CN110393031B

CN110393031B - Network node, client device and method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN110393031B
Application number: CN201680089630.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王能; 柴塔尼亚·图木拉; 塞奇·谢苗诺夫; 阿尔贝托-希门尼斯·费勒司徒姆; 祖雷塔·霍; 陈俊仕
Original assignee: Honor Device Co Ltd
Current assignee: Honor Device Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-09-29
Filing date: 2016-09-29
Publication date: 2021-12-07
Anticipated expiration: 2036-09-29
Also published as: CN110393031A; WO2018059683A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to network nodes. The network node comprises a processor and a transceiver, the processor being configured to: dividing at least one application into one or more Service classes, wherein each Service class corresponds to a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement; aggregating applications in a service class into a transmission unit of the service class; mapping one or more transmission units of a service class onto physical resource units based on at least one of QoS requirements of the service class and channel quality information associated with one or more of the client devices, wherein a physical resource unit is allocated for unlicensed transmission of a client device to a network node; the transceiver is configured to send mapping information to the client device, wherein the mapping information includes mapping transmission units of the service class onto physical resource units. Furthermore, the invention relates to a client device and a method thereof.

Description

Network node, client device and method thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to a network node and a client device. The invention further relates to a corresponding method, a computer program and a computer program product.

Background

A typical Uplink (UL) transmission in a wireless communication system is based on a scheduling grant, i.e. a user sends a UL scheduling request to a base station, and then the base station responds and returns a UL grant to the user for resource allocation. With the explosive growth of industrial market applications, such as large-scale Machine Type Communication (mtc) and high-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC), this scheduling grant based mechanism tends to become less effective in terms of signaling overhead and/or Latency. By removing the process of scheduling request and grant, grant-free UL transmission has the potential to reduce signaling overhead and delay. At the same time, unlicensed UL transmissions also introduce inter-user contention that, if handled improperly, may degrade overall system performance. The key to practical deployment is that reducing conflicts through resource management improves system performance and ensures that the implementation process is less complex.

In addition to resource allocation, inter-cell coordination may also improve system performance. In Long Term Evolution (LTE), the following control signaling is introduced for inter-cell interference coordination:

a Relative Narrowband Transmit Power (RNTP) is sent to the neighboring eNB, which RNTP contains 1 bit per Physical Resource Block (PRB) in the downlink, indicating whether the Transmit Power on this PRB would be greater than a given threshold; the neighboring eNB can predict which frequency bands are most affected by the interference and immediately take the correct scheduling decision, instead of relying only on a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) report of a User Equipment (UE).

Triggering an Overload Indicator (OI) when the eNB detects high interference in the uplink direction and sending the overload indicator to a neighbouring eNB of a UE that may be the source of such high interference. The OI message contains an interference level indication indicating whether the interference level of each PRB is low, medium or high.

A High Interference Indicator (HII) for uplink transmission works similarly to the above-described RNTP message for downlink. Each PRB contains 1 bit, indicating whether a neighboring eNB can predict a high interference power in the near future. Therefore, only PRBs allocated to cell-edge UEs are typically indicated. As part of handover measurement reporting, Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurements may be used to identify cell-edge UEs.

In the conventional scheme, some high-level schemes are proposed for resource allocation of Contention-based UL Transmission, including definition of Contention Transmission Unit (CTU), mapping/remapping between users and CTU, collision and processing thereof, and the like. Conventional resource allocation schemes are at a higher level, and more implementation details are required in deployment, for example, resource management including physical resource mapping and scheduling, retransmission processing, blind detection, and reduction in decoding complexity. Previous inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) schemes in LTE mainly address inter-cell interference management, and are not applicable to resource management in grant-free UL transmissions.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an aim of embodiments of the present invention to provide a solution to alleviate or solve the disadvantages and problems of conventional solutions.

It is a further object of embodiments of the present invention to provide a solution to improve resource management for unlicensed transmissions from a client device to a network node.

In this context "OR" and the corresponding claims should be understood as a mathematical OR covering "and" OR "and not as exclusive OR (XOR).

