a cell. The footprint of a beam is often also referred to as a spot beam. A spot beam can move over the earth's surface along with the movement of the satellite or can be earth-fixed by some beam pointing mechanism used by the satellite to compensate for its movement. The size of a spot beam depends on the system design and can range from several tens of kilometers to thousands of kilometers.

[0098] FIG. 6 shows an exemplary architecture of a satellite (or non-terrestrial) network having a vent pipe type transponder. Two main physical phenomena that affect satellite communication system design are long propagation delay and Doppler effect.

[0099] The Doppler effect is particularly prominent for LEO satellites.

[0100] Propagation delay is a major physical phenomenon in satellite communication systems that require a different design from terrestrial mobile systems. In the case of a bent pipe type satellite network, the following delays are relevant. One-way delay: Delay from the base station (BS) to the UE via the satellite or in the opposite direction Round-trip delay: Delay from the BS to the UE via the satellite and back from the UE to the BS via the satellite Differential delay: Delay difference between two selected points within the same spot beam

[0101] Note that there may be additional delay between the terrestrial BS antenna and the BS, whether or not they are collocated. This delay depends on the location. If the delay cannot be ignored, it must be taken into account in the design of the communication system.

[0102] Propagation delay depends on the length of the signal path, which in turn depends on the elevation angle of the satellite as seen by the terrestrial BS and UE. The minimum elevation angle typically exceeds 10° for the UE and 5° for the terrestrial BS.

[0103] The Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) protocol is one of the most important functions in NR / LTE. Together with link adaptation through Channel State Information (CSI) feedback and HARQ ACK / NACK, HARQ enables efficient, reliable, and low-latency data transmission in NR / LTE.

[0104] Existing HARQ procedures in the PHY / MAC layer are designed for terrestrial networks where the round-trip time (RTT) propagation delay is limited within 1 ms. In the HARQ protocol, the transmitter needs to wait for feedback from the receiver before transmitting new data. In the case of a negative acknowledgment (NACK), the transmitter may need to retransmit the data packet. Otherwise, it may transmit new data. This stop-and-wait (SAW) procedure introduces latency specific to the communication protocol and may reduce the link throughput. To mitigate this problem, with existing HARQ procedures, multiple HARQ processes can be activated at the transmitter. That is, the transmitter can start multiple transmissions in parallel without waiting for HARQ completion. For example, using 16 (8) HARQ processes in NR (LTE) DL, the gNB (eNB) can start up to 16 (8) new data transmissions without waiting for an ACK for the first packet transmission. Note that there are a sufficient number of HARQ processes for terrestrial networks where the propagation delay is typically less than 1 ms.

[0105] Figure 7 shows the following various delays associated with the HARQ procedure: 1. The packet first reaches the receiver after the propagation delay Tp. 2. The receiver transmits feedback after the processing / slot delay T1. 3. The feedback reaches the data transmitter after the propagation delay Tp. 4. The transmitter can retransmit or transmit new data after the processing / slot delay T2. 5. To avoid HARQ stalls, the minimum required number of HARQ processes is ceil((2Tp + T1 + T2) / Ts), where Ts refers to the slot duration in NR and the subframe duration in LTE.

[0106] Existing HARQ procedures in LTE / NR are mainly designed for terrestrial networks where the propagation delay is typically limited to 1 ms. However, there are problems when using the existing HARQ protocol in the presence of large propagation delays.

[0107] More specifically, when the propagation delay is much larger than the propagation delay supported by the permitted number of HARQ processes, the existing HARQ mechanism may be infeasible. For example, consider the scenario where LTE DL is adopted for satellite communication. In the case of GEO, the RTT propagation delay can be about 500 ms. With 8 HARQ processes, the eNB needs to wait about 500 ms before transmitting new data. This translates to benefiting only from a moderate percentage (8 / 500) of the available peak throughput. Even with 16 HARQ processes supported by NR and a slot duration of 1 ms, the available peak throughput as a percentage of the total channel capacity is very low. Table 1 summarizes the available peak throughput for UEs for LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites. Therefore, without a sufficient number of HARQ processes, closed-loop HARQ communication may become impractical depending on the magnitude of the propagation delay.

[0108] The number of HARQ processes supported by existing HARQ protocols is not sufficient to absorb the potentially large propagation delays in non-terrestrial networks. For example, Table 1 shows that a significant increase in the number of existing HARQ processes is required to operate HARQ in the presence of large propagation delays. Unfortunately, supporting a large number of HARQ processes (especially at the UE) is difficult for the reasons that (i) it requires large memory at both the transmitter and receiver, (ii) it may require reducing the HARQ buffer size (and hence the maximum transport block size (TBS) supported), (iii) a large number of HARQ buffers imply a large number of HARQ receivers, and (iv) it may increase the signaling overhead for HARQ IDs. In fact, in NR, the HARQ process ID is signaled in the downlink control information (DCI), and currently, there are 4 bits in the HARQ process number field to indicate this. Increasing the number of HARQ processes to 500 would require approximately 9 bits (more than twice the current 4 bits in the HARQ process number field).

[0109] TIFF0007702459000001.tif71144

[0110] Note that Release 15 NR supports up to 16 HARQ processes in UL / DL. LTE typically supports 8 processes in UL / DL.

[0111] In short, existing (PHY / MAC) HARQ mechanisms are not suitable for non-terrestrial networks with large propagation delays. Furthermore, there is no existing signaling mechanism to disable HARQ in the PHY / MAC layer.

[0112] One solution is to use network-configurable HARQ [3]. That is, the network should be able to configure the UE to turn off HARQ. When HARQ is turned off, there is no feedback for the transmission.

[0113] The following examines NR HARQ ACK / NACK feedback via PUCCH. In NR, when receiving a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in slot n on the downlink from the serving gNB, if the UE successfully decodes the PDSCH, it feeds back a HARQ ACK to the gNB via a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resource in slot n + k on the uplink. Otherwise, the UE transmits a HARQ NACK to the gNB in slot n + k to indicate that the decoding of the PDSCH was unsuccessful. When two Transport Blocks (TBs) are carried by the PDSCH, the HARQ ACK / NACK is reported for each TB. As a result, if the decoding of one TB is unsuccessful, only that TB needs to be retransmitted by the gNB. Spatial bundling may be configured, in which case the logical AND of the decoding states of TB1 and TB2 is fed back to the gNB.

[0114] For DCI format 1-0, k is indicated by a 3-bit PDSCH-HARQ timing indicator field. For DCI format 1-1, k is indicated by a 3-bit PDSCH-HARQ timing indicator field (if present) or by a higher layer via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0115] When code block group (CBG) transmission is configured, instead, HARQ ACK / NACK is reported for each CBG within the TB.

[0116] In the case of carrier aggregation (CA) involving multiple carriers and / or TDD operation, multiple aggregated HARQ ACK / NACK bits need to be transmitted on a single PUCCH.

[0117] In NR, up to four PUCCH resource sets can be configured for a UE. The PUCCH resource with pucch-ResourceSetId = 0 can have up to 32 PUCCH resources, while each of the PUCCH resource sets with pucch-ResourceSetId = 1 to 3 can have up to 8 PUCCH resources. The UE determines the PUCCH resource set in a slot based on the number of aggregated UCI (uplink control information) bits transmitted in that slot. The UCI bits consist of HARQ ACK / NACK, scheduling request (SR), and channel state information (CSI) bits.

[0118] When the UE transmits O UCI UCI information bits, the UE determines the PUCCH resource set as follows, i.e., ● When HARQ-ACK information and SR are transmitted simultaneously, and O UCI ≦2 includes one or two HARQ-ACK information bits and positive or negative SR in one SR transmission opportunity, it is set to the first set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId = 0, or ● Provided by the upper layer, when 2 < O UCI ≦N2, it is set to the second set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId = 1, or ● Provided by the upper layer, when N2 < O UCI ≦N3, it is set to the third set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId = 2, or ● Provided by the upper layer, when N3 < O UCI ≦1706, it is set to the fourth set of PUCCH resources with pucch-ResourceSetId = 3, or

[0119] Here, N1 < N2 < N3 are provided by the upper layer.

[0120] In the case of PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information, after determining the PUCCH resource set, the UE determines the PUCCH resource. The determination of the PUCCH resource is based on the 3-bit PUCCH resource indicator (PRI: PUCCH resource indicator) field in DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1.

[0121] When receiving two or more DCI formats 1_0 or 1_1 in the case of CA and / or TDD, the determination of the PUCCH resource is based on the PUCCH resource indicator (PRI) field in the last DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 among the multiple received DCI formats 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 detected by the UE.

[0122] NR Release 15 supports two types of HARQ codebooks, namely, semi-static (type 1) and dynamic (type 2) codebooks, for HARQ Ack / Nack multiplexing for multiple PDSCHs of one or more component carriers (CCs). The UE may be configured to use any one of the codebooks for HARQ Ack / Nack feedback.

[0123] Hereinafter, the determination of the NR type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook is considered. The HARQ codebook (CB) size (DL association set) in time is determined based on the set of configured HARQ-ACK timings K1 and the semi-statically configured TDD pattern in the case of TDD. For the PDCCH received in slot n for the PDSCH, K1 is signaled by the PDCCH, indicating that the HARQ A / N feedback for the PDSCH occurs in slot n + K1.

[0124] FIG. 8 shows an example of a TDD pattern that uses a set of K1 from 1 to 5 and a configured time domain resource allocation table or pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList without overlapping PDSCH TDRA allocations (i.e., only one PDSCH can be scheduled within a slot). In this case, there are five entries in the HARQ codebook, one for each K1 value. For slots without PDSCH transmission or slots where no PDSCH is detected, the corresponding entry in the codebook is filled with NACK.

[0125] If the UE supports reception of two or more unicast PDSCHs per slot, one HARQ codebook entry is reserved per slot for each non-overlapping time domain resource allocation in the pdsch-symbolAllocation table; otherwise, one HARQ entry is reserved per slot.

[0126] Next, the determination of the NR type 2 HARQ-ACK codebook is considered. Unlike the type 1 HARQ codebook, the size of the type 2 HARQ codebook changes dynamically based on the number of DCIs that schedule PDSCH receptions or SPS PSSCH releases associated with the same PUCCH resource for HARQ ACK / NACK feedback. The number of DCIs can be derived based on the counter DAI (downlink allocation indicator) field in the DCI and, in the case of DCI format 1-1, can also be derived based on the total DAI field when two or more serving cells are configured.

