CN112994862A - System and method for SRS transmission - Google Patents

Abstract

Described herein is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE). The device includes: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and one or more processors configured to: decoding a message received via an RF interface indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and encoding the SRS for transmission via the RF interface according to the determined number of frequency hops. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Description

System and method for SRS transmission

Technical Field

Various embodiments herein relate generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to systems and methods for Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission.

Background

Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early speech systems to today's highly sophisticated integrated communication platforms. The next generation wireless communication system 5G (or new air interface (NR)) will enable various users and applications to access information and share data anytime and anywhere. NR promises to be a unified network/system, aimed at satisfying distinct and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. These different multidimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. In general, NR will be based on 3GPP (third generation partnership project) LTE (long term evolution) -Advanced evolution, with the addition of potentially new Radio Access Technologies (RATs), enriching people's lives with better, simple and seamless radio connection solutions. NR will enable everything to be connected wirelessly and provide fast, rich content and services.

Drawings

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the features of the present disclosure; and, wherein:

fig. 1 is an illustration of additional Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) symbols in a normal Uplink (UL) subframe, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 2 is an illustration of a first example of an SRS transmission pattern according to an embodiment.

Fig. 3 is an illustration of a second example of an SRS transmission pattern according to an embodiment.

Fig. 4 is an illustration of a third example of an SRS transmission pattern according to an embodiment.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example method of transmitting a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example method of receiving a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example architecture of a system of networks according to various embodiments.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of a platform (or "device") according to various embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates example components of a baseband circuit and Radio Front End Module (RFEM) in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 11 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the technology is thereby intended.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of the claimed embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art having had the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the claimed embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure with unnecessary detail.

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced with only some of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrases "in various embodiments," "in some embodiments," and the like are used repeatedly. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may refer to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrase "A or B" means (A), (B) or (A and B).

Example embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel, concurrently or with simultaneous execution. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process may terminate when its operations are completed, but may also have additional operations not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return of the function to the calling function and/or the main function.

As used herein, the term "processor" refers to, is part of, or includes the following circuitry: capable of performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations sequentially and automatically; digital data is recorded, stored and/or transmitted. The term "processor" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical Central Processing Units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, tri-core processors, quad-core processors, and/or any other device capable of executing or operating computer-executable instructions (e.g., program code, software modules, and/or functional processes). As used herein, the term "interface" refers to, is part of, or includes the following circuitry: providing for the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces (e.g., a bus, an input/output (I/O) interface, a peripheral component interface, etc.).

In LTE systems, Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), which are reference signals transmitted by a UE in the Uplink (UL) direction, may be used by a base station to estimate the uplink channel quality. The base station may use the uplink channel quality for uplink frequency selective scheduling. In addition, the base station may use the SRS for uplink timing estimation as part of the timing alignment procedure. For example, the base station may use SRS when no Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission occurs in the uplink for an extended period of time, in which case the base station may rely on SRS for uplink timing estimation. In systems with unpaired spectrum (e.g., Time Division Duplex (TDD) multiplexing with support for Downlink (DL) and UL), SRS may also be used to assist in precoding computation for DL transmissions. In particular, in case of satisfying channel reciprocity with sufficient accuracy, a DL channel can be inferred from an UL channel based on SRS measurement. In this case, the eNB may calculate a desired precoding using the channel estimated from the SRS.

Rel-16 LTE can support additional SRS in normal UL subframes to increase SRS capacity and coverage. SRS capacity can be increased by allowing more flexible SRS transmission within UL normal subframes. Unlike the basic SRS supporting periodic or aperiodic transmission, the additional SRS may support only aperiodic transmission. The actual symbols allocated for the additional SRS transmission may be determined based on two parameters: SRS start symbol and SRS duration.

Fig. 1 is an illustration of additional Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) symbols in a normal UL subframe, in accordance with some embodiments. As shown in fig. 1, the resources allocated for SRS transmission may start at symbol 9 and last for 4 symbols.

The OFDM symbols configured for SRS transmission in the uplink subframe may be used for SRS repetition, SRS frequency hopping, antenna switching (or, also referred to herein as antenna selection), or a combination thereof. If the additional SRS is configured with SRS antenna selection, repetition, and frequency hopping, the SRS transmission may be performed in an order of repetition first, SRS frequency hopping second, antenna switching third. In some cases, to accommodate transient periods associated with RF retuning for antenna switching and frequency hopping, the UE may be configured with corresponding guard symbols.

It should be noted that the number of repetitions, the number of frequency hops, and the guard interval are limited by the total number of symbols allocated for additional SRS configured by the SRS duration parameter. The above constraints may be used to determine one of the SRS transmission parameters, e.g., the number of SRS hopping.

However, the current formula N ═ R × N discussed in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS)36.211Rel-16_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×G_FHWhen frequency hopping is configured simultaneously with antenna selection and repetition, it cannot be used to determine the number of frequency hopping. Here, N denotes the number of additional SRS symbols configured, R denotes the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIndicating the number of SRS antenna switches, N_FHIndicates the number of SRS hops, G_ASIndicating a gap configuration (i.e., a guard symbol configuration), G, for antenna switching_FHIndicating the gap configuration for SRS hopping.

The present disclosure proposes a number of additional SRS symbols N, a number of repetitions R, SRS antenna switching N in a given configuration_ASGap configuration G for SRS frequency hopping_FHAnd gap configuration G for antenna switching_ASIn case of (2), the number N of SRS hopping frequencies is calculated_FHThe method of (1).

In particular, the described embodiments are used to determine the number of hops taking into account the following parameters: SRS total duration configuration N ═ {1,2, …,13}, SRS repetition number R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, antenna selection number N_ASConfiguration G of guard symbols for SRS antenna selection {2,3,4}, c_AS(0, 1) and configuration G of guard symbols for SRS hopping_FH1, {0,1 }. In the example, G _AS1 may indicate that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 may indicate that no protection symbol is needed for antenna switching. In the example, G _FH1 may indicate that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 may indicate that no guard symbols are required for frequency hopping. The proposed formula takes into account the order of SRS transmission with respect to repetition, frequency hopping and antenna switching.

In one embodiment, frequency hopping and antenna selection may be configured simultaneously. In this case, frequency hopping for each antennaThe number of required guard periods may be equal to N_FH-1. Therefore, the total number of guard periods over all antenna switching may be equal to (N)_FH–1)×N_AS. The number of actual SRS transmissions may be R N in view of_AS×N_FHThe total number of symbols that can accommodate such SRS configuration may be defined by N-R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHIt is given. For example, a guard period G is allocated for frequency hopping_FH1 and no allocation guard period G is selected for the antenna_ASIn the case of 0, a total of 10 symbols may be needed to support N _FH3 and N_ASFor example, N is 1 × 2 × 3+ (2-1) × 0+ (3-1) × 2 × 1 is 10. The SRS transmission pattern of the above example is shown in fig. 2. In the example shown in fig. 2, there are two antenna ports (as indicated by "first port" and "second port") and three sub-bands (as indicated by "SB"). The grey squares represent gaps and the patterned squares represent SRS transmissions from the corresponding antennas. As can be seen from fig. 2, SRS is transmitted from the first port at symbol 1 in subband 1, at symbol 3 in subband 3, and at symbol 5 in subband 2, at the gaps for frequency hopping at symbols 2 and 4. Similarly, SRS is transmitted from the second port at symbol 6 in subband 1, at symbol 8 in subband 3, and at symbol 10 in subband 2, at the gaps for frequency hopping at symbols 7 and 9. There is no gap for antenna switching.

Table 1 is provided below, which summarizes the supported N values for the different SRS parameters according to this embodiment.

