Method and apparatus in communication system

Abstract

A method and apparatus in a communication system are provided. The method includes monitoring a first physical channel, determining, based on the first physical channel, whether to be triggered to receive a second physical channel, where the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE, and transmitting an uplink signal or receiving a downlink signal based on at least one of the first physical channel or the second physical channel.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS IN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The disclosure relates to communication technology, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus in a communication system.

[0002] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5th-generation (5G) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6th-generation (6G) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0003] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bps and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0004] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz band (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, radio frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, orbital angular momentum (OAM), and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS).

[0005] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of artificial intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of user equipment (UE) computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as mobile edge computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0006] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0007] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method performed by a UE in a communication system is provided. The method includes: monitoring a first physical channel; determining, based on the first physical channel, whether to be triggered to receive a second physical channel, wherein the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE; and transmitting an uplink signal or receiving a downlink signal based on at least one of the first physical channel or the second physical channel. The first physical channel includes ate least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical channel based on a sequence.

[0008] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method performed by a base station in a communication system is provided. The method includes: transmitting a first physical channel to a user equipment (UE); and receiving an uplink signal from the UE or transmit a downlink signal to the UE based on at least one of a first physical channel or a second physical channel, wherein whether the UE is triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the first physical channel, wherein the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE. The first physical channel includes ate least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical channel based on a sequence.

[0009] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a UE in a communication system is also provided. The UE includes a transceiver, and one or more processors coupled with the transceiver and configured to perform one or more aspects of the above method performed by the UE.

[0010] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a base station in a communication system is also provided. The base station includes a transceiver, and one or more processors coupled with the transceiver and configured to perform one or more aspects of the above-described method performed by the base station.

[0011] In order to illustrate the technical schemes of the embodiments of the disclosure more clearly, the drawings of the embodiments of the disclosure will be briefly introduced below. Apparently, the drawings described below only refer to some embodiments of the disclosure, and do not limit the disclosure. In the drawings:

[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example wireless network according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0013] FIG. 2 illustrates an example base station according to an embodiment of the disclosure.;

[0014] FIG. 3 illustrates an example user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0015] FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of a configuration of a fixed wireless access (FWA) according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a base station according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0020] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0021] In describing the embodiments, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art and not associated directly with the disclosure will be omitted. Such an omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent obscuring of the main idea of the disclosure and more clearly transfer the main idea.

[0022] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0023] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to completely disclose the disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the disclosure, and the disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, in describing the disclosure, a detailed description of known functions or constitution incorporated herein will be omitted in the case that it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the disclosure unnecessarily unclear. The terms which will be described below are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0024] Herein, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0025] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0026] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a "~unit" may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word "~unit" does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The "~unit" may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the "~unit" includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the "~unit" may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a "~unit," or divided into additional components and a "~unit." Moreover, the components and "~units" may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the "쪟unit" may include one or more processors.

[0027] It should be appreciated that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts may be performed by one or more computer programs which include instructions. The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0028] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like.

[0029] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0030] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0031] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0032] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the present disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0033] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0034] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0035] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0036] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0037] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0038] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0039] Furthermore, "if condition A and condition B are satisfied," as described in the present disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0040] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0041] Furthermore, the terms "first ~", "second ~", etc., as described in the present disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0042] Furthermore, even if "first ~" and "second ~" are described in the present disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by "first ~" and "second ~" may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0043] In addition, the terms "if ~" and "in case that ~" as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of "when (or upon) ~," "in response to ~," "based on ~," or "according to ~," and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the present disclosure.

[0044] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0045] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the present disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0046] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the present disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0047] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0048] In the specific embodiments of the present disclosure described below, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0049] The drawings or flowcharts described below illustrate exemplary methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the present disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0050] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0051] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0052] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms described below, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project　(3GPP) technical specifications (TS) where appropriate.

[0053] Hereinafter, a base station is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a base station (BS), a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0054] Furthermore, the base station of the present disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to 5G base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0055] A terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing communication functions.

[0056] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a UE, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a UE transmits a signal to a BS.

[0057] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5th generation (5G) mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure

[0058] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the present disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0059] Hereinafter, in the context of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), radio resource control (RRC), or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling.

[0060] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI), user equipment (UE)-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0061] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the present disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0062] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIGS. 1-3 below describe various embodiments of the present disclosure implemented in wireless communications systems. The descriptions of FIGS. 1-3 are not meant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner in which different embodiments may be implemented. Different embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably-arranged communications system.

[0063] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 could be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0064] As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless network includes a base station (next generation nodeB, gNB or gNodeB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB 103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, such as the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or other data network.

[0065] The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of the gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R1); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R2); and a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of the gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE 116, as well as subscriber stations (SS, for example, UEs) 117, 118 and 119. In some embodiments, one or more of the gNBs 101-103 may communicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using existing wireless communication techniques, and one or more of the UE 111-119 may communicate directly with each other (e.g., UEs 117-119) using other existing or proposed wireless communication techniques.

[0066] Depending on the network type, the term "base station" or "BS" can refer to any component (or collection of components) configured to provide wireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP), transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced (or "evolved") base station (eNodeB or eNB), a 5G base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a wireless fidelity (WiFi) access point (AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may provide wireless access in accordance with one or more wireless communication protocols, e.g., 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a base station-type apparatus and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term "user equipment" (UE) can refer to any component such as a mobile station (MS), subscriber station (SS), remote terminal, wireless terminal, receive point, or user device. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a user equipment-type device and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to remote wireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normally considered a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vending machine).

[0067] Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and 125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending upon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radio environment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

[0068] As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-119 include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, and one or more of the gNBs 101-103 includes circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof.

[0069] Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, various changes may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network could include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access to the network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directly with the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadband access to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and / or 103 could provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0070] FIG. 2 illustrates an example base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 2 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

[0071] As shown in FIG 2, the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 200a-200n, multiple radio frequency (RF) transceivers 201a-201n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 203, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 204. The gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 205, a memory 206, and a backhaul or network interface 207.

[0072] The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive, from the antennas 200a-200n, incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network 100. The RF transceivers 201a-201n down-convert the incoming RF signals to generate intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signals are sent to the RX processing circuitry 204, which generates processed baseband signals by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signals. The RX processing circuitry 204 transmits the processed baseband signals to the controller / processor 205 for further processing.

[0073] The TX processing circuitry 203 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, web data, electronic mail, or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 205. The TX processing circuitry 203 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate processed baseband or IF signals. The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signals from the TX processing circuitry 203 and up-converts the baseband or IF signals to RF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 201a-201n.

[0074] The controller / processor 205 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 205 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceivers 201a-201n, the RX processing circuitry 204, and the TX processing circuitry 203 in accordance with well-known principles. The controller / processor 205 could support additional functions as well, such as more advanced wireless communication functions.

