Method, apparatus and computer program

Abstract

There is provided a method, computer program, and an apparatus for a user equipment for performing: configuring the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time; determining a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method; and signalling, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree.

Description

[0001] METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

[0002] FIELD

[0003] The present application relates to a power scaling method with a user equipment is configured to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.

[0004] BACKGROUND

[0005] A communication system can be seen as a facility that enables communication sessions between two or more entities such as user terminals, base stations and / or other nodes by providing carriers between the various entities involved in the communications session. A communication system can be provided for example by means of a communication network and one or more compatible communication devices. The communication sessions may comprise, for example, communication of data for carrying communications such as voice, video, electronic mail (email), text message, multimedia and / or content data and so on. Non-limiting examples of services provided comprise two-way or multi-way calls, data communication or multimedia services and access to a data network system, such as the Internet.

[0006] The communication system and associated devices typically operate in accordance with a given standard or specification which sets out what the various entities associated with the system are permitted to do and how that should be achieved. Communication protocols and / or parameters which shall be used for the connection are also typically defined. One example of a communications system is UTRAN (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service terrestrial radio access network (e.g., 3G radio)). Other examples of communication systems are the long-term evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) radio-access technology and so-called 5G or New Radio (NR) networks and 6G, which is the next generation of radio access technology. NR is being standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). SUMMARY

[0007] According to a first aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a user equipment, the apparatus comprising means for performing: configuring the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time; determining a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method; and signalling, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree.

[0008] According to a second aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a user equipment, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor, and at least one memory comprising code that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the apparatus to perform: configuring the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time; determining a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method; and signalling, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree.

[0009] According to a third aspect, there is provided a method for an apparatus for a user equipment, the method comprising: configuring the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time; determining a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method; and signalling, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree.

[0010] According to a fourth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a user equipment, the apparatus comprising: configuring circuitry for configuring the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time; determining circuitry for determining a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method; and signalling circuitry for signalling, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree.

[0011] The following may apply in respect of any (e.g., one or more, including all) of the above- mentioned first to fourth aspects. The determining the degree may comprise: configuring, at the user equipment, a first reference power, the first reference power corresponding to a transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than the first reference power.

[0012] The determining the degree may comprise: configuring, at the user equipment, a second reference power, the second reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method; wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than the second reference power.

[0013] The determining the degree may comprise: configuring, at the user equipment, a plurality of ranges of reference powers, wherein each of said ranges corresponds to a different degree to which the first uplink is or will be affected by the power scaling method; wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates which range of said plurality of ranges the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink falls within.

[0014] The plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured using at least one respective endpoint for each range.

[0015] At least one of the first reference power, second reference power, or plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured by at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.

[0016] The apparatus may further be caused to perform: receiving, from the network access node based on the reported indication, a resource allocation for transmitting and / or retransmitting transmissions corresponding to the first uplink. The apparatus may further be caused to perform: receiving at least one parameter for determining said degree from at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.

[0017] The apparatus may further be caused to perform: based on said determined degree, autonomously determining to retransmit at least one transmission previously transmitted using the first uplink.

[0018] The degree may correspond to a power margin that represents an offset between an available transmission power on the first uplink and a reference power level preconfigured at the user equipment, and wherein the apparatus may further be caused to perform: determining the power margin based on at least one of: an uplink transmission made on the first uplink that transmits traffic to the network access node, or an uplink reference transmission made on the first uplink that does not transmit traffic to the network access node.

[0019] The apparatus may further be caused to perform: receiving, from the network access node, a configuration for the uplink reference transmission, wherein the configuration is limited to altering only a predetermined number and / or type of transmission parameters relative to an uplink transmission made on the first uplink that transmits traffic to the network access node.

[0020] According to a fifth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a network access node, the apparatus comprising means for performing: receiving, from a user equipment, an indication corresponding to a determined degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink of the user equipment is or will be affected by a power scaling method when the user equipment is configured to use the first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.

[0021] According to a sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a network access node, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory comprising code that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the apparatus to perform: receiving, from a user equipment, an indication corresponding to a determined degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink of the user equipment is or will be affected by a power scaling method when the user equipment is configured to use the first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.

[0022] According to a seventh aspect, there is provided a method for a network access node, the method comprising: receiving, from a user equipment, an indication corresponding to a determined degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink of the user equipment is or will be affected by a power scaling method when the user equipment is configured to use the first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.

[0023] According to an eighth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a network access node, the apparatus comprising: receiving circuitry for receiving, from a user equipment, an indication corresponding to a determined degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink of the user equipment is or will be affected by a power scaling method when the user equipment is configured to use the first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.

[0024] The following may apply to any (e.g., one or more, including all) of the above- mentioned firfth to eighth aspects.

[0025] The indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than a first reference power, the first reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink will be dropped.

[0026] The indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than a second reference power, the second reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power controscalingl method.

[0027] The indication signalled to the network access node may indicates which range of a plurality of ranges the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink falls within, wherein each of said ranges corresponds to a different degree to which the first uplink is or will be affected by the power scaling method.

[0028] The plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured using at least one respective endpoint for each range.

[0029] At least one of the first reference power, second reference power, or plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured by at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.

[0030] The apparatus may further be caused to perform: determining, based on the reported indication, a resource allocation for transmitting and / or retransmitting transmissions corresponding to the first uplink; and transmitting the resource allocation to the user equipment.

[0031] The apparatus may further be caused to perform: transmitting at least one parameter for determining said degree from at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.

[0032] The following may apply in respect of any (e.g., one or more, including all) of the above- mentioned first to eighth aspects.

[0033] The indication signalled to the network access node may be comprised in a power headroom report.

[0034] The degree may correspond to a power margin that represents an offset between an available transmission power on the first uplink and a reference power level preconfigured at the user equipment.

[0035] The indication may comprise at least one of an exact value of the power margin, or an indication of whether the power margin is above, equal to, and / or below a reference transmission power. The first uplink may correspond to at least one of: a first cell, a first frequency bandwidth, a first frequency allocation, or a first component carrier; and the second uplink corresponds to at least one of: a second cell, a second frequency bandwidth, a second frequency allocation, or a second component carrier.

[0036] The transmission power of the first uplink may comprise at least one of: a configured maximum transmission power, a total configured maximum transmission power, a minimum between a configured max transmission power and a function of open-loop and closed-loop parameters, or a transmission power for configured cell(s) that is determined by the apparatus to not cause a power reduction for the first uplink or first uplink to drop.

[0037] According to an aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the method according to any of the preceding aspects.

[0038] In the above, many different embodiments have been described. It should be appreciated that further embodiments may be provided by the combination of any two or more of the embodiments described above.

