System and method for efficient utilization of wireless carrier resources

Abstract

Systems and methods for efficient utilization of wireless carrier resources, where the method includes receiving, at a user equipment (UE) from a network entity, first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), where the first BWR is a contiguous portion of a frequency domain and is configured with a first physical channel. The UE then receives from the network entity second information, over the first physical channel, to configure a second BWR with a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second BWR associated with the first BWR and configured with a downlink channel. The UE then receives a transmission on the downlink channel in the second BWR using the second information. The second BWR may have a flexible bandwidth. Other embodiments are disclosed herein.

Description

System and Method for Efficient Utilization of Wireless Carrier ResourcesCross-Reference to Related Applications[oooi] This application claims priority to United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 683,451, filed on 15 August 2024. The disclosure of the aforementioned application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Any omission of material herein that may have been in the provisional as originally filed is inadvertent, and not intended to be a disclaimer of such material.Technical Field

[0002] This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a system and method for efficient utilization of wireless carrier resources, such as bandwidth.Background

[0003] Wireless communication systems include long term evolution (LTE), LTE-A, LTE-A-beyond systems, 5G LTE, 5G New Radio (NR), 6G (in development), etc. It is widely observed that carrier design in the current 5G new radio (NR) systems consumes a considerably high amount of energy. In many cases, due to the increased bandw idth (BW) and number of antennas such as in a multiple in-multiple out (MIMO) or Massive MIMO network, the current NR systems operate with even lower energy efficiency than that of the LTE systems. As 6G is to be developed, and as even wider BW and more massive MIMO antenna systems are considered for 6G, energy efficiency becomes a major performance target and design goal. It is desirable to improve the energy efficiency for 6G systems and beyond, for both the network side and the UE side, starting from the most fundamental and critical design, i.e., the 6G carrier design. In addition, the basic 4G and 5G frequency-domain system design unit is a carrier. The approach to incorporating wider bandwidth is to essentially apply a single-carrier design (most of the operations, signaling, signals and channels, etc.) to multiple carriers, leading to complex operations, high signaling overhead, slow protocols, etc. Thus, it is desirable to provide new approaches with better scalability properties for 6G carrier design. Overall, the goal is to provide new designs that are scalable, flexible, and energy-efficient to incorporate any number of carrier resources of all types.

[0004] A modern wireless communication system may include a plurality of NodeBs (NBs), which may also be referred to as base stations, network nodes, communicationscontrollers, network entities, cells, or enhanced NBs (eNBs), and so on. A NodeB may include one or more network points or network nodes using different radio access technologies (RATs), such as high speed packet access (HSPA) NBs or WiFi access points. A NodeB may be associated with a single network point or multiple network points. A cell may include a single network point or multiple network points, and each network point may have a single antenna or multiple antennas. A network point may correspond to multiple cells operating in multiple component carriers. Generally, each component carrier in carrier aggregation is a serving cell, either a primary cell (PCell) or a secondary cell (SCell).

[0005] A cell or NodeB may serve a number of users (also commonly referred to as User Equipment (UE), mobile stations, terminals, devices, and so forth) over a period of time. A communication channel from a NB to a UE is generally referred to as a downlink (DL) channel, and a transmission from the NB to the UE is a downlink transmission. A communication channel from a UE to a NB is generally referred to as an uplink (UL) channel, and a transmission from the UE to the NB is an uplink transmission. NR UEs may also support sidelink communication between two or more nearby UEs, using NR technology but not traversing any network node.

[0006] The downlink (DL) waveform in 5G NR is conventional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) using a Cyclic Prefix (CP), while the uplink (UL) is conventional OFDM using a CP with a transform precoding function performing Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) spreading. Downlink and uplink transmissions are organized into frames with 10 ms duration, consisting of ten 1 ms subframes. Each frame is divided into two equally sized half-frames of five subframes each. The slot duration is 14 symbols w ith Normal CP and 12 symbols with Extended CP, and scales in time as a function of the used sub-carrier spacing so that there is always an integer number of slots in a subframe.

[0007] For a receiver in the UE to be able to demodulate a DL transmission, it should be synchronized with the gNB (transmitter). Therefore, a UE should synchronize with the gNB numerology (frame, slots, and symbols). Synchronization is achieved in 5G NR via acquiring by a UE of the Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB).Summary

[0008] Embodiments of this application provide systems of one or more network or computing devices, such as one or more network entities and / or one or more user equipments, that can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the network or computing device(s), that in operation causes or cause the system to performone or more actions. One or more computer programs can be configured to perform particular operations or actions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform various actions described herein.

[0009] A first possible aspect includes a method, comprising receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first starting location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first physical channel. The UE may receive, from the network entity on the first physical channel using the first information, second signaling with second information to configure a second BWR via a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second BWR being configured with a second downlink (DL) channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR. The UE may further receive, from the network entity, a second DL transmission on the second DL channel in the second BWR using the second information.

[0010] In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling, and the second signaling is one of 1) a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the first physical channel, the PDCCH being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non-acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); 2) a second PDCCH scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH being configured with repetition or with HARQ; 3) a medium access control-control element (MAC CE), which may be of a low-latency type; or 3) a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

[0011] In a second possible implementation of the first aspect, the second DL transmission is a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission scheduled Ha a third PDCCH of at least one of 1) the first physical channel, the first physical channel being a PDCCH; 2) a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; 3) a second PDCCH configured in the second BWR; or 4) a 2-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

[0012] In a third possible implementation of the first aspect, the method of any of the foregoing implementations further comprises receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a first DL transmission in the first BWR.

[0013] In a fourth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0014] In a fifth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first DL transmission does not overlap with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0015] In a sixth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

[0016] In a seventh possible implementation of the first aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

[0017] In an eighth possible implementation of the first aspect, the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay, or a sum of all of the foregoing.

[0018] In a ninth possible implementation of the first aspect, the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point in the first BWR, the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value, and the frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

[0019] In a tenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the bandwidth value is equal to a bandw idth of a carrier or a frequency band which the second BWR is in.

[0020] In an eleventh possible implementation of the first aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs. The first BWR is configured w ith a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs.

[0021] In a twelfth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS) or a first tracking reference signal (TRS), and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

[0022] In a thirteenth possible implementation of the first aspect, a parameter value of the second TRS is the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resource ID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, quasi co-located (QCL) configuration, QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter. The parameter value is included in the first signaling and excluded in the second signaling.

[0023] In a fourteenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

[0024] In a fifteenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the method of the previous implementation further comprises receiving, by the UE from the network entity, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

[0025] In a sixteenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

[0026] In a seventeenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the first, second, or third BWR.

[0027] In an eighteenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

[0028] In a nineteenth possible implementation of the first aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR, and the third BWR is activated, and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties from the third BWR.

[0029] In a twentieth possible implementation of the first aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs. The first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

[0030] In a twenty-first possible implementation of the first aspect, the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmissions in a time domain.

[0031] In a twenty-second possible implementation of the first aspect, the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0032] In a twenty-third possible implementation of the first aspect, the first physical channel comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0033] In a twenty-fourth possible implementation of the first aspect, the second DL channel comprises a plurality of channels or signals.

[0034] In a twenty-fifth possible implementation of the first aspect, a user equipment (UE) is provided comprising at least one processor, and a non-transitoiy computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the UE to perform any of the foregoing implementations of the first possible aspect.

[0035] In a twenty-sixth possible implementation of the first aspect, a non-transitoiy computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform any of the foregoing implementations of the first possible aspect.

[0036] A second possible aspect includes a method that comprises transmitting, by a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first starting location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first set of one or more physical channels or signals, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising at least a first physical channel; and transmitting, by the network entity on the first physical channel, second signaling with second information comprising a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second information used to configure a second BWR, the second BWR being configured with a second set of one or more physical channels or signals, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising a second channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR.

[0037] In a first possible implementation of the second aspect, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0038] In a second possible implementation of the second aspect, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0039] In a third possible implementation of the second aspect, the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling; and the second signaling is one of 1) a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission on the first physical channel,the PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non- acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); 2) a second PDCCH transmission scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH transmission on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition or with a HARQ; 3) a media access control-control element (MAC CE); 4) a MAC CE of a low-latency type; or 5) a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

[0040] In a fourth possible implementation of the second aspect, the RRC layer signaling comprises a management information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB).

[0041] In a fifth possible implementation of the second aspect, the RRC layer signaling does not include a management information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB).

[0042] In a sixth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same carrier as the second BWR.

[0043] In a seventh possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

[0044] In an eighth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

[0045] In a ninth possible implementation of the second aspect, the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point in the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; and the frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

[0046] In a tenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the bandwidth value is equal to a bandwidth of a carrier or a frequency band in which the second BWR is located.

[0047] In an eleventh possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first andsecond BWRs. The first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs.

[0048] In a twelfth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS), a first tracking reference signal (TRS), or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for tracking, and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

[0049] In a thirteenth possible implementation of the second aspect, a parameter value of the second TRS is the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resource ID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration, QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter, the parameter value being included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

[0050] In a fourteenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the second signaling with second information is transmitted by the network entity to a user equipment (UE) on the first physical channel.

[0051] In a fifteenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the method of the second possible aspect further comprises transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a second downlink (DL) transmission on a second DL channel in the second BWR.

[0052] In a sixteenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, and a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay.

[0053] In a seventeenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the second DL transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled via: 1) a third PDCCH transmission of the first physical channel; 2) a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; or 3) a two-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

[0054] In an eighteenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the second PDCCH is configured on the second BWR.

[0055] In a nineteenth possible implementation of the second aspect, the second PDCCH is configured on a BWR other than the second BWR.

[0056] In a twentieth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

[0057] In a twenty-first possible implementation of the second aspect, the method of the second possible aspect further comprises transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

[0058] In a twenty-second possible implementation of the second aspect, the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

[0059] In a twenty-third possible implementation of the second aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps the first, second, or third BWR.

[0060] In a twenty-fourth possible implementation of the second aspect, the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

[0061] In a twenty-fifth possible implementation of the second aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR or in a same frequency band or carrier as the third BWR; the third BWR is activated; and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties for the fourth BWR from the third BWR.

[0062] In a twenty-sixth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs. The first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

[0063] In a twenty-seventh possible implementation of the second aspect, the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0064] In a twenty-eighth possible implementation of the second aspect, the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0065] In a twenty-ninth possible implementation of the second aspect, the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

[0066] In a thirtieth possible implementation of the second aspect, a network entity comprises at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network entity to perform any of the foregoing possible implementations of the second possible aspect.

[0067] In a thirty-first possible implementation of the second aspect, a non- transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to perform any of the foregoing possible implementations of the second possible aspect.

[0068] A third possible aspect includes a method, comprising transmitting, by a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first set of one or more physical channels or signals, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising at least a first physical channel; and transmitting, by the network entity, second signaling with second information comprising a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second information used to configure a second BWR in a same frequency band or carrier as the first BWR, the second BWR being configured with a second set of one or more physical channels or signals, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising a second channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR via obtaining at least one parameter or property from the first BWR.

[0069] In a first possible implementation of the third aspect, the at least one parameter or property is one of a numerology, one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process IDs, one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, a synchronization signal (SS) configuration parameter, a synchronization parameter, a tracking reference signal (TRS) configuration parameter, a quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration parameter, a QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter.

[0070] In a second possible implementation of the third aspect, a value of the at least one parameter is included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

[0071] In a third possible implementation of the third aspect, a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals at least partially overlaps with a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

[0072] In a fourth possible implementation of the third aspect, a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals does not overlap with a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

[0073] In a fifth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0074] In a sixth possible implementation of the third aspect, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0075] In a seventh possible implementation of the third aspect, the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling; and the second signaling is one of: 1) a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission on the first physical channel, the PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non- acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or a HARQ; 2) a second PDCCH transmission scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH transmission on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition or with a HARQ; 3) a media access control-control element (MAC CE); 4) a MAC CE of a low-latency type; or 5) a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

[0076] In an eighth possible implementation of the third aspect, the RRC layer signaling comprises a management information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB).

[0077] In a ninth possible implementation of the third aspect, the RRC layer signaling does not include a management information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB).

[0078] In a tenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same carrier as the second BWR.

[0079] In an eleventh possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

[0080] In a twelfth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

[0081] In a thirteenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point in the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; and the frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

[0082] In a fourteenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the bandwidth value is equal to a bandwidth of a carrier or a frequency band in which the second BWR is located.

[0083] In a fifteenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs.

[0084] In a sixteenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS), a first tracking reference signal (TRS), or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for tracking, and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

[0085] In a seventeenth possible implementation of the third aspect, a parameter value of the second TRS is the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resource ID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration, QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter, the parameter value being included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

[0086] In an eighteenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the second signaling with second information is transmitted by the network entity to a user equipment (UE) on the first physical channel.

[0087] In a nineteenth possible implementation of the third aspect, the method according to the third possible aspect further comprises transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a second downlink (DL) transmission on a second DL channel in the second BWR.

[0088] In a twentieth possible implementation of the third aspect, the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, and a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay.

[0089] In a twenty-first possible implementation of the third aspect, the second DL transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled via: 1) a third PDCCH transmission of the first physical channel; 2) a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; or 3) a two-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

[0090] In a twenty-second possible implementation of the third aspect, the second PDCCH is configured on the second BWR.

[0091] In a twenty-third possible implementation of the third aspect, the second PDCCH is configured on a BWR other than the second BWR.

[0092] In a twenty-fourth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

[0093] In a twenty-fifth possible implementation of the third aspect, the method according to the third possible aspect further comprises transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

[0094] In a twenty-sixth possible implementation of the third aspect, the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

[0095] In a twenty-seventh possible implementation of the third aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps the first, second, or third BWR.

[0096] In a twenty-eighth possible implementation of the third aspect, the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

[0097] In a twenty-ninth possible implementation of the third aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR or in a same frequency band or carrier as the third BWR; the third BWR is activated; and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties for the fourth BWR from the third BWR.

[0098] In a thirtieth possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

[0099] In a thirty-first possible implementation of the third aspect, wherein the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0100] In a thirty-second possible implementation of the third aspect, the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0101] In a thirty-third possible implementation of the third aspect, the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

[0102] In a thirty-fourth possible implementation of the third aspect, a network entity, comprises at least one processor; and at least one non-transitoiy computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network entity to perform any of the foregoing possible implementations of the third possible aspect.

[0103] In a thirty-fifth possible implementation of the third aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium has instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to perform any of the foregoing possible implementations of the third possible aspect.

[0104] A fourth possible aspect includes a method that comprises receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first set of one or more physical channels or signals, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising at least a first physical channel; receiving, by the UE from the network entity, second signaling with second informationcomprising a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second information used to configure a second BWR in a same frequency band or carrier as the first BWR, the second BWR being configured with a second set of one or more physical channels or signals, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising a second channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR via obtaining at least one parameter or property from the first BWR; and receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a second DL transmission on the second DL channel in the second BWR using the second information.

[0105] In a first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the at least one parameter or property is one of a numerology, one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process IDs, one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, a synchronization signal (SS) configuration parameter, a synchronization parameter, a tracking reference signal (TRS) configuration parameter, a quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration parameter, a QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter.

[0106] In a second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, a value of the at least one parameter is included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

[0107] In a third possible implementation of the fourth aspect, a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals at least partially overlaps with a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

[0108] In a fourth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals does not overlap with a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

[0109] In a fifth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0110] In a sixth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

[0111] In a seventh possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling. The second signaling is one of: 1) aphysical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the first physical channel, the PDCCH being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non-acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); 2) a second PDCCH scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH being configured with repetition or with HARQ; 3) a medium access control-control element (MAC CE), which may be of a low-latency type; or 4) a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

[0112] In an eighth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the second DL transmission is a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission scheduled via a third PDCCH of at least one of: 1) the first physical channel; 2) a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; 3) a second PDCCH configured in the second BWR; or 4) a 2-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

[0113] In a ninth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the method of the fourth possible aspect further comprises receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a first DL transmission in the first BWR.

[0114] In a tenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0115] In an eleventh possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first DL transmission does not overlap with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0116] In a twelfth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

[0117] In a thirteenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

[0118] In a fourteenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, and a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay.

[0119] In a fifteenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point of the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; and thefrequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

[0120] In a sixteenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the bandwidth value is equal to a bandwidth of a carrier or a frequency band which the second BWR is in.

[0121] In a seventeenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs.

[0122] In an eighteenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS) or a first tracking reference signal (TRS), and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

[0123] In a nineteenth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the second SS is the same as the first SS, or the second TRS is the same as the first TRS except for a TRS bandwidth.

[0124] In a twentieth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

[0125] In a twenty-first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the method of the fourth possible aspect further comprises receiving, by the UE from the network entity, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

[0126] In a twenty-second possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

[0127] In a twenty-third possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the first, second, or third BWR.

[0128] In a twenty-fifth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

[0129] In a twenty-sixth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR, and the third BWR is activated, and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties from the third BWR.

[0130] In a twenty-seventh possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

[0131] In a twenty-eighth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmissions in a time domain.

[0132] In a twenty-ninth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

[0133] In a thirtieth possible implementation of the fourth aspect, a user equipment (UE), comprises at least one processor; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the UE to perform any of the foregoing possible implementations of the fourth possible aspect.