[0075] For instance, the controller / processor 205 could support beam forming or directional routing operations in which outgoing signals from multiple antennas 200a-200n are weighted differently to effectively steer the outgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide variety of other functions could be supported in the gNB 102 by the controller / processor 205.

[0076] The controller / processor 205 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 206, such as an operating system (OS). The controller / processor 205 can move data into or out of the memory 206 as required by an executing process.

[0077] The controller / processor 205 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 207. The backhaul or network interface 207 allows the gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connection or over a network. The interface 207 could support communications over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB 102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such as one supporting 5G, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaul connection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired or wireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to a larger network (such as the Internet). The interface 207 includes any suitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

[0078] The memory 206 is coupled to the controller / processor 205. Part of the memory 206 could include a random access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 206 could include a Flash memory or other read only memory (ROM).

[0079] Although FIG. 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 2. For example, the gNB 102 could include any number of each component shown in FIG. 2. As a particular example, an access point could include a number of interfaces 207, and the controller / processor 205 could support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another particular example, while shown as including a single instance of TX processing circuitry 203 and a single instance of RX processing circuitry 204, the gNB 102 could include multiple instances of each (such as one per RF transceiver). Also, various components in FIG. 2 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs.

[0080] FIG. 3 illustrates an example user equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3 is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 and 117-119 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.

[0081] As shown in FIG. 3, the UE 116 includes an antenna 301, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 302, TX processing circuitry 303, a microphone 304, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 305. The UE 116 also includes a speaker 306, a controller or processor 307, an input / output (I / O) interface (IF) 308, an input device 309, a touchscreen display 310, and a memory 311. The memory 311 includes an OS 312 and one or more applications 313.

[0082] The RF transceiver 302 receives, from the antenna 301, an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The RF transceiver 302 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent to the RX processing circuitry 305, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuitry 305 transmits the processed baseband signal to the speaker 306 (such as for voice data) or to the processor 307 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0083] The TX processing circuitry 303 receives analog or digital voice data from the microphone 304 or other outgoing baseband data (such as web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 307. The TX processing circuitry 303 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 302 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 303 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the antenna 301.

[0084] The processor 307 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 312 stored in the memory 311 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor 307 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver 302, the RX processing circuitry 305, and the TX processing circuitry 303 in accordance with well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0085] The processor 307 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory 311, such as processes for channel state information (CSI) reporting on uplink channel. The processor 307 can move data into or out of the memory 311 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the processor 307 is configured to execute the applications 313 based on the OS 312 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. The processor 307 is also coupled to the I / O interface 308, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. The I / O interface 308 is the communication path between these accessories and the processor 307.

[0086] The processor 307 is also coupled to the touchscreen display 310. The user of the UE 116 can use the touchscreen display 310 to enter data into the UE 116. The touchscreen display 310 may be a liquid crystal display, light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering text and / or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

[0087] The memory 311 is coupled to the processor 307. Part of the memory 311 could include RAM, and another part of the memory 311 could include a Flash memory or other ROM.

[0088] Although FIG. 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes may be made to FIG. 3. For example, various components in FIG. 3 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs. As a particular example, the processor 307 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Also, while FIG. 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as a mobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate as other types of mobile or stationary devices.

[0089] It should be noted that the methods described by the example embodiments of the disclosure may be combined in any order. In a combination, a method may be performed one or more times.

[0090] It should be noted that the steps of the methods described in the example embodiments of the disclosure may be performed in any order.

[0091] Furthermore, in the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, " / " may mean "and / or". For example, "A / B" may mean A and / or B.

[0092] It should be noted that, in the example embodiments of the disclosure, "performing a predefined method (or step) if a predefined condition is satisfied" and "not performing the predefined method (or step) if the predefined condition is not satisfied" may be used interchangeably. "Not performing a predefined method (or step) if a predefined condition is satisfied" and "performing the predefined method (or step) if the predefined condition is not satisfied" may be used interchangeably.

[0093] In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the terms "first", "second" and similar words used in the disclosure do not express any order, quantity or importance, but are only used to distinguish different components. Similar words such as singular forms "a", "an" or "the" do not express a limitation of quantity, but express the existence of at least one of the referenced item, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. For example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

[0094] As used herein, any reference to "an example" or "example", "an implementation" or "implementation", "an embodiment" or "embodiment" means that particular elements, features, structures or characteristics described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The phrases "in one embodiment" or "in one example" appearing in different places in the specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.

[0095] As used herein, "a portion of" something means "at least some of" the thing, and as such may mean less than all of, or all of, the thing. As such, "a portion of" a thing includes the entire thing as a special case, i.e., the entire thing is an example of a portion of the thing.

[0096] In the disclosure, to determine whether a specific condition is satisfied or fulfilled, expressions, such as "greater than / larger than" or "less than / smaller than" are used by way of example and expressions, such as "greater than or equal to" or "less than or equal to" are also applicable and not excluded. For example, a condition defined with "greater than or equal to" may be replaced by "greater than" (or vice-versa), a condition defined with "less than or equal to" may be replaced by "less than" (or vice-versa), etc.

[0097] It will be further understood that similar words such as the term "include" or "comprise" mean that elements or objects appearing before the word encompass the listed elements or objects appearing after the word and their equivalents, but other elements or objects are not excluded. Similar words such as "connect" or "connected" are not limited to physical or mechanical connection, but can include electrical connection, whether direct or indirect. "Upper", "lower", "left" and "right" are only used to express a relative positional relationship, and when an absolute position of the described object changes, the relative positional relationship may change accordingly.

[0098] In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the terms "identification", "identifier", "identification information" may be used interchangeably.

[0099] In the description of an example embodiment of the disclosure, a resource, which may also be referred to as a physical resource, may include a time domain resource (or time resource) and / or a frequency domain resource (or frequency resource).

[0100] In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the term "time domain resource" or "time resource" may refer to or be used interchangeably with at least one of symbol(s) (e.g., OFDM symbols), slot(s), subslot(s), mini-slot(s), or subframe(s).

[0101] In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the term "frequency domain resource" or "frequency resource" may refer to or be used interchangeably with at least one of the following: channel(s), subchannel(s), carrier(s), subcarrier(s), resource block(s) (RB), resource element(s) (RE(s)), physical resource block(s) (PRB(s)), or physical resource block group(s) (RBG(s)).

[0102] With the rapid development of mobile communication technology, higher demands are placed on the transmission rate of the network. During the deployment and development of communication (e.g., 5G / 6G) technology, the high-bandwidth high-rate advantage of high-frequency communication is evident, but the problems of close transmission distance, high power consumption, and high cost are also exposed, especially in the high-frequency bands such as mmWave, THz, and / or the like. This limits the application to a certain extent on a large scale, and currently only a few countries can provide service in the respective frequency bands.