[0039] DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

[0040] Embodiments will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying Figures in which:

[0041] Figure 1 shows a representation of a network system according to some example embodiments;

[0042] Figure 2 shows a representation of a control apparatus according to some example embodiments;

[0043] Figure 3 shows a representation of an apparatus according to some example embodiments;

[0044] Figures 4A to 6 illustrate example power scaling methods;

[0045] Figure 7 illustrates example signalling that may be performed; and

[0046] Figures 8 and 9 illustrate example signalling that may be performed by apparatus described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0047] The following describes operations that may be performed in relation to power control methods when a user equipment (UE) is configured to transmit using multiple uplinks simultaneously (e.g., at the same time). The multiple uplinks may comprise, for example, respective uplinks to different cells, and / or respective component carriers to a same and / or different cell.

[0048] In more detail, the following describes examples in which a UE is configured to provide a network with information indicative of a degree to which a power scaling method applied to at least one uplink has affected the at least one uplink. The network and / or UE may use the indicated degree to control uplink transmissions in order to minimize the likelihood of a single uplink being unfairly affected by the power control method relative to other uplinks being used at that time.

[0049] Before this is discussed in more detail, with reference to examples, Figures 1 to 3 provide an example overview of a communication environment and apparatus in which the presently described techniques may be deployed.

[0050] Figure 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

[0051] Figure 1 shows an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

[0052] In the communication environment 100, a plurality of communication devices, comprising user devices 110 and 115 (also referred to herein as a “terminal” or “terminal device”) and a network device 120 (also referred to herein as a “network access node”), can communicate with each other. The network device 120 may serve a coverage area, called a cell 125. The user device 110 may have access to a communication network via the cell 125. In some example embodiments, both the user device 110 and the network device 120 may be configured to implement a beamforming technique and communicate with each other via a plurality of beams. The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a mobile device, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehiclemounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop- embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), a machine-type communications (MTC) device, an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node). In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user device”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0053] As used herein, the term “network device” is used interchangeably with “network access node”, and refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a node B in 6G system, a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

[0054] In some example embodiments, a link from the network device 120 to the user device 110 or 1 15 is referred to as a DL, while a link from the user device 110 or 115 to the network device 120 is referred to as a UL. Links are also referred to herein as “channels”. In DL, the network device 120 is a Tx device (or a transmitter), and the user device 1 10 or 115 is a Rx device (or a receiver). In UL, the user device 1 10 or 115 is a Tx device (or a transmitter), and the network device 120 is a Rx device (or a receiver). A link between the user device 110 and another user device (not shown) is referred to as a sidelink (SL). In SL, one of the user devices is a Tx device (or a transmitter), and the other of the user devices is a Rx device (or a receiver).

[0055] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), the fifth generation (5G), the sixth generation (6G), and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0056] In the following, reference is made to both a carrier aggregation (CA) system and to a dual connectivity (DC) system. A carrier aggregation system aggregates a plurality of component carriers (CCs). A cell in the carrier aggregation system may be classified into a primary cell, a secondary cell, and / or a serving cell. The primary cell signifies a cell operated in a primary frequency. The primary cell signifies a cell which UE performs an initial connection establishment procedure or a connection reestablishment procedure or a cell indicated as a primary cell in a handover procedure. The secondary cell signifies a cell operating in a secondary frequency. Once the radio resource control (RRC) connection is established, the secondary cell is used to provide an additional radio resource.

[0057] The carrier aggregation system may support a plurality of component carriers (CCs). Stated differently, the carrier aggregation system may comprise a plurality of serving cells configured to communicate with a UE using at least one respective carrier frequency.

[0058] Dual connectivity systems relate to architectures that allow the simultaneous connection of a UE using different radio access technologies to different base stations, for example, a macro cell base station and a small cell base station. Radio access technologies that combine in the dual connectivity systems can be of different generations, such as a fifth generation and a sixth generation radio access technology is used in a simultaneous active operation, that makes it dual connectivity.

[0059] In DC, the gNB for the primary cell (Pcell) may be referred to as a master gNB (hereinafter referred to as MgNB). In addition, the gNB only for the secondary cell group (SCG) may be referred to as a secondary gNB (hereinafter referred to as SgNB).

[0060] A cell group including a primary cell (Pcell) and one or more secondary cells (SCells) implemented by MgNB may be referred to as a master cell group (MCG) or PUCCH cell group 1 . A cell group known as a secondary cell group (SCG) or PUCCH cell group 2 may be implemented by the SeNB, and may comprise at least one SCell.

[0061] Meanwhile, among the secondary cells in the secondary cell group (SCG), a secondary cell in which the UE can transmit Uplink Control Information (UCI), or the secondary cell in which the UE can transmit a PUCCH may be referred to as a super secondary cell (Super SCell) or a primary secondary cell (Primary Scell; PScell).

[0062] Both of these systems (dual carrier and carrier aggregation) may be considered as systems in which uplink and downlink transmissions may be scheduled simultaneously on respective frequency carriers. It is therefore understood that the following described techniques from Figure 5 onwards may be applied in respect of any system in which uplink and downlink transmissions may be scheduled to occur simultaneously in time.

[0063] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a control apparatus 200 for causing a network device 120 (such as the network device described in Figure 1 ) to perform its operations. The control apparatus may comprise at least one random access memory (RAM) 211 a, at least on read only memory (ROM) 211 b, at least one processor 212, 213 and an input / output interface 214. The at least one processor 212, 213 may be coupled to the RAM 211 a and the ROM 211 b. The at least one processor 212, 213 may be configured to execute an appropriate software code 215. The software code 215 may for example allow to perform one or more steps to perform one or more of the present aspects. The software code 215 may be stored in the ROM 211 b. The control apparatus 200 may be interconnected with another control apparatus 200 controlling another function of the network device. In some embodiments, each function of the network device comprises a control apparatus 200. In some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus 200 may be implemented at the network device 120 or may be the network device 120.

[0064] Figure 3 illustrates an example of a terminal 300, such as the user device 110, 115 illustrated on Figure 1. The terminal 300 may be provided by any device capable of sending and receiving radio signals, such as the user device described herein. The terminal 300 may provide, for example, communication of data for carrying communications. The communications may be one or more of voice, electronic mail (email), text message, multimedia, data, machine data and so on.

[0065] The terminal 300 may receive signals over an air or radio interface 307 via appropriate apparatus for receiving and may transmit signals via appropriate apparatus for transmitting radio signals. In Figure 3 transceiver apparatus is designated schematically by block 306. The transceiver apparatus 306 may be provided for example by means of a radio part and associated antenna arrangement. The antenna arrangement may be arranged internally or externally to the mobile device.

[0066] The terminal 300 may be provided with at least one processor 301 , at least one memory ROM 302a, at least one RAM 302b and other possible components 303 for use in software and hardware aided execution of tasks it is designed to perform, including control of access to and communications with access systems (such as a network access system provided by the network device described above in relation to Figures 1 and 2) and other communication devices. The at least one processor 301 is coupled to the RAM 302b and the ROM 302a. The at least one processor 301 may be configured to execute an appropriate software code 308. The software code 308 may for example allow to perform one or more of the present aspects. The software code 308 may be stored in the ROM 302a.

