CN109479280B

CN109479280B - Narrowband definition, resource allocation and frequency hopping for user equipment

Info

Publication number: CN109479280B
Application number: CN201780043544.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 韩承希; 德布迪普·查特吉; 叶悄扬
Original assignee: Apple Inc
Current assignee: Apple Inc; Intel Corp
Priority date: 2016-08-12
Filing date: 2017-08-11
Publication date: 2023-06-30
Anticipated expiration: 2037-08-11
Also published as: CN109479280A; WO2018031927A1

Abstract

An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) is described. The apparatus may include a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit is operable to define a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENB) for Downlink (DL) transmissions spanning a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) in a system bandwidth. The second circuit is operable to define a second set of one or more ENBs for Uplink (UL) transmissions that span a second set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. The apparatus may further include a memory storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

Description

Narrowband definition, resource allocation and frequency hopping for user equipment

Priority request

The present application claims priority under 35U.S. C. ≡119 (e) of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/374,627, entitled "Narrowband Definitions, resource Allocation, and Frequency Hopping For Further Enhanced Machine Type Communication User Equipment With Larger Bandwidth Support", filed 8/12 of 2016, and U.S. Ser. No. 62/401,431, entitled "Narrowband Definitions, resource Allocation, and Frequency Hopping For FeMTC UEs With Larger Bandwidth Support", filed 9/29 of 2016, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Background

Various wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented or are being proposed, including third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, and 3GPP LTE-advanced (LTE-a) system. Next generation wireless cellular communication systems based on LTE and LTE-a systems, such as fifth generation (5G) wireless systems/5G mobile network systems, are being developed. The next generation wireless cellular communication system may provide support for a large number of user devices, such as narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) devices, cellular internet of things (CIoT) devices, or Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices. These devices can have very low device complexity, can tolerate delays, and can be designed for low throughput and ultra low power consumption.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be more fully understood from the detailed description given below and the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the disclosure. However, while the drawings are presented to aid in the description and understanding, they are merely helpful and should not be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments described herein.

Fig. 1A-1B illustrate a reduced bandwidth low complexity (BL) User Equipment (UE) Narrowband (NB) of different LTE system Bandwidths (BW) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an Extended Narrowband (ENB) definition of a 15 megahertz (MHz) system BW according to some embodiments of the disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates ENB definitions of a 15MHz system BW and a 20MHz system BW according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates the splitting of Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)/Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) allocations with Frequency Hopping (FH) split at the band edges, according to some embodiments of the disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates PDSCH/PUSCH allocation with reference NB-based FH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates an evolved node B (eNodeB) and a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for a UE to support an ENB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for an eNodeB to support an ENB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates a method for supporting an ENB by a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 illustrates a method for an eNodeB to support an ENB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 12 illustrates an example interface of baseband circuitry according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented or are being proposed including a third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a 3GPP LTE-advanced (LTE-a) system, and a fifth generation wireless system/a fifth generation mobile network (5G) system/a fifth generation New Radio (NR) system.

Some goals of further enhanced machine type communication (FeMTC) may include: a higher data rate; a specification of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) bundling in Coverage Enhancement (CE) mode a in half duplex frequency division duplex (HD-FDD); a larger maximum Transport Block Size (TBS), a larger maximum Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)/Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) channel bandwidth in a connected mode (at least CE mode a, which may enhance support for voice, audio streaming, or other applications and scenarios); and up to 10 Downlink (DL) HARQ processes in CE mode a in full duplex frequency division duplex (FD-FDD).

Based on up to 5 megahertz (MHz) Bandwidth (BW) for higher data rate operation of FeMTC, two types of FeMTC devices can be envisioned: devices that support the feature and devices that do not support the feature. Devices supporting this feature would have to operate at maximum BW and PDSCH and PUSCH resource allocations in the frequency dimension may span more than one Narrowband (NB) (e.g., defined by a set of six frequency-consecutive Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs)). (although this new device may have a maximum supported BW of 5MHz, the embodiments discussed herein may be directly applied to other values of supported maximum UE BW greater than 1.4 MHz.)

In 3GPP release 13 enhanced machine type communication (eMTC), a reduced bandwidth low complexity (BL) User Equipment (UE) or coverage enhanced UE (CE UE) may support frequency hopping of PDSCH in DL and MTC Physical Downlink Control Channels (MPDCCH) on 2 or 4 NB across the entire LTE system BW and may support frequency hopping of PUSCH in UL on 2 NB across the entire LTE system BW. The initial location of the NB may be determined based on an indication in Downlink Control Information (DCI), and other NBs may be determined using a cell-specific offset. The frequency hopping may be performed in cycles (e.g., a first NB, a second NB, a first NB, etc. in the case of 2 NBs, or a first NB, a second NB, a third NB, a fourth NB, a first NB, etc. in the case of 4 NBs).

The enabling or disabling of FH may be configured via UE-specific higher layer signaling, e.g., dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. In addition, for unicast PDSCH and PUSCH, UEs in CE mode a (e.g., UEs that do not require repetition or require relatively few repetitions) may be indicated in a dynamic manner via DCI indicating DL allocation or Uplink (UL) grants, using FH or not using FH (once enabled by higher layer configurations).

The offset for the cell-specific configuration of FH may be indicated with NB and wraparound-around processing (wraparound-around) may be applied at one or more edges (or ends) of the LTE band. For example, if the initial NB is NB0, the skipped NB can be given by:

NB1＝(NB0+FH_offset)modulo N_NB

Wherein fh_offset may be a cell-specific configured FH offset, and n_nb may be the number of 6-PRB NBs in the LTE system BW.

For FeMTC UE categories supporting larger BW for PDSCH and PUSCH, the resource allocation may be larger than a single NB. In this case, the direct application of FH defined for 3GPP release 13 BL/CE UE would result in the splitting (segmentation) of PDSCH or PUSCH bandwidth at one or more LTE band edges due to wraparound operation.

Discussed herein are Extended Narrowband (ENB) for these UEs. Novel ENB-based resource allocation mechanisms are also discussed herein. In addition, methods of supporting FH for FeMTC UEs with larger BW support are discussed herein, where some options may be based on ENB.

In the following description, numerous details are discussed to provide a thorough explanation of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of the present disclosure.

Note that in the corresponding drawings of the embodiments, signals are represented by lines. Some lines may be thicker, to indicate a greater number of constituent signal paths, and/or have arrows at one or more ends, to indicate the direction of information flow. Such indications are not intended to be limiting. Rather, these lines are used in conjunction with one or more exemplary embodiments to facilitate a more readily understood understanding of a circuit or logic element. Any represented signal, as specified by design needs or preferences, may actually comprise one or more signals that may travel in either direction, and may be implemented with any suitable type of signal scheme.

Throughout this specification, and in the claims, the term "connected" means a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between things that are connected without any intervening devices. The term "coupled" means a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between things that are connected, or an indirect connection through one or more passive or active intermediary devices. The term "circuit" or "module" may refer to one or more passive and/or active components arranged to cooperate with each other to provide a desired function. The term "signal" may refer to at least one current signal, voltage signal, magnetic signal, or data/clock signal. The meaning of "a", "an", and "the" include plural references. The meaning of "in … …" includes "in … …" and "on … …".

The terms "substantially," "closely," "approximately," "nearly," and "approximately" generally refer to within +/-10% of a target value. Unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", and "third", etc., to describe a common object merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.

The terms "left", "right", "front", "back", "top", "bottom", "above … …", "below … …", and the like, if any, are used in this specification and in the claims for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions.

For purposes of the embodiments, the transistors in the various circuits, modules, and logic blocks are Tunnel FETs (TFETs). Some transistors of various embodiments may include Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistors including drain, source, gate, and bulk terminals. Transistors may also include tri-gate and FinFET transistors, gate all around cylindrical transistors, square-line or rectangular ribbon transistors, or other devices that implement transistor functionality, such as carbon nanotubes or spintronics. The source and drain terminals of a MOSFET are symmetrical i.e. the same terminals and are used interchangeably herein. TFET devices, on the other hand, have asymmetric source and drain terminals. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other transistors (e.g., bipolar junction transistor-BJT PNP/NPN, biCMOS, CMOS, etc.) may be used for some transistors without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrases "a and/or B" and "a or B" mean (a), (B) or (a and B). For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrase "A, B and/or C" means (a), (B), (C), (a and B), (a and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

In addition, the various elements of combinational and sequential logic discussed in this disclosure may all involve physical structures (such as AND gates, OR gates, or exclusive OR gates) or a synthetic or optimized collection of devices implementing the logic structure as a Boolean equivalent to the logic in question.

In addition, for purposes of this disclosure, the term "eNodeB" may refer to a legacy LTE capable evolved node B (eNodeB), a next generation or 5G capable eNodeB (e.g., gNodeB), a millimeter wave (mmWave) capable eNodeB or mmWave small cell, an Access Point (AP), a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) capable eNodeB, a cellular internet of things (CIoT) capable eNodeB, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) capable eNodeB, and/or another base station for a wireless communication system. For purposes of this disclosure, the term "UE" may refer to a legacy LTE-capable User Equipment (UE), a next generation or 5G-capable UE, a mmWave-capable UE, a Station (STA), a NB-IoT-capable UE, a CIoT-capable UE, an MTC-capable UE, and/or another mobile device for a wireless communication system.

Various embodiments of the eNodeB and/or UE discussed below may process one or more transmissions of various types. Some processing of the transmission may include demodulating, decoding, detecting, parsing, and/or otherwise handling the already received transmission. In some embodiments, the eNodeB or UE handling the transmission may determine or recognize the type of transmission and/or the conditions associated with the transmission. For some embodiments, the eNodeB or UE handling the transmission may act according to the type of transmission and/or may act conditionally based on the type of transmission. The eNodeB or UE handling the transmission may also recognize one or more values or fields of the data carried by the transmission. Processing a transmission may include moving the transmission through one or more layers of a protocol stack (which may be implemented in, for example, hardware and/or software configured elements), such as by moving the transmission that has been received by an eNodeB or UE via one or more layers of the protocol stack.

Various embodiments of the eNodeB and/or UE discussed below may also generate one or more transmissions of various types. Some generation of the transmission may include modulating, encoding, formatting, assembling, and/or otherwise handling the transmission to be sent. In some embodiments, the eNodeB or UE generating the transmission may establish the type of transmission and/or conditions associated with the transmission. For some embodiments, the eNodeB or UE generating the transmission may act according to the type of transmission and/or may act conditionally based on the type of transmission. The eNodeB or UE generating the transmission may also determine one or more values or fields of the data carried over the transmission. Generating the transmission may include moving the transmission through one or more layers of a protocol stack (which may be implemented in, for example, hardware and/or software configured elements), such as by moving the transmission to be sent by the eNodeB or UE via one or more layers of the protocol stack.

In various embodiments, the resources may span various Resource Blocks (RBs), physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), and/or time periods (e.g., frames, subframes, and/or slots) of the wireless communication system. In some contexts, allocated resources (e.g., channels, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFMD) symbols, subcarrier frequencies, resource Elements (REs), and/or portions thereof) may be formatted for transmission over (and prior to) a wireless communication link. In other contexts, the allocated resources (e.g., channels, OFDM symbols, subcarrier frequencies, REs, and/or portions thereof) may be detected from (and subsequent to) reception over the wireless communication link.

Various embodiments discussed herein may relate to an extended NB for a femtocue with a UE BW greater than 6 PRBs. In some embodiments, for 3GPP release 13 BL/CE UEs, the NB can be defined as a set of 6 contiguous PRBs. NB may be non-overlapping. The total number of DLNBs in the system bandwidth may be fixed as

And the total number of UL NB in the system bandwidth can be fixed to +.>

In various embodiments, the remaining RBs may be divided equally at both edges (or ends) of the system bandwidth, with some additional odd PRBs of the system BW (e.g., 3MHz, 5MHz, and 15 MHz) being located in the center of the system BW. The NBs may be numbered in order of increasing number of PRBs.

