Wireless device, network node, and methods performed thereby, for handling a report

Abstract

A method, performed by a wireless device (130) operating in a wireless communications network (100), for handling a report. The wireless device (130) sends (309) using Layer 2 signalling, a first report on channel state information to a network node (110) operating in the wireless communications network (100). The first report is at least a first part of a report on the channel state information. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device (130). The first report comprises an indication indicating how the first report is compressed.

Description

[0001] WIRELESS DEVICE, NETWORK NODE, AND METHODS PERFORMED THEREBY, FOR

[0002] HANDLING A REPORT

[0003] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0004] The present disclosure relates generally to a wireless device and methods performed thereby for handling a report. The present disclosure also generally relates to a network node and methods performed thereby for handling the report.

[0005] BACKGROUND

[0006] Wireless devices within a wireless communications network may be e.g., User Equipments (UEs), stations (STAs), mobile terminals, wireless terminals, terminals, and / or Mobile Stations (MS). Wireless devices are enabled to communicate wirelessly in a cellular communications network or wireless communication network, sometimes also referred to as a cellular radio system, cellular system, or cellular network. The communication may be performed e.g., between two wireless devices, between a wireless device and a regular telephone and / or between a wireless device and a server via a Radio Access Network (RAN) and possibly one or more core networks, comprised within the wireless communications network. Wireless devices may further be referred to as mobile telephones, cellular telephones, laptops, or tablets with wireless capability, just to mention some further examples. The wireless devices in the present context may be, for example, portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, enabled to communicate voice and / or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as another terminal or a server.

[0007] The wireless communications network covers a geographical area which may be divided into cell areas, each cell area being served by a network node, which may be an access node such as a radio network node, radio node or a base station (BS), e.g., a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g., gNB, evolved Node B (“eNB”), “eNodeB”, “NodeB”, “B node”, Transmission Point (TP), or BTS (Base Transceiver Station), depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations (BSs) may be of different classes such as e.g., Wide Area Base Stations, Medium Range Base Stations, Local Area Base Stations, Home Base Stations, pico base stations, etc... , based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. A cell may be understood to be the geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the base station or radio node at a base station site, or radio node site, respectively. One base station, situated on the base station site, may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the terminals within range of the base stations. In 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), base stations, which may be referred to as eNodeBs or even eNBs, may be directly connected to one or more core networks. In the context of this disclosure, the expression Downlink (DL) may be used for the transmission path from the base station to the wireless device. The expression Uplink (UL) may be used for the transmission path in the opposite direction i.e., from the wireless device to the base station.

[0008] The standardization organization 3GPP is currently in the process of specifying a New Radio Interface called NR or 5G-UTRA, as well as a Fifth Generation (5G) Packet Core Network (CN), which may be referred to as Next Generation (NG) Core Network, abbreviated as NG-CN, NGC, 5G CN or 5G Core (5GC). NG may be understood to refer to the interface / reference point between the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the CN in 5G / NR. In a 5G System (5GS), a radio base station in NR may be referred to as a gNB or 5G Node B. An NR User Equipment (UE) may be referred to as an nUE.

[0009] Multi-antenna techniques may significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system. The performance may be in particular improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, which may result in a multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) communication channel. Such systems and / or related techniques may be commonly referred to as MIMO.

[0010] A core component of the 5G wireless network or New Radio (NR) may be understood to be the support of MIMO antenna deployments and MIMO related techniques, such as spatial multiplexing. Spatial multiplexing may be used to increase data rates in favorable channel conditions. Spatially multiplexing in different layers may be understood as transmitting multiple data streams over different beams, each pointing at different directions, such that each data stream may reach a receiver through a distinct radio path and may be separated from the other data streams at the receiver. Each of the distinct radio paths may be considered as a layer. In spatial multiplexing, each layer may be understood to be associated with a unique reference signal for demodulation. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of spatial multiplexing. Particularly, Figure 1 depicts an example of a transmission structure of spatial multiplexing in NR. An information carrying symbol vector s = [s(l), s(2), ... , s(r)] may be multiplied by an NTx r precoding matrix or precoder W, which may serve to distribute the transmit energy in a subspace of the NTdimensional vector space.

[0011] NT may be understood to correspond to NT antenna ports. Each of the NT antenna ports may be associated with a unique reference signal. Each antenna port may be understood to be associated with a unique reference signal in identifying the antenna port. Therefore, transmitting two radio signals, for example NR physical signals or physical channels, over an antenna port may comprise transmitting the radio signals through an antenna element, or set of antenna elements, such that they may be perceived by a receiver as propagating through the same radio propagation channel. Given this association of an antenna port with a reference signal, an antenna port may be understood as being equivalent to a transmitted reference signal. An example of antenna ports may be found in 3GPP TS 36.211, section 6.10.5. When a receiver may estimate the channel associated with a reference signal, the channel from that antenna port may be said to be estimated. In the example shown in Figure 5, the information symbol s may be transmitted from A / T antenna ports. The receiver may use the reference signal associated with each of the A / T antenna ports to estimate the corresponding channels, and use the channel estimates to demodulate the information s.

[0012] The precoding matrix may be typically selected from a codebook of possible precoding matrices, and may be typically indicated by means of a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), which may specify a unique precoding matrix in the codebook for a given number of symbol streams. The r symbols in s may each be understood to be correspond to a Ml MO layer and r may be referred to as the transmission rank, which may be understood to be equal to the number of columns of the precoder W. In this way, spatial multiplexing may be achieved since multiple symbols may be transmitted simultaneously over the same time / frequency resource element (RE). The number of symbols r may be typically adapted to suit the current channel properties.

[0013] NR may be understood to use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in downlink. The received NRx 1 vector ynat a UE on a certain RE may be expressed as:

[0014] Vn ~ Hn sn+ 6nmay be understood to be a A / RXA / T channel matrix representing the MIMO channel over the subcarrier, or Time / Frequency Resource Element (TFRE), which may be also referred to as RE; A / R may be understood to be the number of receiver antennas or receiver radio chains. The precoder W may be constant over frequency, e.g., wideband, or frequency selective, e.g., per subband. That is, it may vary over frequency. sn= [sn(l), ...,sn(r)] may be understood to be the transmitted symbols and enmay be understood to be a receiver noise / interference vector.

[0015] The precoder W may be chosen to match the characteristics of the NRx NTMIMO channel matrix Hn, resulting in so-called channel dependent precoding. This may be also commonly referred to as closed-loop precoding.

[0016] In closed-loop precoding, the UE may be understood to feedback recommendations in a CSI report, containing a suitable precoder to the gNB in the form of a PMI based on downlink channel measurements on Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS).

[0017] For that purpose, the UE may be configured with a Channel State Information (CSI) report configuration including CSI-RS for channel measurements and a codebook of candidate precoders. In addition to precoders, the feedback may also include a rank indicator (Rl) and one or two channel quality indicators (CQIs). Rl, PMI and Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) may be part of a CSI feedback report. In NR, CSI feedback may be either wideband, where one CSI may be reported for the entire channel bandwidth, or frequency-selective, where one CSI may be reported for each subband, which may be defined as a number of contiguous physical resource blocks (PRBs) ranging between 4-32 PRBs depending on the band width part (BWP) size.