[0067] The processor, storage and other relevant control apparatus can be provided on an appropriate circuit board and / or in chipsets. This feature is denoted by reference 304. The device may optionally have a user interface such as key pad 305, touch sensitive screen or pad, combinations thereof or the like. Optionally one or more of a display, a speaker and a microphone may be provided depending on the type of the device.

[0068] In some exemplary embodiments, the terminal 300 may be an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause a user device 110, 115 to perform examples or embodiments described in this document.

[0069] One important consideration in any type of communication system relates to power control methods. There are a variety of reasons why power control methods may be deployed. For example, considering uplink transmissions from a UE, a UE may be configured to comply with a maximum emissions power for uplink transmissions to reduce the likelihood of interfering with other transmissions being performed in the radio environment. As another example, a UE may be configured to conserve uplink transmission power when the UE is operating is certain modes (e.g., reduced power modes), which may be useful when the UE is operating solely on battery power.

[0070] 3GPP has defined a plurality of power control methods for reducing at least one uplink transmission power between a UE and a network access node. These power control methods fall into at least one of open-loop power control methods and / or closed-loop power control power control methods.

[0071] For example, 3GPP TS 38.213 describes power scaling mechanisms in respect of each of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a sounding reference signal (SRS), and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). These are briefly discussed below.

[0072] In more detail, if the user device transmits a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal on an active uplink bandwidth part (BWP), b, of carrier frequency, f, of serving cell, c, using a parameter set configuration with index j and PUSCH power control adjustment state with index 1, the user device determines the PUSCH transmission power PpuscH,b,f,c(t j> Qd ) in PUSCH transmission occasion i as where

[0073] PLbXc(qd) isadownlink pathloss estimate in dB calculated by the user device using reference signal, and (RS) index qdfor the active DL BWP, as described in clause 12 of TS 3GPP 38.213.

[0074] As another example, 3GPP TS 38.213 also describes a power scaling mechanism for the sounding reference signal (SRS). In this example, when a UE transmits SRS based on a configuration by SRS-ResourceSet on an active uplink BWP b of carrier f of serving cell c using SRS power control adjustment state with index I, the UE determines the SRS transmission power 0 in SRS transmission occasion i as

[0075] As another example, 3GPP TS 38.213 also describes a power scaling methos for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). In this example, when a UE transmits a PUCCH on active UL BWP b of carrier f in the primary cell c using PUCCH power control adjustment state with index I, the UE determines the PUCCH transmission power PpUCCHA / ,c( qu, Qd> 0 in PUCCH transmission occasion i as

[0076] Although not discussed herein, it is understood that power scaling methods may be applied in respect of uplink transmissions made on other uplink channels, such as physical random access channel (PRACH) transmissions, and that the following described techniques may be applied in respect of any uplink power scaling method and / or any uplink transmission link (e.g., channel).

[0077] In general, open-loop power control methods may be considered as being based on a UE autonomously making decisions about how to scale an uplink transmission power. Such decisions may be based on parameters and / or metrics signalled by the network access node and / or parameters and / or metrics calculated or measured by the UE.

[0078] In contrast, closed-loop power control methods may be considered as being power control methods based on explicit commands provided by the network access node to the UE (e.g., transmit power-control (TPC) commands).

[0079] Where there exist uplink transmissions from a UE that are made in parallel using multiple links (such as the case for carrier aggregation and dual connectivity), the UE may be configured to apply a prioritization method for determining which of those uplink links will be first affected by power scaling methods. In more detail, existing 3GPP specifications also provide methods for prioritizing which uplink transmissions are affected by transmission power reductions when there are parallel uplink transmissions being made simultaneously on different cells. This is defined as follows.

[0080] For single cell operation with two uplink carriers or for operation with carrier aggregation, when a total UE transmit power for any of PUSCH or PUCCH or PRACH or SRS uplink transmissions on serving cells in a frequency range in a respective transmission occasion i would exceedCMAX(0> whereCMAX(0 is the linear value of PCMAXCO 'ntransmission occasion i as defined in [8-1 , TS 38.101-1 ] for frequency range 1 (FR1 ) and [8-2, TS 38.101-2] for frequency range 2 (FR2), the UE allocates power to such uplink transmissions according to the following priority order (in descending order) so that the total UE transmit power for transmissions on serving cells in the frequency range is smaller than or equal toCMAX(0 for that frequency range in every symbol of transmission occasion i:

[0081] • PRACH transmission on the Pcell

[0082] • PUCCH or PUSCH transmissions with larger priority index

[0083] • For PUCCH or PUSCH transmissions with same priority index: o PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information, and / or SR, and / or LRR, or PUSCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information of the priority index o PUCCH transmission with CSI or PUSCH transmission with CSI o PUSCH transmission without HARQ-ACK information of the priority index or CSI and, for Type-2 random access procedure, PUSCH transmission on the Pcell

[0084] • SRS transmission, with aperiodic SRS having higher priority than semi- persistent and / or periodic SRS, or PRACH transmission on a serving cell other than the PCell.

[0085] Stated differently, in the case of same priority order, and for operation with carrier aggregation, the UE may prioritize power allocation for transmissions on the primary cell of the MCG or the SCG over transmissions on a secondary cell. In case of same priority order and for operation with two uplink carriers, the UE may prioritize power allocation for transmissions on the carrier where the UE is configured to transmit using the PUCCH. When the PUCCH is not configured for any of the two uplink carriers, the UE may prioritize power allocation for transmissions on the non-supplementary UL carrier. It is understood that analogous types of prioritization schemes may be applied in respect of any scenario in which there are multiple uplink transmissions being made simultaneously over multiple links.

[0086] When the UE determines that a power scaling method is be applied (e.g., due to overlapping uplink transmissions over multiple links, such as in case of parallel uplink transmissions on a same component carrier or on different component carriers), the UE may apply a power scaling method in accordance with the prioritization scheme configured at the UE.

[0087] The power scaling method may comprise, for example, scaling down an uplink transmission power or dropping an uplink transmission (e.g., applied to the lowest priority first) until the aggregated power is within a predetermined threshold (PCMAX). As another example, the power scaling method may comprise scaling down an uplink transmission power or dropping an uplink transmission of the whole or part of a transmission based on a UE-specific implementation.

[0088] These are illustrated with respect to Figures 4A and 4B.

[0089] Figure 4A illustrates a first scenario in which a UE is configured to transmit uplink to a PCell using a first transmission power 401 , and the UE is configured to transmit uplink to a first SCell using a second transmission power 402. A maximum transmission power is shown as PCMAX. In this example of Figure 4A, the second transmission power is reduced such that the total sum of the first and second transmission power does not exceed PCMAX. Stated differently, in Figure 4A, the uplink transmission power used for a lower priority cell (e.g., the first SCell) is reduced such that the total uplink transmission power does not exceed PCMAX.

