Repetition for Ultra-High Reliability and Low Latency Communication

Abstract

A method, a wireless network, a computer-readable medium, and a program for improving performance in Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) in a wireless communication network are provided. [Solution] The method includes receiving multiple transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, receiving scheduling information regarding multiple physical data channels carrying multiple repetitions of each of the data blocks via a single physical control channel, allocating one or more of the TCI states to the multiple repetitions, and receiving the multiple repetitions via the multiple physical data channels based on the scheduling information and the allocated TCI states.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication networks, and more particularly to performance improvement in ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) in wireless communication networks.

Background Art

[0002] In general, all terms used in this specification should be interpreted according to their ordinary meanings in the relevant technical field (except where different meanings are clearly given and / or are implied from the context in which the term is used). All references to elements, devices, components, means, steps, etc. should be construed openly as referring to at least one example of the element, device, component, means, step, etc., unless otherwise explicitly stated. None of the steps of any of the methods and / or procedures disclosed herein need to be performed in the exact order disclosed (except where a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and / or where it is implicitly understood that a step must follow or precede another step). Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein can always be applied to any other embodiment, where appropriate. Similarly, any advantage of any of those embodiments can apply to any other embodiment, and vice versa. Other objects, features, and advantages of the included embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

[0003] Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a general term for the so-called fourth-generation (4G) wireless access technology that was first standardized within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in Releases 8 and 9 (also known as evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN)). LTE targets various licensed frequency bands and involves improvements to the non-radio aspects, commonly referred to as System Architecture Evolution (SAE), which includes the evolved packet core (EPC) network. LTE continues to evolve through subsequent releases developed according to the standardization process of 3GPP and its working groups (including the Radio Access Network (RAN) working group) as well as sub-working groups (such as RAN1, RAN2, etc.).

[0004] LTE Release 10 (Rel-10) supports bandwidths larger than 20 MHz. One important requirement on Rel-10 is to ensure backward compatibility with LTE Release 8. Therefore, a wideband LTE Rel-10 carrier (e.g., wider than 20 MHz) will appear as multiple carriers to LTE Rel-8 (“legacy”) terminals. Each such carrier can be called a component carrier (CC). In order to efficiently use the wide carrier also with respect to legacy terminals, it is possible for a legacy terminal to be scheduled in all parts of a wideband LTE Rel-10 carrier. One exemplary way to achieve this is to use carrier aggregation (CA), by which a Rel-10 terminal can preferably receive multiple CCs each having the same structure as a Rel-8 carrier. One of the enhancements in LTE Rel-11 is the enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH), which aims at increasing capacity and improving spatial reuse of control channel resources, improving inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC), and supporting antenna beamforming and / or transmit diversity for the control channel. Further, LTE Rel-12 has introduced dual connectivity (DC), by which a UE can be connected to two network nodes simultaneously, thereby improving connection robustness and / or capacity.

[0005] An overall exemplary architecture of a network including LTE and SAE is shown in FIG. 1. E-UTRAN 100 includes one or more evolved Node Bs (eNBs) such as eNBs 105, 110, and 115, and one or more user equipments (UEs) such as UE 120. When used within the 3GPP standards, the term "user equipment" or "UE" means any wireless communication device (e.g., smartphone or computing device) that is capable of communicating with network equipment compliant with the 3GPP standards, including E-UTRAN as well as UTRAN and / or GERAN, in the same way that 3GPP radio access networks of the third generation ("3G") and second generation ("2G") are commonly known.

[0006] As specified by 3GPP, the E-UTRAN 100 is responsible for all radio-related functions in the network, including radio bearer control, radio admission control, radio mobility control, scheduling, and dynamic allocation of resources to the UE in the uplink and downlink, as well as the security of communication with the UE. These functions are present in eNBs such as eNB 105, 110, and 115. The eNBs in the E-UTRAN communicate with each other via the X1 interface as shown in FIG. 1. The eNB is also responsible for the E-UTRAN interface to the EPC 130, specifically the S1 interface to the Mobility Management Entity (MME) and the Serving Gateway (SGW) (collectively shown as MME / S-GW 134 and 138 in FIG. 1). Generally speaking, the MME / S-GW handles both the overall control of the UE and the data flow between the UE and the rest of the EPC. More specifically, the MME processes the signaling (e.g., control plane) protocol between the UE and the EPC, known as the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocol. The S-GW handles all Internet Protocol (IP) data packets (e.g., data or user plane) between the UE and the EPC and serves as the local mobility anchor for the data bearer when the UE moves between eNBs such as eNB 105, 110, and 115.

[0007] The EPC 130 may also include a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 131 that manages user and subscriber-related information. The HSS 131 may also provide support functions in mobility management, call and session setup, user authentication, and access authorization. The functions of the HSS 131 may be related to the functions of a legacy Home Location Register (HLR) and the Authentication Center (AuC) or operations.

[0008] In some embodiments, the HSS 131 is capable of communicating with a User Data Repository (UDR) (labeled as EPC-UDR 135 in FIG. 1) via the Ud interface. The EPC-UDR 135 is capable of storing user credentials after they have been encrypted by an AuC algorithm. These algorithms are not standardized (i.e., vendor-specific), such that the encrypted credentials stored in the EPC-UDR 135 are inaccessible by any vendor other than the vendor of the HSS 131.

[0009] FIG. 2A shows a high-level block diagram of an exemplary LTE architecture with respect to its constituent entities (UE, E-UTRAN, and EPC), and a high-level functional split into an Access Stratum (AS) and a Non-Access Stratum (NAS). FIG. 2A also shows two specific interface points, namely Uu (UE / E-UTRAN radio interface) and S1 (E-UTRAN / EPC interface), each of which uses a specific set of protocols, namely, a radio protocol and an S1 protocol. Although not shown in FIG. 2A, each of those protocol sets can further be segmented into user plane and control plane protocol functionality. The user plane and the control plane are also referred to as the U plane and the C plane, respectively. On the Uu interface, the U plane carries user information (e.g., data packets), while the C plane carries control information between the UE and the E-UTRAN.

[0010] Figure 2B shows a block diagram of an exemplary C-plane protocol stack among the UE, eNB, and MME. The exemplary protocol stack includes a Physical (PHY) layer, a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, and a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer between the UE and the eNB. The PHY layer is related to how and what features are used to transfer data via transport channels on the LTE radio interface. The MAC layer provides data transfer services on logical channels, maps the logical channels to PHY transport channels, and reallocates PHY resources to support these services. The RLC layer provides error detection and / or correction, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly, and reordering of data transferred between upper layers. The PHY, MAC, and RLC layers perform the same functions for both the U-plane and the C-plane. The PDCP layer provides encryption / decryption and integrity protection for both the U-plane and the C-plane, as well as other functions related to the U-plane such as header compression. The exemplary protocol stack also includes non-access stratum (NAS) signaling between the UE and the MME.

[0011] Figure 2C shows a block diagram of an exemplary LTE radio interface protocol architecture from the perspective of the PHY layer. The interfaces between the various layers are provided by service access points (SAPs) indicated by ellipses in Figure 2C. The PHY layer takes an interface with the MAC and RRC protocol layers described above. PHY, MAC, and RRC are also referred to as layers 1 - 3 respectively in the figure. MAC provides various logical channels to the RLC protocol layer (also described above) characterized by the type of information to be transferred, while PHY provides a transport channel to MAC characterized by how information is transferred over the radio interface. In providing this transport service, PHY performs various functions including error detection and correction, rate matching and mapping of coded transport channels onto physical channels, power weighting of physical channels, modulation and demodulation, transmit diversity, and beamforming multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna processing. The PHY layer also receives control information (e.g., commands) from RRC and provides various information such as radio measurements to RRC.

[0012] The RRC layer controls the communication between the UE and the eNB over the radio interface and the mobility of the UE between cells within the E-UTRAN. After the UE is powered on, the UE will be in the RRC_IDLE state until an RRC connection is established with the network. At the time point when the RRC connection is established, the UE will transition to the RRC_CONNECTED state (e.g., in which case data transfer can occur). The UE returns to RRC_IDLE after the connection with the network is released. In the RRC_IDLE state, the UE's radio is active on the discontinuous reception (DRX) schedule set by the upper layer. During the DRX active period (also called the "on-duration"), the RRC_IDLE UE receives the system information (SI) broadcast by the serving cell, performs measurements on neighboring cells to support cell reselection, looks for paging from the EPC via the eNB, and monitors the paging channel on the PDCCH. The RRC_IDLE UE is known in the EPC and has an IP address assigned, but is not known to the serving eNB (e.g., has no stored context).

[0013] Generally speaking, a physical channel corresponds to a set of resource elements that carry information originating from the upper layer. The downlink (i.e., from the eNB to the UE) physical channels provided by LTE PHY include the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Relay Physical Downlink Control Channel (R-PDCCH), Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), and Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH). In addition, the LTE PHY downlink includes various reference signals, synchronization signals, and discovery signals.

[0014] The PBCH carries the basic system information required for the UE to access the network. The PDSCH is the main physical channel used for unicast DL data transmission, but is also used for the transmission of RAR (Random Access Response), certain system information blocks, and paging information. The PHICH carries HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK / NAK) regarding UL transmission by the UE. Similarly, the PDCCH carries DL scheduling allocations (e.g., regarding the PDSCH), UL resource grants (e.g., regarding the PUSCH), channel quality feedback regarding UL channels (e.g., CSI), and other control information.

[0015] The uplink (i.e., from the UE to the eNB) physical channels provided by the LTE PHY include the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), and the Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). In addition, the LTE PHY uplink includes various reference signals, including the Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS) transmitted to assist the eNB in receiving the associated PUCCH or PUSCH, and the Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) not associated with any uplink channel.

[0016] The PRACH is used for the transmission of random access preambles. The PUSCH corresponds to the PDSCH and is mainly used for unicast UL data transmission. Similar to the PDCCH, the PUCCH carries uplink control information (UCI) such as scheduling requests, CSI regarding DL channels, HARQ feedback regarding eNB DL transmission, and other control information.

[0017] The multiplexing scheme for LTE PHY is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with Cyclic Prefix (CP) in the downlink and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) with Cyclic Prefix in the uplink. To support transmission in paired and unpaired spectrums, LTE PHY supports both Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) (including both full-duplex and half-duplex operations) and Time Division Duplexing (TDD). Figure 3A shows an exemplary radio frame structure ("Type 1") used for LTE FDD downlink (DL) operation. The DL radio frame has a fixed duration of 10 ms and is composed of 20 slots labeled from 0 to 19, each slot having a fixed duration of 0.5 ms. A 1 ms subframe contains two consecutive slots, in this case, subframe i is composed of slots 2i and 2i + 1. Each exemplary FDD DL slot is composed of N DL symb OFDM symbols, and each of those symbols is composed of N sc OFDM subcarriers. Exemplary values of N DL symb can be 7 (for normal CP) or 6 (for extended length CP) for a subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 kHz. The value of N sc can be set based on the available channel bandwidth. Since standard engineers in the art are proficient in the principles of OFDM, further details are omitted in this description.

[0018] As shown in FIG. 3A, a particular combination of sub - carriers in a particular symbol is known as a resource element (RE). Each RE is used to transmit a particular number of bits depending on the type of modulation and / or bit - mapping constellation used for that RE. For example, some REs can carry 2 bits using QPSK modulation, while others can carry 4 or 6 bits using 16 - or 64 - QAM respectively. The radio resources of LTE PHY are also defined in terms of physical resource blocks (PRBs). A PRB spans N RB sc sub - carriers (i.e., N DL symb symbols) over the duration of a slot, where in this case, N RB sc is typically either 12 (for a 15 kHz sub - carrier bandwidth) or 24 (for a 7.5 kHz bandwidth). The same N RB sc sub - carriers (i.e., 2N DL symb symbols) spanning across a sub - frame are known as a PRB pair. Thus, the resources available in an LTE PHY DL sub - frame include N DL RB PRB pairs, each of which contains 2N DL symb ·N RB sc REs. For normal CP and 15 KHz SCS, a PRB pair contains 168 REs.

[0019] One exemplary feature of a PRB is that consecutively numbered PRBs (e.g., PRB i and PRB i+1) includes a continuous block of subcarriers. For example, for normal CP and a 15 KHz subcarrier bandwidth, PRB0 includes subcarriers 0 to 11, while PRB1 includes subcarriers 12 to 23. LTE PHY resources can also be defined from the perspective of virtual resource blocks (VRBs), and those VRBs are the same size as PRBs, but can be either of the localized type or the distributed type. Localized VRBs can be directly mapped to PRBs, so that VRB n VRB corresponds to PRB n PRB = n VRB . On the other hand, distributed VRBs can be mapped to discontinuous PRBs according to various rules, as described in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 or otherwise known to a standard engineer in the art. However, the term "PRB" shall be used in this disclosure to refer to both physical resource blocks and virtual resource blocks. Moreover, the term "PRB" will hereinafter be used to refer to the resource block during the duration of a subframe, i.e., a PRB pair, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

[0020] Figure 3B shows an exemplary LTE FDD uplink (UL) radio frame configured in a similar manner to the exemplary FDD DL radio frame shown in Figure 3A. Using terms consistent with the above DL description, each UL slot is composed of N UL symb OFDM symbols, and each of those symbols is composed of N sc OFDM subcarriers.

[0021] As discussed above, the LTE PHY maps various DL and UL physical channels to the resources shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, respectively. For example, the PHICH carries HARQ feedback (e.g., ACK / NAK) regarding UL transmissions by the UE. Similarly, the PDCCH carries scheduling allocations, channel quality feedback (e.g., CSI) regarding UL channels, and other control information. Similarly, the PUCCH carries uplink control information such as scheduling requests, CSI regarding downlink channels, HARQ feedback regarding eNB DL transmissions, and other control information. Both the PDCCH and the PUCCH can be transmitted on an aggregation of one or several consecutive control channel elements (CCEs), and the CCEs are mapped to physical resources based on resource element groups (REGs) each composed of multiple resource elements (REs). For example, a CCE can contain nine REGs, and each of those REGs can contain four REs.

[0022] FIG. 4 shows one exemplary manner in which CCEs and REGs can be mapped to physical resources, e.g., PRBs. As shown in FIG. 4, the REGs containing the PDCCH CCEs can be mapped to the first three symbols of the subframe, while the remaining symbols are available for other physical channels such as the PDSCH that carries user data. In the exemplary arrangement of FIG. 4, each of the REGs contains four REs, which are represented by the small dashed rectangles. Two CCEs are shown in FIG. 4, but the number of CCEs can vary depending on the required PDCCH capacity, which can be based on the number of users, the amount of measurements, and / or control signaling, etc. On the uplink, the PUCCH can be similarly configured.

[0023] In LTE, DL transmission is dynamically scheduled. That is, in each subframe, the base station transmits control information indicating the terminal to which data is to be transmitted and on which resource block the data is to be transmitted in the current downlink subframe. This control signaling is typically transmitted in the first n OFDM symbols in each subframe, and the number n (= 1, 2, 3, or 4) is known as the control format indicator (CFI) indicated by the PCFICH transmitted in the first symbol of the control region.

[0024] LTE was mainly designed for user - to - user communication, while 5G (also called "NR") cellular networks are expected to support both high single - user data rates (e.g., 1 Gb / s) and massive machine - to - machine communication including short - burst transmissions from many different devices sharing the frequency bandwidth. The 5G radio standard (also called "New Radio" or "NR") is currently targeted at a wide range of data services including eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband), URLLC (ultra - reliable low - latency communication), and machine - type communication (MTC). These services can have various requirements and purposes. For example, URLLC is intended to provide data services with extremely strict error and latency requirements, such as -5 the following error probability, or end - to - end latency of 1 ms or less.

[0025] Similar to LTE, NR uses CP-OFDM (Cyclic Prefix Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) in the downlink and both CP-OFDM and DFT-spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) in the uplink. In the time domain, NR downlink and uplink physical resources are each organized into subframes of equal size of 1 ms. The subframe is further divided into a plurality of slots of equal duration, and each slot contains a plurality of OFDM-based symbols. NR also shares various other features of LTE discussed above.

[0026] Regarding NR Rel-16, supporting multi-source transmission of PDSCH to a UE has been discussed. In this context, "source" can refer to, for example, a beam, a panel, a transmission / reception point (TRP), etc. For example, to support URLLC, it may be beneficial to transmit multiple versions of a data transport block (TB) from separate TRPs to the UE. This requires scheduling multiple PDSCHs for the same UE, which in turn requires the UE to correctly decode multiple PDCCHs using the scheduling information for each PDSCH. Multiple PDCCHs for a single UE can increase the UE's complexity and also consume more control channel resources, which reduces the flexibility for scheduling other UEs in the same slot and / or increases the PDCCH blocking probability. These effects are undesirable. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0027] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide certain improvements in communication between a user equipment (UE) and a network node in a wireless communication network, such as by facilitating solutions to overcome the exemplary problems described above.

[0028] Some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure include methods (e.g., procedures) for communicating via multiple nodes in a wireless network. These exemplary methods can be performed by a user equipment (UE, e.g., a wireless device, an IoT device, a modem, etc., or components thereof) in a communication state with one or more network nodes (e.g., a base station, a gNB, an en-gNB, etc., or components thereof) in a wireless network (e.g., E-UTRAN, NG-RAN).

[0029] These exemplary methods can include receiving, from a wireless network, a plurality of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states. In some embodiments, the plurality of TCI states can be associated with one of each of the plurality of nodes in the wireless network, or each of the plurality of beams associated with one or more nodes in the wireless network.

[0030] These exemplary methods can also include receiving, via a single physical control channel, scheduling information regarding a plurality of physical data channels that carry respective repetitions of a data block. For example, as discussed above, the physical control channel can be a PDCCH, and the scheduling information can be scheduling DCI. In some embodiments, the plurality of physical data channels can be respective layers of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In other embodiments, each physical data channel can be a subset of all layers of the PDSCH.

[0031] In some embodiments, the scheduling information may also include an indicator of a resource for receiving one or more of the repetitions. The indicated resource can be in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer. In some embodiments, resources for at least two of the repetitions can be in the same set of symbols in a slot.

[0032] In other embodiments, the scheduling information may include an indicator of a first resource for receiving a first one of the repetitions. In such embodiments, these exemplary methods may also include receiving one or more offsets that are to be applied to the first resource to identify additional resources for receiving the remaining ones of the repetitions. In such embodiments, the additional resources can be located relative to the first resource in one of one or more subsequent slots or one or more subsequent symbols within the same slot.

[0033] In some embodiments, the indicated resources for at least two of the repetitions can completely overlap in frequency. In such embodiments, the scheduling information also includes at least one of a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, DMRS ports from a unique code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and a unique data scrambling seed for each of the completely overlapping repetitions.

[0034] In some embodiments, the scheduling information may also include an indicator of a mapping between a plurality of repetitions and a plurality of redundant versions (RVs) of a data block.

[0035] These exemplary methods can also include allocating one or more of the TCI states to a plurality of repetitions. In some embodiments, the plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of repetitions, and the plurality of TCI states are allocated to the repetitions in a predefined order. In other embodiments, the scheduling information can also include an indicator of the mapping between one or more of the TCI states and the plurality of repetitions. In such embodiments, one or more of the TCI states are allocated to the repetitions based on the indicated mapping. In some of these embodiments, the indicator is included in a field having a plurality of code points, and the plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of code points. In such embodiments, a first subset of the code points can be associated with individual TCI states, and a second subset of the code points can be associated with combinations of individual TCI states.

[0036] In some embodiments, each TCI state includes one or more source reference signal (RS) pairs, and each source RS pair has a corresponding pair of quasi - co - location (QCL) relationships with an antenna port with respect to the DM - RS mapped to a particular physical data channel. In such embodiments, these exemplary methods can also include, for each of the plurality of TCI states, identifying channel parameters based on the source RS pairs included in the particular TCI state.