Fig. 1A-1B illustrate bandwidth reduced low complexity (BL) User Equipment (UE) for different LTE system Bandwidths (BW) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first system BW 110 (which may be 3 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 112 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB114. The second system BW 120 (which may be 5 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 122 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB 124.

The third system BW 130 (which may be 10 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 132 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB 134. The fourth system BW 140 (which may be 15 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 142 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB 144. The fifth system BW 150 (which may be 20 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 152 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB 154.

For an extended NB for FeMTC UEs with a UE BW greater than 6 PRBs, in a first design the maximum UE BW may be 5MHz (which may correspond to 25 PRBs) and in a second design the maximum UE BW may be 20MHz (which may correspond to 100 PRBs).

For the first design, where the maximum UE BW is 5MHz, the ENB may be defined as an aggregation of more than 6 PRBs that are frequency consecutive, where the number of aggregated PRBs may depend on the LTE system BW. Note that this ENB definition may only be applied to LTE systems with BW greater than 1.4 MHz. For LTE systems where BW is equal to 1.4MHz, the ENB definition may be degenerated to the definition of NB (e.g., 6 PRBs that are frequency contiguous).

For LTE systems BW of 3MHz and 5MHz, in various embodiments, for both DL and UL, an ENB may be defined to span all PRBs in the LTE system BW, and a single ENB may be defined accordingly. For some embodiments, for a 3MHz system BW, this may imply a single ENB spanning 15 PRBs, which may include two 6-PRB NB and 3 LTE PRBs that are not part of any 6-PRB NB. Alternatively, PRBs located at the edge of the system BW may not be included in the ENB, and thus a single ENB may span 13 PRBs. In some embodiments, for a 5MHz system BW, a single ENB may span 25 PRBs, including four 6-PRB NB and one LTE PRB located in the center of the system BW.

For some embodiments, the ENB definition and mapping between DL and UL may be different. As described above, the DL ENB definition may be similar or identical for the LTE system BW of 3MHz and/or 5 MHz. However, while the ENB definition may be the same for DL of a 3MHz system BW, the ENB definition may be different for a 5MHz system BW. For a 5MHz system BW, two ENBs may be defined, each of which may span 12 PRBs or 2 6-PRB NB. One ENB may correspond to nb#0 and #1 and the other ENB may correspond to nb#2 and #3.

In some embodiments, two ENBs may be defined for a 5MHz system BW. One ENB may correspond to two 6-PRB NB and the other ENB may correspond to two 6-PRB NB and a center PRB (the center PRB may not belong to any 6-PRB NB).

For some embodiments, for an LTE system BW of 5MHz, two ENBs may be defined for DL in a similar manner to UL definition. Each ENB may span 12 frequency-contiguous PRBs, or two 6-PRB NB. One ENB may correspond to nb#0 and #1 and the other ENB may correspond to nb#2 and #3.

In various embodiments, DL ENB and UL ENB may be aligned for LTE deployments with even system BW; however, for odd system BW (e.g., 3MHz, 5MHz, and/or 15 MHz), the UL ENB may be formed from only one or more frequency consecutive 6-PRB NBs. In various embodiments, it is desirable to align DL ENB and UL ENB, which may advantageously avoid additional frequency tuning during UL-to-DL and/or DL-to-UL switching in a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system.

For LTE systems BW of 10MHz and 20MHz, in various embodiments, two ENBs or four ENBs may be defined, where each ENB may include 4 frequency-consecutive 6-PRB NBs and may be the same for DL and UL.

For a 15MHz LTE system BW, in some embodiments, the ENBs may be defined such that DL and UL have 2 ENBs in common. For example, there may be ENB#0 crossing NB#0, NB#1, NB#2, and NB#3, and there may be ENB#1 crossing NB#8, NB#9, NB#10, and NB#11.

Fig. 2 illustrates an ENB definition of a 15MHz system BW according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The system BW 240 (which may be 15 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 242, a plurality of 6-PRB NB 244, and a plurality of ENBs 246. For some embodiments, for a 15MHz LTE system BW, 3 ENBs may be defined for DL and UL. Enb#0 may span nb#0, nb#1, nb#2, and nb#3, enb#1 may span nb#4, nb#5, nb#6, nb#7, and PRBs located at the center of the system BW (which may not belong to any 6-PRB NB), and enb#2 spans nb#8, nb#9, nb#10, and en#11. This is shown in fig. 2 below.

In some embodiments, the ENBs for the DL and UL may not be aligned. For example, the UL may have 2 ENBs, each of which may include 4 frequency-contiguous 6-PRB NBs (e.g., enb#0 spans nb#0, nb#1, nb#2, and nb#3, enb#1 spans nb#8, nb#9, nb#10, and nb#11); while DL may have 3 ENBs (e.g., enb#0 spans nb#0, nb#1, nb#2, and nb#3, enb#1 spans nb#4, nb#5, nb#6, nb#7, and PRBs located in the center of the system BW (which may not belong to any 6-PRB NB), enb#2 spans nb#8, nb#9, nb#10, and nb#11), or vice versa.

Additionally, in various embodiments, one or more edge PRBs (which may not be part of any NB) may also be included in the ENB. For example, when an ENB includes an NB adjacent to an edge PRB not belonging to any NB, the edge PRB may also be included in the ENB.

The various possible ENB definitions are summarized in table 1 below. In various embodiments, the DL ENB definition and the UL ENB definition may be the same. For the last column, the number in brackets may indicate the number of PRBs that may constitute an ENB in each case (N _RB ^XL-ENB (xl=dl or UL)).

Table 1: the number of PRBs, NBs, and ENBs corresponding to various LTE systems BW, where the maximum UE BW is 5MHz

For the second design, where the maximum UE BW is 20MHz, the ENB may be defined as an aggregation of more than 6 PRBs that may be frequency continuous, where the number of aggregated PRBs may depend on the LTE system BW. The number of ENBs in the different systems BW is summarized in table 2. For 3MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, and 20MHz system BW, there may be edge PRBs that are not part of any NB. In some embodiments, these edge PRBs may not be counted in any ENB. For some embodiments, these edge PRBs may be counted in different ENBs.

Table 2: the number of PRBs, NBs, and ENBs corresponding to various LTE systems BW, where the maximum UE BW is 20MHz

Fig. 3 illustrates ENB definitions of a 15MHz system BW and a 20MHz system BW according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first system BW 340 (which may be 15 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 342, a plurality of NBs 344, and one or more ENBs 346. The second system BW 350 (which may be 20 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 352, a plurality of NBs 354, and one or more ENBs 356.

In various embodiments where the maximum UE BW is 20MHz, edge PRBs may not be calculated in any ENB. Alternatively, one or more edge RBs not belonging to any NB may be included in the ENB.

For the extended NB for FeMTC UEs with a UE BW greater than 6 PRBs, for the first and second designs, where ENB is defined to include not only the 6-PRB NB but also a center PRB that is not part of any 6-PRB NB, in some embodiments, additional PRBs may be used for DL and UL resource allocation. For some embodiments, additional PRBs may not be available for DL scheduling, but may be available for UL scheduling, allowing for PRB alignment with PDSCH scheduling available for 3GPP release 13 BL/CEUE, while allowing for single carrier PUSCH transmission (based on single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA)) across the entire set of available resources within up to ENB (including a center PRB that is not part of a 6-PRB NB).

For some embodiments, there may be edge PRBs in some system BW that do not belong to any NB. In some embodiments, these edge PRBs may not be included in the ENB. Alternatively, these edge PRBs may be included in the ENB and may be used for resource allocation. They may be used for DL and UL transmissions, or only for DL transmissions, or only for UL transmissions.

In some embodiments, the ENBs may be indexed in ascending order of PRBs, similar to the indexing of NB.

In various embodiments, this definition of ENB may apply only to LTE systems with BW greater than 1.4 MHz. For an LTE system with BW of 1.4MHz, the ENB definition may be degenerated to the definition of NB (e.g., 6 PRBs that are contiguous in frequency).

Various embodiments discussed herein may relate to resource allocation options for PDSCH and/or PUSCH based on ENB for CE mode a. Various resource allocation mechanisms for PDSCH and PUSCH may be combined with ENB.

In some embodiments, DCI formats 6-1A (with DL allocation) and 6-0A (with UL grant) may use ceil (log 2 (N) _ENB ^XL ) Most Significant Bits (MSBs) to indicate ENB index, wherein xl is DL and UL, respectively, and N for DCI 6-1A and 6-0a _ENB ^XL There may be a total number of ENBs in the system BW for xl=dl or UL.

In addition, the next ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL-ENB ) Indicating allocated frequency domain resources within an ENB with NB as granularity, where N _NB ^XL-ENB The number of NBs within the ENB may be indicated and may be defined by N _NB ^XL-ENB ＝floor(N _RB ^XL-ENB (6) give, wherein N _RB ^XL-ENB The number of RBs within the ENB may be represented. From N _NB ^XL-ENB The indicated number of NBs may be frequency consecutive and start from the first (lowest) NB, or may be frequency consecutive and end at the last (highest) NB within the ENB. In other words, the reference NB may be a first (lowest) NB (starting NB as a set of allocated NBs) or a last (highest) NB (ending NB as a set of allocated NBs).

Alternatively, the reference NB may be any NB in the ENB, and the allocated NB may be all preceding NB or all following NB in the ENB with respect to the reference NB. Indication of the reference NB may use ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL-Ref-NB ) Bit, where N _NB ^XL-Ref-NB Can indicate the number of possible reference NBs. In some exemplary embodiments, N _NB ^XL-Ref-NB ＝N _NB ^XL-ENB . The selection of a "preceding" NB or a "following" NB relative to a reference NB may be predetermined or predefined (e.g., fixed), or may be dynamically configured (e.g., via additional 1-bits in the DCI), or may be semi-statically configured (e.g., via higher layer signaling such as RRC signaling). For embodiments in which the reference NB is the first NB or the last NB within the ENB, the indication of "preceding" NB and "following" NB may be implicitly indicated when the reference NB is indicated, the "preceding" for the reference NB being the last NB, the "following" for the reference NB being the first NB.

Additionally, in some embodiments, as another alternative to allocating the NBs within the ENB, a starting NB index and the number of NBs to allocate may be indicated. The starting NB may be the first (lowest) NB or the last (highest) NB within the ENB. Table 3 below provides examples of possible starting NB indices and NB lengths.

Table 3 example of possible NB allocations within enb

The number of bits for the indication of NB within ENB may be ceil (log ₂ ((N _NB ^XL-ENB +1)/2*N _NB ^XL-ENB ) A) bit. For example, when the ENB includes 4 NBs, the number of bits for NB allocation within the ENB may be 4 in the present embodiment.

In various embodiments, since DFT size may be limited to multiples of 2, 3, and/or 5, the number of NBs that may be multiples of 7 may be excluded from PUSCH transmission. Therefore, the number of bits for UL can be further reduced. Alternatively, a combination including a number of NBs that may be a multiple of 7 may be reused to indicate distributed NB allocations, which may advantageously increase scheduling flexibility.

For example, when the maximum UE BW is 20MHz and the ENB is defined to include 16 NBs, the resource allocation excluding the number of NBs that may be multiples of 7 may be listed as follows:

the starting NB may be 0 and the NB number may be any value in the set {1,2,..6, 8,9,..13, 15,16 }.

The starting NB may be 1 and the NB number may be any value in the set {1,2,..6, 8,9,..13, 15 }.

The starting NB may be 2 and the NB number may be any value in the set {1,2,..6, 8,9,..13 }.

The starting NB may be x, where x may be in the set {3,4,..8 } and the NB number may be any value in the set {1,2,..6, 8,..16-x }.

The starting NB may be 9 and the NB number may be any value in the set {1,2,..6 }.

The starting NB may be x, where x may be in the set { 10..15 } and the NB number may be any value in the set {1, 2..16-x }.

