TWI762683B - Uplink and downlink grants for narrowband operations - Google Patents

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for wireless communication. In one aspect, a method is provided which may be performed by a wireless device such as a user equipment (UE), which can be an Internet-of-things (IoT) device. The method generally includes monitoring a control channel in a narrowband of a system bandwidth for an uplink (UL) or a downlink (DL) grant, receiving interlaced UL and DL grants, sending or receiving information in response to the received interlaced UL and DL grants.

Description

Uplink and downlink grants for narrowband operation

This patent application claims priority to International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2017/095169, filed on July 31, 2017, assigned to the present assignee.

Certain aspects of the subject matter of this case relate generally to wireless communications, and more particularly, to uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) grants for narrowband operation.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication contents, such as voice, data, and the like. Such systems may be multiple access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (eg, bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiplexing access techniques include Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiplexing Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (FDMA) systems, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)/LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.

Generally, a wireless multiple access communication system can simultaneously support the communication of a plurality of wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations (BSs) via transmissions on forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the BS to the terminal, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminal to the BS. The communication link may be established via a single-in-single-out, multiple-in-single-out, or multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.

A wireless communication network may include a plurality of BSs that can support communication of a plurality of wireless devices. Wireless devices may include user equipment (UE). Machine Type Communication (MTC) may refer to communication involving at least one remote device on at least one end of the communication, and may include forms of data communication involving one or more entities that do not necessarily require human interaction. For example, MTC UEs may include UEs capable of MTC communication with MTC servers and/or other MTC devices via a public land mobile network (PLMN). Wireless devices may include Internet of Things (IoT) devices (eg, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices). IoT can refer to a network of physical objects, devices or "things". IoT devices can be embedded with, for example, electronics, software, or sensors, and can have network connectivity that enables the devices to collect and exchange data.

Some next-generation, NR, or 5G networks may include multiple base stations, each supporting communication for multiple communication devices (eg, UEs) simultaneously. In an LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more BSs may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (eg, in next-generation or 5G networks), a wireless multiple access communication system may include communication with multiple central units (eg, CU, central node (CN), access node controller (ANC) etc.) multiple distributed units of communication (e.g. Edge Unit (EU), Edge Node (EN), Radio Head (RH), Smart Radio Head (SRH), Transmit Receive Point (TRP), etc.), which communicate with the CU A collection of one or more Distributed Units (DUs) of communication may define an access node (eg, AN, New Radio Base Station (NR BS), NR NB, Network Node, gNB, 5G BS, Access Point (AP) )Wait). A BS or DU may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink channels (eg, for transmission from the BS or to the UE) and uplink channels (eg, for transmission from the UE to the BS or DU).

These multiplexing access techniques have been employed in various telecommunications standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a city, national, regional, or even global level. NR (eg, 5G Radio Access) is an example of an emerging telecommunication standard. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile service standard promulgated by 3GPP. NR is designed to improve services by increasing spectral efficiency, reducing costs, utilizing new spectrum, and using OFDMA with Cyclic Prefix (CP) and other open standards on the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) Better integration to better support mobile broadband Internet access and support for beamforming, MIMO antenna technology and carrier aggregation.

However, with the increasing demand for mobile broadband access, there is a need for further improvements in LTE, MTC, IoT and NR (New Radio) technologies. Preferably, such improvements should apply to other multiplexing access technologies and telecommunication standards using these technologies.

The systems, methods and apparatus of the subject matter each have several aspects, none of which is solely responsible for its desired properties. Without limiting the scope of the subject matter as expressed by the appended claims, some features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled "Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments," it will be appreciated how the features of the subject matter provide improved communication between access points and stations, including in wireless networks. advantage.

Certain aspects of the subject matter of this case relate generally to uplink and downlink operation for narrowband operation.

Certain aspects of the subject matter provide a method performed by a wireless device, such as a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes: monitoring a control channel in a narrow band of system bandwidth for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants; receiving interleaved UL and DL grants; and responding to the received interleaved UL and DL authorization to send or receive information.

Certain aspects of the subject matter provide a method performed by a wireless device, such as a UE. The method generally includes: monitoring a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants; receiving two consecutive UL or DL grants, wherein the consecutive UL or DL grants have the same HARQ process identification (ID); and select one of the grants to use based, at least in part, on at least one of the following: the grant that meets the energy metric threshold, the grant received first, or the grant received second, Or choose to use two grants, where the grant is considered a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) retransmission.

Certain aspects of the subject matter provide a method performed by a wireless device, such as a UE. The method generally includes: monitoring a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants; receiving two consecutive UL or DL grants; responding to the received two Consecutive UL and DL grants to send or receive information; and identifying a conflict in response to sending or receiving the information, the conflict comprising at least one of: a conflict between the first DL data channel and the second DL data channel, the second DL data channel Conflict between the data channel and the first HARQ acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) signaling for the first DL data channel and the first HARQ-ACK signaling for the first DL data channel and the second DL data channel The collision between the second HARQ-ACK signaling, or the collision between the first UL data channel and the second UL data channel.

Certain aspects of the subject matter provide a method performed by a wireless device such as a base station (BS). The method generally includes: transmitting interleaved uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) grants on a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth; and sending or responsive to the transmitted interleaved UL and DL grants Receive information.

Certain aspects of the subject matter provide a method performed by a wireless device such as a base station (BS). The method generally includes transmitting two consecutive uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants to a user equipment (UE) on a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth, the consecutive UL or DL grants The grants have the same HARQ process identification (ID), where: the grant to use is selected by the UE based, at least in part, on at least one of: the grant that meets the energy metric threshold, the grant received first, or the grant received second , or two grants selected by the UE to use, where the grants are considered as Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) retransmissions.

Certain aspects of the subject matter provide a method performed by a wireless device such as a base station (BS). The method generally comprises: transmitting two consecutive UL or DL grants to a user equipment (UE) on a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth; sending or responsive to the two consecutive UL and DL grants being transmitted; receiving information, wherein in response to sending or receiving the information, identifying a conflict including at least one of: a conflict between a first DL data channel and a second DL data channel, a conflict between the second DL data channel and the first DL data channel for the first DL data channel collision between the first HARQ acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) signaling for the first DL data channel and the second HARQ-ACK signaling for the second DL data channel , or between the first UL data channel and the second UL data channel.

Numerous other aspects are provided, including methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, computer readable media, and processing systems. To carry out the foregoing and related objects, the one or more aspects include the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the scope of the claims. The following description and drawings set forth certain illustrative features of one or more aspects in detail. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for uplink and downlink operation for narrowband operation. The techniques described herein may be used in various wireless communication networks, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and others. The terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, and the like. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Time Division Synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. TDMA networks may implement radio technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). OFDMA networks may implement radio technologies such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, and others. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA, which uses OFDMA on the downlink And use SC-FDMA on the uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). NR (eg, 5G Radio Access) is an example of an emerging telecommunication standard. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile service standard published by 3GPP. The techniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies. For clarity, certain aspects of the techniques are described below for LTE/LTE-Advanced, and LTE/LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) terminology is used in much of the description below. LTE and LTE-A are commonly referred to as LTE.

Note that while the aspects may be described herein using terms generally associated with 3G and/or 4G wireless technologies, aspects of the subject matter may be applied to other generations of communication systems, such as 5G and beyond. Exemplary Wireless Communication Network

1 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication network 100 in which aspects of the subject matter may be practiced. For example, the techniques provided herein may be used for UL and DL grants for narrowband operation in wireless communication network 100, which may be Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and/or Enhanced/Evolved Machine Type Communications (eMTC) network. The wireless communication network 100 may include a base station (BS) 110 and a user equipment (UE) 120 . In various aspects, BS 110 may determine at least one narrow frequency region of the wide frequency region for communicating with UE 120 . The UE 120 may be a low cost device, such as an NB-IoT device or an eMTC UE, the UE 120 may determine the narrow frequency region and receive, send, monitor or decode information on the narrow frequency region to communicate with the BS 110.

