Channel measurement and prediction for wideband radio communication in wireless cellular systems

Abstract

Methods and systems for channel measurement and prediction for wideband radio communication in wireless cellular systems are disclosed. An example method uses a channelizer with two interfaces connected to a wideband radio. The channelizer maps a wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to wideband antennas coupled to the radio. A first interface receives a data stream from the wideband radio, while a second interface exchanges information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators based on channel information from the voxel grid. The second interface de-channelizes the data stream into multiple channel streams, performs interference mitigation using the channel information, and provides the resulting interference-mitigated streams to corresponding DU functions of the multiple operators. An example system includes at least one processor configured to implement the above-described method.

Description

PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOCHANNEL MEASUREMENT AND PREDICTION FOR WIDEBAND RADIO COMMUNICATION IN WIRELESS CELLULAR SYSTEMSCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Application No. 63 / 761,489, filed on February 21, 2025, entitled “CHANNEL MEASUREMENT AND PREDICTION,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present document relates to digital communication.BACKGROUND

[0003] The explosive growth in the number of wireless user devices worldwide, coupled with the ever-increasing volume of wireless data that these devices are capable of generating and consuming, has placed unprecedented strain on existing wireless communication networks. As smartphones, tablets, wearable technology, Internet of Things (loT) sensors, and other connected devices continue to proliferate, the aggregate demand for wireless data has surged far beyond what legacy network architectures were originally designed to support. Current wireless communication networks are rapidly exhausting available bandwidth and spectral resources, making it increasingly difficult to accommodate this extraordinary growth in data traffic while still delivering a consistently high quality of service to end users. The resulting congestion leads to slower data speeds, increased latency, dropped connections, and degraded user experiences, all of which underscore the urgent need for more advanced and efficient wireless solutions.

[0004] In response to these challenges, a wide range of efforts are currently underway across the telecommunications industry to develop the next generation of wireless technologies capable of keeping pace with the escalating performance demands placed on wireless devices and networks. Researchers, equipment manufacturers, standards bodies, and network operators are collaborating to explore novel approaches to spectrum utilization, network densification, advanced antenna techniques, and intelligent resource management. A significant number of these initiatives are directed toward addressing deployment scenarios in which a large number of user devices must be simultaneously served by a single network or network node. Such high-1185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOdensity environments, including urban centers, stadiums, transportation hubs, and industrial facilities, present particularly acute technical challenges that next-generation wireless systems must be designed to overcome effectively and efficiently.SUMMARY

[0005] Embodiments of the disclosed technology integrate two complementary technological systems to create a next-generation wireless communication infrastructure: (1) an Al-driven channel measurement and prediction system, and (2) a wideband cellular antenna apparatus with spatial channelization capabilities. The synergistic combination of these technologies enables accurate and granular control over wireless spectrum utilization, spatial resource allocation, and multi-operator coordination in radio access networks (RANs). The described embodiments address the fundamental challenge of efficiently managing radiated and received electromagnetic energy in wireless networks. Unlike conventional systems that operate reactively to interference and channel conditions, the methods and systems described herein enable proactive, AI-enhanced management of wireless resources across multiple dimensions: frequency, time, space, and Doppler domains.

[0006] In one example aspect, a method of wireless communication is disclosed. The method includes operating a first interface of a channelizer to receive a first data stream from a wideband radio through a wireless channel, where the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to a plurality of wideband antennas coupled to the wideband radio. The channel information is received for a plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels, and based on that channel information, a second interface of the channelizer is operated to exchange information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators. Operating the second interface includes de-channelizing the first data stream received from the wideband radio into multiple channel streams, performing an interference mitigation operation on the multiple channel streams based on the channel information to generate multiple interference-mitigated channel streams, and providing each of the multiple interference-mitigated channel streams to a corresponding DU function of the DU functions of the multiple network operators.

[0007] In another example aspect, a method of wireless communication is disclosed. The method includes operating a first interface of a channelizer to transmit a data stream to a wideband radio2185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOthrough a wireless channel, where the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to a plurality of wideband antennas coupled to the wideband radio. The channel information is received for a plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels, and based on that channel information, a second interface of the channelizer is operated to exchange information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators. Operating the second interface includes receiving multiple channel streams from the DU functions, performing a phase adjustment operation on the multiple channel streams based on the channel information to generate multiple phase-adjusted channel streams, channelizing the multiple phase-adjusted channel streams by multiplexing according to a scheme to generate the data stream, and providing the data stream to the first interface.

[0008] In another example aspect, a wireless communication apparatus that implements the above-described method is disclosed. The apparatus may include one or more processors configured to control the apparatus to implement the described method.

[0009] In yet another example aspect, a computer-readable storage medium that stores processor-executable code for the above-described method is disclosed.

[0010] These, and other, features are described in this document.DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS[Oil] Drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding and constitute a part of this application. Example embodiments and illustrations thereof are used to explain the technology rather than limiting its scope.

[0012] FIG. 1 shows an example of a wireless communication system.

[0013] FIG. 2 shows a simplified wireless network with two wireless devices.

[0014] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a capture platform that is used for performing channel measurements.

[0015] FIG. 4 shows example post-processing functions performed by embodiments.

[0016] FIG. 5 shows an example of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) heatmap of a wireless network.

[0017] FIG. 6 shows graphs of example reference signal observations.

[0018] FIG. 7 shows examples of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) performance observations.

[0019] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example of a post-processing architecture that may be used for providing channel model as a service.3185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0020] FIG. 9 shows an example of a cellular transmission tower carrying multiple antennas.

[0021] FIG. 10 shows an example representation of a multiple antenna deployment with each antenna being associated with a set of 3D voxels.

[0022] FIG. 11 shows an example of data transmission using multiple layers and multiple beams.

[0023] FIGS. 12-14 show examples of different configurations for data reception using multiple layers and multiple beams.

[0024] FIGS. 15A and 15B show an example of compensating for echo reflections.

[0025] FIGS. 16A and 16B show an example of compensating for both echo reflections and frequency shifts.

[0026] FIG. 17 shows an example of a receiver processing section configured to compensate for the effects of echo reflections and frequency shifts using an equalizer.

[0027] FIG. 18 shows examples of resource sharing on the network-side.

[0028] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of an example transmission tower allowing resource sharing.

[0029] FIG. 20 shows examples of spectrum utilization by different networks.

[0030] FIG. 21 shows examples of multiplexing options implemented in shared networks.

[0031] FIGS. 22 and 23 show examples of different configurations of a unified RAN.

[0032] FIG. 24 shows an example of protocol stack resource sharing in a network.

[0033] FIG. 25 shows an example of a transmit or receive chain of a transceiver apparatus.

[0034] FIG. 26 is a block diagram of a system that implements channel measurement and prediction for wideband radio communication in wireless cellular systems.

[0035] FIGS. 27 and 28 are flowcharts of example methods of digital communications.

[0036] FIG. 29 is a block diagram of an example hardware platform.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] To make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of this disclosure more apparent, various embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Unless otherwise noted, embodiments and features in embodiments of the present document may be combined with each other.

[0038] Section headings are used in the present document to improve readability of the description and do not in any way limit the discussion or the embodiments to the respective4185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOsections only. Furthermore, certain standard-specific terms are used for illustrative purpose only, and the disclosed techniques are applicable to any wireless communication systems.

[0039] 1 Introduction to wireless communication environments and systems

[0040] The wireless or time-variant nature of the communication channel poses several challenges in designing a transmission protocol suitable for wireless communication scenarios. These days, users expect their wireless devices to work everywhere and in a variety of mobile or stationary situations.

[0041] The time-variant nature of a wireless network and the expectation by users of a reliable, high-bandwidth network connection at any time and in any place creates a tension between the required amount of transmission resources a wireless network needs for overhead signal communications (e.g., for calibrating a wireless channel) and allocating as much transmission bandwidth to user data as possible. Deployments of user devices and network devices having multiple antennas makes this problem even more challenging because wireless networks may need to calibrate wireless channel to / from each antenna of a multi-antenna device.

[0042] The techniques described in the present application allow for calibration of uplink or downlink wireless network connections using various techniques that provide operational advantages as further described throughout the present document.