[0103] The transmission distance of a signal is inversely proportional to the operating frequency, and for the same base station transmit power and the same transmission distance, the higher the transmitted signal frequency, the larger the transmission path loss, and the weaker the signal strength received by the terminal. To meet the full coverage of the cell for high frequency signals, the base station transmit power can be increased or the base station construction density can be increased, but the drastic increase in the equipment cost and the base station power consumption, which are incurred thereby, is a great obstacle to the large-scale commercialization of high frequency communications.

[0104] The fixed wireless access (FWA) is a technology that enables broadband connectivity to relatively fixed location venues through a mobile operator's infrastructure (e.g., wireless base station) using customer premises equipment (CPE). FWA, which can support 5G technology, offers the potential for ultra-high speed, low latency, and large capacity for next generation wireless connectivity. In addition to home users, the FWA is able to provide economical and convenient broadband access to small businesses, businesses, and temporary locations, and is gradually beginning to enter the industry's Internet domain in factory, campus, mine, port scenarios, to provide high-rate, low-latency 5G connectivity to regionally-wide Internet of Things (IoT) terminals.

[0105] In some areas where cable cables such as optical fibers cannot be laid (due to costs, road rights, building protection, etc.), the FWA can provide network access to users. It avoids construction work such as right-of-way acquisition, pipe excavation, cable laying, and wall perforation, and greatly simplifies the network opening process, shortens the working period, and saves costs. Therefore, for many operators, the FWA is a means of rapidly increasing the number of users and an extremely cost-effective business model. From a social meaning perspective, the FWA can help households in economically less developed areas to quickly own network connectivity, enjoy information dividends, and improve quality of life. In addition, in the major market rural areas of the FWA, there is typically additional spectral capacity due to lower population density.

[0106] The existing CPE includes two parts, a communication module 401 that communicates with the base station and a forwarding module 402 that communicates with other terminal(s), as shown in FIG. 4. The communication module 401 may operate as one UE (e.g., NR (here, NR may be replaced with LTE, TD-SCDMA, GSM, etc. existing wireless communication network or a future communication network; the following embodiments are described with NR as an example) UE), for example, communicating with a base station (e.g., an NR base station), receiving data from a base station (e.g., an NR base station), or transmitting data to a base station (e.g., an NR base station). The function of the forwarding module 402 may be similar to a network hotspot, providing a service to one or more terminals of a specified area, transmitting data obtained from the communication module (signal receiving module) 401 to a different terminal, or receiving information transmitted from different terminals and forwarding the same to a base station through the communication module (signal receiving module) 401. The forwarding module 402 is connected with the communication module 401. The forwarding module 402 may transfer uplink data to the communication module 401 for transmitting to the base station, or may receive downlink data from the base station from the communication module. The communication module 401 and the forwarding module 402 may be two modules of the CPE, or two functions of one module. The connection form of the base station to the communication module 401 may include wireless connection (e.g., via WiFi communication, Bluetooth communication, infrared data association (IrDA) communication, near field communication (NFC), Zigbee communication, mobile communication (such as 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.), and / or the like). The connection form of the forwarding module 402 to the terminal may include a wired connection (e.g., via coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, etc.) or a wireless connection (e.g., via WiFi communication, Bluetooth communication, IrDA communication, NFC, Zigbee communication, mobile communication (such as 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.), etc.). The functional entity of the communication module 401 of the corresponding CPE may be referred to as a CPE type UE.

[0107] It should be noted that the number of terminals connected to the forwarding module 401 of the CPE may be large, and the traffic models for different terminals may also be different. For example, some terminals (e.g., digital television, etc.) are primarily downlink traffic; other terminals (e.g., IoT sensor terminals, etc.) are primarily uplink traffic. When the number of terminals connected to a CPE is large and the types of terminals are abundant (e.g., serving an unmanned factory or corporate campus, etc.), the CPE may have a continuous and heavily loaded uplink and / or downlink traffic demand. To meet these traffic demands, the CPE needs to be frequently scheduled for uplink or downlink transmissions, i.e., the base station needs to frequently transmit a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carrying uplink or downlink scheduling grant information to the CPE.

[0108] Given that the number of CPEs in a communication network may be large, in order to meet the potential scheduling demands of multiple CPEs, the network side needs to reserve sufficient physical resources for PDCCH transmissions of multiple CPEs. Generally, the reserved PDCCH resources are periodic (e.g., the PDCCH search space in NR defines the slot periodicity in which the UE monitors the PDCCH, etc.), and the UE (e.g., which may be a CPE type UE and / or other type UE, etc.) should monitor a PDCCH (e.g., receive a PDCCH candidate) on the time-frequency resources where each PDCCH may be transmitted. Note that the network side configures the PDCCH search space for the UE according to its potential scheduling needs, so not each PDCCH candidate is actually transmitted with a PDCCH; the base station transmits a PDCCH to the UE on a reserved PDCCH resource only when actual scheduling for the UE occurs. However, even then, the reserved PDCCH physical resources are generally no longer used for data transmission, and thus there is a significant resource overhead. Meanwhile, the number of PDCCHs that can be supported at the same time is limited due to limited system bandwidth, and when the number of UEs (e.g., including CPE type UEs or other types of UEs, etc.) in the network is large, the PDCCH congestion may also occur, resulting in increased scheduling delay for some UEs or CPEs. It can be seen that how to guarantee scheduling delay (e.g., CPE scheduling delay) on the premise of limited PDCCH resource overhead, and / or to further reduce the resource overhead required for transmission of scheduling grant information, improving spectral efficiency, is a problem for communication systems (e.g., FWA) to be solved.

[0109] The disclosure proposes a scheduling grant method involving scheduling grant information of a UE (e.g., CPE type UE / CPE capable UE, or other type of UE such as normal UE), a transmission method, and related physical procedures for data transmission according to the scheduling grant information. A CPE type UE may be a functional entity of a communication module (e.g., the communication module 401) of a corresponding CPE. Based on the method proposed by the disclosure, the resource overhead required for scheduling grant information transmission can be reduced, thereby improving the spectrum efficiency of the system.