The wireless communication network 100 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network or some other wireless network, such as a New Radio (NR) or 5G network. Wireless communication network 100 may include multiple BSs 110 and other network entities. The BS is the entity that communicates with the UE, and may also be called NR BS, Node B (NB), Evolved/Enhanced NB (eNB), 5G NB, gNB, Access Point (AP), Transmission Receive Point (TRP) Wait. Each BS can provide communication coverage for a specific geographic area. In 3GPP, the term "cell" may refer to a coverage area of a BS and/or a BS subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

The BS can provide communication coverage for macrocells, picocells, femtocells, and/or other types of cells. Macro cells can cover a relatively large geographic area (eg, several kilometers in radius) and can allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions. A picocell can cover a small geographic area and can allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions. A femtocell may cover a small geographic area (eg, a home) and may allow limited access by UEs associated with the femtocell (eg, UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG)). BS for macro cells may be referred to as macro BS. A BS for pico cells may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for femto cells may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in Figure 1, BS 110a may be a macro BS for macro cells 102a, BS 110b may be a pico BS for pico cells 102b, and BS 110c may be a femto BS for femto cells 102c Pico BS. A BS can support one or more (eg, three) cells. The terms "base station" and "cell" are used interchangeably herein.

The wireless communication network 100 may also include relay stations. A relay station is an entity that receives data transmissions from upstream stations (eg, BS 110 or UE 120) and sends data transmissions to downstream stations (eg, UE 120 or BS 110). A relay station may also be a UE that relays transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in FIG. 1, relay station 110d may communicate with macro BS 110a and UE 120d to enable communication between BS 110a and UE 120d. The relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay, or the like.

The wireless communication network 100 may be a heterogeneous network including different types of BSs (eg, macro BSs, pico BSs, femto BSs, relay BSs, etc.). These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different effects on interference in the wireless communication network 100 . For example, macro BSs may have high transmit power levels (eg, 5 to 40 watts), while pico BSs, femto BSs, and relay BSs may have lower transmit power levels (eg, 0.1 to 2 watts).

The network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs and provide coordination and control for the BSs. The network controller 130 may communicate with the BS via backhaul. The BSs may also communicate with each other directly or indirectly, eg, via wireless or wired backhaul.

The UEs 120 (eg, UE 120a, UE 120b, UE 120c) may be dispersed throughout the wireless communication network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, terminal, mobile station, subscriber unit, station, customer premises equipment (CPE), or the like. The UE may be a cellular telephone (eg, a smart phone), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a wireless telephone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet computer, Cameras, drones, robots/robotic devices, small laptops, smart computers, ultrabooks, medical devices, medical devices, healthcare devices, biosensors/devices, such as smart watches, smart clothes, smart glasses, virtual reality wearable devices such as environmental glasses, smart bracelets and/or smart jewelry (such as smart rings, smart bracelets, etc.), entertainment devices (such as music equipment, video equipment, gaming equipment, satellite radio equipment, etc.), industrial manufacturing equipment, navigation / Positioning devices (eg, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) devices based on eg GPS (Global Positioning System), BeiDou, GLONASS, Galileo, ground-based devices, etc.), or any device configured to communicate via wireless or wired media other suitable equipment. Some UEs may be implemented as IoT (Internet of Things) UEs. IoT UEs include, for example, robots/robotic devices, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, cameras, location tags, etc., which may communicate with a BS, another device (eg, a remote device), or some other entity communication. IoT UEs may include MTC/eMTC UEs, NB-IoT UEs, and other types of UEs. A wireless node may provide a connection, eg, for or to a network (eg, a wide area network such as the Internet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communication link.

One or more UEs 120 in the wireless communication network 100 (eg, an LTE network) may be narrowband UEs. As used herein, a device with limited communication resources (eg, small bandwidth) may be commonly referred to as a narrowband UE. Similarly, legacy devices such as legacy and/or advanced UEs (eg, in LTE) may be collectively referred to as broadband UEs. In general, wideband UEs are capable of operating on a larger amount of bandwidth than narrowband UEs.

In Figure 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desired transmissions between a UE and a serving BS, which is the BS designated to serve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink. A dashed line with double arrows indicates potentially interfering transmissions between the UE and the BS.

Generally, any number of wireless networks can be deployed in a given geographic area. Each wireless network can support a specific radio access technology (RAT) and can operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface, or the like. Frequency may also be referred to as carrier, frequency channel, etc. Each frequency can support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks can be deployed.

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, where a scheduling entity (eg, BS 110 ) allocates resources for communication between some or all of the devices and devices within its service area or cell. A scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources of one or more subordinate entities. For scheduled communications, subordinate entities utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. BS 110 is not the only entity that can function as a scheduling entity. In some instances, UE 120 may function as a scheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more subordinate entities (eg, one or more other UEs 120). In this example, the UE acts as a scheduling entity, while other UEs utilize the resources scheduled by the UE for wireless communication. The UE may function as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and/or in a mesh network. In the mesh network example, in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity, the UEs may also optionally communicate directly with each other.

Thus, in a wireless communication network having scheduled access to time-frequency resources and having cellular, P2P, and mesh configurations, the scheduling entity and one or more subordinate entities can utilize the scheduled resources for communication.

2 illustrates a block diagram of the design of BS 110 and UE 120, which may be one of BS 110 and one of UE 120 in FIG. 1 . BS 110 may be equipped with T antennas 234a through 234t, and UE 120 may be equipped with R antennas 252a through 252r, where typically T ≧1 and R ≧1.

At BS 110, transmit processor 220 may receive data from data source 212 for one or more UEs, select one or more modulation and coding schemes for each UE based on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from the UEs (MCS), which processes (eg, coding and modulation) the data for each UE based on the MCS(s) selected for the UE and provides data symbols for all UEs. Transmit processor 220 may also process system information (eg, for static resource partitioning information (SRPI), etc.) and control information (eg, CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, etc.), and provide management burden symbols and control symbols. The processor 220 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (eg, cell-specific reference signals (CRS)) and synchronization signals (eg, primary synchronization signals (PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS)). If applicable, transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (eg, precoding) on data symbols, control symbols, management burden symbols, and/or reference symbols, and may output T The stream of symbols is provided to T modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. Each modulator 232 may process a corresponding stream of output symbols (eg, for OFDM, etc.) to obtain a stream of output samples. Each modulator 232 may further process (eg, convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. T downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via T antennas 234a through 234t, respectively.

At UE 120, antennas 252a through 252r may receive downlink signals from base station 110 and/or other BSs, and may provide the received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254a through 254r, respectively. Each demodulator 254 may condition (eg, filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) its received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 may further process the input samples (eg, for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all R demodulators 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. Receive processor 258 may process (eg, demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 120 to data slot 260 , and provide decoded control information and system information to controller/processor 280 . The channel processor may determine Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), CQI, and the like.

On the uplink, at UE 120, transmit processor 264 may receive and process data from data source 262 and control information from controller/processor 280 (eg, for data transmission including RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, CQI, etc. Report). Processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for one or more reference signals. Symbols from transmit processor 264 may be precoded by TX MIMO processor 266, further processed by modulators 254a through 254r (eg, for SC-FDM, OFDM, etc.), and transmitted to BS 110, if applicable. At BS 110, uplink signals from UE 120 and other UEs may be received by antenna 234, processed by demodulator 232, detected by MIMO detector 236 (if applicable), and further processed by receive processor 238 To obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE 120 . Processor 238 may provide decoded data to data slot 239 and provide decoded control information to controller/processor 240 . The BS 110 may include a communication unit 244 and communicate with the network controller 130 via the communication unit 244 . The network controller 130 may include a communication unit 294 , a controller/processor 290 and a memory 292 .

Controllers/processors 240 and 280 may direct operations at BS 110 and UE 120, respectively, to perform the techniques provided herein. For example, processor 240 and/or other processors and modules at BS 110 and processor 280 and/or other processors and modules at UE 120 may perform or direct operations at BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. For example, controller/processor 280 and/or other controllers/processors and modules at UE 120 may perform or direct operations 1500 shown in FIG. 15 , operations 1600 shown in FIG. Operation 1700 is shown. Memories 242 and 282 may store data and code for BS 110 and UE 120, respectively. The scheduler 246 may schedule the UE for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary frame structure 300 for frequency division duplexing (FDD) in a wireless communication system such as, for example, wireless communication network 100 . The transmission isochrons for each of the downlink and uplink can be divided into units of radio frames. Each wireless frame may have a predetermined duration (eg, 10 milliseconds (ms)) and may be divided into 10 subframes indexed from 0 to 9. Each subframe may include two time slots. Thus, each radio frame may include 20 time slots with indices 0-19. Each slot may include L symbol periods, eg, seven symbol periods for a normal cyclic prefix (as shown in Figure 3) or six symbol periods for an extended cyclic prefix. The 2L symbol period in each subframe may be assigned an index of 0 to 2L-1.