[0043] FIG. 1 shows an example of a wireless communication system 100 in which a transmitter device 102 transmits signals to a receiver 104. The signals may undergo various wireless channels and multipaths, as depicted. Some reflectors such as buildings and trees may be static, while others such as cars, may be moving scatterers. The transmitter device 102 may be, for example, a user device, a mobile phone, a tablet, a computer, or another Internet of Things (loT) device such as a smartwatch, a camera, and so on. The receiver device 104 may be a network device such as the base station. The signals transmitted from the base station to the transmitter 102 may experience similar channel degradations produced by static or moving scatterers. The techniques described in the present document may be implemented by the devices in the wireless communication system 100. The terms “transmitter” and “receiver” are simply used for convenience of explanation and as further described herein, depending on the direction of transmission (uplink or downlink), the network station may be transmitting or receiving, and user device may be receiving or transmitting.5185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0044] FIG. 2 shows a simplified wireless network to highlight certain aspects of the disclosed technology. A transmitter transmits wireless signals to a receiver in the wireless network. Some transmissions in the network, variously called as downlink or downstream transmissions, a network-side node such as a base station acts as a transmitter of wireless signals and one or more user devices act as the receiver of these wireless signals. For some other transmissions, the direction of transmission may be opposite. Such transmissions are often called uplink or upstream transmissions. For such transmissions, one or more user devices act as transmitters of the wireless signals and a network-side node such as the base station acts as the receiver of these signals. Other type of transmissions in the network may include device-to-device transmissions, sometimes called direct or sideband transmissions. While the present document primarily uses the terms “downlink” and “uplink” for the sake of convenience, similar techniques may also be used for other situations in which transmissions in two directions are performed - e.g., inbound or incoming transmissions that are received by a wireless device and outbound or outgoing transmissions that are transmitted by a wireless device. For example, downlink transmissions may be inbound transmissions for a user device, while outbound transmissions for a network device. Similarly, uplink transmission may be inbound transmissions for a network device while outbound transmissions from a wireless device. Therefore, for some embodiments, the disclosed techniques may also be described using terms such as “inbound” and “outbound” transmission without importing any 3GPP-specific or other wireless protocol-specific meaning to the terms “uplink” and “downlink.”

[0045] In frequency division multiplexing (FDM) networks, the transmissions to a base station and the transmissions from the base station may occupy different frequency bands (each of which may occupy continuous or discontinuous spectrum). In time division multiplexing (TDM) networks, the transmissions to a base station and the transmissions from the base station occupy a same frequency band but are separated in time domain using a TDM mechanism such as time slot-based transmissions. Other types of multiplexing are also possible (e.g., code division multiplexing, orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS), multiplexing, spatial multiplexing, etc.). In general, the various multiplexing schemes can be combined with each other. For example, in spatially multiplexed systems, transmissions to and from two different user devices may be6185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOisolated from each other using directional or orientational difference between the two end points (e.g., the user devices and a network station such as a base station).

[0046] 2 Examples of channel measurement and analysis

[0047] As the deployment wireless devices continues, being able to provide higher densities of deployments is one way to address such a demand. For example, more wireless devices can be accommodated in a geographical region using techniques such as MIMO configurations, layered communication and so on. However, for error free operation of such technologies, a good understanding of the communication environment is needed. This information about properties of communication channel may be based on past observations and may be predicted for the purpose of scheduling future transmissions in a wireless network.

[0048] The techniques disclosed in the present document allow for capturing channel characteristics of a wireless environment, processing the captured data, and providing information about current or future channel characteristics to an application agent.

[0049] For example, a mobile capture platform (e.g., as shown in FIG. 3) may be used. This platform may be used to survey customer sites by capturing radio frequency (RF) signals in a target spectrum, by extracting channel features. Furthermore, the platform may also be used to validate various channel estimation, channel modeling and channel scheduling algorithms.

[0050] In some embodiments, the data captured by the platform may be used to predict MU-MIMO performance.

[0051] In some embodiments, the data captured by the platform may be used to predict capacity gains as a function of location, time or frequency.

[0052] 2.1 Components and features of the measurement platform

[0053] The platform may be equipped with multiple RF front ends to allow simultaneous capture of a number of channels, e.g., 4 channels.

[0054] In some embodiments, the platform may be configured to capture samples of 5-100 MHz channels, and may operate in any band (FR1 / FR2 / FR3), using frequency division multiplexing or time division multiplexing (FDD / TDD).

[0055] An example implementation of the platform may use off-the-shelf hardware such as Gen-4 / 5 Laptop with 2TB Memory, 5TB HDD, Handset antennas which can be independently tapped for IQ while the phone provides an xCal output as well.7185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0056] FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of a platform example. Dual polarized antennas (multiple in general, but 2 in the depicted example) are used to receive broadcast signals from RAN transmissions. An N channel IQ capture stage may follow each antenna (N = 2 in the depicted example). The captured IQ samples are communicated via a network (ethernet connection in the depicted example) to a computing platform such as a laptop with storage hard drive (HDD). The captured results may be sent to offsite computing resources such as a cloud based post-processing system.

[0057] The platform may be operated independent of the RAN whose signals are being captured. For example, the platform may not be a user equipment UE participating in the RAN, it may simply be a “receive only” configuration in which broadcast signals from the base station may be received, without sending any signals back to the base station. Furthermore, because the entire platform is battery operated, it may be installed on a vehicle and driven around a region such that wireless channel observations are captured without a need for the network to know existence of the platform within coverage area of the RAN base station.

[0058] In some embodiment, the capture platform may be equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and may be able to identify locations with different dense-urban, urban, sub-urban, rural conditions. This information, may be, for example based on location information from the capture platform and urbanization information from an external source such as maps made available by other service providers.

[0059] In some embodiments, the capture platform is able to log a nature of the environment of operation such as Static (no movement), Pedestrian (slow movement up to 10 miles per hour), Mobile (all other type of movement).

[0060] In some embodiments, the capture platform may capture I / Q samples with sufficient periodicity that the captured data may be used to determine channel characteristics. This information and the results computed from it may be stored in a number of different databases having different data formats.

[0061] In some embodiments, the captured information about wireless environment is used to predict performance of MU-MIMO communication and determine which MIMO mode may be best for a given time / location. This information may be presented using a visual tool such as a heatmap, as is disclosed in the present document. The captured information may also be used to8185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOcalculate a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a received reference signal reference power (RSRP), a received signal strength indicator (RS SI), and so on.

[0062] In various embodiments, capture and analysis may be performed for downlink DL only or downlink / uplink directions.

[0063] Various embodiments may support for multiple Bands 0.5 - lOOGhz.

[0064] Implementations may use parallel or serial capture of multiple bands.

[0065] In some embodiments, an operator-specified filtering may be applied in analog and / or digital domains. The filtering may be used to limit the observation window of the capture platform.

[0066] 2.2 Post-processing functions

[0067] FIG. 4 shows examples of post-processing functions that can be implemented by various embodiments of the disclosed technology. These include:

[0068] - Demodulation functions (410) such as cell-search, frequency alignment, time alignment, parsing GPS information, GPS signal processing, reference signal extraction and estimation of downlink SNR may be performed during post processing.

[0069] - Channel estimation (420)-related tasks may be performed including, channel estimation, angle of departure estimation, delay spread estimation, doppler estimation, rank estimation, SNR estimation and interference estimation.

[0070] - Mobility analysis (430) functionality such as angle of arrival (AoA) tracking, measuring channel complexity, determining locations where conditions for handover are occurring and geo-tracking of devices.

[0071] - Performance-related computations (440) such as determining which precoder is suitable for communication at a given location, estimating the throughput that may be achieved using an SU-MIMO or an MU-MIMO configuration, and estimating the efficiency gain over current efficiency in a RAN.

[0072] - Artificial intelligence (Al)-based implementations (450) may be used to train from storage data stored in a storage and using the machine learning results to predict channel performance at a future time, a different frequency or a different location.

[0073] - Display and visualization hardware and software (460), e.g., a user interface, which is used to display the captured information and / or results of the post-processing. For example, a9185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOchannel spectrogram may be displayed, or a SNR heatmap may be displayed, or reference signal received power (RSRP) strength heatmap or capacity gain heatmap may be displayed. In some embodiments, the user interface may display AoA values, doppler values and / or location of tower (base station) and physical cell identities (PCI) computed from the received signals.

[0074] 2.3 Visualization methods and modalities

[0075] FIG. 5 show an example of information displayed on a user interface. This information may be produced by the post-processing disclosed herein. This information overlays color coded indication of SNR calculated at locations of the displayed map. Such a map could be used for network planning such as placement of cell towers.