[0090] Figure 4B illustrates a second scenario in which a UE is configured to transmit uplink to a PCell using a first transmission power 40T, the UE is configured to transmit uplink to a first SCell using a second transmission power 402’, and the UE is configured to transmit to a second SCell using a third transmission power 403’. A maximum transmission power is shown as PCMAX. In this example of Figure 4B, the third transmission power is reduced to zero (e.g., uplink transmissions to the second SCell are dropped) such that the total sum of the first to third transmission powers do not exceed PCMAX. Stated differently, in Figure 4B, the uplink transmissions made on the second SCell are dropped, resulting in the total uplink transmission power not exceeding PCMAX.

[0091] When there is an uplink transmission power reduction on an uplink channel (e.g., due to either power reduction or (full / partial) link dropping), transmissions on those uplink channels may be impacted. The reduced power or dropped uplink transmission may negatively impact the UE performance due to the impact on transmissions made using those power reduced uplink transmissions (e.g., any of channel state information (CSI), hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) reporting, etc. may be affected).

[0092] One problem with the above-described scenarios is that a same cell and / or link could repeatedly suffer from the above issues (be it due to dropping or significant power reduction).

[0093] The following aims to address at least one of the above-mentioned issues.

[0094] In the following, methods are provided in which a network node is provided with assistance information that indicates to the network node whether an uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method and a degree to which that uplink will be affected. This assistance information will be labelled as “power margin information” in the following, although it is understood that this term is not limiting.

[0095] The network node may use this information to proactively make allocation decisions for minimizing the effects of such power scaling methods on transmissions made on that uplink channel. For example, the network node may use this information to cause the UE to transmit data previously transmitted on power scaled uplinks on uplinks that are not affected to power scaling methods. For example, when power scaling has been performed on an uplink transmission made on an SCell, the UE may be configured to make those uplink transmissions also on the PCell. It is understood that the network node may use this information for performing any type of resource allocation decision in respect of the UE.

[0096] In more detail, a UE is configured with information for power margin information reporting. The UE may use this power margin information reporting configuration to determine what information is to be reported to the network node and when such information is to be reported. The UE may subsequently report information indicative of the (determined) power margin based on the obtained reporting configuration.

[0097] In general, the power margin information may be information that is indicative of a degree to which an uplink transmission power is (or will be) affected by a power scaling method.

[0098] The power margin information may be determined with respect to a predetermined power level. The predetermined power level may be set by the UE. The predetermined power level may be set by a network node. The entity that determines the predetermined power level may be defined by a standard protocol (e.g., in a 3GPP technical specification). The entity that determines the predetermined power level may be configured at the UE by the network node.

[0099] The predetermined power level may correspond to the power level by which (e.g., under which) an uplink transmission will be dropped, or by which a significant power reduction will be applied to the uplink transmission.

[0100] Example predetermined power levels and power margin information are illustrated with respect to Figures 5 and 6. It is understood that these examples are merely to illustrative, and are not limiting.

[0101] Figure 5 illustrates a maximum transmit power (PCMAX) for all uplink transmissions made in parallel by a UE, a first transmission power 501 desired to be used by the UE for uplink transmissions made on a first uplink (e.g., a primary cell, and / or first component carrier), and a second transmission power 502 desired to be used by the UE for uplink transmissions made on a second uplink (e.g., a secondary cell or second component carrier).

[0102] In the example of Figure 5, the predetermined power level 504 is shown as corresponding to a power level at which transmissions on the secondary cell are dropped (e.g., uplink transmissions are made on the primary cell, and no uplink transmissions are made on the secondary cell). As discussed above, this predetermined power level may be set by the UE and / or by a network node. It is also understood that although this example of Figure 5 refers to the second uplink being dropped, the predetermined power level 504 may instead refer to a power level at which transmissions made on the second uplink are severely impacted by a power scaling method.

[0103] In Figure 5, the power margin 503 is illustrated as corresponding to the difference between the predetermined power level 504 and PCMAX.

[0104] Also shown in Figure 5 is a first interval power labelled as “pm1”. “pm1” lies between the predetermined power level and PCMAX. “pm1” represents, in this example, a power level within which uplink transmissions made by the second uplink are determined to be negatively impacted by a power scaling method applied to the second uplink. In this example, the reporting of the power margin information may indicate that the power margin is greater than “pm1”. Stated differently, in this example, the reporting of the power margin information may indicate that the second uplink is not determined to be negatively impacted by a power scaling method applied to the second uplink.

[0105] Figure 6 illustrates a maximum transmit power (PCMAX) for all uplink transmissions made in parallel by a UE, a first transmission power 601 desired to be used by the UE for uplink transmissions made on a first uplink (e.g., a primary cell, and / or first component carrier), and a second transmission power 602 desired to be used by the UE for uplink transmissions made on a second uplink (e.g., a secondary cell or second component carrier). In the example of Figure 6, the predetermined power level 604 is shown as corresponding to a power level at which transmissions on the secondary cell are dropped (e.g., uplink transmissions are made on the primary cell, and no uplink transmissions are made on the secondary cell). As discussed above, this predetermined power level may be set by the UE and / or by a network node. It is also understood that although this example of Figure 6 refers to the second uplink being dropped, the predetermined power level 604 may instead refer to a power level at which transmissions made on the second uplink are severely impacted by a power scaling method.

[0106] In Figure 6, the power margin 603 is illustrated as corresponding to the difference between the predetermined power level 604 and PCMAX.

[0107] Also shown in Figure 6 is a second interval power labelled as “pm2”. “pm2” lies beyond PCMAX. “pm2” represents, in this example, a power level within which uplink transmissions made by the second uplink are determined to be negatively impacted by a power scaling method applied to the second uplink. In this example, the reporting of the power margin information may indicate that the power margin is less than “pm2”. Stated differently, in this example, the reporting of the power margin information may indicate that the second uplink is determined to be negatively impacted by a power scaling method applied to the second uplink. In some examples, an uplink transmission is considered to be negatively impacted by a power scaling method if the UE is power limited, e.g., when the transmission power of the uplink transmission is reduced as a consequence of applying power sharing or the mentioned power scaling method.

[0108] It is understood that “pm1” and “pm2” may be considered in the same example, where “pm1” represents a less severe degree of negative impact of the power scaling being applied at the UE than “pm2”. Stated differently, a power margin that lies between the predetermined power level and pm2 is considered to have a more negative impact on uplink transmissions made on the second uplink than a power margin that lies between pm2 and pm1 , and a power margin that lies between the pm2 and pm1 is considered to have a more negative impact on uplink transmissions made on the second uplink than a power margin that lies beyond pm1 . It is therefore understood that the presently described techniques may also utilize defined intervals that indicate a degree to which an uplink is affected by power scaling information. This is illustrated in the following example.

[0109] For example, for the case in which two intervals are defined, the UE may indicate that the power margin is within interval 1 or interval 2, where: a) Interval 1 (pO < power margin < p1 , or power margin < pm1 , or power margin < pm2): which may be indicative that an uplink transmission(s) and / or cell(s) is close to being dropped (where pO represents the zero power for the uplink transmissions and p1 represents the predefined power level); and b) Interval 2 (p1 < power margin < p2, or power margin > pm2 or power margin > pm1 ): which may be indicative that a transmission(s) / cell(s) is far from being dropped.

