Enhanced uplink transmission switching

Abstract

An apparatus comprising configured to process, based on signaling received from a base station, downlink control information (DCI) scheduling a dynamic grant (DG)-physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and process, based on signaling received from the base station, a trigger for uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from a first carrier to a second carrier, wherein the DG-PUSCH and a configured grant (CG)-PUSCH are scheduled to overlap in time and occur on the second carrier after the UL Tx switching.

Description

Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1Enhanced Uplink Transmission SwitchingInventors: Seyed Ali Akbar Fakoorian, Dawei Zhang, Parisa Babaheidarian and Wei ZengPriority / Incorporation By Reference

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 63 / 680,746 filed on August 8, 2024, and entitled, "Enhanced Uplink Transmission Switching," the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.Background

[0002] Uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching was introduced in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) Rel-16 to improve UL coverage and allows the UE to share Tx chains between multiple UL carriers. It has been identified that there is a need for enhancements to the UL Tx switching timeline to ensure that the UE and the network have a common understanding of the switching state after UL Tx switching is triggered .Summary

[0003] Some example embodiments are related to an apparatus having processing circuitry configured to process, based on signaling received from a base station, downlink control information (DCI) scheduling a dynamic grant (DG) -physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and process, based on signaling received from the base station, a trigger for uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from a first carrier to a second carrier, wherein the DG-PUSCH and a configured grant (CG) -PUSCH are scheduled to overlap in time and occur on the second carrier after the UL Tx switching.Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902 Ref. No. P68867WO1

[0004] Other example embodiments are related to an apparatus having processing circuitry configured to configure a halfduplex time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) operation on a first carrier, a second carrier and third carrier, trigger uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from the first carrier to the second carrier based on a radio resource control (RRC) configured UL transmission and change a reference cell from a cell associated with the first carrier to a cell associated with the third carrier, wherein the UL Tx switching is applied before the reference cell becomes the cell associated with the third carrier.

[0005] Still further example embodiments are related to an apparatus having processing circuitry configured to configure a half-duplex time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) operation on a first carrier, a second carrier and third carrier and multiplex physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) on the first carrier with physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on the third carrier, wherein the second carrier is configured with physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) .Brief Description of the Drawings

[0006] Fig. 1 shows an example network arrangement according to various example embodiments.

[0007] Fig. 2 shows an example user eguipment (UE) according to various example embodiments.

[0008] Fig. 3 shows an example base station according to various example embodiments.Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1

[0009] Fig. 4 shows an example of overriding a configured grant (CG) -physical uplink shared channel (RUSCH) and uplink (UL) transmissions (Tx) switching according to various example embodiments .

[0010] Fig. 5 shows an example for a half-duplex UE in time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) and UL Tx switching according to various example embodiments.

[0011] Fig. 6 should an example for a half-duplex UE in TDD CA and uplink control information (UCI) multiplexing according to various example embodiments.Detailed Description

[0012] The example embodiments may be further understood with reference to the following description and the related appended drawings, wherein like elements are provided with the same reference numerals. The example embodiments related to uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching.

[0013] The example embodiments are described with regard to a user equipment (UE) . However, reference to a UE is merely provided for illustrative purposes. The example embodiments may be utilized with any electronic component that may establish a connection to a network and is configured with the hardware, software, and / or firmware to exchange information and data with the network. Therefore, the UE as described herein is used to represent any appropriate electronic component.

[0014] The example embodiments are also described with regard to a Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) network. However, reference to 5G NR is merely provided for illustrative purposes.Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1The example embodiments may be utilized with any appropriate type of network that may establish a connection to a UE and exchange information and data with the UE (e.g., 5G-Advanced networks, 6G networks, etc.) .

[0015] Upl ink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching was introduced in 3GPP New Radio (NR) Rel-16 to improve UL coverage. UL Tx switching allows the UE to share Tx chains between multiple UL carriers (e.g., bands) . For instance, the network may provision the UE with uplink Tx switching parameters (e.g., uplinkTxSwitching-rl 6 or any other appropriate information message) where "carrierl" and "carrier2" are configured. Carrier! may represent the carrier that is configured with 2 Tx chains (2T) by default. This state may also be referred to as "0T+2T" which denotes the number of Tx chains assigned to each carrier. Carrierl may represent the carrier that can use 1 Tx chain (IT) when the state has switched from 0T+2T to 1T+1T.

[0016] A scenario may occur where the UE interrupts UL transmissions on one carrier after an UL Tx switch is triggered. The interruption may occur when a scheduling period is less than a required switching gap and the carrier that is to be interrupted may be determined based on uplink Tx switching parameters provided by the network (e.g., uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation of the uplinkTxSwitching-rl 6 information element (IE) or any other appropriate parameter) .