The number of possible combinations above may be 123, so that 7 bits of the indicator are sufficient. There may be more than 5 resource allocations available for a 7-bit resource allocation. These 5 resource allocations may be reserved and may be used to indicate the distributed NB allocations. In some embodiments, if all the number of NBs are supported, the number of possible combinations of ENBs including 16 NBs may be 136, so the number of bits required for the NB indicator may be ceil (log) ₂ ((N _NB ^XL-ENB +1)/2*N _NB ^XL-ENB ) ) is set for 8 bits.

For some embodiments, a length equal to N may be used, at least for the case of DL scheduling (e.g., for PDSCH) _NB ^XL-ENB To indicate the allocated NB. For example, for an ENB including four NBs, bitmap 1001 may indicate that the first and last NB in the ENB are allocated.

In some embodiments, to reduce the number of bits used for NB allocation, a predetermined or predefined set of NBs may be used. For example, when the ENB includes 4 NBs in the system (e.g., for a system with BW of 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz), the bit indicating the NB index is reused to indicate the ENB index, which may leave 2 bits for NB allocation within the ENB. In one embodiment, these 2 bits may be used to indicate one of the following NB allocations: {0,1}, {2,3}, {0,1,2}, or {0,1,2,3}.

For some embodiments, the last 5 bits of the resource block allocation field in DCI 6-0A and/or DCI 6-1A may be used to indicate the allocated PRBs within a 6-PRB NB and the same PRB allocation may be made in each 6-PRB NB. Although this approach may be used for DL, it is not desirable for UL resource allocation without allocating all PRBs in the NB to the UE due to violating the single carrier characteristic of SC-FDMA based transmission.

In some embodiments, an alternative way to solve this problem may be to parse the last 5 bits of the resource block allocation field to indicate the PRBs for the first NB allocated or the last NB allocated within the ENB, and parse out all PRBs in the following NB (if RB allocation indicates RBs within the first NB) or the preceding NB (if RB allocation indicates RBs within the last NB) within the ENB are also allocated. Such an alternative method may be applied only to UL (e.g., for PUSCH), while the former alternative method (e.g., the same PRB allocation in each NB of the ENB) may be used for DL (PDSCH), or alternative parsing may be applied to both UL (PUSCH) and DL (PDSCH) resource allocation.

For some embodiments, no additional fields may be required in DCI formats 6-0A and 6-1A, as the UE may re-resolve resource block allocations as described above when configured to operate in "aggregate BW mode" or "higher BW mode" via higher layer signaling. Alternatively, feMTC UEs supporting BW greater than 1.4MHz may be designated as described above as always parsing the resource allocation fields in DCI formats 6-0A and 6-1A, rather than parsing according to the 3GPP Release 13 definition of the respective DCI formats.

According to the above method, if the ENB definition includes a center PRB (which does not belong to any 6-PRB NB), it is impossible to explicitly indicate an additional center PRB for the case of an odd system BW. However, the center PRB may still be implicitly allocated by defining an action that if an NB on the side of the center PRB is allocated to a UE, the center PRB may also be considered as allocated to the UE. This approach may be particularly applicable to PUSCH scheduling (due to single carrier constraints).

Alternatively, the allocation (or not) of the center PRB may be indicated using a new 1-bit field or by expanding an existing resource block allocation field by 1 bit at the cost of increasing the DCI size. This method may be considered only for scheduling of PDSCH (i.e., DCI 6-1A) and not for UL grant of PUSCH transmission.

Edge PRBs that do not belong to any NB in some system BW may also be included in the ENB and may be allocated to the UE. The indication of edge PRB allocation may be explicit or implicit (as with a central PRB allocation). For implicit indications, the following actions may be defined: if a first NB or a last NB next to an edge PRB not belonging to any NB is allocated, the edge PRB next to the allocated NB may also be allocated. For explicit indication, a 1-bit field may be added to the DCI for indication. Note that if edge PRBs can only be used for DL or UL transmissions, such resource allocation for edge PRBs can be applied to the corresponding DL or UL transmissions.

For some embodiments, in addition to the re-parsing of the resource allocation fields in DCI formats 6-0A and 6-1A, one or more new fields may be introduced to provide additional flexibility including frequency domain resource allocation within each NB of the ENB.

In some embodiments, the method may be performed by using ceil (log 2 (N) _ENB ^XL ) Bit indicates ENB index within system BW for frequency domain resource allocation and DL resource allocation type 2 can be used to N _NB ^XL-ENB The RBs are granularity to indicate resources within the ENB, where N _NB ^XL-ENB Is the number of NBs in the ENB of the corresponding system BW. Thus, 5 bits (as in DCI format 6-1A) may be used to indicate resource allocation within an ENB. For some embodiments based on this method of using DL resource allocation type 2, the resource allocation granularity may be defined as k RBs, where k may be predetermined or predefined (e.g., specified); for example, k may be predetermined to be 2.

Different combinations of options discussed herein that indicate NB within the ENB and resource allocation within the NB may also be supported.

Various embodiments discussed herein may relate to resource allocation options based on PDSCH and PUSCH for ENB of CE mode B.

Based on DCI formats 6-1B and 6-0B, the resource allocation mechanism for PDSCH and PUSCH may use ENB for CE mode B UE. The number of bits in the resource allocation fields of DCI formats 6-1B and 6-0B may be ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^DL ) +1 bit and ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^UL ) +3 bits, where N _NB ^XL The number of NBs in XL may be represented, xl=dl for format 6-1b, and xl=ul for format 6-0 b.

Although DL and UL scheduling options are given below, in some embodiments, applications larger than 6-PRB NB with UE channel BW greater than 1.4MHz may only be supported for unicast PDSCH and may not be supported for non-unicast PUSCH transmission (when the UE is in CE mode B).

In some embodiments, various methods may be considered for NB allocation. For some embodiments, DCI formats 6-1B (with DL allocation) and 6-0B (with UL grant) may use ceil (log 2 (N) _ENB ^XL ) Most Significant Bits (MSBs) to indicate ENB index, wherein xl is DL and UL for DCI 6-1B and 6-0B, respectively, where N _ENB ^XL There may be a total number of ENBs in the system BW for xl=dl or UL. With the present method, the total number of remaining available bits other than the ENB index may be ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL ))-ceil(log2(N _ENB ^XL ) +y bits, where y=1 for DL and y=3 for UL.

In addition, allocation of NB within ENB may be based on various methods. Note that with some of the methods discussed herein or with some maximum UE channel BW (e.g., 20 MHz), the remaining available bits in the resource allocation field may not be sufficient and additional bits/fields may be required.

In some embodiments, the next ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL-ENB ) The frequency domain resources in the ENB are indicated with NB as granularity. N (N) _NB ^XL-ENB The number of NBs within the ENB may be indicated and may be defined by N _NB ^XL-ENB ＝floor(N _RB ^XL-ENB (6) giveWherein N is _RB ^XL-ENB The number of RBs within the ENB may be represented. From N _RB ^XL-ENB The indicated number of NBs may be frequency consecutive and may start from the first (lowest) NB within the ENB, or may be frequency consecutive and may end at the last (highest) NB within the ENB. In other words, the reference NB may be a first (lowest) NB (starting NB as a set of allocated NBs) or a last (highest) NB (ending NB as a set of allocated NBs). The remaining available bits may be at least 2+y bits for a maximum UE channel BW of 5MHz (for ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL-ENB ) Sufficient).

For some embodiments, the reference NB may be any NB within the ENB, and the assigned NB may be all preceding or all following NBs relative to the reference NB in the ENB. Indication of the reference NB may use ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL-Ref-NB ) Bit, where N _NB ^XL-Ref-NB The number of possible reference NBs may be indicated, and in one example, N _NB ^XL-Ref-NB ＝N _NB ^XL-ENB . The selection of a "preceding" or "following" NB relative to a reference NB may be predetermined or predefined (e.g., fixed), or may be dynamically configured (e.g., additional 1 bit in DCI), or may be semi-statically configured (e.g., via higher layer signaling such as RRC signaling). For embodiments in which the reference NB is the first NB or the last NB, the indication of "preceding" and "following" NBs may be implicitly indicated when the reference NB is indicated, the "preceding" NB relative to the reference NB being the last NB, the "following" NB relative to the reference NB being the first NB.

In some embodiments, the remaining available bits may be at least 2 bits for a maximum UE channel BW of 5MHz, these remaining available bits being for ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL-Ref-NB ) A "preceding" NB or a "following" NB may be predetermined or predefined, or may be semi-statically configured via higher layer signaling. If the selection of "preceding" or "following" is indicated with DCI, the possible set of reference NBs may be limited to 2.

For some embodiments, to allocate NB within the ENB, only the starting NB index and the number of NB to be allocated may be indicated. The starting NB may be the first (lowest) NB or the last (highest) NB in the ENB. The allocation method may allocate consecutive NB allocations.

Table 4 below may provide examples of possible starting NB indices and NB lengths.

Table 4: instantiation of possible NB allocations within an ENB

The number of bits for the indication of NB within ENB may be ceil (log ₂ ((N _NB ^XL-ENB +1)/2*N _NB ^XL-ENB ) A) bit. For example, when the ENB includes 4 NBs, the number of bits for NB allocation within the ENB may be 4. Note that the NB number that is a multiple of 7 can be excluded for PUSCH transmission because the DFT size is limited to multiples of 2, 3, and 5. Thus, the number of bits required for UL can be further reduced. Alternatively, a combination including a number of NBs that may be a multiple of 7 may be reused to indicate distributed NB allocations, which may advantageously increase scheduling flexibility.

For example, when the maximum UE BW is 20MHz and the ENB is defined to include 16 NBs, then the resource allocation excluding the number of NBs that may be multiples of 7 may be listed as follows:

The number of possible combinations above may be 123, so a 7 bit indicator is sufficient. There are more 5 resource allocations available for 7-bit resource allocation. These 5 resource allocations may be reserved or may be used to indicate the distributed NB allocations. In some embodiments, if all the number of NBs are supported, the number of possible combinations for ENBs comprising 16 NBs may be 136, so the number of bits required for the NB indicator may be ceil (log ₂ ((N _NB ^XL-ENB +1)/2*N _NB ^XL-ENB ) ) is set for 8 bits.

In some embodiments, BW is 5MHz and N for the largest UE _NB ^XL-ENB A scenario of=4, the number of bits required may be 4 bits. The remaining available bits may not be sufficient. Some embodiments may add additional bits/fields for NB allocation indication.

For some embodiments, to minimize the number of bits for NB allocation, a predetermined or predefined set of NBs may be used. For example, when an ENB includes 4 NBs in the system (e.g., for a system with BW of 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz), the bits indicating the NB index are reused to indicate the ENB index, leaving 2 bits available for NB allocation within the ENB. In one embodiment, these 2 bits may be used to indicate one of the following NB allocations: {0,1}, {2,3}, {0,1,2}, or {0,1,2,3}.

For some embodiments, at least for the case of DL scheduling (e.g., for PDSCH), a length equal to N may be used _NB ^XL-ENB To indicate the allocated NB. For example, for an ENB including four NBs, bitmap 1001 may indicate that the first NB and the last NB in the ENB are allocated.

In some embodiments, various approaches may be considered in order to indicate PRB allocation within an NB. For some embodiments, allocated PRBs within a 6-PRB NB may follow DCI 6-0B and DCI 6-1B designs, where 3 bits may be used to indicate RB allocation in DCI 6-0B and 1 bit may be used to indicate RB {0,1,..5 } or {0,1,2,3} in DCI 6-1B. The same allocation of PRBs may be made in each 6-PRB NB. Although this approach may be used for DL, it may not be applicable for UL resource allocation without allocating all PRBs in the NB to the UE due to violating the single carrier characteristic of SC-FDMA based transmission.

