CN108541359B - System and method for NPDCCH and NPDSCH resource mapping in NB-IOT system - Google Patents

Abstract

Techniques for providing flexible time domain resource mapping are provided. Information related to discontinuous reception of a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a corresponding Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) may be provided to a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) User Equipment (UE). Available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be provided to an NB-IoT UE or a group of NB-IoT UEs with similar coverage conditions. A flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH may also be provided.

Description

System and method for NPDCCH and NPDSCH resource mapping in NB-IOT system

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application serial No. 62/292,038 filed on 5.2.2016, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

Embodiments herein relate generally to communication between devices in a narrowband wireless communication network.

Background

The third generation partnership project (3GPP) introduced narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) designs into its release 13 specification of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless mobile communication standard. For NB-IoT devices that may operate in poor coverage conditions, the transmission to the NB-IoT devices may need to be repeated. The transmissions to certain NB-IoT devices are repeated to ensure that reception may block transmissions to other NB-IoT devices that do not need to be repeatedly sent. Thus, new techniques may be needed to service NB-IoT devices in poor coverage areas without adversely affecting transmissions to NB-IoT devices in good coverage areas.

Drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment.

Fig. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow.

Fig. 3 shows an exemplary transmission scheme.

Fig. 4 illustrates a second embodiment of a logic flow.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a storage medium.

Fig. 6 shows an embodiment of the first device.

Fig. 7 shows an embodiment of the second device.

Fig. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a wireless network.

Detailed Description

Various embodiments may be generally directed to techniques for providing flexible time domain resource mapping. Information related to discontinuous reception of a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a corresponding Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) may be provided to an NB-IoT User Equipment (UE). Subframes available for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be provided to an NB-IoT UE or a group of NB-IoT UEs with similar coverage conditions. A flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH may also be provided. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Various embodiments may include one or more elements. An element may comprise any structure arranged to perform certain operations. Each element may be implemented as hardware, software, or any combination thereof, as desired for a given set of design parameters or performance constraints. Although embodiments may be described by way of example as having a limited number of elements in a particular topology, embodiments may include more or less elements in alternate topologies as desired for a given implementation. It is worthy to note that any reference to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," and "in various embodiments" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

The techniques disclosed herein may involve transmitting data over one or more wireless connections using one or more wireless mobile broadband technologies. For example, various embodiments may relate to transmissions over one or more wireless connections according to one or more third generation partnership project (3GPP), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or 3GPP LTE-advanced (LTE-a) technologies and/or standards, including revisions, successors, and variations thereof, including 4G and 5G wireless networks.

Various embodiments may relate to transmission over one or more wireless connections according to one or more narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) technologies and/or standards (e.g., the 3GPP NB-IoT design introduced in the release 13 specification of the LTE wireless mobile communication standard). The 3GPP LTE NB-IoT specification defines a Radio Access Technology (RAT) for cellular internet of things (CIoT) based on a non-backward compatible variant of the evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) standard (tailored specifically for improved indoor coverage, support of a large number of low-throughput devices, low delay sensitivity, ultra-low device complexity and cost, low device power consumption, and optimized network architecture).

Various embodiments may additionally or alternatively relate to transmissions in accordance with one or more global system for mobile communications (GSM)/enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)/High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and/or GSM (GSM/GPRS) technologies and/or standards with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system, including revisions, successors, and variations thereof.

Examples of wireless mobile broadband technologies and/or standards may also include, but are not limited to, any Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.16 wireless broadband standard (e.g., IEEE 802.16m and/or 802.16p), international mobile telecommunications advanced (IMT-ADV), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and/or WiMAX II, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)2000 (e.g., CDMA 20001 xRTT, CDMA2000EV-DO, CDMA EV-DV, etc.), high performance radio metropolitan area network (HIPERMAN), wireless broadband (WiBro), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), high speed Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) packet access (HSOPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technologies and/or standards, including revisions, successors, and variants thereof.

Some embodiments may additionally or alternatively relate to wireless communication according to other wireless communication technologies and/or standards. Examples of other wireless communication technologies and/or standards that may be used in various embodiments may include, but are not limited to, other IEEE wireless communication standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11u, IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ad, IEEE 802.11af, and/or IEEE 802.11ah standards), high-efficiency Wi-Fi standards developed by IEEE 802.11 high-efficiency wlan (hew) research groups, Wi-Fi alliance (WFA) wireless communication standards (e.g., Wi-Fi direct service, wireless giga (WiGig), WiGig Display Extension (WDE), WiGig Bus Extension (WBE), WiGig Serial Extension (WSE) standards, and/or standards developed by WFA neighbor network (NAN) task groups), Machine Type Communication (MTC) standards (e.g., those implemented in 3GPP Technical Report (TR)23.887, 3GPP Technical Specification (TS)22.368, and/or 3GPP TS 23.682), and/or Near Field Communication (NFC) standards (e.g., standards developed by the NFC forum), including any revisions, successors, and/or variations thereof, as described above. Embodiments are not limited to these examples.

In addition to transmission over one or more wireless connections, the techniques disclosed herein may involve transmission of content over one or more wired connections via one or more wired communications media. Examples of wired communications media may include a wire, cable, metal leads, Printed Circuit Board (PCB), backplane, switch fabric, semiconductor material, twisted-pair wire, co-axial cable, fiber optics, and so forth. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

Conventional techniques may be based on the scheduling window concept to provide a method to support discontinuous transmission for NPDCCH and NPDSCH. For a scheduling window based approach-a specific time window is defined that always includes a first set of subframes that can carry NPDCCH and a second set of subframes that carry NPDSCH, and the pattern is repeated.

The disclosed techniques for discontinuous transmission for NPDCCH and NPDSCH provided herein provide enhanced and improved flexibility. The disclosed techniques provided herein allow decoupling of subframe sets for control and data transmission. The disclosed techniques provided herein also allow flexibility in the time domain multiplexing of different UEs through different configurations of the available Downlink (DL) subframes for each UE of NB-PDCCH and/or NB-PDSCH.

Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment 100 that can represent, for example, some embodiments in which techniques for discontinuous mapping of time domain resources can be implemented. Operating environment 100 may include a mobile device 102 and a cellular base station 104. The operating environment 100 may be considered to be part of a network that enables wireless communication between mobile devices 102 and base stations 104. The mobile device 102 may communicate with the base station 104 through a wireless communication interface 106. Mobile device 102 may be any mobile computing device capable of wirelessly communicating with one or more wireless communication networks. As an example, the mobile device 102 may be an IoT device capable of wirelessly communicating with the cellular base station 104 over a relatively narrowband frequency range. The mobile device 102 may be a User Equipment (UE). Base station 104 may be a cellular base station, e.g., an evolved node b (enb). The wireless communication interface 106 may be, for example, a wireless interface for any wireless network or standard described herein, including, for example, a 4G, LTE, or 5G wireless network, or in particular, NB-IoT technologies and/or standards (e.g., a 3GPP LTE NB-IoT standard). As an example, the mobile device 102 may be a smart meter that may be connected to or incorporated into a larger device for communicating information related to the associated device (the smart meter may thus be considered stationary or fixed relative to the larger device). The mobile device 102 and the base station 104 can implement the techniques described herein for discontinuous mapping of time domain resources.

The operating environment 100 (including its constituent components, including the mobile device 102 and the base station 104) may operate in accordance with the 3GPP LTE NB-IoT standard. The operating environment 100, mobile device 102, and base station 104 may support, for example, three different modes of operation, namely, an independent mode of operation, a guardband mode of operation, and an in-band mode of operation. For both the standalone and guardband modes of operation, all resources within the NB-IoT carrier may be used for transmission of NB-IoT signals and channels. The NB-IoT carrier may generally include one legacy LTE Physical Resource Block (PRB) corresponding to a system bandwidth of 180kHz with a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz. LTE NB-IoT (or NB-LTE) may be based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in the Downlink (DL) and single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in the Uplink (UL).

An NB-IoT physical layer design that may be used in operating environment 100 may use a subset of the channels defined for legacy LTE systems. Other channels may not be defined for the NB-IoT system. An NB-IoT UE (e.g., mobile device 102) may perform a cell search to identify an appropriate cell for connecting to the internet. In a first step, NB-IoT UE 102 may attempt to detect a narrowband primary synchronization signal (NB-PSS). NB-IoT UE 102 may also use the NB-PSS to synchronize its clock to the NB-IoT network and detect symbol boundaries of the OFDM waveform. In a second step, NB-IoT UE 102 may attempt to use narrowband secondary synchronization signals (NB-SSS) to obtain downlink subframe and frame timing (frame timing) and physical cell id (pci) of the NB-IoT carrier. Based on the cell ID and the radio frame synchronization, the UE 102 may continue to decode a narrowband physical broadcast channel (NB-PBCH), which may include scheduling information for additional system information transmission. Acquiring NB-IoT system information will enable NB-IoT UE 102 to initiate a Random Access (RA) procedure to attach to the NB-IoT network. The network may respond to the random access procedure with a Random Access Response (RAR). The random access procedure allows the network to configure NB-IoT UE 102 for communication with the network, and may include a contention resolution procedure. After the connection is established, the network may configure NB-IoT UE 102 using cell-specific and UE-specific Radio Resource Control (RRC) parameters to control the transmit and receive behavior of NB-IoT UE 102.

Communications between NB-IoT UE 102 and the network (via and including base station 104) may be scheduled over a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) (possibly excluding a Random Access Channel (RACH)). NPDCCH may transmit Downlink Control Information (DCI) from eNodeB 104 to NB-IoT UE 102, which may schedule Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) transmissions and/or Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel (NPUSCH) transmissions in the downlink and uplink, respectively. Other channels may not be needed in the NB-LTE system, but are not excluded.

Demodulation of the Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel (NPBCH), NPDCCH, and/or NPDSCH may be based on a cell-specific reference signal (CRS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), or a narrowband reference signal (NB-RS). In addition, different channels may be modulated with different reference signals. Finally, several reference signals may be used to demodulate a single channel. For example, NPBCH may be demodulated using NB-RS, while NPDCCH may be demodulated using CRS. In a different example, NPDCCH may be demodulated using CRS when NB-IoT UE 102 is in good coverage conditions, while NPDCCH may be demodulated by other NB-IoT UEs (not shown in fig. 1 for simplicity) using CRS and NB-RSs.

With reference to NPDCCH (despite its detailed physical layer (PHY) design), mechanisms may be needed that allow NB-IoT UEs (e.g., mobile device 102) to decode NPDCCH without a priori knowledge of the physical resources used to transmit NPDCCH. Unlike NPDSCH and NPUSCH (whose transmissions are scheduled by DCI, which includes resource allocation for transmissions and an Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) scheme), NB-IoT UE 102 may need to decode NPDCCH without such a priori knowledge.

Assuming a fixed modulation scheme (e.g., Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK)) for NPDCCH and a deterministic payload size of DCI, the eNB scheduler may adjust the code rate of NPDCCH transmission by dynamically changing the number of Resource Elements (REs) in the time-frequency grid allocated to a given NPDCCH. NB-IoT UE 102, when attempting to decode NPDCCH, may generally blindly decode a defined set of physical resources, referred to as a Search Space (SS), for possible NPDCCH transmissions, thereby successfully decoding NPDCCH when a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) for NPDCCH candidates passes.

The search space can be considered as a logical concept mapped to physical resources through Control Channel Elements (CCEs). Herein, a Narrowband Control Channel Element (NCCE) may represent a CCE used to define a mapping to physical resource elements of NPDCCH. In particular, an NB-IoT UE (e.g., mobile device 102) may attempt to decode NPDCCH for different code rate hypotheses called Aggregation Levels (ALs), whereby each AL maps to a different number of NCCEs hypothesized for transmission of NPDCCH. Further, each set of NCCEs in a subframe may be repeated multiple times according to a Repetition Level (RL). In other words, NPDCCH candidates are defined according to AL, the starting NCCE index, and rl (m) for a given NPDCCH candidate.

