Enhanced uplink control information multiplexing procedures

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for enhanced uplink control information (UCI) multiplexing procedures In the method, a first apparatus obtains configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource. Each of the at least one frequency resource is a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus. Moreover, the first apparatus determines, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus. The uplink shared channel is associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information. Thereby, the proposed solution can improve efficiency of the UCI multiplexing.

Description

ENHANCED UPLINK CONTROL INFORMATION MULTIPLEXING PROCEDURESCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Fl application No. 20245952, filed August 5, 2024. The content of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD

[0002] Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for enhanced uplink control information multiplexing procedures.BACKGROUND

[0003] As communication networks and services increase in size, complexity, and number of users, operations in the communication networks may become increasingly more complicated, which leads to remarkably increasing resource occupation. Uplink Control Information (UCI) multiplexing on Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) has been proposed. However, the efficiency of the UCI multiplexing procedure is generally expected to be further improved.SUMMARY

[0004] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: obtain a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus; and determine, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus.

[0005] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs). i

[0006] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: obtain configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus; and determine, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0007] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to: transmit, to a first apparatus, configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

[0008] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: obtaining a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus; and determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus.

[0009] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, to a first apparatus, a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs).

[0010] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: obtaining configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus; and determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0011] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The methodcomprises: transmitting, to a first apparatus, configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

[0012] In a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for obtaining a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus; and means for determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus.

[0013] In a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs).

[0014] In an eleventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for obtaining configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus; and means for determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0015] In a twelfth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

[0016] In a thirteenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to any of the fourth to eighth aspects.

[0017] In a fourteenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to any of the fourth to eighth aspects.

[0018] It is to be understood that the Summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0020] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0021] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of UCI multiplexing within a PUCCH group;

[0022] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of UCI multiplexing within a PUCCH group for inter-band simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH;

[0023] FIG. 4 illustrates an conventional design without simultaneous (inter-band) PUCCH / PUSCH;

[0024] FIG. 5 illustrates an conventional design with simultaneous (inter-band) PUCCH / PUSCH;

[0025] FIG. 6 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] Fig. 7 illustrates an example CA setup within PUCCH group according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0027] Fig. 8 illustrates an example of CC group operation for an intra-band CA case;

[0028] Fig. 9 illustrates a further example of CC group operation;

[0029] FIG. 10 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0030] FIG. 11 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0031] Fig. 12 illustrates an example of UCI multiplexing on PUSCH according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0032] Fig. 13 illustrates a further example of UCI multiplexing on PUSCH according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0033] FIG. 14 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0034] FIG. 15 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0035] FIG. 16 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0036] FIG. 17 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0037] FIG. 18 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0038] FIG. 19 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0039] FIG. 20 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0040] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0042] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0043] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0044] It shall be understood that although the terms “first,” “second,”..., etc. in front of noun(s) and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another and they do not limit the order of the noun(s). For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0045] As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0046] As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

[0047] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and / or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof.

[0048] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable):(i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and(ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and(c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0049] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0050] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE- Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-loT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G), 5.5G, the sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

[0051] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), 6G BS, a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network(NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

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

[0053] As used herein, the term “resource,” “transmission resource,” “resource block,” “physical resource block” (PRB), “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and / or code domain resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to otherresources in other domains.

[0054] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. In the communication environment 100, there are a plurality of communication devices, for example, a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. These apparatuses can communicate with each other.

[0055] It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connections shown in FIG. 1 are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of devices configured to implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. By way of example rather than limitation, in some example embodiments, the communication environment 100 may further comprises one or more apparatuses (not shown in FIG. 1).

[0056] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), the fifth generation (5G), 5.5G, the sixth generation (6G), and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT- s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0057] Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) in New Radio (NR) is used to carry Uplink Control Information (UCI) such as scheduling request (SR), which could also be used for Beam Failure Recovery(BFR) request, hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, and Channel State Information (CSI) feedback.

[0058] UCI multiplexing on PUCCH is generally used to denote a handling mechanism for scenarios where at least two PUCCH resources carrying UCIs are overlapping at least in time. The handling mechanism generally consists of multiplexing UCIs on PUCCH, where this may sometimes include partial dropping of some UCI. Also, there are cases where full dropping of UCI may occur, i.e. basically ‘prioritization’ of one UCI over another UCI.

[0059] Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) main purpose is transmission of UL user data, and UL control is transmitted via PUCCH. However, PUSCH may be also used to transmit UCI, which happens in the following two cases:

[0060] Case 1 : UCI is explicitly scheduled for transmission on PUSCH, such as Aperiodic Channel State Information (A-CSI) or Semi-Persistent Channel State Information (SP-CSI) on PUSCH.

[0061] Case 2: PUSCH resources on the same or a different serving cell for UL Carrier Aggregation (CA) operation overlaps with PUCCH resources in time domain. In this case, UE multiplexes UCI content on PUSCH according to a set of rules which again may include some dropping of UCI information (such as SR). As an end result, the UE would not transmit any overlapping PUCCH and PUSCH(s) in time domain for an UL carrier aggregation configuration, as the UCI would be multiplexed on one of the PUSCH(s) (according to certain rules) and PUCCH would not be transmitted (i.e. dropped).

[0062] Regarding PUCCH group in 5G NR, in an existing design, to avoid overloading a single carrier with UCI information and / or enable independent UCI operation for different groups of cells (e.g., for inter-site carrier aggregation), in 5G NR, it is possible to configure two PUCCH groups where feedback relating to the primary PUCCH group containing a sub-set of carriers is transmitted in the uplink of the Primary Cell (PCell) and feedback relating to the secondary PUCCH group containing of complementary sub-set of carriers is transmitted on another cell UL Secondary Cell (SCell), which is denoted as PUCCH-SCell.

[0063] One or two PUCCH cell groups may be configured (explicitly or implicitly). HARQ-ACK feedback of Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) of DL serving cells of a cell group is restrained to be scheduled into PUCCH on a PUCCH cell and potential multiplexing on PUSCH is limited to UL serving cells of the PUCCH cell group. For the baseline operation, after handling overlapping channels, there would be no PUCCH transmission overlapping in time with a PUSCH transmission of UL serving cells of the PUCCH group.

[0064] Regarding simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH in 5G NR, the simultaneous PUSCH / PUCCH for inter-band CA has been introduced in NR. If the UE is supporting this feature and is configured with simultaneous PUSCH / PUCCH transmission, the potential multiplexing of UCI from PUCCH on a PUSCH (and the related PUCCH dropping) is limited to UL serving cells within the same band only.

[0065] This clearly reduces the coordination needs at the network side to UL serving cells of thesame band only. However, due to potential parallel PUCCH transmission on PCell / PUCCH-SCell and some PUSCH on UL serving cells of the PUCCH group, the performance may be impacted by transmission (TX) power sharing / prioritization. In addition, it should be noted that simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions may encounter several problems (e.g., in case of intra-band CA), such as inter-modulation distortion, such as increase of Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) and maximum power reduction (MPR). This would then result in higher power back-off for UE and thus lower link budget gain (coverage) in UL.

[0066] The baseline PUCCH & PUSCH multiplexing operation within a PUCCH group can be summarized as follows:

[0067] (1) UCI handling / multiplexing (on PUCCH / PUSCH) is essentially handled within (the serving cells of) each PUCCH group separately.

[0068] (2) UCI handling / multiplexing (on PUSCH) is defined based on rather static rules, and the UCI may end up being multiplexed on any of the UL serving cells / PUSCHs of the PUCCH group.