For some embodiments, an alternative way to solve this problem may be to parse the resource block allocation field to indicate that PRBs are allocated for the first NB or last NB allocated within the ENB, and parse out all PRBs in the subsequent NB (if RB allocation indicates RBs within the first NB) or the previous NB (if RB allocation indicates RBs within the last NB) in the ENB may also be allocated. Such alternative parsing may be applied to UL (PUSCH) while previous Parsing for DL (PDSCH) (e.g., the same PRB allocation within each NB of an ENB) or alternative parsing may be used for both UL (PUSCH) and DL (PDSCH) resource allocation.

In some embodiments, no additional fields are needed in DCI formats 6-0B and 6-1B in this case, as the UE may re-resolve the resource block allocation as described above when configured to operate in "aggregate BW mode" or "higher BW mode" via higher layer signaling. Alternatively, feMTC UEs supporting BW greater than 1.4MHz may be designated to always parse the resource allocation fields in DCI formats 6-0B and 6-1B as described above, without parsing according to the 3GPP Release 13 definition of the respective DCI formats.

According to the above method, in case the ENB definition includes a center PRB (which does not belong to any 6-PRB NB), it is impossible to explicitly indicate an additional center PRB for the case of an odd system BW. However, the center PRB may still be implicitly allocated by defining an action that if an NB on the side of the center PRB is allocated to a UE, the center PRB may also be considered as allocated to the UE. This approach may be particularly applicable to PUSCH scheduling (due to single carrier constraints).

Alternatively, the allocation (or not) of the center PRB may be indicated using a new 1-bit field or by expanding an existing resource block allocation field by 1 bit at the cost of increasing the DCI size. This method may be considered only for scheduling of PDSCH (i.e., DCI 6-1B) and not for UL grant of PUSCH transmission.

For some embodiments, in addition to the re-parsing of the resource allocation fields in DCI formats 6-0B and 6-1B, one or more new fields may be introduced to provide additional flexibility including frequency domain resource allocation within each NB of the ENB.

In some embodiments, the method may be performed by using ceil (log 2 (N) _ENB ^XL ) Bit indicates ENB index within system BW for frequency domain resource allocation and DL resource allocation type 2 can be used to N _NB ^XL-ENB The RBs are granularity to indicate resources within the ENB, where N _NB ^XL-ENB Is the number of NBs in the ENB of the corresponding system BW. Thus, 3 bits (as in DCI format 6-0B) other than the remaining bits in the NB index indication, namely ceil (log 2 (N) _NB ^XL ))-ceil(log2(N _ENB ^XL ) A) bit that may be used to indicate resource allocation within an ENB for PUSCH. For PDSCH, the number of bits in the resource allocation field may be 2 bits less than PUSCH. The following method can be employed to reduce the number of bits required. In another embodiment based on this method of using DL resource allocation type 2, the resource allocation granularity may be defined as k RBs, where k may be predetermined or predefined (e.g., predetermined or predefined by a specification). For example, k may be 2. Alternatively, additional bits may be added.

Various embodiments discussed herein may relate to mechanisms and methods to support FH for PDSCH and PUSCH for FeMTC UEs with UE BW greater than 6 PRBs.

In some cases of FeMTC UEs supporting BW greater than 1.4MHz, for example, when PDSCH/PUSCH allocation may span more than one 6-PRB NB, there is problematic behavior in configuring FH while determining NB to skip based on configured initial allocation and frequency offset due to wraparound processing of band edges.

For a 5MHz UE BW supporting a larger BW FeMTC UE, and for a 10MHz, 15MHz, and 20MHz system BW, the resources allocated for PDSCH and/or PUSCH may split on both sides of the two edges of the system BW, so only a portion of the entire allocation may be accessed by the UE. This is possible because FH can be defined with NB granularity.

Fig. 4 illustrates the splitting of Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)/Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) allocations with Frequency Hopping (FH) split at the band edges, according to some embodiments of the disclosure. The first system BW 410 (which may be 10 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 412, a plurality of 6-PRB NB 414, and one or more ENBs 416. The second system BW 420 (which may be 10 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 422 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB424.

It is possible that only a subset of NBs within the ENB (but not all NBs) may be allocated for transmission. Enb#1 (including nb#4 to nb#7) may be allocated for PDSCH and/or PUSCH transmission. For FH offsets of 2 NBs, splitting may occur at the band edges.

In some embodiments, a first solution to the above-described problem may rely on an eNodeB scheduler implementation that will ensure that the resulting NB for FH offsets supporting a particular configuration of a larger BW will not be affected by wraparound processing. For example, for those allocations where wraparound processing would result in the split described above, the FH field in the DCI may be used to disable the FH. The drawback of the first solution is that for the potential impact of scheduling flexibility, not only for FeMTC UEs but also for other UEs that may collide with FeMTC allocation (e.g. 3GPP release 13 BL/CE UEs) (unless these UEs are scheduled carefully with additional constraints (if FH is enabled for these UEs), frequency hopping is not performed).

To address this drawback, for some embodiments, a second solution to the above-described problem may be to use ENB-based resource allocation and FH for FeMTC UEs supporting a larger BW (at least when these UEs are scheduled with more than 6 PRBs of frequency domain resources for PDSCH and/or PUSCH).

Accordingly, in some embodiments, the initial resource block allocation for PDSCH and/or PUSCH may be defined in units of ENB (as described in the previous subsection), and the FH offset (which may be indicated in units of NB) may be defined as an integer multiple of the number of NBs in the ENB (as defined for a particular system BW), thereby avoiding any problem around the system BW edge. Therefore, it is not desirable to configure the UE with FH offset that is not an integer multiple of the number of NBs in the ENB corresponding to the system BW.

Note that the same FH offset may be applied to 3GPP release 13 BL/CE and other BL/CE UEs supporting a UE BW of no more than 1.4 MHz. In addition, collisions between FeMTC UEs with more than 6 PRB allocations and other UEs may be advantageously avoided.

In some embodiments, a third solution to the above problem is to define the initial resource block allocation for PDSCH and/or PUSCH in ENB units (as described in the previous subsection) and employ FH offsets that are not constrained to multiples of the ENB size. In such an embodiment, the application of FH may be defined so that the ENB that hops to from the initial allocation may be determined based on the first NB in the ENB, and FH rules may be defined so that the UE may select enb#j from enb#i (e.g., initial allocation) so that NB (which may be NB nb_i+fh_offset) may fall within enb#j, where nb_i may be the first NB (or last NB, or NB of any particular specified location) of enb#i. Thus, the FH offset fh_offset may be configured with NB granularity (rather than ENB granularity), and the UE may decide to jump to (or not to jump to) a different ENB depending on whether applying the fh_offset to the reference NB within the ENB results in a transition to a different ENB.

Fig. 5 illustrates PDSCH/PUSCH allocation with reference NB-based FH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The first system BW 510 (which may be 10 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 512, a plurality of 6-PRB NB 514, and one or more ENBs 516. The second system BW 520 (which may be 10 MHz) may include a plurality of PRBs 522 and a plurality of 6-PRB NB 524.

Fig. 5 depicts a scenario of FH of the first NB where nb_i is enb#i. In this scenario, for certain (smaller) values of fh_offset, the FeMTC UE may not hop at all. The eNodeB scheduler may ensure that the frequency domain resources of enb#i are not allocated to other UEs in the subframes where FH should be applied. Otherwise, there may be a conflict between FeMTC UEs supporting a larger BW and not able to effectively jump to a different set of frequency resources and other UEs actually changing their frequency locations at the FH boundary.

In addition, in some embodiments that may involve the second and third solutions, the FH units may be k NBs instead of ENBs. The granularity of the hopping resources may be k consecutive NBs while the hopping offset may be k-NB segments (which may relate to the second solution) or any number of NBs (which may relate to the third solution). Instead of defining the ENB size as the maximum number of consecutive NBs that can be supported by UEs with UE channel BW greater than 1.4MHz, the k-NB segments may be parsed into ENBs defined to include k consecutive NBs, where k may be no greater than the maximum number of consecutive NBs that can be supported by UEs with UE channel BW greater than 1.4 MHz.

The parameter k may be predetermined or predefined, semi-statically configured (e.g., by higher layer signaling), or may be dynamically indicated by adding additional bits in the DCI. For example, k may be any value in the set {1,2,4,8}, in which case 2 bits may be set to be added to the DCI for dynamic indication. Alternatively, k may be implicitly indicated (e.g., set k equal to the number of NBs allocated for transmission). This mechanism can be applied in a scenario where ENB-based FH methods do not lead to FH at all. Such a mechanism may be applied, for example, in scenarios where the maximum UE channel BW may be equal to 20MHz or where the system BW may be small (e.g., 3MHz or 5 MHz).

In addition, a combination of various mechanisms may be specified so that a particular mechanism may be applied based on system BW, maximum UE channel BW, and so on.

In particular, for the second solution, k-NB based FH may be used for FeMTC UEs supporting a larger BW at least when these UEs are scheduled with more than six PRBs of frequency domain resources for PDSCH and/or PUSCH. In this solution, the granularity of the skipped resources may be k consecutive NBs, and the FH offset may also be k consecutive NBs. When k is not less than the number of NBs allocated for transmission, any problem around the system BW edge can be avoided.

For the third solution, the total frequency resources can be divided into floor (N) _NB /k) parts, where N _NB The total number of NBs in the system may be represented. In this solution, the granularity of the skipped resources may be k consecutive NBs, and the FH offset may be any number of NBs. An application of FH may be defined such that k NBs hopped from an initial allocation are determined based on a first NB allocated for transmission, and FH rules may be defined such that the UE selects k-NB #j (e.g., the jth partition or segment with k consecutive NBs) according to k-NB #i (e.g., initial allocation). NB (NB_i+FH_offset) may fall within k-NB #j, where NB_i may be the first NB (or last NB or NB of any specific designated location) of k-NB #i.

Thus, the FH offset (fh_offset) may be configured with NB granularity, and the UE may decide to hop (or not) to a different k-NB depending on whether applying fh_offset to a reference NB within the k-NB would result in a transition to a different k-NB. The NB allocated within the k-NB may be the same before and after FH. The eNodeB scheduler may be set to ensure that no frequency domain resources (at least the NB allocated for transmission in k-nb#i) are allocated to other UEs in the subframes where FH should be applied. Otherwise, there may be a conflict between FeMTC UEs supporting a larger BW that do not effectively jump to a different set of frequency resources and other UEs that may actually change their frequency location at the FH boundary. Note that k may be set equal to or greater than the number of NB allocated for transmission.

Fig. 6 illustrates an eNodeB and a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 6 includes an eNodeB 610 and a UE 630 operable to coexist with each other and with other elements of an LTE network. Advanced simplified architecture of eNodeB 610 and UE 630 is described to avoid obscuring embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, the eNodeB 610 may be a static non-mobile device.

The eNodeB 610 is coupled to one or more antennas 605 and the ue 630 is similarly coupled to one or more antennas 625. However, in some embodiments, the eNodeB 610 may incorporate or include the antenna 605, and in various embodiments, the UE 630 may incorporate or include the antenna 625.

In some embodiments, antennas 605 and/or 625 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including monopole antennas, dipole antennas, loop antennas, patch antennas, microstrip antennas, coplanar wave antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO (multiple input multiple output) embodiments, antennas 605 are separated to take advantage of spatial diversity.

The eNodeB 610 and the UE630 are operable to communicate with each other over a network (e.g., a wireless network). The eNodeB 610 and the UE630 may communicate with each other over a wireless communication channel 650, where the wireless communication channel 650 has a downlink path from the eNodeB 610 to the UE630 and an uplink path from the UE630 to the eNodeB 610.

As shown in fig. 6, in some embodiments, an eNodeB 610 may include physical layer circuitry 612, MAC (media access control) circuitry 614, a processor 616, memory 618, and hardware processing circuitry 620. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other components not shown in the figures other than those shown in the figures may also be used to form a complete eNodeB.