The number of candidates for a given AL (i.e., blind decoding attempts) is a priori knowledge to the UE 102, as defined by the search space. Further, the search space definition may include a hash function to randomize CCE indices across subframes to prevent blocking between different NB-IoT UEs. To further address the blocking aspects for both NPDCCH and NPDSCH transmissions, NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be mapped to a (e.g., temporally) discontinuous set of subframes, at least for UEs in extended or extreme coverage conditions. In one example, these coverage conditions may map to Maximum Coupling Loss (MCL) of 154dB and 164 dB. Furthermore, scheduling flexibility may be further provided by flexibly indicating time domain resources by flexibly indicating a starting subframe of a scheduled NPDSCH in consideration of a limited amount of resources available in a frequency domain per subframe.

The techniques described herein facilitate this flexibility by supporting discontinuous transmission for NPDCCH and NPDSCH and flexible time domain scheduling for NPDSCH.

As described above, for NB-IoT systems, limited resources (e.g., 1 PRB spanning 180kHz) may be available in the frequency domain. As a result, Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) -based multiplexing between Downlink (DL) transmissions of NPDCCH and NPDSCH for the same or different UEs (e.g., mobile device 102) may be relied upon for NB-IoT systems. Furthermore, NPDCCH and NPDSCH transmissions may need to be repeated multiple times in order to provide coverage enhancement to UEs in poor channel conditions. A single NPDSCH Transport Block (TB) may also be mapped to multiple DL subframes for the transmission of a medium size payload (e.g., -500 to 1000 bits of information).

NPDCCH may be transmitted using one or two NB-CCEs in a subframe, which may be repeated in subsequent subframes to provide the desired coverage. While NPDCCH transmissions for up to two such UEs may be multiplexed by FDM within a subframe for UEs in good coverage, Machine Type Communication (MTC) -enabled user PDCCH signals (M-PDCCH signals) (AL equals 2) may be multiplexed by TDM.

Furthermore, to reduce the number of time domain repetitions required for the UE to receive the NPDSCH, the NPDSCH may occupy all available resources in the PRB pair of each subframe-i.e. FDM may not be used between the NPDCCH and the NPDSCH or between two NPDSCH transmissions.

In view of this, as described above, to provide sufficient scheduling flexibility and avoid NPDCCH or NPDSCH transmissions to a UE that may require a large number of repetitions/subframes blocking the NPDCCH or NPDSCH transmissions, discontinuous mapping of time domain resources at subframe level may be used for both NPDCCH and NPDSCH transmissions. Additional flexibility may be further provided by allowing flexible time intervals (rather than fixed time intervals) between the NB-PDCCH and the scheduled (associated) NB-PDSCH.

Accordingly, techniques are provided herein for providing discontinuous time domain resource mapping for NPDCCH and NPDSCH. In various embodiments, a bitmap (bitmap) based mechanism may be used. However, the embodiments and techniques described herein are not limited thereto. Further, techniques for providing flexible time domain resource allocation (with flexible spacing between NPDCCH and NPDSCH) are provided herein.

In various embodiments, techniques are provided for providing sufficient scheduling flexibility and avoiding NPDCCH or NPDSCH transmissions to a UE requiring a large number of repetitions/subframes from blocking NPDCCH or NPDSCH transmissions to other UEs.

In various embodiments, to achieve discontinuous resource allocation in the time domain, a UE-specific or UE group-specific bitmap-based configuration for subframes available for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be utilized. For UE group specific options, a common configuration may be provided to all UEs in a cell or UEs with similar coverage classes.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a logic flow 200, which logic flow 200 may be representative of an implementation of one or more disclosed techniques for providing discontinuous resource allocation. For example, logic flow 200 may be representative of operations that may be performed by a mobile device 102 (e.g., a UE) and/or a base station 104 in operating environment 100 of fig. 1 in some embodiments. In general, the logic flow may be representative of operations executed between a mobile device (e.g., mobile device 102) and a base station (e.g., base station 104) to facilitate discontinuous resource mapping for NB-IoT devices.

At 202, a mobile device and a base station can establish a wireless communication link. The wireless communication link may be a narrowband wireless communication link. The wireless communication link may be the wireless link 106 described with respect to fig. 1. The mobile device may be an NB-IoT device. The mobile device may be a mobile device that is located or in a relatively poor coverage area. That is, the mobile device may be the following mobile device: the mobile device may be sent with a relatively large number of transmission repetitions (e.g., repeated subframes) in order for the mobile device to properly receive and process the transmissions, as compared to other mobile devices in communication with the base station.

At 204, an indication of discontinuous time domain resource mapping for NPDCCH and/or NPDSCH may be provided. The indication may be provided by the base station. The indication may be received by the mobile device. The mobile device may decode and process the received indication. The indication may be provided via a control channel or as part of the control information. The indication may be provided as part of Downlink Control Information (DCI).

At 206, an indication of subframes available for NPDCCH and/or NPDSCH may be provided. The indication may be provided by the base station. The indication may be received by the mobile device. The mobile device may decode and process the received indication. The indication may be provided via a control channel or as part of the control information. The indication may be provided as part of Downlink Control Information (DCI).

In various embodiments, a bitmap based configuration may be used to indicate available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH. In various other embodiments, the available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be indicated by other signaling techniques as described herein. In various embodiments, the available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be indicated specifically for each mobile device (e.g., on a UE-specific basis). In various other embodiments, available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be indicated for a group of mobile devices (e.g., on a UE-group specific basis). In various embodiments, a combination of UE-specific and UE group-specific indications may be used. In various embodiments, a common configuration may be provided to all UEs in a cell or UEs with similar coverage categories for UE group-specific options.

As an example, UEs in robust coverage, extended coverage, and extreme coverage (corresponding to Maximum Coupling Loss (MCL) values up to 144dB, 154dB, 164dB, respectively) may be grouped to multiplex NPDCCH and NPDSCH to UEs belonging to different coverage classes. In various embodiments (e.g., for UE group-specific configuration), control information related to subframes available for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be transmitted via common Radio Resource Control (RRC) RRC (e.g., System Information Block (SIB) signaling) or via dedicated RRC signaling.

Generally, signaling provided to UEs on a UE-specific basis may also be used to provide signaling to UEs on a UE-group-specific basis.

