CN117859282A - Cooperative transmission for cells within 6G X based on UE grouping - Google Patents

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a method includes: receiving information of a UE group including at least one UE and another UE; in a first transmission phase, receiving a first Redundancy Version (RV) of first data information of the UE and a first RV of second data information of the other UE; the first RV of the first data information and the first RV of the second data information are decoded. In response to unsuccessful decoding of the first RV of the first data information and successful decoding of the first RV of the second data information, the method includes: encoding the decoded first RV into a second RV of the second data information; transmitting the encoded second RV of the second data information to the other UE in a second transmission phase; and decoding the received second RV of the first data information of the UE.

Description

Cooperative transmission for cells within 6G X based on UE grouping

Technical Field

The various example and non-limiting embodiments relate to communications, and more particularly, to coordinated transmission and/or reception between wireless networks.

Background

The sixth generation (6G) radio access technology is expected to support more advanced communication requirements in terms of latency, reliability, and throughput, for example, the release of industry 4.0 wireless factory landscape where wireless replacement cables provide the most demanding services. For this reason, cable-like reliability should be provided within stringent latency requirements, e.g., 6 to 9 reliability in 0.1ms latency for some wireless, etc. real-time use cases in industrial automation applications.

The cell (6G in-X cell) within 6G X is a semi-autonomous highly specialized cell with limited coverage, installed in locations where high performance requirements are required, such as production modules, vehicles, or human bodies for critical functions such as heart beat control. Accordingly, these X intra cells may be referred to as factory intra cells, robot intra cells, vehicle intra cells, human body intra cells, and the like. The intra-X cell has at least the following features.

Support extremely ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) requirements, e.g. reliability of up to 9 in a latency of 100 mus, providing cable-like communication quality

Low transmit power and limited coverage resulting therefrom, for example below 10 meters, and possibly small physical dimensions of the device

A hierarchical intra-X cell structure with one Access Point (AP) and other User Equipment (UE) devices, also called access devices or access nodes. The AP controls the operation of the UE in the intra-X cell and it may be a UE type, e.g., a special high-end UE with control functions of the AP; or a Base Station (BS) type, such as a special type gNB that can be functionally customized to act as an AP.

Drawings

The above aspects and features are explained in the following description. For a proper understanding of the present disclosure, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a flow chart of UE pairing-based cooperative transmission in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of downlink transmissions in two phases in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of uplink transmission in two phases, in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a cycle-based trigger of cooperative transmission in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of a method of receiving and/or transmitting a cooperative DL transmission based on a UE pairing or UE grouping, in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example of a method of transmitting and/or receiving a coordinated UL transmission based on a UE pairing or a UE grouping, in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of a method of performing coordinated DL transmission based on UE packets or UE pairing at an AP in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of a method of receiving a coordinated UL transmission at an AP based on a UE packet or UE pairing, in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of simulation results of cooperative transmission based on UE grouping or UE pairing in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates another example of simulation results of cooperative transmission based on UE grouping or UE pairing in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 11 illustrates another example of simulation results of cooperative transmission based on UE grouping or UE pairing in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 12 illustrates another example of simulation results of cooperative transmission based on UE grouping or UE pairing in accordance with certain embodiments.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example of a wireless communication network in accordance with certain embodiments.

Detailed Description

One technical problem is that the transmission between the AP and the UE in the intra-X cell lacks diversity gain, which is, however, critical to providing extreme URLLC performance. In particular, the extremely low latency requirement means that there will be little achievable time diversity to improve robustness. It also prevents retransmissions based on hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback from being used for reliability. For example, a relatively low multipath delay spread in an indoor environment, and a generally small packet size, such as a few crosses in industrial motion control, means that the achievable frequency diversity is limited. A typical intra-X cell has multiple UEs and multiple APs in a small form factor, which means limited spatial diversity from multiple transmit and/or receive antennas. Solutions using a cooperative transmission scheme based on UE pairing or UE grouping are discussed below.

Solutions for ultra-reliable communication rely on over-provisioning of physical and infrastructure resources to guarantee a certain packet decoding success rate. For example, increasing the number of spatial antennas, increasing bandwidth to obtain frequency diversity, deploying a centralized/cloud-radio access network (C-RAN) based architecture with multiple APs to increase spatial diversity. Such a solution is limited in terms of scalability and provides inefficient performance.

In 3GPP, layer 2 (L2) UE-to-network relay has been studied in release 15 to extend network coverage. UE-to-network relay is a normal UE that may use side chains (SL) to communicate with remote UEs and relay/forward data packets between a Base Station (BS) and the remote UEs. The remote UE is a UE whose Uu link (link between the UE and its BS) Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) is below a network configured threshold. Thus, if the UE has poor cellular channel conditions below the threshold, it searches for UE-to-network relays. Further, the network controls the relay selection area by setting an RSRP threshold (e.g., a lower limit and/or an upper limit) for the candidate relay UEs. The limit URLLC with diversity transmission between multiple paired UEs to improve reliability will be described in detail. In contrast to coverage extension relay, in the URLLC context, the relay and resources associated with the relay operation need to be (pre) configured and triggered in real time when needed.

A cooperative relaying technique is proposed in WO2020013824 to achieve reliable communication. The multiple relay UEs cooperate to provide signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and diversity gain to decoding of messages for the remote UEs. However, WO2020013824 does not capture scheduling, signaling aspects and algorithmic methods of pairing UE relays, establishing device-to-device (D2D) links, and (pre) configuring transmission resources and Redundancy Versions (RVs) for different transmissions.

In one example embodiment, an AP configures a plurality of UEs to form groups of UEs, where each group is comprised of two or more UEs. Such an operation may be referred to as a UE pairing or UE grouping operation. The operation may be performed semi-statically based on a long term average channel condition obtained from channel quality measurements for the uplink channel or channel quality indications fed back by the UE. The AP informs the UE of UE pairing information and parameters related to the cooperative transmission. The information and parameters may include at least one of: an identifier of the paired or grouped UE, an ID of the UE group, a cooperative transmission scheme including the cooperative transmission scheme ID, and a transmission parameter.

The AP schedules coordinated transmissions for at least one UE group on time-frequency resources. At least four transmission resources are used for repeated transmissions of the same Transport Block (TB) with different or the same redundancy version. The data TB may be or include data information of a user or user data information for a user. The transmission resources themselves may comprise different time-frequency resources, including different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time frames in the time domain. Frequency Hopping (FH) may be applied in resource allocation. In the time domain, the transmission resources may be contiguous or non-contiguous with each other; and may have the same or different durations. The TX phase is not limited to DL transmissions. In other words, receiving DL transmissions at the UE may also be considered to occur during the DL TX phase; and receiving UL transmissions at the AP may also be considered to occur during the UL TX phase. Some examples given below relate to two resources allocated to one UE at different times and with different frequencies.

The schedule may be a dynamic schedule, e.g., per TB schedule; or semi-persistent scheduling (SPS), e.g., scheduling of multiple TBs on periodic resources for Downlink (DL) or Uplink (UL) transmissions. In the case of dynamic scheduling, as further described in the next few paragraphs, the coordinated transmission operation may be dynamically triggered based on one or more TB decoding or reception errors as indicated by a bit in the scheduling message. On the other hand, at 120 of SPS scheduling

The cooperative transmission operation may be periodically triggered, for example, based on a lifetime interval of the data traffic. The two transmission resources allocated to the same UE may be contiguous or non-contiguous in the time and/or frequency domain.

For DL transmissions to one or each UE group, i.e. transmissions from the AP to paired or grouped UEs, coordinated transmissions based on the UE pairing or UE grouping include operations at the AP as well as operations at the UEs. The operations at the AP include, for each of the paired or grouped UEs, the AP encoding the data TB to the same or different RVs, e.g., at least RV0 and RV2, corresponding to at least two resources allocated or configured to each UE, and transmitting the data packets on those resources. The operation at the UE is performed in two transmit phases. Each of the at least two transmission resources is associated with one of the two transmission phases. In one example, the first resource is associated with a first transmit phase and the second resource is associated with a second transmit phase. During the first transmission phase, the UE receives the RV of the data transmission or data information for itself and decodes it; alternatively, instead of decoding it immediately after receiving it, the UE may buffer or save the received data or the received data information of the RV and decode it later or use it for decoding. During the same transmit phase, the UE receives and decodes the RV of data transmissions or data information for its paired or grouped UEs in the same UE group.