[0017] To provide one example, consider a scenario in which the uplinkTxSwitchingPeriodLocation parameter of the uplinkTxSwitching-rl 6 IE is set to true for carrierl and false for carrier 2. This Boolean configuration may indicate that carrierl is the carrier to be interrupted (e.g., victim) .Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902 Ref. No. P68867WO1 Therefore, if the UE is supposed to switch from carrierl to carrier 2 (e.g., 1T+1T state to 0t+2T state) and the gap between UL transmissions in carrierl and carrier2 is less than the Tx switching gap, the UE may interrupt transmissions in carrierl.

[0018] If an uplink switching is triggered for an uplink transmission starting at To, after T0-TOffset, the UE may not be expected to cancel the uplink switching, or to trigger any other new uplink switching occurring before Tofor any other uplink transmission that is scheduled after T0-TOfset. TOffsetmay represent UE processing procedure time for the uplink transmission triggering the switch. However, it has been identified that when UL transmission is cancelled by a DL or UL DCI, TOffsetis not clearly defined. For example, the value of ToffsetmaY not be clearly defined when DL DCI schedules the UE to receive in a set of symbols on which UE is configured to transmit (e.g., PUSCH, sounding reference signal (SRS) , etc.) .In another example, the value of TOffsetmay not be clearly defined when UL DCI override an UL configured grant (CG) -PUSCH. Without such clarification, the UE and the network may have a different understating on the switching state which may lead to errors and / or a degradation in performance. According to some aspects, the example embodiments introduce techniques for handling TOffsetsuch that the UE and the network have a common understanding of the value of TOffset. Each of these techniques will be described in greater detail below.

[0019] Further, some example embodiments are described with regard to a half-duplex UE in time division duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) performing UL Tx switching. For the half-duplex UE in TDD, a reference cell may be determined based on higherAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 layer signaling with no DCI involved. That is, the UE may determine reference cell per symbol as a cell with a lowest cell ID among multiple serving cells in a bad or band combination having a direction determined by RRC D / U or semi slot format indicator (SEI) D / U. Semi SFI D and U refers symbols configured by the IES TDD-UL-DL-Conf igurationCommon or TDD-UL-DL- conf igDedicated . RRC D may refer to symbols corresponding to a higher-layer configured physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) , or a channel state information (CSI ) -ref erence signal (RS) on semi- SFI F on the same cell and RRC U may refer to symbols corresponding to higher-layer configured SRS, or physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) , or physical random access channel (PRACH) on semi SFI F of the same cell.

[0020] According to some aspects, the example embodiments introduce techniques to determine the order between directional collision handling and UL Tx switching. According to other aspects, for the half-duplex UE in TDD CA, the example embodiments introduce techniques for uplink control information (UCI) multiplexing. Each of the example embodiments will be described in greater detail below.

[0021] Fig. 1 shows an example network arrangement 100 according to various example embodiments. The example network arrangement 100 includes a UE 110. The UE 110 may be any type of electronic component that is configured to communicate via a network, e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, desktop computers, smartphones, phablets, embedded devices, wearables, Internet of Things (loT) devices, etc. In an actual network arrangement, any number of UEs may be used by any number ofAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902 Ref. No. P68867WO1 users. Thus, the example of a single UE 110 is merely provided for illustrative purposes.

[0022] The UE 110 may be configured to communicate with one or more networks. In the example of the network arrangement 100, the network with which the UE 110 may wirelessly communicate is a 5G NR radio access network (RAN) 120. However, the UE 110 may also communicate with other types of networks (e.g. , 5G cloud RAN, a next generation RAN (NG-RAN) , a long-term evolution RAN, a legacy cellular network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) , etc. ) and the UE 110 may also communicate with networks over a wired connection. With regard to the example embodiments, the UE 110 may establish a connection with the 5G NR RAN 120.Therefore, the UE 110 may have a 5G NR chipset to communicate with the NR RAN 120.

[0023] The 5G NR RAN 120 may be a portion of a public land mobile network (PLMN) that may be deployed by a network carrier(e.g., Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. ) . The 5G NR RAN 120 may include, for example, access nodes or base stations (Node Bs, eNodeBs, HeNBs, eNBS, gNBs, gNodeBs, macrocells, microcells, small cells, femtocells, etc. ) that are configured to send and receive traffic from UEs that are equipped with the appropriate cellular chip set.

