Methods, communications devices, and infrastructure equipment

Abstract

A method of operating a communications device to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink. The one or more time slots include at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink. The resolving comprises receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

Description

[0001] METHODS, COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES, AND INFRASTRUCTURE EQUIPMENT

[0002] BACKGROUND

[0003] Field of Disclosure

[0004] The present disclosure relates to methods of operating communications devices to transmit data to or to receive data from a wireless communications network, communications devices, methods of operating infrastructure equipment forming part of wireless communications networks, and infrastructure equipment.

[0005] The present application claims Paris Convention priority from European application number EP24189600.0, filed on 18 July 2024, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0006] Description of Related Art

[0007] The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.

[0008] Current and future wireless communications networks are expected routinely and efficiently to support communications with an ever-increasing range of devices associated with a wider range of data traffic profiles and types than existing systems are optimised to support. For example, it is expected future wireless communications networks will be expected to efficiently support communications with devices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets, extended Reality (XR) and so on. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the “The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with the transmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example supporting high-definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterised by data that should be transmitted through the network with low latency and high reliability. A single device type might also be associated with different traffic profiles / characteristics depending on the application(s) it is running. For example, different considerations may apply for efficiently supporting data exchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streaming application (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or being used for voice communications by an emergency responder in an emergency scenario (data subject to stringent reliability and latency requirements).

[0009] In view of this there is expected to be a desire for current wireless communications networks, for example those which may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems / new radio access technology (RAT) systems, or indeed future 6G wireless communications, as well as future iterations / releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements. Such a requirement can produce complex scenarios in which a conflict between a communications devices transmitting and receiving contemporaneously can occur which need to be resolved.

[0010] SUMMARY OF THE DISCEOSURE

[0011] The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above. Embodiments of the present technique can provide a method of operating a communications device configured to transmit signals to and / or to receive signals from an infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network. According to one example, the method comprises resolving a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink. The one or more time slots include at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink. The resolving comprises receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which reenables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0012] Example embodiments can resolve a use of communications resources, which would otherwise be disabled by a link direction indicator, which may cause communications resources to be un-necessarily wasted.

[0013] According to another example embodiment, the method comprises receiving a first configuration allocating resources of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for one or both of transmitting on the uplink and receiving on the downlink. At least one time slot is configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink. The method comprises receiving a second configuration allocating resources of the one or more time slots for one or both of transmitting on the uplink and receiving on the downlink. The method comprises detecting an unallowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration. The method comprises applying a link direction indicator, directing the communications device to either transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the first or the second configuration by disabling the downlink resources, or to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the other of the first or the second configuration-by disabling the uplink resources, which would have required the communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously. The method comprises subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0014] For example, the first configuration may be a semi-persistent signalled (SPS) allocation of resources of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and the second configuration may be a Configured Grant of a Physical Uplink Shared Channel CG-PUSCH), which may be indicated by the network on a shorter term basis or more immediately and may conflict with the first configuration because this requires conflicting use of an SBFD resource.

[0015] According to example embodiments, if a conflict or collision condition occurs in which a communications device is required to both transmit and receive contemporaneously, which it may not be capable of doing, then a link direction indicator may be used to resolve such conflicts. However, this may cause an un-necessary waste of communications resources in which communications resources are disabled by the link direction indicator, which could still be used or there are scenarios where it is desirable to re-enable the disabled resources. An overwrite indicator is therefore signalled to re-enable resources disabled by the link direction indicator.

[0016] Respective aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims.

[0017] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, but are not restrictive, of the present technology. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0018] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

[0020] Figure 1 schematically represents some aspects of an LTE-type wireless telecommunication system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0021] Figure 2 schematically represents some aspects of a new radio access technology (RAT) wireless telecommunications system, which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0022] Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of an example infrastructure equipment and communications device, which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0023] Figure 4 schematically represents a first example of non-overlapping sub-bands for uplink and downlink transmissions;

[0024] Figure 5 schematically represents second and third examples of non-overlapping sub-bands for uplink and downlink transmissions;

[0025] Figure 6 schematically represents examples techniques for indicating different TDD slot format configurations;

[0026] Figure 7 is a schematic representation of a configuration of a TDD slot format as illustrates a sub-band full duplex (SBFD) symbol configuration;

[0027] Figure 8 is a schematic representation of a time slot configured for SBFD illustrating a collision on the uplink and the downlink;

[0028] Figure 9 is a schematic representation providing an example in which a dynamically configured uplink transmission on a physical uplink shared Channel (PUSCH) collide with a semi-persistent signaled (SPS) resource;

[0029] Figure 10 is a schematic representation of time slots including SBF D configured timeslots in which a conflict or collision occurs between downlink and uplink transmission;

[0030] Figure 11 is a schematic representation of a time slot configured for SBFD in which an uplink and downlink collision occurs and a link direction indicator is used to direct the communications device to transmit on the uplink;

[0031] Figure 12 is a schematic representation of a repeating pattern of five time slot configured for a communications device including SBFD timeslots in which a conflict or collision occurs between uplink and downlink and an overwrite indicator is used to ensure priority for downlink in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

[0032] Figure 13A is a schematic representation of five timeslots including three time slots configured for SBFD in which an overwrite indicator is implied from a presence or an absence of a collision between an uplink transmission and a downlink reception in accordance with an example embodiment; and Figure 13B is a schematic representation of a repeating pattern of five timeslots including time slot configured for SBFD in which a dynamic grant is provided as an implicit overwrite indicator to ensure uplink transmission occurs in accordance with an example embodiment;

[0033] Figure 14 is a schematic representation of a set of five timeslots including those configured with SBFD in which a PUCCH acts as an overwrite indicator in accordance with an example embodiment;

[0034] Figure 15 is a schematic representation of a repeating pattern of five timeslots including those configured with the SBFD in which an overwrite indicator causes a permanent change in a selection of uplink or downlink;

[0035] Figure 16 is a schematic representation of a repeating pattern of five timeslots including those configured with SBFD in which an uplink grant is used to provide an overwrite indication for a certain duration in accordance with example embodiments; and

[0036] Figure 17 is a schematic representation of a sequence of timeslots including SBFD timeslots in which downlink on uplink collision is avoided due to a re-enablement of an uplink sideband in accordance with example embodiments.

[0037] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0038] Long Term Evolution Advanced Radio Access Technology (4G)

[0039] Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basic functionality of a mobile telecommunications network / system 6 operating generally in accordance with LTE principles, but which may also support other radio access technologies, and which may be adapted to implement embodiments of the disclosure as described herein. Various elements of Figure 1 and certain aspects of their respective modes of operation are well-known and defined in the relevant standards administered by the 3GPP (RTM) body, and also described in many books on the subject, for example, Holma H. and Toskala A [1], It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications networks discussed herein which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to the relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to the relevant standards.

[0040] The network 6 includes a plurality of base stations 1 connected to a core network 2. Each base station provides a coverage area 3 (i.e. a cell) within which data can be communicated to and from communications devices 4. Although each base station 1 is shown in Figure 1 as a single entity, the skilled person will appreciate that some of the functions of the base station may be carried out by disparate, inter-connected elements, such as antennas (or antennae), remote radio heads, amplifiers, etc. Collectively, one or more base stations may form a radio access network.

[0041] Data is transmitted from base stations 1 to communications devices 4 within their respective coverage areas 3 via a radio downlink (DL). Data is transmitted from communications devices 4 to the base stations 1 via a radio uplink (UL). The core network 2 routes data to and from the communications devices 4 via the respective base stations 1 and provides functions such as authentication, mobility management, charging and so on. Communications devices may also be referred to as mobile stations, user equipment (UEs), user terminals, mobile radios, mobile terminals, terminal devices, wireless transmit and receive units (WTRUs), and so forth. Services provided by the core network 2 may include connectivity to the internet or to external telephony services. The core network 2 may further track the location of the communications devices 4 so that it can efficiently contact (i.e. page) the communications devices 4 for transmitting downlink data towards the communications devices 4. Base stations, which are an example of network infrastructure equipment, may also be referred to as transceiver stations, nodeBs, e-nodeBs, eNB, g-nodeBs, gNB and so forth. In this regard different terminology is often associated with different generations of wireless telecommunications systems for elements providing broadly comparable functionality. However, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be equally implemented in different generations of wireless telecommunications systems, and for simplicity certain terminology may be used regardless of the underlying network architecture. That is to say, the use of a specific term in relation to certain example implementations is not intended to indicate these implementations are limited to a certain generation of network that may be most associated with that particular terminology.