[0018] Given the CSI feedback from the UE, the gNB may determine the transmission parameters it may wish to use to transmit to the UE, including the precoding matrix, transmission rank, and modulation and coding scheme (MCS).

[0019] In 5G and LTE, CSI reporting may be confined to layer 1 (L1) in the protocol stack, the physical layer, where specific formats may be configured for the UE to feed back-channel state information. CSI may also be mapped to Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in 5G and LTE, but due to the L1 mapping, special handling of this information may be taken, different from the shared channel data on PUSCH.

[0020] The CSI feedback may be, in NR and LTE, sent from the UE at a time indicated in a Network (NW) to UE higher layer configuration or from NW to UE in an explicit scheduling message, e.g., in Downlink Control Information (DCI), providing the physical layer resource to send the CSI report. Report formats may be configured for different use-cases, such as single Transmission Point (TRP), multi-TRP, Coherent Joint Transmission (C-JT) etc. Very detailed reports may be configured for active users and advanced features such as multi-user MIMO and frequency selective scheduling, while coarse reports may be sufficient for users with little data to receive in the downlink since the precoding may be less accurate and still reach good enough downlink performance.

[0021] For 6G, it has been proposed to move some or all CSI reporting to go in-band on the regular physical data channel, where a header in the data message may be used to indicate that a certain part of the message may be a CSI report, as opposed to an uplink data transmission or other types of reports. The CSI reporting may then be moved from L1 as in LTE and NR, to Layer 2 (L2), which may be understood to comprise the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, or optionally, the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer.

[0022] When a UE builds an uplink transport block in NR, it may need to be prioritized between data from different sources, and this may be done according to pre-defined rules, such as logical channel prioritization (LCP). Logical channels may need to be prioritized in accordance with the following order, from 38.321 , v. 17.10.0, where highest priority may be listed first:

[0023] MAC Control Element (CE) for Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C- RNTI), or data from Uplink Common Control Channel (UL-CCCH);

[0024] MAC CE for (Enhanced) Beam Failure Recovery (BFR), or MAC CE for Configured Grant Confirmation, or MAC CE for Multiple Entry Configured Grant Confirmation; MAC CE for Sidelink Configured Grant Confirmation;

[0025] MAC CE for Listen Before Talk (LBT) failure;

[0026] MAC CE for Timing Advance Report;

[0027] MAC CE for Sidelink-Buffer Status Report (SL-BSR) prioritized according to clause 5.22.1.6;

[0028] MAC CE for (Extended) Buffer Status Report (BSR), with exception of BSR included for padding;

[0029] MAC CE for (Enhanced) Single Entry Power Head Room (PHR), or MAC CE for (Enhanced) Multiple Entry PHR;

[0030] MAC CE for Positioning Measurement Gap Activation / Deactivation Request;

[0031] MAC CE for the number of Desired Guard Symbols;

[0032] MAC CE for Case-6 Timing Request;

[0033] MAC CE for (Extended) Pre-emptive BSR;

[0034] MAC CE for SL-BSR, with exception of SL-BSR prioritized according to clause 5.22.1.6 and SL-BSR included for padding;

[0035] MAC CE for Integrated Access and Backhaul (lAB)-Mobile Termination (MT) Recommended Beam Indication, or MAC CE for Desired IAB-MT Power Spectrum Density (PSD) range, or MAC CE for Desired DL Tx Power Adjustment; data from any Logical Channel, except data from UL-CCCH;

[0036] MAC CE for Recommended bit rate query;

[0037] MAC CE for BSR included for padding;

[0038] MAC CE for SL-BSR included for padding.

[0039] Prioritization among MAC CEs of same priority may be up to UE implementation.

[0040] Capacity constraints in the UL may impose a limit to how the CSI may be reported to the network.

[0041] SUMMARY

[0042] Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments address one or more of the challenges identified with the existing methods and provide solutions to these challenges or other challenges.

[0043] According to a first aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method, performed by a wireless device. The wireless device operates in a wireless communications network. The method may be understood to be for handling a report. The wireless device sends, using Layer 2 signalling, a first report on channel state information to a network node operating in the wireless communications network. The first report is at least a first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device. The first report comprises an indication indicating how the first report is compressed. According to a second aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method, performed by the network node. The network node operates in the wireless communications network. The method may be understood to be for handling the report. The network node receives, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information from the wireless device operating in the wireless communications network. The first report is at least a first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device and the first report comprises the indication indicating how the first report is compressed.

[0044] According to a third aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by the wireless device, configured to perform the method. The wireless device may be understood to be configured to handle the report. The wireless device is configured to operate in the wireless communications network. The wireless device is configured to send, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information to the network node configured to operate in the wireless communications network. The first report is configured to be at least the first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device and the first report is configured to comprise the indication configured to indicate how the first report is compressed.

[0045] According to a fourth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by the network node, configured to perform the method. The network node may be understood to be configured to handle the report. The network node is configured to operate in the wireless communications network. The network node is configured to receive, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information from the wireless device configured to operate in the wireless communications network. The first report is configured to be at least the first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report is configured to have been compressed by the wireless device and the first report is configured to comprise the indication configured to indicate how the first report is compressed.

[0046] By sending the first report using Layer 2 signalling, with the indication indicating how the first report is compressed, the wireless device may enable flexible and efficient CSI reporting, e.g., on the PUSCH channel, coexisting with other uplink data traffic. The reporting may be enabled to be flexible since the wireless device may be enabled to adapt the reporting to the available resources. The reporting may be enabled to be efficient because the reports may be enabled to be compressed to only contain the most relevant information. The wireless device may therefore be enabled to adapt the reporting based on the available resources and / or the number of bits needed to convey the relevant parts of the channel, thereby being enabled to send more data.

[0047] By the first report comprising the indication, the wireless device may enable the network node to correctly interpret the report. This may be understood to be since the compression may be understood to be performed by the transmitter, that is, the wireless device, based on information that may be only available in the transmitter. Otherwise, compression may need to be performed based on information available in both the transmitter and the receiver, which may be understood to be less efficient since it may not enable to adopt to instantaneous realizations.

[0048] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] Examples of embodiments herein are described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, according to the following description.

[0050] Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a transmission structure of spatial multiplexing in NR.

[0051] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram depicting an example of a wireless communications network, according to embodiments herein.

[0052] Figure 3 is a flowchart depicting a method in a wireless device, according to embodiments herein. Figure 4 is a flowchart depicting a method in a network node, according to embodiments herein. Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an embodiments of a wireless device, according to embodiments herein.

[0053] Figure 6 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an embodiments of a network node, according to embodiments herein.

[0054] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0055] As part of the development of embodiments herein, one or more challenges with the existing technology will first be identified and discussed.

[0056] CSI reporting using the data channel and using L2, may be understood to have the benefits that it may significantly simplify L1 design. This may be understood to be since no additional control channels may be needed. The data channels may be understood to already have a framework for signalling what may be sent and how much of the given resources may be consumed. Hence, no new functionality may be understood to be needed for this. L1 channels may be understood to typically also require a fixed timing association and explicit scheduling, on top of the data channel scheduling.

[0057] However, CSI reporting using the data channel and using L2, given the different nature of L1 and L2 protocols, adds new open issues on how to use L2 to provide the feedback reports, for example when it may come to compression, prioritization and multiplexing with other reports.