In various embodiments, the eNodeB may signal a common configuration of UE-specific available subframes for all Downlink (DL) unicast channels (e.g., both NPDCCH and NPDSCH). In various embodiments, the eNodeB may signal separate configurations of UE-specific available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH. In various embodiments, the configuration (e.g., via bitmap-based signaling) may relate to absolute radio frame and/or subframe indices.

In various embodiments, signaling (e.g., by constructing a bitmap) may indicate available subframes or valid DL subframes (e.g., 10 or 20 valid subframes) within a larger set of all DL subframes (or a set of available consecutive valid subframes). In various embodiments, the indication (e.g., pattern) may be repeated in time.

As described above, the techniques described herein provide flexible time domain resource allocation. As described herein, flexible time domain resource allocation may be provided by supporting discontinuous time domain resource mapping (e.g., at a subframe level). Scheduling flexibility may be further enhanced by supporting flexible time intervals between scheduling assignments carried by the NPDCCH and the scheduled (e.g., associated) NPDSCH.

In various embodiments, the eNodeB may configure or indicate the value k _ PDSCH for NPDSCH scheduling with a flexible time interval with the last subframe of the corresponding NPDCCH. The value k _ PDSCH may be used such that the first subframe of the scheduled NPDSCH is the first UE-specific available subframe after a spacing of k _ PDSCH-1 subframes from the last subframe of the scheduled NPDCCH.

In various embodiments, the value of k _ PDSCH may be at least 2. In various embodiments, the lower bound may be further increased to allow additional time budget for decoding NPDCCH, thereby enabling low complexity UE implementations (with reduced requirements for peak processing load). In various embodiments, the value of k _ PDSCH may be signaled by higher layers (e.g., dedicated RRC) or using DCI that schedules NPDSCH. In various embodiments, for indicating k _ PDSCH using DCI signaling, multiple bits (e.g., 1 or 2 bits) may be used to indicate k _ PDSCH values.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example subframe structure 300 for providing a flexible time interval between scheduling assignments carried by an NPDCCH and a scheduled (e.g., associated or corresponding) NPDSCH. Indicator 302 shows an indication of relative timing relationships. As shown in fig. 3, subframe 304 may represent the last subframe in which NPDCCH is scheduled. Subframe 306 may represent the first subframe of a scheduled NPDSCH (e.g., scheduled by NPDCCH). A gap 308 may be provided between subframes 304 and 306. In various embodiments, the interval 308 may be a flexible time interval 308. The interval 308 may indicate a first UE-specific available subframe for the NPDSCH 306. Interval 308 may indicate the start of NPDSCH 306 relative to the end of NPDCCH 304. In various embodiments, the interval 308 may be configured or indicated using the value k _ PDSCH described above.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a logic flow 400, which logic flow 400 may be representative of an implementation of one or more disclosed techniques for providing a flexible time interval between scheduling assignments carried by an NPDCCH and a scheduled (e.g., associated or corresponding) NPDSCH. For example, logic flow 400 may be representative of operations that may be performed by mobile device 102 (e.g., a UE) and/or base station 104 in operating environment 100 of fig. 1 in some embodiments. In general, the logic flow may be representative of operations executed between a mobile device (e.g., mobile device 102) and a base station (e.g., base station 104) to facilitate providing flexible time intervals between scheduling assignments and scheduled (e.g., associated or corresponding) NPDSCH carried by NPDCCH for an NB-IoT device.

At 402, a mobile device and a base station can establish a wireless communication link. The wireless communication link may be a narrowband wireless communication link. The wireless communication link may be the wireless link 106 described with respect to fig. 1. The mobile device may be an NB-IoT device. The mobile device may be a mobile device that is located or in a relatively poor coverage area. That is, the mobile device may be the following mobile device: the mobile device may be sent with a relatively large number of transmission repetitions (e.g., repeated subframes) in order for the mobile device to properly receive and process the transmissions, as compared to other mobile devices in communication with the base station.

At 404, an indication of a flexible time interval between a scheduling assignment carried by the NPDCCH and a scheduled (e.g., associated or corresponding) NPDSCH may be provided. The indication may be provided by the base station. The indication may be received by the mobile device. The mobile device may decode and process the received indication. The indication may be provided via a control channel or as part of the control information. The indication may be provided as part of Downlink Control Information (DCI).

At 406, an indication of a value (e.g., or length or duration) of the flexible time interval may be provided. In various embodiments, the value k _ PDSCH may be used to indicate this value. The value k _ PDSCH may be used to indicate that the first subframe of the scheduled NPDSCH may be the first UE-specific available subframe after a spacing of k _ PDSCH-1 subframes from the last subframe of the scheduled NPDCCH. In this way, a flexible time interval between NPDCCH and scheduled associated NPDSCH may be provided.

As described by the techniques described herein, an NB-IoT UE (e.g., UE 102) may decode an indication included in received downlink information, determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the indication, and may decode available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping. The available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH may be provided or indicated in the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping. The indication provided to NB-IoT UE 102 may correspond only/uniquely to the NB-IoT UE. The base station 104 may provide an indication related to the discontinuous time domain resource mapping separately for each NB-IoT UE within the cell, or may provide similar time domain resource mappings for multiple NB-IoT UEs. For example, the base station 104 may provide the same discontinuous time domain resource mapping to a group of NB-IoT UEs. That is, a set of NB-IoT UEs may be provided with a discontinuous time domain resource mapping. As an example, the set of NB-IoT UEs operate within the same cell. As another example, the set of NB-IoT UEs operate within the same coverage class. That is, the group of NB-IoT UE groups may operate under similar reception quality and/or coverage conditions (e.g., and may require a similar number of repetitions to ensure adequate reception).

The discontinuous time domain resource mapping may specify available subframes for NPDCCH and/or available subframes for NPDSCH. The discontinuous time domain resource mapping may specify available subframes based on a reference subframe index and/or based on a reference absolute radio frame. The decoded indication may comprise a further indication of the flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH. Alternatively, a separate or independent indication of the flexible time interval may be provided and decoded. The downlink information received by the NB-IoT UE may be received through DCI or dedicated RRC.