[0042] New Radio Access Technology (5G)

[0043] Systems incorporating NR technology are expected to support different services (or types of services), which may be characterised by different requirements for latency, data rate and / or reliability. For example, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services are characterised by high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb / s. The requirements for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services are for one transmission of a 32 byte packet to be transmitted from the radio protocol layer 2 / 3 SDU ingress point to the radio protocol layer 2 / 3 SDU egress point of the radio interface within 1 ms with a reliability of 1 - 10'5(99.999 %) or higher (99.9999%) [2],

[0044] Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) is another example of a service which may be supported by NR-based communications networks. In addition, systems may be expected to support further enhancements related to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in order to support services with new requirements of high availability, high reliability, low latency, and in some cases, high-accuracy positioning.

[0045] An example configuration of a wireless communications network which uses some of the terminology proposed for and used in NR and 5G is shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2 a plurality of transmission and reception points (TRPs) 10 are connected to distributed control units (DUs) 41, 42 by a connection interface represented as a line 16. Each of the TRPs 10 is arranged to transmit and receive signals via a wireless access interface within a radio frequency bandwidth available to the wireless communications network. Thus, within a range for performing radio communications via the wireless access interface, each of the TRPs 10, forms a cell of the wireless communications network as represented by a circle 12. As such, wireless communications devices 14 which are within a radio communications range provided by the cells 12 can transmit and receive signals to and from the TRPs 10 via the wireless access interface. Each of the distributed units 41, 42 are connected to a central unit (CU) 40 (which may be referred to as a controlling node) via an interface 46. The central unit 40 is then connected to the core network 20 which may contain all other functions required to transmit data for communicating to and from the wireless communications devices and the core network 20 may be connected to other networks 25.

[0046] The elements of the wireless access network shown in Figure 2 may operate in a similar way to corresponding elements of an LTE network as described with regard to the example of Figure 1. It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications network represented in Figure 2, and of other networks discussed herein in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure, which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to currently used approaches for implementing such operational aspects of wireless telecommunications systems, e.g. in accordance with the relevant standards. The TRPs 10 of Figure 2 may in part have a corresponding functionality to a base station or eNodeB of an LTE network. Similarly, the communications devices 14 may have a functionality corresponding to the UE devices 4 known for operation with an LTE network. It will be appreciated therefore that operational aspects of a new RAT network (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be different to those known from LTE or other known mobile telecommunications standards. However, it will also be appreciated that each of the core network component, base stations and communications devices of a new RAT network will be functionally similar to, respectively, the core network component, base stations and communications devices of an LTE wireless communications network.

[0047] In terms of broad top-level functionality, the core network 20 connected to the new RAT telecommunications system represented in Figure 2 may be broadly considered to correspond with the core network 2 represented in Figure 1, and the respective central units 40 and their associated distributed units / TRPs 10 may be broadly considered to provide functionality corresponding to the base stations 1 of Figure 1. The term network infrastructure equipment / access node may be used to encompass these elements and more conventional base station type elements of wireless telecommunications systems. Depending on the application at hand the responsibility for scheduling transmissions which are scheduled on the radio interface between the respective distributed units and the communications devices may lie with the controlling node / central unit and / or the distributed units / TRPs. A communications device 14 is represented in Figure 2 within the coverage area of the first communication cell 12. This communications device 14 may thus exchange signalling with the first central unit 40 in the first communication cell 12 via one of the distributed units / TRPs 10 associated with the first communication cell 12.

[0048] It will further be appreciated that Figure 2 represents merely one example of a proposed architecture for a new RAT based telecommunications system in which approaches in accordance with the principles described herein may be adopted, and the functionality disclosed herein may also be applied in respect of wireless telecommunications systems having different architectures.

[0049] Thus, certain embodiments of the disclosure as discussed herein may be implemented in wireless telecommunication systems / networks according to various different architectures, such as the example architectures shown in Figures 1 and 2. It will thus be appreciated the specific wireless telecommunications architecture in any given implementation is not of primary significance to the principles described herein. In this regard, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be described generally in the context of communications between network infrastructure equipment / access nodes and a communications device, wherein the specific nature of the network infrastructure equipment / access node and the communications device will depend on the network infrastructure for the implementation at hand. For example, in some scenarios the network infrastructure equipment / access node may comprise a base station, such as an LTE-type base station 1 as shown in Figure 1 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein, and in other examples the network infrastructure equipment may comprise a control unit / controlling node 40 and / or a TRP 10 of the kind shown in Figure 2 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein.

[0050] A more detailed diagram of some of the components of the network shown in Figure 2 is provided by Figure 3. In Figure 3, a TRP 10 as shown in Figure 2 comprises, as a simplified representation, a wireless transmitter 30, a wireless receiver 32 and a controller or controlling processor 34 which may operate to control the transmitter 30 and the wireless receiver 32 to transmit and receive radio signals to one or more UEs 14 within a cell 12 formed by the TRP 10. As shown in Figure 3, an example UE 14 is shown to include a corresponding transmiter 49, a receiver 48 and a controller 44 which is configured to control the transmiter 49 and the receiver 48 to transmit signals representing uplink data to the wireless communications network via the wireless access interface formed by the TRP 10 and to receive downlink data as signals transmited by the transmiter 30 and received by the receiver 48 in accordance with the conventional operation.

[0051] The transmiters 30, 49 and the receivers 32, 48 (as well as other transmiters, receivers and transceivers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may include radio frequency filters and amplifiers as well as signal processing components and devices in order to transmit and receive radio signals in accordance for example with the 5G / NR standard. The controllers 34, 44 (as well as other controllers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc., configured to carry out instructions which are stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-volatile memory. The processing steps described herein may be carried out by, for example, a microprocessor in conjunction with a random access memory, operating according to instructions stored on a computer readable medium. The transmiters, the receivers and the controllers are schematically shown in Figure 3 as separate elements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciated that the functionality of these elements can be provided in various different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configured application-specific integrated circuit(s) / circuitry / chip(s) / chipset(s). As will be appreciated the infrastructure equipment / TRP / base station as well as the UE / communications device will in general comprise various other elements associated with its operating functionality.

[0052] As shown in Figure 3, the TRP 10 also includes a network interface 50 which connects to the DU 42 via a physical interface 16. The network interface 50 therefore provides a communication link for data and signalling traffic from the TRP 10 via the DU 42 and the CU 40 to the core network 20.

[0053] The interface 46 between the DU 42 and the CU 40 is known as the F 1 interface which can be a physical or a logical interface. The Fl interface 46 between CU and DU may operate in accordance with specifications 3GPP TS 38.470 and 3GPP TS 38.473, and may be formed from a fibre optic or other wired or wireless high bandwidth connection. In one example the connection 16 from the TRP 10 to the DU 42 is via fibre optic. The connection between a TRP 10 and the core network 20 can be generally referred to as a backhaul, which comprises the interface 16 from the network interface 50 of the TRP 10 to the DU 42 and the Fl interface 46 from the DU 42 to the CU 40.

[0054] In order for a UE such as UE 4 or 14 to transmit uplink data to the network (e.g. on a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) to, for example, base station 1 or TRP 10, the UE must first ensure it is synchronised with the network on the uplink. Since a particular eNB or gNB expects to be receiving communications from many UEs, it needs to ensure that it shares a common timing understanding with each of these UEs (i.e. they are synchronised in terms of the starting times of frames and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols). This is so that the eNB is able to schedule communication with each of them in a manner that avoids collisions and to ensure orthogonality of the uplink signals, such that inter-subcarrier interference is avoided or mitigated.

[0055] Although reference is made to 5G networks, the discussions in this specification apply equally to 6G networks (and beyond) where there is expected to be significantly higher throughput, lower latency and higher reliability utilizing sub-THz frequencies. Full Duplex Time Division Duplex (FD-TDD)

[0056] NR / 5G networks can operate using Time Division Duplex (TDD), where an entire frequency band or carrier is switched to either downlink or uplink transmissions for a time period and can be switched to the other of downlink or uplink transmissions at a later time period. Currently, TDD operates in Half Duplex mode (HD-TDD) where the gNB or UE can, at a given time, either transmit or receive packets, but not both at the same time. As wireless networks transition from NR to 5G- Advanced networks, a proposed new feature of such networks is to enhance duplexing operation for Time Division Duplex (TDD) by enabling Full Duplex operation in TDD (FD-TDD) [3], [4],

[0057] In FD-TDD, a gNB can transmit and receive data to and from the UEs at the same time on the same frequency band. In addition, a UE can operate either in HD-TDD or FD-TDD mode, depending on its capability. For example, when UEs are only capable of supporting HD-TDD, FD-TDD is achieved at the gNB by scheduling a DL transmission to a first UE and scheduling a UL transmission from a second UE within the same Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol (i.e., at the same time). Conversely, when UEs are capable of supporting FD-TDD, FD-TDD is achieved both at the gNB and the UE, where the gNB can simultaneously schedule this UE with DL and UL transmissions within the same OFDM symbol by scheduling the DL and UL transmissions at different frequencies (e.g., physical resource blocks (PRBs)) of the system bandwidth. A UE supporting FD-TDD requires more complex hardware than a UE that only supports HD-TDD. Development of current 5G networks is focused primarily on enabling FD-TDD at the gNB with UEs operating in HD-TDD mode.