[0037] These exemplary methods may also include receiving multiple repetitions via multiple physical data channels based on scheduling information and the assigned TCI states. In some embodiments, these operations, for each of the physical data channels, include receiving DM-RS mapped to the physical data channel based on channel parameters (e.g., specified for a source RS pair), identifying further channel parameters based on the received DM-RS, and receiving the physical data channel based on the further channel parameters.

[0038] Other exemplary embodiments include methods (e.g., procedures) for communicating with a single user equipment (UE) via multiple physical data channels. These exemplary methods may be performed by one or more network nodes (e.g., base stations, eNBs, gNBs, en-gNBs, etc., or components thereof) of a radio network (e.g., NG-RAN, E-UTRAN).

[0039] These exemplary methods may include transmitting multiple transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to the UE. In some embodiments, the multiple TCI states may be associated with one of each of the multiple beams associated with each of the multiple nodes in the radio network, or one or more nodes in the radio network.

[0040] These exemplary methods may also include allocating one or more of the TCI states to multiple repetitions of data blocks to be carried by each of the multiple physical data channels. In some embodiments, the multiple TCI states may be fewer than the multiple repetitions, and the multiple TCI states may be allocated to the repetitions in a predefined order. The UE may also recognize this predefined order and allocate the TCI states to the repetitions in the corresponding manner.

[0041] These exemplary methods can also include transmitting scheduling information regarding a plurality of repetitions of each of the data blocks over a single physical control channel to a plurality of physical data channels. In some embodiments, the plurality of physical data channels can be respective layers of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). In other embodiments, each physical data channel can be a subset of all layers of the PDSCH.

[0042] In some embodiments, the scheduling information can also include an indicator of resources for receiving one or more of the repetitions. The indicated resources can be in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer. In some embodiments, resources for at least two of the repetitions can be in the same set of symbols in a slot.

[0043] In other embodiments, the scheduling information can include an indicator of a first resource for receiving a first one of the repetitions. In such embodiments, these exemplary methods can also include transmitting one or more offsets to be applied to the first resource to identify additional resources for receiving the remaining repetitions. In such embodiments, the additional resources can be located relative to the first resource in one of one or more subsequent slots or one or more subsequent symbols within the same slot.

[0044] In some embodiments, the indicated resources for at least two of the repetitions can completely overlap in frequency. In such embodiments, the scheduling information can also include at least one of a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, DMRS ports from a unique code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and a unique data scrambling seed for each of the completely overlapping repetitions.

[0045] In some embodiments, the scheduling information can also include an indicator of the mapping between a plurality of repetitions and a plurality of redundant versions (RVs) of a data block.

[0046] In some embodiments, the scheduling information can also include an indicator of the mapping between one or more of the TCI states and a plurality of repetitions. For example, this mapping can reflect and / or indicate the assignment of TCI states to the repetitions. In some of these embodiments, the indicator is included in a field having a plurality of code points, and the plurality of TCI states is less than the plurality of code points. In such embodiments, a first subset of the code points can be associated with individual TCI states, and a second subset of the code points can be associated with combinations of individual TCI states.

[0047] In some embodiments, each TCI state can include one or more source reference signal (RS) pairs, and each source RS pair has a corresponding pair of quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships with an antenna port with respect to the DM-RS mapped to a specific physical data channel. In such embodiments, these exemplary methods can also include transmitting, for each of the plurality of TCI states, the source RS pairs included in the specific TCI state.

[0048] These exemplary methods may also include transmitting multiple repetitions via multiple physical data channels based on scheduling information and allocated TCI states. In some embodiments, these operations may include transmitting each DM-RS in association with the physical data channel to which it is mapped. This can facilitate the UE to utilize source RS pairs and QCL relationships to receive target RSs (e.g., DM-RS) associated with a particular physical data channel.

[0049] Other exemplary embodiments include a wireless network including one or more network nodes (e.g., base stations, eNBs, gNBs, CU / DUs, TRPs, controllers, etc.) configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein, and user equipment (UE, e.g., wireless devices, IoT devices, or their components such as modems). Other exemplary embodiments include non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that configure such a wireless network or UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein when executed by a processing circuit.

[0050] These and other objects, features, and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent upon consideration of the following drawings and reading the following detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0052] With reference to the accompanying drawings, some of the embodiments contemplated herein will be described more fully. However, other embodiments are within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein and the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as being limited only to the embodiments described herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided as examples for conveying the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art. Further, various terms discussed hereinafter are used throughout this application.

[0053] As used herein, the term "network node" can be any kind of network node included in a wireless network, which can further include a base station (BS), a radio base station, a base transceiver station (BTS), a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), a g-node B (gNB), an evolved node B (eNB or eNodeB), a node B, a multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as an MSR BS, a multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE), a relay node, a donor node controlled relay, a wireless access point (AP), a transmission point, a transmission node, a remote radio unit (RRU), a remote radio head (RRH), a core network node (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME), a self-organizing network (SON) node, a coordination node, a positioning node, an MDT node, etc.), an external node (e.g., a third-party node, a node external to the current network), a node in a distributed antenna system (DAS), a spectrum access system (SAS) node, an element management system (EMS), etc. A network node can also include a test device. The term "wireless node" as used herein can also be used to denote a wireless device (WD) such as a wireless device (WD) or a wireless network node.

[0054] The term "radio network node" can refer to any type of network node that can include any type of base station, radio base station, base transceiver station, base station controller, network controller, RNC, evolved Node B (eNB), Node B, gNB, multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE), relay node, access point, wireless access point, remote radio unit (RRU), remote radio head (RRH), integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, etc.

[0055] In some embodiments, a TRP can be associated with a network node or a radio network node. In some embodiments, a multi-TRP scenario can include multiple TRPs associated with one or more network nodes.

[0056] Unless otherwise mentioned, the terms "wireless device" (or abbreviated as "WD") and "user equipment" (or abbreviated as "UE") are used interchangeably. A WD can be any type of wireless device that can communicate with a network node or another WD via wireless signals, such as a wireless device (WD). A WD can also be a wireless communication device, a target device, a device-to-device (D2D) WD, a machine-type WD or a WD capable of machine-to-machine communication (M2M), a low-cost and / or low-complexity WD, a sensor equipped with a WD, a tablet, a mobile terminal, a smartphone, a laptop embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted device (LME), a USB dongle, a customer premise equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) device, an airborne device (e.g., a drone), a ProSe UE, a V2V UE, a V2X UE, etc.

[0057] Unless otherwise specified, the functions described herein as being performed by a network node or a UE can be distributed across multiple network nodes or UEs. In other words, the functions of the network nodes and UEs described herein are not limited to being performed by a single physical device and can actually be distributed among several physical devices.

[0058] Unless otherwise specified, the term "time resource" can correspond to any type of physical or radio resource represented in terms of a length of time, or a time interval, or a duration. In some embodiments, the term "slot" is used to indicate a radio resource, but it should be understood that the techniques described herein can be advantageously used with other types of radio resources, such as any type of physical or radio resource represented in terms of a length of time. Examples of time resources are symbols, time slots, mini-slots, sub-frames, radio frames, transmission time intervals (TTIs), interleaving times, time resource numbers, etc.

[0059] Unless otherwise specified, the term "TTI" can correspond to any time period (e.g., during a TTI) during which a physical channel can be coded and interleaved for transmission. The physical channel can be decoded by a receiver over the same time period (T0) during which the physical channel was coded. A TTI can also be equivalently referred to as a short TTI (sTTI), transmission time, slot, sub-slot, mini-slot, short sub-frame (SSF), mini-sub-frame, etc.

[0060] In some embodiments, a transmitter (e.g., a network node) and a receiver (e.g., a WD) can have a common predetermined understanding regarding rules for specifying which resources are to be allocated for transmission and / or reception on one or more physical channels. Such rules can be referred to as "mapping" in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the term "mapping" can have other meanings.

[0061] Unless otherwise specified, the term "channel" can refer to a logical channel, a transport channel, or a physical channel. A channel can include one or more carriers, e.g., multiple sub-carriers, and / or can be arranged thereon. A channel for carrying and / or for carrying control signaling / control information can be considered a control channel, e.g., if it is a physical layer channel and / or if it carries control plane information. Similarly, a channel for carrying and / or for carrying data signaling / user information can be considered a data channel (e.g., PDSCH), especially if it is a physical layer channel and / or if it carries user plane (UP) information. A channel can be defined with respect to a particular communication direction or with respect to two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in both directions), in which case the channel can be considered to have two component channels, one for each direction.

[0062] In the following, embodiments may be described in the context of a downlink (DL) channel (e.g., PDSCH), but it should be understood that the principles underlying such embodiments may also be applicable to other channels, such as other DL channels and / or specific uplink channels (e.g., PUSCH).

[0063] Although the term "cell" is used in this specification, (especially with respect to 5G / NR) it is possible to use a beam instead of a cell, and thus it should be understood that the concepts described in this specification apply equally to both cells and beams.

[0064] Although terms from one or more specific radio systems (e.g., LTE and / or NR) may be used in this specification, this should not be considered as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only those specific radio systems. Other radio systems including Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) may also benefit from the principles and / or embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0065] As briefly mentioned above, with respect to NR Rel-16, supporting multi-source transmission of PDSCH to a UE has been discussed. In this context, the term "source" can refer to a beam, a panel, a transmission / reception point (TRP), etc. For example, to support URLLC, it may be beneficial to transmit multiple versions of a transport block (TB) from different TRPs to a UE, which is also called "multi-TRP diversity". This requires scheduling multiple PDSCHs for the same UE. However, this increases the complexity of the UE because the UE needs to correctly decode multiple PDCCHs to receive multiple PDSCHs and benefit from multi-TRP diversity in transmission. Multiple PDCCHs for a single UE also reduce the flexibility for scheduling other UEs in the same slot and / or increase the PDCCH blocking probability. These issues are discussed in more detail later.

[0066] In Rel-15 NR, a UE can be configured such that at a given point in time, a single DL carrier BWP is active using up to four carrier bandwidth parts (BWPs) in the downlink (DL). A UE can also be configured such that at a given point in time, a single UL carrier BWP is active using up to four uplink (UL) carrier BWPs. When a UE is configured with supplementary UL, the UE can be configured such that at a given point in time, a single supplementary UL carrier BWP is active using up to four additional carrier BWPs in the supplementary UL.

[0067] Figure 5 shows an exemplary time-frequency resource grid for an NR slot. As shown in Figure 5, a resource block (RB) consists of a group of 12 consecutive OFDM subcarriers over a 14-symbol slot duration. As in LTE, a resource element (RE) consists of one subcarrier in one slot. Common RBs (CRBs) are numbered from 0 to the end of the system bandwidth. Each BWP configured for a UE has a common reference to CRB0, whereby a particular configured BWP can start at a CRB greater than zero. In this manner, a UE can be configured using narrow BWPs (e.g., 10 MHz) and wide BWPs (e.g., 100 MHz) each starting at a particular CRB, but only one BWP can be active for that UE at a given point in time.

[0068] Within a BWP, RBs are defined in the frequency domain from 0 to TIFF0007704789000001.tif can be numbered up to 9170, where i is the index of a particular BWP for a carrier. Similar to LTE, each NR resource element (RE) corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier within one OFDM symbol interval. NR supports various SCS values Δf=(15×2 μ ) kHz, where μ∈(0,1,2,3,4) is called "new numerology". New numerology μ = 0 (i.e., Δf = 15 kHz) provides the basic (or reference) SCS also used in LTE. The slot length is inversely proportional to the SCS or new numerology according to 1 / 2 μ ms. For example, for Δf = 15 kHz, there is one (1 - ms) slot per subframe, and for Δf = 30 kHz, there are two 0.5 - ms slots per subframe, and so on. In addition, the RB bandwidth is directly related to the new numerology according to 2μ * 180 kHz.

[0069] Table 1 below summarizes the supported NR new numerologies and associated parameters. Various DL and UL new numerologies can be set by the network. TIFF0007704789000002.tif81170

[0070] An NR slot can include 14 OFDM symbols for a normal cyclic prefix and 12 symbols for an extended cyclic prefix. Figure 6A shows an exemplary NR slot configuration including 14 symbols, where the slot and symbol durations are T s and T symbIt is shown as such. In addition, NR includes Type B scheduling, also known as "mini - slots". These are shorter than slots and can start at any symbol in a slot, typically ranging from 1 symbol to the number of symbols in a slot (e.g., 13 or 11) - 1. Mini - slots can be used when the transmission duration of a slot is too long and / or when the occurrence of the start of the next slot (slot alignment) is too late. The application of mini - slots includes unlicensed spectrum and latency - critical transmissions (e.g., URLLC). However, mini - slots are not service - specific and can also be used for eMBB or other services.

[0071] Figure 6B shows another exemplary NR slot structure that includes 14 symbols. In this configuration, the PDCCH is limited to a region that includes a specific number of symbols and a specific number of sub - carriers, called a control resource set (CORESET). In the exemplary structure shown in Figure 6B, the first two symbols include the PDCCH, and each of the remaining 12 symbols includes a physical data channel (PDCH), i.e., either a PDSCH or a PUSCH. However, depending on the specific CORESET configuration, the first two slots can also carry PDSCH or other information as needed.

[0072] CORESET includes multiple RBs (i.e., multiples of 12 REs) in the frequency domain and 1 to 3 OFDM symbols in the time domain, as further defined in 3GPP TS38.211 §7.3.2.2. CORESET is functionally similar to the control region in the LTE subframe, as shown in Figure 4. However, in NR, each REG is composed of all 12 REs of one OFDM symbol in an RB, while an LTE REG only includes 4 REs, as shown in Figure 4. Similar to LTE, the size of the CORESET time domain can be indicated by the PCFICH. In LTE, the frequency bandwidth of the control region is fixed (i.e., fixed to the total system bandwidth), while in NR, the frequency bandwidth of the CORESET is variable. The CORESET resources can be indicated to the UE by RRC signaling.

[0073] The smallest unit used to define CORESET is REG, which spans one PRB in frequency and one OFDM symbol in time. In addition to the PDCCH, each REG includes a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) to assist in the estimation of the radio channel on which the REG is transmitted. When transmitting the PDCCH, it is possible to use a precoder to apply weights at the transmit antenna based on some knowledge of the radio channel before transmission. If the precoders used at the transmitter for the REGs are not different, it is possible to improve the channel estimation performance at the UE by estimating the channel over multiple REGs that are close in time and frequency. To assist the UE with channel estimation, it is possible to group multiple REGs together to form a REG bundle and indicate the REG bundle size (i.e., 2, 3, or 6 REGs) regarding the CORESET to the UE. The UE can assume that any precoder used for the transmission of the PDCCH is the same for all REGs in the REG bundle.

[0074] The NR control channel element (CCE) is composed of six resource element groups (REGs). These REGs can be either contiguous or dispersed in frequency. When the REGs are dispersed in frequency, the CORESET is said to use an interleaved mapping of REGs to CCEs, while when the REGs are contiguous in frequency, a non-interleaved mapping is said to be used. Interleaving can provide frequency diversity. In cases where knowledge of the channel enables the use of a precoder in a particular part of the spectrum to improve the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the receiver, it can be beneficial not to use interleaving.

[0075] Similar to LTE, NR data scheduling can be performed dynamically for each slot. In each slot, the base station (e.g., gNB) transmits downlink control information (DCI) via the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), indicating which user equipment (UE) is scheduled to receive data in that slot and which resource blocks (RBs) will carry that data. The UE first detects and decodes the DCI, and if the DCI contains DL scheduling information for the UE, it receives the corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) based on that DL scheduling information. DCI formats 1_0 and 1_1 are used to convey PDSCH scheduling.

[0076] Similarly, the DCI on the PDCCH can include an UL grant indicating which UE is scheduled to transmit data on the PUCCH in that slot and which RBs will carry that data. The UE first detects and decodes the DCI, and if the DCI contains an uplink grant for the UE, it transmits the corresponding PUSCH on the resources indicated by that UL grant. DCI formats 0_0 and 0_1 are used to convey UL grants for the PUSCH, while the other DCI formats (2_0, 2_1, 2_2, and 2_3) are used for other purposes including transmission of slot format information, allocated resources, transmit power control information, etc.

[0077] The DCI contains a payload complemented by a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the payload data. Since the DCI is sent on the PDCCH received by multiple UEs, it needs to include an identifier of the targeted UE. In NR, this is done by scrambling the CRC with the radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) allocated to the UE. Most commonly, the cell RNTI (C-RNTI) allocated to the targeted UE by the serving cell is used for this purpose.

[0078] The DCI payload is encoded with a CRC scrambled by an identifier and transmitted on the PDCCH. Given a previously configured search space, each UE attempts to detect the PDCCH addressed to it according to multiple hypotheses (also called "candidates") in a process known as "blind decoding". A PDCCH candidate can span 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs, and the number of CCEs is called the aggregation level (AL) of the PDCCH candidate. When multiple CCEs are used, the information in the first CCE is repeated in the other CCEs. By changing the AL, it is possible to increase or decrease the robustness of the PDCCH with respect to a specific payload size. In other words, PDCCH link adaptation can be performed by adjusting the AL. Depending on the AL, the PDCCH candidate can be placed at various time-frequency locations in the CORESET.

[0079] When the UE decodes the DCI, the UE descrambles the CRC using the RNTI allocated to the UE and / or associated with a specific PDCCH search space. In the case of a match, the UE considers the detected DCI to be addressed to it and follows the instructions (e.g., scheduling information) in that DCI.

[0080] Using a hashing function, it is possible for the UE to identify the CCEs corresponding to the PDCCH candidates that it must monitor within the search space set. Hashing is performed separately for each individual UE, whereby the CCEs used by those UEs are randomized, thereby reducing the probability of collisions among multiple UEs that are the target of the PDCCH messages included in the CORESET. The periodicity of monitoring is also set separately for each individual PDCCH candidate. In any given slot, the UE can be configured to monitor multiple PDCCH candidates in multiple search spaces that can be mapped to one or more CORESETs. The PDCCH candidates can be required to be monitored multiple times within a slot, once per slot, or once over multiple slots.

[0081] The DCI can also include information regarding various timing offsets (e.g., in slots or subframes) between the PDCCH and the PDSCH, PUSCH, HARQ, and / or CSI-RS. For example, the offset K0 represents the number of slots between the UE's PDCCH reception of a PDSCH scheduling DCI (e.g., format 1_0 or 1_1) and the subsequent PDSCH transmission. Similarly, the offset K1 represents the number of slots between this PDSCH transmission and the HARQ ACK / NACK transmission as the UE's response on the PUSCH. In addition, the offset K3 represents the number of slots between this ACK / NACK as the response and the corresponding retransmission of the data on the PDSCH. In addition, the offset K2 represents the number of slots between the UE's PDCCH reception of a PUSCH grant DCI (e.g., format 0_0 or 0_1) and the subsequent PUSCH transmission. Each of these offsets can take on values of zero and positive integers.

[0082] Finally, DCI format 0_1 may also include a network request for a UE report of channel state information (CSI) or channel quality information (CQI). Before sending this report, the UE receives and measures CSI-RS transmitted by the network. The parameter aperiodicTriggeringOffset represents the number of integer slots between the reception of the DCI by the UE that includes the CSI request and the transmission of the CSI-RS by the network. This parameter can take values from 0 to 4.

[0083] In addition to the per-slot dynamic scheduling discussed above, NR also supports semi-persistent scheduling in the DL. In this approach, the network sets the periodicity of PDSCH transmission via RRC and then controls the start and stop of transmission via DCI in the PDCCH. One advantage of this technique is the reduction of control signaling overhead on the PDCCH.

