CN108476513B - Apparatus and method for providing 5G uplink requests - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for scheduling uplink data requests in a 5G system are generally described. The UE transmits a Scheduling Request (SR) or a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) to the eNB on 5G or LTE link resources reserved or unreserved for the 5G scheduling request. The message depends on which link is used for transmission. The UE transmits a BSR and possibly a beam measurement report to the eNB after transmitting the SR and in response to receiving an uplink grant for the SR, depending on whether reserved resources and a reserved logical channel ID are used. Then, in response to receiving the 5G physical downlink control channel including the 5G uplink grant for the data on the optimal beam, the UE transmits a 5G physical uplink shared channel. When transmitting xPRACH, a reduced random access response is used.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing 5G uplink requests

Priority declaration

THE present application claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application serial No. 62/280,574 entitled "UPLINK REQUEST IN 5G SYSTEM (ON THE UPLINK REQUEST IN 5G SYSTEM"), filed ON 2016, month 1, and day 19, which is incorporated herein by reference IN its entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments relate to radio access networks. Some embodiments relate to providing data in cellular and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) networks, including third generation partnership project long term evolution (3GPP LTE) networks and LTE-advanced (LTE-a) networks, and 4 th generation (4G) networks and 5 th generation (5G) networks. Some embodiments relate to uplink request design in 5G networks.

Background

As the number of different types of devices communicating with various network devices increases, the use of the 3GPP LTE system also increases. With the advent of services such as video streaming, this increases the number of User Equipments (UEs) and the bandwidth used by these UEs, and has made LTE networks increasingly stressed. To increase capacity, next generation LTE networks may employ Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). MIMO systems communicate with UEs using multipath signal propagation through multiple signals transmitted on the same or overlapping frequencies by the same evolved node b (enb), which would interfere with each other if they were located on the same path. This increase in uplink or downlink data may be dedicated to one UE (increasing the effective bandwidth of the UE by the number of beams) (single-user MIMO or SU-MIMO), or may span multiple UEs using different beams for each UE (multi-user MIMO or MU-MIMO).

However, beamforming may complicate various transmission and reception issues. For example, the eNB may not know the beam used by the UE for scheduling request reception when the UE intends to request resources for uplink data transmission. To address this issue, repeated scheduling request transmissions may be used to allow the eNB to perform beam scanning for robust scheduling request detection. This may undesirably increase the overhead associated with scheduling request transmissions.

Disclosure of Invention

In a first aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for communication is provided. The apparatus includes at least one processor configured to cause a UE to: generating a scheduling request indicating uplink data to be transmitted to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station, the scheduling request depending on which of the LTE base station or a fifth generation (5G) base station the scheduling request is to be transmitted to; decoding a 5G uplink grant received from the LTE base station in response to transmitting the scheduling request to transmit a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report to the LTE base station, wherein the 5G beam measurement report includes an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; in response to receiving the uplink grant, generating a BSR including a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) and a 5G beam measurement report for transmission to the 5G base station, wherein the LCID provides a difference between an uplink request for the LTE base station and an uplink request for the 5G base station; and decoding a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) received from the 5G base station in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

In a second aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for communication is provided. The apparatus includes at least one processor configured to cause a base station to: generating one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to the LTE base station and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to the 5G base station for transmission by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; and decoding a message transmitted on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G base station, the message comprising one of a Scheduling Request (SR) and a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH), the message depending on which of the LTE base station and the 5G base station the message is transmitted to; generating an uplink grant for transmitting a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving a scheduling request through uplink dedicated LTE resources, wherein the 5G beam measurement includes at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a BRS and a BRS-RP measurement of the selected beam; and decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report including the LCID after transmitting the uplink grant, wherein the LCID provides a difference between an uplink request for the LTE base station and an uplink request for the 5G base station.

In a third aspect of the disclosure, a method of scheduling UE data transmission is provided. The method comprises the following steps: obtaining at least one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to an LTE base station and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a 5G base station; generating one of SR and xPRACH indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G base station, selecting one of SR and xPRACH to be transmitted on one of uplink dedicated LTE resources and uplink dedicated 5G resources depending on which one of SR and xPRACH is transmitted on the LTE link and the 5G link; decoding an uplink grant received from the LTE base station to transmit a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report to the LTE base station in response to transmitting the SR, wherein the 5G beam measurement report includes at least one of an identity of a selected beam acquired from the BRS and a BRS-RP measurement of the selected beam; in response to receiving the uplink grant, generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report including an LCID for transmission to the 5G base station, wherein the LCID provides a difference between an uplink request for the LTE link and an uplink request for the 5G link; and decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) including a 5G uplink grant from the 5G base station on the selected beam after transmitting one of the SR and the xPRACH, the 5G uplink grant including resources allocated for transmitting uplink data.

In a fourth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to perform the method of the third aspect.

In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for scheduling UE data transmission is provided, comprising means for performing the method of the third aspect.

Drawings

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

Fig. 1 is a functional diagram of a wireless network according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates components of a communication device according to some embodiments.

Fig. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 4 illustrates another block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 5 illustrates an uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 6 illustrates another uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 7 illustrates another uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 8 illustrates another uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 9 illustrates another uplink request design for a standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates another uplink request design for a standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments.

Detailed Description

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of others. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a portion of an end-to-end network architecture of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network having various components of the network, in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, LTE networks refer to LTE and LTE-advanced (LTE-a) networks, as well as other releases of LTE networks to be developed. Network 100 may include a Radio Access Network (RAN) (e.g., an E-UTRAN or evolved universal terrestrial radio access network as depicted) 101 and a core network 120 (e.g., shown as an Evolved Packet Core (EPC)) coupled together by an SI interface 115. For convenience and brevity, only a portion of the core network 120 and the RAN 101 are shown in this example.

The core network 120 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME)122, a serving gateway (serving GW)124, and a packet data network gateway (PDN GW) 126. RAN 101 may include an evolved node b (enb)104 (which may serve as a base station) for communicating with User Equipment (UE) 102. The enbs 104 may include a macro eNB 104a and a Low Power (LP) eNB 104 b. The eNB 104 and the UE 102 may employ the synchronization techniques described herein.

The MME 122 may be similar in function to the control plane of a conventional Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). The MME 122 may manage mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The serving GW 124 may terminate (terminate) an interface towards the RAN 101 and route data packets between the RAN 101 and the core network 120. In addition, the serving GW 124 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-eNB handover and may also provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement. The serving GW 124 and MME 122 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes.

The PDN GW 126 may terminate the SGi interface towards a Packet Data Network (PDN). The PDN GW 126 may route data packets between the EPC 120 and the external PDN, and may perform policy enforcement and charging data collection. The PDN GW 126 may also provide an anchor point for mobile devices with non-LTE access. The external PDN may be any type of IP network, as well as an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain. The PDN GW 126 and the serving GW 124 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes.

The eNB 104 (macro and micro enbs) may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first contact point for the UE 102. In some embodiments, the eNB 104 may implement various logical functions of the RAN 101 including, but not limited to, RNCs (radio network controller functions), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. According to an embodiment, the UE 102 may be configured to communicate Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) communication signals with the eNB 104 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with an OFDMA communication technique. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

S1 interface 115 may be an interface separating RAN 101 and EPC 120. The S1 interface 115 may be divided into two parts: S1-U and S1-MME, where S1-U may carry traffic data between eNB 104 and serving GW 124, and S1-MME may be the signaling interface between eNB 104 and MME 122. The X2 interface may be an interface between enbs 104. The X2 interface may include two parts: X2-C and X2-U. X2-C may be a control plane interface between eNBs 104, while X2-U may be a user plane interface between eNBs 104.