[0110] The scheduling grant method according to an example embodiment of the disclosure may include the following operations: the UE receives (e.g., monitors) a first physical channel (e.g., which may be a common physical channel) for determining first grant information; based on the first grant information, the UE determines whether it is triggered to receive a second physical channel carrying second grant information (e.g., on allocated physical resource(s)); and based on at least one of the first grant information or the second grant information, the UE transmits an uplink signal or receives a downlink signal. The first grant information may be used at least to determine whether to trigger the UE to receive the second grant information (or the downlink physical channel carrying the second grant information, which may be referred to as the second physical channel in the embodiments of the disclosure) (e.g., on the allocated physical resource(s)). The second grant information may contain at least scheduling grant information for uplink signal or downlink signal transmission of at least one UE (e.g., including the UE). For example, the uplink signal may include, but is not limited to, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a sounding reference signal (SRS), a physical random access channel (PRACH), and / or the like. The downlink signal may include, but is not limited to, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and / or the like. The first physical channel (e.g., common physical channel) used for transmission of the first grant information may include a PDCCH and / or a physical channel based on a sequence (a sequence-based physical channel). In some implementations, the first physical channel may be received by at least one UE. For example, the at least one UE may be configured / indicated to receive the first physical channel. The sequence-based physical channel may refer to a physical channel being associated with the sequence, e.g., generated based on the sequence, or carrying the sequence or a signal generated based on the sequence. In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, unless otherwise indicated, the terms "first grant information" and "first physical channel" may be interchangeably used, and the terms "second grant information" and "second physical channel" may be interchangeably used. In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the naming of the "first grant information" is only an example, and any suitable naming may be adopted, for example, the "first grant information" may be replaced with "information / indication related to grant (e.g., indication) and / or scheduling of the second physical channel (reception)". Similarly, the naming of the "second grant information" is only an example, and any suitable naming may be used, for example, the "second grant information" may be replaced with "information / indication related to grant and / or scheduling for uplink transmission and / or downlink reception". According to some of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the first grant information may be information carried by the first physical channel to indicate that one or more UE are triggered (or whether are triggered) to receive the second physical channel (e.g., receive the second physical channel on physical resource(s)). Additionally or alternatively, the first grant information may be an indication determined based on the first physical channel (e.g., based on detection of the first physical channel (e.g., successful detection of the first physical channel scrambled with a particular RNTI (e.g., an RNTI used to indicate / notify whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel; or an RNTI associated with the indication / notification; or, an RNTI associated with the first grant information)); and / or based on certain information (e.g., UE identity) carried by the first physical channel) for indicating that one or more UEs are triggered (or whether one or more UEs are triggered) to receive the second physical channel. In addition, in the description of example embodiments of the disclosure, "whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel" or similar expressions may be replaced with "whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel on (e.g., allocated) physical resource(s)" or similar expressions.

[0111] By this method, it is possible to indicate whether the second grant information for the UE is transmitted by the first grant information with a low payload, and to indicate all or most of the scheduling grant information for the UE by the second grant information. In this way, the second grant information may not be transmitted in the search space with PDCCH, i.e., there is no need to reserve periodic physical resources of the search space. Meanwhile, since the first grant information load is small, its physical resource overhead can be greatly reduced. This scheme can thus effectively reduce the resource overhead required for the transmission of the scheduling grant information.

[0112] In some implementations, the first physical channel may be a sequence-based physical channel (a physical channel based on a sequence) configured for reception by at least one UE. In this case, the physical channel may be a physical channel transmitting only the sequence that is monitored (e.g., blindly detected) by the at least one UE based on the same physical resources that are configured. In some examples, the sequence may be a sequence (e.g., a pseudorandom (PN) sequence, a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence, etc.) generated (e.g., calculated) according to a predefined method (e.g., a predefined formula), or the sequence may be a sequence (e.g., tabulated in a predefined table) including at least one complex-valued signal. In some examples, the physical resources may be configured to the at least one UE by user-specific / user group-specific / cell-specific higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, etc.), or MAC CE, etc. For example, a physical resource configuration may be configured for the at least one UE. The physical resource configuration may include periodic time domain resources (e.g., the at least one UE is configured with a time domain period for monitoring) for the at least one UE to monitor the same sequence-based physical channel with a certain period to obtain the first grant information. The physical resource configuration may also include information related to the sequence, such as one or more of: parameters of the base sequence from which the sequence was generated; or, a sequence index in a predefined table indicating the sequence; or, an orthogonal mask of the base sequence; or, a cyclic shift of the base sequence, and / or the like.

[0113] In some examples, the first grant information included in the sequence-based physical channel may be indication information that triggers the at least one UE to receive the second grant information. For example, the at least one UE may be configured with a common sequence (common sequence may mean that the sequence is common to the at least one UE, i.e. the sequence received by the at least one UE is the same), and the UE may determine whether to be triggered to receive the second grant information according to the detection result of the common sequence. The UE is triggered to receive the second grant information only if the UE detects the common sequence (e.g., based on the received signal power when blind detection of the sequence is above a threshold). In this manner, the physical resources required are minimized, and the time-frequency resources required for transmission of the first grant information can be minimized. In other examples, the first grant information included in the sequence-based physical channel may be indication information that triggers some of the at least one UE to receive second grant information. For example, the at least one UE may be configured with a UE-specific sequence (the specific sequence may refer to a sequence that is dedicated to one or more of the at least one UE, e.g., at least two of the at least one UE are configured to receive different sequences), the UE may determine whether to be triggered to receive the second grant information according to the detection result of the specific sequence. For example, the configuration method of the UE-specific sequence may be that at least two of the at least one UE are configured with different sequences or different sequence parameters, such as different (indexed) cyclic shift values based on the same base sequence, or different (indexed) time domain and / or frequency domain orthogonal masks based on the same base sequence. Moreover, the UE may determine the parameter related to the UE-specific sequence, e.g., the cyclic shift of the base sequence, according to its own identity information (which may also be referred to as UE identity or UE identification information) (in the example embodiments of the disclosure, unless otherwise indicated, the UE identity may include at least one of the following: cell RNTI (C-RNTI), modulation coding scheme-cell RNTI (MCS-C-RNTI), configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), configured grant-small data transmission-configured scheduling RNTI (CG-SDT-CS-RNTI), etc., used for unicast or multicast transmission of the UE, etc.). For example, the UE may determine the parameter related to the UE-specific sequence from the UE identity information; e.g., different UEs may determine different cyclic shifts based on the same base sequence according to their own identity information. For example, the UE may determine the parameter related to the UE-specific sequence by the following equation: , where i is the cyclic shift index, is the UE identity information, and C is a maximum number of cyclic shifts, which is configured or fixed by protocols. This method can increase the indicating content of the first grant information, and by triggering only a part of the UEs to receive the second grant information as needed, the method can improve the targeting of the first grant information to avoid triggering the UEs that are not actually scheduled to transmit to receive the second grant information, thereby saving the power consumption of the UEs.

[0114] In some implementations, the first physical channel may be a PDCCH that at least one UE is configured to receive. In this case, based on at least one common search space being configured, and / or a specific RNTI (e.g., a RNTI associated with the first grant information / first physical channel; e.g., this RNTI is used for indicating / notifying whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel or is associated with this indication / notification), the UE (e.g., each of the at least one UE) may monitor PDCCH candidates to obtain a downlink control information format (e.g., the downlink control information format may include the first grant information) indicating whether the UE is triggered to receive the second physical channel. For example, when the UE detects a PDCCH scrambled with the specific RNTI (e.g., the RNTI associated with the first grant information / the first physical channel), the UE may determine to be triggered to receive the second physical channel. Additionally or alternatively, when the UE successfully detects a PDCCH scrambled with the specific RNTI (e.g., the RNTI associated with the first grant information / the first physical channel), the UE may further determine whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel based on the information carried by the PDCCH. In some examples, the specific RNTI (e.g., the RNTI associated with the first grant information / first physical channel) may be a UE group specific RNTI or cell-specific RNTI for transmission of the first grant information / first physical channel (i.e., multiple UEs are configured with the same RNTI), for monitoring the PDCCH in a common search space. The downlink control information format may be used to indicate the first grant information to a group of UEs. In this way, multiple UEs may be configured with the same search space for receiving the first grant information, thereby reducing the physical resources that the network side needs to reserve for the PDCCH search space. Further, the specific RNTI (e.g., the RNTI associated with the first grant information / the first physical channel) may be a newly defined RNTI, or an existing RNTI may be reused as the specific RNTI.