TABLE 1

		G AS	0	1	0	1
									G HF	0	0	1	1
R	NAS	NFH
							1	2	1	2	3	2	3
1	2	2	4	5	6	7
							1	2	3	6	7	10	11
1	2	4	8	9
							1	2	5	10	11
1	2	6	12	13
							1	3	1	3	5	3	5
1	3	2	6	8	9	11
							1	3	3	9	11	15
1	3	4	12		21
							1	4	1	4	7	4	7
1	4	2	8	11	12
							1	4	3	12
2	2	1	4	5	4	5
							2	2	2	8	9	10	11
2	2	3	12	13
							2	3	1	6	8	6	8
2	3	2	12
							2	4	1	8	11	8	11
3	2	1	6	7	6	7
							3	2	2	12	13
3	3	1	9	11	9	11
							3	4	1	12		12
4	2	1	8	9	8	9
							4	3	1	12	14	12

In another embodiment, it is considered that frequency hopping should still be performed during antenna switching due to the use of different frequency subbands, if G _FH1, and whether or not a gap for antenna switching is configured (e.g., G)_AS{0,1}), the total number of guard symbols may be equal to (N)_FH×N_AS-1). In this case, the total number of SRS symbols required to accommodate SRS transmission in such a configuration may be made up of N-R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FHIt is given. For example, a guard period G is allocated for frequency hopping_FHFor any G case, 1_ASA total of 11 symbols may be needed to support N, 1_FH3 and N_ASFor example, N is 1 × 2 × 3+ (3 × 2-1) × 1 is 11. The SRS transmission pattern for the above example is shown in fig. 3. In the example shown in fig. 3, there are two antenna ports (as indicated by "first port" and "second port") and three sub-bands (as indicated by "SB"). The grey squares represent gaps and the patterned squares represent SRS transmissions from the corresponding antennas. As can be seen from fig. 3, SRS is transmitted from the first port at symbol 1 in subband 1, at symbol 3 in subband 3, and at symbol 5 in subband 2, at the gaps for frequency hopping at symbols 2 and 4. Similarly, at symbol 7 in subband 1 from the second port, at sub-The SRS is transmitted at symbol 9 in band 3 and at symbol 11 in subband 2, and at symbols 8 and 10 are gaps for frequency hopping. At symbol 6 there is a gap for antenna switching.

In this embodiment, when guard symbols for frequency hopping are not required, e.g. G_FHThe number of required guard symbols may be equal to (N) 0_AS–1)×G_AS. In this case, the total number of SRS symbols required to accommodate SRS transmission in such a configuration may be made up of N-R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_ASIt is given. For example, for no guard period G allocated for frequency hopping_FHA guard period G is allocated for antenna selection equal to 0_ASIn the case of 1, a total of 7 symbols may be needed to support N _FH3 and N _AS2, for example, N is 1 × 2 × 3+ (2-1) × 1 is 7. The SRS transmission pattern of the above example is shown in fig. 4. In the example shown in fig. 4, there are two antenna ports (as indicated by "first port" and "second port") and three sub-bands (as indicated by "SB"). The grey squares represent gaps and the patterned squares represent SRS transmissions from the corresponding antennas. As can be seen from fig. 4, the SRS is transmitted from the first port at symbol 1 in subband 1, at symbol 2 in subband 3, and at symbol 3 in subband 2 without a gap for frequency hopping. Similarly, the SRS is transmitted from the second port at symbol 5 in subband 1, at symbol 6 in subband 3, and at symbol 7 in subband 2, with no gaps for frequency hopping. There is a gap at symbol 4 for antenna switching.

Table 2 is provided below, which summarizes the supported N values for the different SRS parameters according to this embodiment:

TABLE 2

		G AS	0	1	0	1
									G HF	0	0	1	1
R	NAS	NFH
							1	2	1	2	3	3	3
1	2	2	4	5	7	7
							1	2	3	6	7	11	11
1	2	4	8	9
							1	2	5	10	11
1	2	6	12	13
							1	3	1	3	5	5
1	3	2	6	8	11	11
							1	3	3	9	11	17
1	3	4	12		23
							1	4	1	4	7	7	7
1	4	2	8	11
							1	4	3	12
2	2	1	4	5	5	5
							2	2	2	8	9	11	11
2	2	3	12	13
							2	3	1	6	8	8	8
2	3	2	12
							2	4	1	8	11	11	11
3	2	1	6	7	7	7
							3	2	2	12	13
3	3	1	9	11	11	11
							3	4	1	12
4	2	1	8	9	9	9
							4	3	1	12

It can be derived that the common expression N ═ RN can be used_ASN_FH+(N_AS-1)G_AS+(N_FH-1)N_ASG_FH+(N_AS-1)(1-G_AS)G_FH(which provides the same results as Table 2) for G _FH1 and G_FHThe above expression of 0.

The above equations/tables may be used for the number of antenna switching N given other SRS configuration parameters (e.g., number of additional SRS symbols configured, N, number of repetitions R, SRS, N)_ASGap configuration G for SRS frequency hopping_FHAnd gap configuration G for antenna switching_AS) In case of (2), deriving the number of hopping frequencies N_FH。

Fig. 5 illustrates an example method 500 of transmitting a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), in accordance with some embodiments. Method 500 may be performed by a User Equipment (UE) or a portion thereof.

As shown in fig. 5, the method 500 may begin at block 502: decoding a message received from an evolved node B (eNB) indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe. The method 500 may continue at block 504: from the SRS transmission parameters, the number of hops that can be accommodated is determined. Next, the method 500 may further include: at block 506, the SRS is encoded for transmission according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example method 600 of receiving a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), in accordance with some embodiments. The method 600 may be performed by an evolved node b (enb), or a portion thereof.

As shown in fig. 6, the method 600 may begin at block 602: determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna handovers, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna handovers. The method 600 may continue at block 604: the number of hops that can be accommodated is determined from the SRS transmission parameters. Next, the method 600 may further include: at block 606, an SRS received from a User Equipment (UE) according to the determined number of frequency hops is decoded.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example architecture of a system 700 of a network in accordance with various embodiments. The following description is provided for an example system 700 that operates in conjunction with the 5G or NR system standards provided by the LTE system standards and 3GPP technical specifications. However, example embodiments are not limited thereto, and the described embodiments may be applicable to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G) systems), IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and so forth.

As shown in fig. 7, system 700 includes UE 701a and UE 701b (collectively "UE 701"). In this example, the UE 701 is shown as a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a cellular phone, a smartphone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless phone, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument panel (IC), a heads-up display (HUD) device, an in-vehicle diagnostics (OBD) device, a dashboard mobile Device (DME), a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT), an Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), an electronic/Engine Control Unit (ECU), an electronic/Engine Control Module (ECM), an embedded system, a mobile computing device (MDT), a mobile computing system (EEMS), a mobile computing system (, Microcontrollers, control modules, Engine Management Systems (EMS), network or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, and the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 701 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may exchange data with MTC servers or devices via PLMN, ProSe, or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks using technologies such as M2M or MTC. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine initiated data exchange. IoT networks describe interconnecting IoT UEs with short-term connections, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure). The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connection of the IoT network.