In some wireless communication systems (eg, LTE), a BS (eg, such as BS 110) may transmit PSS and SSS on the downlink at the center of the system bandwidth of each cell supported by the BS. PSS and SSS may be transmitted in symbol periods 6 and 5, respectively, in subframes 0 and 5 of each radio frame with a common cyclic prefix, as shown in FIG. 3 . A UE (eg, such as UE 120) may use PSS and SSS for cell search and acquisition. The BS may transmit CRS on the system bandwidth for each cell supported by the BS. The CRS may be transmitted in certain symbol periods of each subframe and may be used by the UE to perform channel estimation, channel quality measurement, and/or other functions. The BS may also transmit a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) in symbol periods 0 to 3 in time slot 1 of certain radio frames. PBCH can carry some system information. The BS may transmit other system information such as System Information Blocks (SIBs) on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in certain subframes. The BS may transmit control information/data on the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) in the first B symbol periods of the subframe, where B may be configured for each subframe. The BS may transmit traffic data and/or other data on the PDSCH during the remaining symbol periods of each subframe.

In some systems (eg, such as NR or 5G systems), the BS may transmit these or other signals in these or different locations of the subframe.

FIG. 4 illustrates two exemplary subframe formats 410 and 420 with a common cyclic prefix. The available time-frequency resources may be divided into resource blocks (RBs). Each RB may cover 12 subcarriers in one slot and may include multiple resource elements (REs). Each RE can cover one subcarrier in one symbol period and can be used to transmit one modulation symbol, which can be real or complex valued.

The subframe format 410 can be used for both antennas. CRS may be transmitted from antennas 0 and 1 in symbol periods 0, 4, 7 and 11. The reference signal is a signal known a priori by the transmitter and receiver, and may also be referred to as a pilot. A CRS is a cell-specific reference signal, eg, generated based on a cell identification (ID). In Figure 4, for a given RE with label Ra, modulation symbols may be transmitted on that RE from antenna a, and modulation symbols may not be transmitted on that RE from other antennas. The subframe format 420 can be used with four antennas. CRS may be transmitted from antennas 0 and 1 in symbol periods 0, 4, 7 and 11, and from antennas 2 and 3 in symbol periods 1 and 8. For subframe formats 410 and 420, the CRS may be transmitted on evenly spaced subcarriers, which may be determined based on the cell ID. The CRS can be transmitted on the same or different secondary carriers, depending on the cell ID of the CRS. For subframe formats 410 and 420, there are no REs for CRS available to transmit data (eg, traffic data, control data, and/or other data).

PSS, SSS, CRS and PBCH in LTE are described in publicly available 3GPP TS 36.211 entitled "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation".

For FDD in LTE, an interleaving structure can be used for each of the downlink and uplink. For example, Q interlaces may be defined indexed from 0 to Q -1, where Q may be equal to 4, 6, 8, 10, or some other value. Each interlace may include subframes separated by Q frames. In particular, an interlace q may include subframes q, q +Q, q +2Q, etc., where q ∈ {0,...,Q-1}.

The wireless network may support Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) for data transmission on the downlink and uplink. For HARQ, a transmitter (eg, a BS) may send one or more transmissions of a packet until a receiver (eg, a UE) decodes the packet correctly or encounters some other termination condition. For synchronous HARQ, all transmissions of a packet may be sent in a single interleaved subframe. For asynchronous HARQ, each transmission of a packet may be sent in any subframe.

The UE may be located within the coverage area of multiple BSs. One of the BSs may be selected to serve the UE. The serving BS may be selected based on various criteria such as received signal strength, received signal quality, path loss, and the like. Received signal quality may be quantified by Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio (SINR) or RSRQ or some other metric. The UE may operate in a situation with significant interference, where the UE may observe high interference from one or more interfering BSs.

Wireless communication networks can support 180kHz deployments for narrowband operation (eg, NB-IoT) in different deployment modes. In one example, narrowband operation may be deployed in-band, eg, using RBs within a wider system bandwidth. In one case, narrowband operation may use one RB within the wider system bandwidth of an existing network (eg, an LTE network). In this case, the 180kHz bandwidth of the RB may have to be aligned with the wideband RB. In one example, narrowband operation may be deployed in unused RBs within a carrier guard band (eg, LTE). In this deployment, the 180 kHz RBs in the guard band can be aligned with the 15 kHz tone grid of wideband LTE, eg, to use the same Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and/or reduce in-band interference of legacy LTE communications. Exemplary narrowband communication

Legacy LTE designs (eg, for legacy "non-MTC" devices) focus on improvements in spectral efficiency, universal coverage, and enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) support. Current LTE system downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) link budgets are designed to cover high-end devices, such as state-of-the-art smartphones and tablets, which can support relatively large DL and UL links Budget.

However, as previously mentioned, one or more UEs in a wireless communication network (eg, wireless communication network 100 ) may be devices with limited communication resources, such as narrowband UEs, compared to other (broadband) devices in the wireless communication network . For narrowband UEs, various requirements may be relaxed, as only a limited amount of information may need to be exchanged. For example, the maximum bandwidth (relative to a wideband UE) can be reduced, a single receive radio frequency (RF) chain can be used, the peak rate can be reduced (eg, for transport block sizes up to 100 bits), the transmit power can be reduced, the use of Rank 1 transmission and can perform half-duplex operation.

In some cases, if performing half-duplex operation, the MTC UE may have a relaxed switching time from transmit to receive (or from receive to transmit). For example, the handover time can be relaxed from 20 μs for general UEs to 1 ms for MTC UEs. Rel-12 MTC UEs can still monitor downlink (DL) control channels in the same way as normal UEs, e.g. monitoring wideband control channels (eg PDCCH) in the first few symbols and occupying relatively narrowband but spanning subframes A narrowband control channel of length (eg, enhanced PDCCH or ePDCCH).

Certain standards (eg, LTE Release 13) may introduce support for various additional MTC enhancements, referred to herein as Enhanced MTC (or eMTC). For example, eMTC can provide up to 15dB coverage enhancement for MTC UEs.

As shown in the subframe structure 500 of FIG. 5, eMTC UEs may support narrowband operation while operating in a wider system bandwidth (eg, 1.4/3/5/10/15/20MHz). In the example shown in Figure 5, a general legacy control region 510 may span the system bandwidth for the first few symbols, while a narrow frequency region 530 of the system bandwidth (spanning a narrow portion of the data region 520) may be reserved for MTC entities The downlink control channel (referred to herein as M-PDCCH) and the MTC entity downlink shared channel (referred to herein as M-PDSCH). In some cases, MTC UEs monitoring narrow frequency regions may operate at 1.4 MHz or 6 resource blocks (RBs).

However, as mentioned earlier, eMTC UEs are capable of operating in cells with bandwidths greater than 6 RBs. Within this larger bandwidth, each eMTC UE can still operate (eg, monitor/receive/transmit) while adhering to the 6 Physical Resource Block (PRB) constraint. In some cases, different eMTC UEs may be served by different narrowband regions (eg, each spanning 6-PRB blocks). Since the system bandwidth can span from 1.4 to 20 MHz, or from 6 to 100 RBs, there can be multiple narrow frequency regions within the larger bandwidth. eMTC UEs can also switch or hop between multiple narrowband regions to reduce interference. Exemplary Narrowband IoT Network

The Internet of Things (IoT) can refer to a network of physical objects, devices or "things". IoT devices can be embedded with, for example, electronics, software, or sensors, and can have network connectivity that enables the devices to collect and exchange data. IoT devices can be remotely sensed and controlled across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy, and economics. A system comprising IoT devices augmented with sensors and actuators can be referred to as a cyber-physical system. Information entity systems may include technologies such as smart networks, smart homes, smart transportation, and/or smart cities. Each "thing" (eg, IoT device) can be uniquely identified via its embedded computing system and can interoperate within existing infrastructure (eg, Internet infrastructure).

NB-IoT can refer to narrowband radio technology specifically designed for IoT. NB-IoT can focus on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life and a large number of devices. To reduce UE complexity, NB-IoT can allow narrow-band deployment with one PRB (eg, 180kHz+20kHz guard band). NB-IoT deployments may utilize certain systems (eg, LTE) and higher layer components of hardware to allow for reduced fragmentation and cross-compatibility with eg NB-LTE/NB-IoT and/or eMTC.