Fig. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a storage medium 500. The storage medium 500 may include any non-transitory computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium, such as an optical, magnetic, or semiconductor storage medium. In various embodiments, storage medium 500 may comprise an article of manufacture. In some embodiments, storage medium 500 may store computer-executable instructions, such as those used to implement logic flow 200 of fig. 2 and/or logic flow 400 of fig. 4. Examples of a computer-readable storage medium or a machine-readable storage medium may include any tangible medium capable of storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatile memory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasable memory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples of computer-executable instructions may include any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, object-oriented code, visual code, and the like. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, may be part of, or may include the following: an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuitry may comprise logic that is at least partially operable in hardware. The embodiments described herein may be implemented as a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example of a mobile device 600 that may represent a mobile device (e.g., a UE) to implement one or more of the disclosed techniques in various embodiments. For example, mobile device 600 may represent mobile device 102 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, mobile device 600 may include application circuitry 602, baseband circuitry 604, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 606, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 608, and one or more antennas 610 coupled together at least as shown.

The application circuitry 602 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 602 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

Baseband circuitry 604 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 604 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 606 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 606. Baseband processing circuitry 604 may interface with application circuitry 602 for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling operation of RF circuitry 606. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 604 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 604a, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 604b, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 604c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 604d for other existing generations, generations in development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). Baseband circuitry 604 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 604 a-d) may handle various radio control functions that support communication with one or more radio networks via RF circuitry 606. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to: signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 604 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 604 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and other suitable functions may be included in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 604 may comprise elements of a protocol stack, e.g., elements of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) protocol, including, for example: physical (PHY), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and/or Radio Resource Control (RRC) elements. A Central Processing Unit (CPU)604e of the baseband circuitry 604 may be configured to run elements of a protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 604 f. The audio DSP(s) 604f may include elements for compression and/or decompression and/or echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or suitably arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 604 and the application circuitry 602 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 604 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 604 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and/or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 604 is configured to support radio communications of multiple wireless protocols may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 606 may support communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuitry 606 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuitry 606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry 608 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry 604. RF circuitry 606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 604 and provide RF output signals to FEM circuitry 608 for transmission.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 606 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of RF circuitry 606 may include mixer circuitry 606a, amplifier circuitry 606b, and filter circuitry 606 c. The transmit signal path of RF circuitry 606 may include filter circuitry 606c and mixer circuitry 606 a. RF circuitry 606 may also include synthesizer circuitry 606d for synthesizing the frequency spectrum for use by mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 606 d. The amplifier circuit 606b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 606c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 604 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert the input baseband signal based on the synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 606d to generate the RF output signal for the FEM circuitry 608. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 604 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 606 c. Filter circuit 606c may include a Low Pass Filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuits 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuits 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 604 may include a digital baseband interface in communication with RF circuitry 606.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio Integrated Circuit (IC) circuits may be provided to process signals for one or more frequency spectrums, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 606a of the RF circuit 606. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 606d may be a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 604 or the application processor 602, depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 602.

Synthesizer circuit 606d of RF circuit 606 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual-mode divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on execution) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into at most Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this manner, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 606d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency), and may be used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate a plurality of signals at the carrier frequency having a plurality of mutually different phases. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, RF circuit 606 may include an IQ and/or a polar converter.

FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on received RF signals from one or more antennas 610, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 608 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by RF circuitry 606 for transmission by one or more of one or more antennas 610.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 608 may include TX/RX switches to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of FEM circuitry 608 may include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuitry 606). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 608 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 606), and may include one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., through one or more antennas 610).

In some embodiments, mobile device 600 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, and/or input/output (I/O) interfaces.

Fig. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a communication device 700 that may implement one or more of mobile device 102, base station 104, logic flow 200, logic flow 400, storage medium 500, and mobile device 600. In various embodiments, device 700 may include logic circuit 728. The logic circuit 728 may comprise physical circuitry to perform operations such as described for one or more of the mobile device 102, the base station 104, the logic flow 200, the logic flow 400, the storage medium 500, and the mobile device 600. As shown in fig. 7, device 700 may include a radio interface 710, baseband circuitry 720, and a computing platform 730, although embodiments are not limited to this configuration.

Device 700 may implement some or all of the structure and/or operation for one or more of mobile device 102, base station 104, logic flow 200, logic flow 400, storage medium 500, mobile device 600, and logic circuit 728 in a single computing entity (e.g., entirely within a single device entity). Alternatively, device 700 may use a distributed system architecture (e.g., a client-server architecture, a layer 3 architecture, an N-layer architecture, a tightly coupled or clustered architecture, a peer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture, a shared database architecture, and other types of distributed systems) to distribute portions of the structure and/or operations for one or more of mobile device 102, base station 104, logic flow 200, logic flow 400, storage medium 500, mobile device 600, and logic circuit 728 across multiple computing entities. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

In one embodiment, radio interface 710 may include components or a combination of components suitable for transmitting and/or receiving single-carrier or multi-carrier modulated signals (e.g., including Complementary Code Keying (CCK), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and/or single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbols), although embodiments are not limited to any particular air interface or modulation scheme. Radio interface 710 may include, for example, a receiver 712, a frequency synthesizer 714, and/or a transmitter 716. The radio interface 710 may include bias controls, a crystal oscillator, and/or one or more antennas 718-f. In another embodiment, the radio interface 710 may use an external Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), a surface acoustic wave filter, an Intermediate Frequency (IF) filter, and/or an RF filter, as desired. Due to the diversity of potential RF interface designs, a broad description thereof is omitted.

Baseband circuitry 720 may communicate with radio interface 710 to process receive and/or transmit signals and may include, for example, mixers to downconvert received RF signals, analog-to-digital converters 722 to convert analog signals to digital form, digital-to-analog converters 724 to convert digital signals to analog form, and mixers to upconvert signals for transmission. Further, baseband circuitry 720 may include baseband or PHY processing circuitry 726 for physical layer (PHY) link layer processing of corresponding receive/transmit signals. Baseband circuitry 720 may include, for example, a Media Access Control (MAC) processing circuit 727 for MAC/data link layer processing. Baseband circuitry 720 may include a memory controller 732 for communicating with MAC processing circuitry 727 and/or computing platform 730, e.g., via one or more interfaces 734.