In some embodiments, the physical layer circuitry 612 includes a transceiver 613 for providing signals to and from the UE 630. The transceiver 613 provides signals to and from a UE or other device using one or more antennas 605. In some embodiments, MAC circuit 614 controls access to the wireless medium. Memory 618 may be or include storage media/media such as magnetic storage media (e.g., tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., a conventional hard disk drive, solid state disk drive, or flash memory-based storage media), or any tangible or non-transitory storage media. The hardware processing circuit 620 may include logic devices or circuits to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the processor 616 and the memory 618 are arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuit 620, e.g., the operations described herein with reference to the eNodeB 610 and/or logic devices and circuits in the hardware processing circuit 620.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, the eNodeB610 may be a device that includes an application processor, memory, one or more antenna ports, and an interface that allows the application processor to communicate with another device.

In addition, as shown in fig. 6, in some embodiments, UE 630 may include physical layer circuitry 632, MAC circuitry 634, processor 636, memory 638, hardware processing circuitry 640, wireless interface 642, and display 644. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other components not shown in the figures other than those shown in the figures may be used to form a complete UE.

In some embodiments, the physical layer circuit 632 includes a transceiver 633 for providing signals to and from the eNodeB610 (and other enodebs). The transceiver 633 provides signals to and from the eNodeB or other device using one or more antennas 625. In some embodiments, MAC circuit 634 controls access to the wireless medium. The memory 638 may be or include storage media/media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., a conventional hard drive, solid-state disk drive, or flash-memory-based storage media), or any tangible or non-transitory storage media. The wireless interface 642 may be arranged to allow the processor to communicate with another device. The display 644 may provide a visual and/or tactile display (e.g., a touch screen display) for the user to exchange with the UE 630. The hardware processing circuitry 640 may include logic devices or circuits to perform various operations. In some embodiments, the processor 636 and the memory 638 may be arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuitry 640, e.g., the operations described with reference to logic devices and circuitry in the UE 630 and/or the hardware processing circuitry 640.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, UE 630 may be a device that includes an application processor, memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface that allows the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch screen display.

Elements of fig. 6 and elements of other figures having the same names or reference numbers may operate or function in the manner described with reference to any of these figures (although the operation and function of these elements is not limited to these descriptions). For example, fig. 7-8 and 11-12 also depict embodiments of the hardware processing circuitry of eNodeB, eNodeB, the UE, and/or the hardware processing circuitry of the UE, and the embodiments described with reference to fig. 6 and 7-8 and 11-12 may operate or function in the manner described herein with reference to any of the figures.

In addition, although the eNodeB 610 and the UE 630 are each described as having a plurality of different functional elements, one or more of these functional elements may be combined and implemented by combinations of software-configured elements and/or other hardware elements. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, these functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements. Examples of software and/or hardware configuration elements may include a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), one or more microprocessors, a DSP, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), and so forth.

Fig. 7 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for a UE to support an ENB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 6, a ue may include various hardware processing circuitry described herein (e.g., hardware processing circuitry 700 of fig. 7) that may, in turn, include logic and/or circuitry operable to perform various operations. For example, in fig. 6, UE 630 (or various elements or components herein, e.g., hardware processing circuitry 640 or a combination of elements or components herein) may include some or all of these hardware processing circuitry.

In some embodiments, one or more devices or circuits of these hardware processing circuits may be implemented with a combination of software configuration elements and/or other hardware elements. For example, the processor 636 (and/or one or more other processors that the UE 630 may include) of the UE 630 (which may include hardware processing circuitry 640), the memory 638, and/or other elements or components may be arranged to perform the operations of the hardware processing circuitry, e.g., the operations described with reference to the devices and circuitry in the hardware processing circuitry. In some embodiments, the processor 636 (and/or one or more other processors that the UE 630 may include) may be a baseband processor.

Turning to fig. 7, an apparatus of a UE630 (or another UE or mobile handset) operable to communicate with one or more enodebs over a wireless network may comprise hardware processing circuitry 700. In some embodiments, the hardware processing circuitry 700 may include one or more antenna ports 705 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (e.g., wireless communication channel 650). The antenna port 705 may be coupled to one or more antennas 707 (which may be antenna 625). In some embodiments, the hardware processing circuit 700 may contain an antenna 707, while in other embodiments, the hardware processing circuit 700 may be coupled only to the antenna 707.

Antenna port 705 and antenna 707 are operable to provide signals from the UE to a wireless communication channel and/or eNodeB, and are operable to provide signals from the eNodeB and/or wireless communication channel to the UE. For example, antenna port 705 and antenna 707 may be operable to provide transmission from UE630 to wireless communication channel 650 (and transmission from the wireless communication channel to eNodeB 610 or another eNodeB). Similarly, antenna 707 and antenna port 705 are operable to provide transmission from the wireless communication channel 650 (and, in addition, from the eNodeB 610 or another eNodeB) to the UE 630.

The hardware processing circuitry 700 may include various circuits that may operate in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. Referring to fig. 7, the hardware processing circuit 700 may include a first circuit 710, a second circuit 720, a third circuit 730, and/or a fourth circuit 740. The first circuit 710 is operable to define a first set of one or more ENBs for DL transmissions across a first set of more than six RBs in a system bandwidth. The first circuit 710 is also operable to define a second set of one or more ENBs for UL transmissions that span a second set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. The second circuit 720 is operable to store one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs. For example, the parameters may be stored in any type of memory discussed herein. The first circuit 710 is operable to provide one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs to the second circuit 720 via the interface 712.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs may span more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs, and the ENBs in the first set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for the DL. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs, and each of the ENBs in the second set of ENBs may be defined as including a plurality of NBs for the UL. For some embodiments, the plurality of NBs in the UL may be contiguous. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20MHz.

For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 3MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 2 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 5MHz and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined as comprising at least 4 NBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 15MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 6 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 20MHz and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined as comprising at least 8 NBs. For some embodiments, at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs and also span one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs.

In some embodiments, the one or more RBs outside of the plurality of NBs may include RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth and/or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the first set of ENBs may be defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for RBs located at the edges of the system bandwidth and/or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth. In some embodiments, the number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be even while in other embodiments, the system bandwidth may be odd.

For some embodiments, third circuitry 730 may be operable to process a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators, which may be DCI format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B. The third circuitry 730 is operable to provide one or more resource allocation indicators to the first circuitry 710 via the interface 732.

In some embodiments, the ENBs in the first set of ENBs may have an incremental index matching the incremental index of the RBs of the first set of ENBs, and the ENBs in the second set of ENBs may have an incremental index matching the incremental index of the RBs of the second set of ENBs. For some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in the first group of ENBs and/or the second group of ENBs. In some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of the RB allocation field based on a number of ENBs in the first group of ENBs and/or NBs in the ENBs in the second group of ENBs. For some embodiments, the frequency resource indicator may indicate a number of NBs starting from the reference NB. In some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

For some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to the number of NBs in the ENBs of the first group of ENBs and/or the ENBs of the second group of ENBs. In some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively. For some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a center PRB allocation indicator and/or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In some embodiments, fourth circuit 740 is operable to determine a skipped ENB frequency (hopped ENB frequency) for an ENB in the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset. For some embodiments, third circuitry 730 may be operative to process the DCI transmission and the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping surround processing would split the ENB.

For some embodiments, fourth circuit 740 is operable to determine a skipped NB frequency for the NB in one of the first or second sets of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset (hopped NB frequency). In some embodiments, fourth circuit 740 is operable to determine a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second groups of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency including a skipped NB frequency. The first circuit 710 is operable to provide the ENB granularity frequency hopping offset and/or the NB granularity frequency hopping offset to the fourth circuit 740 via the interface 714.

In some embodiments, the first circuit 710, the second circuit 720, the third circuit 730, and/or the fourth circuit 740 may be implemented as different circuits. In other embodiments, the first circuit 710, the second circuit 720, the third circuit 730, and/or the fourth circuit 740 may be combined and implemented together in a circuit without departing from the essence of the embodiments.

Fig. 8 illustrates hardware processing circuitry for an eNodeB to support an ENB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 6, an enodeb may include various hardware processing circuits discussed herein (e.g., hardware processing circuit 800 of fig. 8), which in turn may include logic devices and/or circuits operable to perform various operations. For example, in fig. 6, an eNodeB 610 (or various elements or components herein, e.g., hardware processing circuitry 620, or a combination of elements or components herein) may include some or all of these hardware processing circuitry.

In some embodiments, one or more devices or circuits of these hardware processing circuits may be implemented with a combination of software configuration elements and/or other hardware elements. For example, the processor 616 (and/or one or more other processors that the eNodeB 610 may include) of the eNodeB 610 (which may include the hardware processing circuitry 620), the memory 618, and/or other elements or components may be arranged to perform the operations of these hardware processing circuitry, e.g., the operations described herein with reference to the devices and circuitry in these hardware processing circuitry. In some embodiments, the processor 616 (and/or one or more other processors that the eNodeB 610 may include) may be a baseband processor.

Returning to fig. 8, an apparatus of an eNodeB 610 (or another eNodeB or base station) operable to communicate with one or more UEs over a wireless network may include a hardware processing circuit 800. In some embodiments, the hardware processing circuitry 800 may include one or more antenna ports 805 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (e.g., wireless communication channel 650). The antenna port 805 may be coupled to one or more antennas 807 (which may be antennas 605). In some embodiments, the hardware processing circuitry 800 may be coupled to the antenna 807, while in other embodiments, the hardware processing circuitry 800 may be coupled to only the antenna 807.

The antenna ports 805 and antennas 807 are operable to provide signals from the eNodeB to the wireless communication channel and/or UE and are operable to provide signals from the UE and/or wireless communication channel to the eNodeB. For example, the antenna port 805 and antenna 807 may be operable to provide transmissions from the eNodeB 610 to the wireless communication channel 650 (and to provide transmissions from the wireless communication channel 650 to the UE 630 or another UE). Similarly, the antenna 807 and antenna port 805 are operable to provide transmissions from the wireless communication channel 650 (and from the UE 630 or another UE) to the eNodeB.

Hardware processing circuitry 800 may include various circuits that may operate in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein. Referring to fig. 8, hardware processing circuitry 800 may include first circuitry 810, second circuitry 820, third circuitry 830, and/or fourth circuitry 840. The first circuit 810 is operable to define a first set of one or more ENBs for DL transmissions across a first set of more than six RBs in a system bandwidth. The first circuit 810 is also operable to define a second set of one or more ENBs for UL transmissions that span a second set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. Second circuit 820 is operable to store one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs. For example, the parameters may be stored in any type of memory discussed herein. First circuit 810 is operable to provide one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs to second circuit 820 via interface 812.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs may span more than six consecutive RBs of the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs, and the ENBs in the first set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for the DL. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs and the ENBs of the second set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for UL. For some embodiments, the plurality of NBs in the UL may be contiguous. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20MHz.

For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 3MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 2 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 5MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include at least 4 NBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 15MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 6 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 20MHz and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined as comprising at least 8 NBs. For some embodiments, at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs and also span one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs.

For some embodiments, third circuitry 830 may be operable to generate a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators in DCI format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, DCI format 6-0B. The first circuitry 810 is operable to provide one or more resource allocation indicators to the third circuitry 830 via the interface 814.

According to some embodiments, fourth circuit 840 is operable to determine a skipped ENB frequency for an ENB in the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset. For some embodiments, third circuitry 830 may be operative to generate a DCI transmission carrying a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping surround processing would split the ENB.

For some embodiments, fourth circuit 840 is operable to determine a skipped NB frequency for the NB in one of the first or second sets of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset. In some embodiments, fourth circuit 840 is operable to determine a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second groups of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency including a skipped NB frequency. The first circuit 810 is operable to provide the ENB granularity frequency hopping offset and/or the NB granularity frequency hopping offset to the fourth circuit 840 via the interface 716.

In some embodiments, the first circuit 810, the second circuit 820, the third circuit 830, and/or the fourth circuit 840 may be implemented as different circuits. In other embodiments, the first circuit 810, the second circuit 820, the third circuit 830, and/or the fourth circuit 840 may be combined and implemented together in a circuit without changing the essence of the embodiments.

