Joint communication and sensing

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of operating a sensing node in a wireless communication network, the sensing node being adapted for wireless communication, and being adapted for sensing and / or radar operation, the method comprising performing a sensing operation based on first sensing signalling, and based on a second sensing signalling, wherein the first sensing signalling comprises exclusive sensing signalling, and the second sensing signalling comprises common sensing signalling The disclosure also pertains to related devices and methods.

Description

[0001] Joint Communication and Sensing

[0002] Technical field

[0003] This disclosure pertains to wireless communication and radar technology, in particular for high frequencies.

[0004] Background

[0005] For future wireless communication systems, combining wireless communication and sens- 5 ing (radar) is discussed, in particular using the same spectrum and / or hardware for both. This is sometimes referred to as Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS), or Integrated Sensing and Communication (IS AC); JCAS and IS AC may be used synonymously. Combining these functionalities brings a number of challenges.

[0006] Summary 10

[0007] It is an object of this disclosure to provide approaches of handling JCAS, in particular regarding multiplexing of communication signalling and sensing signalling. The approaches described may be utilised for one or more different frequencies ranges. For example, they may be implemented for frequency ranges (e.g., carrier bandwidth and / or system bandwidth) for sensing signalling and / or communication signalling of 1 GHz or more, 2GHz 15 or more, 5 GHz or more, or 6 GHz or more, or 10 GHz or more, and / or for millimeter wave communication, in particular for radio carrier frequencies around and / or above 52.6 GHz, which may be considered high radio frequencies (high frequency) and / or millimetre waves. The carrier frequency / ies may be between 52.6 and 140 GHz, e.g. with a lower border between 52.6, 55, 60, 71 GHz and / or a higher border between 71, 72, 90, 20

[0008] 114, 140 GHz or higher, in particular between 55 and 90 GHz, or between 60 and 72 GHz; however, higher frequencies may be considered, in particular frequency of 71 GHz or 72GHz or above, and / or 100 GHz or above, and / or 140 GHz or above. The carrier frequency may in particular refer to a center frequency or maximum frequency of the carrier. The radio nodes and / or network described herein may operate in wide-band, e.g. 25 with a carrier bandwidth (or bandwidth or carrier aggregation) of 400MHz or more, in particular 1 GHz or more, or 2 GHz or more, or even larger, e.g. 6 GHz or more, or 8 GHz or more; the scheduled or allocated bandwidth may be the carrier bandwidth, or be smaller, e.g. depending on channel and / or procedure. In some cases, operation may be based on an OFDM wave- form or a SC-FDM wave- form (e.g., downlink and / or 30 uplink), in particular a FDF-SC-FDM-based wave-form. However, operation based on a single carrier wave-form, e.g. SC-FDE (which may be pulse-shaped or Frequency Domain Filtered, e.g. based on modulation scheme and / or MGS), may be considered for downlink and / or uplink. In general, different wave-forms may be used for different communication directions. Communicating using or utilising a carrier and / or beam may correspond to 35

[0009] P111679WO01 1 / 80 operating using or utilising the carrier and / or beam, and / or may comprise transmitting on the carrier and / or beam and / or receiving on the carrier and / or beam. Operation may be based on and / or associated to a numerology, which may indicate a sub-carrier spacing and / or duration of an allocation unit and / or an equivalent thereof, e.g., in comparison to an OFDM based system. A sub-carrier spacing or equivalent frequency interval may 40 for example correspond to 960 kHz, or 1920 kHz, e.g. representing the bandwidth of a sub-carrier or equivalent.

[0010] The approaches are particularly advantageously implemented in a future 6th Generation (6G) telecommunication network or 6G radio access technology or network (RAT / RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, a standardisation 45 organization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RAN according to NR, for example release 18 or later, or LTE Evolution. However, the approaches may also be used with other RAT, for example future 5.5G systems or IEEE based systems.

[0011] There is disclosed a method of operating a sensing node in a wireless communication network. The sensing node may be adapted for wireless communication, and / or may be 50 adapted for sensing and / or radar operation. The method comprises performing a sensing operation based on first sensing signalling, and based on a second sensing signalling, wherein the first sensing signalling comprises, and / or consists of, exclusive sensing signalling, and the second sensing signalling comprises, and / or consists of, common sensing signalling. 55

[0012] Moreover, there is discussed a sensing node for a wireless communication network. The sensing node may be adapted for wireless communication, and / or may be adapted for sensing and / or radar operation. The sensing node is adapted for performing a sensing operation based on first sensing signalling, and based on second sensing signalling, wherein the first sensing signalling comprises, and / or consists of, exclusive sensing signalling, and 60 the second sensing signalling comprises, and / or consists of, common sensing signalling.

[0013] Sensing signalling in some variants may comprise reference signalling, and / or be based on a sensing signalling sequence, and / or a sequence root, and / or may be represented by a sequence of modulation symbols. The first and second sensing signalling may be based on different sequences and / or roots, e.g., to facilitate detection of the type of sig- 65 nailing. The sequence / s and / or root / s may be on sensing task (e.g., tracking or object detection), and / or may be based on operation conditions. Flexibility, as well as accommodation to different use cases may be facilitated. The first sensing signalling and / or second sensing signalling may be configured to the sensing node, e.g., by another sensing node, in particular a control node and / or base station. A configuration for first sensing 70 signalling (as configured to a sensing node) may indicate resources like time and / or fre-

[0014] P111679WO01 2 / 80 quency resources, and / or type of reference signalling, and / or periodicity, and / or power level, and / or sequence and / or sequence root, and / or modulation or signalling type, and / or may indicate the configured signalling to be exclusive. A configuration for second sensing signalling (as configured to a sensing node) may indicate resources like time and / or fre- 75 quency resources, and / or type of reference signalling, and / or periodicity, and / or power level, and / or sequence and / or sequence root, and / or modulation or signalling type, and / or may indicate the configured signalling to be common. A control node may be adapted to configure one or more sensing radio nodes, e.g., of a group of sensing radio nodes.

[0015] The sensing node, e.g., sensing radio node, may be adapted to perform, and / or perform, 80 bi-static or multi-static sensing. A sensing node operative as, and / or implemented as, a sensing radio node may also be referred to as radio node in the context of this disclosure.

[0016] Sensing signalling may be OFDM-based, e.g., based on OFDM symbols in time domain and / or sub-carriers in frequency domain. This may facilitate re-use of hardware for wireless communication, and / or integration into wireless communication systems. 85

[0017] The sensing node may be a sensing radio node, which may be part of a group of sensing radio nodes. The group may comprise a plurality of sensing radio nodes, which may be predefined and / or configured, and / or may be constant over time, or time variable, e.g., in terms of number of nodes, and / or which nodes are part of the group, and / or pairing and / or sub-grouping for bi-static and / or multi-static operation, e.g., according to 90 configuration or updated configuration. The group may be limited to a geographical or logical area or region, and / or the nodes of the group may be connected or connectable to one or more control nodes, in particular to the same control node. Sensing radio nodes of a group may be based on a distance, e.g., from a reference node (e.g., control node) or reference point, and / or based on a representative distance (e.g., averaged or weighted 95 average, or weighted distribution function). For example, sensing radio nodes in a distance below, or at most at, a threshold value may be part of a given group. A sensing radio node may be member of more than one group. A group of sensing radio nodes may comprise one or more sensing radio nodes intended for transmitting sensing signalling, and one or more sensing radio nodes intended for reception of sensing signalling, e.g., at any given 100 time or time interval, e.g., during sensing operation. Sensing radio nodes of the group may be paired and / or grouped into subgroups for bi-static and / or multi-static sensing operation; one or more pairs and / or subgroups may operate simultaneously in sensing mode. It may be assumed that sensing operation is synchronised for the group, e.g., such that sensing operation is performed in parallel for nodes of the group (and possibly for 105 nodes beyond the group as well, e.g., for nodes of one or more second group / s). There may be multiple groups, e.g., over a larger area and / or associated and / or operated by the same telecommunications operator.

[0018] P111679WO01 3 / 80 It may be considered that exclusive sensing signalling may be transmitted by only one sensing radio node and / or transmitting radio node within the group, such that it may be 110 considered exclusive to this sensing radio node. Common sensing signalling may be transmitted by several and / or all of transmitting sensing radio node of the group, e.g., sharing time resource / s and / or frequency resource / s, which thus might be considered common to multiple transmitters. The group may be determined based on transmission power and / or signal quality and / or signal strength, e.g., such that the first sending signalling 115 is received clearly (e.g., according to a threshold value, in particular for signal strength and / or quality) by nodes paired with the associated transmitter, and / or does not interfere (or not interfere above a threshold level) with other first sensing signalling for another group.

[0019] Exclusive signalling may pertain to a single transmitter and / or sensing node, e.g., of a 120 group of sensing radio nodes. Exclusive signalling may be considered non-overlapping signalling, e.g., non-overlapping with other sensing signalling and / or communication signalling, e.g., in time domain and / or frequency domain. Non-overlapping may refer to other signalling on the same time resource / s and / or frequency resource / s not being larger (or being lower than) than a first threshold level, e.g., lower than 10% of the first sensing 125 signalling, or lower than 5%, or lower than 1% in power and / or signal strength. This threshold may refer to reception, e.g., at other nodes of a group, and / or at a sensing radio node paired for bi-static operation with the sensing radio node transmitting the exclusive first sensing signalling, and / or at a plurality of sensing radio nodes subgrouped for multi-static operation with the sensing radio node transmitting the exclusive first sens- 130 ing signalling. In general, over a given time interval, there may be multiple (different) sensing radio nodes transmitting different first sensing signalling, e.g., such that different nodes may transmit exclusively at different points in time and / or in different frequency resources, e.g. sub-carriers and / or different part of the frequency spectrum.

[0020] The first sensing signalling may be signalling without common sensing signalling, and / or 135 the second sensing signalling may be signalling without exclusive sensing signalling. Thus, the types of signalling may be clearly separable and / or separated. It may be considered that exclusive sensing signalling is transmitted on allocation units like symbols or block symbols on which no common sensing signalling is transmitted, and / or vice versa. It may be assumed that a sensing node receiving and / or processing the signalling may be aware, 140 e.g., based on configuration or other information, which signalling is exclusive, and which is not exclusive. For a receiving sensing radio node, there may be first sensing signalling from multiple transmitters, exclusive for the respective transmission. For a sensing radio node transmitting first sensing signalling, the transmission may be considered exclusive.

[0021] It may be considered that a sensing radio node transmitting first and second sensing 145

[0022] P111679WO01 4 / 80 signalling may operate as receiving sensing radio node at other points in time.

[0023] A sensing node may be a radio node, e.g., a base station, or wireless device, or a mobile or stationary sensing device. In some cases, a sensing node may be a control node, e.g., adapted to control one or more radio nodes like sensing radio nodes, and / or for processing received sensing data; the sensing data may be based on, and / or may represent, 150 and / or may be, measurement information determined based on receiving the first sensing signalling and / or the second sensing signalling. Sensing data may be reported to, and / or received by, a control node. A sensing node may be a radio node and a control node in one, e.g., receiving and / or transmitting first sensing signalling and / or second sensing signalling itself, while receiving sensing data from one or more other nodes. A control node may 155 be in adapted for communication with one or two more sensing radio nodes, e.g., directly and / or indirectly, e.g., via one or more suitable communication interfaces. A sensing radio node may be a sensing node adapted for receiving and / or transmitting sensing signalling via a radio interface and / or utilising one or more antenna arrangement / s, and / or being adapted for wireless communication. 160

[0024] Performing the sensing operation may comprise transmitting the first sensing signalling and the second sensing signalling. The sensing node may accordingly be a sensing radio node. The second sensing signalling may be scheduled and / or intended for transmission, and / or be transmitted, to be coincident with, and / or on shared time domain resources and / or frequency resources with, second sensing signalling transmitted by one or more 165 other sensing radio nodes, e.g., of the same group. Second sensing signalling transmitted by different nodes may at least partly overlap, or completely overlap, in time domain and / or frequency domain, e.g., be on the same symbol or allocation unit, and / or on the same sub-carrier / s, and / or PRB / s, and / or part / s of the frequency spectrum and / or carrier. Common sensing signalling may be signalling scheduled or configured for, and / or 170 intended for, and / or transmitted for, overlapping with sensing signalling transmitted by on or more other sensing signalling nodes. Overlapping may refer to possibly interfering with, and / or having a signal strength larger (or larger or equal) than a threshold, e.g., the first threshold as used for exclusive sensing signalling, or a different threshold, e.g., larger than the first threshold. This may pertain to the transmission point, and / or as seen 175 from one or more receivers, and / or be based on a combination evaluation, e.g., based on multiple sensing radio nodes of the group, e.g., all intended for reception of the common sensing signalling, and / or edge nodes (at the edge in terms of distance and / or geometry and / or signal quality and / or signal strength) of the group, e.g., based on distance from the transmitter / s. 180

[0025] In general, first sensing signalling and / or second sensing signalling may be associated to,

[0026] P111679WO01 5 / 80 and / or arrange in, a radar frame. The radar frames for first sensing signalling and second sensing signalling may be the same and / or have the same size, or may be different. For example, the radar frame for first sensing signalling may be larger than the radar frame for the second sensing signalling, e.g., be an integer multiple thereof, and / or comprise 185 and / or correspond to multiple consecutive radar frames of the second sensing signalling. The radar frame may define a time interval in which a sensing operation is to be performed, e.g., for a task and / or a target, and / or for processing, e.g., determining a periodogram.

[0027] It may be considered that performing the sensing operation may comprise receiving and / or processing the first sensing signalling and the second sensing signalling. Processing may 190 comprise determining a periodogram and / or analogous processing, e.g., based on the first sensing signalling and / or based on the second sensing signalling, and / or a combined periodogram based on the first and second sensing signalling. Processing in general may comprise low-Doppler shift (and / or delay) processing based on the first sensing signalling, and / or high-Doppler shift (and / or delay) processing based on the second sensing sig- 195 nailing; low-Doppler shift processing may be also based on the second sensing signalling, which may for example be utilised for interference removal and / or calibration and / or normalisation for the first sensing signalling. Low in this context may be relative to a high value, and / or refer to low relative to a threshold (e.g., being lower than a lower threshold). High in this context may be relative to a low value, and / or refer to high relative 200 to a higher threshold. The higher threshold may be equal to, or higher than, the lower threshold. The threshold / s may be configured and / or pre-defined, and / or may be determined based on task and / or operational conditions, e.g., based on speed and / or velocity and / or location of one or more targets (e.g., relative between the targets, or relative to a common reference, e.g., ground). 205

[0028] In some cases, performing the sensing operation may comprise scheduling and / or configuring the first sensing signalling and / or the second sensing signalling for transmission and / or reception. This may for example be performed by a centralised control node, which may be a higher-layer node, or a sensing radio node adapted for this functionality. Accordingly, centralised control over sensing operation may be performed, facilitating 210 the sensing radio nodes following a clear schedule, avoiding ambiguous situations and / or undesired interferences.

[0029] Exclusive sensing signalling may correspond to exlusive time resource / s and / or frequency resource / s for the first sensing signalling (e.g., used for transmission), e.g., among a group of transmitters of sensing signalling. Accordingly, interference may be limited, which may 215 in particular allow improved handling of relatively low Doppler shifts (e.g., low target speed) and / or low delays (low target distance to target).

[0030] P111679WO01 6 / 80 Common sensing signalling in general may correspond to common time resource / s and / or frequency resource / s for the second sensing signalling, e.g., among a group of transmitters of sensing signalling. Thus, common signalling may comprise signalling transmitting at 220 the same time (e.g., same symbol) and / or on the same sub-carriers by multiple transmitters, which may provide optimised resource use at the cost of some interference.

[0031] It may be considered that performing a sensing operation may comprise processing received first sensing signalling and received second sensing signalling, wherein processing may comprise determining a target parameter of a first sensing target based on the first 225 sensing signalling. The target parameter may correspond to a Doppler shift and / or a delay, and / or a target speed and / or target distance, e.g., according to a bin or parameter value range. The first target may have low speed and / or Doppler shift and / or range and / or delay, for which exclusive signalling may provide improved handling.

[0032] Performing a sensing operation may comprise processing received first sensing signalling 230 based on received second sensing signalling. For example, knowledge about behaviour and / or characteristics from the second sensing signalling (e.g., for low Doppler shift and / or low delay) may be utilised to improve the processing of the first sensing signalling.

[0033] In some cases, performing a sensing operation may comprise determining a lower Doppler shift of a first sensing target based on the first sensing signalling, and determining a 235 higher Doppler shift of a second sensing target based on the second sensing signalling.

[0034] The impact of interference may thus be optimised with limit cost of resources for exclusive signalling.

[0035] A time domain density of exlusive symbols of first sensing signalling may be lower than a time domain density of common symbols of the second sensing signalling, wherein the 240 time domain density may be determined over a transmission timing structure. The transmission timing structure may pertain to a radar frame, or multiple radar frames (e.g., for the first sensing signalling, and / or the second sensing signalling), or another transmission timing structure. The transmission timing structure may comprise multiple instances of exclusive / hrst sensing signalling and multiple instances of common / second sensing sig- 245 nailing. In general, the first sensing signalling may correspond to a train of symbols or pulses, and / or may be included into a train of symbols or pulses that also includes second sensing signalling. A train of symbols or pulses may comprise, and / or consist of, a plurality of consecutive symbols in time domain, and / or of consecutive modulation symbols or sequence elements. Alternatively, or additionally, a frequency domain density of exlusive 250 sub-carriers of first sensing signalling may be lower than a frequency domain density of common sub-carriers of the second sensing signalling, wherein the frequency domain density may be determined over a transmission bandwidth, e.g., a carrier bandwidth and / or a

[0036] P111679WO01 7 / 80 number of PRBs, and / or an operation bandwidth. The bandwidth may comprise multiple exclusive sub-carriers, and / or multiple common sub-carriers. 255

[0037] It is noted that exclusive resources may be referred to as non-overlapping resources. Common resources may be referred to as overlapping resources.

[0038] The time domain interval between two consecutive symbols and / or between two trains of consecutive symbols of the first sensing signalling, and / or the second sensing signalling, may in general be constant. Alternatively, or additionally, the frequency domain interval 260 between two consecutive sub-carriers of the first sensing signalling, and / or the second sensing signalling, may in general be constant. The first signalling in this context may be first signalling of the same transmitter (sensing radio node transmitting the ffist / exclusive sensing signalling). A train of symbols and / or pulses may be considered to correspond to symbols and / or pulses transmitted consecutively in time domain, and / or such that each 265 symbol or pulse of the train is neighbouring in time domain to at least one other symbol or pulse of the same train (a symbol may refer to a symbol time interval and / or OFDM or SCFM symbol, or more generally, to block symbols and / or allocation units).

[0039] Sensing and / or radar operation may be used interchangeably. Sensing operation may be performed in a sensing mode. Communication may be performed in a communication 270 mode. Different antenna arrangements and / or different nodes may operate in different modes; in some cases, different antenna arrangements of the same radio node may operate in different modes, e.g. using frequency domain multiplexing (e.g., in addition to and / or overlaid on time domain multiplexing). Sensing operation may comprise transmitting and / or receiving sensing signalling. Sensing signalling may be signalling intended to be 275 bounced of one more targets, e.g. to determine a presence, and / or a location, and / or velocity, and / or speed of the target / s from the reflected signalling. Sensing operation may be mono-static, or in some cases bistatic or multi-static.

[0040] It may be considered that the communication signalling is based on a multi-carrier waveform, e.g. an OFDM wave-form, for example a DFT-s-OFDM based wave-form, and / or 280 that the communication signalling is based on a waveform with cyclic appendix. A cyclic appendix may generally be a cyclic prefix, or a cyclic suffix. The appendix may represent a repetition of a part of signalling carried by a symbol at its start (suffix) or end (prefix), which may be appended at the opposite of the symbol (end or start); e.g. a cyclic prefix may be considered a repetition of the signalling at the end of the symbol it pertains to. 285

[0041] A cyclic appendix may be associated to a specific symbol, it may have a duration shorter than the symbol duration, e.g. less than 1 / 4 of the symbol duration, or less than 1 / 6.

