CN107046718B

CN107046718B - Method and device for configuring shortened PUCCH

Info

Publication number: CN107046718B
Application number: CN201610084065.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘勇; 李栋
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-02-05
Filing date: 2016-02-05
Publication date: 2020-09-04
Anticipated expiration: 2036-02-05
Also published as: CN107046718A

Abstract

The invention provides a method and a device for configuring a shortened Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). The method comprises the following steps: configuring a plurality of consecutive symbols in a slot for the shortened PUCCH, wherein the shortened PUCCH has a duration less than or equal to one slot; and allocating a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) for the shortened PUCCH.

Description

Method and device for configuring shortened PUCCH

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for configuring a shortened PUCCH.

Background

In long term evolution advanced (LTE-a) and upcoming 5G systems, low transmission delay is an increasingly important feature and can be beneficial for both existing and new applications that require or benefit from low transmission delay, such as some mission critical applications, remote control, autonomous driving, and some Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) applications, etc.

To reduce transmission delay, shortening the Transmission Time Interval (TTI) is an important approach. In existing LTE-a systems, the TTI of data transmission is typically one millisecond (ms), i.e., one subframe. To further reduce the transmission delay, the TTI length may be shortened to, for example, 0.5ms or less. But once the TTI is shortened, the relevant channels, including the uplink control channel, such as the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) in LTE-a, should be redesigned accordingly.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above problems, the present invention proposes a method for configuring a shortened PUCCH (spucch) having a TTI shorter than a conventional PUCCH, for transmitting data, such as Acknowledgement (ACK) or Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) information for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), to a base station in a cellular network.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for configuring a shortened Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), including: configuring a plurality of consecutive symbols in a slot for the shortened PUCCH, wherein the shortened PUCCH has a duration less than or equal to one slot; and allocating a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) for the shortened PUCCH.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for configuring a shortened Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), comprising a processor configured to: configuring a plurality of consecutive symbols in a slot for the shortened PUCCH, wherein the shortened PUCCH has a duration less than or equal to one slot; and allocating a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) for the shortened PUCCH.

Drawings

The present invention will be better understood and other objects, details, features and advantages thereof will become more apparent from the following description of specific embodiments of the invention given with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a structure of a PUCCH (i.e., a legacy PUCCH) in an LTE system according to the related art;

fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for configuring a shortened physical uplink control channel (also referred to as sPUCCH) according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a channel configuration for a 0.5ms sPUCCH, according to one embodiment of the invention;

fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for implementing the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates a variation of the channel configuration shown in FIG. 3;

fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a channel configuration of a first format (format a) for a 4 symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 6;

FIG. 8 shows a variation of the channel configuration shown in FIG. 6;

fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a channel configuration for a second format (format b) of a 4-symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 9;

fig. 11 shows a schematic diagram of a channel configuration for a third format (format c) of a 4-symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 12 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 11;

FIG. 13 shows a variation of the channel configuration shown in FIG. 11;

fig. 14 shows a schematic diagram of a channel configuration for a 3 symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 15 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 14;

fig. 16 illustrates a schematic diagram of configuring a plurality of sPUCCH in one subframe according to the present invention;

fig. 17 illustrates a schematic diagram of a multiplexing of sPUCCH and a conventional PUCCH according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 18 shows a schematic diagram of multiplexing between sPUCCH having the same duration according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 19 shows a schematic diagram of multiplexing between sPUCCH of different durations according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 20 illustrates a diagram of a conventional PUCCH sharing frequency domain resources with a 0.5ms sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 21 illustrates a schematic diagram of a class a PUCCH and a class B PUCCH occupying different frequency domain resources, respectively, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While the preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a structure of a PUCCH (i.e., a legacy PUCCH) in an LTE system according to the related art.

As shown in fig. 1, each region of the conventional PUCCH includes a first Resource Block (RB) at or near one edge of the system bandwidth in one subframe (1 RB wide in the frequency domain and 0.5ms in the time domain, i.e., the first slot of the subframe), followed by a second RB at or near the opposite edge of the system bandwidth (still 1 RB wide in the frequency domain and the second slot of the subframe in the time domain). In one slot, OFDM symbols are labeled symbol 0 through symbol 6 (i.e., the first through seventh symbols).

Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method 200 for configuring a shortened physical uplink control channel (also referred to as sPUCCH) according to the present invention. The method 200 is performed, for example, at a User Equipment (UE).

As shown in fig. 2, the method 200 includes a step 210 of configuring a plurality of consecutive symbols in one slot for a shortened PUCCH, wherein the shortened PUCCH has a duration less than or equal to one slot. That is, all 7 symbols or a part thereof of 7 consecutive symbols (case of normal cyclic prefix) in one slot are configured for the shortened PUCCH. Here, the normal cyclic prefix is taken as an example for description, however, those skilled in the art can understand that the scheme of the present invention can be equally applied to the case of the extended cyclic prefix, that is, 6 symbols are included in one slot.

Since sPUCCH is shorter in duration than the conventional PUCCH, the sPUCCH region needs to be extended in the frequency domain to occupy multiple RBs to achieve a similar code rate for data transmission (e.g., ACK/NACK information) as the conventional PUCCH.

Therefore, the method 200 further includes a step 220 of allocating a plurality of RBs for the shortened pucch (spucch). Generally, the shorter the duration of sPUCCH (i.e., the fewer the number of occupied symbols), the greater the number of RBs allocated.

In addition, the number of allocated RBs may also be adjusted based on channel conditions between the UE and its serving base station. The worse the channel condition, the greater the number of RBs that should be allocated for the sPUCCH.

To simplify scheduling, the plurality of RBs allocated for the sPUCCH may be contiguous in the frequency domain.

In each allocated RB, in one slot, sPUCCH is configured in accordance with the channel structure of the conventional PUCCH. That is, the channel structure of sPUCCH should reuse the channel structure of the legacy PUCCH as much as possible to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH.

The symbols of the sPUCCH include data symbols (e.g., ACK/NACK information) and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols.

For sPUCCH, in each RB allocated, the phase rotation and orthogonal cover sequence of the cell-specific sequence may be specified by the base station based on the use of the phase rotation and orthogonal sequences in that particular RB. The phase rotation and orthogonal cover sequences of the cell-specific sequence are individually assigned by the base station for all RBs allocated.

The structure designed for sPUCCH provides flexibility for multiplexing sPUCCH with legacy PUCCH, and also provides flexibility for multiplexing sPUCCH from different UEs. Multiplexing can be achieved in two ways. First, multiple UEs employ different phase rotations of the cell-specific sequence for overlapping Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. Second, although multiple UEs employ the same phase rotation of the cell-specific sequence, they employ orthogonal cover sequences for the overlapping OFDM symbols.

Embodiments of the present invention are described below in conjunction with several specific designs of sPUCCH structures. Different sPUCCH designs are contemplated for transmitting data, such as ACK/NACK information, to the serving base station.

Short TTI PUCCH structure

In the time domain, the duration of sPUCCH is from 0.5ms (7 OFDM symbols) to 1 OFDM symbol, which is shorter than the conventional PUCCH. Therefore, the sPUCCH region should be extended in the frequency domain to occupy more RBs to achieve a similar code rate as that used for ACK/NACK information by the conventional PUCCH.

Next, the sPUCCH designs with different TTIs for ACK/NACK information transmission in LTE systems are enumerated: 0.5ms TTI (7 symbol), 4 symbol TTI, 3 symbol TTI, and 2 symbol TTI.

Structure of 0.5ms spUCCH

For the 0.5ms TTI case, the sPUCCH duration is limited to 0.5 ms. Therefore, in order to achieve a similar code rate to that used for ACK/NACK information by the conventional PUCCH, more RBs, for example, two or three RBs, need to be allocated for the sPUCCH region in the frequency domain.

Fig. 3 shows a diagram of a channel configuration for a 0.5ms sPUCCH, according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 3, two RBs are allocated for the 0.5ms sPUCCH. Two consecutive RBs in the frequency domain may be allocated to simplify scheduling.