[0084] NR also supports a similar function on the UL, called configured grant (CG). In general, CG type 2 is similar to DL semi-persistent scheduling in the downlink (e.g., RRC plus DCI), while CG type 1 is controlled only by RRC, including the start and stop of transmission.

[0085] Figure 7 shows a high-level view of a 5G network architecture consisting of a Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN) 799 and a 5G Core (5GC) 798. The NG-RAN 799 can include a set of g Node Bs (gNBs) connected to the 5GC via one or more NG interfaces, such as gNBs 700, 752, which are connected via interfaces 702, 752 respectively. Additionally, gNBs can be connected to each other via one or more Xn interfaces, such as Xn interface 740 between gNB 700 and gNB 750. With respect to the NR interface to the UE, each of the gNBs can support Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD), Time Division Duplexing (TDD), or a combination thereof.

[0086] The NG RAN logical nodes shown in Figure 7 (and described in TS 78.401 and TR 78.801) include a Central (or Centralized) Unit (CU or gNB-CU) and one or more Distributed (or Decentralized) Units (DU or gNB-DU). For example, gNB 700 in Figure 7 includes gNB-CU 710 and gNB-DUs 720 and 730. The CU (e.g., gNB-CU 710) is a logical node that hosts higher layer protocols and performs various gNB functions, such as controlling the operation of the DUs. Each DU is a logical node that hosts lower layer protocols and can include various subsets of gNB functions depending on the function split. Thus, each of the CU and DU can include various circuits required to perform their respective functions, including a processing circuit, a transceiver circuit (e.g., for communication), and a power circuit. Moreover, the terms "Central Unit" and "Centralized Unit" are used interchangeably in this document, as are the terms "Distributed Unit" and "Decentralized Unit".

[0087] The gNB-CU is connected to the gNB-DU via respective F1 logical interfaces, such as the interfaces 722 and 732 shown in FIG. 3. The gNB-CU and the connected gNB-DU appear only as other gNBs and the 5GC as a gNB. For example, the F1 interface is not visible beyond the gNB-CU. As briefly mentioned above, the CU can host higher layer protocols such as, for example, the F1 Application Part Protocol (F1-AP), the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP), the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the Internet Protocol (IP), and the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol. In contrast, the DU can host lower layer protocols such as, for example, the Radio Link Control (RLC), the Media Access Control (MAC), and the Physical Layer (PHY) protocol.

[0088] However, other variations of protocol distribution between the CU and the DU are possible, such as hosting some parts of the RRC, PDCP, and RLC protocols in the CU (e.g., the Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) function), while hosting the remaining parts of the RLC protocol in the DU together with the MAC and the PHY. In some embodiments, the CU can host the RRC and the PDCP, in which case the PDCP is assumed to handle both the UP traffic and the CP traffic. Nevertheless, other exemplary embodiments can utilize other protocol splits by hosting specific protocols in the CU and specific other protocols in the DU. Exemplary embodiments can also place the centralized control plane protocols (e.g., PDCP-C and RRC) in different CUs for the centralized user plane protocol (e.g., PDCP-U).

[0089] Multiple signals can be transmitted from the same base station (e.g., gNB) antennas from different antenna ports. These signals can have the same large-scale properties, for example, with respect to Doppler shift / spread, average delay spread, or average delay. And these antenna ports are said to be "quasi-co-located" or "QCL". The network can signal to the UE that two antenna ports are QCL. When the UE knows that two antenna ports are QCL with respect to a particular parameter (e.g., Doppler spread), the UE can estimate that parameter based on one of those antenna ports and use that estimate when receiving the other antenna port. Typically, the first antenna port is represented by a measurement reference signal such as CSI-RS (referred to as the "source RS"), and the second antenna port is a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (referred to as the "target RS").

[0090] For example, if antenna ports A and B are QCL with respect to average delay, the UE can estimate the average delay from the signal received from antenna port A (source RS) and assume that the signal received from antenna port B (target RS) has the same average delay. This can be useful for demodulation. Because the UE can know the channel properties in advance when trying to measure the channel using DMRS.

[0091] Information about what assumptions can be made regarding QCL is signaled from the network to the UE. In NR, the following four types of QCL relationships are defined between the transmitted source RS and the transmitted target RS. Type A: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}; Type B: {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}; Type C: {Average delay, Doppler shift}; and Type D: {Spatial Rx parameter} QCL Type D was introduced to facilitate beam management using analog beamforming and is known as "Spatial QCL". Currently, there is no strict definition of Spatial QCL, but the understanding is that if two transmitted antenna ports are spatially QCL, the UE can receive them using the same Rx beam.

[0092] QCL Type D is most relevant for beam management, but it is also necessary to convey the Type A QCL RS relationships to the UE, so that those UEs can estimate all relevant large-scale parameters. Typically, this can be done by configuring the UE using a tracking reference signal (TRS, e.g., CSI-RS) for time / frequency offset estimation. For any QCL criterion to be usable, the UE will have to receive that QCL criterion with a sufficiently good signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). In many cases, this will constrain the TRS for a particular UE to be transmitted in a particular beam and / or beam configuration.

[0093] To introduce dynamics in the selection of beams and TRPs, the UE can be configured through RRC signaling with N transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states, where N is up to 128 in frequency range 2 (FR2) and up to 8 in FR1, depending on the UE's capabilities. Each configured TCI state includes parameters related to the QCL association between a source RS (e.g., CSI-RS or SS / PBCH) and a target RS (e.g., PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS port). The TCI state can also be used to convey QCL information for the reception of CSI-RS. Each of the N states in the list of TCI states can be interpreted as a list of N possible beams transmitted from the network, or a list of N possible TRPs used by the network to communicate with the UE.

[0094] More specifically, each TCI state can include QCL information including one or two source DL RSs, with each source RS associated with a QCL type. For example, two different CSI-RSs {CSI-RS1, CSI-RS2} can be configured in a TCI state as {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2} = {Type A, Type D}. The UE can interpret this TCI state as meaning that the UE can derive Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread from CSI-RS1 and spatial Rx parameters (e.g., RX beam to use) from CSI-RS2. In cases where QCL type D is not applicable (e.g., low-band or mid-band operation), the TCI state includes only a single source RS.

[0095] Furthermore, a first list of available TCI states can be configured for the PDSCH, and a second list can be configured for the PDCCH. This second list can include pointers (known as TCI state IDs) to a subset of the TCI states configured for the PDSCH. For a UE operating in FR1, the network then activates one TCI state for the PDCCH (i.e., by providing the TCI to the UE) and up to eight TCI states for the PDSCH, depending on the UE's capabilities.

[0096] As an example, a UE is configured with four active TCI states from a total list of 64 configured TCI states. Thus, the other 60 configured TCI states are inactive, and the UE does not need to prepare for estimating their large-scale parameters. On the other hand, the UE continuously tracks and updates the large-scale parameters for these four TCI states by performing measurements and analysis of the source RS indicated for each of the four active TCI states. Each DCI used for PDSCH scheduling includes a pointer to one active TCI for the scheduled UE. Based on this pointer, the UE knows which large-scale parameter estimate to use when performing PDSCH DMRS channel estimation and PDSCH demodulation.

[0097] The Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS) facilitates coherent demodulation of the UE for physical layer data channels (e.g., PDSCH) and PDCCH. Each DM-RS is associated with one of these physical layer channels and is thus limited to the resource blocks carrying the associated physical layer channel. Each DM-RS is mapped onto the allocated REs of the time-frequency grid, enabling the receiver to efficiently handle a time / frequency selective fading radio channel.

[0098] The mapping from DM-RS to RE is configurable in both the frequency and time domains. Two mapping types (configuration type 1 or type 2) in the frequency domain and two mapping types (mapping type A or type B) in the time domain define the symbol position of the first DM-RS within the transmission interval. The DM-RS mapping in the time domain can also be single-symbol based or double-symbol based (i.e., a pair of adjacent symbols). Further, the UE can be configured with one, two, three, or four single-symbol DM-RSs and one or two double-symbol DM-RSs. In scenarios with low Doppler, it may be sufficient to configure only front-loaded DM-RSs (i.e., one single-symbol or double-symbol DM-RS), while in scenarios with high Doppler, additional DM-RSs will be required.

[0099] FIG. 8, including FIGS. 8A - 8D, shows four exemplary mappings of front-loaded DM-RS using type A time domain mapping, where the first DM-RS is at the 3rd symbol of a 14-symbol slot. More specifically, FIGS. 8A - 8B show the mappings for configuration type 1 for single-symbol and double-symbol DM-RS, respectively. Similarly, FIGS. 8C - 8D show the mappings for configuration type 2 for single-symbol and double-symbol DM-RS, respectively. As shown in FIG. 8, the type 1 and type 2 mappings differ in both the mapping structure and the number of supported DM-RS CDM groups. As indicated by the separate shading of the DM-RS REs, type 1 supports two CDM groups (e.g., λ = 0, 1), and type 2 supports three CDM groups (e.g., λ = 0, 1, 2).

[0100] The mapping structure of Type 1 may be called a 2-comb structure having two CDM groups defined in the frequency domain by sets of subcarriers {0, 2, 4,...} and {1, 3, 5,...}. Since it facilitates transmission with a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), the comb mapping structure is used together with DFT-S-OFDM in NR UL. In contrast, both Type 1 and Type 2 mappings are supported for CP-OFDM operations (e.g., in UL and DL).

[0101] The DM-RS antenna ports are mapped to the REs within only one CDM group. For single-symbol DM-RS, it is possible to map two antenna ports to each CDM group, while for double-symbol DM-RS, it is possible to map four antenna ports to each CDM group. Thus, the maximum number of DM-RS ports is either 4 or 8 for Type 1, and either 6 or 12 for Type 2. The orthogonal cover code (OCC) of length 2 ([+1, +1], [+1, -1]) is used to separate the antenna ports mapped on the same RE within a CDM group. The OCC is applied in the frequency domain as well as in the time domain when double-symbol DM-RS is configured.

[0102] In NR Rel-15, the mapping of the PDSCH DM-RS sequence r(m), m = 0, 1,... on antenna port p_j and subcarrier k in OFDM symbol l for the numerology index μ is specified in 3GPP TS38.211 according to TIFF0007704789000003.tif42170, where TIFF0007704789000004.tif11170 is the port p in CDM group □ after applying OCC in the frequency domain w f (k’) and in the time domain w t (l’).j Represents a reference signal mapped thereon. The following Tables 2 to 3 show the PDSCH DM-RS mapping parameters for setting types 1 and 2, respectively. TIFF0007704789000005.tif92170TIFF0007704789000006.tif121170

[0103] The DCI also includes a bit field indicating which antenna port (i.e., the number of data layers) is scheduled. For example, if port 1000 is indicated, the PDSCH is single-layer transmission, and the UE will demodulate the PDSCH using the DMRS defined by port 1000. The DCI value also indicates the number of CDM groups without data. What this means is that if 1 is indicated, the other CDM group contains data regarding the UE (in the case of PDSCH), and if 2 is indicated, both CDM groups can include DMRS ports, and the data is not mapped to the OFDM symbols containing DMRS. The following Table 4 shows the bit field values and corresponding settings for DM-RS type 1 with a single front-loaded DM-RS (maxlength = 1). TIFF0007704789000007.tif166170

[0104] Antenna Port Display Table For DMRS type 1, ports 1000, 1001, 1004, and 1005 are in CDM group λ = 0, and ports 1002, 1003, 1006, and 1007 are in CDM group λ = 1 (also shown in Table 2). In contrast, Table 5 shows corresponding exemplary settings for DMRS type 2. For DMRS type 2, ports 1000, 1001, 1006, and 1007 are in CDM group λ = 0, ports 1002, 1003, 1008, and 1009 are in CDM group λ = 1, and ports 1004, 1005, 1010, and 1011 are in CDM group λ = 2 (also shown in Table 3). TIFF0007704789000008.tif255170TIFF0007704789000009.tif60170

[0105] QCL relationship for DMRS CDM groups Currently, the 3GPP NR specification includes the constraint that the UE can assume that the PDSCH DM-RS within the same CDM group is quasi-co-located with respect to Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread, and spatial Rx. In the case where the first UE is not scheduled on all DMRS ports within the CDM group, another UE can be scheduled simultaneously with respect to the remaining ports of that CDM group. The first UE can then estimate the channel for that other UE, which is seen as an interference signal by the first UE. This facilitates coherent interference suppression by the first UE.

[0106] Multi-TRP / Multi-panel / Multi-beam extension As mentioned above, multi-source transmission of PDSCH to a UE has been under consideration for 3GPP NR Rel-16. This can be used, for example, to improve the performance of URLLC by transmitting multiple copies of a PDSCH transport block (TB) from separate TRPs to the UE, which is also sometimes referred to as "multi-TRP diversity". To support this feature, it has been discussed to extend the TCI state from the Rel-15 pair of two source RSs with QCL type 1 and type 2 (e.g., TCI state = {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}) to an extended TCI state with two pairs A and B, or even three pairs A, B, and C. These options can be represented as follows. TCI state = {{qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2} A , {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2} B}, and TCI state = {{qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2} A , {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2} B , {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2} C}. Above, A, B, and C can represent three different TRPs, three different antenna panels in one gNB, or three different beams (also sometimes referred to as "millimeter wave" or abbreviated as mmW) in the case of FR2 operation.

[0107] As briefly mentioned above, URLLC has very strict requirements regarding reliability and latency, e.g., 10 -5It is intended to provide a data service with the following data error probability and end-to-end latency of 1 ms or less. One technique for addressing such reliability requirements is the diversity transmission of multiple copies of a transport block from separate TRPs to the UE. 3GPP Rel-16 supports multi-PDCCH scheduling, whereby multiple PDCCH transmissions are used to schedule multiple PDSCHs each carrying a transport block from separate TRPs. However, this diversity increases the complexity of the UE. This is because the UE has to correctly decode multiple PDCCHs (e.g., DCI) to receive the multiple PDSCHs and thereby benefit from multi-TRP diversity transmission. This places an even greater requirement on the reliability of the PDCCH (e.g., reduced error rate), which is already a problem in some scenarios. Detecting multiple PDCCHs also increases the complexity of the UE, consumes multiple PDCCH resources, and thereby reduces the possibility of scheduling other UEs in the same slot (e.g., increased PDCCH blocking probability). Therefore, there are various arguments, issues, and / or difficulties associated with diversity transmission that need to be addressed to meet the stringent reliability requirements associated with URLLC and other services.

[0108] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure address these and other arguments, issues, and / or difficulties by configuring a UE by a single DCI and / or PDCCH to receive multiple PDSCHs in the same set of OFDM symbols of a slot, where each of the multiple PDSCHs is a version (e.g., a repetition) of the same data payload. Further, exemplary embodiments can configure the TCI state for each PDSCH to support multi-source (e.g., multi-TRP) transmission. In this manner, PDSCH diversity by multi-TRP transmission can be achieved even with a single PDCCH, which can enhance reliability, reduce latency, reduce PDCCH blocking probability, and / or reduce UE complexity.

[0109] In the following description, "repetition" of a PDSCH or PUSCH generally refers to multiple copies of a data block (e.g., a transport block, TB) being transmitted in either separate frequency resources and / or separate spatial resources (e.g., MIMO layers) within a single OFDM symbol in a slot or in multiple OFDM symbols in one or more slots. However, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are distinct from conventional solutions in that they facilitate the transmission of multiple PDSCHs in a single OFDM symbol using at least non-overlapping frequency resources (e.g., REs or RBs) and / or non-overlapping spatial resources (e.g., layers).

[0110] In other words, certain embodiments facilitate a more generalized repetition of the PDSCH or PUSCH, where multiple copies of a packet are transmitted in separate frequency resources and / or separate spatial resources (i.e., MIMO layers), and in time is an immediate single transmission but in some cases also transmissions in separate time opportunities (separate OFDM symbols in one or more slots). A distinguishing feature compared to NR Release 15 is that multiple PDSCHs are transmitted in the same OFDM symbol (either non-overlapping (FDM) or overlapping (spatial repetition)).

[0111] In addition, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are distinctive, at least in that each of a plurality of repetitions (e.g., of the PDSCH) is associated with a source RS (or a pair of RSs if QCL type D applies), which can potentially be different for each PDSCH, and thus is distinct from conventional solutions (e.g., NR Rel-15). This enables the ability to transmit separate repetitions of a data block from separate sources (e.g., TRPs). For practical convenience, in the following description, this will be referred to as assigning a TCI state to each repeated PDSCH.

[0112] In other words, certain embodiments facilitate a repetition of the PDSCH or PUSCH, where multiple copies of a packet are transmitted in separate frequency resources and / or separate spatial resources (or a pair of RSs in cases where QCL type D is applicable), and this can potentially be different for each PDSCH. This enables the repetition of packets by transmitting from separate TRPs. This can actually be described as assigning a TCI state to each PDSCH. This is another exemplary distinguishing feature compared to conventional solutions (e.g., NR Rel-15).

[0113] Allocating a TCI state for each repetition of the PDSCH Various exemplary embodiments enable allocating a TCI state to each respective PDSCH in various ways. In some embodiments, the TCI state for each respective PDSCH can be set by RRC or MAC CE, for example, by causing the MAC control element (CE) to indicate a set of multiple active TCI states. For example, the MAC CE can indicate a set of two, four, or eight active TCI states, and each repetition of the PDSCH can use the active states that make up that set in a predefined order (e.g., a periodic order) that does not overlap with the predefined order associated with other repetitions of the PDSCH. As a more specific example, the two, four, or eight active TCI states selected by the MAC CE in NR Rel-15 can also be used for repetitions of the PDSCH in a periodic manner. For example, each PDSCH uses one of the activated TCI states in a predefined order.

[0114] Alternatively, to give the network scheduler even more flexibility when selecting a plurality of sources (e.g., TRP) that will be used in the repetition of PDSCH, the selected active TCI state can be indicated in the scheduling DCI for the repetition of PDSCH. In other words, the DCI can select from among the activated TCI states when scheduling PDSCH with repetition. Table 6 below shows an exemplary configuration, in which a set of active states for the repetition of PDSCH (e.g., TCI states 0 to 3) can be set by RRC or MAC CE, but the assignment of individual active TCI states to individual PDSCH repetitions is provided by DCI on the PDCCH. In this example, a 2-bit DCI field selects a table row having a specific assignment of four active TCI states to four PDSCH repetitions transmitted by four different sources (e.g., TRP or beam). In other words, the content of Table 6 (in italics) can be set by RRC and / or MAC CE, and then the 2-bit DCI field (used in this example) selects a row in the table.

[0115] In the embodiment shown by Table 6 below, the scheduler can also dynamically select which TRP is involved in the repetition by the DCI value. This may be beneficial, for example, when a particular TRP is busy with transmissions to other UEs. For example, DCI = 00 includes four TRPs, and each of those TRPs is assigned a separate active TCI state. In contrast, the scheduler can limit the repetition of the PDSCH by selecting the second row (e.g., with DCI = 01) or the third row (e.g., with DCI = 10), each of those rows including only two TRPs, and each TRP being assigned two different active TCI states. It is also possible to set a row where only a single TRP is used, such as a fourth row indicating that only TCI state 0 is used for all repetitions. This row can be selected by DCI = 11. It is also possible that the number of repetitions is greater than the number of columns in the set table (i.e., > 4 in this example). Such an embodiment can employ wrap-around or modular arithmetic on the repetitions (e.g., repetition 4 uses the same TRP as repetition 0, etc.). TIFF0007704789000010.tif74170

[0116] In some embodiments, instead of being semi-statically set via the RRC parameter pdsch-AggregationFactor, the number of time domain repetitions can be encoded and transmitted via the TCI field in the DCI. For example, each candidate TCI state set in the RRC can be associated with the number of time domain repetitions. In other embodiments, a separate RRC configuration parameter can map each code point of the TCI field in the DCI to the number of repetitions, and in addition, can set the mapping order of the activated TCI states to the repetitions of the PDSCH. In other embodiments, the MAC CE TCI state activation message includes an indication of the number of repetitions associated with the code point of the TCI field in the DCI, in addition to which TCI state candidate is mapped to which code point of the TCI field.