[0115] In some implementations, the first physical channel may carry the first grant information, and the first physical channel is a PDCCH configured for reception by the at least one UE. In this case, the first grant information included in the downlink control information format carried by the PDCCH includes indication information for determining whether the UE is triggered to receive the second grant information. Examples in which the downlink control information format includes indication information of whether reception of the second grant information is triggered are described below.

[0116] In some examples, the indication information may be used to trigger whether the at least one UE receives the second grant information. For example, N bits (N≥1 and N is a positive integer) indicates whether at least one of the UEs associated with the same first grant information is triggered to receive the second grant information (the UEs associated with the same first grant information may refer to at least one UE configured to receive the same common search space for receiving the PDCCH carrying the first grant information, such as configured with the same RNTI associated with the first grant information, and the same common search space). N may be 1, i.e., it is indicated with 1 bit of indication information whether all the UEs associated with the first grant information are triggered to receive the second grant information; or, N > 1, in which case the indication information may contain a sequence of N bits (e.g., a bitmap) as , where the i-th bit indicates whether at least one UE of the i-th sub-group among the N UE sub-groups associated with the first grant information is triggered to receive the second grant information. For example, the UE sub-group may represent a set of UEs indicated by the same information bit in the first grant information whether or not to be triggered to receive the second grant information. Each UE associated with the first grant information may determine that the UE subgroup to which it belongs is at least one of the N UE subgroups. For example, the UE may determine the index / sequence number of its UE sub-group through higher layer signaling, such as RRC signaling, MAC CE, etc., or according to its identity information. As one specific example, the subgroup index to which the UE belongs may be determined by , where is the UE identity information of the UE, and is the number of UE subgroups, which is configured or fixed by protocols. This design requires only a small number of indication bits to enable independent triggering of reception of the second grant information for different UE sub-groups, that is, improves the UE targeting of the first grant information with less control channel resource overhead.

[0117] In some examples, the first grant information included in the downlink control information format may include UE identity information or association information associated with the UE identity triggered to receive the second grant information. The UE identity information or the association information associated with the identity may be considered as indication information indicating whether a UE is triggered to receive the second grant information, e.g., for implicitly indicating whether a UE is triggered to receive the second grant information. For example, the association information associated with the UE identity may be calculated by , where is an RNTI for UE unicast or multicast transmission, is a value fixed or configured by protocols; the value of may define an upper limit on the number of UEs that can be granted by the first grant information obtained based on the common search space. The UE may determine whether the identity information (or association information thereof) indicated in the first grant information is consistent with (e.g., matches or is the same as) its own identity information (or association information thereof). When the identity information (or association information thereof) indicated in the first grant information is consistent with its own identity information (or association information thereof), the UE is triggered to receive the second grant information. Additionally or alternatively, when the identity information (or association information thereof) indicated in the first grant information is not consistent with its own identity information (or association information thereof), the UE does not receive the second grant information.

[0118] In some implementations, when the first physical channel used for determining the first grant information (e.g., carrying the first grant information) is a PDCCH (e.g., the "PDCCH configured for reception by at least one UE" described in the above implementations), the first grant information carried by the PDCCH may further contain time domain resource allocation information and / or frequency domain resource allocation information of a downlink physical channel carrying the second grant information (which may be referred to as a second physical channel in the implementations of the disclosure). The UE may determine whether to be triggered to receive the second grant information according to at least one of the time domain resource allocation information and the frequency domain resource allocation information; for example, when the physical resource (i.e., the allocated physical resource, including the allocated time domain resource and / or the frequency domain resource) determined by the UE according to the time domain resource allocation information and / or the frequency domain resource is a valid physical resource (e.g., the allocated time domain resource and the frequency domain resource meet a minimum physical resource requirement for the transmission of the second grant information; and / or the allocated time domain resource and / or the frequency domain resource are not used by a transmission of a higher priority; and / or the allocated time domain resource and / or the frequency domain resource are available for downlink transmission / FWA downlink transmission), the UE is triggered to receive the second grant information. Additionally or alternatively, the UE does not receive the second grant information when the physical resource determined by the UE according to the time domain resource allocation information and / or the frequency domain resource allocation information is not a valid physical resource.

[0119] In some implementations, when the UE is triggered to receive the second grant information based on the first grant information, the UE may receive a downlink physical channel carrying the second grant information. For example, the downlink physical channel may be at least one of: a downlink shared channel (e.g., PDSCH), a grant-based downlink control channel (e.g., PDCCH). The downlink shared channel may be the same downlink shared channel received by the at least one UE (e.g., when the first grant information triggers the at least one UE to receive the same second grant information, and the same second grant information is carried by a downlink shared channel, which may be scrambled by the RNTI associated with the first grant information). The grant-based downlink control channel may refer to the UE receiving downlink control information on the indicated time and frequency resources, where the downlink control information includes at least the second grant information. Specifically, the UE may obtain the time domain and / or frequency domain resources of the downlink physical channel in which the UE receives the second grant information according to the first grant information and / or the higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling, MAC CE, etc.). For example, the first grant information and / or the higher layer signaling may include indication information related to time domain and / or frequency domain resources of the downlink physical channel, which may include at least one of: the time domain resource position such as the index of a slot / subframe / time domain symbol used for transmission of the downlink physical channel; the frequency domain resource location such as the index of a bandwidth part (BWP) / FWA frequency subband / physical resource block group (RBG) / physical resource block (PRB) used for transmission of the downlink physical channel. When the downlink physical channel is a grant-based downlink control channel, the time domain and / or frequency domain resources of the downlink physical channel may be time domain aperiodic and / or may not be limited to a control channel resource set (CORESET) configuration. Or, there is an association between the first physical resource (including time domain and / or frequency domain resources) of the first physical channel carrying the first grant information and the second physical resource (including time domain and / or frequency domain resources) of the downlink physical channel carrying the second grant information. The UE may determine the time domain and / or frequency domain resources of the downlink physical channel to receive the second grant information according to the association. For example, the association includes at least one of the following: the time domain resource location (e.g., the index of a slot / subframe / time domain symbol, etc.) of the first physical resource is the same as the time domain resource location of the second physical resource or has a determined time domain offset ( may be a protocol fixed value or configured to the UE by signaling) from the time domain resource location of the second physical resource; the frequency domain resource location of the first physical resource (e.g., the index of BWP / FWA frequency subband / RBG / PRB, etc.) is the same as or has a determined frequency domain offset ( may be a value fixed by protocols or configured to the UE by signaling) from the frequency domain resource location of the second physical resource.