[0069] (3) The defined rules require coordination between cells in order to know whether there will be a UCI multiplexed on a PUSCH(s) of a specific UL serving cell; but also to determine on which PUSCH the UCI is to be multiplexed, in case of multiple candidate PUSCHs.

[0070] (4) Based on legacy handling, e.g., in case of limited coordination possibilities between the different serving cells of a PUCCH group, there may be need for blind (multiple hypothesis) detection at the gNB to determine if UCI is multiplexed on a PUSCH of a certain UL serving cell or not. Overall, the legacy handling may require blind detection(s) at the gNB to find where the UCI is multiplexed.

[0071] Fig. 2 illustrates an example of UCI multiplexing within a PUCCH group. For the example shown in Fig. 2, in the primary PUCCH group the UCI / HARQ-ACK of the primary PUCCH group on PUCCH (on PCell) is multiplexed on the PUSCH on SCell#2. Only the PUSCH on SCell#2 including the UCI / HARQ-ACK is transmitted in the primary PUCCH group and the PUCCH on PCell is not transmitted / dropped. In the secondary PUCCH group, the UCI / HARQ-ACK of the secondary PUCCH group on PUCCH (on PUCCH-SCell) is multiplexed on the PUSCH on SCell#A. Only the PUSCH on SCell#A including the UCI / HARQ-ACK and PUSCH on SCell#C is transmitted in the secondary PUCCH group and the PUCCH on PUCCH-SCell is not transmitted / dropped. The arrow shown with a solid line in the Fig. 2 indicates the multiplexing and the PUCCH box with dashed line shows that the PUCCH is neglected / not transmitted / dropped.

[0072] It should be noted that the description in the present disclosure refers to two PUCCH groups (primary & secondary PUCCH group with PUCCH on PCell and PUCCH-SCell). But the same multiplexing operation within a PUCCH group is also applicable to multiplexing within a Cell Group for Dual Connectivity (DC) operation. For DC operation, the Master Cell Group (MCG) has the PUCCH on the PCell (as for the primary PUCCH group for carrier aggregation operation) and the Secondary Cell Group (SCG) has the PUCCH the PSCell (Primary Secondary Cell).

[0073] For inter-band simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation the related multiplexing of UCI on PUCCH onto PUSCH is limited to PUSCH of UL serving cells in the same band as the PCell / PUCCH-SCell (or PSCell for DC) within the same PUCCH group (or cell group).

[0074] Fig. 3 illustrates an example of UCI multiplexing within a PUCCH group for inter-band simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH. Fig. 3 illustrates the simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation with the same assumptions on PUCCH and PUSCH on UL serving cells as in Fig. 2 above.

[0075] For the primary PUCCH group, the PCell is in a different band as the PUSCH on SCell #2 and therefore, there is no multiplexing of UCI from PUCCH to the PUSCH on SCell#2 (i.e. no arrow) and the UE would transmit the PUCCH including the UCI (e.g. HARQ-ACK) on PCell (indicated as a PUCCH box with solid line) and on parallel / simultaneously also the PUSCH on SCell #2. As there the UE may need to share the available UL transmission power (e.g., within the same frequency range, i.e. within frequency range 1 (FR1) or frequency range 2 (FR2)) between UL transmissions, the UE may need to reduce the power of the PUSCH on SCell#2 (as PUCCH with HARQ-ACK having higher priority in the UL TX power prioritization compared to PUSCH) to not exceed the maximum UL TX power of the UE. This clearly has a negative impact on the detection performance of the scheduled PUSCH.

[0076] For the secondary PUCCH group, as the multiplexing of UCI of the PUCCH on PUCCH- SCell is limited to the band of the PUCCH-SCell, namely band A. As consequence, only the PUSCH on SCell#A is considered in the multiplex on PUSCH operation. As a consequence, for the secondary PUCCH group the multiplexing and transmission outcome is the same as for the case without simultaneous PUSCH / PUCCH, i.e. only the PUSCH on SCell#A including the UCI / HARQ- ACK and PUSCH on SCell#C is transmitted in the secondary PUCCH group and the PUCCH on PUCCH-SCell is not transmitted / dropped.

[0077] As such, the inter-band simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation helps clearly to decouple the UCI / HARQ-ACK mapping at least for UL serving cells of different bands, i.e., some coordination and / or blind detection may only be needed for UL serving cells of the same band as the cell carrying the PUCCH (i.e. PCell / PUCCH-SCell / PSCell). But this decoupling results inparallel / simultaneous transmissions of (unnecessary) PUCCH & PUSCH transmissions affecting the PUSCH reception performance in case of limited UL TX power at the UE side. In addition, note that simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions can encounter several problems, e.g., related to inter-modulation distortion, such as increase of PAPR and maximum power reduction (MPR). This would then result in higher power back-off for UE and thus lower link budget gain (coverage) in UL.

[0078] In case the network for the primary PUCCH group would still be able to coordinate with SCell #2 on band #2 but not SCell #3 on band #2, the PUCCH transmission for the example would actually be unnecessary. However, based on the current operation, the UCI / HARQ-ACK multiplexing on PUSCH is either (a) considered for all UL serving cells of a PUCCH group (or cell group) or (b) limited to the UL serving cells of the same band as the cell carrying the PUCCH (i.e. PCell, PUCCH-SCell or SPCell) without being able to either differentiate between different bands and / or enable a different handling cells for different cells of another bands.

[0079] Fig. 4 illustrates a conventional design without simultaneous (inter-band) PUCCH / PUSCH. For ease of illustration, it is assumed that the operation in CA in the primary PUCCH group or for DC in the MCG, i.e., the PUCCH is located on the PCell and there are 3 DL SCells (SCells#1 to #3) and 2 associated UL SCells (SCell#1 & #2). The PCell is in band B#1 and SCells #2 and #3 are located in band B#2, i.e. there is inter-band UL carrier aggregation between bands B#1 and B#2 configured. There is a PUCCH with HARQ-ACK overlapping with scheduled PUSCHs on SCells #1 & #2. The network is able to have coordination between the UL serving cells of PCell and SCell #1 by network unit #1 , but not including SCel l#2 which is controlled by network unit #2.

[0080] In Fig. 4, there are two overlapping candidate PUSCHs for UCI multiplexing. Based on the legacy rules / prioritization the PUSCH on SCell#2 is selected for UCI multiplexing (assuming SCell #2 has a lower serving cell index than SCell #1 ). The UE multiplexes the UCI / HARQ-ACK from the PUCCH on the PUSCH on SCell#2 (indicated by the arrow shown with a solid line), neglects (drops) the PUCCH (indicated as the dashed box of the PUCCH) and finally transmits the remaining channels, namely the PUSCH on SCell#1 and the PUSCH incl. the multiplexed UCI / HARQ-ACK on SCell#2.

[0081] This requires the network to either be able to have coordination of the UL transmissions between the UL serving cells, or as described above, the network would need to do multihypothesis decoding for UCI presence on PUSCH on SCell #1 and 2 (and potential PUCCH presence on PCell). Based on the concrete coordination restriction of PCell & SCell#1 coordination only, the network unit 1 would clearly know that there is no PUCCH on PCell transmitted, as thePUSCH on SCell#1 is known. But the network unit #1 would not know if there is another PUSCH transmitted controlled by the second network unit #2 controlling UL SCell #2. Therefore, network unit #1 would need to do multi-hypothesis decoding for PUSCH on SCell#1 for the assumption to UCI of the PUCCH to be (i) multiplexed or (ii) not multiplexed on the PUSCH of SCell#1 . Similarly for network unit #2 controlling the UL SCell#2, may not know if the PUCCH would be overlapping with a PUSCH of an SCell controlled by the network unit #1 and if the UCI is therefore mapped or not mapped on the PUSCH of SCell#2, again requiring multi-hypothesis decoding from network unit #2.