[0058] Motivations for enhancing duplexing operation for TDD include an improvement in system capacity, reduced latency, and improved uplink coverage. For example, in current HD-TDD systems, OFDM symbols are allocated only for either a DL or UL direction in a semi-static manner. Hence, if one direction experiences less or no data, the spare resources cannot be used in the other direction, or are, at best, under-utilized. However, if resources can be used for DL data and UL data (as in FD-TDD) at the same time, the resource utilization in the system can be improved. Furthermore, in current HD-TDD systems, a UE can receive DL data, but cannot transmit UL data at the same time, which causes delays. If a gNB or UE is allowed to transmit and receive data at the same time (as with FD-TDD), the traffic latency will be improved. In addition, UEs are usually coverage limited in their UL transmissions when located close to the edge of a cell. While the UE coverage at the cell-edge can be improved if more time domain resources are assigned to UL transmissions (e.g. repetitions), for HD-TDD systems, if the UL direction is assigned more time resources, fewer time resources can be assigned to the DL direction, which can lead to system imbalance. In contrast, in FD-TDD, continuous UL resources can be assigned for repetition opportunities whilst allowing DL traffic to occur in those resources, thereby UL enhancing coverage without causing system imbalance.

[0059] Sub-band Full Duplex (SBFD)

[0060] In Sub-band Full Duplex (SBFD), the frequency resource of a TDD system bandwidth or Bandwidth Part (BWP) (i.e. at the UE / gNB) is divided into two or more non-overlapping sub-bands, where each sub-band can be DL or UL [5], Guard sub-bands may be used between DL and UL sub-bands to reduce inter subband interference. In the current 5G system, only one UL sub-band can be configured in an OFDM symbol.

[0061] An example is shown in Figure 4, where simultaneous DL and UL transmissions occur in three different non-overlapping sub-bands 401 to 403, i.e., in different sets of frequency Resource Blocks (RB): Subband#! 401, Sub-band#2 402, Sub-band#3 403. The example of Figure 4 is referred to as {DUD}, because two sub-bands, Sub-band# 1 401 and Sub-band#3 403, are used for DL transmissions whilst one sub-band, Sub-band#2 402, is used for UL transmissions. To reduce leakage from one sub-band 401 to 403 to another, a guard sub-band 410 may be configured between UL and DL sub-bands 401 to 403. Guard sub-bands 410 are configured between DL Sub-band# 3 403 and UL Sub-band#2 402 and between UL Sub-band#2 402 and DL Sub-band# 1 401.

[0062] Figure 5 shows two further examples with a DL and UL sub-band separated by a guard sub-band, where here, the UL sub-band can be configured to occupy the lower frequency portion of the BWP whilst the DL sub-band occupies higher frequency portion of the BWP {UD} or the UL sub-band occupies the higher frequency portion of the BWP whilst the DL sub-band occupies lower frequency portion of the BWP {DU}. Here, on the left-side of Figure 5, a UL sub-band# 1 501 is separated from a DL sub-band#2 503 by a guard sub-band 502 - this sub-band arrangement is referred to as {UD}. In this case, the DL sub-band#2 503 occupies a higher frequency portion of the system bandwidth than the UL sub-band# 1 501. On the right-side of Figure 5, a DL sub-band# 1 504 is separated from a UL sub-band#2 506 by a guard sub-band 505 - this sub-band arrangement is referred to as {DU}. In this case, the UL sub-band#2 506 occupies a higher frequency portion of the system bandwidth than the DL sub-band# 1 504.

[0063] While Figures 4 and 5 show the system bandwidth as being divided into either two or three sub-bands, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the concept of SBFD may (in further releases of the 3GPP specifications, for example) be extended such that any number of sub-bands could be used, if deemed beneficial. For example, the system bandwidth may be divided into four sub-bands, which may, using the example of Figure 4, include the two downlink sub-bands 401, 403, the uplink sub-band 402 and another uplink sub-band, though other sub-band arrangements are envisioned. Guard sub-bands may be used in substantially any sub-band arrangement.

[0064] Slot Format Configurations

[0065] In the legacy TDD system, an OFDM symbol can be configured as Downlink (DL), Uplink (UL) or Flexible (FL). DL OFDM symbols can be used by the gNB to transmit downlink transmissions to the UE whilst UL OFDM symbols can be used by the UE to transmit uplink transmissions to the gNB. FL OFDM symbols can be further configured into DL or UL OFDM symbols. There are four ways to configure the TDD slot format, where two of them are semi-static configurations and another two are dynamic configurations, i.e.:

[0066] • Semi-static configurations: o Cell specific configuration; and o UE dedicated configuration;

[0067] • Dynamic configurations: o Slot Format Indicator (SFI); and o DL or UL Grant.

[0068] An example using showing all four ways of indicating TDD Slot Format configurations is shown in Figure 6. The cell specific configuration 601 is signalled in the System Information Blocks (SIBs) using the Radio Resource Control (RRC) parameter TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon, where up to two TDD patterns can be configured (where, here, the second TDD pattern is optional). In each TDD pattern, the number of consecutive DL slots and DL OFDM symbols are configured from the start of the TDD pattern, and the number of consecutive UL slots and UL OFDM symbols are configured from the end of the TDD pattern. Any remaining OFDM symbols not configured as DL or UL are FL OFDM symbols.

[0069] For example, in Figure 6, two TDD patterns are configured; a first TDD pattern 611 and a second TDD pattern 612, where each pattern has a duration of five slots (where it should be noted that the two TDD patterns can have different durations). In the first TDD pattern 611, which is shown in the example of Figure 6 to occupy Slot n to Slot w+4. N1 DL-siot = 2 consecutive slots are DL from the start of the pattern followed \>y NloL-symboi = 7 DL OFDM symbols. From the end of the first TDD pattern 611, NluL-siot = 1 slot is UL followed by N1 uL-symboi = 6 UL OFDM symbols. The remaining OFDM symbols between the DL and UL OFDM symbols for the first TDD pattern 611 are FL OFDM symbols occupying part of Slot n+2 and Slot n+3. For the second TDD pattern 612, which occupies Slot n+5 to Slot n+9, the DL OFDM symbols are configured in the first N2DL.Siot = 1 slot and followed by N2DL.Symboi = 8 OFDM symbols form the start of the second TDD pattern 612. The UL OFDM symbols are configured from N2uL-siot = 2 slots and followed by N2uL-symboi = 7 UL OFDM symbols from the end of the second TDD pattern 612.

[0070] Similarly to the first TDD pattern 611, the OFDM symbols between the indicated DL and UL OFDM symbols for the second TDD pattern 612 occupying part of Slot w+6 and slot n+1 are FL OFDM symbols.

[0071] The TDD Slot Format can be further configured using a UE dedicated configuration 602 configured via the RRC parameter TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated, where FL OFDM symbols configured from the cell specific TDD Slot Format configuration 601 can be further configured into DL, UL or remain as FL OFDM symbols. Using the example in Figure 6, the first 6 FL OFDM symbols and the first 7 FL OFDM symbols of Slot w+3 and Slot n+1 are re-configured by the semi-static UE-dedicated configuration 602 as DL and UL OFDM symbols respectively, as illustrated by the black dashed boxes shown in Figure 6 for the cell specific configuration 601 and the UE dedicated configuration 602.

[0072] The remaining FL OFDM symbols after the semi-static configurations have been applied can be dynamically indicated into DL or UL symbols, or can remain as FL OFDM symbols, and this can be dynamically configured 603 using the Slot Format Indicator (SFI), which is transmitted in a PDCCH using a Group Common DCI with DCI Format 2 0 with the cyclic redundancy code (CRC) scrambled by an SFI-radio network temporary identifier (SFI-RNTI). The SFI indicates an index to an entry in the lookup table, which is Table 11.1.1-1 of [6], where each entry of the lookup table indicates a slot format, i.e., the locations of DL, UL and FL OFDM symbols within a slot. In the example in Figure 6, an SFI is transmitted to a group of UEs in Slot n+1 to configure the slot format of Slot n+2, where here the SFI indicates an index = 33, which effectively configures the 7 FL OFDM symbols in Slot n+2 after the UE dedicated configuration 602, to 2 DL, 3 FL and 2 UL OFDM symbols, as illustrated by the black dashed box shown in Figure 6 for the SFI configuration 603.