During the second transmission phase, the AP transmits data packets to each UE of the group of UEs with the same or different RV as compared to the RV used in the first transmission phase. The paired/grouped UE(s) may encode UE data information successfully decoded from data packets of a receiving/listening (overlay) UE in a first transmission phase in the same RV as the AP for the same data information in a second transmission phase and transmit it to the UE(s) in the same time-frequency resources as the AP for transmitting the same data information in the second transmission phase. The resources for the same data information transmitted from the AP and the grouped UEs and/or the RV for each transmission may be coordinated by the AP, which was previously referred to as a cooperative transmission. Whether the UE has decoded its own data information in the first transmission phase or has successfully decoded its own data information in the first transmission phase, it may again receive data information in a different or same RV for itself from the AP and/or from the UE paired with it during the second transmission phase. The UE may decode the uncoded data packets for itself received during the first transmission phase and/or the data packets for itself received during the second transmission phase based on soft combining of the repeated transmissions in the second transmission phase. Repeated transmissions refer to the same data information encoded in different or the same RV received in the first and second transmission phases.

If the UE successfully decodes the data packet for itself received in the first transmission phase and the RV data packet for the UE paired with it received in the first transmission phase, the UE may encode the data information of the UE paired with it decoded from the data packet to the UE paired with it on the same resources as the transmission of the data packet by the AP in the same RV of the second transmission of the data information of the UE paired with it by the AP in the second transmission phase. As regards its own data information, it can be determined whether to decode the data packet received for itself in the second transmission phase. In some embodiments, the UE may stop receiving or decoding the data packets for itself received in the first transmission phase because the UE successfully decoded the data packets for itself received in the first transmission phase. The transmission resources may be allocated by the AP and indicated to the UE by scheduling and/or configuration information. The AP may also cooperatively determine and/or configure the RV for transmissions in each transmission phase. The RV may be the same for each UE belonging to the same UE group at each transmit stage. The UE may need full duplex operation to transmit and receive data at different frequency resources during the second transmit phase.

In UL transmissions from the UE group, the operation of the UE may be performed in at least two transmit phases including at least a first transmit phase and a second transmit phase. The transmission resources are associated with two transmission phases in the time domain. In one example, two time-frequency transmission resources are allocated to one UE, where each transmission resource is associated with one of two transmission phases. During a first transmission phase, the UEs of the UE group transmit data packets including data information from themselves. The data packet may be or include the RV of the data information. Meanwhile, the UE may listen to or receive the RV of the data packet or data information from at least another UE (a paired UE from the UEs of the same UE group). In addition, the UE decodes the RV of the data packet of the listened to or received data packet or paired UE. In a first transmit phase, the UE may perform full duplex operation to transmit and receive data on different frequency resources during the same time.

During the second transmission phase of the UL transmission, the UE transmits its own data information to the AP using a different or the same RV as compared to the RV transmitted in the first transmission phase. Also in the second transmission phase, its paired UE may transmit its own data information to the AP in the RV. The two UEs may apply the same RV in the first and/or second transmission phases, while different RVs may be applied by one UE in both transmission phases.

If the UE successfully decodes the RV of the data packet listened to or received in the first transmission phase or the data packet of its paired UE, the UE cooperates with the paired UE in the second transmission phase as indicated by the AP configuration to transmit the data information of its paired UE on the corresponding resources. In the second transmission phase, the data information of the paired UE may be encoded by the UE into the same RV as the RV used for the second transmission from the paired UE itself. In other words, the UE and its paired UE may be configured and/or coordinated to encode and/or transmit data information for paired UEs in the same RV. This results in the AP receiving the same RV of data information for paired UE from UE and paired UE in the second transmission phase. Similarly, the AP receives the same RV of data information for the UE in the second phase, one from the UE itself, the other from the paired UE of the UE. In the case where there are more UEs in the UE group, the AP may receive the same data information from more than one paired UE. For two RVs of data information of the same UE received during two phases, the AP decodes the corresponding data information based on soft combining or other decoding scheme on the resources. As for full duplex operation, low transmit power for the local area communication scenario means that a relatively low transmit and/or receive power difference at the transceiver will facilitate full duplex operation. Full duplex operation allows edge link assisted cooperative transmission with as few repetitions as possible.

Fig. 1 shows a flow chart of one possible and non-limiting example of cooperative transmission based on UE packet/UE pairing. Block 110 shows that UE pairing may alternatively be performed semi-statically or statically based on long term channel conditions. The channel conditions may be reflected by a measure of channel quality. In block 120, the schedule for coordinated transmissions of at least one UE of the group of UEs may include at least two repeated transmission resources. The scheduling of coordinated transmissions based on UE packets may be based on dynamic triggers and/or based on periodic triggers. The repeated transmission resource refers to a resource for one data information or one data Transport Block (TB) that is repeatedly transmitted in the same or different RVs. Pairing-based or packet-based cooperative transmission is then performed in DL and/or UL data transmissions, as shown in block 130. According to some embodiments, the process may be performed in a wireless communication network.

The wireless communication network includes at least one sub-network, where each sub-network is comprised of one Access Point (AP), or access device, or UE including certain features of the AP, and at least two or more UEs. The AP and the UE are close to each other in the local area. The AP configures or forms UE groups of Np UEs each. This is referred to as a UE pairing or UE grouping operation. In one embodiment, np is set to np=2. In another embodiment, np is set to a value greater than 2, for example np=3. The UE pairing operation may be performed statically or semi-statically based on long term average channel conditions, which may be obtained, for example, from channel quality measurements of uplink channels and/or signals or from channel quality indications fed back from the UE. In one embodiment, where np=2, some or all UEs in a sub-network of the wireless communication network are paired or grouped in the following manner:

Pairing a UE with the best channel quality with a UE with the worst channel quality

Pairing a UE with a second good channel quality with a UE with a second bad channel quality

……

UE with the nth good channel quality and UE with the nth bad channel quality.

In another embodiment, the AP may randomly divide some or all UEs in the sub-network into a plurality of groups, where each group is composed of up to Np UEs. Such grouping or pairing may be further based on the location of the UEs, the distance between each UE and the AP, and/or other elements in the sub-network or wireless communication network.

The AP informs each associated UE of UE pairing or UE grouping information and parameters related to a cooperative transmission including at least one of:

ID of paired UE (e.g. RNTI)

Group ID of grouped/paired UEs

Collaborative ways to be applied, e.g. based on Space Time Coding (STC) or based on Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD)

Parameters of cooperative transmission, e.g. virtual antenna index (for STC-based) or cyclic delay indication (for CDD-based)

Regarding pairing-based cooperative transmission scheduling, the AP schedules cooperative transmissions for a group of UEs on Mp repeated transmission resources for each UE, and these repeated transmission resources correspond to different time-frequency resources that may occupy different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The repeated transmission resource may be interpreted as a resource for data information transmitted more than once. The data information may be encoded in the same or different RVs prior to transmission as data packets. Such transmissions appear to be repeated transmissions of the same data information with the same or different RVs. In one embodiment, mp is set to mp=2, independent of Np UEs of the UE group. In another embodiment, mp is set to a value of Np up to a value representing the number of UEs in the UE group. The Mp repeated transmission resources may be discontinuous or continuous in the time domain.

When the transmission resources are discontinuous in the time domain, the interval between adjacent repeated transmission resources is equal to or greater than the decoding and re-encoding processing time to achieve cooperative transmission. The schedule may be a DL transmission schedule, which may be, for example, a dynamic or SPS schedule; or may be UL transmit grants, which may be dynamic grants as defined in a new air interface (NR) system or type 1 and/or type 2 configured grants, for example. In the case of dynamic scheduling, the co-transmission operation may be triggered dynamically, e.g., one bit in the scheduling message indicates whether or not to use the co-transmission operation. It may be determined based on one or more TB decoding errors. This allows coordinated transmissions when there is an urgent need, for example to avoid consecutive packet errors. In the case of SPS scheduling, the coordinated transmission operation may be triggered periodically, e.g., based on a time-to-live interval of data traffic. This may improve lifetime reliability performance while maintaining as low power consumption as possible.