[0082] Fig. 5 illustrates a conventional design with simultaneous (inter-band) PUCCH / PUSCH with the same assumptions on PUCCH and PUSCH on UL serving cells as in Fig. 4 above. There is no multiplexing of the UCI / HARQ of the PUCCH on PCell on the PUSCH of SCell#1 or #2, as the PCell in band B#1 and PUSCHs on the SCells in band B#2, are in different bands. Therefore, the UE will transmit the PUCCH on PCell (shown as the box for PUCCH with solid line) on parallel / simultaneously to the inter-band PUSCH transmissions on SCell #1 & #2 in band B#2.

[0083] This clearly solves the coordination problem of the network, but results in 3 parallel transmissions which may result in a need for UL TX power prioritization (in addition to other issues, such as inter-modulation distortion - as previously explained). As discussed, the PUCCH with the UCI / HARQ would not be impacted by the simultaneous PUSCH transmissions but the UE may need to reduce the TX power of one (or both) of the PUSCHs on SCells #1 or #2 to stay within the maximum allowed or supported UL transmission power. This clearly will impact in case of TX power limitation the performance of the PUSCH(s).

[0084] Several solutions are proposed herein to at least address the above-mentioned problems. The proposed solutions at least aim at enhancing and simplifying the UCI handling / multiplexing (e.g., within a PUCCH group, a cell group or the like,), in such a way to mainly reduce dependency between serving cells of a PUCCH group (or cell group) compared to the operation without simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH, but at the same time giving more flexibility in the selection of carriers / UL channel(s) (or resource(s)) for potential UCI / HARQ multiplexing on PUSCH compared to the current simultaneous PUSCH / PUCCH framework. The proposed enhancements may allow reducing / removing need for blind detection(s) at the gNB to find where the UCI is multiplexed.

[0085] FIG. 6 illustrates a signaling chart 600 for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the signaling chart 600 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may comprise a terminaldevice, and the second apparatus 120 may comprise a network device.

[0086] In the signaling chart 600, the first apparatus 110 obtains 620 a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information. Each first frequency resource group comprises a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus 110. Alternatively, each first frequency resource group may be a fifth group of bandwidth parts (BWP) for serving the first apparatus 110. It should be understood that the possible implementations of the frequency resource group described here are merely illustrative and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present disclosure in any way.

[0087] For example, the configuration information may enable the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups. Alternatively, the configuration information may enable to confine or limit the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0088] In an example, in the configuration information, there may be separate CC groups indicated, e.g., for at least one of the following: (i) primary / secondary PUCCH cell group for carrier aggregation operation, (ii) MCG and SCG for DC operation, or (iii) the primary cell carrying the PUCCH (i.e. PCell / PUCCH-SCell / PSCell) and the secondary PUCCH SCell for PUCCH cell switching operation.

[0089] In some example embodiments, the first configuration information may be received from the second apparatus 120. In this case, as shown in Fig. 6, the second apparatus 120 may transmit 610 the first configuration information to the first apparatus 110. In some alternative example embodiments, the first configuration information may be predetermined or may be determined based on a rule, such as a standard spec or the like. It should be understood that the first configuration information may also be obtained in any other suitable manner. The scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

[0090] Furthermore, the first apparatus 110 determines 630, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus 120. By way of example rather than limitation, the uplink shared channel may be a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). For example, the uplink shared channel may be a PUSCH on a cell in the first group of cells, or a PUSCH on a CC in the second group of CCs or a PUSCH on a bandwidth parts (BWP) in the fifth group of bandwidth parts (BWP).

[0091] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may transmit the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE), downlink control information (DCI), or the like. Correspondingly, the first apparatus 110 may receive the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0092] Alternatively, the second apparatus 120 may transmit, to the first apparatus 110, updated information of the one or more frequency resource groups via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI). Correspondingly, the first apparatus 110 may receive updated information of the one or more frequency resource groups via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0093] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may transmit a trigger for the uplink control information and an uplink transmission grant to the first apparatus 110. In response to receiving, from the second apparatus 120, the trigger for the uplink control information and an uplink transmission grant, the first apparatus 110 may determine the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0094] In addition, the first apparatus 110 may transmit, to the second apparatus 120, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel. The second apparatus 120 may determine, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving the uplink control information from the first apparatus. In addition, the second apparatus 120 may receive, from the first apparatus 110, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0095] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may further obtain a second configuration information. For example, the second apparatus 120 may transmit the second configuration information to the first apparatus 110, and thus the first apparatus 110 may receive it from the second apparatus 120. Alternatively, the first apparatus 110 may determine the second configuration information by itself, e.g., based on a rule, such as a standard spec or the like. The second configuration information indicates one or more second frequency resource groups for transmissions of an uplink control channel and / or one or more uplink shared channels. Each second frequency resource group may comprise a third group of cells or a fourth group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus, or a sixth group of BWP for serving the first apparatus 110. Alternatively, each second frequency resource group may be a sixth group of bandwidth parts (BWP) for serving the first apparatus 110. In this case, the first configurationinformation is a subset of the second configuration information. Additionally or alternatively, the first group of cells is a subset of the third group of cells, the second group of CCs is a subset of the fourth group of CCs, or the fifth group of BWP is a subset of the sixth group of BWPs.

[0096] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells may comprise at least a cell carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information. Alternatively, the second group of CCs may comprise at least a CC carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information. Alternatively, the fifth group of bandwidth parts (BWP) may comprise at least a bandwidth part carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information. By way of example rather than limitation, the uplink control channel may be PUCCH.

[0097] Furthermore, The first group of cells may further comprise at least one further cell of the same band or a different band. Alternatively, the second group of CCs may further comprise at least one further CC of the same band or a different band.

[0098] In some example embodiments, a further uplink shared channel is prioritized or dropped for multiplexing the uplink control information if: no uplink shared channel in the one or more first frequency resource groups is determined to multiplex the uplink control information, and the further uplink shared channel on a frequency resource that does not belong to the one or more first frequency resource groups overlaps with an uplink control channel. For example, prioritization / dropping between potential (remaining) overlapping PUCCH(s) and PUSCH(s) (if any) may need to be applied / used. Dropping / prioritization of e.g., PUSCH may be needed in case there is no PUSCH in the CC group to multiplex UCI into, but there is PUSCH on a cell that does not belong to the CC group where this PUSCH overlaps with the PUCCH.

[0099] In some example embodiments, CC group may be used to restrain PUCCH / UCI handling, including multiplexing (and / or prioritization), on PUSCH(s) within the CC group. In other words, potential UCI multiplexing may be limited to certain UL cells only, i.e. cells not contained within the CC group (or sub-group) are not considered for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH.

[0100] Additionally or alternatively, the multiplexing of the uplink control information is to be performed on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups. For example, it is possible to enable controlling / limiting UCI multi plexi ng / handli ng within a CC (component carrier) group, i.e., into PUSCH(s) within a CC group (or bandwidth part group).

[0101] In some additional or alternative example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information into a scheduled or configured uplink shared channel on a frequency resourceoutside the one or more first frequency resource groups is not applicable or is not expected or is not supported. For example, it is possible to enable the possibility of not supporting multiplexing UCI into PUSCH(s) (scheduled / configured) on CCs / cells outside the CC group (or bandwidth part group) of a PUCCH group (or cell group). Namely, the UCI multiplexing of UCI / HARQ-ACK of PUCCH on a PUSCH may be limited to UL serving cells of the CC group.