[0073] OFDM symbols that remain as FL OFDM symbols (e.g. after semi-static configurations 601, 602 and / or SFI dynamic indication 603) can further be indicated dynamically 604 as DL or UL OFDM symbols via a DL Grant or an UL Grant respectively. This is done by scheduling a PDSCH or PUSCH over FL OFDM symbols, thereby dynamically configuring them into DL and UL OFDM symbols respectively. In the example in Figure 6, a DL Grant carried by a PDCCH is transmitted in Slot n+2 to a UE scheduling a PDSCH starting from the fourth OFDM symbol to the twelfth OFDM symbol of Slot n+2, where the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth OFDM symbols of Slot n+2 are FL OFDM symbols. That is, the DL Grant by scheduling a PDSCH over FL OFDM symbols dynamically configures them into DL OFDM symbols. Similarly, an UL Grant in Slot n+5 schedules a PUSCH in the last 4 FL OFDM symbols of Slot n+6, thereby dynamically configuring these FL OFDM symbols into UL OFDM symbols. Again, this is indicated by the black dashed boxes shown in Figure 6 for the DL / UL grant configuration 604.

[0074] SBFD Configuration

[0075] In addition to DL, UL and FL OFDM symbols, SBFD OFDM symbol is introduced in Rel-19, where an SBFD OFDM symbol consists of one UL sub-band and either one or two DL sub-bands as shown in Figures 4 and 5. In Rel-19, SBFD OFDM symbols are semi-statically configured, where SBFD OFDM symbols can be configured on DL OFDM symbols and / or FL OFDM symbols that are cell-specifically configured. One of the objectives of Duplex Evolution is to increase UL capacity and so at least for Rel- 19, SBFD is only configured in DL and / or FL OFDM symbols, i.e., by configuring a UL sub-band in DL and / or FL OFDM symbols. That is, DL OFDM symbols and FL OFDM symbols configured cell specifically using the parameter TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon, can be further semi-statically configured into SBFD OFDM symbols using a new RRC configuration message. DL, UL and FL OFDM symbols configured using TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon are termed herein as original DL, UL and FL OFDM symbols respectively.

[0076] An example is shown in Figure 7, where a TDD Slot Format {DDDSU}, consisting of three DL slots, one slot with DL and FL OFDM symbols, and one UL slot is, cell specifically configured 701 using the RRC parameter TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon. In this example, Slot n+1 and Slot w+2. which consist of original DL OFDM symbols, and Slot w+3, which consists of original DL and original FL OFDM symbols, are configured (e.g., by another RRC configuration 702 which can be another cell specific configuration or UE specific configuration) into SBFD OFDM symbols with a {DUD} sub-band arrangement - as shown by the black dashed boxes in Figure 7. In Rel-19, original UL OFDM symbols, i.e., UL OFDM symbols configured via TDD-UL-DL-ConfigCommon, are not used for configuration of SBFD OFDM symbols as described above.

[0077] In Rel-19, SBFD OFDM symbol configuration is not dynamically configured to reduce complexity in managing CLI among gNBs. Hence, an original DL or FL OFDM symbol that is configured as SBFD OFDM symbol such as in the example of Figure 7 cannot be dynamically configured back to non-SBFD OFDM symbols.

[0078] Downlink and Uplink Collisions

[0079] An SBFD UE may be scheduled with simultaneous DL reception and UL transmission in SBFD OFDM symbols, resulting in a collision since the SBFD UE is half duplex, i.e., it cannot receive and transmit at the same time. An example is shown in Figure 8, which provides a schematic representation of a time slot comprising fourteen OFDM symbols 800, which are divided into sub-bands for uplink 802 and downlink 804 transmission according to an SBFD arrangement. As shown in Figure 8, an SBFD UE is configured with periodically occurring SPS (Semi-persistent Scheduling) PDSCH 806 in the DL and CG- PUSCH 808 in the UL. At some point in time, these two semi-statically configured transmissions collide 810 where the CG-PUSCH occasion is in the UL subband and the SPS is in the DL subband.

[0080] For the case where the DL and UL collision consists of a dynamically scheduled channel and a semi- statically configured channel, the dynamically scheduled channel has priority and is transmitted / received whilst the semi-statically configured channel is dropped. An example is shown in Figure 9, where the gNB configures an SBFD UE with a periodically occurring SPS. In Slot n, the gNB transmits an UL Grant 900 to schedule a PUSCH in Slot «+l, as represented by an arrow 902, where the UE is also configured for an SPS 904 thereby causing a DL and UL collision, as represented by an “X” 906. In this case, since the PUSCH is dynamically scheduled, the UE drops the semi-statically configured SPS 904 and transmits the PUSCH 908. This assumes that the gNB is aware of the semi-statically configured channel and if the gNB deliberately schedules a dynamic DL or UL to collide with a semi-static channel, then the UE should follow a latest instruction from the gNB and so the dynamic DL / UL channel has priority.

[0081] For the DL and UL collision cases where, both the DL and UL channels are dynamically scheduled and are non-repetitive, this is considered an error case. That is the UE behaviour is unspecified and it is up to gNB to avoid scheduling such collision. An example is shown in Figure 10, in which five slots n to n+4 are shown for an SBFD configuration, where in Slot n, the gNB transmits a DL Grant 1001 to the UE to schedule a PDSCH 1002 in Slot n+3, as represented by an arrow 1004. Later in Slot n+2, the gNB transmits a UL Grant 1011 to the UE to schedule a PUSCH 1012 in Slot n+3, represented by an arrow 1014, thereby causing a DL and UL collision between the dynamically scheduled PDSCH and dynamically scheduled PUSCH. This is an error case and the UE behaviour is unspecified as the UE does not expect such collision, which is represented in Figure 10 as an “?”.

[0082] Technical Issue

[0083] A UE can be configured with up to twelve CG-PUSCH and eight SPS, where each of these configurations may have different periodicities to serve different traffics. It may be challenging for a gNB to avoid any collisions between multiple CG-PUSCH configurations and multiple SPS configurations.

[0084] Link direction indication has been proposed in 3GPP [4], where the gNB explicitly indicates the link direction for SBFD OFDM symbols to a UE. That is, the gNB indicates whether the UE should transmit in the UL subband or receive in the DL subband, which would resolve any DL and UL collision. This would be beneficial for DL and UL collision case where both the DL and UL channels are semi-statically configured. An example is shown in Figure 11, where in a particular SBFD slot, the gNB indicates that the link direction for that slot is UL, that is the UE can only transmit in the UL subband. Hence, if an SPS collides with a CG-PUSCH, the SPS is dropped and not received, whilst the CG-PUSCH is transmitted.

[0085] The link direction indicator is further proposed to be signalled using the legacy UE dedicated slot format configuration, i.e., RRC parameter TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated. That is, the SBFD UE will interpret this legacy slot format configuration as a link direction indicator. For example, if the UE dedicated slot format configuration TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated, configures that a SBFD slot as UL then it is interpreted that only UL transmission in the UL subband is allowed (the DL subbands are disabled), and if it is configured as DL then it is interpreted that only DL reception in the DL subband is allowed (the UL subband is disabled). Since TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated is a semi-static configuration, a link direction of an SBFD slot would semi-statically disable a subband. For example, if the TDD-UL-DL- ConfigDedicated indicates that a particular slot is UL, then the resources in the DL subband of that slot cannot be used until the UE is RRC reconfigured again. Denying the SBFD UE in an SBFD slot from using resources in a particular subband defeats the purpose of configuring SBFD, since this mechanism is worse than the legacy case. For example in Figure 11, in which a single slot of fourteen OFDM symbols are shown in SBFD format in which the OFDM symbols are divided into uplink resource 1101 and downlink resource 1102. As shown, a semi-persistent schedule (SPS) downlink resource on a PDSCH 1104 has been allocated in a downlink region 1102 of the OFDM symbols whereas a CG-PUSCH 1110 has been configured in the uplink resource of the OFDM symbols. This represents a collision and the UE cannot transmit and receive contemporaneously as represented by and “X” 1122. Here, a link direction indicator 1120 prevents the UE from accessing a significant number of resources. The link direction indicator 1120 effectively bans the UE from using any of the resource blocks in the DL subband 1102, and it may be better to configure that slot as an UL slot, which would allow the UE to use the all the resource blocks in that slot, which would utilize the resources more efficiently than configuring as SBFD and then banning a significant portion of the resources.

[0086] In addition to the legacy slot format configuration TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated, it is also proposed in [4] and [5] that the legacy Slot Format Indicator (SFI) carried by Group Common DCI with DCI Format 2 0 is used as a link direction indicator for SBFD UE. That is, if the SFI indicates UL for a particular set of SBFD OFDM symbols, then an SBFD UE monitoring this SFI would interpret this as transmission in the UL subband is allowed but reception in the DL subband(s) is disabled, and if the SFI indicates DL for a particular set of SBFD OFDM symbols, then the SBFD UE would disable transmission in the UL subband but enable reception in the DL subband(s). This enables the gNB to update the link direction at a faster rate, rather than semi-statically disable an entire subband, which is typically a significant portion of resources. However, SFI is not as reliable as RRC configurations, which may lead to UE missing the link direction indicator. The SFI also targets a group of UEs rather than a specific UE as in using the RRC parameter TDD-UL-DL-ConfigDedicated, which reduces the gNB flexibility in managing individual UEs. Furthermore, the SFI can indicate only DL, UL or Flexible, and so it cannot indicate that a set of OFDM symbols as SBFD OFDM symbols, i.e., there is no indication to cancel the previous link direction indication.