[0117] In Rel-15 NR, the number of bits in the TCI field of the DCI is 0 or 3, depending on whether the higher layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is enabled. Thus, using this 3-bit field, a total of 8 TCI code point values can be indicated. According to 3GPP TS38.321, when two TCI states are activated, these activated TCI fields are mapped to the first two TCI code point values (i.e., "000" and "001") of the TCI field in the DCI. In such a case, none of the activated TCI states are mapped to the remaining 6 TCI code point values (i.e., "010", "011", "100", "101", "110", and "111"). More generally, in NR Rel-15, when N < 8 TCI states are activated by the MAC CE, none of the active TCI states are mapped to the 8 - N code point values.

[0118] Thus, in some exemplary embodiments, out of a maximum of M TCI states (e.g., M = 8), N TCI states are activated. If N < M, then M - N unused code point values can be used for multi-TRP repetition of the PDSCH. For example, each PDSCH transmitted from a different TRP uses one of the activated TCI states in a predefined order. The first N code points are used for single-TRP transmission with a single TCI state as in NR Rel-15. Thus, this embodiment facilitates dynamic switching between single-TRP transmission and multi-TRP transmission with PDSCH diversity.

[0119] As briefly mentioned above, the repetition of the PDSCH can be mapped across different frequency resources (e.g., within a symbol) or across layers in the same frequency resource (e.g., spatial repetition on the same RE). In some embodiments, time-domain PDSCH repetition can be configured, which can further facilitate a larger number of repetitions. In this case, the modular or wrap-around scheme discussed above can be used, and thus, a TRP is periodically selected for each transmitted PDSCH. For example, if 2 repetitions are configured in both the frequency domain and the time domain, repetitions 0 and 1 are in the same first set of OFDM symbols, and repetitions 2 and 3 are in the second set of subsequent OFDM symbols, such as in the next available DL slot.

[0120] In some embodiments, the DCI may also include information on whether PDSCH repetition (e.g., by the resources configured in RRC for each repetition) should be applied. In the PDCCH region of a slot, there may be many places where a particular PDCCH is located, which varies based on whether the PDCCH is UE-specific or common, as well as the aggregation level (AL) used. Each PDCCH carries one DCI and is identified by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), which is implicitly encoded in the CRC attachment file of the DCI. In some embodiments, the PDCCH RNTI can be used to distinguish whether PDSCH repetition should be applied. For example, repetition is not applicable when the PDCCH is associated with the cell RNTI (C-RNTI), but is applicable according to previous higher-layer settings when the PDCCH is associated with the modulation and coding scheme cell RNTI (MCS-C-RNTI).

[0121] To increase the reliability of data packets, the data payload can be encoded with different redundancy versions (RVs). This is generally used in retransmissions in LTE and NR, where different RVs are used in each retransmission (e.g., RV = 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.). In NR, it is possible to schedule PDSCH or PUSCH with time repetition based on the RRC parameter pdsch-AggregationFactor or pusch-AggregationFactor (each for dynamic scheduling) and repK for PUSCH with a configured grant in the UL. In this case, PxSCH is scheduled and transmitted in multiple adjacent slots up to the number of repetitions specified by the configured RRC parameter.

[0122] In some embodiments, each PDSCH repetition may also carry different redundant versions (RVs) of data including a transport block (TB) when mapped to separate frequency resources in the same set of OFDM symbols. The mapping between the RV and the PDSCH repetition / TRP can be indicated, for example, by a field in the DCI. Table 7 below shows an exemplary configuration where a 2-bit DCI value indicates one of four mappings between the RV and the individual PDSCH repetitions. TIFF0007704789000011.tif70170

[0123] The above considerations were based on dynamically scheduled PDSCHs where each transmission had an associated scheduling DCI, but the same techniques can also be applied to semi-persistently scheduled (SPS) PDSCHs where each transmission does not have an associated DCI. For example, a UE can receive a PDSCH on resources set in the RRC after receiving a DCI with a CRC scrambled by a CS-RNTI, which activates the SPS resources. In this manner, the content of the TCI state table can be set by the RRC IE, and a subsequent activation DCI can select the table row to apply to the PDSCH of the corresponding DL SPS process.

[0124] Frequency Resource Allocation To support frequency division multiplexed (FDM), multi-TRP PDSCH transmission, multiple frequency resources must be allocated and / or defined, one by one, for each repetition of the PDSCH. Such allocation facilitates the cycling of TCI states, or more precisely, the cycling of the source RS with respect to the QCL relationship between the source RS and each PDSCH DMRS. In some embodiments, multiple (e.g., N>1) resources of a fixed size (e.g., number of PRBs and / or number of OFDM symbols per resource) can be pre-configured using higher layer signaling via RRC and / or MAC CE. Subsequently, the DCI that triggers the PDSCH repeated transmission can start or trigger the use of these pre-configured resources.

[0125] In other embodiments, in addition to scheduling a single primary PDSCH resource, the DCI can include an indication of the repetition of an additional N-1 PDSCHs in the same OFDM symbol as that primary PDSCH. For example, the placement or location of the resources for these additional PDSCHs can be indicated relative to the primary PDSCH resource, using, for example, a frequency offset measured with respect to an RB, a precoding RB group (PRG), or an RB group (RBG). The indication of the relative offset for each PDSCH can be set by a higher layer such as RRC or MAC CE. In some variations, the relative offset value can depend on the scheduled width of the primary PDSCH in the frequency domain, the carrier bandwidth, and / or the bandwidth of the BWP that includes the primary resource.

[0126] In some embodiments, a network (e.g., a serving gNB) can configure multiple UEs with the same offset value and schedule those multiple UEs using primary PDSCH resources that are adjacent in the frequency domain. In this manner, the frequency-domain PDSCH repetition resources for each UE can be configured in a pattern such as a comb, whereby the PDSCH repetitions for multiple UEs can be scheduled with non-overlapping PDSCH combs. This can facilitate a preferred and / or optimal (e.g., maximum) use of the available frequency resources while providing frequency diversity for each scheduled UE.

[0127] In other embodiments, virtual RB (VRB) allocation can be used, and multiple PDSCH repetitions can always be allocated in the VRBs following the VRB allocation of the primary PDSCH resources. In these embodiments, frequency diversity can be achieved by configuring the mapping from VRB to PRB that distributes the PDSCH across the entire frequency. This mapping from VRB to PRB can be pre-configured via RRC, indicated in DCI from a set of candidates configured by RRC using a DCI VRB-to-PRB indicator field, or encoded in a TCI state. The mapping from VRB to PRB can also be specific to the PDCCH and depend on the actual resource allocation of the PDSCH, whereby each repeated PDSCH can always be mapped to contiguous PRBs.

[0128] In some embodiments, the relative offset can be represented by the TCI state indicator provided in the DCI, thereby facilitating the scheduler to dynamically select the value N. Each TCI state can be set using one or more resource allocation offset values offset#n. Table 8 below shows an exemplary variation of Table 6 above, in which the TCI state indicator values in the DCI are also mapped to specific offsets for each PDSCH repetition. As in Table 6, DCI = 00 means transmission at three different offset values (which can be set by the higher layer) from four different TRPs, one of which is also for the primary PDSCH. On the other hand, when the TCI state DCI indicates "01" or "10", only two TRPs are used, and the second PDSCH is transmitted with offset#1 relative to the primary PDSCH.

[0129] Alternatively, the higher layer can directly set the exact resource allocation for all repetitions and map this to such a table (Table 8) without requiring a relative offset for the primary PDSCH.

[0130] In some embodiments, if the frequency offset of a PDSCH repetition is outside the allocated BWP, that repetition can be discarded. Alternatively, a modular approach can be applied to wrap around the PDSCH repetition to resources at the lower end of the BWP. TIFF0007704789000012.tif105170

[0131] Semi - persistent transmission of PDSCH The above-described embodiments using relative frequency offset can also be applied to SPS PDSCH according to the same principle (for example, each transmission has no associated DCI). For example, after a DCI with a CRC scrambled by CS-RNTI activates a pre-configured DL-SPS resource, the UE can receive the PDSCH on the DL-SPS resource configured in RRC. The content of the TCI state and offset table (for example, Table 8) can be set by the RRC IE, and the subsequent activating DCI can select the table row for application to the SPS PDSCH.

[0132] Support for spatial repetition of PDSCH Other exemplary embodiments can configure PDSCH transmission on resources that overlap in the frequency domain but not in the spatial domain. This can be efficient in terms of the bandwidth used in exchange for an increase in the complexity of the UE receiver required to support multi-layer reception, including inter-layer interference cancellation. Even so, for large data blocks, it may not be possible to frequency multiplex multiple PDSCH repetitions, in which case spatial repetition of the PDSCH is the only possibility. In some embodiments, PDSCH repetition can be configured in both the frequency domain and the spatial domain, for example, N = 4 repetitions in two different frequency resources, and each frequency resource carries two spatial repetitions of the PDSCH.

[0133] In such embodiments where at least two of the N PDSCH repetitions in a slot or in the same set of scheduled OFDM symbols are assigned to the same frequency resource, the selection of DMRS ports for each PDSCH is different, such that they are orthogonal, which ensures good performance of channel estimation. In other words, the DMRS ports for each PDSCH can be set to be orthogonal to other overlapping PDSCH repetitions in the frequency domain, which facilitates good channel estimation performance. The allocation of DMRS to PDSCH can be achieved in several ways, as described later.

[0134] In some embodiments, it is possible to set a separate set of DMRS ports for each TCI state. This can be done by higher layer signaling, for example, by including the DMRS ports in the TCI state configuration created by RRC or MAC CE. To comply with the NR Rel-15 requirement that all ports in a CDM group must be QCL with each other, separate TCI states can be associated with the DMRS ports of separate CDM groups. For example, when DMRS type 1 is configured, TCI_state#0 can use DMRS ports 1000 and 1001, while TCI_state#1 can use DMRS ports 1002 and 1003. When rank 1 is scheduled for each PDSCH, the first port of each TCI_state can be used (e.g., ports 1000 and 1002). On the other hand, when rank 2 is scheduled for each PDSCH, both ports from the associated CDM group can be used.

[0135] In other embodiments, it is possible to set a separate set of DMRS ports for each PDSCH repetition. For example, assume that each repetition can be identified using a reception number (e.g., based on a frequency resource allocation setting). In such a case, among the repetitions of PDSCH in overlapping resources, the PDSCH with the smallest number can be set to use the DMRS ports from the first CDM group, and the PDSCH with the next smallest number can be set to use the DMRS ports from the second CDM group, and so on. In another variant, when two PDSCHs have the same TCI state (e.g., transmitted from the same TRP), the DMRS ports are selected from the same CDM group (since they are QCL), while PDSCHs with different TCI states can use the DMRS ports from the next CDM group.

[0136] As an example for illustration, consider the transmission of four overlapping PDSCHs transmitted in pairs from two TRPs configured with DMRS type 1. The first two PDSCHs can use the same TCI state and thus can be allocated DMRS ports 1000 and 1001 (CDM group λ = 0), while the third and fourth PDSCHs can use a different TCI state and thus can be allocated DMRS ports 1002 and 1003 (CDM group λ = 1).

[0137] For PDSCHs with the same TCI state, more general rules can also be defined, such as the DMRS port number being incremented together with the CDM group, and the DMRS port of the next TCI state being allocated to the next CDM group. Such rules can facilitate support for two TRPs (two CDM groups) configured with DMRS type 1 and three TRPs (three CDM groups) configured with DMRS type 2.

[0138] Data scrambling In other embodiments, when multiple PDSCH repetitions overlap in frequency resources, separate scrambling can be configured for each PDSCH. This can provide performance advantages as seen in LTE and NR for two-codeword (CW) transmission in one PDSCH. Separate scrambling can be defined by specifying a separate scrambling initialization seed for each CW. In Rel-15, the initialization seed for generating scrambling is c_init = 2 15 *n_RNTI + 2 14 *q + n_ID defined by, where n_RNTI is the RNTI for the scheduled PDSCH, q is the CW index {0,1}, and n_ID is a UE-specific value set in RRC. To achieve scrambling for each PDSCH in the overlapping case, the above relationship is c_init = 2 15 *n_RNTI + 2 14 *q + n_ID + 2 10 *N It can be modified according to this, where N = 0, 1, 2,... is an identifier for a specific PDSCH repetition. In some embodiments, N can be incremented for each overlapping PDSCH in a given resource, and N = 0 is reused again for the smallest numbered PDSCH in the next frequency resource with overlapping PDSCH. In other embodiments, N can be incremented sequentially for all PDSCHs transmitted in the same set of OFDM symbols or the same slot (e.g., without resetting to zero).

[0139] In variations of these embodiments, each repeated copy of the PDSCH can be set to be associated with an n_ID value that is separately set by RRC, for example, as a general setting applicable to PDSCH repetition with any participating TRP. Alternatively, separate n_ID values can be indirectly associated with the scheduled repetitions by being set for association with a TCI state or QCL source.

[0140] Similarity to PUSCH transmission The above description has focused on PDSCH repetition, but the described principles can also be applied to PUSCH repetition with certain appropriate modifications. For example, there is no PUSCH TCI state defined in Rel-15, but such a function may be introduced in the future. Alternatively, the SRS resource indication (SRI) can serve the same role as the TCI state does for PDSCH. For example, the cycling of SRI can be used across PUSCH transmissions in a similar manner to the cycling of the TCI state discussed above, with the same data block being carried in each PUSCH repetition (using separate RVs if necessary). Further, each SRI can indicate a particular UE antenna panel that can be transmitted individually, thereby providing spatial diversity in PUSCH repetition.

[0141] Furthermore, the PUSCH DMRS port selection and data scrambling selection can be based on the same principles as discussed above for PDSCH. Even so, for PUSCH, there is no requirement that DMRS ports within the same CDM group must belong to the same SRI (i.e., the same panel). Thus, for PUSCH, DMRS ports can be linearly assigned independently (e.g., without considering the CDM group).

[0142] In embodiments of PUSCH repetition, it may be beneficial to allocate frequency-domain resources for PUSCH repetition in consecutive blocks of OFDM symbols (e.g., consecutive PRBs). In such cases, similar to PDSCH, the frequency resource offset per repetition may not need to be explicitly signaled. Rather, the offset between two adjacent repetitions of PUSCH can be implied from the number of PRBs used for a single repetition of PUSCH.

[0143] Regarding semi-persistent UL scheduling, two types of UL-configured grants (CGs) are provided in Rel-15. Type 2 CG is very similar to DL SPS, whereby the UE is able to transmit PUSCH on the resources configured by RRC after DCI with CRC scrambled by CS-RNTI activates the UL CG resources. Thus, the embodiments described above regarding DL SPS can be applied to use with Type 2 UL CG. For example, the content of the SRI state table can be set by RRC IE, and then the activating DCI selects a table row for application to the SPS PUSCH.

[0144] In contrast, for Type 1 UL CG, PUSCH transmission is only possible to be configured by RRC and no activating DCI is included. Thus, all settings for PUSCH repetition should be provided via RRC. For example, the RRC configuration of Type 1 UL CG provides a sequence of SRI states for use (similar to the rows of TCI states shown in Table 6, for example).

[0145] Configurable repetition pattern In other embodiments, multiple repetition patterns can be configured by RRC, and each pattern indicates time resources and / or frequency resources, spatial relationship (or TRP or TCI state), RV, and / or DMRS ports for PDSCH (or PUSCH) repetition to be scheduled later by DCI. For K PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmissions, the repetition pattern is K - 1 states {(t2,f2,s2,v2,d2),...,(t K ,f K ,s K ,v K ,d K)} can be included, and each state is associated with one PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmission instance. The tuple (tk, fk) represents the time and frequency resources for the k-th transmission, while the tuple (sk, vk, dk) represents the TCI state, RV, and DMRS port associated with the k-th transmission respectively. The DMRS port can be set as the index in the first column of Table 4 or Table 5. The time and frequency resources, spatial relationship (or TCI state), RV version, and / or DMRS port for the first PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmission can be indicated by a bit field in the DCI used to schedule PDSCH / PUSCH repetitions in a similar manner as described while referring to various tables. The repetition pattern to be used can be dynamically selected from a plurality of set repetition patterns and can also be indicated to the UE using a bit field in the scheduling DCI.

[0146] In some embodiments, (t k , f k ) can represent the time offset and frequency offset with respect to the time and frequency resources for the first PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmission, or more generally, for the (k - 1)-th PDSCH (or PUSCH) transmission respectively. The time resource offset can be in units of slots, mini-slots, or OFDM symbols, and the frequency offset can be in units of RBs, precoding RB groups (PRGs), or RBGs. The condition t k = t k-1 indicates that the k-th transmission and the (k - 1)-th transmission use the same time resource. Similarly, if f k = f k-1 , then the k-th transmission and the (k - 1)-th transmission use the same frequency resource. t k = t k-1 and fk = f k-1 is both, but s k ≠ s k-1 If so, the k-th transmission and the (k - 1)-th transmission are in the same time resource and frequency resource, but from different spatial resources (e.g., TRP or panel). In some embodiments, one or more of (t K , f K , s K , v K , d K ) can be predefined or implicitly related and / or linked to other parameters.

[0147] Figure 9 shows an exemplary operation scenario in which a UE communicates with two gNBs capable of providing PDSCH diversity transmission according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, the resources for PDSCH repetitions do not overlap in frequency. The UE can be configured by gNB1 (e.g., by MAC CE activation) to actively track multiple TCI states. The UE starts tracking these multiple TCI states by performing measurements on the associated RS for each TCI state. Note that the RS associated with a TCI state is transmitted from the same gNB as the PDSCH associated with the same TCI state.

[0148] The UE then receives DCI that schedules multiple PDSCHs, for example, in the same set of OFDM symbols in one slot. The UE then receives these multiple PDSCHs (typically containing the same data block and optionally having different RVs) according to different active TCI states associated with each PDSCH repetition. Thus, different repetitions can be transmitted by different TRPs shown as gNB1 and gNB2 in Figure 9.

[0149] Figure 10 shows another exemplary operation scenario in which a UE communicates with two gNBs that are capable of providing PDSCH diversity transmission according to other exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In this scenario, the resources for PDSCH repetition overlap in frequency but not spatially, resulting in multi-layer MIMO transmission of two PDSCHs. Each PDSCH can include multiple layers. In some embodiments, the UE can signal support for this PDSCH repetition mode of the hierarchical PDSCH before the network configures the UE in this manner.

[0150] Various embodiments of the present disclosure, including those described above, can be implemented within the framework of one or more 3GPP TSG RAN specifications (e.g., multi-TRP operation in NR Rel. 16). The following description shows how specific aspects and / or extensions related to these embodiments can be specified and / or standardized in an exemplary manner (e.g., based on proposals and findings). However, these and other aspects and / or extensions can be specified and / or standardized in other suitable ways, such as in 3GPP specifications and / or other specifications or standards.

[0151] Category 1: Multi-PDCCH-based multi-TRP scheduling In this mode of operation, multiple PDCCHs can be received in a slot, and each PDCCH schedules one PDSCH. Generally, Rel-15 NR can be reused in principle, including the setting of TCI states for each CORESET and DMRS scrambling for the PDSCH. Therefore, few specification changes are expected for this mode of operation.