For 0.5ms sPUCCH, the sPUCCH channel structure reuses the legacy PUCCH channel structure in one slot in each allocated RB to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH.

For example, in one slot, 2 data symbols, 3 DMRS symbols, and another 2 data symbols are configured in sPUCCH at a time. That is, three OFDM symbols in the middle of the slot are used for RS transmission, and the remaining four OFDM symbols are used for data transmission, such as ACK/NACK information transmission, which is exactly the same as the channel structure of the conventional PUCCH in one slot.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for implementing the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 3. Specifically, the generation process of the data symbols and DMRS symbols in sPUCCH is shown.

As shown in fig. 4, in the slot where sPUCCH is located, in each RB configured, a cell-specific sequence is phase-rotated to obtain a phase-rotated sequence r_u,0,i(e.g., length 12), where i is the RB index of the sPUCCH. In the example shown in fig. 4, i is 0 or 1.

Next, the phase-rotated cell specific sequence is used to encode data information (e.g., ACK/NACK symbol d)₀) Modulation is performed.

Finally, the modulated data information is combined with a first orthogonal cover sequence (e.g., length 4 orthogonal cover sequence { w }_0,iw_1,iw_2,iw_3,i}) to generate data symbols (e.g., data symbol #0, data symbol #1, data symbol #2, and data symbol # 3).

On the other hand, for DMRS symbols, the phase-rotated cell-specific sequence and a second orthogonal cover sequence (e.g., length 3 orthogonal cover sequence { w })_rs,0,iw_rs,1,iw_rs,2,i}) to generate DMRS symbols.

For the sPUCCH, in each of the allocated RBs, the phase rotation of the cell-specific sequence and the first and second orthogonal cover sequences are specified by the base station based on the phase rotation and the use of the orthogonal sequences in the specific RB. The UE may receive downlink control information including the specified phase rotation, the first orthogonal cover sequence, and the second orthogonal cover sequence from the serving base station to configure the sPUCCH.

The phase rotation of the cell-specific sequence and the first and second orthogonal cover sequences are individually assigned by the base station for all RBs allocated (two RBs in this example), which may be the same or different.

Preferably, the same downlink control information is used for all allocated RBs to save signaling overhead and reduce signaling complexity.

On the other hand, to achieve frequency diversity, the RBs allocated to one sPUCCH may be located at or near both edges of the system bandwidth, with a portion of the RBs located at or near one edge of the system bandwidth and the remaining RBs located at or near the opposite other edge of the system bandwidth, as shown in fig. 5. This frequency hopping scheme (scheme 1) can be applied to all sPUCCH structures designed in the present invention, and will not be described in detail below.

Structure of 4-symbol spUCCH

For the 4-symbol TTI case, the duration of sPUCCH is limited to 4 OFDM symbols. Therefore, in order to achieve a similar code rate to that used for ACK/NACK information by the conventional PUCCH, more RBs need to be allocated for the sPUCCH region in the frequency domain. As shown in fig. 6, 8, and 9, for example, 4 RBs may be allocated for the sPUCCH having 4 OFDM symbols.

Three formats have been designed for the 4 symbol sPUCCH: format a, format b, and format c.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a channel configuration of a first format (format a) for a 4-symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 6, for format a, in the time domain, sPUCCH occupies the first 4 OFDM symbols in one slot.

In each allocated RB, the sPUCCH channel structure reuses the legacy PUCCH channel structure in one slot to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH. The sPUCCH uses only the first 4 OFDM symbols in one slot, the first 2 symbols for data (e.g., ACK/NACK information) transmission, and the next 2 symbols for RS transmission.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 6. Specifically, the generation process of the data symbols and DMRS symbols in sPUCCH is shown. The embodiment of fig. 7 is similar to that of fig. 4, except that the positions of the data symbols and the DMRS symbols are different and the lengths of the used first and second orthogonal cover sequences are different, and thus, the description thereof is omitted. This is because the length of the first orthogonal cover sequence used is the same as the number of data symbols transmitted in one sPUCCH, and the length of the second orthogonal cover sequence is the same as the number of DMRS symbols transmitted in one sPUCCH.