[0134] In a thirty-first possible implementation of the fourth aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform any of the foregoing possible implementations of the fourth possible aspect.

[0135] In a possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, the first BWR is contiguous with the second BWR in a frequency domain.

[0136] In another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, the first BWR at least partially overlaps with the second BWR in a frequency domain, or the first BWR is inside the second BWR in a frequency domain.

[0137] In another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, at least one of the first BWR and second BWR are configured Ha high physical layer (Hi-PHY) control channel (CCH) signaling.

[0138] In another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, the Hi-PHY CCH has a greater number of configuration bits than low physical layer (Lo-PHY) signaling.

[0139] In another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a different carrier as the second BWR.

[0140] In another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, the first BWR is in a different frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a different carrier as the second BWR.

[0141] In still another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same carrier as the second BWR.

[0142] In yet another possible implementation of any of the first, second, third, or fourth possible aspects, a bandwidth for a first BWP type is no wider than a standardized value.Brief Description of the Drawings

[0143] FIG. 1A is an example wireless communication system according to an embodiment of this application;

[0144] FIG. 1B illustrates the use of carrier aggregation according to an embodiment of this application;

[0145] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of a synchronization signal burst set illustrating how SS bursts are multiplexed with a PBCH, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0146] FIG. 2B illustrates how some of the various fields depicted in FIG. 2A are multiplexed for more than one UE, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0147] FIG. 2C depicts some examples of non-zero power CSI reference signals, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0148] FIG. 3A is a diagram showing QCL assumptions among NR reference signals when wide beams are used for communications, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0149] FIG. 3B is a diagram showing QCL assumptions among NR reference signals when narrow beams are used for communications, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0150] FIG. 4 is a diagram of the time- frequency structure of a SSB, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0151] FIG. 5 is a diagram of SSB time distribution, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0152] FIG. 6 is a diagram of the SSB time distribution of FIG. 5, with 20ms periodicity and an SSB burst within 5ms, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0153] FIG. 7 is an example system that utilizes carrier aggregation (CA) between a TRP and a UE, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0154] FIG. 8 depicts a layout of multiple BWPs with corresponding SSBs in existing or legacy systems, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0155] FIG. 9 depicts an arrangement of first and second bandwidth resources and associated configurations, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0156] FIG. 10 illustrated nominal carrier and flexible carrier embodiments over multiple carriers and multiple bands, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0157] FIG. 11 illustrates a P-NC and S-NCs, or P-BWR and S-BWRs, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0158] FIG. 12 illustrates anchored bandwidth resources (or BWPs) and a flex carrier, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0159] FIG. 13 illustrates the resource structure for various BWRs in the frequency domain, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0160] FIG. 14 illustrates an example communication system, according to an embodiment of this application;

[0161] FIGS. 15A and 15B illustrate example devices that may implement the methods and teachings according to this disclosure; and

[0162] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a computing system that may be used for implementing the devices and methods disclosed herein.Detailed Description

[0163] FIG. 1A illustrates an example wireless communication system too with which various embodiments herein may be implemented. Communication system too includes a base station 110 with coverage area 101. The coverage area 101 is the area over which a mobile terminal (such as a user equipment) can maintain a connection with one or more units of radio equipment (such as a base station or other network entity) located within that area. For an individual base station, this is the coverage area of the base station or of a subsystem (e.g. sector antenna). The base station 110 serves a plurality of user equipments (UEs), including UEs 120. A transmission from the base station 110 to a UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) transmission and occurs over a downlink channel (shown in FIG. 1A as a short-dash arrowed line 135), while a transmission from a UE to the base station 110 is referred to as an uplink (UL) transmission and occurs over an uplink channel (shown in FIG. 1A as a long-dash arrowed line 130). Data carried over the uplink / downlink connections may include data communicated between the UEs 120, as well as data communicated to / from a remote-end (not shown) by way of a backhaul network 115. Example downlink channels and signals include synchronization signal (SS) blocks, also called SS / physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block (SS / PBCH block or SSB), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) which includes a tracking RS (TRS, aka CSI-RS for tracking), etc. Example uplink channels and signals include a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), an uplink sounding reference signal (SRS), and a physical random access channel (PRACH). The transmissions may be periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic. For example, P TRS stands for periodic TRS, AP TRS stands for aperiodic TRS, SP CSI-RS stands for semi-persistent CSI-RS, P SSB / SP SSB / AP SSB stand for periodic / semi- persistent / aperiodic SSB, and so on. Services may be provided to the plurality of UEs by service providers connected to the base station 110 through the backhaul network 115, such as the Internet. The wireless communication system too may include multiple distributed access nodes 110.

[0164] In a typical communication system, there are several operating modes. In a cellular operating mode, communications to and from the plurality of UEs go through the base station 110, while in device to device communications mode, such as proximity services (ProSe) operating mode for example, direct communication between UEs is possible. As used herein, the term “base station” refers to any component (or collection of components) configured to provide wireless access to a network. Base stations may also be commonly referred to as Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), next generation (NG)Node Bs (gNBs), master eNBs (MeNBs), secondary eNBs (SeNBs), master gNBs (MgNBs), secondary gNBs (SgNBs), network controllers, control nodes, access nodes, access points (APs), transmission points (TPs), transmission-reception points (TRPs), cells, carriers, macro cells, femtocells, pico cells, relays, customer premises equipment (CPE), the network side, the network, and so on. These various types of base stations may also be referred to as “network entities”. Furthermore, in some embodiments the term “network entity” may include multiple base stations of the same or different types and / or other elements or devices (which may not be base stations) that may be part of a common network, and that may act cooperatively or in concert with each other to implement one or more network functions.

[0165] In the present disclosure, the terms “base station.” “network entity,” and “TRP” are used interchangeably unless otherwise specified. As used herein, the term “UE” refers to any component (or collection of components) capable of establishing a wireless connection with a base station. UEs may also be commonly referred to as mobile stations, mobile devices, mobiles, terminals, user terminals, users, subscribers, stations, communication devices, CPEs, relays, Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) relays, and the like. It is noted that when relaying is used (based on relays, picos, CPEs, and so on), especially multi-hop relaying, the boundary between a controller and a node controlled by the controller may become blurry, and a dual node (e.g., either the controller or the node controlled by the controller) deployment where a first node that provides configuration or control information to a second node is considered to be the controller. Likewise, the concept of UL and DL transmissions can be extended as well.

[0166] A cell may include one or more bandwidth parts (BWPs) for UL or DL allocated for a UE. Each BWP may have its own BWP-specific numerology and configuration, such as the BWP’s bandwidth. It is noted that not all BWPs need to be active at the same time for the UE. A cell may correspond to one carrier, and in some cases, multiple carriers. Typically, one cell (a primary cell (PCell) or a secondary cell (SCell), for example) is a component carrier (a primary component carrier (PCC) or a secondary CC (SCC), for example). For some cells, each cell may include multiple carriers in UL, one carrier may be referred to as an UL carrier or non-supplementary UL (non- SUL, or simply UL) carrier which has an associated DL, and other carriers are called supplementary UL (SUL) carriers which do not have an associated DL. A cell, or a carrier, maybe configured with slot or subframe formats comprising DL and UL symbols, and that cell or carrier may be seen as operating in a time division duplexed (TDD) mode. In general, for unpaired spectrum, the cells or carriers are in TDD mode, and for paired spectrum, the cells or carrier are in a frequency division duplexed (FDD) mode. For TDDmode, the same spectrum resources can be used for UL or DL at different time durations, where the time durations allocated for UL or DL are configured statically or indicated dynamically, and the center frequencies for TDD UL (as in TDD UL BWP or generally UL resources used in a certain process) and TDD DL (as in TDD DL BWP or generally DL resources used in a certain process) are aligned. For FDD mode, one part of the paired spectrum is used for UL all the times and the other part is used for DL all the times. A transmission time interval (TTI) generally corresponds to a subframe (in LTE) or a slot (in NR). Access nodes may provide wireless access in accordance with one or more w ireless communication protocols, e.g., long term evolution (LTE), LTE advanced (LTE- A), 5G, 5G LTE, 5G NR, future 5G NR releases, 6G, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.na / b / g / n / ac, etc. While it is understood that communication systems may employ multiple access nodes (or base stations) capable of communicating with a number of UEs, only one access node, and two UEs are illustrated in FIG. 1A for simplicity.

[0167] A way to increase the network resources is to utilize more usable spectrum resources, w hich include not only the licensed spectrum resources of the same type as a macro cell (macro), but also the licensed spectrum resources of a different type as the macro (e.g., the macro is a FDD cell but a small cell may use both FDD and TDD carriers), as well as unlicensed spectrum resources and shared-licensed spectrums. Some of the spectrum resources lie in high-frequency bands, such as 6GHz to 60GHz, 70GHz, and even up to 300GHz (sub-TeraHz). The unlicensed spectrums may be used by generally any user, subject to regulatory requirements. The shared-licensed spectrums are also not exclusive for an operator to use. Traditionally, the unlicensed spectrums are not used by cellular networks because it is generally difficult to ensure quality of service (QoS) requirements. Operating on the unlicensed spectrums mainly includes wireless local area networks (WLAN), e.g., the Wi-Fi networks. Due to the fact that the licensed spectrum is generally scarce and expensive, utilizing the unlicensed spectrum by the cellular operator may be considered. Note that on high-frequency bands and unlicensed / shared-licensed bands, typically TDD is used and hence the channel reciprocity can be exploited for the communications.

[0168] In a typical deployment, a gNB may control one or more cells. Multiple remote radio units may be connected to the same baseband unit of the gNB by fiber cable, and the latency between baseband unit and remote radio unit is quite small. Therefore, the same baseband unit can process the coordinated transmission / reception of multiple cells. For example, the gNB may coordinate the transmissions of multiple cells to a UE, which is called coordinated multiple point (CoMP) or multi-TRP (mTRP,M-TRP) transmission. The gNB may also coordinate the reception of multiple cells from a UE, which is called CoMP / M-TRP reception. In this case, the backhaul link between these cells with the same gNB is a fast backhaul, and the scheduling of data transmitted in different cells for the UE can be easily coordinated in the same gNB. The backhaul connections may also be ones with longer latency and lower transmission rates.

[0169] FIG. 1B illustrates the use of carrier aggregation (CA), which is another deployment strategy. As shown in FIG. 1B, system 150 is a typical wireless network configured with carrier aggregation (CA) where communications controller 160 communicates to a wireless device 165 using wireless link 170 (solid line) and to wireless device 166 using wireless link 172 (dashed line) and using wireless link 170, respectively. In some example deployments, for wireless device 166, wireless link 170 can be called a primaiy component carrier (PCC) while wireless link 172 can be called a secondary component carrier (SCC). In some carrier aggregation deployments, the PCC can carry control signaling and data between a UE device and a communications controller while the SCC can mainly cariy data traffic. In the 3GPP specifications, a component carrier is called a cell. When multiple cells are controlled by a same eNB, cross scheduling of multiple cells can be implemented because there may be a single scheduler in the same eNB to schedule the multiple cells. With CA, one eNB may operate and control several component carriers forming primaiy cell(s) (PCell) and secondary cell(s) (SCell).

[0170] Physical layer channels and signals include a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), PBCH and its associated demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (see e.g., FIG. 2A, in which the SS bursts are multiplexed with PBCH around the SS bursts), PDSCH and its associated DMRS and phase tracking reference signal (PT- RS), PDCCH and its associated DMRS (see e.g., FIG. 2B for some of these signals / channels which are multiplexed for more than one UE), and CSI-RS which further include those used, for CSI acquisition, for beam management, and for tracking (see FIG. 2C for some examples of non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS used for channel estimation, interference measurement, and so on, which are multiplexed with PDSCH and for one or more UEs). The CSI-RS for tracking is also called TRS.

[0171] The UE receives timing advance (TA) commands associated with the configured TA group (TAG) to adjust its uplink transmission timing to synchronize with the network for uplink transmission so that uplink transmissions from multiple UEs arrive at the base station at about the same time in a transmission time interval (TTI). Likewise, the UE receives DL reference signals (RS) or synchronization signal (SS) blocks, also called SS / physical broadcast channel (PBCH) block SS / PBCH block (SSB) to acquire and maintain the DL synchronization, such as via maintaining a DL timingtracking loop, based on which the UE places the start of its Fast Fourier transform (FFT) window inside the cyclic prefix (CP) for its DL reception. In addition, both UL and DL signals / channels are to be associated with some other signals for deriving the signal / channel properties, such as delay spread, Doppler shift, etc.

[0172] In wireless communications operations, tracking functionalities performed by a UE may include fine time tracking, fine frequency tracking, delay spread estimation, and Doppler spread estimation.

[0173] In fine time tracking, a UE may detect the first arriving path, and based thereon, the UE may generally optimally place its Fast Fourier transform (FFT) window to maximize a data signal to noise plus inter-symbol interference ratio. In a continuous operation, a FFT window position may drift due to UE mobility and a residual oscillator error between a transmitter and a receiver. The UE may adjust its FFT window position based on a detected change of path arriving (or arrival) time.

[0174] In fine frequency tracking, a UE may detect a frequency offset between a transmitter and a receiver, and adjust its oscillator accordingly. A residual frequency error maybe estimated and compensated in the demodulation of data symbols. The residual frequency error compensation may be veiy critical, especially in the case of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high code rate data transmissions. Uncompensated frequency error may cause phase errors on modulated data symbols and result in decoding performance degradation. Because temperature change affects output precision of an oscillator and Doppler shift caused by UE movement, a UE may periodically track the frequency offset and apply corresponding adjustment and compensation.

[0175] Delay spread determines how dispersive a w ireless multi-path channel that a UE experiences is. The longer the delay spread, the more frequency selective the channel is. To generally maximize processing gains along the frequency domain in channel estimation based on received pilot signals, the UE may apply linear filtering with a length as long as possible if within the coherent bandwidth of the channel. Coherent bandwidth is inversely proportion to channel selectiveness. Thus, delay spread estimation plays an important role in forming channel estimation filter coefficients and length, hence affecting the performance of channel estimation and data demodulation.

[0176] Doppler spread is usually proportional to UE movement speeds and multipath spatial distribution. Larger Doppler spread corresponds to a faster changing wireless multi-path fading channel. Channel estimation usually applies filtering in the time domain with longer filter length to suppress noise plus interference if within thechannel coherent time constraint. Doppler spread estimation is thus another factor along the time domain affecting UE channel estimation performance.

[0177] The quasi co-location (QCL) types corresponding to each DL RS (more specifically, the port(s) or antenna port(s) of the DL RS) are given by the higher layer parameter qcl-Type in QCL-Info and may take one of the following values: 1) 'QCL- TypeA': {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}; 2) 'QCL-TypeB': {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}; 3) 'QCL-TypeC: {Doppler shift, average delay}; and 4) 'QCL-TypeD': {Spatial Rx parameter}. The QCL types maybe configured / indicated in transmission configuration indication (TCI) states for a RS. The QCL assumptions are mainly used for DL RS, but can be generalized for UL RS if the association via pathloss RS and spatial relation are specified. The QCL assumption may be specified as: {RSi: QCL Type C to RS2}, {RSi: QCL Type C to RS2 and QCL Type D to RS3}. Then, RS1 (destination RS) derives the properties specified according to the QCL types from the associated (i.e., source) RSs (e.g., RS2). Note that the source RS may be a SSB. Note also that the source RS and destination RS may be on the same carrier or different carriers (i.e., cross-carrier QCL).

[0178] FIG. 3A is a diagram 300 showing QCL assumptions among NR reference signals when wide beams are used for communications. For example, a TRS, a SS block or a broadcast DMRS may be transmitted using a wide beam. FIG. 3A shows QCL configurations among a SS block 302, a DMRS 304, a CSI-RS 306, a TRS 308, a CSI-RS 310 and a DMRS 312. The DMRS 304 is for a broadcast channel. That is, the DMRS 304 is a DMRS used for demodulation of a system information block (SIB), radio resource control (RRC) signaling, paging, etc. before a TRS is configured. The CSI-RS 306 is transmitted for beam forming. The CSI-RS 310 is transmitted for channel estimation. The DMRS 312 is used for demodulation of signals transmitted in a unicast channel. An arrow starting from a first reference signal (e.g., the SS block 302) and ending at a second reference signal (e.g., the DMRS 304) indicates that the second reference signal has a QCL relationship with the first reference signal with respect to one or more QCL parameters. The one or more QCL parameters (e.g., an average delay, a Doppler shift, a delay spread, and a spatial RX) are shown on the arrow, indicating that the one or more QCL parameters required by the second reference signal may be derived using the first reference signal.

[0179] As shown, the DMRS 304 is configured to have a QCL relationship with the SS block 302. The average delay, Doppler shift, delay spread, and spatial RX for the DMRS 304 may be derived based on the SS block 302. Similarly, the CSI-RS 306 and the TRS 308 has a QCL relationship with the SS block 302, respectively. An average delay, aDoppler shift, and a coarse spatial RX required by the CSI-RS 306 may be derived based on the SS block 302. An average delay, a Doppler shift, and a spatial RX required by the TRS 308 maybe derived from the SS block 302. The CSI-RS 310 has a QCL relationship w ith the CSI-RS 306 and the TRS 308, respectively. The CSI-RS 310 may be received using a spatial RX derived based on the CSI-RS 306, and use an average delay, a Doppler shift, and a delay spread from the TRS 308. The DMRS 312 has a QCL relationship with the TRS 308 and the CSI-RS 310, respectively. The DMRS 312 may be received using a spatial RX derived based on the CSI-RS 310. The DMRS 312 may also be received an average delay, a Doppler shift, a Doppler spread and a delay spread derived based on the TRS 308.