The above and other objects are solved by the subject matter of the independent claims. Further advantageous embodiments of the invention can be found in the dependent claims.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects are fulfilled by a network node of a wireless communication system, comprising:

a processor to:

classifying one or more applications associated with one or more client devices into one or more Service classes, wherein each Service class corresponds to a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement;

aggregating applications in a service class into one or more transmission units of the service class;

mapping one or more transmission units of the service class onto one or more physical resource units based on at least one of QoS requirements of the service class and channel quality information associated with the one or more client devices, wherein the one or more physical resource units are allocated for unlicensed transmission of the one or more client devices to the network node;

a transceiver to:

sending mapping information to the one or more client devices, wherein the mapping information includes mapping one or more transmission units of the service class onto the one or more physical resource units.

The mapping of the service class is based on QoS requirements of the service class, channel quality information associated with the one or more client devices, or a combination thereof.

An application in the present invention may represent an entity requesting a data transfer service. The application may be software or the like installed or running in the client device.

A class of service in the present invention may represent a class of service with specific QoS requirements (e.g., coverage, delay, bandwidth, etc.).

The network node according to the first aspect has a number of advantages compared to conventional solutions. The proposed aggregation of applications into service classes and mapping of transmission units onto physical resource units may improve system performance, e.g. the aggregation may enable efficient use of channels. The mapping also enables efficient intra/inter cell coordination between network nodes in the wireless communication system. Furthermore, the network node according to the first aspect may also implement semi-persistent scheduling to improve spectral efficiency.

In a first possible implementation form of the network node according to the first aspect, the processor is configured to:

assigning a temporary transmission unit identification to each of the one or more client devices;

wherein the transceiver is to:

sending identification information to the one or more client devices, wherein the identification information includes the temporary transmission unit identification.

In a first implementation, allocating a temporary transmission unit identifier to each client device facilitates search space management to reduce the complexity of blind decoding by the network node.

In a second possible implementation form of the network node according to the first implementation form of the first aspect, the transceiver is configured to:

receiving, by the mapped one or more physical resource units, an unlicensed transmission from the one or more client devices, wherein the unlicensed transmission includes one or more temporary transmission unit identifications;

wherein the processor is configured to:

determining an active client device group of the one or more client devices based on the one or more temporary transmission unit identifications;

decoding an unlicensed transmission from the active client device group.

In a second implementation, determining the active client device group based on the temporary transmission unit identification means that blind decoding complexity is reduced due to the limited search space.

In a third possible implementation form of the network node according to the second implementation form of the first aspect, the processor is configured to:

remapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units if a number of data decode failures corresponding to the active client device group exceeds a data decode failure threshold;

wherein the transceiver is to:

sending updated mapping information to the one or more client devices, wherein the updated mapping information includes remapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units.

A decoding failure in the present invention may mean that the network node fails to decode the data, e.g., a packet error occurs. The data decoding failure threshold may be set to different suitable failure rates.

In a third implementation, remapping (logical) Transmission Units (TUs) to (physical) Resource Units (RUs) and sending the remapping improves the quality of service and the efficiency of channel usage, since the mapping can be adjusted according to traffic and/or channel radio conditions.

In a fourth possible implementation form of the network node according to any of the preceding implementation forms of the first aspect or the first aspect as such, the transceiver is configured to:

receiving one or more reference signals from the one or more client devices;

wherein the processor is configured to:

determining the channel quality information and a modulation and coding rate associated with the one or more client devices based on the received one or more reference signals;

transmitting modulation code rate information to the one or more client devices, wherein the modulation code rate information comprises the modulation code rate.

A fourth implementation provides a rate control mechanism and thus a means to increase the spectral efficiency of the system.

In a fifth possible implementation form of a network node according to any of the preceding implementation forms of the first aspect or the first aspect as such, the processor is configured to:

obtaining a first set of measurements, wherein the first set of measurements comprises one or more measurement values associated with at least one of the one or more resource units, the one or more client devices, and the class of service;

remapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units based on the first set of measurements;

wherein the transceiver is to:

In the present invention, the measurements in the first set of measurements may relate to Interference levels (e.g., Interference over Thermal (IoT)) and/or collisions (e.g., probability of decoding failure, etc.).

A fifth implementation provides a signaling mechanism to improve performance, e.g., reduce collisions and increase capacity, by sharing updated mapping information.

In a sixth possible implementation form of a network node according to any of the preceding implementation forms of the first aspect or the first aspect as such, the processor is configured to:

mapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units according to frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, or a combination of frequency division multiplexing and time division multiplexing.

In a sixth implementation, any of the multiplexing mechanisms supports multiple use cases carried over a physical channel. Frequency division multiplexing results in frequency diversity, time division multiplexing results in time diversity, and the combination of the two results in frequency and time diversity.