[0058] Embodiments herein may be understood to address the problems identified with the existing methods and may be understood to relate to L2 CSI conditional compression. Particularly, embodiments herein may be understood to relate to providing support for compression of CSI reports, if available bits after prioritization may be too small to send a full report. This may be performed, for example, by having high priority for a wideband report of CQI and PMI, but lower priority for more detailed reporting. Also, dynamic signaling in UL grant may impact the prioritization. For example, explicit signaling may be added in the Downlink Control Information (DCI) indicating input to the compression, such as, for example, if CSI may be allowed in the transmission at all, or if compression may be allowed or not, in what dimensions to compress, etc.

[0059] Particular embodiments herein may relate to indicating, in a data-header, how a CSI report may have been compressed, where compression may be performed based on the observed channel. This may be implemented, for example, by selecting a number of relevant taps in a channel based on a threshold. That is, relevant sub-parts of the channel may be selected to either capture sufficient part of the energy, e.g., threshold relative to a sum, or all paths and / or directions that may be significant relative to a main part, e.g., a threshold relative to a maximum value, e.g., by selecting M / L parameters in the NR eType-2 reporting schemes, as described later. It may be noted that a code-book structure with M / L parameters may be understood to be an example for how to encode a channel using a parameterized model, although there may be others.

[0060] Some of the embodiments contemplated will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which examples are shown. In this section, the embodiments herein will be illustrated in more detail by a number of exemplary embodiments. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein. The disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments.

[0061] Figure 2 depicts two non-limiting examples, in panel a) and panel b), respectively, of a wireless network or wireless communications network 100, sometimes also referred to as a wireless communications system, cellular radio system, or cellular network, in which embodiments herein may be implemented. The wireless communications network 100 may be a 5G system, 5G network, or Next Gen System. In other examples, the wireless communications network 100 may be a newer system, e.g., a Sixth Generation (6G) system, with similar functionality. Yet in other examples, the wireless communications network 100 may, alternatively or additionally, support other technologies such as, for example, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), e.g., LTE for Machines (LTE-M), LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), LTE Time division duplex (TDD), LTE Half-Duplex Frequency Division Duplex (HD-FDD), LTE operating in an unlicensed band, such as LTE Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced eLAA (eLAA), further enhanced LAA (feLAA) and / or MulteFire. Yet in other examples, the wireless communications network 100 may further support other technologies such as, for example Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) TDD, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network, GSM / Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (GERAN) network, Ultra-Mobile Broadband (UMB), EDGE network, network comprising any combination of Radio Access Technologies (RATs) such as e.g. Multi-Standard Radio (MSR) base stations, multi-RAT base stations etc., any 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular network, WiFi networks, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or any cellular network or system. The wireless communications network 100 may support Machine Type Communication (MTC), enhanced MTC (eMTC), Internet of Things (loT) and / or NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-loT). Thus, although terminology from 5G / NR and LTE may be used in this disclosure to exemplify embodiments herein, this should not be seen as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein to only the aforementioned system.

[0062] The wireless communications network 100 may comprise a plurality of network nodes, whereof a network node 110 is depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 2. The network node 110 may be a radio network node. That is, a transmission point such as a radio base station, for example a gNB, or any other network node with similar features capable of serving a user equipment, such as a wireless device, in the wireless communications network 100. In some examples, the network node 110 may be a distributed node, and may partially perform its functions in collaboration with a virtual node 114 in a cloud 115. The network node 110 may be directly connected to one or more core networks, e.g., to one or more network nodes in the one or more core networks.

[0063] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may include an access network, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network, which may include one or more core network nodes. The access network may include one or more access network nodes, such as any of the network node 110 and the virtual node 114, e.g., which may be generally referred to as network nodes, or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node may not necessarily be limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it may be understood that network nodes may include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the wireless communications network 100 may include one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node may be understood to be a node in the wireless communications network 100 that may support an ORAN specification, e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization, and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the wireless communications network 100, including one or more network nodes and / or core network nodes.

[0064] Examples of an ORAN network node may include an open radio unit (0-Rll), an open distributed unit (0-Dll), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller, near-real time or non-real time, hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application, e.g., xApp, or a non-real time control application, e.g., rApp, or any combination thereof, the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification. Any of the network node 110, and the virtual node 114 may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an A1 , F1 , W1 , E1 , E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment, in which one or more network functions may be virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies.

[0065] The wireless communications network 100 may cover a geographical area, which in some embodiments may be divided into cell areas or service areas, wherein each cell area or service area may be served by a radio network node, although, one radio network node may serve one or several cells. In some examples, the network node 110 may serve receiving nodes with one or more beams. In the non-limiting example of Figure 2, the network node 110 serves one or more beams 121 , 122, 123, depicted in Figure 1 as a first beam 121 , a second beam 122, and a third beam 123. It may be understood that this is for illustration purposes and non-limiting. The network node 110 may serve more or fewer beams than those depicted in Figure 2. Instead of, or additionally to, beams, the network node 110 may serve or more cells. The network node 110 may be of different classes, such as, e.g., macro base station, home base station or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. The network node 110 may support one or several communication technologies, and its name may depend on the technology and terminology used.

[0066] A plurality of wireless devices may be located in the wireless communication network 100, whereof a wireless device 130, is depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 2. The wireless device 130 comprised in the wireless communications network 100 may be a wireless communication device such as a User Equipment (UE), e.g., 5G UE or nUE, which may also be known as e.g., mobile terminal, wireless terminal and / or mobile station, a mobile telephone, cellular telephone, or laptop with wireless capability, just to mention some further examples. The wireless device 130 may be, for example, portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer- comprised, or a vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and / or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as a server, a laptop, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or a tablet, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device, goggles, a sensor, loT device, NB-loT device, device equipped with a wireless interface, such as a printer or a file storage device, modem, or any other radio network unit capable of communicating over a radio link in a communications system. The wireless device 130 comprised in the wireless communications network 100 may be enabled to communicate wirelessly in the wireless communications network 100. The communication may be performed e.g., via a RAN, and possibly the one or more core networks, which may be comprised within the wireless communications network 100.

[0067] The wireless device 130 may be configured to communicate within the wireless communications network 100 with the network node 110, over a first link, e.g., a radio link, via any of the one or more beams 121 , 122, 123 or one or more cells.

[0068] Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and / or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a / an / the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and / or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

[0069] In general, the usage of “first”, “second”, “third”, and / or “fourth” herein may be understood to be an arbitrary way to denote different elements or entities, and may be understood to not confer a cumulative or chronological character to the nouns they modify, unless otherwise noted, based on context.

[0070] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments.

[0071] Embodiments of a method, performed by the wireless device 130 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in Figure 3. The wireless device 130 operates in the wireless communications network 100. The method may be understood to be for handling a report. The method may be understood to be computer-implemented.

[0072] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may support NR. Several embodiments are comprised herein. In some embodiments all the actions may be performed. In some embodiments, one or more actions may be performed. It should be noted that the examples herein may be not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. A non-limiting example of the method performed by the wireless device 130 is depicted in Figure 3. Some actions may be performed in a different order than that shown in Figure 3. In Figure 3, optional actions are represented with dashed lines.