With cellular networks, LP cell 104b may generally be used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to increase network capacity in heavily used areas. In particular, it may be desirable to use different sized cells (macro, micro, pico, and femto cells) to enhance the coverage of a wireless communication system, thereby improving system performance. The different sized cells may operate on the same frequency band or may operate on different frequency bands (with each cell operating on a different frequency band or only different sized cells operating on different frequency bands). As used herein, the term LP eNB refers to any suitable opposing LP eNB for implementing a smaller cell (smaller than a macro cell), such as a femto cell, pico cell, or micro cell. A femto cell eNB may typically be provided by a mobile network operator to its residential or enterprise customers. Femto cells may typically be the size of a residential gateway or smaller and are typically connected to broadband lines. Femto cells may connect to the mobile operator's mobile network and provide additional coverage typically ranging from 30 meters to 50 meters. Thus, LP eNB 104b may be a femto cell eNB as it is coupled through PDN GW 126. Similarly, a pico cell may be a wireless communication system that typically covers a small area, e.g., in a building (office building, mall, train station, etc.), or more recently in an airplane. A picocell eNB may typically connect to another eNB, e.g., a macro eNB, through its Base Station Controller (BSC) functionality over an X2 link. Thus, because the LP eNB may be coupled to the macro eNB 104a via an X2 interface, the LP eNB may be implemented with a pico eNB. The pico eNB or other LP eNB 104b may contain some or all of the functionality of the macro eNB LP eNB 104 a. In some cases, this may be referred to as an access point base station or an enterprise femtocell.

Communications over an LTE network may be divided into 10ms frames, each of which may include 101 ms subframes. Each subframe in the frame may in turn comprise two 0.5ms slots. Each subframe may be used for Uplink (UL) communication from the UE to the eNB or Downlink (DL) communication from the eNB to the UE. In one embodiment, the eNB may allocate a greater number of DL communications than UL communications in a particular frame. The eNB may schedule multiple frequency bands (f)₁And f₂) Is sent. The allocation of resources in a subframe used in one frequency band may be different from the allocation of resources in a subframe used in another frequency band. Each slot of a subframe may include 6-7 OFDM symbols, depending on the system used. In one embodiment, a subframe may include 12 subcarriers. The downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from the eNB to the UE, while the uplink resource grid may be used for uplink transmissions from the UE to the eNB or from the UE to another UE. The resource grid may be a time-frequency grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each slot. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid may be represented as a Resource Element (RE). Each column and each row of the resource grid may correspond to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The resource grid may include Resource Blocks (RBs) that describe the mapping of physical channels to resource elements and physical RBs (prbs). A PRB may be the smallest resource unit that may be allocated to a UE. A resource block may be 180kHz wide in frequency and 1 slot long in time. In frequency, a resource block may be 12x15kHz subcarrier or 24x7.5kHz subcarrier wide. For most channels and signals, 12 subcarriers may be used per resource blockThe wave depends on the system bandwidth. In Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode, both uplink and downlink frames may be 10ms and are frequency (full duplex) or time (half duplex) separated. In Time Division Duplexing (TDD), uplink and downlink subframes may be transmitted on the same frequency and multiplexed in the time domain. The duration of the resource grid 400 in the time domain corresponds to one subframe or two resource blocks. Each resource grid may include 12 (subcarriers) × 14 (symbols) ═ 168 resource elements.

Each OFDM symbol may include a Cyclic Prefix (CP), which may be used to effectively cancel inter-symbol interference (ISI), and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) period. The duration of the CP may be determined by the highest expected degree of delay spread. While distortion from the previous OFDM symbol may exist within the CP, the previous OFDM symbol does not enter the FFT period if the CP has sufficient duration. Once the FFT periodic signal is received and digitized, the receiver can ignore the signal in the CP.

There may be several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks, including a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). Each downlink subframe may be divided into a PDCCH and a PDSCH. The PDCCH may typically occupy the first two symbols of each subframe and carry information about the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel and H-ARQ information about the uplink shared channel. The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling destined for the UE and occupy the remainder of the subframe. In general, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs in a cell) may be performed at the eNB based on channel quality information provided to the eNB from the UEs, and then downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted to each UE on a PDCCH used for (allocated to) the UE. The PDCCH may include Downlink Control Information (DCI) in one of a plurality of formats that indicates to the UE how to find and decode data (transmitted on the PDSCH in the same subframe) from the resource grid. The DCI format may provide details such as the number of resource blocks, resource allocation type, modulation scheme, transport block, redundancy version, coding rate, and the like. Each DCI format may have a Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC) and be scrambled with a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) (which identifies the target UE for which the PDSCH is intended). Using UE-specific RNTIs may restrict decoding of DCI formats (and corresponding PDSCHs) to only the targeted UEs.

In addition to PDCCH, eNB and UE may use enhanced PDCCH (epdcch). Unlike PDCCH, EPDCCH may be arranged in resource blocks normally allocated to PDSCH. Different UEs may have different EPDCCH configurations configured by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. Each UE may be configured with multiple EPDCCH sets, and the configuration may also be different between these sets. Each EPDCCH set may have 2, 4, or 8 PRB-pairs. In some embodiments, resource blocks configured for EPDCCH in a particular subframe may be used for PDSCH transmission if they are not used for EPDCCH transmission during the subframe.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented in a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. Fig. 2 illustrates components of a UE according to some embodiments. At least some of the components shown may be used in an eNB or MME (e.g., UE 102 or eNB 104 shown in fig. 1). The UE 200 and other components may be configured to use the synchronization signals described herein. The UE 200 may be one of the UEs 102 shown in fig. 1, and may be a fixed, non-mobile device, or may be a mobile device. In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, and one or more antennas 210 coupled together at least as shown. At least some of the baseband circuitry 204, RF circuitry 206, and FEM circuitry 208 may form a transceiver. In some embodiments, other network elements (e.g., enbs) may include some or all of the components shown in fig. 2. Other network elements (e.g., MME) may include an interface, such as an S1 interface, for communicating with the eNB over a wired connection with the UE.

The application or processing circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 206. The baseband processing circuitry 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 for the generation and processing of baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 204a, a third (3G) baseband processor 204b, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 204d for other existing generations, generations in development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 5G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 204 a-d) may process various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to: signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include FFT, precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi (Viterbi), and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and other suitable functions may be included in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include elements of a protocol stack, e.g., elements of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) protocol, including, for example, Physical (PHY) elements, Medium Access Control (MAC) elements, Radio Link Control (RLC) elements, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) elements, and/or Radio Resource Control (RRC) elements. A Central Processing Unit (CPU)204e of the baseband circuitry 204 may be configured to run elements of a protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 204 f. The audio DSP(s) 204f may be or include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, components of the baseband circuitry may be combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or arranged on the same circuit board, as appropriate. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 204 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and/or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry. In some embodiments, the device may be configured to operate in accordance with communication standards or other protocols or standards including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.16 wireless technology (WiMax), IEEE 802.11 wireless technology (WiFi), including IEEE 802.11ad operating in the 60GHz millimeter wave spectrum, or various other wireless technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), or other 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. technologies that have been or will be developed.

The RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 206 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include a mixer circuit 206a, an amplifier circuit 206b, and a filter circuit 206 c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include filter circuitry 206c and mixer circuitry 206 a. RF circuitry 206 may also include synthesizer circuitry 206d, which synthesizer circuitry 206d is used to synthesize frequencies for use by mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206 d. The amplifier circuit 206b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 206c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuitry 208. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and may be filtered by the filter circuitry 206 c. The filter circuit 206c may include a Low Pass Filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or quadrature up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley (Hartley) image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuitry and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuitry 206.