Fig. 9 illustrates a method for supporting an ENB by a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 6, a method that may involve UE 630 and hardware processing circuitry 640 is discussed herein. Although the acts in the method 900 of fig. 9 and the method 1000 of fig. 10 are illustrated in a particular order, the order of the acts may be modified. Thus, the illustrated embodiments may be performed in a different order, and some acts may be performed in parallel. Some of the acts and/or operations listed in fig. 9 and 10 are optional according to some embodiments. The numbering of the acts is given for clarity and is not intended to dictate the order in which the various acts must be performed. In addition, operations from various flows may be used in various combinations.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the machine-readable storage medium may have executable instructions that, when executed, cause UE 630 and/or hardware processing circuitry 640 to perform operations comprising the methods of fig. 9 and 10. Such machine-readable storage media may include any of a variety of storage media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., conventional hard disk drive, solid state disk drive, or flash memory-based storage media), or any other tangible or non-transitory storage media.

In some embodiments, an apparatus may include means for performing various actions and/or operations of the methods of fig. 9 and 10.

Returning to fig. 9, various methods that may be in accordance with various embodiments are discussed herein. Method 900 may include definition 910, definition 915, and storage 920. In various embodiments, method 900 may further include processing 930, determining 940, processing 950, determining 960, and/or determining 965.

In definition 910, a first set of one or more ENBs for DL transmissions may be defined that spans a first set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. In definition 915, a second set of one or more ENBs for UL transmission may be defined, which spans a second set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. In the storage 920, one or more parameters of the first group of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second group of ENBs may be stored.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs may span more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs, and the ENBs in the first set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for the DL. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs and the ENBs of the second set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for UL. For some embodiments, the plurality of NBs in the UL may be contiguous. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20MHz.

For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 3MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 2 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 5MHz and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined as comprising at least 4 NBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 15MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 6 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 20MHz and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined as comprising at least 8 NBs. For some embodiments, at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include multiple NBs and may also span one or more RBs other than the multiple NBs.

In some embodiments, the one or more RBs outside of the plurality of NBs may include RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth and/or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the first set of ENBs may be defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for RBs located at the edges of the system bandwidth and/or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth. In some embodiments, the number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be even, while in other embodiments, the system bandwidth may be odd.

For some embodiments, in process 930, a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators may be processed, which may be DCI format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B.

In some embodiments, in decision 940, a skipped ENB frequency for an ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be determined based on the ENB granularity hopping offset. For some embodiments, in process 950, a DCI transmission may be processed that may carry a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping surround processing would split the ENB.

For some embodiments, in determination 960, a skipped NB frequency for the NB in one of the first or second groups of ENBs may be determined according to the NB granularity hopping offset. In determination 965, a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second groups of ENBs may be determined, the skipped ENB frequency including a skipped NB frequency.

Fig. 10 illustrates a method for an eNodeB to support an ENB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to fig. 6, various methods that may involve the eNodeB 610 and the hardware processing circuitry 620 are discussed herein. Although the acts in the method 1000 of FIG. 10 are illustrated in a particular order, the order of the acts may be modified. Thus, the illustrated embodiments may be performed in a different order, and some acts may be performed in parallel. Some of the acts and/or operations listed in fig. 10 are optional according to some embodiments. The numbering of the acts is given for clarity and is not intended to dictate the order in which the various acts must be performed. In addition, operations from various flows may be used in various combinations.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the machine-readable storage medium may have executable instructions that, when executed, cause the eNodeB 610 and/or the hardware processing circuit 620 to perform operations comprising the method of fig. 10. Such machine-readable storage media may include any of a variety of storage media, such as magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tape or disk), optical storage media (e.g., optical disk), electronic storage media (e.g., conventional hard disk drive, solid state disk drive, or flash memory-based storage media), or any other tangible or non-transitory storage media.

In some embodiments, an apparatus may include means for performing various operations and/or actions of the method of fig. 10.

Returning to fig. 10, various methods may be in accordance with various embodiments discussed herein. Method 1000 may include defining 1010, defining 1015, and storing 1020. In various embodiments, method 1000 may further include generating 1030, determining 1040, generating 1050, determining 1060, and/or determining 1065.

In definition 1010, a first set of one or more ENBs for DL transmissions may be defined, which spans a first set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. In definition 1015, a second set of one or more ENBs for UL transmissions may be defined that span a second set of more than six RBs in the system bandwidth. In the storage 1020, one or more parameters of the first group of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second group of ENBs may be stored.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs may span more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs, and the ENBs of the first set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for DL. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may include a plurality of NBs, and the ENBs of the second set of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs for UL. For some embodiments, the plurality of NBs in the UL may be contiguous. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20MHz.

For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 3MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 2 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 5MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include at least 4 NBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 15MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs may be defined to include at least 6 NBs. In some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be at least 20MHz, and at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include at least 8 NBs. For some embodiments, at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs may be defined to include a plurality of NBs and also span one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs.

In some embodiments, the one or more RBs outside of the plurality of NBs may include RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth and/or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth. For some embodiments, the first set of ENBs may be defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for RBs located at the edges of the system bandwidth and/or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth. In some embodiments, the number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs. For some embodiments, the system bandwidth may be even; while in other embodiments the system bandwidth may be odd.

In generation 1030, a transmission may be generated that carries one or more resource allocation indicators, which may be DCI format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B.

In some embodiments, the ENBs in the first set of ENBs may have an incremental index matching the incremental index of the RBs of the first set of ENBs, and the ENBs in the second set of ENBs may have an incremental index matching the incremental index of the RBs of the second set of ENBs. For some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in the first group of ENBs and/or the second group of ENBs. In some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of the RB allocation field based on the number of NBs in the ENBs of the first group of ENBs and/or the ENBs of the second group of ENBs. For some embodiments, the frequency resource indicator may indicate a number of NBs starting from the reference NB. In some embodiments, the one or more resource allocation indicators may include a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In decision 1040, a skipped ENB frequency may be determined for an ENB in the first or second group of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset. For some embodiments, in generating 1050, a DCI transmission may be generated that may carry a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping surround processing would split an ENB.

For some embodiments, in determination 1060, a skipped NB frequency for the NB in one of the first or second groups of ENBs may be determined according to the NB granularity hopping offset. In determination 1065, a skipped ENB frequency may be determined for one of the first or second groups of ENBs, including a skipped NB frequency.

Fig. 11 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, device 1100 may include application circuitry 1102, baseband circuitry 1104, radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1106, front End Module (FEM) circuitry 1108, one or more antennas 1110, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC) 1112 coupled together at least as shown. The illustrated components of device 1100 may be included in a UE or RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 1100 may include fewer elements (e.g., the RAN node may not use the application circuit 1102, but instead include a processor/controller that processes IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 1100 may include additional elements such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or an input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be included in more than one device for a cloud RAN (C-RAN) implementation, respectively).

The application circuitry 1102 may include one or more application processors. For example, application circuitry 1102 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors 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 or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 1100. In some embodiments, the processor of application circuit 1102 may process IP data packets received from the EPC.

The baseband circuitry 1104 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1104 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1106 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1106. Baseband processing circuit 1104 may interface with application circuit 1102 for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of RF circuit 1106. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1104 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1104A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1104B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 1104C, or other baseband processor 1104D for other existing, developing, or future developed generations (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 1104 (e.g., one or more baseband processors 1104A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1106. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1104A-D may be included in modules stored in memory 1104G and may be performed via Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1104E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1104 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 1104 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, viterbi, low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions. Embodiments of the modem and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1104 may include one or more audio signal processors (DSPs) 1104F. The audio DSP 1104F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. The components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or in some embodiments arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 1104 and application circuitry 1102 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1104 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1104 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). An embodiment in which baseband circuitry 1104 is configured to support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as a multi-mode baseband circuit.

The RF circuitry 1106 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 1106 may comprise a receive signal path, which may comprise circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1108 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1104. The RF circuitry 1106 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to upconvert the baseband signal provided by the baseband circuitry 1104 and provide an RF output signal to the FEM circuitry 1108 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 1106 may include a mixer circuit 1106A, an amplifier circuit 1106B, and a filter circuit 1106C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1106 may include a filter circuit 1106C and a mixer circuit 1106A. The RF circuit 1106 may also include a synthesizer circuit 1106D for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1106D. The amplifier circuit 1106B may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal and the filter circuit 1106C may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1104 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1106A of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1106D to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1108. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 1104 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1106C.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106A of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106A of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1106A and the mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106A of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 1104 may include a digital baseband interface in communication with the RF circuitry 1106.

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

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1106D may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/n+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 1106D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 1106D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 1106A of the RF circuit 1106 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1106D may be a fractional N/n+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1104 or the application processor 1102 based on 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 1102.

The synthesizer circuit 1106D of the RF circuit 1106 may include a 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 the input signal by N or n+1 (based on the carry) 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 divide the VCO period into Nd equal phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO period.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1106D 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 in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuits to generate a plurality of signals at the carrier frequency having a plurality of phases that are different from one another. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be an LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1106 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

FEM circuitry 1108 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1110, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 1106 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1108 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify a transmit signal provided by RF circuitry 1106 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1110. In various embodiments, amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be performed in the RF circuitry 1106 alone, in the FEM 1108 alone, or in both the RF circuitry 1106 and FEM 1108.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 1108 may include a TX/RX switch 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 an LNA that amplifies the received RF signal and provides the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1106). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 1108 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) that amplifies an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1106) and one or more filters that generate the RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., one or more antennas of one or more antennas 1110).

In some embodiments, PMC 1112 may manage the power provided to baseband circuitry 1104. In particular, PMC 1112 may control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. PMC 1112 may typically be included when device 1100 is capable of being charged by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. PMC 1112 may increase power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

Although fig. 11 shows PMC 1112 coupled only with baseband circuitry 1104, in other embodiments PMC 1112 may additionally or alternatively be coupled with other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 1102, RF circuitry 1106, or FEM 1108, and similar power management operations may be performed on these components.

In some embodiments, PMC 1112 may control various power saving mechanisms of device 1100, or may be part of various power saving mechanisms of device 1100. For example, if the device 1100 is in an RRC connected state (in which it is still connected to the RAN node because it wishes to receive traffic immediately), it may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 1100 may be powered down for a short time interval to save power.

If there is no data traffic active for an extended period, the device 1100 may transition to an RRC idle state. In the RRC idle state, the device 1100 may be disconnected from the network and perform no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 1100 enters an ultra-low power state and it wakes up periodically to listen to the network and then powers down again to perform paging. The device 1100 may not receive data in this state and, in order to receive data, it must transition back to the RRC connected state.

The additional power saving modes may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for a period longer than the paging interval (from seconds to hours). During this time, the device is completely unreachable to the network and may be completely powered down. Any data sent during this period of time causes a large delay and this delay is assumed to be acceptable.

The processor of the application circuit 1102 and the processor of the baseband circuit 1104 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of baseband circuitry 1104 may be used, alone or in combination, to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of application circuitry 1104 may use data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (PDCP) layers). As described in further detail below, layer 3 referred to herein may include a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer. As described in further detail below, layer 2 referred to herein may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. As described in further detail below, layer 1 referred to herein may include a Physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node.

Fig. 12 illustrates an example interface of baseband circuitry according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As described above, the baseband circuitry 1104 of fig. 11 may include processors 1104A-1104E and a memory 1104G used by the processors. Each of the processors 1104A-1104E may include a memory interface 1204A-1204E to send/receive data to/from the memory 1104G, respectively.

The baseband circuitry 1104 may also include one or more interfaces communicatively coupled to other circuits/devices, such as a memory interface 1212 (e.g., an interface to transmit/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 1104), an application circuitry interface 1214 (e.g., an interface to transmit/receive data to/from the application circuitry 1102 of fig. 11), an RF circuitry interface 1216 (e.g., an interface to transmit/receive data to/from the RF circuitry 1106 of fig. 11), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 1218 (e.g., an interface to transmit/receive data to/from a Near Field Communication (NFC) component),

The component(s) (e.g.,

low energy),%>

Interfaces for components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 1220 (e.g., an interface that sends/receives power or control signals to/from PMC 1112).