[0042] A sensing radio node may operate in TDD mode, e.g. switching between DL periods and

[0043] P111679WO01 8 / 80 UL periods. A DL period may be a period in which the radio node operates using DL transmissions, an UL period may be a period in which the radio node operates using UL 290 transmissions (e.g., a network node may transmit during DL, and receive during UL, and vice versa for a wireless device). It may be considered that there is a TDD guard period between DL and UL periods and / or between UL and DL periods, which may comprise a number of symbol time intervals, e.g. 10 or more symbols, or 12 or more symbols; there may be the same duration for guard periods for DL / UL and UL / DL, or different ones. 295

[0044] The guard period may allow switching circuitry between the different communication directions and / or handling of interference (in particular considering that DL signalling tends to much more powerful than (received) UL signalling). Time domain multiplexing of sensing signalling and communication signalling may refer to and / or include and / or comprise and / or represent switching between communication mode and sensing mode such that at 300 different times, different modes are used at least for a part of the circuitry and / or antenna arrangements and / or signalling associated to the radio node. An antenna arrangement may comprise one or more antenna elements and / or sub-arrays and / or panels; different antenna arrangements may comprise different antenna elements and / or sub-arrays and / or panels. Different antenna arrangements and / or panels and / or sub-arrays and / or elements 305 may be adapted to be controlled or controllable separately from each other. There may be the same number of DL and UL periods and / or the same duration associated to DL and UL (at least over a certain time interval, e.g. alternating such that one DL period is followed by one UL period, or vice versa, or different numbers or durations, e.g. (roughly) 3:1 (e.g., 3 DL periods followed by a TDD guard period and 1 UL period), or (roughly) 310

[0045] 2:1, or even (roughly) 1:2 or 1:NU with NU 3 or larger, for UL heavy scenarios. UL period durations may be the same as DL period durations, or different. The distribution and / or duration of DL and UL periods may be referred to as TDD pattern; the TDD pattern may be dynamically controllable (e.g., with DCI signalling), and / or configured or configurable, e.g. with higher layer signalling like RRC signalling or RLC signalling, and / or may be 315 semi-statically configurable or configured. The TDD pattern may describe the smallest time domain distribution of DL period / s and / or UL period / s and / or TDD guard period / s repeated over time, e.g. in one or more frames and / or subframes and / or slots and / or a time duration covering multiple repetitions of the TDD pattern. It may be considered that operating in sensing mode may comprise both transmission and reception by the 320 same radio node, independent of the TDD period associated to a communication mode.

[0046] It may be considered that a sensing mode and / or sensing interval may be inserted and / or embedded and / or multiplexed into a time period nominally associated to DL and / or UL and / or a TDD guard period, in particular a DL / UL guard period.

[0047] The sensing signalling and communication signalling may be transmitted by the same 325

[0048] P111679WO01 9 / 80 transmitting node, e.g. the radio node, or by different nodes. In particular, it may be considered that the radio node transmits both communication signalling and sensing signalling, and may additionally monitor for and / or receive a reflection of the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario. In some cases, the radio node may receive the communication signalling and the sensing signalling, and / or may additionally transmit the 330 sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario. In some cases, the radio may transmit the communication signalling and receive (and / or monitor for) the sensing signalling, and additionally may transmit the sensing signalling, or vice versa. It should be considered that the receiving sensing signalling may comprise, and / or be based on monitoring for the sensing signalling, e.g. utilising one or more reception beams and / or beam sweeping. 335 Received or monitored for sensing signalling may represent reflected and / or diffracted sensing signalling, e.g. after impacting a target object and / or obstacle. Operation using sensing signalling and communication signalling may pertain to a specific time period, e.g. a joint operation interval, in which both communication and sensing is performed.

[0049] There may be operational states of the radio node focussing on one type of operation, 340 e.g. only communicating or sensing. Sensing signalling being frequency multiplexed (also known as being frequency domain multiplexed, or frequency duplexed) with communication signalling may refer to the sensing signalling having a different location in frequency domain than the communication signalling, e.g. in non-overlapping parts of the spectrum (non-overlapping bandwidths). In particular, sensing signalling may occupy a first 345 frequency bandwidth, and the communication signalling may occupy a second frequency bandwidth, wherein the first and second frequency bandwidths may be non-overlapping and / or disjunct and / or separated in frequency domain.

[0050] The radio node may for example be a wireless device or user equipment or terminal, or a network node or signalling radio node or base station. Thus, sensing functionality may 350 be provided by common participants of a wireless communication network.

[0051] It may be considered that the radio node is adapted for utilising a number NP of antenna sub- arrays and / or panels, wherein NP may be an integer number of 4 or larger. An antenna sub-array may comprise a plurality of antenna elements, e.g. 4 or more, or 10 or more, or 50 or more, or 100 or more. An antenna sub-array, and / or the antenna ele- 355 ments associated thereto and / or comprised therein, may be associated and / or connected or connectable to one and / or the same antenna circuitry, and / or be jointly controllable for analog and / or digital beam-forming, and / or be operable for joint transmission or reception. A panel may comprise a support structure, e.g. plastics and / or metallic material and / or wood, supporting one or more antenna sub-arrays, which additionally may sup- 360 port additional circuitry like antenna circuitry and / or interface circuitry. Each antenna sub-array may be associated for one communication direction (e.g., reception or transmis-

[0052] P111679WO01 10 / 80 sion) and / or one functionality, e.g. sensing or communication. It may be considered that antenna elements of an antenna sub-array share the same polarisation, e.g. horizontal or vertical. In some cases, NP may be an even number, wherein it may be considered 365 that NP / 2 antenna sub-arrays (and / or their antenna elements) may be associated to a first polarisation (e.g., horizontal or vertical or left-circular or right-circular, or any other suitable polarisation) and the other NP / 2 antenna sub- arrays are associated to a second polarisation, which may be orthogonal to the first polarisation. For example, the first polarisation may be horizontal with the second polarisation being vertical, or the first 370 polarisation may be left-circular and the second polarisation may be right-circular. This allows multiple beams to be operated, with good flexibility and / or large signalling capacity. In general, an antenna arrangement associated to a radio node may comprise one or more antenna sub-arrays, in particular an even number of antenna sub-arrays. In general, at different times, different antenna sub-arrays and / or panels may be used for different 375 functions, e.g. transmission or reception, and / or sensing or communication. The polarisation of an antenna element may be associated to a specific operation direction, e.g. for transmission or reception. Depending on signalling direction (transmission or reception), polarisation may be different. For example, an antenna sub-array may be associated to a first polarisation for transmission, and a second polarisation for reception, or vice versa. 380 This may be achieved, for example, by providing crossed linear antenna elements for the sub-arrays, with associated connections / circuitry according to polarisation.

[0053] In particular, it may be considered that the sensing signalling is transmitted and / or received, e.g. by the radio node, utilising a first set of antenna elements and / or antenna subarrays and / or antenna panels, and the communication signalling is transmitted and / or 385 received, e.g., by the radio node, utilising a second set of antenna elements and / or antenna sub-arrays and / or antenna panels. The first set may comprise different sub-arrays and / or antenna elements and / or antenna panels than the second set. The first set may comprise one or more antenna sub-arrays and / or panels, e.g. NC sub-arrays and / or panels, in particular an even number. It may be considered that the second set may comprise 390 one or more antenna sub-arrays and / or panels, e.g., NS sub-arrays, in particular an even number. It may be considered that NC+NS=NP. In some cases, the NC and / or NS subarrays and / or panels may comprise equal number of antenna sub-arrays and / or panels associated to first and second polarisations (in general, an antenna sub-array may be considered associated to a polarisation if all its antenna elements are associated to the 395 same polarisation). It may be considered that different antenna sub-arrays are used for transmitting sensing signalling and receiving signalling, wherein the same polarisation may be associated to transmitting and receiving of sensing signalling.

[0054] It may be considered that the sensing signalling and the communication signalling are

[0055] P111679WO01 11 / 80 transmitted and / or received in an operation time interval, for example a slot, or an integer 400 number N of symbol time intervals or allocation units or block symbols. The operation time interval may correspond to 1 ms or less, or 0.5 ms or less, or .1 ms or less, and / or N may be 1000 or less, or 300 or less, or 200 or less, or 100 or less, or 20 or less. Thus, the radio node may operate both signalling types in short timescales. Within the operation time interval, the sensing signalling and communication signalling may be operated time 405 multiplexed, or simultaneously, or both (in different sub- intervals).

[0056] In some variants, the sensing signalling and the communication signalling may be transmitted and / or received at least partly, or fully, overlapping in time, e.g. in an operation time interval, or one or more sub-intervals thereof. Partly overlapping in time may refer to part of the sensing signalling not overlapping with the communication signalling, fully 410 overlapping may refer to all of the sensing signalling overlapping with communication signalling (in time domain, in particular within the operation time interval and / or one or more sub-intervals thereof).

[0057] In particular, the sensing signalling may in general be transmitted in a sensing time interval, and a reflection of the sensing signalling may be monitored for (and / or received) 415 in a monitoring time interval, wherein the sensing time interval and the monitoring time interval may at least partly, or fully, overlap in time. The sensing time interval and / or the monitoring time interval may be part of an operation time interval, e.g. comprised therein, for example as sub-intervals, or covering the operation time interval. Thus, short timescale joint operation is facilitated. 420

[0058] It may be considered that a first antenna sub-array and / or antenna panel may be used for transmitting sensing signalling, a second antenna sub-array and / or antenna panel may be used for monitoring and / or receiving a reflection of the sensing signalling. Two or more antenna sub- arrays and / or panels may be used for communicating utilising communication signalling., e.g. during the operation time interval. The first and second sub-array and / or 425 panel may be of different polarisation. In particular for large NP (e.g., 8 or larger), this may facilitate sensing operation with comparatively low impact on communication operation.

[0059] In general, sensing signalling and communication signalling occupy the same frequency spectrum, e.g. the same carrier. Frequency multiplexing may generally refer to different 430 locations of the frequency spectrum being assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, e.g. different parts of the carrier bandwidth; additionally, different bandwidths may be assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling. Spectrum re-use thusly may be provided. This may refer to operation time interval / s.

[0060] P111679WO01 12 / 80 It may be considered that the sensing signalling may occupy a bandwidth (first frequency 435 bandwidth, or first bandwidth) of 350 MHz or less, or 300 MHz or less, and / or 10% or less of a carrier or system bandwidth, or 5% or less of a carrier or system bandwidth, and / or 10% or less of the bandwidth (second frequency bandwidth, or second bandwidth) used for communication signalling, and / or 7% or less of the bandwidth used for communication signalling. This may refer to operation time interval / s; outside of such, different 440 bandwidth sizes may be used, e.g. if only communication signalling is used for a longer time (e.g., 5 or more times the operation time interval duration, or 10 or 20 or 50 or more times the operation time interval duration), the full carrier / system bandwidth may be applied for communication signalling. Thus, bandwidth limitation may be ameliorated.

[0061] In some variants, sensing signalling may occupy a first frequency bandwidth (or first 445 bandwidth), and the communication signalling may occupy a second frequency bandwidth (second bandwidth), wherein further a frequency gap may exist, or be, or be located, between the first frequency bandwidth and the second frequency bandwidth. The second frequency bandwidth may be larger in size than the first frequency bandwidth, e.g. it may be SM times the size, wherein SM may be 3 or more, or 5 or more, or 10 or more, or 450

[0062] 15 or more. The gap may correspond to a bandwidth smaller than the second frequency bandwidth, and / or may be smaller than the first frequency bandwidth. The gap may correspond to a guard bandwidth, e.g. limiting interference between the first and second frequency bandwidths.

[0063] In general, the communication signalling may be based on an OFDM wave-form, for 455 example a DFT-s-OFDM based wave-form. This may facilitated reliable communication with high capacity.

[0064] Approaches described herein facilitate using hardware of a communication radio node for radar or sensing, with limited overhead or loss of efficiency.

[0065] Sensing signalling may generally be represented by reference signalling. Sensing signalling 460 of different types may differ in terms of numerology and / or wave-form and / or modulation symbol sequence and / or sequence root and / or duration and / or frequency bandwidth and / or density (e.g., in time domain and / or frequency domain) and / or code and / or timing, in particular regarding periodicity) and / or beam shape or beam size.

[0066] The communication signalling and / or sensing signalling may be based on an OFDM wave- 465 form, e.g. OFDM and / or SC-FDM. Transmitting and / or receiving sensing signalling may be considered operating utilising sensing signalling. It may be considered that operating utilising communication signalling, and / or communicating utilising communication signalling, may comprise transmitting the communication signalling and / or receiving the

[0067] P111679WO01 13 / 80 communication signalling. Depending on whether the radio node is adapted for full- 470 duplex operation or not, operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise operating in the same direction (e.g., both operations comprise or consists of transmitting, or both comprise or consist of receiving), or in different directions (for either or both operations, or between operations and / or for one operation). Thus, different use cases and types of setup (mono-static or multi-static) may be considered. 475

[0068] In some cases, operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise transmitting the sensing signalling and / or receiving the sensing signalling. In general, receiving sensing signalling may comprise receiving reflections of the sensing signalling; the reflections may be shifted in time relative to the transmitting signalling (due to propagation delay); the shift in time may two symbol time intervals or less, or one symbol time interval or less, or the 480 duration of a cyclic prefix or less. The range of the sensing signalling may be configured accordingly. In general, operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise performing sensing and / or determining the presence (or absence) of an object and / or determining one or more properties of one or more objects (sensing targets).

[0069] It may be considered that the communication signalling is based on an OFDM wave- 485 form, e.g. OFDM, or DFT-s-OFDM, or pulse-shaped DFT-s-OFDM. Such a wave-form is particularly suitable for wireless communication at high frequencies and / or with high communication loads. In some cases, the sensing signalling may be based on an OFDM wave-form, e.g. OFDM, or DFT-s-OFDM, or pulse-shaped DFT-s-OFDM, or an OFTS based wave-form. The sensing signalling wave-form may be based on the same wave-form 490 as the communication signalling, which allows easy reuse of configurations and circuitries.

[0070] In some cases, it may be based on a different wave-form, allowing flexibility, e.g. for different use cases and functionalities.

[0071] The radio node may be a wireless device or user equipment or terminal. Alternatively, it may be a network node or signalling radio node. A radio node adapted for wireless 495 communication may be a radio node adapted for transmitting and / or receiving communication signalling, and / or for operating with signalling in conformance with a communication standard, e.g. according to a 3GPP standard, and / or adapted for communicating utilising control signalling in conformance with a standard (not necessarily data signalling). A radio node adapted for operating with signalling in conformance with a 500 communication standard may be adapted for utilising signalling and / or waveforms according to the standard, and / or circuitry capable of producing such waveforms and / or signalling. Communication signalling may be. and / or comprise, data signalling and / or control signalling and / or reference signalling, e.g. according to a wireless communication standard like a 3GPP standard or IEEE standard. A radio node adapted for sensing 505

[0072] P111679WO01 14 / 80 operation and / or radar operation may be adapted for, and / or be configured or configurable, for transmitting and / or receiving signalling for sensing or radar functionality, in particular according to a configuration for sensing and / or processing signalling. The radio node may share circuitry like processing circuitry and / or radio circuitry and / or antenna circuitry and / or antenna elements and / or sub-arrays between communication signalling 510 and sensing operation and / or sensing signalling. The sensing operation may be monostatic and / or multi-static. Sensing signalling may be reference signalling, and / or may be communication signalling and / or signalling dedicated for sensing. Sensing signalling may have different types of signalling, e.g. based on, or associated to use and / or object and / or sensing function (e.g., which parameters of an object are to be determined). 515

[0073] Multiplexing communication signalling and sensing signalling in a multiplexing time interval may correspond to the communication signalling and the sensing signalling being transmitted in the multiplexing time interval, e.g. by the same node or different nodes. Operating utilising communication signalling may comprise transmitting and / or receiving communication signalling. Operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise transmit- 520 ting and / or receiving sensing signalling. A radio node may be adapted for mono-static operation. In this case, it may be adapted for full-duplex operation, transmitting and receiving in fully or at least partially overlapping time intervals (e.g., corresponding to, and / or at least partially overlapping with, the multiplexing time interval), such that it may receive reflected sensing signalling it transmitted itself (due to the large speed of 525 radio waves, the reflected sensing signalling will often be received while the radio node still transmits sensing signalling). The radio circuitry and / or processing circuitry and / or antenna circuitry of a radio node may be adapted both for handling communication signalling and sensing signalling. The radio node may be adapted for full-duplex operation, and / or half-duplex operation. Full duplex may refer to transmitting and receiving at the 530 same time, e.g. using the same or different circuitries, and / or using different antenna sub-arrays or separately operable antenna sub-arrays or antenna elements.

[0074] The sensing signalling may be beam-formed. The communication signalling may be beam- formed. Different beams, in particular narrower beams, may be used for the sensing signalling than the communication signalling. In some cases, the beam shapes of sensing 535 signalling may be different for different occurrences and / or signalling types and / or functionalities of sensing signalling. Beam-switching may be performed when switching from communication signalling to sensing signalling, and vice versa. Sensing signalling may be transmitted with a sensing beam and / or isotropically or with a default beam; it may be received with a reception beam, or with a default or isotropic reception. A sensing beam 540 may be swept through a spatial angle, e.g. according to a sweeping scheme to perform sensing in the spatial angle.

[0075] P111679WO01 15 / 80 A DFT-s-OFDM based wave-form may be a wave-form constructed by performing a DFT- spreading operation on modulation symbols mapped to a frequency interval (e.g., subcarriers), e.g. to provide a time- variable signal. A DFT-s-OFDM based wave-form may 545 also be referred to a SC-FDM wave-form. It may be considered to provide good PAPR characteristics, allowing optimised operation of power amplifiers, in particular for high frequencies. In general, the approaches described herein may also be applicable to SingleCarrier based wave-forms, e.g. FDE-based wave-forms. Communication, e.g. on data channel / s and / or control channel / s, may be based on, and / o utilise, a DFT-s-OFDM 550 based wave-form, or a Single-Carrier based wave-form.

[0076] Communication may in particular on multiple communication links and / or beams and / or with multiple targets (e.g., TRPs or other forms of transmission sources also receiving) and / or multiple layers at the same time; different reference signallings for multiple transmission or reception may be based on different sequence roots and / or combs and / or cyclic 555 shifts. Thus, high throughput may be achieved, with low interference. In general, different reference signallings (e.g., of the same type) may be associated to different transmission sources and / or beams and / or layers, in particular if transmitted simultaneously and / or overlapping in time (e.g., considering different timing advance values if transmitted in uplink). For example, there may be first reference signalling transmitted using a first 560 transmission source and / or first beam and / or first layer, and second reference signalling transmitted using a first transmission source and / or first beam and / or first layer.

[0077] There is also described a program product comprising instructions causing processing circuitry to control and / or perform a method as described herein. Moreover, a carrier medium arrangement carrying and / or storing a program product as described herein is 565 considered. An information system comprising, and / or connected or connectable, to a radio node is also disclosed.

[0078] Brief description of the drawings

[0079] The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approaches described herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. The drawings comprise: 570

[0080] Figure 1, showing an exemplary JCAS scenario;

[0081] Figure 2, showing a diagram of an exemplary sensing operation;

[0082] Figure 3, showing an exemplary sensing measurement;

[0083] Figure 4, showing another exemplary sensing measurement;

[0084] P111679WO01 16 / 80 Figure 5, showing another exemplary sensing measurement; 575

[0085] Figure 6, showing another exemplary sensing measurement;

[0086] Figure 7, showing another exemplary sensing measurement;

[0087] Figure 8, showing an exemplary wireless device;

[0088] Figure 9, showing an exemplary network node.

[0089] Detailed description 580

[0090] Joint communication and sensing (JCAS) is emerging as one of the use cases in future wireless cellular communication such as 6G. In one approach, it may be considered using cellular communication (radio) nodes (base stations / UEs) to sense the environment by either using the communication-specific signals and / or dedicated sensing signals, and provide information such as location, shape, speed, etc., of the objects in the surrounding. 585 Some of the possible applications of sensing using cellular communication systems are traffic monitoring and crash avoidance, gesture / motion detection, presence detection of objects or persons, vital sign detection, environment mapping, particle / pollution detection, etc. In general, joint communication and sensing may comprise and / or be based on utilising radio nodes for a communication network for sensing and / or radar operation, 590 e.g. sharing radio circuitry and / or antennas and / or resources.

[0091] Tighter integration of communication and sensing may be provided. By reusing existing macro infrastructure, sensing can be added at low cost. Sensing can be using both to improve network performance and to add new features such as traffic monitoring and surveillance. If the same hardware is used for radar and communication, performance 595 and capacity of both systems may suffer. Radar signalling may be considered sensing signalling and vice versa in this discussion. For example, to monitor a traffic intersection, detect approaching vehicles and their speed, a large part of available resources may be used for radar operation, lowering resources available for communication. Approaches described herein facilitate efficient operation of joint communication and sensing, with 600 limited impact of sensing operation on communication capabilities.

[0092] Sensing can be done either using a single node, i.e. the transmitter and receiver are co-located and / or associated to the same radio node (mono-static) or multiple nodes, in which case the transmitter (s) and receiver(s) may be in different locations (multi-static); in some variants of multi-static approaches, one or more nodes may be have transmitter 605 and receiver and / or may operate for transmitting and receiving. One particular challenge with the mono-static scenario in joint communications and sensing is that if the same radio

[0093] P111679WO01 17 / 80 node is used for simultaneous transmission and reception, then it has to be capable of full-duplex communication (the received signals will be shifted in time to the transmitted one, but usually overlap in time). This may be particularly challenging, since the received 610 signal levels in a cellular communications may be lower than the transmitted signals by several orders of magnitude; reception of such signals may be facilitated by certain approaches or designs considered to reduce interference. In a mono-static radar setup, simultaneous transmission and reception (and thus full duplex) is unavoidable if it should be possible to detect targets close to the base stations (targets far enough away may 615 be less challenging from this point of view since the echo (reflected signal) may arrive after the BS stopped transmitting). Bi-static sensing may represent a scenario with one transmitter and one receiver.