[0024] In the example network arrangement 100, the UE 110 may connect to the 5G NR-RAN 120 via a next generation Node B (gNB) 120A. Any association procedure may be performed for the UE 110 to connect to the 5G NR-RAN 120. For example, as discussed above, the 5G NR-RAN 120 may be associated with a particular cellular provider where the UE 110 and / or the user thereof has a contract and credential information (e.g. , stored on a SIMAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 card) . Upon detecting the presence of the 5G NR-RAN 120, the UE 110 may transmit the corresponding credential information to associate with the 5G NR-RAN 120. More specifically, the UE 110 may associate with a specific node (e.g., the gNB 120A) . However, as mentioned above, reference to the 5G NR-RAN 120 is merely for illustrative purposes and any appropriate type of node may be used with any appropriate type of RAN.

[0025] In addition to the 5G NR RAN 120, the network arrangement 100 also includes a cellular core network 130, the Internet 140, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) 150, and a network services backbone 160. The cellular core network 130 may be considered to be the interconnected set of components that manages the operation and traffic of the cellular network. The cellular core network 130 also manages the traffic that flows between the cellular network and the Internet 140.

[0026] The IMS 150 may be generally described as an architecture for delivering multimedia services to the UE 110 using the IP protocol. The IMS 150 may communicate with the cellular core network 130 and the Internet 140 to provide the multimedia services to the UE 110. The network services backbone 160 is in communication either directly or indirectly with the Internet 140 and the cellular core network 130. The network services backbone 160 may be generally described as a set of components (e.g., servers, network storage arrangements, etc.) that implement a suite of services that may be used to extend the functionalities of the UE 110 in communication with the various networks.

[0027] Fig. 2 shows an example UE 110 according to various example embodiments. The UE 110 will be described with regard toAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 the example network arrangement 100 of Fig. 1. The UE 110 may include a processor 205, a memory arrangement 210, a display device 215, an input / output (I / O) device 220, a transceiver 225 and other components 230. The other components 230 may include, for example, Tx chains, antenna panels, an audio input device, an audio output device, a power supply, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the UE 110 to other electronic devices, etc.

[0028] The processor 205 may be configured to execute a plurality of engines of the UE 110. For example, the engines may include an UL TX switching engine 235. The UL TX switching reduction engine 235 may perform various operations related to the example embodiments introduced herein. For example, UL TX switching engine 235 may implement a switching gap, override a scheduled PUSCH and determine an order between directional collision handling and UL Tx switching. These and other operations are described in greater detail below.

[0029] The above referenced engine 235 being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor 205 is merely provided for illustrative purposes. The functionality associated with the engine 235 may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the UE 110 or may be a modular component coupled to the UE 110, e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. The engine may also be embodied as one application or separate applications. In addition, in some UEs, the functionality described for the processor 205 is split among two or more processors such as a baseband processor and an applicationsAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 processor. The example embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a UE .

[0030] The memory arrangement 210 may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE 110. The display device 215 may be a hardware component configured to show data to a user while the I / O device 220 may be a hardware component that enables the user to enter inputs. The display device 215 and the I / O device 220 may be separate components or integrated together such as a touchscreen .

[0031] The transceiver 225 may be a hardware component configured to establish a connection with the 5G NR-RAN 120, an LTE-RAN (not pictured) , a legacy RAN (not pictured) , a WLAN (not pictured) , etc. Accordingly, the transceiver 225 may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies) . The transceiver 225 includes circuitry configured to transmit and / or receive signals (e.g., control signals, data signals) . Such signals may be encoded with information implementing any one of the methods described herein. The processor 205 may be operably coupled to the transceiver 225 and configured to receive from and / or transmit signals to the transceiver 225. The processor 205 may be configured to encode and / or decode signals (e.g., signaling from a base station of a network) for implementing any one of the methods described herein.

[0032] Fig. 3 shows an example base station 300 according to various example embodiments. The base station 300 may represent the gNB 120A or any other type of access node through which theAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1UE 110 may establish a connection and manage network operations .

[0033] The base station 300 may include a processor 305, a memory arrangement 310, an input / output (I / O) device 315, a transceiver 320, and other components 325. The other components 325 may include, for example, an audio input device, an audio output device, a battery, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the base station 300 to other electronic devices and / or power sources, transceiver chains, antenna elements, antenna panels, etc.

[0034] The processor 305 may be configured to execute a plurality of engines for the base station 300. For example, the engines may include an UL TX switching engine 330. The UL TX switching engine 330 may perform various operations related to example embodiments introduced herein. For example, the UL TX switching engine 330 may perform operations such as, but not limited to determining parameters for a switching gap, determine that the UE is to override a scheduled PUSCH and determine an order between directional collision handling and UL Tx switching. These and other operations are described in greater detail below.