[0127] The value of the counter DAI field for DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 indicates the cumulative number of {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} pairs for which there is (are) (one or more) PDSCH reception(s) or SPS PSSCH release(s) associated with DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 up to the current serving cell and the current PDCCH monitoring occasion.

[0128] When it exists, the value of the total DAI for DCI format 1_1 means the total number of {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} pairs for which there is (are) (one or more) PDSCH reception(s) or SPS PSSCH release(s) associated with DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1 up to the current PDCCH monitoring occasion, and is updated from PDCCH monitoring occasion to PDCCH monitoring occasion.

[0129] An example is shown in Figure 9, where two serving cells and three PDCCH monitoring occasions are configured for the UE. The corresponding counter DAI and total DAI values after each scheduled DCI are shown. The counter DAI is updated after each scheduled DCI, while the total DAI is updated only per monitoring occasion. Since only 2 bits are allocated for either the counter DAI or the total DAI within the DCI, the actual DAI value is wrapped round with modulo 4 arithmetic. The UE can find the actual number of transmitted DCIs even if some DCIs are not detected when the number of consecutive undetected DCIs is less than 4.

[0130] For DCI format 1-1, the DAI field exists only if type 2 HARQ-ACK is used and a bit width of 0, 2, or 4 bits is possible. For DCI format 1-0, the DAI field consists of 2 bits.

[0131] Currently, there is a problem. The large delay in the NTN scenario can be addressed using the deactivation of HARQ. However, without a HARQ mechanism in the PHY / MAC layer, the transmission reliability will significantly decrease. In the case of packet loss, the receiver will depend on the upper layer (e.g., RLC) retransmission and error control protocol to recover the lost packet. However, this may introduce additional latency due to the large propagation delay (i.e., for the exact same reason that HARQ was considered inappropriate and deactivated in the first place).

[0132] Some aspects of the present disclosure and its embodiments may provide solutions to these or other problems. Some embodiments herein include methods for improving the transmission reliability (e.g., in the PHY / MAC layer) in cases where the HARQ feedback / retransmission protocol / mechanism is deactivated for some HARQ processes and activated for the remaining HARQ processes.

[0133] More specifically, the HARQ protocol / mechanism used herein refers to the HARQ procedure in the PHY / MAC layer. The term "Feedback-less HARQ process" used herein refers to a HARQ process in which HARQ feedback is disabled. A feedback-less HARQ process is an example of the error control processes 20-1...20-N of FIG. 1 in which feedback is disabled. When HARQ feedback is disabled, retransmission can be effectively disabled for such a HARQ process. Similarly, the term "Feedback-based HARQ process" used herein refers to a HARQ process in which HARQ feedback is enabled. When HARQ feedback is enabled, retransmission can be effectively enabled for such a HARQ process. A feedback-based HARQ process is an example of the error control processes 20-1...20-N of FIG. 1 in which feedback is enabled. In this context, some embodiments herein use different transmission settings for feedback-based HARQ processes and feedback-less HARQ processes. In this approach, PHY layer transmission can be made more reliable for feedback-less HARQ processes without compromising the performance of feedback-based HARQ processes. This avoids unnecessarily invoking upper layer retransmission / error control protocols in feedback-less HARQ processes that can add additional latency and reduce throughput due to large propagation delays in non-terrestrial networks.

[0134] Some embodiments, overall, adapt HARQ to non-terrestrial networks.

[0135] Some embodiments introduce a method for specifying different parameter settings for HARQ processes with HARQ feedback disabled and HARQ processes with HARQ feedback enabled. Thereby, the network can set parameters related to power control, modulation and coding scheme (MCS), waveform, etc. (e.g., via the control signaling 26 in FIG. 1) so that the reliability of transmissions on the feedbackless HARQ process is higher. By improving the reliability of the feedbackless HARQ process, some embodiments can help reduce the overall latency by avoiding the need to invoke upper layer error control / retransmission procedures when HARQ is disabled in the PHY / MAC layer. Further, this additional reliability can be obtained without disturbing the operation of the feedback-based HARQ process. Some embodiments alternatively or additionally provide UE procedures necessary for determining NR type 1 HARQ codebook entries when both "feedbackless HARQ processes" and "feedback-based HARQ processes" are configured for the UE.

[0136] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages. Some embodiments introduce a method for setting different transmission parameters for HARQ processes when HARQ is enabled or disabled. Without this distinction, the same parameter settings are applied to all HARQ processes regardless of whether the HARQ mechanism is disabled. By being able to signal different parameter settings for different HARQ processes, there are several potential advantages: (i) Helping to improve the transmission reliability for feedbackless HARQ processes, (ii) A more reliable feedbackless HARQ process means that error control procedures / retransmissions are less aggressively triggered, which can help reduce latency compared to cases where RLC retransmissions are overused due to decoding errors in the PHY / MAC layer, and / or (iii) Since the network does not need to change the parameter settings for the feedback-based HARQ process to support the feedback-less HARQ process, it helps to avoid performance degradation for the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0137] Some embodiments separate the transmission settings for the feedback-based and feedback-less HARQ processes. Conventionally, the transmission parameter settings signaled by the gNB to the UE are applied to all HARQ processes. In contrast, some embodiments herein separate the transmission parameter settings for the feedback-less HARQ process from the transmission parameter settings for the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0138] Consider an example where HARQ feedback is enabled for HARQ process ID 0 and disabled for the remaining HARQ processes. In this case, the gNB according to some embodiments herein can set the following two sets of transmission parameter settings (e.g., via the control signaling 26 of FIG. 1): one for the feedback-based HARQ process with ID 0 and the other for the feedback-less HARQ process. The UE then applies the corresponding settings to the HARQ process depending on whether the HARQ process is a feedback-based HARQ process or a feedback-less HARQ process.

[0139] Some embodiments are related to power control settings in particular. One or more embodiments introduce new radio resource control (RRC) signaling to enable the gNB to set power control parameters independently for the feedback-less HARQ process and the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0140] In one example, the power control profile can be set more aggressively for HARQ processes in which HARQ feedback is disabled. For example, the target received power can be set to a higher value in order to encourage the UE to transmit at a higher power when using feedbackless HARQ processes. However, normal power control settings can be used for feedback-based HARQ processes.

[0141] The following are examples of power control parameters that can be set differently for feedbackless HARQ processes and feedback-based HARQ processes: (i) nominal UE-specific P0, (ii) path loss compensation factor alpha, (iii) delta MCS, (iv) tpc cumulative, (v) two PUSCH-PC adjustment states, and / or (vi) the mapping of the TPC command field in DCI to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value.

[0142] Other embodiments of the present specification relate to the selection of transmission power. One embodiment, for example, introduces new signaling to enable the gNB to directly set the transmission power for feedbackless HARQ processes. That is, rather than setting power control parameters differently for feedbackless HARQ processes and feedback-based HARQ processes, this embodiment enables the gNB to directly set the UE transmission power for a given HARQ process.

[0143] Consider an example. Instead of relying on existing power control procedures, the gNB can directly set the transmission power for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions on feedbackless HARQ processes. For example, it is possible for the power control procedure to suggest a transmission power lower than the maximum transmission power. To increase the received SNR at the gNB, some embodiments allow the UE to completely bypass the power control procedure and transmit at maximum power. The higher the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the higher the probability of successful decoding of the transmission.

[0144] In another embodiment, 1 bit is used to signal to the UE whether to transmit at maximum power.

[0145] In yet another embodiment, if the gNB desires to select the transmission power level from a set up to 2 N possible values, N bits can be reserved for this purpose. For example, using N = 2 bits, the gNB can inform the following 4 possibilities: TIFF0007702459000002.tif51128

[0146] The values "X" and "Y" may be fixed in the 3GPP specifications or set by RRC signaling.

[0147] Generally, next, some embodiments introduce new signaling to allow the gNB to set different transmission settings for feedback-based HARQ processes and feedbackless HARQ processes.

[0148] Consider another example. To improve reliability, an aggregation coefficient greater than 1 may be set and applied to the feedbackless HARQ process, while an aggregation coefficient equal to 1 may be set and applied to the feedback-based HARQ process. As another example, to improve reliability, a more robust waveform may be set for a HARQ process with HARQ feedback disabled. For example, the DFT-S-OFDM waveform may be used for the feedbackless HARQ process, while CP-OFDM is used for the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0149] Other exemplary transmission parameters that can be set differently for the feedbackless HARQ process and the feedback-based HARQ process include one or more of the following: MCS table, time domain resource allocation table, frequency resource allocation types 0 and 1, target block error rate, physical resource block (PRB) bundling setting, PDSCH mapping types A and B, and / or PUSCH transmission mode (codebook-based transmission and non-codebook-based transmission).

[0150] Further embodiments of this specification consider the NR type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook impact. When both "feedbackless HARQ processes" and "feedback-based HARQ processes" are configured for a UE, some embodiments define UE procedures regarding how to determine entries within the NR type 1 HARQ codebook. In one embodiment, UE procedures for determining entries of the NR type 1 HARQ codebook are defined when both "feedbackless HARQ processes" and "feedback-based HARQ processes" are configured for the UE. In one embodiment, the UE inserts a NACK at a position in the NR type 1 HARQ-ACK codebook corresponding to the PDSCH associated with the feedbackless HARQ process. For a PDSCH associated with a feedback-based HARQ process, the UE inserts an ACK or a NACK according to the decoding result of the PDSCH.

[0151] Figure 10 shows an example of a type 1 HARQ codebook having K1 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} with a NACK inserted at a position corresponding to the PDSCH associated with the feedbackless HARQ process. In the DL association set for the HARQ CB in slot n, the UE receives the PDSCH associated with the feedbackless HARQ process in slot n-3 (corresponding to K1 = 3) and the PDSCH associated with the feedback-based HARQ process in slot n-1 (corresponding to K1 = 1). Since there is no ACK-NACK feedback for the PDSCH associated with the feedbackless HARQ process, the UE inserts a NACK (N) at position K1 = 3 corresponding to the PDSCH received in slot n-3. For the PDSCH received in slot n-1 associated with the feedback-based HARQ process, the UE inserts an ACK-NACK bit X depending on the result of the PDSCH associated with the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0152] Similarly, in the DL association set for the HARQ CB in slot n+5, the UE inserts a NACK at position K1 = 2 corresponding to the PDSCH associated with the feedbackless HARQ process. For the PDSCH received in slot n+1 associated with the feedback-based HARQ process, the UE inserts the ACK-NACK bit X depending on the result of the PDSCH associated with the feedback-based HARQ process.