[0073] Action 301

[0074] This disclosure may be understood to describe methods on how to introduce CSI reporting on L2. Compared to L1 reporting as in NR and LTE, the L2 reporting may be asynchronous and opportunistic. That the L2 reporting may be asynchronous may be understood to mean that an exact time location where a report may have to be sent may be understood to not be known beforehand or given by any prior signalling. Instead the report may be sent when ready and there may be an available resource to send it. That the L2 reporting may be opportunistic may be understood to mean that it may be sent when there may be sufficient resources, after prioritization, to send the report. L2 reporting may also be triggered on a need based, e.g., based on changes in channel conditions. If the wireless device 130 has a CSI report to transmit, e.g., if the wireless device 130 has completed the necessary measurements and calculations, and if there is a PLISCH scheduled, e.g., for a logical channel carrying data, or a PLISCH scheduled, e.g., for the purpose of conveying the CSI, then the CSI report may be integrated into to the PLISCH transmission based on a decision to do so on the side of the wireless device 130. It may be noted that the receiving network side may not be aware of, before decoding the header, that the PLISCH may be containing a CSI report, and of what size and type, due to the potential asynchronous nature of L2 based reporting of CSI. This may be understood to be a significant difference with L1 CSI reporting, where the network side may know exactly where and when a certain CSI report may be transmitted from a UE, since in L1 reporting, the network may be understood to have scheduled the reporting. L2 reporting may require new functionality compared to L1 reporting, as described in embodiments and examples herein. This may be understood to be because for L1 reporting, prioritization of CSI reports to a very large extent may be understood to build on explicit signaling from the network. However, for L2 this may be understood to not be the case. Hence rules may be understood to be needed to understand which reports may have a higher priority, e.g., be more relevant, e.g., urgent, than others. Due to limited capacity of the scheduled PLISCH, since the network side scheduler may be understood to not be aware of whether the wireless device 130 may have added a CSI report or not to the L2 carried over PLISCH, there may also be a need to transmit a partial CSI report, where, for example, less relevant parts of the CSI report may be dropped or delayed until a subsequent PLISCH transmission.

[0075] In such a scenario of limited capacity to send a full report, the wireless device 130 may generate two different reports, a first report containing some CSI, sent with higher priority, and a second report sent with lower priority, e.g., containing refined information related to the first report.

[0076] In some embodiments, the network node 110, may provide the wireless device 130 with the information of which parts of the CSI may be mapped into the first and the second report.

[0077] In this Action 301 , the wireless device 130 may obtain a first indication from the network node 110. The network node 110 may be understood to be a radio network node serving the wireless device 130.

[0078] Obtaining may be understood as, e.g., receiving.

[0079] The first indication may indicate which parts of the channel state information a report on the channel state information (CSI) may have to comprise. For example, which parts of the CSI may be mapped into the first report and one or more possible additional reports, e.g., a second report. For example, the first indication may indicate more or less frequency granular information, different threshold values, different sub-parts of the CSI the report may have to comprise, e.g. only CQI, etc.

[0080] The first report may be understood to be at least a first part of the report on the channel state information that the wireless device 130 may send to the network node 110, as will be described in Action 309. That is the first report may be a part of a full report in some examples, wherein in other examples, the first report may be the full report.

[0081] Action 302

[0082] In some examples of embodiments herein, the wireless device 130, as will be described later may send a report on CSI that may have been compressed. To compress the report may be understood to mean encoding the report using fewer bits, potentially losing part of the information in the report. Compression may comprise reducing the total number of bits but may also comprise, for a fixed number of bits, performing different scaling in different dimensions.

[0083] CSI compression may be based on report size. In some examples, there may be room for CSI, after logical channel prioritization (LCP), but the number of bits e.g., in the given uplink transmission, in the transport block or on the UL Shared Channel (LIL-SCH), may not be sufficient to send a full report, e.g., the CSI report may be too large to fit. In these conditions, the wireless device 130 may in some examples compress the CSI report to make it fit in the available bits.

[0084] In some examples, CSI compression may be based on a result of a measurement by the wireless device 130 of the channel state. That is, CSI feedback may be compressed based on the measurement result. This may be understood to mean that the compressed report may have a different size, or a different size of some sub-elements, depending on the measured channel. For example, a line-of-sight (LoS) channel, with one or few dominant angles and delays may be encoded with fewer bits than a non-LoS channel with more significant angles and delays. In these examples, the wireless device 130 may include enough CSI feedback to achieve a desired level of accuracy of the information conveyed. This may particularly apply to a scenario wherein the capacity to send a full report on CSI may be limited. However, independently of how much capacity there may be to send a full report, it may be always desired to send as much data as possible, and all the CSI that may be desired to be sent may be considered as overhead. Hence, reducing the CSI may be understood to be beneficial for capacity, throughput and power consumption.

[0085] In this Action 302, wireless device 130 may determine, in a first determination, a granularity of frequency information to be comprised in the first report. Granularity may be understood as a scale or level of detail in the information comprised in the first report. For example, the measured bandwidth may be divided into subbands, each subband spanning a frequency range or number of PRBs, the report may then contain one value per subband computed as an average over the corresponding frequency range. The best performance, albeit with highest overhead may be to have information per PRB. The lowest overhead may be to have one common metric, e.g., CQI and / or PMI, over the entire bandwidth.

[0086] Determining may be understood as calculating, deriving and similar.

[0087] In some examples, the wireless device 130 may determine the frequency granularity so that the difference between the CSI described by the CSI with the maximum frequency granularity and the selected granularity may be smaller than a threshold.

[0088] A motivation to have dynamic configuration of the threshold value may be understood to be to dynamically switch between fine-granular reporting for Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) and low granular, and lower overhead, reporting for Single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO).

[0089] The determining in this Action 302 may be based on one or more of: a) a number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) a desired level of accuracy, and c) one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may have been measured.

[0090] The number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report may be understood to refer to the number of bits in a given uplink transmission, in the transport block or on an LIL-SCH. This may be, for example, the number of bits in a given transmission that may be prioritized for CSI, that is, e.g., the number of bits in a transport block reduced by all data and control information that may have a higher priority.

[0091] The desired level of accuracy may be fixed in a standard or configured by the network, e.g., the network node 110. The desired level of accuracy may also be dynamically indicated from a set of fixed or configurable values. Typically, this may be based on a trade-off between feedback overhead and downlink performance. The trade-off may be different based on load and e.g, if MU -Ml MO scheduling is employed. As an example, if the CSI feedback includes frequency selective information, the wireless device 130 may determine with which frequency granularity the CSI feedback may be provided in the report.

[0092] In the examples where the desired accuracy may be described by a threshold, the threshold may be fixed, configurable or dynamically signaled.

[0093] The one or more characteristics may be understood to refer to e.g., frequency selectivity, coherence time, spatial separation, rank, received power, interference power, Signal to Interference Noise Ratio (SINR), spatial correlation of interference or signal etc. One characteristic may be whether the CSI may or may not be the same across a carrier, that is, a measured bandwidth, e.g., a bandwidth the CSI may be computed over. For example, for channels where the CSI may be the same across the carrier, the wireless device 130 may only include one CSI value, whereas for channels where the CSI may be different in different parts of the carrier, the wireless device 130 may include multiple CSI values from different parts of the carrier, to achieve a desired level of accuracy.