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

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be appropriate. For example, synthesizer circuit 206d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 206a of the RF circuit 206. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206d may be a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 or the application processor 202 according to a desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 202.

Synthesizer circuit 206d of RF circuit 206 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual-mode divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this manner, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 206d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency having multiple phases that are different from each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (f)_LO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 206 may include an IQ/poleAnd a sex converter.

FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on received RF signals from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 206 for further processing. FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of one or more antennas 210.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 208 may include TX/RX switches to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 208 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 206), and may include one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of one or more antennas 210).

In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, and/or an input/output (I/O) interface, as described in more detail below. In some embodiments, the UE 200 described herein may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a network tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or another device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly. In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system, and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral components to interact with the system. For example, the UE 200 may include one or more of a keyboard, keypad, touch pad, display, sensor, non-volatile memory port, Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, audio jack, power interface, one or more antennas, graphics processor, application processor, speaker, microphone, and other I/O components. The display may be an LCD or LED screen including a touch screen. The sensors may include a gyroscope sensor, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a positioning unit. The positioning unit may communicate with components of a positioning network, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites.

Antenna 210 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, antennas 210 may be effectively separated to take advantage of different channel characteristics and spatial diversity that may result.

Although the UE 200 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, a functional element may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include Read Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, and other storage devices and media. Some embodiments may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a communication device according to some embodiments. The device may be a UE or eNB (e.g., UE 102 or eNB 104 shown in fig. 1), which may be configured to track UEs as described herein. Physical layer circuitry 302 may perform various encoding and decoding functions, which may include forming a baseband signal for transmission and decoding a received signal. Communication device 300 may also include a medium access control layer (MAC) circuit 304 to control access to the wireless medium. The communication device 300 may also include processing circuitry 306 (e.g., one or more single-core or multi-core processors) and memory 308, the processing circuitry 306 and memory 308 arranged to perform the operations described herein. The physical layer circuitry 302, MAC circuitry 304, and processing circuitry 306 may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks compatible with one or more radio technologies. The radio control functions may include signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. For example, similar to the device shown in fig. 2, in some embodiments, communication may be accomplished using one or more of WMAN, WLAN, and WPAN. In some embodiments, the communication device 300 may be configured to operate in accordance with 3GPP standards or other protocols or standards, including WiMax, WiFi, WiGig, GSM, EDGE, GERAN, UMTS, UTRAN, or other 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. technologies that have been or will be developed. The communication device 300 may include a transceiver circuit 312 for enabling wireless communication with other external devices and an interface 314 for enabling wired communication with other external devices. As another example, transceiver circuitry 312 may perform various transmit and receive functions, such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a Radio Frequency (RF) range.

Antenna 301 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO embodiments, antennas 301 may be effectively separated to take advantage of different channel characteristics and spatial diversity that may result.

Although communication device 300 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements (e.g., processing elements including DSPs) and/or other hardware elements, or one or more of the functional elements may be implemented in a number of different devices. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, RFICs, and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, a functional element may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements. Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein.

Fig. 4 illustrates another block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments. In alternative embodiments, the communication device 400 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other communication devices. In a networked deployment, the communication device 400 may operate in the server-client network environment with the identity of a server communication device, a client communication device, or both. In an example, the communications device 400 can operate as a peer to peer communications device in a peer to peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The communication device 400 may be a UE, eNB, PC, tablet PC, STB, PDA, mobile phone, smartphone, network device, network router, switch or bridge, or any communication device capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by the communication device. Further, while only a single communication device is shown, the term "communication device" should also be taken to include any collection of communication devices that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

Examples as described herein may include, or may operate on, logic or multiple components, modules, or mechanisms. A module is a tangible entity (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a particular manner. In an example, the circuitry may be arranged as a module in a specified manner (e.g., internally or with respect to an external entity such as other circuitry). In an example, all or portions of one or more computer systems (e.g., a stand-alone client or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, application portions, or applications) to operate to perform modules of specified operations. In an example, the software may reside on a communication device readable medium. In an example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

Thus, the term "module" is understood to encompass a tangible entity, i.e., an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., temporarily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specific manner or to perform some or all of any of the operations described herein. Considering the example where modules are temporarily configured, not every module need be instantiated at any given time. For example, where the modules include a general purpose hardware processor configured using software, the general purpose hardware processor may be configured at different times as respective different modules. The software may thus configure the hardware processor to, for example, constitute a particular module at a certain instance in time and to constitute a different module at a different instance in time.

A communication device (e.g., computer system) 400 may include a hardware processor 402 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 404, and a static memory 406, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 408. The communication device 400 may also include a display unit 410, an alphanumeric input device 412 (e.g., a keyboard), and a User Interface (UI) navigation device 414 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display unit 410, the input device 412, and the UI navigation device 414 may be a touch screen display. The communication device 400 may also include a storage device (e.g., drive unit) 416, a signal generation device 418 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 420, and one or more sensors 421, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The communication device 400 may include an output controller 428, such as a serial (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB)), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., Infrared (IR), Near Field Communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., printer, card reader, etc.).

The storage device 416 may include a communication device-readable medium 422 having stored thereon one or more sets of data structures or instructions 424 (e.g., software), the one or more sets of data structures or instructions 424 embodying or being utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 424 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 404, within static memory 406, or within the hardware processor 402 during execution thereof by the communication device 400. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 402, the main memory 404, the static memory 406, or the storage device 416 may constitute communication device readable media.

While the communication device-readable medium 422 is shown to be a single medium, the term "communication device-readable medium" can include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 424.

The term "communication device-readable medium" can include any medium that can store, encode, or carry instructions for execution by communication device 400 and that cause communication device 400 to perform any one or more of the techniques of this disclosure, or that can store, encode, or carry data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting examples of communication device readable media may include solid state memory, as well as optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of the communication device readable medium may include: non-volatile memories, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, the communication device readable medium may include a non-transitory communication device readable medium. In some examples, the communication device readable medium may include a communication device readable medium that is not a transitory propagating signal.

The transmission medium may also be used to send or receive instructions 424 over a communication network 426 via the network interface device 420 utilizing any one of a number of transmission protocols (e.g., frame relay, Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). An example communication network may include: local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Area Networks (WANs), packet data networks (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., referred to as

Of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.11 family of standards, referred to as

IEEE 802.16 family of standards), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networksAnd so on. In an example, the network interface device 420 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., ethernet, coaxial, or telephone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communication network 426. In an example, the network interface device 420 may include multiple antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of: single Input Multiple Output (SIMO), MIMO, or Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device 420 may communicate wirelessly using multi-user MIMO techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device 400, and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software.

In addition to various types of MIMO that may be used by 5G systems, 5G systems may also use high frequency bands (centimeter waves (cmWave) and millimeter waves (mmWave)) for communication between enbs and UEs (or UE to UE) because these wavelengths can provide wider bandwidths to support future integrated communication systems. In conjunction with MIMO, the use of high frequency bands may thus reduce the amount of stress on the various networks due to increased bandwidth availability. To enable communication using high frequency bands, MIMO beamforming gains may compensate for potentially severe path loss caused by atmospheric attenuation in these higher frequency bands, as well as improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and enlarge coverage areas. By directing a particular transmit beam at a target UE, the radiated energy can be focused for higher energy efficiency and to suppress mutual UE interference.