[0076] FIG. 6 shows a graphical display example in which the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents degrees. As shown therein, the metrics that may be plotted (or mapped) include received channel reference signal (CRS), unwrapped CRS, filtered CRS, and GPS information for one particular polarization phase of an antenna over time.

[0077] FIG. 7 shows heatmaps representing spectrograms of various number of transmit and receive antenna configurations, mapped as a function of number of orthogonal time frequency multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (or time).

[0078] Equipment for the capture platform may use 2 to 4 channels of input, may be battery operated such that it can be operated by fitting on a moveable platform such as an automobile or an unmanned aerial vehicle. While preferred embodiment operates in a receive-only, no transmit mode, it is possible that the capture platform is also a UE that operates in the RAN.

[0079] The equipment also preferably has a customizable front-end filtering and a wide dynamic range or automatic gain control (AGC) to be able to capture signals without introducing significant non-linear distortions. In some embodiments, the equipment may also be able to capture uplink signals generated by nearby UEs. The antennas fitted on the equipment may be dual-polarized omni, or 4-port UE antenna. In some embodiments, the equipment may be able to capture a frequency sweep with polarization 1 or polarization 2.

[0080] 3 Examples of Al infrastructure for channel prediction

[0081] As described in Section 2, channel measurement data captured by the measurement platform characterizes the wireless environment across frequency, time, and space. Section 3 describes an Al infrastructure that leverages this captured data — together with the three-10185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOdimensional (3D) voxel decomposition of the wireless channel — to generate channel information that enables accurate interference mitigation on the receive side and precise beamforming on the transmit side. The Al infrastructure integrates with the wideband antenna apparatus and channelizer to form one of the two complementary technological systems underlying the disclosed embodiments: an Al-driven channel measurement and prediction system that operates synergistically with the wideband cellular antenna apparatus and its spatial channelization capabilities.

[0082] In the described embodiments, the wireless channel surrounding a plurality of wideband antennas is decomposed into a 3D grid of voxels. Each voxel represents a discrete volumetric region of space relative to the antenna deployment, and the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to this 3D grid. The voxel decomposition enables the system to treat every pocket of air in the horizontal, vertical, and radial dimensions as an independently addressable spatial unit — variously referred to as a voxel, a kernel, or a pixel — upon which specific transmission, reception, sensing, or interference mitigation actions may be performed. The resolution of the voxel grid depends on the capabilities of the antenna infrastructure, including the aperture size of the antenna array, the number of antenna elements or ports, and the bandwidth of the wideband radio. Higher resolution enables finer spatial discrimination of signal sources, reflectors, interferers, and user devices.

[0083] The Al infrastructure processes channel measurement data captured for the 3D voxel grid through a training stage and an inference stage. In the training stage, vast amounts of data — including raw in-phase / quadrature (IQ) samples, environmental sensor data, positioning information (e.g., captured via a global positioning system (GPS) antenna), RF signal strength measurements, and channel state information — are processed by a feature extraction module that derives channel impulse responses, path loss characteristics, delay spread calculations, angular spread features, and correlation matrices. These extracted features are provided through a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) layer to an Al engine comprising one or more generative Al models, such as large language models (LLMs), that can process the vast quantities of measurement data associated with specific antennas of the wideband antenna deployment. The trained Al models serve as a channel parameter estimator and prediction engine, capable of estimating MIMO channel coefficients, modeling path loss, determining11185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOfading characteristics, and forecasting future channel states at different times, frequencies, or locations. In some embodiments, the RAG layer provides a translation between protocol-specific concepts and parameters used for optimization such as scheduling or layering of UEs.

[0084] 3.1 Post-capture data analysis examples

[0085] The capture platform disclosed in the present document is able to capture a large amount of data that characterizes the wireless environment in a geographical region. This information may be useful to several applications that are external to the capture environment. Such applications include a decision making process regarding spectrum sharing in a neighborhood, techniques for isolating and mitigating impact of interference in a network, location services, drone detection algorithms, scheduler, etc.

[0086] FIG. 8 depicts an example a capture and post-processing system. From left to right, the system includes wireless radio sensors (antennas and capture) such as 4G and 5G network sensors. The system also includes environmental sensors that capture environmental factors that affect signal reception and propagation, e. g., temperature, humidity, particulate pollution etc. The system may also perform RF signal strength measurements and feed them to the processing layer. In some embodiments, channel state information (CSI) may be provided by gNB and received by the processing layer. One or more base stations in the network may be communicating with network scheduling controllers such as the Universal Spectrum Multiplier (USM) by Cohere Technologies or Janus by Microsoft Corporation. The raw IQ samples captured from the network broadcast transmissions and the data from the environmental sensors is stored into a database. Additional information received from the base station may include MIMO parameters, beamforming information, Signal quality indicators - e.g., signal to interference plus noise ratio SINR, reference signal received power RSRP, reference signal received quality RSRQ. Additional information provided to the processing layer includes building locations. In some embodiments, raw channel information such as time-series channel measurements, signal propagation characteristics, interference patterns, multi-path components, and Doppler effects may also be logged.

[0087] The data is processed by a processing layer that may pre-process the data to perform coherence and sanity check on the data. The processing layer may perform signal normalization,12185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOnoise reduction. The processing layer may also fill in or identify missing data. The processing layer may also perform time alignment between data obtained from different sources.

[0088] Next, the data may be processed by a feature extraction module that extracts information and parameters from the data that are useful for the training of the subsequent Al engine. The feature extraction module may extract channel impulse responses, path loss characteristics, delay spread calculations, angular spread features and / or correlation matrices.

[0089] The output of the Al engine is processed by an output layer that computes a channel mode, performs real time predictions of channel parameters at different times, frequencies or locations and optimized use of the network. The Al engine may use a generative Al model that produces channel state prediction, environmental reconstruction, pattern recognition of channel state for multi-site correlation, detection of anomalies of channel state, generation of synthetic data for training and so on.

[0090] The channel parameter estimator may estimate MIMO channel coefficients, perform path loss modeling, determine fading characteristics of channels, determine delay profiles and angular distributions from the observations.

[0091] In addition, the information about network parameters (e.g., positions of reflectors and wireless environment at different locations and their MIMO performance) may be made available to external application layer functions via an application programming interface (API).

[0092] The prediction engine may perform future state prediction, behavior modeling, Trend analysis, and / or Performance forecasting and so on.

[0093] The output layer may provide functionalities that include dynamic channel representation, 3D propagation mapping, multi-path visualization, interference modeling, and or / coverage prediction.

[0094] The system may further provide Real-time Predictions such as Channel state forecasting which may be used for Performance optimization, Resource allocation, Beam management, Link adaptation, Network Optimization, RAN parameter tuning, Resource scheduling, Power optimization, Interference management, and / or Coverage optimization.

[0095] The channel measurement and prediction techniques disclosed in the present document may be used to make available information about the wireless communication environments to external applications, e.g., as described in the context of FIG. 8. For example, a standardized API13185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOmay be defined in which an app may be able to query for a specific parameter to the output layer. In response, the output layer may provide the parameter. In addition, the output layer may provide information about the last time this parameter was computed, a time until which this parameter may be relevant or accurate, and other information regarding certainty or confidence level about the parameter.

[0096] 4 Examples of wideband antenna and radio architecture

[0097] FIG. 9 shows an example of a cellular transmission tower carrying multiple antennas. In the last 20 years, the wireless communication technology, specifically cellular wireless communication technology, has gone through several generations of protocol standards, 2G, 3G, 4G, and so on to 5G. As a result of such an evolution, newer frequency spectrums are becoming available for wireless communication. All these developments have been causing installation of more and more antennas on existing cellular wireless towers. Accompanying such a crowding of available real estate on a cell tower, the radio equipment that supports the transmission and reception is also crowding antennas at ground level or higher up. Typically, different network operators own / operate their own separate equipment, while towers may be owned and operated by another entity.

[0098] The continued demand on capacity will only make this problem worse in the future. Specifically, low, and mid band wireless communication (e.g., 700-800 MHz and 2 to 5 GHz), a popular and crowded spectrum, will see this problem getting worse and worse unless some technical solution to share spectrum and other resource sharing is proposed.

[0099] FIG. 10 shows an example representation of a multiple antenna deployment in which each antenna of a plurality of wideband antennas is associated with a set of three-dimensional (3D) voxels. In the depicted example, multiple wideband antennas are mounted on or in the vicinity of a cellular transmission tower, such as the tower shown in FIG. 9. Each wideband antenna is capable of transmitting and receiving wireless signals across a wide frequency range (e.g., 600 MHz to 40 GHz or higher) and across a wide angular field of view encompassing both azimuth and elevation dimensions. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the wireless channel surrounding the antenna deployment is mapped to a 3D grid of voxels, which have been detailed in Section 3.