In DL transmission from an AP to a UE group including the UE and at least one paired or grouped UE thereof, the proposed UE pairing-based cooperative communication includes the following operations. For each or one of the paired UEs in the UE group, the AP encodes the data TB or data information to a different RV, such as at least RV0 and RV2, corresponding to the Mp repeated resources allocated or configured to the UE, and transmits the encoded data TB or data information on these resources. The different RV may be selected from RV0, RV1, RV2, RV3, or any RV specified in the 3GPP standards.

Fig. 2 shows one possible and non-limiting example of DL transmission based on UE pairing or grouping in two transmission phases. In this exemplary embodiment, the sub-network includes one access device/AP and two UEs, UE1 and UE2. The DL transmit duration (horizontally marked) for a sub-network is divided into two transmit phases "TX phase 1" and TX phase 2". The carrier BW refers to frequency resources in the frequency domain of the vertical mark. In TX phase 1, time-frequency resources 210 are allocated for DL data transmission from AP to UE1 in RV0, and time-frequency resources 220 are allocated for another DL data transmission from AP to UE2 in RV 0. The data transmission in RV0 may also be referred to as RV0 data transmission. In TX stage 2, a data packet from the AP to UE1 including the same data information encoded in RV0 as in TX stage 1 but now encoded in RV1 may be transmitted on time-frequency resources 230; similarly, the AP may transmit a data packet in RV1 to UE2. Meanwhile, if UE2 receives or hears RV0 data transmission from the AP to UE1 during TX phase 1, UE2 may successfully decode the data information originally for UE1, encode the data information in RV1, and then transmit it to UE1 also on resource 230. The AP may schedule or configure resources for coordinated transmissions. UE1 may decode one or more of RV0 and RV1 of the data information of UE1 received from the AP and/or UE2. When UE1 decodes more than one of RV0 and RV1 of data information of UE1, it may use at least one of a plurality of decoding schemes. Similarly, during TX phase 2, the same data information as was encoded in RV0 and transmitted from the AP to UE2 in TX phase 1 is now encoded by the AP in RV1 and transmitted from the AP to UE2 on time-frequency resource 240. Meanwhile, in the event that UE1 receives or listens to RV0 data transmissions from the AP to UE2 during TX phase 1 and successfully decodes the data information originally for UE2, UE1 may encode the data information with RV1 and then also transmit it to UE2 on resource 240. UE2 may decode one or more of RV0 and RV1 of the data information of UE2 received from the AP and/or UE1. When UE2 decodes more than one of RV0 and RV1 of the data information of UE2, it may use at least one of a plurality of decoding schemes. The data transmission in RV0 or RV1 may also be referred to as RV0 or RV1 data transmission, respectively. In any of the TX phases, other RVs, such as RV2 and/or RV3, may be used instead of RV0 and/or RV 1.

Four transmission resources 210, 220, 230, and 240 are allocated for DL transmissions from the perspective of the AP and for receiving DL transmissions from the perspective of the UE. Transmit resources 210 and 220 are associated with or include TX Phase-1 in the time domain, while transmit resources 230 and 240 are associated with or include TX Phase 2 in the time domain. Comparing resource 210 with resource 230, both for DL data transmission to UE1, resource 210 is associated with TX phase 1 and resource 230 is associated with TX phase 2. Resource 210 and resource 230 occupy different frequency resources, which may be selected by FH, with the same or different transmission bandwidths. Resources 210 and 230 comprise different time resources in the time domain, which are also referred to as time frames, time periods, durations, etc., and are specifically referred to as TX phase 1 and TX phase 2. Similarly, both resource 220 and resource 240 are used for DL data transmission to UE2, while resource 220 is associated with or includes TX phase 1 and resource 240 is associated with or includes TX phase 2. Resource 220 and resource 240 are on different frequency resources, which may be selected by FH, with the same or different transmission bandwidths. Resources 220 and 240 comprise different time resources in the time domain, which are referred to as TX phase 1 and TX phase 2. Further, TX stage 1 and TX stage 2 may be adjacent to each other in the time domain or separated from each other at a time interval. The time interval may be counted for at least the processing time for decoding and encoding/re-encoding data information for listening/receiving of UE2 and UE1 in the previous TX phase and for achieving a coordinated transmission from the AP to the UE and between the UEs, respectively.

In one embodiment, the UE attempts to decode the data information for itself received in TX stage 1, which may be transmitted in an RV such as RV 0. This may result in successful decoding or unsuccessful decoding. In another embodiment, the UE does not decode the data packet for itself received in TX stage 1, but rather caches or saves it and decodes it later or decodes it later with the data packet in RV1 received during TX stage 2. Such decoding is based on soft combining of data packets received on Mp repeated transmission resources. Any UE in the group of UEs may operate in this manner. During the other Mp-1 repeated transmission resources, if UE1 has not decoded its own data or has not successfully decoded its own data in the first TX phase, UE1 decodes its own data transmission based on soft combining of the repeated transmissions. If UE1 successfully decodes the data of the paired UE (UE 2) received in TX stage 1, UE1 transmits the data of its paired UE on the corresponding second repetition resource in cooperation with the AP according to the indication of the AP configuration. If Mp-1=1, which means that the total number of retransmissions Mp is equal to 2, then UE1 may decode its own data and transmit its paired UE data in the same time frame, which may require UE1 to perform full duplex operation. UE1 represents one UE within a UE group. The operations performed at UE1 provide examples of operations that may be performed at least one other UE of the UE group.

An exemplary embodiment of packet or pairing based cooperative transmission in DL is described in table 1. The AP transmits data packets in RV0 to UE1 and UE2, respectively, in TX phase 1. The data packet includes user data information. UE1 receives its own data packet, RV0 data for UE1, and decodes or buffers/saves it for later decoding. Meanwhile, UE1 receives or listens to data transmitted to UE2, and UE1 decodes RV0 data for UE 2. During TX phase 2, the AP transmits data packets to UE1 and UE2, respectively, in RV2, regardless of whether there is a UE engaged in the cooperative transmission. Coordinated transmissions in DL may refer to the same user data information transmitted by the AP and the grouped/paired UEs on the same time-frequency resources. Furthermore, the same RV may be used when encoding user data information for cooperative transmission. The data packet in RV2 may include the same data information as that included in the data packet in RV 0. In case-1, if the data packets of both UE1 and UE2 received in TX stage 1 are successfully decoded by UE1, then UE1 encodes the information of UE2 in RV2 and transmits it in TX stage 2. Such transmission may occur in conjunction with the AP because the AP also transmits data packets in either STC or CDD in RV2 to UE 2. In case 2, if only the data or data information of UE2 is successfully decoded in TX stage 1, in other words, UE1 does not decode or successfully decodes its own data received in TX stage 1, UE1 encodes and transmits the information of UE2 in RV 2. Such transmissions may again be made in cooperation with the AP in either STC or CDD fashion. On the other hand, whether UE1 receives its own data packet in TX stage 1, but does not decode it, but buffers it, or UE1 does not successfully decode its own data in TX stage 1, UE1 receives its RV2 of its data information, and decodes its own data information by combining RV0 and RV2 for its own data packet. In case-2, full duplex operation may be required at UE1 because transmission and reception may occur during TX phase 2. In detail, overlapping of frequency resources in the time domain in TX phase 2 requires full duplex operation.

TABLE 1

Regarding UL transmissions for a group of UEs, the UEs transmit their own data packets on Mp repeated transmission resources. The data packets may include data information from the UE encoded in the same or different RVs. Meanwhile, the UE may receive/listen to and decode the data packets of its paired UE. The data packet of its paired UE may be in one or the same RV of the RVs of the data packets from the UE and include data information from the UE it is paired with. If Mp-1=1, e.g., the total number of retransmissions Mp is equal to 2, the UE may transmit its own data and decode the data of its paired UE at the same time, which may require, e.g., full duplex operation. During the Mp-th repetition of the transmission resource, the UE cooperates with its paired UE according to the indication of the AP configuration, transmits its own data packet with the corresponding RV, and transmits the data of its paired UE. Coordinated transmissions in the UL may refer to the same user data information transmitted by more than one UE within a group of UEs, such as UEs and their grouped/paired UEs, on the same time-frequency resources. Furthermore, the same RV may be used when encoding user data information for cooperative transmission. For each of the paired/grouped UEs, the AP decodes the corresponding data based on the soft combining on the resources.