[0180] FIG. 3B is a diagram 350 showing QCL assumptions among NR reference signals when narrow beams are used for communications. FIG. 3B shows QCL configurations among a SS block 352, a DMRS 354, a CSI-RS 356, a TRS 358, a CSI-RS 360 and a DMRS 362. Similar to FIG. 3A, the DMRS 354 is for demodulation of signals in a broadcast channel, e.g., a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), that is transmitted before a TRS is configured. The CSI-RS 356 is transmitted for beam forming. The CSI-RS 360 is transmitted for channel estimation. The DMRS 362 is used for demodulation of signals transmitted in a unicast channel. An arrow starting from a first reference signal and ending at a second reference signal indicates that the second reference signal has a QCL relationship with the first reference signal with respect to one or more QCL parameters. The one or more QCL parameters shown on the arrow indicate that the one or more QCL parameters required by the second reference signal may be derived using the first reference signal. FIG. 3B shows that the reference signals have QCL configurations similar to those illustrated in FIG. 3A, except for TRSs. In FIG. 3B, the TRS 358 has a QCL relationship with the SS block 352 and the CSI-RS 356, respectively. The TRS 358 may be received using a Doppler shift derived based on the SS block 352, and may be received using an average delay and a spatial RX derived based on the CSI- RS 356. Data transmission may employ multiple narrow beams, and multiple narrow TRS beams may be required for tracking. To support both of the scenarios, configuration of TRSs and their QCL assumptions or association should be flexible. In addition to the QCL relation between DL signals and channels, the dependent relationship between UL signals and channels, between UL signals and channels and DL signals and channels, can also be viewed generalized types of QCL, such as how PUSCH / PUCCH depends on their DMRS, how PUSCH multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) transmissions and / or beams depend on sounding reference signals (SRS), how PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS / PRACH depend on DL SSB and / or CSI-RS as their pathloss RS and beam reference, etc. Ingeneral, all these dependency relationships may be configured / released for UE, or activated / deactivated, or indicated for UE, via TCI state of a signal / channel, in which one or more signals are indicated as the dependency source, and the dependency relationship is also included in the TCI state, so that the UE can derive the necessary properties of signal / channel from the dependency source.

[0181] FIG. 4 is a diagram of the time-frequency structure of a SSB. The SSB consists of primary7(PSS) and secondary (SSS) synchronization signals each occupying 1 symbol and 127 subcarriers, and a PBCH spanning across three orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols and 240 subcarriers, but on one symbol leaving an unused part in the middle for SSS, as shown in FIG. 4. For the 3 MHz channel bandwidth, the PBCH is further equally punctured from both edges to span 144 subcarriers. The possible time locations of SSBs within a half-frame are determined by sub-carrier spacing and the periodicity of the half-frames where SSBs are transmitted is configured by the network. During a half-frame, different SSBs may be transmitted in different spatial directions (i.e., using different beams, spanning the coverage area of a cell).

[0182] When an SSB is associated with a Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI) signaling, the SSB is referred to as a Cell-Defining SSB (CD-SSB). A PCell (Primary Cell) is always associated to a CD-SSB located on the synchronization raster. When an SSB is not associated with an RMSI, the SSB is referred to as a non-Cell Defining SSB (NCD-SSB), which can be used to perform radio link management (RLM), bi-directional forwarding detection (BFD), and radio resource management (RRM) measurements and measurements for RA resource selection inside the active DL BWP when the active BWP does not contain the CD-SSB.

[0183] The PBCH carries Master Information Block (MIB) information, which provides the UE with parameters (e.g., CORESET#o configuration) for monitoring of PDCCH for scheduling PDSCH that carries the System Information Block 1 (SIB1). PBCH may also indicate that there is no associated SIB1 (via ssb-SubcarrierOffset field), in which case the UE may be pointed to another frequency from where to search for an SSB that is associated with a SIB 1 as well as a frequency range where the UE may assume no SSB associated with SIB1 is present. In addition, the MIB carries the cellBarred data field, which is used by UEs to decide whether to select this cell or reselect another cell.

[0184] Upon receiving SIB1, a UE obtains some other system information (such as JrequencyBandList, tracking AreaCode, trackingAreaList, servingCellConfigCommon, etc.). Other information like cellBarredNES indicates that cell is allowed for UE supporting NES cell discontinuous transmission / discontinuous reception (DTX / DRX).Serving CellConfig Common carries information about the physical Cell ID, downlink configuration common, uplink configuration common, SSB position in a burst, SSB periodicity, etc.

[0185] SIBi may also include si-Scheduling Info containing si-RequestConfig, which maybe used to initiate the Random Access procedure on normal uplink using the PRACH preamble(s) and PRACH resource! s) in si-RequestConfig corresponding to the SI message(s) that the UE requires to operate within the cell, and for which si- BroadcastStatus is set to not Broadcasting. Thus, a UE may request the system information (SI) corresponding to SIBx, where x=2,3,..,i9.

[0186] The gNB may provide the requested SI corresponding to SIB2-SIB19 in multiple ways depending on the UE RRC state.

[0187] For UEs in a RRC CONNECTED state, the gNB may provide SI using DCI Format 1 0 with a CRC scrambled with SI-RNTI (identification of Broadcast and System Information in the downlink). This PDCCH message contains the field System Information indicator that indicates whether the system message carried by PDSCH and signaled by this DCI corresponds to SIBi or other SIBx. The DCI 1 0 scrambled with SI- RNTI also indicates the time, frequency, and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the PDSCH that carries SIB information. In addition, it has at least 15 reserved bits.

[0188] For UEs in RRC INACTIVE or IDLE state, the gNB may provide information via paging. A Short Message (8 bits) maybe carried in DCI Format l_o with CRC scrambled by P-RNTI (identification of paging and system information change notification in the downlink). Repetitions of SI change indication may occur within a preceding modification period or within s preceding eDRX acquisition period. SI change indication is not applicable for SI messages containing posSIBs.

[0189] A Cell Defining SSB (an SSB with an RMSI associated information) provides or is used for cell (re-)selection and initial access w ith synchronization in time and frequency, frame timing, physical cell identity (PCI), system frame number (SFN), subcarrier spacing (SCS), initial bandwidth part (BWP), CORESET# 0 information, SIBi related information, cell barring status, PRACH occasions, downlink CSI energy per resource element (EPRE) and RRM measurements (including signal strength, QCL related information).

[0190] PSS together with SSS provides cell ID, and symbol synchronization. PBCH via MIB’s associated DMRS provides the LSB of the SSB index (via DMRS sequence and respectively PBCH payload). The SSB index is used for RRM, CSI-RS measurements to assess link quality, and for the link recovery procedures.

[0191] In the case when SSB is not associated with an RMSI, PBCH indicates that there is no associated SIBi, in which case the UE may be pointed to another frequency from where to search for an SSB that is associated with a SIBi as well as a frequency range where the UE may assume no SSB associated with SIBi is present.

[0192] FIG. 5 is a diagram of SSB time distribution. For a half frame with SS / PBCH blocks, the first symbol indexes for candidate SS / PBCH blocks are determined according to the SCS of SS / PBCH blocks, where index 0 corresponds to the first symbol of the first slot in a half-frame.

[0193] For instance, for 15kHz SCS there are 4 SSB transmissions in a half-frame for carrier frequencies smaller than or equal to 3 GHz (symbol indexes of {2,8} + 14 • n, n = 0,1), and 8 SSB transmissions (n = 0, 1,2,3) for carrier frequencies larger than 3GHz, as shown in FIG. 5.

[0194] FIG. 6 is a diagram of the SSB time distribution of FIG. 5, with 20ms periodicity and SSB bursts within 5ms. For the initial cell selection, a UE may assume that half frames with SS / PBCH blocks occur with a periodicity of two frames. Thus, the SSB burst is confined in a 5ms window with a typical periodicity of 20ms, as shown in FIG. 5, which can be increased up to 160ms.

[0195] A UE can be provided a periodicity of the half frames for reception of theSS / PBCH blocks for the serving cell per serving cell by ssb-periodicity Serving Cell as a part of the information element (IE) servingCellConfigCommon. The IE contains parameters which a UE would typically acquire from SSB, MIB or SIBs when accessing the cell from RRC IDLE state.

[0196] System Information (SI) is the information delivered to the UE and which is necessary for the UE to operate. SI can be delivered via broadcast and unicast, and it can be divided into three types of information: the master information block (MIB), system information block 1 (SIBi) and Other SI.

[0197] The Master Information Block contains basic cell configuration and information necessary to acquire SIBi. In order to enable UE to monitor for the PDCCH scheduling PDSCH carrying SIBi, MIB provides the necessary configuration (pdcch- ConfigSIBi) and the numerology of the broadcast (subCarrier Spacing Common). Search space defining the time domain for PDCCH monitoring is provided by pdcch-ConfigSIBi. The search space configuration for PDCCH monitoring occasions for SIBi scheduling provided by MIB is called Type o-PDCCH Common search space (CSS); the CORESET determining the physical resources of the PDCCH scheduling SIBi is called Typeo- PDCCH CORESET.

[0198] The System Information Block 1 contains information about other SI available in the cell (Remaining Minimum SI - RMSI), information necessary for UE to decide whether it may access the cell, and information required to perform mobility procedures in RRC IDLE mode (cell physical layer configuration, including random access related configuration as well as indication of the transmitted SS / PBCH blocks (SSB)).

[0199] There are additional SIBs (from SIB2 onwards) that can be delivered through broadcast or an “on-demand” (OD) manner. The procedure “on-demand” triggers the network to initiate the broadcast of requested System Information messages. The UE is configured w ith a SI window, where UE can monitor the PDCCH scheduling the SI message. For each entry of the SI message list (scheduling Inf oLisf), there is a time window duration (si-WindowLength) that occurs with a configured periodicity (si- Periodicitij). Whether the additional SIBs are delivered through broadcast or “on- demand” is signaled in SIBi.

[0200] Random access preambles can only be transmitted in specific time resources specified in the relevant technical standards, and depends on frequency range 1 (FRi) or frequency range 2 (FR2) and the spectrum type. The configuration index in these tables is given by the higher layer parameter prach-Configurationlndex, or by msgA-PRACH- Configurationlndex if configured.

[0201] PRACH slots have periodicities from 10ms up to 160 ms. The PRACH slots are in the index frame given by the formula nfmod x = y, where x is the configuration period {1,2,4,8,16}. The PRACH slots are in a subframe (indicated by the Subframe number) while the number of slots is indicated by the Number of PRACH slots within a subframe (none, one or two). For instance, if the period x=2, i.e. 20ms, in the odd frames one PRACH slot will be in each of the subframes 2,34,7,8,9.

[0202] The UE monitors the Paging Occasions (POs) to receive System Information change notifications in RRC_IDLE and RRC_INACTIVE. Any changes in the system information are notified by the network using a Short Message. When the Short Message notifies system information changes, then the UE shall acquire or re-acquire the concerned system information.

[0203] The paging procedure is used to transmit information to a UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE state. The UE may use Discontinuous Reception (DRX) in RRC_IDLE and RRC_INACTIVE state to reduce power consumption. The UE monitors one paging occasion (PO) per DRX cycle.

[0204] The network initiates the paging procedure by transmitting the Paging message at the UE's paging occasion. The network may address multiple UEs within aPaging message by including one PagingRecord for each UE. The network may also include one or multiple TMGI(s) in the Paging message to page UEs for specific MBS multicast session(s).

[0205] For each SSB, there are several paging occasions (nrofPDCCH- MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO). The number of PDCCH monitoring occasions corresponding to an SSB within a Paging Occasion (PO) is specified in TS 38.304, clause 7.1.

[0206] The maximum number of paging occasions per paging frame is 4. One Paging Frame (PF) is one Radio Frame and may contain one or multiple PO(s) or starting point of a PO.

[0207] The PF and PO for paging are determined by the following formulae:

[0208] SFN for the PF is determined by:(SFN + PF_offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N)

[0209] Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: i_s = floor (UE_ID / N) mod Ns

[0210] where T=DRX cycle of UE. If UE does not operate in DRX (eDRX) mode, T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value (s), if configured by RRC and / or upper layers, and a default DRX value broadcast in system information.

[0211] N : number of total paging frames in T

[0212] Ns: number of paging occasions for a PF

[0213] PF_offset: offset used for PF determination

[0214] UE_ID:

[0215] If the UE operates in eDRX:

[0216] - 5G-S-TMSI mod 4096

[0217] else:

[0218] - 5G-S-TMSI mod 1024

[0219] Parameters Ns, nAndPagingFrameOffset, nrofPDCCH-MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO, and the length of default DRX Cycle are signaled in SIBi. The values of N and PF_offset are derived from the parameter nAndPagingFrameOffset as defined in TS 38.331. The parameter firstPDCCH- MonitoringOccasionOfPO is signaled in SIBi for paging in the BWP configured byinitialDownlinkBWP. For paging in a DL BWP other than the BWP configured by initialDownlinkBWP, the parameter first-PDCCH-MonitoringOccasionOfPO is signaled in the corresponding BWP configuration.

[0220] The values for paging cycle period (T) are defined in TS 38.331:PagingCycle ::= ENUMERATED {rf32, rf64, rfi28, rf256}

[0221] In Rel-17 more values were added:ExtendedPagingCycle-ny ::= ENUMERATED {rf256, rfsi2, rfiO24, spare }

[0222] which allows extending the period up to 1024 frames =10.2405 duration.

[0223] FIG. 7 depicts an example system that utilizes carrier aggregation (CA) between a TRP and a UE. In 5G NR, when multiple carriers are aggregated for a UE to utilize, i.e., for carrier aggregation, the carriers are configured as serving cells for the UE. Two or more Component Carriers (CCs) are aggregated. A UE may simultaneously receive or transmit on one or multiple CCs depending on its capabilities. As can be seen in FIG. 7, the UE communicates with its associated UE on two component carriers, CC 1 and CC 2. Each CC has a corresponding UL and DL channel.

[0224] FIG. 8 depicts a layout of multiple CCs in a frequency domain in a legacy or existing system. As can be seen, CA is supported for both contiguous and non-contiguous CCs within a band (i.e., intra-band CA, such as cells 1, 2, and 3, which are contiguous within a first band, and cells 4 and 5, which are contiguous within a second band), or can be across different bands (i.e., inter-band CA, such as cells 3 and 5, which are located in the first band and second band, respectively). The maximum number of configured CCs for a UE is 16 for DL and 16 for UL in 5G. Generally, each serving cell is configured with a SSB and the SSB is transmitted on the carrier of the serving cell. There are some serving cells that may be configured as SSB-less SCells, for which the SSB is not configured on the carriers of the SCells but the SCells utilize other serving cells’ SSBs (e.g., reference cells) for their synchronization and sources of the QCL chains. Generally, each serving cell is also configured with its own BWP(s), configuration for PDCCH (via information element (IE) PDCCH-config), configuration for PDSCH (via PDSCH-config), configuration for CSI-RS, PUCCH-config (via CSI-ResourceConfig or CSI-MeasConfig), configuration for PUSCH (Ma PUSCH-config), etc. In some cases, an SCell may not be configured with PDCCH on the associated carrier but may rely on the PDCCH on another carrier sent by another serving cell for performing cross-carrier scheduling for the SCell. As one can see, there can be some scalability issues with the current CA framework. For example, when n carriers are supported as n cells for a UE, in essence, it is a single-carrier cell design duplicated n times, and overhead / complexity / energy scale about n times. This has been found undesirable in some situations. This is illustrated in FIG. 8, which depicts five carriers with five cell configurations. (Examples of guard bands are also shown for illustration purposes, which may or may not be present.)

[0225] An SCell, upon configuration for a UE via RRC configuration signaling, is generally deactivated. It can be activated via MAC CE when the SCell is to be utilized, and deactivated via explicit MAC CE deactivation signaling or based on inactivity timer expiration. Carrier-level adaptation, or adaptive transmission, such as carrier on / off, cell on / off, fast SCell activation / deactivation, SCell layer-i dormancy, etc., may help achieve efficient network adaptation for various purposes, such as bursty traffic delivery, network / UE power saving, interference management, network / UE complexity reduction, and so on. It is widely observed that SCell activation latency in NR is generally in the range of tens to hundreds of milliseconds, which is even longer than LTE for many cases. The large latency in activating an SCell is primarily dominated by the time gap associated with the SSB measurement timing configuration (SMTC), which configures the UE to monitor and process SSB once every typically tens of milliseconds. Based on the SSB, the UE can gain necessary information to set its automatic gain control (AGC), acquire timing, and perform frequency synchronization. In contrast, in LTE SCell activation, these operations are based on the always-on cell-specific reference signal (CRS) (e.g., periodic CRSs with short intervals in between) and hence may be completed faster. 5G NR Rel-17 introduced faster SCell activation via aperiodic TRS for certain cases when the SCell is known. However, the management of multiple serving cells via existing protocols, procedures, and signaling can be slow, cumbersome, and of high overhead.