However, in the MIMO system, the UE may select an optimal beam among a plurality of beams transmitted by the eNB for receiving various signals and transmit the signals to the eNB using a direction indicated by the optimal beam. Although the eNB desires to know which beam is the optimal beam for communicating with the UE, unfortunately this information may not be available to the eNB. That is, the eNB may not know which beam the UE is using and therefore which direction to use to receive the Scheduling Request (SR). Thus, the eNB may sweep all directions of all beams such that the UE repeatedly transmits the SR multiple times (at least equal to the number of beams). This situation may be exacerbated in the following scenarios: when multiple enbs (e.g., LTE eNB and 5G eNB) provide different services to a UE, and when the UE has relatively high mobility such that the optimal beam changes fairly quickly (e.g., when the UE is moving at a speed of at least several km per hour (assuming 30 km)). To avoid this, the UE may initiate 5G data transmission using a specific SR or 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH). In particular, SR in LTE link may be used for uplink requests in non-independently deployed 5G links, and xPRACH may be used for independent deployment, as described with respect to various embodiments below.

Fig. 5 illustrates an uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments. As shown, the 5G system includes a UE 502, the UE 502 in communication with an LTE eNB 504 and a 5G eNB 506. The UE 502, LTE eNB 504, and 5G eNB 506 may be those shown in fig. 1-4. The LTE eNB 504 and 5G eNB 506 may be connected through an X2 interface so that information provided from the UE 502 to the LTE eNB 504 may be forwarded to the 5G eNB 506 as needed. In some embodiments, the UE 502 may initiate the 5G uplink scheduling procedure by sending an SR to the LTE eNB 504 using dedicated resources on the LTE link. The SR may be used for a request for uplink resources for the 5G link.

Similar to the above, the different physical uplink channel may include a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or a 5G PUCCH (xPUCCH) (for convenience, hereinafter abbreviated as xPUCCH), and the UE 502 transmits Uplink Control Information (UCI) to the LTE eNB 504 or 5G eNB 506 using the PUCCH and the xPUCCH and requests a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or a 5G PUSCH (xPUSCH) (for convenience, hereinafter abbreviated as xPUSCH) to provide uplink data to the LTE eNB 504 or 5G eNB 506. xPUCCH may be mapped to UL control channel resources defined by an orthogonal cover code and two resource blocks (which are consecutive in time and potentially hop at the boundary between adjacent slots). xPUCCH may take several different formats, where UCI includes format dependent information. In particular, xPUCCH may include an SR used by the UE to request resources to transmit uplink data using PUCCH format 1. The xPUCCH may further include an acknowledgement response/retransmission request (ACK/NACK) or a Channel Quality Indication (CQI)/Channel State Information (CSI). The CQI/CSI may indicate to the LTE eNB 504 or 5G eNB 506 an estimate of the current downlink channel conditions seen by the UE 502 to assist with channel-dependent scheduling, and may include MIMO-related feedback (e.g., precoder matrix indication PMI).

As shown in fig. 5, at operation 512, the UE 502 may request resources using dedicated SR resources. The LTE eNB 504 or 5G eNB 506 may configure the dedicated SR resource through previous Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling with the UE 502. The UE 502 may be configured with only one SR resource (for the 5G link), or with two SR resources (one for uplink requests in the LTE link and another for uplink requests in the 5G link). The dedicated resources may be UE-specific and may be associated with a resource allocation index. The resources may have one or more of dedicated time, frequency, or code allocations.

Upon successful detection of the SR, the LTE eNB 504 may transmit a PDCCH formed according to the DCI format including an uplink grant for beam-related information at operation 514. Specifically, the LTE eNB 504 may allocate uplink resources for transmitting Buffer Status Reports (BSRs) in the LTE link by the UE 502. Although not shown, the LTE eNB 504 may indicate to the 5G eNB 506 that the UE 502 desires an uplink grant over the X2 interface at this time, or may wait until the 5G eNB 506 is notified later.

As shown in fig. 5, a UE 502 may receive an uplink resource allocation from an LTE eNB 504. In response, the UE 502 may transmit a BSR, which is carried in a Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU), on the PUSCH in the allocated uplink resources at operation 516. The MAC PDU may be used to inform the eNB of the amount of data to be transmitted in the UE buffer. In addition to the BSR, the UE 502 may report 5G beam measurements using the allocated resources. The 5G beam measurements may allow the 5G eNB 506 to transmit signals using the appropriate beam in the 5G link. The 5G beam measurements may include information obtained from Beam Reference Signals (BRSs) of the optimal beam received by the UE 502 from the 5G eNB 506, or BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurements made by the UE 502. The optimal beam may be represented as a unique identifier that associates the beam with a transmission point known to the network. The UE 506 may continue to listen to the periodic beam transmission (reference signal) of the 5G eNB 506 for this measurement.

When the LTE eNB 504 receives the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report using the LTE link, the LTE eNB 504 may determine the appropriate allocation, and in some embodiments, may determine the optimal beam. Alternatively, the LTE eNB 504 may provide information of the 5G beam measurement report to the 5G eNB 506 over the X2 interface for the 5G eNB 506 to determine the appropriate allocation and/or optimal beam. At operation 518, the 5G eNB 506 may transmit xPDCCH using the 5G link using the optimal beam. xpdcchs may include uplink grants for transmitting uplink data on the 5G link. Specifically, based on the BSR information, the 5G eNB 506 may allocate appropriate resources (included in the uplink grant) and a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) for uplink data indicated by the UE 502.

After receiving the uplink grant, UE 502 may send uplink data on xPUSCH 520 using the 5G link. Thus, while the SR and BSR/5G beam reports are initially transmitted on the LTE link, the UE 502 may receive the allocation and transmit data on the 5G link.

Fig. 6 illustrates another uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments. As shown, the 5G system includes a UE 602, the UE 602 communicating with an LTE eNB 604 and a 5G eNB 606. The UE 602, LTE eNB 604, and 5G eNB 606 may be shown in fig. 1-4 and may act in a similar manner as the same entities in fig. 5. In some embodiments, the UE 602 may initiate the 5G uplink scheduling procedure by sending an SR to the LTE eNB 604 using dedicated resources on the LTE link. The SR may be used for a request for uplink resources for the 5G link. However, unlike the embodiment of fig. 5, the resources for the BSR may be allocated using the 5G link. In this case, beam alignment between the 5G eNB 606 and the UE 602 may already exist.

Similar to above, at operation 612, the UE 602 may request resources using dedicated SR resources. The LTE eNB 604 or 5G eNB 606 may configure the dedicated SR resource through RRC signaling with the UE 602. The UE 602 may be configured with only one SR resource (for the 5G link), or with two SR resources (one for uplink requests in the LTE link and another for uplink requests in the 5G link).

Upon successful detection of the SR, LTE eNB 604 may determine that 5G resources are desired and provide this information to 5G eNB 606 over the X2 interface. However, unlike the embodiment shown in fig. 5, the LTE eNB 504 may avoid performing further actions. At operation 614, 5G eNB 606 may transmit xpdcchs formed according to the DCI format including uplink grants for beam-related information. The 5G eNB 606 may already have information about the optimal beam for communicating with the UE 602. For example, the 5G eNB 606 may use beam information determined or provided for a predetermined amount of time (from when the SR was received), which may be based on UE 602 mobility. The 5G eNB 606 may allocate uplink resources for the UE 602 to transmit BSRs in the 5G link. In some embodiments, the 5G eNB 606 may allocate additional uplink resources for the UE 602 to send 5G beam measurement reports in the 5G link to update the information. The 5G eNB 606 may use the optimal beam to send this information to the UE 602.

The UE 602 may receive an uplink resource allocation from the 5G eNB 606. In response, the UE 602 may transmit a BSR to the 5G eNB 606 in the allocated uplink resources on the 5G link at operation 616. In this case, since the 5G eNB 606 may know the optimal beam for communicating with the UE 602, the UE 602 may avoid sending 5G measurement reports and thus fewer resources may be allocated by the 5G eNB 606 and used by the UE 602.