[0110] In such a case, the power margin information reporting from the UE to the network node may indicate which interval the power margin is in (e.g., interval 1 or interval 2).

[0111] As another example, for the case in which 4 power margin intervals are defined: a) Interval 1 : very close to dropping; b) Interval 2: close to dropping; c) Interval 3: somewhat far from dropping; and d) Interval 4: very far from dropping.

[0112] As another example, for the case in which 4 power margin intervals are defined: a) Interval 1 : close to dropping, b) Interval 2: close to power reduction, c) Interval 3: somewhat far from power reduction d) Interval 4: very far from power reduction

[0113] These latter two examples may be defined with respect to respective decibel values (A-D). For example: a) Interval 1 : power margin < A dB, b) Interval 2: A dB < power margin < B dB c) Interval 3: B dB < power margin < C dB d) Interval 4: C dB < power margin < D dB

[0114] An example signalling diagram that illustrates the signalling that may be performed between a UE and a network access node is illustrated in Figure 7.

[0115] Figure 7 illustrates signalling that may be performed between a UE 701 and a network access node 702 through one or more cells. The network access node may receive signalling from the user equipment through one or more cells configured by (or otherwise provided by) the network access node. For example, the network access node 702 may comprise a first component carrier (e.g., a first cell) and a second component carrier (e.g., a second cell).

[0116] During 7001 , the UE 701 is configured to report power margin information to the network access node 702.

[0117] The signalling of 7001 may be performed using higher layer signaling (e.g., radio resource control (RRC), network layer or above) to configure power margin information reporting at the UE.

[0118] The access network node 702 may enable and / or disable reporting of power margin information. For example, the UE 701 may be previously configured to a power margin information reporting configuration, and the network access node may subsequently send at least one trigger for enabling and / or disabling the reporting of the power margin information. The trigger may be comprised in, for example, a medium access control control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), and / or radio resource control (RRC) signalling.

[0119] The power margin may correspond to an average power margin value that has been obtained by averaging a plurality of power margins over a period of time and / or over more than one uplink transmission. The power margin reporting may be triggered in a periodic, aperiodic, and / or semi- persistent fashion.

[0120] Examples of aperiodic reporting being triggered by an event being identified by the UE are discussed below. Stated differently, the following examples relate to a UE being configured to report the power margin information based on an event-based trigger.

[0121] For example, the indication of power margin information may be reported by the UE based on the UE determining that the power margin is lower than a threshold and / or that the power margin is within a certain interval(s).

[0122] As another example, the power margin information may be reported when the required transmission power and / or total transmission power is lower than available transmit power or than max transmit power or than total max transmit power.

[0123] The power margin information may be as discussed above.

[0124] The power margin information may correspond to a power level under which an uplink transmission and / or cell would have been dropped and / or reduced.

[0125] The power margin information may correspond to a margin (e.g., offset) between an available uplink transmission power for a cell and a predefined power level. The predefined power level may be as described above.

[0126] Alternatively, or additionally, the power margin information may correspond to an offset between a total available uplink transmission power (e.g., corresponding to more than one uplink transmission or more than one cell and / or component carrier) and a predefined power level.

[0127] The predefined power level may be set at least partially based on a UE implementation. Alternatively, or additionally, the power level may be configured at the UE and / or indicated to the UE by a network access node. Alternatively, or additionally, the power level may be reported by the UE to the network access node using any of a plurality of different types of signaling (e.g., in form of capability signaling or any higher layer or lower layer signaling).

[0128] The available transmission power may be defined as any of a configured maximum transmit power, or a total configured maximum transmit power, or a minimum between a configured maximum transmit power and a function of open-loop and / or closed-loop power control parameters, or the power for the configured cell(s) determined by UE not to cause the power reduction for cell(s) or cell(s) drop with all the possible inclusive factors on top of PCMAX, f, c and / or PCMAX.

[0129] The power margin information may be for one or more uplink transmissions, uplink cells, uplink bandwidths, uplink frequency allocations, uplink resources, sessions, sequency range numbers, or for some configured / indicated combination of transmissions and / or cells, and / or bandwidths. The UE may be configured to report, to the network access node, an indication of what the reported power margin information corresponds to (e.g., one or more of a transmission, a cell, a bandwidth, frequency allocations, resources, etc.).

[0130] The power margin information may be an offset between available power spectral density (PSD) and a certain (configured or indicated) PSD level by which (e.g., under which) an uplink transmission and / or uplink cell would be dropped, or by which a significant power reduction would be applied to an uplink transmission and / or uplink cell.

[0131] The power margin information may be determined based on at least one actual transmission and / or at least one reference (i.e., non-actual) transmission for which resource allocation / configuration may be provided to the UE via RRC (or even MAC CE), where the network / gNB may configure the UE with the one reference by changing only limited parameters, e.g., the size of resource blocks (RBs), and / or modulation and coding schemes (MCS) etc.

[0132] During 7002, the UE 701 is configured (e.g., allocated) with overlapping uplink transmissions on both the first and second component carriers. Based on this, the UE 701 determines the power margin information to be reported to the network. This power margin information may be based on the total available transmission power and the power level of each uplink transmission.

[0133] During 7003, the UE 701 signals the power margin information (or an indication thereof) determined during 7002 to the network access node 702.

[0134] The UE may signal a single power margin information during 7003. Alternatively, the UE may signal more than one power margin information during 7003. In this latter case, each of the power margin information may correspond to a respective one of a be for one or more uplink transmissions, uplink cells, uplink bandwidths, uplink frequency allocations, uplink resources, or for some configured / indicated combination of transmissions and / or cells, and / or bandwidths or group of transmissions / cells / bandwidths / frequency allocations / resources.

[0135] The at least one power margin information signalled during 703 may correspond to a lowest priority uplink transmission(s) and / or component carrier. The priority may be defined according to a priority list. The priority list may have been specified or configured as described above.

[0136] The signalling of 7003 comprising an indication of power margin information may be carried in form of uplink control information (UCI) on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and / or on the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). Alternatively or in addition, the at least one power margin information may be signalled using a medium access control control element (MAC CE).

[0137] Dedicated and / or shared uplink resources may be configured or used to carry the power margin information. Such resources may be periodic or semi-persistent resources and may be, or may resemble, scheduling request resources.

[0138] Some existing signalling may be used for signalling the power margin information. 1

[0139] For example, 4G and 5G radio network architecture and methods (e.g., LTE and NR) each support signalling to the UE (from a network access node), a Power Headroom report (PHR) using a medium access control control element (MAC-CE) that comprises a UE’s (configured) maximum transmit power (or configured maximum output power) and a power headroom of the transmission containing the PHR report. The power headroom is the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power (in the equations above). The PHR report also comprises: 1 ) a P-bit that is a power-backoff indication due to power management, and 2) a maximum permissible exposure (MPE) power management maximum power reduction (P-MPR) value, which is an amount of power back-off to meet MPE requirements.