UE 701 may be configured to connect (e.g., communicatively couple) with RAN 710. In an embodiment, RAN 710 may be an NG RAN or a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN (e.g., UTRAN or GERAN). As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to the RAN 710 operating in the NR or 5G system 700, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to the RAN 710 operating in the LTE or 4G system 700. The UE 701 utilizes connections (or channels) 703 and 704, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

In this example, connections 703 and 704 are shown as implementing communicatively coupled air interfaces and may conform to a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, an NR protocol, and/or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 701 may exchange communication data directly via the ProSe interface 705. The ProSe interface 705 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 705 and may include one or more logical channels including, but not limited to, PSCCH, pscsch, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

The UE 701b is shown configured to access the AP 706 (also referred to as "WLAN node 706", "WLAN terminal 706", "WT 706", etc.) via connection 707. Connection 707 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 706 would comprise wireless fidelity

A router. In this example, the AP 706 is shown connected to the internet without being connected to a core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 701b, RAN 710, and AP 706 may be configured to operate with LWA and/or LWIP. LWA operations may involve: UE 701b under RRC _ CONNECTED is configured by RAN nodes 711a-b to utilize the radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operations may involve: the UE 701b uses WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 707) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection 707. The IPsec tunnel may include: the entire original IP packet is encapsulated and a new packet header is added, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

RAN 710 may include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 711a and 711b (collectively "RAN nodes 711") that implement connections 703 and 704. As used herein, the terms "access node," "access point," and the like may describe a device that provides radio baseband functionality for data and/or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BSs, gnbs, RAN nodes, enbs, nodebs, RSUs, trxps, TRPs, or the like, and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term "NG RAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 711 (e.g., a gNB) operating in the NR or 5G system 700, while the term "E-UTRAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 711 (e.g., an eNB) operating in the LTE or 4G system 700. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 711 may be implemented as a dedicated physical device (e.g., a macro cell base station) and/or one or more of a Low Power (LP) base station for providing a femto cell, pico cell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macro cell.

In some embodiments, all or a portion of the RAN nodes 711 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/or virtual baseband unit pool (vbbp). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vbbp may implement RAN functionality separation, for example: PDCP detachment, wherein the RRC layer and PDCP layer are operated by the CRAN/vbbp, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by the respective RAN nodes 711; MAC/PHY separation, where the RRC layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, and MAC layer are operated by the CRAN/vbup, and the PHY layer is operated by each RAN node 711; or "lower PHY" separation, where the upper parts of the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC and PHY layers are operated by the CRAN/vbbp, while the lower parts of the PHY layers are operated by the respective RAN nodes 711. The virtualization framework allows the processor core of the vacating RAN node 711 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, a single RAN node 711 may represent each gNB-DU connected to a gNB-CU via each F1 interface (not shown in fig. 7). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., fig. 8), and the gNB-CUs may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 710, or by a server pool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vbbp. Additionally or alternatively, one or more RAN nodes 711 may be next generation enbs (NG-enbs), which are RAN nodes providing E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE 701 and are connected to a 5GC via an NG interface (discussed below).

In the V2X scenario, one or more RAN nodes 711 may be or act as RSUs. The term "road side unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a fixed (or relatively fixed) UE, wherein the RSU implemented in or by the UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by the eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by the gbb may be referred to as a "gbb-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on the road side that provides connection support to passing vehicle UEs 701 (vues 701). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing the geometry of the intersection map, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to provide the extremely low latency communications required for high speed events (e.g., avoiding collisions, traffic warnings, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate over the cellular V2X frequency band to provide the aforementioned low latency communication as well as other cellular communication services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4GHz band) and/or provide a connection to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device and some or all of the radio frequency circuitry of the RSU may be enclosed in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and/or a backhaul network.

Any of the RAN nodes 711 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 701. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 711 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 710, including but not limited to functions of a Radio Network Controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In an embodiment, the UE 701 may be configured to: OFDM communication signals may be used to communicate with each other or any of RAN nodes 711 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of RAN nodes 711 to UE 701, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is common practice, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in the radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is called a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks that describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, UE 701 and RAN node 711 communicate data (e.g., transmit and receive data) over a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and/or a "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and/or an "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of about 400MHz to about 3.8GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5GHz band.

To operate in unlicensed spectrum, the UE 701 and the RAN node 711 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, UE 701 and RAN node 711 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and/or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operation may be performed according to a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism in which a device (e.g., UE 701, RAN node 711, etc.) may listen to a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when it senses that the medium is idle (or when it senses that a particular channel in the medium is unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a CCA that utilizes at least the ED to determine whether there are other signals on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows the cellular/LAA network to coexist with incumbent systems in unlicensed spectrum as well as other LAA networks. The ED may include: RF energy on the desired transmission band is sensed for a period of time and the sensed RF energy is compared to a predefined or configured threshold.

Generally, an incumbent system in the 5GHz band is a WLAN based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a Mobile Station (MS) (e.g., UE 701, AP 706, etc.)) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform a CCA before transmitting. Furthermore, in case more than one WLAN node senses that the channel is idle and transmits at the same time, a back-off mechanism is used to avoid collisions. The back-off mechanism may be a counter drawn randomly within the CWS that increases exponentially when collisions occur and resets to a minimum value when a transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, LBT procedures for DL or UL transmission bursts (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions), respectively, may have an LAA contention window, the length of which may vary between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values of CWS for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μ β); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (e.g., transmission bursts) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanism builds on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. The CCs may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20MHz and may be capable of aggregating up to five CCs, and thus, the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers may be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or less than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL and UL.

The CA also includes respective serving cells to provide respective CCs. The coverage of the serving cell may be different because, for example, CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide PCC for UL and DL and may handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells are referred to as scells, and each SCell may provide a separate SCC for UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require handover by the UE 701. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all scells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA scells"), and the LAA scells are assisted by a PCell operating in licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions within the same subframe on the configured LAA SCell.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 701. The PDCCH carries information on a transmission format and resource allocation, etc. related to the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UE 701 of transport format, resource allocation and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (assigning control channel resource blocks and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 701b within a cell) may be performed at any one of the RAN nodes 711 based on channel quality information fed back from any one of the UEs 701. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on a PDCCH for (e.g., assigned to) each UE 701.

The PDCCH transmits control information using CCEs. The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets before being mapped to resource elements, and they may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and the channel conditions, the PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L ═ 1,2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use the concept as an extension of the above concept for resource allocation of control channel information. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH, which uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called EREGs. In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

The RAN nodes 711 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 712. In embodiments where system 700 is an LTE system (e.g., when CN 720 is an EPC), interface 712 may be an X2 interface 712. An X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 711 (e.g., two or more enbs, etc.) connected to EPC 720 and/or between two enbs connected to EPC 720. The X2 interfaces may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transmitted over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information about the transmission of user data between enbs. For example, X2-U may provide: specific sequence number information for user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information on successful in-order delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 701 for user data; information of PDCP PDUs which have not been transmitted to the UE 701; information on a current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transport control, etc.; a load management function; and an inter-cell interference coordination function.

In embodiments where system 700 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 720 is a5 GC), interface 712 may be an Xn interface 712. An Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 711 (e.g., two or more enbs) connected to the 5GC 720, between a RAN node 711 (e.g., a gNB) connected to the 5GC 720 and an eNB, and/or between two enbs connected to the 5GC 720. In some implementations, the Xn interface can include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U can provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for a UE 701 in CONNECTED mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functionality for managing CONNECTED mode UE mobility between one or more RAN nodes 711. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 711 to the new (target) serving RAN node 711; and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node 711 and the new (target) serving RAN node 711. The protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on top of an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer for carrying user plane PDUs above the UDP and/or IP layers. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol, referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP), and a transport network layer built over SCTP. SCTP can be located above the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, signaling PDUs are transmitted using point-to-point transmission. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

RAN 710 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment Core Network (CN) 720. The CN 720 may include a plurality of network elements 722 configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to clients/subscribers (e.g., users of the UE 701) connected to the CN 720 via the RAN 710. The components of CN 720 may be implemented in one physical node, or in separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). Logical instantiations of the CN 720 may be referred to as network slices, and logical instantiations of a portion of the CN 720 may be referred to as network subslices. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware) onto physical resources that contain a combination of industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components/functions.

In general, the application server 730 may be an element that provides applications (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.) that use IP bearer resources to the core network. Application server 730 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for UE 701 via EPC 720.