[0102] In view of the above, the proposed solutions can advantageously enable flexibility for the second apparatus to restrict the HARQ-ACK / UCI multiplexing on PUSCH of certain serving cells / CCs / BWPs (compared to the case of no simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH transmission). Moreover, the second apparatus is enabled to have less stringent multiplexing restrictions in the cell / carrier domain compared to simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation reducing the drawback of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH applied generically (e.g., if coordination is possible for a sub-set of carriers in the same and / or different bands). Thereby, blind detection of where the UCI is multiplexed can be reduced or even avoided.

[0103] The solutions presented in FIG. 6 will be described in more details below with reference to FIGS. 7-10.

[0104] In some example embodiments, it is proposed to enable controlling / limiting UCI multi plexi ng / handli ng within a component carrier (CC) group, i.e., into PUSCH(s) within a CC group (or bandwidth part group).

[0105] The introduction of such limitation / control of UCI handling / multiplexing within or on a CC group may enable the possibility of not supporting multiplexing UCI into PUSCH(s) (scheduled / configured) on CCs / cells outside the CC group (or bandwidth part group) of a PUCCH group (or cell group). Namely, the UCI multiplexing of UCI / HARQ-ACK of PUCCH on a PUSCH is limited to UL serving cells of the CC group. For this operation, the UE may need to be capable of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation, or otherwise, prioritization / dropping between potential (remaining) overlapping PUCCH(s) and PUSCH(s) (if any) would need to be applied / used. For example, dropping / prioritization of PUSCH may be needed in case there is no PUSCH in the CC group to multiplex UCI into, but there is PUSCH on a cell that does not belong to the CC group where this PUSCH overlaps with the PUCCH.

[0106] A CC group may comprise or correspond to one CC or multiple CCs (or bandwidth parts) or (serving) cells. In one example embodiment, the CC group may include at least the cell carrying the PUCCH of the PUCCH group (or cell group), i.e., the PCell, PUCCH-SCell or Primary SCell (PSCell). In a further example embodiment, the CC group may further include at least one further cell of the same band or a different band. In still a further example embodiment, if thecapability of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH of the UE is limited to inter-band only (i.e., no support for simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation for UL serving cells of the same band) and PUSCH dropping / prioritization is to be avoided, then the CC group may include all the UL serving cells of the band where the PUCCH is located (i.e., the band of PCell / PUCCH-SCell or PSCell) and optionally at least one UL serving cell of another band. In a still further example, if the UE is capable of simultaneous PUCCH and PUSCH transmission within the same band, besides the cell carrying the PUCCH, the CC group may include at least one other UL serving cell of the same or different band.

[0107] In some example embodiments, there may be at least one CC group configured. By way of example, for PUCCH cell switching operation (as supported in NR), there may be separate CC groups configured for e.g. PCell and the PUCCH-sSCell. Additionally or alternatively, a CC group is used to restrain PUCCH / UCI handling, including multiplexing (and / or prioritization), on PUSCH(s) within the CC group. In other words, potential UCI multiplexing is limited to certain UL cells only, i.e., cells not contained within the CC group (or sub-group) are not considered for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH.

[0108] Different ways may be used to achieve limiting UCI multiplexing / handling within or on a certain CC group. For example, higher layer signaling, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) may be used to configure a UE with at least one CC group within which (potential) UCI multiplexing / handling can be performed. Such configuration may be provided per UCI type (such as HARQ-ACK, CSI). Additionally or alternatively, a UE may be indicated with indication / information indicative of a CC group where multiplexing / handling of UCI(s) / PUCCH(s) can be considered / applied. This indication may be carried through DCI or MAC CE (or even RRC). Such indication / information may be provided per UCI type (such as HARQ-ACK, CSI).

[0109] It should be noted that, in at least some example embodiments, the proposed solutions may be applicable for cases of single cell (i.e., no CA operation), as well as CA cases. The list of one or multiple CCs or cells of a CC group may be updated via dynamic signaling, such as via MAC CE. Additionally or alternatively, the list of one or more CC group can be updated via dynamic signaling, e.g. via MAC CE or DCI.

[0110] Fig. 7 illustrates an example CA setup within PUCCH group according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure with the same assumptions on PUCCH and PUSCH on UL serving cells as in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 above. For the “CC group” operation shown in Fig. 7, as the network unit #1 controls PCell and SCell#1 but not SCell#2, the gNB would configure the CC group (e.g., by a list of cells or through a priority larger than 0 for cells / carriers in included in the CCgroup and optionally with a priority equal to 0 for cells / carriers not included in the CC group) to contain only the PCell and the SCell#1. As a consequence, only PCell and SCell#1 are considered for potential multiplexing of UCI / HARQ of PUCCH on PUSCH. In this case, the UE may determine the UCI to be multiplexed on PUSCH of SCell#1 . The UE multiplexes the UCI / HARQ-ACK from the PUCCH on the PUSCH on SCell#1 (indicated by the arrow shown with a solid line), neglects (drops) the PUCCH on PCell (indicated as the dashed box of the PUCCH) and finally transmits the remaining channels, namely the PUSCH including the multiplexed UCI on SCell#1 and the PUSCH on SCell#2.

[0111] As in case of an existing operation without simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH of Fig. 4, there is no unnecessary parallel / simultaneous PUCCH transmission, but the network unit #1 controlling PCell & SCell #1 will be aware that the UCI / HARQ is multiplexed on the PUSCH on SCell#1 and may decoded without uncertainty. The network unit #2 is aware based on the CC group configuration that there is no UCI multiplexing on PUSCH of SCell#2 as UCI multiplexing on SCell#2 is not supported and therefore may just decode the PUSCH of SCell#2. Compared to the solution of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH shown in Fig. 5, there is no unnecessary PUCCH transmission on PCell (as there is a PUSCH transmitted also within the CC group) mitigating the negative effect of the potentially needed UL TX power prioritization by the UE.

[0112] Fig. 8 illustrates an example of CC group operation for an intra-band CA case, i.e., PCell, SCell #1 and SCell #2 are within the same band. As shown in Fig. 8, the CC group includes PCell and SCell#1 only. This example is in a way similar to that of Fig. 7 except that all UL serving cells are within the same band. Fig. 9 illustrates a further example of CC group operation where the PCell and SCel l#1 are part of the CC group. In this example, the UCI is multiplexed on PUSCH scheduled / configured on the PCell.

[0113] FIG. 10 illustrates a signaling chart 1000 for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. In example embodiments discussed with respect to FIG. 10, the first apparatus 100, which may be a UE, is denoted by UE 1002, and the second apparatus 120, which may be a base station (such as a gNB or the like), is denoted by BS 1001.

[0114] At 1010, the BS 1001 may indicate a CC group (e.g., for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH) to the UE 1002. There may be separate CC groups indicated, e.g., for at least one of the following: (i) primary / secondary PUCCH cell group for carrier aggregation operation, (ii) MCG and SCG for DC operation, or (iii) the primary cell carrying the PUCCH (i.e. PCell / PUCCH-SCell / PSCell) and the secondary PUCCH SCell for PUCCH cell switching operation. By way of example, the indication of the CC group may be based on a list of UL serving cells by RRC signaling. Alternatively, the CCgroup may be further updated or selected from multiple CC groups by MAC CE or physical layer signaling.