Fig. 3 shows one possible non-limiting example of UL data information transmission based on UE pairing or UE grouping in two transmission phases. In this exemplary embodiment, the sub-network includes one access device or AP and two UEs, UE1 and UE2. The UL duration for horizontally marked sub-networks is divided into two transmit phases labeled "TX phase 1" and TX phase 2 ". The TX phase may refer to the duration of UL transmission and reception that are respectively performed by the UE and the AP. The carrier BW refers to resources in the frequency domain of the vertical mark. In TX phase 1, time-frequency resources 310 are allocated for UL data transmission from UE1 to UE1 of the AP in RV0, and time-time resources 320 are allocated for UE2 to perform its UL data transmission to the AP in RV 0. The data transmission in RV0 may also be referred to as RV0 data transmission. Simultaneously with its UL transmission, UE1 receives or listens to the UL RV0 data transmission of UE2. Similarly, UE2 receives or listens to UE 1's UL RV0 data transmission. UE1 decodes the received or listened UL RV0 data transmission for UE2. UE2 may take the same action to decode the received or heard UL RV0 data transmission for UE 1. During TX phase 2, UE1 transmits its own UL data or data information in RV1 on time-frequency resources 330. If UE1 successfully decodes the UL RV0 data transmission of UE2, then UE1 encodes the decoded data in RV1 and transmits the UL RV1 data of UE2 in time-frequency resources 340. Similarly, if UE2 successfully decodes UL RV0 data transmission for UE1, then UE2 encodes the decoded data in RV1 and transmits UL RV1 data for UE1 in resource 330. Other RVs, such as RV2, RV3, or any RV specified in the 3GPP standard, may be used in place of RV0 and/or RV1 in either TX stage.

During TX phase 1 of UL transmission, the UE performing transmission and reception during the same period of time may require full duplex operation at the UE. Resources 310 and 330 for carrying data information of UE1 may include/occupy different frequency resources in the frequency domain, and different time or time frame resources in the time domain. Both resources 320 and 340 are allocated or configured for carrying data information of UE2, which includes/occupies different frequency resources in the frequency domain, and different time or time frame resources in the time domain. On the other hand, resources 310 and 320 may be allocated the same duration or time frame; and also for resources 330 and 340. The duration, time frame or time resource may also be referred to as or include a TX phase. In particular, time resources of time-frequency resources 310 and 320 are associated with or include TX stage 1, while time-frequency resources 330 and 340 are associated with or include TX stage 2.

Another exemplary embodiment of packet or pairing based cooperative transmission in the UL is described in table 2. During TX phase 1, UE1 transmits its own data packet including data information in RV 0. Meanwhile, UE1 receives and decodes a data packet of UE2, which is transmitted from a paired UE (UE 2) of UE1 to the AP. The AP receives data packets for UE1 and UE2, both in RV 0. The AP may or may not decode the RV0 data packet immediately after it is received. It may buffer RV0 data packets if it does not decode them immediately after receiving them. During TX phase 2, UE1 transmits its own data packet in RV 2. If UE1 successfully decodes the RV0 data packet of UE2 received in TX stage 1, UE1 encodes the data information in RV2 and transmits the RV2 data packet of UE2 to the AP. During this TX phase, UE1 performs UL transmission in conjunction with UE2 and/or the AP in STC or CDD. UE2 performs UL transmission in two TX phases similarly to UE 1. The AP decodes the data packets received from UE1 and UE2, respectively. If the AP does not decode the data packet received from UE1 during TX phase 1, the AP decodes the data packet received during both TX phases by combining RV0 and RV2 data packets from UE1 and/or RV2 data packets from UE1 of UE 2; and processes the data of UE2 in a similar manner.

TABLE 2

The packet-based or pairing-based cooperative transmission may be triggered by one of the following means. In one embodiment, packet-based cooperative transmission is always active after configuration by the network. In which case no explicit triggering is required. In another embodiment, the packet-based cooperative transmission is event triggered based on HARQ feedback. An example of HARQ feedback may be one or more HARQ-NACKs transmitted by at least one UE of a group of UEs. This is relevant for dynamic scheduling, where an indication (e.g. one bit) in the scheduling message is used to indicate whether co-transmission operation is used based on one or more TB decoding errors. This allows coordinated transmissions when there is an urgent need, e.g., to avoid consecutive packet errors. In a third embodiment, pairing-based or packet-based cooperative transmission is triggered periodically, taking into account the lifetime metrics of the service. If the lifetime metric of the service is 4 transmission periods (assuming an isochronous service), the pairing-based cooperative transmission may be configured to occur in at least one of every four transmission periods. This is to avoid consecutive data packet errors during the whole lifetime, resulting in service unavailability and interruption. This is related to semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) class scheduling in which the periodicity and/or offset of the coordinated transmissions are indicated in an SPS scheduling message.

Fig. 4 shows an example of periodic triggering of cooperative transmission. The duration of life includes 4 data transmission periods, during each of which the cooperative transmission is either initiated (active) or disconnected (inactive). In the exemplary embodiment, cooperative transmission is periodically initiated during a second periodic block 420 that is outside of the lifetime duration and is turned off during periodic blocks 410, 430, and 440.

Fig. 5 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of a reception and/or transmission procedure at a UE, such as UE1, for cooperative DL transmission based on UE pairing or UE grouping. UE1 may be any UE within a paired or grouped group of UEs. The AP may configure two or more UEs as paired UEs in one UE group. The AP may notify any UE belonging to the same group as the formed group of UEs. UE1 receives information of the UE group to which it belongs, wherein the information includes a group Identifier (ID), information of other group members or paired UEs within the group, time-frequency resources allocated for transmission and reception in the cooperative DL transmission. The information of other group members or paired UEs may include an ID or indication of each UE within the group.

In block 510, during a first TX phase, UE1 receives a DL transmission of RV0 from an AP including data information of UE 1. UE1 also receives or listens to DL transmissions from the AP to UE2 that include RV0 of the data information for UE 2. The data information of UE1 refers to data information transmitted from the AP to UE1, and the data information of UE2 refers to data information from the AP to UE 2. After block 510, two scenarios may occur, namely case 1 and case 2. In case 1, as in block 512, UE1 decodes both RV0 of the data information of UE1 and RV0 in the data information of UE 2. In block 514, it is determined whether both RV0 of the data information of UE1 and RV0 in the data information of UE2 were successfully decoded. In response to successful decoding of both, UE1 has the correct data information for itself, and UE1 encodes the decoded data information for UE2 in RV2 and transmits it during the second TX phase, as shown in block 516. On the other hand, if the result of block 514 is negative, which means that UE1 fails to decode at least one of RV0 of the data information of UE1 or RV0 of the data information of UE2, it is further necessary to determine whether RV0 in the information of UE1 was successfully decoded in block 520. If the determination at block 520 is affirmative, then UE1 need not act further as shown at block 522 in response to UE1 successfully decoding its own data information but failing to decode the data information of UE 2. However, if the determination from block 520 is negative, meaning that UE1 did not successfully decode RV0 of the data information of UE1, then the next action of UE1 depends on whether RV0 in the data information of UE2 was successfully decoded, as shown in block 524. If UE1 successfully decodes RV0 of the data information of UE2, as shown in block 526, UE1 encodes the decoded UE2 data information into RV2 and transmits it during the second TX phase. UE1 receives RV2 of the data information of UE1 and decodes it during the second TX phase. Such decoding may include UE1 decoding RV2 of the received UE1 data information and UE1 data information RV0 received in the first TX stage. However, if UE1 does not successfully decode RV0 of the data information of UE2, which means that UE1 does not have the correct data information for UE2, then UE1 receives and decodes data information RV2 of UE1 during the second TX phase, as shown in block 528. This decoding may include UE1 decoding the received data information RV2 of UE1 and the data information RV0 of UE1 received in the first TX stage. The two TX phases refer to two DL transmission durations, which may be considered as part of the time-frequency resources used for DL transmission.