[0087] In [5], it has been proposed that the link direction is temporary, that is, the disabled subband is re-enabled after a fixed period of time. That is after the fixed period of time, the DL and UL subbands of the SBFD OFDM symbol are enabled and can be used for reception and transmission respectively. This would avoid a disabled subband to be continuously disabled. However, during the fixed period of time, the gNB is still unable to use the disabled subband for the UE, and hence a more flexible method is needed.

[0088] Embodiments of the present technique can provide a method of resolving a use of communications resources of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for one or both of transmitting on the uplink and receiving on the downlink. The one or more time slots of the wireless access interface, include at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a frequency band for transmitting on the uplink and a frequency band for receiving on the downlink. According to one example embodiment, the method comprises resolving a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink. The one or more time slots include at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more OFDM symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink. The resolving comprises receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication

[0089] Example embodiments can re-enable communications resources disabled by a link direction indicator by transmitting an overwrite indicator to re-enable these resources. According to example embodiments, communications resources, which have been disabled can then be used thereby making more efficient use of the resources of an SBFD time slot. According to example embodiments a wireless communications network may recognise that communications resources can be more efficiently used by re-enabling communications resources of the uplink or the downlink of timeslots otherwise disabled by link adaptation into indicator.

[0090] In some examples, due to a relative time at which communications resources of a wireless access interface are configured to provide different services, an error state or collision / conflict may occur for an SBFD time slot, which would otherwise require a communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously. According to example embodiments, the method may comprise receiving a second allocation of resources of the one or more time slots for one or both of transmitting on the uplink and receiving on the downlink, after a first configuration has been received. The second allocation may be made on a more immediate or shorter term basis, for example in reaction to current communication requirements, which may occur at a shorter notice, such as for example a dynamically scheduled transmission. The method comprises applying a link direction indicator directing the communications device to either transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the first or the second allocations by disabling the downlink resources, or to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the other of the first or the second allocations by disabling the uplink resources, which would have required the communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously. The method comprises subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0091] For example, the link adaptation indicator may be applied after detecting that first and second resource allocations cause an un-allowable collision or conflict between uplink transmission and downlink reception.

[0092] In some examples, the unallowable collision may be detected because the first and the second configurations would require the communications device to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, where such collisions causes an error case which would lead to unspecified or unpredictable UE behaviour. An example of an unallowable collision is when a non-repetitive dynamically scheduled uplink transmission collides with a non-repetitive dynamically scheduled downlink transmission, such as that described in Figure 10, which leads to an error case. However example embodiments are not limited to re-enabling communications resources of an SBFD time slot when an error, collision or conflict occurs, because example embodiments find application by re-enabling communications resources of the SBFD time slot in order to utilize communications resources which would other be otherwise be underutilized or wasted.

[0093] Example embodiments are arranged to introduce an indicator to overwrite a link direction indicator. That is, the overwrite indicator would re-enable a subband that has been disabled by the link direction indicator.

[0094] In an example embodiment, the overwrite indicator is dynamically indicated to the UE. An example is shown in Figure 12, which shows ten timeslots n to w+9 each with fourteen OFDM symbols with an SBFD configuration in which each sequence of five timeslots are configured with either downlink or uplink and as shown, the configuration is a {DDDDU} TDD pattern that is further configured to a SBFD pattern = {DXXXU}, where X here is an SBFD time slot. An SBFD UE is configured with semi-static link direction such that the fourth slot 1201 of every SBFD pattern is UL, that is the DL subbands of the fourth time slot 1201 of a SBFD pattern, such as Slot w+3 and Slot w+8 shown in Figure 12, are disabled. The UE is configured with an SPS 1204 with periodicity of five slots. In Slot «+3, the SPS is dropped, as represented by a “X” 1206, since the DL subband is disabled, by a link direction indicator. In Slot «+5, the gNB sends an Overwrite Indicator (OW) 1208 to the UE to overwrite the link direction of Slot w+8. as represented by an arrow 12010, which allowed the SPS in Slot w+8 to be received as it re-enabled the DL subbands in SBFD Slot «+8, as represented by a tick 1212.

[0095] Explicit Overwrite Indicator

[0096] In some example embodiments, the dynamic overwrite indicator is signaled in a DCI. In an implementation, this is a new 1 bit field in a DCI, where the DCI can be a DL / UL Grant or an activation DCI. That is the overwrite indicator is explicitly signaled to the UE.

[0097] In some embodiments, the dynamic overwrite indicator is explicitly signaled in the GC-DCI. The GC- DCI consists of a series of fields, where each field is monitored by an SBFD UE, where the field indicates whether one or more SBFD OFDM symbols have their subband re-enabled (if they are previously disabled).

[0098] Implicit Overwrite Indicator

[0099] In other example embodiments, the dynamic overwrite indicator is implicitly signaled to the UE. The following embodiments are implicit overwrite indicators.

[0100] Absence of Error Case Collision

[0101] In other example embodiments, the implicit dynamic overwrite indicator is the absence and presence of error case collisions. That is, the link direction is overwritten and not applicable if there is no DL and UL collision, or if the DL and UL collision is an “allowed” collision. An “allowed” collision is one where the UE behaviour is specified and hence is predictable by the network. An example is shown in Figure 13 A, where the network configured a {DXXXU} SBFD pattern. The network further indicates the link direction for the second slot 1301 (slot «+l) and the fourth slot 1302 (slot n+3) of the SBFD pattern to DL and UL respectively. That is, the UL subband 1304 in Slot n+1 in Figure 13A, is disabled, and the DL subband 1306 in Slot n+3 in Figure 13A, is disabled. The gNB sends an UL Grant 1310 in Slot n to dynamically schedule 1312 a PUSCH 1314 in Slot n+1, where the PUSCH 1314 is allocated in the disabled UL subband 1304, which also causes a collision with an ongoing SPS 1316. As per this embodiment, since a dynamically scheduled transmission (PUSCH 1314) colliding with a semi-static channel (SPS 1316) is a valid collision, (i.e. not an error case), the link direction is (implicitly) overwritten, and so the UL subband is re-enabled as represented by a tick 1318. The UE then resolves a collision following the collision rule, and in this case the dynamically scheduled PUSCH 1314 has priority and so it is transmitted whilst the SPS 1316 is dropped. That is in Slot n+1, although there is a collision, the collision is not an unallowable collision, and so the link direction indicator is implicitly overwritten due to the absence of an unallowable collision. In Slot n+3, although the SPS 1320 is allocated in a disabled DL subband 1306, since there is no collision (or error case collision), the link direction is implicitly overwritten and the SPS 1320 is therefore received by the UE as represented by a tick 1322. That is in Slot n+3, there is no collision or an absence of an unallowable collision thereby the link direction indicator is implicitly overwritten.

[0102] DL / UL Grant

[0103] In other example embodiments, the dynamic overwrite indicator is a scheduling grant, that is, an UL Grant scheduling one or more PUSCH, and a DL Grant scheduling one or more PDSCH. This recognizes that the gNB is aware that a set of SBFD OFDM symbols has one of its subband disabled by a link direction indicator, and if the gNB deliberately schedules a channel on a disabled subband, that is therefore the intention of the gNB, and that channel should be transmitted or received by the UE. An example is shown in Figure 13B, which shows ten slots n to w+9, in which an SBFD UE has a TDD pattern {DDDDU}, which is further configured with SBFD pattern {DXXXU}, where again X represents an SBFD time slot. The UE is provided with a DL link direction indicator (not shown) for the fourth slots 1301 in the SBFD pattern, resulting in the UL subband 1340 being disabled in SBFD Slot n+3 1342 and Slot w+8 1344. The UE is configured with SPS 1346 with periodicity of five slots occurring in Slot n+3 and Slot «+8. The UE is also configured with a CG-PUSCH 1348 with a periodicity of four slots, where its occasions are shown in Slot n+3 and Slot n+1 in Figure 13B. In Slot n+3, there is a CG-PUSCH 1348 and SPS 1346 collision but since the link direction indicates DL in Slot n+3, the UL subband is disabled and consequently the CG-PUSCH 1348 is dropped (as represented by an “X” 1350), whilst the SPS is received by the UE. In Slot n+5, the gNB transmits an UL Grant 1360 to the UE scheduling a PUSCH 1362 within the UL subband of SBFD Slot «+8, as represented by an arrow 1364. For this example embodiment, the UL Grant acts as an overwrite indicator, which overwrites the previous link direction indicating DL for Slot w+8. and therefore the UE transmits the scheduled PUSCH in the UL subband of Slot w+8, as represented by a tick 1366.