[0153] Still other embodiments herein relate to the efficient use of unused DCI fields. When the PDSCH corresponding to the feedbackless HARQ process is scheduled by DCI, one or more DCI fields may not be useful. For example, since there is no ACK / NACK feedback for the PDSCH corresponding to the feedbackless HARQ process, DCI fields such as DAI, RV (Redundancy Version), feedback timing from the PDSCH to HARQ, and PRI are not useful. In one embodiment, one or a combination of these fields can be used to dynamically indicate other information related to the PDSCH corresponding to the feedbackless HARQ process.

[0154] In a variation of this embodiment, a list of aggregation coefficients may be set for the feedbackless HARQ process, and one of the aggregation coefficient values may be dynamically indicated by one or a combination of DAI, RV (Redundancy Version), feedback timing from PDSCH to HARQ, and DCI fields such as PRI. For example, when the UE receives a PDSCH corresponding to a feedbackless HARQ process (as indicated by the HARQ process number field in the DCI), the UE infers the aggregation coefficient value associated with the PDSCH by interpreting one or a combination of DAI, RV, feedback timing from PDSCH to HARQ, and the PRI field. When the UE receives a PDSCH corresponding to a feedback-based HARQ process, the DAI, RV, feedback timing from PDSCH to HARQ, and the PRI field are interpreted by a legacy method as defined in NR Release 15.

[0155] In this regard, it should be noted that different types of data traffic may have different reliability requirements. Therefore, it is beneficial to dynamically indicate the aggregation coefficient. For example, for data that requires higher reliability, a larger aggregation coefficient may be dynamically indicated, and for data that requires lower reliability, a smaller aggregation coefficient may be dynamically indicated. This becomes particularly important when there is no HARQ Ack / Nack feedback.

[0156] In another variation of this embodiment, one or more of DAI, RV, feedback timing from PDSCH to HARQ, and DCI fields such as PRI may be used together with the HARQ process number field to indicate the HARQ process number. This is useful when the number of HARQ processes in the NTN scenario is increased to a number greater than 16, in which case 4 bits in the HARQ process number field in the DCI are not sufficient. FIG. 11 shows an example in which the RV field and the HARQ process number field are used to identify the HARQ process number when a number of HARQ processes greater than 16 are configured. In this example, there are 19 configured HARQ processes, 4 of which (processes 16 to 19) are feedbackless HARQ processes, and 15 of which (processes 1 to 15) are feedback-based HARQ processes. The feedback-based HARQ processes are directly indicated by their respective values indicated by the HARQ process number field. To indicate one of the feedbackless HARQ processes, the HARQ process number field indicates a specific value (value 0 in this example), and the value indicated by the RV field indicates one of the configured feedbackless HARQ processes. Therefore, the example of FIG. 11 shows the use of the HARQ process number field in combination with one or more of DAI, RV, feedback timing from PDSCH to HARQ, and the PRI field to identify the HARQ process number.

[0157] The subject matter described in this specification can be implemented in any suitable type of system using any suitable components, but the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wireless network such as the exemplary wireless network shown in FIG. 12. For simplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 12 shows only network 1206, network nodes 1260 and 1260b, and wireless devices (WDs) 1210, 1210b, and 1210c. In practice, the wireless network can further include any additional elements suitable for supporting communication between wireless devices or communication between a wireless device and other communication devices (e.g., landline phones, service providers, or any other network node or end device). Of the illustrated components, network node 1260 and wireless device (WD) 1210 are shown in further detail. The wireless network can provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate access to and / or use of services provided by the wireless devices or services provided via the wireless devices.

[0158] A wireless network can comprise any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and / or a wireless network or other similar type of system, and / or can interface with them. In some embodiments, the wireless network can be configured to operate according to a particular standard or other type of predefined rules or procedures. For this reason, particular embodiments of the wireless network can implement at least one of communication standards such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G standards, wireless local area network (WLAN) standards such as IEEE 802.11 standards, and any other suitable wireless communication standards such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave and / or ZigBee standards.

[0159] Network 1206 can include one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTN), packet data networks, optical networks, wide area networks (WAN), local area networks (LAN), wireless local area networks (WLAN), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks that enable communication between devices.

[0160] Network node 1260 and WD1210 include various components, which will be described in more detail below. These components cooperate to provide the functions of network nodes and / or wireless devices, such as providing a wireless connection in a wireless network. In various embodiments, the wireless network may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relays, and any other components or systems that can facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals, whether via wired or wireless connections.

[0161] Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., wireless access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., wireless base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), and NR Node Bs (gNBs)). Base stations may be classified based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, in other words, their transmission power levels), in which case they may also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may also be a relay node or a relay donor node that controls relays. A network node may further include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station, such as a centralized digital unit and / or a remote radio unit (RRU) (which may sometimes be referred to as a remote radio head (RRH)). Such a remote radio unit may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna-integrated radio. A part of a distributed radio base station may sometimes also be referred to as a node in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0162] Further examples of network nodes include multi-standard radio (MSR) devices such as MSR BR, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSC, MME), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLC), and / or MDTs. As another example, a network node may be a virtual network node, as will be described in more detail below. However, more generally, a network node represents any suitable device (or group of devices) that is capable of, configured to, arranged to, and / or operable to realize and / or provide access to a wireless device to a wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device accessing the wireless network.

[0163] In FIG. 12, network node 1260 comprises a processing circuit 1270, a device-readable medium 1280, an interface 1290, an auxiliary device 1284, a power supply 1286, a power circuit 1287, and an antenna 1262. The network node 1260 shown in the exemplary wireless network of FIG. 12 may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, although other embodiments may include network nodes having different combinations of components. It should be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and / or software required to perform the tasks, features, functions, and methods and / or procedures disclosed herein. Further, the components of network node 1260 are shown as either a single box disposed within a larger box or nested within multiple boxes, but in reality, a network node may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., device-readable medium 1280 may comprise multiple separate hard drives and multiple RAM modules).

[0164] Similarly, network node 1260 may be composed of a plurality of physically distinct components (e.g., a Node B component and an RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), and each of them may have its own respective components. In a particular scenario where network node 1260 comprises a plurality of distinct components (e.g., a BTS and a BSC component), one or more of the distinct components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple Node Bs. In such a scenario, each pair of a unique Node B and an RNC may be regarded as a single individual network node. In some embodiments, network node 1260 may be configured to support a plurality of radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may overlap (e.g., separate device-readable media 1280 for different RATs), and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna 1262 may be shared by multiple RATs). Also, network node 1260 may include multiple sets of various exemplary components for different radio technologies integrated into network node 1260, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA®, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth radio technologies. These radio technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or chip sets and other components within network node 1260.

[0165] The processing circuit 1270 can be configured to perform any determination, calculation, or similar operation (such as a certain acquisition operation) described herein as provided by a network node. These operations performed by the processing circuit 1270 can include, for example, converting acquired information into other information, comparing the acquired information or the converted information with information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the acquired information or the converted information, and making a determination as a result of the above processing, thereby processing the information acquired by the processing circuit 1270.

[0166] The processing circuit 1270 may comprise one or more combinations of a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or a combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic, which can operate alone or in combination with components of other network nodes 1160 (such as the device-readable medium 1280) to provide various functions of the network node 1260. Such functions can include any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits described herein.

[0167] For example, the processing circuit 1270 can execute instructions stored in the device-readable medium 1280 or in the memory within the processing circuit 1270. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 1270 can include a system on a chip (SOC). As a more specific example, the instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) stored in the medium 1280 can include instructions that, when executed by the processing circuit 1270, can configure the network node 1260 to perform operations corresponding to various exemplary methods (such as procedures) described herein.

[0168] In some embodiments, processing circuit 1270 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuit 1272 and baseband processing circuit 1274. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuit 1272 and baseband processing circuit 1274 may be on separate chips (or chip sets), boards, or units such as a radio unit and a digital unit. In alternative embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuit 1272 and baseband processing circuit 1274 may be on the same chip or set of chips, board, or unit.

[0169] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB, or other network device may be performed by processing circuit 1270 executing instructions stored on device-readable medium 1280 or stored in memory within processing circuit 1270. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuit 1270 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable medium, such as in a hardwired manner. In any of these embodiments, processing circuit 1270 may be configured to perform the described functionality, whether or not instructions stored on a device-readable storage medium are executed. The advantages provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuit 1270 alone or to other components of network node 1260, but may be enjoyed by network node 1260 as a whole and / or by an end user and the wireless network as a whole.

[0170] The device-readable medium 1280 can include any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory, including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely-mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (e.g., hard disk), removable storage media (e.g., flash drive, compact disc (CD) or digital video disc (DVD)), and / or other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that can store information, data, and / or instructions used by the processing circuitry 1270. The device-readable medium 1280 can store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including at least one of a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc., and other instructions, that can be executed by the processing circuitry 1270 and utilized by the network node 1260. The device-readable medium 1280 can be used to store any computed values made by the processing circuitry 1270 and / or any data received via the interface 1290. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1270 and the device-readable medium 1280 may be considered integrated.

[0171] Interface 1290 is used for wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between network node 1260, network 1206, and / or WD1210. As shown, interface 1290 includes (a plurality of) ports / terminals 1294 for transmitting and receiving data to and from network 1206, for example, via a wired connection. Interface 1290 further includes a radio front-end circuit 1292 that can be coupled to or in some embodiments be part of antenna 1262. The radio front-end circuit 1292 includes a filter 1298 and an amplifier 1296. The radio front-end circuit 1292 may be connected to antenna 1262 and processing circuit 1270. The radio front-end circuit can be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1262 and processing circuit 1270. The radio front-end circuit 1292 can receive digital data to be transmitted to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuit 1292 can use a combination of filter 1298 and / or amplifier 1296 to convert the digital data into a wireless signal having appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters. Thereafter, the wireless signal can be transmitted via antenna 1262. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1262 collects the wireless signal, and the wireless signal is converted into digital data by radio front-end circuit 1292. The digital data is passed to processing circuit 1270. In other embodiments, the interface can include different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0172] In certain alternative embodiments, network node 1260 may not include a separate radio front-end circuit 1292. Instead, processing circuit 1270 may include a radio front-end circuit and be connected to antenna 1262 without a separate radio front-end circuit 1292. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuit 1272 may be considered part of interface 1290. In still other embodiments, interface 1290 may include one or more ports or terminals 1294, radio front-end circuit 1292, and RF transceiver circuit 1272 as part of a wireless unit (not shown), and interface 1290 may communicate with baseband processing circuit 1274, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0173] Antenna 1262 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1262 may be coupled to radio front-end circuit 1290 and may be any type of antenna capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data and / or signals. In some embodiments, antenna 1262 may include one or more omnidirectional antennas, sector antennas, or panel antennas operable to transmit and receive wireless signals, for example, between 2 GHz and 66 GHz. Omnidirectional antennas may be used to transmit and receive wireless signals in any direction. Sector antennas may be used to transmit and receive wireless signals from devices within a specific area. Panel antennas may be line-of-sight antennas used to transmit and receive wireless signals in a relatively straight line. In some examples, the use of two or more antennas may be referred to as MIMO. In some embodiments, antenna 1262 may be separate from network node 1260 and may be connectable to network node 1260 via an interface or port.

