Method and apparatus for controlling a transmission

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for controlling a transmission The method which may be performed by a terminal device comprises: receiving first downlink control information (DCI) from a network node. The first DCI may indicate a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving second DCI from the network node prior to an end of the first transmission. The second DCI may indicate a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A TRANSMISSIONTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to communication networks, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for controlling a transmission.BACKGROUND

[0002] This section introduces aspects that may facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.

[0003] With the rapid development of networking and communication technologies, wireless communication networks such as long-term evolution (LTE) / fourth generation (4G) network, new radio (NR) / fifth generation (5G) network and future sixth generation (6G) network are expected to achieve high traffic capacity and energy efficiency. In order to meet different service requirements, the wireless communication network may be supposed to support various transmission technologies and scheduling schemes, for example, including but not limited to dynamic user-prioritization scheduling and multi-time scale scheduling, etc. The resource allocation and transmission scheduling of downlink (DL) and / or uplink (UL) traffic data by the network may be informed to a terminal device such as user equipment (UE) via downlink control information (DCI). Upon receiving the DCI from the network, the terminal device may receive the traffic data from the network and / or transmit the traffic data to the network using proper time / frequency / spatial resources according to the DCI. In addition, the terminal device may provide feedback information to indicate whether the traffic data transmitted by the network are received by the terminal device successfully.SUMMARY

[0004] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0005] In NR and future 6G networks, fast dynamic user-prioritization in a scheduler may be a main part to provide quality of service (QoS). Current transmission scheduling usually operates per slot level and a scheduling decision may be based on a simplified per transmission time interval (TTI) resource optimization criterion, where when scheduling candidates are requesting the same timefrequency resources, a scheduling candidate that has the best usage of the resources (which may berepresented by the highest scheduling weight) may be allocated with the resources.

[0006] For multi -time scale scheduling where a given time-frequency resource may be allocated from different points in time, when there are scheduled transmissions with different TTI lengths, or when there are different processing times for scheduling, a QoS violation problem may occur. For example, a new scheduling candidate may have a higher priority than an old scheduling entity (e.g., a previously scheduled user, etc.), and resources already occupied by the old scheduling entity may be requested by the new scheduling candidate, e.g., when the new scheduling candidate has less processing time and / or shorter TTI length compared to the old scheduling entity. There may be some solutions to such QoS violation problem, e.g., including but not limited to reserving resources for some potential scheduling candidates with higher priorities, cancelling an ongoing transmission of the previously scheduled user so as to make the occupied resources available for the new scheduling candidate, etc. However, the existing solutions may increase processing complexity and introducing additional transmission delay as a scheduling decision already made may be changed and an ongoing transmission may be cancelled. In addition, reserving resources for a potential transmission may lead to resource waste, because the potential transmission may not be scheduled as expected, or when it is scheduled, other non-reserved resources may also be available for the potential transmission. Therefore, it may be desirable to implement transmission scheduling in a more efficient way.

[0007] Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure propose a solution for controlling a transmission (e.g., a DL transmission, an UL transmission, etc.) for a terminal device, which can enable the transmission to be modified in a non-cancelling way, e.g., by providing modification DCI after initial DCI which schedules the transmission for the terminal device.

[0008] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a terminal device. The method comprises: receiving first DCI from a network node. The first DCI may indicate a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: receiving second DCI from the network node prior to an end of the first transmission. The second DCI may indicate a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission.

[0009] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI and / or the second DCI and / or the first transmission may be scheduled in a symbol bundle (SB) based granularity. In an embodiment, the SB may comprise one or more symbols.

[0010] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission may comprise one or more of: pausing the at least part of the first transmission; postponing the at least part of the first transmission; continuing the at least part of the first transmission; terminating the at least part of the first transmission; restarting the at least part ofthe first transmission; dropping the at least part of the first transmission; modifying resource allocation of the at least part of the first transmission in a time domain and / or in a frequency domain and / or in a spatial domain; modifying power allocation of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying puncturing of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying rate-matching of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a logical channel (LCH) of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a logical channel group (LCG) of the at least part of the first transmission; and modifying a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) parameter configuration of the at least part of the first transmission.

[0011] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may include one or more parameters for the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission. In an embodiment, the one or more parameters may indicate one or more of a time period during which the at least part of the first transmission is to be paused; a time instance to which the at least part of the first transmission is to be postponed; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be continued; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be terminated; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be restarted; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be dropped; whether the at least part of the first transmission is about to end; and where the at least part of the first transmission is about to end.

[0012] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, resource allocation for the second DCI may be indicated by one or more of the first DCI; a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message; and semi-persistent scheduling signaling.

[0013] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, one or more resources allocated to the second DCI may be semi-persistently activated or deactivated. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI may be dynamically activated or deactivated by the first DCI. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI may be adaptively added by the first DCI and / or the second DCI.

[0014] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI may further indicate one or more of one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the first transmission; whether the terminal device is expected to receive the second DCI; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the second DCI; and one or more parameters configured for a second transmission to be scheduled for the terminal device after the first transmission. In anembodiment, the first transmission and the second transmission may have a same parameter configuration or different parameter configurations.

[0015] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI and the second DCI may be scheduled using one or more of a same frequency resource or different frequency resources; a same spatial resource or different spatial resources; a same scheduling granularity or different scheduling granularities; and a same format or different formats.

[0016] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure may further comprise: transmitting an HARQ feedback with respect to the first transmission to the network node, in response to the second DCI indicating the end of the first transmission.

[0017] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the HARQ feedback may be allocated with one or more resources which may be indicated by one or more of the first DCI; the second DCI; and an RRC configuration message.

[0018] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the second DCI indicates the end of the first transmission, the second DCI may be multiplexed with the first transmission or a retransmission of the first transmission.

[0019] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the at least part of the first transmission is modified so that the at least part of the first transmission is allocated with a first resource set while at least another part of the first transmission is allocated with a second resource set different from the first resource set, the at least part of the first transmission may be associated with a first hybrid automatic repeat request process identifier (HPID), and the at least another part of the first transmission may be associated with a second HPID.

[0020] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the first HPID is also applicable to one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID may be same as the second HPID. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, when the first HPID is not applicable to the one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID may be different from the second HPID.

[0021] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may further indicate one or more of a first HPID associated with the at least part of the first transmission; a second HPID associated with at least another part of the first transmission; and a mapping relationship between the first HPID and the second HPID.

[0022] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may be aggregated with other DCI in different SBs to associate to a TTI.

[0023] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI may be included in a controlchannel or a data channel. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may be included in the control channel or the data channel.

[0024] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the second DCI is included in a data channel, the data channel may be rate-matched around one or more resources allocated to the second DCI.

[0025] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI and the data channel may be configured with a same demodulation reference signal (DMRS) or different DMRSs. In an embodiment, a DMRS per SB may be configured for the data channel.

[0026] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the terminal device has a capability of supporting the second DCI, and when a third transmission and the at least part of the first transmission are to be scheduled using a same resource while the at least part of the first transmission has a lower priority than the third transmission, the second DCI may be configured to the terminal device. In an embodiment, the third transmission is to be scheduled for the terminal device or another terminal device.

[0027] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the capability of supporting the second DCI of the terminal device may be signaled and / or modified via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0028] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the terminal device is scheduled with carrier aggregation, the terminal device may support to trigger an HARQ feedback to a transmission per carrier by a corresponding DCI which indicates an end of the transmission per carrier.

[0029] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when DCI in different carriers is received by the terminal device at a same SB, the terminal device may support to combine HARQ feedbacks in the different carriers.

[0030] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the terminal device may further support to transmit a combined HARQ feedback to the network node in one of the different carriers.

[0031] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the different carriers may be configured with a same SB or different SBs independently of a frequency numerology per carrier.

[0032] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first transmission may comprise a transmission on a DL data channel or a transmission on an UL data channel.

[0033] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus which may be implemented as a terminal device. The apparatus may comprise processing circuitry and one or more memories storing computer program codes. The one or more memories and the computer program codes may be configured to, with the processing circuitry, cause the apparatus at least to perform any step of the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0034] According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, may cause the processing circuitry to carry out any step of the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0035] According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network node. The method comprises: transmitting first DCI to a terminal device. The first DCI may indicate a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method further comprises: transmitting second DCI to the terminal device prior to an end of the first transmission. The second DCI may indicate a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission.

[0036] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first transmission according to the fourth aspect of the present disclosure may correspond to the first transmission according to the first aspect of the present disclosure. Thus, the first transmission according to the first and fourth aspects of the present disclosure may have the same or similar contents and / or feature elements.

[0037] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI and the second DCI according to the fourth aspect of the present disclosure may correspond to the first DCI and the second DCI according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, respectively. Thus, the first DCI according to the first and fourth aspects of the present disclosure may have the same or similar contents and / or feature elements. Similarly, the second DCI according to the first and fourth aspects of the present disclosure may have the same or similar contents and / or feature elements.

[0038] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method according to the fourth aspect of the present disclosure may comprise: receiving an HARQ feedback with respect to the first transmission from the terminal device, in response to the second DCI indicating the end of the first transmission.