Turning to case 2 of fig. 5, after block 510, UE1 decodes RV0 of the data information of UE2, but does not decode RV0 of the data information of UE1, as shown in block 530. UE1 saves or buffers RV0 of UE 1's data information for later decoding, rather than decoding the received data information RV0 for UE1 itself. In response to RV0 of the data information of UE2 successfully decoded by UE1 in block 532, as in block 534, UE1 encodes the decoded UE2 data information into RV2 and transmits it to UE2 during the second TX phase. UE1 also receives RV2 of the data information of UE1, which may be from at least one of AP or UE2, in a second TX phase and decodes the data information by combining the data information of at least RV0 and RV2 of UE1 as in block 534. One of the decoding schemes may be soft combining. On the other hand, as in block 536, in the event of unsuccessful decoding of RV0 of the data information of UE2 from block 532, UE1 receives in a second TX phase the data information RV2 of UE1, which may be from at least one of the AP or UE2, and decodes the UE1 own data information by combining at least RV0 of the cached data information of UE1 and RV2 of the received UE1 data information. UE1 may select from a variety of decoding schemes to be used.

One of RV1, RV2, RV3 or other RVs may be used instead of RV0 used in the first TX stage. The same applies to the RV used in the second TX stage. In the above example, different RVs are used in different TX phases, but the same RV may be used in different TX phases. Within the same TX phase, in the above example, the same RV is used for transmissions to different UEs within the UE group, while different RVs may be used for transmissions to each of the different UEs. Furthermore, although 2 TX stages are given in the previous exemplary embodiment, the number of TX stages may be 2 or more. RV0 of the data information of UE1, RV0 of the data information of UE2, RV2 of the digital information of UE1, and RV2 of the digital information of UE2 may be received in the first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resources, respectively. The first and third time-frequency resources may include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain; and, the second and fourth time-frequency resources may include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources comprise a first transmit phase in the time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources are associated with a second transmit phase of the at least two transmit phases in the time domain.

Fig. 6 shows another exemplary embodiment of a transmission and/or reception procedure for coordinated UL transmissions at a UE, in particular from the perspective of UE1, based on UE pairing or based on UE grouping. The UE group is configured by the AP and notified to each UE. As shown in block 610, UE1 is informed of its paired UEs and their UE groups, and during the first TX phase, UE1 transmits RV0 of the data information of UE1 in the UL to the AP. Since UE2 or other UEs perform the same operation as UE1, UE1 receives or listens to RV0 of data information of UE2 transmitted from UE2 to the AP in the first TX stage. In response to a positive result of determining if RV0 of the data information for UE2 was successfully decoded by UE1 as in block 612, UE1 encodes the decoded information for UE2 in RV2 and transmits it to the AP in UL during the second TX phase. In the same TX phase, UE1 transmits RV2 of data information of UE1 to the AP. However, in response to a negative result of block 612 (meaning that UE1 fails to decode RV0 of the data information of UE 2), UE1 transmits RV2 of the data information of UE1 to the AP in the second TX phase as in block 616. UE1 encodes and transmits its own same data information twice in different RVs during different transmission phases.

The AP determines UEs that can be paired or grouped together as a group of UEs for cooperative transmission in at least one of DL, UL, or Side Link (SL). The AP may also allocate resources in the time and frequency domains, also referred to as time-frequency resources, for coordinated transmissions. "cooperative transmission" is a generic term that may refer to both cooperative transmission and reception. The AP may further transmit information of the UE group including the group identifier of the UE group and/or an identifier of each UE of the UE group and radio resources to the UE group so that the AP and the UE group may cooperatively transmit as described above.

The allocated resources may be used for communication between the AP and the UE group and/or between the UE groups. The communication between the UE groups may refer to, for example, SL communication, relay communication, D2D communication, UE coordination communication, and the like. The time-frequency resources allocated in the time domain comprise at least two transmission phases. RV0 of the data information of UE1, RV0 of the data information of UE2, RV2 of the digital information of UE1, and RV2 of the digital information of UE2 may be received in the first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resources, respectively. Both the first and third time-frequency resources for carrying data information of UE1 may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain; also, both the second and fourth time-frequency resources used to carry the data information of UE2 may include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with a first transmission phase in the time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with a second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in the time domain.

Fig. 7 shows another exemplary embodiment of performing cooperative DL transmission based on UE grouping or UE pairing at an AP. The procedure is described in terms of an access device or AP, involving a UE. As in block 710, the AP transmits RV0 of the data information of UE1 and RV0 of the data information of UE2 in DL during the first TX phase. In the second TX phase, as shown in block 720, the AP transmits RV2 of the data information of UE1 and RV2 of the data information of UE2, respectively, in DL, regardless of whether each data information was successfully received and/or decoded. The AP may transmit RV0 of data information of UE1, RV0 of data information of UE2, RV2 of data information of UE1, and RV2 of information of UE2 in the first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resources, respectively. The AP may allocate resources such that the first and third time-frequency resources include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain; and, the second and fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with a first transmission phase in the time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with a second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in the time domain.

Fig. 8 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of receiving a cooperative UL transmission at an AP based on a UE packet or UE pairing. The procedure is described in relation to the UE, and in particular from the point of view of the access device or AP. In UL transmission, as in block 810, the AP receives RV0 of data information from UE1 of UE1 and RV0 of data information from UE2 of UE2, respectively, in UL during a first UL TX phase. As shown in block 820, during the second UL TX phase, the AP receives RV2 of the data information of UE1 from at least one of UE1 or UE2 in the UL and RV2 of the data information of UE2 from at least one of UE2 or UE 1. In the case where the AP receives RV2 of the data information of UE1 from UE2, it is due to RV0 successfully decoding the information of UE1 at UE 2. UE2 encodes the decoded data information of UE1 into RV2 and transmits it to the AP during the second UL TX phase. Similarly, in the case where the AP receives RV2 of the data information of UE2 from UE1, this is due to RV0 successfully decoding the information of UE2 at UE1, and UE1 encodes and transmits the decoded UE2 data information to RV2 to the AP during the second UL TX phase. The AP decodes the data information of UE1 from at least one of RV0 or RV2 of the data information of UE1 received during the two TX phases. If the AP determines that both RV0 and RV2 are decoded based on the data information of UE1, the AP may apply a soft combination of RV0 and RV2 of the data information of UE 1. Similarly, the AP decodes the data information of UE2 based on at least one of RV0 or RV2 of the received data information of UE 2. The AP may allocate UL transmission resources for RV0 of data information of UE1, RV0 of data information of UE2, RV2 of UE1, and RV2 of UE2, respectively, transmitted in the first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resources. Resources may be further allocated in the following manner: the first and third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain; and, the second and fourth time-frequency resources include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with a first transmission phase in the time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with a second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in the time domain.

Simulations were performed to evaluate the pairing-based cooperative transmission as described above. The simulation parameters are listed in table 3. Simulation results of cooperative transmission based on UE grouping or UE pairing are shown in fig. 9 to 12. Based on the simulation results, it can be concluded that the cooperative transmission based on UE pairing achieves performance gains over normal single link transmission, especially under non line of sight (NLOS) and/or non Frequency Hopping (FH) transmission. For example, in case of no FH and FH, cooperative transmission based on UE pairing is at block error rate (BLER) 10 ^-5 Performance gains of at least 20dB and about 5dB are achieved respectively. See "Channel Coding Rate in Finite Blocklength Regime" by Yury Polyanskiy et al, volume IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, phase 5, pages 2307-2359, as at least part of the performance metric, the BLER is calculated based on the theoretical result of the channel coding rate for the finite block length. This result demonstrates that the proposed pairing-based cooperative transmission is an effective enhancement to achieve extreme URLLC performance for in-X sub-network scenarios in 6G, for example.