6 illustrates an exemplary deployment 600 of NB-IoT in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Three NB-IoT deployment configurations include in-band, guard-band, and standalone. For in-band deployment configurations, NB-IoT can coexist with legacy systems (eg, GSM, WCDMA, and/or LTE systems) deployed in the same frequency band. For example, wideband LTE channels can be deployed in various bandwidths between 1.4MHz and 20MHz. As shown in Figure 6, dedicated RBs 602 within this bandwidth are available for NB-IoT use and/or RBs 1204 can be dynamically allocated for NB-IoT. As shown in Figure 6, in an in-band deployment, one RB or 200 kHz of a wideband channel (eg, LTE) can be used for NB-IoT.

Some systems (eg, LTE) may include unused portions of the radio spectrum between carriers to prevent interference between adjacent carriers. In some deployments, NB-IoT can be deployed in the guard band 606 of the broadband channel.

In other deployments, NB-IoT can be deployed independently (not shown). For example, in a stand-alone deployment, one 200MHz carrier can be utilized to carry NB-IoT traffic and the GSM spectrum can be reused.

The deployment of NB-IoT may include synchronization signals such as PSS for frequency and timing synchronization and SSS for carrying system information. For NB-IoT operation, the PSS/SSS timing boundaries can be extended, eg, from 10ms to 40ms, compared to existing PSS/SSS frame boundaries in legacy systems (eg, LTE). Based on the timing boundaries, the UE is able to receive PBCH transmissions, which may be transmitted in subframe 0 of the radio frame. Exemplary NR/5G RAN Architecture

New Radio (NR) may refer to a new air interface (eg, in addition to an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) based air interface) or a fixed transport layer (eg, in addition to Internet Protocol (IP) outside) operating radio technology. NR can utilize OFDM with CP on the uplink and downlink, and includes the use of TDD to support half-duplex operation. NR may include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services for wide bandwidth (eg, over 80MHz), millimeter wave (mmW) for high carrier frequencies (eg, 60GHz), massive MTC for non-legacy compatible MTC technologies (mMTC), and/or mission critical for Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services.

A single component carrier (CC) bandwidth of 100MHz can be supported. NR RBs can span 12 sub-carriers with 75 kHz sub-carrier bandwidth and have a duration of 0.1 ms. Each wireless frame may consist of 50 subframes with a length of 10ms. Therefore, each subframe may have a length of 0.2ms. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (eg, DL or UL) for data transmission, and the link direction of each subframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may include DL/UL data and DL/UL control data. UL and DL subframes for NR are described in more detail below in relation to Figures 9 and 10.

Beamforming can be supported and beam directions can be dynamically configured. MIMO transmission with precoding can also be supported. The MIMO configuration in DL can support up to 8 transmit antennas and multi-layer DL transmission with up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Multi-layer transmission with up to 2 streams per UE can be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells can be supported with up to 8 serving cells. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface than the OFDM-based interface. An NR network may include entities such as a central unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU).

NR RAN may include CUs and DUs. NR BSs (eg, NBs, eNBs, gNBs, 5G NBs, TRPs, APs, etc.) may correspond to one or more BSs. NR cells can be configured as access cells (ACell) or data-only cells (DCell). For example, a RAN (eg, CU or DU) can configure cells. A DCell may be a cell used for carrier aggregation or dual connectivity, but not for initial access, cell selection/reselection or handover. In some cases, the DCell may not transmit synchronization signals - in some cases, the DCell may transmit synchronization signals.

7 illustrates an example logical architecture 700 of a distributed RAN in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. A 5G access node 706 may include an access node controller (ANC) 702 . ANC 702 may be a CU of a distributed RAN. The loadback interface to the Next Generation Core Network (NG-CN) 704 may terminate at the ANC 702 . The backhaul interface to the adjacent next generation access node (NG-AN) 710 may terminate at the ANC 702 . ANC 702 may include one or more TRPs 708 . As previously mentioned, TRP can be used interchangeably with "cell", BS, NR BS, NB, eNB, 5G NB, gNB, AP, etc.

TRP 708 may include DUs. TRP 708 may be connected to one ANC (eg, ANC 702) or more than one ANC (not shown). For example, for RAN sharing, radio as a service (RaaS), and service-specific AND deployments, the TRP 708 may be connected to more than one ANC. TRP 708 may include one or more antenna ports. TRP 708 may be configured to provide traffic to UEs individually (eg, dynamically selected) or jointly (eg, joint transmission).

The logical architecture 700 may be used to illustrate the fronthaul definition. The architecture can be defined to support fronthaul solutions on different deployment types. For example, the logical architecture 700 may be based on transmit network capabilities (eg, bandwidth, latency, and/or signal interference). Logical architecture 700 may share features and/or components with LTE. According to various aspects, NG-AN 710 can support dual connection with NR. NG-AN 710 can share common fronthaul for LTE and NR. Logical architecture 700 may enable coordination among TRPs 708 . For example, coordination may be preset within TRPs and/or across TRPs via ANC 702 . In some cases, an inter-TRP interface may not be required/existent.

There may be dynamic configuration of split logic functions within logic architecture 700 . Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), Radio Link Control (RLC) and Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols may be placed at ANC 702 or TRP 708 as appropriate.

8 illustrates an exemplary physical architecture 800 of a distributed RAN in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. A centralized core network unit (C-CU) 802 may house core network functions. C-CU 802 can be deployed centrally. C-CU 802 functions can be offloaded (eg, to Advanced Wireless Services (AWS)) in an effort to handle peak capacity.

A centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 804 may house one or more ANC functions. Optionally, the C-RU 804 may house core network functions locally. The C-RU 804 may have a distributed deployment. The C-RU 804 can move closer to the edge of the network.

DU 806 can accommodate one or more TRPs. The DU 806 can be located at the edge of the network, with radio frequency (RF) capabilities.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a DL-centered subframe 900 . The DL-centered subframe 900 may include a control portion 902 . The control portion 902 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of the DL-centered subframe 900 . The control portion 902 may include various scheduling information and/or control information corresponding to various portions of the DL-centric subframe 900 . In some configurations, the control portion 902 may be a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), as shown in FIG. 9 . The DL-centric subframe 900 may also include a DL data portion 904 . The DL data portion 904 may sometimes be referred to as the payload of the DL-centric subframe 900 . DL data portion 904 may include communication resources for communicating DL data from a scheduling entity (eg, UE or BS) to subordinate entities (eg, UE). In some configurations, the DL profile portion 904 may be a physical DL shared channel (PDSCH).

The DL-centric subframe 900 may also include a common UL portion 906 . Common UL portion 906 may sometimes be referred to as a UL burst, a shared UL burst, and/or various other suitable terms. Common UL portion 906 may include feedback information corresponding to various other portions of DL-centered subframe 900 . For example, common UL portion 906 may include feedback information corresponding to control portion 902 . Non-limiting examples of feedback information may include acknowledgement (ACK) signals, negative acknowledgement (NACK) signals, HARQ indicators, and/or various other suitable types of information. Common UL portion 906 may include additional or alternative information, such as information related to random access channel (RACH) procedures, scheduling requests (SRs), and various other suitable types of information. As shown in FIG. 9 , the end of the DL profile portion 904 may be separated in time from the beginning of the common UL portion 906 . This time interval may sometimes be referred to as a gap, a guard period, a guard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This interval provides time for switching from DL communication (eg, receive operations by subordinate entities) to UL communication (eg, transmissions by subordinate entities). Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the above is only one example of a DL-centric subframe, and that there may be alternative structures with similar features without necessarily departing from the aspects described herein.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UL-centered subframe 1000 . The UL-centric subframe 1000 may include a control portion 1002 . The control portion 1002 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of the UL-centered subframe 1000. The control portion 1002 in FIG. 10 may be similar to the control portion 902 described above with reference to FIG. 9 . The UL-centric subframe 1000 may also include a UL data portion 1004 . The UL data portion 1004 may sometimes be referred to as the payload of the UL-centric subframe 1000 . The UL data portion may refer to communication resources used to transmit UL data from a subordinate entity (eg, UE) to a scheduling entity (eg, UE or BS). In some configurations, control portion 1002 may be a PDCCH. In some configurations, the data portion may be a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

As shown in FIG. 10 , the end of the control portion 1002 may be separated in time from the beginning of the UL profile portion 1004 . This time interval may sometimes be referred to as a gap, a guard period, a guard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. The interval provides time for switching from DL communication (eg, a receive operation by the scheduling entity) to UL communication (eg, a transmission by the scheduling entity). The UL-centric subframe 1000 may also include a common UL portion 1006 . Common UL portion 1006 in FIG. 10 may be similar to common UL portion 906 described above with reference to FIG. 9 . Common UL portion 1006 may additionally or alternatively include information related to CQI, sounding reference signals (SRS), and various other suitable types of information. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the above is only one example of a UL-centric subframe, and that alternative structures with similar features may exist without necessarily departing from the aspects described herein.