[0152] In multi-PDCCH scheduling, there will be implementation-based semi-dynamic adjustment between schedulers of different TRPs. The complexity of this adjustment can be simplified by semi-static to semi-dynamic reservation of resources according to the range of backhaul latency. Due to various deployment conditions, it is difficult to assume the guidance of RAN1 specifications on what kind of scheduler adjustment will be used.

[0153] Therefore, in order to limit the complexity, it is better to focus on what is expected by the UE, what scheduling scenarios the UE should be prepared to handle, and what combinations of scheduling the UE can ignore in its implementation. Therefore, it is recommended that RAN1 focus on the requirements on the UE and reach an agreement on what scheduling conditions the UE is not required to support.

[0154] Proposal: Each PDCCH related to a UE supporting multi-PDCCH reception schedules one PDSCH (at least related to eMBB), and Rel.16 UEs are not expected to be scheduled with the following. Partially overlapping PDSCHs in time-domain and frequency-domain resource allocation Multiple PDSCHs with DMRSs in the same CDM group related to overlapping PDSCH resource allocations Total number of layers over all PDSCHs in overlapping time-frequency resources that is more than the maximum number of layers supported / set by the UE Total number of CWs over all PDSCHs in overlapping time-frequency resources that is more than 2

[0155] What this means is that in the case of duplicate PDSCH scheduling, at most one CW is supported per PDSCH, and thus, in this multi-PDCCH case, it is necessary to support only ranks 1 to 4 per PDSCH.

[0156] Regarding monitoring and receiving multiple PDCCHs, it must be shown that there are problems associated with the capacity or blocking of the search space. This is because the gain of multi-TRP transmission is only visible at low loads, and thus the demand for the required PDCCH capacity is low. To prepare for cases where it is desirable to set a PDCCH for each TRP, setting multiple CORESETs has already been supported (with individual TCI states).

[0157] i. Antenna port display table To support multi-TRP transmission, the DMRS ports transmitted from one TRP must belong to the same CDM group. Therefore, the antenna port table must be able to indicate a flexible number of layers within the CDM group for each TRP.

[0158] The Rel-15 table for DMRS type 1 supports the scheduling of these layers (L1, L2) in the first and second CDM groups respectively. For single DMRS symbols, (L1, L2) = (1, 0), (2, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2) For double DMRS symbols, (L1, L2) = (1, 0), (2, 0), (3, 0), (4, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2), (0, 3), (0, 4)

[0159] Therefore, in the case of DMRS type 1, there is no need to update the antenna port table for multi-PDCCH scheduling. The PDCCH can flexibly indicate 1 to 4 layers from those layers included in any CDM group.

[0160] Note that when the DMRS ports from the second CDM group are indicated by one PDCCH using the Rel-15 antenna port indication table (e.g., rank 2 scheduling with ports 2, 3), the associated PDSCH cannot be mapped to the first CDM group (since both CDM groups are shown as "no data" in the current table). However, the selection of only one CDM group by the PDCCH occurs only when one TRP is transmitting, and the semi-static adjustment scheduler can alternatively indicate that the TRP should use DMRS in the first CDM group (e.g., ports 0, 1). Therefore, the Rel-15 antenna port indication table can be used without change, in which case the second CDM group is used only when the first CDM group is also used for DMRS.

[0161] The Rel-15 table for DMRS type 2 supports the scheduling of these layers (L1, L2, L3) in the first, second, and third CDM groups respectively. For single DMRS symbols, (L1, L2, L3) = (1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1), (2, 0, 0), (0, 2, 0), (0, 0, 2) For double DMRS symbols, (L1, L2, L3) = (1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1), (2, 0, 0), (0, 2, 0), (0, 0, 2), (3, 0, 0), (0, 3, 0), (0, 0, 3), (4, 0, 0), (0, 4, 0), (0, 0, 4)

[0162] Therefore, in the case of DMRS type 2, there is no need to update the antenna port table for multi-PDCCH scheduling. The PDCCH can flexibly indicate 1 to 4 layers from those layers included in any CDM group.

[0163] Proposal: For multi-PDCCH operation, the Rel-15 antenna port indication table can be reused without modification.

[0164] ii. PDSCH rate matching PDSCH rate matching is important for multi-TRP scheduling because the semi-static RS and channel settings in multiple TRPs must be considered. For example, in the approach of multiple PDCCHs, the UE can receive multiple PDCCHs in several slots that schedule PDSCHs indicating different PDSCH resource mapping information. Whether and how the UE should perform PDSCH resource mapping (i.e., PDSCH rate matching) in this case is an open question. Because NR Rel-15 only specifies receiving a single PDDCH that schedules a single PDSCH at the same time. Moreover, different TRPs have different settings of TRS and LTE CRS (when applicable). Therefore, the following is proposed.

[0165] Proposal: Support a mechanism for extending PDSCH resource mapping around multiple allocated resources from different gNBs, i.e., the configured CORESET, ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet, and lte-CRS-ToMatchAround, including dynamic resource mapping around the detected PDCCH.

[0166] Category 2: Single-PDCCH-based multi-TRP scheduling i. Mapping from Codewords to Layers and Number of CWs An issue for discussion is whether to maintain the Rel-15 mapping from codewords to layers even when deploying multi-TRP transmission with a single PDSCH, or whether there are advantages in considering a specification change in the mapping. In NR, a single CW is mapped to a maximum of 4 layers, and thus there are the following two options to consider regarding the mapping from CWs to TRPs in Rel-16. Option 1 (New mapping): For the scheduled PDSCH, one individual CW is transmitted for each TRP. Option 2 (Rel-15 mapping): For the scheduled PDSCH, one CW is transmitted and mapped across all TRPs.

[0167] In Option 1, since it is possible to assign different MCSs to the separate CWs each mapped to a TRP, there is a potential advantage of better link adaptation when the difference in path loss for different TRPs is very large. In the case of a decoding error on one CW, only that CW needs to be retransmitted. To support more than two TRPs, since each CW is associated with a HARQ-ACK, a major required specification change is a drawback. Additionally, the current mapping from CWs to layers needs to be extended to support two CWs for two, three, and four layers, and the issue of semi-static or dynamic switching between the Rel-15 mapping from codewords to layers and the Rel-16 mapping from codewords to layers needs to be addressed. Furthermore, two CWs imply an overhead regarding additional CRC compared to a single CW.

[0168] Regarding Option 2, it can be supported by the mapping from the existing Rel-15 CW to layers, and thus no specification change is required. Therefore, each layer is associated with a specific TRP by using the DMRS CDM group. By using all three CDM groups and the extended TCI state, it is possible to support up to three TRPs with a single PDCCH and a single PDSCH (see Section 2.2.2). Since a single CW, and thus a single MCS, is used, it can be a drawback that when the path loss difference for multiple TRPs is large, link adaptation may not be as good as using separate MCSs for each TRP. However, this is not an operating point regarding NC-JT anyway, because when the path loss difference is large, it is better to transmit all layers from the best TRP.

[0169] As already observed in the Rel.15 considerations for multi-TRP, Option 2 is slightly better than Option 1. Similar results have also been observed by further companies, for example, in 3GPP Tdoc R1-1900731 regarding NC-JT in an indoor scenario (see Figure 3 of [8]). One reason is that for NC-JT to show better performance than DPS, the UE should be at the cell edge and have comparable path loss for both TRPs, and in this case, link adaptation for each TRP does not provide an advantage. Another reason is that multi-MCS-based link adaptation is more sensitive to CSI feedback delay and errors compared to the single MCS approach. Regarding Option 1, a slightly higher retransmission probability has also been observed. Similar results have been shown in 3GPP Tdoc R1-1900731, and for single-TRP MIMO, for ranks up to 4, a single CW performs better than two CWs. TIFF0007704789000013.tif94170

[0170] NC-JT with Option 2 (single CW) is slightly better than NC-JT with Option 1 (two CWs) in an indoor scenario. Option 2 is slightly better than Option 1 in the most promising NC-JT indoor scenarios, and considering that no changes to the mapping from the existing CWs to the layers are required, there is no reason to change the mapping in Rel-16. Additionally, if there is a strong desire from the deployment in some scenarios to perform MCS adaptation per TRP, the multi-PDCCH approach can be used.

[0171] Proposal: RAN1 has concluded that there are no changes to the mapping from CWs to layers and the number of CWs per transmission rank in Rel-16.

[0172] ii. Extended TCI state To support multi-TRP transmission with a single PDCCH, the DMRS ports transmitted from each TRP must belong to the same CDM group. For DMRS types 1 and 2, there are 2 and 3 CDM groups respectively, so it is possible to support up to 3 TRP transmissions. And the TCI state needs to be extended to include multiple source RSs for each QCL type. The following proposals are made.

[0173] When the UE is configured for each of DMRS types 1 and 2, the TCI state can be configured with 1, 2, or 3 source RS pairs regarding QCL, and it is possible to derive the QCL properties for the DMRS ports of CDM group λ using source RS pair λ. For DMRS type 1, the TCI state can be configured to include {{qcl-Type1,qcl-Type2} λ=0 ,{qcl-Type1,qcl-Type2} λ=1} for each of the two CDM groups respectively. For DMRS type 2, the TCI state can be set to include {{qcl-Type1,qcl-Type2} λ=0 ,{qcl-Type1,qcl-Type2} λ=1 ,{qcl-Type1,qcl-Type2} λ=2} for each of the three CDM groups respectively.

[0174] Therefore, some TCI states have a single source RS pair (or a single RS if QCL type D is not applicable) as in Rel-15 and are used for DPS, while some other TCI states have two or three source RS pairs and are used for NC-JT scheduling.

[0175] In Rel-15, there are up to 8 active TCI states that can support DPS of up to 8 different TRPs, which should be sufficient for most deployments. In the extended TCI state, since there is a possibility to select two or three TRPs for each TCI state, there are more combinations. Therefore, it is necessary to consider whether it is beneficial for Rel-16 to enable even more (extended) TCI states. However, note that the number of TRS or SSB that are tracked simultaneously can remain the same as in Rel-15, and the introduction of extended TCI states will not expand the requirements for tracking.

[0176] Proposal: It is desired to examine whether it is beneficial to increase the number of bits in the DCI for selecting active TCI states to support more transmission hypotheses (without increasing the maximum number of actively tracked QCL source RS).

[0177] iii. Antenna port display table To support multi-TRP transmission with a single PDCCH, the DMRS ports transmitted from each TRP must belong to the same CDM group. Therefore, the antenna port table must be able to indicate a flexible number of layers within the CDM group for each TRP.

[0178] The Rel-15 table for DMRS type 1 supports the scheduling of these layers (L1, L2) in the first and second CDM groups respectively. For single DMRS symbols, (L1, L2) = (1, 0), (2, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2), (1, 1), (2, 1), (2, 2), For double DMRS symbols, (L1, L2) = (1, 0), (2, 0), (3, 0), (4, 0), (0, 1), (0, 2), (0, 3), (0, 4), (1, 1), (2, 1), (2, 2).

[0179] Here, it can be seen that the function of scheduling one layer from the first TRP and two layers from the second TRP, i.e., (1, 2), is missing. This can be supported in exchange for one additional extended TCI state code point in the DCI, in which case two pairs of source RSs for two TRPs are exchanged to effectively support both (2, 1) and (1, 2). However, this configuration-based solution (which may actually be very common) can be avoided by adding one row in the antenna port display table. Therefore, in the case of DMRS type 1, the antenna port table needs to be updated slightly.

[0180] Proposal: Add one row to the DMRS type 1 antenna port display table using ports 0, 2, 3 to enable the scheduling of (1, 2) layers in the two CDM groups respectively.

[0181] The PDCCH can flexibly indicate 1 to 4 layers from those layers included in any CDM group, and thus, DPS with a maximum rank of 4 is supported. DPS with ranks 5 to 8 can also be supported by setting additional TCI states using a single pair of source RSs for the participating TRPs.

[0182] Further optimization of antenna port indexing can also be possible by adding the states of (3,1) and (1,3) to the table, but this is a rather asymmetric layer distribution, and the advantages are not very obvious, and the gains need to be justified by evaluation.

[0183] The Rel-15 table for DMRS type 2 supports the scheduling of these layers (L1, L2, L3) in the first, second, and third CDM groups (i.e., the first, second, and third TRPs), respectively. For a single DMRS symbol, (L1,L2,L3)=(1,0,0),(0,1,0),(0,0,1),(2,0,0),(0,2,0),(0,0,2),(1,1,0),(2,1,0),(0,1,2),(2,2,0). For double DMRS symbols, (L1,L2,L3)=(1,0,0),(0,1,0)(0,0,1),(2,0,0),(0,2,0),(0,0,2),(3,0,0),(0,3,0),(0,0,3),(4,0,0),(0,4,0),(0,0,4),(1,1,0),(2,1,0),(0,1,2),(2,2,0).

[0184] Here, it can be seen that the layer distribution is biased towards the first and second TRP / source QCLs, and in order to have more flexibility when selecting a set of TRPs, additional active TCI states must be set. This can be avoided by adding some more states in the antenna port indexing table, and since there are some reserved states, these additional, most likely transmission hypotheses can be added.

[0185] Proposal: Want to add rows to the DMRS type 2 antenna port display table for PDSCH using the following. a. Ports 0, 2, 4 to enable scheduling of the (1,1,1) layer b. Ports 0, 2 to enable scheduling of the (1,1,0) layer c. Ports 0, 4 to enable scheduling of the (1,0,1) layer d. Ports 0, 2, 3 to enable scheduling of the (1,2,0) layer

[0186] Category 3: CSI Framework Extension In previous meetings, proposals regarding CSI framework extensions for multi-TRP / panel have been made by several companies, where the NR Rel-15 CSI framework is used as a starting point and possible extensions are being considered. For example, the gNB can configure the UE using two CSI reporting settings, in which case, one reporting setting can be used for DPS, and the second reporting setting can be used for NC-JT.

[0187] Therefore, by using the Rel-15 framework, the gNB can obtain a single TRP and NC-JT CSI in two CSI reports corresponding to two CSI reporting settings, and then dynamically decide whether to use DPS or NC-JT for PDSCH transmission.

[0188] For a measurement set with three TRPs, this means three single-TRP CSIs each associated with one TRP and three NC-JT CSIs each associated with one pair of TRPs assuming NC-JT over two TRPs. Each of the NC-JT CSIs will contain a pair of (RI, PMI, CQI) if two CWs are used, or a pair of (RI, PMI) and a single CQI if a single CW is used. This type of CSI feedback has almost nine times the feedback overhead compared to CSI for single-TRP transmission, and thus there is a strong incentive for enhanced overhead reduction. Therefore, more efficient CSI feedback with low feedback overhead for multi-TRP should be considered.

[0189] The Rel-15 CSI feedback framework directly applied to the multi-TRP scenario may incur a large CSI feedback overhead if it is configured to support dynamic switching between single-TRP and multi-TRP transmissions.

[0190] Possible Rel-16 extensions to the CSI framework are to specify how the UE occupies an even larger active part in hypothesis selection, which is similar to the use of CRI for beam selection in the current Rel.15 framework but extended to the multi-TRP transmission hypothesis. By having the UE select a preferred transmission hypothesis (i.e., a set of multiple TRPs in this context), overhead can be reduced because the UE removes "bad" hypotheses before sending feedback (i.e., instead of blindly reporting all hypotheses).

[0191] Therefore, it is proposed to investigate further flavors of multiple hypotheses for CSI feedback regarding multi-TRP / panel transmission in NR with UE-side pruning of hypotheses. An example of such feedback is for the UE to select a subset from a set number of TRPs for data transmission. For example, the gNB can configure the UE using N>1 NZP CSI-RS resources in the resource configuration for channel measurement, where each of the N NZP CSI-RS resources is associated with one TRP. Then, in the corresponding CSI report, the UE can select a subset M, where M < (the N of the NZP CSI-RS resources for channel measurement).

[0192] Considerations for CSI extensions are useful in starting as early as possible so that evaluations can be made, but reaching an agreement on the details may be prioritized slightly lower for the most pressing meetings. This is because reaching an agreement on details such as the number of supported TRPs / panels, extension of the TCI framework for multi-TRP / panel, antenna port representation, etc. for multi-TRP / panel PDSCH transmission is required before the CSI feedback framework to support these agreements can be accurately specified.

[0193] Proposal: Regarding CSI feedback, UE-assisted multi / single TRP hypothesis selection feedback is desired, where the UE makes a decision on single or multi-TRP transmission based on measurements and indicates the preferred hypothesis to the network.

[0194] In Rel-16 NR-MIMO, it is necessary to determine whether an extension of the CSI framework is required, and the details of multi-TRP / panel PDSCH need to be agreed upon before determining the details.

[0195] Category 4: Extensions specific to reliability / robustness From the perspective of multi-TRP, the basic principle of enhancing the reliability and robustness of the transmitted data packets is to transmit multiple copies of the same data payload, thereby enabling the UE to combine those copies in a "instantaneous retransmission" manner. Each "copy" is then associated with a separate active TCI state (assuming PDSCH for the following discussion). And the outstanding issues for RAN1 are how to specify the resources used for each "copy" and how to identify which TCI state to use for which "copy".

[0196] In 3GPP Tdoc R1-1900731, the analysis of several different strategies for realizing the benefits of multi-TRP diversity is discussed, and it is concluded that both repetition in time and in frequency are beneficial for URLLC applications. In 3GPP Tdoc R1-1901116, the study of the impact on the number of TRPs utilized for realizing robustness is discussed, and it is shown that even in cases with non-uniform received power distribution among four TRPs (up to a 9dB difference between the best and the worst TRP), four TRPs still give significant advantages over two TRPs.

[0197] Note that the repetition functionality already existed in Rel-15, and using the higher layer parameter pdsch-AggregationFactor, each PDSCH is transmitted with a pre-defined RV cycle with limitations of single layer PDSCH. This principle can also be extended to include TCI states. Therefore, when the UE is configured for such robust operation, the PDCCH can trigger a set of PDSCH transmissions, in which case each PDSCH can use a separate TCI state from the set of activated TCI states in a pre-defined manner.

[0198] Proposal: One DCI can trigger the repetition of PDSCH transmissions with the same payload, in which case each PDSCH can be configured with a separate TCI state from the set of active TCI states.

[0199] In Rel-15, these multiple PDSCHs are transmitted in separate slots with a single layer, but in order to reduce latency, in Rel-16, they should be able to trigger multiple such PDSCHs in the same slot (using type B scheduling, i.e., mini-slot based repetition), in the same set of OFDM symbols by FDM (frequency based repetition), or in overlapping resources (SDM or layer based repetition). How the "pattern" of repetition should look like and how to configure it (e.g., by RRC or by RRC+DCI) can be further considered and discussed. Figure 16 shows various exemplary configurations showing slot-based, mini-slot-based, frequency-based, and layer-based PDSCH repetition.

[0200] Similar to that in Rel-15, the DCI that triggers the "first" PDSCH contains the necessary information regarding the resource and antenna port allocation, the number of layers related to the PDSCH, etc., and except for the RV and TCI states that may change, the same payload is repeated in each of the PDSCH repetition resources set by the higher layer.

[0201] Note that the PDSCH repetition options can be combined, for example, using both the mini-slot base and the frequency base simultaneously. Moreover, it is possible to further reduce latency by removing the single-layer limit for each PDSCH in Rel-15 and increasing the spectral efficiency for each PDSCH transmission.

[0202] Therefore, when the UE supports reception of four layers, the resources related to each PDSCH can be set to be overlapping (by the RRC), and the DCI triggers two PDSCHs each with two layers. The same data payload is present in both PDSCHs, but transmitted from different TRP / TCI states / CDM groups.