[0226] Bandwidth Adaptation (BA) within a CC associated with a serving cell was introduced in 5G. The receive and transmit bandwidths of a UE need not be as large as the bandwidth of the cell and can be adjusted: the bandwidth can be ordered to change (e.g. to shrink during period of low activity to save power); the location of the BWP can move in the frequency domain (e.g. to increase scheduling flexibility); and the subcarrier spacing can be ordered to change (e.g. to allow different sendees). A subset of the total cell bandwidth of a cell is referred to as a Bandwidth Part (BWP) and BA is achieved by configuring the UE with BWP(s) and signaling the UE which of the configured BWPs is currently the active one. A BWP is configured on a cell, and a cell is configured on a carrier. Each BWP may have its own BWP-specific numerology and configuration, such as the BWP’s bandwidth and location in the carrier with respect to a carrier-level reference point, subcarrier spacing (SCS) which is also tied to the OFDM symbol duration, and CP length. To enable BA on the PCell, the gNB configures the UE with ULand DL BWP(s). To enable BA on SCells in case of CA, the gNB configures the UE with DL BWP(s) at least (i.e., there may be none in the UL). For the PCell, the BWP used for initial access is configured via system information. For the SCell(s), the BWP used after initial activation is configured via dedicated RRC signaling. In paired spectrum, DL and UL can switch BWP independently. In unpaired spectrum, generally the DL and UL center frequencies are aligned, and hence if one changes its center frequency in a BWP switching, the other may also perform a BWP switching to be sure the center frequencies are still aligned. Switching between configured BWPs happens by means of RRC signaling, DCI, inactivity timer or upon initiation of random access. When an inactivity timer is configured for a serving cell, the expity of the inactivity timer associated to that cell switches the active BWP to a default BWP configured by the network. For one serving cell or one CC, at most 4 BWPs can be configured. There can be at most one active BWP per cell, per UL, or per DL direction, except when the serving cell is configured with a supplementary uplink (SUL), in which case there can be at most one on each UL carrier. Channels and signals, PDCCH-config, PDSCH -config, CSI-RS, PUCCH-config, PUSCH- config, RACH-config, SRS-config, etc., are configured for each BWP.

[0227] However, the current BWP framework is quite limited. For example, one CC can support at most 4 RRC-configured BWPs with only one active at a time. BWP switching is only between the RRC-configured BWPs. The carrier resources are still inefficiently utilized. For instance, 4 BWPs are configured for a CC with 4 bandwidths at 4 locations Ha RRC, but when a particular traffic with some specific traffic statistics arrives, the network may find none of these BWPs work efficiently for the traffic since the network could not have predicted the traffic condition and CSI condition during the RRC configuration. The network may tty to reconfigure the BWP(s) but this may take tens of milliseconds. In other words, in real-time, pre-determined BWP configurations may not work efficiently and cannot adapt fast enough based on traffic conditions, CSI conditions, etc.

[0228] For future wireless systems, a UE may need to utilize very wide spectrum resources. For example, it may need to utilize one or more frequency ranges (FRs), such as FRi (e.g., under 6GHz) for wider coverage and high penetration, FR2 (e.g., 7GHz to about 24GHz) for a good tradeoff between better propagation conditions and wider bandw idths, and FR3 (e.g., above 24 or 30GHz) for wider bandwidths. Then in each FR, there could be one or more frequency bands. In each frequency band, there could be one or more carriers. In addition, the bandwidth of a carrier could also be wide (wider than existing ones) in 6G. Thus, there is a need to enhance the existing CA framework and BWP framework for utilizing wide spectrum resources considering at leastoverhead / complexity / energy consumption / adaptability, etc. Embodiments will be provided below for this goal.

[0229] As a related note, in future wireless systems, energy efficiency can be a critical key performance indicator (KPI) and hence an important design objective. Objectives closely related to energy efficiency KPI include operational complexity, overhead, etc., since an increase in the complexity and / or overhead likely leads to an increase in energy consumption, at the network and / or UE side. However, when veiy wide bandwidth is utilized, generally the complexity, overhead, and energy consumption increase. New designs that generally aim to reduce / limit the complexity, overhead, and energy consumption increases are important to 6G. Some embodiments are provided to achieve high energy efficiency while limiting the complexity and overhead for veiy wide bandwidth support. While example embodiments are provided for the cellular case (the network to / from UE communication) on licensed carriers, the principles and techniques disclosed herein can be extended as well to sidelink communications, unlicensed carriers, etc.

[0230] Embodiments are provided below for wireless carrier resource flexible, low- overhead, low-energy-consumption, and low-complexity operations. It is desirable to provide a carrier design that can efficiently and simultaneously support energy saving, multiple carriers, ultrawide bandwidth, flexible bandwidth and bandwidth adaptation, and cross-carrier operations at the network and UE. In other words, embodiments are provided with aims to dynamically support any portions of any number of carriers with arbitrary bandwidth, without significant increase of overhead / complexity / energy consumption.

[0231] At a high level, disclosed embodiments are such that channels, bandwidths, and carriers are minimally RRC-configured at cell level and UE level, with dynamically- configured BWPs on any portions of carriers. Disclosed embodiments provide minimum static / semi-static configurations via RRC, e.g., minimum cell-level UL / DL configuration, minimum UE-specific RRC configuration, minimum or potentially no carrier-level configuration. Additionally, the disclosed embodiments provide dynamic (e.g., almost on-the-fly) configuration for flexible BWPs, Ha high-physical -layer (Hi-PHY; for physical-layer signaling that supports configuration capabilities, to be elaborated later) DCI or low-latency MAC CE / RRC signaling, for flexible BWP -level and sub-BWP-level configurations of carrier resources on any portion of a contiguous spectrum.

[0232] FIG. 9 is an arrangement of first and second bandwidth resources (BWR1, BWR2) and associated configurations. In some embodiments illustrated in FIG. 9, anetwork device transmits to a UE first signaling 901 with information to configure a first bandw idth resource 902 (BWR), the first BWR 902 (BWR1) being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first starting frequency location and a first bandwidth 903, and the first BWR 902 being configured with a first physical channel 904 (an example of the first physical channel is a control channel shown in the figure as CCH1; other examples exist). Then, the network device transmits second signaling 905 to the UE on the first physical channel 904, the second signaling comprising information to configure a second BWR 906 (BWR2) associated with the first BWR 902 via a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value 907, and the second BWR being configured with a second DL channel. Then the network device transmits to the UE a second DL transmission on the second DL channel in the second BWR.

[0233] A BWR is a contiguous portion in frequency domain. The portion is defined by a starting position in the frequency domain and a bandwidth value. The starting position can be configured based on a frequency offset value with respect to some reference point, such as frequency offset value 908. For BWR1 902, the reference point maybe one of a center frequency of a carrier (such as a nominal carrier), a lowest subcarrier of common resource block (RB) 0 of a carrier with a common grid or reference grid, a DC subcarrier in a carrier, a synchronization raster, a lowest subcarrier of a BWP used in initial access or used as default, etc. BWRi 902 may be configured using a channel in the BWP used in initial access or used as default. For BWR2 906, the reference point may be the same as that for configuring BWRi 902 in some embodiments, but since BWR2 906 is configured using the first physical channel in BWRi 902, BWR2 906 can use BWRi 902 to define the reference point. For example, the reference point for BWR2 906 may be a lowest subcarrier of BWRi 902, a center frequency or subcarrier of BWRi 902, etc. The reference point may be in BWRi 902, or outside BWRi 902. The frequency offset value is one of a positive value (implying offsetting towards higher frequency), zero, and negative value (implying offsetting towards lower frequency). The frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, or a number of subbands. A number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) of the various BWPs may have a configured or standardized numerology (e.g., a common grid, since the bandwidth of a PRB depends on the numerology, namely the SCS). To allow the frequency offset value 908 and / or the bandwidth value to be configured with arbitraiy values can provide significant flexibility, but the signaling overhead could be prohibitive in some cases. In some embodiments, the frequency offset value 908 or the bandwidth value 903, 907 may take a finite number of values, which are specified or configuredearlier in the process of configuring the BWPs. Unique indexes may be known to both the network device and the UE, and an index may be selected, which can limit the signaling overhead as compared to the use of arbitrary values for the frequency offset value 908 and bandwidth values 903 and 907. In an embodiment, the frequency offset value 908 and the bandwidth value(s) 903 and / or 907 are jointly coded so that one parameter can be used to signal / configure both values. In some embodiments, such as when the carrier or the frequency band where BWR2 902 is located is TDD, the reference point for BWR2 906 may be a center frequency or a DC subcarrier of BWR1 902, which may further be the same as the reference point for BWRi 902, the frequency offset value may be 0, and the bandwidth of BWR2 906 spans symmetrically around the reference point for BWR2 906. For example, BWRi 902 may be configured with 20 MHz bandwidth, and BWR2 906 may be configured with too MHz bandwidth; in this case, BWR2 906 is centered at the center of BWRi 902, and symmetrically extends to each end by 50 MHz, and information about the reference point or the frequency offset value does not need to be explicitly signaled for BWR2 906.

[0234] The BWR in some sense resembles a BWP defined in 5G NR, though some key differences exist. As mentioned below a BWP may, in some embodiments, be a type of BWR. In some embodiments, the first and second BWRs are of different types where each type is associated with its specific set of configuration parameters and procedures, and either type can be different from 5G NR. A BWR may also be referred to as a spectrum resource unit, frequency resource unit, carrier resource unit, bandwidth portion, bandwidth part (BWP), a type of BWP, etc. In some embodiments, the first BWR is a BWP of a first BWP type, and the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type which is more dynamic than the first BWP type and is configured via a faster or more dynamic signaling than the signaling for configuring the first BWP type (more details on the signaling aspects below). The first BWP type may be alternatively referred to as a carrier, a nominal carrier (NO), an anchor carrier, an anchor BWP, an anchoring BWP, an anchor BWR, a source BWR, etc., with a BWR ID or BWP ID in the form of BWPn or BWPn_o, where n being an integer ranges from 0 to a maximum integer or from 1 to a maximum integer. In some embodiments, the second BWP type may be alternatively referred to as a flexible carrier part, an anchored carrier, an anchored BWP, an anchored BWR, a dependent BWP, etc., with a BWR ID or BWP ID in the form of BWPn_m, where n being the anchor BWP and m being an integer ranges from 1 to a maximum integer. In other words, BWPn_m, where m is not zero, is configured by BWPn_o (or equivalently BWPn), and is also anchored onto BWPn_o. The first BWR is more static than the second BWR in terms of their configuration, activation, and utilization. For example, thesecond BWR may be configured, activated, or utilized almost on the fly when certain large bursty traffic data arrives, whereas the first BWR may be used to more predictable control and data transmissions.

[0235] To compare against 5G NR BWP designs, first a carrier-specific cell is configured (which includes many cell-level configurations, e.g., cell ID, MIMO parameters, cell DTX / DRX, etc.) on a carrier in 5G NR which spans the entire bandwidth of the carrier, and then all the BWPs are configured (or anchored) on the cell with bandw idths no wider than the cell / carrier. In contrast, for 6G, cell-level configurations on a carrier are no longer necessary:First, a first BWR is configured on a carrier. The first BWR may span a small fraction of the bandwidth of the carrier. Next, one or more second BWR(s) are configured (or anchored) on the first BWR with bandwidths no wider than the carrier, but potentially substantially wider than the first BWR, and with many configurations / parameters / properties derived / inherited from the first BWR. These configurations / operations do not rely on the carrier-specific cell configurations, and one cell may be sufficient to operate on multiple carriers / frequency bands.

[0236] In some embodiments, the first BWR is in a same or different frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same or different carrier as the second BWR. A carrier according to a legacy 4G / 5G convention is a part of a frequency band per regulatory body regulation and some RF related requirements (e.g., 3GPP RAN4 requirements in TS38.101, etc.). When the second BWR is not very far from the first BWR in the frequency domain, e.g., intra-band overlapping, intra-band partial overlapping, intra-band contiguous, non-contiguous but intra-band, or inter-band but covered by the same RF, carriers / bands with shared PA, etc., the second BWR can derive part or all of time / frequency synchronization, tracking properties, some of the QCL properties, etc., from the first BWR, as shown by the hollow arrow in FIG. 9. Such shared properties may need to be configured via explicit signaling based on UE capability reporting and network decision. This will be discussed in greater detail below.

[0237] In some embodiments, the first BWR is a first-type BWP which is more static and may provide anchoring properties for its associated second-type BWPs. A UE may be configured with multiple first-type BWPs via RRC signaling, and zero, one, or more of them are activated via MAC CE. Since the activated first-type BWPs require the UE to monitor and actively maintain the link (e.g., RRM measurements, RLF monitoring, CSI measurements, control channel monitoring, etc.), to reduce energy consumption, the first-type BWPs are generally narrowband and spaced from each other in the frequency domain a distance to avoid an unacceptable level of interference as well as to providecoverage for wide spectrum resources. In an embodiment, the bandwidth that can be configured for a first-type BWP may be no wider than a standardized value, e.g. 20MHz. The first-type BWP may have a bandwidth selected from pre-defined bandwidth values, which may be {1.5, 3, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20}MHz, and the size of the list is relatively small (e.g., much smaller than the possible bandwidth values for a second-type BWP). In an embodiment, the bandwidth that can be configured for a first-type BWP may be no wider than a value determined by UE RF capability, e.g. 10MHz. This may correspond to certain UE RF filter bandwidths and / or processing capability associated with a non-peak performance index (e.g., not transmitting at its peak data rate, highest MIMO order, etc.) or some operations such as reduced capability (RedCap). In an embodiment, the separation of any two first-type BWPs is at least a minimum value, e.g., 20 MHz, 40 MHz, etc., and the value may be band-specific or standardized. The minimum separation is useful to allow a small number of first-type BWPs to cover veiy wide spectrum resources.

[0238] In an embodiment, in a carrier (or channel) defined by 3GPP RAN4 such as TS38.101-1, there can be at most one first-type BWP. The first-type BWP may be centered at the raster of the carrier, or the center of the carrier. In an embodiment, in a frequency band with n carriers (or channels) defined by 3GPP RAN4 such as TS38.101-1, there can be at most one first-type BWP, or at most n fi rst-type BWPs. The first-type BWP may be centered at the raster of the band or each of the carriers, or the center of the band or each of the carriers. There may also be constraints that at most a certain number of first-type BWPs maybe activated within a band, within a number of bands with shared PA / RF, etc. The rationale is that within a band or bands with shared PA / RF, one activated first-type BWP may be sufficient for maintaining the link, and the spectrum resources outside the activated first-type BWP within the band or bands with shared PA / RF can be utilized in an on-demand way with the second-type BWP(s) anchored to the fi rst-type BWP.

[0239] In some embodiments, the second BWR is a second-type BWP which is more dynamic, is configured by and derives at least some properties from its associated, anchoring first-type BWP. A UE may be configured with multiple second-type BWPs by a first-type BWP, and zero, one, or more of them are activated. In an embodiment, the second BWR is configured with a bandwidth chosen from a large list of possible values, e.g., ranging from 5 MHz to 200 MHz or even 400 MHz, with step size of 5 MHz or 10 MHz. The list may be provided by 3GPP RAN4 technical specifications which specify a set of channel bandwidths. This is because under each scenario, there can be different bandw idth values most suitable for the transmissions, and this can provide the networkdevice with more flexibility on the fly to determine and configure a second-type BWP. There can be some additional restrictions on the bandwidth, e.g., limited by an absolute maximum for all possible UEs, such as 2 GHz, or limited by a specific UE’s capability reported to the network, e.g., 300 MHz, or limited by how wide the current carrier or frequency band is. The bandwidth may also be related to the FFT size, for example, if the numerology is such as 3300 subcarriers are to be supported, then the FFT size may be 4096.

[0240] There are a number of embodiments for the signaling. The first signaling is RRC-layer signaling. The second signaling is one of 1) a PDCCH on the first physical channel, the PDCCH being configured with repetition, ACK / NACK, and / or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); 2) a second PDCCH scheduled via a first PDCCH on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH being configured with repetition and / or with HARQ; 3) a MAC CE, optionally of a low-latency type; or 4) a RRC signaling of a low-latency type. Further details will be discussed below.

[0241] In an embodiment, the first signaling configures the first BWR similar to legacy systems configuring a BWP. The first BWR is configured with a RRC field locationAndBandwidth which specifies its frequency domain location and bandwidth, subcarrier spacing (SCS), and optionally if the cyclic prefix is extended or not. For a DL BWR, its BWR ID, PDCCH-Config, PDSCH-Config, SPS-config, radio link monitoring config, etc., are provided. The first BWR may be configured with an ID used as the BWR- specific scrambling ID, which may have some similar functionalities as legacy PCID or configurable n_ID on a carrier.