[0039] According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus which may be implemented as a network node. The apparatus may comprise processing circuitry and one or more memories storing computer program codes. The one or more memories and the computer program codes may be configured to, with the processing circuitry, cause the apparatus at least to perform any step of the method according to the fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

[0040] According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, may cause the processing circuitry to carry out any step of the method according to the fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

[0041] According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computerprogram product comprising instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, may cause the processing circuitry to any step of the method according to the first aspect or the fourth aspect of the present disclosure.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0042] Fig. lA is a diagram illustrating an exemplary preemption indication DCI (PI-DCI) based DL scheme according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0043] Fig. IB is a diagram illustrating an exemplary cancellation indication DCI (CI-DCI) based UL scheme according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0044] Fig.1C to Fig.1G are diagrams illustrating exemplary use cases involving multi -time scale scheduling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0045] Fig.2A is a diagram illustrating an exemplary scheduling process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0046] Fig.2B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary scheduling process according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0047] Fig.2C to Fig.2F are diagrams illustrating exemplary transmission scheduling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0048] Fig.3 is a flowchart illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0049] Fig.4 is a flowchart illustrating another method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0050] Fig.5 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0051] Fig.6 shows an example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0052] Fig.7 shows another example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0053] Fig.8 shows a wireless device in accordance with some embodiments;

[0054] Fig.9 shows a network node in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0055] Fig.10 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0056] When multiple scheduling candidates are requesting the same time / frequency / spatial resources, one solution to address the QoS violation problem may be to reserve some arbitraryresources for a scheduling candidate (e.g., a user with high priority and low latency) without traffic knowledge. However, this solution may potentially waste resources or not fulfill QoS requirements. Another solution may be a preemption / cancellation indication DCI based scheme in NR, which is designed initially to support mini-slot mixed with slot-based scheduling. A scheduling modification decision from a shorter interval may be based on PI DCI (for DL) or CI DCI (for UL).

[0057] Fig. lA is a diagram illustrating an exemplary PI-DCI based DL scheme according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an embodiment, some enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) data with low priority may be scheduled with a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) at the beginning of a slot, and some new ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) data may arrive and require the same or a part of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources that have been allocated to a transmission of the eMBB data. According to the scheme shown in Fig.lA, a gNB may preempt or puncture an ongoing PDSCH transmission and allocate the resources for the URLLC data. After the PDSCH transmission is finished, the gNB may schedule PLDCI to inform the preempted UE about the HARQ buffer that may be corrupted. The gNB may schedule a retransmission for the preempted code block group (CBG).

[0058] Fig. IB is a diagram illustrating an exemplary CLDCI based UL scheme according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an embodiment, UE1 may be scheduled with an eMBB physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission for two slots starting from slot n+1. After a few symbols, there may be a new URLLC buffer state report (BSR) from UE2 arrived and requiring the time-frequency resource which is allocated for UE1. According to the scheme as shown in Fig. IB, a gNB may send CLDCI to UE1 to inform UE1 to cancel the same or a part of an ongoing transmission, and at the same time the gNB may schedule more important URLLC data with the timefrequency resource which is released from the previous transmission. When receiving the CLDCI, UE1 may stop transmitting the cancelled transmission. The gNB may schedule a retransmission of the cancelled transmission.

[0059] Fig.1C to Fig.1G are diagrams illustrating exemplary use cases involving multi -time scale scheduling according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Some features of multi-time scale scheduling will be described in connection with Fig.1C to Fig.1G as below.• Different UE processing capabilities- Considering different UE processing times (Nl) from receiving the last PDSCH symbol to the HARQ A / N ready to transmitted on UL, DL HARQ acknowledgement / HARQ negative acknowledgement (HARQ A / N) with different QoS flows may result in an out- of-order HARQ problem.- Considering different UE processing times (N2) from receiving the last PDCCH symbolfor UL PUSCH scheduling grant to the first symbol of PUSCH transmission, DCI scheduling PUSCH transmissions may be associated with different QoS of UEs.

[0060] In the exemplary use case as shown by Fig. lC, UE1 needs more processing time and a PUSCH transmission may be scheduled for UE1 via a PDCCH with K2=2 (i.e., two slots ahead than the first symbol of the PUSCH transmission); while UE2 needs less processing time and a PUSCH transmission may be scheduled for UE2 via a PDCCH with K2=l (i.e., one slot ahead than the first symbol of the PUSCH transmission). A QoS violation problem may occur that UE2 has a higher priority than UE1, but because UE1 is scheduled earlier than UE2, the potential PUSCH resources may be occupied by UE1.

[0061] According to the existing solution, it may be expected to send a CI to UE1 in the PDCCH at one slot ahead to cancel the potential PUSCH transmission and schedule the PUSCH transmission of UE2 at the same time. However, it may not be possible because UE1 needs more processing time and it may take more than one slot to blind decode the wideband CI and cancel the PUSCH transmission.• Mini-slot allocations with additional PDCCH occasions

[0062] In the exemplary use case as shown by Fig. ID, UE1 and UE2 both need less processing time, but UE1 is scheduled with a TTI length equal to one slot for a low priority and throughput heavy traffic. When UE1 is transmitting at the second half of the slot, UE2 has more important and more urgent data to be transmitted at the second half of the slot that requires the same or a part of PDSCH resources allocated for UE1.

[0063] According to the existing solution, a gNB may puncture / preempt the second half of the slot for the PDSCH transmission of UE1, and schedule UE2 with the same PDSCH resources. But the problem is that UE1 may receive a corrupted transmission signal resulting in a decoding error. The expected behavior with the existing solution is that the gNB may send a PI after the last PDSCH symbol to inform UE1 that the CBG which is multiplexed at the last half of the slot is corrupted, and order UE1 to flush the correspondent HARQ buffer. Then the gNB may reschedule a retransmission of the corrupted CBG with a new PDCCH / PDSCH.• Multi-slot / repetition based PUSCH allocation versus single slot scheduling

[0064] In the exemplary use case as shown by Fig. IE, UE1 is scheduled with DCI at slot 4 to perform multi-slot PUSCH scheduling transmissions or PUSCH repetition at slot 5 and slot 10. UE2 needs the PUSCH resources at slot 10. Therefore, CI-DCI may need to be sent at slot 9 to cancel a potential transmission of UE1 at slot 10 and schedule a PUSCH transmission of UE2. The cancellation of a repetition may result in a retransmission of entire repetition, and thus potential waste of resource may be increased.

[0065] In the exemplary use case as shown by Fig. IF, at slot 6, a scheduler may schedule an aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) report of a UE to be transmitted in a PUSCH at slot 12, because the UE may need a longer time (i.e., 6 slots) to prepare a PUSCH transmission for the A-CSI report. At slot 7, it may not be possible to schedule a PUSCH transmission at slot 8 for the same UE. That is because scheduling of the PUSCH transmission at slot 8 is performed later than the scheduling of the PUSCH transmission at slot 12, and an HARQ ID which is allocated for slot 8 is larger in number than an HARQ ID allocated for slot 12. This is considered as the out-of-order HARQ problem and may not be allowed in the NR network. Using the CI-DCI to cancel the A-CSI report when scheduling the UL PUSCH transmission at slot 8 or slot 12 may be possible, but the A-CSI report may not be able to be scheduled if it is full buffer transmission. A possible solution is to schedule the A-CSI report and skip scheduling of slot 8 and slot 12, which may result in an empty UL slot at slot 8 and peak rate reduction.• Cross-slot scheduling

[0066] In the exemplary use case as shown by Fig.1G, PDSCH scheduling may be performed via a PDCCH at a different time slot. For power saving, potential cross-slot scheduling (i.e., K0 > 0, where PDCCH signaling schedules a PDSCH transmission one slot later than a PDCCH grant) of UE1 may take resources from UE2 which is not performing cross-slot scheduling.

[0067] To save PDCCH resources, potential multi-slot scheduling or configured grant / semi- persistent scheduling may allocate PUSCH / PDSCH resources at different time instances.

[0068] The existing solutions may have the following issues, especially in the multi-time scale scheduling scenarios:• Firstly, the complexity may be introduced when cancelling a scheduling decision which has been made and sent to a lower layer process. Cancellation an ongoing process in a lower layer may require memory and deterministic knowledge about a status of the process, which may require software memory and cycle consumption.• Secondly, the resource inefficiency may be introduced. Any data drained from a radio link control (RLC) layer which is then “aborted” or discarded at a lower layer may result in a need for HARQ retransmissions later. The air interface resources such as PUSCH, PDSCH, physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), PDCCH, HARQ processes, gNB and UE processing resources, which are used to schedule previous transmissions may be wasted.• Thirdly, cancell ation / preempti on DCI may be carried at a normal PDCCH, which may require a long blind decoding delay of the wideband PDCCH. Potentially, a UE may not be able to support fast processing enough to cancel the ongoing transmission.• Fourthly, a potential delay may be added in a lower layer for processing a high priority lowlatency traffic because it may need to wait for the cancellation of another UE processing succeeded.• Last but not least, to schedule a retransmission of an aborted transmission may be not easy because it may require a new scheduling occasion, which may not exist in a high load scenario.

[0069] In order to address one or more issues above, various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure propose a modification scheduling solution to differentiate initial DCI and modification DCI, where the initial DCI may indicate resource allocation related to PDSCH / PUSCH transmissions in initial scheduling, and the modification DCI may indicate a modification of the resource allocation / transmission indicated by the initial DCI, so as to allow updating or changing a scheduling decision with modification scheduling. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the proposed solution may differentiate an initial scheduling granularity and a modification scheduling granularity, and can support differentiated resource allocations for the initial DCI and the modification DCI. According to the proposed solution, a UE may be able to modify a scheduling decision after receiving the modification DCI. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a network may configure an SB as the minimum scheduling granularity. The initial scheduling granularity, which may be equal to an SB or multiple SBs, may be configured differently by the network for different UEs. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, resources for the modification DCI may be RRC configured and semi-persistently activated or dynamically scheduled by the initial DCI.