[0035] The above noted engine 330 being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor 305 is only an example. The functionality associated with the engine 330 may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the base station 300 or may be a modular component coupled to the base station 300, e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to processAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 the signals and other information. In addition, in some base stations, the functionality described for the processor 305 is split among a plurality of processors (e.g., a baseband processor, an applications processor, etc. ) . The example embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a base station.

[0036] The memory arrangement 310 may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the base station 300. The I / O device 315 may be a hardware component or ports that enable a user to interact with the base station 300.

[0037] The transceiver 320 may be a hardware component configured to exchange data with the UE 110 and any other UEs in the network arrangement 100. The transceiver 320 may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g. , set of consecutive frequencies) . Therefore, the transceiver 320 may include one or more components to enable the data exchange with the various networks and UEs. The transceiver 320 includes circuitry configured to transmit and / or receive signals (e.g., control signals, data signals) . Such signals may be encoded with information implementing any one of the methods described herein. The processor 305 may be operably coupled to the transceiver 320 and configured to receive from and / or transmit signals to the transceiver 320. The processor 305 may be configured to encode and / or decode signals (e.g., signaling from a UE) for implementing any one of the methods described herein.

[0038] As indicated above, according to some aspects, the example embodiments relate to overriding a CG-PUSH and UL Tx switching. A PUSCH scheduled on a serving cell scheduled by ULAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902 Ref. No. P68867WO1DCI may override a configured PUSCH on that cell when the two PUSCHs overlap and the cancellation (e.g., overriding) timeline is met. Otherwise, an error case may occur.

[0039] The cancellation timeline may be defined in 3GPPM Technical Specification (TS) 38.214 section 6.1. The UE 110 may not be expected to be scheduled by a PDCCH ending in symbol i to transmit a PUSCH on a given serving cell overlapping in time with a transmission occasion, where the UE 110 is allowed to transmit a PUSCH with a configured grant, starting in a symbol j on the same serving cell if the end of symbol i is not at least N2symbols before the beginning of symbol j. The value N2in symbols is determined according to UE processing capabilities and the symbol duration may be based on the minimum of the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the PUSCH with configured grant and the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH scheduling the PUSCH.

[0040] The example embodiments introduce a switching gap (Tswitc / i) that is to be used with the cancellation timeline described above. That is, Tswitchmay be added to N2for the required gap between the end of the UL DCI and the start of the CG-PUSCH to cancel (e.g., override) a CG-PUSCH in a serving cell when UL Tx switching is triggered on that cell.

[0041] This may be adopted into the 3GPP standards by, for example, language such as a UE is not expected to be scheduled by a PDCCH ending in symbol i to transmit a PUSCH on a given serving cell overlapping in time with a transmission occasion, where the UE is allowed to transmit a PUSCH with configured grant starting in a symbol j on the same serving cell if the endAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 of symbol i is not at least N2 symbols and an additional time duration Tswitch before the beginning of symbol j, i f the UE is not provided prioLowDG-HighCG or prioHighDG-LowCG, or the UE is provided prioLowDG-HighCG or prioHighDG-LowCG and the two PUSCHs have the same priority index . The value N2 in symbols is determined according to the UE processing capability, and N2 and the symbol duration are based on the minimum of the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the PUSCH with configured grant and the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH scheduling the PUSCH . The value T switch may be predefined . I f a UE receives an ACK for a given HARQ process in CG-DFI in a PDCCH ending in symbol i to terminate a transport block repetition in a PUSCH transmission with a configured grant on a given serving cell with the same HARQ process after symbol i , the UE is expected to terminate the repetition of the transport block in a PUSCH transmission starting from a symbol j if the gap between the end of PDCCH of symbol i and the start of the PUSCH transmission in symbol j is equal to or more than N2 symbols . The value N2 in symbols is determined according to the UE processing capability, and N2 and the symbol duration are based on the minimum of the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the PUSCH and the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH indicating CG-DFI . A UE is not expected to be scheduled by a PDCCH ending in symbol i to transmit a PUSCH on a given serving cell for a given HARQ process , i f there is a transmission occasion where the UE is allowed to transmit a PUSCH with configured grant with the same HARQ process on the same serving cell starting in a symbol j after symbol i, and if the gap between the end of PDCCH and the beginning of symbol j is less than N2 symbols and an additional time duration T switch . The value N2 in symbols is determined according to the UE processing capability, and N2 and the symbol duration are based on theAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 minimum of the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the PUSCH with configured grant and the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH scheduling the PUSCH. The value Tswitch may be predefined .

[0042] Fig. 4 shows an example 400 of overriding a CG-PUSCH and UL Tx switching according to various example embodiments.

[0043] The example 400 includes scenario 405 where UL DCI 406 is ignored. The scenario 405 includes component carrier 0 (CC0) and component carrier 1 (CC1) where CC0 is considered the victim band because the network has previously indicated that UE 110 is to switch from CC0 to CC1, e.g., 1T+1T switch to 0T+2T.