It is noted that in various embodiments, elements in any of the figures herein having the same reference numerals and/or names as elements of other figures herein operate or function in a similar manner as those elements in other figures (and are not limited to operating or functioning in such a manner).

Reference in the specification to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," "some embodiments," or "other embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least some embodiments, but not necessarily all embodiments. The various appearances of "an embodiment," "one embodiment," or "some embodiments" are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments. If the specification states a component, feature, structure, or characteristic "may", "might", or "could" be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included. If the specification or claim refers to "a" or "an" element, that does not mean there is only one of the element. If the specification or claims refer to "an additional" element, that does not preclude the presence of more than one of the additional element.

Furthermore, the particular features, structures, functions, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, a first embodiment may be combined with a second embodiment, and the particular features, structures, functions, or characteristics associated with the two embodiments are not mutually exclusive.

While the present disclosure has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, many alternatives, modifications, and variations of those embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. For example, other memory architectures, such as Dynamic RAM (DRAM), may use the embodiments discussed. The embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations as fall within the broad scope of the appended claims.

Additionally, well-known power/ground connections to Integrated Circuit (IC) chips and other components may or may not be shown in the figures presented for simplicity and discussion of the figures without obscuring the present disclosure. Additionally, to avoid obscuring the disclosure and in view of the high degree of specificity of the implementations in terms of such block diagram arrangements, the arrangements may be shown in block diagram form, i.e., such specificity should be within the purview of one skilled in the art in which the present disclosure is implemented. Where specific details (e.g., a telephone) are set forth in order to describe example embodiments of the disclosure, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosure can be practiced without, or with variation of, these specific details. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.

The following examples relate to further embodiments. The details in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments. All optional features of the apparatus described herein may also be implemented for a method or process.

Example 1 provides an apparatus of a Machine Type Communication (MTC) enabled User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC enabled evolved node B (eNodeB) over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising: one or more processors configured to: defining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENBs) for Downlink (DL) transmissions, and defining a second set of more than six RBs across a system bandwidth, a second set of one or more ENBs for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and a memory for storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 2, the apparatus of example 1, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 3, the apparatus of example 1 or 2, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs are defined to comprise a plurality of NB for DL.

In example 4, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 3, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for UL.

In example 5, the apparatus of example 4, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 6, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 5, wherein the system bandwidth is one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 7, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 6, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 8, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 7, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband (NB).

In example 9, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 8, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 10, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 9, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 11, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 10, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 12, the apparatus of example 11, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs comprise at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 13, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 12, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in a system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 14, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 13, wherein a number of RBs spanned by the first group of ENBs matches a number of RBs spanned by the second group of ENBs.

In example 15, the apparatus of example 14, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 16, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 15, wherein the one or more processors are to: a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators is processed, the transmission being a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or a DCI format 6-0B.

In example 17, the apparatus of example 16, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 18, the apparatus of example 16, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 19, the apparatus of example 16, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 20, the apparatus of example 19, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 21, the apparatus of example 20, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 22, the apparatus of example 16, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 23, the apparatus of any of examples 16 to 22, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 24, the apparatus of any one of examples 16 to 23, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of: a center PRB allocation indicator, or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 25, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 24, wherein the one or more processors are to: a skipped ENB frequency is determined for ENBs in the first or second set of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 26, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 25, wherein the one or more processors are to: downlink Control Information (DCI) transmissions are processed, where the DCI transmissions carry a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping-round processing splits the ENB.

In example 27, the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 26, wherein the one or more processors are to: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; a skipped ENB frequency is determined for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 28 provides a User Equipment (UE) device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface to allow the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch screen display, the UE device comprising the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 26.

Example 29 provides a method, comprising: defining, for a User Equipment (UE), a first set of more than six RBs (resource blocks) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENBs) for Downlink (DL) transmissions; defining a second set of more than six RBs across a second set of system bandwidth for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 30, the method of example 29, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 31, the method of example 29 or 30, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first set of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for DL.

In example 32, the method of any of examples 29 to 31, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for the UL.

In example 33, the method of example 32, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 34, the method of any one of examples 29 to 33, wherein the system bandwidth is one of: 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20MHz.

In example 35, the method of any of examples 29 to 34, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 36, the method of any of examples 29 to 35, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband (NB).

In example 37, the method of any of examples 29 to 36, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 38, the method of any of examples 29 to 37, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 39, the method of any of examples 29 to 38, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 40, the method of example 39, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs include at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 41, the method of any of examples 29 to 40, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 42, the method of any of examples 29 to 41, wherein the number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs.

In example 43, the method of example 42, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 44, the method of any one of examples 29 to 43, comprising: a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators is processed, the transmission being a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or a DCI format 6-0B.

In example 45, the method of example 44, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 46, the method of example 44, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 47, the method of example 44, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 48, the method of example 47, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 49, the method of example 48, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 50, the method of example 44, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 51, the method of any of examples 44 to 50, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 52, the method of any of examples 44 to 51, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 53, the method of any one of examples 29 to 52, comprising: a skipped ENB frequency is determined for ENBs in the first or second set of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 54, the method of any one of examples 29 to 53, comprising: downlink Control Information (DCI) transmissions are processed, where the DCI transmissions carry a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping-round processing splits the ENB.

In example 55, the method of any one of examples 29 to 54, comprising: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 56 provides a machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of examples 29 to 55.

Example 57 provides an apparatus of a Machine Type Communication (MTC) enabled User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate across a system bandwidth over a wireless network with an MTC enabled evolved node B (eNodeB), the apparatus comprising: means for determining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENB) for Downlink (DL) transmissions; means for defining a second set of more than six RBs across a system bandwidth for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and means for storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 58, the apparatus of example 57, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 59, the apparatus of example 57 or 58, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for DL.

In example 60, the apparatus of any of examples 57-59, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for the UL.

In example 61, the apparatus of example 60, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 62, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 61, wherein the system bandwidth is one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 63, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 62, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 64, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 63, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband Bands (NB).

In example 65, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 64, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 66, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 65, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 67, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 66, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 68, the apparatus of example 67, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs comprise at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 69, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 68, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in a system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 70, the apparatus of any of examples 57 to 69, wherein a number of RBs spanned by the first group of ENBs matches a number of RBs spanned by the second group of ENBs.

In example 71, the apparatus of example 70, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 72, the apparatus of any one of examples 57 to 71, comprising: means for processing a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators, the transmission being: downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B.

In example 73, the apparatus of example 72, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 74, the apparatus of example 72, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 75, the apparatus of example 72, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the ENB of the second group of ENBs.

In example 76, the apparatus of example 75, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 77, the apparatus of example 76, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 78, the apparatus of example 72, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 79, the apparatus of any one of examples 72 to 78, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 80, the apparatus of any of examples 72 to 79, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 81, the apparatus of any one of examples 57 to 80, comprising: means for determining a skipped ENB frequency for an ENB in the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 82, the apparatus of any one of examples 57 to 81, comprising: means for processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping surround processing would split an ENB.

In example 83, the apparatus of any one of examples 57 to 82, comprising: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and means for determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 84 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause an machine-type communication (MTC) -enabled User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC-enabled evolved node B (eNodeB) over a wireless network to perform operations comprising: defining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENB) for Downlink (DL) transmissions; defining a second set of more than six RBs across a second set of system bandwidth for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 85, the machine-readable storage medium of example 84, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 86, the machine-readable storage medium of example 84 or 85, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first set of ENBs are defined to comprise a plurality of NB for DL.

In example 87, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 86, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to comprise a plurality of NB for UL.

In example 88, the machine-readable storage medium of example 87, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 89, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 88, wherein the system bandwidth is one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 90, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84-89, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 91, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 90, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband (NB).

In example 92, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 91, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 93, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84-92, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 94, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 93, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 95, the machine-readable storage medium of example 94, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs comprise at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 96, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 95, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 97, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 96, wherein the number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs.

In example 98, the machine-readable storage medium of example 97, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 99, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of examples 84 to 98, the operations comprising: a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators is processed, the transmission being a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or a DCI format 6-0B.

In example 100, the machine-readable storage medium of example 99, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 101, the machine-readable storage medium of example 99, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 102, the machine-readable storage medium of example 99, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the ENB of the second group of ENBs.

In example 103, the machine-readable storage medium of example 102, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 104, the machine-readable storage medium of example 103, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 105, the machine-readable storage medium of example 99, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 106, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 99 to 105, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 107, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 99 to 106, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 108, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 107, the operations comprising: a skipped ENB frequency is determined for ENBs in the first or second set of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 109, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of examples 84 to 108, the operations comprising: downlink Control Information (DCI) transmissions are processed, where the DCI transmissions carry a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which hopping-round processing splits the ENB.

In example 110, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 84 to 109, the operations comprising: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 111 provides an MTC-enabled evolved node B (eNodeB) operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with a Machine Type Communication (MTC) -enabled User Equipment (UE) over a wireless network, comprising: one or more processors configured to: defining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENBs) for Downlink (DL) transmissions, and defining a second set of more than six RBs across a system bandwidth, a second set of one or more ENBs for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and a memory storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 112, the apparatus of example 111, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 113, the apparatus of example 111 or 112, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first set of ENBs are defined to include a plurality of NB for DL.

In example 114, the apparatus of any of examples 111-113, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for UL.

In example 115, the apparatus of example 114, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 116, the apparatus of any of examples 111-115, wherein the system bandwidth is one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 117, the apparatus of any of examples 111-116, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 118, the apparatus of any of examples 111-117, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband (NB).

In example 119, the apparatus of any one of examples 111-118, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 120, the apparatus of any of examples 111-119, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 121, the apparatus of any one of examples 111 to 120, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 122, the apparatus of example 121, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs include at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 123, the apparatus of any one of examples 111-122, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in a system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 124, the apparatus of any of examples 111-123, wherein a number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches a number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs.

In example 125, the apparatus of example 124, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 126, the apparatus of any one of examples 111 to 125, wherein the one or more processors are to generate a transmission carrying the resource allocation indicator, the transmission being Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B.

In example 127, the apparatus of example 126, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 128, the apparatus of example 126, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 129, the apparatus of example 126, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 130, the apparatus of example 129, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 131, the apparatus of example 130, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 132, the apparatus of example 126, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 133, the apparatus of any of examples 126 to 132, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 134, the apparatus of any one of examples 126 to 133, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 135, the apparatus of any of examples 111 to 134, wherein the one or more processors are to: a skipped ENB frequency is determined for ENBs in the first or second set of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 136, the apparatus of any one of examples 111 to 135, wherein the one or more processors are to: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission is generated, where the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which a hopping-around process splits an ENB.

In example 137, the apparatus of any one of examples 111 to 136, wherein the one or more processors are to: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 138 provides an evolved node B (eNodeB) apparatus capable of Machine Type Communication (MTC) comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antenna ports, and an interface to allow the application processor to communicate with another apparatus, the eNodeB apparatus comprising the apparatus of any one of examples 111 to 137.

Example 139 provides a method comprising: for an evolved node B (eNodeB), defining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENBs) for Downlink (DL) transmissions; defining a second set of more than six RBs across a second set of system bandwidth for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 140, the method of example 139, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 141, the method of example 139 or 140, wherein the system bandwidth includes a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs are defined to include a plurality of NB for DL.

In example 142, the method of any of examples 139 to 141, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to include the plurality of NB for the UL.

In example 143, the method of example 142, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 144, the method of any of examples 139 to 143, wherein the system bandwidth is at one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 145, the method of any of examples 139 to 140, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 146, the method of any of examples 139 to 145, 1, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband (NB).