In a seventh possible implementation form of the network node according to any of the preceding implementation forms of the first aspect or the first aspect as such, the transceiver is configured to:

and transmitting at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information, and the modulation and coding rate information to the one or more client devices through at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC), a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), a System Information Block (SIB), and a physical layer signaling (e.g., L1).

A seventh implementation provides a signaling mechanism for implementing resource management of the network node.

In an eighth possible implementation form of the network node according to any of the preceding implementation forms of the first aspect or the first aspect as such, the transceiver is configured to:

transmitting at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information, and the modulation and coding rate information to one or more other network nodes over a backhaul interface or the like.

In an eighth implementation, providing a (backhaul) signaling mechanism for related information exchange enables inter-cell interference coordination and mitigation between network nodes in the wireless communication system.

In a ninth possible implementation form of the network node according to the eighth implementation form of the first aspect, the processor is configured to:

obtaining a second set of measurements for one or more client devices served by the one or more other network nodes, wherein the second set of measurements includes one or more measurements associated with at least one of the one or more resource units, the one or more client devices, and the class of service;

wherein the transceiver is to:

sending a resource unit overload indication to the one or more other network nodes if the second set of measured measurement values exceeds a measurement threshold.

In a ninth implementation, the interference mitigation control based on overload indication is to avoid collisions in heavily loaded RUs by implementing load balancing between (neighboring) network nodes, thereby improving network efficiency.

In a tenth possible implementation form of the network node according to the eighth or ninth implementation form of the first aspect, the transceiver is configured to:

transmitting a resource unit high interference indication to the one or more other network nodes based on at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information, and the modulation and coding rate information.

In a tenth implementation, the interference mitigation control based on high interference indication is to avoid collisions in heavily loaded RUs by implementing load balancing between (neighboring) network nodes, thereby improving network efficiency.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects are fulfilled by a client device of a wireless communication system, comprising:

a processor to:

running one or more applications, wherein each application is associated with a QoS requirement;

a transceiver to:

receiving mapping information from a network node, wherein the mapping information comprises mapping one or more transmission units onto one or more physical resource units for unlicensed transmission;

transmitting data to the network node over the one or more physical resource units based on the mapping information, wherein the data is associated with the one or more applications.

The license-exempt transmission may include the client device autonomously transmitting data to the network node without going through a conventional scheduling request and grant process to reduce signaling overhead and potential delays in the transmission process.

The client device according to the first aspect has a number of advantages compared to conventional solutions. And receiving the mapping information and sending data in an authorization-free mode according to the mapping information, thereby improving the system capacity and reducing the operation complexity. In addition, semi-static scheduling is also implemented to improve spectral efficiency.

In a first possible implementation form of the client device according to the second aspect, the transceiver is configured to:

receiving identification information from the network node, wherein the identification information comprises a temporary transmission unit identification of the client device;

including the temporary transmission unit identification in the data sent to the network node for unlicensed transmission over the one or more physical resource units.

In a second possible implementation form of the client device according to the first implementation form of the second aspect as such or the second aspect itself, the transceiver is configured to:

receiving updated mapping information from the network node, wherein the updated mapping information comprises remapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units for unlicensed transmission;

retransmitting data in the one or more physical resource units based on the updated mapping information.

In a second implementation, receiving updated mapping information improves quality of service and channel utilization efficiency, as the mapping can be adjusted according to traffic and/or channel conditions.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects are achieved by a method performed by a network node, the method comprising:

In a first possible implementation form of the method according to the third aspect, the method comprises:

wherein the transceiver is to:

In a second possible implementation form of the method according to the first implementation form of the third aspect, the method comprises:

decoding an unlicensed transmission from the active client device group.

In a third possible implementation form of the method according to the second implementation form of the third aspect, the method comprises:

In a fourth possible implementation form of any of the preceding implementation forms of the third aspect or the method of the third aspect as such, the method comprises:

receiving one or more reference signals from the one or more client devices;

In a fifth possible implementation form of any of the preceding implementation forms of the third aspect or the method of the third aspect as such, the method comprises:

In a sixth possible implementation form of any of the preceding implementation forms of the third aspect or the method of the third aspect as such, the method comprises:

In a seventh possible implementation form of any of the preceding implementation forms of the third aspect or the method of the third aspect as such, the method comprises:

and sending at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information, and the modulation and coding rate information to the one or more client devices through at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC), a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control unit, a System Information Block (SIB), and a physical layer signaling.