In some cases, two or more subordinate entities (eg, UEs) may use sidelink signals to communicate with each other. Practical applications for such side-link communications may include public safety, proximity services, UE-to-network relays, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoT communications, mission-critical grids, and/or various other suitable applications. In general, a sidelink signal may refer to relaying the communication from a subordinate entity without relaying the communication via the scheduling entity (eg, UE or BS) even though the scheduling entity may be used for scheduling and/or control purposes A signal transmitted by (eg, UE1) to another subordinate entity (eg, UE2). In some instances, licensed spectrum may be used to transmit sidelink signals (unlike wireless local area networks, which typically use unlicensed spectrum).

The UE may operate in various radio resource configurations, including those associated with transmitting pilots using a dedicated set of resources (eg, RRC dedicated state, etc.) or associated with transmitting pilots using a common set of resources (eg, RRC shared state, etc.) Configuration. When operating in the RRC dedicated state, the UE may select a dedicated set of resources for transmitting pilot signals to the network. When operating in the RRC shared state, the UE may select a set of shared resources for transmitting pilot signals to the network. In either case, the pilot signal transmitted by the UE may be received by one or more network access devices (such as AN or DU) or portions thereof. Each receiving network access device may be configured to receive and measure the pilot signal transmitted on the set of common resources, and also receive and measure the pilot signal that is allocated to the UE (for the UE, the network access device is the The network access equipment of the UE monitors the pilot signal transmitted on the dedicated resource set of the members of the group). One or more CUs that receive the measurement of the network access device or to which the network access device transmits the pilot signal may use the measurement to identify the serving cell for the UE or to initiate a call to the one or more UEs. Changes in service cells. Exemplary uplink and downlink grants for narrowband

As previously mentioned, certain systems (eg, eMTC systems of Release 13 or later) may support narrowband operation. For example, narrowband operation may include support for communication on the 6RB frequency band and half-duplex operation (eg, the ability to transmit and receive but not both simultaneously) for up to, eg, 15dB coverage enhancement. Such systems may reserve a portion of the system bandwidth for control, which may be the MTC Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH). The MPDCCH may be transmitted in narrowband, may use at least one subframe, and may rely on demodulation reference signal (DMRS) demodulation to decode the control channel. Coverage can be increased by performing repetition/accompaniment of the signal.

Certain systems (eg, NB-IoT systems of version 13 or later) can support Narrowband Internet of Things Operation (NB-IOT). NB-IoT can use 180 kHz bandwidth. NB-IoT can provide standalone, in-band or guard-band deployment scenarios. Standalone deployments can use the new bandwidth, while guard band deployments can be done using bandwidth typically reserved in guard bands of existing networks such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). Alternatively, the in-band deployment may use the same resource blocks in the LTE carrier of the existing LTE network. NB-IoT may provide increased coverage. NB-IoT can define new narrowband control channels (eg, narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH)), data and reference signals suitable for 1RB. For clarity, certain aspects of these technologies are described below for NB-IoT, and NB-IoT terminology is used in much of the description below.

Currently, in some systems such as NB-IoT, only half-duplex (HD) FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) operation is supported. The UE cannot monitor UL and DL at the same time, and does not need to support concurrent UL and DL transmission. Rules defining timing constraints such that the gap between the NPDCCH used for UL grants and the associated NPUSCH (Narrowband PUSCH) transmission is at least 8ms (eg exact delay is determined by a field in the UL grant), and used for DL The gap between the granted NPDCCH and the associated NPDSCH (narrowband PDSCH) is at least 5ms (eg the exact delay is determined by a field in the DL grant). NPUSCH and NPDSCH are examples of shared channels or data channels. Depending on the context, a "channel" may refer to a channel through which signaling/data/information is transmitted or received, or signaling/data/information transmitted or received on a channel. In Rel-13, only a single HARQ process is supported in NB-IoT. After receiving one NPDCCH for a DL grant or UL grant, the UE stops monitoring the NPDCCH until the data transmission is completed. In Rel-14, for NB-IoT, there may be two DL grants back-to-back or two UL grants back-to-back for two HARQ processes, eg, after receiving one DL or UL grant, the UE may be required to continue Monitor any NPDCCH search space that contains candidates, ending at least 2 ms ( x ₁ ≧ 2 ms) before the start of the first NPDSCH or NPUSCH.

11 illustrates an example of Rel-13 HARQ process timing and an example of Rel-14 HARQ process timing. As shown for Release 13, the time gap between the NPDCCH for the DL grant and the associated NPDSCH is 5ms or longer. After receiving the NPDCCH, the UE stops monitoring the NPDCCH, and after 5 ms or more, the UE starts receiving downlink transmissions (eg, data transmissions, eg, repeating data transmissions to improve coverage) on the NPDSCH. After receiving the data transmission, the UE transmits ACK information after 12 ms or more. For the uplink example, the UE receives the NPDCCH for the UL grant, stops monitoring the NPDCCH, and transmits (eg, data transmission) on the uplink on the associated NPUSCH after 8 ms or more. As shown for Release 14, the UE needs to continue monitoring the second NPDCCH (NPDCCH2) after receiving the first NPDCCH (NPDCCH1). The UE monitors the second NPDCCH until 2 ms or more before the start of the NPDSCH (NPDSCH1) transmission associated with the first NPDCCH. As shown for Rel-14, the two back-to-back NPDCCHs can both be used for DL grants or both for UL grants. That is, the UE receives two consecutive UL grants or two consecutive DL grants. Receiving successive UL grants includes receiving one UL grant as the next grant after one UL grant, and receiving successive DL grants includes receiving one DL grant as the next grant after one DL grant.

Unlike HD-FDD, for TDD, DL and UL subframes can be interleaved during NPUSCH/NPDSCH transmission. To support NB-IoT TDD DL and UL transmissions, the UE may receive some DL subframes for DL packets (eg, associated with NPDCCH for DL grants), followed by UL transmissions for UL packets (eg, associated with NPDCCH for UL grants) followed by repetitions of the same DL packets, followed by some repetitions of the same UL packets, and so on.

According to the Rel-14 specification, for NB-IoT, the UE may only receive two DL grants back-to-back or two UL grants back-to-back, and UEs are not supported to receive interleaved UL and DL grants. For Rel-15, the extension of NB-IoT to TDD mode can be discussed. For TDD, parallel uplink and downlink transmission means, for example, that the UE receives a DL transmission of a DL packet, followed by an UL transmission of a UL packet, followed by a repetition of the same DL packet, followed by a repetition of the same UL packet. In order to support such interleaved DL/UL transmission, DL/UL grants also need to be interleaved, and the current standard specification does not support this feature. Receiving interleaved UL and DL grants includes receiving a DL grant as the next grant after a UL grant, or receiving a UL grant as the next grant after a DL grant. Interleaved UL and DL grants are required to support interleaved UL and DL transmission, especially for TDD. Interleaving UL and DL grants may also be beneficial for FDD, eg, to improve UL/DL transmission efficiency (eg, for some current TDM-based applications, DL data transmission may need to be done first for UL data transmission).

Interleaved UL and DL grants may be supported such that the UE may receive two grants, one for UL and one for DL, before the corresponding NPUSCH or NPDSCH transmission begins. Timing restriction rules between NPDCCH and NPDSCH/NPUSCH may remain unchanged. For example, the gap between the second NPDCCH and the start of the NPDSCH or NPUSCH may be ≧2ms. Additionally, for HD-FDD, the UE is not required to monitor the NPDCCH (eg, for the third grant) between the start of the NPDSCH and the HARQ-ACK. This simplifies UE implementation and saves UE power, since otherwise the UE needs to receive DL control information in addition to data. In one aspect, there is no restriction on the order of the interleaved UL and DL grants, eg, the first grant may be a UL or a DL grant.