[0203] The RRC sets the resources for repetition as in Rel.15 (slot aggregation), and the DCI schedules one PDSCH. It is possible to further consider what the DCI can indicate, for example, whether the DCI can make a selection between overlapping resources and non-overlapping resources, the number of repetitions, which TCI state should be used for each PDSCH, etc.

[0204] Proposal: The higher layer configures the UE using the possible resource locations for each repetition of the PDSCH, including the repetition positions in time (e.g., based on single or multiple slots or minislots) and in frequency (e.g., non-overlapping or overlapping). Whether and how the DCI can dynamically select from the repetition resources configured by these higher layers and the associated TCI states is FFS.

[0205] Regarding the robustness of the PDCCH, a similar approach to that for the PDSCH can be taken, where the same DCI is repeated across multiple CORESETs. This is because each CORESET is configured with an individual TCI state. Note that the repetition of the PDCCH and the repetition of the PDSCH discussed above can be configured independently based on necessity. For the repetition of the PDSCH to be enabled, only a single DCI needs to be received, and whether this DCI is also repeated by using multiple PDCCHs in different CORESETs is an independent consideration.

[0206] Proposal: The UE can be configured with repetition of the search space configured across N > 1 CORESETs, where the same search space is repeated in each CORESET. For a given PDCCH candidate with a given DCI size in one search space / CORESET, there is a corresponding candidate in each search space in the set of N repetitions. All corresponding candidates have the same DCI size and aggregation level.

[0207] With this repetition, the UE can perform soft combining of N PDCCH candidates to improve the reliability of DCI detection.

[0208] Conclusion The above discussion identifies various proposals, which are summarized below.

[0209] Proposal 1: Each PDCCH for a UE supporting multi-PDCCH reception schedules one PDSCH (at least for eMBB), and Rel.16 UEs are not expected to be scheduled with the following. Partially overlapping PDSCHs in time domain and frequency domain resource allocations Multiple PDSCHs with DMRSs in the same CDM group for overlapping PDSCH resource allocations Total number of layers across all PDSCHs in overlapping time-frequency resources that is more than the maximum number of layers supported / configured by the UE Total number of CWs across all PDSCHs in overlapping time-frequency resources that is more than 2

[0210] Proposal 2: A mechanism for extending PDSCH resource mapping around multiple reserved resources from different gNBs, i.e., supporting configured CORESET, ZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet, and lte-CRS-ToMatchAround with dynamic resource mapping around the detected PDCCH.

[0211] Proposal 3: RAN1 concludes that there are no changes in the mapping from CWs to layers and the number of CWs per transmission rank in Rel-16.

[0212] Proposal 4: When the UE is configured for each of DMRS type 1 and 2, the TCI state can be configured with one, two, or three source RS pairs for QCL, and it is possible to derive the QCL properties for the DMRS ports of CDM group λ using source RS pair λ. For DMRS type 1, the TCI state can be set to include {{qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}λ=0, {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}λ=1} for each of the two CDM groups respectively. For DMRS type 2, the TCI state can be set to include {{qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}λ=0, {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}λ=1, {qcl-Type1, qcl-Type2}λ=2} for each of the three CDM groups respectively.

[0213] Proposal 5: It is desired to examine whether it is beneficial to increase the number of bits in the DCI for selecting an active TCI state in order to support more transmission hypotheses (without increasing the maximum number of QCL sources RS for active tracking).

[0214] Proposal 6: Add one row to the DMRS type 1 antenna port display table using ports 0, 2, 3 to enable scheduling of the (1, 2) layers in each of the two CDM groups.

[0215] Proposal 7: It is desired to add rows to the DMRS type 2 antenna port display table for PDSCH using the following. Ports 0, 2, 4 to enable scheduling of the (1, 1, 1) layer Ports 0, 2 to enable scheduling of the (1, 1, 0) layer Ports 0, 4 to enable scheduling of the (1, 0, 1) layer Ports 0, 2, 3 to enable scheduling of the (1, 2, 0) layer

[0216] Proposal 8: For CSI feedback, it is desired to examine UE-assisted multi / single TRP hypothesis selection feedback where the UE makes a decision based on measurements for single or multi-TRP transmission and indicates the preferred hypothesis to the network.

[0217] Proposal 9: One DCI is capable of triggering the repetition of PDSCH transmissions with the same payload, in which case each PDSCH can be configured with a separate TCI state from the set of active TCI states.

[0218] Proposal 10: The higher layers configure the UE using the possible resource locations for each repetition of the PDSCH, including the repetition positions in time (e.g., single or multiple slot or mini-slot based) and in frequency (e.g., non-overlapping or overlapping). FFS whether and how a DCI can dynamically select from the repetition resources and associated TCI states configured by these higher layers.

[0219] Proposal 11: The UE can be configured with repetitions of the search space configured across N>1 CORESETs, in which case the same search space is repeated in each CORESET. For a given PDCCH candidate with a given DCI size in one search space / CORESET, there is a corresponding candidate in each search space in the set of N repetitions. All corresponding candidates have the same DCI size and aggregation level.

[0220] The embodiments described above can be further illustrated with reference to FIGS. 11-12, which show exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) performed by a UE and a network node, respectively. In other words, the various features of the operations described hereinafter correspond to the various embodiments described above.

[0221] Specifically, FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method (e.g., procedure) for communicating via a plurality of nodes in a wireless network according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. This exemplary method can be performed by a user equipment (UE, e.g., a wireless device, an IoT device, a modem, etc., or components thereof) that is in a communication state with one or more network nodes (e.g., a base station, a gNB, an en-gNB, etc., or components thereof) in a wireless network (RAN, e.g., an NG-RAN). For example, the exemplary method shown in FIG. 11 can be implemented in a UE that is configured as described herein with reference to other figures. Further, the exemplary method shown in FIG. 11 can be used in cooperation with other exemplary methods (e.g., FIG. 12) described herein to provide various exemplary benefits described herein. Although FIG. 11 shows specific blocks in a specific order, the operations of this exemplary method can be performed in an order different from that shown and can be combined and / or divided into blocks having functionality different from that shown. Optional blocks or operations are indicated by dashed lines.

[0222] This exemplary method can include an operation of block 1110, in which the UE can receive a plurality of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states from the wireless network. In some embodiments, the plurality of TCI states can be associated with one of each of the plurality of nodes in the wireless network, or each of the plurality of beams associated with one or more nodes in the wireless network.

[0223] This exemplary method may also include the operation of block 1120, in which the UE may receive scheduling information regarding a plurality of physical data channels that carry respective repetitions of a data block via a single physical control channel. For example, as discussed above, the physical control channel may be a PDCCH, and the scheduling information may be scheduling DCI. In some embodiments, the plurality of physical data channels may be respective layers of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In other embodiments, each physical data channel may be a subset of all layers of the PDSCH.

[0224] In some embodiments, the scheduling information may also include an indicator of resources for receiving one or more of the repetitions. The indicated resources may be in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer. In some embodiments, resources for at least two of the repetitions may be in the same set of symbols in a slot.

[0225] In other embodiments, the scheduling information may include an indicator of a first resource for receiving a first one of the repetitions. In such embodiments, this exemplary method may also include the operation of block 1230, in which the UE may receive one or more offsets to be applied to the first resource to identify additional resources for receiving the remaining repetitions. In such embodiments, the additional resources may be located relative to the first resource in one of one or more subsequent slots or one or more subsequent symbols within the same slot.

[0226] In some embodiments, the indicated resources for at least two of the repetitions may completely overlap in frequency. In such embodiments, the scheduling information also includes at least one of a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, DMRS ports from a unique code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and a unique data scrambling seed for each of the completely overlapping repetitions.

[0227] In some embodiments, the scheduling information may also include an indicator of the mapping between a plurality of repetitions and a plurality of redundant versions (RVs) of the data block.

[0228] This exemplary method may also include the operation of block 1140, where the UE can allocate one or more of the TCI states to a plurality of repetitions. In some embodiments, the plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of repetitions, and the plurality of TCI states are allocated to the repetitions in a predefined order. As an example for illustration, each physical data channel (carrying each repetition) can be transmitted by a different TRP using one of the activated TCI states (e.g., provided to the UE by the TCI state in block 1110) in a predefined order. The UE can also recognize this predefined order and allocate the TCI states to the repetitions in a corresponding manner.

[0229] In other embodiments, the scheduling information can also include an indicator of the mapping between one or more of the TCI states and the plurality of repetitions. In such embodiments, one or more of the TCI states are allocated to the repetitions based on the indicated mapping. In some of these embodiments, the indicator is included in a field having a plurality of code points, and the plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of code points. In such embodiments, a first subset of the code points can be associated with individual TCI states, and a second subset of the code points can be associated with combinations of individual TCI states.

[0230] In some embodiments, each TCI state includes one or more source reference signal (RS) pairs, and each source RS pair has a corresponding pair of quasi - co - location (QCL) relationships with an antenna port, regarding the DM - RS mapped to a specific physical data channel. For example, the pair of QCL relationships can include any of the QCL relationship types A - D discussed above. In such embodiments, this exemplary method can also include the operation of block 1150, where the UE can identify channel parameters based on the source RS pairs included in a specific TCI state, for each of the plurality of TCI states.

[0231] This exemplary method may also include the operation of block 1160, in which the UE can receive a plurality of repetitions via a plurality of physical data channels based on scheduling information and the allocated TCI state. In some embodiments, the operation of block 1160 may include the operations of sub-blocks 1161 to 1163 for each of the physical data channels. In sub-block 1161, the UE can receive DM-RS mapped to the physical data channel based on channel parameters (e.g., specified for the source RS pair in block 1150). In this manner, the UE can utilize the source RS pair and the QCL relationship to receive the target RS, e.g., DM-RS. In sub-block 1162, the UE can identify further channel parameters based on the received DM-RS. In sub-block 1163, the UE can receive the physical data channel based on the further channel parameters.

[0232] In addition, FIG. 12 shows an exemplary method (e.g., procedure) for communicating with a single user equipment (UE) via a plurality of physical data channels according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. This exemplary method can be executed by one or more network nodes (e.g., base stations, eNBs, gNBs, en-gNBs, etc., or components thereof) of a radio network (e.g., NG-RAN, E-UTRAN). For example, the exemplary method shown in FIG. 12 can be implemented at one or more network nodes of a radio network configured as described herein with reference to other figures. Further, the exemplary method shown in FIG. 12 can be used in cooperation with other exemplary methods (e.g., FIG. 11) described herein to provide various exemplary benefits and / or advantages. Although FIG. 12 shows specific blocks in a specific order, the operations of this exemplary method can be executed in an order different from that shown and can be combined and / or divided into blocks having functionality different from that shown. Optional blocks or operations are indicated by dashed lines.

[0233] This exemplary method can include the operation of block 1210, in which a radio network can transmit a plurality of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to a UE. In some embodiments, the plurality of TCI states can be associated with one of each of a plurality of nodes in the radio network or each of a plurality of beams associated with one or more nodes in the radio network.

[0234] This exemplary method can also include the operation of block 1220, where the wireless network can allocate one or more of the TCI states to multiple repetitions of data blocks that will be carried by respective physical data channels. In some embodiments, the number of TCI states can be less than the number of repetitions, and the multiple TCI states can be allocated to repetitions in a predefined order. As an example for illustration purposes, each physical data channel (carrying each repetition) can be transmitted by a different TRP using one of the activated TCI states (e.g., the TCI state provided to the UE at block 1210) in a predefined order. The UE can also recognize this predefined order and allocate TCI states to repetitions in a corresponding manner.

[0235] This exemplary method can also include the operation of block 1230, where the wireless network can transmit scheduling information regarding multiple physical data channels that carry respective repetitions of data blocks via a single physical control channel. For example, as discussed above, the physical control channel can be a PDCCH, and the scheduling information can be scheduling DCI. In some embodiments, the multiple physical data channels can be respective layers of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). In other embodiments, each physical data channel can be a subset of all layers of the PDSCH.

[0236] In some embodiments, the scheduling information may also include an indicator of a resource for receiving one or more of the repetitions. The indicated resource can be in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer. In some embodiments, resources for at least two of the repetitions can be in the same set of symbols in a slot.

[0237] In other embodiments, the scheduling information may include an indicator of a first resource for receiving a first one of the repetitions. In such embodiments, this exemplary method may also include the operation of block 1240, in which the wireless network transmits one or more offsets to be applied to the first resource to identify additional resources for receiving the remaining repetitions. In such embodiments, the additional resources can be located relative to the first resource in one of one or more subsequent slots or one or more subsequent symbols within the same slot.

[0238] In some embodiments, the indicated resources for at least two of the repetitions can completely overlap in frequency. In such embodiments, the scheduling information may also include at least one of a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, DMRS ports from a unique code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and a unique data scrambling seed for each of the completely overlapping repetitions.

[0239] In some embodiments, the scheduling information may also include an indicator of a mapping between a plurality of repetitions and a plurality of redundant versions (RVs) of a data block.

[0240] In some embodiments, the scheduling information can also include an indicator of the mapping between one or more of the TCI states and the plurality of repetitions. For example, this mapping can reflect and / or indicate the assignment of TCI states to the repetitions in block 1220. In some of these embodiments, the indicator is included in a field having a plurality of code points, and the plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of code points. In such embodiments, a first subset of the code points can be associated with individual TCI states, and a second subset of the code points can be associated with combinations of individual TCI states.

[0241] In some embodiments, each TCI state includes one or more source reference signal (RS) pairs, and each source RS pair has a corresponding pair of quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships with an antenna port with respect to DM-RS mapped to a specific physical data channel. For example, the pair of QCL relationships can include any of the QCL relationship types A - D discussed above. In such embodiments, this exemplary method can also include the operation of block 1250, where the wireless network can transmit the source RS pairs included in a specific TCI state for each of the plurality of TCI states.

[0242] This exemplary method may also include the operation of block 1260, where the wireless network is capable of transmitting a plurality of repetitions via a plurality of physical data channels based on scheduling information and the allocated TCI state. In some embodiments, the operation of block 1260 may include the operation of sub-block 1261, where the wireless network is capable of transmitting each DM-RS in association with the physical data channel to which they are mapped. This can facilitate the UE to utilize the source RS pair and QCL relationship to receive the target RS (e.g., DM-RS) associated with a specific physical data channel.

[0243] Although various embodiments have been described in terms of methods, techniques, and / or procedures, it will be readily understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art that such methods, techniques, and / or procedures can be embodied by various combinations of hardware and software in various systems, communication devices, computing devices, control devices, apparatuses, non-transitory computer-readable media, computer program products, etc.

[0244] FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of an exemplary wireless device or user equipment (UE) 1300 (hereinafter referred to as "UE1300") according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, including those described above with reference to other figures. For example, UE1300 can be configured to perform operations corresponding to one or more of the exemplary methods described herein by executing instructions stored on a computer-readable medium.

[0245] UE 1300 can include a processor 1310 (also referred to as a "processing circuit") that can be operably connected to a program memory 1320 and / or a data memory 1330 via a bus 1370 that can include a parallel address and data bus, a serial port, or other methods and / or structures known to a standard engineer in the art. The program memory 1320 can store software code, programs, and / or instructions (collectively shown as computer program product 1321 in FIG. 13) that can configure and / or facilitate the UE 1300 to perform various operations corresponding to the various exemplary methods described herein when executed by the processor 1310. As part of such operations, or in addition to such operations, the execution of such instructions can configure and / or facilitate the UE 1300 to communicate using one or more wired or wireless communication protocols, including one or more wireless communication protocols standardized by 3GPP, 3GPP2, or IEEE, such as those generally known as 5G / NR, LTE, LTE-A, UMTS, HSPA, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 1xRTT, CDMA2000, 802.11 WiFi, HDMI, USB, Firewire, etc., or any other current or future protocol that can be used with the wireless transceiver 1340, the user interface 1350, and / or the control interface 1360.

[0246] As another example, the processor 1310 can execute program code stored in the program memory 1320 that corresponds to the MAC, RLC, PDCP, and RRC layer protocols standardized by 3GPP (e.g., with respect to NR and / or LTE). As a further example, the processor 1310, together with the wireless transceiver 1340, can execute program code stored in the program memory 1320 that implements corresponding PHY layer protocols such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), and single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA). As another example, the processor 1310, together with the wireless transceiver 1340, can execute program code stored in the program memory 1320 that performs device-to-device (D2D) communication with other compatible devices and / or UEs.

[0247] The program memory 1320 can also include software code executed by the processor 1310 to control the functions of the UE 1300, including setting and controlling various components such as the wireless transceiver 1340, the user interface 1350, and / or the control interface 1360. The program memory 1320 can also include one or more application programs and / or modules that include computer-executable instructions that implement any of the exemplary methods described herein. Such software code can be specified or written using any known or future-developed programming language, such as Java, C++, C, Objective C, HTML, XHTML, machine code, and assembler, as long as the desired functionality defined by the method steps being implemented is retained. Additionally, or alternatively, the program memory 1320 can include an external storage device (not shown) that is remote from the UE 1300, from which instructions can be downloaded to the program memory 1320 that is disposed within or removably coupled to the UE 1300 to enable execution of such instructions.

[0248] The data memory 1330 can include a memory area for the processor 1310 to store variables used in the protocol, settings, control, and other functions of the UE 1300, including or corresponding to any of the exemplary methods described herein. Moreover, the program memory 1320 and / or the data memory 1330 can include non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory), volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamic RAM), or a combination thereof. Further, the data memory 1330 can include memory slots into which removable memory cards in one or more formats (e.g., SD card, memory stick, compact flash, etc.) can be inserted and removed.

[0249] The processor 1310 can include a plurality of individual processors (including, e.g., a multi-core processor), and one skilled in the art will recognize that each of them implements a part of the functionality described above. In such cases, the plurality of individual processors can be commonly connected to the program memory 1320 and the data memory 1330, or can be individually connected to a plurality of individual program memories and / or data memories. More generally, one skilled in the art will recognize that the various protocols and other functions of the UE 1300 can be implemented in many different computer configurations, including but not limited to various combinations of hardware and software, including application processors, signal processors, general-purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, fixed and / or programmable digital circuits, analog baseband circuits, radio frequency circuits, software, firmware, and middleware.

[0250] The wireless transceiver 1340 can include radio frequency transmitter and / or receiver functionality that enables the UE 1300 to communicate with other devices that support the same wireless communication standard and / or protocol. In some exemplary embodiments, the wireless transceiver 1340 includes one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that enable the UE 1300 to communicate according to various protocols and / or methods proposed for standardization by 3GPP and / or other standardization bodies. For example, such functionality can operate in cooperation with the processor 1310 to implement a PHY layer based on OFDM, OFDMA, and / or SC-FDMA technologies as described herein with respect to other figures.

[0251] In some exemplary embodiments, the wireless transceiver 1340 includes one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that enable the UE 1300 to easily communicate with various LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), and / or NR networks according to the standards published by 3GPP. In some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the wireless transceiver 1340 includes the circuitry, firmware, etc. necessary for the UE 1300 to communicate with various NR, NR-U, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-LAA, UMTS, and / or GSM / EDGE networks, also according to 3GPP standards. In some embodiments, the wireless transceiver 1340 can include circuitry that supports D2D communication between the UE 1300 and other compatible devices.

[0252] In some embodiments, the wireless transceiver 1340 includes the circuitry, firmware, etc. necessary for the UE 1300 to communicate with various CDMA2000 networks in accordance with the 3GPP2 standard. In some embodiments, the wireless transceiver 1340 may be capable of communicating using a wireless technology that operates in an unlicensed frequency band, such as IEEE802.11 WiFi, which operates using frequencies in the 2.4, 5.6, and / or 60 GHz regions. In some embodiments, the wireless transceiver 1340 may include a transceiver capable of wired communication, such as by using IEEE802.3 Ethernet technology. The functionality specific to each of these embodiments is combined with the data memory 1330 and / or is coupled to and / or controlled by other circuitry in the UE 1300, such as a processor 1310 that executes program code stored in the program memory 1320 and supported by the data memory 1330.