In an eighth possible implementation form of any of the preceding implementation forms of the third aspect or the method of the third aspect as such, the method comprises:

In a ninth possible implementation form of the method according to the eighth implementation form of the third aspect, the method comprises:

In a tenth possible implementation form of the method according to the eighth or ninth implementation form of the third aspect, the method comprises:

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects are fulfilled by a method performed by a client service, the method comprising:

In a first possible implementation form of the method according to the fourth aspect, the method comprises:

In a second possible implementation form of the method according to the first implementation form of the fourth aspect as such or according to the fourth aspect as such, the method comprises:

The advantages of any method according to the third aspect or the fourth aspect are the same as the advantages of the corresponding device claims according to the first aspect and the second aspect, respectively.

The invention also relates to a computer program, characterized by code means, which when run by processing means causes said processing means to execute any of the methods provided by the invention. Furthermore, the invention relates to a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium and said computer program. The computer program is embodied in the computer readable medium. The computer readable medium includes one or both of the following groupings: Read-Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable PROM (EPROM), flash Memory, Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), and a hard disk drive.

Other applications and advantages of the present invention will be described in detail below.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings are included to illustrate and explain various embodiments of the present invention, in which:

fig. 1 shows a network node according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a client device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a method according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 5 illustrates a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 illustrates a case where classification is applied and TUs are mapped to physical RUs based on the classification applied;

figures 7 to 9 show time diversity mapping, frequency diversity mapping and a combination of time and frequency diversity mapping, respectively;

fig. 10 illustrates a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 shows a network node 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. The network node 100 comprises a processor 102 coupled to a transceiver 104. The processor 102 and the transceiver 104 are coupled to each other by an optional communication device 108 as is known in the art, as indicated by the dashed arrow in fig. 1. The network node 100 further comprises an optional antenna 106 coupled to the transceiver 104, which means that the network node 100 is used for wireless communication in a wireless communication system.

The processor 102 of the network node 100 is configured to classify one or more applications associated with one or

more client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n (shown in fig. 5) into one or more service classes. Each service class corresponds to quality of service (QoS) requirements such as delay, coverage, bandwidth, etc. The processor 102 is further configured to aggregate applications in a service class into one or more Transmission Units (TUs) of the service class. The processor 102 is further configured to: mapping one or more TUs of the service class onto one or more physical Resource Units (RUs) based on at least one of QoS requirements of the service class and Channel Quality Information (CQI) associated with the one or

more client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300 n. The physical RU is allocated for unlicensed transmission of the one or

more client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n to the network node 100. The transceiver 104 of the network node 100 is configured to send Mapping Information (MI) to the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300 n. The Mapping Information (MI) includes mapping one or more TUs of the service class to the physical RU.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of a corresponding method 200 that may be performed by the network node 100 as shown in fig. 1. The method 200 comprises the following steps: one or more applications associated with one or

more client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n are classified (202) into one or more service classes. Each service class corresponds to the aforementioned QoS requirements. The method 200 also includes aggregating (204) applications in the service class into one or more TUs of the service class. The method 200 further comprises: mapping (206) one or more TUs of the service class onto one or more physical RUs based on at least one of QoS requirements of the service class and CQI associated with the one or

more client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n to the network node 100. The method 200 further comprises: sending (208) Mapping Information (MI) to the

client devices

The network node 100 herein may also be denoted as a Radio network node, an access point or a Base Station, e.g. a Base Station being a Radio Base Station (RBS), which in some networks may also be referred to as a transmitter, "eNB", "eNodeB", "NodeB" or "B node", depending on the technology and terminology used. The radio network nodes may be divided into different categories, e.g. macro eNodeB, home eNodeB or pico base station, based on transmit power and cell size. A wireless network node may be a base Station (STA), which is any device including a Media Access Control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) interface conforming to IEEE 802.11 connected to a Wireless Medium (WM). The network node may also be a base station corresponding to a fifth generation (5th generation, abbreviated as 5G) wireless system.

Fig. 3 shows a client device 300 according to an embodiment of the invention. The client device 300 includes a processor 302 coupled to a transceiver 304. The processor 302 and the transceiver 304 are coupled to each other by an optional communication device 308 as is known in the art, as shown in fig. 3. The client device 300 also includes an optional antenna 306 coupled to the transceiver 304, which means that the client device 300 is used for wireless communication in a wireless communication system.