[0242] In an embodiment, the second signaling is a PDCCH on the first physical channel, the PDCCH being configured with repetition, ACK / NACK, and / or HARQ. In this case, the first physical channel is a control channel configured via PDCCH-Config on the first BWR. Typically, PDCCH does not have the capability to configure information elements (IE) or fields as the functionality primarily relies on RRC layer and RRC signaling. However, RRC signaling has higher latency, and hence PDCCH may be preferred in some cases. To enable PDCCH-based configuration of the second-type BWR, some parts of the physical layer, which may be called the higher part of the physical layer (Hi PHY), or the MAC layer, or the RRC layer, may determine the parameters of the second BWR, and utilize a specific format of PDCCH / DCI to send the configuration PDCCH on the first BWR. The PDCCH may be encoded / scrambled / interleaved by the first BWR’s scrambling ID and / or the UE’s C-RNTI, or alternatively, a special scrambling ID used specifically for PDCCH-based configuration is configured to the first BWR and utilized here. The advantage of the dedicated scrambling ID is that the UE candifferentiate a configuration PDCCH from other PDCCH easily. The DCI associated with the configuration PDCCH may also have larger payload size. To clarify the relationship between a DCI and a PDCCH, note that DCI is the payload information carried by a PDCCH, and the PDCCH is the physical resources carrying the DCI of a specific format. In some cases, however, it is common that these two terms are used in an interchangeable way as a transmission of one implies a transmission of the other, though the precise meaning can be understood from the context to mean a DCI, a PDCCH, or both.

[0243] To ensure the successful reception of the important configuration information, the PDCCH is configured to have repetition of at least 2 (or 4, or 8, or 16) in the control channel element (CCE) level. If further time-domain diversity is desirable, time-division multiplexed (TDMed) PDCCH transmissions can be provided, e.g., sent repeatedly within the same slot, in consecutive slots, separated by one or more slots in between, with 2, 4, or 8 TDMed transmissions, etc. Likewise, frequency-division multiplexed (FDMed) and multi-TRP multi-DCI transmissions can also be supported. The embodiment of using PDCCH I DCI (with only one stage but with possibly higher payload and more repetitions) for the second signaling may be the fastest among the embodiments for the second signaling. In an embodiment to further improve the reliability of PDCCH, an ACK / NACK may be provided by the UE based on whether the CRC passes or not, and if the network receives NACK, a retransmission of the PDCCH is sent. In another embodiment to further improve the reliability of PDCCH, an ACK / NACK and HARQ may be supported, namely, the UE sends an ACK / NACK based on whether the CRC checks or not, and if the network receives NACK, a retransmission of the PDCCH is sent and the initial / retransmission(s) of the PDCCH are assigned with the same HARQ ID, so that the UE can combine the transmissions. A dedicated HARQ ID may be used for configuration PDCCH, or the ID may be 0 or the maximum HARQ ID (i.e. , in general, a default value) for the first-type BWP.

[0244] In an embodiment, the second signaling is a second PDCCH scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH being configured with repetition and / or with HARQ. The configuration of the second PDCCH may be provided when the first BWR is configured or after the first BWR is configured but before the second BWR is configured. In other words, this is a 2-stage PDCCH, wherein the first PDCCH on the first physical channel is the first stage, and the second PDCCH is the second stage. The first stage is transmitted similar to legacy PDCCH with associated search space, CORESET, etc., with a relatively small payload size. In essence, it is similar to a legacy PDCCH scheduling a PDSCH, except that it schedules a PDSCH-like second-stage PDCCH. The second-stage PDCCH may be coded / modulated / precoded according to PDSCH formats, but to improve reliability, the MCS level may be lower, or the MCS for the second stage may be standardized as quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) of a low rate. The coding may be based on a low-density parity check (LDPC) similar to PDSCH coding, or alternatively, still reusing polar coding for PDCCH.

[0245] In an embodiment to further improve the reliability of the second PDCCH, an ACK / NACK may be provided by the UE based on whether the CRC checks or not, and if the network receives NACK, a retransmission of the second PDCCH is sent. In another embodiment to further improve the reliability of the second PDCCH, an ACK / NACK and HARQ may be supported, namely, the UE sends an ACK / NACK based on whether the CRC checks or not, and if the network receives NACK, a retransmission of the PDCCH is sent and the initial / retransmissionfs) of the PDCCH are assigned with the same HARQ ID, so that the UE can combine the transmissions. The HARQ ID is included in the first- stage PDCCH.

[0246] In an embodiment, the transmission of the second PDCCH may be indicated by the first PDCCH, but the second PDCCH is configured with its specific search space and CORESET, so that the UE performs a search and blind decoding to receive the second PDCCH. In an embodiment, the second signaling is a Hi-PHY control signaling, which enables the physical layer to configure parameters. Due to the generally larger payload sizes of configuration signaling and hence the Hi-PHY control signaling, Hi-PHY control signaling may be generally carried in a second-stage of a two-stage control channel transmission, in which only the first stage requires search and blind decoding but the second stage can be scheduled and protected w ith ACK / NACK and even HARQ retransmission.

[0247] In an embodiment, the second signaling is a MAC CE, optionally of a low- latency type. The MAC CE generally has higher reliability than PDCCH, so further improving the reliability may not be necessary. The latency may be further reduced to improve flexibility. In an embodiment, the second signaling is a RRC signaling, optionally of a low-latency type. The RRC signaling generally has higher reliability than PDCCH, so further improving the reliability may not be necessary. The latency may be further reduced to improve flexibility. To reduce latency, higher priority may be assigned to the MAC CE or RRC signaling, and techniques developed for URLLC may be applied, such as a mini-slot to reduce the round-trip time for the PDSCH transmission, preemption to transmit in the earliest available resources, etc.

[0248] In some embodiments illustrated by FIG. 9, the network device transmits to the UE the second DL transmission on the second DL channel in the second BWR. In an embodiment, the second transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled via a third PDCCH. The third PDCCH is at least one of 1) the first physical channel, which is a PDCCH channel in this case; 2) a second PDCCH channel configured for the second BWR, and the second PDCCH channel may or may not be in the second BWR, i.e., a cross-BWR scheduling may be allowed; 3) a second PDCCH channel configured in the second BWR; or 4) as a 2-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel (which is a PDCCH channel in this case) and a second stage being a second PDCCH channel configured for the second BWR. When only same- BWR scheduling is configured, the DCI of the PDCCH does not include a BWR indicator field. When cross-BWR scheduling is configured, the DCI of the PDCCH includes a BWR indicator field. For BWRn_m with the same n, cross-BWR scheduling among them only needs to indicate the value m (where 0 is for the anchor BWR).

[0249] The BWR indicator field may also be configured with a mapping between the indicator values and the BWR IDs, since the BWR indicator field bitwidth may not allow all BWRn_m with the same n be indicated. For example, the mapping may be {(0,0), (1,1), (2, 3), (3, 8)}, in which indicator value 0 is for BWRn_o, etc., and only 2 bits are used for this field. Cross-BWR scheduling can also be supported among the first-type BWPs via a BWR indictor field to indicate ID n of BWRn. In some embodiments, cross- BWR scheduling can be configured for BWRs of a mixture of the first and second type BWPs, and a more complicated mapping can be configured, e.g., {(0,0_0),(l,0_l),(2,l_0),(3,l_2)}.

[0250] In some embodiments, the first BWR is also configured with PDSCH transmission. A first PDSCH transmission in the BWR may be scheduled by a first PDCCH for the BWR. The first PDSCH transmission may be fully or partially overlapping, or non overlapping, with the second DL transmission which may be a PDCCH or PDSCH in a time domain. That is, BWR aggregation can be supported, which is similar to CA operations. In embodiments where the first and second BWRs are intraband, the operations are similar to intra-band CA, which could be contiguous or noncontiguous. The UE DL bandwidth aggregation capabilities thus need to be reported to the network.

[0251] In some embodiments, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, and the second BWR inherits the same first numerology from the first BWR. In this case, the second signaling does not provide a numerology for the second BWR, such that the numerology is excluded. This can reduce the configuration signaling overhead. Thesecond BWR may also inherit many other parameters and properties from the first BWR, which can further reduce the signaling overhead and operation complexity. For example, if the first BWR is configured with a first synchronization signal (SS), the second BWR does not have to be configured with a SS since the UE can derive synchronization parameters / properties from the first BWR, and the second signaling does not provide a SS configuration for the second BWR. For another example, both the first and second BWRs may be configured with TRS for tracking purposes. The first TRS on the first BWR can be explicitly configured, but the second signaling does not have to provide a TRS configuration for the second BWR since the same TRS configuration can be applied. The second TRS may be QCLed to the same source (e.g., the first SS) as the first TRS. In general, at least a parameter value of the second TRS is assumed by the UE to be the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resource ID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, QCL configuration, QCL property, and TCI state parameter, the parameter value being included in the first signaling and excluded in the second signaling. The bandwidth of each TRS may be the bandwidth of the corresponding BWR. In a sense, it is as if one TRS is configured for both BWRs; e.g., when a TRS is configured for the first BWR, it is also configured for the second BWR with the same parameters, properties, and operations, otherwise than the bandwidth of the TRS varies according to the bandwidth of the currently operating / activated BWR. The same numerology for the BWRs can be especially useful if the second BWR partially or fully overlaps with the first BWR, and the bandwidth of the second BWR is not substantially much wider or narrower than the first BWR. If, however, the bandwidth of the second BWR is not substantially much wider or narrower than the first BWR, the scheduling granularities, feedback granularities, and DMRS precoding granularities may need to be configured or scaled as different for the BWRs. For example, if the bandwidth of the first BWR is less than 72 PRBs and the CSI feedback subband size is 4, and the bandwidth of the second BWR is larger than 72 PRBs, then the CSI feedback subband size may be scaled to 8 for the second BWR, which may or may not need to be explicitly signaled.

[0252] In some embodiments, even when the two BWRs are assigned with the same numerology, some configuration parameters may still be different for the two BWRs to allow more flexibility. For example, the first BWR may be configured with a CSI-RS with ID 1 and 16 ports, whereas the second BWR may be configured with a CSI-RS with ID 2 and 64 ports to support higher-order MIMO. Similarly, for PDSCH DMRS ports, pilot density, TCI state configurations, etc., can be different for different BWRs. In these cases, the second BWR may fully cover the first BWR or at least fully cover the SS (andCORESET) of the first BWR, and then the configurations for the second BWR for CSI acquisition and data transmission are used, but the first SS and first control channel are still used and rate matched for the transmissions in the second BWR. The TRS of the first or second BWR can always use the first SS as the QCL source. The second signaling needs to provide more configuration parameters and hence higher signaling overhead.

[0253] In some embodiments, the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, and the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling. The first and second numerologies may be different. Subsequently, in general, some other configuration parameters are also different for the BWRs. This provides higher flexibility but also requires high signaling overhead. In this case, the embodiment of the second signaling being a single-stage PDCCH (similar to legacy PDCCH) may not be sufficient, and the embodiments of using a two-stage PDCCH, a MAC CE, or RRC signaling maybe preferred. When the numerologies are different, partial overlap of the BWRs may be prohibited, whereas the second BWR may fully cover the first BWR, and then the configurations for the second BWR are used, i.e., the first BWR is substituted by the second BWR as long as the second BWR is activated. The second BWR may also need to be configured with a SS if a first SS is configured for the first BWR, so that the second BWR (as well as other BWRs anchored to the first BWR, if any) can maintain synchronization, RRM / RLM measurements, etc. The second BWR may reuse the first SS of the first BWR is the second BWR covers the SS bandwidth of the first BWR.

[0254] In some embodiments, the BWRs are configured with semi-persistent (SP) SS and / or TRS. In an embodiment, when the BWR is QCLed to the SS of another BWR which is activated, then it may not be configured wit h a SS or the configured SS may not be activated. In another embodiment, when the BWR is QCLed to the SS of another BWR with Type C and / or Type D which is activated, then it may be configured with a SS, though the periodicity of the SS could be longer to save energy. In an embodiment, the BWR is configured with TRS, and the TRS is QCLed to a SS with Type C and / or Type D or TRS with Type A and / or Type D. The SS and / or TRS can be SP, that is, they can be activated or deactivated, even if the associated BWR is activated. For the first BWR, the activation / deactivation of the SS / TRS may be signaled via MAC CE. For the second BWR, the activation / deactivation of the SS / TRS may be signaled via a PDCCH sent in the first or second BWR. When a BWR is deactivated, all the SS(s), TRS(s), other signals and channels, and BWR anchored to it (if any), are deactivated. When a DL BWR is activated, some signals and channels are also activated without additional signaling, such as the SP TRS. When the DL BWR is configured with only one signal or one channel, the one signal or channel is activated when the DL BWR is activated. Aperiodic SS and / or aperiodicTRS may also be configured for a BWR. An aperiodic SS is QCLed to a periodic or SP SS with Type C and / or Type D, on the same or a different BWR. An aperiodic TRS is QCLed to a periodic or SP TRS with Type A and / or Type D, on the same or a different BWR.

[0255] In some embodiments, the same transport block (TB) is transmitted in the first and second BWRs. The TB may be sent in the form of TDM, FDM, different redundancy versions, or a combination of them, in the first and second BWRs, and they may fully or partially overlap, or non-overlap, in the time domain, and fully or partially overlap, or non-overlap, in the frequency domain. These embodiments allow an anchor BWR and its anchored BWR(s) to perform diversity transmissions in time, frequency, and / or code domains. When multiple anchored BWRs are activated for a same anchor BWR, a same TB can be transmitted in any subset of the BWRs using abovementioned transmission schemes.

[0256] In some embodiments, the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs. In an embodiment, a transmission for a TB is sent on one of the BWRs, and if the CRC check does not pass, a NACK feedback is sent to the network as a result. The network then schedules a retransmission. The retransmission may be on the same BWR, the PDCCH DCI for scheduling the retransmission may indicate the same BWR (if cross- BWR scheduling is configured, then the ID of the same BWR is indicated), the same HARQ process ID as the initial transmission may be included, and ‘New Data Indicator’ field set as 0. The retransmission may be on the other BWR (or the first BWR or any BWR anchored to the first BWR sharing the cross-BWR HARQ IDs), and the PDCCH DCI for scheduling the retransmission indicates the ID of the other BWR, the same HARQ process ID as the initial transmission, and ‘New Data Indicator’ field set as 0. This enables cross-BWR HARQ / retransmissions. In an embodiment, all HARQ process IDs are shared among BWRn_m with the same n and for all m=o, 1, ... In an embodiment, only a subset of HARQ process IDs is shared among the first and second BWRs, and different subsets of BWRs can have different shared HARQ process IDs. In some embodiments, a subset of HARQ process IDs is shared among the first-type BWPs, which enables cross first-type BWP retransmissions and HARQ. Cross-frequency-range or cross-band retransmissions and HARQ may also be supported if the two BWRs sharing a HARQ process ID are in different frequency ranges or bands. Note that the retransmission on a potentially different BWR with the same HARQ ID may be similar to multicast broadcast service (MBS). In MBS, a first transmission is point-to-multipointwithin the common frequency region (CFR). A retransmission to one of the UEs is point- to-point within the UE’s bandwidth part, where the HARQ ID is reused.

[0257] In some embodiments, a BWR is configured with only DL transmissions, only UL transmissions, or both DL and UL transmissions. The latter may be a TDD BWR in unpaired spectrum. The center frequencies for the TDD BWR, when used for DL transmissions and when used for UL transmissions, are aligned, so that the UE does not have to perform RF retuning for its TDD operations. In an embodiment for unpaired spectrum, the UL BWP bandwidth and DL BWP bandwidth may or may not equal. In an embodiment, for a UE reporting capability to support different center frequencies for a TDD BWR (e.g., the UE uses some different RF components for UL and DL, or alternatively, the UE is capable of performing RF retuning fast enough within the time gap allowed for TDD switching), the center frequencies may not be aligned.

[0258] In some embodiments, when a BWR is activated, a time delay value is applied before the BWR can be utilized. The delay may be based on or related to one or more (i.e., a sum of some) of a RF retuning time, activation signaling processing time, a bandwidth resource switching delay, etc. These values may be based on a UE capability reporting. The RF retuning and switching delays may be associated with a pair of bands, in which the UE needs to retune its RF on a first band (called the switching-from band) to a second band (called the switching-to band). The RF retuning and switching delays maybe associated with a pair of band sets, in which the UE needs to retune its RF on a first band set (called the switching-from band set) to a second band set (called the switching-to band set). The RF retuning and switching delays may be associated one band, in which the UE needs to retune its RF on a first BWR (called the switching-from BWR) to a second BWR (called the switching-to BWR). The RF retuning and switching delays may be associated with one band or one BWR, in which the UE needs to retune its RF on a first to a first and second BWRs, i.e., as a bandwidth adaptation to expand its bandw idth. There may be RF turning on, warming up, and tuning delays for a band or a BWR, during which the RF transitions from turned-off to being ready for transmissions in the covered frequency resources. In general, there can be RF transition delay(s) that the RF transitions from covering x (>o) MHz to covering y ( > 0) MHz, where an overlap of z (>o) MHz. The delay(s) may be associated with where the x, y, and z MHz resources are located, how wide they are, etc., and are reported by the UE as part of the capabilities.