[0100] In some embodiments, each wideband antenna in the deployment may be a multibeam antenna (e.g., employing a Luneburg lens or a Rotman lens) or a phased array antenna. In the14185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOcase of a multibeam antenna, the lens optics perform the spatial channelization, forming distinct beams in different directions. In the case of a phased array antenna, a uniform illumination with phase gradients may be applied across the antenna elements to form a bank of beams at regular angular intervals, which may then serve as the basis functions for further spatial processing. In either case, the system leverages the full aperture of the antenna to form the 3D voxel grid, and each payload (e.g., data destined for a particular user device or network operator) may be tagged with appropriate spatial weights indicating which basis functions and which beams should be used to direct that payload to the intended voxel.

[0101] 5 Spatial channelizer and kernel / voxel mapping examples

[0102] FIG. 11 shows an example of data transmission using multiple layers and multiple beams in a wideband antenna system. In the depicted transmit-side configuration, a wideband radio is coupled to a channelizer that processes outgoing data for transmission through the plurality of wideband antennas. The channelizer maps the data from multiple antenna ports Pl through PN to corresponding beams Bl through BM, where each port is associated with in-phase / quadrature (IQ) signal components. Each beam corresponds to a particular spatial direction or angular region relative to the antenna apparatus, and the mapping from ports to beams may be performed using the spatial channelization techniques described herein.

[0103] On the data side of the processing chain, user data is organized into layers LI through LN. Each layer contains physical resource blocks (PRBs) carrying user data destined for one or more user devices. The layers are mapped to the physical antenna ports through FlexRAN™ functionality, which performs the precoding and beamforming operations that define the spatial characteristics of each transmission. Each payload (e.g., one or more PRBs within a layer) is tagged with spatial weights that prescribe the desired radiation pattern and the target spatial direction for that payload. For example, a payload destined for a particular user device may be tagged with coefficients indicating which basis functions (e.g., which beams) should carry that payload and with what relative weighting. This tagging enables each payload to leverage the full aperture of the antenna array while requiring specification of only a small number of beam coefficients, rather than independent weights for every antenna element. This approach reduces the dimensionality of the beamforming problem while enabling precise spatial targeting that extends network slicing from the packet domain all the way through the RF domain. The result is15185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOa full network-to-RF efficiency in which every data bit in the network domain and every air interface bit in the RF domain are utilized in the most efficient manner.

[0104] As shown in FIG. 11, the PRBs within each layer are grouped across the beams Bl through BM, and the FlexRAN functionality multiplexes the layered data into bands that are then mapped to the physical ports for transmission through the wideband radio. The patterned blocks depicted in the figure represent individual payloads, each of which is associated with a specific combination of frequency band, spatial direction, and beam weighting. This architecture enables the system to simultaneously transmit multiple data streams to multiple user devices in different spatial directions and on different frequency bands, all through the same wideband antenna infrastructure.

[0105] FIGS. 12 through 14 show examples of different configurations for data reception using multiple layers and multiple beams. These figures depict the receive-side processing chain, which operates in the reverse direction from the transmit-side processing shown in FIG. 11. In each of FIGS. 12-14, a wideband radio receives RF signals through the wireless channel and provides a data stream to the channelizer for processing. The channelizer separates the received data stream from the antenna ports Pl through PN into multiple channel streams associated with beams Bl through BM. The received signals are then processed through spatial filtering, delay / Doppler compensation, and FlexRAN functionality to extract user data organized in layers LI through LN, where each layer contains the PRBs carrying data for individual user devices.

[0106] The three configurations shows in FIGS. 12 through 14 differ in where the spatial filtering is situated within the processing chain: in FIG. 12, the channelizer first maps the received signals to beams and a separate spatial filtering stage then performs spatial channelization before a combined FlexRAN and DD compensation stage; in FIG. 13, the channelizer and spatial filtering are combined into a single integrated stage whose output feeds a separate DD compensation and data extraction stage, which may reduce latency at the potential cost of reduced modularity; and in FIG. 14, the channelizer and spatial filtering are implemented as two separate, sequential stages — with the channelizer performing an initial frequencydomain separation before spatial filtering — which may allow independent optimization or replacement of each processing block.16185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0107] Across all three configurations of FIGS. 12-14, the receive-side processing ultimately separates the composite wideband signal received by the plurality of wideband antennas into individual channel streams associated with specific layers, beams, and frequency bands. The interference mitigation operations described in the claims — in which an interference type in a channel stream associated with a first subset of voxels is mitigated using information from a second subset of voxels — may be performed at the spatial filtering stage in any of these configurations. Similarly, the channel information received for the plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels informs the spatial filtering and delay / Doppler compensation operations, enabling the system to adapt its receive processing to the current state of the wireless channel as determined by the Al-driven channel measurement and prediction infrastructure.

[0108] 6 Examples of delay / Doppler processing and compensation

[0109] The described embodiments further provide methods and systems for compensating for delay and Doppler. Examples of these techniques are described for orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation, but are not limited thereto. FIGS. 15A and 15B show an example process by which a receiver 1506 compensates for various types of echo reflections or other channel distortions through time deconvolution of a received signal in the manner described herein. In FIG. 15 A, wireless transmitter 1500 transmits a complex cyclically time shifted and cyclically frequency shifted wireless waveform 1502 in multiple directions using methods in accordance with the described embodiments. Some of these signals 1504 go directly to the receiver 1506. The receiver 1506 can be, for example, an OTFS receiver. Other signals 1508 may be reflected by a wireless reflector, such as a building 1507. These “echo” reflections 1510 travel a longer distance to reach receiver 1506, and thus end up being time delayed. As a result, and as shown in FIG. 15B, receiver 1506 receives a distorted signal 1512 that is the summation of both the original signal 1504 and the echo waveforms 1510.

[0110] Since a portion of the transmitted signal 1502 is a cyclically time shifted waveform, a time deconvolution device 1514 at the receiver analyzes the cyclically time varying patterns of the waveforms and effects appropriate compensation. In the embodiment of FIGS. 15A and 15B, this analysis may include a type of pattern matching or the equivalent and the decomposition of the distorted, received signal back into various time-shifted versions. These time-shifted versions may include, for example, a first time-shifted version 1516 corresponding to direct signals 150417185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOand a second time-shifted version 1518 corresponding to the reflected signal 1510. The time deconvolution device 1514 may also determine the time-offset 1520 necessary to cause the time delayed echo signal 1518, 1510 to match up with the original or direct signal 1516, 1504. This time offset value 1520, here called a time deconvolution parameter, may provide useful information as to the relative position of the echo location(s) relative to the transmitter 1500 and receiver 1506. This parameter may also help the system characterize some of the signal impairments that occur between the transmitter and receiver.[OHl] FIGS. 16A and 16B extend the echo-compensation framework of FIGS. 15A and 15B to additionally account for frequency shifts caused by Doppler effects. In FIG. 16A, a moving wireless transmitter 1600 transmits a complex cyclically time shifted and cyclically frequency shifted wireless waveform 1602 in multiple directions. In this example, transmitter 1600 is moving perpendicular to receiver 1606 — and thus imparts no Doppler shift on the direct signals 1604 reaching the receiver — but is moving toward a wireless reflector, such as building 1607. The motion toward the reflector causes the waveform 1602 to be blue-shifted (shifted to a higher frequency) upon reflection. The resulting echo reflections 1610 are therefore both time-delayed (as in FIGS. 15A / 15B) and frequency-shifted relative to the direct signals 1604. Receiver 1606 thus receives a distorted signal 1612 that is the summation of the direct signal 1604 and the time-and frequency-shifted echo waveforms 1610.

[0112] Because the transmitted waveform 1602 includes both cyclically time shifted and cyclically frequency shifted components, a time and frequency deconvolution device 1614 at the receiver 1606 is able to decompose the distorted signal 1612 into a first version 1616 corresponding to the direct signal 1604 and a second version 1618 corresponding to the frequency-shifted echo waveform 1610, using pattern matching or equivalent techniques. In addition to the time deconvolution parameter (time offset 1620) described in connection with FIGS. 15A and 15B, the device 1614 also determines a frequency offset value 1622 (a frequency deconvolution parameter). The combined time and frequency deconvolution parameters provide information as to the relative positions and velocities of the echo location(s), the transmitter 1600, and the receiver 1606, and enable characterization of signal impairments across both dimensions. Even where the energy in the direct signal 1604 is insufficient for reliable reception, the energy from the time- and frequency-shifted echo versions may be coherently combined with18185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOthe direct signal upon application of the appropriate offsets, yielding a less noisy and more reliable received signal.