[0115] At 1012, the BS 1001 may indicate a trigger for UCI / HARQ-ACK information to the UE 1002. As an example, this operation may include sending a DL assignment / DCI scheduling a PDSCH for which HARQ-ACK is to be reported as UCI by the UE 1002. Additionally or alternatively, this operation may also include an indication of SP-CSI on PUCCH or the like. At 1014, the BS 1001 may schedule PUSCH on one or more carriers within a PUCCH or cell group.

[0116] At 1016, the UE 1002 may determine, based on the trigger received from the BS 1001 , the pending HARQ-ACK / UCI on PUCCH for transmission and determine the related PUCCH resource. Furthermore, the UE 1002 may determine one overlapping PUSCH for HARQ-ACK / UCI multiplexing based on the CC group indicated at 1010. For example, the UE 1002 may determine the overlapping PUSCHs by only considering the PUSCH(s) of the applicable CC group. That is, PUSCHs not part of the CC group are not considered in the overlapping determination of PUCCH and PUSCH. The conventional procedure to select one of multiple overlapping PUSCH may be applied based the determined overlapping PUSCHs of the CC group.

[0117] At 1018, if the UE 1002 determines a PUSCH for UCI multiplexing at 1016, the UE 1002 may multiplex the applicable UCI (for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH, this may involve as in case of legacy dropping some UCI information) of the PUCCH on the PUSCH determined at 1016 and neglect the PUCCH for transmission / further handling. Moreover, at 1018, the UE 1002 may transmit the remaining channels, e.g., after 1016. For example, the remaining channels may comprise PUCCH and / or PUSCH.

[0118] At 1022, the BS 1001 may determine the multiplexing of the UCI information triggered at 1012 on a PUSCH scheduled at 1014 based on the UCI multiplexing on PUSCH restriction indication of 1010 and the resulting final channels with the corresponding channel (PUCCH or PUSCH) containing the UCI. At 1024, the BS 1001 may receive the UL-SCH data based on the PUSCH scheduling indication of 1014 and the triggered UCI of 1012 on the determined channel (PUCCH or PUSCH) of 1022. It should be noted that the step 1022 may also be omitted or combined with step 1024.

[0119] In view of the above, the proposed solutions can advantageously enable flexibility for the BS to restrict the HARQ-ACK / UCI multiplexing on PUSCH of certain serving cells / CCs / BWPs (compared to the case of no simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH transmission). Moreover, the BS is enabled to have less stringent multiplexing restrictions in the cell / carrier domain compared to simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation reducing the drawback of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCHapplied generically (e.g., if coordination is possible for a sub-set of carriers in the same and / or different bands). Thereby, blind detection of where the UCI is multiplexed can be reduced or even avoided.

[0120] FIG. 11 illustrates a signaling chart 1100 for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the signaling chart 1100 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may comprise a terminal device, and the second apparatus 120 may comprise a network device.

[0121] In the signaling chart 1100, the first apparatus 110 obtains 1120 configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource. Each of the at least one frequency resource is a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus 110. Alternatively, each of the at least one frequency resource may be a BWP. It should be understood that the possible implementations of the frequency resource described here are merely illustrative and therefore should not be construed as limiting the present disclosure in any way.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the configuration information may be received from the second apparatus 120. In this case, as shown in Fig. 11 , the second apparatus 120 may transmit 1110 the configuration information to the first apparatus 110. In some alternative example embodiments, the configuration information may be predetermined or may be determined based on a rule, such as a standard spec or the like. It should be understood that the configuration information may also be obtained in any other suitable manner. The scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

[0123] Furthermore, the first apparatus 110 determines, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to the second apparatus 120. The uplink shared channel is associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0124] In one example embodiment, the configuration information may indicate a first priority value for a first frequency resource. The first priority value indicates that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on an uplink shared channel on the first frequency resource. Additionally or alternatively, the configuration information may indicate a second priority value for a second frequency resource. The second priority value is different from the first priority value and indicates a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information. In a further example embodiment, the configuration information may indicate a third priority value for a third frequency resource. The third priority value is different from the first priorityvalue and indicates a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information. It should be noted that an absence of a priority value for a frequency resource indicates that the frequency resource is not to be considered for multiplexing the uplink control information. In other words, a frequency resource may be associated with a priority value indicating that UCI is not to be multiplexed on a PUSCH on that frequency resource, but that frequency resource may also not be associated or configured with any priority value which could also be understood as no multiplexing is allowed.

[0125] In addition, there may be an uplink shared channel on each of one or more of the at least one frequency resource that overlaps with an uplink control channel carrying the uplink control information. In this case, the first apparatus 110 may determine a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource. Moreover, the first apparatus 110 may determine a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0126] Alternatively or in addition, the first apparatus 110 may prioritize multiplexing of the uplink control information on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of a frequency resource on which an uplink control channel is intended to carry the uplink control information.

[0127] Furthermore, the second apparatus 120 may transmit, to the first apparatus 110, an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, to trigger the uplink control information to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled in the uplink grant. In response to receiving an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the uplink control information is to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the uplink grant. For example, a UL grant may contain HARQ-ACK feedback trigger, in which case these multiplexing priorities are overridden and UCI is multiplexed on that scheduled PUSCH.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus 120 may transmit the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI). Correspondingly, the first apparatus 110 may receive the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0129] Additionally or alternatively, the second apparatus 120 may transmit, to the first apparatus110, updated information of the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI). Correspondingly, the first apparatus 110 may receive, from the second apparatus 120, updated information for the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0130] In addition, the first apparatus 110 may transmit, to the second apparatus 120, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel. The second apparatus 120 may determine, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving the uplink control information from the first apparatus. The uplink shared channel may be associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information. Accordingly, the second apparatus 120 may receive, from the first apparatus 110, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel. Similar to the above description regarding the first apparatus 110, in a case where there is an uplink shared channel on each of one or more of the at least one frequency resource that overlaps with an uplink control channel carrying the uplink control information, the second apparatus 120 may determine a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource, and determine a PUSCH of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0131] Furthermore, by way of example, a serving cell carrying the PUCCH is assigned the highest priority value which is not associated with any other serving cell of the CC group configuration, prioritizing the multiplex of UCI / HARQ-ACK on the cell carrying the PUCCH ( / PUSCH).

[0132] In aid of the priority values, a different priority order of the PUSCH multiplexing can be enabled as compared to the conventional solution. Moreover, the second apparatus is enabled to have less stringent multiplexing restrictions in the cell / carrier domain compared to simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation reducing the drawback of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH applied generically (e.g., if coordination is possible for a sub-set of carriers in the same and / or different bands). Thereby, blind detection of where the UCI is multiplexed can be reduced or even avoided.

[0133] The solutions presented in FIG. 11 will be described in more details below with reference to FIGS. 12-14.

[0134] In some example embodiments, UL serving cells may be configured or associated with the different priority values or the same priority value for UCI multiplexing. For example, thePUSCH on which UCI is multiplexed is determined based on the order of the priority values. This may allow the network (NW) to configure different priorities deviating from a predefined rules for selecting the PUSCH for UCI / HARQ-ACK multiplexing.

[0135] By way of example, a certain priority value (e.g., value 0 or the like) may mean that UCI is not multiplexed on that cell (i.e., is outside the CC group). UL serving cells with other priority values than the certain priority value (e.g., other than value 0) may constitute the CC group. The UCI on PUSCH multiplexing order may be determined in a descending order of priority value. Alternatively, the UCI on PUSCH multiplexing order may be determined in an ascending order of priority value. Additionally, a same priority may be given to multiple cells and among those cells, and predefined and standardized (existing) rules for selecting the PUSCH among PUSCHs with same priority value could be applied.