[0094] In a mono-static radar, transmitter and receiver nodes may be collocated (e.g., on and / or associated to the same node). The transmitter sends a waveform that is reflected by the 620 environment and targets. These reflections are received by the receiver and processed, e.g. by the receiver or another connected entity, to obtain information about the environment and targets.

[0095] A radar pulse that spans one or multiple OFDM symbols would allow an easy integration of radar into the communication system. For example, for NR 30 kHz numerology, the 625 OFDM symbol duration (including cyclic prefix) is approximately 36 / zs. A radar pulse spanning a single OFDM symbol duration would have the same length. A round trip time of 36 / zs corresponds to single- way distance of 5.4 km. For objects closer than 5.4 km, the echo would arrive while the transmitter still transmits the radar pulse. The reflected signal may be received in presence of strong self-interference (the transmitted signal that 630 leaks into the receiver). A receiver capable of handling such self- interference is often called a full-duplex capable receiver. Full-duplex puts high requirements on the receiver and potentially also on the transmitter (e.g. linearity), especially for high transmit powers where high self-interference cancellation is required.

[0096] In bi-static radar (and more generalised, for multi-static radar), transmitter and receiver 635 are not collocated and the setup thus avoids problems outlined above for mono-static radar. Distance observations may be based on measuring the Time of Flight (ToF) from transmitter via the target to the receiver. In a simple case, where the signal is reflected off the target and nothing else, all possible target positions for a measured ToF value are located on an ellipsis (in 3D: ellipsoid) with focal points given by transmitter and receiver 640 location. To determine the target position, transmitter and receiver node location, ToF, and Angle of Departure (AoD) or Angle of Arrival (AoA) must be known. One of the angles is needed to determine the target location on the ellipse given by transmitter and

[0097] P111679WO01 18 / 80 receiver location and ToF.

[0098] In order to accurately determine ToF, transmitter and receiver need to be accurately 645 synchronized in time. This is may be one of the challenges for bi- and multi-static radar.

[0099] In multi-static radar, more than two nodes participate in the radar operation. For example, with one transmitter and three receivers, three ellipses can be determined and the target is located where the three ellipses intersect each other. For multi-static radar, ToF observations may suffice to locate the target, and angle information may not be needed 650 (but can be used to improve performance). In a communication network, there are several ways to do bi and multi-static sensing. Either the base stations or the UEs can act as sensing transmitters or receivers. Base station — UE links can be used in the downlink, just as well as UE — BS links in the uplink, and BS — BS and UE — UE links.

[0100] The sensing receiver performs radar processing to estimate range and / or Doppler shift of 655 the target. In case the receiver has multiple antennas, it can also estimate the direction in which the target is. To estimate range, Doppler shift and direction to the user, the sensing receiver correlates the received signal with delayed and frequency shifted versions of the known transmitted signal. The result of this correlation is a delay — Doppler profile. Note that in some application only estimating range or Doppler shift might be sufficient. To 660 estimate the direction of the target, the delay — Doppler profiles of the different antennas are correlated with the steering vector of the array for different values of the incidence angle. The result of this correlation may be represented as a radar cube.

[0101] The target, if illuminated properly, creates a “peak” in the radar cube at the values corresponding to its range, Doppler shift and direction. Here, in this multi-dimensional 665 function, a “peak” is a point in the function where the modulus of the function has a distinct maximum. Observations of the range, Doppler shift and direction can thus be obtained by identifying where in the radar cube the peak of the target is. When observations from multiple sensing receivers are available, these are fused to produce an estimate of the target position and velocity. The quality of these estimates is characterized 670 through the error covariance matrix. To make the exposition simpler, this error covariance matrix will be explained for only the 3D position estimate. The theory can be generalized to position and velocity estimates, which are 6-dimensional.

[0102] In some applications, sensing may improve network performance and / or add new features such as traffic monitoring and surveillance. If the same hardware is used for radar and 675 communication, performance and capacity of both systems may suffer in comparison to using separated dedicated equipment for both. If, for example, a traffic intersection is monitored, to detect approaching vehicles and their speed, significant parts of the available resources (e.g., half) may be required for radar operation.

[0103] P111679WOD1 19 / 80 The available carrier or system bandwidth in 6G at high frequencies is expected to be 680 very wide, e.g. covering one GHz or more, in particular 5GHz or more. There are several regions with ~6GIIz contiguous spectra (bandwidth) available for high frequencies (above 90 GHz).

[0104] Sensing, also referred to as active sensing, may generally refer to transmitting signalling and / or receiving reflection / s of this signalling, e.g. radar signalling and / or communica- 685 tion signalling; Sensing may comprise and / or be based on processing received (reflected) signalling to determine one or more properties of a target object, e.g. position and / or speed (total speed, or a component thereof, e.g. to direction of the receiver) and / or shape and / or size and / or velocity (total, or a component thereof) and / or surface structure and / or reflexivity of a reflecting object, e.g. based on one or more signalling characteris- 690 tics of the transmitted (radar) signalling and / or one or more signalling characteristics of the received (radar) signalling, and / or based on one or more changes and / or shifts and / or differences and / or delta (e.g., one value subtracted from another value) between one or more signalling characteristics of the transmitted signalling and / or received signalling.

[0105] For a multi-static case, the receiving node may be informed about the one or more sig- 695 nailing characteristics, e.g. based on configuration (e,g, higher layer signalling like RRC signalling or MAC layer signalling, or Fl signalling, or X2 signalling, or physical layer signalling) .

[0106] Sensing signal processing is described in the following. In active sensing, a signal or signalling like radar signalling is transmitted to probe the environment, and the received 700 reflections are used to estimate for example position and / or speed and / or velocity of the object / s in a range covered by the signalling. Depending on the required accuracy and range for the position and speed of the object / s, there are certain requirements on the duration, bandwidth, and periodicity of the signalling or signal to be used.

[0107] In a typical pulse radar, a sequence of wave- forms or symbols or signals (e.g., spreading 705 codes) with chip duration T and signal integration duration of T^nt with periodicity Trare transmitted for a duration T (there is one transmission or signalling occurrence in each Tr). The choice of these parameters determine range (sensing range, if waveforms are identical), range resolution, velocity or speed (speed or velocity range), and speed / velocity resolution for sensing targets. L and M may represent integer numbers (of 710 chips or symbols in a period corresponding to the periodicity, and number of transmission occurrences in Tf, respectively).

[0108] Depending on the use case, a sensing signal design may be tailored to meet fundamental requirements one or more of Range resolution (Rr) representing the minimum distinguishable distance between two objects; and / or (Unambiguous) range (Ru), representing the 715

[0109] P111679WO01 20 / 80 maximum distance where an object can be located for (e.g., guaranteed, and / or within a desired error range) detection; and / or Speed or Velocity range (uM), representing the maximum range of speed or velocity of moving object that can be measured; and / or Speed or Velocity resolution (ur), representing the smallest change in the speed or velocity of the moving object that can be measured. 720

[0110] The parameters of a sensing signal (which in general may also be referred to as sensing signalling, or radar signal, or radar signalling) may include a bandwidth, like a minimum bandwidth, and / or a duration like a minimum duration of the sensing signal, and / or a a minimum and / or maximum repetition periodicity, and / or a minimum duration of the sensing frame (a time interval in which sensing signalling may be transmitted), may be 725 designed such above sensing requirement / s are met. Table 1 below shows the relationship between the sensing requirements and the sensing signal parameters, with c denoting the speed of light, fcrepresenting the carrier frequency.

[0111] Table 1

[0112] At the receiver, the reflected signal (e.g., reflected from one or more objects and / or from the surrounding) is received, and may be matched and / or filtered with the transmitted wave-form to give the delay (e.g., representing the distance of the object), and / or the phase rotation between consecutive wave forms, e.g. representing the Doppler shift due to the movement of the object. In general, the above-mentioned signal generation and 735 receiver processing may be common to all types of sensing methods and signals, and is not limited to a pulse radar. In a joint communication and sensing scenario, the choice of wave-form may depend on what wave-form is more suitable for both communication and sensing, although this is not a requirement, and the wave-forms for the two systems may be different. The following description of receiver processing is independent of the wave- 740 form type and is equally applicable to wave-forms , as well as any typical communication wave-form such as OFDM, DFT-s-OFDM, etc. As one example, the wave-form may comprise, and / or be based on, and / or represent, and / or be one or several OFDM or DFT- S-OFDM symbols ( or even sub-symbols), and / or block symbols, as it is the common wave-form used in most of the existing wireless access links (used for wireless and / or 745 cellular communication). A sensing signal may be based on OFDM symbols, in particular a train of OFDM symbols as sensing signalling; such train may be repeated a plurality of times, e.g. according to a periodicity, e.g. in one or more sensing frames. A train of

[0113] P111679WO01 21 / 80 symbols may represent a sequence of symbols, each of which may carry and / or represent a sequence of modulation symbols (e.g., for a OFDM based wave-form), which may be 750 mapped to frequency domain; each symbol may carry the same or a different sequence.

[0114] In some cases, a sequence may be mapped over multiple symbols, e.g. frequency first. A common receiver processing may comprise and / or be based on performing an FFT per sequence occurrence, e.g. a train of symbols, for example transforming delay domain into sub-carrier (frequency) domain, and an IFFT per sub-carrier across the sequence 755 occurrences, for example transforming time-domain into Doppler domain. Then peaks, e.g. all peaks, beyond a threshold may be identified, and the delay and Doppler values associated with each peak (representing a target) may be considered corresponding to delay and velocity or speed of the target.

[0115] The communication nodes involved in sensing may be UEs, base stations, or a combination 760 thereof, including base-station transmission of signal for sensing, UE reception of signal for sensing; and / or UE transmission of signal for sensing, base-station reception of signal for sensing; and / or base-station transmission of signal for sensing, base-station reception of signal for sensing; and / or UE transmission of signal for sensing, UE reception of signal for sensing. 765

[0116] For cellular communications, such as 5G, this could mean that the sensing signal can be a DL reference signal, or a UL reference signal, a sidelink reference signal. Also the sensing signal can be any of the existing signals, such as DL positioning reference signal (PRS), CSLRS, DM-RS; and UL sounding reference signal (SRS), a new sensing / positioning specific signal, or the communication signal itself. Combinations of these signals may 770 also be used. Although sensing is viewed mostly as estimating channel based on known reference signals, it is possible to perform sensing based on data. In this case, either data is known at the receiver (e.g. mono-static scenario) or it has to be decoded first so that the channel can be estimated subsequently.

[0117] One operating scenario for sensing in ISAC is bi-static sensing, where one radio node or 775 sensing node like a BS transmits a sensing signal while at least one other sensing node like a BS, typically on an adjacent site, is intended to receive the signal reflected from the target of interest.

[0118] In a cellular network, many BSs may transmit at the same time, which may cause interference to the UEs of other BSs (e.g., camped on cells provided by the other BS). In 780 cellular communications networks using TDD, BSs usually are synchronized on a radio symbol, slot and frame level, and either all transmit in a symbol or all receive in a symbol.

[0119] For bi-static and multi-static sensing with at least 2 BS, it is required that one is transmitting in a symbol in which another BS receives. If another BS transmits, in the same

[0120] P111679WO01 22 / 80 symbol, an uncoordinated signal, this can cause interference. For illustration purposes it 785 may be considered that all signals transmitted from BSs are for sensing purposes, not for communication.

[0121] Figure 1 illustrates the network scenario with BSs (e.g., macro base stations, representing sensing radio nodes) and radar targets modelled as scatter points and indicated as Reflection Points (RP), with the desired sensing signal paths A and resulting interference paths 790 B when only 2 BS transmit sensing signals at the same time and 2 BS are configured to receive and evaluate the sensing signals at the same time.

[0122] The interference can be particularly strong for antennas mounted on roof tops, where the antennas have Line of Sight (LOS) to each other, resulting in propagation conditions close to free space. The interference can be so strong that the estimates on the desired signal 795 for sensing, e.g. range or Doppler frequency estimates, become unacceptably inaccurate.

[0123] Figure 2 shows the CDF of sensing signals received in such a scenario with RPs having a Radar Cross Section of OdBm2for a hexagonal cellular network with 3-sectorized sites and inter-site-distance of 500m and randomly distributed RPs. The horizontal beamwidth is 90° and the vertical beamwidth is 70°. The values shown are before exploiting processing 800 gain over sub-carriers and OFDM symbols. The SNR is sufficiently high to provide good sensing range and angle estimation accuracy, but due to the BS-BS interference, the SINR is 70dB lower. This would require aggregating over about 3000 OFDM symbols given a used bandwidth of 100MHz with 3300 sub-carriers, which implies a very high radio resource consumption, that in return would generate additional interference. Specifically, 805 Figure 2 shows the CDF of sensing SINR and SNR, for a signal received from a Reflection Point (RP).

[0124] It may be considered that if there is a need for multiple BS to transmit a sensing symbol concurrently, because there are multiple targets, each one in the vicinity of a different bistatic BS pair, multiple BSs may reuse the same transmit signal. Received direct signals 810 from other BSs are then perceived like signals received from rather static objects. If there is interest only in moving objects, then the signals from other BSs can be suppressed by clutter suppression algorithms. Due to frequency offsets between BSs and phase noise, the signal from another BS will however appear to come from an object that has non-zero speed. The extent to which such BS signals can be suppressed depends on the frequency 815 offsets, phase noise, and clutter suppression algorithm and will in general not be perfect.

[0125] It may additionally be considered to use the propagation delay to separate signals from targets from those received directly from other BSs. This is achieved if only BSs that are sufficiently far apart reuse the same transmit signal. If a closer BS reuses the same signal, the generated signal peak can be determined to be from another base station (based on 820

[0126] P111679WO01 23 / 80 known propagation time between base stations and high signal strength) and discarded, however, any target at the same distance may be not detectable. Applying cyclic delays within each cluster of neighbouring cells may be considered, adding to the propagation delay such that the total delay at which each BS is perceived by any other BS within the cluster centred on the interfering cell is larger than the maximum delay that can occur 825 from any target in the sensing service area of the respective other BS. It may be implied that the sensing signal has to be extended over a longer duration than this would be otherwise necessary, thereby increasing the resource cost for sensing. Non-linearities in the TX and RX causing distortions to the transmitted and received sensing signals may occur, that can cause the interference not to be confined to narrow peaks in delay and 830 Doppler, and thereby mask targets over wider regions in delay and Doppler.

[0127] Use of different reuse factors for different OFDM symbols in a radar sensing frame may be considered, where at least 1 OFDM symbol in a radar frame may have a reuse factor such that interference comes only from far away BS where the propagation delay is large enough so that the interference in the delay domain in the sensing service range of each 835 BS is negligibly small. A reuse factor may indicate how often a resource, e.g., time and / or frequency and / or code, is re-used (used by more than one transmitting sensing radio node) within a group and / or region and / or area.

[0128] The OFDM symbols that are used exclusively by a cell within its reuse cluster ( cluster of resources, like time and / or frequency resources that may be used within a group of 840 sensing radio nodes, e.g., for first sensing signalling and / or second sensing signalling) may be used to calculate an exclusive periodogram that is free of interference. From this periodogram, weak radar targets can be detected that would otherwise be masked by the dominant interference. Additionally, a periodogram may be calculated from the full set of OFDM symbols, where weak targets close to the zero Doppler cut may be masked by 845 strong interference. Because of the larger interval between the exclusive OFDM symbols compared to the interval between OFDM symbols in the full set, the unambiguous velocity vU exmay be lower than vu uu of the full set. Targets that are detected in the full periodogram with a speed of Vhigi > vu exwill also appear in the exclusive periodogram at a speed of vex= may therein mask weaker targets having a speed of 850viow <vu,ex • This can be avoided by reconstructing the signal corresponding to the target with speed Vhigh, in terms of delay, Doppler and complex amplitude, and deducting it from the total received signal, in the OFDM symbols that are used exclusively by the considered cell, for calculating the exclusive periodogram. This way only the signals from targets with u;ow< vu ex., remain in these symbols. Resulting exclusive and full periodograms can 855 then be combined into a single periodogram by concatenating the exclusive periodogram that has speed bins up to vu exwith the speed bins from the full periodogram starting

[0129] P111679WO01 24 / 80 from the next higher speed bin above vu,exand up to the highest speed bin. The same method is used in the opposite direction of negative speeds.

[0130] There may be considered approaches for operating one or more sensing radio nodes (e.g., 860

[0131] BS), and / or one or more corresponding sensing radio nodes. Allocating sensing OFDM symbols to BSs in a cluster of BSs such that the set of OFDM symbols used in a radar frame partially overlaps with the set of other BSs may be considered. The subset of exclusive OFDM symbols (representing first sensing signalling or exclusive sensing signalling) may be considered or assumed free of interference, and / or may be used for calculating 865 an exclusive periodogram (as processing) with low unambiguous velocity. The subset of OFDM symbols overlapping (representing second sensing signalling or common sensing signalling) with other BSs or the full set of OFDM symbols may be used to calculate a full periodogram (as processing) with high unambiguous velocity. From the full periodogram, the centre Doppler bins may be replaced by the exclusive periodogram. Velocity ambi- 870 guities in the exclusive periodogram may be resolved by estimating signal path of high Doppler from the full periodogram and cancelling it from the exclusive OFDM symbols before calculating the exclusive periodogram.

[0132] Improved sensing performance may be provided, accommodating for situations where leakage from the interferers along the delay domain can extend into the sensing service 875 range and thereby mask target signals. Compared to a scheme where all cells in a cluster of K cells use exclusive OFDM symbols, the proposed idea has the following advantage: For a fraction p of the total M Doppler bins estimated from a radar frame of p x M being exclusive OFDM symbols, then for K cells there may be used p x M x K symbols plus M common symbols. In the alternative of having M exclusive symbols for each cell, M x K 880 symbols may be used, so the idea of an exclusive symbols subset needs only a fraction of p + / K of symbols.

[0133] Figure 3 shows an extract of a periodogram calculated for a radar frame consisting of 48 OFDM symbols yielding 48 Doppler bins from which only central 30 are shown, and 251 sub-carriers, yielding 1004 delay bins after 4 times oversampling. For clarity of presen- 885 tation, no further noise is included in the illustration. The periodogram is calculated for a scenario where 2 signals from radar targets are present, with delay falling into the bin 200 and Doppler falling into bins 0 and 9, respectively, and an interfering signal falling in delay bin 240 and Doppler bin 0. These target signals are of equal power and 60dB lower than the interference power. Here the victim receiver and the interfering transmitter have 890 all OFDM symbols in the radar frame in common (i.e. overlapping). The problem is that the target signal in the Doppler bin 0 is hardly detectable because of the high side-lobes of the interferer along the zero Doppler bin. Figure 3 shows the periodogram from only

[0134] P111679WO01 25 / 80 overlapping OFDM symbols, with 2 signals and 1 interfere!.

[0135] In general, a bin may correspond to a parameter value range or interval, e.g., to a interval 895 or range of a parameter like Doppler shift, or for delay. To each bin associated to one parameter, the same size of range or interval size may be assigned, e.g., each bin pertaining to Doppler shift may be assigned to a range of Doppler shifts of the same interval size (equidistant or homogenous binning). Bins may be numbered according to a multiple of the interval size the represent. A periodogram may be considered a representation of 900 signal strength and / or quality over delay and Doppler shift (referred to as Doppler for short).

[0136] Figure 4 shows the same scenario with 2 target signals and 1 interfere! present, but the victim receiver has 6 equidistant exclusive OFDM symbols in addition to the 48 overlapping equidistant OFDM symbols of the radar frame. From the exclusive OFDM 905 symbols, a periodogram with Doppler bins -3 to 2 is calculated. They are used to override (replace) the corresponding bins from the full periodogram shown in Figure 3. Since the interference is absent in the exclusive symbols, it does not show up in Figure 4. A peak is more clearly visible now in delay bin 200 in the Doppler bins -3 to 2. This peak is a superposition of the peak created by the target signal on the Doppler bin 0 and a peak 910 created by target signal at Doppler bin 9 that is wrapped into the Doppler range -3 to 2 because of the low unambiguous Doppler which is equal to the Doppler boundary bins, i.e. -3 and +2. Figure 4 shows the periodogram from overlapping and exclusive OFDM symbols, with 2 signals and 1 interfere!.

[0137] This wrap around problem is isolated in Figure 5 where the signal from the target on 915 the Doppler bin 0 is temporarily removed. It becomes clear that the pattern around the true peak of the remaining target signal at Doppler 9 is also appearing wrapped in the Doppler bin -3 to 2. Figure 5 shows the periodogram from overlapping and exclusive OFDM symbols, with only 1 signal at Doppler bin 9 present, and 1 interfere!.