[0094] Action 303

[0095] As mentioned earlier, the compression may alternatively be expressed as that the wireless device 130 may generate two different reports, a first report containing some CSI, sent with higher priority and a second report sent with lower priority containing refined information related to the first report.

[0096] In this Action 303, the wireless device 130 may determine, in a second determination, whether or not the report may have to be divided into multiple parts.

[0097] The determining in this Action 303 may be based on one or more of: a) the number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) the desired level of accuracy, and c) the one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may have been measured.

[0098] Action 304

[0099] In case there may be room for CSI, e.g., after logical channel prioritization (LCP), but the number of bits may not be sufficient to send a full report case, rules similar to the CSI omission as defined in NR, may be applied to drop some parts of the CSI report and to keep the most relevant parts to achieve CSI compression.

[0100] In some examples wherein the wireless device 130 may generate two different reports, a first report containing some CSI, e.g., sent with higher priority and a second report, e.g., sent with lower priority containing refined information related to the first report, only the first report may be sent, while the second report may be discarded by the wireless device 130.

[0101] In this Action 304, the wireless device 130 may determine, in a third determination, whether or not one or more second parts of the report may have to be discarded.

[0102] The determining in this Action 304 may be based on one or more of: a) the number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) the desired level of accuracy, and c) the one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may have been measured.

[0103] Action 305

[0104] In this Action 305, the wireless device 130 may discard the one or more second parts based on a second result of the third determination.

[0105] Action 306

[0106] In this Action 306, the wireless device 130 may generate the first report based on a first result of the second determination.

[0107] Action 307

[0108] In this Action 307, the wireless device 130 may determine, in a fourth determination, whether or not the first report may have to be compressed. As stated earlier, the first report may be a part of a full report in some examples, wherein in other examples, the first report may be the full report.

[0109] The determining in this Action 307 may be based on one or more of: a) the number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) the desired level of accuracy, and c) the one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may have been measured.

[0110] Action 308

[0111] In this Action 308, the wireless device 130 may compress the first report based on a third result of the fourth determination.

[0112] The compression used may be, for example, any of the CSI compressions schemes and codebooks defined in NR TS 38.214, v. 18.4.0.

[0113] The order in which any of Actions 301-308 may be performed may be understood to be able to be different from that described herein. For example, the wireless device 130 may first compress the report and then determine to divide the report into several parts.

[0114] Moreover, one or more of Actions 301-308 may be optionally omitted. For example, the wireless device 130 may refrain from discarding any of the one or more second parts, or may refrain from dividing the report into several parts.

[0115] Action 309

[0116] In this Action 309, the wireless device 130 sends, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information to the network node 110 operating in the wireless communications network 100. As mentioned earlier, the first report is at least a first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device 130. The first report comprises an indication indicating how the first report is compressed. How the first report is compressed may be understood to refer to what type of compression may have been performed to enable the correct interpretation of the report, and which amount of compression may have been performed.

[0117] The indication may be one of: a header, a trailer, a field, and one or more bits. The indication may comprise one or more of: a) an identifier of a format of compression used to compress the first report, b) a length of one or more parts of the first report, and c) a content of the first report.

[0118] The format of compression may be for example, an indication of one out of a set of predefined ways to encode a report.

[0119] The identifier may be, for example, a bit or a bit combination indicating a format. An example may be defining a number of different Logical Channel I Dentifiers (LCIDs), each LCID mapping to a report format. An alternative may be a set of bits in a report indicating a choice in a set of possible choices, for example, in using Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) encoding.

[0120] The content of the first report may be understood to refer to, for example, to a given field in the report, e.g., a rank or CQI value.

[0121] It could also be a continuation bit, indicating that the report contains at least one more sub-part.

[0122] The compression may also be expressed in a report header or length field where the content of the report may be modified, where the modification may be directly given by the header and / or length of the report.

[0123] In any of the examples described herein, the CSI report may include a header that may describe the length and content of the CSI report. Note that such a header may not be included in the legacy CSI reporting: the length of the legacy CSI report may be understood to need to be fixed to facilitate decoding at the base station.

[0124] The sent first report may be based on the obtained first indication. In some embodiments, one or more of the following options may apply.

[0125] According to a first option, the channel state information may comprise one or more of: a precoder, a set of spatial domain basis vectors, and a set of frequency domain basis vectors.

[0126] A spatial domain basis vector may be understood as a subset of all measured ports, or a subset of a basis based on a transformation of all or a subset of the measured ports. One practice may be to perform a transformation into a domain where the spatial domain basis may be sparce, e.g., in the case with a known antenna-port layout perform a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), e.g., a two-dimensional DFT (2D-DFT), to transform the antenna ports into spatially directive beams, and then select a subset of said beams.

[0127] A frequency domain basis vector may be understood as a subset of all frequency domain samples, or, e.g., a subset from a transform of all or a subset of all frequency domain samples. A DFT transform may be applied also in frequency domain, making it in a way a “delay domain basis”, but that may be understood to still be a transform of the frequency domain samples.

[0128] In a set of examples, the CSI may be described by a precoder which may comprise a set of spatial domain basis vectors, a set of frequency domain basis vectors and spatial domain basis vectors, known as L in NR eType-2 reporting, and or / the number of frequency domain (FD) basis vectors, known as M in the NR eType-2 reporting. The wireless device 130 may pick a number for L and / or M to build a report that may be sufficiently small to fit in the provided resource.

[0129] According to a second option, the channel state information may comprise first parameters describing a plurality of propagation paths of a received signal from transmitter to receiver. A propagation path may be understood as one general pathway a radio signal may use to propagate from a transmitter to a receiver, potentially redirected by reflections, diffraction and / or scattering. A propagation path may also refer to a subset or a combination of multiple pathways. In some examples, the channel may be described by N propagation paths, where each propagation path may be described by a set of first parameters per may path.

[0130] The first parameters describing the plurality of propagation paths may be one or more of, e.g., a direction expressed as a combination of antenna ports, including phase shifts per port, typically performed by selecting one out of a (oversampled) DFT-vectors, a delay, typically relative some reference delay, an amplitude, a phase speed, etc.

[0131] In some examples, the first report may then comprise the first parameters describing the M most important propagation paths, whereas the second report may comprise the first parameters describing the remaining N-M propagation paths.

[0132] In other examples, where the channel may be described by N propagation paths, and each propagation path may be described by a set of first parameters per path, the wireless device 130 may include first parameters describing M<N paths, to achieve the desired level of accuracy. In other words, the wireless device 130 may determine that the channel may be described accurately using only M propagation paths, and the addition of additional propagation paths may not significantly improve the accuracy. In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may determine M so that the difference between the channel described by N propagation paths and the channel described by M propagation paths may be smaller than a threshold.

[0133] According to a third option, an encoding of the first report may be based on a previously sent report. Encoding may be understood to refer to a process of converting data, e.g., CSI data, into a format suitable for transmission over a communication channel. Encoding may comprise compressing, e.g., lossless compression. According to the third option, the first report may be compressed by signaling an offset, difference or addition to a previously sent report, where it may be assumed that fewer bits may be needed to signal the “offset, difference or addition” compared to an absolute value for all entries in the report.