[0136] In one example implementation, the serving cell carrying the PUCCH is assigned the highest priority value which is not associated with any other serving cell of the CC group configuration, so as to prioritize the multiplex of UCI / HARQ-ACK on PUSCH on the cell carrying the PUCCH. Additionally, UL grant may contain HARQ-ACK feedback trigger, in which case these multiplexing priorities are overridden and UCI is multiplexed on that scheduled PUSCH.

[0137] A CC group may be configured within a PUCCH group (primary / secondary) of a carrier aggregation configuration or a cell group (MCT / SCG) of a dual connectivity configuration. Additionally, a CC group may be configured for the PUCCH-sSCell for PUCCH switching within a PUCCH group or cell group.

[0138] Fig. 12 illustrates an example of UCI multiplexing on PUSCH according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 12, the priority value for PCell is equal 2, the priority value for SCell #1 is equal 1 , and the priority value for SCell #2 is equal 0. In this example, the UCI is multiplexed on PUSCH scheduled / configured on the SCell #1 as UCI cannot be multiplexed on PUSCH of SCell #2 as the multiplexing there is not supported (based on the priority value 0). In this example, the UE transmits PUSCH on SCell#1 including the UCI and PUSCH on SCell#2. Fig. 13 illustrates a further example of UCI multiplexing on PUSCH according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 13, the priority value for PCell is equal 2, the priority value for SCell #1 is equal 1 , and the priority value for SCell #2 is equal 0. In this example, the UCI is multiplexed on PUSCH scheduled / configured on the PCell as it is the overlapping PUSCH with the highest / largest priority value of the overlapping PUSCHs. In this example, the UE transmits PUSCH on PCell including the UCI as well as PUSCH on SCell#1 and SCell#2. It should be understood that the specific priority values recited herein are intended tobe an example rather than limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

[0139] FIG. 14 illustrates a signaling chart 1400 for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. In example embodiments discussed with respect to FIG. 14, the first apparatus 140, which may be a UE, is denoted by UE 1402, and the second apparatus 120, which may be a base station (such as a gNB or the like), is denoted by BS 1401.

[0140] At 1410, the BS 1401 may indicate a CC group (e.g., for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH) to the UE 1402. There may be separate CC groups indicated, e.g., for at least one of the following: (i) primary / secondary PUCCH cell group for carrier aggregation operation, (ii) MCG and SCG for DC operation, or (iii) the primary cell carrying the PUCCH (i.e. PCell / PUCCH-SCell / PSCell) and the secondary cell (PUCCH-sSCell) for PUCCH cell switching operation. Compared with the example shown in Fig. 10, the indication of the CC group may be based on an assigned priority value for each cell of (primary / secondary) PUCCH group or MCG / SCG. By way of example rather than limitation, cells in the CC group are assigned a priority value larger than 0 and (UL) serving cells not include in the CC group are assigned a priority value of 0. Alternatively, (UL) serving cells may not be assigned a priority value indicating the cell to be not included in the CC group. The priority may be indicated by RRC or MAC CE signaling. In addition, the priority may be updated or selected from a set of combinations of priorities and (UL) serving cells by MAC CE or physical layer signaling.

[0141] At 1412, the BS 1401 may indicate a trigger for UCI / HARQ-ACK information to the UE 1402. As an example, this operation may include sending a DL assignment / DCI scheduling a PDSCH for which HARQ-ACK is to be reported as UCI by the UE 1402. Additionally or alternatively, this operation may also include an indication of SP-CSI on PUCCH or the like. At 1414, the BS 1401 may further schedule PUSCH on one or more carriers within a PUCCH or cell group.

[0142] At 1416, the UE 1402 may determine, based on the trigger received from the BS 1401 , the pending HARQ-ACK / UCI on PUCCH for transmission and determine the related PUCCH resource. Furthermore, the UE 1402 may determine one overlapping PUSCH for HARQ-ACK / UCI multiplexing based on the CC group indicated at 1410.

[0143] For example, the UE 1402 may determine the overlapping PUSCHs which only includes PUSCHs of serving cells indicated with priority larger than 0. Then, the UE 1402 may select the PUSCH with the highest priority among the determined PUSCH as the PUSCH for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH. In case there is more than one determined PUSCH having the highest priority among the determined PUSCHs, the legacy procedure to select the PUSCH from the set of determined PUSCH having the highest priority may be applied.

[0144] Alternatively, the UE 1402 may determine the PUSCH on or corresponding to the CC / cell with the highest (multiplexing) priority larger than 0 and overlapping with PUCCH as the PUSCH for multiplexing. In case there is more than one PUSCH overlapping with the PUCCH and having a highest priority larger than 0 among the PUSCH overlapping with PUCCH, the UE 1402 may determine the PUSCH for UCI multiplexing based on the legacy procedure among the set of overlapping PUSCHs with the highest multiplexing priority larger than 0. In this case, these operations may be performed as a single step.

[0145] At 1418, if the UE 1402 determines a PUSCH for UCI multiplexing at 1416, the UE 1402 may multiplex the applicable UCI (for UCI multiplexing on PUSCH, this may involve as in case of legacy dropping some UCI information) of the PUCCH on the PUSCH determined at 1416 and neglect the PUCCH for transmission / further handling. Moreover, at 1418, the UE 1402 may transmit the remaining channels, e.g., after 1416. For example, the remaining channels may comprise PUCCH and / or PUSCH.

[0146] At 1422, the BS 1401 may determine the multiplexing of the UCI information triggered at 1412 on a PUSCH scheduled at 1414 based on the UCI multiplexing restriction and prioritization indication of 1410 and the resulting final channels with the corresponding channel (PUCCH or PUSCH) containing the UCI. At 1424, the BS 1401 may receive the UL-SCH data based on the PUSCH scheduling indication of 1414 and the triggered UCI of 1412 on the determined channel (PUCCH or PUSCH) of 1422. It should be noted that the step 1422 may also be omitted or combined with step 1424.

[0147] In view of the above, the proposed solutions can advantageously enable flexibility for the BS to restrict the HARQ-ACK / UCI multiplexing on PUSCH of certain serving cells / CCs / BWPs (compared to the case of no simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH transmission). In aid of the priority values, a different priority order of the PUSCH multiplexing can be enabled as compared to the conventional solution. Moreover, the BS is enabled to have less stringent multiplexing restrictions in the cell / carrier domain compared to simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH operation reducing the drawback of simultaneous PUCCH / PUSCH applied generically (e.g., if coordination is possible for a sub-set of carriers in the same and / or different bands). Thereby, blind detection of where the UCI is multiplexed can be reduced or even avoided.

[0148] FIG. 15 shows a flowchart of an example method 1500 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1500 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0149] At block 1510, the first apparatus 110 obtains a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus.

[0150] At block 1520, the first apparatus 110 determines, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus.

[0151] In some example embodiments, the method 1500 further comprises: receiving the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or receiving updated information of the one or more frequency resource groups via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0152] In some example embodiments, the method 1500 further comprises: transmitting, to the second apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0153] In some example embodiments, the method 1500 further comprises: in response to receiving, from the second apparatus, a trigger for the uplink control information and an uplink transmission grant, determine the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0154] In some example embodiments, the method 1500 further comprises: obtaining a second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information indicates one or more second frequency resource groups for transmissions of an uplink control channel and / or one or more uplink shared channels, comprising a third group of cells or a fourth group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus.