The processor 302 of the client device 300 is configured to run one or more applications, and each application is associated with a QoS requirement. The transceiver 304 of the client device 300 is configured to receive Mapping Information (MI) from the network node 100. The Mapping Information (MI) includes mapping one or more TUs to one or more physical RUs for unlicensed transmission. The transceiver 304 is also operable to: sending data to the network node 100 via the one or more physical RUs based on the Mapping Information (MI), wherein the data is associated with the one or more applications. The data may be Uplink (UL) data, such as utility metering data. The data may be associated with different applications (and corresponding services) running or installed in the client device 300.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of a corresponding method 400 that may be performed by the client device 300 as shown in fig. 3. The method 400 includes: one or more applications are run (402), where each application is associated with a QoS requirement. The method 400 further includes: mapping Information (MI) is received (404) from the network node 100, and comprises mapping one or more TUs onto one or more physical RUs for unlicensed transmission. The method 400 further includes: sending (406) data to the network node 100 via the one or more physical RUs based on the Mapping Information (MI), wherein the data is associated with the one or more applications.

The client device 300 herein may be represented as a User Equipment (UE), a mobile station, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a wireless terminal and/or a mobile terminal, and is capable of wireless communication in a wireless communication system, which is sometimes referred to as a cellular radio system. The UE may also be referred to as a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a tablet, or a laptop computer with wireless capabilities. A UE herein may be a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or vehicle-mounted mobile device or the like capable of voice or data communication with another entity, such as another receiver or server, over a radio access network. The UE may be a base Station (STA), and the base station is any device including a Media Access Control (MAC) and a physical layer (PHY) interface conforming to IEEE 802.11 and connected to a Wireless Medium (WM). The client device 100 may also be used for communication in 3 GPP-related LTE and LTE-Advanced, in WiMAX and its evolution, and in fifth generation wireless technologies such as New Radio.

Fig. 5 illustrates a wireless communication system 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to an embodiment of the invention, the wireless communication system 500 comprises a network node 100 and a plurality of

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300 n. The network node 100 sends the aforementioned Mapping Information (MI) to the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n, and the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n are served by the network node 100.

The network node 100 may assign a temporary transmission unit identification to each of said

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300 n. As shown in fig. 5, these temporary transmission unit identifications are transmitted to the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n in the form of identification information (IDI).

The

client device

300a, 300b, … …, 300n is configured to conduct an unlicensed transmission with the network node 100 over the mapped physical RU, and the unlicensed transmission includes the temporary transmission unit identification. After receiving the unlicensed transmission, network node 100 determines an active client device group of the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n based on one or more temporary transmission unit identifications in the unlicensed transmission. The activity set may include all of the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n or only a limited number of the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300 n. Thereafter, the unlicensed transmissions from the active client device group are jointly decoded. The active set of client devices may be determined by detecting the presence of a client device, for example by testing for the presence of a signature including an identification of its temporary transmission unit.

Further, after determining the active client device group, network node 100 may remap the one or more TUs to the one or more physical RUs if a number of data decoding failures corresponding to the active client device group exceeds a data decoding failure threshold. As shown in fig. 5, the remapping is sent to the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n in the form of Updated Mapping Information (UMI). For example, the data decode failure threshold may depend on a system operating point and/or a system objective. For example, in some use cases, the system may allow a high collision rate to maintain high connection capacity, while in other use cases, the system may maintain a low collision rate at the expense of reduced connection capacity, operating in a more reliable manner.

Although other types of client device Identities (IDs), such as manufacturer IDs or Radio Network Temporary Identities (RNTIs), may be long sequences in a large sequence space, for the active set of client devices aggregated in this manner, only a search needs to be performed in the pool of client devices connected to the TU, which helps to reduce the blind decoding complexity. The network node 100 may first perform blind detection to identify the active client devices and then perform joint decoding based on the active client device list, rather than blind decoding directly for the LTE DL control channel. In this way, the search space can be significantly reduced, thereby reducing blind decoding complexity. The current temporary transmission unit identification for each client device may be sent to the client device via any of higher layer (RRC), MAC-CE and L1.

Furthermore, the CQI used for mapping may be obtained by the network node 100 in a number of different ways. In an embodiment, the CQI associated with the

client device

300a, 300b, … …, 300n is determined based on the reference signal received from the

client device

300a, 300b, … …, 300n (this is not shown in fig. 5). The network node 100 may further use the reference signal to determine a Modulation and Coding Rate (MCR) associated with the

client device

300a, 300b, … …, 300 n. The determined MCR is sent from the network node 100 to the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n in the form of Modulation and Coding Rate Information (MCRI).