[0120] In some implementations, when the first grant information triggers multiple UEs to receive the second grant information, physical resources (e.g., at least one of time domain resources and frequency domain resources) that are configured for the multiple UEs to receive the second grant information are different from each other. At this time, the multiple UEs separately receive the downlink physical channels scrambled by respective identity information (e.g., C-RNTI, etc.) in different physical resources, where each of the downlink physical channels carries the second grant information for a single UE. In this case, the UE does not need to further confirm / determine whether it is actually scheduled, i.e., the UE determines to be triggered to receive the second grant information according to the indication of the first grant information, which means that the UE is scheduled to transmit the uplink signal or receive the downlink signal. The method can simplify the procedure after the UE receives the second grant information and avoid the UE from receiving the second grant information that is not intended for itself.

[0121] In some implementations, when the first grant information triggers multiple UEs to receive the second grant information, the physical resources (e.g., time domain resources and frequency domain resources) of the multiple UEs configured for receiving the second grant information are the same. At this time, the multiple UEs receive the same downlink physical channel carrying second grant information, which may include scheduling grant information of a unique UE among the multiple UEs. In some examples, the downlink physical channel carrying the second grant information may be scrambled by the identity information of the unique UE, i.e., only the unique UE of the multiple UEs can correctly detect the downlink physical channel and obtain the second grant information. A UE capable of detecting the downlink physical channel may be determined to be scheduled. In other examples, the downlink physical channel carrying the second grant information is scrambled by identity information common to the multiple UEs (e.g., the RNTI associated with the first grant information, etc.), and the second grant information includes identity information of a particular UE (which may be one or more of the multiple UEs). Upon receiving the downlink physical channel, the UE (e.g., each of the multiple UEs) may determine whether the second grant information is valid, i.e., whether the UE is scheduled, based on the identity information included in the second grant information. The second grant information is determined to be valid for the UE when the identity information included in the second grant information received by the UE is consistent with (e.g., matches or is the same as) the identity of the UE. Additionally or alternatively, the second grant information may be determined to be invalid for the UE when the identity information contained in the second grant information received by the UE is not consistent with the identity of the UE. In some scenarios, because there is a small probability that traffic of multiple UEs is concurrent, and the UE actually scheduled at the same time may be only one of the multiple UEs, the method designs both the first grant information and the second grant information as common information received by the multiple UEs, thereby significantly reducing resource overhead of scheduling grant information, and the scheduling grant of multiple UEs may be supported. In the description of the example embodiments of the disclosure, the "scheduling grant information" may refer to information related to grant / scheduling of transmission and / or reception of a signal (e.g., an uplink signal and / or a downlink signal), and both may be used interchangeably. For example, the UE may perform uplink transmission or downlink reception based on the obtained scheduling grant information. In some examples, the scheduling grant information may include at least one of: information related to a downlink assignment, information related to an uplink scheduling grant, information related to a physical uplink shared channel configuration grant (e.g., activation, deactivation, downlink feedback information indication, etc.), information related to a physical downlink shared channel semi-persistent transmission (e.g., activation, deactivation, etc.), information related to transmission of transmit power control configuration parameters (e.g., transmit power control commands for a physical uplink shared channel and / or a physical uplink control channel), etc.

[0122] FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a UE according to some example embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the method may incorporate the example method of transmitting the first grant information of the previous implementations, including the process of performing an uplink transmission or a downlink transmission based on the first grant information and / or the second grant information. Specifically, the UE may receive a common physical channel (e.g., "sequence-based physical channel" or PDCCH) to obtain first grant information, may receive second grant information according to the first grant information, and then perform uplink transmission or downlink transmission according to the second grant information. The method described in combination with FIG. 5 is merely an example. One or more of the operations illustrated in FIG. 5 may be omitted or additional operations described according to various embodiments of the disclosure may be added.

[0123] Referring to FIG. 5, in operation S510, the UE receives a first physical channel (e.g., a common physical channel) to obtains first grant information. For example, the first physical channel may be a sequence-based physical channel, or PDCCH.

[0124] Next, in operation S520, based on the first grant information, the UE determines whether to be triggered to receive second grant information. If the first grant information does not trigger the UE to receive the second grant information, the UE returns to operation S510, and the UE continues to monitor the first physical channel.

[0125] Then, if the first grant information triggers the UE to receive the second grant information, the UE transmits the uplink signal or receives the downlink signal according to the scheduling information related to the transmission of the uplink signal or the downlink signal in the second grant information in operation S540. Optionally, if the first grant information triggers the UE to receive the second grant information, the UE may further determine whether to be scheduled according to the second grant information indication in operation S530 (the detailed method may refer to the above-described related examples corresponding to "the first grant information triggering multiple UEs to receive the second grant information"). If the UE determines to be scheduled, the UE transmits the uplink signal or receives the downlink signal according to the scheduling information related to the transmission of the uplink signal or the downlink signal in the second grant information in operation S540. If the UE determines that it is not scheduled, the UE returns to operation S510, continuing to monitor the first physical channel carrying the first grant information.

[0126] In some implementations, the first grant information may include other indication information related to the second grant information or to the second physical channel carrying the second grant information in addition to the related information for determining whether the second grant information is triggered to be received. For example, the indication information related to the second grant information or to the second physical channel carrying the second grant information may include at least one of the following: the downlink control information format of the second grant information (when the downlink physical channel is a grant-based PDCCH), the modulation and / or coding scheme of the second physical channel, the number of payload bits of the second grant information, the time offset between the time domain resource of the second grant information and the time domain resource of an uplink transmission and / or a downlink transmission scheduled by the second grant information. In other examples, when one or more of the above-mentioned other indication information related to the second grant information or the second physical channel carrying the second grant information is not indicated in the first grant information, it may be configured to the UE by higher layer signaling or fixed by the protocol.