[0259] In some embodiments, a BWR of the first type of BWP is deactivated upon RRC configuration, and can be activated via MAC CE. It can be deactivated via MAC CE or an inactivity timer expiry. This is similar to the behavior of legacy component carrier activation / deactivation. In some embodiments, a BWR of the second type of BWP isactivated upon configuration by its anchor BWR, and can be activated / deactivated by its anchor BWR via a signaling, and can be deactivated by an inactivity timer expiry. In an embodiment, a BWR of the second type of BWP is deactivated, then when the UE receives a signaling on a transmission / operation that relies on the BWR to be activated, the BWR can be activated on the fly in order for the UE to perform the transmission / operation. For example, BWRt_t is deactivated, but BWRt sends a PDCCH for DL scheduling grant with BWR indicator for BWR1_1 or an aperiodic CSI-RS transmission on BWR1_1, then upon reception and decoding of the PDCCH, the UE will first activate BWR1_1 and then perform the operations on the BWR. A delay maybe required before the operations can be done, which may be one of the delays described above plus the PDCCH processing time. The UE is not expected to receive a command for performing an operation faster than the delay. In some embodiments, a BWR is associated with a timer, and when the timer expires, the BWR is deactivated, while the timer resets when an activity occurs associated with the BWR. The duration of the inactivity timer for a BWR of a second type is generally shorter than that for a BWR of a first type. When the timer expires for a BWR of a second type, the UE may perform a BWR switching to a default BWR, where the default BWR may be the anchor BWR which is a BWR of a first type, or may be another anchored BWR configured for this BWR, or a dormant BWR. When the timer expires for a BWR of a first type, the UE may perform a BWR switching to a default BWR, where the default BWR may be another anchor BWR such as the primary BWR, or may be another anchor BWR configured for this BWR, or a dormant BWR.

[0260] In some embodiments, multiple BWRs of the first type of BWP are configured. For example, the network device can transmit to the UE third signaling providing information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type. In some embodiments, multiple BWRs of the first type of BWP are configured. For example, the network device can transmit to the UE fourth signaling providing information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type. Then BWR aggregation can be done among any subset of the first, second, third, and fourth BWRs, and the transmissions on them may be fully or partially, or non-overlapping, in time domain. In an embodiment, the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value, e.g., 20 or 40 MHz. In general, BWRs of the first ty pe of BWP should be separated in the frequency domain and can be sparse. In an embodiment, the second BWR and the fourth BWR, if both are anchored to the same anchor BWR, can be fully, partially, or nonoverlapping in frequency domain. However, if they overlap, they may not be used at the same time, and the UE does not expect the network will require the UE to use them at thesame time. Rather, they can be used at different times. Priorities and collision handling dropping rules can be provided for the BWRs, for example, aperiodic transmission can have higher priority than other transmissions, ACK / NACK can have higher priority, etc. The BWR with a higher priority transmission in it has a higher priority than another BWR with a lower priority transmission, and the UE switches to the one with the higher priority. One or more BWRs of the first type of BWP may be activated. An activated BWR can overlap with a deactivated NC or BWR, and the UE may operate on the activated BWR. Generally, an activated BWR should not overlap with an activated NC, and if this indeed occurs, only the non-overlap portion of the BWR may be utilized, or a Hi-PHY reconfiguration of the BWR is needed.

[0261] In some embodiments, a BWR of a first type may be configured with a synchronization signal (SS), a TRS, a PDCCH (and associated CORESET and search spaces), and PDSCH (and associated CSI-RSs, etc.), with a bandwidth to be at least that of the SS or CORESET, so it can deliver data with potentially limited speed by itself via the PDCCH and PDSCH. But, when high-speed transmissions are needed, it relies on a (potentially much) wider BWR of a second type. For example, the BWR of a second type is configured by the BWR of a first type to be at least partially overlapping with the BWR of a first type, and when the BWR of a second type is activated, transmissions configured on the BWR of a first type are carried out on the BWR of a second type, e.g., the BWR of a first type is temporarily suspended and all its transmissions are taken over by the BWR of a second type. That is, the wider BWR of a second type can temporarily replace the narrower BWR of a first type, and transmissions are done on the wider BWR, such as for delivering data with higher speed. The wider BWR of a second type may inherit as many configurations as possible from the BWR of a first type, e.g., same SS (if the wider BWR covers the bandwidth of the SS), same TRS except for the TRS bandwidth, similar PDSCH configurations except for the parameters related to the bandwidth (the maximum number of PRBs, the PDSCH scheduling / precoding granularity in terms of a number of PRBs, etc.), similar CORESET, and PDCCH configurations except for bandwidth-dependent parameters. The BWR of a second type may be further configured with additional parameters and physical channels and signals to support high-speed transmissions, e.g., more CSI-RS ports for higher-order MIMO transmissions, more DMRS ports for higher-order MU MIMO transmissions, additional PDCCH for scheduling in the wider bandwidth, etc. After completion of delivering the data, either by a signaling or a timer expiry, the BWR of a second type is deactivated, and transmissions fall back to the BWR of a first type. For another example, the BWR of a second type is configured by the BWR of a first type to be non-overlapping with the BWR of a first type,and both BWRs may be used for transmissions at the same time unless the network indicates otherwise (e.g., suspending the BWR of a first type).

[0262] One BWR of the first type of BWP may be configured as the primary BWR, which is similar to a primary serving cell (PCell), and other BWRs of the first type of BWP maybe configured as secondary BWRs, which is similar to a secondary serving cell (SCell). The primary BWR is always activated except for cases when the network or UE is in some deep energy saving mode, such as cell DTX / DRX or UE DTX / DRX. When the primary BWR is deactivated, the UE may still monitor and maintain the connection with the initial access BWR and / or paging BWR as described below.

[0263] In some embodiments, the first BWR of the first type of BWP is configured by a cell-level BWR. The cell-level BWR may be an initial access BWR, an initial access and synchronization BWR, or a SSB BWR in some embodiments, and optionally also a paging BWR or camping BWR or DRX BWR in some other embodiments. For example, the UE first performs an initial access procedure based on SSB and other transmissions on an initial access BWR, and after the RRC connection is established between the UE and the network on the initial access BWR, RRC via the initial access BWR configures the first BWR for the UE. In some embodiments, the initial access BWR is the fallback BWR for the UE since the SSB on the initial access BWR is generally always on, i.e. , in case a radio link failure occurs and the UE loses connection on the first BWR (and other BWRs), the UE can perform RACH on the initial access BWR or use part of the initial access procedure to reestablish connection. In some embodiments, a paging BWR or camping BWR or DRX BWR may be configured after the UE connects to the initial access BWR. The rationale behind separating different functionalities onto different BWRs includes not overwhelming the initial access BWR with other transmissions and providing wider and more customized frequency resources for different functionalities, thus improving the overall frequency resource utilization efficiency. The paging BWR or camping BWR or DRX BWR can allow the UE to perform RACH, receive paging or updated system information, perform DRX / DTX operations, receive a cell-level RRC reconfiguration, transmit a scheduling request, reestablish a RRC connection, etc.

[0264] In an embodiment, the paging BWR or camping BWR or DRX BWR is a celllevel BWR for the UE, and the UE can fallback to the BWR. The first and second BWRs may be associated with inactivity timers so that they can be deactivated after idling for certain amounts of time. A primaiy BWR may be assigned with the longest inactivity timer, secondary BWRs may be assigned with second longest inactivity timers, and BWRs of the second type of BWP may be assigned with relatively short inactivity timers.When the inactivity timer expires on the primary' BWR, the UE falls back to a cell -level BWR, such as the DRX BWR or SSB BWR.

[0265] In some embodiments, a narrowband CSI-RS BWR (“this BWR”) of the second type of BWP is configured for the anchor BWR. The CSI-RS BWR may be configured with more CSI-RS ports than the anchor BWR. CSI reporting is configured on the CSI-RS BWR, so that the network can obtain high-resolution CSI reports from this BWR. Unless this BWR is also configured with PUSCH or PUCCH, the CSI reports are configured to be transmitted on the anchor BWR or another BWR configured with PUSCH or PUCCH. The advantages of this BWR being narrowband include reduced energy consumption. That is, the UE can spend a reduced amount of energy to acquire high-resolution MIMO CSI, so that the network can have sufficient CSI to decide whether / how / when to utilize the frequency-domain resources around this BWR. In an embodiment, when the network decides to utilize the frequency-domain resources around this BWR, it may use low-latency configuration signaling to configure another BWR of the second type of BWP for PDSCH, which may partially or fully overlap with the CSI-RS BWR. The PDSCH BWR may also be configured with PDCCH and / or CSI-RS. In an embodiment, when the network decides to utilize the frequency-domain resources around this BWR, it may use low-latency configuration signaling to further configure this BWR for PDSCH transmissions, optionally also PDCCH, more frequent CSI-RS transmissions, aperiodic CSI-RS transmissions, more frequent CSI reporting, aperiodic CSI reporting, and / or even modified BWR bandwidth (such as widen bandwidth), modified BWR boundaries orcenter point, numerologies, etc. These new / modified configuration parameters may improve CSI acquisition accuracy and data transmission efficiency.

[0266] In some embodiments, multiple narrowband CSI-RS BWRs of the second type of BWP are configured for the anchor BWR. These BWRs may be configured with the same parameters (except for their BWR-specific frequency offsets) and may be configured w ith signaling at the same time (e.g., the same signaling). These BWRs may be equally spaced in the frequency domain, with the same bandwidth, and the same CSI- RS and CSI reporting. In an embodiment, the CSI-RS transmissions on these BWRs are aligned in the time domain, so that the UE may switch to and utilize its wideband RF for receiving these CSI-RS transmissions at the same time and shrink its bandwidth afterward. In another embodiment, the CSI-RS transmissions on these BWRs are spaced out in the time domain with possibly a same time offset, so that the UE may use its narrowband RF for receiving these CSI-RS transmissions at different times by switching (hopping) among these CSI-RS BWRs.

[0267] For either embodiment, these CSI-RS transmissions may be alternatively seen as configured in a same BWR, with possibly some frequency-domain gaps for these CSI- RS transmissions (to reduce CSI acquisition complexity and energy consumption) or time- varying BWR locations. For example, a boundary (or center) of the BWR may be configured as fo + mod(n, N)“b, where fo is an initial frequency-domain offset for the BWR, t is a time index such as a slot number, subframe number, system frame number, or a combination of them, N is the number of time indexes for the hopping before returning a same location, and b is an additional offset in frequency domain. Then the UE takes turn to cover (N / n) frequency domain chunks. Alternatively, the BWR boundaries may be seen as the two ends of these hopping CSI-RS transmissions, i.e., the BWR boundaries are not time-varying but the CSI-RS locations are time-varying. In either case, the UE may use narrowband RF to reduce its energy consumption. In some other embodiments, the UE may be configured with a CSI-RS BWR whose bandwidth may increase periodically to perform wideband CSI measurement. In some embodiments, the UE may be configured w ith a periodic or semi-persistent BWR switching pattern among multiple BWRs, wherein the pattern includes a list of n BWR switchings in the form of {(bi,b2; ti), (b2,b3; t2), ..., (bn,bi; tn) }, bi to bn represent the BWRs which may include some repetitions, (bi,b2 ; ti) represents BWR switching from bi to b2 and staying activated on b2 for duration ti while bi is deactivated, etc. These BWRs may be CSI-RS BWRs or not limited to CSI-RS BWRs. When b2 is activated, PDCCH monitoring, PDSCH reception, etc., if configured, can be shifted from bl to b2, so that the UE does not have to switch back to bi for PDCCH / PDSCH.

[0268] In some embodiments, the UE may be configured with a CSI-RS BWR in which the CSI-RS transmissions have a periodicity of n time indexes (e.g., n slots), and n is much larger than the RF retuning time associated with changing RF bandwidth and / or center frequency. This can allow the UE to turn off its RF for this BWR or relocate its RF for operations not for this BWR.

[0269] In some embodiments, a BWR is configured with one or more periodic, semi- persistent, or aperiodic transmissions, such as semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) of PDSCH, semi-persistent CSI-RS, etc. The BWR may not need the RF capability of the UE to cover it when there is no transmission scheduled, so the UE can allocate its RF capability to cover other BWR(s) or enter a certain dormant / microsleep / deep sleep state, but before the scheduled transmission on the BWR, the UE allocates its RF capability to cover this BWR such as via BWR switching or RF ramp-up / retuning, and then the UE performs the transmission. After the transmission, the UE may again allocate its RF for other BWR(s) or enter power-saving state(s). For aperiodictransmission, it is required that the scheduling DCI is sent with sufficient time advance for the UE to prepare, similar to discussed elsewhere in the application. The allocation of the RF capability on and off the BWR may be seen as a special type of B WR activation / deactivation, and BWR is activated / deactivated to match its configured and dynamically scheduled time-domain behaviors, plus RF transition times before and after the transmissions.

[0270] In some embodiments, the frequency-domain resources that the UE monitors SSB and possible system information may be called an initial access (I A) BWR, initial DL BWR, lA / sync BWR, lA / sync / fallback BWR, BWRo, BWRo_o, etc. It may be seen that all BWRs of the first type of BWP are also anchored to the IA BWR. If UL wakeup signal (WUS) is configured for the IA BWR, the UE may also perform WUS transmission and WUS response reception (such as for some additional MIB information or system information, etc.) on this IA BWR. BWRo_o may further configure BWRo_i, BWRo_2, BWRO_3, etc., for different functionalities, such as random access BWR, CORESET#o BWR, paging BWR, etc. Advantages of configuring these BWRs include that the UE and network may perform some operations in frequency-domain resources, not to overcrowd BWRo_O, and these BWRs may have different bandwidths and numerologies, customized for particular functionalities, while keeping BWRo_o bandw idth narrow and the choices for bandwidth / numerology small, so that the UE can have reduced complexity acquiring BWRo_o. The other BWRs may have wider bandwidths and more choices for bandwidth / numerology as they can be configured in a more flexible way to the UE. In an embodiment, the configuration of the other BWRs is provided by RRC signaling.

[0271] In some embodiments, the maximum possible number of RF retunings within a time duration expected to be done by a UE in a frequency band (or a carrier, or a BWR, or multiple bands / carriers / BWRs, etc.), is limited and is related to a UE capability reporting or a standardized value. This is to help reduce UE complexity. The RF retuning may be used for BWR switching, TDD center frequency switching, TDD UL-DL switching, etc. In an embodiment, the UE is not expected to perform a second RF retuning within x milliseconds or y slots following a first RF retuning.

[0272] In some embodiments, the maximum possible number of BWR switchings within a time duration expected to be done by a UE in a frequency band (or a carrier, or multiple bands I carriers, etc.), is limited and is related to a UE capability reporting or a standardized value. This is to help reduce UE complexity. In an embodiment, the UE is not expected to perform a second BWR switching within x milliseconds or y slots following a first BWR switching.

[0273] FIG. 10 illustrates nominal carrier and flexible carrier embodiments over multiple carriers and multiple bands. In some embodiments illustrated in FIG. 10, BWRs of a first type of BWP are shown as a number of nominal carriers (NCs), as NC1 1001a through NC4 looid. Compared with FIG. 8 (above), which is the legacy design, the NCs replace the component carriers (CCs) and multiple serving cells, and one of them may be set as the primary NC (P-NC, see also FIG. 11), which replaces the PCell. In an embodiment, the NCs looia-iooid occupy previously defined synchronization rasters. The always-on SSB 1002 is on the Sync / IA / Fallback BWR, which maybe called NCo or BWRo, a cell-level BWR. For a UE utilizing wide bandwidth resources over one or more carriers / bands, one cell-level always-on overhead can be sufficient. The bandwidths of the NCs looia-iooid are narrow. On the NC, there is no always-on overhead; all possible overhead may be activated / deactivated. Each NC has at least one of a configuration SS or configurable TRS which are not broadcast to all UEs as always-on overhead, and the SS or TRS can be activated / deactivated. Therefore, NCs looia-iooid do not support IA. The SS and / or TRS maybe sparse in time domain. The UE performs RRM -level operations, such as RRM measurements (RSRP, Li-RSRP, RSSI, Li-SINR, beam measurement, etc.) on the activated NCs based on at least the SS and / TRS, potentially also other CSI-RS configured for RRM purposes. Overall, when the UE is configured and activated with BWRo (SSB 1002) and a set of NCs looia-iooid as illustrated in FIG. 11, the UE may monitor the RRM -level SS / TRS / additional CSI-RS on the NCs looia-iooid, which are sparse in time-frequency domain, and they provide a sparse grid of ‘anchor points’ for the UE to maintain synchronization, tracking, and RRM measurements over very wide bandw idth resources over time, with significantly reduced overhead.

[0274] FIG. 10 also illustrates Flex Carrier 1 1003 (FC1 1003), which is anchored on NC1 1001a, and in which there could be one or more BWRs of the second type of BWP (also see FIG. 12, which illustrates FCi 1207). Generally, an anchored BWR in a FC uses its anchor NC / BWR for deriving its synchronization / tracking; however, in some cases, if the BWR is closer to another activated NC than its anchor NC, it may use the other activated NC as an additional source for deriving its synchronization / tracking. A FC can have a maximum possible bandwidth, e.g., 2GHz or the bandwidth of a frequency band, and at least covers its corresponding NC (called BWPn_o of the FC). FC with ID n is 1-1 associated with NC with ID n. The FC bandwidth is not configured or pre-configured, but can expand or shrink with configured / activated / deactivated anchored BWRs. In the example of FIG. 10, FCi even go beyond NC2 1001b, which may occur if NC2 1001b is deactivated.