[0134] In some examples, parts or all of the CSI report may be encoded based at least partially on a previously sent report. This example may be attractive if the receiver provides an acknowledgement that the previous report has been received. The report may also be encoded based on a CSI report sent in the reverse link as reference. The wireless device 130 may dynamically decide between a differential encoding or a traditional report dependent on size. Content of a differential encoding may for example relate to updates, removal or addition of propagation paths included explicitly or implicitly in previous reports.

[0135] According to a fourth option, one or more second parameters in the first report may be based on the desired level of accuracy. The one or more second parameters may be, for example, a number of bits used to encode each value to reduce or increase the granularity of the signaling. For example, each value may be encoded using fewer or more bits leading to larger or smaller quantization errors for a parameter, e.g., fewer basis-vectors to select from, fewer amplitudes / quality values to quantify a measurement to etc..

[0136] According to a fifth option, the desired level of accuracy may be based on the threshold of accuracy.

[0137] The first report may be a first part of the report on the channel state information, as determined in Action 303.

[0138] In some examples, the CSI report may be divided into different parts or reports and CSI reports may be sent over two different logical channels, one that may support segmentation and one that may not. In some examples the wireless device 130 may be configured with rules for when to map CSI reports to the logical channel that may not support segmentation even if compression may be needed and when to map the full CSI report to the logical channel with compression. The rules may be dependent on the age of a last report, the amount of compression needed and / or based on dynamic signaling.

[0139] The first report may be sent with the determined granularity in Action 302. In some examples, the CSI may be frequency selective. That is, the CSI may be different for different parts of the carrier. In this case, the first report may contain CSI with a coarser frequency granularity, and the second report may contain CSI with a finer frequency granularity. For example, the first report may contain wideband CSI, e.g., one CSI sample for the whole carriers, whereas the second report may contain subband CSI, e.g., one CSI sample for each subband, where a subband may be part of the carrier, e.g., a number of subcarriers.

[0140] Embodiments of a method, performed by the network node 110 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in Figure 4. The network node 110 operates in the wireless communications network 100. The method may be understood to be for handling the report. The method may be understood to be computer-implemented.

[0141] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may support at least one of: NR and NB-loT.

[0142] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein may be not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. A non-limiting example of the method performed by the network node 110 is depicted in Figure 4. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the wireless device 130, and will thus not be repeated here. For example, in some examples, the CSI may be frequency selective.

[0143] Action 401

[0144] In this Action 401 , the network node 110 may send the first indication to the wireless device 130. The first indication may indicate which parts of the channel state information the report may have to comprise. The received first report may be based on the obtained first indication.

[0145] Action 402

[0146] In this Action 401 , the network node 110 receives, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information from the wireless device 130 operating in the wireless communications network 100. The first report is at least a first part of the report on the channel state information. That is, the first report may be a part of a full report in some examples, wherein in other examples, the first report may be the full report. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device 130 and the first report comprises the indication indicating how the first report is compressed.

[0147] The indication may be one of: the header, the trailer, the field, and the one or more bits. The indication may comprise one or more of: a) the identifier of the format of compression used to compress the first report, b) the length of the one or more parts of the first report, and c) the content of the first report.

[0148] In some embodiments, the first report may be received with the granularity determined by the wireless device 130.

[0149] The report may be divided into multiple parts.

[0150] The first report may be the first part of the report on the channel state information, and the one or more second parts of the report may have been discarded.

[0151] The first report may be compressed.

[0152] The received first report may be based on one or more of: a) the number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) the desired level of accuracy, and c) the one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may have been measured.

[0153] In some embodiments, one or more of the following may apply, a) the channel state information may comprise one or more of: the precoder, the set of spatial domain basis vectors, the set of frequency domain basis vectors, b) the channel state information may comprise first parameters describing the plurality of propagation paths of the received signal from transmitter to receiver, c) the encoding of the first report may be based on the previously received report, d) the one or more second parameters in the first report may be based on the desired level of accuracy, and e) the desired level of accuracy may be based on the threshold of accuracy.

[0154] As a summarized overview of the foregoing, embodiments herein may be understood to relate to compressing CSI feedback dependent on channel and / or feedback bit-width availability. Header or length indication bits may be used to indicate what compression may have been done to enable correct interpretation of the report.

[0155] Certain embodiments disclosed herein may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s), which may be summarized as follows. Embodiments herein, may be understood to enable flexible and efficient CSI reporting on the PLISCH channel coexisting with other uplink data traffic.

[0156] Figure 5 depicts an example of the arrangement that the wireless device 130 may comprise to perform the method actions described above in relation to Figure 3. The wireless device 130 may be configured to handle the report. The wireless device 130 may be configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100.

[0157] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may be configured to support at least one of: NR and NB-loT.

[0158] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the wireless device 130 and will thus not be repeated here. For example, in some examples, the CSI may be configured to be frequency selective.

[0159] The wireless device 130 is configured to send, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information to the network node 110 configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100. The first report is configured to be at least the first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report has been compressed by the wireless device 130 and the first report is configured to comprise an indication configured to indicate how the first report is compressed.

[0160] In some embodiments, the indication may be configured to be one of: the header, the trailer, the field, and the one or more bits. The indication may be configured to comprise one or more of: the identifier of the format of compression used to compress the first report, the length of the one or more parts of the first report, and the content of the first report.

[0161] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to determine, in the first determination, the granularity of frequency information to be comprised in the first report. The first report may be configured to be sent with the granularity configured to be determined.

[0162] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured with one or more of the following two configurations.

[0163] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to determine, in the second determination, whether or not the report is to be divided into multiple parts.

[0164] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to generate the first report based on the first result of the second determination.

[0165] In some embodiments, the first report may be configured to be the first part of the report on the channel state information. In some of such embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured with one or more of the following two configurations. In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to determine, in the third determination, whether or not one or more second parts of the report are to be discarded.

[0166] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to discard the one or more second parts based on a second result of the third determination.

[0167] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured with one or more of the following two configurations.

[0168] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to determine, in the fourth determination, whether or not the first report is to be compressed.

[0169] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to compress the first report based on the third result of the fourth determination.

[0170] In some embodiments, the determining 302, 303, 304, 307 may be configured to be based on one or more of: a) the number of available bits configured to be used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) the desired level of accuracy, and c) the one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may be further configured to have been measured.

[0171] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to obtain the first indication from the network node 110. The first indication may be configured to indicate which parts of the channel state information the report may have to comprise. The first report configured to be sent may be configured to be based on the first indication configured to be obtained.

[0172] In some embodiments, one or more of the following may apply: a) the channel state information may be configured to comprise one or more of: the precoder, the set of spatial domain basis vectors, and the set of frequency domain basis vectors, b) the channel state information may be configured to comprise the first parameters describing the plurality of propagation paths of the signal configured to be received from transmitter to receiver, c) the encoding of the first report may be configured to be based on the report configured to have been previously sent, d) the one or more second parameters in the first report may be configured to be based on the desired level of accuracy, and e) the desired level of accuracy may be configured to be based on the threshold of accuracy.

[0173] The embodiments herein in the wireless device 130 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 501 in the wireless device 130 depicted in Figure 5, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the wireless device 130. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the wireless device 130.

[0174] The processing circuitry 501 may be configured to, or operable to, perform the method actions according to Figure 3.

[0175] The wireless device 130 may further comprise a memory 502 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 502 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the wireless device 130.