[0174] Antenna 1262, interface 1290, and / or processing circuit 1270 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain acquisition operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data, and / or signals may be received from a wireless device, another network node, and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, antenna 1262, interface 1290, and / or processing circuit 1270 may be configured to perform any transmission operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data, and / or signals may be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node, and / or any other network equipment.

[0175] Power circuit 1287 may include a power management circuit or may be coupled to a power management circuit and is configured to supply power to components of network node 1260 for performing the functions described herein. Power circuit 1287 may receive power from power source 1286. Power source 1286 and / or power circuit 1287 may be configured to supply power to various components of network node 1260 in a form suitable for each component (e.g., at the voltage and current levels required for each component). Power source 1286 may be included in power circuit 1287 and / or network node 1260 or may be provided external thereto. For example, network node 1260 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electrical outlet) via an input circuit or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuit 1287. As a further example, power source 1286 may include a power source in the form of a battery or battery pack that is connected or integrated with power circuit 1287. In the event of a failure of the external power source, the battery may supply backup power. Other types of power sources such as photovoltaic devices may also be used.

[0176] Alternative embodiments of network node 1260 may be involved in providing an operative aspect of the functionality of a network node, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein, and may include additional components other than those shown in FIG. 12. For example, network node 1260 may include a user interface device that enables and / or facilitates input of information to network node 1260 and enables and / or facilitates output of information from network node 1260. This may enable and / or facilitate a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions of network node 1260.

[0177] In some embodiments, a wireless device (WD, such as WD1210) may be configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For example, the WD may be designed to transmit information to the network at a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to a request from the network. Examples of WDs include, but are not limited to, smartphones, mobile phones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, desktop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless cameras, gaming machines or devices, music storage and playback devices, wearable terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, tablets, laptops, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart devices, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), mobile-type communication (MTC), Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, etc.

[0178] WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example, by implementing 3GPP standard specifications for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), in which case it may be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurement and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurement to another WD and / or network node. In this case, WD may be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device that may be referred to as an MTC device in the 3GPP context. As one specific example, WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) standard specification. Specific examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, household or personal devices (e.g., refrigerators, televisions, etc.), or personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, WD may represent a vehicle or other device that can monitor and / or report its operating state or other functions related to its operation. A WD as described above may represent an endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Further, a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or mobile terminal. A vehicle or other device that can monitor and / or report may be represented. A WD as described above may represent an endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Further, a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or mobile terminal.

[0179] As shown, the wireless device 1210 includes an antenna 1211, an interface 1214, a processing circuit 1220, a device-readable medium 1230, a user interface device 1232, an auxiliary device 1234, a power source 1236, and a power circuit 1237. The WD 1210 can include multiple sets consisting of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by the WD 1210, such as, by way of example only, GSM, WCDMA®, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technology. These wireless technologies can be integrated into the same or different chips or chip sets as other components within the WD 1210.

[0180] The antenna 1211 can include one or more antennas or antenna arrays configured to transmit and / or receive wireless signals and is connected to the interface 1214. In certain alternative embodiments, the antenna 1211 can be separate from the WD 1210 and connectable to the WD 1210 via an interface or port. The antenna 1211, the interface 1214, and / or the processing circuit 1220 can be configured to perform any transmission operations described herein as being performed by the WD. Any information, data, and / or signals can be received from a network node and / or another WD. In some embodiments, the radio front-end circuit and / or the antenna 1211 can be regarded as an interface.

[0181] As shown, interface 1214 includes a radio front-end circuit 1212 and an antenna 1211. The radio front-end circuit 1212 includes one or more filters 1218 and amplifiers 1216. The radio front-end circuit 1214 is connected to the antenna 1211 and the processing circuit 1220 and can be configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna 1211 and the processing circuit 1220. The radio front-end circuit 1212 may be coupled to or be part of the antenna 1211. In some embodiments, WD 1210 may not include a separate radio front-end circuit 1212; rather, the processing circuit 1220 may include the radio front-end circuit and be connected to the antenna 1211. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of the RF transceiver circuits 1222 may be regarded as part of the interface 1214. The radio front-end circuit 1212 can receive digital data to be sent to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuit 1212 can use a combination of filters 1218 and / or amplifiers 1216 to convert the digital data into a wireless signal having appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters. The wireless signal can then be transmitted via the antenna 1211. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1211 collects the wireless signal, which is converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuit 1212. The digital data is passed to the processing circuit 1220. In other embodiments, the interface may include different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0182] The processing circuit 1220 may comprise one or more combinations of a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or a combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic, which are operable, alone or in combination with other components of the WD 1210 such as the device-readable medium 1130, to provide the functionality of the WD 1210. Such functionality may include any of the various wireless functions or benefits described herein.

[0183] For example, the processing circuit 1220 may execute instructions stored in the device-readable medium 1230 or in the memory within the processing circuit 1220 to provide the functionality disclosed herein. More specifically, the instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) stored in the medium 1230 may include instructions that, when executed by the processor 1220, may configure the wireless device 1210 to perform operations corresponding to the various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0184] As shown, processing circuit 1220 includes one or more of RF transceiver circuit 1222, baseband processing circuit 1224, and application processing circuit 1226. In other embodiments, processing circuit 520 may include different components and / or different combinations of components. In some embodiments, processing circuit 1220 of WD1210 may comprise a system-on-a-chip (SOC). In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuit 1222, baseband processing circuit 1224, and application processing circuit 1226 may be on separate chips or chip sets. In an alternative embodiment, some or all of baseband processing circuit 1224 and application processing circuit 1226 may be coupled to one chip or chip set, and RF transceiver circuit 1222 may be on a separate chip or chip set. In a further alternative embodiment, some or all of RF transceiver circuit 1222 and baseband processing circuit 1224 may be on the same chip or chip set, and application processing circuit 1226 may be on a separate chip or chip set. In yet another alternative embodiment, some or all of RF transceiver circuit 1222, baseband processing circuit 1224, and application processing circuit 1226 may be coupled in the same chip or chip set. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuit 1222 may be part of interface 1214. RF transceiver circuit 1222 may condition RF signals for processing circuit 1220.

[0185] In one embodiment, some or all of the functions described herein as being performed by the WD may be provided by a processing circuit 1220 that executes instructions stored on a device-readable medium 1230, which may be a computer-readable storage medium in one embodiment. In an alternative embodiment, some or all of the functions may be provided by the processing circuit 1220 in a hard-wired manner or the like, without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium. In any of these particular embodiments, whether or not instructions stored on a device-readable medium are executed, the processing circuit 1220 may be configured to perform the described functions. The advantages provided by such functions are not limited to the processing circuit 1220 alone or to other components of the WD1210, but are enjoyed by the entire WD1210 and / or by the end user and the entire wireless network.

[0186] The processing circuit 1220 may be configured to perform any determination, calculation, or similar operation (e.g., a certain acquisition operation) described herein as being performed by the WD. Such operations as performed by the processing circuit 1220 may include, for example, converting acquired information into other information, comparing the acquired information or the converted information with information stored in the WD1210, and / or performing one or more operations based on the acquired information or the converted information, and making a determination as a result of the above processing to process the information acquired by the processing circuit 1220.

[0187] The device-readable medium 1230 can be operative to store at least one of a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc., and other instructions that can be executed by the processing circuit 1220. The device-readable medium 1230 can include a computer memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM)), a mass storage medium (e.g., a hard disk), a removable storage medium (e.g., a compact disc (CD) or a digital video disc (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory device that can be used by the processing circuit 1220 to store information, data, and / or instructions. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 1220 and the device-readable medium 1230 may be considered integrated.

[0188] The user interface device 1232 may include components that enable and / or facilitate interaction between a human user and the WD1210. Such interaction can take many forms, such as visual, auditory, tactile, etc. The user interface device 1232 may be operable to generate output to the user and to enable and / or facilitate the user to provide input to the WD1210. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface device 1232 incorporated in the WD1210. For example, if the WD1210 is a smartphone, the interaction may be via a touch screen. If the WD1210 is a smart meter, the interaction may be via a screen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., when smoke is detected). The user interface device 1232 may include an input interface, devices, and circuits, and an output interface, devices, and circuits. The user interface device 1232 is configured to enable and / or facilitate the input of information to the WD1210 and is connected to the processing circuit 1220 to enable and / or facilitate the processing circuit 1220 to process the input information. The user interface device 1232 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity sensor or other sensors, keys / buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or other input circuits. The user interface device 1232 is further configured to enable and / or facilitate the output of information from the WD1210 and to enable and / or facilitate the processing circuit 1220 to output information from the WD1210. The user interface device 1232 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, a vibration circuit, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuits. Using one or more input / output interfaces, devices, and circuits of the user interface device 1232, the WD1210 may communicate with an end user and / or a wireless network and enable and / or facilitate the end user and / or the wireless network to enjoy the benefits from the functions described herein.

[0189] The auxiliary device 1234 is operable to provide more specific functions that may not generally be performed by the WD. This may include dedicated sensors for performing measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wired communication. What components the auxiliary device 1234 includes and the types of such components may vary depending on the embodiment and / or scenario.

[0190] In some embodiments, the power source 1236 may be in the form of a battery or a battery pack. Other types of power sources such as an external power source (e.g., an electrical outlet), a photovoltaic device, or a power cell may also be used. The WD 1210 may further include a power circuit 1237 that sends power from the power source 1236 to various parts of the WD 1210 that require power from the power source 1236 to perform any of the functions described or shown herein. The power circuit 1237 may include a power management circuit in some embodiments. Additionally or alternatively, the power circuit 1237 may be operable to receive power from an external power source, in which case the WD 1210 may be connectable to an external power source (such as an electrical outlet) via an interface such as an input circuit or a power cable. In some embodiments, the power circuit 1237 may further be operable to send power from an external power source to the power source 1236. This may be for charging the power source 1236, for example. The power circuit 1237 may perform any conversion or other modification to the power from the power source 1236 to make it suitable for supply to each component of the WD 1210.