[0138] To solve the wrapping problem, it may be considered detecting target signals from the 920 periodogram outside the Doppler bins -3 to 2 that have been obtained from the overlapping OFDM symbol, and where the leakage from the interfere! is sufficiently weak to not trigger false target detections. The detected target signals are then reconstructed and deducted from the total received signal. This may attenuate the detected target signals substantially. 925

[0139] For illustration, in Figure 6 it is assumed that the target signal on Doppler 9 is totally eliminated, and the temporarily removed target signal on Doppler 0 is present again. The peak of this signal is clearly discernable in the periodogram. Figure 6 shows the peri-

[0140] P111679WO01 26 / 80 odogram from overlapping and exclusive OFDM symbols, with 2 signals and 1 interferer, with the signal appearing in Doppler bin 9 cancelled. 930

[0141] This is further verified by comparing it to a periodogram in Figure 7, where no target signal is present on Doppler 0; Figure 7 shows the periodogram from overlapping and exclusive OFDM symbols, no signal present, only 1 interferer.

[0142] The periodogram calculated from exclusive symbols may be calculated across multiple radar frames, e.g., to increase the processing gain; the multiple frames may be considered 935 constituting a longer radar frame. The exclusive symbol radar frame can be overlapping, centred on each normal radar frame, such that for every normal radar frame, also an exclusive radar frame can be calculated, that is centred on the normal radar frame.

[0143] The description so far has addressed exclusive OFDM symbols and exclusive Doppler bins, in order to remedy the interference leakage along delay domain. As it is visible in 940 the above figures, there is interference leakage also along the Doppler domain. The signal from an interfering transmitter can be created in a way that it appears at the victim receiver in a delay bin above the target delays of interest, e.g., above the victim receiver’s sensing service range, so that this leakage may be considered irrelevant.

[0144] In cases where reasons of higher importance prevent that the interfering signal is generated 945 with this delay property at the victim receiver, it can be advantageous to apply the hereto described method not only to the Doppler domain but additionally or instead to the delay domain.

[0145] This can be achieved by using a set of exclusive sub-carriers for each sensing transmitter, in addition to the common set of sub-carriers that is used by all sensing transmitters. For 950 smallest complexity in the periodogram calculation, the set of exclusive sub-carriers should be equidistant. Such an arrangement of sub-carriers is also called sub-carrier comb. A comb where every Nth sub-carrier is used corresponds to a time-domain signal that repeats N times during an OFDM symbol. Accordingly, the unambiguous range is reduced by a factor N, similarly as the unambiguous velocity is reduced in the solution described 955 above using exclusive OFDM symbols. The ambiguity-resolving method described above for the Doppler domain can then be applied to the delay domain in order to resolve delay ambiguities in the exclusive periodogram calculated from the exclusive sub-carriers.

[0146] By using sub-carrier combs, the interference is avoided by the comb orthogonality only in frequency domain, whereas in the time domain, the target signal and interference 960 may overlap. Non-linear effects of the transmitter and receiver potentially impairing the orthogonality and / or remaining interference leakage may be ameliorated or avoided

[0147] P111679WO01 27 / 80 by each transmitter not sending all time domain repetitions, and multiplexing several transmitters within an OFDM symbol in the time domain. Ultimately, only a single version of the signal may be transmitted by each transmitter. This single version may be 965 complemented by a cyclic prefix of suitable length.

[0148] It may be considered distributing the OFDM sensing symbols within one radar frame in such a way that the time elapsed between any two consecutive symbols is constant. In this way, the time domain sampling is uniform, which may facilitate easier signal processing at the receiver (e.g. the computation of the periodogram). Exclusive and non-exclusive 970 symbols may be arranged into non-overlapping pulse trains. As an illustration using 5G numerology, consider a radar frame comprising a first pulse train of non-exclusive symbols occupying 1000 TDD periods, each consisting of 5 slots, where the first OFDM symbol in each slot is a non-exclusive sensing symbol. Then a second non-overlapping pulse train comprising exclusive sensing symbols can be constructed by taking a larger separation 975 between consecutive OFDM sensing symbols, for example 50 slots, and having a fixed offset with respect to the first pulse train, for example using the 7-th symbol in a slot whenever a slot comprises an exclusive sensing symbol. More generally, if the timings t(n) of pulses in the train comprising the non-exclusive sensing symbols follow an arithmetic progression of the form i(n) = axn+b for n=0,2,. . . , then the exclusive symbols can follow 980 an arithmetic progression of the form i(n) = k x a x n + c for n=0,2,. . . . Referring to the previous example, if time is measured just by counting OFDM symbols then a=70, b=0, k=50, c=6, for n=0,. . . ,999. Different values of the offset c can be assigned to different sets of exclusive symbols. By choosing a different offsets c for each set of exclusive symbols, b, it is ensured that the pulse trains are all non-overlapping. 985

[0149] A further advantageous variant is to take the set of exclusive symbols from a sequence of equidistant OFDM symbols that belong to one radar frame, and use as common symbols the remaining symbols from that sequence. This will lead to non-equidistant OFDM symbols in the sequence of common symbols. Estimating the Doppler information of target objects from such sequence can require more complex processing than for equidistant 990 symbols, using e.g. Compressed Sensing techniques. The advantage of this scheme, however, is that no additional OFDM symbols need to be allocated for the set of exclusive symbols.

[0150] A (sensing) radio node may be a network node and / or base station and / or sensing controlling node. The (sensing) radio node being adapted for multi-static sensing may comprise 995 and / or refer to the (sensing) radio node being adapted for receiving and / or processing and / or evaluating sensing signalling from one or more other nodes, and / or for scheduling one or more other nodes for transmitting sensing signalling, e.g., first sensing signalling

[0151] P111679WO01 28 / 80 and / or second sensing signalling. Multi-static sensing may pertain to sensing utilising two or more radio nodes (including the sensing radio node); bi-static sensing may be con- 1000 sidered a form of multi-static sensing. Multi-static sensing may refer to sensing in which at least some sensing signalling is received by a radio node that has not transmitted this sensing signalling. Processing and / or evaluating sensing signalling may comprise demodulating and / or determining one or more peaks (e.g., Doppler and / or path-delay) and / or a radar cube, and / or combining sensing information from one or more sensing signallings 1005 and / or transmitters and / or targets, and / or sensor fusion and / or object mapping and / or tracking. Performing sensing operation may comprise object detection and / or tracking. An object to be detected and / or sensed and / or tracked may be considered a target or intended target. Performing sensing or sensing operation may comprise sensing a sensing area, e.g., for object detection and / or tracking. The sensing or sensing operation may 1010 be multi-static. Performing sensing or sensing operation Scheduling may comprise transmitting scheduling information and / or instructions to one or more radio nodes and / or triggering the one or more radio nodes to transmit sensing signalling; scheduling information may be configured with higher layer signalling and / or provided with physical layer signalling. Scheduling information for sensing signalling may indicate one or more trans- 1015 mission parameters for sensing signalling, e.g., signalling sequence (e.g., which sequence to use for reference signalling) and / or timing and / or frequency and / or periodicity, and / or time and / or frequency resources, and / or beam / s for transmission, and / or beam sweeping pattern.

[0152] Communication may be based on (DFTS-)OFDM; OFDM based radar may be used to 1020 allow re-use of as much hardware as possible.

[0153] Figure 8 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a wireless device or terminal 10 or a UE (User Equipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. a communicating module or determining 1025 module, may be implemented in and / or executable by, the processing circuitry 20, in particular as module in the controller. Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22 providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality (e.g., one or more transmitters and / or receivers and / or transceivers), the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable to the processing circuitry. An antenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 1030 is connected or connectable to the radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and / or amplify signals. Radio circuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controlling it are configured and / or adapted for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RAN as described herein, and / or for sidelink communication (which may be within coverage of the cellular network, or out of coverage; and / or may be considered non-cellular communication and / or 1035

[0154] P111679WO01 29 / 80 be associated to a non-cellular wireless communication network), and / or may be adapted or configured for sensing operation. Radio node 10 may generally be adapted to carry out any of the methods of operating a radio node like terminal or UE disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and / or modules, e.g. software modules. It may be considered that the radio node 10 comprises, 1040 and / or is connected or connectable, to a power supply. A DFE may be considered part of radio circuitry; an analog frontend may be associated to radio circuitry and / or antenna circuitry.

[0155] Figure 9 schematically shows a radio node 100, which may in particular be implemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB or gNB or similar for NR. Radio node 100 1045 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 120, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module, e.g. transmitting module and / or receiving module and / or configuring module of the node 100 may be implemented in and / or executable by the processing circuitry 120. The processing circuitry 120 is connected to control radio circuitry 122 of the node 100, which provides 1050 receiver and transmitter and / or transceiver functionality (e.g., comprising one or more transmitters and / or receivers and / or transceivers), and / or may be adapted or configured for sensing operation and / or communication operation. An antenna circuitry 124 may be connected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 for signal reception or transmittance and / or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to carry out any of the methods for 1055 operating a radio node or network node disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and / or modules. The antenna circuitry 124 may be connected to and / or comprise an antenna array. The node 100, respectively its circuitry, may be adapted to perform any of the methods of operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, 1060 e.g. processing circuitry, and / or modules. The radio node 100 may generally comprise communication circuitry, e.g. for communication with another network node, like a radio node, and / or with a core network and / or an internet or local net, in particular with an information system, which may provide information and / or data to be transmitted to a user equipment. A DFE may be considered part of radio circuitry; an analog frontend 1065 may be associated to radio circuitry and / or antenna circuitry.

[0156] In general, the wireless device and / or network node may operate in, and / or the communication signalling may be in TDD operation. It should be noted that the transmission of signalling from transmission sources may be synchronised and simultaneous; a shift in time may occur due to different propagation times, e.g. due to different beams and / or 1070 source locations.

[0157] P111679WO01 30 / 80 A data block may refer to a transport block, or a code block or a code block bundle. A code block may comprise and / or represent a number of (information) bits representing information (e.g., data or control information), to which there may be associated, and / or which may further include, bits for error detection coding, e.g. CRC. The bits for error 1075 detection coding may be determined based on the (information) bits, and / or may be error detection bits for the (information) bits. A code block bundle may comprise one or more code blocks; wherein each code block may have associated to it, and / or comprise, error correction bits. The error correction bits in a code block bundle may each pertain to an associated code block; error correction bits may be specific to only one code block, e.g. 1080 determined based on bits of only one code block. Different bits and / or groups of bits may be associated to different code blocks. Error correction bit / s associated to a code block may be associated to a single code block; this may refer to the error correction bits indicating correctness / incorrectness of the single code block, and / or calculated and / or determined based only on (information) bits of the single code block. Information bits 1085 may represent data and / or control information, e.g. associated to a data channel (data in- formation / bits) and / or control channel (control information / bits) code block bundle may be a data block without error correction coding pertaining to more than one code block.

[0158] A transport block may comprise error detection coding pertaining to a plurality of code blocks, e.g. covering the code blocks it consists of. A transport block may comprise one 1090 or more code blocks. It may be considered that a data block may be associated to, and or subject to, and / or correspond to, a, one and / or a single acknowledgement process, e.g. a specific HARQ process, which may correspond to and / or be represented by a HARQ identifier. A code block may correspond to a subpattern of an acknowledgement information bit pattern. In some cases, a data block may correspond and / or pertain and / or be 1095 subject to a plurality of acknowledgement processes, e.g. if there is one acknowledgement process per code block of the data block.

[0159] A data block may comprise and / or represent information bits, which may be data bits (e.,g., user data) and / or control information bits; the information bits may be associated to one or more data or control channels, e.g. transport channels and / or logical channels, 1100 and / or may be mapped to a specific and / or single physical channel, in particular a physical data channel, or in some cases, a physical control channel (in which case it may or may not be associated to a higher layer channel like a transport channel or logical channel). A data block may represent bits intended for transmission, e.g. encapsulating one or more higher layer data packets, e.g. one or more MAC layer data packets, e.g. one or more 1105 PDUs (Protocol Data Unit) and / or SDUs (Service Data Unit); error correction bits, e.g. CRC; may be added in physical layer processing. It may be considered that bits of a data block are subject to physical layer processing like coding (e.g., forward error coding

[0160] P111679WO01 31 / 80 and / or adding error correction coding) and / or rate matching and / or scrambling, and / or modulation. Modulation may correspond to mapping of bits of the processed data block 1110 to modulation symbols, e.g. according to a modulation scheme and / or to a modulation space. The modulation symbols may be represented as a bit sequence until they are subject to analog conversion (or vice versa for reception).

[0161] A wireless device may in general comprise processing circuitry and / or radio circuitry, in particular a receiver and / or transceiver and / or transmitter, for performing measure- 1115 ment and / or to control beam switch and / or control beam-forming and / or receive and / or transmit signalling like communication signalling and / or sensing signalling. The wireless device may in particular be implemented as terminal or a user equipment. However, in some cases, e.g. relay and / or back-link and / or IAB scenarios, it may be implemented as network node or network radio node. A network node may in general comprise processing 1120 circuitry and / or radio circuitry, in particular a receiver and / or transceiver and / or transmitter, for transmitting reference signalling and / or a beam switch indication and / or for beam switching and / or to control beam switch and / or control beam-forming and / or receive and / or transmit signalling like communication signalling and / or sensing signalling..

[0162] The second radio node may in particular be implemented as a network node, e.g. a net- 1125 work radio node and / or base station or a relay node or IAB node. However, in some cases, e.g. sidelink scenarios, the second radio node may be implemented as a wireless device or terminal, e.g. a user equipment.

[0163] In general, sensing signalling may be based on the same wave-form as the communication signalling. However, it may be based on a different wave-form in some variants. The 1130 sensing signalling may be OFDM based, for example, regular OFDM, or spread OFDM like DFT-s-OFDM, and / or pulse-shaped OFDM, or filter-bank based, or Single Carrier based. The communication signalling may be OFDM based, for example, regular OFDM, or spread OFDM like DFT-s-OFDM, and / or pulse-shaped OFDM , or filter-bank based, or Single Carrier based. The sensing signalling may be transmitted in a transmission 1135 timing structure corresponding to the transmission timing structure associated to the communication signalling, e.g. a frame structure, and / or be based on the same or a different numerology as the communication signalling. The timing structure (e.g., symbol duration or allocation unit duration) and / or types of modulation symbols carried by signalling may be based on the wave-form used. 1140

[0164] In general, a block symbol may represent and / or correspond to an extension in time domain, e.g. a time interval. A block symbol duration (the length of the time interval) may correspond to the duration of an OFDM symbol or a corresponding duration, and / or may be based and / or defined by a sub-carrier spacing used (e.g., based on the nu-

[0165] P111679WO01 32 / 80 merology) or equivalent, and / or may correspond to the duration of a modulation symbol 1145 (e.g., for OFDM or similar frequency domain multiplexed types of signalling). It may be considered that a block symbol comprises a plurality of modulation symbols, e.g. based on a sub-carrier spacing and / or numerology or equivalent, in particular for time domain multiplexed types (on the symbol level for a single transmitter) of signalling like singlecarrier based signalling, e.g. SC-FDE or SC-FDMA (in particular, FDF-SC-FDMA or 1150 pulse-shaped SC-FDMA). The number of symbols may be based on and / or defined by the number of sub-carrier to be DFTS-spread (for SC-FDMA) and / or be based on a number of FFT samples, e.g. for spreading and / or mapping, and / or equivalent, and / or may be predefined and / or configured or configurable. A block symbol in this context may comprise and / or contain a plurality of individual modulation symbols, which may be for 1155 example 1000 or more, or 3000 or more, or 3300 or more. The number of modulation symbols in a block symbol may be based and / or be dependent on a bandwidth scheduled for transmission of signalling in the block symbol. A block symbol and / or a number of block symbols (an integer smaller than 20, e.g. equal to or smaller than 14 or 7 or 4 or

[0166] 2 or a flexible number) may be a unit (e.g., allocation unit) used for scheduling and / or 1160 allocation of resources, in particular in time domain. To a block symbol (e.g., scheduled or allocated) and / or block symbol group and / or allocation unit, there may be associated a frequency range and / or frequency domain allocation and / or bandwidth allocated for transmission.

[0167] An allocation unit, and / or a block symbol, may be associated to a specific (e.g., physical) 1165 channel and / or specific type of signalling, for example reference signalling. In some cases, there may be a block symbol associated to a channel that also is associated to a form of reference signalling and / or pilot signalling and / or tracking signalling associated to the channel, for example for timing purposes and / or decoding purposes (such signalling may comprise a low number of modulation symbols and / or resource elements of a block symbol, 1170 e.g. less than 10% or less than 5% or less than 1% of the modulation symbols and / or resource elements in a block symbol). To a block symbol, there may be associated resource elements; a resource element may be represented in time / frequency domain, e.g. by the smallest frequency unit carrying or mapped to (e.g., a sub-carrier) in frequency domain and the duration of a modulation symbol in time domain. A block symbol may comprise, 1175 and / or to a block symbol may be associated, a structure allowing and / or comprising a number of modulation symbols, and / or association to one or more channels (and / or the structure may dependent on the channel the block symbol is associated to and / or is allocated or used for), and / or reference signalling (e.g., as discussed above), and / or one or more guard periods and / or transient periods, and / or one or more affixes (e.g., 1180 a prefix and / or suffix and / or one or more infixes (entered inside the block symbol)),

[0168] P111679WO01 33 / 80 in particular a cyclic prefix and / or suffix and / or infix. A cyclic affix may represent a repetition of signalling and / or modulation symbol / s used in the block symbol, with possible slight amendments to the signalling structure of the affix to provide a smooth and / or continuous and / or differentiable connection between affix signalling and signalling 1185 of modulation symbols associated to the content of the block symbol (e.g., channel and / or reference signalling structure). In some cases, in particular some OFDM-based waveforms, an affix may be included into a modulation symbol. In other cases, e.g. some single carrier-based wave-forms, an affix may be represented by a sequence of modulation symbols within the block symbol. It may be considered that in some cases a block symbol 1190 is defined and / or used in the context of the associated structure.

[0169] Communicating may comprise transmitting or receiving. It may be considered that communicating like transmitting signalling is based on a SC-FDM based wave- form, and / or corresponds to a Frequency Domain Filtered (FDF) DFTS-OFDM wave-form. However, the approaches may be applied to a Single Carrier based wave-form, e.g. a SC-FDM or 1195 SC-FDE- wave-form, which may be pulse-shaped / FDF-based. It should be noted that SC- FDM may be considered DFT-spread OFDM, such that SC-FDM and DFTS-OFDM may be used interchangeably. Alternatively, or additionally, the signalling (e.g., first signalling and / or second signalling) and / or beam / s (in particular, the first received beam and / or second received beam) may be based on a wave-form with CP or comparable guard time. 1200 The received beam and the transmission beam of the first beam pair may have the same (or similar) or different angular and / or spatial extensions; the received beam and the transmission beam of the second beam pair may have the same (or similar) or different angular and / or spatial extensions. It may be considered that the received beam and / or transmission beam of the first and / or second beam pair have angular extension of 20 degrees or 1205 less, or 15 degrees or less, or 10 or 5 degrees or less, at least in one of horizontal or vertical direction, or both; different beams may have different angular extensions. An extended guard interval or switching protection interval may have a duration corresponding to essentially or at least N CP (cyclic prefix) durations or equivalent duration, wherein N may be 2, or 3 or 4. An equivalent to a CP duration may represent the CP duration associated 1210 to signalling with CP (e.g., SC-FDM-based or OFDM-based) for a wave- form without CP with the same or similar symbol time duration as the signalling with CP. Pulse-shaping (and / or performing FDF for) a modulation symbol and / or signalling, e.g. associated to a first sub-carrier or bandwidth, may comprise mapping the modulation symbol (and / or the sample associated to it after FFT) to an associated second sub-carrier or part of the 1215 bandwidth, and / or applying a shaping operation regarding the power and / or amplitude and / or phase of the modulation symbol on the first sub-carrier and the second sub-carrier, wherein the shaping operation may be according to a shaping function. Pulse-shaping

[0170] P111679WO01 34 / 80 signalling may comprise pulse-shaping one or more symbols; pulse-shaped signalling may in general comprise at least one pulse-shaped symbol. Pulse-shaping may be performed 1220 based on a Nyquist-filter. It may be considered that pulse-shaping is performed based on periodically extending a frequency distribution of modulation symbols (and / or associated samples after FFT) over a first number of sub-carrier to a larger, second number of sub-carriers, wherein a subset of the first number of sub-carriers from one end of the frequency distribution is appended at the other end of the first number of sub-carriers. 1225

[0171] In some variants, communicating may be based on a numerology (which may, e.g., be represented by and / or correspond to and / or indicate a sub-carrier spacing and / or symbol time length) and / or an SC-FDM based wave- form (including a FDF-DFTS-FDM based wave-form) or a single-carrier based wave-form. Whether to use pulse-shaping or FDF on a SC-FDM or SC-based wave-form may depend on the modulation scheme (e.g., MCS) 1230 used. Such wave- forms may utilise a cyclic prefix and / or benefit particularly from the described approaches. Communicating may comprise and / or be based on beamforming, e.g. transmission beamforming and / or reception beamforming, respectively. It may be considered that a beam is produced by performing analog beamforming to provide the beam, e.g. a beam corresponding to a reference beam. Thus, signalling may be adapted, 1235 e.g. based on movement of the communication partner. A beam may for example be produced by performing analog beamforming to provide a beam corresponding to a reference beam. This allows efficient postprocessing of a digitally formed beam, without requiring changes to a digital beamforming chain and / or without requiring changes to a standard defining beam forming precoders. In general, a beam may be produced by hybrid beam- 1240 forming, and / or by digital beamforming, e.g. based on a precoder. This facilitates easy processing of beams, and / or limits the number of power amplifiers / ADC / DC A required for antenna arrangements. It may be considered that a beam is produced by hybrid beamforming, e.g. by analog beamforming performed on a beam representation or beam formed based on digital beamforming. Monitoring and / or performing cell search may be 1245 based on reception beamforming, e.g. analog or digital or hybrid reception beamforming. The numerology may determine the length of a symbol time interval and / or the duration of a cyclic prefix. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable to SC-FDM, to ensure orthogonality, in particular sub-carrier orthogonality, in corresponding systems, but may be used for other wave-forms. Communicating may comprise utilising a wave- 1250 form with cyclic prefix. The cyclic prefix may be based on a numerology, and may help keeping signalling orthogonal. Communicating may comprise, and / or be based on performing cell search, e.g. for a wireless device or terminal, or may comprise transmitting cell identifying signalling and / or a selection indication, based on which a radio node receiving the selection indication may select a signalling bandwidth from a set of signalling 1255

[0172] P111679WO01 35 / 80 bandwidths for performing cell search.