When 5G eNB 606 receives the BSR using the 5G link, at operation 618, 5G eNB 606 may transmit xPDCCH using the 5G link using the optimal beam. The xPDCCH may include an uplink grant for transmitting uplink data. The 5G eNB 606 may allocate appropriate resources and MCSs (included in the uplink grant sent by the 5G eNB 606) based on the BSR information.

After receiving the uplink grant, the UE 602 may send uplink data on the xPUSCH 620 using the 5G link. Thus, while the SR is initially transmitted on the LTE link, the UE 602 may thereafter communicate with the 5G eNB 606, transmit a BSR, receive an allocation, and transmit data on the 5G link.

Fig. 7 illustrates another uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments. The 5G system includes a UE 702, the UE 702 in communication with an LTE eNB 704 and a 5G eNB 706. The UE 702, LTE eNB 704, and 5G eNB 706 may be those shown in fig. 1-4 and perform at least some of the same functions of similar devices in fig. 5 and 6. In some embodiments, the UE 702 may initiate the 5G uplink scheduling procedure by sending an SR to the LTE eNB 704. The SR may be used for a request for uplink resources for the 5G link. However, unlike the embodiments shown in fig. 5 and 6, the SR in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 may not be transmitted using resources dedicated to the 5G uplink data transmission request.

That is, at operation 712, the UE 702 may request resources for uplink data transmission using the 5G link using non-dedicated SR resources. In this case, the UE 702 may be configured with only one SR resource (for the LTE link). Although non-dedicated SR resources are used, a new logical channel ID (LC1D) in the MAC layer may be defined for the UE 702 to request uplink resources in the 5G link. LCID may be used to distinguish whether the uplink request is for an LTE link or a 5G link. The UE 702 may thus use the LCID in the SR transmission in the LTE link to indicate that 5G resources are being requested. LCID may be defined according to 3GPP technical specification 36.321.

That is, the MAC header may be variable size (in octets) and include an LCID, a length field, a format field, and an extension field. The length field may indicate the length of the corresponding MAC SDU or MAC control element of a variable size in bytes. The format field may indicate the size of the length field. The extension field may indicate whether other fields are present in the MAC header. The LCID (5 bits) may identify the logical channel instance of the corresponding MAC SDU, or the type of the corresponding MAC control element, or padding for DL-SCH, UL-SCH, and MCH, respectively.

Upon successful detection of the SR, the LTE eNB 704 may extract the LCID and determine that the UE 702 is requesting 5G resources. Accordingly, the LTE eNB 704 may transmit a PDCCH including an uplink grant for beam-related information to the 5G eNB 706 at operation 714. The LTE eNB 704 may allocate uplink resources for transmitting beam-related information in the LTE link by the UE 702.

The UE 702 may receive an uplink resource allocation from the LTE eNB 704 and act accordingly. Specifically, the UE 702 may transmit a BSR and 5G beam measurements on a PUSCH in the allocated uplink resources at operation 716. As described above, the 5G beam measurements may include information obtained from the BRS of the optimal beam received by the UE 702, or BRS-RP measurements made by the UE 702. The BSR and 5G beam reporting may use LCID in addition to the SR at operation 712 (or instead of the SR at operation 712). In particular, a respective MAC control element may be defined, which may include a 5G beam measurement report. The MAC control element may be transmitted in an LTE RACH procedure at operation 716 or may be transmitted with a BSR (for uplink data transmission triggered by the SR at operation 712).

When LTE eNB 704 receives a 5G beam measurement report over an LTE link, similar to fig. 5, LTE eNB 704 may indicate to 5G eNB 706 that a resource request for the 5G link is to be allocated for UE 702, and may provide either or both of a BSR and/or a 5G beam report over an X2 interface. At operation 718, 5G eNB 706 may then determine an optimal beam and transmit xPDCCH using the 5G link using the optimal beam. The xPDCCH may include an uplink grant for transmitting uplink data. As described above, based on the BSR information, the 5G eNB 706 may allocate appropriate resources and MCSs (included in the uplink grant) for uplink data based on the BSR.

After receiving the uplink grant, UE 702 may send uplink data on xPUSCH 720 using the 5G link. Similar to fig. 5 and 6, in fig. 7, although the SR and BSR/5G beam reports are initially transmitted on the LTE link, the UE 702 may receive the allocation and transmit data on the 5G link.

Fig. 8 illustrates another uplink request design for a non-standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments. The 5G system may include a UE 802, the UE 802 in communication with an LTE eNB 804 and a 5G eNB 806. UE 802, LTE eNB 804, and 5G eNB 806 may be those shown in fig. 1-4. Similar to the embodiments described above, the UE 802 may initiate a 5G uplink scheduling procedure by transmitting an SR of uplink resources for the 5G link to the LTE eNB 804. At operation 812, the UE 802 may request resources using non-dedicated SR resources.

Unlike the previous embodiments, instead of transmitting resources for BSR and possible 5G beam measurement reports, at operation 814, the LTE eNB 804 may in response transmit PDCCH orders for contention-free RACH procedures on the 5G link. Specifically, LTE eNB 804 may transmit xPRACH transmissions with a specified preamble signature indicating a contention-free RACH procedure. Similar to PDCCH including resources for BSR, PDCCH orders may be sent on LTE link. The preamble index indicating xPRACH transmission may be a predetermined preamble index (e.g., a single preamble index defined for xPRACH) or may be selected from a preamble index group indicating xPRACH transmission. The preamble index group ID may be obtained from previous BRS-RP measurements. The information indicating that the preamble index or the preamble group index group ID is related to the command for transmitting the xPRACH may be obtained by the UE 802 through RRC signaling before transmitting the SR.

In some embodiments, the xPDCCH commands may be transmitted by 5G eNB 806 over a 5G link instead of LTE eNB 804 over an LTE link, and information for SR of the 5G link is provided from LTE eNB 804 to 5G eNB 806 over an X2 interface before transmitting xPDCCH including the xPRACH commands. Further, in some embodiments, if a PDCCH (or xPDCCH) command is not received within a time window configured by RRC or other higher layer signaling, the UE 802 may determine that the SR has expired or not been received by the LTE eNB 804 and transmit another SR. The expiration time period may depend on the type of UE (UE priority), the data to be transmitted by the UE 802 (data priority), the network load (e.g., measured by interference), and other factors.

UE 802 may decode xPDCCH commands for initiating a contention-free RACH procedure over a 5G link. UE 802 may transmit xPRACH to 5G eNB 806 at operation 816. The UE 802 may select one of the available RACH preambles and a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) determined from the slot number in which the preamble was transmitted.

Upon receiving the xPRACH, 5G eNB 806 may then perform beam scanning based on the xPRACH to determine an optimal beam. At operation 818, the 5G eNB 806 may transmit xpdcchs using the 5G link using the optimal beam. The xPDCCH may include an uplink grant for transmitting uplink data. As described above, based on the BSR information, the 5G eNB 806 may allocate appropriate resources and MCSs (included in the uplink grant) for the uplink data.

After receiving the uplink grant, the UE 802 may send uplink data on xPUSCH 820 using the 5G link. In some embodiments, the UE 802 may also send a BSR with uplink data.

Fig. 9 illustrates an uplink request design for a standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments. The 5G system may include a UE 902, the UE 902 in communication with a 5G eNB 904. UE 902 and 5G eNB 904 may be those shown in fig. 1-4. In general, as described above, for a 5G system, repeated xPRACH transmission may be used to ensure robust detection of a 5G eNB using beam scanning. Similar to the non-standalone embodiment described above (where SR may be used to indicate a request for providing uplink data over the 5G link), in a standalone embodiment, the UE 902 may utilize xPRACH to achieve uplink synchronization.