[0104] In other example embodiments, the UL Grant or DL Grant that acts as an overwrite indicator applies to repetitive scheduling. That is if an UL Grant schedules repetitive PUSCH, then all the PUSCH repetitions would act as overwrite indicator and they shall be transmitted on any UL subband regardless whether it is disabled or not. Similarly, if a DL Grant schedules repetitive PDSCH, then all the PDSCH repetitions are received by the UE in any DL subband regardless if it is disabled or not.

[0105] In other example embodiments, the DL Grant acts as an overwrite indicator that re-enables an UL subband with the corresponding PUCCH. That is, the DL Grant that schedules a PDSCH, typically also schedules a corresponding PUCCH that carries the HARQ acknowledgements for the PDSCH, and here if the PUCCH is scheduled in a disabled UL subband, then this scheduling would re-enable that UL subband thereby enabling the PUCCH to be transmitted. An example is shown in figure 14, in which five time slots n to w+4 are shown for a configured pattern in which the second and fourth time slots 1401, 1402 have an SBFD configuration and where a link direction indicator (not shown) indicates to a UE that Slot w+1 1401 and Slot w+3 1402 are UL and DL respectively, thereby disabling the DL subbands in Slot w+1 1401 and disabling the UL subband in Slot w+3 1402. The gNB transmits a DL Grant 1404 in Slot n, scheduling a PDSCH 1406 in Slot n+1 with a corresponding PUCCH 1408 in Slot n+3, as represented by arrow 1410, 1412. For this example embodiment, the disabled DL subband in Slot w+1 is re-enabled and the UE receives the PDSCH 1406 as represented by a tick 1414. Similarly, the disabled UL subband in Slot w+3 is re-enabled and the UE transmit the PUCCH 1408 carrying the HARQ acknowledgement for the PDSCH 1406, as represented by a tick 1416.

[0106] In other embodiments, whether the corresponding PUCCH can overwrite a link direction that has disabled the UL subband of a set of SBFD OFDM symbols or not is semi-statically (i.e. RRC) configured by the gNB.

[0107] Activation DCI

[0108] In other example embodiments, the overwrite indicator is the activation DCI for a semi-static channel. The activation DCI can be an UL activation DCI used to activate a Type 2 CG-PUSCH or a DL activation DCI used to activate an SPS. If the activation DCI activates a Type 2 CG-PUSCH, then at least the first occasion of the Type 2 CG-PUSCH is transmitted regardless of the UL subband (if the first occasion is in a UL subband) that it is scheduled in is disabled or not, that is, at least the first occasion of the Type 2 CG-PUSCH would re-enable a disabled UL subband. If the activation DCI activates an SPS, then at least the first occasion of the SPS is received regardless of the DL subband (if the first occasion is in a DL subband) that it is scheduled in is disabled or not, that is, at least the first occasion of the SPS would reenable a disabled DL subband.

[0109] GC-DCI

[0110] In other embodiments, the overwrite indicator is a Group Common DCI (GC-DCI). A GC-DCI is monitored by a group of UEs.

[0111] In other embodiments, the GC-DCI the legacy SFI. The values of the SFI are reinterpreted by SBFD UE, where if the SFI indicates an OFDM symbol as Flexible, then any subband on that OFDM symbol that is previously disabled is re-enabled. In other implementations, where the GC-DCI is the legacy SFI, if the SFI indicates a link direction that is the same as the link direction of a disabled subband, then that subband is re-enabled. That is if the SFI indicates UL for an OFDM symbol, then if the UL subband is disabled in that OFDM symbol, then the UE would re-enable that UL subband. Similarly, if the SFI indicates DL for an OFDM symbol, then if the DL subband(s) is / are disabled in that OFDM symbol, then the UE would re-enable that DL subband.

[0112] Combination

[0113] It should be appreciated that overwrite indicators can be individually implemented or combined according to example embodiments. For example, the overwrite indicator can be implemented as a DL / UL grant and also as an activation DCI. Other combinations can of course be implemented.

[0114] Duration of Overwrite Indicator

[0115] Permanent Overwrite Indicator

[0116] According to example embodiments, the overwrite indicator can be permanent, in the sense that if it reenables a subband, that subband remains enabled, until it is disabled again by another configuration. An example is shown in Figure 15, in which ten time slots of OFDM symbols have a repeating SBFD patent for five time slots, in which the SBFD pattern = {DXXXU} is configured and the UE is further configured with link direction indicating that the 2ndand 4thtime slots 1501, 1502 of the SBFD pattern is UL, thereby disabling the DL subbands of these two slots. In Slot n, the UE receives an overwrite indicator 1504, which activates an SPS 1506 (by a DCI)as represented by an arrow 1508, indicating that the DL subband in Slot w+3 is re-enabled, and the SPS 1506 is therefore received as represented by a tick 1510. For this example embodiment, after the overwrite indicator, the DL subband of the fourth time slot 1502, 1512 of any subsequent SBFD pattern will remain enabled until it is configured otherwise. That is in Slot w+8. which is the fourth time slot of another occurrence of the SBFD pattern, the DL subband is enabled. Since there is no overwrite indicator to re-enable the DL subband of the second time slot 1514 of the second repeat of the SBFD pattern, the DL subband of Slot w+I and Slot w+6 remain disabled.

[0117] Temporary Overwrite Indicator

[0118] In other example embodiments, the overwrite indicator is temporary.

[0119] In other example embodiments, the duration of the temporary overwrite indicator is configured by the network.

[0120] In other example embodiments, the overwrite indicator is a DL / UL Grant, the duration for which the overwrite indicator is applicable is when the scheduled PDSCH, PUCCH or PUSCH occurs. An example is shown in Figure 16, in which ten time slots are shown comprising a repeating pattern of five timeslots (pattern = {UXXXD} is configured according to a pattern, where the link direction indicates DL for Slot w+3 1604 and Slot w+8 1606 resulting in the UL subband in these slots being disabled. As for the example shown in Figure 15, an SPS 1608 is scheduled in the downlink resources of the repeating pattern in timeslots n+ and w+8 1604, 1606. In a corresponding configuration to that shown in Figure 15, the UL Grant 1610 in Slot n, acts as an overwrite indicator 1611 where the schedule PUSCH 1612 in Slot w+3 overwrites the disabled UL subband in the first half of the slot, as represented by a tick 1614. According to this example embodiment, the overwrite indicator 1610, 1611 lasts only for the duration of the PUSCH 1612, i.e. the first half of Slot w+3, after which, the UE reverts back to instruction given by the latest link direction indicator. That is, the UE transmits the PUSCH 1612 which occupies the first half of Slot w+3. In Slot w+8. the UL subband remains disabled since there is no further overwrite indicator to re-enable it, and here a CG-PUSCH occasion 1620 that occurs in the UL subband of Slot w+8 is dropped, as represented by a “X” 1622. In other example embodiments, for DL / UL Grant scheduling a repetitive PDSCH / PUSCH, the duration of the overwrite indicator is applicable for repetitions. The following are examples for the value of is configured by the network. is all the repetitions, that is after the repetition ends, the UE revert back to the instruction given by the latest link direction indicator.

[0121] • The value of 1, that is only the overwrite indicator is applicable only for the 1strepetition, after which, the UE reverts back to the instruction given by the latest link direction indicator.

[0122] In other example embodiments, where the overwrite indicator is an activation DCI, the duration of the overwrite indicator is applicable for repetitions. The following are examples for the value of is configured by the network. is all the occasions, that is, the UE revert back to the instruction given by the latest link direction indicator, when a deactivation DCI is received by the UE to deactivate the Type 2 CG-PUSCH or SPS.

[0123] • The value of 1, that is only the overwrite indicator is applicable only for the 1stoccasion, after which, the UE reverts back to the instruction given by the latest link direction indicator.

[0124] In other example embodiments, where the overwrite indicator is a GC-DCI, the duration of the overwrite indicator NGC-DCI multiple of the periodicity of the GC-DCI. Note that GC-DCI occasion occurs periodically, where the UE monitors for the GC-DCI. The GC-DCI may be present or absence. The following are sub-embodiments of the value of NGC-DCI'.

[0125] • The value of NGC-DCI is configured by the network in units of slots. In this case, if another GC- DCI is received by the UE before the expires, then the UE restart the count down. For example, if GC-DCI period = 2 slots, and NGC-DCI = 6 slots. The UE receives a GC-DCI in Slot and in Slot w+2. the UE did not detect any GC-DCI, and since only two slots had passed, the UE still follows the instruction of the GC-DCI in Slot n. In Slot w+4. the UE detects another GC-DCI. Although only four slots had passed since the previous GC-DCI, the UE follows the GC-DCI in Slot w+4 and restarts it count down of NGC-DCI = 6 starting from Slot w+4.