[0070] Many advantages may be achieved by applying the proposed solution, for example, including but not limited to:• QoS prioritization per scheduling occasion may potentially pause, modify, continue or terminate an ongoing transmission, which has been scheduled previously.• A scheduling request of a large PDSCH transmission may be decoupled with small modified transmission occasion DCI (i.e., MTO-DCI, also called modification DCI in this document).• Scheduling the MTO-DCI may not need a PDSCH allocator, so no PDSCH allocation time may be consumed.• An MTO-DCI capability may be configured based on a QoS requirement and / or load condition, which may allow the flexibility to modify a transmission or not.• The MTO-DCI detection rate may be decoupled with a PDSCH successful decoding result.• The MTO-DCI may be used to trigger scheduling of a PUSCH resource for an HARQ A / N feedback, since it may not need to be scheduled in a PDSCH assignment and an HARQprocess may be allocated when the MTO-DCI is received, the out-of-order HARQ problem can be avoided.• The MTO-DCI can schedule an HARQ A / N feedback on a PUSCH in the same carrier, so as to avoid complication of inter-carrier HARQ feedback.• A long TTI transmission interval may consist of multiple SBs. With the MTO-DCI, it may be possible to flexibly modify the next SB transmission without preemption. It can save the potential HARQ process, PDSCH, PUSCH resources with improved latency performance.

[0071] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a resource to be allocated for a transmission may be in various forms, for example, including but not limited to:• an SB, which may comprise a symbol, a group of symbols, a slot, or a group of slots, etc. The SB may be a granularity of time domain resource which a scheduler may work with. A long TTI transmission interval may consist of multiple SBs or symbols. The minimum scheduling granularity such as an SB may be signaled from a network to a UE or a group of UEs in cell level. In an embodiment, the network may decide the SB length per cell or per UE.• a code block or a group of code blocks.• a frame or a group of frames.• any suitable format indicated by one or more quantifiable resource parameters as defined in 6G networks.

[0072] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an SB based scheduling scheme may be applied to allow receiving, after initial DCI assigning a transmission, modification DCI which indicates a non-cancelling modification of the assigned transmission. In an embodiment, the modification DCI may be received by a UE before the last symbol of the assigned transmission. According to the modification DCI, the assigned transmission may be updated or changed without cancellation. For example, the modification DCI may enable a long transmission to be paused for a while and continue it later.

[0073] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the scheduling instance / granularity for the initial DCI and the modification DCI may be defined as one SB or multiple SBs. The scheduling instance / granularity for the initial DCI and the modification DCI may be the same or different from each other. The network configured minimum scheduling granularity may be signaled to a group of UEs or a UE depending on a cell load, a radio condition, and / or a deployment to decide the scheduling granularity.

[0074] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the network may configure the same SB or different SBs for different carriers independent of frequency numerology of a component carrier.When different component carriers are allocated with the same SB, the minimum scheduling allocation granularities on different component carriers may be the same.

[0075] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the network may increase the SB length if capacity requirement is high, and decrease the SB length if capacity requirement is low. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the network may use a short SB length if it is an indoor dedicated network, and use a long SB length if it is a macro public radio access network (RAN) network.

[0076] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the modification DCI transmitted at an MTO-DCI resource may be allocated by the initial DCI or RRC configuration and activated semi- persistently at the initial DCI. The MTO-DCI resource may be a narrow band PDCCH or PDSCH which may be dedicated for a UE or a group of UEs. The MTO-DCI resource may be allocated at the same component carrier or different component carriers with single or multiple initial DCI at said carrier(s).

[0077] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a UE may potentially require or not require blind decoding to receive the modification DCI. When the UE receives the modification DCI, the UE may potentially pause, restart or modify the allocation of an ongoing transmission according to the modification DCI.

[0078] More details of the proposed solutions of the present disclosure will be described below in connection with various exemplary embodiments. It can be appreciated that although some embodiments are described with respect to 5G or NR networks, various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be applicable to different communication scenarios where a scheduled transmission may need to be modified for updating a scheduling decision already made.

[0079] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, LI signaling based on MTO-DCI may be introduced to allow a modification of a part or set or subset of scheduling resources or transmission occasions (TOs) related to an ongoing or yet to be initiated assignment, e.g., PDSCH TOs, or grant, e.g., PUSCH TOs. The modification may be applied in time domain and / or in frequency domain and / or in spatial domain.

[0080] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a TTI may be longer than a single SB or multiple SBs, or may be shorter than a SB. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, a long TTI transmission may be aggregated from multiple short SBs with the following potential scheduling operations:• Making an initial scheduling decision based on ordinary PDCCH DCI to inform a UE about a starting symbol, a number of SBs (e.g., symbols, etc.) and / or other transmission related information, where the initial scheduling decision may also be used to schedule resourcesallocated for potential modification DCI (MTO-DCI);• Allowing the potential modification DCI among different SBs; and• Configuring the modification DCI as the “lastTx” MTO-DCI to indicate the last transmission from a set of SBs scheduled by the initial DCI, where the “lastTx” MTO-DCI may be multiplexed with the last SB in the PDSCH, explicitly to the UE.

[0081] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, in the time domain, a transmission on a subset of resources may be:• paused: e.g., by sending MTO-DCI. In this case, the transmission over some symbols or a subset of grants / assignments may be paused.• postponed: e.g., by sending MTO-DCI. In this case, the transmission over some symbols or a subset of grants / assignments may be postponed to new resources which may have a different time domain allocation and / or frequency domain allocation and / or spatial domain allocation.• terminated: e.g., by sending MTO-DCI. In this case, the transmission over some symbols or a subset of grants / assignments may be terminated / stopped.• continued: e.g., by sending MTO-DCI. In this case, the transmission over some symbols or a subset of grants / assignments may be continued over a new or existing set or subset of pre-allocated or newly allocated resources.

[0082] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, in the frequency domain, the MTO-DCI may enable a modification of resources from an existing grant / assignment to different resource blocks / physical resource blocks (PRBs) within the same bandwidth part (BWP), different carriers, or different BWPs, etc. Thus, the potential modification of MCS and transmission block (TB) size may be obtained.

[0083] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the MTO-DCI may indicate a puncturing or rate-matching modification. For example, the MTO-DCI may indicate a set of resource elements (e.g., time-frequency resources, etc.) where a transmission may be punctured or rate-matched. That is, the transmission may be modified (e.g., in a PUSCH) or assumed in reception to be modified (e.g., in a PDSCH) such that the indicated set of resource elements may not be used by the transmission.

[0084] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the modification of resources / transmission may enable a subset of resources / transmission allocated in different bands / carriers / BWPs, and then there may be different options on usage of HARQ process identifiers (HPIDs).• Option 1 : A single pool or set of HPIDs may be defined for transmissions in different bands / carriers / BWPs. It means that if an HPID X is being utilized for a transmission in the current carrier, the HPID X may be blocked for usage in other carriers.

[0085] In an embodiment, based on a HPID usage rule according to Option 1, if a given resource / transmission associated with a given HPID is modified so that its subset of resources or transmission is moved to a new carrier / band / BWP, then the subset of modified resource / transmission may still be associated with the same HPID. The reason is that different carriers / bands / BWPs may have an independent separate pool of HPIDs.• Option 2: A pool or set of HPIDs may be associated with a single carrier / band / BWP. It means that if an HPID X is being utilized for a transmission in the current carrier, the HPID X may not be blocked for usage in other carriers.

[0086] In an embodiment, based on a HPID usage rule according to Option 2, if a given resource / transmission associated with a given HPID (e.g., HPID X) is modified so that its subset of resources or transmission is moved to a new carrier / band / BWP, then the subset of modified resource / transmission may be associated with another HPID (e.g., HPID Y). In an embodiment, the network may define a mapping relationship that the resource / transmission associated with HPID X in the current band is mapped to the resource / transmission (corresponding to the subset of modified resource / transmission) associated with HPID Y occurring in different frequency domain resources.

[0087] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the resource / transmission modification to a different carrier / band / BWP may be allowed only if the same HPID is available, e.g., in Option 2, the modification (moving / reallocation of a subset of resources in another carrier) may be allowed only if Y = X.

[0088] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the MTO-DCI may be sent over a PDSCH. In an embodiment, the MTO-DCI may be included in the PDSCH. In another embodiment, the MTO- DCI may be sent over a PDCCH which may be multiplexed with the PDSCH. The MTO-DCI may be blindly searched for in a PDSCH time-frequency region. In some examples, the PDSCH may be rate-matched around the resources used by a potential MTO-DCI, irrespectively if the MTO-DCI is transmitted or not. In other examples, the PDSCH may be rate-matched around the resources used by the MTO-DCI, that is, the PDSCH may be rate-matched only if the MTO-DCI is transmitted. For example, a UE may be configured to rate-match around a set of resource blocks RBMT0-DCI= {RBni, RBn2, ... , RBnm}, where n(- is a resource block of an assigned PDSCH, in symbols of the PDSCH that fulfills s (mod sb) = 0 (where s = 0 corresponds the first symbol of the PDSCH) where sb is a bundle of symbols. In each symbol s of the PDSCH that fulfills s (mod sb) = 0, the UE may attempt to receive the MTO-DCI in the resource blocks RBMT0-DCI. In some examples, there may be two or more sets of RBMT0-DCIcorresponding candidates where the MTO-DCI may be sent. The sets may be of different sizes to allow two or more aggregation levels. In some such examples, the MTO-DCI may not be expected to be received in the first symbol s = 0 . TheRBMT0-DCIsets may or may not have common resource blocks.

[0089] In some embodiments, the DMRS of the PDSCH may be reused when the UE attempts to decode the MTO-DCI, while in other embodiments the MTO-DCI may have its own DMRS. In the embodiments where the DMRS of the PDSCH are reused for the MTO-DCI, the MTO-DCI may be configured to be received with a lower number of layers. In some such embodiments, the UE may be configured to receive the MTO-DCI using the first port of the PDSCH.