[0140] The PH field in the PHR may be reinterpreted as a power margin e.g. by setting the P- bit to 1 (e.g., to indicate that a power backoff is being applied due to power management). Stated differently, the newly described techniques may form a new trigger for setting a P-bit in a PHR to 1 .

[0141] The UE may perform a predetermined a predetermined action in response to the power margin fulfilling at least one predetermined characteristic. Stated differently, a determined power margin may trigger a predefined action at the UE.

[0142] For example, when the determined power margin is less than a predetermined threshold, the UE may autonomously perform (or otherwise indicate) an automatic retransmission of the uplink transmissions corresponding to that determined power margin after a pre-defined period regardless of any acknowledgement signalling received from a network. This may be useful, for example, for minimising latency and / or signalling within the communication network.

[0143] As another example, an uplink retransmission may be triggered with a predefined number of repetitions that corresponds to the determined power margin (e.g., such that a power margin falling within a first range corresponds to a first number of repetitions, a power margin falling within a second (non-overlapping) range corresponds to a second number of repetitions, etc.). This may help to minimize signalling and enhance coverage of uplink transmissions facing significant power reduction.

[0144] Alternatively or additionally, an indicated power margin state or a subset of possible states (e.g., near dropping) may trigger a PHR to be transmitted (such as cell specific PHR, or PHR for CA or for more than one overlapping UL transmission). The network may use this received PHR possibly re-schedule and / or reconfigure uplink transmissions.

[0145] Alternatively or additionally, an indicated power margin state (near dropping) may be used by the UE to determine a PHR reporting period. For example, a shorter reporting period may be used for better tracking of available PH and Pcmax before call dropping. Stated differently, PHR reports may be transmitted more frequently in some power margin states that other power margin states.

[0146] At least some of the above-mentioned features of the examples are described below with reference to Figures 8 and 9. It is therefore understood that at least one of the following described features may comprise functionality that corresponds to a feature of the above-described examples. It is also understood that at least one feature of the following may be further understood with reference to a feature of the above-described examples.

[0147] Figure 8 illustrates operations that may be performed by an apparatus for a user equipment. The apparatus for a user equipment may correspond to at least one apparatus described above in relation to Figure 3.

[0148] During 801 , the apparatus may configure the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time. The first uplink may be different to the second uplink. Stated differently, the apparatus may configure the user equipment to use two or more uplinks at a same time. The first and second uplink may be considered to be “used” at a same time when they are allocated resources for uplink transmission in a same time resource (e.g., in a same orthogonal frequency division multiplex symbol). During 802, the apparatus determines a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method. It is understood that although 802 and 803 (and the following example) is described in reference to the first uplink, that the same mechanism may be independently applied in respect of the second uplink (and / or in respect of any other uplink with which the user apparatus is configured to use at the same time). Stated differently, references in the following to the first and second uplinks may be interchanged.

[0149] The power scaling method may be a power scaling method that is used as a result of the first and second uplinks being used for transmissions at a same time (e.g., as a result of the first and second uplinks being used for parallel uplink transmissions). For example, the power scaling method may be a method that results in the power of all transmissions being made at that time to be less than and / or equal a total instantaneous power and / or a total aggregate power. This may be as illustrated above in reference to Figures 4 to 6, in which teh transmission power of at least one uplink is reduced in order to comply with an overall (e.g., total) transmission power requirement. The choice of which uplink to reduce the power (and to what degree) may be performed by any method.

[0150] During 803, the apparatus signals, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree. The network access node may comprise at least one cell. The network access node may comprise a base station, such as a gNB.

[0151] It is understood that the indication corresponding to the determined degree may take any of a plurality of different forms. For example, the indication may be comprised.

[0152] The network access node may be configured to provide at least one of the first uplink or second uplink (e.g., the network access node may be configured to provide the first uplink, or the second uplink, or the first and second uplinks).

[0153] The determining the degree may be performed in any of a plurality of different ways. For example, the determining the degree may comprise configuring, at the user equipment, a first reference power, the first reference power corresponding to a transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than the first reference power. For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than or equal the first reference power, or b) less than the first reference power. As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than the first reference power, or b) equal to or less than the first reference power. The transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped may correspond to a transmission power at which null transmissions are made on the first uplink instead of data transmissions, where null transmissions are transmissions made at a predefined frequency without user traffic.

[0154] As another example, the determining the degree may comprise configuring, at the user equipment, a second reference power, the second reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method., wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than the second reference power. For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than or equal the first reference power, or b) less than the first reference power. As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than the first reference power, or b) equal to or less than the first reference power. The transmission power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method may be considered to be a transmission power at which a metric representing a signal quality of the first uplink (such as, for example, a signal to interference and noise ratio) is expected to fall above or below a predetermined threshold. As another example, the determining the degree may comprise: configuring, at the user equipment, a plurality of ranges of reference powers, wherein each of said ranges corresponds to a different degree to which the first uplink is or will be affected by the power scaling method, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates which range of said plurality of ranges the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink falls within. For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than or equal the first reference power, or b) less than the first reference power. As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than the first reference power, or b) equal to or less than the first reference power. The transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped may correspond to a transmission power at which null transmissions are made on the first uplink instead of data transmissions, where null transmissions are transmissions made at a predefined frequency without user traffic. The transmission power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method may be considered to be a transmission power at which a metric representing a signal quality of the first uplink (such as, for example, a signal to interference and noise ratio) is expected to fall above or below a predetermined threshold.

[0155] The plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured using at least one respective endpoint for each range. For example, the plurality of ranges of reference powers may comprise a first reference power that indicates a transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped, a second reference power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method by a first amount, and / or a third reference power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method by a second amount, where the first amount indicates a more severe impact than the second amount.

[0156] In the above examples of determining the degree, at least one of the first reference power, second reference power, or plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured by at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.

[0157] The apparatus may further be caused to receive, from the network access node based on the reported indication, a resource allocation for transmitting and / or retransmitting transmissions corresponding to the first uplink. For example, when the transmitted indication indicates that the first uplink is being negatively impacted by a power scaling method, the network node may determine to allocate different resources to the first uplink for future transmissions (e.g., resources that use a more robust modulation and coding scheme (and / or error correcting mechanism) than the modulation and coding scheme (and / or error correcting mechanism) used when the degree was determined). As another example, when the transmitted indication indicates that the first uplink will be dropped based on the power scaling method, the resource allocation may cause the user apparatus to transmit user traffic originally transmitted on the first uplink (or originally intended for transmission on the first uplink) on the second uplink.