[0044] In the scenario 405, a CG-PUSCH 410 is scheduled to be transmitted on CC1 at To. After Tx switching 412, both Tx chains will be configured on CC1. The UL DCI 406 schedules DG-PUSCH 414. However, this timeline is not sufficient for the UE 110 to cancel the CG-PUSCH 410, prepare the DG-PUSCH 414 and perform the Tx switching 412 because N2and Tx switching 412 are too close to the CG-PUSCH 410. Accordingly, in the scenario 405, the Tx switching 412 is finished by To, the UL DCI 406 is ignored and the DG-PUSCH 414 is not transmitted.

[0045] The example 400 also includes scenario 450 where CG- PUSCH is cancelled and DG-PUSCH is performed. The scenario 450 includes CC0 and CC2 where CC0 is considered the victim band because the network has previously indicated that UE 110 is to switch from CC0 to CC1, e.g. , 1T+1T switch to 0T+2T.

[0046] In the scenario 450, a CG-PUSCH 460 is scheduled to be transmitted on CC1 at To. After Tx switching 462, both Tx chainsAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 will be configured on CC1 . The UL DCI 455 schedules DG-PUSCH 464 . In contrast to scenario 450 , TswttCh 470 is added at the end of N2and this of fset allows sufficient time for the UE 110 to cancel the CG-PUSCH 460 , prepare the DG-PUSCH 464 and perform the Tx switching 462 . Accordingly, in the scenario 450 , the Tx switching 462 is finished by To, the UL DCI 455 overrides the CG- PUSCH 460 and the DG-PUSCH 464 is transmitted instead of the CG- PUSCH 460 .

[0047] After the introduction of the Tswitchto the cancellation timeline , the UE 110 may not be expected to be scheduled by a PDCCH ending in symbol i to transmit a PUSCH on a given serving cell overlapping in time with a transmission occasion, where the UE 110 is allowed to transmit a PUSCH with a configured grant, starting in a symbol j on the same serving cell i f the end of symbol i is not at least N2+ Tswitcllsymbols before the beginning of symbol j . The value N2in symbols is determined according to UE processing capabilities and the symbol duration may be based on the minimum of the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the PUSCH with configured grant and the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH scheduling the PUSCH . The value of Tswitchmay be hard encoded in the 3GPP Speci fications , dynamically configured and provisioned to the UE 110 by the network or indicated to the UE in any other appropriate manner .

[0048] In some examples , the Tx switching gap may not be more than N2+ Tswitchsymbols . One or more of the following options may be used to handle this type of scenario . In one option, the UE 110 may still perform UL Tx switching but may not be expected to cancel the CG-PUSCH . In another option, the UE 110 may cancel both the CG-PUSCH and UL Tx switching trigger . In anotherAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 option, this may be an error case and it is up to UE 110 implementation as to how this scenario is handled . In another option, the UE 110 may cancel CG-PUSCH as long as the N2symbol gap between end of UL DCI and start of CG-PUSCH is met and the UE 110 performed switch with DG-PUSCH .

[0049] In some example embodiments , a PUSCH on a serving cell scheduled by an UL DCI may override a configured PUSCH on that cell with a same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process , even i f the two PUSCHs do not overlap and the cancellation timeline is met .

[0050] The example embodiments propose adding an of fset Tswitchto this cancellation timeline . After the introduction of the ^switch to the cancellation timeline , the UE 110 may not be expected to be scheduled by a PDCCH ending in symbol i to transmit a PUSCH on a given serving cell for a given HARQ process , if there is a transmission occasion where the UE 110 is allowed to transmit a PUSCH with a configured grant with the same HARQ process on the same serving cell starting in a symbol j after symbol i, and i f the gap between the end of PDCCH and the beginning of symbol j is less than N2+ Tswitchsymbols . The value of N2in symbols may be determined according to UE processing capabilities and N2and the symbol duration may be based on the minimum of the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the PUSCH with configured grant and the subcarrier spacing of the PDCCH scheduling the PUSCH . The value of Tswttchmay be hard encoded in the 3GPP Speci fications , dynamically configured and provisioned to the UE 110 by the network or indicated to the UE 110 in any other appropriate manner .Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902 Ref. No. P68867WO1

[0051] In some examples, the Tx switching gap may not be more than N2+ Tswitcflsymbols to transmit a PUSCH on a given serving cell for a given HARQ process. One or more of the following options may be used to handle this type of scenario. In one option, the UE 110 may still perform UL Tx switching but may not be expected to cancel the CG-PUSCH. In another option, the UE 110 may cancel both the CG-PUSCH and UL Tx switching trigger. In another option, this may be an error case and it is up to UE 110 implementation as to how this scenario is handled. In another option, the UE 110 may cancel CG-PUSCH as long as the N2symbol gap between end of UL DCI and start of CG-PUSCH is met and the UE 110 performed switch with DG-PUSCH.