[0127] In some implementations, when the first physical channel for determining the first grant information (e.g., carrying the first grant information) is a PDCCH (e.g., "the PDCCH configured for reception by at least one UE" in the above implementations), the first grant information may include scheduling grant information related to "the UE transmitting an uplink signal or receiving a downlink signal" in addition to the related information for determining whether to be triggered to receive the second grant information. In order to reduce the resource overhead of the transmission of the first grant information, when the scheduling grant information of the uplink signal or the downlink signal (which may also be referred to as transmission scheduling information in the implementations of the disclosure) is included in the first grant information, the included transmission scheduling information may be scheduling information supporting only basic data transmission (e.g., data transmission of light or small data amount, etc.). For example, the transmission scheduling information may include at least one of an uplink / downlink identifier, a frequency domain resource allocation, a time domain resource allocation, a modulation and coding scheme, a frequency hopping identification, a redundancy version, a HARQ process number, a new data indication, a power control command, a downlink assignment index, an uplink control channel related parameter, and / or the like. In other examples, when the UE is triggered to receive the second grant information, and the first grant information and the second grant information each include scheduling grant information related to "the UE transmits an uplink signal or receives a downlink signal" (the first grant information includes the first transmission scheduling information and the second grant information includes the second transmission scheduling information), the first transmission scheduling information is different from the second transmission scheduling information. The UE may transmit an uplink signal or receive a downlink signal according to the first transmission scheduling information and the second transmission scheduling information. In this case, the second transmission scheduling information may be in addition to the first transmission scheduling information, and both the first transmission scheduling information and the second transmission scheduling information are jointly used as a schedule / grant for uplink transmission or downlink reception. As a specific example, the first transmission scheduling information content may be as shown in the previous example; the second transmission scheduling information may further include, for example, a BWP indication (e.g., for BWP switching), a carrier indication (e.g., for carrier aggregation), an antenna port indication (e.g., for multi-port transmission), a code block group related indication (e.g., for code block group based retransmission), a precoding related indication (e.g., for uplink digital precoding), a phase tracking reference signal related indication, an update / offset to the uplink and / or downlink resource allocation indicated in the first transmission scheduling information (e.g., to support more diverse physical resource allocations, etc.), and / or the like. Such design can support fallback transmission of uplink and downlink signals, i.e., the UE may be scheduled for basic uplink or downlink transmission based only on the first grant information without the transmission of the second grant information. Or, the process can also be understood as the uplink physical channel or the downlink physical channel indicated by the first grant information carrying only data information and without carrying scheduling grant information related to subsequent physical channel transmissions. This design can provide flexibility in network side scheduling, and can reduce scheduling delay by not receiving the second grant information when the UE only needs basic data transmission.

[0128] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by a UE according to an example embodiment of the disclosure. The method described in combination with FIG. 6 is merely an example. One or more of the operations illustrated in FIG. 6 may be omitted or additional operations described according to various embodiments of the disclosure may be added.

[0129] Referring to FIG. 6, the UE receives a first physical channel (e.g., a common physical channel) to obtain first grant information in operation S610. For example, the first physical channel may be a PDCCH.

[0130] Next, based on the first grant information, the UE determines whether to be triggered to receive second grant information in operation S620. If the first grant information does not trigger the UE to receive the second grant information, in operation S640, the UE transmits an uplink signal or receives a downlink signal according to the scheduling information related to the transmission of the uplink signal or the downlink signal in the first grant information.

[0131] Then, if the first grant information triggers the UE to receive the second grant information, in operation S650, the UE transmits the uplink signal or receives the downlink signal according to the scheduling information related to the transmission of the uplink signal or the downlink signal in the first grant information and the second grant information. Alternatively, if the first grant information triggers the UE to receive the second grant information, the UE may further determine whether to be scheduled according to the second grant information indication in operation S630 (the detailed method may refer to the related examples corresponding to "the first grant information triggering multiple UEs to receive the second grant information"). If the UE determines to be scheduled, the UE transmits the uplink signal or receives the downlink signal according to the scheduling information related to transmission of the uplink signal or the downlink signal in the first grant information and the second grant information. If the UE determines that it is not scheduled, the UE returns to operation S610 to continue monitoring the common physical channel carrying the first grant information.

[0132] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method 700 performed by a UE according to some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the UE may be implemented as a CPE type UE / CPE capable UE, or other type of UE, such as a normal UE.

[0133] Referring to FIG. 7, the UE monitors a first physical channel in operation S710.

[0134] Next, in operation S720, based on the first physical channel, the UE determines whether it is triggered to receive a second physical channel carrying first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE.

[0135] Then, in operation S730, the UE transmits an uplink signal or receives a downlink signal based on at least one of the first physical channel or the second physical channel.

[0136] In some implementations, one or more of operation S710 to operation S730 may be performed based on the methods described according to various embodiments of the disclosure.

[0137] In some implementations, the method 700 may omit one or more of operations S710 to S730, or may include additional operations, for example, operations described according to various embodiments of the disclosure, which may be performed by a UE.

[0138] FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of a method 800 performed by a base station according to some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0139] Referring to FIG. 8, a base station transmits a first physical channel to a UE in operation S810.

[0140] Next, in operation S820, the base station receives an uplink signal from the UE or transmits a downlink signal to the UE based on at least one of the first physical channel or a second physical channel. Whether the UE is triggered to receive the second physical channel carrying first information about a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE is determined based on the first physical channel.

[0141] In some implementations, one or more of S810 to operation S820 may be performed based on the methods described according to various embodiments of the disclosure.

[0142] In some implementations, the method 800 may omit one or more of operations S810 to S820, or may include additional operations, for example, operations described according to various of the disclosure that can be performed by the base station.

[0143] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method performed by a UE in a communication system is provided. The method includes: monitoring a first physical channel; determining, based on the first physical channel, whether to be triggered to receive a second physical channel, wherein the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE; and transmitting an uplink signal or receiving a downlink signal based on at least one of the first physical channel or the second physical channel. The first physical channel includes ate least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical channel based on a sequence.

[0144] In an embodiment, the physical channel based on the sequence carries only the sequence and is monitored by the at least one UE on a same physical resource.

[0145] In an embodiment, in case that the sequence is a common sequence configured for the at least one UE, whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the detection result of the common sequence. And in case that the sequence is a UE-specific sequence configured for one or more UEs of the at least one UE, the one or more UEs including the UE, whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the detection result of the UE-specific sequence.

[0146] In an embodiment, the method includes: monitoring the first physical channel based on a first radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) associated with the first physical channel to determine whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.

[0147] In an embodiment, first RNTI associated with the first physical channel is a UE group-specific or cell-specific RNTI for transmission of the first physical channel.

[0148] In an embodiment, downlink control information carried by the first physical channel includes indication information that is used to indicate whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.

[0149] In an embodiment, the indication information is used to indicate whether one or more UE are triggered to receive a second physical channel. And the one or more UE are associated with a same indication of whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.

[0150] In an embodiment, the indication information is used to indicate whether one or more UE sub-groups are triggered to receive the second physical channel, each UE sub-group including at least one UE associated with a same indication of whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.

[0151] In an embodiment, UE identification information is included in downlink control information carried by the first physical channel. And whether to be triggered to receive a second physical channel is determined based on whether UE identification information included in the downlink control information matches UE identification information of the UE.

[0152] In an embodiment, the first physical channel carries information related to time domain resource allocation and / or frequency domain resource allocation for the second physical channel. And allocated physical resources of the second physical channel are determined based on the information related to time domain resource allocation and / or frequency domain resource allocation for the second physical channel.