[0090] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, one resource element (RE) or one bit or one symbol with different values may be used for the MTO-DCI to indicate different modification operations on a transmission as below.• If the MTO DCI is detected with bit value 0, meaning pausTx (i.e., pausing of the transmission over a subset of resources), e.g., potentially including pausing for L SBs. In an embodiment, the value of L may be preconfigured or defined with RRC configuration or may be indicated in the MTO-DCI at the cost of increasing its size. In another embodiment, the MTO-DCI may point towards the SB, e.g., at a gap of G symbols from / with respect to the MTO-DCI to the start of L SBs. A preconfigured length of the pointer (the value of G) may be configured with RRC configuration or may be indicated in the MTO-DCI itself at the expense of increased size of the MTO-DCI.• If the MTO DCI is detected with bit value 1, meaning lastTx (i.e., this is the last transmission from a set of SBs where the first transmission is initiated from the set of SBs with the initial DCI (i.e., DCI#0)). In an embodiment, an HARQ A / N feedback may be sent implicitly / explicitly at a PUSCH / PUCCH after KI symbols with respect to lastTx (signaled by the MTO-DCI).• In the case of quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulated symbol, there may be four exemplary options as below:- pausTx: pausing of a transmission over a subset of resources, as described previously.- lastTx: indicating the last transmission, as described previously.- dropTx: an ongoing transmission may be dropped and an HPID may be free for utilization of a transmission of new data.- reserved bit: for other purpose.• In the case that it is possible with more bits indicating more information in the MTO-DCI, there may be the following exemplary options:- pausTx: to pause for one or more SBs.- continueTx: to restart a paused transmission with a potential modification in different allocations with a potential time, frequency, spatial, and / or power resource modification.

[0091] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, if the MTO-DCI is not detected, it may indicate that there is still data (pending or ongoing), and a UE may continue receiving data (in a PDSCH) or transmitting data (in a PUSCH), and may not need to send an HARQ A / N feedback in case of the PDSCH transmission as it is not ended yet.

[0092] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, MTO-DCI resources may be dedicatedly allocated by the initial DCI. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the MTO-DCI resources may be RRC configured, and activated / deactivated via the initial DCI or the MTO-DCI.

[0093] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the MTO-DCI dedicated PDCCH resources may be allocated at a single carrier or multiple carriers.

[0094] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an HARQ A / N feedback may be modified and an HARQ process may be determined at the MTO-DCI indicating “lastTx”. It means that the HARQ A / N feedback may not be predefined or preconfigured when the initial DCI (DCI#0) is sent for PDSCH allocation. Rather the PUSCH or HARQ A / N resource may be determined based on the “lastTx” (e.g., as indicated by the MTO-DCI with bit value 1). When the last transmission is signaled using the MTO-DCI, the feedback resource policy may be defined / indicated by one or more of the following:• RRC configuration in a priority manner;• the initial DCI (i.e. DCI#0), which may indicate that the HARQ A / N resource is KI slots / symbols after the “lastTx”; and• the MTO-DCI, in case that the MTO-DCI has a field with a large number of bits, where it can indicate KI value flexibly for the HARQ A / N resource. In an embodiment, the network may update a total downlink assignment index (tDAI) and a count downlink assignment index (cDAI) reflecting how many PDSCH transmissions have been sent until the “lastTx”.

[0095] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an option of supporting MTO-DCI may be configured via RRC signaling depending on the priority of different services. There are the following options as examples.• Different types of MTO-DCI are fully supported.• No MTO-DCI is supported. A scheduling decision may be made at the initial DCI, and may not be modified, paused or continued. An indication of the “lastTx” may be scheduled together with the initial DCI or indicated by the initial DCI.• The MTO-DCI for modification such as pause, continuation, etc. may not be supported, but the MTO-DCI indicating the “lastTx” may be supported. The scheduled transmission may have a low priority and can be modified by other scheduling decision.• A UE may continue transmitting the follow-up SBs when it receives the MTO-DCIindicating “continuation”. This capability may be used when the scheduled transmission has a low priority and the UE is in a poor radio condition and potentially has a high risk of PDCCH mis-detection. This may be used to restrict the transmission only when the UE successfully receives a PDCCH order.

[0096] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the option of supporting MTO-DCI is configured, the frequency and time resources used by the MTO-DCI may be configured via RRC signaling and / or L2 / L1 signaling determined by a gNB.

[0097] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the scheduling DCI (i.e., the initial DCI) may include a field / parameter indicating if a UE needs to be prepared to receive MTO-DCI during an ongoing scheduled PDSCH / PUSCH transmission, or not. A value “1” (or “0”) of the field / parameter may indicate that the UE may attempt to receive the MTO-DCI and perform the modification indicated by the MTO-DCI if receiving the MTO-DCI; while a value “0” (or “1”) of the field / parameter may indicate that the UE may not be expected to receive the MTO-DCI during the scheduled PDSCH / PUSCH transmission.

[0098] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the capability of supporting MTO-DCI may be signaled or modified via an MAC CE.

[0099] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the DCI format of initial DCI (e.g., the DCI scheduling a PDSCH transmission) may have the same format as that for MTO-DCI. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the format for the initial DCI may be different from the format for the MTO-DCI. For example, the MTO-DCI size may be considerably smaller than the initial DCI size.

[0100] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the scheduling operation may be performed in network side. In an embodiment, a scheduling decision of PUSCH / PUCCH carrying an HARQ A / N feedback may be made by the network when scheduling the “lastTx” MTO-DCI at the last SB.

[0101] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, there may be two types of allocation requests, i.e., an initial allocation request (initial AllocReq) and a modification allocation request (modAllocReq). The initial AllocReq may be triggered by a newly arrived scheduling candidate which has bufferSize>0. The modAllocReq may be triggered by a scheduled but not yet finished transmission which has been allocated with MTO-DCI resources. The modAllocReq may be inserted to a scheduling process for the next scheduling occasion.

[0102] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, at any SB boundary, the prioritization may be made among any newly arrived initialAllocReq and modAllocReq in a scheduler from different scheduling candidates. A scheduling candidate may comprise a user or an LCH / LCG of the same user. In an embodiment, initial DCI may be sent to a UE when its initialAllocReq is prioritized from allthe other scheduling candidates and there are initial PDCCH and modification PDCCH resources assigned to the UE with the initial DCI. In another embodiment, MTO-DCI may be sent to the UE when its PxSCH (e.g., PDSCH and PUSCH) resources need to be modified due to various reasons and there are MTO-DCI resources allocated.

[0103] Fig.2A is a diagram illustrating an exemplary scheduling process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig.2A, at SB2, a gNB scheduler may allocate resources for initial AllocReql from UE1. The initial scheduling decision may be to start from SB6, and the TTI length is 3 SBs. At the end of the scheduling at SB2, the scheduling decision of SB6 may be sent to a lower layer and mtoAllocReql with the resource allocation of SB7-SB8 from UE1 may be generated and inserted to a scheduling validation process for the resource allocation of SB7. At SB3, newly arrived initial AllocReq2 with a high priority from scheduling candidate UE2 may be prioritized against mtoAllocReql. A scheduling decision of SB7 may be to schedule PxSCH for UE2 as it has a higher priority, and to change the resource allocation / transmission of UE1 (potentially by MTO-DCI indicating “pausTx” to pause a transmission, or MTO-DCI indicating the modified time frequency resources). The MTO-DCI according to a scheduling modification decision may be sent to UE1 and the initial DCI may be sent to UE2. In the follow-up scheduling duration, SB7 and SB8, there is only one scheduling candidate “mtoAllocReql”, so the scheduling candidate of UE1 may be prioritized and allocated with new resources. The MTO-DCI according to the scheduling decision may be sent to UE1 to continue its transmission potentially with the same or updated time-frequency resource.

[0104] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, it may be possible to have different scheduling candidates from different LCHs or LCGs of the same UE. A later arrived data from an LCG / LCH with a high priority may enable an ongoing transmission of an LCH / LCH with a low priority to be modified / paused / delayed.

[0105] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an HPID may be assigned by initial DCI or MTO-DCI. In an embodiment, if the HPID is assigned by the initial DCI, it may be allowed to associate different LCH data with the same HPID which is assigned by the initial DCI. In another embodiment, if the HPID is assigned by the MTO-DCI instead of the initial DCI, the newly arrived LCH data may be assigned with the same HPID or different HPIDs. By this way, the HPID may be allocated sequentially and the out-of-order HARQ problem can be avoided.

[0106] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the HARQ A / N feedback of different SB transmissions may be saved in different HARQ processes and bundled to transmit together when the “lastTx” MTO-DCI is received. The bundled HARQ A / N feedback may be transmitted on a PUSCH / PUCCH based on the parameter KI (where an HARQ A / N feedback may be sent after KIsymbols with respect to the last transmission on a PDSCH) after the last symbol of the PDSCH which carries the “lastTx” MTO-DCI is received.

[0107] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when pause of a transmission occurs, the HARQ process may be used by the data with a high priority, and the data with a low priority may be postponed and the consecutive HARQ processes may be assigned. Since the same KI value may be applied for all HARQ processes, the out-of-order HARQ problem for the same UE can be avoided.

[0108] Fig.2B is a diagram illustrating an exemplary scheduling process according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Intra-UE multiplexing may be applied for a UE and MTO-DCI may be used to schedule newly arrived LCH data with a high priority. As shown in Fig.2B, at SB2, initial DCI may schedule a transmission for LCH1 data at SB6 with the length of 3 SBs, according to initial AllocReql. There may be three HARQ processes allocated to the transmission. MTO-DCI resources may be allocated at SB7 and SB8. At SB3, there may be new data arrived at LCH2, which may have a QoS requirement with higher priority, more time critical and higher reliability than LCH1. Then initialAllocReq2 for LCH2 may be triggered. Prioritization between initialAllocReq2 and mtoAllocReql may be performed. The initial AllocReq2 may have a higher priority and can be allocated with a PxSCH with a required block error rate (BLER) target. In an embodiment, a gNB may issue initial DCI or MTO-DCI using MTO-DCI resources to transmit LCH2 data on PxSCH with the starting SB at SB7 and the length equal to 1 SB. In another embodiment, the gNB may issue initial DCI or MTO-DCI using MTO-DCI resources for combined LCH1 and LCH2 data with PxSCH resource starting at SB7 and the length equal to 3 SBs. In another embodiment with the initial DCI or the MTO-DCI, the potential MTO-DCI resources may be updated for the follow-up PxSCH transmission at SB7, SB8 and SB9.