[0253] The user interface 1350 can take various forms depending on a particular embodiment of the UE 1300, or can be completely absent from the UE 1300. In some embodiments, the user interface 1350 can include a microphone, a loudspeaker, a slidable button, a pushable button, a display, a touch screen display, a mechanical or virtual keypad, a mechanical or virtual keyboard, and / or any other user interface functionality commonly found on a mobile phone. In other embodiments, the UE 1300 can include a tablet computing device that includes a larger touch screen display. In such embodiments, one or more of the mechanical functions of the user interface 1350 can be replaced by equivalent or functionally equivalent virtual user interface functions (e.g., virtual keypad, virtual buttons, etc.) implemented using the touch screen display, as is well known to a standard technician in the art. In other embodiments, the UE 1300 can be a digital computing device such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a workstation, etc., that includes a mechanical keyboard that can be integrated, removed, or made removable depending on a particular exemplary embodiment. Such digital computing devices can also include a touch screen display. Many exemplary embodiments of the UE 1300 having a touch screen display can receive user input such as input related to the exemplary methods described herein or otherwise known to a standard technician in the art.

[0254] In some embodiments, UE1300 can include an orientation sensor, and the orientation sensor can be used in various ways depending on the characteristics and functions of UE1300. For example, UE1300 can use the output of the orientation sensor to identify when the user has changed the physical orientation of the touch screen display of UE1300. The indication signal from the orientation sensor can be made available to any application program running on UE1300, whereby the application program can automatically change the orientation of the screen display (e.g., from portrait to landscape) when the indication signal indicates an approximate 90-degree change in the physical orientation of the device. In this exemplary manner, the application program can maintain the screen display in a manner that is readable by the user regardless of the physical orientation of the device. Additionally, the output of the orientation sensor can be used with various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0255] The control interface 1360 of UE1300 can take various forms depending on the particular exemplary embodiment of UE1300 and the particular interface requirements of other devices that UE1300 is intended to communicate with and / or control. For example, the control interface 1360 can be an RS-232 interface, an RS-4135 interface, a USB interface, an HDMI interface, a Bluetooth interface, an IEEE (「Firewire」) interface, an I 2It is possible to include a C interface, a PCMCIA interface, etc. In some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the control interface 1360 can include an IEEE802.3 Ethernet interface as described above. In some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the control interface 1360 can include, for example, an analog interface circuit including one or more digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and / or analog-to-digital converters (ADCs).

[0256] It should be recognized by a standard engineer in the art that the above list of functions, interfaces, and radio frequency communication standards is merely exemplary and not a limitation on the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, the UE 1300 can include more functionality than that shown in FIG. 13, for example, including a video and / or still image camera, a microphone, a media player and / or recorder, etc. Moreover, the wireless transceiver 1340 can include circuits necessary to communicate using additional radio frequency communication standards including Bluetooth, GPS, and / or others. Moreover, the processor 1310 can execute software code stored in the program memory 1320 to control such additional functionality. For example, the direction speed and / or position estimate output from a GPS receiver can be available to any application program running on the UE 1300 that corresponds to and / or embodies any of the exemplary embodiments (e.g., methods) described herein and includes any program code for those embodiments.

[0257] FIG. 14 shows a block diagram of an exemplary network node 1400 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, including those described above with reference to other figures. For example, the exemplary network node 1400 can be configured to perform operations corresponding to one or more of the exemplary methods described herein by execution of instructions stored on a computer-readable medium. In some exemplary embodiments, the network node 1400 can include a base station, an eNB, a gNB, or one or more components thereof. For example, the network node 1400 can be configured as a central unit (CU) and one or more distributed units (DUs) according to the NR gNB architecture specified by 3GPP. More generally, the functionality of the network node 1400 can be distributed across various physical devices and / or functional units, modules, etc.

[0258] The network node 1400 can include a processor 1410 (also referred to as a "processing circuit") operably connected to a program memory 1420 and a data memory 1430 via a bus 1470, which can include a parallel address and data bus, a serial port, or other methods and / or structures known to a standard engineer in the art.

[0259] The program memory 1420 can store software code, programs, and / or instructions (collectively shown as computer program product 1421 in FIG. 14) that, when executed by the processor 1410, configure and / or facilitate the network node 1400 to execute various operations corresponding to the various exemplary methods described herein. As part of and / or in addition to such operations, the program memory 1420 can also include software code executed by the processor 1410 that configures and / or facilitates the network node 1400 to communicate with one or more other UEs or network nodes using one or more other protocols or protocol layers, such as one or more of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and RRC layer protocols standardized by 3GPP for LTE, LTE-A, and / or NR, or any other higher layer (e.g., NAS) protocol used with the radio network interface 1440 and / or the core network interface 1450. By way of example, as standardized by 3GPP, the core network interface 1450 can include an S1 or NG interface, and the radio network interface 1440 can include a Uu interface. The program memory 1420 can also include software code executed by the processor 1410 to control the functionality of the network node 1400, including configuring and controlling various components such as the radio network interface 1440 and the core network interface 1450.

[0260] The data memory 1430 can include a memory area for the processor 1410 to store variables used in the protocol, configuration, control, and other functions of the network node 1400. Thus, the program memory 1420 and the data memory 1430 can include non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard disk, etc.), volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamic RAM), network-based (e.g., "cloud") storage, or combinations thereof. The processor 1410 can include a plurality of individual processors (not shown), and one skilled in the art will recognize that each of them implements a part of the functionality described above. In such cases, the plurality of individual processors can be commonly connected to the program memory 1420 and the data memory 1430, or can be individually connected to a plurality of individual program memories and / or data memories. More generally, one skilled in the art will recognize that the various protocols and other functions of the network node 1400 can be implemented in many different combinations of hardware and software, including but not limited to application processors, signal processors, general-purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, fixed digital circuits, programmable digital circuits, analog baseband circuits, radio frequency circuits, software, firmware, and middleware.

[0261] The wireless network interface 1440 can include a transmitter, a receiver, a signal processor, an ASIC, an antenna, a beamforming unit, and other circuitry that enables the network node 1400 to communicate with other devices such as a plurality of compatible user equipments (UEs) in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the interface 1440 can also enable the network node 1400 to communicate with compatible satellites of a satellite communication network. In some exemplary embodiments, the wireless network interface 1440 can include various protocols or protocol layers such as PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and / or RRC layer protocols standardized by 3GPP with respect to LTE, LTE-A, LTE-LAA, NR, NR-U, etc., improvements thereto as described above herein, or any other higher layer protocol utilized with the wireless network interface 1440. According to further exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, the wireless network interface 1440 can include a PHY layer based on OFDM, OFDMA, and / or SC-FDMA technologies. In some embodiments, the functionality of such a PHY layer can be provided cooperatively by the wireless network interface 1440 and the processor 1410 (including program code in the memory 1420).

[0262] The core network interface 1450 can include a transmitter, a receiver, and other circuitry that enables the network node 1400 to communicate with other devices in a core network, such as a circuit-switched (CS) and / or packet-switched core (PS) network in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the core network interface 1450 can include the S1 interface standardized by 3GPP. In some embodiments, the core network interface 1450 can include the NG interface standardized by 3GPP. In some exemplary embodiments, the core network interface 1450 can include one or more interfaces to one or more AMFs, SMFs, SGWs, MMEs, SGSNs, GGSNs, and other physical devices that include functionality found in GERAN, UTRAN, EPC, 5GC, and CDMA2000 core networks known to a standard engineer in the art. In some embodiments, these one or more interfaces can be multiplexed together on a single physical interface. In some embodiments, the lower layer of the core network interface 1450 can include one or more of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), Internet protocol (IP) over Ethernet, SDH over optical fiber, T1 / E1 / PDH over copper wire, microwave radio, or other wired or wireless transmission technologies known to a standard engineer in the art.

[0263] In some embodiments, network node 1400 can include hardware and / or software that configures and / or facilitates network node 1400 to communicate with other network nodes in the RAN (also referred to as the "radio network"), such as other eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, en-gNBs, IAB nodes, etc. Such hardware and / or software can be part of radio network interface 1440 and / or core network interface 1450, or can be separate functional units (not shown). For example, such hardware and / or software can configure and / or facilitate network node 1400 to communicate with other RAN nodes via the X2 or Xn interfaces standardized by 3GPP.

[0264] OA&M interface 1460 can include a transmitter, a receiver, and other circuitry that enables network node 1400 to communicate with an external network, computer, database, etc. for the purposes of operation, administration, and maintenance of network node 1400 or other network equipment operably connected thereto. The lower layer of OA&M interface 1460 can include one or more of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), Internet protocol (IP) over Ethernet, SDH over optical fiber, T1 / E1 / PDH over copper wire, microwave radio, or other wired or wireless transmission technologies known to a standard engineer in the art. Moreover, in some embodiments, one or more of radio network interface 1440, core network interface 1450, and OA&M interface 1460 can be multiplexed together on a single physical interface, such as the examples listed above.

[0265] FIG. 15 is a block diagram of an exemplary communication network configured to provide an over-the-top (OTT) data service between a host computer and a user equipment (UE). The UE 1510 can communicate with a radio access network (RAN, also referred to as a “wireless network”) 1530 via a wireless interface 1520, and the wireless interface 1520 can be based on the above-described protocols including, for example, LTE, LTE-A, and 5G / NR. For example, the UE 1510 can be set and / or configured as shown in the other figures discussed above.

[0266] The RAN 1530 can include one or more terrestrial network nodes (e.g., base stations, eNBs, gNBs, controllers, etc.) operable in a licensed spectrum band, as well as one or more network nodes operable in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., using LAA or NR-U technology), such as the 2.4 GHz band and / or the 5 GHz band. In such a case, the network nodes constituting the RAN 1530 can cooperate and operate using the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum. In some embodiments, the RAN 1530 can include or be able to communicate with one or more satellites constituting a satellite access network.

[0267] RAN 1530 can further communicate with the core network 1540 according to the various protocols and interfaces described above. For example, one or more devices (such as base stations, eNBs, gNBs, etc.) that make up RAN 1530 can communicate with the core network 1540 via the core network interface 1550 described above. In some exemplary embodiments, RAN 1530 and the core network 1540 can be set and / or configured as shown in other figures discussed above. For example, the eNB that makes up E-UTRAN 1530 can communicate with the EPC core network 1540 via the S1 interface. As another example, the gNB and ng-eNB that make up NG-RAN 1530 can communicate with the 5GC core network 1530 via the NG interface.

[0268] The core network 1540 can further communicate with the external packet data network shown as the Internet 1550 in FIG. 15 according to various protocols and interfaces known to standard engineers in the art. Many other devices and / or networks, such as the exemplary host computer 1560, can also be connected to the Internet 1550 and communicate via the Internet 1550. In some exemplary embodiments, the host computer 1560 can communicate with the UE 1510 using the Internet 1550, the core network 1540, and RAN 1530 as intermediaries. The host computer 1560 can be a server (such as an application server) under the ownership and / or control of a service provider. The host computer 1560 can be operated by an OTT service provider or by another entity on behalf of the service provider.

[0269] For example, host computer 1560 can provide an over-the-top (OTT) packet data service to UE 1510 using the facilities of core network 1540 and RAN 1530, and UE 1510 can be unaware of the routing of uplink / downlink communications between itself and host computer 1560. Similarly, host computer 1560 can be unaware of the routing of transmissions from the host computer to the UE, such as routing through RAN 1530. For example, various OTT services can be provided using the exemplary setup shown in FIG. 15, including (one-way) streaming audio and / or video from the host computer to the UE, interactive (two-way) audio and / or video between the host computer and the UE, interactive messaging or social communication, interactive virtual or augmented reality, etc.

[0270] The exemplary network shown in FIG. 15 can also include measurement procedures and / or sensors that monitor network performance metrics, including data rate, latency, and other factors improved by the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein. This exemplary network can also include functionality for reconfiguring the link between endpoints (e.g., host computer and UE) in response to variations in the measurement results. Such procedures and functionality are known and practiced, and when the network hides or removes the wireless interface from the OTT service provider, the measurements can be facilitated by unique signaling between the UE and the host computer.

[0271] The exemplary embodiments described herein provide efficient techniques for ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) by configuring User Equipments (UEs) (such as UE1510) to transmit and / or receive multiple versions of data blocks on separate physical data channels (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH). In this manner, PDSCH diversity by multi-TRP transmission to a single UE can be achieved even in situations where only a single PDCCH is used to convey multiple transmissions and / or reception settings of data blocks. This increases reliability, reduces latency, reduces PDCCH blocking probability, and / or reduces UE complexity. When used in an NR UE (e.g., UE1510) and a gNB (e.g., the gNB constituting RAN1530), the exemplary embodiments described herein can provide various improvements, benefits, and / or advantages that facilitate the use of data services (e.g., URLLC) having stringent performance requirements. As a result, this improves the performance of these services experienced by OTT service providers and end users, including more consistent data and lower latency throughout without excessive power consumption of the UE or other degradation in the user experience.

[0272] The foregoing merely illustrates 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 will be understood that many systems, configurations, and procedures, although not explicitly shown or described herein, can embody the principles of the present disclosure and thus be within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and that those skilled in the art will be able to devise them. As would be understood by a standard technician in the art, the various exemplary embodiments can be used together with each other and interchangeably.

[0273] When used in this specification, the term "unit" can have its conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices, and / or electronic devices, and can include, for example, electrical and / or electronic circuits, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid-state and / or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for performing respective tasks, procedures, calculations, outputs, and / or display functions, etc., such as those described in this specification.

[0274] Any suitable steps, methods, features, functions, or benefits disclosed in this specification can be performed through one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual devices. Each virtual device can include a plurality of these functional units. These functional units can be implemented via a processing circuit that can include one or more microprocessors or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware that can include, for example, a digital signal processor (DSP), dedicated digital logic, etc. The processing circuit can be configured to execute program code stored in a memory, and the memory can include one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. The program code stored in the memory includes program instructions for performing one or more electrical communication and / or data communication protocols, as well as instructions for performing one or more of the techniques described in this specification. In some embodiments, the processing circuit can be used to cause each functional unit to perform the corresponding function in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0275] As described herein, a device and / or apparatus may be represented by a semiconductor chip, a chip set, or a (hardware) module including such a chip or chip set, but this does not exclude the possibility that the functionality of the device or apparatus is implemented as a software module, such as a computer program or a computer program product including an executable software code portion to be executed or run on a processor instead of being hardware-implemented. Further, the functionality of the device or apparatus can be implemented by any combination of hardware and software. The device or apparatus can also be regarded as an assembly of a plurality of devices and / or apparatuses, whether they are functionally cooperating with each other or independent. Moreover, the device and apparatus can be implemented in a manner distributed throughout the entire system as long as the functionality of the device or apparatus is maintained. Such and similar principles are considered to be known to those skilled in the art.

[0276] Unless otherwise specified, all terms used herein (including technical and scientific terms) shall have the same meaning as commonly understood by a standard technician in the technical field to which this disclosure belongs. It should be further understood that the terms used herein should be interpreted to have a meaning that does not conflict with their meaning in the context of this specification and the related technical field, and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense (except where such a specification is clearly made herein).

[0277] In addition, certain terms used in this disclosure, including the specification and drawings, may be used synonymously in certain cases (e.g., "data" and "information"). These terms (and / or other terms that may be synonymous with each other) may be used synonymously herein, but it should be understood that such words may not be intended to be used synonymously in some cases. Further, unless the knowledge of the prior art is explicitly incorporated herein by reference above, it is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. All published documents that are referenced are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0278] The embodiments of the techniques and apparatuses described herein also include, but are not limited to, the following listed examples.

[0279] 1. A method for receiving a plurality of channels, such as a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), wherein each channel carries a version of the same data payload, but is transmitted by different sources, optionally in a radio communication network, such as a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP), in different frequency resources and / or different spatial resources, and optionally, the method receiving, from the network, such as via a network node, a plurality of indicators, such as Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) states, or a display of a plurality of indicators, associated with each of the plurality of transmission sources; for one or more of the plurality of transmission sources; identifying channel parameters based on receiving one or more Source Reference Signals (RS) identified by an indicator or via a display of a plurality of indicators associated with the plurality of transmission sources; receiving configuration information regarding a plurality of PDSCHs via one or more channels, such as a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and A method including one or more of receiving a plurality of PDSCHs from a plurality of transmission sources according to configuration information based on specified channel parameters.

[0280] 2. The method according to Embodiment 1, wherein each of the source RSs is associated with a different physical data channel among a plurality of physical data channels.

[0281] 3. The method according to Embodiment 1 or 2, wherein the configuration information identifies resources for receiving at least a portion of a plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, and the identified resources are in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer.

[0282] 4. The method according to Embodiment 3, wherein resources for at least two of the physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, do not overlap in at least one of the dimensions of frequency and spatial layer.

[0283] 5. The method according to Embodiment 3 or 4, wherein resources for at least two of the physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, completely overlap in frequency.

[0284] 6. The configuration information for the completely overlapping physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, further includes a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports for each overlapping physical data channel, e.g., PDSCH, DMRS ports from different CDM groups for each overlapping physical data channel, e.g., PDSCH, and at least one of a unique data scrambling seed for each overlapping physical data channel, e.g., PDSCH. The method according to Embodiment 5.

[0285] 7. The configuration information identifies resources for receiving a first physical data channel among a plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, and the method further includes receiving, via higher layer signaling, an identification of resources for receiving the remaining physical data channels among the plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH. The method according to any one of Embodiments 3 to 6.

[0286] 8. The method according to Embodiment 7, further including determining the number of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, including a plurality, based on the identified resources for receiving the first one among the plurality.

[0287] 9. The method according to any one of Embodiments 3 to 8, wherein the identified resources for receiving a plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, include time resources disposed in one of a plurality of slots and a plurality of non-overlapping OFDM symbols within the slot.

[0288] 10. The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 9, wherein a plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, carry different redundant versions (RV) of a single data block.

[0289] 11. The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 10, wherein the received configuration information includes information associating at least a portion of a plurality of TCI states with a plurality of PDSCH.

[0290] 12. The received configuration information includes information associating a first TCI state among a plurality of TCI states with a first physical data channel among a plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH, and the method further includes selecting other TCI states among the plurality of TCI states according to a predetermined rule for other physical data channels among the plurality of physical data channels, e.g., PDSCH. The method according to Embodiment 11.

[0291] 13. Information associating a plurality of TCI states with a plurality of physical data channels, such as PDSCH, includes a field having a plurality of code points, each code point being associated with one of the TCI states, a subset of the plurality of code points being used to associate a first TCI state among the plurality of TCI states with a first physical data channel among the plurality of physical data channels, such as PDSCH, The method according to embodiment 12.

[0292] 14. Further comprising receiving a control message that activates at least one subset of the plurality of TCI states, the channel parameters being specified only with respect to the activated subset of the TCI states, the method according to any one of embodiments 11 to 13.

[0293] 15. The method according to embodiment 14, wherein the received configuration information includes information associating a further subset of the activated subset of the TCI states with a plurality of physical data channels, such as PDSCH.

[0294] 16. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 15, wherein at least two of the physical data channels, such as PDSCH, are in the same set of OFDM symbols in a slot.

[0295] 17. The method according to any one of embodiments 1 to 16, wherein the source RS for each physical data channel, such as PDSCH, is different.