[0173] A beam or beam pair may in general be targeted at one radio node, or a group of radio nodes and / or an area including one or more radio nodes. In many cases, a beam or beam pair may be receiver-specific (e.g., UE-specffic), such that only one radio node is served per beam / beam pair. A beam pair switch or switch of received beam (e.g., by using a 1260 different reception beam) and / or transmission beam may be performed at a border of a transmission timing structure, e.g. a slot border, or within a slot, for example between symbols. Some tuning of radio circuitry, e.g. for receiving and / or transmitting, may be performed. Beam pair switching may comprise switching from a second received beam to a first received beam, and / or from a second transmission beam to a first transmission 1265 beam. Switching may comprise inserting a guard period to cover retuning time; however, circuitry may be adapted to switch sufficiently quickly to essentially be instantaneous; this may in particular be the case when digital reception beamforming is used to switch reception beams for switching received beams.

[0174] A reference beam (or reference signalling beam) may be a beam comprising reference 1270 signalling, based on which for example a of beam signalling characteristics may be determined, e.g. measured and / or estimated. A signalling beam may comprise signalling like control signalling and / or data signalling and / or reference signalling. A reference beam may be transmitted by a source or transmitting radio node, in which case one or more beam signalling characteristics may be reported to it from a receiver, e.g. a wireless de- 1275 vice. However, in some cases it may be received by the radio node from another radio node or wireless device. In this case, one or more beam signalling characteristics may be determined by the radio node. A signalling beam may be a transmission beam, or a reception beam. A set of signalling characteristics may comprise a plurality of subsets of beam signalling characteristics, each subset pertaining to a different reference beam. 1280 Thus, a reference beam may be associated to different beam signalling characteristics.

[0175] A beam signalling characteristic, respectively a set of such characteristics, may represent and / or indicate a signal strength and / or signal quality of a beam and / or a delay characteristic and / or be associated with received and / or measured signalling carried on a beam. Beam signalling characteristics and / or delay characteristics may in particular pertain to, 1285 and / or indicate, a number and / or list and / or order of beams with best (e.g., lowest mean delay and / or lowest spread / range) timing or delay spread, and / or of strongest and / or best quality beams, e.g. with associated delay spread. A beam signalling characteristic may be based on measurement / s performed on reference signalling carried on the reference beam it pertains to. The measurement / s may be performed by the radio node, or 1290 another node or wireless device. The use of reference signalling allows improved accuracy

[0176] P111679WO01 36 / 80 and / or gauging of the measurements. In some cases, a beam and / or beam pair may be represented by a beam identity indication, e.g. a beam or beam pair number. Such an indication may be represented by one or more signalling sequences (e.g., a specific reference signalling sequences or sequences), which may be transmitted on the beam and / or beam 1295 pair, and / or a signalling characteristic and / or a resource / s used (e.g., time / frequency and / or code) and / or a specific RNTI (e.g., used for scrambling a CRC for some messages or transmissions) and / or by information provided in signalling, e.g. control signalling and / or system signalling, on the beam and / or beam pair, e.g. encoded and / or provided in an information held or as information element in some form of message of signalling, 1300 e.g. DCI and / or MAC and / or RRC signalling.

[0177] A reference beam may in general be one of a set of reference beams, the second set of reference beams being associated to the set of signalling beams. The sets being associated may refer to at least one beam of the first set being associated and / or corresponding to the second set (or vice versa), e.g. being based on it, for example by having the same analog 1305 or digital beamforming parameters and / or precoder and / or the same shape before analog beamforming, and / or being a modified form thereof, e.g. by performing additional analog beamforming. The set of signalling beams may be referred to as a first set of beams, a set of corresponding reference beams may be referred to as second set of beams.

[0178] In some variants, a reference beam and / or reference beams and / or reference signalling may 1310 correspond to and / or carry random access signalling, e.g. a random access preamble. Such a reference beam or signalling may be transmitted by another radio node. The signalling may indicate which beam is used for transmitting. Alternatively, the reference beams may be beams receiving the random access signalling. Random access signalling may be used for initial connection to the radio node and / or a cell provided by the radio node, and / or for 1315 reconnection. Utilising random access signalling facilitates quick and early beam selection.

[0179] The random access signalling may be on a random access channel, e.g. based on broadcast information provided by the radio node (the radio node performing the beam selection), e.g. with synchronisation signalling (e.g., SSB block and / or associated thereto). The reference signalling may correspond to synchronisation signalling, e.g. transmitted by the 1320 radio node in a plurality of beams. The characteristics may be reported on by a node receiving the synchronisation signalling, e.g. in a random access process, e.g. a msg3 for contention resolution, which may be transmitted on a physical uplink shared channel based on a resource allocation provided by the radio node.

[0180] A delay characteristic (which may correspond to delay spread information) and / or a 1325 measurement report may represent and / or indicate at least one of mean delay, and / or delay spread, and / or delay distribution, and / or delay spread distribution, and / or delay

[0181] P111679WO01 37 / 80 spread range, and / or relative delay spread, and / or energy (or power) distribution, and / or impulse response to received signalling, and / or the power delay profile of the received signals, and / or power delay profile related parameters of the received signal. A mean 1330 delay may represent the mean value and / or an averaged value of the delay spread, which may be weighted or unweighted. A distribution may be distribution over time / delay, e.g. of received power and / or energy of a signal. A range may indicate an interval of the delay spread distribution over time / delay, which may cover a predetermined percentage of the delay spread respective received energy or power, e.g. 50% or more, 75% or more, 90% or 1335 more, or 100%. A relative delay spread may indicate a relation to a threshold delay, e.g. of the mean delay, and / or a shift relative to an expected and / or configured timing, e.g. a timing at which the signalling would have been expected based on the scheduling, and / or a relation to a cyclic prefix duration (which may be considered on form of a threshold).

[0182] Energy distribution or power distribution may pertain to the energy or power received over 1340 the time interval of the delay spread. A power delay profile may pertain to representations of the received signals, or the received signals energy / power, across time / delay. Power delay profile related parameters may pertain to metrics computed from the power delay profile. Different values and forms of delay spread information and / or report may be used, allowing a wide range of capabilities. The kind of information represented by a 1345 measurement report may be predefined, or be configured or configurable, e.g. with a measurement configuration and / or reference signalling configuration, in particular with higher layer signalling like RRC or MAC signalling and / or physical layer signalling like DCI signalling.

[0183] In general, different beam pair may differ in at least one beam; for example, a beam 1350 pair using a first received beam and a first transmission beam may be considered to be different from a second beam pair using the first received beam and a second transmission beam. A transmission beam using no precoding and / or beamforming, for example using the natural antenna profile, may be considered as a special form of transmission beam of a transmission beam pair. A beam may be indicated to a radio node by a transmitter 1355 with a beam indication and / or a configuration, which for example may indicate beam parameters and / or time / frequency resources associated to the beam and / or a transmission mode and / or antenna profile and / or antenna port and / or precoder associated to the beam. Different beams may be provided with different content, for example different received beams may carry different signalling; however, there may be considered cases 1360 in which different beams carry the same signalling, for example the same data signalling and / or reference signalling. The beams may be transmitted by the same node and / or transmission point and / or antenna arrangement, or by different nodes and / or transmission points and / or antenna arrangements.

[0184] P111679WO01 38 / 80 Communicating utilising a beam pair or a beam may comprise receiving signalling on a 1365 received beam (which may be a beam of a beam pair), and / or transmitting signalling on a beam, e.g. a beam of a beam pair. The following terms are to be interpreted from the point of view of the referred radio node: a received beam may be a beam carrying signalling received by the radio node (for reception, the radio node may use a reception beam, e.g. directed to the received beam, or be non-beamformed). A transmission beam 1370 may be a beam used by the radio node to transmit signalling. A beam pair may consist of a received beam and a transmission beam. The transmission beam and the received beam of a beam pair may be associated to each and / or correspond to each other, e.g. such that signalling on the received beam and signalling on a transmission beam travel essentially the same path (but in opposite directions), e.g. at least in a stationary or 1375 almost stationary condition. It should be noted that the terms “first” and “second” do not necessarily denote an order in time; a second signalling may be received and / or transmitted before, or in some cases simultaneous to, first signalling, or vice versa. The received beam and transmission beam of a beam pair may be on the same carrier or frequency range or bandwidth part, e.g. in a TDD operation; however, variants with 1380 FDD may be considered as well. Different beam pairs may operate on the same frequency ranges or carriers or bandwidth parts (e.g., such that transmission beams operate on the same frequency range or carriers or bandwidth part, and received beams on the same frequency range or carriers or bandwidth part (the transmission beam and received beams may be on the same or different ranges or carriers or BWPs). Communicating utilizing a 1385 first beam pair and / or first beam may be based on, and / or comprise, switching from the second beam pair or second beam to the first beam pair or first beam for communicating. The switching may be controlled by the network, for example a network node (which may be the source or transmitter of the received beam of the first beam pair and / or second beam pair, or be associated thereto, for example associated transmission points or nodes 1390 in dual connectivity). Such controlling may comprise transmitting control signalling, e.g. physical layer signalling and / or higher layer signalling. In some cases, the switching may be performed by the radio node without additional control signalling, for example based on measurements on signal quality and / or signal strength of beam pairs (e.g., of first and second received beams), in particular the first beam pair and / or the second beam pair. 1395 For example, it may be switched to the first beam pair (or first beam) if the signal quality or signal strength measured on the second beam pair (or second beam) is considered to be insufficient, and / or worse than corresponding measurements on the first beam pair indicate. Measurements performed on a beam pair (or beam) may in particular comprise measurements performed on a received beam of the beam pair. It may be considered that 1400 the timing indication may be determined before switching from the second beam pair to the first beam pair for communicating. Thus, the synchronization may be in place and / or

[0185] P111679WO01 39 / 80 the timing indication may be available for synchronising) when starting communication utilizing the first beam pair or first beam. However, in some cases the timing indication may be determined after switching to the first beam pair or first beam. This may be 1405 in particular useful if first signalling is expected to be received after the switching only, for example based on a periodicity or scheduled timing of suitable reference signalling on the first beam pair, e.g. first received beam. In general, a reception beam of a node may be associated to and / or correspond to a transmission beam of the node, e.g. such that the (spatial) angle of reception of the reception beam and the (spatial) angle of 1410 transmission of the transmission beam at least partially, or essentially or fully, overlap and / or coincide, in particular for TDD operation and / or independent of frequency. Spatial correspondence between beams may be considered in some cases, e.g. such that a beam pair (e.g., transmission beam of a transmitting node and reception beam of a receiving node) may be considered to comprise corresponding beams (e.g., the reception beam is 1415 suitable and / or the best beam to receive transmissions on the transmission beam, e.g. based on a threshold signal quality and / or signal strength and / or measurements); to each of such beams, there may be an associated or corresponding complementary beam of the respective node (e.g., to a transmission beam of a beam pair, there may be associated a reception beam of the transmitting node, and / or to the reception beam of a beam pair, 1420 there may be associated a transmitting beam of the receiving node; if the beams (e.g., at least essentially or substantially) overlap (e.g., in spatial angle), in some cases a beam pair may be considered to indicate four beams (or actually, two beam pairs).

[0186] In some cases, to one or more beams or signals or signallings may be associated a Quasi- CoLocation (QCL) characteristic or set of characteristics, or QCL class (also referred to 1425 as QCL type) or QCL identity; beams or signal or signallings sharing such may be considered to be Quasi-Colocated. Quasi-Colocated beams or signals or signallings may be considered (e.g., by a receiver) as the same beam or originating from the same transmitter or transmission source, at least in regard to the QCL characteristic or set or class or identity, and / or to share the characteristic / s. QCL characteristics may pertain to prop- 1430 agation of signalling, and / or one or more delay characteristics, and / or pathloss, and / or signal quality, and / or signal strength, and / or beam direction, and / or beam shape (in particular, angle or area, e.g. area of coverage), and / or Doppler shift, and / or Doppler spread, and / or delay spread, and / or time synchronisation, and / or frequency synchronisation, and / or one or more other parameters, e.g. pertaining to a propagation channel 1435 and / or spatial RX param eter / s (which may refer to reception beam and / or transmission beam, e.g. shape or coverage or direction). A QCL characteristic may pertain to a specific channel (e.g., physical layer channel like a control channel or data channel) and / or reference signalling type and / or antenna port. Different QCL classes or types may per-

[0187] P111679WO01 40 / 80 tain to different QCL characteristics or sets of characteristics; a QCL class may define 1440 and / or pertain to one or more criteria and / or thresholds and / or ranges for one or more QCL characteristics beams have to fulfill to be considered Quasi-Colocated according to this class; a QCL identity may refer to and / or represent all beams being quasi-colocated, according to a QCL class. Different classes may pertain to one or more of the same characteristics (e.g., different classes may have different criteria and / or thresholds and / or 1445 ranges for one or more characteristics) and / or to different characteristics. A QCL indication may be seen as a form of beam indication, e.g. pertaining to all beams belonging to one QCL class and / or QCL identity and / or quasi-colocated beams. A QCL identity may be indicated by a QCL indication. In some cases, a beam, and / or a beam indication, may be considered to refer and / or represent a to a QCL identity, and / or to represent 1450 quasi-colocated beams or signals or signallings.

[0188] Transmission on multiple layers (multi-layer transmission) may refer to transmission of communication signalling and / or reference signalling simultaneously in one or more beams and / or using a plurality of transmission sources, e.g. controlled by one network node or one wireless device. The layers may refer to layers of transmission; a layer may be 1455 considered to represent one data or signalling stream. Different layers may carry different data and / or data streams, e.g., to increase data throughput. In some cases, the same data or data stream may be transported on different layers, e.g. to increase reliability. Multi-layer transmission may provide diversity, e.g. transmission diversity and / or spatial diversity. It may be considered that multi-layer transmission comprises 2, or more than 1460 2 layers; the number of layers of transmission may be represented by a rank or rank indication.

[0189] A transmission source may in particular comprise, and / or be represented by, and / or associated to, an antenna or group of antenna elements or antenna sub-array or antenna array or transmission point or TRP or TP (Transmission Point) or access point. In some 1465 cases, a transmission source may be represented or representable, and / or correspond to, and / or associated to, an antenna port or layer of transmission, e.g. for multi-layer transmission. Different transmission sources may in particular comprise different and / or separately controllable antenna element / s or (sub-)arrays and / or be associated to different antenna ports. In particular, analog beamforming may be used, with separate analog 1470 control of the different transmission sources. An antenna port may indicate a transmission source, and / or a one or more transmission parameter, in particular of reference signalling associated to the antenna port. In particular, transmission parameters pertaining to, and / or indicating a frequency domain distribution or mapping (e.g., which comb to use and / or which sub-carrier or frequency offset to use, or similar) of modulation symbols 1475 of the reference signalling, and / or to which cyclic shift to use (e.g., to shift elements of

[0190] P111679WO01 41 / 80 a modulation symbol sequence, or a root sequence, or a sequence based on or derived from the root sequence) and / or to which cover code to use (e.g., (e.g., to shift elements of a modulation symbol sequence, or a root sequence, or a sequence based on or derived from the root sequence). In some cases, a transmission source may represent a target for 1480 reception, e.g. if it is implemented as a TRP or AP (Access Point).

[0191] In some variants, reference signalling may be and / or comprise CSI-RS and / or PT-RS and / or DMRS, e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the reference signalling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or other UE, in which case it may comprise and / or be Sounding Reference signalling. Other, e.g. new, forms 1485 of reference signalling may be considered and / or used. In general, a modulation symbol of reference signalling respectively a resource element carrying it may be associated to a cyclic prefix.

[0192] Data signalling may be on a data channel, for example on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or on a dedicated data channel, e.g. for low latency and / or high reliability, e.g. a URLLC channel. 1490 Control signalling may be on a control channel, for example on a common control channel or a PDCCH or PSCCH, and / or comprise one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. Reference signalling may be associated to control signalling and / or data signalling, e.g. DM-RS and / or PT-RS.

[0193] Reference signalling, for example, may comprise DM-RS and / or pilot signalling and / or 1495 discovery signalling and / or synchronisation signalling and / or sounding signalling and / or phase tracking signalling and / or cell-specific reference signalling and / or user-specific signalling, in particular CSI-RS. Reference signalling in general may be signalling with one or more signalling characteristics, in particular transmission power and / or sequence of modulation symbols and / or resource distribution and / or phase distribution known to the 1500 receiver. Thus, the receiver can use the reference signalling as a reference and / or for training and / or for compensation. The receiver can be informed about the reference signalling by the transmitter, e.g. being configured and / or signalling with control signalling, in particular physical layer signalling and / or higher layer signalling (e.g., DCI and / or RRC signalling), and / or may determine the corresponding information itself, e.g. a network node 1505 configuring a UE to transmit reference signalling. Reference signalling may be signalling comprising one or more reference symbols and / or structures. Reference signalling may be adapted for gauging and / or estimating and / or representing transmission conditions, e.g. channel conditions and / or transmission path conditions and / or channel (or signal or transmission) quality. It may be considered that the transmission characteristics (e.g., 1510 signal strength and / or form and / or modulation and / or timing) of reference signalling are available for both transmitter and receiver of the signalling (e.g., due to being prede-

[0194] P111679WO01 42 / 80 fined and / or configured or configurable and / or being communicated). Different types of reference signalling may be considered, e.g. pertaining to uplink, downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (in particular, cell- wide, e.g., CRS) or device or user specific (addressed to 1515 a specific target or user equipment, e.g., CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and / or signal strength related, e.g. power-related or energy-related or amplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilot signalling) and / or phase-related, etc.

[0195] References to specific resource structures like an allocation unit and / or block symbol and / or block symbol group and / or transmission timing structure and / or symbol and / or 1520 slot and / or mini-slot and / or sub-carrier and / or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may be predefined and / or configured or configurable. A transmission timing structure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or more symbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure are transmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slot may comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and / or 1525 configured or configurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slot may comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular be configurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of a slot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4, or more symbols, e.g. less symbols than symbols in a slot. A transmission timing structure may cover a time interval of a specific length, which may be dependent on symbol time length and / or 1530 cyclic prefix used. A transmission timing structure may pertain to, and / or cover, a specific time interval in a time stream, e.g. synchronized for communication. Timing structures used and / or scheduled for transmission, e.g. slot and / or mini-slots, may be scheduled in relation to, and / or synchronized to, a timing structure provided and / or defined by other transmission timing structures. Such transmission timing structures may define a timing 1535 grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within individual structures representing the smallest timing units. Such a timing grid may for example be defined by slots or subframes (wherein in some cases, subframes may be considered specific variants of slots). A transmission timing structure may have a duration (length in time) determined based on the durations of its symbols, possibly in addition to cyclic prefix / es used. The symbols of a 1540 transmission timing structure may have the same duration, or may in some variants have different duration. The number of symbols in a transmission timing structure may be predefined and / or configured or configurable, and / or be dependent on numerology. The timing of a mini-slot may generally be configured or configurable, in particular by the network and / or a network node. The timing may be configurable to start and / or end at 1545 any symbol of the transmission timing structure, in particular one or more slots.

[0196] A transmission quality parameter may in general correspond to the number R of retransmissions and / or number T of total transmissions, and / or coding (e.g., number of coding bits, e.g. for error detection coding and / or error correction coding like FEC coding)

[0197] P111679WO01 43 / 80 and / or code rate and / or BLER and / or BER requirements and / or transmission power 1550 level (e.g., minimum level and / or target level and / or base power level P0 and / or transmission power control command, TPC, step size) and / or signal quality, e.g. SNR and / or SIR and / or SINR and / or power density and / or energy density.