[0052] According to some aspects, the example embodiments relate to a half-duplex UE in TDD CA and introduce techniques for directional collision handling and UL Tx switching. The half-duplex UE is not able to transmit and receive simultaneously. For the half-duplex UE in TDD, a reference cell may be determined based on higher layer signaling. That is, the UE 110 may determine reference cell per symbol as a cell with a lowest cell ID among multiple serving cells in a bad or band combination having a direction determined by RRC D / U or semi slot format indicator (SEI) D / U.

[0053] Fig. 5 shows an example 500 for a half-duplex UE in TDD CA and UL Tx switching according to various example embodiments. The example 500 shows three component carriers CCO, CC1 and CC2. In this example, CCO is the carrier to be interrupted (e.g. , victim) . Thus, the UL Tx switch 505 occurs from CCO to CC1 and there is a Tx switching offset (Tswitch) 510 before the uplink Tx 512 on CC1.Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1

[0054] The UE 110 may also be configured with RRC U 515 on CCO and RRC D 520 on CC2. However, the UE 110 is half-duplex and cannot perform transmission and reception simultaneously. RRC U 515 and RRC D 520 occur at the same time but have conflicting direction (e.g., uplink and downlink) . Thus, the UE 110 may need to determine which direction is the reference direction. To make this determination, the UE 110 may need to determine which cell of the CA configuration is the reference cell. As indicated above, the reference cell may be the cell with the lowest cell ID (e.g., serving cell index) and be determined by higher layers. In the example 500, the cell CCO may be considered the reference cell because out of the cells corresponding to CCs CCO, CC1, and CC2, CCO has the lowest cell ID.

[0055] For a half-duplex UE in TDD CA, when Tx switch 505 is triggered by RRC configured UL transmission, if the scheduling gap between CCO and CC1 is less than Tx switching offset 510 and CCO is configured to be interrupted (e.g., victim) , the uplink transmission RRC U 515 may be dropped. Therefore, CCO may no longer be considered RRC U, the reference cell will be CC2. That is, TX switch 505 is applied first and then the reference cell is changed from CCO to CC2.

[0056] In another example, if the Tx switch 505 is triggered by DCI, an error case may occur. Thus, the network should avoid dynamically triggering an UL Tx switch if the UL Tx switch would result in a reference cell change for a half-duplex UE in TDD CA.

[0057] According to some aspects, the example embodiments relate to a half-duplex UE in TDD CA and UCI multiplexing. Fig.Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO16 should an example 600 for a half-duplex UE in TDD CA and UCI multiplexing according to various example embodiments.

[0058] The example 600 shows three CCs, CCO, CC1 and CC2. The UE 110 may be configured with RRC U 610 on CCO. For example, the UE 110 may transmit periodic CSI (P-CSI) on PUCCH. The UE 110 may be configured with RRC D 615 on CC1. For example, the UE 110 may receive semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH on CC1. The UE 110 may also be configured with a dynamic grant (DG) -PUSCH 620 on CC2.

[0059] The PUCCH on CCO may be multiplexed on PUSCH on CC2. CCO may be left without configured uplink channel (e.g., P-CSI on PUCCH) . Thus, CCO cannot be considered RRC U anymore. As a result, CC1 may be considered a new reference cell.Consequently, PUSCH on CC2 which includes the UCI from CC) may be dropped given that the reference symbol direction of the new reference cell is downlink.

[0060] In another example, although PUCCH on CCO is multiplexed on PUSCH on CC2, the reference cell remains to be CCO based on the raw channel. Thus, RRC D 615 may be dropped because the reference symbol direction is the uplink.

[0061] In some example embodiments, for a half-duplex UE, a reference cell may be determined based on a cell index and a higher layer indicated symbol direction for raw channels before UCI multiplexing and dropping due to UL Tx switching. For example, consider a scenario in which CCO is configured for periodic PUCCH transmission over semi-static flexible symbols (e.g., RRC U) and its overlapping with DG-PUSCH on CC2. Although PUCCH is multiplexed on CC2 and thus, CC) is not RRC U afterAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 multiplexing. However, the link direction remains to be uplink given that reference cell remains on CCO .Examples

[0062] In a first example, a method, comprising processing, based on signaling received from a base station, downlink control information (DCI) scheduling a dynamic grant (DG) - physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and processing, based on signaling received from the base station, a trigger for uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from a first carrier to a second carrier, wherein the DG-PUSCH and a configured grant (CG) -PUSCH are scheduled to overlap in time and occur on the second carrier after the UL Tx switching.