12 illustrates an exemplary interleaved grant (DL followed by UL) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. In one example, the first grant is a UL grant and the second grant is a DL grant. The time delay from grant to associated data transmission can be the same as described above (eg, 8ms or more between UL grant and associated NPUSCH transmission, 5ms between DL grant and associated NPDSCH transmission Or more). In this example, UL data transmission (eg, on NPUSCH) occurs between DL data transmission (eg, on NPDSCH) and the HARQ-ACK associated with the DL data transmission. In the second example, the order of data transmission is different. Here, UL data transmission (eg, on NPUSCH) occurs before DL data transmission (eg, on NPDSCH). In a third example, UL data transmission (eg, on NPUSCH) occurs after HARQ-ACK associated with DL data transmission (eg, on NPDSCH). Thus, the order of data transmission is determined, for example, by the delay between the NPDCCH and the associated data transmission (eg, by a field in the NPDCCH).

13 illustrates an exemplary interleaved grant (UL followed by DL) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 13 illustrates a similar concept as FIG. 12 .

For NB-IoT in TDD mode, NPUSCH and NPDCCH interleaving can be supported, for example, the UE can continue to monitor the NPDCCH search space during NPUSCH transmission. Due to the TDD UL-DL configuration, there may be some DL subframes (SFs) between UL transmissions, and the UE may switch from UL transmissions (eg, NPUSCH transmissions) to monitoring the NPDCCH search space during DL SFs. In one aspect, if a subframe is indicated as DL according to the TDD UL-DL configuration, the UE is required to continue monitoring the search space unless the DL subframe is used for NPDSCH. In the case of interleaved DL and UL data transmission, if a protection subframe is required for switching from UL to DL or from DL to UL, the DL or UL communication associated with the protection subframe (eg, by Communications scheduled to occur during this protected subframe) are deferred until the next available SF. In the case of interleaved DL and UL data transmission, if several OFDM symbols are required to switch from UL to DL or from DL to UL, the associated DL or UL traffic in subframes can be punctured, for example. For example, when switching from UL to DL, the first two symbols in the second subframe (DL) may be punctured, and when switching from DL to UL, the first subframe (DL) may be punctured The last symbol in and the first symbol in the second subframe (UL) are punctured.

14 illustrates exemplary interleaving of NPDCCH and NPUSCH in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. In this example, TDD UL-DL configuration 1 is illustrated. First, the UE receives the NPDCCH (NPDCCH1) for UL grant. Based on the UL grant, a set of repetitions of uplink data transmissions may be sent on the NPUSCH (eg, for enhanced coverage). As shown, the number of repetitions is 8 (eg, 8 subframes). Due to the TDD frame structure, there may be some DL subframes between repetitions of uplink data on the NPUSCH. Typically, UEs do not utilize these DL subframes between NPUSCH transmissions because it is not efficient. In one aspect of the context, the DL SFs may be used to monitor the NPDCCH. In this example, the guard subframe is used for switching from UL to DL, so that the first DL subframe can be used as a guard subframe (indicated by "G" in Figure 14), and the second, adjacent DL Subframes may be used for NPDCCH (eg, NPDCCH2). If several OFDM symbols are used to switch from UL to DL, no protection subframe is required, and the second NPDCCH (NPDCCH2) can be transmitted in the DL subframe immediately after the UL subframe.

Interleaved UL/DL grants can be supported with or without the support of two HARQ processes. If interleaved UL and DL grants are supported with two HARQ processes, up to 4 NPDCCHs may be received, eg, two for DL grants and two for UL grants. In the case of back-to-back DL grants or UL grants, the two grants may have the same or different HARQ IDs. The same HARQ ID may indicate repeated transmissions (eg, retransmissions of the first NPDCCH). For different HARQ IDs, the two HARQ IDs may appear in any order, or the first grant may always have HARQ ID 0 and the second grant HARQ ID 1 (eg, fixed order). If the UE detects two grants with the same HARQ ID (eg, two NPDCCHs associated with the same data), the UE may drop one of them; eg, A) drop the one with the lowest energy; B) always drop The first or the second; or C) a combination of both, e.g. if both energies are above a certain threshold, the first is always discarded. In another aspect, the UE respects both grants as HARQ retransmissions. A UE's support of interleaved UL and DL grants may be independent, or independent of its support of two HARQ processes (eg, a UE may support interleaved UL and DL grants, or two HARQ processes, or both). Support for interleaved UL and DL grants may be indicated by the UE in a manner independent of the support for the two HARQ processes. For example, a UE may indicate support for interleaved UL and DL grants using capability signaling, and independently indicate support for both HARQ processes (eg, using different capability signaling) when it is attached to the network.

As an aspect of the content of this case, exemplary isochrones for two HARQ processes are illustrated below.

Isochrone 1: NPDCCH1 NPDCCH2 NPDSCA ACKA NPDSCHB ACKB

Isochrone 2: NPDCCH1 NPDCCH2 NPDSCHA NPDSCHB ACKA ACKB

In one aspect, only one of the isochrones is allowed (eg, fixed timing). In another aspect, two isochrones are allowed. For NPDCCH to NPDSCH mapping, in one aspect, NPDSCH A may always be mapped to NPDCCH 1 and NPDSCH B may always be mapped to NPDCCH 2, and the other mappings may be treated as error conditions and the UE may drop one of the grants. In another aspect, two mappings are allowed (eg, NPDSCHA to NPDCCH1 or NPDCCH2).

Thus, techniques for uplink and downlink grants in narrowband operation are desired. Therefore, the techniques provided herein can be used for uplink and downlink grants in narrowband operation (eg, NB-IoT).

15 is a flowchart illustrating example operations 1500 for receiving interleaved UL and DL grants in accordance with aspects described herein. Operations 1500 may be performed, for example, by a UE (eg, UE 120), which may be a low-cost IoT device, such as an NB-IoT device. Operations 1500 may begin at 1502 by monitoring a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants. At 1504, the UE receives interleaved UL and DL grants. At 1506, the UE sends or receives information in response to the received interleaved UL and DL grants. In one aspect, the UE may monitor the control channel search space and receive a DL grant as the next grant after the UL grant and after starting to send information on the uplink data channel in response to the UL grant. In one aspect, the uplink data channel may be on a different carrier than the control channel search space. In one aspect, the uplink data channel may be an uplink shared channel. For example, the uplink shared channel may be a narrowband entity uplink shared channel (NPUSCH).

16 is a flowchart illustrating example operations 1600 of UE behavior when receiving back-to-back UL grants or DL grants with the same HARQ ID in accordance with aspects described herein. Operations 1600 may be performed, for example, by a UE (eg, UE 120), which may be a low-cost IoT device, such as an NB-IoT device. Operations 1600 may begin at 1602 by monitoring a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants. At 1604, the UE receives two consecutive UL or DL grants, wherein the consecutive UL or DL grants have the same HARQ process identification (ID). At 1606, the UE selects one of the grants to use based, at least in part, on at least one of: the grant that meets the energy metric threshold; the grant received first; or the grant received second. At 1608, the UE may alternatively choose to use two grants, where the grant is considered a hybrid HARQ retransmission. Exemplary UL and / or DL collision handling

With two HARQ processes configured, it is possible that the eNB may schedule the UE such that there is a cross-channel conflict, eg via incorrect scheduling. For example, collisions can occur when two or more sets of information are transmitted or received simultaneously on the same resource (eg, subframe). For example, the UE may have two back-to-back NPDSCHs whose ACKs collide or collide the ACKs of the second NPDSCH with the ACKs of the first NPDSCH, etc. Similar types of collisions may exist for back-to-back NPUSCHs. If interleaved UL and DL grants are implemented, there may also be collisions between NPUSCH and NPDSCH, collisions between NPUSCH and ACK, and so on. Exemplary UE behavior in the case of such a conflict is illustrated herein, and may be applicable to TDD and/or FDD. Conflict handling for back-to-back DL grants or UL grants

17 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 1700 of UE behavior related to collisions when receiving back-to-back UL grants or DL grants in accordance with aspects described herein. Operations 1700 may be performed, for example, by a UE (eg, UE 120), which may be a low-cost IoT device, such as an NB-IoT device. Operations 1700 may begin at 1702 by monitoring a control channel in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth for uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) grants. At 1704, the UE receives two consecutive UL or DL grants. At 1706, the UE sends or receives information in response to the two consecutive UL and DL grants received. At 1708, in response to sending or receiving the information, the UE identifies a conflict, the conflict including at least one of: a conflict between the first DL data channel and the second DL data channel, the second DL data channel and a conflict between the first DL data channel and the first DL data channel Conflict between the first HARQ-ACK signaling for the data channel, the first HARQ-ACK signaling for the first DL data channel and the second HARQ-ACK signaling for the second DL data channel collision between the first UL data channel and the second UL data channel.