[0275] BWRs, such as one or more BWPs, of a FC may be configured using Hi-PHY signaling, as discussed elsewhere.

[0276] FIG. 11 illustrates a P-NC and S-NCs, or P-BWR and S-BWRs. In FIG. 11, NCo not is also called BWRo (or BWPo; however, it is redefined according to this specification and should not be confused with or limited to legacy BWP concept), and NCi 1102 is the P-NC, also BWR1 or BWP1, and NC2~NC4 (11033-11030) are secondaiy NCs (S-NCs), with IDs BWR2~BWR4 or BWP2~BWP4. The activation / deactivation of an S-NC is via MAC CE, controlled by MAC layer. It is also possible to handover the P-NC from one NC to another NC, and then the previous P-NC becomes S-NC. The P-NC is configured with at least synchronization functionalities via configurable SS, tracking functionalities via configurable TRS, RRM functionalities via either SS, TRS, or CSI-RS, CSI functionalities via CSI-RS, control channels, and data channels. Since the P-NC (and any S-NC) does not support lA / fallback / cell -level functionalities, it does not have to broadcast PBCH or MIB, so its SSB, if configured, includes only SS (PSS and / or SSS and / or other SS) but no need for PBCH. S-NC is generally deactivated upon configuration. For a group of NCs, they may be associated with some common properties I QCL properties such as time / frequency synchronization per configuration.

[0277] In one band, generally only one NC can have a configurable PSS or PSS+SSS, and others have only TRS whose QCL sources are the configurable PSS or PSS+SSS. Aperiodic SS / TRS can be configured and triggered. Each NC can be configured with a search space / CORESET. Cross-NC scheduling can be supported, with an optional NC indicator field in a DCI. A target NC can be deactivated, but its aperiodic SS / TRS will be triggered if the NC is scheduled. An application / processing delay may be indicated. CSI- RS can be configured on a NC, BWRn, CSI-dedicated BWRn_m, CSI+data BWRn_m, or a portion of a BWR (i.e., not necessarily spanning the entire bandwidth of a BWR), etc. In principle, only one NC / FC needs to be activated in a band; all resources in the band may be utilized via a BWR of the NC / FC. But, multiple activated NCs / FCs in a band may also be useful in providing a desired tradeoff between flexibility, control channel capacity, 1- stage / 2-stage control latency / overhead, resource granularity, etc.

[0278] FIG. 12 illustrates anchored BWRs or BWPs, and a flex carrier, in various embodiments. In some embodiments illustrated by FIG. 12, NCi 1201 is the P-NC and other NCs are S-NCs. NC2 1202a and NC3 1202b are deactivated. Yet the network and UE can still efficiently utilize the resources around NC2 1202a and NC3 1202b without periodically monitoring NC2 or NC3. One or more anchored BWRs can be configured via Hi-PHY or low-latency MAC / RRC, and the synchronization / tracking can be derived or at least partially derived from NCi 1201. By definition, BWRn_o is the same as the NC. Forexample and as can be seen in FIG. 12, BWR1 = BWRi_o = NC1. For some anchored BWRs, BWR1_1 (1204) may be configured to have 40MHz bandwidth, with +6oMHz offset from NC1 1201, i.e., no overlap with NC1 1201, and it can have same or different numerologies as BWR1. BWR1_2 (1205) may be configured to have 40MHz bandwidth, w ith +15MHZ offset from NC1, i.e., fully covering NCt 1201, and as described before, it can also have same or different numerologies as BWP1. BWR1_3 (1206) maybe configured to have 300MHz bandwidth, with +8oMHz offset from NCt, i.e., fully covering NCt 1201. This may be the maximum BWR if NC3 1202b is activated but NC2 1202a is deactivated (i.e., bordering an activated NC), but if NC2 1202a and NC3 1202b are deactivated, then the maximum BWR can be one spanning the entire band.

[0279] In some other embodiments, a narrowband RRM BWR is configured for RRM measurement on some resources, a PRS BWR, a positioning SRS BWR, an antennaSwitching SRS BWR, a CSI BWR, a XL-MIMO PDSCH BWR, a PUSCH BWR, etc., may be configured. Different BWRs can have different time-domain activation / deactivation behaviors. Any such anchored BWR is considered as part of FC1 1207, and therefore, FCi 1207 does not have a predefined bandwidth or boundaries. Each BWR can be configured with BWR-level or sub-BWR-level CSI, control, and data, but by default, they share most of the parameters with the NC, i.e., main differences are in the frequency-domain locations, unless otherwise configured. The configuring DCI may also indicate to activate / deactivate the BWR. These anchored BWRs are primarily configured by Hi-PHY, and can be activated / deactivated by Hi-PHY. For Lo-PHY, it can activate / deactivate a BWR and sub-BWR resources, via, e.g., GC-DCI, and can manage transmission of data within a BWR. It can dynamically activate a BWR or sub-BWR resource on the fly when scheduling a data (i.e., BWR activation without activation command but based on a data scheduling DCI for the BWR), which could require a RF retuning time / switching time when a BWR is newly activated.

[0280] FIG. 13 illustrates the resource structure in frequency domain. For simplicity, these are called BWPs, but as clarified before, they are not strictly limited to legacy BWP concept. From top to bottom, it goes from cell-level to carrier-level (NC-level or RRM- level) to anchored- BWR-level and to individual transmissions, or from infrequent adaptation to semi-static adaptation to dynamic adaptation to scheduler level, or from longer time-scale to TTI time-scale, or from higher-layer RRC to MAC layer to Hi-PHY layer to Lo-PHY layer. The anchor BWRs may be seen as anchored onto the cell-level BWR. The anchored BWRs are respectively anchored onto their anchor BWRs. As can be seen, the various BWPs, such as BWPt_t, BWPt_2, and BWP2_t, may be configured using Hi-PHY signaling. Scheduling of these various BWPs, such as foractivation / deactivation, may be accomplished using Lo-PHY signaling, and may be at the transmission time interval (TTI) level. As TTIs may be relatively short, e.g. ims, Lo-PHY signaling provides a low-overhead and low-latency way of signaling.

[0281] The following list also illustrates the structure and their relationships:

[0282] - Cell (1301): Nominal Carrier 0, NCo, initial DL BWP / BWR, BWPo, BWRo, BWPo_o, BWRo_o, SSB NC, or Sync / IA / Fallback BWP / BWR. Acquired in initial access. It can be used for Initial access, sync, HO, master information, system information, RLF, fallback, and potentially small control / data transmissions.

[0283] — Primaiy nominal carrier (1302): P-NC, NC1, first active BWP / BWR, BWP1, BWR1, BWPi_o, BWRi_o. Configured via RRC. An anchor BWP / BWR. Narrowband. HARQ IDs are shared for all anchored BWPs / BWRs. It is always activated after it is configured.

[0284] — BWP1_1, BWR1_1. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC1.

[0285] — BWPI_2, BWRI_2. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC1.

[0286] — BWPI_3, BWRt 3. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC1.

[0287] — Secondary nominal carrier (1303): S-NC, NC2, BWP2, BWR2, BWP2_o, BWR2_O. Configured via RRC. An anchor BWP / BWR. Narrowband. HARQ IDs are shared for all anchored BWPs / BWRs.

[0288] — BWP2_I, BWR2_I. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC2.

[0289] — BWP2_2, BWR2_2. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC2.

[0290] - Secondary nominal carrier: S-NC, NC3, BWP3, BWR3, BWP3_o, BWR3_o. Configured via RRC. An anchor BWP / BWR. Narrowband. HARQ IDs are shared for all anchored BWPs / BWRs.

[0291] — BWP3_1, BWR3_1. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC3.

[0292] — BWP3_2, BWR3_2. Configured via Hi-PHY. Anchored to NC3.

[0293]

[0294] — BWPn_m, BWRn_m. Anchored to NCn. Dependency / anchor source: BWPn_o, target: BWPn_m (1 to many relation). The BWR may rely on BWRn_o for control channel monitoring, i.e., it may not be configured with a control channel, especially if it is not configured with dynamically scheduled shared data transmission. The BWR may not be configured with a Hi-PHY control channel, but if it is configured with dynamically scheduled shared data transmission, it may be configured with a Lo-PHY control channel for carrying scheduling DCI on the BWR. In another embodiment, the BWR may be configured with a second-stage control channel, i.e., the first-stage control channel, which is generally of smaller payload sizes and may require blind decoding, is sent on BWRn_o, but the second stage with more payload bits may be sent on BWRn_m. The can be especially useful if the anchor BWR DCI does not support the wide bandwidth and / or finer granularity of BWRn_m. Other than these control channels, the UE monitors the (Hi-PHY and Lo-PHY) control channel(s) on BWRn_o for the anchored BWR(s), and a BWR indicator field indicating the ID m can be included in the control channel transmissions, which allows BWR switching, BWR activation / deactivation, cross-BWR scheduling, cross-BWR retransmission, etc. BWRn_m may rely on BWRn_o for synchronization, e.g., using the SS configured for BWRn_o for the synchronization and QCL source for BWRn_m. BWRn_m may rely on BWRn_o for TRS configuration, i.e., using the TRS configured for BWRn_o but spanning the bandwidth of BWRn_m. The BWR may derive / obtain / acquire / reuse / inherit parameters, configurations, and properties from BWRn_o, such as QCL properties.

[0295] FIG. 14 illustrates an example communication system 1800. In general, the system 1800 enables multiple wireless or wired users to transmit and receive data and other content. The system 1800 may implement one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), or non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA).

[0296] In this example, the communication system 1800 includes electronic devices (ED) i8ioa-i8ioc, radio access networks (RANs) i82oa-i82ob, a core network 1830, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 1840, the Internet 1850, and other networks i860. While certain numbers of these components or elements are shown in FIG. 14, any number of these components or elements may be included in the system 1800.

[0297] The EDs i8ioa-i8ioc are configured to operate or communicate in the system 1800. For example, the EDs i8ioa-i8ioc are configured to transmit or receive via wireless or wired communication channels. Each ED i8ioa-t8ioc represents any suitable end user device and may include such devices (or may be referred to) as a user equipment or device (UE), wireless transmit or receive unit (WTRU), mobile station, fixed or mobile subscriber unit, cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), smartphone, laptop, computer, touchpad, wireless sensor, or consumer electronics device.

[0298] The RANs i82oa-i82ob here include base stations lS oa-iS ob, respectively. Each base station i870a-i870b is configured to wirelessly interface with one or more of the EDs i8ioa-i8toc to enable access to the core network 1830, the PSTN 1840, the Internet 1850, or the other networks i860. For example, the base stations i870a-i870b may include (or be) one or more of several well-known devices, such as a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B (NodeB), an evolved NodeB (eNB), a Next Generation (NG) NodeB (gNB), a gNB centralized unit (gNB-CU), a gNB distributed unit (gNB-DU), a Home NodeB, a Home eNodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), or a wireless router. The EDs i8ioa-i8ioc are configured to interface and communicate with the Internet 1850 and may access the core network 1830, the PSTN 1840, or the other networks i860.

[0299] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 14, the base station 1870a forms part of the RAN 1820a, which may include other base stations, elements, or devices. Also, the base station 1870b forms part of the RAN 1820b, which may include other base stations, elements, or devices. Each base station i870a-i870b operates to transmit or receive wireless signals within a particular geographic region or area, sometimes referred to as a “cell.” In some embodiments, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology may be employed having multiple transceivers for each cell.

[0300] The base stations i870a-i870b communicate with one or more of the EDs i8ioa-i8ioc over one or more air interfaces 1890 using wireless communication links. The air interfaces 1890 may utilize any suitable radio access technology.

[0301] It is contemplated that the system 1800 may use multiple channel access functionality, including such schemes as described above. In particular embodiments, the base stations and EDs implement 5G New Radio (NR), LTE, LTE-A, or LTE-B. Of course, other multiple access schemes and wireless protocols maybe utilized.

[0302] The RANs i82oa-i82ob are in communication with the core network 1830 to provide the EDs i8ioa-i8ioc with voice, data, application, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), or other services. Understandably, the RANs i82oa-i82ob or the core network 1830 maybe in direct or indirect communication with one or more other RANs (not shown). The core network 1830 may also serve as a gateway access for other networks (such as the PSTN 1840, the Internet 1850, and the other networks i860). In addition, some or all of the EDs i8ioa-i8ioc may include functionality for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links using different wireless technologies or protocols. Instead of wireless communication (or in addition thereto), theEDs may communicate via wired communication channels to a service provider or switch (not shown), and to the Internet 1850.

[0303] Although FIG. 14 illustrates one example of a communication system, various changes may be made to FIG. 14. For example, the communication system 1800 could include any number of EDs, base stations, networks, or other components in any suitable configuration.

[0304] FIGS. 15A and 15B illustrate example devices that may implement the methods and teachings according to this disclosure. In particular, FIG. 15A illustrates an example ED 1910, and FIG. 15B illustrates an example base station 1970. These components could be used in the system 1800 or in any other suitable system.

[0305] As shown in FIG. 15A, the ED 1910 includes at least one processing unit 1900. The processing unit 1900 implements various processing operations of the ED 1910. For example, the processing unit 1900 could perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, or any other functionality enabling the ED 1910 to operate in the system 1800. The processing unit 1900 also supports the methods and teachings described in more detail above. Each processing unit 1900 includes any suitable processing or computing device configured to perform one or more operations. Each processing unit 1900 could, for example, include a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, field programmable gate array, or application specific integrated circuit.

[0306] The ED 1910 also includes at least one transceiver 1902. The transceiver 1902 is configured to modulate data or other content for transmission by at least one antenna or NIC (Network Interface Controller) 1904. The transceiver 1902 is also configured to demodulate data or other content received by the at least one antenna 1904. Each transceiver 1902 includes any suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wired transmission or processing signals received wirelessly or by wire. Each antenna 1904 includes any suitable structure for transmitting or receiving wireless or wired signals. One or multiple transceivers 1902 could be used in the ED 1910, and one or multiple antennas 1904 could be used in the ED 1910. Although shown as a single functional unit, a transceiver 1902 could also be implemented using at least one transmitter and at least one separate receiver.

[0307] The ED 1910 further includes one or more input / output devices 1906 or interfaces (such as a wired interface to the Internet 1850). The input / output devices 1906 facilitate interaction with a user or other devices (network communications) in the network. Each input / output device 1906 includes any suitable structure for providinginformation to or receiving information from a user, such as a speaker, microphone, keypad, keyboard, display, or touch screen, including network interface communications.

[0308] In addition, the ED 1910 includes at least one memoiy 1908. The memory 1908 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the ED 1910. For example, the memoiy 1908 could store software or firmware instructions executed by the processing unit(s) 1900 and data used to reduce or eliminate interference in incoming signals. Each memory 1908 includes any suitable volatile or non-volatile storage and retrieval device(s). Any suitable type of memoiy may be used, such as random access memory (RAM), read only memoiy (ROM), hard disk, optical disc, subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory stick, secure digital (SD) memoiy card, and the like.

[0309] As shown in FIG. 15B, the base station 1970 includes at least one processing unit 1950, at least one transceiver 1952, which includes functionality for a transmitter and a receiver, one or more antennas 1956, at least one memory 1958, and one or more input / output devices or interfaces 1966. A scheduler, which would be understood by one skilled in the art, is coupled to the processing unit 1950. The scheduler could be included within or operated separately from the base station 1970. The processing unit 1950 implements various processing operations of the base station 1970, such as signal coding, data processing, power control, input / output processing, or any other functionality. The processing unit 1950 can also support the methods and teachings described in more detail above. Each processing unit 1950 includes any suitable processing or computing device configured to perform one or more operations. Each processing unit 1950 could, for example, include a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, field programmable gate array, or application specific integrated circuit.

[0310] Each transceiver 1952 includes any suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wired transmission to one or more EDs or other devices. Each transceiver 1952 further includes any suitable structure for processing signals received wirelessly or by wire from one or more EDs or other devices. Although shown combined as a transceiver 1952, a transmitter and a receiver could be separate components. Each antenna 1956 includes any suitable structure for transmitting or receiving wireless or wired signals. While a common antenna 1956 is shown here as being coupled to the transceiver 1952, one or more antennas 1956 could be coupled to the transceiver(s) 1952, allowing separate antennas 1956 to be coupled to the transmitter and the receiver if equipped as separate components. Each memory 1958 includes any suitable volatile or non-volatile storage and retrieval device(s). Each input / output device 1966 facilitates interaction with a user or other devices (network communications) in the network. Each input / output device 1966 includes any suitable structure for providing information to orreceiving / providing information from a user, including network interface communications.

[0311] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a computing system 2000 that may be used for implementing the devices and methods disclosed herein. For example, the computing system can be any entity of UE, access network (AN), mobility management (MM), session management (SM), user plane gateway (UPGW), or access stratum (AS). Specific devices may utilize all of the components shown or only a subset of the components, and levels of integration may vaiy from device to device. Furthermore, a device may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processing units, processors, memories, transmitters, receivers, etc. The computing system 2000 includes a processing unit 2002. The processing unit includes a central processing unit (CPU) 2014, memoiy 2008, and may further include a mass storage device 2004, a video adapter 2010, and an I / O interface 2012 connected to a bus 2020.