[0191] FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of a UE according to various aspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE does not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the associated device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to or operation by a human user, but may not be associated with a particular human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller), or may not initially be associated therewith. Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to or operation by an end user, but may be associated with a user (e.g., a smart power meter) or may be operated for the benefit of such user. UE13200 can be any UE specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including an NB-IoT UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an extended MTC (eMTC) UE. As shown in FIG. 13, UE1300 is an example of a WD configured to communicate according to one or more communication standards published by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as the 3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and / or 5G standards. As described above, the terms WD and UE may be used interchangeably. Thus, while FIG. 13 shows a UE, the components described herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice versa.

[0192] In FIG. 13, the UE 1300 includes a processing circuit 1301, which is operably coupled to at least one of an input / output interface 1305, a radio frequency (RF) interface 1309, a network connection interface 1311, a memory 1315 including a random access memory (RAM) 1317, a read-only memory (ROM) 1319, and a storage medium 1321, a communication subsystem 1331, a power supply 1333, and any other component, or any combination thereof. The storage medium 1321 includes an operating system 1323, an application program 1325, and data 1327. In other embodiments, the storage medium 1321 may include other similar types of information. A UE may utilize all or only a subset of the components shown in FIG. 13. The level of integration between components may vary from one UE to another. Further, a UE may include multiple instances of components such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0193] In FIG. 13, the processing circuit 1301 may be configured to process computer instructions and data. The processing circuit 1301 may be implemented as any sequential state machine operable to execute machine instructions stored in the memory as a machine-readable computer program, such as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.), programmable logic with appropriate firmware, one or more stored programs, a general-purpose processor such as a microprocessor or a digital signal processor (DSP), and appropriate software, or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuit 1301 may include two central processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.

[0194] In the illustrated embodiment, the input / output interface 1305 can be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, an output device, or an input / output device. The UE 1300 can be configured to use an output device via the input / output interface 1305. The output device can use the same type of interface port as the input device. For example, a USB port can be used to provide input to the UE 1300 and output from the UE 1200. The output device can be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smart card, another output device, or any combination thereof. The UE 1300 can be configured to use an input device via the input / output interface 1305 so as to enable and / or facilitate a user to capture information into the UE 1300. The input device can include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a direction pad, a track pad, a scroll wheel, a smart card, etc. The presence-sensitive display can include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. The sensor can be, for example, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, an inclinometer, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, other similar sensors, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device can be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

[0195] In FIG. 13, the RF interface 1309 can be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as transmitters, receivers, and antennas. The network connection interface 1311 can be configured to provide a communication interface to network 1343a. Network 1343a can include wired and / or wireless networks such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), computer network, wireless network, telecommunications network, other similar networks, or any combination thereof. For example, network 1343a may include a Wi-Fi network. The network connection interface 1311 can be configured to include receivers and transmitter interfaces used to communicate with one or more other devices via a communication network according to one or more communication protocols such as Ethernet, TCP / IP, SONET, ATM, etc. The network connection interface 1311 can implement receiver and transmitter functions suitable for a communication network link (e.g., optical, electrical, etc.). The transmitter function and the receiver function may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or may be implemented separately.

[0196] RAM 1317 may be configured to interface with the processing circuit 1301 via the bus 1302 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during the execution of software programs such as an operating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 1319 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to the processing circuit 1301. For example, ROM 1319 may be configured to store invariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basic input / output (I / O) from a keyboard, startup, or reception of keystrokes, stored in a non-volatile memory. The storage medium 1321 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disk, optical disk, floppy disk, hard disk, removable cartridge, or flash drive.

[0197] In one example, the storage medium 1321 may be configured to include an operating system 1323, an application program 1325 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine, or other applications, and a data file 1327. The storage medium 1321 may store any one of a variety of operating systems, or a combination of operating systems, for use by the UE 1300. For example, the application program 1325 may include executable program instructions that, when executed by the processor 1301, may configure the UE 1300 to perform operations corresponding to the various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) described herein (also referred to as a computer program product).

[0198] The memory medium 1321 can be configured to include a plurality of physical drive units such as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), a floppy disk drive, a flash memory, a USB flash drive, an external hard disk drive, a thumb drive, a pen drive, a key drive, a high density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, an internal hard disk drive, a Blu-ray optical disc drive, a holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, an external mini dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), an external micro DIMM SDRAM, a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity (SIM / RUIM) module such as a smart card memory, other memories, or any combination thereof. The memory medium 1321 can enable the UE1300 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs, etc. stored in a temporary or non-temporary memory medium to offload or upload data. Products such as those utilizing a communication system can be tangibly embodied in the memory medium 1321 which can include a device-readable medium.

[0199] In FIG. 13, the processing circuit 1301 may be configured to communicate with the network 1343b using the communication subsystem 1331. The network 1343a and the network 1343b may be the same network or different networks. The communication subsystem 1331 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with the network 1343b. For example, the communication subsystem 1331 may be configured to include one or more transceivers for communicating with one or more remote transceivers of other WD, UE, or base stations, etc. of a radio access network (RAN) according to one or more communication protocols such as IEEE802.13, CDMA, WCDMA (registered trademark), GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, etc., which are capable of wireless communication. Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1333 and / or a receiver 1335 to implement the functions of a transmitter or receiver suitable for a RAN link (e.g., frequency allocation, etc.), respectively. Further, the transmitter 1333 and the receiver 1335 of each transceiver may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or may be implemented separately.

[0200] In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions of the communication subsystem 1331 can include data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communication such as Bluetooth, proximity communication, location-based communication such as the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for determining location, other similar communication functions, or any combination thereof. For example, the communication subsystem 1331 can include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication. The network 1343b can include wired and / or wireless networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, other similar networks, or any combination thereof. For example, the network 1343b can be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and / or a proximity network. The power supply 1313 can be configured to supply alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to the components of the UE 1300.

[0201] The features, advantages, and / or functions described herein can be implemented in one of the components of the UE 1300 or divided among multiple components of the UE 1300. Further, the features, advantages, and / or functions described herein can be implemented in any combination of hardware, software, or firmware. In one example, the communication subsystem 1331 can be configured to include any of the components described herein. Further, the processing circuit 1301 can be configured to communicate with any of such components via the bus 1302. In another example, any of such components can be represented by program instructions stored in a memory that execute the corresponding functions described herein when executed by the processing circuit 1301. In another example, the functions of any of such components may be distributed between the processing circuit 1301 and the communication subsystem 1331. In another example, the non-computation-intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware, and the computation-intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0202] FIG. 14 is a schematic block diagram showing a virtualization environment 1400 in which functions implemented by some embodiments can be virtualized. In this context, the virtualization means creates a virtualized version of a device or apparatus that can include virtualization of a hardware platform, storage, and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device, or any other type of communication device) or components thereof, and at least a portion of the function is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines, or containers running on one or more physical processing nodes within one or more networks).

[0203] In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1400 hosted by one or more of the hardware nodes 1430. Further, in embodiments where the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require a wireless connection (e.g., a core network node), the network node may be fully virtualized.

[0204] The above functions may be implemented by one or more applications 1420 (alternatively referred to as software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operable to implement some of the features, functions, and / or advantages of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. The application 1420 is executed in a virtualization environment 1400 that provides the hardware 1430 including a processing circuit 1460 and a memory 1490. The memory 1490 includes instructions 1495 executable by the processing circuit 1460, whereby the application 1420 is operable to provide one or more of the features, advantages, and / or functions disclosed herein.

[0205] The virtualized environment 1400 can include a general-purpose or dedicated network hardware device (or node) 1430 that includes a set of one or more processors or processing circuits 1460, which can be a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or any other type of processing circuit including digital or analog hardware components or dedicated processors. Each hardware device can include a memory 1490-1, which can be a non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1495 or software executed by the processing circuit 1460. For example, the instructions 1495 can include program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by the processing circuit 1460, can configure the hardware node 1420 to perform operations corresponding to various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) described herein. Such operations can be due to the (one or more) virtual nodes 1420 hosted by the hardware node 1430.

[0206] Each hardware device can include one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1470, also known as network interface cards, that include a physical network interface 1480. Each hardware device can further include a non-transitory and persistent machine-readable storage medium 1490-2 that stores software 1495 and / or instructions executable by the processing circuit 1460 therein. The software 1495 can include any type of software, including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1450 (also referred to as hypervisors), software for executing virtual machines 1440, and software that enables the performance of functions, features, and / or advantages described in connection with some embodiments described herein.

[0207] Virtual machine 1440 includes virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interfaces, and virtual storage, and can be executed by a corresponding virtualization layer 1450 or hypervisor. Various embodiments of instances of virtual appliance 1420 may be implemented on one or more virtual machines 1440, and such implementation may be performed in different ways.

[0208] During operation, processing circuit 1460 executes software 1495 to instantiate a hypervisor or virtualization layer 1450, sometimes also referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM). The virtualization layer 1450 can present a virtual operating platform that appears to the virtual machine 1440 as networking hardware.

[0209] As shown in FIG. 14, hardware 1430 can be a stand-alone network node with general-purpose or specific components. Hardware 1430 can include antenna 14225 and can implement some functions through virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1430 can be part of a larger hardware cluster (such as within a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where multiple hardware nodes cooperate and are managed through management and orchestration (MANO) 14100 that particularly supervises the life cycle management of application 1420.

[0210] Hardware virtualization is performed in several contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV can be used to integrate many network device types into industry-standard high-capacity server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage that can be placed within a data center, and customer premise equipment.

[0211] In the context of NFV, the virtual machine 1440 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that executes a program as if it were running on a non-virtualized physical machine. Each of the plurality of virtual machines 1440 and the portion of the hardware 1430 that executes the virtual machine 740 are hardware dedicated to the virtual machine 740 and / or hardware shared by the virtual machine 740 with other ones of the plurality of virtual machines 1440, and form individual virtual network elements (VNE: virtual network element).

[0212] Note that in the context of NFV, the virtual network function (VNF) is executed on one or more virtual machines 1440 on the hardware networking infrastructure 1430 and is involved in processing a specific network function corresponding to the application 1420 in FIG. 14.

[0213] In some embodiments, one or more radio units 14200, each including one or more transmitters 14220 and one or more receivers 14210, may be coupled to one or more antennas 14225. The radio unit 14200 can communicate directly with the hardware node 1430 via one or more suitable network interfaces and can be used in combination with virtual components to provide radio functions such as radio access nodes or base stations to virtual nodes. Nodes arranged in this way can also communicate with one or more UEs, as described elsewhere in this specification.