[0296] 18. A method for transmitting a plurality of channels, such as a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), to a wireless communication network, for example, to a network node such as a user equipment, wherein each channel carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted in different frequency resources and / or in different spatial resources and is optionally transmitted by different sources such as a Transmission and Reception Point (TRP). Optionally, the method comprises receiving from the network a plurality of resource indicators associated with each of the plurality of transmission resources, or a display of the plurality of resource indicators associated with each of the plurality of transmission resources, identifying channel parameters based on transmitting one or more source reference signals (RS) identified by the resource indicator associated with the transmission resource for one or more of the plurality of transmission resources, receiving configuration information regarding a plurality of physical channels, such as PUSCH, via, for example, a single Physical Downlink Control Channel, such as PDCCH, and transmitting one or more of a plurality of physical channels, such as PUSCH, using the plurality of transmission resources according to the configuration information based on the identified channel parameters.

[0297] 19. The method according to embodiment 18, wherein each of the source RSs is associated with a different physical channel among a plurality of physical channels, such as PUSCH.

[0298] 20. The method according to embodiment 18 or 19, wherein the configuration information identifies resources for transmitting at least a portion of a plurality of physical channels, such as PUSCH, and the identified resources are in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layers.

[0299] 21. The method according to embodiment 20, wherein resources for at least two of the PUSCHs do not overlap in at least one of the dimensions of frequency and spatial layer.

[0300] 22. The method according to embodiment 20 or 21, wherein resources for at least two of the physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, completely overlap in frequency.

[0301] 23. Further, the configuration information for the completely overlapping physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, includes a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports for each of the overlapping physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, DMRS ports from different CDM groups for each of the overlapping physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, and at least one of a unique data scrambling seed for each of the overlapping physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, according to the method of embodiment 22.

[0302] 24. The configuration information identifies resources for transmitting a first physical channel among a plurality of physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, and / or the method further includes receiving, via high-layer signaling, identification of resources for transmitting the remaining physical channels among the plurality of physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, according to the method according to any one of embodiments 20 to 23.

[0303] 25. The method according to embodiment 24, further including specifying the number of physical channels, such as the PUSCHs, including a plurality, based on the identified resources for transmitting the first one of the plurality.

[0304] 26. The method according to any one of embodiments 20 to 25, wherein the identified resources for transmitting a plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH, include time resources arranged in one of a plurality of slots and a plurality of non-overlapping OFDM symbols within the slot.

[0305] 27. The method according to any one of embodiments 18 to 26, wherein a plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH, carry different redundant versions (RV) of a single data block.

[0306] 28. The method according to any one of embodiments 18 to 27, wherein the received configuration information includes information associating at least a portion of a plurality of resource indicators with a plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH.

[0307] 29. The received configuration information includes information associating a first resource indicator among a plurality of resource indicators with a first physical channel among a plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH, and / or the method further includes selecting other resource indicators among the plurality of resource indicators according to a predetermined rule for other physical channels among the plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH. The method according to embodiment 28.

[0308] 30. The information associating a plurality of resource indicators with a plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH, includes a field having a plurality of code points, and / or each code point is associated with one of the resource indicators, and / or a subset of the plurality of code points is used to associate a first resource indicator among the plurality of resource indicators with a first physical channel among the plurality of physical channels, for example PUSCH. The method according to embodiment 29.

[0309] 31. Further comprising receiving a control message to activate at least one subset of a plurality of resource indicators, and optionally channel parameters are specified only with respect to the activated subset of resource indicators, the method according to any one of embodiments 28 to 30.

[0310] 32. The method according to embodiment 31, wherein the received configuration information includes information associating a further subset of the activated subset of resource indicators with a plurality of PUSCHs.

[0311] 33. The method according to any one of embodiments 18 to 32, wherein at least two of the physical channels, such as PUSCHs, are in the same set of OFDM symbols in a slot.

[0312] 34. The method according to any one of embodiments 18 to 33, wherein the source RSs for each physical channel, such as PUSCH, are different.

[0313] 35. For example, a method for transmitting a plurality of physical channels, such as PDSCHs, to a single user equipment (UE), wherein each physical channel carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted by separate sources in a wireless communication network, the method comprising transmitting to the UE a plurality of indicators associated with each of the plurality of transmission sources, or a plurality of indicators, such as an indication of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state; transmitting, for each of the plurality of transmission sources, one or more source reference signals (RSs) identified by an indicator associated with the transmission source, such as a TCI state; transmitting configuration information regarding a plurality of physical data channels, such as PDSCHs, to be transmitted to the UE, via, for example, a single physical channel, such as (PDCCH), to the UE; and A method including one or more of transmitting one or more of a plurality of physical data channels, such as PDSCH, from a plurality of transmission sources according to configuration information.

[0314] 36. A method for receiving, for example, a plurality of physical channels, such as PUSCH, from a single user equipment (UE), wherein each physical channel, such as PUSCH, carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted using separate resources, the method comprising: transmitting to the UE a display of a plurality of resource indicators associated with respective ones of the plurality of transmission resources; for each of the plurality of transmission resources, identifying channel parameters based on receiving one or more source reference signals (RS) identified by a resource indicator associated with that particular transmission resource; transmitting to the UE configuration information regarding a plurality of physical data channels, such as PUSCH, to be transmitted by the UE, via, for example, a single physical channel, such as PDCCH; and receiving one or more of a plurality of physical data channels, such as PUSCH, using the plurality of transmission resources according to the configuration information based on the identified channel parameters.

[0315] 37. A user equipment (UE) configured to receive, for example, a plurality of physical channels, such as PDSCH, wherein each physical channel, such as PDSCH, carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted by separate sources in a wireless communication network, the UE comprising: a communication circuit configured to communicate with the wireless communication network; and one or more of a processing circuit operably associated with the communication circuit and configured to perform operations corresponding to the method according to any one of exemplary embodiments 1 to 17.

[0316] 38. A user equipment (UE) configured to transmit, for example, a plurality of physical channels, such as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), wherein each physical channel, such as PUSCH, carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted using different resources, and the UE includes a communication circuit configured to communicate with a wireless communication network, and a processing circuit operably associated with the communication circuit and configured to execute operations corresponding to any one of embodiments 18 to 34.

[0317] 39. A radio access network (RAN) configured to transmit, for example, a plurality of physical channels, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), to a single user equipment (UE), wherein each physical channel, such as PDSCH, carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted by different sources in the RAN, and the RAN includes a communication circuit configured to communicate with the UE, and a processing circuit operably associated with the communication circuit and configured to execute operations corresponding to the method described in embodiment 35.

[0318] 40. A radio access network (RAN) configured to receive, for example, a plurality of physical channels, such as a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), from a single user equipment (UE), wherein each physical channel, such as PUSCH, carries a version of the same data payload but is transmitted using different resources, and the RAN includes a communication circuit configured to communicate with the UE, and a processing circuit operably associated with the communication circuit and configured to execute operations corresponding to the method described in embodiment 36.

[0319] 41. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a user equipment (UE), configure the UE to perform operations corresponding to the method according to any one of exemplary embodiments 1 to 34.

[0320] 42. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor configuring a radio access network (RAN), configure the RAN to perform operations corresponding to the method according to exemplary embodiment 35 or 36.

[0321] In addition, embodiments of the present disclosure include, but are not limited to, the following examples that are divided into group A (“reception”) and group B (“transmission”). Hereinafter, “TCI” and “SRI” are referred to, but these are merely examples and may be different indicators as recognized by those skilled in the art.

[0322] Group A A UE optionally configured by a network to receive a plurality of PDSCHs (or other similar channels), each of the plurality of PDSCHs being a repetition of the same data payload (or including a repetition thereof), and optionally, the DMRS (or other similar reference signal) for each PDSCH being QCL with a set source RS or a pair of source RSs that are set. One or more of the following features may further apply. At least two of the PDSCHs are in the same set of OFDM symbols in a slot. The source RS for each PDSCH is different. The configuration is received by a DCI message (or other downlink message). The configuration is received by an RRC message. The configuration includes resource allocations for each of the plurality of PDSCHs. The configuration also includes repetition over time, over multiple slots, and / or over multiple transmissions within a slot in non-overlapping OFDM symbols (covering the case of mini-slot repetition). At least two PDSCHs do not overlap in frequency (FDM). At least two PDSCHs completely overlap in frequency (spatial repetition). In this case, each of the overlapping PDSCHs is configured with a unique set of DMRS ports (to maintain orthogonality of the DMRS ports). In this case, each of the overlapping PDSCHs is configured with DMRS ports from separate CDM groups. In this case, each of the overlapping PDSCHs is configured with a unique data scrambling seed. Each PDSCH is encoded using a separate RV. The source RS for each PDSCH is obtained by associating each PDSCH with a TCI state from a set of TCI states. For each PDSCH, a separate TCI state is selected from the set in a cyclic manner. The TCI state for use with one PDSCH is given by DCI, and the TCI for use with other PDSCHs from the set of TCI states is given by a predetermined rule. To indicate that the TCI states for use with one PDSCH and other PDSCHs from the set of TCI states are given by a predetermined rule, a subset of the code point values in the TCI field in DCI is used. Each TCI state in the set is an active TCI state activated by a MAC CE. The set of TCI states is configured by higher layer signaling between the network and the UE. The set of TCI states is configured by high-layer signaling between the network and the UE, and the DCI further narrows down which TCI state is used for transmission. The frequency resources occupied by each PDSCH are configured by high-layer signaling between the network and the UE. Here, it is possible to configure the frequency resources to overlap with each other. The number of PDSCHs in a slot is specified by the DCI. Only the resource allocation for one PDSCH is indicated in the DCI, and the resource allocations of the remaining PDSCHs in the slot are specified and pre-configured by high-layer signaling. The number of PDSCHs is implicit according to one or more of the scheduled BW of the PDSCH indicated by the DCI, the carrier bandwidth, and the bandwidth of the bandwidth part. The number of PDSCH transmissions in a repetition, as well as the associated time resources and frequency resources, TCI state or TRP, redundancy version, and DMRS ports, are configured together by the RRC and indicated dynamically in the DCI.

[0323] Group B A UE optionally configured by the network to transmit multiple PUSCHs (or other similar channels), where optionally each of the multiple PUSCHs is a repetition of the same data payload (or includes such a repetition), and optionally, the DMRS (or other reference signal) for each PUSCH has a spatial relationship with the source RS. Optionally, one or more of the following features may also apply. At least two of the PUSCHs are in the same set of OFDM symbols in a slot. The source RS for each PUSCH is different. The configuration is received by a DCI message (or other downlink message). The configuration is received by an RRC message. The configuration includes resource allocations for each of a plurality of PUSCHs. The configuration also includes repetitions in time, over a plurality of slots, and / or over a plurality of transmissions within a slot in non-overlapping OFDM symbols (covering the case of mini-slot repetitions). At least two PUSCHs do not overlap in frequency (FDM). At least two PUSCHs completely overlap in frequency (spatial repetition), and one or more of the following may apply. In this case, each of the overlapping PUSCHs is configured with a unique set of DMRS ports (to maintain orthogonality of the DMRS ports). In this case, each of the overlapping PUSCHs is configured with DMRS ports from separate CDM groups. In this case, each of the overlapping PUSCHs is configured with a unique data scrambling seed. Each PUSCH is encoded using a separate RV. The source RS for each PUSCH is obtained by associating each PUSCH with an SRI state from a set of SRIs, and one or more of the following may apply. For each PUSCH, separate SRIs are selected from the set in a cyclic manner. The SRI for use with one PUSCH is given by DCI, and the SRIs for use with the other PUSCHs from the set of SRIs are given by a predetermined rule. The set of SRI states is configured by high-layer signaling between the network and the UE. The set of SRIs is configured by high-layer signaling between the network and the UE, and the DCI further narrows down which SRI is used for transmission. The frequency resources occupied by each PUSCH are set by high-layer signaling between the network and the UE. Here, it is possible to set the frequency resources so that they overlap. The number of PUSCHs in a slot is specified by DCI. Only the resource allocation for one PUSCH is indicated in the DCI, and the resource allocations for the remaining PUSCHs in the slot are specified and pre-set by high-layer signaling. The number of PUSCHs is implicit according to the scheduled BW of the PUSCH indicated by the DCI.

Claims

1. A method performed by a user equipment (UE) for communicating via a plurality of nodes in a wireless network, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states (1110); receiving scheduling information regarding a plurality of physical data channels that carry respective repetitions of a data block via a single physical control channel, wherein the scheduling information includes an indicator of a mapping between one or more of the TCI states and the plurality of repetitions, wherein the indicator is included in a field having a plurality of code points, and the plurality of TCI states is less than the plurality of code points, wherein a first subset of the code points is associated with individual TCI states, wherein a second subset of the code points is associated with combinations of individual TCI states, receiving scheduling information (1120); allocating one or more of the TCI states to the plurality of repetitions based on the indicated mapping (1140); receiving the plurality of repetitions via the plurality of physical data channels based on the scheduling information and the allocated TCI states (1160).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of TCI states is less than the plurality of repetitions, wherein the plurality of TCI states is allocated to the repetitions in a predefined order. The method according to claim 1.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the scheduling information further includes an indicator of a resource for receiving one or more of the repetitions, wherein the indicated resource is in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer. The method according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the resources for at least two of the repetitions are in the same set of symbols in a slot.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the scheduling information includes an indicator of a first resource for receiving a first repetition of the repetitions, the method further comprising receiving one or more offsets (1130) to be applied to the first resource to identify further resources for receiving the remaining repetitions of the repetitions. The method according to claim 3. **Claim 6**: The method according to claim 5, wherein the further resource is located with respect to the first resource, either in one or more subsequent slots or in one or more subsequent symbols within the same slot. **Claim 7**: For at least two of the repetitions, the indicated resources completely overlap in frequency, and the scheduling information also includes, for each of the completely overlapping repetitions, a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports, DMRS ports from a unique code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and a unique data scrambling seed The method according to any one of claims 3 to 6, including at least one of these. **Claim 8**: The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the scheduling information also includes an indicator of the mapping between the plurality of repetitions and the plurality of redundant versions (RVs) of the data block. **Claim 9**: Each TCI state includes one or more source reference signal (RS) pairs, each source RS pair has a corresponding pair of quasi - co - location (QCL) relationships with an antenna port, regarding the demodulation reference signal (DM - RS) mapped to a specific physical data channel, The method further includes, for each of the plurality of TCI states, identifying channel parameters (1150) based on the source RS pairs included in the specific TCI state. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8. **Claim 10**: Receiving the plurality of repetitions via the plurality of physical data channels (1160) further includes, for each of the physical data channels, receiving the DM - RS mapped to the physical data channel (1161) based on the channel parameters, identifying further channel parameters (1162) based on the received DM - RS, and receiving the physical data channel (1163) based on the further channel parameters. The method according to claim 9. **Claim 11**: The plurality of TCI states are each of the plurality of nodes in the wireless network, or each of the plurality of beams associated with one or more nodes in the wireless network The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 associated with one of them.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein each of the plurality of physical data channels is a respective layer of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or each of the physical data channels is a subset of all layers of the PDSCH wherein one of the above applies.

13. A method performed by one or more nodes in a wireless network for communicating with a single user equipment (UE) via a plurality of physical data channels, comprising: transmitting a plurality of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states to the UE (1210); allocating one or more of the TCI states to a plurality of repetitions of a data block to be carried by each of the plurality of physical data channels (1220); transmitting scheduling information regarding the plurality of physical data channels carrying the respective plurality of repetitions to the UE via a single physical control channel, wherein the scheduling information includes an indicator of a mapping between one or more of the TCI states and the plurality of repetitions, wherein the indicator is included in a field having a plurality of code points, and the plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of code points, wherein a first subset of the code points is associated with individual TCI states, transmitting scheduling information to the UE via a single physical control channel, wherein a second subset of the code points is associated with combinations of individual TCI states (1230); transmitting the plurality of repetitions via the plurality of physical data channels based on the scheduling information and the allocated TCI states (1260).

14. The plurality of TCI states are fewer than the plurality of repetitions, wherein the plurality of TCI states are allocated to the repetitions in a predefined order. The method according to claim 13.

15. The scheduling information also includes an indicator of resources for transmitting or receiving one or more of the repetitions. wherein the indicated resource is in at least one of the dimensions of time, frequency, and spatial layer The method according to claim 13 or 14 **Claim 16**: The method according to claim 15, wherein the resources for at least two of the repetitions are in the same set of symbols in a slot **Claim 17**: The scheduling information includes an indicator of a first resource for receiving a first repetition of the repetitions The method further includes transmitting (1240) one or more offsets to be applied to the first resource to identify additional resources for receiving the remaining repetitions of the repetitions The method according to claim 15 **Claim 18**: The method according to claim 17, wherein the additional resource is located relative to the first resource in one of one or more subsequent slots or one or more subsequent symbols within the same slot **Claim 19**: The indicated resources for at least two of the repetitions completely overlap in frequency The scheduling information also, for each of the completely overlapping repetitions a unique set of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports DMRS ports from a unique code division multiplexing (CDM) group, and a unique data scrambling seed The method according to any one of claims 15 to 18, including at least one of **Claim 20**: The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, wherein the scheduling information also includes an indicator of the mapping between the plurality of repetitions and the plurality of redundant versions (RVs) of the data block **Claim 21**: Each TCI state includes one or more source reference signal (RS) pairs Each source RS pair has a corresponding pair of quasi co-location (QCL) relationships with an antenna port for a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) mapped to a specific physical data channel The method further includes transmitting (1250) the source RS pairs included in a specific TCI state for each of the plurality of TCI states Transmitting the plurality of repetitions via the plurality of physical data channels (1260) further includes transmitting each of the DM-RSs in association with the physical data channel to which they are mapped (1261). The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20.

22. The plurality of TCI states are each of a plurality of nodes in the wireless network, or each of a plurality of beams associated with one or more nodes in the wireless network The method according to any one of claims 13 to 21, which is associated with one of them.

23. Each of the plurality of physical data channels is a respective layer of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), or each physical data channel is a subset of all layers of the PDSCH The method according to any one of claims 13 to 22, to which one of them applies.

24. A user equipment (UE) (120, 1300, 1510) configured to communicate via a plurality of nodes (105, 110, 115, 700, 750, 1400) in a wireless network (100, 799, 1530), a wireless transceiver circuit (1340) configured to communicate with the plurality of nodes; A processing circuit (1310) operably coupled to the wireless transceiver circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the wireless transceiver circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods recited in claims 1 to 12. A user equipment (UE) (120, 1300, 1510) including a processing circuit (1310).

25. A computer program including computer-executable instructions for configuring the UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods recited in claims 1 to 12 when executed by a processing circuit (1010) of a user equipment (UE) (120, 1300, 1510) configured to communicate via a plurality of nodes (105, 110, 115, 700, 750, 1400) in a wireless network (100, 799, 1530). **Claim 26** A wireless network (100, 799, 1530) comprising one or more nodes (105, 110, 115, 700, 750, 1400), configured to communicate with a single user equipment (UE) (120, 1300, 1510) via a plurality of physical shared channels, wherein the one or more nodes comprise a wireless network interface circuit (1440) configured to communicate with the UE, a processing circuit (1410) operably coupled to the wireless network interface circuit, whereby the processing circuit and the wireless network interface circuit are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods recited in claims 13 to 23, a wireless network (100, 799, 1530) comprising the processing circuit (1410). **Claim 27** A computer program comprising computer-executable instructions for configuring a wireless network (100, 799, 1530) to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods recited in claims 13 to 23 when executed by a processing circuit (1110) of one or more nodes (105, 110, 115, 700, 750, 1400) in the wireless network, the wireless network being configured to communicate with a single user equipment (UE) (120, 1300, 1510) via a plurality of physical shared channels.

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