In an embodiment, the CN 720 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5 GC 720", etc.), and the RAN 710 may be connected with the CN 720 via the NG interface 713. In an embodiment, the NG interface 713 may be split into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 714 that carries traffic data between RAN node 711 and the UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 715, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 711 and the AMF.

In an embodiment, CN 720 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5 GC 720", etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 720 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 720 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 720", etc.), RAN 710 may connect with CN 720 via S1 interface 713. In an embodiment, the S1 interface 713 may be split into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 714, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 711 and the S-GW; and S1-MME interface 715, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 711 and the MME.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device 800 according to various embodiments. Infrastructure device 800 (or "system 800") may be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (e.g., RAN node 711 and/or AP 706 shown and described previously), application server 730, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. In other examples, system 800 may be implemented in or by a UE.

System 800 includes application circuitry 805, baseband circuitry 810, one or more Radio Front End Modules (RFEM)815, memory circuitry 820, a Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC)825, power source circuitry 830, network controller circuitry 835, network interface connector 840, satellite positioning circuitry 845, and user interface 850. In some embodiments, device 800 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or an input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device. For example, for a CRAN, vbub, or other similar implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device.

The application circuit 805 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of low dropout regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces (e.g., SPI, I2C, or a universal programmable serial interface module), a real-time clock (RTC), timer-counters (including interval timers and watchdog timers), universal input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC), etc.), Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces, and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processor (or core) of the application circuitry 805 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to: instructions stored in the memory/storage are executed to enable various applications or operating systems to run on system 800. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits that may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology (such as those discussed herein).

The processors of application circuitry 805 may include, for example, one or more processor Cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), one or more Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processors, one or more Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable group thereofAnd (6) mixing. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 805 may include or may be a dedicated processor/controller that operates in accordance with various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 805 may include one or more Intels

A processor; advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

A processor; accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or

A processor; ARM-based processors that have been licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A family of processors and the processor provided by Cavium (TM), Inc

MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, inc, such as MIPS Warrior class P processors; and the like. In some embodiments, system 800 may not utilize application circuitry 805, but may instead include a dedicated processor/controller to process IP data received, for example, from an EPC or 5 GC.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 805 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, Computer Vision (CV) and/or Deep Learning (DL) accelerators. By way of example, the programmable processing device may be one or more Field Programmable Devices (FPDs), such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), or the like; programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (cplds), large capacity PLDs (hcplds), and the like; ASICs, such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable soc (psoc); and the like. In such implementations, the circuitry of the application circuitry 805 may include logic blocks or logic constructs and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc., of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 805 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, static memory (e.g., Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.) for storing logic blocks, logic constructs, data, and so forth in a look-up table (LUT) or the like).

Baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronics of baseband circuitry 810 are discussed below with reference to fig. 10.

The user interface circuitry 850 may include one or more interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 800 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral components to interact with the system 800. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, and so forth. The peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, and the like.

The Radio Front End Module (RFEM)815 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., antenna array 1011 of fig. 10 below), and RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 815, where the physical RFEM 815 includes an mmWave antenna and a sub-mmWave antenna.

Memory circuit 820 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory including Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and/or Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM)A machine access memory (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high speed electrically erasable memory (often referred to as "Flash memory"), phase change random access memory (PRAM), Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), etc., and may include

A three-dimensional (3D) cross point (XPOINT) memory. Memory circuit 820 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

PMIC 825 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources (e.g., batteries or capacitors). The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of power down (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions. Power source circuit 830 may provide power drawn from a network cable to provide both power and data connections to infrastructure device 800 using a single cable.

The network controller circuit 835 may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol (e.g., ethernet over GRE tunnels, ethernet over multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol). The network connection may be provided to/from the infrastructure device 800 via the network interface connector 840 using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), optical, or wireless. Network controller circuit 835 may include one or more special purpose processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the protocols described above. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 835 can include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 845 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted/broadcast by a positioning network of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the united states, the global navigation system in russia (GLONASS), the galileo system in the european union, the beidou navigation satellite system in china, the regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., indian constellation Navigation (NAVIC), the quasi-zenith satellite system in japan (QZSS), the doppler orbit imaging in france, and the satellite integrated radio positioning (DORIS), etc.), and so forth. The positioning circuit 845 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication, such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and so forth) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 845 may include a Micro-technology (Micro-PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that performs position tracking/estimation using a master timing clock without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 845 may also be part of the baseband circuitry 810 and/or the RFEM 815, or interact with the baseband circuitry 810 and/or the RFEM 815 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 845 may also provide location data and/or time data to the application circuitry 805, which the application circuitry 805 may use to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 711, etc.).

The components shown in fig. 8 may communicate with each other using interface circuitry that may include any number of bus and/or Interconnect (IX) technologies such as Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), extended ISA (eisa), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCI x), PCI Express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, a power bus, and the like.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of a platform 900 (or "device 900") according to various embodiments. In embodiments, computer platform 900 may be suitable for use as UE 701, application server 730, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. Platform 900 may include any combination of the components shown in the examples. The components of platform 900 may be implemented as an Integrated Circuit (IC), portions thereof, discrete electronic or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof, as appropriate for the computer platform 900, or as components incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of fig. 9 is intended to illustrate a high-level view of the components of computer platform 900. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and a different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

Application circuitry 905 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces (e.g., SPI, I2C, or a universal programmable serial interface module), RTCs, timer-counters (including interval timers and watchdog timers), universal I/O, memory card controllers (e.g., SD MMC, etc.), USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. The processor (or core) of the application circuitry 905 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to: instructions stored in the memory/storage are executed to enable various applications or operating systems to run on system 900. In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuits that may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology (e.g., those discussed herein).

The processors of application circuitry 905 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 905 may include or may be a dedicated processor/controller operating in accordance with various embodiments herein.

As an example, the processor of the application circuit 905 may include a microprocessor based microprocessor

Architecture Core^TMOf (2) aDevices, e.g. Quark^TM、Atom^TMI3, i5, i7 or another MCU-like processor, or may be from Santa Clara

Corporation. The processor of the application circuit 905 may also be one or more of the following: advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

A processor or an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU);

an a5-a9 processor, inc;

snapdagon of Technologies, Inc^TMA processor; the number of Texas Instruments was,

open Multimedia Application Platform (OMAP)^TMA processor; MIPS-based designs of MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd, such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R and Cortex-M families of processors; and the like. In some implementations, the application circuit 905 may be part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuit 905 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, e.g.

Edison from Corporation^TMOr Galileo^TMAnd (6) an SoC board.

Additionally or alternatively, the application circuitry 905 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more Field Programmable Devices (FPDs), such as FPGAs or the like; programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (cplds), large capacity PLDs (hcplds), and the like; ASICs, such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable soc (psoc); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuitry 905 may include logic blocks or logic constructs and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc., of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 905 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, static memory (e.g., Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.) for storing logic blocks, logic constructs, data, and so forth in a look-up table (LUT) or the like.

Baseband circuitry 910 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronics of baseband circuitry 910 are discussed below with respect to fig. 10.

The RFEM 915 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., antenna array 1011 of fig. 10 below), and RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 915, which contains both mmWave and sub-mmWave antennas.

Memory circuitry 920 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a given amount of system memory. As an example, memory circuitry 920 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory including Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), and/or Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high speed electrically erasable memory (often referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), and the like. The memory circuit 920 may be based on a Low Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR) design in accordance with the Joint Electron Device Engineering Commission (JEDEC)For example, LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4 and the like have been developed. The memory circuit 920 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a Single Die Package (SDP), a Dual Die Package (DDP), or a quad die package (Q17P), a socket memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) (including micro DIMM or MiniDIMM), and/or soldered to a motherboard via a Ball Grid Array (BGA). In a low power implementation, memory circuit 920 may be an on-die memory or register associated with application circuit 905. To provide persistent storage of information (e.g., data, applications, operating systems, etc.), the memory circuitry 920 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, inter alia, a Solid State Disk Drive (SSDD), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a miniature HDD, a resistive memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, computer platform 900 may include a software module from

A three-dimensional (3D) cross point (XPOINT) memory.