[0214] In some embodiments, some signaling may be performed via a control system 1423 that can alternatively be used for communication between the hardware node 1430 and the radio unit 14200.

[0215] Referring to FIG. 15, according to an embodiment, a communication system includes a communication network 1510 such as a 3GPP type cellular network, and the communication network includes an access network 1511 such as a radio access network and a core network 1514. The access network 1511 includes a plurality of base stations 1512a, 1512b, 1512c such as NB, eNB, gNB, or other types of radio access points that respectively define corresponding coverage areas 1513a, 1513b, 1513c. Each base station 1512a, 1512b, 1512c can be connected to the core network 1514 via a wired or wireless connection 1515. A first UE 1591 located in the coverage area 1513c can be configured to wirelessly connect to the corresponding base station 1512c or be paged by the base station. A second UE 1592 within the coverage area 1513a can be wirelessly connected to the corresponding base station 1512a. In this example, a plurality of UEs 1591, 1592 are shown, but the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to situations where a single UE is within a coverage area or a single UE is connected to a corresponding base station.

[0216] The communication network 1510 itself is connected to a host computer 1530, which can be implemented in the hardware and / or software of a stand-alone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, or as processing resources within a server farm. The host computer 1530 may be owned or under the control of a service provider, or may be operated by or on behalf of a service provider. The connections 1521 and 1522 between the communication network 1510 and the host computer 1530 may extend directly from the core network 1514 to the host computer 1530, or may extend via an optional intermediate network 1520. The intermediate network 1520 may be one or more combinations of a public network, a private network, or a host network, and the intermediate network 1520 may, if any, be a backbone network or the Internet, and in particular, the intermediate network 1520 may include two or more sub-networks (not shown).

[0217] The communication system of FIG. 15 provides connectivity between one of the connected UEs 1591, 1592 and the host computer 1530 as a whole. Such connectivity can be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1550. The host computer 1530 and the connected UEs 1591, 1592 are configured to communicate data and / or signaling via the OTT connection 1550 using the access network 1511, the core network 1514, any intermediate network 1520, and possibly further infrastructure (not shown) as a medium. The OTT connection 1550 can be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 1550 passes are unaware of the routing of the uplink communication and the downlink communication. For example, the base station 1512 may not be notified or need not be notified about the past routing of the arriving downlink communication having data transmitted from the host computer 1530 (e.g., handed over) to the connected UE 1591. Similarly, the base station 1512 need not know the future routing of the transmitted uplink communication from the UE 1591 to the host computer 1530.

[0218] Referring to FIG. 16, an implementation example according to the embodiments of the UE, base station, and host computer described in the previous paragraph will be described below. In communication system 1600, host computer 1610 includes hardware 1615 including a communication interface 1616 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with interfaces of different communication devices in communication system 1600. Host computer 1610 further includes a processing circuit 1618 that may have storage capabilities and / or processing capabilities. Specifically, processing circuit 1618 may include one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or combinations thereof (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer 1610 further includes software 1611 stored within host computer 1610 or accessible by host computer 910 and executable by processing circuit 1618. Software 1611 includes client application 1612. Host application 1612 may be operable to provide services to remote users such as UE 1630 connected via OTT connection 1650 that terminates at UE 1630 and host computer 1610. When providing services to remote users, host application 1612 may provide user data transmitted using OTT connection 1650.

[0219] The communication system 1600 may further include a base station 1620 provided within the communication system and including hardware 1625 that enables communication with the host computer 1610 and the UE 1630. The hardware 1625 may include a communication interface 1626 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of different communication devices of the communication system 1600, and a wireless interface 1627 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 1670 with a UE 1630 located within a coverage area (not shown in FIG. 16) served by the base station 1620. The communication interface 1626 may be configured to facilitate a connection 1660 to the host computer 1610. The connection 1660 may be direct or may pass through a core network (not shown in FIG. 16) of the communication system and / or one or more intermediate networks external to the communication system. In the illustrated embodiment, the hardware 1625 of the base station 1620 may further include a processing circuit 1628 comprising one or more programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, or combinations thereof (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.

[0220] The base station 1620 further includes software 1621 stored internally or accessible via an external connection. For example, the software 1621 may include program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by the processing circuit 1628, may configure the 1620 to perform operations corresponding to various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) described herein.

[0221] The communication system 1600 may further include the UE 1630 already mentioned. The hardware 1635 of the UE may include a radio interface 1637 configured to set up and maintain a radio connection 1670 with a base station that serves the coverage area where the UE 1630 is currently located. The hardware 1635 of the UE 1630 may further include a processing circuit 1638 equipped with one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field-programmable gate arrays, or combinations thereof (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.

[0222] The UE 1630 further comprises software 1631 stored within the UE 1630 or accessible to the UE 1530 and executable by the processing circuit 1638. The software 1631 includes a client application 1632. The client application 1632 may be operable to provide services to a human or non-human user via the UE 1630 with the support of the host computer 1610. In the host computer 1610, the running host application 1612 may communicate with the running client application 1632 via an OTT connection 1650 that terminates at the UE 1630 and the host computer 1610. When providing services to the user, the client application 1632 may receive request data from the host application 1612 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1650 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 1632 may interact with the user to generate the user data it provides. The software 1631 may include program instructions that, when executed by the processing circuit 1638, may configure the UE 1630 to perform operations corresponding to various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) described herein (also referred to as a computer program product).

[0223] As an example, the host computer 1610, base station 1620, and UE 1630 shown in FIG. 16 may be the same as or identical to the host computer or base station described in connection with other figures herein. For example, the internal operations of these entities may be as shown in FIG. 16, and independently, the surrounding network topology may be as shown in other figures.

[0224] In FIG. 16, the OTT connection 1650 is abstractly depicted to show the communication between the host computer 1610 and the UE 1630 via the base station 1620 without explicitly referring to any intermediate devices and the exact routing of messages through those devices. The network infrastructure may determine a routing that is configured to hide from the UE 1630, from the service provider operating the host computer 1610, or from both. While the OTT connection 1650 is active, the network infrastructure may further make a decision to dynamically change the routing (e.g., based on load considerations or network reconfiguration).

[0225] The wireless connection 1670 between the UE 1630 and the base station 1620 complies with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments may improve the performance of the OTT service provided to the UE 1630 using the OTT connection 1650 in which the wireless connection 1670 forms the last segment. More precisely, the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein are associated with the end-to-end service quality (QoS) of a data flow that includes a corresponding radio bearer associated with a data session between a user equipment (UE) and another entity, such as an OTT data application or service external to the 5G network. The network can improve its flexibility to monitor the QoS of the data flow. These and other advantages can facilitate a more timely design, implementation, and deployment of 5G / NR solutions. Further, such embodiments can facilitate flexible and timely control of data session QoS, which can lead to improvements in capacity, throughput, latency, etc., as envisioned by 5G / NR and important for the growth of OTT services.

[0226] In some embodiments, measurement procedures may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rates, latencies, and other network operating modes that one or more embodiments improve. Further, there may be optional network functions for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1650 between the host computer 1610 and the UE 1630 in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedures and / or network functions for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1650 may be implemented in the software 1611 and hardware 1615 of the host computer 1610, or the software 1631 and hardware 1635 of the UE 1630, or both. In some embodiments, a sensor (not shown) may be disposed in or associated with a communication device through which the OTT connection 1650 passes. The sensor may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or by supplying values of other physical quantities from which the software 1611, 1631 can calculate or estimate the monitored quantity. The reconfiguration of the OTT connection 1650 may include a message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing, etc., and the reconfiguration need not affect the base station 1620 and may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 1620. Such procedures and functions may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, the measurement may include unique UE signaling that facilitates measurement of throughput, propagation time, latency, etc. of the host computer 1610. The measurement may be performed by having the software 1611 and 1631 transmit messages (particularly, empty messages or "dummy" messages) using the OTT connection 1650 while monitoring propagation time, errors, etc.

[0227] FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a method executed in a communication system according to one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE that may be described with reference to other drawings herein in some embodiments. For simplicity of disclosure, only references to the drawings for FIG. 17 are included in this section. At step 1710, the host computer provides user data. In sub-step 1711 (which may be optional) of step 1710, the host computer provides user data by executing a host application. At step 1720, the host computer starts a transmission to carry the user data to the UE. At (optional) step 1730, the base station transmits the user data carried in the transmission started by the host computer to the UE according to the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. At (optional) step 1740, the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

[0228] FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing a method executed in a communication system according to one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE that may be described with reference to other drawings herein. For simplicity of disclosure, only references to the drawings for FIG. 18 are included in this section. In step 1810 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional sub-step (not shown), the host computer provides user data by executing a host application. At step 1820, the host computer starts a transmission to carry the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass through the base station according to the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. At (optional) step 1830, the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.

[0229] Figure 19 is a flowchart showing a method executed in a communication system according to an embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE that may be described with reference to other drawings herein. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only references to the drawings for Figure 19 are included in this section. In step 1910 (which may be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step 1920, the UE provides user data. In sub-step 1921 (which may be optional) of step 1920, the UE provides user data by executing a client application. In sub-step 1911 (which may be optional) of step 1910, the UE executes a client application that provides user data in response to received input data provided by the host computer. When providing user data, the client application being executed may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the particular method by which the user data is provided, the UE starts transmitting the user data to the host computer in sub-step 1930 (which may be optional). In step 1940 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE according to the teachings of the embodiments described throughout the present disclosure.

[0230] Figure 20 is a flowchart showing a method executed in a communication system according to an embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE that may be described with reference to other drawings herein. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only references to the drawings for Figure 20 are included in this section. In step 2010 (which may be optional) according to the teachings of the embodiments described throughout the present disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In step 2020 (which may be optional), the base station starts transmitting the received user data to the host computer. In step 2030 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

[0231] As described herein, a device and / or apparatus can be represented by a semiconductor chip, chip set, or (hardware) module comprising such a chip or chip set, but this does not preclude the possibility that the functionality of the device or apparatus is implemented as a software module, such as a computer program or computer program product, including executable software code portions for execution or for execution on a processor. Further, the functionality of the device or apparatus may be implemented by any combination of hardware and software. The device or apparatus may also be regarded as an assembly of a plurality of devices and / or apparatuses, whether they cooperate functionally with each other or are independent of each other. Further, the device and apparatus may be implemented in a distributed form across the entire system as long as the functionality of the device or apparatus is maintained. Such principles and similar principles are considered to be known to those skilled in the art.