[0126] • The value of NGC-DCI = 1 periodicity (i.e. NGC-DCI is in units of the GC-DCI period), that is the duration of the overwrite indicator resets after one period of GC-DCI.

[0127] • The value of NGC-DCI last until the next GC-DCI is transmitted. That is, the subband re-enabled by the GC-DCI remains enabled, until the next GC-DCI is transmitted. It should be appreciated that the GC-DCI may not be transmitted in every GC-DCI occasion, and there maybe no GC-DCI transmitted in multiple continuous occasions between two transmitted GC-DCI, and so during these occasions without a transmitted DCI, the UE follows the instruction of the latest GC-DCI.

[0128] DL and UL Collision

[0129] In other example embodiments, if re-enabling a subband leads to a DL and UL collision, the transmission on the re-enabled subband has priority. This recognizes that the gNB is aware of a collision and if it reenables a subband for a transmission, then that transmission has priority. An example is shown in Figure 17, in which five time slots to w+4 are shown in a pattern = {UXXXD} and wherein for a specific UE, a link direction indicates DL for Slot «+3, thereby disabling its UL subband. However, the gNB transmits an UL Grant in a PDCCH 1700 to the UE in Slot scheduling a PUSCH 1702 in the UL subband of Slot «+3, as represented by an arrow 1704, thereby re-enabling that UL subband. However, Slot w+3 also has an SPS occasion 1706, thereby causing a DL and UL collision with the scheduled PUSCH 1702. For this embodiment, since the PUSCH 1702 is scheduled on a re-enabled subband, it has priority, and the UE transmits the PUSCH 1702 and drops the SPS 1706, as represented by a “X” and a tick 1708, 1710.

[0130] In another embodiment, if DL and UL collision occurs due to re-enabling of subbands, then the UE may follow the DL and UL collision rules, to determine which has priority. That is, the OFDM symbols with re-enabled subband(s) would therefore be treated like SBFD OFDM symbols, and any DL and UL collision rules specified for such collisions in SBFD OFDM symbols are applied.

[0131] Those skilled in the art would further appreciate that such infrastructure equipment and / or communications devices as herein defined may be further defined in accordance with the various arrangements and embodiments discussed in the preceding paragraphs. It would be further appreciated by those skilled in the art that such infrastructure equipment and communications devices as herein defined and described may form part of communications systems other than those defined by the present disclosure, provided that these are within the scope of the claims.

[0132] The following numbered paragraphs provide further example aspects and features of the present technique:

[0133] Paragraph 1. A method of operating a communications device configured to transmit signals to and / or to receive signals from a wireless communications network, comprising resolving a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the resolving comprising receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0134] Paragraph 2. A method of paragraph 1, wherein the subsequently applying the overwrite indicator comprises subsequently receiving the overwrite indicator, after receiving the link direction indicator, in a downlink control channel as downlink control information.

[0135] Paragraph 3. A method of paragraph 2, wherein the downlink control information including the overwrite indicator is part of a Group Configured-Downlink Control Information, GC-DCI, in which a field indicates whether one or more SBFD OFDM symbols have their subbands re-enabled.

[0136] Paragraph 4. A method of paragraph 1, wherein the subsequently applying the overwrite indicator comprises subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator, after receiving the link direction indicator.

[0137] Paragraph 5. A method of paragraph 1, comprising detecting no collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot.

[0138] Paragraph 6. A method of paragraph 1, comprising detecting an allowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, resolving the allowable collision by either transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot, or to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot. Paragraph 7. A method of paragraph 1, wherein the configuring the transceiver of the communications device for transmitting and receiving comprises, receiving a first configuration allocating resources of the one or more time slots of the wireless access interface, receiving a second configuration allocating resources of the one or more time slots for one or both of transmitting on the uplink and receiving on the downlink, and the method comprises detecting an unallowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, applying the link direction indicator, directing the communications device to either transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the first or the second configuration by disabling the downlink resources, or to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the other of the first or the second configuration- by disabling the uplink resources, which would have required the communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously.

[0139] Paragraph 8. A method of paragraph 7, comprising detecting no collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot.

[0140] Paragraph 9. A method of paragraph 7, comprising detecting an allowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, resolving the allowable collision by either transmitting in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not receiving in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot, or receiving in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not transmitting in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot.

[0141] Paragraph 10. A method in paragraph 7, wherein the unallowable collision causes unspecified behaviour by requiring the communications device to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration.

[0142] Paragraph 11. A method of paragraphs 4 to 10, wherein the subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator by receiving either receiving an uplink grant dynamically scheduling one or more physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resources including those of the SBFD, the overwrite indicator re-enabling the uplink resources disabled by the link direction indicator, or receiving a downlink grant dynamically scheduling one or more physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH resources including those of the SBFD, the overwrite indicator re-enabling the downlink resources disabled by the link direction indicator.

[0143] Paragraph 12. A method of paragraph 11, wherein the uplink grant dynamically scheduling the one or more PUSCH resources is applied as a repetitive scheduling to a repeated number of PUSCH transmissions whether disabled by the link direction indicator or not.

[0144] Paragraph 13. A method of paragraph 11, wherein the downlink grant dynamically scheduling the one or more PDSCH resources is applied as a repetitive scheduling to a repeated number of PDSCH transmissions whether disabled by the link direction indicator or not.

[0145] Paragraph 14. A method of paragraph 11, wherein the subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator comprises receiving a downlink grant dynamically scheduling one or more physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH resources and one or more PUCCH resources associated with the PDSCH resources including those of the SBFD, the overwrite indicator re-enabling the uplink resources disabled by the link direction indicator for transmitting in the PUCCH.

[0146] Paragraph 15. A method of any of paragraphs 11 to 14, wherein a duration for which the overwrite indicator re-enables the disabled resources corresponds to the uplink grant or the downlink grant. Paragraph 16. A method of paragraph 11, wherein the overwrite indicator is inferred from activation downlink control information, DCI, for a semi-static channel, which provide an uplink overwrite indication by configuring uplink transmission or a downlink overwrite indication by configuring a downlink reception.

[0147] Paragraph 17. A method of paragraph 16, wherein the uplink transmission scheduled by the activation DCI is a Type 2 configured grant-physical uplink shared channel, CG-PUSCH.

[0148] Paragraph 18. A method of paragraph 17, wherein the downlink transmission is a semi -persistent signalled, SPS configured downlink transmission in a PDSCH.

[0149] Paragraph 19. A method of paragraph 11, wherein the overwrite indicator is inferred from a group common downlink control information, GC-DCI, monitored by a group of communications devices. Paragraph 20. A method of paragraph 19, wherein the GC-DCI is a slot format indicator, SFI, which indicates a configuration of the one or more time slots as either downlink, uplink or flexible.

[0150] Paragraph 21. A method of paragraph 20, wherein if the SFI indicates that the SBFD time slot as flexible, then this is interpreted by the communications device to indicate that a subband of the SBFD time slot that has been disabled by the link direction indicator is re-enabled.

[0151] Paragraph 22. A method of paragraph 20, wherein if the SFI indicates that the SBFD time slot as downlink or uplink, and the subband which has been disabled is in the same direction of downlink or uplink, then this is interpreted by the communications device to indicate that a subband of the SBFD time slot that has been disabled by the link direction indicator is re-enabled.

[0152] Paragraph 23. A method of any of paragraphs 4 to 22, wherein the subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator comprises receiving a configured grant of communications resources and an activation downlink control information, which indicates that the communications device should transmit or receive in a direction which has previously been disabled by the link direction indicator. Paragraph 24. A method of any of paragraphs 1 to 23, wherein the overwrite indicator re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication until the communications device receives a subsequent configuration.

[0153] Paragraph 25. A method of any of paragraphs 1 to 24, wherein the overwrite indicator re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication for an indicated number of time slots. Paragraph 26. A method of paragraph 25, wherein the indicated number of time slots is a number of slots for which the communications device receives a grant of downlink or uplink transmissions. Paragraph 27. A method of any of paragraphs 7 to 25, wherein if the overwrite indicator re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication causing a conflict or collision requiring the communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously, then a direction of transmission in communications resources re-enabled by the overwrite indicator takes priority for determining the transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0154] Paragraph 28. A communications device for communicating via a wireless communications network by transmitting signals to and / or receiving signals from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising transceiver circuitry configured for transmitting signals via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for receiving signals transmitter from the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry resolving the use of the communications resources by receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0155] Paragraph 29. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising resolving a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network by a communications device for receiving on an uplink or transmitting on a downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the resolving comprising transmitting a link direction indicator to the communications device, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently transmitting an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0156] Paragraph 30. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a radio network of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry configured for receiving signals transmitted by communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for transmitting signals to the communications devices via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface, provided by the wireless communications network, by a communications device for receiving on an uplink or transmitting on a downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured being configured with the transceiver circuitry to transmit a link direction indicator to the communications device, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently to transmit an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0157] Paragraph 31. Circuitry for communicating via a wireless communications network by transmitting signals to and / or receiving signals from a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured for transmitting signals via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for receiving signals transmitter from the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry resolving the use of the communications resources by receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0158] Paragraph 32. Circuitry for forming part of a radio network of a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured for receiving signals transmitted by communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for transmitting signals to the communications devices via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface, provided by the wireless communications network, by a communications device for receiving on an uplink or transmitting on a downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured being configured with the transceiver circuitry to transmit a link direction indicator to the communications device, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently to transmit an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

[0159] It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity has described embodiments with reference to different functional units, circuitry and / or processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, circuitry and / or processors may be used without detracting from the embodiments.