Accordingly, the ACK/NACK symbol and the DMRS symbol may be generated using two orthogonal cover sequences of length 2, respectively. The orthogonal cover sequence may be selected from the set { [ 11 ], [ 1-1 ] }.

Similarly, the phase rotation of the cell specific sequence and the first and second orthogonal cover sequences are specified by the base station based on the use of the phase rotation and orthogonal sequences in that particular RB. The UE may receive downlink control information including the specified phase rotation, the first orthogonal cover sequence, and the second orthogonal cover sequence from the serving base station to configure the sPUCCH.

On the other hand, to achieve frequency diversity, the RBs allocated to one sPUCCH may be located at or near both edges of the system bandwidth, with a portion of the RBs located at or near one edge of the system bandwidth and the remaining RBs located at or near the opposite other edge of the system bandwidth, as shown in fig. 8.

Fig. 9 shows a diagram of a channel configuration of a second format (format b) for a 4-symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 9, for format b, in the time domain, sPUCCH occupies the last 4 OFDM symbols in one slot.

In each allocated RB, the sPUCCH channel structure reuses the legacy PUCCH channel structure in one slot to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH. The sPUCCH uses only the last 4 OFDM symbols in one slot, the last 2 symbols for data (e.g., ACK/NACK information) transmission, and the other 2 symbols for RS transmission.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 9. Specifically, the generation process of the data symbols and DMRS symbols in sPUCCH is shown. The embodiment of fig. 10 is similar to fig. 4 and 7, except that the positions of the data symbols and the DMRS symbols are different and the lengths of the used first and second orthogonal cover sequences are different, and thus, the description thereof is omitted.

On the other hand, to achieve frequency diversity, the RBs allocated to one sPUCCH may be located at or near two edges of the system bandwidth, with a portion of the RBs located at or near one edge of the system bandwidth and the remaining RBs located at or near the opposite other edge of the system bandwidth (not shown).

Fig. 11 shows a diagram of a channel configuration of a third format (format c) for a 4-symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention. For format c, in the time domain, 4 consecutive symbols may be configured for sPUCCH, starting from

symbol

0, 1, 2, or 3 of the slot. For example, as shown in fig. 11, sPUCCH starts at symbol 1 and occupies 4 consecutive OFDM symbols.

In each allocated RB, the sPUCCH channel structure reuses the channel structure of the legacy PUCCH in one symbol in one slot to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 11. Specifically, the generation process of the data symbols and DMRS symbols in sPUCCH is shown.

Unlike formats a and b, any one or more of the 4 consecutive symbols may be configured for data symbols, the number of data symbols may be configured from 1 to 4, and the remaining symbols are for DMRS symbols. Therefore, in this case, the ACK/NACK symbol and the DMRS symbol are generated without using the orthogonal cover sequences (in other words, using the orthogonal cover sequences of all 1 s), as shown in fig. 12.

In addition to the frequency hopping scheme 1, another scheme may be used for the format c, as shown in fig. 13. The first two symbols are located at or near one edge of the system bandwidth and the remaining symbols are located at or near the opposite edge of the system bandwidth. This scheme (frequency hopping scheme 2) can also be used for sPUCCH structures for 3-symbol and 2-symbol TTIs.

3-symbol and 2-symbol spUCCH structure

The structure of the 3-symbol and 2-symbol sPUCCH is similar to format c of the 4-symbol sPUCCH. In each allocated RB, the sPUCCH channel structure reuses the channel structure of the legacy PUCCH in one symbol to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH. Orthogonal cover sequences are not used for ACK/NACK and DMRS.

Fig. 14 illustrates a diagram of a channel configuration for a 3-symbol sPUCCH according to an embodiment of the invention. For a 3-symbol sPUCCH, in the time domain, 3 consecutive symbols may be configured for sPUCCH, starting from symbol 0 (or 1, 2, 3, or 4) of the slot. For example, as shown in fig. 14, sPUCCH starts at symbol 1 and occupies 3 consecutive OFDM symbols.