[0198] A buffer state report (or buffer status report, BSR) may comprise information representing the presence and / or size of data to be transmitted (e.g., available in one or more 1555 buffers, for example provided by higher layers). The size may be indicated explicitly, and / or indexed to range / s of sizes, and / or may pertain to one or more different channel / s and / or acknowledgement processes and / or higher layers and / or channel groups / s, e.g, one or more logical channel / s and / or transport channel / s and / or groups thereof: The structure of a BSR may be predefined and / or configurable of configured, e.g. to override 1560 and / or amend a predefined structure, for example with higher layer signalling, e.g. RRC signalling. There may be different forms of BSR with different levels of resolution and / or information, e.g. a more detailed long BSR and a less detailed short BSR. A short BSR may concatenate and / or combine information of a long BSR, e.g. providing sums for data available for one or more channels and / or or channels groups and / or buffers, which might 1565 be represented individually in a long BSR; and / or may index a less-detailed range scheme for data available or buffered. A BSR may be used in lieu of a scheduling request, e.g. by a network node scheduling or allocating (uplink) resources for the transmitting radio node like a wireless device or UE or IAB node.

[0199] There is generally considered a program product comprising instructions adapted for cans- 1570 ing processing and / or control circuitry to carry out and / or control any method described herein, in particular when executed on the processing and / or control circuitry. Also, there is considered a carrier medium arrangement carrying and / or storing a program product as described herein.

[0200] A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media. Generally, a 1575 carrier medium may be accessible and / or readable and / or receivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and / or a program product and / or code may be seen as part of carrying data and / or a program product and / or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise a guiding / transporting medium and / or a storage medium. A guiding / transporting medium may be adapted to carry and / or carry and / or store signals, 1580 in particular electromagnetic signals and / or electrical signals and / or magnetic signals and / or optical signals. A carrier medium, in particular a guiding / transporting medium, may be adapted to guide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular a guiding / transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field, e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and / or optically transmissive material, e.g. glass fiber, and / or cable. A 1585

[0201] P111679WO01 44 / 80 storage medium may comprise at least one of a memory, which may be volatile or nonvolatile, a buffer, a cache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

[0202] A system comprising one or more radio nodes as described herein, in particular a network node and a user equipment, is described. The system may be a wireless communication system, and / or provide and / or represent a radio access network. 1590

[0203] Moreover, there may be generally considered a method of operating an information system, the method comprising providing information. Alternatively, or additionally, an information system adapted for providing information may be considered. Providing information may comprise providing information for, and / or to, a target system, which may comprise and / or be implemented as radio access network and / or a radio node, in 1595 particular a network node or user equipment or terminal. Providing information may comprise transferring and / or streaming and / or sending and / or passing on the information, and / or offering the information for such and / or for download, and / or triggering such providing, e.g. by triggering a different system or node to stream and / or transfer and / or send and / or pass on the information. The information system may comprise, and / or be 1600 connected or connectable to, a target, for example via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a core network and / or internet and / or private or local network. Information may be provided utilising and / or via such intermediate system / s. Providing information may be for radio transmission and / or for transmission via an air interface and / or utilising a RAN or radio node as described herein. Connecting the information system to a target, and / or 1605 providing information, may be based on a target indication, and / or adaptive to a target indication. A target indication may indicate the target, and / or one or more parameters of transmission pertaining to the target and / or the paths or connections over which the information is provided to the target. Such parameter / s may in particular pertain to the air interface and / or radio access network and / or radio node and / or network node. Example 1610 parameters may indicate for example type and / or nature of the target, and / or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and / or latency and / or reliability and / or cost, respectively one or more estimates thereof. The target indication may be provided by the target, or determined by the information system, e.g. based on information received from the target and / or historical information, and / or be provided by a user, for example a user operating 1615 the target or a device in communication with the target, e.g. via the RAN and / or air interface. For example, a user may indicate on a user equipment communicating with the information system that information is to be provided via a RAN, e.g. by selecting from a selection provided by the information system, for example on a user application or user interface, which may be a web interface. An information system may comprise 1620 one or more information nodes. An information node may generally comprise processing circuitry and / or communication circuitry. In particular, an information system and / or an

[0204] P111679WO01 45 / 80 information node may be implemented as a computer and / or a computer arrangement, e.g. a host computer or host computer arrangement and / or server or server arrangement.

[0205] In some variants, an interaction server (e.g., web server) of the information system may 1625 provide a user interface, and based on user input may trigger transmitting and / or streaming information provision to the user (and / or the target) from another server, which may be connected or connectable to the interaction server and / or be part of the information system or be connected or connectable thereto. The information may be any kind of data, in particular data intended for a user of for use at a terminal, e.g. video data and / or audio 1630 data and / or location data and / or interactive data and / or game-related data and / or environmental data and / or technical data and / or traffic data and / or vehicular data and / or circumstantial data and / or operational data. The information provided by the information system may be mapped to, and / or mappable to, and / or be intended for mapping to, communication or data signalling and / or one or more data channels as described herein 1635 (which may be signalling or channel / s of an air interface and / or used within a RAN and / or for radio transmission). It may be considered that the information is formatted based on the target indication and / or target, e.g. regarding data amount and / or data rate and / or data structure and / or timing, which in particular may be pertaining to a mapping to communication or data signalling and / or a data channel. Mapping informa- 1640 tion to data signalling and / or data channel / s may be considered to refer to using the signalling / channel / s to carry the data, e.g. on higher layers of communication, with the signalling / channel / s underlying the transmission. A target indication generally may comprise different components, which may have different sources, and / or which may indicate different characteristics of the target and / or communication path / s thereto. A format of 1645 information may be specifically selected, e.g. from a set of different formats, for information to be transmitted on an air interface and / or by a RAN as described herein. This may be particularly pertinent since an air interface may be limited in terms of capacity and / or of predictability, and / or potentially be cost sensitive. The format may be selected to be adapted to the transmission indication, which may in particular indicate that a RAN or 1650 radio node as described herein is in the path (which may be the indicated and / or planned and / or expected path) of information between the target and the information system. A (communication) path of information may represent the interface / s (e.g., air and / or cable interfaces) and / or the intermediate system / s (if any), between the information system and / or the node providing or transferring the information, and the target, over which the 1655 information is, or is to be, passed on. A path may be (at least partly) undetermined when a target indication is provided, and / or the information is provided / transferred by the information system, e.g. if an internet is involved, which may comprise multiple, dynamically chosen paths. Information and / or a format used for information may be packet-based, and / or be mapped, and / or be mappable and / or be intended for mapping, 1660

[0206] P111679WO01 46 / 80 to packets. Alternatively, or additionally, there may be considered a method for operating a target device comprising providing a target indicating to an information system. More alternatively, or additionally, a target device may be considered, the target device being adapted for providing a target indication to an information system. In another approach, there may be considered a target indication tool adapted for, and / or comprising 1665 an indication module for, providing a target indication to an information system. The target device may generally be a target as described above. A target indication tool may comprise, and / or be implemented as, software and / or application or app, and / or web interface or user interface, and / or may comprise one or more modules for implementing actions performed and / or controlled by the tool. The tool and / or target device may be 1670 adapted for, and / or the method may comprise, receiving a user input, based on which a target indicating may be determined and / or provided. Alternatively, or additionally, the tool and / or target device may be adapted for, and / or the method may comprise, receiving information and / or communication signalling carrying information, and / or operating on, and / or presenting (e.g., on a screen and / or as audio or as other form of indication), infor- 1675 mation. The information may be based on received information and / or communication signalling carrying information. Presenting information may comprise processing received information, e.g. decoding and / or transforming, in particular between different formats, and / or for hardware used for presenting. Operating on information may be independent of or without presenting, and / or proceed or succeed presenting, and / or may be without user 1680 interaction or even user reception, for example for automatic processes, or target devices without (e.g., regular) user interaction like MTC devices, of for automotive or transport or industrial use. The information or communication signalling may be expected and / or received based on the target indication. Presenting and / or operating on information may generally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decoding and / or execut- 1685 ing and / or interpreting and / or transforming information. Operating on information may generally comprise relaying and / or transmitting the information, e.g. on an air interface, which may include mapping the information onto signalling (such mapping may generally pertain to one or more layers, e.g. one or more layers of an air interface, e.g. RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and / or MAC layer and / or physical layer / s). The information may be 1690 imprinted (or mapped) on communication signalling based on the target indication, which may make it particularly suitable for use in a RAN (e.g., for a target device like a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The tool may generally be adapted for use on a target device, like a UE or terminal. Generally, the tool may provide multiple functionalities, e.g. for providing and / or selecting the target indication, and / or presenting, e.g. 1695 video and / or audio, and / or operating on and / or storing received information. Providing a target indication may comprise transmitting or transferring the indication as signalling, and / or carried on signalling, in a RAN, for example if the target device is a UE, or the

[0207] P111679WO01 47 / 80 tool for a UE. It should be noted that such provided information may be transferred to the information system via one or more additionally communication interfaces and / or 1700 paths and / or connections. The target indication may be a higher-layer indication and / or the information provided by the information system may be higher-layer information, e.g. application layer or user-layer, in particular above radio layers like transport layer and physical layer. The target indication may be mapped on physical layer radio signalling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane, and / or the information may be mapped on physical 1705 layer radio communication signalling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane (in particular, in reverse communication directions). The described approaches allow a target indication to be provided, facilitating information to be provided in a specific format particularly suitable and / or adapted to efficiently use an air interface. A user input may for example represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmission modes or formats, and / or 1710 paths, e.g. in terms of data rate and / or packaging and / or size of information to be provided by the information system.

[0208] In general, a numerology and / or sub-carrier spacing may indicate the bandwidth (in frequency domain) of a sub-carrier of a carrier, and / or the number of sub-carriers in a carrier and / or the numbering of the sub-carriers in a carrier, and / or the symbol time 1715 length. Different numerologies may in particular be different in the bandwidth of a subcarrier. In some variants, all the sub-carriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. The numerology and / or sub-carrier spacing may be different between carriers in particular regarding the sub-carrier bandwidth. A symbol time length, and / or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier may be dependent on the carrier 1720 frequency, and / or the sub-carrier spacing and / or the numerology. In particular, different numerologies may have different symbol time lengths, even on the same carrier.

[0209] Signalling may generally comprise one or more (e.g., modulation) symbols and / or signals and / or messages. A signal may comprise or represent one or more bits. An indication may represent signalling, and / or be implemented as a signal, or as a plurality of signals. One or 1725 more signals may be included in and / or represented by a message, signalling, in particular control signalling, may comprise a plurality of signals and / or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and / or be associated to different signalling processes, e.g. representing and / or pertaining to one or more such processes and / or corresponding information. An indication may comprise signalling, and / or a plurality of signals and / or 1730 messages and / or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and / or be associated to different acknowledgement signalling processes, e.g. representing and / or pertaining to one or more such processes. Signalling associated to a channel may be transmitted such that represents signalling and / or information for that channel, and / or that the signalling is interpreted by the transmitter and / or receiver to belong to 1735

[0210] P111679WO01 48 / 80 that channel. Such signalling may generally comply with transmission parameters and / or format / s for the channel.

[0211] An antenna arrangement may comprise one or more antenna elements (radiating elements), which may be combined in antenna arrays. An antenna array or sub-array may comprise one antenna element, or a plurality of antenna elements, which may be arranged 1740 e.g. two dimensionally (for example, a panel) or three dimensionally. It may be considered that each antenna array or sub-array or element is separately controllable, respectively that different antenna arrays are controllable separately from each other. A single antenna element / radiator may be considered the smallest example of a sub-array. Examples of antenna arrays comprise one or more multi-antenna panels or one or more individu- 1745 ally controllable antenna elements. An antenna arrangement may comprise a plurality of antenna arrays. It may be considered that an antenna arrangement is associated to a (specific and / or single) radio node, e.g. a configuring or informing or scheduling radio node, e.g. to be controlled or controllable by the radio node. An antenna arrangement associated to a UE or terminal may be smaller (e.g., in size and / or number of antenna 1750 elements or arrays) than the antenna arrangement associated to a network node. Antenna elements of an antenna arrangement may be configurable for different arrays, e.g. to change the beamforming characteristics. In particular, antenna arrays may be formed by combining one or more independently or separately controllable antenna elements or sub-arrays. The beams may be provided by analog beamforming, or in some variants by 1755 digital beamforming, or by hybrid beamforming combing analog and digital beamforming. The informing radio nodes may be configured with the manner of beam transmission, e.g. by transmitting a corresponding indicator or indication, for example as beam identify indication. However, there may be considered cases in which the informing radio node / s are not configured with such information, and / or operate transparently, not knowing the way 1760 of beamforming used. An antenna arrangement may be considered separately controllable in regard to the phase and / or amplitude / power and / or gain of a signal feed to it for transmission, and / or separately controllable antenna arrangements may comprise an independent or separate transmit and / or receive unit and / or ADC (analog- Digit al- Converter, alternatively an ADC chain) or DCA (Digital-to-analog Converter, alternatively a DCA 1765 chain) to convert digital control information into an analog antenna feed for the whole antenna arrangement (the ADC / DCA may be considered part of, and / or connected or connectable to, antenna circuitry) or vice versa. A scenario in which an ADC or DCA is controlled directly for beamforming may be considered an analog beamforming scenario; such controlling may be performed after encoding / decoding and7or after modulation sym- 1770 bols have been mapped to resource elements. This may be on the level of antenna arrangements using the same ADC / DCA, e.g. one antenna element or a group of antenna

[0212] P111679WO01 49 / 80 elements associated to the same ADC / DCA. Digital beamforming may correspond to a scenario in which processing for beamforming is provided before feeding signalling to the ADC / DCA, e.g. by using one or more precoder / s and / or by precoding information, for 1775 example before and / or when mapping modulation symbols to resource elements. Such a precoder for beamforming may provide weights, e.g. for amplitude and / or phase, and / or may be based on a (precoder) codebook, e.g. selected from a codebook. A precoder may pertain to one beam or more beams, e.g. defining the beam or beams. The codebook may be configured or configurable, and / or be predefined. DFT beamforming may be 1780 considered a form of digital beamforming, wherein a DFT procedure is used to form one or more beams. Hybrid forms of beamforming may be considered.

[0213] A beam may be defined by a spatial and / or angular and / or spatial angular distribution of radiation and / or a spatial angle (also referred to as solid angle) or spatial (solid) angle distribution into which radiation is transmitted (for transmission beamforming) or from 1785 which it is received (for reception beamforming). Reception beamforming may comprise only accepting signals coming in from a reception beam (e.g., using analog beamforming to not receive outside reception beam / s), and / or sorting out signals that do not come in in a reception beam, e.g. in digital postprocessing, e.g. digital beamforming. A beam may have a solid angle equal to or smaller than 4*pi sr (4*pi correspond to a 1790 beam covering all directions), in particular smaller than 2* pi, or pi, or pi / 2, or pi / 4 or pi / 8 or pi / 16. In particular for high frequencies, smaller beams may be used. Different beams may have different directions and / or sizes (e.g., solid angle and / or reach). A beam may have a main direction, which may be defined by a main lobe (e.g., center of the main lobe, e.g. pertaining to signal strength and / or solid angle, which may be averaged 1795 and / or weighted to determine the direction), and may have one or more sidelobes. A lobe may generally be defined to have a continuous or contiguous distribution of energy and / or power transmitted and / or received, e.g. bounded by one or more contiguous or contiguous regions of zero energy (or practically zero energy). A main lobe may comprise the lobe with the largest signal strength and / or energy and / or power content. However, sidelobes 1800 usually appear due to limitations of beamforming, some of which may carry signals with significant strength, and may cause multi-path effects. A sidelobe may generally have a different direction than a main lobe and / or other side lobes, however, due to reflections a sidelobe still may contribute to transmitted and / or received energy or power. A beam may be swept and / or switched over time, e.g., such that its (main) direction is changed, 1805 but its shape (angular / solid angle distribution) around the main direction is not changed, e.g. from the transmitter’s views for a transmission beam, or the receiver’s view for a reception beam, respectively. Sweeping may correspond to continuous or near continuous change of main direction (e.g., such that after each change, the main lobe from before the

[0214] P111679WO01 50 / 80 change covers at least partly the main lobe after the change, e.g. at least to 50 or 75 or 1810 90 percent). Switching may correspond to switching direction non-continuously, e.g. such that after each change, the main lobe from before the change does not cover the main lobe after the change, e.g. at most to 50 or 25 or 10 percent.

[0215] Signal strength may be a representation of signal power and / or signal energy, e.g. as seen from a transmitting node or a receiving node. A beam with larger strength at 1815 transmission (e.g., according to the beamforming used) than another beam does may not necessarily have larger strength at the receiver, and vice versa, for example due to interference and / or obstruction and / or dispersion and / or absorption and / or reflection and / or attrition or other effects influencing a beam or the signalling it carries. Signal quality may in general be a representation of how well a signal may be received over 1820 noise and / or interference. A beam with better signal quality than another beam does not necessarily have a larger beam strength than the other beam. Signal quality may be represented for example by SIR, SNR, SINR, BER, BLER, Energy per resource element over noise / interference or another corresponding quality measure. Signal quality and / or signal strength may pertain to, and / or may be measured with respect to, a beam, and / or 1825 specific signalling carried by the beam, e.g. reference signalling and / or a specific channel, e.g. a data channel or control channel. Signal strength may be represented by received signal strength, and / or relative signal strength, e.g. in comparison to a reference signal (strength).

[0216] Uplink or sidelink signalling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple 1830 Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) signalling. Downlink signalling may in particular be OFDMA signalling. However, signalling like communication signalling and / or sensing signalling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank based signalling and / or Single- Carrier based signalling, e.g. SC-FDE signalling, may be considered alternatives). 1835

[0217] A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted for wireless and / or radio (and / or millimeter wave) frequency communication, and / or for communication utilising an air interface, e.g. according to a communication standard.

[0218] A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. A network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, e.g. a base station and / or 1840 gNodeB (gNB) and / or eNodeB (eNB) and / or relay node and / or micro / nano / pico / femto node and / or transmission point (TP) and / or access point (AP) and / or other node, in particular for a RAN or other wireless communication network as described herein.

[0219] The terms user equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered to be interchangeable

[0220] P111679WO01 51 / 80 in the context of this disclosure. A wireless device, user equipment or terminal may rep- 1845 resent an end device for communication utilising the wireless communication network, and / or be implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personal communication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, in particular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and / or adapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC (Machine-Type- 1850 Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M, Machine- To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. A user equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary. A wireless device generally may comprise, and / or be implemented as, processing circuitry and / or radio circuitry, which may comprise one or more chips or sets of chips.

[0221] The circuitry and / or circuitries may be packaged, e.g. in a chip housing, and / or may have 1855 one or more physical interfaces to interact with other circuitry and / or for power supply.

[0222] Such a wireless device may be intended for use in a user equipment or terminal.

[0223] A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and / or radio circuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some cases comprise cable circuitry and / or communication circuitry, with which it may be connected or connectable to another radio 1860 node and / or a core network.

[0224] Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry may comprise one or more processors and / or controllers (e.g., microcontrollers), and / or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuitry) and / or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. It may be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and / or is (operatively) 1865 connected or connectable to one or more memories or memory arrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. A memory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples for memories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and / or Random Access Memory (RAM), and / or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and / or magnetic and / or optical memory, and / or flash memory, and / or hard disk mem- 1870 ory, and / or EPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM).

[0225] Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and / or receivers and / or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable as transmitter and receiver, and / or may comprise joint or separated circuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package or 1875 housing), and / or may comprise one or more amplifiers and / or oscillators and / or filters, and / or may comprise, and / or be connected or connectable to antenna circuitry and / or one or more antennas and / or antenna arrays. An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may be arranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and / or antenna panels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example 1880

[0226] P111679WO01 52 / 80 of an antenna array. However, in some variants, an RRH may be also be implemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and / or functionality implemented therein.

[0227] Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and / or cable circuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or more interfaces, which may be air inter- 1885 face / s and / or cable interface / s and / or optical interface / s, e.g. laser-based. Interface / s may be in particular packet-based. Cable circuitry and / or a cable interfaces may comprise, and / or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., optical fiber-based and / or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and / or interfaces) be connected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by 1890 communication circuitry and / or processing circuitry.

[0228] Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented in software and / or firmware and / or hardware. Different modules may be associated to different components of a radio node, e.g. different circuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered that a module is distributed over different components and / or circuitries. A program 1895 product as described herein may comprise the modules related to a device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a user equipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may be performed on, and / or controlled by the associated circuitry).

[0229] A wireless communication network may be or comprise a radio access network and / or a backhaul network (e.g. a relay or backhaul network or an IAB network), and / or a 1900 Radio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communication standard. A communication standard may in particular a standard according to 3GPP and / or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particular LTE Evolution.

[0230] A wireless communication network may be and / or comprise a Radio Access Network (RAN), which may be and / or comprise any kind of cellular and / or wireless radio net- 1905 work, which may be connected or connectable to a core network. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a 5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and / or NR (New Radio), respectively successors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and / or one or more terminals, and / or one or more radio nodes. A network node may in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and / or wireless and / or cellular 1910 communication with one or more terminals. A terminal may be any device adapted for radio and / or wireless and / or cellular communication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobile phone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communication device or device for machine- type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminal may be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wireless communication network 1915 may comprise at least one network node and a UE, or at least two radio nodes. There

[0231] P111679WO01 53 / 80 may be generally considered a wireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system, comprising at least one radio node, and / or at least one network node and at least one terminal.