In an example, depending on the service class and client device capabilities, the

client device

300a, 300b, … …, 300n may send a channel sounding reference signal to the network node 100 to measure UL channel conditions to obtain the CQI. The channel sounding reference signal may be a specific beacon or other UL signal for UL channel sounding, e.g., a UL demodulation reference signal. The channel sounding reference signal may be transmitted in a separate time-frequency resource or embedded in the UL channel. The bandwidth of the channel sounding reference signal may be configured as a wideband or subband signal, i.e., spanning all possible RUs or only a subset of the RUs. The transmission power of the channel sounding reference signal may be independent of, or associated with, the UL traffic and control channels as in LTE. The channel sounding reference signal may be configured by the network node 100 in various ways, e.g., by system information block, higher layer RRC signaling, MAC-CE, and physical layer signaling (e.g., L1). Thus, the network node 100 may configure the channel sounding reference signal sent by the client device to the network node 100.

The network node 100 measures UL reference signals to estimate channel quality associated with the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n and allocates the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n to favorable RUs to achieve multi-user diversity (frequency-selective scheduling). The network node 100 may also control the modulation and rate (e.g., MCS) based on the UL reference signal. The user allocation messages and rate control messages may also be communicated to the client device by mechanisms similar to mapping or remapping, i.e., system information blocks, higher layer RRC signaling, MAC-CE and physical layer signaling (e.g., L1).

Fig. 6 illustrates a case where a classification is applied and a TU is mapped to a physical RU based on the classification. In this example, network node 100 maintains a TU pool for unlicensed UL transmissions, including mtc and URLLC services. The TUs in the pool can be divided into a Contention-Based TU (CBTU) and a Contention-Free TU (CFTU), which serve non-mission critical mtc client devices and critical URLLC client devices, respectively. During a service request, an application is attached to the TU according to the service class and its requirements. For example, sensor type services may be allocated to CBTUs, while industrial control services may be allocated to CFTUs. The TUs are mapped to physical RUs, including time, frequency, signature, power, and reference signals, etc. The size of the TU pool depends on the system load of all services including enhanced Mobile broadband (eMBB), mtc, and URLLC. The RUs in the RU pool may have the same size as a Resource Block (RB), or have different sizes. RUs may be bundled in the time and/or frequency domain depending on the service level. For example, in certain mtc applications where extended coverage is desired, the RUs may be extended in the time domain and reduced in the frequency domain. For another example, in URLLC applications, the RU may be reduced in the time domain and extended in the frequency domain to reduce delay. In other scenarios, the mapping of TUs to physical RUs may also be spread in the time and frequency planes to achieve diversity, as will be described in more detail below.

Furthermore, the mapping of TUs to RUs may be located in time-frequency resources, or may be spread over time and/or frequency. Network node 100 may periodically remap the TUs to an RU, or may trigger the remapping of the TUs to an RU by an event such as overload, for diversity, interference management, or load balancing. Note that frequency hopping can be seen as a special case of remapping in this document.

Fig. 7 shows a time-distributed mapping of TUs to RUs; FIG. 8 illustrates a frequency domain distributed mapping; fig. 9 shows a time-frequency distributed mapping. Multiplexing of different TUs may be implemented by Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), or a hybrid TDM and FDM manner.

Fig. 7 illustrates mapping of TUs to time-frequency RUs over TDM or bundled transmission intervals, with coverage enhancement achieved. The x-axis shows time and the y-axis shows frequency. As can be seen from fig. 7, the different RUs do not overlap in the time dimension.

Fig. 8 shows TU to time-frequency RU mapping with FDM or wideband allocation and short transmission interval, achieving low delay. The x-axis shows time and the y-axis shows frequency. As can be seen from fig. 8, the different RUs do not overlap in the frequency dimension.

Fig. 9 illustrates mapping of TUs to time-frequency resources, implementing time-frequency diversity with RU spread over time and frequency. The x-axis shows time and the y-axis shows frequency. As can be seen from fig. 9, the different RUs do not overlap in the frequency or time dimension.