Fig. 15 shows a schematic diagram of a logical structure for the sPUCCH channel configuration of fig. 14. Specifically, the generation process of the data symbols and DMRS symbols in sPUCCH is shown.

In each allocated RB, the sPUCCH channel structure reuses the channel structure of the legacy PUCCH in one symbol to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy PUCCH. Any one or more of the 3 consecutive symbols may be configured for data symbols, the number of data symbols may be configured from 1 to 3, and the remaining symbols are for DMRS symbols. Therefore, in this case, the ACK/NACK symbol and the DMRS symbol are generated without using the orthogonal cover sequences (in other words, using the orthogonal cover sequences of all 1 s), as shown in fig. 15.

For a 2-symbol sPUCCH, any one or two of the 2 consecutive symbols may be configured for data symbols, with the remaining symbols for DMRS symbols. The ACK/NACK symbol and the DMRS symbol are generated without using an orthogonal cover sequence (not shown in the figure).

DMRS overhead reduction

For format c of 4-symbol sPUCCH and 3-symbol, 2-symbol sPUCCH, the sPUCCH may not have DMRS symbols. This may reduce reference signal overhead and improve PUCCH decoding performance.

Within a time span (e.g., one subframe), one UE transmits multiple sPUCCH to its serving base station, where some of the sPUCCH may not have DMRS symbols. In this case, the base station relies on DMRS symbols in other sPUCCH to decode the portion sPUCCH that does not have a DMRS. The borrowed DMRS symbol should be located in the same RB as sPUCCH without DMRS.

Fig. 16 illustrates a schematic diagram of configuring a plurality of sPUCCH in one subframe according to the present invention. For example, as shown in fig. 16, in one subframe, the UE transmits three sPUCCH to the base station, where the 3-symbol sPUCCH has no DMRS symbol. In this case, the 3-symbol sPUCCH may be demodulated using a DMRS symbol of one 4-symbol sPUCCH.

Alternatives to ACK/NACK transmission

Alternatively, the ACK/NACK information may be transmitted by employing 1-symbol, 2-symbol, 3-symbol, or 4-symbol sPUSCH (shortened physical uplink shared channel).

Multiplexing of short TTI PUCCH

For PUCCH occupying the same RB in the frequency domain, the structure designed for sPUCCH provides flexibility to multiplex sPUCCH with legacy PUCCH and sPUCCH from different UEs.

For ease of discussion, PUCCHs of different TTIs are divided into two classes:

class A: format a and format b of conventional PUCCH, 0.5ms sPUCCH and 4 symbol sPUCCH

Class B: format c of 4-symbol sPUCCH, 3-symbol sPUCCH, and 2-symbol sPUCCH

Multiplexing of PUCCH from class A

For multiplexing of PUCCH from class a, multiplexing of PUCCH occupying the same RB can be achieved in two ways.

First, PUCCH (including sPUCCH and legacy PUCCH) of multiple UEs employ different phase rotations of a cell-specific sequence on overlapping symbols of one RB. In this way, multiple PUCCHs can be distinguished at each overlapping symbol.

Second, the same phase rotation of the cell-specific sequence is adopted for the PUCCHs of a plurality of UEs on overlapping symbols of one RB, but different orthogonal cover sequences for data symbols and different orthogonal cover sequences for DMRS symbols are adopted.

The following describes the multiplexing problem of PUCCH by way of example.

Fig. 17 illustrates a diagram of multiplexing of sPUCCH and a conventional PUCCH according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 17, assume that a conventional PUCCH from UE1 overlaps with an sPUCCH from UE2 in one RB. The multiplexing in this particular RB can be implemented using two schemes:

UE1 and UE2 employ different phase rotations of cell-specific sequences. The different phase rotations of the cell-specific sequence are orthogonal in the frequency domain, then two UEs can distinguish at each overlapping symbol.