[0109] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, different HARQ processes may be assigned for different SB transmissions. For example, HARQ process 1 may be assigned for the transmission at SB6. The initial DCI or the MTO-DCI may assign HARQ process 2 for the transmission at SB7. At SB4, mtoAllocReql may trigger scheduling processes for PxSCH transmissions at SB8 and SB9. Since no other allocation request may be received, no resource allocation update may be needed. The UE may or may not receive the MTO-DCI to just continue the transmissions at SB8 and SB9 with HARQ process 3 and HARQ process 4, respectively.

[0110] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the initial DCI may be represented by a first indicator and the MTO-DCI may be represented by a second indicator, where the second indicator may indicate a modification of an allocation related to a PDSCH / PUSCH indicated by the first indicator. The modification may be applied in time and / or frequency and / or spatial domain. For example, in time domain, a subset of a transmission may be either paused, postponed, continued, orterminated. In frequency domain, different resource blocks for the transmission within the same BWP, in different carriers, or within different BWPs may be updated. The first and second indicators may be DCI on a PDCCH or inband DCI inside a PDSCH. In some embodiments, the second indicator may be used to indicate a modification of the PDSCH / PUSCH, while in other embodiments the second indicator may be used to indicate a modification of a signal related to the PDSCH / PUSCH, such as an HARQ-ACK transmission. In an embodiment, the second indicator may indicate a modification of an allocation related to a PDSCH / PUSCH indicated by another modification indicator. In an embodiment, an MTO-DCI based PDCCH may be a narrow band and have extra reliability than a common DCI based PDCCH with more cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checksum. In another embodiment, the MTO-DCI may be in the narrow band, and it may be coded with different CRC checksum from the wideband PDCCH DCI.

[0111] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, for an HARQ A / N feedback on a PUSCH, when the MTO-DCI with a bit value “1” (meaning “lastTx”) is scheduled, the DCI for PUSCH scheduling may be triggered even there is no UL data for transmission. In an embodiment, when the MTO-DCI indicates that it is the last transmission, a downlink assignment index (DAI) indicating the total number of DL HARQ transmissions in the current HARQ A / N bundling window may be provided in the DCI for PUSCH scheduling. In an embodiment, the potential scheduling of PUSCH / PUCCH carrying the DAI and PUSCH / PUCCH resources of the HARQ A / N feedback may be scheduled.

[0112] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the MTO-DCI indicating that it is the last transmission may be used as a termination MTO-DCI of an ongoing transmission. It may occur when a scheduler finds that the transmission may not meet the QoS requirement, e.g., a packet delay budget. In an embodiment, when the network schedules the termination MTO-DCI, the SBs with DMRS for PxSCH demodulation may be avoided. It is to ensure that the channel estimation for the initial transmission may not be affected. It may also be possible that the design of DMRS for PxSCH demodulation per SB may be self-contained, which means that each SB may have an independent DMRS and the demodulation can be performed without assistance of DMRS from other SBs.

[0113] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a bit / flag based container may be applied according to the following non-limiting rules:• In an option, if the bit / flag is configured or the bit / flag is set for a certain value, then as shown in Fig.2C, a next data channel may mimic the same as an initial data channel but be separated by a time gap X, where X may be configured as an RRC parameter.• In another option, a value of the above parameter X may also be included alongside or part of the bit / flag, which means that the network can vary the value of the time gap X basedon the load or current situation when it transmits data in the initial data channel. In an embodiment, the network may define a set of parameters X in RRC configuration, and may apply a desired value of X during the initial data transmission.

[0114] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, DCI or heavy LI control information may be included in an initial PDSCH transmission, as shown in Fig.2D, which may specify one or more of the following non-limiting parameters for a next data channel transmission:• time domain resource allocation (TDRA);• frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA);• time gap X;• MCS;• redundancy version (RV); and• one or more HARQ-ACK parameters.

[0115] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an initial data channel may include a DCI / L1 control signal / MAC CE (also called initial control information in this document) in the container, which may specify a control region where a UE can monitor a next DCI / control signal for a next data channel. In an embodiment, the initial control information may indicate a set of control resources like a control resource set (CORESET) and search space, as shown in Fig.2E, where a UE can monitor the DCI indicating the resource(s) for a next data channel. In another embodiment, the initial control information may indicate precisely a DCI location, as shown in Fig.2F, where the DCI may indicate the resource(s) for the next data channel, and the UE may not need to perform a band search.

[0116] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the “lastTx” MTO-DCI may be sent when there is no data in a buffer to be scheduled. The “lastTx” MTO-DCI may be multiplexed with the last PDSCH transmission. When the “lastTx” MTO-DCI is received by a UE, the UE may stop monitoring a PDCCH and / or may stop drx-inactivityTimer. The UE may also trigger an HARQ round trip timer (RTT) timer indicating no retransmission / new transmission of DCI is expected within the timer. After the HARQ RTT timer expires, the UE may expect to receive the DCI (potential a retransmission or new transmission of the DCI) until a drx-retransmission timer expires. In an embodiment, the “lastTx” MTO-DCI may be potentially multiplexed with a PDSCH retransmission.

[0117] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when a UE is scheduled with carrier aggregation, different transmissions on different carriers may be scheduled with different “lastTx” MTO-DCI for the last SBs. The HARQ A / N feedback of different carriers may be independently triggered by the corresponding “lastTx” MTO-DCI. If the “lastTx” MTO-DCI of different carriers are received at the same SB, a combination of HARQ feedbacks of all carriers may be performed.The bundled or combined HARQ feedback may be transmitted in one of the component carriers. In an embodiment, an HARQ feedback may be mapped to an HARQ process ID, and a bundled HARQ feedback map may be transmitted on PUSCH / PUCCH resources. Table 1 shows an exemplary HARQ feedback bundle map for multiple component carriers.Table 1

[0118] It can be appreciated that the names, representations and values of the fields / parameters / attributes (e.g., lastTX, pausTx, dropTx, continueTx, etc.) used herein are exemplary, and other names, representations and values may also be used to indicate the same or similar information and may also be applicable to various exemplary embodiments according to the present disclosure.

[0119] It is noted that some embodiments of the present disclosure are mainly described in relation to 5G / NR specifications being used as non-limiting examples for certain exemplary network configurations and system deployments. As such, the description of exemplary embodiments given herein specifically refers to terminology which is directly related thereto. Such terminology is only used in the context of the presented non-limiting examples and embodiments, and does naturally not limit the present disclosure in any way. Rather, any other system configuration or radio technologies may equally be utilized as long as exemplary embodiments described herein are applicable.

[0120] Fig.3 is a flowchart illustrating a method 300 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 300 illustrated in Fig.3 may be performed by a terminal device (e.g., a UE, a MS, a subscriber device, etc.) or an apparatus communicatively coupled to the terminal device. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the terminal device may be configured to communicate with a network node to obtain network services.

[0121] According to the exemplary method 300 illustrated in Fig.3, the terminal device may receive first DCI (e.g., the initial DCI, etc.) from a network node, as shown in block 302. The first DCI may indicate a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the terminal device may receive second DCI (e.g., the modification DCI orMTO-DCI, etc.) from the network node prior to an end of the first transmission, as shown in block 304. The second DCI may indicate a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission. In an embodiment, the first transmission may comprise a continuous transmission. In another embodiment, the first transmission may comprise a discontinuous transmission.

[0122] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI and / or the second DCI and / or the first transmission may be scheduled in a SB based granularity. In an embodiment, the SB may comprise one or more symbols.

[0123] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission may comprise one or more of: pausing the at least part of the first transmission; postponing the at least part of the first transmission; continuing the at least part of the first transmission; terminating the at least part of the first transmission; restarting the at least part of the first transmission; dropping the at least part of the first transmission; modifying resource allocation of the at least part of the first transmission in a time domain and / or in a frequency domain and / or in a spatial domain; modifying power allocation of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying puncturing of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying rate-matching of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a MCS of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a LCH of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a LCG of the at least part of the first transmission; and modifying an HARQ parameter configuration of the at least part of the first transmission.

[0124] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may include one or more parameters for the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission. In an embodiment, the one or more parameters may indicate one or more of: a time period during which the at least part of the first transmission is to be paused; a time instance to which the at least part of the first transmission is to be postponed; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be continued; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be terminated; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be restarted; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be dropped; whether the at least part of the first transmission is about to end; and where the at least part of the first transmission is about to end.

[0125] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, resource allocation for the second DCI may be indicated by one or more of: the first DCI; an RRC configuration message; and semi -persistent scheduling signaling.

[0126] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, one or more resources allocated to thesecond DCI may be semi-persistently activated or deactivated. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI may be dynamically activated or deactivated by the first DCI. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI may be adaptively added (or adjusted) by the first DCI and / or the second DCI.

[0127] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI may further indicate one or more of: one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the first transmission; whether the terminal device is expected to receive the second DCI; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the second DCI; and one or more parameters configured for a second transmission to be scheduled for the terminal device after the first transmission. In an embodiment, the first transmission and the second transmission may have a same parameter configuration or different parameter configurations.