[0232] Furthermore, the functionality described herein as being performed by a wireless device or network node may be distributed across a plurality of wireless devices and / or network nodes. In other words, the functionality of the network nodes and wireless devices described herein is not limited to execution by a single physical device and is actually intended to be distributed among several physical devices.

[0233] Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Further, the terms used herein are to be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with the context of this specification and the related art and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

[0234] Furthermore, certain terms used in this disclosure, including the specification, the drawings, and their exemplary embodiments, may be used synonymously in certain instances, including but not limited to, for example, data and information. These words and / or other words that may be synonymous with each other may be used synonymously herein, but it should be understood that there may be instances where such words are not intended to be used synonymously. Further, unless the knowledge of the prior art is explicitly incorporated above, the whole of it is explicitly incorporated herein. All publications referenced are incorporated herein in their entirety.

[0235] As used herein, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, a conjunctive list of recited items (e.g., "A and B", "A, B, and C") followed by the phrases "at least one of" and "one or more of" is intended to mean "at least one item selected from the list consisting of the recited items". For example, "at least one of A and B" is intended to mean any of the following: A; B; A and B. Similarly, "one or more of A, B, and C" is intended to mean any of the following: A; B; C; A and B; B and C; A and C; A, B, and C.

[0236] As used herein, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, a conjunctive list of recited items (e.g., "A and B", "A, B, and C") followed by the phrase "a plurality of" is intended to mean "a plurality of items selected from the list consisting of the recited items". For example, "a plurality of A and B" is intended to mean any of the following: two or more A; two or more B; or at least one A and at least one B.

[0237] The above is merely illustrative of the principles of the present disclosure. Various modifications and changes to the described embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the teachings herein. Accordingly, it is understood that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems, devices, and procedures that, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the present disclosure and are thus within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, various exemplary embodiments may be used together or interchangeably with one another.

[0238] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure include, but are not limited to, the following examples, which are divided into a plurality of related embodiments.

[0239] Embodiments of Group A A1. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving control signaling indicating parameter settings from a network node, wherein transmission for a subset of one or more error control processes is performed according to the parameter settings.

[0240] A2. The method of embodiment A1, wherein the one or more error control processes within the subset include one or more error control processes identified by one or more respective error control process identities, and the control signaling indicates the one or more respective error control process identities.

[0241] A3. The method of embodiment A1, wherein the one or more error control processes within the subset include any error control process of a certain type.

[0242] A4. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A3, wherein the one or more error control processes within said certain subset include any error control process in which error control feedback is disabled, or any error control process in which error control feedback is enabled.

[0243] A5. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A4, wherein the parameter setting includes setting one or more power control parameters.

[0244] A6. A method according to embodiment A5, wherein the one or more power control parameters are nominal target received power, path loss compensation factor, delta modulation and coding scheme, transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device, or a parameter for mapping a transmit power control command field in downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value, and includes one or more of the above.

[0245] A7. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A6, wherein the parameter setting includes setting an actual transmit power level.

[0246] A8. A method according to embodiment A7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmit power level by indicating whether transmission for said certain subset of one or more error control processes should be performed at maximum transmit power.

[0247] A9. A method according to embodiment A7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmit power level by indicating which of a plurality of possible actual transmit power levels for transmission for said certain subset of one or more error control processes should be performed.

[0248] A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A9, wherein the parameter setting is an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, a transmission waveform type, a modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table, a type of frequency resource allocation, a target block error rate, a bundling setting of physical resource blocks, a type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or a physical uplink shared channel transmission method, and includes one or more of the above settings.

[0249] A11. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A10, wherein the one or more error control processes are controlled by a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.

[0250] A12. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A11, wherein the one or more error control processes are one or more Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processes.

[0251] A13. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A12, further comprising transmitting or receiving transmissions for a certain subset of the one or more error control processes according to the indicated parameter settings.

[0252] A14. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A13, wherein the transmission for a certain subset of the one or more error control processes is performed via a non-terrestrial network.

[0253] A15. A method according to any one of embodiments A1 to A14, wherein the control signaling indicates a plurality of different parameter settings, and transmissions for a plurality of different subsets of one or more error control processes are performed according to the different parameter settings, and the plurality of different subsets include a subset consisting of one or more error control processes in which error control feedback is disabled and a subset consisting of one or more error control processes in which error control feedback is enabled.

[0254] A16. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: transmitting or receiving transmissions for a plurality of different subsets of one or more error control processes according to different parameter settings.

[0255] A17. A method according to embodiment A16, wherein the plurality of different subsets include a subset consisting of one or more error control processes in which error control feedback is disabled and a subset consisting of one or more error control processes in which error control feedback is enabled.

[0256] A18. A method according to any one of embodiments A16 to A17, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for one or more power control parameters.

[0257] A19. A method according to embodiment A18, wherein the one or more power control parameters are: nominal target received power, path loss compensation factor, delta modulation and coding scheme, transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device, or a parameter for mapping a transmit power control command field in downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value, and includes one or more of:

[0258] A method according to any one of embodiments A16 to A19, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for the actual transmission power level.

[0259] A21. A method according to any one of embodiments A16 to A20, wherein the different parameter settings are an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, a transmission waveform type, a modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table, a type of frequency resource allocation, a target block error rate, a bundling setting of physical resource blocks, a type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or a physical uplink shared channel transmission method, including one or more of the above settings.

[0260] A22. A method according to any one of embodiments A16 to A21, wherein the one or more error control processes included in each of the different subsets are controlled by a media access control (MAC) layer.

[0261] A23. A method according to any one of embodiments A16 to A22, wherein the one or more error control processes included in each of the different subsets are one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

[0262] A24. A method according to any one of embodiments A16 to A23, wherein the transmission is transmitted or received via a non-terrestrial network.

[0263] A25. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising A method of transmitting error control feedback for a set of downlink transmissions to a network node according to an error control feedback codebook, wherein for any downlink transmission for an error control process in which the error control feedback is disabled, the error control feedback codebook encodes the feedback for that downlink transmission as a negative acknowledgement feedback.

[0264] A26. The method of embodiment A25, wherein the downlink transmission is received by the wireless device via a non-terrestrial network.

[0265] A27. The method of any of embodiments A25 to A26, wherein the error control feedback is a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0266] A27A. The method of any of embodiments A25 to A27, further comprising generating the error control feedback according to the error control feedback codebook.

[0267] A28. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: scheduling a downlink transmission for a certain error control process, and receiving a downlink control information message including a set of one or more fields, wherein the interpretation of the set of one or more fields depends on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the certain error control process.

[0268] A29. The method of embodiment A28, wherein the one or more fields in the set are: a downlink allocation indicator field, a redundancy version field, a feedback timing field, or Physical uplink control channel resource indicator field, A method comprising one or more of the following.

[0269] A30. A method according to any of embodiments A28 to A29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with the scheduled downlink transmission.

[0270] A31. A method according to any of embodiments A28 to A29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an error control process number for identifying a certain error control process in combination with an error control process number field in the downlink control information message.

[0271] A32. A method according to any of embodiments A28 to A31, further comprising interpreting the set of one or more fields according to whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for a certain error control process.

[0272] A33. A method according to any of embodiments A28 to A32, further comprising receiving the downlink transmission according to the received downlink control information message.

[0273] A34. A method according to any of embodiments A28 to A33, wherein the downlink transmission is received by the wireless device via a non-terrestrial network.

[0274] A35. A method according to any of embodiments A28 to A34, wherein the error control feedback is hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is an HARQ process.

[0275] A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: Receiving control signaling indicating parameter settings from a network node, and in accordance with the parameter settings, performing a transmission for a certain error control process or a transmission for a certain type of error control process.

[0276] A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: Receiving control signaling indicating parameter settings from a network node, and in accordance with the parameter settings, performing a transmission for any error control process in which error control feedback is disabled.

[0277] A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: Receiving control signaling indicating parameter settings from a network node, and in accordance with the parameter settings, performing a transmission for any error control process in which error control feedback is enabled.

[0278] A method according to any of embodiments A1 to A38, Providing user data; Transferring the user data to a host computer via the transmission to the base station; and further comprising.

[0279] Embodiments of Group B A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: Transmitting control signaling indicating parameter settings to a wireless device, the transmission including performing a transmission for a specific subset of one or more error control processes in accordance with the parameter settings.

[0280] B2. The method of Embodiment B1, wherein the one or more error control processes within the specific subset include one or more error control processes identified by one or more respective error control process identities, and the control signaling indicates the one or more respective error control process identities.

[0281] B3. The method of Embodiment B1, wherein the one or more error control processes within the certain subset include any error control process of a certain type.

[0282] B4. The method according to any one of Embodiments B1 and B3, wherein the one or more error control processes within the certain subset include any error control process in which error control feedback is disabled or any error control process in which error control feedback is enabled.

[0283] B5. The method according to any one of Embodiments B1 to B4, wherein the parameter setting includes setting one or more power control parameters.

[0284] B6. The method of Embodiment B5, wherein the one or more power control parameters are nominal target received power, path loss compensation factor, delta modulation and coding scheme, transmit power control accumulation, the number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device, or a parameter for mapping a transmit power control command field in downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value, and includes one or more of the foregoing.

[0285] B7. The method according to any one of Embodiments B1 to B6, wherein the parameter setting includes setting an actual transmit power level.

[0286] Method according to embodiment B7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmission power level by indicating whether transmission for a certain subset of one or more error control processes should be performed at maximum transmission power.

[0287] Method according to embodiment B7, wherein the control signaling indicates the setting of the actual transmission power level by indicating which of a plurality of possible actual transmission power levels for a certain subset of one or more error control processes should be performed.

[0288] Method according to any of embodiments B1 to B9, wherein the parameter setting is an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, a transmission waveform type, a modulation and coding scheme table, a time domain resource allocation table, a type of frequency resource allocation, a target block error rate, a physical resource block bundling setting, a type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or a physical uplink shared channel transmission method, and includes one or more settings among the above.

[0289] Method according to any of embodiments B1 to B10, wherein the one or more error control processes are controlled by a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.

[0290] Method according to any of embodiments B1 to B11, wherein the one or more error control processes are one or more Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) processes.

[0291] A method according to any of embodiments B1 to B12, further comprising transmitting or receiving, according to the indicated parameter settings, transmissions for said certain subset of one or more error control processes.

[0292] A method according to any of embodiments B1 to B13, wherein said transmission for said certain subset of one or more error control processes is performed via a non-terrestrial network.