In the case of retransmission by the client device 300, various mapping options may exist. For example, client device 300 may use the same RU as the first unlicensed transmission until a system remapping command is received from network node 100. However, the client device 300 may also retransmit using a predefined different RU or CFTU. The RU for retransmission may be transmitted to the client device 300 via a System Information Block (SIB), higher layer RRC signaling, MAC-CE, and physical layer signaling (e.g., L1).

Furthermore, in order to balance network load and manage inter-cell interference in the cellular type wireless communication system 500, further embodiments of the present invention are disclosed hereinafter, some of which are illustrated in fig. 10.

As shown in fig. 10, the network nodes of the wireless communication system 500 are configured to communicate with each other via backhaul signaling or the like. In this regard, a backhaul interface 502 is provided for the backhaul signaling. Backhaul interface 502 is shown in dotted lines between the network nodes in fig. 10.

One common network mechanism for handling load balancing and inter-cell interference management is the exchange of information between network nodes of the wireless communication system 500 through network signaling. Therefore, in an embodiment, the network node 100 sends at least one of the Mapping Information (MI), the Updated Mapping Information (UMI), the identification information (IDI), and the Modulation and Coding Rate Information (MCRI) to one or more other network nodes 100a ', 100b ', … …, 100n ' via the backhaul interface 502 in the wireless communication system 500. The other network nodes 100a ', 100b ', … …, 100n ' may adjust the communication between them and the client devices they serve accordingly.

In an embodiment, the problem of intra-cell load balancing is considered. In this case, the network node 100 obtains a first set of measurements associated with the

client devices

300a, 300b, … …, 300n served by the network node 100 (see fig. 5). Examples are Interference over Thermal (IoT) on RU (for measuring Interference level), ACK/NACK based collision, etc., but not limited thereto. Based on the first set of measurements, network node 100 remaps the one or more TUs onto the one or more physical RUs. The condition for this remapping is to determine that an overload has occurred. Thereafter, the re-mapping is sent to the other network nodes 100a ', 100b', … …, 100n via the backhaul interface 502.

The network node 100 may obtain a second set of measurements for one or more client devices 300a ', 300b', … …, 300n 'served by the one or more other network nodes 100a', 100b ', … …, 100n', as shown in fig. 10. In this case, the second set of measurements may also relate to Interference over Thermal (IoT) on the RU, ACK/NACK based collisions, etc. The network node 100 is configured to send an RU Overload Indicator (OI) to the one or more other network nodes 100a ', 100b ', … …, 100n ' to request a reduction of the load on the affected RUs if at least one measurement value of the second set of measurements exceeds a measurement threshold. The measurement threshold may depend on the system operating point and/or the system target. For example, in some use cases, the system may allow for higher interference levels and/or collision rates to maintain high connection capacity, while in other use cases, the system may maintain lower interference levels and/or collision rates at the expense of reduced connection capacity, operating in a more reliable manner.

Furthermore, the network node 100 may also signal other network nodes 100a ', 100b', … …, 100n through a High Interference Indicator (HII) signaling that some RUs may be overloaded. Thus, the other network nodes 100a ', 100b', … …, 100n may adjust their mapping accordingly. In an embodiment, the signaling of the HII is based on at least one of the Mapping Information (MI), the Updated Mapping Information (UMI), the identification information (IDI), and the Modulation and Coding Rate Information (MCRI). For example, the network node 100 may inform the other (neighboring) network nodes 100a ', 100b', … …, 100n to predict the presence of high interference at certain RUs.

In addition, the problem of mitigating inter-cell interference may also be considered. If network nodes in the wireless communication system 500 exchange configurations of TUs and/or RUs, including client device signatures and pilot sequences, the network node 100 may run advanced reception algorithms, such as joint detection or interference cancellation.

Furthermore, any of the methods according to embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in a computer program having code means which, when run by processing means, causes the processing means to perform the method steps. The computer program is embodied in a computer readable medium of a computer program product. The computer-readable medium may include substantially any Memory, such as Read-Only Memory (ROM), Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), Erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), flash Memory, Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), and a hard disk drive.

Furthermore, the skilled person realizes that embodiments of the network node 100 and the client device 300 comprise the necessary communication capabilities in the form of functions, means, units, elements, etc. to perform the present solution. Examples of other such devices, units, elements and functions include: processors, memories, buffers, logic controls, encoders, decoders, rate matchers, de-rate matchers, mapping units, multipliers, decision units, selection units, switches, interleavers, de-interleavers, modulators, demodulators, inputs, outputs, antennas, amplifiers, receiver units, transmitter units, DSPs, MSDs, TCM encoders, TCM decoders, power supply units, power feeders, communication interfaces, communication protocols, etc., which are reasonably arranged together to perform the present solution.