Removable memory circuitry 923 may include devices, circuitry, housings/enclosures, ports or sockets, and the like, for coupling portable data storage devices with platform 900. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes and may include, for example, Flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD graphics cards, etc.) as well as USB Flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, and the like.

The platform 900 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) for interfacing external devices with the platform 900. External devices connected to platform 900 via interface circuits include sensor circuits 921 and electro-mechanical components (EMC)922, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory circuits 923.

The sensor circuit 921 includes a device, module, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect an event or change in its environment and send information (sensor data) about the detected event to other devices, modules, subsystems, and the like. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) comprising an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and/or a magnetometer; a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) or a nano-electromechanical system (NEMS) comprising a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, and/or a magnetometer; a liquid level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; an air pressure sensor; a gravimeter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lens-less aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasound transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; and the like.

EMC 922 includes devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to enable platform 900 to change its state, position, and/or orientation, or to move or control a mechanism or (sub) system. Further, EMC 922 may be configured to: messages/signaling are generated and sent to other components of the platform 900 to indicate the current state of the EMC 922. Examples of EMCs 922 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or Solid State Relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), sound generators, visual alert devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, platform 900 is configured to: the one or more EMCs 922 are operated based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from the service provider and/or various clients.

In some implementations, interface circuitry may connect the platform 900 with the positioning circuitry 945. The positioning circuitry 945 comprises circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted/broadcast by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include GPS in the united states, GLONASS in russia, galileo system in the european union, beidou navigation satellite system in china, regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), QZSS in japan, DORIS in france, etc. Positioning circuitry 945 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices to facilitate OTA communication, such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements) to communicate with components of a positioning network (e.g., navigation satellite constellation nodes). In some embodiments, positioning circuitry 945 may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. Positioning circuitry 945 may also be part of, or interact with, baseband circuitry 910 and/or RFEM 915 to communicate with nodes and components of a positioning network. The positioning circuitry 945 can also provide the location data and/or time data to the application circuitry 905, which the application circuitry 905 can use to operate in synchronization with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations) for route planning navigation applications, and so on.

In some implementations, interface circuitry may connect platform 900 with Near Field Communication (NFC) circuitry 940. NFC circuitry 940 is configured to: contactless short-range communication is provided based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) standards, where magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between NFC circuitry 940 and NFC-enabled devices external to platform 900 (e.g., "NFC contacts"). NFC circuitry 940 includes an NFC controller coupled with the antenna element and a processor coupled with the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC that provides NFC functionality to NFC circuitry 940 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executable by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executable by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit the short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to send stored data to NFC circuit 940, or initiate a data transfer between NFC circuit 940 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or NFC-enabled POS terminal) in the vicinity of platform 900.

The driver circuitry 946 may include software and hardware elements that operate to control specific devices embedded in the platform 900, attached to the platform 900, or communicatively coupled with the platform 900. The driver circuitry 946 may include various drivers that allow other components of the platform 900 to interact with or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present within the platform 900 or connected to the platform 900. For example, driver circuit 946 may include a display driver to control and enable access to a display device, a touch screen driver to control and enable access to a touch screen interface of platform 900, a sensor driver to obtain sensor readings of sensor circuit 921 and to control and enable access to sensor circuit 921, an EMC driver to obtain an EMC actuator position 922 and/or to control and enable access to EMC 922, a camera driver to control and enable access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver to control and enable access to one or more audio devices.

A Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC)925 (also referred to as "power management circuit 925") may manage power provided to various components of platform 900. In particular, with respect to the baseband circuit 910, the PMIC 925 may control power supply selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. The PMIC 925 may often be included when the platform 900 is capable of being powered by the battery 930 (e.g., when the device is included in the UE 701).

In some embodiments, PMIC 925 may control or be a part of various power saving mechanisms of platform 900. For example, if platform 900 is in an RRC _ Connected state (where it is still Connected to the RAN node because it is expected to receive traffic soon), it may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, platform 900 may be powered down for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, platform 900 may transition to the RRC Idle state (where it is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed). Platform 900 enters a very low power state and it performs paging, where it again periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. In this state, platform 900 may not receive data; in order to receive data, it must transition back to the RRC _ Connected state. Additional power-save modes may make the device unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (ranging from seconds to hours). During this time, the device is completely unreachable to the network and may be completely powered down. Any data sent during this time causes a large delay and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

Battery 930 may provide power to platform 900, although in some examples, platform 900 may be installed deployed in a fixed location and may have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 930 may be a lithium ion battery, a metal-air battery (e.g., a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery), or the like. In some implementations, such as in a V2X application, the battery 930 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 930 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a Battery Management System (BMS) or battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 900 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 930. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 930 to provide fault predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the functional state (SoF) of the battery 930. The BMS may communicate information of the battery 930 to the application circuitry 905 or other components of the platform 900. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 905 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 930 or the current from the battery 930. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that platform 900 may perform, such as transmission frequencies, network operations, listening frequencies, and the like.

A power block or other power source coupled to the grid may be coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 930. In some examples, the power block may be replaced with a wireless power receiver, for example, by a loop antenna in computer platform 900, to obtain power wirelessly. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The particular charging circuit selected may depend on the size of the battery 930, and thus the current required. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by Airfuel Alliance, the Qi Wireless charging standard promulgated by Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard promulgated by Alliance for Wireless Power, or the like.

User interface circuitry 950 includes various input/output (I/O) devices that reside within platform 900 or are connected to platform 900, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with platform 900 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral components to interact with platform 900. The user interface circuitry 950 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. The input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, inter alia, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. Output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or communicating information (e.g., sensor readings, actuator position, or other similar information). Output device circuitry may include any number and/or combination of audio and/or visual displays, including, among other things, one or more simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc., is generated or produced from operation of platform 900. Actuators providing haptic feedback, etc.). In another example, NFC circuitry (including an NFC controller coupled with the antenna element and the processing device) may be included to read the electronic tag and/or connect with another NFC enabled device. The peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, and the like.

Although not shown, the components of platform 900 may communicate with each other using suitable bus or Interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI x, PCIe, Time Triggered Protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, a power bus, and the like.

Fig. 10 illustrates example components of a baseband circuit 1010 and a Radio Front End Module (RFEM)1015 according to various embodiments. Baseband circuitry 1010 corresponds to baseband circuitry 810 of fig. 8 and baseband circuitry 910 of fig. 9. The RFEM 1015 corresponds to the RFEM 815 of FIG. 8 and the RFEM 915 of FIG. 9. As shown, the RFEM 1015 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1006, Front End Module (FEM) circuitry 1008, antenna array 1011 coupled together at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 1010 includes circuitry and/or control logic configured to perform various radio/network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1006. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 1010 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 1010 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, 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. The baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to: processes baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 1006 and generates baseband signals for the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to: interface with application circuitry 805/905 (see fig. 8 and 9) for generating and processing baseband signals and controlling operation of the RF circuitry 1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 may handle various radio control functions.