[0293] A method according to any of embodiments B1 to B14, wherein the control signaling indicates different parameter settings, transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes are performed according to the different parameter settings, and the different subsets include a subset consisting of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset consisting of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0294] A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: transmitting or receiving, according to different parameter settings, transmissions for different subsets of one or more error control processes.

[0295] A method according to embodiment B16, wherein the different subsets include a subset consisting of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is disabled and a subset consisting of one or more error control processes for which error control feedback is enabled.

[0296] A method according to any of embodiments B16 to B17, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for one or more power control parameters.

[0297] A method according to embodiment B18, wherein the one or more power control parameters are Nominal target received power, Path loss compensation factor, Delta modulation and coding scheme, Transmit power control accumulation, The number of power control adjustment states maintained by the wireless device, or A parameter for mapping the transmit power control command field in the downlink control information to an absolute or cumulative closed-loop power control value, A method including one or more of the above.

[0298] B20. A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B16 to B19, wherein the different parameter settings include different settings for the actual transmit power level.

[0299] B21. A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B16 to B20, wherein the different parameter settings are An aggregation factor indicating the number of consecutive slots scheduled by downlink control information, Transmission waveform type, Modulation and coding scheme table, Time domain resource allocation table, Type of frequency resource allocation, Target block error rate, Physical resource block bundling setting, Type of physical downlink shared channel mapping, or Physical uplink shared channel transmission method, A method including one or more of the above settings.

[0300] B22. A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B16 to B21, wherein the one or more error control processes included in each of the different subsets are controlled by a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.

[0301] A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B16 to B22, wherein the one or more error control processes included in each of the different plurality of subsets are one or more hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes.

[0302] A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B16 to B23, wherein the transmission is transmitted or received via a non-terrestrial network.

[0303] A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: receiving, from a wireless device, error control feedback for a set of downlink transmissions according to an error control feedback codebook, and for any downlink transmission for an error control process for which the error control feedback has been disabled, the error control feedback codebook encodes the feedback for that downlink transmission as a negative acknowledgment feedback.

[0304] A method according to Embodiment B25, wherein the downlink transmission is transmitted by the wireless network node via a non-terrestrial network.

[0305] A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B25 to B26, wherein the error control feedback is hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0306] A method according to any of the methods of Embodiments B25 to B27, further comprising processing the received error control feedback according to the error control feedback codebook.

[0307] A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: scheduling a downlink transmission for a certain error control process, and A method comprising transmitting a downlink control information message including a set of one or more fields, wherein the interpretation of the set of one or more fields depends on whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for a certain error control process.

[0308] B29. The method of embodiment B28, wherein the one or more fields in the set are a downlink allocation indicator field, a redundancy version field, a feedback timing field, or a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field, and including one or more of the foregoing.

[0309] B30. The method of any one of embodiments B28 to B29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields indicates an aggregation coefficient indicating the number of consecutive downlink slots associated with the scheduled downlink transmission.

[0310] B31. The method of any one of embodiments B28 to B29, wherein when the error control feedback is disabled, the set of one or more fields, in combination with an error control process number field in the downlink control information message, indicates an error control process number identifying the certain error control process.

[0311] B32. The method of any one of embodiments B28 to B31, further comprising encoding the set of one or more fields according to whether error control feedback is enabled or disabled for the certain error control process.

[0312] B33. The method of any one of embodiments B28 to B32, further comprising transmitting the downlink transmission according to the transmitted downlink control information message.

[0313] B34. A method according to any one of embodiments B28 to B33, wherein the downlink transmission is transmitted via a non-terrestrial network.

[0314] B35. A method according to any one of embodiments B28 to B34, wherein the error control feedback is a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, and the error control process is a HARQ process.

[0315] B36. A method according to any one of embodiments B1 to B35, comprising: obtaining user data; transferring the user data to a host computer or a wireless device; and further comprising.

[0316] Embodiments of Group C C1. A wireless device configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0317] C2. A wireless device comprising a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0318] C3. A wireless device, comprising: a communication circuit; a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A; and comprising.

[0319] C4. A wireless device, comprising: a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A; a power supply circuit configured to supply power to the wireless device; and comprising.

[0320] C5. A wireless device, comprising a processing circuit and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processing circuit, whereby the wireless device is configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0321] C6. A user equipment (UE), an antenna configured to transmit and receive wireless signals, a radio front-end circuit connected to the antenna and the processing circuit and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuit, the processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A, an input interface connected to the processing circuit and configured to enable input of information to the UE to be processed by the processing circuit, an output interface connected to the processing circuit and configured to output information processed by the processing circuit from the UE, a battery connected to the processing circuit and configured to supply power to the UE, and comprising a user equipment.

[0322] C7. A computer program including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a wireless device, cause the wireless device to perform a step included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0323] C8. A carrier including the computer program of Embodiment C7, the carrier being one of an electrical signal, an optical signal, a wireless signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.

[0324] C9. A wireless network node configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0325] A wireless network node comprising a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0326] C11. A wireless network node, a communication circuit, and a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B, comprising a wireless network node.

[0327] C12. A wireless network node, a processing circuit configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B, and a power supply circuit configured to supply power to the wireless network node, comprising a wireless network node.

[0328] C13. A wireless network node, comprising a processing circuit and a memory, the memory including instructions executable by the processing circuit, whereby the wireless network node is configured to perform any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0329] C14. A wireless network node according to any of embodiments C9 to C13, wherein the wireless network node is a base station.

[0330] C15. A computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a wireless network node, cause the wireless network node to perform a step included in any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0331] A computer program according to Embodiment C14, wherein the wireless network node is a base station.

[0332] A carrier comprising a computer program according to any one of Embodiments C15 to C16, wherein the carrier is one of an electrical signal, an optical signal, a wireless signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.

[0333] Embodiments of Group D A communication system including a host computer, a processing circuit configured to provide user data, and a communication interface configured to transfer the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the cellular network includes a base station having a wireless interface and a processing circuit, and the processing circuit of the base station is configured to execute any of the steps included in any of the Embodiments of Group B.

[0334] A communication system according to the above embodiment, further comprising the base station.

[0335] A communication system according to the above two embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

[0336] A communication system according to the above three embodiments, wherein the processing circuit of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing user data, and the UE includes a processing circuit configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

[0337] A method performed in a communication system comprising a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data at the host computer; and initiating a transmission to convey the user data from the host computer to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the base station performs any of the steps of any of the embodiments of Group B. providing, at the host computer, user data; initiating, at the host computer, a transmission to convey the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the base station performs any of the steps of any of the embodiments of Group B.

[0338] A method according to the above embodiment, further comprising: transmitting, at the base station, user data.

[0339] A method according to the above two embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host computer by executing a host application, and the method further comprises: executing, at the UE, a client application associated with the host application.

[0340] A user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a base station, the UE comprising a radio interface and a processing circuit configured to perform any of the above three embodiments.

[0341] A communication system comprising a host computer, comprising: a processing circuit configured to provide user data; and a communication interface configured to transfer user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and a processing circuit, and components of the UE are configured to perform any of the steps comprised in any of the embodiments of Group A. a processing circuit configured to provide user data; a communication interface configured to transfer user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE); wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and a processing circuit, and components of the UE are configured to perform any of the steps comprised in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0342] D10. A communication system according to the above embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a base station configured to communicate with the UE.

[0343] D11. A communication system according to the above two embodiments, wherein the processing circuit of the host computer is configured to execute a host application and thereby provide user data, and the processing circuit of the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

[0344] D12. A method executed in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), the method including: providing user data in the host computer; and starting a transmission to convey the user data from the host computer to the UE via a cellular network including the base station, wherein the UE executes any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0345] D13. A method according to the above embodiment, further including receiving the user data at the UE from the base station.

[0346] D14. A communication system including a host computer, comprising a communication interface configured to receive user data resulting from a transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a base station, wherein the UE includes a wireless interface and a processing circuit, and the processing circuit of the UE is configured to execute any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0347] D15. A communication system according to the above embodiment, further including the UE.

[0348] D16. A communication system of the above two embodiments, further including the base station, the base station including a radio interface configured to communicate with the UE, and a communication interface configured to transfer the user data carried by transmission from the UE to the base station to the host computer.

[0349] D17. A communication system of the above three embodiments, wherein the processing circuit of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, and the processing circuit of the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data.

[0350] D18. A communication system of the above four embodiments, wherein the processing circuit of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing request data, and the processing circuit of the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data according to the request data.

[0351] D19. A method executed in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), the method including receiving, at the host computer, user data transmitted from the UE to the base station, wherein the UE executes any of the steps included in any of the embodiments of Group A.

[0352] D20. A method of the above embodiments, further including, at the UE, providing the user data to the base station.

[0353] ​The method of the above two embodiments, further comprising: In the UE, executing a client application, thereby providing user data to be transmitted; In the host computer, executing a host application associated with the client application. A method comprising the steps of.

[0354] The method of the above three embodiments, further comprising: In the UE, executing a client application; In the UE, receiving input data to the client application, the input data being provided in the host computer by executing a host application associated with the client application, and The user data to be transmitted is provided by the client application according to the input data. A method.

[0355] A communication system including a host computer having a communication interface configured to receive user data resulting from transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a base station, the base station comprising a radio interface and a processing circuit, the processing circuit of the base station being configured to execute any of the steps included in any of the Group B embodiments.

[0356] The communication system of the above embodiment, further comprising the base station.

[0357] The communication system of the above two embodiments, further including the UE, the UE being configured to communicate with the base station.

[0358] The communication system of the above three embodiments, The processing circuit of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, A communication system in which the UE executes a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data received by the host computer.

[0359] D27. A method executed in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: In the host computer, receiving user data resulting from a transmission received by the base station from the UE, the UE executing any of the steps included in any of the Group A embodiments.

[0360] D28. The method of the above embodiment, further comprising, in the base station, receiving the user data from.

[0361] D29. The method of the above two embodiments, further comprising, in the base station, starting transmission of the received user data to the host computer.

Claims

Claim 1 A method for a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving (200), from a network node in a wireless network, control signaling indicating parameter settings for data transmission associated with a subset of a plurality of HARQ (Hybrid ARQ) processes, for data transmission by the network node or by the wireless device; wherein the indicated parameter settings are one of a plurality of parameter settings each corresponding to a different respective subset of the plurality of HARQ processes; wherein the different respective subsets comprise: a first subset comprising one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is disabled; and a second subset comprising one or more HARQ processes for which HARQ feedback is enabled; A method as claimed.

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