[0128] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI and the second DCI may be scheduled using one or more of: a same frequency resource or different frequency resources; a same spatial resource or different spatial resources; a same scheduling granularity or different scheduling granularities; and a same format or different formats.

[0129] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the terminal device may transmit an HARQ feedback with respect to the first transmission to the network node, in response to the second DCI indicating the end of the first transmission (e.g., in response to the “lastTx” MTO-DCI, etc.).

[0130] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the HARQ feedback may be allocated with one or more resources which may be indicated by one or more of: the first DCI; the second DCI; and an RRC configuration message.

[0131] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the second DCI indicates the end of the first transmission, the second DCI may be multiplexed with the first transmission or a retransmission of the first transmission.

[0132] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the at least part of the first transmission is modified so that the at least part of the first transmission is allocated with a first resource set while at least another part of the first transmission is allocated with a second resource set different from the first resource set, the at least part of the first transmission may be associated with a first HPID, and the at least another part of the first transmission may be associated with a second HPID.

[0133] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the first HPID is also applicable to one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID may be same as the second HPID. In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, when the first HPID is not applicable tothe one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID may be different from the second HPID.

[0134] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may further indicate one or more of a first HPID associated with the at least part of the first transmission; a second HPID associated with at least another part of the first transmission; and a mapping relationship between the first HPID and the second HPID.

[0135] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may be aggregated with other DCI in different SBs to associate to a TTI.

[0136] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI may be included in a control channel (e.g., a PDCCH, etc.) or a data channel (e.g., a PDSCH, etc.). In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the second DCI may be included in the control channel or the data channel.

[0137] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the second DCI is included in a data channel (e.g., a PDSCH, etc.), the data channel may be rate-matched around one or more resources allocated to the second DCI.

[0138] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the second DCI and the data channel may be configured with a same DMRS or different DMRSs. In an embodiment, a DMRS per SB may be configured for the data channel.

[0139] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the terminal device has a capability of supporting the second DCI, and when a third transmission and the at least part of the first transmission are to be scheduled using a same resource while the at least part of the first transmission has a lower priority than the third transmission, the second DCI may be configured to the terminal device. In an embodiment, the third transmission is to be scheduled for the terminal device or another terminal device.

[0140] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the capability of supporting the second DCI of the terminal device may be signaled and / or modified via a MAC CE.

[0141] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when the terminal device is scheduled with carrier aggregation, the terminal device may support to trigger an HARQ feedback to a transmission per carrier by a corresponding DCI which indicates an end of the transmission per carrier.

[0142] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, when DCI in different carriers is received by the terminal device at a same SB, the terminal device may support to combine HARQ feedbacks in the different carriers.

[0143] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the terminal device may further support to transmit a combined HARQ feedback to the network node in one of the different carriers.

[0144] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the different carriers may be configuredwith a same SB or different SBs independently of a frequency numerology per carrier.

[0145] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first transmission may comprise a transmission on a DL data channel (e.g., a PDSCH, etc.) or a transmission on an UL data channel (e g., a PUSCH, etc ).

[0146] Fig.4 is a flowchart illustrating a method 400 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 400 illustrated in Fig.4 may be performed a network node (e.g., a base station, a gNB, an access node, etc.) or an apparatus communicatively coupled to the network node. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the network node may be configured to provide network services to one or more terminal devices and optionally facilitate communications between the one or more terminal devices and a core network (CN) node.

[0147] According to the exemplary method 400 illustrated in Fig.4, the network node may transmit first DCI to a terminal device (e.g., the terminal device as described with respect to Fig.3), as shown in block 402. The first DCI may indicate a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the network node may transmit second DCI to the terminal device prior to an end of the first transmission, as shown in block 404. The second DCI may indicate a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission.

[0148] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first transmission according to the method 400 may correspond to the first transmission according to the method 300. Thus, the first transmission as described with respect to Fig.3 and Fig.4 may have the same or similar contents and / or feature elements.

[0149] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the first DCI and the second DCI according to the method 400 may correspond to the first DCI and the second DCI according to the method 300, respectively. Thus, the first DCI as described with respect to Fig.3 and Fig.4 may have the same or similar contents and / or feature elements. Similarly, the second DCI as described with respect to Fig.3 and Fig.4 may have the same or similar contents and / or feature elements.

[0150] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the network node may receive an HARQ feedback with respect to the first transmission from the terminal device, in response to the second DCI indicating the end of the first transmission (e.g., in response to the “lastTx” MTO-DCI, etc.).

[0151] The various blocks shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4 may be viewed as method steps, and / or as operations that result from operation of computer program code, and / or as a plurality of coupled logic circuit elements constructed to carry out the associated function(s). The schematic flow chart diagrams described above are generally set forth as logical flow chart diagrams. As such, the depicted order and labeled steps are indicative of specific embodiments of the presented methods. Other steps and methods may be conceived that are equivalent in function, logic, or effect to one or more steps,or portions thereof, of the illustrated methods. Additionally, the order in which a particular method occurs may or may not strictly adhere to the order of the corresponding steps shown.

[0152] It can be appreciated that the network node according to various embodiments can be implemented either as a network element and / or a network entity on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function instantiated on an appropriate platform, e.g., on a cloud infrastructure.

[0153] Fig.5 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus 500 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig.5, the apparatus 500 may comprise one or more processors such as processing circuitry 501 and one or more memories such as memory 502 storing computer program codes 503. The memory 502 may be non-transitory machine / processor / computer readable storage medium. In accordance with some exemplary embodiments, the apparatus 500 may be implemented as an integrated circuit chip or module that can be plugged or installed into a terminal device as described with respect to Fig.3, or a network node as described with respect to Fig.4. In such cases, the apparatus 500 may be implemented as a terminal device as described with respect to Fig.3, or a network node as described with respect to Fig.4.

[0154] In some implementations, the one or more memories 502 and the computer program codes 503 may be configured to, with the processing circuitry 501, cause the apparatus 500 at least to perform any operation of the method as described in connection with Fig.3. In other implementations, the one or more memories 502 and the computer program codes 503 may be configured to, with the processing circuitry 501, cause the apparatus 500 at least to perform any operation of the method as described in connection with Fig.4. Alternatively or additionally, the one or more memories 502 and the computer program codes 503 may be configured to, with the processing circuitry 501, cause the apparatus 500 at least to perform more or less operations to implement the proposed methods according to the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0155] Fig.6 shows an example of a communication system 600 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0156] In the example, the communication system 600 includes a telecommunications network 602 that includes an access network 604, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 606, which includes one or more core network nodes 608. The access network 604 includes one or more access network nodes or base stations of various types, access network nodes 610A and 610B are depicted (which may be collectively referred to as network nodes 610), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points (APs). Some embodiments of the access network 604 may include more than one access network technology. The network nodes 610 of access network 604 facilitate direct or indirect connection of wireless devices,also referred to as user equipments (UEs), such as by connecting UEs 612A, 612B, 612C, and 612D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 612) to the core network 606 over one or more wireless connections.

[0157] Moreover, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunications network 602 includes one or more Open- RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a network node in the telecommunications network 602 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other network nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any network node in the telecommunications network 602, including one or more access network nodes 610 and / or core network nodes 608.

[0158] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). An ORAN network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN network node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies.

[0159] The network nodes 610 facilitate direct or indirect connection of one or more UEs 612 to the core network 606 over one or more wireless connections. Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 600 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communicationsystem 600 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0160] The UEs 612 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 610 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 608, 610 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., via other devices of telecommunications network 602) with the UEs 612 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunications network 602 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunications network 602. More specifically, UEs 612 may send messages, data, and / or other signals to network nodes 608, 610 or other elements of the telecommunications network 602 by transmitting such signals to the relevant device directly without the signals passing through any intervening devices or by transmitting such signals to the relevant device indirectly through an intervening device (or multiple intervening devices) that then transmit the signal to the relevant device. Similarly, network nodes 608, 610 may send messages, data, and other signals to UEs 612, other network nodes 608, 610, and other devices in telecommunications network 602 directly or indirectly. As one specific example, a core network node 608 may transmit a particular message to a UE 612 by transmitting the message to an access network node 610 that will then transmit the message to the intended UE 612. Similarly, a core network node 608 may receive a particular message from a UE 612 by receiving the message from an access network node 610 that itself received the message from the UE 612.

[0161] In the depicted example, the core network 606 connects elements of the access network 604 (e.g., one or more of the network nodes 610) to one or more host computing systems, such as host 616. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 606 includes one or more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 608) of various types, one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 608. Network nodes 608 are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, access network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 608. Example core network nodes provide functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a UserPlane Function (UPF).

[0162] The host 616 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 604 and / or the telecommunications network 602. The host 616 may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 616 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0163] As a whole, the communication system 600 of Fig.6 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system 600 may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (Wi-Fi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi-Max), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, Li-Fi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox. Moreover, the communication system 600 may be configured to support multiple different standards, protocols, or other rule sets, with individual components supporting all of the relevant rule sets or with different components or sub-systems within the communication system 600 supporting different standards, protocols, or rule sets.

[0164] As one example, in certain embodiments, access network 604 may contain some access network nodes 610 that support 3 GPP radio access technologies (RAT), such as LTE or NR, while other access network nodes 610 support (or the same access network nodes 610 additionally support) non-3GPP RATs, such as Wi-Fi or a proprietary RAT. As another example, telecommunications network 602 may support multiple generations of related communication standards (e.g., 4G and 5G 3GPP communication standards) and, as a result, may include an access network 604 and / or a core network 606 that supports multiple different standard generations or may include multiple access networks 604 and / or multiple core networks 606 with individual networks 604, 606 supporting different standard generations.