Similar to some of the above embodiments, UE 902 may initiate a 5G uplink contention-free scheduling procedure by sending xPRACH to 5G eNB 904 for uplink resources of the 5G link. As shown, at operation 912, the UE 902 may request uplink data resources using dedicated xPRACH resources. Information about xPRACH may be sent to UE 902 through RRC or other higher layer signaling. Since the number of users in a 5G cell may be limited, allocating one or more dedicated xPRACH resources for a resource request may avoid introducing a dedicated SR channel for a 5G system. The UE 902 may select one of the available xPRACH preambles and a random access radio network temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) determined from the slot number in which the preamble is transmitted.

The xPRACH resources for SR and for random access may be multiplexed using one or more of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), or code division multiplexing (COM). The configuration of the xPRACH resource for SR may be configured by RRC signaling from the anchor LTE cell or the 5G cell. In one embodiment, a frequency resource and a sequence group of the xPRACH for random access may be one-to-one mapped to a frequency resource and a sequence group of the BRS. Additional resources may be allocated to the xPRACH for SR, for example, n +1 th subframe, where n is a subframe index of the xPRACH for random access. In another embodiment, a dedicated xPRACH preamble signature may be allocated for the SR in a UE-specific manner (e.g., RRC signaling).

5G eNB 904 may detect xPRACH. In response, at operation 914, the 5G eNB 904 may transmit xpdcchs with uplink grants over the 5G link. xPDCCH may include resources for BSR and possible 5G beam reporting. However, unlike the conventional RACH procedure, xPDCCH in response to xPRACH may include a reduced Random Access Response (RAR). In general, a complete RAR may be addressed to the RA-RNTI and may also include (in addition to uplink granted resources) a temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and a time advance value to compensate for round trip delay between the UE 902 and the 5G eNB 904. In some embodiments, instead of the full RAR information, for example, the time advance and C-RNTI may be known (e.g., by the RRC _ CONNECTED message) prior to transmitting the xPRACH. Thus, 5G eNB 904 may avoid sending this information to save overhead and simplify the procedure. Further, because the UE 902 can know the C-RNTI, the reduced RAR message carried in xPDCCH can be scrambled in a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) using the C-RNTI.

Upon receiving the xPDCCH at operation 914, the UE 902 may decode the xPDCCH and determine a resource allocation. The UE 902 may then transmit a BSR and/or 5G beam measurement report to the 5G eNB 904 using the 5G link at operation 916.

Upon receiving xPRACH, 5G eNB 904 may then perform beam scanning based on xPRACH to determine an optimal beam for communicating with UE 902. At operation 918, the 5G eNB 904 may transmit xpdcchs using the 5G link using the optimal beam. The xPDCCH may include an uplink grant for transmitting uplink data. As described above, based on the BSR information, the 5G eNB 904 may allocate appropriate resources and MCSs (included in the uplink grant) for the uplink data.

After receiving the uplink grant, the UE 902 may send uplink data on the xPUSCH at operation 920. Uplink data may be transmitted to the 5G eNB 904 using the 5G link.

Fig. 10 illustrates another uplink request design for a standalone LTE system, in accordance with some embodiments. The 5G system may include a UE 1002, the UE 1002 in communication with a 5G eNB 1004. The UE 1002 and the 5G eNB 1004 may be those shown in fig. 1 through 4. In this embodiment, a contention-free xPRACH procedure with fast uplink access is introduced.

UE 1002 may initiate a 5G uplink contention-free scheduling procedure by transmitting xPRACH for uplink resources of the 5G link to 5G eNB 1004 at operation 1012. xPRACH may be sent with BSR (and possibly 5G beam measurement reports). The UE 1002 may request uplink data resources using dedicated xPRACH resources. The information on xPRACH may be transmitted to the UE 1002 through RRC or other higher layer signaling.

5G eNB 1004 may detect xPRACH and perform beam scanning based on xPRACH to determine an optimal beam for communicating with UE 1002. At operation 1014, the 5G eNB 1004 may transmit xpdcchs with uplink grants for transmitting uplink data over the 5G link. xPDCCH may include reduced RAR information as shown in fig. 9. xpdcchs may include uplink grants. As described above, based on the BSR information, the 5G eNB 1004 may allocate appropriate resources and MCSs (included in the uplink grant) for the uplink data.

After receiving the uplink grant, UE 1002 may send uplink data on xPUSCH at operation 1016. Uplink data may be transmitted to the 5G eNB 1004 using the 5G link. Because the number of messages between UE 1002 and 5G eNB 1004 is reduced compared to fig. 9, the uplink access delay may also be greatly reduced.

Example 1 is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) comprising processing circuitry arranged to: generating a message indicating uplink data to be transmitted to a fifth generation (5G) evolved node B (eNB), the message depending on which of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) eNB and a 5G eNB the message is to be transmitted to; decoding, after transmitting the message, a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) received on the selected beam from the 5G eNB including a 5G uplink grant, the 5G uplink grant including resources allocated for transmitting uplink data to the 5G eNB; and generating a 5G physical uplink shared channel (xPUSCH) including data for transmission to the 5G eNB using the resources.

In example 2, the subject matter of example 1 can optionally include the message including a scheduling request, the scheduling request being sent to an LTE eNB.

In example 3, the subject matter of example 2 optionally includes that the processing circuitry is further arranged to: a scheduling request is generated for transmission over the dedicated resources.

In example 4, the subject matter of example 3 optionally includes that the processing circuitry is further arranged to: in response to transmitting the scheduling request, decoding an uplink grant from the eNB such that at least one of a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report is transmitted to the eNB depending on which of the LTE eNB and the 5G eNB the uplink grant was received from, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam.

In example 5, the subject matter of example 4 optionally includes that the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving an uplink grant from an LTE eNB, receiving a PDCCH in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

In example 6, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 4-5 optionally includes the processing circuitry further arranged to: generating a BSR in response to receiving an uplink grant from a 5G eNB, receiving xPDCCH in response to at least one of transmitting the BSR and transmitting a 5G beam measurement report.

In example 7, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 2-6 optionally includes the processing circuitry further arranged to: generating a scheduling request for a non-dedicated resource; and decoding an uplink grant from the LTE eNB in response to the transmission scheduling request, thereby transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report to the LTE eNB, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam.

In example 8, the subject matter of example 7 optionally includes that the processing circuitry is further arranged to: in response to receiving the uplink grant, generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report using a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmitting a resource allocation request to the 5G eNB, the LCID for providing a difference between uplink requests for the LTE eNB and the 5G eNB, the receiving the PDCCH in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

In example 9, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 2-8 optionally includes the processing circuitry further arranged to: generating a scheduling request for a non-dedicated resource; and in response to sending the scheduling request, decoding a PDCCH from the LTE eNB, the PDCCH including a request for the UE to perform a contention-free random access channel procedure with the 5G eNB; and in response to receiving the PDCCH, generating a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) with a specified preamble signature for transmission to the 5G eNB, the receiving xPDCCH being in response to transmitting the xPRACH.

In example 10, the subject matter of example 9 can optionally include specifying that the preamble signature includes a preamble index within a preamble index group, the preamble index group identifying a beam reference signal received power (BRS-RP) measurement obtained by the selected beam.

In example 11, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 9-10 optionally includes the xPDCCH comprising a reduced Random Access Response (RAR) without a time advance and a temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and scrambled in a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) by the C-RNTI.