UE1 and UE2 employ the same phase rotation of the cell-specific sequences, but employ different orthogonal cover sequences for data symbols and different orthogonal cover sequences for DMRS symbols. In this way, two UEs can be distinguished in the time domain by orthogonal cover sequences.

Fig. 18 illustrates a schematic diagram of multiplexing between sPUCCH having the same duration according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 18, the 4 symbols sPUCCH (format a) from UE1 and UE2 overlap. Similarly, multiplexing can be achieved using two schemes:

UE1 and UE2 employ different phase rotations of cell-specific sequences.

UE1 and UE2 employ the same phase rotation of the cell-specific sequences, but different orthogonal cover sequences for data symbols and different orthogonal cover sequences for DMRS symbols, respectively. In this way, two UEs can be distinguished in the time domain by orthogonal sequences. For example, UE1 employs orthogonal sequences [ 11 ] for both data symbols and DMRS symbols, and UE2 employs orthogonal sequences [ 1-1 ] for both data symbols and RS symbols.

Fig. 19 shows a schematic diagram of multiplexing between sPUCCH having different durations according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 19, it is assumed that 0.5ms sPUCCH from UE1 and 4 symbols sPUCCH from UE2 (format a) overlap in the first 4 OFDM symbols in one slot (occupy 2 RBs in the frequency domain). Then multiplexing can be achieved using two schemes:

UE1 and UE2 employ different phase rotations of the cell-specific sequence for each of the 2 RBs.

UE1 and UE2 employ the same phase rotation of the cell-specific sequence for each of the 2 RBs, but different orthogonal sequences for the overlapping OFDM symbols. For example, UE1 takes { 1111 } for data symbols, { 111 } for RS symbols, UE2 takes { 1-1 } for data symbols, and { 1-1 } for DMRS symbols.

Multiplexing of PUCCH from class B

For multiplexing between PUCCHs in class B and class a, multiplexing can only be achieved in one way for PUCCHs occupying the same RB, i.e. for overlapping OFDM symbols, multiple UEs employ different phase rotations of the cell-specific sequence. Multiple PUCCHs can be distinguished at each overlapping symbol.

Resource allocation for PUCCH

The resource allocation of the PUCCH can be made in the following manner to balance scheduling flexibility and multiplexing capacity.

1. The legacy PUCCH and the 0.5ms sPUCCH share the same resource in the frequency domain, as shown in fig. 20.

2. The legacy PUCCH, 0.5ms sPUCCH, format a and format b of the 4-symbol sPUCCH share the same resource in the frequency domain. The category a PUCCH and the category B PUCCH occupy different resources in the frequency domain, as shown in fig. 21.

3. The legacy PUCCH and the PUCCH of different lengths (2, 3, 4 symbol PUCCH, 0.5ms PUCCH) share the same resource in the frequency domain.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over 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 media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. Such computer-readable media can comprise, for example, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. 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 upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to the disclosure 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 spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present invention 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.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a shortened Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), comprising:

configuring a plurality of consecutive symbols in a slot for the shortened PUCCH, wherein the shortened PUCCH has a duration less than or equal to one slot;

allocating a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) for the shortened PUCCH; and

multiplexing the shortened PUCCH with a second PUCCH occupying one of the plurality of RBs on the one RB,

wherein the shortened PUCCH and the second PUCCH are from different User Equipment (UE).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in each allocated RB, symbols of the shortened PUCCH are configured in accordance with a channel structure of a conventional PUCCH in one slot.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the symbols of the shortened PUCCH comprise data symbols and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein when the duration of the shortened PUCCH is equal to one slot, the method further comprises:

in one slot, 2 data symbols, 3 DMRS symbols, and another 2 data symbols are sequentially arranged in the shortened PUCCH.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 4, the method further comprises:

in one slot, 2 data symbols and 2 DMRS symbols are sequentially configured from a first symbol of the slot.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 4, the method further comprises:

in one time slot, 2 DMRS symbols and 2 data symbols are sequentially configured from the fourth symbol of the time slot.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 4, the method further comprises:

configuring 4 consecutive symbols for the shortened PUCCH starting from a first, second, third, or fourth symbol of the slot in one slot,