[0165] Telecommunications network 602 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunications network 602. For example,the telecommunications network 602 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0166] In some examples, one or more of the UEs 612 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 604 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 604. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi -radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0167] In the example, the hub 614 communicates with the access network 604 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 612C and / or 612D) and network nodes (e.g., network node 610B). In some examples, the hub 614 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 614 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 606 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 614 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 610, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 614.

[0168] As another example, the hub 614 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 614 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 614 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 614 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 614 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0169] The hub 614 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 610B. The hub 614 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 614 and UEs (e.g., UE 612C and / or 612D), and between the hub 614 and the core network 606. In other examples, the hub 614 is connected to the core network 606 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 614 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 604 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In somescenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 610 while still connected via the hub 614 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 614 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 61 OB. In other embodiments, the hub 614 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 61 OB, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0170] Fig.7 is another example of a communication system 700 according to some embodiments. As used herein, the communication system 700 includes multiple access points (APs) 710 (with four exemplary APs 710A, 710B, 710C, and 710D being depicted) and multiple wireless devices, referred to in the context of communication system 700 as stations (STAs) 712 (referred to individually as STA 712A, STA 712B, STA 712C, STA 712D, and STA 712E). STA 712A is served by AP 710A in a first basic service set (BSS) 720 A. STA 710B and STA 710C are served by AP 710B in a second BSS, BSS 720B. STA 712D is served by AP 710C in a third BSS, BSS 720C. STA 712E is served by AP 710D in a fourth BSS, BSS 720D. Stations 712 may be non-AP STAs and correspond to various kinds of wireless devices, for example, user terminals, such as mobile or stationary computing devices like smartphones, laptop computers, desktop computers, tablet computers, gaming devices, head-mounted displays (HMDs) for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), or the like. Further, stations 712 could, for example, correspond to other kinds of equipment like smart home devices, printers, multimedia devices, data storage devices, or the like.

[0171] Each of STAs 712 may connect through a radio link to one of APs 710. For example, depending on location or channel conditions experienced by a given STA 712, the STA may select an appropriate AP and BSS for establishing the radio link. The radio link may be based on one or more orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) carriers from a frequency spectrum that is shared on the basis of a contention-based mechanism, e.g., an unlicensed or license exempt band like 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band, the 5 GHz band, the 6 GHz band, or the 60 GHz band.

[0172] Each AP 710 may provide data connectivity to STAs 712 connected to a particular AP 710. As illustrated, APs 710 may be connected to a data network 730. In this way, APs 710 may also provide data connectivity between STAs 712 and other entities, e.g., to one or more servers, service providers, data sources, data sinks, user terminals, or the like. Accordingly, the radio link established between a given STA 712 and its serving AP 710 may be used for providing various kinds of services to STA 712, e.g., a voice service, a multimedia service, or other data service. Such services may be based on applications that are executed on STA 712 and / or on a device linked to STA 712. By wayof example, Fig.7 illustrates an application service platform 732 provided in data network 730. The application(s) executed on STA 712 and / or on one or more other devices linked to STA 712 may use the radio link for data communication with one or more other STA 712 and / or the application service platform 732, thereby enabling utilization of the corresponding service(s) at STA 712.

[0173] Fig.8 shows a wireless device 800, which may be configured to operate in communication system 600 of Fig.6 or in communication system 700 of Fig.7. The wireless device 800 may be alternatively referred to as a UE 800, like a UE 612 within the context of communication system 600, or as a station (STA) 800 or as a non-access-point station (non-AP STA) 800, like a STA 712 within the context of the communication system 700, in accordance with respective embodiments. As used herein, a wireless device refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other wireless devices. Examples of a wireless device include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptopmounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, and wireless terminal. Other examples include any type of UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0174] A wireless device 800 may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to- everything (V2X). In other examples, wireless device 800 may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, wireless device 800 may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, wireless device 800 may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0175] In particular embodiments, wireless device 800 includes processing circuitry 802 that is operatively coupled via a bus 804 to an input / output interface 806, a power source 808, a memory 810, a communication interface 812, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain embodiments of wireless device 800 may include all or a subset of the components shown in Fig.8.The level of integration between the components may vary from one embodiment of wireless device 800 to another. In general, in a particular embodiment of wireless device 800, processing circuitry 802, input / output interface 806, power source 808, memory 810, and communication interface 812 may, in whole or in part, represent or include physical components common to or shared by one or more of the other elements of wireless device 800. Further, certain embodiments of wireless devices 800 may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0176] The processing circuitry 802 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 810. The processing circuitry 802 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 802 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0177] In the example, the input / output interface 806 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into wireless device 800. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0178] In some embodiments, the power source 808 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used to supply power to circuitry or to charge an associated battery. The power source 808 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 808 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of wireless device 800via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power source 808 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to make accessible power suitable for the respective components of the wireless device 800 to which power is supplied.

[0179] The memory 810 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 810 includes one or more programs 814, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 816. The memory 810 may store, for use by wireless device 800, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0180] The memory 810 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 810 may allow wireless device 800 to access instructions, programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 810, which may be or comprise a device- readable storage medium.

[0181] The processing circuitry 802 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network via or using the communication interface 812. The communication interface 812 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 822. The communication interface 812 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another wireless device or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 818 and / or a receiver 820 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 818 and receiver 820 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna822) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0182] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 812 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication (e.g., according to an IEEE 802.11 family standard), LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, locationbased communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0183] In particular embodiments, wireless device 800 may provide an output of data captured via a sensor, through its communication interface 812, via a wireless connection to a network node, and / or in any appropriate manner. Data captured by sensors of a wireless device 800 can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another wireless device 800. In particular embodiments, such output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0184] As another example, wireless device 800 comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, wireless device 800 may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0185] Wireless device 800, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioningsystem like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. In particular embodiments, wireless device 800 represents an loT device that comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the example embodiment of wireless device 800 shown in Fig.8.

[0186] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, wireless device 800 may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another wireless device and / or a network node. Wireless device 800 may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, wireless device 800 may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, wireless device 800 may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0187] In practice, any number of wireless devices 800 may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first wireless device 800 might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second wireless device 800 that is a remote controller operating the drone. When a user makes changes from the remote controller, the first wireless device 800 may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second wireless device 800 can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, wireless device 800 might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0188] Fig.9 shows a network node 900 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunications network. In accordance with respective embodiments, network node 900 may be configured to operate in communication system 600 of Fig.6, like network nodes 608 or 610, or in communication system 700 of Fig.7, like an AP 710 or a station 712. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), 0-RAN nodes orcomponents of an O-RAN node (e g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0189] Network nodes 900 may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. Network node 900 may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. Network nodes 900 may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0190] Other examples of network nodes 900 include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0191] In particular embodiments, network node 900 includes a processing circuitry 902, a memory 904, a communication interface 906, and a power source 908. In general, in a particular embodiment of network node 900, processing circuitry 902, memory 904, communication interface 906, and power source 908 may, in whole or in part, represent or include physical components common to or shared by one or more of the other elements of network node 900.

[0192] The network node 900 may be composed of multiple distinct network entities (e.g., a NodeB entity and an RNC entity, or a BTS entity and a BSC entity, etc.), which may each have or utilize their own respective physical components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 900 comprises multiple such entities (e.g., BTS and BSC), one or more of the separate entities may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 900 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memories 904 or portions of memory 904 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 910 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 900 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 900, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, Wi-Fi (e.g.,according to an IEEE 802.11 family standard), Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 900.

[0193] The processing circuitry 902 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other components, such as the memory 904, to provide network node 900 functionality.

[0194] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 912 and the baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0195] The memory 904 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non- transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 902. The memory 904 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 902 and utilized by the network node 900. The memory 904 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 902 and / or any data received via the communication interface 906. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 and memory 904 is integrated.

[0196] The communication interface 906 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data with UEs, other network nodes, and / or any other network equipment. In the illustrated embodiment, communication interface 906 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 916 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. In particular embodiments, network node900 may be capable of wireless communication and communication interface 906 may also include radio front-end circuitry 918 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, an antenna 910. Particular embodiments of radio front-end circuitry 918 include filter(s) 920 and amplifier(s) 922. The radio front-end circuitry 918 may be connected to an antenna 910 and processing circuitry 902. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 910 and processing circuitry 902. The radio front-end circuitry 918 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 918 may convert the digital data into a radio signal(s) having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 920 and / or amplifiers 922. The radio signal(s) may then be transmitted via the antenna 910. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 910 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 918. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 902. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0197] In certain alternative embodiments, network node 900 may be capable of wireless communication but does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 918, instead, the processing circuitry 902 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 910. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 912 is part of the communication interface 906. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 906 includes one or more ports or terminals 916, the radio front-end circuitry 918, and the RF transceiver circuitry 912, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 906 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 914, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0198] The antenna 910 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 910 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 918 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 910 is separate from the network node 900 and connectable to the network node 900 through one or more interfaces or ports.

[0199] The antenna 910, communication interface 906, and / or the processing circuitry 902 may be configured to perform some or all of the receiving operations and / or obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node 900. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 910, the communication interface 906, and / or the processing circuitry 902 may be configured to perform some or all of the transmitting or sending operations described herein as being performed by the network node 900. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, anothernetwork node and / or any other network equipment.

[0200] The power source 908 provides power to the various components of network node 900 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 908 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 900 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 900 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 908. As a further example, the power source 908 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0201] Embodiments of the network node 900 may include additional components beyond those shown in Fig.9 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 900 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 900 and to allow output of information from the network node 900. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 900.

[0202] Fig.10 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1000 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1000 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as an access network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which a virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1000 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface.

[0203] Applications 1002 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualizationenvironment 1000 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0204] Hardware 1004 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1006 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VM 1008 A and VM 1008B (which may be collectively referred to as VMs 1008), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1006 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to one or more of the VMs 1008.