[0063] In a second example, the method of the first example, further comprising, when a number of symbols between a last symbol of the DCI and a first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of symbols, cancelling the CG-PUSCH, wherein the predetermined number of symbols is based on a value of a first parameter and a value of a second parameter .

[0064] In a third example, the method of the second example, wherein the value of first parameter is a number of symbols determined based on UE processing capabilities and the second parameter is associated with a UL Tx switching gap.

[0065] In a fourth example, the method of the third example, wherein the value of the second parameter is hard encoded.

[0066] In a fifth example, the method of the second example, further comprising, when the number of symbols between the lastAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols, performing the UL Tx switching without cancelling the CG-PUSCH.

[0067] In a sixth example, the method of the second example, further comprising, when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols, cancelling the CG- PUSCH and the trigger for the UL Tx switching.

[0068] In a seventh example, the method of the second example, further comprising, when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols and when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the is equal to or greater than the value of the first parameter, cancelling the CG-PUSCH and perform the UL Tx switching with the DG-PUSCH.

[0069] In an eighth example, the method of the first example, wherein the CG-PUSCH and the DG-PUSCH correspond to a same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process, wherein the method further comprises, when a number of symbols between a last symbol of the DCI and a first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of symbols, cancelling the CG-PUSCH, wherein the predetermined number of symbols is based on a value of a first parameter and a value of a second parameter.

[0070] In a ninth example, the method of the eighth example, wherein the value of first parameter is a number of symbolsAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 determined based on UE processing capabilities and the second parameter is associated with a UL Tx switching gap .

[0071] In a tenth example , the method of the ninth example, wherein the value of the second parameter is hard encoded .

[0072] In an eleventh example, the method of the eighth example , further comprising, when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols , performing the UL Tx switching without cancelling the CG-PUSCH .

[0073] In a twel fth example , the method of the eighth example , further comprising, when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols , cancelling the CG-PUSCH and the trigger for the UL Tx switching .

[0074] In a thirteenth example, the method of the eighth example , further comprising, when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols and when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the is equal to or greater than the value of the first parameter, cancelling the CG-PUSCH and perform the UL Tx switching with the DG-PUSCH .

[0075] In a fourteenth example, a processor configured to perform any of the methods of the first through thirteenth examples .Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1

[0076] In a fifteenth example, a user equipment (UE) configured to perform any of the methods of the first through thirteenth examples.

[0077] In a sixteenth example, a method, comprising configuring a half-duplex time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) operation on a first carrier, a second carrier and third carrier, triggering uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from the first carrier to the second carrier based on a radio resource control (RRC) configured UL transmission and changing a reference cell from a cell associated with the first carrier to a cell associated with the third carrier, wherein the UL Tx switching is applied before the reference cell becomes the cell associated with the third carrier.

[0078] In a seventeenth example, the method of the sixteenth example, wherein the first carrier is configured for RRC U symbols corresponding to a higher-layer configured sounding reference signal (SRS) , physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) , physical uplink shared channel (RUSCH) or physical random access channel (RACH) on a semi slot format indicator (SFI) on a same cell .

[0079] In an eighteenth example, the method of the sixteenth example, wherein the third carrier is configured for RRC D symbols corresponding to a higher-layer configured physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or channel state information (CSI ) -ref erence signal (RS) on a semi slot format indicator (SFI) on a same cell .Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1

[0080] In a nineteenth example, a processor configured to perform any of the methods of the sixteenth through eighteenth examples .

[0081] In a twentieth example, a user equipment (UE) configured to perform any of the methods of the sixteenth through eighteenth examples.

[0082] In a twenty first example, a method, comprising configuring a half-duplex time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) operation on a first carrier, a second carrier and third carrier and multiplexing physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) on the first carrier with physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on the third carrier, wherein the second carrier is configured with physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) .

[0083] In a twenty second example, the method of the twenty first example, further comprising determining that the second carrier is associated with a new reference cell based on multiplexing the PUCCH and the PUSCH and dropping the PUSCH on the third component carrier based on a symbol direction associated with the second carrier.

[0084] In a twenty third example, the method of the twenty first example, further comprising dropping the PDSCH on the second carrier based on a symbol direction.

[0085] In a twenty fourth example, the method of the twenty first example, further comprising processing, based on signals received from a base station, an indication of a symbol direction for one or more channels.Attorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1

[0086] In a twenty fi fth example , the method of the twenty fourth example , further comprising determining, before the multiplexing, a reference call based on a cell index and the indication of the symbol direction for the one or more channels .