In some embodiments, PHY processing circuit 726 may include a framework building and/or detection module in combination with additional circuitry, such as a buffer memory, to build or deconstruct a communication framework. Alternatively or additionally, MAC processing circuit 727 may share processing for some of these functions or perform these processes independently of PHY processing circuit 726. In some embodiments, the MAC and PHY processing may be integrated into a single circuit.

Computing platform 730 may provide computing functionality for device 700. As shown, computing platform 730 may include a processing component 740. The device 700 may use the processing component 740 to perform processing operations or logic and logic circuitry 728 for one or more of the mobile device 102, the base station 104, the logic flow 200, the storage medium 500, and the mobile device 800 in addition to or in place of the baseband circuitry 720. Processing component 740 (and/or PHY 726 and/or MAC 727) may include various hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements may include devices, logic devices, components, processors, microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Programmable Logic Devices (PLD), Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software elements may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, software development programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, Application Program Interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such as, for example, desired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.

Computing platform 730 may also include other platform components 750. Other platform components 750 include common computing elements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimedia input/output (I/O) components (e.g., digital displays), power supplies, and so forth. Examples of memory units may include, but are not limited to, various types of computer-readable and machine-readable storage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, for example, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (dram), double-data-rate dram (ddram), synchronous dram (sdram), static RAM (sram), programmable ROM (prom), erasable programmable ROM (eprom), electrically erasable programmable ROM (eeprom), flash memory, polymer memory (e.g., ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase-change or ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory), magnetic or optical cards, arrays of devices such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid-state memory devices (e.g., USB memory, solid-state disks (SSD)), and any other type of storage medium suitable for storing information.

Device 700 may be, for example, a ultra-mobile device, a fixed device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a mobile computing device, a smartphone, a telephone, a digital telephone, a cellular telephone, a user device, an e-book reader, a cell phone, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a messaging device, a computer, a Personal Computer (PC), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a server array or server farm, a web server, a network server, an internet server, a workstation, a minicomputer, a mainframe computer, a supercomputer, a network device, a web appliance, a distributed computing system, multiprocessor system, processor-based system, consumer electronics, a programmable consumer electronics, a computer, a network appliance, a network, a gaming device, a display, a television, a digital television, a set-top box, a wireless access point, a base station, a node B, a subscriber station, a mobile subscriber center, a radio network controller, a router, a hub, a gateway, a bridge, a switch, a machine, or a combination thereof. Thus, the functionality and/or specific configurations of the apparatus 700 described herein may be included or omitted in various embodiments of the apparatus 700, as suitably desired.

Embodiments of device 700 may be implemented using a single-input single-output (SISO) architecture. However, certain implementations may include multiple antennas (e.g., antennas 718-f) for transmitting and/or receiving using adaptive antenna techniques for beamforming or Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA) and/or using MIMO communication techniques.

The components and features of device 700 may be implemented using any combination of discrete circuitry, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), logic gates and/or single chip architectures. Further, the features of device 700 may be implemented using microcontrollers, programmable logic arrays and/or microprocessors or any combination of the foregoing where suitably appropriate. Note that hardware, firmware, and/or software elements may be referred to collectively or individually as "logic" or "circuitry" herein.

It should be understood that the exemplary device 700 shown in the block diagram of fig. 7 may represent one functionally descriptive example of many potential implementations. Thus, division, omission or inclusion of block functions depicted in the accompanying figures does not infer that such division, omission or inclusion of hardware components, circuits, software and/or elements for implementing these functions would be necessary in embodiments.

Fig. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a broadband wireless access system 800. As shown in fig. 8, broadband wireless access system 800 may be an Internet Protocol (IP) type network, including an internet 810 type network capable of supporting mobile wireless access and/or fixed wireless access to internet 810, and the like. In one or more embodiments, broadband wireless access system 800 may comprise any type of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) based or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) based wireless network, such as a system compatible with one or more of the 3GPP LTE specifications and/or IEEE 802.16 standards, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

In exemplary broadband wireless access system 800, Radio Access Networks (RANs) 812 and 818 can be coupled to evolved node bs (enodebs) 814 and 820, respectively, to provide wireless communication between one or more fixed devices 816 and internet 810 and/or between one or more mobile devices 822 and internet 810. One example of a fixed device 816 and a mobile device 822 is device 700 of fig. 7, with fixed device 816 comprising a stationary version of device 700 and mobile device 822 comprising a mobile version of device 700. RANs 812 and 818 may implement profiles that can define the mapping of network functions to one or more physical entities on broadband wireless access system 800. enbs 814 and 820 may comprise radio equipment to provide RF communications with fixed device 816 and/or mobile device 822 (such as described with reference to device 700), and may comprise, for example, PHY and MAC layer devices compatible with the 3GPP LTE specification or IEEE 802.16 standard. Base stations or enbs 814 and 820 may also include an IP backplane to couple to internet 810 via RANs 812 and 818, respectively, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

Broadband wireless access system 800 may further include a visited Core Network (CN)824 and/or a home CN 826, each of which may be capable of providing one or more network functions including, but not limited to, proxy and/or relay type functions, e.g., authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) functions, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) functions, or domain name service control, etc., domain gateways such as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) gateways or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) gateways, and/or Internet Protocol (IP) type server functions, etc. However, these are merely examples of the types of functionality that visited CN 824 and/or home CN 826 may provide, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects. In the case where the visiting CN 824 is not part of the regular service provider for the fixed device 816 or the mobile device 822 (e.g., in the case where the fixed device 816 or the mobile device 822 is moving away from their respective home CN 826), or where the broadband wireless access system 800 is part of the regular service provider for the fixed device 816 or the mobile device 822, but the broadband wireless access system 800 may be in another location or state that is not the primary or home location for the fixed device 816 or the mobile device 822, the visiting CN 824 may be referred to as the visiting CN. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