[0232] Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network or network node 1920 to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain to transmission from the terminal to the network or network node. Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from one terminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelink transmission and reception) may be considered communication directions. In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to described wireless communication between 1925 network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhaul and / or relay communication and / or (wireless) network communication for example between base stations or similar network nodes, in particular communication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhaul and / or relay communication and / or network communication is implemented as a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto. 1930

[0233] Control information or a control information message or corresponding signalling (control signalling) may be transmitted on a control channel, e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (or a sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE). For example, control information / allocation information may be signaled by a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and / or 1935 a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and / or a HARQ-specihc channel. Acknowledgement signalling, e.g. as a form of control information or signalling like uplink control information / signalling, may be transmitted by a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and / or PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and / or a HARQ-specihc channel. Multiple channels may apply for multi-component / multi-carrier 1940 indication or signalling.

[0234] Transmitting acknowledgement signalling may in general be based on and / or in response to subject transmission, and / or to control signalling scheduling subject transmission. Such control signalling and / or subject signalling may be transmitted by a signalling radio node (which may be a network node, and / or a node associated to it, e.g. in a dual 1945 connectivity scenario. Subject transmission and / or subject signalling may be transmission or signalling to which ACK / NACK or acknowledgement information pertains, e.g. indicating correct or incorrect reception and / or decoding of the subject transmission or signalling. Subject signalling or transmission may in particular comprise and / or be represented by data signalling, e.g. on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or some forms of control signalling, 1950 e.g. on a PDCCH or PSSCH, for example for specific formats.

[0235] A signalling characteristic may be based on a type or format of a scheduling grant and / or

[0236] P111679WO01 54 / 80 scheduling assignment, and / or type of allocation, and / or timing of acknowledgement signalling and / or the scheduling grant and / or scheduling assignment, and / or resources associated to acknowledgement signalling and / or the scheduling grant and / or schedul- 1955 ing assignment. For example, if a specific format for a scheduling grant (scheduling or allocating the allocated resources) or scheduling assignment (scheduling the subject transmission for acknowledgement signalling) is used or detected, the first or second communication resource may be used. Type of allocation may pertain to dynamic allocation (e.g., using DCI / PDCCH) or semi-static allocation (e.g., for a configured grant). Timing 1960 of acknowledgement signalling may pertain to a slot and / or symbol / s the signalling is to be transmitted. Resources used for acknowledgement signalling may pertain to the allocated resources. Timing and / or resources associated to a scheduling grant or assignment may represent a search space or CORESET (a set of resources configured for reception of PDCCH transmissions) in which the grant or assignment is received. Thus, which trans- 1965 mission resource to be used may be based on implicit conditions, requiring low signalling overhead.

[0237] Scheduling may comprise indicating, e.g. with control signalling like DCI or SCI signalling and / or signalling on a control channel like PDCCH or PSCCH, one or more scheduling opportunities of a configuration intended to carry data signalling or subject signalling. 1970 The configuration may be represented or representable by, and / or correspond to, a table. A scheduling assignment may for example point to an opportunity of the reception allocation configuration, e.g. indexing a table of scheduling opportunities. In some cases, a reception allocation configuration may comprise 15 or 16 scheduling opportunities. The configuration may in particular represent allocation in time. It may be considered that the 1975 reception allocation configuration pertains to data signalling, in particular on a physical data channel like PDSCH or PSSCH. In general, the reception allocation configuration may pertain to downlink signalling, or in some scenarios to sidelink signalling. Control signalling scheduling subject transmission like data signalling may point and / or index and / or refer to and / or indicate a scheduling opportunity of the reception allocation con- 1980 figuration. It may be considered that the reception allocation configuration is configured or configurable with higher-layer signalling, e.g. RRC or MAC layer signalling. The reception allocation configuration may be applied and / or applicable and / or valid for a plurality of transmission timing intervals, e.g. such that for each interval, one or more opportunities may be indicated or allocated for data signalling. These approaches allow efficient 1985 and flexible scheduling, which may be semi-static, but may updated or reconfigured on useful timescales in response to changes of operation conditions.

[0238] Control information, e.g., in a control information message, in this context may in particular be implemented as and / or represented by a scheduling assignment, which may

[0239] P111679WO01 55 / 80 indicate subject transmission for feedback (transmission of acknowledgement signalling), 1990 and / or reporting timing and / or frequency resources and / or code resources. Reporting timing may indicate a timing for scheduled acknowledgement signalling, e.g. slot and / or symbol and / or resource set. Control information may be carried by control signalling.

[0240] Subject transmissions may comprise one or more individual transmissions. Scheduling assignments may comprise one or more scheduling assignments. It should generally be noted 1995 that in a distributed system, subject transmissions, configuration and / or scheduling may be provided by different nodes or devices or transmission points. Different subject transmissions may be on the same carrier or different carriers (e.g., in a carrier aggregation), and / or same or different bandwidth parts, and / or on the same or different layers or beams, e.g. in a MIMO scenario, and / or to same or different ports. Generally, subject transmis- 2000 sions may pertain to different HARQ or ARQ processes (or different sub-processes, e.g. in MIMO with different beams / layers associated to the same process identifier, but different sub-process-identifiers like swap bits). A scheduling assignment and / or a HARQ codebook may indicate a target HARQ structure. A target HARQ structure may for example indicate an intended HARQ response to a subject transmission, e.g. the number of bits 2005 and / or whether to provide code block group level response or not. However, it should be noted that the actual structure used may differ from the target structure, e.g. due to the total size of target structures for a subpattern being larger than the predetermined size.

[0241] Transmitting acknowledgement signalling, also referred to as transmitting acknowledgement information or feedback information or simply as ARQ or HARQ feedback or feed- 2010 back or reporting feedback, may comprise, and / or be based on determining correct or incorrect reception of subject transmission / s, e.g. based on error coding and / or based on scheduling assignment / s scheduling the subject transmissions. Transmitting acknowledgement information may be based on, and / or comprise, a structure for acknowledgement information to transmit, e.g. the structure of one or more subpatterns, e.g. based on 2015 which subject transmission is scheduled for an associated subdivision. Transmitting acknowledgement information may comprise transmitting corresponding signalling, e.g. at one instance and / or in one message and / or one channel, in particular a physical channel, which may be a control channel. In some cases, the channel may be a shared channel or data channel, e.g. utilising rate-matching of the acknowledgment information. The 2020 acknowledgement information may generally pertain to a plurality of subject transmissions, which may be on different channels and / or carriers, and / or may comprise data signalling and / or control signalling. The acknowledgment information may be based on a codebook, which may be based on one or more size indications and / or assignment indications (representing HARQ structures), which may be received with a plurality of 2025 control signallings and / or control messages, e.g. in the same or different transmission

[0242] P111679WO01 56 / 80 timing structures, and / or in the same or different (target) sets of resources. Transmitting acknowledgement information may comprise determining the codebook, e.g. based on control information in one or more control information messages and / or a configuration. A codebook may pertain to transmitting acknowledgement information at a single and / or 2030 specific instant, e.g. a single PUCCH or PUSCH transmission, and / or in one message or with jointly encoded and / or modulated acknowledgement information. Generally, acknowledgment information may be transmitted together with other control information, e.g. a scheduling request and / or measurement information.

[0243] Acknowledgement signalling may in some cases comprise, next to acknowledgement in2035 formation, other information, e.g. control information, in particular, uplink or sidelink control information, like a scheduling request and / or measurement information, or similar, and / or error detection and / or correction information, respectively associated bits. The payload size of acknowledgement signalling may represent the number of bits of acknowledgement information, and / or in some cases the total number of bits carried by 2040 the acknowledgement signalling, and / or the number of resource elements needed. Acknowledgement signalling and / or information may pertain to ARQ and / or HARQ processes; an ARQ process may provide ACK / NACK (and perhaps additional feedback) feedback, and decoding may be performed on each (re-)transmission separately, without soft-buffering / soft-combining intermediate data, whereas HARQ may comprise soft- 2045 buffering / soft-combining of intermediate data of decoding for one or more (re-)transmissions.

[0244] Subject transmission may be data signalling or control signalling. The transmission may be on a shared or dedicated channel. Data signalling may be on a data channel, for example on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or on a dedicated data channel, e.g. for low latency and / or high reliability, e.g. a URLLC channel. Control signalling may be on a control channel, 2050 for example on a common control channel or a PDCCH or PSCCH, and / or comprise one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. In some cases, the subject transmission may comprise, or represent, reference signalling. For example, it may comprise DM-RS and / or pilot signalling and / or discovery signalling and / or sounding signalling and / or phase tracking signalling and / or cell-specific reference signalling and / or user-specific signalling, in par- 2055 ticular CSI-RS. A subject transmission may pertain to one scheduling assignment and / or one acknowledgement signalling process (e.g., according to identifier or subidentifier), and / or one subdivision. In some cases, a subject transmission may cross the borders of subdivisions in time, e.g. due to being scheduled to start in one subdivision and extending into another, or even crossing over more than one subdivision. In this case, it may be 2060 considered that the subject transmission is associated to the subdivision it ends in.

[0245] It may be considered that transmitting acknowledgement information, in particular of ac-

[0246] P111679WO01 57 / 80 knowledgement information, is based on determining whether the subject transmission / s has or have been received correctly, e.g. based on error coding and / or reception quality. Reception quality may for example be based on a determined signal quality. Acknowl- 2065 edgement information may generally be transmitted to a signalling radio node and / or node arrangement and / or to a network and / or network node.

[0247] Acknowledgement information, or bit / s of a subpattern structure of such information (e.g., an acknowledgement information structure, may represent and / or comprise one or more bits, in particular a pattern of bits. Multiple bits pertaining to a data structure 2070 or substructure or message like a control message may be considered a subpattern. The structure or arrangement of acknowledgement information may indicate the order, and / or meaning, and / or mapping, and / or pattern of bits (or subpatterns of bits) of the information. The structure or mapping may in particular indicate one or more data block structures, e.g. code blocks and / or code block groups and / or transport blocks and / or 2075 messages, e.g. command messages, the acknowledgement information pertains to, and / or which bits or subpattern of bits are associated to which data block structure. In some cases, the mapping may pertain to one or more acknowledgement signalling processes, e.g. processes with different identifiers, and / or one or more different data streams. The configuration or structure or codebook may indicate to which process / es and / or data stream / s 2080 the information pertains. Generally, the acknowledgement information may comprise one or more subpatterns, each of which may pertain to a data block structure, e.g. a code block or code block group or transport block. A subpattern may be arranged to indicate acknowledgement or non-acknowledgement, or another retransmission state like non-scheduling or non-reception, of the associated data block structure. It may be con- 2085 sidered that a subpattern comprises one bit, or in some cases more than one bit. It should be noted that acknowledgement information may be subjected to significant processing before being transmitted with acknowledgement signalling. Different configurations may indicate different sizes and / or mapping and / or structures and / or pattern.

[0248] An acknowledgment signalling process (providing acknowledgment information) may be 2090 a HARQ process, and / or be identified by a process identifier, e.g. a HARQ process identifier or sub-identifier. Acknowledgement signalling and / or associated acknowledgement information may be referred to as feedback or acknowledgement feedback. It should be noted that data blocks or structures to which subpatterns may pertain may be intended to carry data (e.g., information and / or systemic and / or coding bits). However, depending 2095 on transmission conditions, such data may be received or not received (or not received correctly), which may be indicated correspondingly in the feedback. In some cases, a subpattern of acknowledgement signalling may comprise padding bits, e.g. if the acknowledgement information for a data block requires fewer bits than indicated as size of

[0249] P111679WO01 58 / 80 the subpattern. Such may for example happen if the size is indicated by a unit size larger 2100 than required for the feedback.

[0250] Acknowledgment information may generally indicate at least ACK or NACK, e.g. pertaining to an acknowledgment signalling process, or an element of a data block structure like a data block, subblock group or subblock, or a message, in particular a control message. Generally, to an acknowledgment signalling process there may be associated one 2105 specific subpattern and / or a data block structure, for which acknowledgment information may be provided. Acknowledgement information may comprise a plurality of pieces of information, represented in a plurality of ARQ and / or HARQ structures.

[0251] An acknowledgment signalling process may determine correct or incorrect reception, and / or corresponding acknowledgement information, of a data block like a transport 2110 block, and / or substructures thereof, based on coding bits associated to the data block, and / or based on coding bits associated to one or more data block and / or subblocks and / or subblock group / s. Acknowledgement information (determined by an acknowledgement signalling process) may pertain to the data block as a whole, and / or to one or more subblocks or subblock groups. A code block may be considered an example of 2115 a subblock, whereas a code block group may be considered an example of a subblock group. Accordingly, the associated subpattern may comprise one or more bits indicating reception status or feedback of the data block, and / or one or more bits indicating reception status or feedback of one or more subblocks or subblock groups. Each subpattern or bit of the subpattern may be associated and / or mapped to a specific data block or 2120 subblock or subblock group. In some variants, correct reception for a data block may be indicated if all subblocks or subblock groups are correctly identified. In such a case, the subpattern may represent acknowledgement information for the data block as a whole, reducing overhead in comparison to provide acknowledgement information for the subblocks or subblock groups. The smallest structure (e.g. subblock / subblock group / data 2125 block) the subpattern provides acknowledgement information for and / or is associated to may be considered its (highest) resolution. In some variants, a subpattern may provide acknowledgment information regarding several elements of a data block structure and / or at different resolution, e.g. to allow more specific error detection. For example, even if a subpattern indicates acknowledgment signalling pertaining to a data block as a whole, 2130 in some variants higher resolution (e.g., subblock or subblock group resolution) may be provided by the subpattern. A subpattern may generally comprise one or more bits indicating ACK / NACK for a data block, and / or one or more bits for indicating ACK / NACK for a subblock or subblock group, or for more than one subblock or subblock group.

[0252] A subblock and / or subblock group may comprise information bits (representing the data 2135

[0253] P111679WO01 59 / 80 to be transmitted, e.g. user data and / or downlink / sidelink data or uplink data). It may be considered that a data block and / or subblock and / or subblock group also comprises error one or more error detection bits, which may pertain to, and / or be determined based on, the information bits (for a subblock group, the error detection bit / s may be determined based on the information bits and / or error detection bits and / or error correction bits of the 2140 subblock / s of the subblock group). A data block or substructure like subblock or subblock group may comprise error correction bits, which may in particular be determined based on the information bits and error detection bits of the block or substructure, e.g. utilising an error correction coding scheme, in particular for forward error correction (FEC), e.g.

[0254] LDPC or polar coding and / or turbo coding. Generally, the error correction coding of a 2145 data block structure (and / or associated bits) may cover and / or pertain to information bits and error detection bits of the structure. A subblock group may represent a combination of one or more code blocks, respectively the corresponding bits. A data block may represent a code block or code block group, or a combination of more than one code block groups.

[0255] A transport block may be split up in code blocks and / or code block groups, for example 2150 based on the bit size of the information bits of a higher layer data structure provided for error coding and / or size requirements or preferences for error coding, in particular error correction coding. Such a higher layer data structure is sometimes also referred to as transport block, which in this context represents information bits without the error coding bits described herein, although higher layer error handling information may be 2155 included, e.g. for an internet protocol like TCP. However, such error handling information represents information bits in the context of this disclosure, as the acknowledgement signalling procedures described treat it accordingly.

[0256] In some variants, a subblock like a code block may comprise error correction bits, which may be determined based on the information bit / s and / or error detection bit / s of the 2160 subblock. An error correction coding scheme may be used for determining the error correction bits, e.g. based on LDPC or polar coding or Reed-Mueller coding. In some cases, a subblock or code block may be considered to be defined as a block or pattern of bits comprising information bits, error detection bit / s determined based on the information bits, and error correction bit / s determined based on the information bits and / or error 2165 detection bit / s. It may be considered that in a subblock, e.g. code block, the information bits (and possibly the error correction bit / s) are protected and / or covered by the error correction scheme or corresponding error correction bit / s. A code block group may comprise one or more code blocks. In some variants, no additional error detection bits and / or error correction bits are applied, however, it may be considered to apply either or both. A 2170 transport block may comprise one or more code block groups. It may be considered that no additional error detection bits and / or error correction bits are applied to a transport

[0257] P111679WO01 60 / 80 block, however, it may be considered to apply either or both. In some specific variants, the code block group / s comprise no additional layers of error detection or correction coding, and the transport block may comprise only additional error detection coding bits, 2175 but no additional error correction coding. This may particularly be true if the transport block size is larger than the code block size and / or the maximum size for error correction coding. A subpattern of acknowledgement signalling (in particular indicating ACK or NACK) may pertain to a code block, e.g. indicating whether the code block has been correctly received. It may be considered that a subpattern pertains to a subgroup like a 2180 code block group or a data block like a transport block. In such cases, it may indicate ACK, if all subblocks or code blocks of the group or data / transport block are received correctly (e.g. based on a logical AND operation), and NACK or another state of noncorrect reception if at least one subblock or code block has not been correctly received. It should be noted that a code block may be considered to be correctly received not only if 2185 it actually has been correctly received, but also if it can be correctly reconstructed based on soft-combining and / or the error correction coding.

[0258] A subpattern / HARQ structure may pertain to one acknowledgement signalling process and / or one carrier like a component carrier and / or data block structure or data block. It may in particular be considered that one (e.g. specific and / or single) subpattern pertains, 2190 e.g. is mapped by the codebook, to one (e.g., specific and / or single) acknowledgement signalling process, e.g. a specific and / or single HARQ process. It may be considered that in the bit pattern, subpatterns are mapped to acknowledgement signalling processes and / or data blocks or data block structures on a one-to-one basis. In some variants, there may be multiple subpatterns (and / or associated acknowledgment signalling processes) 2195 associated to the same component carrier, e.g. if multiple data streams transmitted on the carrier are subject to acknowledgement signalling processes. A subpattern may comprise one or more bits, the number of which may be considered to represent its size or bit size. Different bit n-tupels (n being 1 or larger) of a subpattern may be associated to different elements of a data block structure (e.g., data block or subblock or subblock 2200 group), and / or represent different resolutions. There may be considered variants in which only one resolution is represented by a bit pattern, e.g. a data block. A bit n-tupel may represent acknowledgement information (also referred to a feedback), in particular ACK or NACK, and optionally, (if n^,l), may represent DTX / DRX or other reception states. ACK / NACK may be represented by one bit, or by more than one bit, e.g. to 2205 improve disambiguity of bit sequences representing ACK or NACK, and / or to improve transmission reliability.

[0259] The acknowledgement information or feedback information may pertain to a plurality of different transmissions, which may be associated to and / or represented by data block

[0260] P111679WO01 61 / 80 structures, respectively the associated data blocks or data signalling. The data block 2210 structures, and / or the corresponding blocks and / or signalling, may be scheduled for simultaneous transmission, e.g. for the same transmission timing structure, in particular within the same slot or subframe, and / or on the same symbol / s. However, alternatives with scheduling for non-simultaneous transmission may be considered. For example, the acknowledgment information may pertain to data blocks scheduled for different trans- 2215 mission timing structures, e.g. different slots (or mini-slots, or slots and mini-slots) or similar, which may correspondingly be received (or not or wrongly received). Scheduling signalling may generally comprise indicating resources, e.g. time and / or frequency resources, for example for receiving or transmitting the scheduled signalling.

[0261] Signalling may generally be considered to represent an electromagnetic wave structure 2220 (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval), which is intended to convey information to at least one specific or generic (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signalling) target. A process of signalling may comprise transmitting the signalling. Transmitting signalling, in particular control signalling or communication signalling, e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signalling and / or resource requesting information, may 2225 comprise encoding and / or modulating. Encoding and / or modulating may comprise error detection coding and / or forward error correction encoding and / or scrambling. Receiving control signalling may comprise corresponding decoding and / or demodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and / or be based on, parity or checksum approaches, e.g.

[0262] CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check). Forward error correction coding may comprise and / or 2230 be based on for example turbo coding and / or Reed-Muller coding, and / or polar coding and / or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding used may be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal is associated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number of information bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits after encoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detec- 2235 tion coding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to information bits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.

[0263] Communication signalling may comprise, and / or represent, and / or be implemented as, data signalling, and / or user plane signalling. Communication signalling may be associated to a data channel, e.g. a physical downlink channel or physical uplink channel or physical 2240 sidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) or PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel). Generally, a data channel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signalling may be signalling associated to and / or on a data channel.

[0264] An indication generally may explicitly and / or implicitly indicate the information it rep- 2245

[0265] P111679WO01 62 / 80 resents and / or indicates. Implicit indication may for example be based on position and / or resource used for transmission. Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrisation with one or more parameters, and / or one or more index or indices, and / or one or more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particular be considered that control signalling as described herein, based on the utilised resource sequence, 2250 implicitly indicates the control signalling type.

[0266] A resource element may generally describe the smallest individually usable and / or encodable and / or decodable and / or modulatable and / or demodulatable time-frequency resource, and / or may describe a time-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and a sub-carrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and / or allocated to a 2255 resource element. A sub-carrier may be a sub-band of a carrier, e.g. as defined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and / or frequency band for transmission and / or reception. In some variants, a signal (jointly encoded / modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. A resource element may generally be as defined by a corresponding standard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and / or sub-carrier spacing (and / or 2260 numerology) may be different between different symbols and / or sub-carriers, different resource elements may have different extension (length / width) in time and / or frequency domain, in particular resource elements pertaining to different carriers.