TABLE 3 Table 3

Referring to fig. 13, an example of a wireless communication network is shown in accordance with certain embodiments. Access device 1302 is adapted to communicate with apparatus such as mobile devices, mobile terminals, UE 1305, or UE 1345 via a wireless link 1304. Access device 1302 may be an access point, access node, base station, gNB, or eNB similar to the AP described in fig. 7 and 8 and the APs discussed in other figures. Access device 1302 may include a frequency selective repeater for any wireless network, such as 5G NR, LTE-A, GSM, GERAN, WCDMA, CDMA, wireless LAN, and the like. Access device 1302 may be a UE that may perform operations similar to an access device/AP. It is generally found that one or more than one UE, such as UE 1305 and UE 1345, is under the control of an AP, such as access device 1302; or the UE is under control of more than one network node. For simplicity, two UEs 1305 and 1345 and one AP 1302 are shown in fig. 13. UE 1305 and UE 1345 may be two user equipment with the same features and functionality that include the same components to support communications. In some embodiments, such as SL communication, the two UEs may communicate directly. In those embodiments, the number of UEs may be more than two, and some UEs are formed into UE groups or different UE groups by the introduced UE pairing or UE grouping operations. UEs 1305 and 1345 may be user equipment similar to the UEs in fig. 5 and 6 and the UEs in the other figures. The reason for showing two UEs and an access device here is that this is a convenient mechanism for performing an example of an embodiment of UE pairing or packet based coordinated transmission and/or reception in a wireless network.

The UE1305 includes: processing means, such as at least one data processor DP 1306; a storage device, such as at least one computer-readable memory MEM 1308 for storing data 1310; at least one computer program PROG 1311 or other set of executable instructions; communication devices, such as a transmitter TX 1312 and a receiver RX 1314 for bi-directional wireless communication with the AP 1302 and/or UE1345 via at least an antenna 1316. Similar to UE1305, UE1345 is comprised of DP 1346, MEM 1348, data storage entity 1350, PROG 1351, TX 1342, RX 1344, and at least antenna 1356 to transmit and/or receive signals with AP 1302 and/or UE 1305.

The AP 1302 further includes: processing means, such as at least one data processor DP 1320; storage means, such as at least one computer-readable memory MEM 1322 for storing data 1324 and at least one computer program PROG 1326 or other set of executable instructions. The AP 1302 may also include communication means, such as a transmitter TX 1328 and a receiver RX 1330, for two-way wireless communication with at least one UE group, which may include at least UE1305 and UE1345, via at least an antenna 1332. Both the UE and the AP may have many antennas, such as an antenna array configured for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications, or multiple antennas for multiple radio access technologies. For example, other configurations of these devices may be provided.

At least one of the PROGs 1326 in the AP 1302 includes a set of program instructions that, when executed by the associated DP 1320, enable the device to operate in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of this invention, as described above. UEs 1305 and 1345 also store software 1311 and 1351 in their MEM 1308 and 1348, respectively, to implement some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Thus, exemplary embodiments of the invention may be implemented, at least in part, by computer software stored on the MEM 1308, 1348 and 1322, executed by the DP 1306 of the UE 1305, the DP 1346 of the UE 1345 and/or the DP 1320 of the AP 1302, either by hardware, or by a combination of stored software and hardware and/or firmware. An electronic device implementing these embodiments of the invention may be one or more of its components, such as the stored software, hardware, firmware and DP described above, or a system on chip, soC or application specific integrated circuit ASCI.

The data processors 1320, 1306, and 1346 may include at least one of a microprocessor, an application specific integrated chip, an ASIC, a field programmable gate array, an FPGA, and a microcontroller, for example. The data processors 1320, 1306, and 1346 may include at least one, and in some embodiments more than one, processing core. Memories 1322, 1308, and 1348 may comprise, for example, at least one of magnetic, optical, and holographic memory, or other memory or memories. At least a portion of memories 1322, 1308, and 1348 may be included in data processors 1320, 1306, and 1346, respectively. At least a portion of memory 1322, 1308, and 1348 may be included external to data processors 1320, 1306, and/or 1346. Various embodiments of UEs 1305 and 1345 may include, but are not limited to, personal portable digital devices with wireless communication capabilities, including but not limited to smart devices, mobile devices, wireless handsets, cellular telephones, navigation devices, sensor devices, actuator devices, laptop/palmtop computers/tablets, digital cameras and music devices, and internet devices. Various embodiments of the AP or access device 1302 may include, but are not limited to, communication devices with wireless communication and control capabilities including, but not limited to, a gNB type device customized to control devices within a sub-network, a UE type device with control functions to manage devices within a sub-network.

Various embodiments of computer-readable MEM 1308, 1348 and 1322 include any type of data storage technology suitable for the local technical environment, including but not limited to semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory, removable memory, disk memory, flash memory, DRAM, SRAM, EEPROM, and the like. Various embodiments of DPs 1320, 1306, and 1346 include, but are not limited to, general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors, DSPs, and multi-core processors.

The memory and computer program instructions may be configured to, with a processor for a particular device, cause a hardware device, such as a user device, to perform any of the processes described in fig. 1-13. Thus, in certain embodiments, a non-transitory computer readable medium may be encoded with computer instructions such that, when the computer instructions are executed in hardware, a process such as one of the processes described herein is performed. Alternatively, some embodiments may be implemented entirely in hardware.

In certain embodiments, a device may include circuitry configured to perform any of the processes or functions shown in fig. 1-12. For example, the circuitry may be a hardware-only circuit implementation such as analog and/or digital circuitry. In another example, the circuitry may be a combination of hardware circuitry and software, and at least one memory working together to cause the device to perform various processes or functions. In yet another example, the circuitry may be hardware circuitry and/or a processor, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, including software, such as firmware for operation. When the operation of the hardware does not require software, the software in the circuit may not exist.

The particular features, structures, or characteristics of some embodiments described throughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, use of the phrases "certain embodiments," "some embodiments," "other embodiments," or similar language throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in certain embodiments," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," or similar language throughout this specification are not necessarily limited to the same group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that certain embodiments discussed above may be practiced with steps in a different order and/or with hardware elements that are not configured as disclosed. Accordingly, certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions will be apparent to those skilled in the art while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope and ambit of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims.

Part glossary

3GPP third Generation partnership project

6G 6 th generation

AP access point

BS base station

BLER block error rate

C-RAN centralized/cloud radio access network

CDD cyclic delay diversity

D2D device-to-device

DL downlink

DP data processor

FH frequency hopping

eNBs evolved node B

gNB next generation eNB

HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request

ID identifier

in-X cell X in-subnetworks, such as in robots, in vehicles, in bodies, in houses, etc.

L2 layer 2

MIMO multiple input multiple output

NACK non-acknowledgement

NR new air interface

NLOS non-line-of-sight

RSRP reference signal received power

RV redundancy version

SL side link

SPS semi-persistent scheduling

SNR signal to noise ratio

STC space time coding

TB transport block

UE user equipment

UL uplink

Ultra-reliable low latency communication of URLLC

According to a first embodiment, a method may comprise: receiving, at a user device, information of a user device group from an access device, wherein the user device group comprises the user device and at least one other user device; receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the user device and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user device in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases; decoding a first redundancy version of the received first data information of the user equipment and a first redundancy version of the received second data information of the at least one other user equipment. Responsive to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information: encoding the decoded second data message of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmitting the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase; and decoding the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase.

The method may also include performing full duplex operation during the second transmit phase. In one variation, the method may include responding to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information. Decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user equipment in a second transmission phase. In another variation, the method may further comprise: in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information for the user equipment and successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information for the at least one other user equipment, in a second one of the at least two transmit phases: encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message; and transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase.

The first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment is received in a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment is received on a fourth time-frequency source. The first and third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain, and the second and fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources may include the first transmit phase in a time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources may include the second transmit phase of the at least two transmit phases in a time domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment pairing operation or a user equipment grouping operation. The group of user devices is formed based on at least one of: an uplink channel quality measurement of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, a channel quality indication from the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, a location of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, or a distance between the user equipment and the at least another user equipment. The received information of the user equipment group includes at least one of: an identifier of the group of user equipments or an identifier of each user equipment in the group of user equipments. The first redundancy version of the first data information and the first redundancy version of the second data information may apply the same redundancy version. Similarly, the second redundancy version of the first data information and the second redundancy version of the second data information may use the same redundancy version.