Fixed device 816 may be located anywhere within range of one or both of enbs 814 and 820, e.g., in or near a home or business, to provide home or business customer bandwidth access to internet 810 via base stations or enbs 814 and 820 and RANs 812 and 818, respectively, and home CN 826. It is noted that while the stationary device 816 is typically disposed in a static location, it may be moved to different locations as needed. For example, mobile device 822 may be utilized at one or more locations if mobile device 822 is within range of a base station or one or both of enbs 814 and 820. In accordance with one or more embodiments, an Operations Support System (OSS)828 may be part of broadband wireless access system 800 to provide management functions for broadband wireless access system 800 and to provide interfaces between functional entities of broadband wireless access system 800. Broadband wireless access system 800 of fig. 8 is merely one type of wireless network that illustrates a number of components of broadband wireless access system 800, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

Various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements may include processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Programmable Logic Devices (PLD), Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software may include software components, programs, applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs, machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, Application Program Interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performance constraints.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented by representative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium that represent various logic within a processor, which when read by a machine, cause the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniques described herein. Such representations (known as "IP cores") may be stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium and provided to various customers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabrication machines that actually fabricate the logic or processor. Some embodiments may be implemented, for example, using a machine-readable medium or article which may store an instruction or a set of instructions that, if executed by a machine, may cause the machine to perform a method and/or operations in accordance with the embodiments. Such a machine may include, for example, any suitable processing platform, computing device, processing device, computing system, processing system, computer, processor, or the like, and may be implemented using any suitable combination of hardware and/or software. The machine-readable medium or article may include, for example, any suitable type of memory unit, memory device, memory article, storage medium, storage device, storage device article, storage device medium and/or storage device unit, for example, memory, removable or non-removable media, erasable or non-erasable media, writeable or re-writeable media, digital or analog media, hard disk, floppy disk, compact disk read Only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk recordable (CD-R), compact disk Rewriteable (CD-RW), optical disk, magnetic media, magneto-optical media, removable memory cards or disks, various types of Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), a tape, a cassette, or the like. The instructions may include any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, encrypted code, and the like, implemented using any suitable high-level, low-level, object-oriented, visual, compiled and/or interpreted programming language.

The following examples relate to further embodiments:

example 1 is a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) User Equipment (UE), comprising a memory; and baseband circuitry coupled to the memory, the baseband circuitry to: decoding an indication included in the received downlink information; determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) based on the indication; and decoding available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

Example 2 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, indicating to correspond only to NB-IoT UEs.

Example 3 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the indication corresponding to a set of NB-IoT UEs.

Example 4 is an extension of example 3 or any other example disclosed herein, the group of NB-IoT UE groups to operate within the same cell.

Example 5 is an extension of example 3 or any other example disclosed herein, the set of NB-IoT UEs operating within the same coverage class.

Example 6 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes for NPDCCH.

Example 7 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes for the NPDSCH.

Example 8 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify the available subframes based on the reference subframe index.

Example 9 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify the available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

Example 10 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the indication to further indicate a flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH.

Example 11 is an extension of example 10 or any other example disclosed herein, the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

Example 12 is an extension of example 11 or any other example disclosed herein, the value of k _ PDSCH to indicate a flexible time interval.

Example 13 is an extension of example 12 or any other example disclosed herein, the k _ PDSCH-1 to indicate a number of subframes from a last subframe of a scheduling NB-PDCCH.

Example 14 is an extension of example 12 or any other example disclosed herein, the value of k _ PDSCH comprising an integer.

Example 15 is an extension of example 12 or any other example disclosed herein, the value of k _ PDSCH comprising an integer of 2 or more.

Example 16 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the received downlink information comprising a dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC).

Example 17 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the received downlink information comprising Downlink Control Information (DCI).

Example 18 is an extension of example 1 or any other example disclosed herein, the apparatus comprising at least one Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver and at least one RF antenna.

Example 19 is a method of wireless communication, comprising: decoding an indication included in the received downlink information; determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) based on the indication; and decoding available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

Example 20 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, indicating only to correspond to one NB-IoT UE.

Example 21 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the indication corresponding to a group of NB-IoT UEs.

Example 22 is an extension of example 21 or any other example, the group of NB-IoT UE groups to operate within the same cell.

Example 23 is an extension of example 21 or any other example, the set of NB-IoT UEs to operate within the same coverage class.

Example 24 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifying available subframes for NPDCCH.

Example 25 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifying available subframes for NPDSCH.

Example 26 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes based on the reference subframe index.

Example 27 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify the available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

Example 28 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the indication to further indicate a flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH.

Example 29 is an extension of example 28 or any other example, the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

Example 30 is the extension of example 29 or any other example, the value of k _ PDSCH indicating a flexible time interval.

Example 31 is an extension of example 30 or any other example, the k _ PDSCH-1 to indicate a number of subframes from a last subframe of a scheduling NB-PDCCH.

Example 32 is the extension of example 30 or any other example, the value of k _ PDSCH comprising an integer.

Example 33 is the extension of example 30 or any other example, the value of k _ PDSCH comprising an integer of 2 or more.

Example 34 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the received downlink information comprising a dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC).

Example 35 is an extension of example 19 or any other example, the received downlink information comprising Downlink Control Information (DCI).

Example 36 is at least one computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to carry out a wireless communication method according to any of examples 19 to 35 or any other example disclosed herein.

Example 37 is a User Equipment (UE) comprising means for performing a wireless communication method according to any of examples 19 to 35 or any other example disclosed herein.

Example 38 is at least one computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to: decoding an indication included in the received downlink information; determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) based on the indication; decoding available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

Example 39 is an extension of example 38 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes for NPDCCH.

Example 40 is an extension of example 38 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes for the NPDSCH.

Example 41 is an extension of example 38 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes based on a reference subframe index.

Example 42 is an extension of example 38 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify the available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

Example 43 is an extension of example 38 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine the flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the indication.

Example 44 is an extension of example 43 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

Example 45 is an extension of example 44 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine a value of k _ PDSCH to indicate the flexible time interval.