In the case of NPDSCH colliding with NPDSCH, in one aspect, even if there is a collision, the two NPDSCHs can be considered as valid NPDSCHs, and an attempt can be made to use 1) the non-colliding subframes in the two NPDSCHs for decoding (e.g. , the UE decodes both) or 2) decodes using a collided SF for only one of the NPDSCHs (eg, the UE decodes only one, the first, the second of the two, or based on the associated control channel energy metric ). In another aspect, only one of the NPDSCHs - eg, the first NPDSCH or the second NPDSCH, may be monitored, or based on corresponding NPDCCH energy metrics (eg, associated control channel energy detection). The first NPDSCH may refer to the NPDSCH which starts first or whose NPDCCH starts first, and the second NPDSCH may refer to the NPDSCH whose NPDCCH starts second.

In the case of NPDSCH colliding with ACK (eg, ACK for first NPDSCH colliding with second NPDSCH), in one aspect, it is treated as an incorrect grant and one of NPDSCH and corresponding ACK is discarded (similar to NPDSCH conflict with NPDSCH). In another aspect, the ACK may be discarded. (in whole or in part, eg, on conflicting subframes). In another aspect, the NPDSCH may be dropped (in whole or in part, eg, on colliding subframes). The colliding SFs may include SFs including ACK/NPDSCH and protection SFs for switching from UL to DL, and the like.

In the case of an ACK and ACK collision, in one aspect, it is treated as an incorrect grant and either the NPDSCH (similar to NPDSCH-to-NPDSCH collision) or the ACK is dropped. In another aspect, only the first or second ACK is sent. In another aspect, the first ACK is sent entirely and the second ACK is punctured, or vice versa. If only one NPDSCH is successfully decoded, the ACK corresponding to the NPDSCH may be sent, and for the failed NPDSCH, the ACK transmission corresponding to the failed NPDSCH may be punctured.

In the case of NPUSCH collision with NPUSCH, in one aspect, one of the NPUSCHs may be dropped. In another aspect, one of the NPUSCHs may be punctured and the other NPUSCH may be transmitted entirely. For example, the dropped or punctured NPUSCH may always be the first, always the second, or based on the NPDCCH energy metric. Conflict handling of interleaved UL and DL grants

In the case of NPUSCH and NPDSCH collision, in one aspect, it is treated as an incorrect grant and the NPUSCH or NPDSCH (eg, first or second, or based on NPDCCH energy metric, etc.) is discarded. In another aspect, it is considered a valid grant, but only one of the channels is retained in the conflicting SF by prioritizing one channel over the other. For example, one of NPUSCH or NPDSCH may be dropped or punctured. For example, the dropped or punctured channel may be always first, always second, or based on the NPDCCH energy metric.

In the case where NPUSCH and HARQ-ACK collide, in one aspect, by prioritizing one channel over the other (eg, HARQ-ACK over NPUSCH), only one of them is reserved in the colliding SF. In another aspect, the HARQ-ACK may be multiplexed on the NPUSCH (eg, the HARQ-ACK is used to modulate the DMRS of the NPUSCH in the colliding SF).

As used herein, the term "identify" includes a wide variety of operations. For example, "recognizing" may include calculating, operating, processing, exporting, investigating, viewing (eg, viewing in a table, database, or other data structure), ascertaining, and the like. Additionally, "identifying" may include receiving (eg, receiving information), accessing (eg, accessing data in memory), and the like. Additionally, "identifying" may include solving, selecting, selecting, establishing, and the like.

Furthermore, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or." That is, unless specified otherwise or clear from context, for example, the phrase "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, for example, the phrase "X uses A or B" is satisfied by any of the following: X uses A; X uses B; or X uses both A and B. As used herein, a reference to an element in the singular does not mean "one and only one" unless expressly stated otherwise, but rather "one or more." For example, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless otherwise specified or the context clearly dictates a singular form. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some" refers to one or more. References to "at least one" of a list of items refer to any combination of such items, including individual members. As an example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to cover: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c and any combination with a plurality of the same elements (eg, a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b, b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b and c). As used herein, including within the scope of the claims, the term "and/or" when used in a list of two or more items means that any one of the listed items can be used alone or with only one of the listed items. Any combination of two or more. For example, if a composition is described as containing components A, B, and/or C, the composition may contain A alone; B alone; C alone; A and B in combination; A and C in combination; B and C combination; or A, B and C combination.

In some cases, a device may have an interface for transmitting frames for transmission or reception, rather than actually transmitting the frames. For example, the processor may output the frame to the RF front end for transmission via the bus interface. Similarly, a device may have an interface for obtaining a frame received from another device, rather than actually receiving the frame. For example, the processor may obtain (or receive) the transmitted frame from the RF front end via the bus interface.

The methods disclosed herein include one or more steps or operations for implementing the method. The method steps and/or operations may be interchanged with each other without departing from the scope of the claims. That is, unless a specific order of steps or operations is specified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or operations may be modified without departing from the scope of the claims.

The various operations of the above-described methods may be performed by any suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. The components may include various hardware and/or software components and/or modules, including but not limited to circuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or processors. In general, where the operations are illustrated in the figures, the operations may be performed by any suitable corresponding means function components.

For example, means for monitoring, means for identifying, means for selecting, means for deciding, means for executing, means for transmitting, means for receiving, means for sending, The means for signaling the notification, the means for requesting, and/or the means for exporting may include one or more processors of the user equipment 120 and/or base station 110 shown in FIG. receivers, antennas and/or other components.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols and chips referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic or magnetic particles, light fields or optical particles, or combinations thereof .

Those skilled in the art will further understand that the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, or combinations thereof. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, however, such an odd-even-time decision should not be construed as a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure may be used with general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field A programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, individual gate or transistor logic, individual hardware components, or any combination thereof is implemented or performed. One or more of the aforementioned devices or processors may execute software. Software shall be construed broadly to mean an instruction, instruction set, code, code fragment, code, program, subroutine, software module, application, software application, package, routine, subroutine, object, Executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any general processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in combination with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied directly in hardware, as a software module executed by a processor, or as a combination thereof. Software modules can be located in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, phase change memory, scratchpad, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or the like in any other form of storage medium known. An exemplary storage medium can be coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may be located in the user terminal. Alternatively, the processor and storage medium may be located in the user terminal as separate components.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmitted as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example and not limitation, such computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD/DVD or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or can be used to store instructions or data structures. Any other medium that carries or stores the required code components in the form of a general purpose or special purpose computer or general purpose or special purpose processor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are used to deliver software from a website, server, or other remote source, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, Twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of media. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disc, and blu-ray disc, where a disc usually reproduces data magnetically, and a disc uses a laser Optically reproduce the material. Combinations of the above are also included within the category of computer-readable media.