[0113] FIG. 17 shows an example receiver processing section 1710 operative to compensate for the effects of echo reflections and frequency shifts. Referring to FIG. 17, the receiver processing section 1710 includes a cyclic deconvolution processing block 1706 and an equalizer 1702. The equalizer 1702 uses the previously-described Al architecture to output equalization parameters 1708 that can also give information pertaining to the extent to which the echo reflections and frequency shifts distorted the underlying signal. The equalizer 1702A can be, for example, an adaptive equalizer that implements the Al-based processing techniques described herein.

[0114] In FIG. 17, it is assumed that the composite transmitted waveform has, since transmission, been distorted by various echo reflections and / or frequency shifts as previously shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. This produces a distorted waveform 1700, which for simplicity is represented through a simple echo reflection delayed distortion. In FIG. 17, Al-based equalizer 1702 is configured to reduce or substantially eliminate such distortion by analyzing the distorted waveform 1700 and, assisted by the knowledge that the original composite waveform was made up of N cyclically time shifted and N cyclically frequency shifted waveforms, determine what sort of time offsets and frequency offsets will best deconvolve distorted waveform 1700 back into a close representation of the original waveform, which is represented in FIG. 17 as deconvolved waveform 1704. The equalization operations performed by equalizer 1702 may alternately be carried out by the cyclic deconvolution device 1706.

[0115] In one embodiment the equalizer 1702 produces a set of equalization parameters 1708 during the process of equalizing the distorted waveform. For example, in the simple case where the original waveform was distorted by only a single echo reflection offset by time toffset, and by the time the original waveform and the toffset echo waveform reach the receiver, the resulting distorted signal 1700 may be, for example, about 90% original waveform and 10% toffset echo waveform, then the equalization parameters 1708 can output both the 90% original and 10% echo signal mix, as well as the toffset value. Typically, of course, the actual distorted signal 1700 could consist of a number of various time and frequency offset components, and here again, in addition to cleaning this distortion, the equalizer 1702 can also report the various time offsets,19185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOfrequency offsets, and percentage mix of the various components of signal 1700 to the transmitter and / or the receiver.

[0116] As an example, a receiver configured to implement equalization in accordance with FIG.17 may, based upon the equalization parameters 1708 which it derives, elect to propose an alternative set of cyclically time shifted and cyclically frequency shifted waveforms intended to provide superior operation in view of the current environment and conditions experienced by such receiver. In this case the receiver could transmit this proposal (or command) to the corresponding transmitter(s). This type of “handshaking” can be done using any type of signal transmission and encoding scheme desired. Thus in described wideband antenna deployments, each transmitter may attempt to optimize its signal so that its intended receiver (e g., using a beam configured using the techniques described herein) is best able to cope with the impairments unique to communication between the transmitter and receiver over the communications channel therebetween.

[0117] In some cases, before transmitting large amounts of data, or any time as desired, a given transmitter and receiver may choose to more directly test the various echo reflections, frequency shifts, and other impairments of the transmitter and receiver’s system and environment. This can be done, by, for example having the previously-described Al infrastructure use the transmitter to send a test signal where the plurality of data symbols are selected to be test symbols known to the receiver (e.g., the receiver may have stored a record of these particular test symbols). Since in this case the receiver will be aware of exactly what sort of signal it should receive in the absence of any impairment, the equalizer 1702 will generally be able to provide even more accurate time and frequency equalization parameters 1708 for use by the receiver relative to the case in which the receiver lacks such awareness. This process could be a part of the training stage of the Al infrastructure. Thus, in this case the equalization parameters provide even more accurate information relating to the characteristics of the echo reflections, frequency offsets, and other signal impairments of the system and environment of the applicable transmitter(s) and the receiver. This more accurate information may be used by the receiver to suggest or command that the applicable transmitter(s) shift to use different beamforming parameters more suitable to the present situation.20185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0118] In some embodiments, when the transmitter is a wireless transmitter and the receiver is a wireless receiver, and the frequency offsets are caused by Doppler effects, the more accurate determination of the deconvolution parameters, i.e. the characteristics of the echo reflections and frequency offsets, can be used to determine the location and velocity of at least one object in the environment of the transmitter and receiver.

[0119] 7 Multi-operator resource sharing examples

[0120] FIG. 18 depicts examples of resource sharing performed on the network-side. The different sharing techniques are depicted by organization along signal travel paths (top to bottom) and different sharing configurations (left to right). In passive sharing (left side), site sharing may be performed such that tower / antenna is shared, but each operator manages their own base station, eNodeB, backhaul, radio controller and core network. In the backhaul sharing configuration, operators may share backhaul and tower, but otherwise manage their own remaining functional blocks.

[0121] In the active sharing configurations, a dedicated configuration may be such that operators have different core networks, but the remaining functional blocks (radio controller, backhaul, base station and tower / antenna) may be shared.

[0122] FIG. 19 depicts an example of a transmission tower allowing resource sharing. This configuration is sometimes called a multiple operator radio access network (MORAN). In this configuration, all functional elements of a physical site may be shared, such as radio controller function, base station function and antennas. However, spectrum may not be shared and may be used independently by each multiple network operator (MNO) such as MNO A and MNO B in the depicted embodiment. Each operator may manage their own dedicated core networks independent of the other operator(s). One advantage of this configuration is to reduce antenna clutter on the transmission tower. However, one disadvantage of this configuration is that the quality of service (QoS) may be impacted due to shared antenna(s), which may reduce signal strength for each MNO’s use.

[0123] Alternatively, in the configuration depicted in FIG. 19, spectrum sharing may also be performed. Such a configuration may have the advantage of further reducing complexity of deployment. However, this may come at the price of reduced flexibility in spectrum use, which21185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOmay preclude service differentiation. Spectrum sharing may also be disallowed by government regulations.

[0124] FIG. 20 shows examples of spectrum utilization by different networks. In the depicted examples, the frequency spectrum is shared or partitioned among different wireless communication standards or protocols, such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR). As shown, a DC subcarrier may be positioned between LTE and NR spectrum allocations, with LTE utilizing a 7.5 kHz subcarrier spacing and NR utilizing a 15 kHz subcarrier spacing. In some configurations, the NR allocation may be offset by 7.5 kHz relative to the LTE allocation. These spectrum utilization examples illustrate the challenge of efficiently managing spectrum resources when multiple wireless technologies or network operators coexist within overlapping or adjacent frequency bands.

[0125] The wideband radio and channelizer described herein are configured to accommodate such diverse spectrum utilization scenarios. Because the wideband antenna is capable of operating across a wide range of frequencies and the wideband radio is capable of handling the corresponding analog-to-digital conversion and frequency channelization, the system may simultaneously support transmissions from multiple network operators using different spectrum allocations, subcarrier spacings, and multiplexing schemes. The channelizer processes the received wideband signal to separate (de-channelize) the signal into multiple channel streams, each corresponding to a particular network operator or spectrum allocation, and to combine (channelize) multiple channel streams for transmission through the wideband radio.

[0126] FIG. 21 shows examples of multiplexing options that may be implemented in shared networks. The depicted examples illustrate different approaches to separating transmissions from different network operators or user devices in shared spectrum environments. These approaches include time multiplexing, in which transmissions from different operators are separated in the time domain by allocating different time slots or symbol periods; frequency multiplexing, in which transmissions are separated in the frequency domain using guard bands or different subcarrier allocations; and combinations thereof. As shown, different subcarrier spacings (e.g., 15 kHz, 30 kHz) may result in different symbol durations (e.g., Tsymb, Tsymb / 2), and non-orthogonal configurations are also possible.22185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0127] In the context of the unified RAN architecture described herein, the channelizer may implement one or more of these multiplexing options when channelizing multiple phase-adjusted channel streams by multiplexing according to a scheme to generate the data stream for transmission through the wideband radio. The multiplexing scheme may be selected based on the channel information received for the plurality of voxels, the spectrum allocations of the multiple network operators, and the quality -of-service (QoS) requirements of individual users or operators. The channelizer may perform multiplexing at the transport block level, enabling finegrained resource allocation across multiple operators sharing the same wideband antenna and radio infrastructure.