[0158] The network access node may enable and / or disable reporting of power margin information. For example, the UE may be previously configured to a power margin information reporting configuration, and the network access node may subsequently send at least one trigger for enabling and / or disabling the reporting of the power margin information. The trigger may be comprised in, for example, a medium access control control element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), and / or radio resource control (RRC) signalling. Stated differently, the user equipment may receive, from the network access node, a signal that causes the indication reporting to be performed (e.g., the user equipment may receive a signal from the network access node that triggers the indication reporting of 803 to be performed). Further, at a later time, the user equipment may receive, from the network access node, a signal that causes the indication reporting to stop being performed. It is understood that, instead of a separate disablement signal (e.g., trigger) being received, the user equipment may be configured to simply stop performing the indication reporting after a predetermined duration of time, where the duration of time is either configured at the user equipment prior to receiving the trigger signal that started the reporting (either by the user equipment or by the network access node), or is comprised in the trigger signal that started the reporting.

[0159] Further, in all of the above examples, the apparatus may receive at least one parameter for determining said degree from at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment. The at least one parameter may comprise, for example, at least one of: a reference power threshold (e.g., for any of the first reference power, second reference power, etc.), an indication of a metric to use for measuring the degree, etc.

[0160] Further, in all of the above examples, the apparatus may, based on said determined degree, autonomously determining to retransmit at least one transmission previously transmitted using the first uplink. The retransmission may be performed using the first uplink or the second uplink.

[0161] The apparatus may further be configured to receive, from the network access node, a configuration for reporting the determined degree. The configuration may comprise, for example, an indication of what signalling may be used for transmitting the determined degree to the network node (such as, for example, the PHR), an indication of how the information is to be reported (for example, as an absolute value (e.g., xdB) with reference to a reference power level (such as a minimum transmission power for not dropping the first uplink, or OdB, or as reference to a predetermined range (e.g., less than a first reference power, between a first reference power and a second reference power, more than a second reference power, etc.), an indication of when to report the determined degree (e.g., based on a trigger event, such as based on the determination that the determined degree corresponds to one or more preset conditions), etc.

[0162] Figure 9 illustrates operations that may be performed by an apparatus for a network access node. The network access node may correspond to the network access node described in connection with Figure 9. The apparatus may correspond to the apparatus described above in relation to Figure 2. The network access node may correspond to a base station such as, for example, a gNB. During 901 , the apparatus receives, from a user equipment, an indication corresponding to a determined degree to which a first uplink of the user equipment is or will be affected by a power scaling method when the user equipment is configured to use the first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.

[0163] The network access node may be configured to receive transmissions from the user equipment using any of the first uplink or the second uplink. Stated differently, the network access node may maintain the first uplink and / or the second uplink with the user equipment.

[0164] The user equipment may be as described in relation to Figure 8.

[0165] The indication signalled to the network access node may indicate any of a plurality of different things.

[0166] For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than a first reference power, the first reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink will be dropped. For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than or equal the first reference power, or b) less than the first reference power. As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than the first reference power, or b) equal to or less than the first reference power. The transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped may correspond to a transmission power at which null transmissions are made on the first uplink instead of data transmissions, where null transmissions are transmissions made at a predefined frequency without user traffic.

[0167] As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than a second reference power, the second reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method.

[0168] For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than or equal the first reference power, or b) less than the first reference power. As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than the first reference power, or b) equal to or less than the first reference power. The transmission power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method may be considered to be a transmission power at which a metric representing a signal quality of the first uplink (such as, for example, a signal to interference and noise ratio) is expected to fall above or below a predetermined threshold.

[0169] The indication signalled to the network access node may indicate which range of a plurality of ranges the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink falls within, wherein each of said ranges corresponds to a different degree to which the first uplink is or will be affected by the power scaling method. For example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than or equal the first reference power, or b) less than the first reference power. As another example, the indication signalled to the network access node may indicate whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is a) or b) of: a) more than the first reference power, or b) equal to or less than the first reference power. The transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped may correspond to a transmission power at which null transmissions are made on the first uplink instead of data transmissions, where null transmissions are transmissions made at a predefined frequency without user traffic. The transmission power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method may be considered to be a transmission power at which a metric representing a signal quality of the first uplink (such as, for example, a signal to interference and noise ratio) is expected to fall above or below a predetermined threshold. The plurality of ranges of reference powers may be configured using at least one respective endpoint for each range. For example, the plurality of ranges of reference powers may comprise a first reference power that indicates a transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped, a second reference power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method by a first amount, and / or a third reference power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method by a second amount, where the first amount indicates a more severe impact than the second amount.

[0170] In all of the above examples, at least one of the first reference power, second reference power, or plurality of ranges of reference powers is configured by at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment. Where the at least one reference power[s] or ranges are configured by the network access node and / or network operator, the network access node may configure these at the user equipment by transmitting a configuration for these to the user equipment.

[0171] The apparatus may determine, based on the reported indication, a resource allocation for transmitting and / or retransmitting transmissions corresponding to the first uplink; and transmit the resource allocation to the user equipment. For example, when the transmitted indication indicates that the first uplink is being negatively impacted by a power scaling method, the network node may determine to allocate different resources to the first uplink for future transmissions (e.g., resources that use a more robust modulation and coding scheme (and / or error correcting mechanism) than the modulation and coding scheme (and / or error correcting mechanism) used when the degree was determined). As another example, when the transmitted indication indicates that the first uplink will be dropped based on the power scaling method, the resource allocation may cause the user apparatus to transmit user traffic originally transmitted on the first uplink (or originally intended for transmission on the first uplink) on the second uplink.

[0172] Further, in all of the above examples, the apparatus may transmit, to the user equipment, at least one parameter for determining said degree. The at least one parameter may comprise, for example, at least one of: a reference power threshold (e.g., for any of the first reference power, second reference power, etc.), an indication of a metric to use for measuring the degree, a configuration for reporting the degree, and / or a trigger for enabling the reporting (or not reporting) of the indication, etc.

[0173] The apparatus may further be configured to transmit, to the user equipment, a configuration for reporting the determined degree. The configuration may comprise, for example, an indication of what signalling may be used for transmitting the determined degree to the network node (such as, for example, the PHR), an indication of how the information is to be reported (for example, as an absolute value (e.g., xdB) with reference to a reference power level (such as a minimum transmission power for not dropping the first uplink, or OdB, or as reference to a predetermined range (e.g., less than a first reference power, between a first reference power and a second reference power, more than a second reference power, etc.), an indication of when to report the determined degree (e.g., based on a trigger event, such as based on the determination that the determined degree corresponds to one or more preset conditions), etc.

[0174] The following may apply in respect of any (e.g., one or all) of the above examples of Figures 8 and 9.

[0175] The indication signalled to the network access node may be comprised in a power headroom report. For example, the indication may be comprised as a P0 bit in a power headroom report.

[0176] The indication of the degree may correspond to a power margin that represents an offset between an available transmission power on the first uplink and a reference power level preconfigured at the user equipment. The the indication comprises at least one of an exact value of the power margin, or an indication of whether the power margin is above, equal to, and / or below a reference transmission power.

[0177] The first uplink may correspond to at least one of: a first cell, a first frequency bandwidth, a first frequency allocation, or a first component carrier; and / or the second uplink may correspond to at least one of: a second cell, a second frequency bandwidth, a second frequency allocation, or a second component carrier.