In example 147, the method of any of examples 139 to 146, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (Mhz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 148, the method of any of examples 139 to 147, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 149, the method of any of examples 139 to 148, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 150, the method of example 149, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs include at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 151, the method of any one of examples 139 to 150, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 152, the method of any of examples 139 to 151, wherein a number of RBs spanned by the first group of ENBs matches a number of RBs spanned by the second group of ENBs.

In example 153, the method of example 152, wherein the system bandwidth is even.

In example 154, the method of any one of examples 139 to 153, the operations comprising: a transmission is generated that carries one or more resource allocation indicators, the transmission being Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B.

In example 155, the method of example 154, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 156, the method of example 154, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 157, the method of example 154, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 158, the method of example 157, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 159, the method of example 158, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 160, the method of example 154, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 161, the method of any of examples 154 to 160, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 162, the method of any of examples 154 to 161, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 163, the method of any of examples 139 to 162, the operations comprising: a skipped ENB frequency is determined for ENBs in the first or second set of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 164, the method of any of examples 139 to 163, the operations comprising: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission is generated, where the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which a hopping-around process splits an ENB.

In example 165, the method of any of examples 139 to 164, the operations comprising: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 166 provides a machine-readable storage medium storing machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of examples 139 to 165.

Example 167 provides an MTC-enabled evolved node B (eNodeB) apparatus operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with a Machine Type Communication (MTC) -enabled User Equipment (UE) over a wireless network, comprising: means for determining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENB) for Downlink (DL) transmissions; means for defining a second set of more than six RBs across a system bandwidth for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and means for storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 168, the apparatus of example 167, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 169, the apparatus of example 167 or 168, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs are defined to comprise a plurality of NB for DL.

In example 170, the apparatus of any of examples 167-169, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to include a plurality of NB for the UL.

In example 171, the apparatus of example 170, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 172, the apparatus of any of examples 167 to 171, wherein the system bandwidth is one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 173, the apparatus of any of examples 167-172, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 174, the apparatus of any of examples 167-173, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband Bands (NB).

In example 175, the apparatus of any of examples 167-174, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband Bands (NB).

In example 176, the apparatus of any of examples 167-175, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 177, the apparatus of any of examples 167 to 176, wherein at least one ENB of the first or second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further spans one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 178, the apparatus of example 177, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs include at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 179, the apparatus of any one of examples 167 to 178, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in a system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 180, the apparatus of any one of examples 167 to 179, wherein the number of RBs spanned by the first group of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second group of ENBs.

In example 181, the apparatus of example 180, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 182, the apparatus of any one of examples 167 to 181, comprising: means for generating a transmission carrying one or more resource allocation indicators, the transmission being a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or a DCI format 6-0B.

In example 183, the apparatus of example 182, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches the incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and wherein the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches the incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 184, the apparatus of example 182, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 185, the apparatus of example 182, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the ENB of the second group of ENBs.

In example 186, the apparatus of example 185, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 187, the apparatus of example 186, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 188, the apparatus of example 182, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 189, the apparatus of any one of examples 182-188, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 190, the apparatus of any of examples 182-189, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 191, the apparatus of any of examples 167 to 190, comprising: means for determining a skipped ENB frequency for an ENB in the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 192, the apparatus of any one of examples 167 to 191, comprising: means for generating a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which a hopping-around process splits an ENB.

In example 193, the apparatus of any one of examples 167 to 192, comprising: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and means for determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

Example 194 provides a machine-readable storage medium having machine-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of an MTC-enabled evolved node B (eNodeB) operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC-enabled User Equipment (UE) over a wireless network to perform operations comprising: defining a first set of more than six Resource Blocks (RBs) across a system bandwidth, a first set of one or more Extended Narrowband (ENB) for Downlink (DL) transmissions; defining a second set of more than six RBs across a second set of system bandwidth for Uplink (UL) transmissions; and storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

In example 195, the machine-readable storage medium of example 194, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

In example 196, the machine-readable storage medium of example 194 or 195, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the first set of ENBs are defined to comprise a plurality of NB for DL.

In example 197, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194 to 196, wherein the system bandwidth comprises a plurality of Narrowband (NB), and wherein the ENBs of the second set of ENBs are defined to comprise a plurality of NB for UL.

In example 198, the machine-readable storage medium of example 197, wherein the plurality of NBs in the UL are contiguous.

In example 199, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-198, wherein the system bandwidth is one of 3 megahertz (MHz), 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, or 20 MHz.

In example 200, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-199, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 3 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 2 Narrowband (NB).

In example 201, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-200, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 5 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 4 Narrowband (NB).

In example 202, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-201, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 15 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 6 Narrowband (NB).

In example 203, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-202, wherein the system bandwidth is at least 20 megahertz (MHz), and wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include at least 8 Narrow Bands (NB).

In example 204, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-203, wherein at least one ENB of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs is defined to include a plurality of Narrowband (NB) and further span one or more RBs other than the plurality of NB.

In example 205, the machine-readable storage medium of example 204, wherein the one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs comprise at least one of RBs located at an edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in a middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 206, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-205, wherein the first set of ENBs is defined to include all RBs in the system bandwidth except for one or more of: RBs located at the edge of the system bandwidth or RBs located in the middle of the system bandwidth.

In example 207, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194-206, wherein the number of RBs spanned by the first set of ENBs matches the number of RBs spanned by the second set of ENBs.

In example 208, the machine-readable storage medium of example 207, wherein the system bandwidth is an even number.

In example 209, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194 to 208, the operations comprising: a transmission is generated that carries one or more resource allocation indicators, the transmission being Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 6-1A, DCI format 6-0A, DCI format 6-1B, or DCI format 6-0B.

In example 210, the machine-readable storage medium of example 209, wherein the ENBs of the first group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the first group of ENBs, and the ENBs of the second group of ENBs have an incremental index that matches an incremental index of RBs of the second group of ENBs.

In example 211, the machine-readable storage medium of example 209, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise an ENB index indicator having a number of most significant bits of the RB allocation field based on a total number of ENBs in one of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 212, the machine-readable storage medium of example 209, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a frequency resource indicator having a number of bits of an RB allocation field based on a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the ENB of the second group of ENBs.

In example 213, the machine-readable storage medium of example 212, wherein the frequency resource indicator indicates a number of NBs starting from the reference NB.

In example 214, the machine-readable storage medium of example 213, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a reference NB indicator indicating a reference RB.

In example 215, the machine-readable storage medium of example 209, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation bitmap indicator having at least a number of bits equal to a number of Narrowband (NB) in one of the ENBs of the first group of ENBs or the second group of ENBs.

In example 216, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of examples 209 to 215, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise a resource allocation indicator having a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of predetermined resource allocations, respectively.

In example 217, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 209 to 216, wherein the one or more resource allocation indicators comprise at least one of a center PRB allocation indicator or an edge PRB allocation indicator.

In example 218, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of examples 194 to 217, the operations comprising: a skipped ENB frequency is determined for ENBs in the first or second set of ENBs based on the ENB granularity hopping offset.

In example 219, the machine-readable storage medium of any one of examples 194 to 218, the operations comprising: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission is generated, where the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations for which a hopping-around process splits an ENB.

In example 220, the machine-readable storage medium of any of examples 194 to 219, the operations comprising: determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to the NB granularity hopping offset; and determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first or second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB frequency comprising a skipped NB frequency.

In example 221, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 27 and 111 to 137, wherein the one or more processors comprise a baseband processor.

In example 222, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 27 and 111 to 137, comprising a memory to store instructions, the memory coupled to the one or more processors.

In example 223, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 27 and 111 to 137, comprising transceiver circuitry to at least one of: generate a transmission, encode a transmission, process a transmission, or decode a transmission.

In example 224, the apparatus of any of examples 1 to 27 and 111 to 137, comprising transceiver circuitry to generate the transmission and process the transmission.

A brief summary is provided that will allow the reader to ascertain the characteristics and nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a machine type communication, MTC, capable user equipment, UE, operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC capable base station over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

one or more processors configured to:

defining a first set of more than six resource blocks, RBs, across the system bandwidth, a first set of one or more extended narrowband ENBs for downlink, DL, transmissions, and

Defining a second set of more than six RBs across the system bandwidth for uplink UL transmissions, at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs being defined to include a plurality of narrowband NBs and also to span one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs; and

a memory for storing one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

3. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-2, wherein the one or more processors are to:

determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to an NB granularity hopping offset; and

a skipped ENB frequency is determined for one of the first set of ENBs or the second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB including the skipped NB frequency.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, further configured to process a downlink control information, DCI, transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations, wherein hopping round-robin processing splits ENBs in the first set of one or more ENBs or the second set of one or more ENBs and determines to disable hopping based on the hopping indicator.

5. A user equipment, UE, apparatus comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another apparatus, and a touch screen display, the UE apparatus comprising the apparatus of any of claims 1-4.

6. A method for communication, comprising:

defining, for a user equipment, UE, a first set of one or more extended narrowband ENBs for downlink, DL, transmission spanning a first set of more than six resource blocks, RBs, in a system bandwidth;

one or more parameters of the first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of the second set of ENBs are stored.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, further configured to:

9. The method of claim 8, further configured to process a downlink control information, DCI, transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations, wherein hopping round-robin processing splits ENBs in the first set of one or more ENBs or the second set of one or more ENBs and determines to disable hopping based on the hopping indicator.

10. An apparatus of a machine type communication, MTC, capable user equipment, UE, operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC capable base station over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

means for defining a first set of one or more extended narrowband ENBs for downlink DL transmissions spanning a first set of more than six resource blocks, RBs, in the system bandwidth;

means for defining a second set of more than six RBs across the system bandwidth for uplink UL transmissions, at least one ENB of the first or second set of ENBs being defined to include a plurality of narrowband NBs and also to span one or more RBs other than the plurality of NBs; and

Means for storing one or more parameters of said first set of ENBs and one or more parameters of said second set of ENBs.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 or 11, further comprising means for:

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for processing a downlink control information, DCI, transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations, wherein hopping round-robin processing splits ENBs in the first set of one or more ENBs or the second set of one or more ENBs and determines to disable hopping based on the hopping indicator.

14. An apparatus of a machine type communication, MTC, capable base station operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC capable user equipment, UE, over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

One or more processors configured to:

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 or 15, wherein the one or more processors are to:

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further configured to process a downlink control information, DCI, transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations, wherein hopping round-robin processing splits ENBs in the first set of one or more ENBs or the second set of one or more ENBs and determines to disable hopping based on the hopping indicator.

18. A base station device capable of machine type communication, MTC, comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, and a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device, the base station device comprising the apparatus of any of claims 14 to 17.

19. A method for communication, comprising:

defining, for a base station, a first set of one or more extended narrowband ENBs for downlink DL transmissions spanning a first set of more than six resource blocks, RBs, in a system bandwidth;

20. The method of claim 19, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

21. The method of claim 19 or 20, further configured to:

22. The method of claim 21, further configured to process a downlink control information, DCI, transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations, wherein hopping round-robin processing splits ENBs in the first set of one or more ENBs or the second set of one or more ENBs and determines to disable hopping based on the hopping indicator.

23. An apparatus of a machine type communication, MTC, capable base station operable to communicate across a system bandwidth with an MTC capable user equipment, UE, over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein at least one of the first set of more than six RBs or the second set of more than six RBs spans more than six consecutive RBs in the system bandwidth.

25. The device of claim 23 or 24, further configured to:

determining a skipped NB frequency for an NB in one of the first or second set of ENBs according to an NB granularity hopping offset;

determining a skipped ENB frequency for one of the first set of ENBs or the second set of ENBs, the skipped ENB including the skipped NB frequency; and

Processing a downlink control information, DCI, transmission, wherein the DCI transmission carries a hopping indicator to disable hopping for certain allocations, wherein a hopping surround process splits an ENB of the first set of one or more ENBs or the second set of one or more ENBs and determines to disable hopping based on the hopping indicator.