The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of baseband circuitry 1010 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 1004A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 1004B, a 5G/NR baseband processor 1004C, or some other baseband processor 1004D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 1004A-D may be included in memory 1004G and be stored via a central hubA processing unit (CPU) 1004E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 1004A-D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with appropriate bit streams or logic blocks that are stored in respective memory units. In various embodiments, memory 1004G may store program code for a real-time os (rtos) that, when executed by CPU 1004E (or other baseband processor), causes CPU 1004E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources, schedule tasks, etc. for baseband circuitry 1010. Examples of RTOS may include:

embedded Operating System (OSE) provided^TM、Mentor

Provided nucleous RTOS^TMMultifunctional real-time actuator (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics,

Provided ThreadX^TM、

Provided with FreeRTOS, REX OS, Open Kernel (OK)

OKL4 provided or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuitry 1010 includes one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 1004F. The audio DSP 1004F includes elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, each processor 1004A-1004E includes a respective memory interface for transmitting data to and receiving data from memory 1004G. Baseband circuitry 1010 may further include one or more interfaces communicatively coupled to other circuitry/devices, e.g., for transmitting to/from memory external to baseband circuitry 1010An interface for transmitting/receiving data; an application circuit interface for sending/receiving data to/from the application circuit 805/905 of fig. 8-10; an RF circuit interface for transmitting/receiving data to/from the RF circuit 1006 of fig. 10; for transmitting data to and from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., Near Field Communication (NFC) components,

Low power consumption

A component,

Component, etc.) a wireless hardware connection interface to send/receive data; and a power management interface for transmitting/receiving a power signal or a control signal to/from the PMIC 925.

In an alternative embodiment (which may be combined with the above-described embodiments), baseband circuitry 1010 includes one or more digital baseband systems coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, audio subsystem, and interface subsystem via an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via another interconnection subsystem. Each interconnect subsystem may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a Network On Chip (NOC) fabric, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry (e.g., analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry), analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other similar components. In an aspect of the disclosure, the baseband circuitry 1010 may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., radio front end module 1015).

Although not shown in fig. 10, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1010 includes processing devices (e.g., "multi-protocol baseband processors" or "protocol processing circuits") for operating one or more wireless communication protocols and processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when baseband circuitry 1010 and/or RF circuitry 1006 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some other suitable cellular communication circuitry, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or 5G/NR protocol entities. In this first example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC and NAS functionality. In a second example, when the baseband circuitry 1010 and/or the RF circuitry 1006 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In this second example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate Wi-Fi MAC and Logical Link Control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuit may include: one or more memory structures (e.g., 1004G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions; and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using the data. The baseband circuitry 1010 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

The various hardware elements of baseband circuit 1010 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more Integrated Circuits (ICs), a single package IC soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of baseband circuitry 1010 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chip set, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 1010 and RF circuitry 1006 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SoC) or a System In Package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 1010 may be implemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with RF circuitry 1006 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 1006). In yet another example, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 1010 and application circuitry 805/905 may be implemented together as individual socs mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., "multi-chip packages").

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may support communication with an E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, WPANs. Embodiments in which baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 1006 may enable communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1008 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1010. RF circuitry 1006 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to upconvert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 1010 and provide an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 1008 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006 may include a mixer circuit 1006a, an amplifier circuit 1006b, and a filter circuit 1006 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1006 may include filter circuitry 1006c and mixer circuitry 1006 a. RF circuitry 1006 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1006d for synthesizing the frequencies used by mixer circuitry 1006a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path may be configured to: the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1008 is down-converted based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1006 d. The amplifier circuit 1006b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 1006c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to: unwanted signals are removed from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1010 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 1006a 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 circuit 1006a of the transmit signal path may be configured to: the input baseband signal is up-converted based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1006d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1008. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 1010 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1006 c.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1006a of the receive signal path and mixer circuitry 1006a of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1006a 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, mixer circuitry 1006a of the receive signal path and mixer circuitry 1006a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1006a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 1006a 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, the RF circuitry 1006 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 1010 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1006.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1006d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not so limited as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 1006d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 1006d may be configured to: the output frequency used by the mixer circuit 1006a of the RF circuit 1006 is synthesized based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1006d can 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 baseband circuitry 1010 or application circuitry 805/905 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 circuit 805/905.

The synthesizer circuit 1006d of the RF circuit 1006 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: the input signal is divided by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the 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 element may be configured to: the VCO period is broken up into Nd equal phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1006d 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 used in conjunction with the quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate a plurality of signals at the carrier frequency having a plurality of different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 1011, amplify the received signals, and provide amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 1006 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1008 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by RF circuitry 1006 for transmission by one or more antenna elements of antenna array 1011. In various embodiments, amplification through either the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be done in only the RF circuitry 1006, only the FEM circuitry 1008, or both the RF circuitry 1006 and the FEM circuitry 1008.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include an LNA for amplifying the received RF signal and providing the amplified receive RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1006). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include: a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1006); and one or more filters for generating RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of antenna array 1011.

The antenna array 1011 includes one or more antenna elements, each configured to: converts an electric signal into a radio wave to propagate in the air, and converts a received radio wave into an electric signal. For example, digital baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 1010 are converted to analog RF signals (e.g., modulation waveforms) that are amplified and transmitted via antenna elements of antenna array 1011 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed in a variety of arrangements as is known and/or discussed herein. The antenna array 1011 may include microstrip antennas or printed antennas fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 1011 may be formed as a metal foil (e.g., patch antenna) of various shapes and may be coupled with the RF circuitry 1006 and/or the FEM circuitry 1008 using metal transmission lines or the like.

The processor of the application circuitry 805/905 and the processor of the baseband circuitry 1010 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuitry 1010 may be used, alone or in combination, to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuitry 805/905 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP layer and UDP layer). As referred to herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, the layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, layer 1 may include the PHY layer of the UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

Fig. 11 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device, in accordance with various embodiments. In particular, fig. 11 includes an arrangement 1100 that illustrates interconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The following description of fig. 11 is provided with respect to various protocol layers/entities operating in conjunction with the 5G/NR system standard and the LTE system standard, although some or all aspects of fig. 11 may be applicable to other wireless communication network systems as well.

The protocol layers of arrangement 1100 may include one or more of PHY 1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, SDAP 1147, RRC 1155, and NAS 1157, as well as other higher layer functions not shown. The protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., items 1159, 1156, 1150, 1149, 1145, 1135, 1125, and 1115 of fig. 11), which may provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

PHY 1110 may transmit and receive physical layer signal 1105, and physical layer signal 1105 may be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signal 1105 may include one or more physical channels such as those discussed herein. PHY 1110 may also perform link Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 1155). PHY 1110 may also perform error detection for the transport channels, Forward Error Correction (FEC) encoding/decoding for the transport channels, modulation/demodulation for the physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 1110 may process a request from an instance of MAC 1120 via one or more PHY-SAPs 1115 and provide an indication thereto via one or more PHY-SAPs 1115. The requests and indications communicated via the PHY-SAP 1115 may include one or more transport channels, according to some embodiments.

An instance of MAC 1120 may process requests from an instance of RLC 1130 via one or more MAC-SAP 1125 and provide indications thereto via one or more MAC-SAP 1125. These requests and indications communicated via the MAC-SAP 1125 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 1120 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be transmitted to PHY 1110 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs transmitted from PHY 1110 via transport channels onto one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction by HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

The instance of RLC 1130 may process requests from the instance of PDCP 1140 via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 1135 and provide indications thereto via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 1135. These requests and indications communicated via the RLC-SAP 1135 may include one or more RLC channels. RLC 1130 may operate in a variety of operating modes including: transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). RLC 1130 may perform delivery of upper layer Protocol Data Units (PDUs), error correction by automatic repeat request (ARQ) (for AM data delivery), and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs (for UM and AM data delivery). RLC 1130 may also perform re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs (for AM data transfer), re-ordering RLC data PDUs (for UM and AM data transfer), detecting duplicate data (for UM and AM data transfer), discarding RLC SDUs (for UM and AM data transfer), detecting protocol errors (for AM data transfer), and performing RLC re-establishment.