In example 12, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 1-11 can optionally include the message comprising a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) for transmission over the dedicated resource.

In example 13, the subject matter of example 12 optionally includes that the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decoding an uplink grant from the 5G eNB in response to transmitting the xPRACH, thereby transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report to the 5G eNB, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected MIMO beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; and generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving the uplink grant, the receiving xPDCCH in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

In example 14, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 12-13 optionally includes the message including xPRACH and a Buffer Status Report (BSR) for transmission over the dedicated resources, the xPDCCH being received in response to transmitting the message.

In example 15, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 1-14 optionally includes the processing circuitry comprising baseband circuitry arranged to determine, from the LTE eNB through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, uplink dedicated LTE resources for transmitting the uplink request from the LTE eNB and uplink dedicated 5G resources for transmitting the uplink request to the 5G eNB, the message for transmission on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resources and the uplink dedicated 5G resources.

In example 16, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 1-15 optionally includes, further comprising: an antenna configured to provide communication between the UE and the eNB.

Example 17 is an apparatus of an evolved node b (enb) comprising processing circuitry arranged to: generating one of an uplink dedicated Long Term Evolution (LTE) resource for transmitting an uplink request to a LTE eNB and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a fifth generation (5G) eNB for transmission by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; and decoding one message transmitted on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G eNB, the message comprising one of a Scheduling Request (SR) and a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH), the message depending on which of the LTE eNB and the 5G eNB the message is transmitted to.

In example 18, the subject matter of example 17 optionally includes the eNB comprising an LTE eNB, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generating an uplink grant for transmitting at least one of a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving a scheduling request over uplink dedicated LTE resources, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; and decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report after transmitting the uplink grant.

In example 19, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 17-18 optionally includes the eNB comprising a 5G eNB, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generating an uplink grant for transmitting at least one of a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to transmitting a scheduling request using uplink dedicated LTE resources, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; decoding the BSR after transmitting the uplink grant; and generating a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) including a 5G uplink grant for transmitting on the selected beam, the 5G uplink grant including resources allocated for transmitting uplink data.

In example 20, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 17-19 optionally includes the eNB comprising an LTE eNB, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generating an uplink grant for transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving a scheduling request over uplink dedicated LTE resources, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; and decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report after transmitting the uplink grant, the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report including a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmitting a resource allocation request, the LCID for providing a difference between uplink requests for the LTE eNB and the 5G eNB.

In example 21, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 17-20 optionally includes the eNB comprising a 5G eNB, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decoding a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) with a specified preamble signature after transmitting a PDCCH including a request for a UE to engage in a contention-free random access channel procedure with a 5G eNB and in response to receiving a scheduling request from the LTE eNB over a non-dedicated resource, the xPDCCH including a reduced Random Access Response (RAR) without a time advance and temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and scrambled in a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) by the C-RNTI; and generating a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) including a 5G uplink grant for transmitting on the selected beam.

In example 22, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 17-21 optionally includes the eNB comprising a 5G eNB, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generating an uplink grant for transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving a 5G physical random access channel (xRACH) through a dedicated 5G resource, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report after transmitting the uplink grant; and generating a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) including a 5G uplink grant for transmitting on the selected beam.

In example 23, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 17-22 optionally includes the eNB comprising a 5G eNB, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: in response to receiving a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) and a Buffer Status Report (BSR) through uplink dedicated 5G resources, a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) including a 5G uplink grant for transmission on the selected beam is generated.

Example 24 is a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE), the one or more processors to configure the UE to: obtaining at least one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) evolved node B (eNB) and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a fifth generation (5G) eNB; generating one of a Scheduling Request (SR) indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G eNB and a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH), selecting one of the SR and the xPRACH to be transmitted on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource depending on which one of the SR and the xPRACH is transmitted on the LTE link and the 5G link; and decoding, after transmitting the message, a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) from the 5G eNB on the selected beam including a 5G uplink grant, the 5G uplink grant including resources allocated for transmitting uplink data.

In example 25, the subject matter of example 24 optionally includes the one or more processors further configuring the UE to perform one of: generating a SR for the LTE eNB and decoding an uplink grant for transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to transmitting the scheduling request, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report using a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmitting a resource allocation request for the 5G link in response to receiving the uplink grant, the LCID for providing a difference between uplink requests for the LTE link and the 5G link; and decoding a PDCCH received from the LTE eNB, the PDCCH including a request for the UE to perform a contention-free random access channel procedure with the 5G eNB and generating a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) with a specified preamble signature over the 5G link, the xPDCCH including a reduced Random Access Response (RAR) without a time advance and temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and scrambled in a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) by the C-RNTI.

Example 26 is a method of scheduling User Equipment (UE) data transmissions, the method comprising: obtaining at least one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) evolved node B (eNB) and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a fifth generation (5G) eNB; generating one of a Scheduling Request (SR) indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G eNB and a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH), the one of the SR and the xPRACH being selected to be transmitted on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource depending on which one of the SR and the xPRACH is transmitted on the LTE link and the 5G link; and decoding, after transmitting the message, a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) from the 5G eNB on the selected beam including a 5G uplink grant, the 5G uplink grant including resources allocated for transmitting uplink data.

In example 27, the subject matter of example 26 optionally further comprises one of: generating a SR for the LTE eNB and decoding an uplink grant for transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to transmitting the scheduling request, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report using a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmitting a resource allocation request for the 5G link in response to receiving the uplink grant, the LCID for providing a difference between uplink requests for the LTE link and the 5G link; and decoding a PDCCH received from the LTE eNB, the PDCCH including a request for the UE to perform a contention-free random access channel procedure with the 5G eNB and generating a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) with a specified preamble signature over the 5G link, the xPDCCH including a reduced Random Access Response (RAR) without a time advance and temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and scrambled in a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) by the C-RNTI.

Example 28 is a User Equipment (UE), comprising: means for obtaining at least one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) evolved node B (eNB) and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a fifth generation (5G) eNB; means for generating one of a Scheduling Request (SR) and a 5G physical random access channel (xRACH) indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G eNB, selecting one of the SR and the xRACH to transmit on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource depending on which one of the SR and the xRACH is transmitted on the LTE link and the 5G link; and means for decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel (xPDCCH) from the 5G eNB on the selected beam including a 5G uplink grant after transmitting the message, the 5G uplink grant including resources allocated for transmitting uplink data.

In example 29, the subject matter of example 28 optionally further comprises one of: means for generating a SR for the LTE eNB and decoding an uplink grant for transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report in response to transmitting a scheduling request, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; means for generating a BSR and a 5G beam measurement report using a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmitting a resource allocation request for the 5G link in response to receiving the uplink grant, the LCID for providing a difference between uplink requests for the LTE link and the 5G link; and means for decoding a PDCCH received from the LTE eNB, the PDCCH including a request for the UE to perform a contention-free random access channel procedure with the 5G eNB and generating a 5G physical random access channel (xPRACH) with a specified preamble signature over the 5G link, the xPDCCH including a reduced Random Access Response (RAR) without a time advance and temporary cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) and scrambled in a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) by the C-RNTI.

Although embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the disclosure. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The embodiments shown are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This detailed description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Such embodiments of the subject matter may be referred to herein, individually and/or collectively, by the term "embodiment" merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept (in which case more than one is in fact disclosed). Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.