[0178] It should be understood that the apparatuses may comprise or be coupled to other units or modules etc., such as radio parts or radio heads, used in or for transmission and / or reception. Although the apparatuses have been described as one entity, different modules and memory may be implemented in one or more physical or logical entities.

[0179] It is noted that whilst some embodiments have been described in relation to 5G networks, similar principles can be applied in relation to other networks and communication systems. Therefore, although certain embodiments were described above by way of example with reference to certain example architectures for wireless networks, technologies and standards, embodiments may be applied to any other suitable forms of communication systems than those illustrated and described herein.

[0180] It is also noted herein that while the above describes example embodiments, there are several variations and modifications which may be made to the disclosed solution without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[0181] As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0182] In general, the various embodiments may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuitry, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects of the disclosure may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, although the disclosure is not limited thereto. While various aspects of the disclosure may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0183] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

[0184] (a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and

[0185] (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable):

[0186] (c) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and

[0187] (d) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

[0188] (e) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0189] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0190] The embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented by computer software executable by a data processor of the mobile device, such as in the processor entity, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. Computer software or program, also called program product, including software routines, applets and / or macros, may be stored in any apparatus-readable data storage medium and they comprise program instructions to perform particular tasks. A computer program product may comprise one or more computer-executable components which, when the program is run, are configured to carry out embodiments. The one or more computer-executable components may be at least one software code or portions of it.

[0191] Further in this regard it should be noted that any blocks of the logic flow as in the Figures may represent program steps, or interconnected logic circuits, blocks and functions, or a combination of program steps and logic circuits, blocks and functions. The software may be stored on such physical media as memory chips, or memory blocks implemented within the processor, magnetic media such as hard disk or floppy disks, and optical media such as for example DVD and the data variants thereof, CD. The physical media is a non-transitory media.

[0192] The term “non-transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0193] The memory may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory. The data processors may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may comprise one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), FPGA, gate level circuits and processors based on multi core processor architecture, as nonlimiting examples.

[0194] Embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced in various components such as integrated circuit modules. The design of integrated circuits is by and large a highly automated process. Complex and powerful software tools are available for converting a logic level design into a semiconductor circuit design ready to be etched and formed on a semiconductor substrate. The scope of protection sought for various embodiments of the disclosure is set out by the independent claims. The embodiments and features, if any, described in this specification that do not fall under the scope of the independent claims are to be interpreted as examples useful for understanding various embodiments of the disclosure.

[0195] The foregoing description has provided by way of non-limiting examples a full and informative description of the exemplary embodiment of this disclosure. However, various modifications and adaptations may become apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. However, all such and similar modifications of the teachings of this disclosure will still fall within the scope of this invention as defined in the appended claims. Indeed, there is a further embodiment comprising a combination of one or more embodiments with any of the other embodiments previously discussed.

Claims

CLAIMS1 ) An apparatus for a user equipment, the apparatus comprising means for performing: configuring the user equipment to use a first uplink and a second uplink at a same time; determining a degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is or will be affected by a power scaling method; and signalling, to a network access node, an indication corresponding to the determined degree.2) An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the means for determining the degree comprises means for performing: configuring, at the user equipment, a first reference power, the first reference power corresponding to a transmission power at which the first uplink will be dropped; and wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than the first reference power.3) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the means for determining the degree comprises means for performing: configuring, at the user equipment, a second reference power, the second reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method; and wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than the second reference power.4) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the means for determining the degree comprises means for performing:configuring, at the user equipment, a plurality of ranges of reference powers, wherein each of said ranges corresponds to a different degree to which the first uplink is or will be affected by the power scaling method; and wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates which range of said plurality of ranges the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink falls within.5) An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the plurality of ranges of reference powers are configured using at least one respective endpoint for each range.6) An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 2 to 5, wherein at least one of the first reference power, second reference power, or plurality of ranges of reference powers is configured by at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.7) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising means for receiving, from the network access node based on the reported indication, a resource allocation for transmitting and / or retransmitting transmissions corresponding to the first uplink.8) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising means for receiving at least one parameter for determining said degree from at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.9) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, further comprising means for performing: based on said determined degree, autonomously determining to retransmit at least one transmission previously transmitted using the first uplink.10) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the degree corresponds to a power margin that represents an offset between an available transmission power on the first uplink and a reference power level preconfigured at the user equipment, and wherein the apparatus further comprises means forperforming: determining the power margin based on at least one of: an uplink transmission made on the first uplink that transmits traffic to the network access node, or an uplink reference transmission made on the first uplink that does not transmit traffic to the network access node.11 ) An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, further comprising means for receiving, from the network access node, a configuration for the uplink reference transmission, wherein the configuration is limited to altering only a predetermined number and / or type of transmission parameters relative to an uplink transmission made on the first uplink that transmits traffic to the network access node12) An apparatus for a network access node, the apparatus comprising means for performing: receiving, from a user equipment, an indication corresponding to a determined degree to which a transmission power corresponding to the first uplink of the user equipment is or will be affected by a power scaling method when the user equipment is configured to use the first uplink and a second uplink at a same time.13) An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than a first reference power, the first reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink will be dropped.14) An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 12 to 13, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates whether the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink is more than, equal to, and / or less than a second reference power, the second reference power corresponding to a power at which the first uplink is considered to be negatively impacted by the power scaling method.15) An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 12 to 14, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node indicates which range of a plurality of ranges the transmission power corresponding to the first uplink falls within, wherein each of said ranges corresponds to a different degree to which the first uplink is or will be affected by the power scaling method.16) An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the plurality of ranges of reference powers are configured using at least one respective endpoint for each range.17) An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 12 to 16, wherein at least one of the first reference power, second reference power, or plurality of ranges of reference powers is configured by at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.18) An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 12 to 17, further comprising means for performing: determining, based on the reported indication, a resource allocation for transmitting and / or retransmitting transmissions corresponding to the first uplink; and transmitting the resource allocation to the user equipment.19) An apparatus as claimed in any of claims 12 to 18, further comprising means for transmitting at least one parameter for determining said degree from at least one of: the network access node, a network operator, or the user equipment.20) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the indication signalled to the network access node is comprised in a power headroom report.21 ) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the degree corresponds to a power margin that represents an offset between an available transmission power on the first uplink and a reference power level preconfigured at the user equipment.22) An apparatus as claimed in claim 21 , wherein the indication comprises at least one of an exact value of the power margin, or an indication of whether the power margin is above, equal to, and / or below a reference transmission power.23) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the first uplink corresponds to at least one of: a first cell, a first frequency bandwidth, a first frequency allocation, or a first component carrier; and the second uplink corresponds to at least one of: a second cell, a second frequency bandwidth, a second frequency allocation, or a second component carrier.24) An apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the transmission power of the first uplink comprises at least one of: a configured maximum transmission power, a total configured maximum transmission power, a minimum between a configured max transmission power and a function of openloop and closed-loop parameters, or a transmission power for configured cell(s) that is determined by the apparatus to not cause a power reduction for the first uplink or first uplink to drop.

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