The instance of PDCP 1140 may process requests from the instance of RRC 1155 and/or the instance of SDAP 1147 via one or more packet data convergence protocol service access points (PDCP-SAP)1145 and provide indications thereto via one or more packet data convergence protocol service access points (PDCP-SAP) 1145. These requests and indications communicated via the PDCP-SAP 1145 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 1140 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of upper layer PDUs when lower layers are re-established, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs for radio bearers mapped onto RLC AM when lower layers are re-established, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

An instance of the SDAP 1147 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAPs 1149 and provide indications thereto via one or more SDAP-SAPs 1149. These requests and indications communicated via the SDAP-SAP 1149 may include one or more QoS flows. The SDAP 1147 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1147 may be configured for a single PDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 710 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways, i.e. reflection mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 1147 of the UE 701 may monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 1147 of the UE 701 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to a PDU session and a QoS flow ID observed in DL packets of the DRB. To enable the reflection mapping, the NG-RAN may tag the DL packet on the Uu interface with the QoS flow ID. Explicit mapping may involve the RRC 1155 configuring the SDAP 1147 with an explicit QoS flow to DRB mapping rule, which the SDAP 1147 may store and follow. In an embodiment, the SDAP 1147 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

RRC 1155 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, and SDAP 1147, via one or more management service access points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of RRC 1155 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 1157 via one or more RRC-SAPs 1156 and provide indications thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 1156. The primary services and functions of RRC 1155 may include broadcasting system information (e.g., included in MIB or SIB related NAS), broadcasting system information related to Access Stratum (AS), paging, establishing, maintaining, and releasing RRC connections between UE 701 and RAN 710 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishing, configuring, maintaining, and releasing point-to-point radio bearers, security functions (including key management), inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIBs may include one or more IEs, each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

NAS 1157 may form the highest layer of a control plane between UE 701 and AMF. NAS 1157 may support mobility and session management procedures for UE 701 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 701 and a P-GW in an LTE system.

According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of the arrangement 1100 may be implemented in the UE 701, the RAN node 711, the MME in an AMF or LTE implementation in an NR implementation, the S-GW and the P-GW in a UPF or LTE implementation in an NR implementation, or the like to be used in a control plane or user plane communication protocol stack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities, which may be implemented in one or more of the UE 701, the gNB 711, the AMF, etc., may communicate with a corresponding peer protocol entity, which may be implemented in or on another device, using services of the corresponding lower layer protocol entity to perform such communication. In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of gNB 711 may host RRC 1155, SDAP 1147, and PDCP 1140 of the gNB that control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 711 may each host RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110 of gNB 711.

In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 1157, RRC 1155, PDCP 1140, RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110. In this example, upper layers 1160 may be built on top of NAS 1157 and include IP layer 1161, SCTP 1162, and application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1163.

In NR implementations, the AP 1163 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP)1163 for an NG interface 713 defined between the NG-RAN node 711 and the AMF, or the AP 1163 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP)1163 for an Xn interface 712Xn defined between two or more RAN nodes 711.

The NG-AP 1163 may support the functionality of the NG interface 713 and may include a basic procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be the unit of interaction between the NG-RAN node 711 and the AMF. The NG-AP 1163 service may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 701) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 711 and the AMF). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 711 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF to establish, modify and/or release UE contexts in the AMF and NG-RAN node 711; mobility functions for the UE 701 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, support mobility in NG-RAN for intra-system HO, and support mobility from/to EPS system for inter-system HO; NAS signaling transport function, configured to transport or reroute NAS messages between UE 701 and AMF; NAS node selection function to determine the association between the AMF and the UE 701; the NG interface management function is used for establishing an NG interface and monitoring errors on the NG interface; a warning message transmission function for providing a means of transmitting a warning message or canceling an ongoing warning message broadcast via the NG interface; a configuration transfer function for requesting and transferring RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, Performance Measurement (PM) data, etc.) between the two RAN nodes 711 via the CN 720; and/or other similar functions.

XnAP 1163 may support the functionality of Xn interface 712 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedure may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 711 (or E-UTRAN), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context acquisition and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and so on. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to the particular UE 701, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

In an LTE implementation, the AP 1163 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP)1163 for an S1 interface 713 defined between the E-UTRAN node 711 and the MME, or the AP 1163 may be an X2 interface 712X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP)1163 for an X2 interface 713 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 711.

The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP)1163 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include the S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be the unit of interaction between the E-UTRAN node 711 and the MME within the LTE CN 720. The S1-AP 1163 service may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN radio Access bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

The X2AP 1163 may support the functionality of the X2 interface 712 and may include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 720, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context acquisition and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and so forth. The X2AP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to the particular UE 701, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 1162 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). SCTP 1162 may ensure reliable transport of signaling messages between RAN node 711 and the AMF/MME based in part on the IP protocol supported by IP 1161. An internet protocol layer (IP)1161 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, IP layer 1161 may use point-to-point transport to transmit and deliver PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 711 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF to exchange information.

In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, an SDAP 1147, a PDCP 1140, an RLC 1130, a MAC 1120, and a PHY 1110. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE 701, RAN node 711, and the S-GW and P-GW in the UPF or LTE implementations in the NR implementation. In this example, the upper layers 1151 may be built on top of the SDAP 1147 and may include a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP/IP)1152, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP-U)1153 for the user plane layer, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 1163.

The transport network layer 1154 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of IP transport and the GTP-U1153 may be used on top of the UDP/IP layer 1152 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the "internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

GTP-U1153 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transmitted may be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. UDP/IP 1152 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data streams. The RAN node 711 and the S-GW may exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1110), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, and/or SDAP 1147), a UDP/IP layer 1152, and a GTP-U1153, using an S1-U interface. The S-GW and the P-GW may exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP/IP layer 1152, and a GTP-U1153 using an S5/S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility of the UE 701 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 701 and the P-GW.

Further, although not shown in fig. 11, there may be an application layer above the AP 1163 and/or transport network layer 1154. The application layer may be a layer at which a user of UE 701, RAN node 711, or other network element interacts with, for example, a software application being executed by application circuitry 805 or application circuitry 905, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for software applications to interact with the communication system (e.g., baseband circuitry 1010) of the UE 701 or RAN node 711. In some implementations, the IP layer and/or the application layer can provide the same or similar functionality as or portions of layers 5-7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., layer 7 of OSI-the application layer, layer 6 of OSI-the presentation layer and layer 5 of OSI-the session layer).

Fig. 12 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, fig. 12 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resource 1200, hardware resource 1200 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory/storage devices 1220, and one or more communications resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240. For embodiments that utilize node virtualization (e.g., NFV), hypervisor 1202 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/subslices to utilize hardware resources 1200.

Processor 1210 may include, for example, processor 1212 and processor 1214. Processor 1210 may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a DSP (e.g., baseband processor), an ASIC, an FPGA, a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor (including the processors discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

Memory/storage device 1220 may include a main memory, a disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage 1220 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid state storage, and the like.

The communication resources 1230 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripherals 1204 or one or more databases 1206 via a network 1208. For example, communication resources 1230 can include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components,

(or low power consumption)

) A component,

Components and other communication components.

Instructions 1250 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any one processor 1210 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 1250 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processor 1210 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory/storage device 1220, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 1250 may be transmitted to hardware resource 1200 from any combination of peripheral devices 1204 or databases 1206. Thus, the memory of processor 1210, memory/storage 1220, peripherals 1204, and database 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

Example 1 is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and one or more processors configured to: decoding a message received via the RF interface indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and encode an SRS for transmission via the RF interface according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Example 2 may include the subject matter of example 1 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 3 may include the subject matter of example 1 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to a basic SRS to be transmitted by the UE.