In this document, the term "a" or "an" is used to include one or more, independently of any other instances or uses of "at least one" or "one or more," as is common in patent documents. In this document, the term "or" is used to refer to the nonexclusive, or "a or B" includes "a but not B," "B but not a," and "a and B," unless otherwise indicated. In this document, the terms "comprising" and "wherein" are used as the plain-english equivalents of the respective terms "comprising" and "wherein". Furthermore, in the following claims, the terms "comprising" and "including" are open-ended; that is, a system, UE, object, composition, formulation, or process that includes elements other than those listed after such term in a claim is still considered to fall within the scope of that claim. Furthermore, in the following claims, the terms "first," "second," and "third," etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

The abstract of the present disclosure is provided to comply with 37c.f.r. section 1.72(b) requirements for an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. The abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claims. Furthermore, in the foregoing detailed description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims (22)

1. An apparatus for communication, comprising:

at least one processor configured to cause a user equipment, UE, to:

generating a scheduling request indicating uplink data to be transmitted to a long term evolution, LTE, base station, the scheduling request depending on which of an LTE base station or a fifth generation, 5G, base station the scheduling request is to be transmitted to;

decoding a 5G uplink grant received from the LTE base station to send a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report to the LTE base station in response to sending the scheduling request, wherein the 5G beam measurement report includes an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement for the selected beam;

in response to receiving the uplink grant, generating the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report including a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmission to the 5G base station, wherein the LCID provides a difference between an uplink request for the LTE base station and an uplink request for the 5G base station; and

decoding a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, received from the 5G base station in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the scheduling request is included in a message, and wherein the message is sent to the 5G base station.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further arranged to:

generating the scheduling request for transmission over dedicated resources.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further arranged to:

generating the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving the uplink grant from the LTE base station, wherein the PDCCH is received in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further arranged to:

generating the BSR in response to receiving the uplink grant from the 5G base station; and

decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, in response to transmitting the BSR and transmitting the 5G beam measurement report.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further arranged to:

generating the scheduling request for non-dedicated resources; and

in response to transmitting the scheduling request, decoding a PDCCH from the LTE base station, the PDCCH including a request for the UE to perform a contention-free random access channel procedure with the 5G base station; and

in response to receiving the PDCCH, generating a 5G physical random access channel (xRACH) with a specified preamble signature for transmission to the 5G base station; and

decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, in response to transmitting the xRACH.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the specified preamble signature comprises a preamble index within a preamble index group identifying beam reference signal received power (BRS-RP) measurements obtained by the selected beam.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, in which the xPDCCH comprises a reduced random access response RAR without a time advance and a temporary cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI, and scrambled in a cyclic redundancy check, CRC, with the C-RNTI.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

the message includes a 5G physical random access channel, xPRACH, for transmission over dedicated resources.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one processor is further arranged to:

decoding an uplink grant from the 5G base station to transmit a buffer status report BSR and a 5G beam measurement report to the 5G base station in response to transmitting the xRACH, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected MIMO beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam;

generating the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving the uplink grant; and

decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, in response to transmitting the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein:

the message includes xRACH and buffer status report BSR for transmission through dedicated resources, and

wherein the at least one processor is further arranged to: decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, in response to sending the message.

12. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

the at least one processor comprises a baseband processor arranged to determine, from the LTE base station by radio resource control, RRC, signaling, an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request from the LTE base station and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to the 5G base station, the message for transmission on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource.

13. An apparatus for communication, comprising:

at least one processor configured to cause a base station to:

generating one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a fifth generation 5G base station for transmission by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; and

decoding a message transmitted on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G base station, the message comprising one of a scheduling request, SR, and a 5G physical random access channel, xRACH, the message depending on which of the LTE base station and the 5G base station the message is transmitted to;

in response to receiving the scheduling request over the uplink dedicated LTE resources, generating an uplink grant for transmitting a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report, wherein the 5G beam measurement includes at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; and

decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report including a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) after transmitting the uplink grant, wherein the LCID provides a difference between an uplink request for the LTE base station and an uplink request for the 5G base station.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the base station comprises the LTE base station, and

the at least one processor is further arranged to:

in response to receiving the scheduling request over the uplink dedicated LTE resources, generating an uplink grant for transmitting at least one of a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam; and

decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report after transmitting the uplink grant.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein:

the base station includes the 5G base station, and

the at least one processor is further arranged to:

in response to transmitting the scheduling request using the uplink dedicated LTE resource, generating an uplink grant for transmitting at least one of a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam;

decoding the BSR after transmitting the uplink grant; and

generating a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, comprising a 5G uplink grant for transmitting on the selected beam, the 5G uplink grant comprising resources allocated for transmitting the uplink data.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein:

the base station includes the 5G base station, and

the at least one processor is further arranged to:

decoding a 5G physical random access channel, xRACH, with a specified preamble signature after transmitting a PDCCH comprising a request for a user equipment, UE, to perform a contention free random access channel procedure with the 5G base station and in response to receiving the scheduling request from the LTE base station over a non-dedicated resource, the PDCCH comprising a reduced random access response, RAR, without a time advance and a temporary cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI, and scrambled in a cyclic redundancy check, CRC, by the C-RNTI; and

a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, comprising a 5G uplink grant is generated for transmission on the selected beam.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein:

the base station includes the 5G base station, and

the at least one processor is further arranged to:

generating an uplink grant for transmitting a buffer status report BSR and a 5G beam measurement report in response to receiving a 5G physical random access channel (xRACH) through the dedicated 5G resource, the 5G beam measurement including at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam;

decoding the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report after transmitting the uplink grant; and

generating a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, comprising a 5G uplink grant for transmitting on the selected beam.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 or 14, wherein:

the base station includes the 5G base station, and

the at least one processor is further arranged to:

generating a 5G physical downlink control channel xPDCCH comprising a 5G uplink grant for transmitting on the selected beam in response to receiving a 5G physical random access channel xRACH and a buffer status report BSR over the uplink dedicated 5G resources.

19. A method of scheduling user equipment, UE, data transmissions, the method comprising:

obtaining at least one of an uplink dedicated LTE resource for transmitting an uplink request to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station and an uplink dedicated 5G resource for transmitting an uplink request to a fifth generation 5G base station;

generating one of a Scheduling Request (SR) indicating uplink data to be transmitted to the 5G base station and a 5G physical random access channel (xRACH), selecting one of the SR and the xRACH to be transmitted on one of the uplink dedicated LTE resource and the uplink dedicated 5G resource depending on which one of an LTE link and a 5G link the one of the SR and the xRACH is transmitted on;

decoding an uplink grant received from the LTE base station to transmit a Buffer Status Report (BSR) and a 5G beam measurement report to the LTE base station in response to transmitting the SR, wherein the 5G beam measurement report includes at least one of an identification of a selected beam acquired from a Beam Reference Signal (BRS) and a BRS received power (BRS-RP) measurement of the selected beam;

in response to receiving the uplink grant, generating the BSR and the 5G beam measurement report including a Logical Channel Identification (LCID) for transmission to the 5G base station, wherein the LCID provides a difference between an uplink request for the LTE link and an uplink request for the 5G link; and

decoding a 5G physical downlink control channel, xPDCCH, from the 5G base station on a selected beam comprising a 5G uplink grant after transmitting the one of the SR and the xRACH, the 5G uplink grant comprising resources allocated for transmitting the uplink data.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising one of:

decoding a PDCCH received from the LTE base station, the PDCCH including a request for the UE to perform a contention-free random access channel procedure with the 5G base station, and generating a 5G physical random access channel xRACH with a specified preamble signature over a 5G link, the xPDCCH including a reduced random access response RAR without a time advance and temporary cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI and scrambled in a cyclic redundancy check CRC by the C-RNTI.

21. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to perform the method of any of claims 19-20.

22. An apparatus for scheduling user equipment, UE, data transmissions, comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 19-20.

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