The method may further include receiving information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the group of user devices and communication between the group of user devices. The allocation resources include at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources. The first and the second time-frequency resources may comprise the first transmission phase in the time domain and the third and the fourth time-frequency sources may comprise the second transmission phase in the time domain. The allocated resources may be scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistent scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or reception errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on a time-to-live interval of data traffic.

According to a second embodiment, a method may comprise: receiving, at a user device, information of a user device group from an access device, wherein the user device group comprises the user device and at least one other user device; receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the user device and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user device in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases; decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment; in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment: encoding the decoded second data message of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase; and decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user equipment in the second transmission phase.

In one variation, the method may further comprise decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment in response to an unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase. The method may further comprise performing full duplex operation during the second transmit phase.

The first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment is received on a fourth time-frequency source. The first and third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain, and the second and fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources may include the first transmission phase in a time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources may include the second transmission phase in a frequency domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment pairing operation or a user equipment grouping operation. The group of user devices is formed based on at least one of: an uplink channel quality measurement of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, a channel quality indication from the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, a location of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, or a distance between the user equipment and the at least another user equipment. The received information of the user equipment group includes at least one of: the user equipment group identifier or an identifier of each user equipment in the user equipment group.

The method may further include receiving information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the group of user devices and communication between groups of user devices. The allocation resources may comprise at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources, wherein the first and second time-frequency resources comprise the first transmission phase in a time domain and the third and fourth time-frequency resources comprise the second transmission phase in a time domain. The allocated resources may be scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistent scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or reception errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on a time-to-live interval of data traffic. Decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the user equipment may include soft combining the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the user equipment.

According to a third embodiment, a method may comprise: grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmitting information of the packet from an access device to the group of user devices; scheduling transmissions to the group of user equipments in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase; encoding first data information for the first user equipment into first and first redundancy versions and encoding second data information for the second user equipment into first and second redundancy versions; transmitting, in the first transmission phase, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to the group of user equipments; and transmitting the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to a group of user equipments in the second transmission phase.

The scheduling may include allocating resources for communication between the access device and the group of user devices and for communication between groups of user devices. The allocation resources include at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources. Transmitting the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment on a first time-frequency resource, transmitting the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment on the second time-frequency resource, transmitting the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment on the third time-frequency resource, and transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment on the fourth time-frequency resource. The first and third time-frequency resources may include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain, and the second and fourth time-frequency resources may include different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the frequency domain. The first and second time-frequency resources may include a first transmission phase in the time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources may include a second transmission phase in the time domain.

Grouping the at least first user equipment and the second user equipment into user equipment groups is based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, channel quality indications from the first user equipment and the second user equipment, locations of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, or distances between the first user equipment and the second user equipment. The information of the packet includes at least one of: an identifier of the group of user equipments or an identifier of each user equipment in the group of user equipments. The schedule may include at least one of a dynamic schedule or a semi-persistent schedule. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or reception errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on a time-to-live interval of data traffic.

According to a fourth embodiment, a method may comprise: receiving, at a user device, information of a user device group from an access device, wherein the user device group comprises the user device and at least one other user device; transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of first data information of the user equipment; receiving a first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment in the first transmission phase; decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment; in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment: encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment; and in a second transmission phase, transmitting a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment. The method may further comprise: the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is transmitted in a second transmission phase in response to an unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment. The method may also include performing full duplex operation during the first transmit phase.

Transmitting the first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment on a first time-frequency resource, receiving the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment on a second time-frequency resource, transmitting the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment on a third time-frequency resource, and transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment on a fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources may include the first transmission phase in a time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources may include the second transmission phase in a time domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment pairing operation or a user equipment grouping operation. The group of user devices is formed based on at least one of: an uplink channel quality measurement of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, a channel quality indication from the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, a location of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, or a distance between the user equipment and the at least another user equipment. The received information of the user equipment group includes at least one of: an identifier of the group of user equipments or an identifier of each user equipment in the group of user equipments.

The method may further include receiving information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the user equipment groups and communication between the user equipment groups. The allocation resources include at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources. The first and the second time-frequency resources may comprise the first transmission phase in the time domain and the third and the fourth time-frequency sources may comprise the second transmission phase in the time domain. The allocated resources may be scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistent scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or reception errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on a time-to-live interval of data traffic.

According to a fifth embodiment, a method may comprise: grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group at an access device; transmitting information of the packet from the access device to the group of user devices; scheduling uplink transmissions from the group of user equipments; in a first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment and a first redundancy version of second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment; and in a second transmission phase, receiving a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment. The received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment. And the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.

The second redundancy version of the first data information received from the second user equipment is a response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment received at the second user equipment. The second redundancy version of the second data information received from the first user equipment is a response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment received at the first user equipment. Scheduling includes allocating resources for communication between the access device and the group of user devices.

The allocation resources include at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources. The method further comprises receiving the first redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment on the first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment on the second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment on the third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment on the fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain. The first and second time-frequency resources may include the first transmission phase in a time domain, and the third and fourth time-frequency resources may include the second transmission phase in a time domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment pairing operation or a user equipment grouping operation. Grouping at least a first user device and a second user device into a group of user devices based on at least one of: the uplink channel quality measurements of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, channel quality indications from the first user equipment and the second user equipment, locations of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, or a distance between the first user equipment and the second user equipment. The information of the packet includes at least one of: an identifier of the group of user equipments or an identifier of each user equipment in the group of user equipments.

The method may further comprise decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the first user equipment and decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information of the second user equipment. Decoding the first and the second redundancy versions of the received first data information may include soft combining the first and the second redundancy versions of the received first data information, and wherein decoding the first and the second redundancy versions of the received second data information includes soft combining the first and the second redundancy versions of the received second data information.

According to sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth embodiments, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor and at least one memory and computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform a method according to any of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth embodiments and any variant thereof.

According to an eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth embodiment, the apparatus may comprise means for performing the method according to any one of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth embodiments and any variant thereof.

According to a sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth embodiments, a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions stored thereon for performing the method according to any one of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth embodiments and variants thereof.

According to a twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth embodiment, a computer-readable medium for wireless communication stores a program of instructions that is executed by a processor that configures an apparatus to perform according to at least any one of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiments, and variants thereof.

According to a twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-first, twenty-second, and thirty-first embodiment, a computer program comprising instructions stored thereon for performing a method according to any one of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiments, and variants thereof.

According to a thirty-first embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least one other user equipment; receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user equipment in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases; decoding a received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and a received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment; responsive to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information: encoding the decoded second data message of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmitting the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase; and decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user device in the second transmission phase.

According to a thirty-second embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least one other user equipment; receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user equipment in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases; decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment; in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment: encoding the decoded second data message of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one further user equipment to the at least one further user equipment in the second transmission phase and decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user equipment in the second transmission phase.

According to a thirty-third embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmitting information of the packet to the user equipment group; scheduling transmissions to the group of user equipments in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase; encoding first data information for the first user equipment into first and second redundancy versions and encoding second data information for the second user equipment into first and second redundancy versions; transmitting the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to the group of user equipments in the first transmission phase; and transmitting the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to the group of user equipments in the second transmission phase.

According to a thirty-fourth embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least one other user equipment; transmitting, in the first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of first data information of the device; in the first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment; decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment; in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment: encoding the decoded second data message of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of a second data message of the second redundancy version of the at least another user equipment, and transmitting, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment.

According to a thirty-fifth embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmitting information of the packet to the user equipment group; in a first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment and a first redundancy version of second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment; and in a second transmission phase, receiving a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment. The received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of the first user equipment or the second user equipment. And the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of the first user equipment or the second user equipment.

The above description is illustrative, and it is to be construed that various alternatives and modifications may be devised by those skilled in the art. The features of the various embodiments described above may be selectively combined into new embodiments. The present description is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances which fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (47)

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least one other user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user equipment in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

In response to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message;

transmitting said encoded second redundancy version of said second data information of said at least one further user equipment to said at least one further user equipment in said second transmission phase, and

decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user device in the second transmission phase.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform full duplex operation during the second transmit phase.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

In response to the unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and the unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is decoded, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user device in a second transmission phase.

4. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version for the first data information of the apparatus and successful decoding of the first redundancy version for the second data information of the at least one other user equipment in a second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases,

encoding said decoded second data information of said at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of said second data message, and

transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase.

5. The apparatus of any of claims 1-4, wherein the first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is received on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is received on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a fourth time-frequency resource.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first and the third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in the frequency domain and different time resources in the time domain.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the first and second time-frequency resources comprise the first transmit phase in a time domain and the third and fourth time-frequency resources comprise the second transmit phase of the at least two transmit phases in a time domain.

8. The apparatus of any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the group of user devices is formed via a user device pairing operation or a user device grouping operation.

9. The apparatus of any of claims 1-8, wherein the group of user equipment is formed based on at least one of: an uplink channel quality measurement of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, a channel quality indication from the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, a location of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, or a distance between the apparatus and the at least another user equipment.

10. The apparatus of any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the received information of a group of user equipments comprises at least one of: an identifier of the group of user devices, or an identifier of each user device of the group of user devices.

11. The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to receive information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the group of user devices and communication between the group of user devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the allocated resources comprise at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources, wherein the first and the second time-frequency resources comprise the first transmission phase in a time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise the second transmission phase in a time domain.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 or claim 12, wherein the allocated resources are scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistent scheduling.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the dynamic scheduling is triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or reception errors.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein the semi-persistent scheduling is triggered based on a time-to-live interval of data traffic.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least one other user equipment;

Receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user equipment in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message;

transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase, and

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

in response to an unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user equipment in the second transmission phase.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform full duplex operation during the second transmit phase.

19. The apparatus of any of claims 16-18, wherein decoding the first and second redundancy versions of the first data information received for the apparatus comprises soft combining the first and second redundancy versions of the first data information received for the apparatus.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting information of the packet to the user equipment group;

scheduling transmissions to the group of user equipments in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase;

encoding first data information for the first user equipment into first and first redundancy versions and encoding second data information for the second user equipment into first and second redundancy versions;

transmitting the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to the group of user equipments in the first transmission phase; and

in the second transmission phase, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment are transmitted to the group of user equipments.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the scheduled transmission comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to allocate resources for communication between the apparatus and the group of user equipment and communication between the group of user equipment.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the allocation resources comprise at least one of first time-frequency resources, second time-frequency resources, third time-frequency resources, or fourth time-frequency resources, and wherein the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment is transmitted on the first time-frequency resources, the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment is transmitted on the second time-frequency resources, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment is transmitted on third time-frequency resources, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment is transmitted on the fourth time-frequency resources.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

At least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least one other user equipment;

transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of first data information of the device;

in the first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one user equipment, and

in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment are transmitted.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

in response to an unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the device is transmitted.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 or claim 24, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform full duplex operation during the first transmission phase.

26. The apparatus of any of claims 23-25, wherein the first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is transmitted on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is transmitted on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment is transmitted on a fourth time-frequency resource.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the first and the third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in a frequency domain and different time resources in a time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in a frequency domain and different time resources in a time domain.

28. The apparatus of claim 26 or 27, wherein the first and second time-frequency resources comprise the first transmission phase in a time domain and the third and fourth time-frequency resources comprise the second transmission phase in a time domain.

29. The apparatus of any of claims 23 to 28, wherein the group of user devices is formed via a user device pairing operation or a user device grouping operation.

30. The apparatus of any of claims 23-29, wherein the group of user equipment is formed based on at least one of: an uplink channel quality measurement of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, a channel quality indication from the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, a location of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, or a distance between the apparatus and the at least another user equipment.

31. The apparatus of any of claims 23-30, wherein the information of the received group of user equipment comprises at least one of: an identifier of the group of user devices, or an identifier of each user device of the group of user devices.

32. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting information of the packet to the user equipment group;

scheduling uplink transmissions from the group of user equipments;

in a first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment and a first redundancy version of second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and

in a second transmission phase, receiving a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment,

Wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information received for the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment, and

wherein the second redundancy version of the second data information received for the second user device is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment received from the second user equipment is a result of successfully decoding the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment at the second user equipment.

34. The apparatus of claim 32 or claim 33, wherein the second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment received from the first user equipment is a result of successfully decoding the first redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment at the first user equipment.

35. The apparatus of any of claims 32 to 34, wherein the schedule comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to allocate resources for communication between the apparatus and the group of user equipment and communication between the group of user equipment.

36. The apparatus of any of claims 32-35, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the first user equipment, and

decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information of the second user equipment.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein decoding the first and second redundancy versions of the received first data information comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to soft combine the first and second redundancy versions of the received first data information, and wherein decoding the first and second redundancy versions of the received second data information comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to soft combine the first and second redundancy versions of the received second data message.

38. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a user device, information of a user device group from an access device, wherein the user device group comprises the user device and at least one other user device;

receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the user device and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user device in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases;

decoding a received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and a received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message;

transmitting said encoded second redundancy version of said second data information of said at least one further user equipment to said at least one further user equipment in said second transmission phase, and

Decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user equipment in the second transmission phase.

39. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a user device, information of a user device group from an access device, wherein the user device group comprises the user device and at least one other user device;

receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the user device and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user device in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message;

Transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase, and

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one further user equipment in the second transmission phase.

40. A method, comprising:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting information of the packet from an access device to the group of user devices;

scheduling transmissions to the group of user equipments in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase;

encoding first data information for the first user equipment into first and first redundancy versions and encoding second data information for the second user equipment into first and second multiple redundancy versions;

Transmitting, in the first transmission phase, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to the group of user equipments; and

in the second transmission phase, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment are transmitted to the group of user equipments.

41. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a user device, information of a user device group from an access device, wherein the user device group comprises the user device and at least one other user device;

transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of first data information of the user equipment;

receiving a first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment in the first transmission phase;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

Encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one user equipment, and

in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment are transmitted.

42. A method, comprising:

grouping, at the access device, at least a first user device and a second user device into a group of user devices;

transmitting information of the packet from the access device to the group of user devices;

scheduling uplink transmissions from the group of user equipments;

in a first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment and a first redundancy version of second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and

in a second transmission phase, receiving a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment,

Wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information received for the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment, and

wherein the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.

43. An apparatus comprising means for:

receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the device and at least one other user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the device and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user device in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases;

decoding a received first redundancy version of the first data information of the device and a received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user device;

In response to unsuccessful decoding of the first redundancy version of the first data information and successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message;

transmitting, in the second transmission phase, the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one further user equipment to the at least one further user equipment, and

decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the device, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user device in the second transmission phase.

44. An apparatus comprising means for:

receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the device and at least one other user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, a first redundancy version of first data information of the device and a first redundancy version of second data information of the at least one other user device in a first of at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and second transmission phases;

Decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least one other user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data message;

transmitting the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment to the at least one other user equipment in the second transmission phase, and

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the device and a second redundancy version of the first data information of the device, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least one other user device in the second transmission phase.

45. An apparatus comprising means for:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting information of the packet to the user equipment group;

Scheduling transmissions to the group of user equipments in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase;

encoding first data information for said first user equipment into first and second redundancy versions, and encoding second data information for said second user equipment into first and second redundancy versions,

transmitting, in a first transmission phase, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment to the group of user equipments; and

in a second transmission phase, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment are transmitted to the group of user equipments.

46. An apparatus comprising means for:

receiving information of a user equipment group from an access device, wherein the user equipment group comprises the device and at least one other user equipment;

transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of first data information of the device;

In the first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment;

in response to successful decoding of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, and

in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the device and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least one other user device are transmitted.

47. An apparatus comprising means for:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting information of the packet to the user equipment group;

scheduling uplink transmissions from the group of user equipments;

in a first transmission phase, receiving a first redundancy version of first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment and a first redundancy version of second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and

In a second transmission phase, receiving a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment,

wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information received by the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment, and

wherein the second redundancy version of the second data information received for the second user device is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.