Example 46 is an extension of example 45 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine k _ PDSCH-1 to indicate a number of subframes from a last subframe of the scheduling NB-PDCCH.

Example 47 is an extension of example 45 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to decode downlink information received from a dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC).

Example 48 is an extension of example 45 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to decode downlink information received from Downlink Control Information (DCI).

Example 49 is a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) User Equipment (UE), comprising a memory; radio Frequency (RF) circuitry to receive downlink control; and baseband circuitry coupled to the memory and to the RF circuitry, the baseband circuitry to: decoding an indication included in the received downlink information, determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) based on the indication, and decoding available subframes for the NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping; the RF circuit is to: available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH are received.

Example 50 is an extension of example 49 or any other example disclosed herein, the indication to further indicate a flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH.

Example 51 is an apparatus comprising a memory; and baseband circuitry coupled to the memory, the baseband circuitry to: determining a set of User Equipment (UE) devices of a same coverage class; determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) for the group of UE devices; and encoding, for the determined set of UE devices, an indication of available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

Example 52 is an extension of example 51 or any other example disclosed herein, the set of UE devices to operate within a same cell.

Example 53 is an extension of example 51 or any other example disclosed herein, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes based on the reference subframe index.

Example 54 is an extension of example 51 or any other example disclosed herein, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify the available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

Example 55 is an extension of example 51 or any other example disclosed herein, the indication to further indicate a flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH.

Example 56 is an extension of example 55 or any other example disclosed herein, the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

Example 57 is an extension of example 56 or any other example disclosed herein, the value of k _ PDSCH to indicate a flexible time interval.

Example 58 is an extension of any of examples 51 to 57, or any other example disclosed herein, comprising at least one Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver and at least one RF antenna.

Example 59 is at least one computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to: determining a set of User Equipment (UE) devices of a same coverage class; determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) for the group of UE devices; and encoding, for the determined set of UE devices, an indication of available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

Example 60 is an extension of example 59 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine that the set of UE devices are operating within the same cell.

Example 61 is an extension of example 59 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify available subframes based on the reference subframe index.

Example 62 is an extension of example 59 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to determine a discontinuous time domain resource mapping to specify the available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

Example 63 is an extension of example 59 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to encode the indication to further indicate the flexible time interval between NPDCCH and NPDSCH.

Example 64 is an extension of example 63 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to encode the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

Example 65 is an extension of example 64 or any other example disclosed herein, comprising a set of wireless communication instructions that, in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to encode a value of k _ PDSCH to indicate the flexible time interval.

Numerous specific details have been set forth herein to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known operations, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments. It can be appreciated that the specific structural and functional details disclosed herein may be representative and do not necessarily limit the scope of the embodiments.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression "coupled" and "connected" along with their derivatives. These terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. For example, some embodiments may be described using the terms "connected" and/or "coupled" to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other. The term "coupled," however, may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, it may be appreciated that terms such as "processing," "computing," "calculating," "determining," or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and/or transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic) quantities within the computing system's registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

It should be noted that the methods described herein need not be performed in the order described, or in any particular order. Further, various activities described with respect to the methods identified herein can be executed in serial or parallel fashion.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments. It is to be understood that the above description has been made in an illustrative fashion, and not a restrictive one. Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the various embodiments, therefore, includes any other applications in which the above combinations, structures, and methods are used.

It is emphasized that the abstract of the present disclosure is provided to comply with the requirement that section 1.72(b) of the 37 c.f.r. the abstract will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. The abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Furthermore, in the foregoing detailed description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. In the appended claims, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms "comprising" and "wherein," respectively. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and "third," etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims (27)

1. An apparatus for a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) system, comprising:

a memory; and

baseband circuitry coupled to the memory, the baseband circuitry to:

decoding an indication included in the received downlink information;

determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for subframe classes of a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) based on the indication; and

decoding a set of discontinuous subframes for the NPDCCH and the NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the indication corresponding to a set of NB-IoT User Equipment (UE) devices.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, the set of NB-IoT UE devices operate within the same cell.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, the set of NB-IoT UE devices operate within the same coverage class.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes for the NPDCCH.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes for the NPDSCH.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes based on a reference subframe index.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, the indication further indicating a flexible time interval between the NPDCCH and the NPDSCH.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, a value of k _ PDSCH is used to indicate the flexible time interval.

12. An apparatus for a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) system, comprising:

a memory; and

baseband circuitry coupled to the memory, the baseband circuitry to:

determining a set of User Equipment (UE) devices of a same coverage class;

determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for subframe classes of a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) for the group of UE devices; and

encoding, for the determined set of UE devices, an indication of a set of discontinuous available subframes for NPDCCH and NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the set of UE devices operating within a same cell.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, the indication is further for indicating a flexible time interval between the NPDCCH and the NPDSCH.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the flexible time interval to specify a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

16. A method of wireless communication for a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) system, comprising:

decoding an indication included in the received downlink information;

determining a discontinuous time domain resource mapping for subframe classes of a Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and a Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (NPDSCH) based on the indication;

decoding a discontinuous set of available subframes for the NPDCCH and the NPDSCH based on the determined discontinuous time domain resource mapping.

17. The wireless communications method of claim 16, the indication corresponds to only one NB-IoT User Equipment (UE).

18. The wireless communications method of claim 16, the indication corresponds to a set of NB-IoT UEs.

19. The wireless communications method of claim 18, the set of NB-IoT UE devices operate within the same cell.

20. The wireless communications method of claim 18, the set of NB-IoT UE devices operate within the same coverage class.

21. The wireless communications method of claim 16, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes for the NPDCCH.

22. The wireless communications method of claim 21, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes based on a reference subframe index.

23. The wireless communications method of claim 21, the discontinuous time domain resource mapping specifies available subframes based on referencing absolute radio frames.

24. The wireless communications method of claim 21, the indication further indicates a flexible time interval between the NPDCCH and the NPDSCH.

25. The wireless communications method of claim 24, the flexible time interval specifies a first frame of the NPDSCH relative to a last frame of the NPDCCH.

26. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to perform the method of any of claims 16-25.

27. A wireless communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 16-25.

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