[0087] In a twenty sixth example , a processor configured to perform any of the methods of the twenty first through twenty fi fth examples .

[0088] In a twenty seventh example , a user equipment (UE ) configured to perform any of the methods of the twenty first through twenty fi fth examples .

[0089] Those skilled in the art will understand that the above-described example embodiments may be implemented in any suitable software or hardware configuration or combination thereof . An example hardware platform for implementing the example embodiments may include , for example, an Intel x86 based platform with compatible operating system, a Windows OS , a Mac platform and MAC OS , a mobile device having an operating system such as iOS , Android, etc . The example embodiments described above may be embodied as a program containing lines of code stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that, when compiled, may be executed on a processor or microprocessor .

[0090] Although this application described various embodiments each having different features in various combinations , those skilled in the art will understand that any of the features of one embodiment may be combined with the features of the other embodiments in any manner not speci fically disclaimed or which is not functionally or logicallyAttorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1 inconsistent with the operation of the device or the stated functions of the disclosed embodiments.

[0091] It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

[0092] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the present disclosure, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalent .

Claims

Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO1What is Claimed:

1. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: process, based on signaling received from a base station, downlink control information (DCI) scheduling a dynamic grant (DG) -physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) ; and process, based on signaling received from the base station, a trigger for uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from a first carrier to a second carrier, wherein the DG-PUSCH and a configured grant (CG) -PUSCH are scheduled to overlap in time and occur on the second carrier after the UL Tx switching.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: when a number of symbols between a last symbol of the DCI and a first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of symbols, cancel the CG-PUSCH, wherein the predetermined number of symbols is based on a value of a first parameter and a value of a second parameter.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the value of first parameter is a number of symbols determined based on UE processing capabilities and the second parameter is associated with a UL Tx switching gap.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the value of the second parameter is a predetermined value defined in a standard.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than theAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 predetermined number of symbols , perform the UL Tx switching without cancelling the CG-PUSCH .6 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DOI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols , cancel the CG-PUSCH and the trigger for the UL Tx switching .7 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols and when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the is equal to or greater than the value of the first parameter, cancel the CG-PUSCH and perform the UL Tx switching with the DG- PUSCH .8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the CG-PUSCH and the DG- PUSCH correspond to a same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : when a number of symbols between a last symbol of the DCI and a first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of symbols , cancel the CG-PUSCH, wherein the predetermined number of symbols is based on a value of a first parameter and a value of a second parameter .9 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the value of first parameter is a number of symbols determined based on UEAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 processing capabilities and the second parameter is associated with a UL Tx switching gap .10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the value of the second parameter is hard encoded .11 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols , perform the UL Tx switching without cancelling the CG-PUSCH .12 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols , cancel the CG-PUSCH and the trigger for the UL Tx switching .13 . The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the CG-PUSCH is less than the predetermined number of symbols and when the number of symbols between the last symbol of the DCI and the first symbol of the is equal to or greater than the value of the first parameter, cancel the CG-PUSCH and perform the UL Tx switching with the DG- PUSCH .Attorney Docket No. 30134 / 97902Ref. No. P68867WO114. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: configure a half-duplex time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) operation on a first carrier, a second carrier and third carrier; trigger uplink (UL) transmission (Tx) switching from the first carrier to the second carrier based on a radio resource control (RRC) configured UL transmission; and change a reference cell from a cell associated with the first carrier to a cell associated with the third carrier, wherein the UL Tx switching is applied before the reference cell becomes the cell associated with the third carrier.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first carrier is configured for RRC U symbols corresponding to a higher-layer configured sounding reference signal (SRS) , physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) , physical uplink shared channel ( PUSCH) or physical random access channel (RACK) on a semi slot format indicator (SFI) on a same cell.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the third carrier is configured for RRC D symbols corresponding to a higher-layer configured physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or channel state information (CSI ) -ref erence signal (RS) on a semi slot format indicator (SFI) on a same cell.

17. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: configure a half-duplex time domain duplex (TDD) carrier aggregation (CA) operation on a first carrier, a second carrier and third carrier; and multiplex physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) on the first carrier with physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on theAttorney Docket No . 30134 / 97902Ref . No . P68867WO1 third carrier, wherein the second carrier is configured with physical downlink shared channel ( PDSCH) .18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : determine that the second carrier is associated with a new reference cell based on multiplexing the PUCCH and the PUSCH; and drop the PUSCH on the third component carrier based on a symbol direction associated with the second carrier .19 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : drop the PDSCH on the second carrier based on a symbol direction .20 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to : process , based on signals received from a base station, an indication of a symbol direction for one or more channels .

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