[0128] 7.1 Unified RAN architecture

[0129] FIG. 22 shows an example of a unified Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture 2201. In the depicted configuration, a wideband antenna (2203) may be shared by multiple network operators Nl, N2... NX. Various implementation examples of the wideband antenna (2203), e.g., a Luneburg lens configuration, are described in the present document. The wideband antenna 2203 can be coupled to a wideband radio 2205. The wideband antenna 2203 may be designed to accommodate different sized antenna elements. In general, antenna elements having a size equal to half the wavelength of a frequency band may be used. Therefore, to accommodate transmissions in different frequency bands (e.g., 1.8, 2 or 5 GHz), different sized antenna elements may be used.

[0130] On the reception side, the wideband radio 2205 may receive analog signals from the wideband antenna at different frequencies and with different bandwidth occupancies and may extract a digital signal multiplex representing a digital signal corresponding to the information received by the wideband antenna. On the transmit side, the wideband radio 2205 may shape the outgoing signal transmissions to conform to the spectral requirements (e.g., spectrum bands and widths of the bands).

[0131] The wideband radio 2205 can be coupled to a channelizer 2207. On the receive side, the channelizer 2207 may process the signal multiplex received from the wideband radio and separate out the signal into multiple channels (e.g., multiple channel streams) that are then provided to different network operators Nl to NX. On the transmit side, the channelizer 2207 can receive transmission data from each of the network operators and combine the data into23185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOpackets that are suitable for transmission by the wideband radio 2205. Additional technical solutions that may be implemented by the channelizer 2207 are disclosed throughout the present document.

[0132] In the embodiment 2201 depicted in FIG. 22, each network operator may operate their own Distributed Unit (DU) functionality. All the DUs can be further coupled to a corresponding Control Plane (CP) and a user plane (UP) of one or more Central Units (CUs). Accordingly, to the extent that scheduling is performed by each operator’s DU, such scheduling can be performed in a resource pool that is screened off or separate from another resource pool accessed and used by another DU. In this embodiment, although all DUs 2211 share path through a same channelizer and a same wideband radio 2205, the CP and UP resources of each network operator can be assigned and managed separately from each other.

[0133] FIG. 23 shows a RAN network embodiment 2301 in which DUs 2311 may be implemented as logically separate DU for each operator, but as a single DU (with some rulebased individual partitioning). Here, the wideband antenna 2303 and the wideband radio 2305 may be substantially similar to as described in FIG. 22. The channelizer 2307 may be configured to operate according to the DU implementation division among network operators, as is further described in the present document. Additional features of a scheduler that operates in such a shared resource scenario are described in the present document.

[0134] FIGS. 22 and 23 show an example of a protocol stack implementation in a unified RAN network (e.g., 2201 or 2301) in which different embodiments are possible for the implementation of network configurations that use a wideband antenna. According to a first embodiment, a common distributed unit DU and channelizer may be used, but separate schedulers may be used. In this embodiment, an exclusive resource route may be provided to logical DUs, independent of other logical DUs. In a second embodiment, all resources may be routed to a single DU that serves all users (e.g. all users across all operators). DU may include, for example, gNodeB functionality including layer 2 processing and CU may include higher layer (sometimes called layer 2.5) and above functionalities (e.g., radio link control RLC processing). DU may perform the scheduling of data transmissions for transmissions / receptions through the wideband antenna.

[0135] A DU that operates in the second embodiment can be provided with information (e.g., mapping information) that allows the DU to understand which information (e.g., data) comes24185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOfrom or goes to which operator’s core network. The DU will be able to separate and channelize the data to groupings through the channelizer and transmit / receive through the wideband antenna.

[0136] In some cases, which of the above-discussed embodiments may be used in a particular deployment may be a business-level decision that may depend on computing power and / or other electrical / real estate resources available at an antenna site. Such a configuration may therefore consolidate multiple different computing boxes found at certain cell tower sites into a single computing platform. One advantage of such a configuration is that an integrated scheduler that has visibility into different bandwidth requirements of different network operators may be able to optimize resource utilization across different network operators. For example, one network operator may be primarily servicing business customers who use wireless bandwidth during daytime (office hours) while another network operator may be primarily servicing residential customers that use wireless bandwidth during evening and night hours. The integrated scheduler implemented in a DU in such a case may be selectively able to assign transmission / reception resources to users of different networks depending on such a time use profile. Such a resource sharing may, for example, occur between different frequency bands. Such a sharing of resources may use some of the interfacing protocols defined by Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) consortium.

[0137] One advantage of the configurations depicted in FIG. 22 and FIG. 23 is that it may accommodate different granularities at which resources are shared. Here, resources mean uplink spectrum, uplink bandwidth, downlink spectrum, downlink bandwidth, reference signal bandwidth, beams, etc. Furthermore, such usage may be tracked and logged and reported to an accounting server to ensure that accurate billing is performed for resource utilization.

[0138] FIG. 24 is an example of protocol stack in a resource sharing RAN in which dynamic cross-operator carrier aggregation may be performed. Such an aggregation may be used for resource sharing as described in the present document. For example, a network operator may wish to combine two 10 MHz bandwidth spectra separated from each other in the frequency domain and operate them as a single 20 MHz channel by performing carrier aggregation.However, presently, such aggregation is not possible across different network operators due to protocol restrictions on the underlying protocol standards such as 3GPP specifications and / or the25185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOcomputing power needed to sustain such cross-operator scheduling in real-time. However, using the disclosed technique, such cross-carrier scheduling and resource sharing is made possible.

[0139] As depicted in FIG. 24, from a UE perspective, a UE may receive from (or may transmit to) one or more transmission points, which can be cell towers (e.g., base stations) configured for resource sharing. The antenna resources at the transmission tower can represent the physical layer resources. At the medium access control (MAC) level, transmission packets for multiple UEs may be multiplexed in different transport channels at a transport block (TB) level. For example, two different UEs being served by two different operators may be handled by a scheduler in a manner that allows MAC layer multiplexing of traffic to / from such UEs. At the higher layer (e.g., radio link control layer), IP packets to / from core networks of different network operators may be identified using different logical channels (e.g., IP addresses or ports). Here, the MAC layer may be controlled by the DU that has been described in the present document.

[0140] In the configuration where the UE receives / transmits in a synchronized manner with multiple towers, e.g., for a coordinated multi-point (COMP) configuration, using the DU technology described herein, such COMP may be achieved using different operator’s computing resources. Therefore, cross-operator COMP is possible by controlling the multiplexing and resource allocation at the MAC layer, as performed by a single DU (e.g., called a master DU) described herein.

[0141] 8 Example implementations of the disclosed technology

[0142] As previously discussed, conventional systems provide only coarse, reactive spatial management of radiated and received electromagnetic energy, lacking proactive visibility into the electromagnetic environment, the ability to precisely direct or withhold energy from specific volumetric regions of space, high-speed Doppler compensation for non-terrestrial objects such as low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and integrated sensing and communication capabilities. The disclosed technology addresses these limitations through the integration of the Al-driven channel measurement and prediction system and the wideband cellular antenna apparatus with spatial channelization capabilities described in Sections 3 through 7, in which the channelizer maps the wireless channel to a 3D grid of voxels relative to the plurality of wideband antennas, transforming the wireless environment into a collection of independently addressable spatial units upon which precise actions can be performed.26185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0143] FIG. 25 shows an example of a transmit or receive chain of a transceiver apparatus in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. The transceiver apparatus includes, from the antenna side to the network side, the following functional blocks: a wideband wide-angle antenna array and a wideband radio (described in Section 4), which provide integrated spectrum sensing and listening functionality; a frequency channelizer and a spatial channelizer (described in Sections 3 and 5) that provide logical-layer-to-physical-port mapping;delay / Doppler compensation (described in Section 6) and a first network layer that enables beamforming, delay and Doppler compensation, and mapping user data to logical ports, and additional network layers that function as a master scheduler to schedule and provide user data packets, thereby enabling resource sharing (described in Section 7).

[0144] FIG. 26 is a block diagram of a system that implements channel measurement and prediction for wideband radio communication in wireless cellular systems. The system includes a wideband antenna array coupled to a spatial filtering and channelizer block, a FlexRAN / DD (delay / Doppler) compensation block, a channel measurement apparatus, and an Al (artificial intelligence) infrastructure.

[0145] In the depicted configuration, the wideband antenna array receives RF signals from the wireless channel across a wide range of frequencies and angular directions. These signals are processed by the spatial filtering and channelizer block, which performs both frequency channelization (separating the wideband signal into individual sub-bands) and spatial channelization (mapping the signals to a 3D grid of voxels relative to the plurality of wideband antennas). The channelizer outputs multiple channel streams, each associated with one or more voxels and one or more frequency sub-bands.

[0146] The FlexRAN / DD compensation block performs delay / Doppler compensation and processes the channelized signals to separate user data from the physical resource blocks and layers. On the receive side, the FlexRAN / DD compensation block may apply time and frequency deconvolution to mitigate the effects of echo reflections and Doppler frequency shifts, as described in connection with FIGS. 15A-17. On the transmit side, the FlexRAN / DD compensation block may apply phase adjustment operations and beamforming weights to the outgoing channel streams based on the channel information.27185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0147] The channel measurement apparatus generates channel measurement data from the RF signals received by the wideband antenna array. This measurement data may include channel impulse responses, path loss characteristics, delay spread calculations, angular spread features, correlation matrices, and other parameters characterizing the wireless environment. The channel measurement apparatus may use a capture platform, as described in connection with FIGS. 3-8, to survey the wireless environment and log observations.

[0148] The Al infrastructure receives the channel measurement data and processes it through a training stage and an inference stage, as described in Section 3.

[0149] The integration of the Al-driven channel measurement and prediction system with the wideband cellular antenna apparatus and spatial channelization capabilities enables the system to operate proactively rather than reactively. Rather than merely responding to degraded signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) after interference has already occurred, the system can predict channel conditions, identify potential interference sources, and pre-compensate transmissions — all based on the ALgenerated channel information mapped to the 3D grid of voxels. This proactive management extends across multiple dimensions: frequency (through frequency channelization), time (through scheduling), space (through the spatial channelizer and 3D voxel mapping), and Doppler (through delay / Doppler compensation).

[0150] The following solutions may be adopted by preferred embodiments.

[0151] SI. A method (e.g., method 2700 in FIG. 27) of wireless communication, comprising: operating (2710) a first interface of a channelizer for receiving a first data stream from a wideband radio, wherein the first data stream is received through a wireless channel, wherein the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to a plurality of wideband antennas coupled to the wideband radio; receiving (2720) channel information for a plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels; and operating (2730), based on the channel information, a second interface of the channelizer to exchange information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators, wherein operating the second interface comprises: de-channelizing (2732) the first data stream received from the wideband radio into multiple channel streams, performing (2734), based on the channel information, an interference mitigation operation on the multiple channel streams to generate multiple interference-mitigated channel streams, and providing (2736) each of the28185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOmultiple interference-mitigated channel streams to a corresponding DU function of the DU functions of the multiple network operators.

[0152] In preferred solutions, the first interface and the second interface represent a combination of hardware and software based application programming interface (API). In preferred embodiments, the method 2700 may control transmission and reception schedules in a wireless network such that transmissions and / or receptions are performed according to the schedules.

[0153] S2. The method of solution SI, wherein performing the interference mitigation operation enables an interference type in a channel stream of the multiple channel streams to be mitigated, wherein the channel stream is associated with a first subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein performing the interference mitigation operation comprises estimating the interference type using a second subset of the plurality of voxels that is different from the first subset of the plurality of voxels.

[0154] S3. The method of solution S2, wherein the first subset and the second subset of the plurality of voxels are associated with a first network operator and a second network operator of the multiple network operators, respectively.

[0155] S4. The method of any of solutions SI to 3, wherein the corresponding DU function is a same single DU function that each of the multiple channel streams is provided to.

[0156] S5. The method of solution S4, wherein the same single DU function is provided with information to map data to and from each corresponding core network of the multiple network operators.

[0157] S6. A method (e g., method 2800 in FIG. 28) of wireless communication, comprising: operating (2810) a first interface of a channelizer for transmitting a data stream to a wideband radio, wherein the data stream is transmitted through a wireless channel, wherein the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to a plurality of wideband antennas coupled to the wideband radio; receiving (2820) channel information for a plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels; and operating (2830), based on the channel information, a second interface of the channelizer to exchange information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators, wherein operating the second interface comprises: receiving (2832), from the DU functions, multiple channel streams, performing (2834), based on the channel information, a phase adjustment29185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOoperation on the multiple channel streams to generate multiple phase-adjusted channel streams, channelizing (2836) the multiple phase-adjusted channel streams by multiplexing according to a scheme to generate the data stream, and providing (2838) the data stream to the first interface.

[0158] S7. The method of solution S6, wherein transmitting the data stream uses a subset of the plurality of wideband antennas, and wherein the subset is determined based on the channel information.

[0159] S8. The method of solution S6 or S7, wherein performing the phase adjustment operation enables the multiple phase-adjusted channel streams to be beamformed for a particular user device.

[0160] S9. The method of any of solutions SI to S8, wherein the channel information includes estimated channel parameters.

[0161] S10. The method of any of solutions SI to S9, wherein the channel information includes predicted channel parameters at a particular time, a particular position or a particular frequency.

[0162] SI 1. The method of any of solutions SI to SI 0, wherein the channelizer is configured to be quality of service (QoS) aware.

[0163] S12. The method of any of solutions SI to SI 1, wherein the channelizer is configured with target metrics for at least one of a bitrate, a bandwidth, or an error correction code for communication between the wideband radio and the channelizer based on a per network operator or a per network operator group basis.

[0164] S13. The method of any of solutions SI to SI 2, wherein the channelizer is informed of a decision to route traffic received on a spectrum portion for a first network operator to a DU function of a second network operator.

[0165] S14. The method of any of solutions SI to S13, wherein each incoming digital data unit to and each outgoing digital data unit from the wideband radio comprises a header or is communicated on a separate electrical connection that identifies a corresponding spectrum band or network operator whose data is being carried.

[0166] SI 5. The method of solution S14, wherein the plurality of wideband antennas is operating in a multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) configuration.30185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0167] SI 6. The method of any of solutions SI to SI 5, wherein the multiple network operators are configured to share at least some channel resources of the wireless channel according to a shared Radio Access Network (RAN) scheme.

[0168] SI 7. The method of solution SI 6, wherein the shared RAN scheme defines that one or more of the plurality of wideband antennas are shared among the multiple network operators.

[0169] SI 8. The method of solution SI 6, wherein the shared RAN scheme defines that one or more of the plurality of wideband antennas and a wideband radio controller are shared among the multiple network operators.

[0170] SI 9. The method of solution SI 6, wherein the shared RAN scheme defines that one or more of the plurality of wideband antennas, a wideband radio controller, and the DU functions are shared among the multiple network operators.

[0171] S20. The method of any of solutions SI to SI 9, further comprising: receiving, from the wideband radio, a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals; generating, based on the plurality of RF signals, first channel measurement data; and generating the channel information by using an artificial intelligence (Al) infrastructure to process the first channel measurement data.

[0172] S21. The method of solution S20, wherein a training dataset for the Al infrastructure comprises second channel measurement data that was generated prior to receiving the plurality of RF signals and positioning information associated with the plurality of RF signals.

[0173] S22. The method of solution S21, wherein the positioning information is captured using a global positioning system (GPS) antenna.

[0174] S23. The method of solution S20, wherein the Al infrastructure comprises: a retrieval augmentation generation (RAG) layer configured to receive one or more features of the wireless channel; and an Al engine comprising a generative Al model to process the one or more features and generate the channel information.

[0175] S24. The method of any of solutions SI to S23, wherein the DU functions of the multiple network operators are logically grouped as a single DU function.

[0176] S25. The method of any of solutions SI to S23, wherein the DU functions of the multiple network operators are logically grouped as separate DU functions.

[0177] S26. The method of solution S25, wherein the channelizer is configured to perform a multiplexing operation at a transport block level.31185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO

[0178] S27. The method of solution S26, wherein a rule configures a channel stream of the multiple channel streams to carry data traffic of at least two different network operators of the multiple network operators with a single DU function of the DU functions.

[0179] S28. The method of solution S27, wherein each of the DU functions is coupled to a corresponding control plane (CP) and a corresponding user plane (UP) of one or more central units (CUs).

[0180] S29. The method of solution S28, wherein resources of the corresponding control plane and the corresponding user plane for each of the multiple network operators are assigned and managed separately from each other.

[0181] S30. The method of any of solutions SI to S29, wherein at least one of the plurality of wideband antennas comprises a spherical Luneburg antenna.

[0182] S31. The method of any of solutions SI to S30, wherein carriers from at least two of the multiple network operators are aggregated together.

[0183] S32. The method of solution S31, wherein the carriers from the at least two of the multiple network operators are implemented across different cell towers.

[0184] S33. The method of solution S31, wherein a multiplexing of packets to be transmitted or received over the carriers is performed at a transport block level.

[0185] S34. An apparatus for digital communications, comprising: at least one processor; and a transceiver configured to transmit or receive digital communication under control of the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to implement the method in any of solutions SI to S33.

[0186] S35. A non-transitory computer readable medium having code stored thereon; the code, upon execution by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to implement a method recited in any of solutions SI to S33.

[0187] FIG. 29 is a block diagram representation of a hardware platform 2900 which may be used to implement the various methods described in the present document. The hardware platform 2900 may be incorporated within a user device or a mobile platform as disclosed herein. The hardware platform 2900 includes at least one processor 2902, a memory 2904 and a transceiver circuitry 2906. The at least one processor may execute instructions, e. g., by reading from the memory 2904, and control the operation of the transceiver circuitry 2906 and the32185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOhardware platform 2900 to perform the methods described herein (e.g., methods 2700 and 2800 described in FIGS. 27 and 28, respectively). In some embodiments, the memory 2904 and / or the transceiver circuitry 2906 may be partially or completely contained within the at least one processor 2902 (e.g., a same semiconductor package). The transceiver circuitry 2906 provides communication interface by which the hardware platform is able to receive or send information.

[0188] The disclosed and other embodiments, modules and the functional operations described in this document can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this document and their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. The disclosed and other embodiments can be implemented as one or more computer program products, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a computer readable medium for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. The computer readable medium can be a machine-readable storage device, a machine-readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter effecting a machine-readable propagated signal, or a combination of one or more of them. The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple processors or computers. The apparatus can include, in addition to hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, or a combination of one or more of them. A propagated signal is an artificially generated signal, e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, which is generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus.

[0189] A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script, or code) can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a standalone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub programs, or portions of code).33185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOA computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

[0190] The processes and logic flows described in this document can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit).

[0191] Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read -only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. However, a computer need not have such devices.Computer readable media suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto optical disks; and CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

[0192] While this patent document contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of an invention that is claimed or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in this document in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed34185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOcombination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or a variation of a sub-combination. Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results.

[0193] Only a few examples and implementations are disclosed. Variations, modifications, and enhancements to the described examples and implementations and other implementations can be made based on what is disclosed.35185851816.1

Claims

PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOOWHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:operating a first interface of a channelizer for receiving a first data stream from a wideband radio, wherein the first data stream is received through a wireless channel, wherein the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to a plurality of wideband antennas coupled to the wideband radio;receiving channel information for a plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels; and operating, based on the channel information, a second interface of the channelizer to exchange information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators, wherein operating the second interface comprises:de-channelizing the first data stream received from the wideband radio into multiple channel streams,performing, based on the channel information, an interference mitigation operation on the multiple channel streams to generate multiple interference-mitigated channel streams, andproviding each of the multiple interference-mitigated channel streams to a corresponding DU function of the DU functions of the multiple network operators.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the interference mitigation operation enables an interference type in a channel stream of the multiple channel streams to be mitigated, wherein the channel stream is associated with a first subset of the plurality of voxels, wherein performing the interference mitigation operation comprises estimating the interference type using a second subset of the plurality of voxels that is different from the first subset of the plurality of voxels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first subset and the second subset of the plurality of voxels are associated with a first network operator and a second network operator of the multiple network operators, respectively.36185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the corresponding DU function is a same single DU function that each of the multiple channel streams is provided to.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the same single DU function is provided with information to map data to and from each corresponding core network of the multiple network operators.

6. A method of wireless communication, comprising:operating a first interface of a channelizer for transmitting a data stream to a wideband radio, wherein the data stream is transmitted through a wireless channel,wherein the channelizer is configured to map at least a portion of the wireless channel to a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels relative to a plurality of wideband antennas coupled to the wideband radio;receiving channel information for a plurality of voxels from the 3D grid of voxels; and operating, based on the channel information, a second interface of the channelizer to exchange information with distributed unit (DU) functions of multiple network operators, wherein operating the second interface comprises:receiving, from the DU functions, multiple channel streams,performing, based on the channel information, a phase adjustment operation on the multiple channel streams to generate multiple phase-adjusted channel streams,channelizing the multiple phase-adjusted channel streams by multiplexing according to a scheme to generate the data stream, and providing the data stream to the first interface.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein transmitting the data stream uses a subset of the plurality of wideband antennas, and wherein the subset is determined based on the channel information.

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein performing the phase adjustment operation enables the multiple phase-adjusted channel streams to be beamformed for a particular user device.

9. The method of any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the channel information includes estimated channel parameters.37185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO10. The method of any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the channel information includes predicted channel parameters at a particular time, a particular position or a particular frequency.

11. The method of any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the channelizer is configured to be quality of service (QoS) aware.

12. The method of any of claims 1 to 11, wherein the channelizer is configured with target metrics for at least one of a bitrate, a bandwidth, or an error correction code for communication between the wideband radio and the channelizer based on a per network operator or a per network operator group basis.

13. The method of any of claims 1 to 12, wherein the channelizer is informed of a decision to route traffic received on a spectrum portion for a first network operator to a DU function of a second network operator.

14. The method of any of claims 1 to 13, wherein each incoming digital data unit to and each outgoing digital data unit from the wideband radio comprises a header or is communicated on a separate electrical connection that identifies a corresponding spectrum band or network operator whose data is being carried.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of wideband antennas is operating in a multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) configuration.

16. The method of any of claims 1 to 15, wherein the multiple network operators are configured to share at least some channel resources of the wireless channel according to a shared Radio Access Network (RAN) scheme.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the shared RAN scheme defines that one or more of the plurality of wideband antennas are shared among the multiple network operators.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the shared RAN scheme defines that one or more of the plurality of wideband antennas and a wideband radio controller are shared among the multiple network operators.38185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO19. The method of claim 16, wherein the shared RAN scheme defines that one or more of the plurality of wideband antennas, a wideband radio controller, and the DU functions are shared among the multiple network operators.

20. The method of any of claims 1 to 19, further comprising:receiving, from the wideband radio, a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals; generating, based on the plurality of RF signals, first channel measurement data; and generating the channel information by using an artificial intelligence (Al) infrastructure to process the first channel measurement data.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein a training dataset for the Al infrastructure comprises second channel measurement data that was generated prior to receiving the plurality of RF signals and positioning information associated with the plurality of RF signals.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the positioning information is captured using a global positioning system (GPS) antenna.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the Al infrastructure comprises:a retrieval augmentation generation (RAG) layer configured to receive one or more features of the wireless channel; andan Al engine comprising a generative Al model to process the one or more features and generate the channel information.

24. The method of any of claims 1 to 23, wherein the DU functions of the multiple network operators are logically grouped as a single DU function.

25. The method of any of claims 1 to 23, wherein the DU functions of the multiple network operators are logically grouped as separate DU functions.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the channelizer is configured to perform a multiplexing operation at a transport block level.39185851816.1PCT Patent Application Attorney Docket No. 119314.8129.WOOO27. The method of claim 26, wherein a rule configures a channel stream of the multiple channel streams to carry data traffic of at least two different network operators of the multiple network operators with a single DU function of the DU functions.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein each of the DU functions is coupled to a corresponding control plane (CP) and a corresponding user plane (UP) of one or more central units (CUs).

29. The method of claim 28, wherein resources of the corresponding control plane and the corresponding user plane for each of the multiple network operators are assigned and managed separately from each other.

30. The method of any of claims 1 to 29, wherein at least one of the plurality of wideband antennas comprises a spherical Luneburg antenna.

31. The method of any of claims 1 to 30, wherein carriers from at least two of the multiple network operators are aggregated together.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the carriers from the at least two of the multiple network operators are implemented across different cell towers.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein a multiplexing of packets to be transmitted or received over the carriers is performed at a transport block level.

34. An apparatus for digital communications, comprising:at least one processor; anda transceiver configured to transmit or receive digital communication under control of the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to implement the method in any of claims 1 to 33.

35. A non-transitory computer readable medium having code stored thereon; the code, upon execution by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors to implement a method recited in any of claims 1 to 33.40185851816.1

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