[0155] In some example embodiments, the first configuration information is a subset of the second configuration information, or the first group of cells is a subset of the third group of cells, or the second group of CCs is a subset of the fourth group of CCs.

[0156] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells comprises at least a cell carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information, or wherein the second group of CCs comprises at least a CC carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information.

[0157] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells further comprises at least one further cell of the same band or a different band, or wherein the second group of CCs further comprises at least one further CC of the same band or a different band.

[0158] In some example embodiments, the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a cell in the first group of cells, or wherein the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a CC in the second group of CCs.

[0159] In some example embodiments, a further uplink shared channel is prioritized or dropped for multiplexing the uplink control information if: no uplink shared channel in the one or more first frequency resource groups is determined to multiplex the uplink control information, and the further uplink shared channel on a frequency resource that does not belong to the one or more first frequency resource groups overlaps with an uplink control channel.

[0160] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information is to be performed on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0161] In some example embodiments, the configuration information enables the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups, or wherein the configuration information enables to confine or limit the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0162] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information into a scheduled or configured uplink shared channel on a frequency resource outside the one or more first frequency resource groups is not applicable or is not expected or is not supported.

[0163] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0164] FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of an example method 1600 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1600 will be described from the perspective of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0165] At block 1610, the second apparatus 120 transmits, to a first apparatus, a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs).

[0166] In some example embodiments, the method 1600 further comprises: determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving the uplink controlinformation from the first apparatus.

[0167] In some example embodiments, the method 1600 further comprises: transmitting the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or transmitting, to the first apparatus, updated information of the one or more frequency resource groups via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0168] In some example embodiments, the method 1600 further comprises: receiving, from the first apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0169] In some example embodiments, the method 1600 further comprises: in response to transmitting, to the first apparatus, a trigger for the uplink control information and an uplink transmission grant, determine the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0170] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus is caused to: transmitting, to the first apparatus, a second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information indicates one or more second frequency resource groups for transmissions of an uplink control channel and / or one or more uplink shared channels, comprising a third group of cells or a fourth group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus.

[0171] In some example embodiments, the first configuration information is a subset of the second configuration information, or the first group of cells is a subset of the third group of cells, or the second group of CCs is a subset of the fourth group of CCs.

[0172] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells comprises at least a cell carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information, or wherein the second group of CCs comprises at least a CC carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information.

[0173] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells further comprises at least one further cell of the same band or a different band, or wherein the second group of CCs further comprises at least one further CC of the same band or a different band.

[0174] In some example embodiments, the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a cell in the first group of cells, or wherein the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a CC in the second group of CCs.

[0175] In some example embodiments, a further uplink shared channel is prioritized or droppedfor multiplexing the uplink control information if: no uplink shared channel in the one or more first frequency resource groups is determined to multiplex the uplink control information, and the further uplink shared channel on a frequency resource that does not belong to the one or more first frequency resource groups overlaps with an uplink control channel.

[0176] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information is to be performed on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0177] In some example embodiments, the configuration information enables the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups, or wherein the configuration information enables to confine or limit the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0178] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information into a scheduled or configured uplink shared channel on a frequency resource outside the one or more first frequency resource groups is not applicable or is not expected or is not supported.

[0179] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0180] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1500 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0181] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for obtaining a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus; and means for determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus.

[0182] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or means for receiving updated information of the one or more frequency resource groups via at least one ofMedium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0183] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0184] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for in response to receiving, from the second apparatus, a trigger for the uplink control information and an uplink transmission grant, determine the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0185] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for obtaining a second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information indicates one or more second frequency resource groups for transmissions of an uplink control channel and / or one or more uplink shared channels, comprising a third group of cells or a fourth group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus.

[0186] In some example embodiments, the first configuration information is a subset of the second configuration information, or the first group of cells is a subset of the third group of cells, or the second group of CCs is a subset of the fourth group of CCs.

[0187] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells comprises at least a cell carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information, or wherein the second group of CCs comprises at least a CC carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information.

[0188] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells further comprises at least one further cell of the same band or a different band, or wherein the second group of CCs further comprises at least one further CC of the same band or a different band.

[0189] In some example embodiments, the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a cell in the first group of cells, or wherein the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a CC in the second group of CCs.

[0190] In some example embodiments, a further uplink shared channel is prioritized or dropped for multiplexing the uplink control information if: no uplink shared channel in the one or more first frequency resource groups is determined to multiplex the uplink control information, and the further uplink shared channel on a frequency resource that does not belong to the one or more first frequency resource groups overlaps with an uplink control channel.

[0191] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information is to be performed on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more firstfrequency resource groups.

[0192] In some example embodiments, the configuration information enables the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups, or wherein the configuration information enables to confine or limit the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0193] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information into a scheduled or configured uplink shared channel on a frequency resource outside the one or more first frequency resource groups is not applicable or is not expected or is not supported.

[0194] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0195] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1600 (for example, the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0196] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a first configuration information indicating one or more first frequency resource groups for multiplexing uplink control information, each first frequency resource group comprising a first group of cells or a second group of component carriers (CCs).

[0197] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving the uplink control information from the first apparatus.

[0198] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, updated information of the one or more frequency resource groups via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0199] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0200] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for in response to transmitting, to the first apparatus, a trigger for the uplink control information and an uplink transmission grant, determine the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0201] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus is caused to: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, a second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information indicates one or more second frequency resource groups for transmissions of an uplink control channel and / or one or more uplink shared channels, comprising a third group of cells or a fourth group of component carriers (CCs) for serving the first apparatus.

[0202] In some example embodiments, the first configuration information is a subset of the second configuration information, or the first group of cells is a subset of the third group of cells, or the second group of CCs is a subset of the fourth group of CCs.

[0203] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells comprises at least a cell carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information, or wherein the second group of CCs comprises at least a CC carrying an uplink control channel for the uplink control information.

[0204] In some example embodiments, the first group of cells further comprises at least one further cell of the same band or a different band, or wherein the second group of CCs further comprises at least one further CC of the same band or a different band.

[0205] In some example embodiments, the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a cell in the first group of cells, or wherein the uplink shared channel is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) on a CC in the second group of CCs.

[0206] In some example embodiments, a further uplink shared channel is prioritized or dropped for multiplexing the uplink control information if: no uplink shared channel in the one or more first frequency resource groups is determined to multiplex the uplink control information, and the further uplink shared channel on a frequency resource that does not belong to the one or more first frequency resource groups overlaps with an uplink control channel.

[0207] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information is to be performed on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0208] In some example embodiments, the configuration information enables the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on frequency resource within the one ormore first frequency resource groups, or wherein the configuration information enables to confine or limit the multiplexing of the uplink control information on an uplink shared channel on a frequency resource within the one or more first frequency resource groups.

[0209] In some example embodiments, the multiplexing of the uplink control information into a scheduled or configured uplink shared channel on a frequency resource outside the one or more first frequency resource groups is not applicable or is not expected or is not supported.

[0210] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0211] FIG. 17 shows a flowchart of an example method 1700 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1700 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0212] At block 1710, the first apparatus 110 obtains configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

[0213] At block 1720, the first apparatus 110 determines, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0214] In some example embodiments, the configuration information indicates at least one of: a first priority value for a first frequency resource, the first priority value indicating that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on an uplink shared channel on the first frequency resource; a second priority value for a second frequency resource, the second priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information; or a third priority value for a third frequency resource, the third priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information.