[0160] Described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. Described embodiments may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and / or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any embodiment may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuitry and / or processors.

[0161] Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognise that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner suitable to implement the technique.

[0162] References

[0163] [1] RP-234035, “New WID: Evolution of NR duplex operation: Sub-band full duplex (SBFD),” CMCC (Moderator, RANI VC)

[0164] [2] International patent application WO 2018 / 127424

[0165] [3] TS38.213, “Physical layer procedures for control (Release 18),” vl8.1.0

[0166] [4] Rl-2405425, “Summary #4 of SBFD TX / RX / measurement procedures,” Moderator (CATT), RAN1#117

[0167] [5] European patent application No. 24166551.2

[0168] [6] Holma H. and Toskala A, “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radio access”, John Wiley and Sons, 2009.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method of operating a communications device configured to transmit signals to and / or to receive signals from a wireless communications network, comprising resolving a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the resolving comprising receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

2. A method of claim 1, wherein the subsequently applying the overwrite indicator comprises subsequently receiving the overwrite indicator, after receiving the link direction indicator, in a downlink control channel as downlink control information.

3. A method of claim 2, wherein the downlink control information including the overwrite indicator is part of a Group Configured-Downlink Control Information, GC-DCI, in which a field indicates whether one or more SBFD OFDM symbols have their subbands re-enabled.

4. A method of claim 1, wherein the subsequently applying the overwrite indicator comprises subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator, after receiving the link direction indicator.

5. A method of claim 1, comprising detecting no collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot.

6. A method of claim 1, comprising detecting an allowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, resolving the allowable collision by either transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot,or to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot.

7. A method of claim 1, wherein the configuring the transceiver of the communications device for transmitting and receiving comprises, receiving a first configuration allocating resources of the one or more time slots of the wireless access interface, receiving a second configuration allocating resources of the one or more time slots for one or both of transmitting on the uplink and receiving on the downlink, and the method comprises detecting an unallowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, applying the link direction indicator, directing the communications device to either transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the first or the second configuration by disabling the downlink resources, or to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot according to the other of the first or the second configuration- by disabling the uplink resources, which would have required the communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously.

8. A method of claim 7, comprising detecting no collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot.

9. A method of claim 7, comprising detecting an allowable collision in which the communications device is required to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration, subsequently applying the implicit indication of the overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, resolving the allowable collision by either transmitting in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not receiving in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot, or receiving in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and not transmitting in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot.

10. A method of claim 7, wherein the unallowable collision causes unspecified behaviour by requiring the communications device to transmit in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot and to receive in the subband of the one or more OFDM symbols of the SBFD time slot contemporaneously according to the first configuration and the second configuration.

11. A method of claim 4, wherein the subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator by receiving either receiving an uplink grant dynamically scheduling one or more physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resources including those of the SBFD, the overwrite indicator re-enabling the uplink resources disabled by the link direction indicator, or receiving a downlink grant dynamically scheduling one or more physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH resources including those of the SBFD, the overwrite indicator re-enabling the downlink resources disabled by the link direction indicator.

12. A method of claim 11, wherein the uplink grant dynamically scheduling the one or more PUSCH resources is applied as a repetitive scheduling to a repeated number of PUSCH transmissions whether disabled by the link direction indicator or not.

13. A method of claim 11, wherein the downlink grant dynamically scheduling the one or more PDSCH resources is applied as a repetitive scheduling to a repeated number of PDSCH transmissions whether disabled by the link direction indicator or not.

14. A method of claim 11, wherein the subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator comprises receiving a downlink grant dynamically scheduling one or more physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH resources and one or more PUCCH resources associated with the PDSCH resources including those of the SBFD, the overwrite indicator re-enabling the uplink resources disabled by the link direction indicator for transmitting in the PUCCH.

15. A method of claim 11, wherein a duration for which the overwrite indicator re-enables the disabled resources corresponds to the uplink grant or the downlink grant.

16. A method of claim 11, wherein the overwrite indicator is inferred from activation downlink control information, DCI, for a semi-static channel, which provide an uplink overwrite indication by configuring uplink transmission or a downlink overwrite indication by configuring a downlink reception.

17. A method of claim 16, wherein the uplink transmission scheduled by the activation DCI is a Type 2 configured grant-physical uplink shared channel, CG-PUSCH.

18. A method of claim 17, wherein the downlink transmission is a semi -persistent signalled, SPS configured downlink transmission in a PDSCH.

19. A method of claim 11, wherein the overwrite indicator is inferred from a group common downlink control information, GC-DCI, monitored by a group of communications devices.

20. A method of claim 19, wherein the GC-DCI is a slot format indicator, SFI, which indicates a configuration of the one or more time slots as either downlink, uplink or flexible.

21. A method of claim 20, wherein if the SFI indicates that the SBFD time slot as flexible, then this is interpreted by the communications device to indicate that a subband of the SBFD time slot that has been disabled by the link direction indicator is re-enabled.

22. A method of claim 20, wherein if the SFI indicates that the SBFD time slot as downlink or uplink, and the subband which has been disabled is in the same direction of downlink or uplink, then thisis interpreted by the communications device to indicate that a subband of the SBFD time slot that has been disabled by the link direction indicator is re-enabled.

23. A method of claim 4, wherein the subsequently receiving an implicit indication of the overwrite indicator comprises receiving a configured grant of communications resources and an activation downlink control information, which indicates that the communications device should transmit or receive in a direction which has previously been disabled by the link direction indicator.

24. A method of claim 1, wherein the overwrite indicator re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication until the communications device receives a subsequent configuration.

25. A method of claim 1, wherein the overwrite indicator re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication for an indicated number of time slots.

26. A method of claim 25, wherein the indicated number of time slots is a number of slots for which the communications device receives a grant of downlink or uplink transmissions.

27. A method of claim 7, wherein if the overwrite indicator re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication causing a conflict or collision requiring the communications device to transmit and to receive contemporaneously, then a direction of transmission in communications resources re-enabled by the overwrite indicator takes priority for determining the transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

28. A communications device for communicating via a wireless communications network by transmitting signals to and / or receiving signals from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising transceiver circuitry configured for transmitting signals via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for receiving signals transmitter from the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry resolving the use of the communications resources by receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

29. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising resolving a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network by a communications device for receiving onan uplink or transmitting on a downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the resolving comprising transmitting a link direction indicator to the communications device, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently transmitting an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

30. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a radio network of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry configured for receiving signals transmitted by communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for transmitting signals to the communications devices via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface, provided by the wireless communications network, by a communications device for receiving on an uplink or transmitting on a downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured being configured with the transceiver circuitry to transmit a link direction indicator to the communications device, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently to transmit an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

31. Circuitry for communicating via a wireless communications network by transmitting signals to and / or receiving signals from a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured for transmitting signals via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for receiving signals transmitter from the infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network for transmitting on an uplink or receiving on the downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry resolving the use of the communications resources by receiving a link direction indicator, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, andsubsequently applying an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

32. Circuitry for forming part of a radio network of a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured for receiving signals transmitted by communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, and for transmitting signals to the communications devices via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitry configured with the transceiver circuitry to resolve a use of communications resource of one or more time slots of a wireless access interface, provided by the wireless communications network, by a communications device for receiving on an uplink or transmitting on a downlink, the one or more time slots including at least one time slot configured as sub-band full duplex, SBFD, in which one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed, OFDM, symbols of the time slot are configured with a subband for transmitting on the uplink and a subband for receiving on the downlink, the controller circuitry configured being configured with the transceiver circuitry to transmit a link direction indicator to the communications device, directing the communications device either to disable the downlink resources of the subband for receiving on the downlink, or to disable the uplink resources of the subband for transmitting on the uplink, and subsequently to transmit an overwrite indicator which re-enables the frequency resources disabled by the link direction indication and transmitting or receiving in the frequency resource of the SBFD time slot, which would have been disabled by the link direction indication.

Images