The preceding description of the subject matter is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the subject matter. Various modifications to the teachings will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the teachings. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

100 Wireless Communication Network 102a Macro Cell 102b Pico Cell 102c Femto Cell 110a BS/Macro BS 110b BS 110c BS 110d Relay Station 110 BS 120 User Equipment (UE) 120a UE 120b UE 120c UE 120d UE 130 Network Controller 212 Data Source 220 Processor 230 Transmit (TX) Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) Processor 232a Modulator (MOD) 232t Modulator (MOD) 234a Antenna 234t Antenna 236 MIMO Detector 238 Receive Processor 239 Data Slot 240 Controller /processor 242 memory 244 communication unit 246 scheduler 252a antenna 252r antenna 254a demodulator (DEMOD) 254r demodulator (DEMOD) 256 MIMO detector 258 receiver processor 260 data slot 262 data source 264 processor 266 TX MIMO Processor 280 Controller/Processor 282 Memory 290 Controller/Processor 292 Memory 294 Communication Unit 300 Frame Structure 410 Subframe Format 420 Subframe Format 500 Subframe Structure 510 Legacy Control Region 520 Data Area 530 Narrowband Area 600 Deployment 602 Dedicated RB 606 Guard Band 700 Logical Architecture 702 Access Node Controller (ANC) 704 Next Generation Core Network (NG-CN) 706 5G Access Node 708 TRP 710 Adjacent Next Generation Access Node (NG-AN) 800 Physical Architecture 802 Centralized Core Network Unit (C-CU) 804 Centralized RAN Unit (C-RU) 806 DU 900 DL-Centric Subframe 902 Control Section 904 DL Data Section 906 Common UL Part 1000 UL Centered Subframe 1002 Control Part 1004 UL Data Part 1006 Common UL Part 1500 Operation 1502 Step 1504 Step 1506 Step 1600 Operation 1602 Step 1604 Step 1606 Step 1608 Step 1700 Operation 1702 Step 1704 Step 1706 Step 1708 step

Thus, the manner in which the above-described features of the subject matter can be understood in detail, a more specific description briefly summarized above can be obtained by reference to some of the various aspects illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of the subject matter and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equivalent aspects.

1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a wireless communication network in accordance with certain aspects of the subject matter.

2 illustrates a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a base station (BS) communicating with a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication network in accordance with certain aspects of the subject matter.

3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a frame structure in a wireless communication network in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating two exemplary subframe formats with common cyclic prefixes in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

5 illustrates an exemplary subframe configuration for enhanced/evolved machine type communication (eMTC) according to certain aspects of the present disclosure.

6 illustrates an exemplary deployment of a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) circuit in accordance with certain aspects of the subject matter.

7 illustrates an exemplary logical architecture of a decentralized radio access network (RAN) in accordance with certain aspects of the subject matter.

8 illustrates an exemplary physical architecture of a distributed RAN in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a downlink (DL) centered subframe in accordance with certain aspects of the subject matter.

10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an uplink (UL) centered subframe in accordance with certain aspects of the subject matter.

11 illustrates an example of Rel-13 HARQ process timing and an example of Rel-14 HARQ process timing in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

12 illustrates an exemplary interleaved grant (DL followed by UL) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

13 illustrates an exemplary interleaved grant (UL followed by DL) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

14 illustrates exemplary interleaving of NPDCCH and NPUSCH in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

15 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary operations for receiving interleaved uplink and downlink grants in a narrow frequency band of the system bandwidth in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

16 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary operations of UE behavior when receiving back-to-back UL grants or DL grants with the same HARQ ID, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

17 is a flowchart illustrating example operations of UE behavior related to collisions when receiving back-to-back UL grants or DL grants in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

To facilitate understanding, the same reference numerals have been used where possible to refer to the same elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspect may be used to advantage in other aspects without specific recitation.

Domestic storage information (please note in the order of storage institution, date and number) None

Foreign deposit information (please note in the order of deposit country, institution, date and number) None

1500 Operation 1502 Step 1504 Step 1506 Step

Claims (30)

A method for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising the steps of: monitoring a narrow band of a system bandwidth for an uplink (UL) grant or a downlink (DL) grant receive interleaved UL and DL grants; and send or receive information in response to the received interleaved UL and DL grants. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the interleaved UL and DL grants comprises at least one of: receiving a DL grant as a next grant after a UL grant, or receiving a UL grant as a next grant after a DL grant next authorization. The method of claim 1, wherein the interleaved UL and DL grants are received prior to the start of the transmit or receive information in response to the interleaved UL and DL grants. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE monitors the control channel search space and receives a DL after the UL grant and after the start of the transmit information on an uplink data channel in response to the UL grant Authorization as the next authorization. The method of claim 4, wherein the uplink data channel is on a different carrier than the control channel search space. The method of claim 4, wherein the UE is in its A subframe after a subframe in which information is sent on the UL data channel and before a subframe used for DL communication is used as a guard subframe. The method of claim 6, wherein a communication associated with the protected subframe is deferred to the next available subframe. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the interleaved UL and DL grants supports one or more Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) procedures. The method of claim 8, wherein each of the interleaved UL and DL grants supports two HARQ processes. The method of claim 8, wherein the UE indicates support for at least one of: two HARQ processes for each UL or DL grant, or interleaving of UL and DL grants via capability signaling. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: transmitting or receiving information in response to the received interleaved UL and DL grants, identifying a conflict, the conflict comprising at least one of: UL data A collision between the channel and the DL data channel, or a collision between the UL data channel and a hybrid ARQ acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) signaling. The method of claim 11, wherein the HARQ-ACK signaling includes an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgement (NACK), and wherein the HARQ-ACK signaling is for the DL data channel. The method of claim 11, wherein the conflict includes the conflict between the UL data channel and the DL data channel, the method further comprising at least one step of determining to use the UL data channel and the DL data channel One, or for subframes that collide between the UL data channel and the DL data channel, decide to use the subframes of one of the UL data channel and the DL data channel. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of determining use is based, at least in part, on an energy metric threshold. The method of claim 12, wherein the conflict includes the conflict between the UL data channel and the HARQ-ACK signaling, the method further comprising at least one of the steps of: for the UL data channel and the HARQ-ACK Conflicting sub-frames between signaling determine whether to transmit the HARQ-ACK signaling, or to multiplex the HARQ-ACK signaling with the UL data channel. The method of claim 15, wherein the The step of multiplexing HARQ-ACK signaling with the UL data channel includes the step of modulating the UL data with the HARQ-ACK signaling for subframes that collide between the UL data channel and the HARQ-ACK signaling The demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of the channel. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured for narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT). The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured for time division duplex (TDD) operation. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured for frequency division duplex (FDD) operation. The method of claim 1, wherein the control channel comprises a narrowband physical downlink control channel (NPDCCH). The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sending information comprises the steps of: sending information in an uplink data channel in response to the received UL grant; and wherein the receiving information comprises responding to the DL grant Information is received in the downlink data channel. The method of claim 1, wherein the uplink data channel comprises a narrowband physical uplink shared channel (NPUSCH), and wherein the downlink data channel comprises a narrowband physical downlink shared channel (NPDSCH) ). The method of claim 11, wherein the DL data channel comprises a narrowband physical downlink shared channel (NPDSCH), the HARQ-ACK comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment or negative acknowledgment, and the UL The data channel includes a narrowband physical uplink shared channel (NPUSCH). A method of wireless communication by a base station (BS), comprising the steps of: transmitting an interleaved uplink (UL) to a user equipment (UE) on a control channel in a narrow frequency band of a system bandwidth and downlink (DL) grants; and receiving information from or sending information to the UE in response to the transmitted interleaved UL and DL grants. An apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: for monitoring a system bandwidth in a narrow band for an uplink (UL) grant or a downlink (DL) grant means for a control channel; means for receiving interleaved UL and DL grants; and means for sending or receiving information in response to the received interleaved UL and DL grants. A device for wireless communication by a base station (BS), comprising: means for transmitting interleaved uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) grants to a user equipment (UE) on a control channel in a narrow band of a system bandwidth; and for responding to a A component of the transmitted interleaved UL and DL grants to receive information from or send information to the UE. An apparatus for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more processors configured to monitor for an uplink (UL) grant or a downlink (DL) grant a control channel in a narrow band of system bandwidth; receiving interleaved UL and DL grants; and sending or receiving information in response to the received interleaved UL and DL grants; and a memory coupled to the one or more processors. An apparatus for wireless communication by a base station (BS), comprising: one or more processors configured to: communicate to a user equipment (UE) on a control channel in a narrow frequency band of a system bandwidth transmit interleaved uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) grants; and receive information from or send information to the UE in response to the transmitted interleaved UL and DL grants; and A memory coupled to the one or more processors. A computer-readable medium having executable code stored thereon for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE), the executable code comprising: for an uplink (UL) grant or a downlink code for monitoring a control channel in a narrow band of a system bandwidth; code for receiving interleaved UL and DL grants; and code for responding to the received interleaved UL and DL A code authorizing to send or receive information. A computer-readable medium on which executable codes are stored for wireless communication by a base station (BS), the executable codes comprising: a control channel for a narrow frequency of a system bandwidth code for transmitting interleaved uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) grants to a user equipment (UE); and for receiving from the UE in response to the transmitted interleaved UL and DL grants information or a code to send information to this UE.

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