[0215] In some example embodiments, the method 1700 further comprises: determining a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource; and determining a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0216] In some example embodiments, the method 1700 further comprises: prioritizing the multiplexing of the uplink control information on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of a frequency resource on which an uplink control channel is intended to carry the uplink control information.

[0217] In some example embodiments, the method 1700 further comprises: in response to receiving an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, determining that the uplink control information is to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the uplink grant.

[0218] In some example embodiments, the method 1700 further comprises: receiving the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or receiving, from the second apparatus, updated information for the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0219] In some example embodiments, the method 1700 further comprises: transmitting, to the second apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0220] In some example embodiments, an absence of a priority value for a frequency resource indicates that the frequency resource is not to be considered for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0221] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0222] FIG. 18 shows a flowchart of an example method 1800 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1800 will be described from the perspective of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0223] At block 1810, the second apparatus 120 transmits, to a first apparatus, configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

[0224] In some example embodiments, the method 1800 further comprises: determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving the uplink control information from the first apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplinkcontrol information.

[0225] In some example embodiments, the configuration information indicates at least one of: a first priority value for a first frequency resource, the first priority value indicating that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on the first frequency resource; a second priority value for a second frequency resource, the second priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information; or a third priority value for a third frequency resource, the third priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information.

[0226] In some example embodiments, the method 1800 further comprises: determining a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource; and determining a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0227] In some example embodiments, the method 1800 further comprises: prioritizing the multiplexing of the uplink control information on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of a frequency resource on which an uplink control channel is intended to carry the uplink control information.

[0228] In some example embodiments, the method 1800 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat requestacknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, to trigger the uplink control information to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled in the uplink grant.

[0229] In some example embodiments, the method 1800 further comprises: transmitting the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or transmitting, to the first apparatus, updated information of the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0230] In some example embodiments, the method 1800 further comprises: receiving, from the first apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0231] In some example embodiments, an absence of a priority value for a frequency resource indicates that the frequency resource is not to be considered for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0232] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0233] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1700 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1700. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0234] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for obtaining configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus; and means for determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0235] In some example embodiments, the configuration information indicates at least one of: a first priority value for a first frequency resource, the first priority value indicating that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on an uplink shared channel on the first frequency resource; a second priority value for a second frequency resource, the second priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information; or a third priority value for a third frequency resource, the third priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information.

[0236] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource; and means for determining a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0237] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for prioritizing the multiplexing of the uplink control information on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of a frequency resource on which an uplink control channel is intended to carry the uplink control information.

[0238] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for inresponse to receiving an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat requestacknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, determining that the uplink control information is to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the uplink grant.

[0239] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or means for receiving, from the second apparatus, updated information for the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0240] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0241] In some example embodiments, an absence of a priority value for a frequency resource indicates that the frequency resource is not to be considered for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0242] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0243] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1800 (for example, the second apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1800. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0244] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

[0245] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving the uplink control information from the first apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0246] In some example embodiments, the configuration information indicates at least one of: afirst priority value for a first frequency resource, the first priority value indicating that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on the first frequency resource; a second priority value for a second frequency resource, the second priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information; or a third priority value for a third frequency resource, the third priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information.

[0247] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource; and means for determining a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

[0248] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for prioritizing the multiplexing of the uplink control information on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of a frequency resource on which an uplink control channel is intended to carry the uplink control information.

[0249] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, to trigger the uplink control information to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled in the uplink grant.

[0250] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, updated information of the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

[0251] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the first apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

[0252] In some example embodiments, an absence of a priority value for a frequency resource indicates that the frequency resource is not to be considered for multiplexing the uplink control information.

[0253] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and thesecond apparatus comprises a network device.

[0254] FIG. 19 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1900 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1900 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first apparatus 110 or the second apparatus 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 1900 includes one or more processors 1910, one or more memories 1920 coupled to the processor 1910, and one or more communication modules 1940 coupled to the processor 1910.

[0255] The communication module 1940 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1940 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 1940 may include at least one antenna.

[0256] The processor 1910 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1900 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

[0257] The memory 1920 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 1924, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random-access memory (RAM) 1922 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0258] A computer program 1930 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1910. The instructions of the program 1930 may include instructions for performing operations / acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 1930 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 1924. The processor 1910 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1930 into the RAM 1922.

[0259] The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 1930 so that the device 1900 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussedwith reference to FIG. 2 to FIG. 18. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0260] In some example embodiments, the program 1930 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1900 (such as in the memory 1920) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1900. The device 1900 may load the program 1930 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1922 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0261] FIG. 20 shows an example of the computer readable medium 2000 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 2000 has the program 1930 stored thereon.

[0262] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as nonlimiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0263] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0264] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program code, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

[0265] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

[0266] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0267] Further, although operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, although several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

[0268] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structuralfeatures and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:1 . A first apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: obtain configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus; and determine, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information to a second apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

2. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the configuration information indicates at least one of: a first priority value for a first frequency resource, the first priority value indicating that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on an uplink shared channel on the first frequency resource; a second priority value for a second frequency resource, the second priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information; or a third priority value for a third frequency resource, the third priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information.

3. The first apparatus of claim 2, wherein there is an uplink shared channel on each of one or more of the at least one frequency resource that overlaps with an uplink control channel carrying the uplink control information, and wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource; and determine a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency45resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

4. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: prioritize multiplexing of the uplink control information on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel(PUSCH) of a frequency resource on which an uplink control channel is intended to carry the uplink control information.

5. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein first apparatus is caused to: in response to receiving an uplink grant containing a trigger for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback, determine that the uplink control information is to be multiplexed on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) scheduled by the uplink grant.

6. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: receive the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or receive, from the second apparatus, updated information for the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

7. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the second apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

8. A second apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to: transmit, to a first apparatus, configuration information indicating at least one priority value for at least one frequency resource, each of the at least one frequency resource being a component carrier (CC) or a cell for serving the first apparatus.

9. The second apparatus of claim 8, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: determine, based on the configuration information, an uplink shared channel for receiving46the uplink control information from the first apparatus, the uplink shared channel being associated with a frequency resource among the at least one frequency resource that is applicable for multiplexing the uplink control information.

10. The second apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the configuration information indicates at least one of: a first priority value for a first frequency resource, the first priority value indicating that the uplink control information is not to be multiplexed on the first frequency resource; a second priority value for a second frequency resource, the second priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the second frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information; or a third priority value for a third frequency resource, the third priority value being different from the first priority value and indicating a priority for using the third frequency resource to multiplex the uplink control information.

11. The second apparatus of claim 10, wherein there is an uplink shared channel on each of one or more of the at least one frequency resource that overlaps with an uplink control channel carrying the uplink control information, and wherein the second apparatus is caused to: determine a frequency resource having the highest priority and being indicated a priority to multiplex the uplink control information from the one or more of the at least one frequency resource; and determine a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) of the determined frequency resource as the uplink shared channel for transmitting the uplink control information.

12. The second apparatus of any of claims 8 to 11 , wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit the configuration information via at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI); or transmit, to the first apparatus, updated information of the at least one frequency resource via at least one of Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) or downlink control information (DCI).

13. The second apparatus of any of claims 8 to 12, wherein the second apparatus is causedto: receive, from the first apparatus, the uplink control information on the uplink shared channel.

14. The apparatus of any of claims 1 to 13, wherein an absence of a priority value for a frequency resource indicates that the frequency resource is not to be considered for multiplexing the uplink control information.

15. The apparatus of any of claims 1 to 14, wherein the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

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