wherein any one or more symbols of the 4 consecutive symbols are configured for data symbols, and the remaining symbols of the 4 consecutive symbols are used for DMRS symbols.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 3, the method further comprises:

configuring 3 consecutive symbols for the shortened PUCCH starting from a first, second, third, fourth, or fifth symbol of the slot in one slot,

wherein any one or more symbols of the 3 consecutive symbols are configured for data symbols, and the remaining symbols of the 3 consecutive symbols are used for DMRS symbols.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 2, the method further comprises:

configuring 2 consecutive symbols for the shortened PUCCH starting from a first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth symbol of the slot in one slot,

wherein any one or two of the 2 consecutive symbols are configured for a data symbol, and the remaining symbols of the 2 consecutive symbols are used for DMRS symbols.

10. The method of any of claims 3-9, further comprising: generating the data symbol, further comprising:

performing phase rotation on the cell-specific sequence in each configured RB;

modulating data information by using the cell specific sequence after phase rotation; and

the modulated data information is multiplied by a first orthogonal cover sequence to produce the data symbols.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: generating the DMRS symbol, further comprising:

multiplying the phase-rotated cell-specific sequence with a second orthogonal cover sequence to generate the DMRS symbol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method is performed at a User Equipment (UE) and the method further comprises:

receiving downlink control information from a serving base station of the UE, wherein the downlink control information includes an indication of the phase rotation of the cell-specific sequence, the first orthogonal cover sequence, and the second orthogonal cover sequence.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the downlink control information is for all RBs of the plurality of RBs.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of RBs are contiguous in a frequency domain.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein some of the plurality of RBs are located at or near one edge of a system bandwidth and the remaining of the plurality of RBs are located at or near another edge of the system bandwidth.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein the data symbols comprise Acknowledgement (ACK) or Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) symbols for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ).

17. The method of any of claims 7-9, further comprising:

transmitting, by a User Equipment (UE), a plurality of shortened PUCCHs to its serving base station over a time span, wherein a partially shortened PUCCH of the plurality of shortened PUCCHs does not contain a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbol, and wherein the partially shortened PUCCH is demodulated with a DMRS symbol contained in another PUCCH of the plurality of shortened PUCCHs that is located in the same RB.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein multiplexing the shortened PUCCH with the second PUCCH further comprises:

employing a first phase rotation of a cell specific sequence for the shortened PUCCH and a second phase rotation of a cell specific sequence for the second PUCCH on overlapping symbols of the one RB, the first phase rotation being different from the second phase rotation.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein multiplexing the shortened PUCCH with the second PUCCH further comprises:

employing the same phase rotation of a cell-specific sequence for the shortened PUCCH and the second PUCCH but employing a first orthogonal cover sequence for data symbols and a second orthogonal cover sequence for demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols for the shortened PUCCH, and employing an orthogonal cover sequence different from the first orthogonal cover sequence for data symbols and an orthogonal cover sequence different from the second orthogonal cover sequence for DMRS symbols for the second PUCCH, on overlapping symbols of the one RB.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the number of RBs allocated is adjusted based on channel conditions between a User Equipment (UE) and a serving base station.

21. An apparatus for configuring a shortened Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), comprising a processor configured to:

allocating a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) for the shortened PUCCH; and

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to:

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the symbols of the shortened PUCCH comprise data symbols and demodulation reference signal (DMRS) symbols.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the duration of the shortened PUCCH is equal to one slot, the processor is further to:

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 4, the processor is further configured to:

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 4, the processor is further configured to:

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 4, the processor is further configured to:

28. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 3, the processor is further configured to:

29. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein when the number of symbols included in the shortened PUCCH is 2, the processor is further configured to:

30. The apparatus of any one of claims 23-29, the processor further to: generating the data symbol, further for:

performing phase rotation on the cell-specific sequence in each configured RB;

31. The apparatus of claim 30, the processor further configured to: generating the DMRS symbol, further for:

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the apparatus is located in a User Equipment (UE) and the processor is further configured to: