PDSCH Group Scheduling With Asynchronous HARQ Feedback

The patent segments PDSCH transmissions into multiple groups (first group, second group, etc.) with different feedback timing requirements. Each group can have its own feedback time unit, allowing early groups to provide feedback sooner while later groups follow synchronized timing. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by enabling partial asynchronous feedback that reduces overall latency while maintaining system simplicity through structured grouping.

The patent introduces dynamic feedback timing where the feedback time unit is determined based on the group index and configurable parameters. Different PDSCH groups can have different feedback delays (e.g., first group feedbacks after K1 slots, second group after K2 slots), creating a dynamic feedback schedule that optimizes latency for urgent data while maintaining synchronization for other transmissions.

By segmenting PDSCH transmissions into groups with different feedback timing, the patent enables early groups to complete feedback cycles faster while later groups extend throughput capacity. This allows the system to maintain high throughput through multiple simultaneous transmissions while reducing the effective feedback latency for at least some of the data, resolving the contradiction between throughput improvement and latency increase.

The patent applies preliminary action by scheduling early PDSCH groups with shorter feedback delays to provide quick acknowledgments for time-sensitive data, while later groups handle less urgent transmissions. This preliminary feedback for early groups reduces overall system latency while the extended scheduling of multiple groups maintains high throughput capacity.

The patent manages asynchronous feedback complexity through segmentation into PDSCH groups, where each group has predetermined feedback timing rules based on group index and configurable parameters. This structured approach to asynchrony reduces the management overhead compared to fully arbitrary asynchronous scheduling, as the feedback timing follows predictable patterns within each group while still achieving lower latency than fully synchronized feedback.

The patent uses parameter changes to control feedback timing, where the feedback time unit is determined by changing parameters such as group index, configurable delay values (K1, K2, etc.), and timing offset parameters. This parameter-based control provides a systematic way to manage asynchronous feedback timing without requiring complex ad-hoc scheduling decisions, thereby reducing system complexity while achieving latency reduction.