[0267] A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and / or code resource, on which signalling, e.g. according to a specific format, may be communicated, for example trans- 2265 mitted and / or received, and / or be intended for transmission and / or reception.

[0268] A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol or an ending symbol for transmitting and / or receiving. A starting symbol may in particular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signalling, for example control signalling or data signalling. Such signalling may be on a data channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in 2270 particular a physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data or shared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or a sidelink control channel.

[0269] If the starting symbol is associated to control signalling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signalling may be in response to received signalling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g. representing acknowledgement signalling associated thereto, which may be HARQ or ARQ 2275 signalling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol (in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signalling, which may be intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Such downlink signalling may in particular be data signalling, e.g. on a physical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on, and / or in relation to, 2280 such an ending symbol.

[0270] P111679WO01 63 / 80 Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment, may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and / or instructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may be done by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio node of the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which 2285 case it may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration to be configured and / or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to a configuration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and / or receiving on allocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network 2290 node. A network node may utilise, and / or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry / ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and / or be represented by configuration information, and / or one or more corresponding indications and / or message / s

[0271] Generally, configuring may include determining configuration data representing the con- 2295 figuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and / or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and / or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node 2300 like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and / or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a 2305 terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and / or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and / or downlink control signalling and / or DCI and / or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and / or configuring resources and / or a resource pool therefor.

[0272] A resource structure may be considered to be neighboured in frequency domain by an- 2310 other resource structure, if they share a common border frequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as a lower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented by the upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a sub-carrier n, which also represents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a sub-carrier n+1. A resource structure may be considered to be neighboured in time domain by another resource struc- 2315 ture, if they share a common border time, e.g. one as an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower (or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example be represented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symbol n,

[0273] P111679WO01 64 / 80 which also represents the beginning of a symbol time interval assigned to a symbol n+1.

[0274] Generally, a resource structure being neighboured by another resource structure in a 2320 domain may also be referred to as abutting and / or bordering the other resource structure in the domain.

[0275] A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and / or frequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and a frequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and / or be comprised of resource elements, and / or the time interval of a 2325 resource structure may comprise and / or be comprised of symbol time interval / s, and / or the frequency interval of a resource structure may comprise and / or be comprised of sub- carrier / s. A resource element may be considered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or a Physical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others. A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. a PUSCH or 2330 PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot or PRB.

[0276] Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise a bandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a part of a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due to circuitry and / or configuration and / or regulations and / or a standard. A bandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio 2335 node. In some variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used for communicating, e.g. transmitting and / or receiving, by a radio node. The bandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a device bandwidth defined by the circuitry / conhguration of a device, and / or a system bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN). It may be considered that a bandwidth part comprises one or more resource blocks 2340 or resource block groups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth part may pertain to, and / or comprise, one or more carriers.

[0277] A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and / or pertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. It may be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of sub-carriers. A carrier may have assigned to it a central frequency 2345 or center frequency interval, e.g. represented by one or more sub-carriers (to each subcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth or interval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and / or may be neighbouring in frequency domain.

[0278] It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may be considered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may also include wireless communication utilising 2350 millimeter waves, in particular above one of the thresholds 10 GHz or 20 GHz or 50 GHz or 52 GHz or 52.6 GHz or 60 GHz or 72 GHz or 100 GHz or 114 GHz. Such communication may utilise one or more carriers, e.g. in FDD and / or carrier aggregation. Upper frequency

[0279] P111679WO01 65 / 80 boundaries may correspond to 300 GHz or 200 GHz or 120 GHz or any of the thresholds larger than the one representing the lower frequency boundary. 2355

[0280] A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generally be any device adapted for transmitting and / or receiving radio and / or wireless signals and / or data, in particular communication data, in particular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier may comprise a carrier accessed based on an LBT procedure (which may be called LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be considered that the carrier is part of 2360 a carrier aggregate.

[0281] Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving or transmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to the cell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and / or be defined by or for one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for UL communication / transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrier for 2365 DL communication / transmission (called DL carrier). It may be considered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DL carriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at least one carrier for UL communication / transmission and DL communication / transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

[0282] A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. A channel may 2370 comprise and / or be arranged on one or more carriers, in particular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and / or for carrying control signalling / control information may be considered a control channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and / or if it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carrying and / or for carrying data signalling / user information may be considered a data channel, in particular if it is 2375 a physical layer channel and / or if it carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for a specific communication direction, or for two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in which case it may be considered to have two component channels, one for each direction. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latency and / or high reliability transmission, in particular a 2380 channel for Ultra- Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be for control and / or data.

[0283] In general, a symbol may represent and / or be associated to a symbol time length, which may be dependent on the carrier and / or sub-carrier spacing and / or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol may be considered to indicate a time interval 2385 having a symbol time length in relation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on a carrier frequency and / or bandwidth and / or numerology and / or sub-carrier spacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbols may have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies with different sub-carrier

[0284] P111679WO01 66 / 80 spacings may have different symbol time length. Generally, a symbol time length may be 2390 based on, and / or include, a guard time interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.

[0285] A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channel structure) between two UEs and / or terminals, in which data is transmitted between the participants (UEs and / or terminals) via the communication channel, e.g. directly and / or without being relayed via a network node. A sidelink may be established only and / or directly via 2395 air interface / s of the participant, which may be directly linked via the sidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communication may be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedly defined resources and / or on resources negotiated between the participants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered that a network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in 2400 particular one or more resource pool / s, for sidelink communication, and / or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

[0286] Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communication, and / or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services) communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implemented in the context of V2x communication (Vehicular 2405 communication), e.g. V2V (Vehicle-to- Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and / or V2P (Vehicle-to- Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication may be considered a user equipment or terminal.

[0287] A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more (e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical Sidelink Control CHannel, which may for 2410 example carry control information like an acknowledgement position indication, and / or a PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared CHannel, which for example may carry data and / or acknowledgement signalling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel (or structure) pertains to and / or used one or more carrier / s and / or frequency range / s associated to, and / or being used by, cellular communication, e.g. according to a specific 2415 license and / or standard. Participants may share a (physical) channel and / or resources, in particular in frequency domain and / or related to a frequency resource like a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participants transmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and / or time-shifted, and / or there may be associated specific channels and / or resources to specific participants, so that for example only one participant transmits on a specific 2420 channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g., in frequency domain and / or related to one or more carriers or sub-carriers.

[0288] A sidelink may comply with, and / or be implemented according to, a specific standard, e.g. an LTE-based standard and / or NR. A sidelink may utilise TDD (Time Division Duplex) and / or FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a 2425

[0289] P111679WO01 67 / 80 network node, and / or preconfigured and / or negotiated between the participants. A user equipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication if it, and / or its radio circuitry and / or processing circuitry, is adapted for utilising a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and / or carriers and / or in one or more formats, in particular according to a specific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio Access 2430 Network is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication. Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may be represented, and / or defined with, and / or be related to a network node and / or communication with such a node.

[0290] Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmitting and / or receiving signalling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelink signalling) may comprise util- 2435 ising the sidelink for communication (respectively, for signalling). Sidelink transmission and / or transmitting on a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilising the sidelink, e.g. associated resources and / or transmission formats and / or circuitry and / or the air interface. Sidelink reception and / or receiving on a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilising the sidelink, e.g. associated resources and / or transmis- 2440 sion formats and / or circuitry and / or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g., SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control information transmitted utilising a sidelink.

[0291] Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radio connection and / or communication link between a wireless and / or cellular communication network and / or 2445 network node and a terminal or on a sidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one direction of transmission (e.g. DL and / or UL), as well as to the aggregate of carriers.

[0292] A corresponding communication link may be referred to as carrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriers in a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). In such a link, data may be transmitted over more than one 2450 of the carriers and / or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate of carriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicated control carriers and / or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred to as primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information may be transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primary carrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondary 2455 carriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in some approaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrier of an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

[0293] A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and / or specific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and ending symbol in time, covering the interval 2460 therebetween. A scheduled transmission may be a transmission scheduled and / or expected

[0294] P111679WO01 68 / 80 and / or for which resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, not every scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, a scheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduled uplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, or other influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier being 2465 occupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timing substructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and / or covering only a part of a transmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structure like a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in the transmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

[0295] Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the related information being 2470 defined for example in a standard, and / or being available without specific configuration from a network or network node, e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured. Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to the corresponding information being set / conhgured, e.g. by the network or a network node.

[0296] A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and / or structure configuration, 2475 may schedule transmissions, e.g. for the time / transmissions it is valid, and / or transmissions may be scheduled by separate signalling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRC signalling and / or downlink control information signalling. The transmission / s scheduled may represent signalling to be transmitted by the device for which it is scheduled, or signalling to be received by the device for which it is scheduled, depending on which side 2480 of a communication the device is. It should be noted that downlink control information or specifically DCI signalling may be considered physical layer signalling, in contrast to higher layer signalling like MAC (Medium Access Control) signalling or RRC layer signalling. The higher the layer of signalling is, the less frequent / the more time / resource consuming it may be considered, at least partially due to the information contained in such 2485 signalling having to be passed on through several layers, each layer requiring processing and handling.

[0297] A scheduled transmission, and / or transmission timing structure like a mini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or a physical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or 2490 PDSCH, and / or may pertain to a specific cell and / or carrier aggregation. A corresponding configuration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration may pertain to such channel, cell and / or carrier aggregation. It may be considered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on a physical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example a physical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared 2495 channel. For such channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.

[0298] Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing, and / or be represented

[0299] P111679WO01 69 / 80 or configured with corresponding configuration data. A configuration may be embedded in, and / or comprised in, a message or configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and / or schedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and / or semi-statically. 2500

[0300] A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an interval in time and / or frequency domain for intended or scheduled or reserved for control signalling, in particular downlink control signalling, and / or for a specific control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. The interval may comprise, and / or consist of, a number of symbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicated 2505 signalling (which may be single-cast, for example addressed to or intended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRC signalling, or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timing structure may comprise a control region covering a configurable number of symbols. It may be considered that in general the border symbol is configured to be after the control region in time. A control region may be associated, e.g. 2510 via configuration and / or determination, to one or more specific UEs and / or formats of PDCCH and / or DCI and / or identifiers, e.g. UE identifiers and / or RNTIs or carrier / cell identifiers, and / or be represented and / or associated to a CORESET and / or a search space.

[0301] The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of the transmission timing 2515 structure may generally be dependent on a numerology and / or carrier, wherein the numerology and / or carrier may be configurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for the scheduled transmission.

[0302] A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols, and / or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively their associated time intervals). In the 2520 context of this disclosure, it should be noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may be interpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval or time component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it is clear from the context that the frequency domain component also has to be considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot, subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a 2525 substructure of a slot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and may be considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their time domain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprise a plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g., interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure, and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timing 2530 structure (which may also be considered or implemented as synchronisation structure) may be defined by a succession of such transmission timing structures, which may for example define a timing grid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. A

[0303] P111679WO01 70 / 80 transmission timing structure, and / or a border symbol or a scheduled transmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timing grid. A transmission timing 2535 structure of reception may be the transmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signalling is received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timing structure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, a mini-slot.

[0304] Feedback signalling may be considered a form or control signalling, e.g. uplink or sidelink control signalling, like UCI (Uplink Control Information) signalling or SCI (Sidelink Con- 2540 trol Information) signalling. Feedback signalling may in particular comprise and / or represent acknowledgement signalling and / or acknowledgement information and / or measurement reporting. signalling utilising, and / or on and / or associated to, resources or a resource structure may be signalling covering the resources or structure, signalling on the associated frequency / ies 2545 and / or in the associated time interval / s. It may be considered that a signalling resource structure comprises and / or encompasses one or more substructures, which may be associated to one or more different channels and / or types of signalling and / or comprise one or more holes (resource element / s not scheduled for transmissions or reception of transmissions). A resource substructure, e.g. a feedback resource structure, may gener- 2550 ally be continuous in time and / or frequency, within the associated intervals. It may be considered that a substructure, in particular a feedback resource structure, represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements in time / frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure or substructure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent a non-continuous pattern of resources in one or more domains, e.g. 2555 time and / or frequency. The resource elements of a substructure may be scheduled for associated signalling.

[0305] Example types of signalling comprise signalling of a specific communication direction, in particular, uplink signalling, downlink signalling, sidelink signalling, as well as reference signalling (e.g., SRS or CRS or CSI-RS), communication signalling, control signalling, 2560 and / or signalling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

[0306] In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished between dynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and / or configuration, and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and / or configuration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may 2565 generally pertain to conhguration / transmission valid and / or scheduled and / or configured for (relatively) short timescales and / or a (e.g., predefined and / or configured and / or limited and / or definite) number of occurrences and / or transmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timing structures like slots or slot aggregations, and / or for one

[0307] P111679WO01 71 / 80 or more (e.g., specific number) of transmission / occurrences. Dynamic configuration may 2570 be based on low-level signalling, e.g. control signalling on the physical layer and / or MAC layer, in particular in the form of DCI or SCI. Periodic / semi-static may pertain to longer timescales, e.g. several slots and / or more than one frame, and / or a non-dehned number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configuration contradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodic or semi-static configuration may be based on, and / or be 2575 configured with, higher-layer signalling, in particular RCL layer signalling and / or RRC signalling and / or MAC signalling.

[0308] In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions, processes and signalling steps) in order to provide a thorough understanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent 2580 to one skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may be practised in other variants and variants that depart from these specific details.

[0309] For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE- Advanced (LTE-A) or New Radio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this does not rule out the use of the present concepts 2585 and aspects in connection with additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or IEEE standards as IEEE 802. Had or IEEE 802.11 ay. While described variants may pertain to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated that the present approaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized in 2590 connection with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

[0310] Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services, functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using software functioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or general 2595 purpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variants described herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices, the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in a program product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry, e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products that 2600 execute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

[0311] It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presented herein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof without departing from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein or without 2605

[0312] P111679WO01 72 / 80 sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspects presented herein can be varied in many ways.

[0313] P111679WO01 73 / 80 Some useful abbreviations comprise

[0314] Abbreviation Explanation

[0315] ABF Analog beamformer, fanout to antenna+beamforming

[0316] ACK / NACK Acknowledgment / Negative Acknowledgement

[0317] Ant Antenna

[0318] AoA Angle of Arrival

[0319] ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest

[0320] BB BaseBand

[0321] Beamindex IF beamindex interface

[0322] BER Bit Error Rate

[0323] BI Beam Index

[0324] BLER Block Error Rate

[0325] BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

[0326] BS Base station

[0327] BWP BandWidth Part

[0328] CAZAC Constant Amplitude Zero Cross Correlation

[0329] CB Code Block

[0330] CBB Code Block Bundle

[0331] CBG Code Block Group

[0332] CDF Cumulative Distribution Function

[0333] CDM Code Division Multiplex

[0334] CM Cubic Metric

[0335] CNN Convolution Neural Network

[0336] Comm RXBB communication receiver baseband

[0337] CORESET Control Resource Set

[0338] CP Cyclic Prefix

[0339] CP rem CP removal

[0340] CQI Channel Quality Information

[0341] CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

[0342] CRS Common reference signal

[0343] CSI Channel State Information

[0344] CSI-RS Channel state information reference signal

[0345] DAI Downlink Assignment Indicator

[0346] DCI Downlink Control Information

[0347] DFE Digital Frontend

[0348] DFT Discrete Fourier Transform

[0349] DFTS-FDM DFT-spread-FDM

[0350] P111679WO01 74 / 80 DM(-)RS Demodulation reference signal(ing) eMBB enhanced Mobile BroadBand FDD Frequency Division Duplex FDE Frequency Domain Equalisation FDF Frequency Domain Filtering FDM Frequency Division Multiplex FFT Fast Fourier Transform GPIO General Purpose Input Output HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request IAB Integrated Access and Backhaul IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform Im Imaginary part, e.g. for pi / 2*BPSK modulation IR Impulse Response ISAC Integrated Sensing and Communication ISI Inter Symbol Interference JCAS Joint Communication and Sensing MBB Mobile Broadband MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme MIMO Multiple-input-multiple-output MRC Maximum-ratio combining MRT Maximum-ratio transmission MU-MIMO Multiuser multiple- input-multiple-output

[0351] OFDM / A Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex / Multiple Access PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel PRACH Physical Random Access CHannel PRB Physical Resource Block PRS Positioning Reference Signal(ing) PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel (P)SCCH (Physical) Sidelink Control Channel PSS Primary Synchronisation Signal(ing) PT-RS Phase Tracking Reference signalling (P)SSCH (Physical) Sidelink Shared Channel QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation occ Orthogonal Cover Code QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

[0352] P111679WOD1 75 / 80 PSD Power Spectral Density

[0353] RAN Radio Access Network

[0354] RAT Radio Access Technology

[0355] RB Resource Block

[0356] RCS Radar Cross Section

[0357] RE Resource Element

[0358] Re Real part (e.g., for pi / 2*BPSK) modulation

[0359] RF Radio Frequency

[0360] RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

[0361] RRC Radio Resource Control

[0362] RX Receiver, Reception, Reception-related / side

[0363] SA Scheduling Assignment

[0364] SC-FDE Single Carrier Frequency Domain Equalisation

[0365] SC-FDM / A Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplex / Multiple Access

[0366] SCI Sidelink Control Information

[0367] SINR Signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio

[0368] SIR Signal-to-interference ratio

[0369] SNR Sign al-to- noise-ratio

[0370] SPI Serial to Parallel Interface

[0371] SR Scheduling Request

[0372] SRS Sounding Reference Signal(ing) sss Secondary Synchronisation Signal(ing)

[0373] SVD Singular- value decomposition

[0374] TB Transport Block

[0375] TDD Time Division Duplex

[0376] TDM Time Division Multiplex

[0377] ToF Time of Flight

[0378] T-RS Tracking Reference signalling or Timing Reference signalling

[0379] TX Transmitter, Transmission, Transmission-related / side

[0380] UCI Uplink Control Information

[0381] UDC Up-Down Converter, mixing from BBj-^RF

[0382] UE User Equipment

[0383] URLLC Ultra Low Latency High Reliability Communication VL-MIMO Very- large multiple-input-multiple-output WD Wireless Device Wfg Waveform Generator ZC Zadoff-Chu ZF Zero Forcing

[0384] P111679WO01 76 / 80 Zero-Power, e.g. muted CSI-RS symbol

[0385] Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable. 2610

[0386] P111679WO01 77 / 80

Claims

CLAIMS1. Method of operating a sensing node in a wireless communication network, the sensing node being adapted for wireless communication, and being adapted for sensing and / or radar operation, the method comprising performing a sensing operation based on first sensing signalling, and based on a second sensing signalling, wherein the first sensing sig- 2615 nailing comprises exclusive sensing signalling, and the second sensing signalling comprises common sensing signalling.

2. Sensing node for a wireless communication network, the sensing node being adapted for wireless communication, and being adapted for sensing and / or radar operation, the sensing node being adapted for performing a sensing operation based on first sensing 2620 signalling, and based on second sensing signalling, wherein the first sensing signalling comprises exclusive sensing signalling, and the second sensing signalling comprises common sensing signalling.

3. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein performing the sensing operation comprises transmitting the first sensing signalling and the second sens- 2625 ing signalling.

4. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein performing the sensing operation comprises receiving and / or processing the first sensing signalling and the second sensing signalling.

5. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein performing the sens- 2630 ing operation comprises scheduling and / or configuring the first sensing signalling and / or the second sensing signalling for transmission and / or reception.

6. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein exclusive sensing signalling corresponds to exlusive time resource / s and / or frequency resource / s for the first sensing signalling, e.g., among a group of transmitters of sensing signalling. 26357. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein common sensing signalling corresponds to common time resource / s and / or frequency resource / s for the second sensing signalling, e.g., among a group of transmitters of sensing signalling.

8. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein performing a sensing operation comprises processing received first sensing signalling and received second 2640 sensing signalling, wherein processing comprises determining a target parameter of a first sensing target based on the first sensing signalling.P111679WO01 78 / 809. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein performing a sensing operation comprises processing received first sensing signalling based on received second sensing signalling. 264510. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein performing a sensing operation comprises determining a lower Doppler shift of a first sensing target based on the first sensing signalling, and determining a higher Doppler shift of a second sensing target based on the second sensing signalling.

11. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a time domain 2650 density of exlusive symbols of first sensing signalling is lower than a time domain density of common symbols of the second sensing signalling, wherein the time domain density is determined over a transmission timing structure.

12. Method or device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the time domain interval between two consecutive symbols of the first sensing signalling, and / or the second 2655 sensing signalling, is constant.

13. Program product comprising instructions causing processing circuitry to control and / or perform a method according to one of claims 1 or 3 to 12.

14. Carrier medium arrangement carrying and / or storing a program product according to claim 13. 2660P111679WO01 79 / 80

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