Example 4 may include the subject matter of example 1 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 5 may include the subject matter of example 1 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 6 may include the subject matter of example 4 or 5, or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 7 is a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE), cause the UE to: decoding a message received from an evolved node B (eNB) indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and encoding the SRS for transmission according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Example 8 may include the subject matter of example 7 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 9 may include the subject matter of example 7 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to the basic SRS to be transmitted by the UE.

Example 10 may include the subject matter of example 7 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 11 may include the subject matter of example 7 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 12 may include the subject matter of example 10 or 11 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 13 is a method to be performed at a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: decoding a message received from an evolved node B (eNB) indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and encoding the SRS for transmission according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Example 14 may include the subject matter of example 13 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 15 may include the subject matter of example 13 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to a basic SRS to be transmitted by the UE.

Example 16 may include the subject matter of example 13 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 17 may include the subject matter of example 13 or any other example herein, wherein the number N of frequency hops_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 18 may include the subject matter of example 16 or 17 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 19 is an apparatus, comprising: means for decoding a message received from an evolved node B (eNB) indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching; means for determining a number of hopping frequencies that can be accommodated based on the SRS transmission parameters; and means for encoding the SRS for transmission according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Example 20 may include the subject matter of example 19 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 21 may include the subject matter of example 19 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to a basic SRS to be transmitted by the UE.

Example 22 may include the subject matter of example 19 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs SRNumber of S antenna switches, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 23 may include the subject matter of example 19 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 24 may include the subject matter of example 22 or 23 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 25 is an apparatus of an evolved node b (enb), the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and one or more processors configured to: determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and decoding the SRS received via the RF interface according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Example 26 may include the subject matter of example 25 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 27 may include the subject matter of example 25 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to the basic SRS.

Example 28 may include the subject matter of example 25 or any other example herein, wherein the number N of frequency hops_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 29 may include the subject matter of example 25 or any other example herein, wherein the number N of frequency hops_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 30 may include the subject matter of example 28 or 29, or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 means that antenna switching is not requiredTo protect symbols, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 31 is a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by one or more processors of an evolved node b (eNB), cause the eNB to: determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and decoding an SRS received from a User Equipment (UE) according to the determined number of hopping frequencies.

Example 32 may include the subject matter of example 31 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 33 may include the subject matter of example 31 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to the basic SRS.

Example 34 may include the subject matter of example 31 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 35 may include the subject matter of example 31 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 36 may include the subject matter of example 34 or 35, or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 37 is a method to be performed at an evolved node b (enb), the method comprising: determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching; determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and decoding an SRS received from a User Equipment (UE) according to the determined number of hopping frequencies.

Example 38 may include the subject matter of example 37 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 39 may include the subject matter of example 37 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to the basic SRS.

Example 40 may include the subject matter of example 37 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n is a radical of＝R×N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 41 may include the subject matter of example 37 or any other example herein, wherein the number N of frequency hops_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 42 may include the subject matter of example 40 or 41, or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Example 43 is an apparatus, comprising: means for determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching; means for determining a number of hopping frequencies that can be accommodated based on the SRS transmission parameters; and means for decoding an SRS received from a User Equipment (UE) according to the determined number of frequency hops.

Example 44 may include the subject matter of example 43 or any other example herein, wherein the number of frequency hops is determined based on a priority of the SRS transmission order of repeating first, frequency hopping second, antenna switching third.

Example 45 may include the subject matter of example 43 or any other example herein, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to the basic SRS.

Example 46 may include the subject matter of example 43 or any other example herein, wherein the number N of frequency hops_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: n ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FHWhere N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 47 may include the subject matter of example 43 or any other example herein, wherein the number N of frequency hops_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula: if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH(ii) a Otherwise G _FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS(ii) a Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

Example 48 may include the subject matter of example 46 or 47, or any other example herein, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N _AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G _AS0,1, guard symbols for SRS hoppingConfiguration is G _FH0,1, where G _AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G _AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and wherein G _FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G _FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

Claims (24)

1. An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

one or more processors configured to:

decoding a message received via the RF interface indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe;

determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and

encoding an SRS for transmission via the RF interface according to the determined number of frequency hops.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of hops is determined based on a priority of an SRS transmission order in which the first, second, and third antennas are repeated.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to a basic SRS to be transmitted by the UE.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

N＝R×N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FH

where N is SRS duration and R is SRS repetitionNumber of (2), N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH；

Otherwise G_FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS；

Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 or 5, wherein the SRS duration is N {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R {1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, and the number of SRS antenna switching is N_AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G_FH＝{0,1}，

Wherein G is_AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G_AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and

wherein G is_FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G_FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

7. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE), cause the UE to:

decoding a message received from an evolved node B (eNB) indicating a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching in an uplink subframe;

determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and

the SRS is encoded for transmission according to the determined number of frequency hops.

8. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein the number of hops is determined based on a priority of an SRS transmission order that repeats the first, second, and third.

9. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS other than a basic SRS to be transmitted by the UE.

10. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

N＝R×N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FH

where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

11. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH；

Otherwise G_FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS；

Wherein N is SRS persistenceTime, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

12. The storage medium of claim 10 or 11, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ {1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N_AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G_FH＝{0,1}，

Wherein G is_AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G_AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and

wherein G is_FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G_FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

13. An apparatus of an evolved node b (enb), the apparatus comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

one or more processors configured to:

determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching;

determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and

decoding the SRS received via the RF interface according to the determined number of frequency hops.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the number of hops is determined based on a priority of an SRS transmission order that repeats first, second, and third.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, in which the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to a basic SRS.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

N＝R×N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FH

where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the number of frequency hops, N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH；

Otherwise G_FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS；

Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 or 17, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ {1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N_AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G_FH＝{0,1}，

Wherein G is_AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G_AS0 means that antenna switching is not requiredThe symbol is protected, and

wherein G is_FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G_FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

19. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by one or more processors of an evolved node b (eNB), cause the eNB to:

determining a configuration of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission parameters including an SRS duration in an uplink subframe, a number of SRS repetitions, a number of SRS antenna switching, a protection symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, and a protection symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching;

determining the number of frequency hops which can be accommodated according to the SRS transmission parameters; and

decoding an SRS received from a User Equipment (UE) according to the determined number of frequency hops.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the number of hops is determined based on a priority of an SRS transmission order in which the first, second, and third antennas are repeated.

21. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the SRS is an additional SRS in addition to a basic SRS.

22. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the number of hopping frequencies N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

N＝R×N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS+(N_FH–1)×N_AS×G_FH

where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

23. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the number of hopping frequencies N_FHIs determined to satisfy the following formula:

if G is_FHWhen 1, N is R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_FH×N_AS–1)×G_FH；

Otherwise G_FH0, then N ═ R × N_AS×N_FH+(N_AS–1)×G_AS；

Where N is the SRS duration, R is the number of SRS repetitions, N_ASIs the number of SRS antenna switching, G_FHIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS frequency hopping, G_ASIs a guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching.

24. The storage medium of claim 22 or 23, wherein the SRS duration is N ═ {1,2, …,13}, the number of SRS repetitions is R ═ {1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,12,13}, the number of SRS antenna switches is N_AS2,3,4, the guard symbol configuration for SRS antenna switching is G_AS{0,1}, the guard symbol configuration for SRS hopping is G_FH＝{0,1}，

Wherein G is_AS1 denotes that antenna switching requires a protection symbol, and G_AS0 denotes that no protection symbol is required for antenna switching, and

wherein G is_FH1 denotes that frequency hopping requires a guard symbol, and G_FH0 means that no guard symbols are required for hopping.

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