[0176] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may receive information from, e.g., the network node 110, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a receiving port 503. In some embodiments, the receiving port 503 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in wireless device 130. Since the receiving port 503 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 501 , the receiving port 503 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 501. The receiving port 503 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0177] The processing circuitry 501 in the wireless device 130 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., the network node 110, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a sending port 504, which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 501 , and the memory 502.

[0178] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the processing circuitry 501 described above may comprise a combination of analog and digital modules, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 501 , perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0179] The wireless device 130 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 3, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 501 within the wireless device 130, configured to perform any of such actions.

[0180] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the wireless device 130 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 501.

[0181] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the wireless device 130 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 505 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 501 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 501 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the wireless device 130. The computer program 505 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 506. The computer-readable storage medium 506, having stored thereon the computer program 505, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 501 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 501 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the wireless device 130. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 506 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 505 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 505 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 506, as described above.

[0182] The wireless device 130 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate communications between the wireless device 130 and other network nodes or devices, e.g., the network node 110, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0183] In other embodiments, the wireless device 130 may also comprise a radio circuitry 507, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 503 and the sending port 504. The radio circuitry 507 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with the network node 110, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0184] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the wireless device 130 comprising the processing circuitry 501 and the memory 502, said memory 502 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 501 , whereby the wireless device 130 is operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the wireless device 130, e.g., in Figure 3.

[0185] Figure 6 depicts an example of the arrangement that the network node 110 may comprise to perform the method actions described above in relation to Figure 4. The network node 110 may be understood to be configured to handle the report. The network node 110 may be configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100.

[0186] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may be configured to support at least one of: NR and NB-loT.

[0187] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the network node 110 and will thus not be repeated here. For example, in some examples, the CSI may be configured to be frequency selective.

[0188] The network node 110 is configured to receive, using Layer 2 signalling, the first report on channel state information from the wireless device 130 configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100. The first report is configured to be at least the first part of the report on the channel state information. The first report is configured to have been compressed by the wireless device 130 and the first report is configured to comprise the indication configured to indicate how the first report is compressed.

[0189] In some embodiments, the indication may be configured to be one of: the header, the trailer, the field, and the one or more bits. The indication may be configured to comprise one or more of: the identifier of the format of compression used to compress the first report, the length of the one or more parts of the first report, and the content of the first report.

[0190] In some embodiments, the first report may be received with the granularity configured to have been determined by the wireless device 130.

[0191] In some embodiments, the report may be divided into multiple parts.

[0192] In some embodiments, the first report may be the first part of the report on the channel state information. In some of such embodiments, the one or more second parts of the report may have been discarded.

[0193] In some embodiments, the first report may be compressed.

[0194] In some embodiments, the first report configured to be received may be configured to be based on one or more of: a) the number of available bits configured to be used to send at least one of the first report, and the report, b) the desired level of accuracy, and c) the one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information may be further configured to have been measured.

[0195] In some embodiments, the network node 110 may be further configured to send the first indication to the wireless device 103. The first indication may be configured to indicate which parts of the channel state information the report may have to comprise. The received first report may be configured to be based on the first indication configured to be sent.

[0196] In some embodiments, one or more of the following may apply: a) the channel state information may be configured to comprise one or more of: the precoder, the set of spatial domain basis vectors, and the set of frequency domain basis vectors, b) the channel state information may be configured to comprise the first parameters describing the plurality of propagation paths of the signal configured to be received from transmitter to receiver, e.g., by the wireless device (130), c) the encoding of the first report may be configured to be based on the report configured to have been previously received, d) the one or more second parameters in the first report may be configured to be based on the desired level of accuracy, and e) the desired level of accuracy may be configured to be based on the threshold of accuracy.

[0197] The embodiments herein in the network node 110 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 601 in the network node 110 depicted in Figure 6, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the network node 110. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the network node 110.

[0198] The processing circuitry 601 may be configured to, or operable to, perform the method actions according to Figure 4.

[0199] The network node 110 may further comprise a memory 602 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 602 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the network node 110.

[0200] In some embodiments, the network node 110 may receive information from, e.g., the wireless device 130, the virtual node 113, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a receiving port 603. In some embodiments, the receiving port 603 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in network node 110. Since the receiving port 603 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 601 , the receiving port 603 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 601. The receiving port 603 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0201] The processing circuitry 601 in the network node 110 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., the wireless device 130, the virtual node 113, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a sending port 604, which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 601 , and the memory 602.

[0202] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the processing circuitry 601 described above may comprise a combination of analog and digital modules, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 601 , perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0203] The network node 110 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 4, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 601 within the network node 110, configured to perform any of such actions.

[0204] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the network node 110 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 601.

[0205] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the network node 110 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 605 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 601 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 601 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the network node 110. The computer program 605 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 606. The computer-readable storage medium 606, having stored thereon the computer program 605, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 601 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 601 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the network node 110. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 606 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 605 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 605 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 606, as described above.

[0206] The network node 110 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate communications between the network node 110 and other network nodes or devices, e.g., the wireless device 130, the virtual node 113, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0207] In other embodiments, the network node 110 may also comprise a radio circuitry 607, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 603 and the sending port 604. The radio circuitry 607 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with the wireless device 130, the virtual node 113, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0208] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the network node 110 comprising the processing circuitry 601 and the memory 602, said memory 602 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 601 , whereby the network node 110 is operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the network node 110, e.g., in Figure 4. Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and / or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a / an / the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and / or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

[0209] As used herein, the expression “at least one of:” followed by a list of alternatives separated by commas, and wherein the last alternative is preceded by the “and” term, may be understood to mean that only one of the list of alternatives may apply, more than one of the list of alternatives may apply or all of the list of alternatives may apply. This expression may be understood to be equivalent to the expression “at least one of:” followed by a list of alternatives separated by commas, and wherein the last alternative is preceded by the “or” term.

Claims

CLAIMS:1 . A method performed by a wireless device (130), the method being for handling a report, the wireless device (130) operating in a wireless communications network (100), and the method comprising:- sending (309), using Layer 2 signalling, a first report on channel state information to a network node (110) operating in the wireless communications network (100), wherein the first report is at least a first part of a report on the channel state information, wherein the first report has been compressed by the wireless device (130) and wherein the first report comprises an indication indicating how the first report is compressed.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the indication is one of: a header, a trailer, a field, and one or more bits, and wherein the indication comprises one or more of:- an identifier of a format of compression used to compress the first report,- a length of one or more parts of the first report, and- a content of the first report.

3. The method according to any of claims 1-2, wherein the method further comprises:- determining (302), in a first determination, a granularity of frequency information to be comprised in the first report, and wherein the first report is sent with the determined granularity.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the method further comprises:- determining (303), in a second determination, whether or not the report is to be divided into multiple parts, and- generating (306) the first report based on a first result of the second determination.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first report is a first part of the report on the channel state information, and wherein the method further comprises one or more of:- determining (304), in a third determination, whether or not one or more second parts of the report are to be discarded, and- discarding (305) the one or more second parts based on a second result of the third determination.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the method further comprises:- determining (307), in a fourth determination, whether or not the first report is to be compressed, and- compressing (308) the first report based on a third result of the fourth determination.