[0205] The VMs 1008 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by virtualization layer 1006. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1002 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1008, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0206] In the context of NFV, each of the VMs 1008 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1008, and that part of hardware 1004 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more of the VMs 1008 on top of the hardware 1004 and corresponds to an application 1002.

[0207] Hardware 1004 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1004 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1004 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1010, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1002. In some embodiments, hardware 1004 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio accessnode or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1012 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0208] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0209] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method (300) performed by a terminal device, comprising: receiving (302) first downlink control information, DCI, from a network node, wherein the first DCI indicates a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device; and receiving (304) second DCI from the network node prior to an end of the first transmission, wherein the second DCI indicates a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first DCI and / or the second DCI and / or the first transmission is scheduled in a symbol bundle, SB, based granularity, and the SB comprises one or more symbols.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission comprises one or more of: pausing the at least part of the first transmission; postponing the at least part of the first transmission; continuing the at least part of the first transmission; terminating the at least part of the first transmission; restarting the at least part of the first transmission; dropping the at least part of the first transmission; modifying resource allocation of the at least part of the first transmission in a time domain and / or in a frequency domain and / or in a spatial domain; modifying power allocation of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying puncturing of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying rate-matching of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a logical channel, LCH, of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a logical channel group, LCG, of the at least part of the first transmission; and modifying a hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, parameter configuration of the at least part of the first transmission.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the second DCI includes one or moreparameters for the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission, and the one or more parameters indicates one or more of: a time period during which the at least part of the first transmission is to be paused; a time instance to which the at least part of the first transmission is to be postponed; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be continued; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be terminated; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be restarted; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be dropped; whether the at least part of the first transmission is about to end; and where the at least part of the first transmission is about to end.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein resource allocation for the second DCI is indicated by one or more of: the first DCI; a radio resource control, RRC, configuration message; and semi-persistent scheduling signaling.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein one or more resources allocated to the second DCI are semi-persistently activated or deactivated; and / or wherein the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI are dynamically activated or deactivated by the first DCI; and / or wherein the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI are adaptively added by the first DCI and / or the second DCI.

7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the first DCI further indicates one or more of: one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the first transmission; whether the terminal device is expected to receive the second DCI; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the second DCI; and46one or more parameters configured for a second transmission to be scheduled for the terminal device after the first transmission, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission have a same parameter configuration or different parameter configurations.

8. The method according to any of claims 1-7, further comprising: transmitting an HARQ feedback with respect to the first transmission to the network node, in response to the second DCI indicating the end of the first transmission.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the HARQ feedback is allocated with one or more resources which are indicated by one or more of the first DCI; the second DCI; and an RRC configuration message.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein when the second DCI indicates the end of the first transmission, the second DCI is multiplexed with the first transmission or a retransmission of the first transmission.

11. The method according to any of claims 1-10, wherein when the at least part of the first transmission is modified so that the at least part of the first transmission is allocated with a first resource set while at least another part of the first transmission is allocated with a second resource set different from the first resource set, the at least part of the first transmission is associated with a first hybrid automatic repeat request process identifier, HPID, and the at least another part of the first transmission is associated with a second HPID.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein when the first HPID is also applicable to one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID is same as the second HPID; and / or wherein when the first HPID is not applicable to the one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID is different from the second HPID.

13. The method according to any of claims 1-12, wherein the second DCI further indicates one or more of a first HPID associated with the at least part of the first transmission; a second HPID associated with at least another part of the first transmission; and47a mapping relationship between the first HPID and the second HPID.

14. The method according to any of claims 1-13, wherein the second DCI is aggregated with other DCI in different SBs to associate to a transmission time interval, TTI.

15. The method according to any of claims 1-14, wherein when the second DCI is included in a data channel, the data channel is rate-matched around one or more resources allocated to the second DCI.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the second DCI and the data channel are configured with a same demodulation reference signal, DMRS, or different DMRSs; and / or wherein a DMRS per SB is configured for the data channel.

17. The method according to any of claims 1-16, wherein when the terminal device has a capability of supporting the second DCI, and when a third transmission and the at least part of the first transmission are to be scheduled using a same resource while the at least part of the first transmission has a lower priority than the third transmission, the second DCI is configured to the terminal device; and wherein the third transmission is to be scheduled for the terminal device or another terminal device.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the capability of supporting the second DCI of the terminal device is signaled and / or modified via a medium access control, MAC, control element, CE.

19. The method according to any of claims 1-18, wherein when the terminal device is scheduled with carrier aggregation, the terminal device supports to trigger an HARQ feedback to a transmission per carrier by a corresponding DCI which indicates an end of the transmission per carrier.

20. The method according to any of claims 1-19, wherein when DCI in different carriers is received by the terminal device at a same SB, the terminal device supports to combine HARQ feedbacks in the different carriers; and wherein the terminal device further supports to transmit a combined HARQ feedback to the network node in one of the different carriers.

21. A method (400) performed by a network node, comprising:transmitting (402) first downlink control information, DCI, to a terminal device, wherein the first DCI indicates a first transmission scheduled for the terminal device; and transmitting (404) second DCI to the terminal device prior to an end of the first transmission, wherein the second DCI indicates a non-cancelling modification of at least part of the first transmission.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the first DCI and / or the second DCI and / or the first transmission is scheduled in a symbol bundle, SB, based granularity, and the SB comprises one or more symbols.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, wherein the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission comprises one or more of pausing the at least part of the first transmission; postponing the at least part of the first transmission; continuing the at least part of the first transmission; terminating the at least part of the first transmission; restarting the at least part of the first transmission; dropping the at least part of the first transmission; modifying resource allocation of the at least part of the first transmission in a time domain and / or in a frequency domain and / or in a spatial domain; modifying power allocation of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying puncturing of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying rate-matching of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a logical channel, LCH, of the at least part of the first transmission; modifying a logical channel group, LCG, of the at least part of the first transmission; and modifying a hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, parameter configuration of the at least part of the first transmission.

24. The method according to any of claims 21-23, wherein the second DCI includes one or more parameters for the non-cancelling modification of the at least part of the first transmission, and the one or more parameters indicates one or more of a time period during which the at least part of the first transmission is to be paused; a time instance to which the at least part of the first transmission is to be postponed;one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be continued; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be terminated; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be restarted; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources at which the at least part of the first transmission is to be dropped; whether the at least part of the first transmission is about to end; and where the at least part of the first transmission is about to end.

25. The method according to any of claims 21-24, wherein resource allocation for the second DCI is indicated by one or more of: the first DCI; a radio resource control, RRC, configuration message; and semi-persistent scheduling signaling.

26. The method according to any of claims 21-25, wherein one or more resources allocated to the second DCI are semi-persistently activated or deactivated; and / or wherein the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI are dynamically activated or deactivated by the first DCI; and / or wherein the one or more resources allocated for the second DCI are adaptively added by the first DCI and / or the second DCI.

27. The method according to any of claims 21-26, wherein the first DCI further indicates one or more of: one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the first transmission; whether the terminal device is expected to receive the second DCI; one or more time and / or frequency and / or spatial resources allocated to the second DCI; and one or more parameters configured for a second transmission to be scheduled for the terminal device after the first transmission, wherein the first transmission and the second transmission have a same parameter configuration or different parameter configurations.

28. The method according to any of claims 21-27, further comprising:receiving an HARQ feedback with respect to the first transmission from the terminal device, in response to the second DCI indicating the end of the first transmission.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the HARQ feedback is allocated with one or more resources which are indicated by one or more of: the first DCI; the second DCI; and an RRC configuration message.

30. The method according to any of claims 21-29, wherein when the second DCI indicates the end of the first transmission, the second DCI is multiplexed with the first transmission or a retransmission of the first transmission.

31. The method according to any of claims 21-30, wherein when the at least part of the first transmission is modified so that the at least part of the first transmission is allocated with a first resource set while at least another part of the first transmission is allocated with a second resource set different from the first resource set, the at least part of the first transmission is associated with a first hybrid automatic repeat request process identifier, HPID, and the at least another part of the first transmission is associated with a second HPID.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein when the first HPID is also applicable to one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID is same as the second HPID; and / or wherein when the first HPID is not applicable to the one or more transmissions using the second resource set, the first HPID is different from the second HPID.

33. The method according to any of claims 21-32, wherein the second DCI further indicates one or more of: a first HPID associated with the at least part of the first transmission; a second HPID associated with at least another part of the first transmission; and a mapping relationship between the first HPID and the second HPID.

34. The method according to any of claims 21-33, wherein the second DCI is aggregated with other DCI in different SBs to associate to a transmission time interval, TTI.5135. The method according to any of claims 21-34, wherein when the second DCI is included in a data channel, the data channel is rate-matched around one or more resources allocated to the second DCI.

36. The method according to any of claims 21-35, wherein when the terminal device has a capability of supporting the second DCI, and when a third transmission and the at least part of the first transmission are to be scheduled using a same resource while the at least part of the first transmission has a lower priority than the third transmission, the second DCI is configured to the terminal device; and wherein the third transmission is to be scheduled for the terminal device or another terminal device.

37. A terminal device (500), comprising processing circuitry (501) and one or more memories (502) storing computer program codes (503), the one or more memories (502) and the computer program codes (503) configured to, with the processing circuitry (501), cause the terminal device (500) at least to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-20.

38. A network node (500), comprising processing circuitry (501) and one or more memories (502) storing computer program codes (503), the one or more memories (502) and the computer program codes (503) configured to, with the processing circuitry (501), cause the network node (500) at least to perform the method according to any one of claims 21-36.

39. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry (501), cause the processing circuitry (501) to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1-36.

40. A computer program product, comprising instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry (501), cause the processing circuitry (501) to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1-36.

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