[0153] In an embodiment, whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel on the allocated physical resources based on at least one of the allocated physical resources meet a minimum physical resource requirement for a transmission of the second physical channel, the allocated physical resources are not used by a transmission with a higher priority than the transmission of the second physical channel, or the allocated physical resources are available for downlink transmissions or fixed wireless access (FWA) downlink transmissions.

[0154] In an embodiment, in case that a plurality of UEs are triggered by the first physical channel to receive the second physical channel, each of the plurality of UEs separately receives the second physical channel scrambled by UE identification information of the UE on different physical resources.

[0155] In an embodiment, in case that a plurality of UEs are triggered by the first physical channel to receive the second physical channel, the same second physical channel carrying first information is detected by the plurality of UEs, wherein the second physical channel is scrambled by identification information common to the plurality of UEs. And the first information includes UE identification information of a specific UE among the plurality of UEs. And it is determined that the UE is scheduled to transmit an uplink signal or receive a downlink signal based on UE identification information of a specific UE included in the first information matching the UE identification information of the UE.

[0156] In an embodiment, in case that a plurality of UEs are triggered by the first physical channel to receive a second physical channel, the same second physical channel carrying the first information is detected by the plurality of UEs. And the second physical channel is scrambled by UE identification information of a single UE among the plurality of UEs.

[0157] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method performed by a base station in a communication system is provided. The method includes: transmitting a first physical channel to a user equipment (UE); and receiving an uplink signal from the UE or transmit a downlink signal to the UE based on at least one of a first physical channel or a second physical channel, wherein whether the UE is triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the first physical channel, wherein the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE. The first physical channel includes ate least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical channel based on a sequence.

[0158] Those skilled in the art will understand that the above illustrative embodiments are described herein and are not intended to be limiting. It should be understood that any two or more of the embodiments disclosed herein may be combined in any combination. Furthermore, other embodiments may be utilized and other changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readily understood that aspects of the invention of the disclosure as generally described herein and shown in the drawings may be arranged, replaced, combined, separated and designed in various different configurations, all of which are contemplated herein.

[0159] Those skilled in the art will understand that the various illustrative logic blocks, modules, circuits, and steps described in this application may be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability between hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described above in the form of their functional sets. Whether such function sets are implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Technicians may implement the described function sets in different ways for each specific application, but such design decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of this application.

[0160] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in this application may be implemented or performed by a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logics, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in an alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors cooperating with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0161] The steps of the method or algorithm described in this application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination thereof. The software module may reside in a RAM memory, a flash memory, a ROM memory, an EPROM memory, an EEPROM memory, a register, a hard disk, a removable disk, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to a processor to enable the processor to read and write information from / to the storage medium. In an alternative, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a communication apparatus (e.g., a terminal or a base station). In an alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in a communication apparatus (e.g., a terminal or a base station) as discrete components.

[0162] In one or more exemplary designs, the functions may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, each function may be stored as one or more pieces of instructions or codes on a computer-readable medium or delivered through it. The computer-readable medium includes both a computer storage medium and a communication medium, the latter including any medium that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one place to another. The storage medium may be any available medium that may be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

[0163] The above description is only example embodiments of the invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims.

[0164] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:monitoring a first physical channel;determining, based on the first physical channel, whether to be triggered to receive a second physical channel, wherein the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE; andtransmitting an uplink signal or receiving a downlink signal based on at least one of the first physical channel or the second physical channel,wherein the first physical channel includes at least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical channel based on a sequence.The method of claim 1, wherein the physical channel based on the sequence carries only the sequence and is monitored by the at least one UE on a same physical resource.The method of claim 2,wherein in case that the sequence is a common sequence configured for the at least one UE, whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the detection result of the common sequence, andwherein in case that the sequence is a UE-specific sequence configured for one or more UEs of the at least one UE, the one or more UEs including the UE, whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the detection result of the UE-specific sequence.The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the first physical channel includes:monitoring the first physical channel based on a first radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) associated with the first physical channel to determine whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.The method of claim 4, wherein the first RNTI associated with the first physical channel is a UE group-specific or cell-specific RNTI for transmission of the first physical channel.The method of claim 1, wherein downlink control information carried by the first physical channel includes indication information that is used to indicate whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.The method of claim 6, wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether one or more UE are triggered to receive a second physical channel,wherein the one or more UE are associated with a same indication of whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.The method of claim 6, wherein the indication information is used to indicate whether one or more UE sub-groups are triggered to receive the second physical channel, each UE sub-group including at least one UE associated with a same indication of whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel.The method of claim 1, wherein UE identification information is included in downlink control information carried by the first physical channel,wherein whether to be triggered to receive a second physical channel is determined based on whether UE identification information included in the downlink control information matches UE identification information of the UE.The method of claim 1,wherein the first physical channel carries information related to time domain resource allocation and / or frequency domain resource allocation for the second physical channel,wherein allocated physical resources of the second physical channel are determined based on the information related to time domain resource allocation and / or frequency domain resource allocation for the second physical channel.The method of claim 10, wherein whether to be triggered to receive the second physical channel on the allocated physical resources based on at least one of the following:the allocated physical resources meet a minimum physical resource requirement for a transmission of the second physical channel;the allocated physical resources are not used by a transmission with a higher priority than the transmission of the second physical channel; orthe allocated physical resources are available for downlink transmissions or fixed wireless access (FWA) downlink transmissions.The method of claim 1, wherein in case that a plurality of UEs are triggered by the first physical channel to receive the second physical channel, each of the plurality of UEs separately receives the second physical channel scrambled by UE identification information of the UE on different physical resources.The method of claim 1, wherein in case that a plurality of UEs are triggered by the first physical channel to receive the second physical channel, the same second physical channel carrying first information is detected by the plurality of UEs, wherein the second physical channel is scrambled by identification information common to the plurality of UEs,wherein the first information includes UE identification information of a specific UE among the plurality of UEs, andwherein it is determined that the UE is scheduled to transmit an uplink signal or receive a downlink signal based on UE identification information of a specific UE included in the first information matching the UE identification information of the UE.The method of claim 1, wherein in case that a plurality of UEs are triggered by the first physical channel to receive a second physical channel, the same second physical channel carrying the first information is detected by the plurality of UEs, andwherein the second physical channel is scrambled by UE identification information of a single UE among the plurality of UEs.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:transmitting a first physical channel to a user equipment (UE); andreceiving an uplink signal from the UE or transmit a downlink signal to the UE based on at least one of a first physical channel or a second physical channel,wherein whether the UE is triggered to receive the second physical channel is determined based on the first physical channel, wherein the second physical channel carries first information related to a grant of uplink transmission or downlink reception of at least one UE including the UE,wherein the first physical channel includes at least one of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical channel based on a sequence.

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