7. The method according to any of claims 3-6, wherein the determining (302, 303, 304, 307) is based on one or more of:- a number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report,- a desired level of accuracy, and- one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information has been measured.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, wherein the method further comprises:- obtaining (301) a first indication from the network node (110), the first indication indicating which parts the report is to comprise, and wherein the sent first report is based on the obtained first indication.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-8 wherein one or more of:- the channel state information comprises one or more of: a precoder, a set of spatial domain basis vectors, and a set of frequency domain basis vectors,- the channel state information comprises first parameters describing a plurality of propagation paths of a received signal from transmitter to receiver,- an encoding of the first report is based on a previously sent report,- one or more second parameters in the first report are based on the desired level of accuracy, and- the desired level of accuracy is based on a threshold of accuracy.

10. A method performed by a network node (110), the method being for handling a report, the network node (110) operating in a wireless communications network (100), and the method comprising:- receiving (402), using Layer 2 signalling, a first report on channel state information from a wireless device (130) operating in the wireless communications network (100), wherein the first report is at least a first part of a report on the channel state information,wherein the first report has been compressed by the wireless device (130) and wherein the first report comprises an indication indicating how the first report is compressed.11 . The method according to claim 10, wherein the indication is one of: a header, a trailer, a field, and one or more bits, and wherein the indication comprises one or more of:- an identifier of a format of compression used to compress the first report,- a length of one or more parts of the first report, and- a content of the first report.

12. The method according to any of claims 10-11 , wherein the first report is received with a granularity determined by the wireless device (130).

13. The method according to any one of claims 10-12, wherein the report is divided into multiple parts.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the first report is a first part of the report on the channel state information, and wherein one or more second parts of the report have been discarded.

15. The method according to any of claims 10-14, wherein the first report is compressed.

16. The method according to any of claims 10-15, wherein the received first report is based on one or more of:- a number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report,- a desired level of accuracy, and- one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information has been measured.

17. The method according to any of claims 10-16, wherein the method further comprises:- sending (401) a first indication to the wireless device (130), the first indication indicating which parts the report is to comprise, and wherein the received first report is based on the obtained first indication.

18. The method according to any one of claims 10-18 wherein one or more of:- the channel state information comprises one or more of: a precoder, a set of spatial domain basis vectors, and a set of frequency domain basis vectors,- the channel state information comprises first parameters describing a plurality of propagation paths of a received signal from transmitter to receiver,- an encoding of the first report is based on a previously received report,- one or more second parameters in the first report are based on the desired level of accuracy, and- the desired level of accuracy is based on a threshold of accuracy.

19. A wireless device (130) configured to handle a report, the wireless device (130) being configured to operate in a wireless communications network (100), and the wireless device (130) being further configured to:- send, using Layer 2 signalling, a first report on channel state information to a network node (110) configured to operate in the wireless communications network (100), wherein the first report is configured to be at least a first part of a report on the channel state information, wherein the first report is configured to have been compressed by the wireless device (130) and wherein the first report is configured to comprise an indication configured to indicate how the first report is compressed.

20. The wireless device (130) according to claim 19, wherein the indication is configured to be one of: a header, a trailer, a field, and one or more bits, and wherein the indication is configured to comprise one or more of:- an identifier of a format of compression used to compress the first report,- a length of one or more parts of the first report, and- a content of the first report.

21. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 19-20, wherein the wireless device (130) is further configured to:- determine, in a first determination, a granularity of frequency information to be comprised in the first report, and wherein the first report is configured to be sent with the granularity configured to be determined.

22. The wireless device (130) according to any one of claims 19-21 , wherein the wireless device (130) is further configured to:- determine, in a second determination, whether or not the report is to be divided into multiple parts, and- generate the first report based on a first result of the second determination.

23. The wireless device (130) according to claim 22, wherein the first report is configured to be a first part of the report on the channel state information, and wherein the wireless device (130) is further configured to one or more of:- determine, in a third determination, whether or not one or more second parts of the report are to be discarded, and- discard the one or more second parts based on a second result of the third determination.

24. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 19-23, wherein the wireless device (130) is further configured to:- determine, in a fourth determination, whether or not the first report is to be compressed, and- compress the first report based on a third result of the fourth determination.

25. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 21-24, wherein the determining (302, 303, 304, 307) is configured to be based on one or more of:- a number of available bits configured to be used to send at least one of the first report, and the report,- a desired level of accuracy, and- one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information is further configured to have been measured.

26. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 19-25, wherein the wireless device (130) is further configured to:- obtain a first indication from the network node (110), the first indication being configured to indicate which parts the report is to comprise, and wherein the first report configured to be sent is configured to be based on the first indication configured to be obtained.

27. The wireless device (130) according to any one of claims 19-26 wherein one or more of:- the channel state information is configured to comprise one or more of: a precoder, a set of spatial domain basis vectors, and a set of frequency domain basis vectors,- the channel state information is configured to comprise first parameters describing a plurality of propagation paths of a signal configured to be received from transmitter to receiver,- an encoding of the first report is configured to be based on a report configured to have been previously sent,- one or more second parameters in the first report are configured to be based on the desired level of accuracy, and- the desired level of accuracy is configured to be based on a threshold of accuracy.

28. A network node (110) configured to handle a report, the network node (110) being configured to operate in a wireless communications network (100), and the network node (110) being further configured to:- receive, using Layer 2 signalling, a first report on channel state information from a wireless device (130) configured to operate in the wireless communications network (100), wherein the first report is configured to be at least a first part of a report on the channel state information, wherein the first report is configured to have been compressed by the wireless device (130) and wherein the first report is configured to comprise an indication configured to indicate how the first report is compressed.

29. The network node (110) according to claim 28, wherein the indication is configured to be one of: a header, a trailer, a field, and one or more bits, and wherein the indication is configured to comprise one or more of:- an identifier of a format of compression used to compress the first report,- a length of one or more parts of the first report, and- a content of the first report.

30. The network node (110) according to any of claims 28-29, wherein the first report is received with a granularity configured to have been determined by the wireless device (130).

31. The network node (110) according to any one of claims 28-30, wherein the report is divided into multiple parts.

32. The network node (110) according to claim 31 , wherein the first report is a first part of the report on the channel state information, and wherein one or more second parts of the report have been discarded.

33. The network node (110) according to any of claims 28-32, wherein the first report is compressed.

34. The network node (110) according to any of claims 28-33, wherein the first report configured to be received is configured to be based on one or more of:- a number of available bits used to send at least one of the first report, and the report,- a desired level of accuracy, and- one or more characteristics of the channel on which the channel state information has been measured.

35. The network node (110) according to any of claims 28-34, wherein the network node (110) is further configured to:- send a first indication to the wireless device (130), the first indication being configured to indicate which parts the report is to comprise, and wherein the received first report is configured to be based on the first indication configured to be sent.

36. The network node (110) according to any one of claims 28-35 wherein one or more of:- the channel state information is configured to comprise one or more of: a precoder, a set of spatial domain basis vectors, and a set of frequency domain basis vectors,- the channel state information is configured to comprise first parameters describing a plurality of propagation paths of a signal configured to be received from transmitter to receiver,- an encoding of the first report is configured to be based on a previously received report,- one or more second parameters in the first report are configured to be based on the desired level of accuracy, and- the desired level of accuracy is based on a threshold of accuracy.

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