[0312] The bus 2020 may be one or more of any type of several bus architectures including a memory7bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, or a video bus. The CPU 2014 may comprise any type of electronic data processor. The memoiy 2008 may comprise any type of non-transitory system memoiy such as static random access memoiy (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), read-only memory7(ROM), or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, the memory 2008 may include ROM for use at boot-up, and DRAM for program and data storage for use while executing programs.

[0313] The mass storage 2004 may comprise any type of non-transitory7storage device configured to store data, programs, and other information and to make the data, programs, and other information accessible via the bus 2020. The mass storage 2004 may comprise, for example, one or more of a solid state drive, hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, or an optical disk drive.

[0314] The video adapter 2010 and the I / O interface 2012 provide interfaces to couple external input and output devices to the processing unit 2002. As illustrated, examples of input and output devices include a display 2018 coupled to the video adapter 2010 and a mouse, keyboard, or printer 2016 coupled to the I / O interface 2012. Other devices may be coupled to the processing unit 2002, and additional or fewer interface cards maybe utilized. For example, a serial interface such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) (not shown) may be used to provide an interface for an external device.

[0315] The processing unit 2002 also includes one or more network interfaces 2006, which may comprise wired links, such as an Ethernet cable, or wireless links to accessnodes or different networks. The network interfaces 2006 allow the processing unit 2002 to communicate with remote units via the networks. For example, the network interfaces 2006 may provide wireless communication via one or more transmitters / transmit antennas and one or more receivers / receive antennas. In an embodiment, the processing unit 2002 is coupled to a local-area network 2022 or a wide-area network for data processing and communications with remote devices, such as other processing units, the Internet, or remote storage facilities.

[0316] It should be appreciated that one or more steps of the embodiment methods provided herein may be performed by corresponding units or modules. For example, a signal may be transmitted by a transmitting unit or a transmitting module. A signal may be received by a receiving unit or a receiving module. A signal may be processed by a processing unit or a processing module. Other steps may be performed by a performing unit or module, a generating unit or module, an obtaining unit or module, a setting unit or module, an adjusting unit or module, an increasing unit or module, a decreasing unit or module, a determining unit or module, a modifying unit or module, a reducing unit or module, a removing unit or module, or a selecting unit or module. The respective units or modules may be hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For instance, one or more of the units or modules may be an integrated circuit, such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

[0317] Although the description has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments described herein, as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from this disclosure that processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed, may perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method, comprising : receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first starting location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first physical channel; receiving, by the UE from the network entity on the first physical channel using the first information, second signaling with second information to configure a second BWR via a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second BWR being configured with a second downlink (DL) channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR; and receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a second DL transmission on the second DL channel in the second BWR using the second information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling; and the second signaling is one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the first physical channel, the PDCCH being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non-acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); a second PDCCH scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH being configured w ith repetition or with HARQ; a medium access control-control element (MAC CE), which may be of a low- latency type; or a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

3. The method of either claim 1 or 2, wherein the second DL transmission is a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission scheduled via a third PDCCH of at least one of: the first physical channel, the first physical channel being a PDCCH; a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; a second PDCCH configured in the second BWR; or a 2-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.4- The method of any of claims 1-3, further comprising: receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a first DL transmission in the firstBWR.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

6. The method of claims 4, wherein the first DL transmission does not overlap with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8, wherein the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay, or a sum of all of the foregoing.

10. The method of any of claims 1-9, wherein the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point in the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; and the frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

11. The method of any of claims 1-10, wherein the bandwidth value is equal to a bandw idth of a carrier or a frequency band which the second BWR is in.

12. The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs.

13. The method of any of claims 1-12, wherein the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS) or a first tracking reference signal (TRS), and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a parameter value of the second TRS is the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resource ID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, quasi co-located (QCL) configuration, QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter, wherein the parameter value is included in the first signaling and excluded in the second signaling.

15. The method of any of claims 1-14, wherein the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: receiving, by the UE from the network entity, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

18. The method of either claim 16 or 17, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the first, second, or third BWR.

19. The method of either claim 16 or 17, wherein the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

20. The method of either claim 16 or 17, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR, and the third BWR is activated, and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties from the third BWR.

21. The method of any of claims 16-20, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs; andthe first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

22. The method of any of claims 16-21, wherein the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmissions in a time domain.

23. The method of any of claims 16-21, wherein the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

24. The method of any of claims 1-23, wherein the first physical channel comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

25. The method of any of claims 1-24, wherein the second DL channel comprises a plurality of channels or signals.

26. A user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one processor; and a non-transitoiy computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the UE to perform a method according to any of claims 1-25.

27. A non-transitoiy computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform a method according to any of claims 1-25.

28. A method, comprising: transmitting, by a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain w ith a first starting location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first set of one or more physical channels or signals, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising at least a first physical channel; and transmitting, by the network entity on the first physical channel, second signaling with second information comprising a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second information used to configure a second BWR, the second BWR being configured with a second set of one or more physical channels or signals, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising a second channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

30. The method of either claim 28 or 29, wherein the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

31. The method of any of claims 28-30, wherein the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling; and the second signaling is one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission on the first physical channel, the PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non-acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); a second PDCCH transmission scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH transmission on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition or with a HARQ; a media access control-control element (MAC CE); a MAC CE of a low-latency type; or a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the RRC layer signaling comprises a management information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB).

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the RRC layer signaling does not include a management information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB).

34. The method of any of claims 28-33, wherein the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same carrier as the second BWR.

35. The method of any of claims 28-34, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

36. The method of any of claims 28-34, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

37. The method of any of claims 28-36, wherein: the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point in the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; andthe frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

38. The method of any of claims 28-37, wherein the bandwidth value is equal to a bandw idth of a carrier or a frequency band in which the second BWR is located.

39. The method of any of claims 28-38, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs.

40. The method of any of claims 28-39, wherein: the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS), a first tracking reference signal (TRS), or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for tracking, and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein a parameter value of the second TRS is the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resource ID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration, QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter, the parameter value being included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

42. The method any of claims 28-41, wherein the second signaling w ith second information is transmitted by the network entity to a user equipment (UE) on the first physical channel.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a second downlink (DL) transmission on a second DL channel in the second BWR.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, and a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay.

45. The method of either claim 43 or 44, wherein the second DL transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled via: a third PDCCH transmission of the first physical channel; a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; or a two-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the second PDCCH is configured on the second BWR.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the second PDCCH is configured on a BWR other than the second BWR.

48. The method of any of claims 42-47, wherein the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

49. The method of claim 48, further comprising: transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

51. The method of either claim 49 or 50, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps the first, second, or third BWR.

52. The method of either claim 49 or 50, wherein the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

53. The method of either claim 49 or 50, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR or in a same frequency band or carrier as the third BWR; the third BWR is activated; and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties for the fourth BWR from the third BWR.

54. The method of any of claims 49-53, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the firstand third BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

55. The method of any of claims 49-54, wherein the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

56. The method of any of claims 49-54, wherein the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

57. The method of any of claims 28-41, wherein the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

58. A network entity, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network entity to perform a method according to any of claims 28-57.

59. A non-transitoiy computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to perform a method according to any of claims 28-57.

60. A method, comprising: transmitting, by a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain w ith a first location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first set of one or more physical channels or signals, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising at least a first physical channel; and transmitting, by the network entity, second signaling with second information comprising a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second information used to configure a second BWR in a same frequency band or carrier as the first BWR, the second BWR being configured with a second set of one or more physical channels or signals, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising a second channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR via obtaining at least one parameter or property from the first BWR.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the at least one parameter or property is one of a numerology, one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process IDs, one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, a synchronization signal (SS) configuration parameter, a synchronization parameter, a tracking reference signal (TRS) configuration parameter, a quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration parameter, a QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein a value of the at least one parameter is included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

63. The method of any of claims 60-62, wherein a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals at least partially overlaps with a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

64. The method of any of claims 60-62, wherein a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals does not overlap w ith a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

65. The method of any of claims 60-64, wherein the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

66. The method of any of claims 60-65, wherein the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

67. The method of any of claims 60-66, wherein the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling; and the second signaling is one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission on the first physical channel, the PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non-acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or a HARQ; a second PDCCH transmission scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH transmission on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH transmission being configured with repetition or with a HARQ; a media access control-control element (MAC CE); a MAC CE of a low-latency type; or a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the RRC layer signaling comprises a management information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB).

69. The method of claim 67, wherein the RRC layer signaling does not include a management information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB).

70. The method of any of claims 60-69, wherein the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same carrier as the second BWR.

71. The method of any of claims 60-70, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

72. The method of any of claims 60-70, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology.

73. The method of any of claims 60-72, wherein: the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point in the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; and the frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

74. The method of any of claims 60-73, wherein the bandwidth value is equal to a bandw idth of a carrier or a frequency band in which the second BWR is located.

75. The method of any of claims 60-74, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for both the first and second BWRs.

76. The method of any of claims 60-75, wherein: the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS), a first tracking reference signal (TRS), or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for tracking, and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

77. The method of claim 76, wherein a parameter value of the second TRS is the same as a parameter value of the first TRS, the parameter value being at least one of a resourceID, resource set ID, time-domain parameter, transmission power, resource mapping, density, quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration, QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter, the parameter value being included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

78. The method any of claims 60-77, wherein the second signaling with second information is transmitted by the network entity to a user equipment (UE) on the first physical channel.

79. The method of claim 78, further comprising transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a second downlink (DL) transmission on a second DL channel in the second BWR.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein the second DL transmission is scheduled with a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, and a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay.

81. The method of either of claims 79 or 80, wherein the second DL transmission is a PDSCH transmission scheduled via: a third PDCCH transmission of the first physical channel; a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; or a two-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

82. The method of claim 81, wherein the second PDCCH is configured on the second BWR.

83. The method of claim 81, wherein the second PDCCH is configured on a BWR other than the second BWR.

84. The method of any of claims 78-83, wherein the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

85. The method of claim 84 further comprising: transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; and transmitting, by the network entity to the UE, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

86. The method of claim 85, wherein the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.87- The method of either claim 85 or 86, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps the first, second, or third BWR.

88. The method of either claim 85 or 86, wherein the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

89. The method of either claim 85 or 86, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR or in a same frequency band or carrier as the third BWR; the third BWR is activated; and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties for the fourth BWR from the third BWR.

90. The method of any of claims 85-89, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

91. The method of any of claims 85-90, wherein the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

92. The method of any of claims 85-90, wherein the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

93. The method of any of claims 60-77, wherein the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

94. A network entity, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network entity to perform a method according to any of claims 60-93.

95. A non-transitoiy computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a network entity, cause the network entity to perform a method according to any of claims 60-93.

96. A method, comprising: receiving, by a user equipment (UE) from a network entity, first signaling with first information to configure a first bandwidth resource (BWR), the first BWR being a contiguous portion in a frequency domain with a first location and a first bandwidth, and the first BWR being configured with a first set of one or more physical channels or signals, the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising at least a first physical channel; receiving, by the UE from the network entity, second signaling with second information comprising a frequency offset value and a bandwidth value, the second information used to configure a second BWR in a same frequency band or carrier as the first BWR, the second BWR being configured with a second set of one or more physical channels or signals, the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprising a second channel, and the second BWR being associated with the first BWR via obtaining at least one parameter or property from the first BWR; and receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a second DL transmission on the second DL channel in the second BWR using the second information.

97. The method of claim 96, wherein the at least one parameter or property is one of a numerology, one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process IDs, one or more physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, a synchronization signal (SS) configuration parameter, a synchronization parameter, a tracking reference signal (TRS) configuration parameter, a quasi-co-located (QCL) configuration parameter, a QCL property, and transmission configuration indication (TCI) state parameter.

98. The method of claim 97, wherein a value of the at least one parameter is included in the first signaling and excluded from the second signaling.

99. The method of any of claims 96-98, wherein a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals at least partially overlaps with a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain. too. The method of any of claims 96-98, wherein a transmission of any of the first set of one or more physical channels or signals does not overlap w ith a transmission of any of the second set of one or more physical channels or signals in a time domain.

101. The method of any of claims 96-100, wherein the first set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.

102. The method of any of claims 96-101, wherein the second set of one or more physical channels or signals comprises a plurality of channels or a plurality of signals.103- The method of any of claims 96-102, wherein the first signaling is radio resource control (RRC)-layer signaling; and the second signaling is one of: a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the first physical channel, the PDCCH being configured with repetition, acknowledgment / non-acknowledgment (ACK / NACK), or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ); a second PDCCH scheduled or indicated via a first PDCCH on the first physical channel, the second PDCCH being configured w ith repetition or with HARQ; a medium access control-control element (MAC CE), which may be of a low- latency type; or a RRC signaling of a low-latency type.

104. The method of any of claims 96-103, wherein the second DL transmission is a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission scheduled via a third PDCCH of at least one of: the first physical channel; a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR; a second PDCCH configured in the second BWR; or a 2-stage PDCCH, a first stage being the first physical channel and a second stage being a second PDCCH configured for the second BWR.

105. The method of any of claims 96-104, further comprising: receiving, by the UE from the network entity, a first DL transmission in the first BWR.

106. The method of claim 105, wherein the first DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

107. The method of claims 105, wherein the first DL transmission does not overlap with the second DL transmission in a time domain.

108. The method of any of claims 96-107, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with a second numerology via the second signaling, and the first and second numerologies are different.

109. The method of any of claims 96-108, wherein the first BWR is configured with a first numerology, the second BWR is configured with the first numerology, and the second signaling excludes the first numerology. no. The method of any of claims 96-109, wherein the second DL transmission is scheduled wit h a delay value, and the delay value is based on at least one of a PDCCH processing delay, a UE capability for radio frequency (RF) retuning delay, and a UE capability for bandwidth resource switching delay.

111. The method of any of claims 96-110, wherein the frequency offset value is based on a frequency-domain reference point of the first BWR; the frequency offset value is one of a positive value, zero, and negative value; and the frequency offset value and the bandwidth value have a unit of Hz, kHz, MHz, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of PRB groups, a number of subbands, or a unit defined as some pre-defined number of PRBs.

112. The method of any of claims 96-111, wherein the bandwidth value is equal to a bandw idth of a carrier or a frequency band which the second BWR is in.

113. The method of any of claims 96-112, wherein the first BWR is configured w ith a set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) HARQ process IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH HARQ process IDs is used for the first and second BWRs.

114. The method of any of claims 96-113, wherein the first BWR is configured with at least one of a first synchronization signal (SS) or a first tracking reference signal (TRS), and the second BWR is configured with at least one of a second SS or a second TRS.

115. The method of claim 114, wherein the second SS is the same as the first SS, or the second TRS is the same as the first TRS except for a TRS bandwidth.

116. The method of any of claims 96-115, wherein the first BWR is of a bandwidth part (BWP) of a first BWP type, the second BWR is a BWP of a second BWP type.

117. The method of claim 116, further comprising: receiving, by the UE from the network entity, third signaling providing third information to configure a third BWR of the first BWP type, or a fourth signaling providing fourth information to configure a fourth BWR of the second BWP type; andreceiving, by the UE from the network entity, a third DL transmission in the third or fourth BWR.

118. The method of claim 117, wherein the third BWR and the first BWR have a separation no smaller than a standardized value.

119. The method of either claim 117 or 118, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the first, second, or third BWR.

120. The method of either claim 117 or 118, wherein the fourth BWR does not overlap the first, second, or third BWR.

121. The method of either claim 117 or 118, wherein the fourth BWR at least partially overlaps with the third BWR, and the third BWR is activated, and the UE derives at least one of synchronization, tracking, radio resource management (RRM), or QCL properties from the third BWR.

122. The method of any of claims 117-121, wherein the first BWR is configured with a set of PDSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PDSCH HARQ IDs is used for the first and third BWRs; and the first BWR is configured with a set of PUSCH HARQ IDs, and at least one of the set of PUSCH IDs is used for the first and third BWRs.

123. The method of any of claims 117-122, wherein the third DL transmission at least partially overlaps with the first or second DL transmissions in a time domain.

124. The method of any of claims 117-122, wherein the third DL transmission does not overlap with the first or second DL transmission in a time domain.

125. A user equipment (UE), comprising: at least one processor; and a non-transitoiy computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the UE to perform a method according to any of claims 96-124.

126. A non-transitoiy computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform a method according to any of claims 96-124.-8o-127. The method of any of claims 1-126, wherein the first BWR is contiguous with the second BWR in a frequency domain.

128. The method of any of claims 1-126, wherein the first BWR at least partially overlaps with the second BWR in a frequency domain, or the first BWR is inside the second BWR in a frequency domain.

129. The method of any of claims 1-128, wherein at least one of the first BWR and second BWR are configured via high physical layer (Hi-PHY) control channel (CCH) signaling.

130. The method of claim 129, wherein the Hi-PHY CCH has a greater number of configuration bits than low physical layer (Lo-PHY) signaling.

131. The method of any of claims 1-130, wherein the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a different carrier as the second BWR.

132. The method of any of claims 1-130, wherein the first BWR is in a different frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a different carrier as the second BWR.

133. The method of any of claims 1-130, wherein the first BWR is in a same frequency band as the second BWR, and the first BWR is in a same carrier as the second BWR.

134. The method of any of claims 1-133, wherein a bandwidth for a first BWP type is no wider than a standardized value.

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