In particular, the

processors

102, 302 of the network node 100 and the client devices, respectively, may comprise, for example, one or more instances of a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a processing unit, processing circuitry, a processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a microprocessor, or other processing logic that may interpret and execute instructions. Thus, the term "processor" may refer to a processing circuit comprising a plurality of processing circuits, such as any, some, or all of the processing circuits listed above. The processing circuitry may further perform data processing functions for inputting, outputting, and processing data, including data buffering and device control functions, such as call processing control, user interface control, and the like.

Finally, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but relates to and incorporates all embodiments within the scope of the appended independent claims.

Claims

1. A network node (100) for a wireless communication system (500), the network node (100) comprising:

a processor (102) configured to:

classifying one or more applications associated with one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) into one or more service classes, wherein each service class corresponds to a quality of service, QoS, requirement;

mapping one or more transmission units of the service class onto one or more physical resource units based on at least one of the QoS requirements of the service class and channel quality information associated with the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the one or more physical resource units are allocated for unlicensed transmission of the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) to a network node (100);

assigning a temporary transmission unit identification to each of the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300 n);

a transceiver (104) for:

sending mapping information to the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the mapping information comprises mapping one or more transmission units of the service class onto the one or more physical resource units;

sending identification information to the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the identification information includes the temporary transmission unit identification;

receiving an unlicensed transmission from the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) over the mapped one or more physical resource units, wherein the unlicensed transmission includes one or more temporary transmission unit identifications;

wherein the processor (102) is further configured to: determining an active client device group of the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) based on the one or more temporary transmission unit identifications; decoding an unlicensed transmission from the active client device group.

2. The network node (100) of claim 1, wherein the processor (102) is configured to:

wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

sending updated mapping information to the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the updated mapping information includes remapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units.

3. The network node (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

receiving one or more reference signals from the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300 n);

wherein the processor (102) is configured to:

determining the channel quality information and a modulation and coding rate associated with the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) based on the received one or more reference signals;

transmitting modulation code rate information to the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the modulation code rate information includes the modulation code rate.

4. The network node (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor (102) is configured to:

obtaining a first set of measurements, wherein the first set of measurements comprises one or more measurement values associated with at least one of the one or more resource units, the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), and the class of service;

wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

5. The network node (100) of claim 2, wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

transmitting at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information, and modulation and coding rate information to the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) via at least one of a radio resource control, a media access control element, a system message block, and physical layer signaling.

6. The network node (100) of claim 2, wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

transmitting at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information and modulation and coding rate information to one or more other network nodes (100a ', 100b ', … …, 100n ').

7. The network node (100) of claim 6, wherein the processor (102) is configured to:

obtaining a second set of measurements of one or more client devices (300a ', 300b', … …, 300n ') served by the one or more other network nodes (100a', 100b ', … …, 100 n'), wherein the second set of measurements comprises one or more measurement values associated with at least one of the one or more resource units, the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), and the class of service;

wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

sending a resource unit overload indication to the one or more other network nodes (100a ', 100b ', … …, 100n ') if the second set of measured measurement values exceeds a measurement threshold.

8. The network node (100) of claim 7, wherein the transceiver (104) is configured to:

transmitting a resource unit high interference indication to the one or more other network nodes (100a ', 100b ', … …, 100n ') based on at least one of the mapping information, the updated mapping information, the identification information, and the modulation and coding rate information.

9. A client device (300) for a wireless communication system (500), the client device (300) comprising:

a processor (302) configured to:

running one or more applications, wherein each application is divided into one or more service classes, each application being associated with a quality of service, QoS, requirement, wherein each application is aggregated into one or more transmission units of the corresponding service class;

a transceiver (304) for:

receiving mapping information from a network node (100), wherein the mapping information comprises mapping one or more transmission units onto one or more physical resource units for unlicensed transmission;

receiving identification information from a network node (100), wherein the identification information comprises a temporary transmission unit identification of a client device (300);

transmitting data to a network node (100) over the one or more physical resource units based on the mapping information, wherein the data is associated with the one or more applications;

including the temporary transmission unit identification in the data sent to the network node (100) for unlicensed transmission over the one or more physical resource units.

10. The client device (300) of claim 9, wherein the transceiver (304) is configured to:

receiving updated mapping information from a network node (100), wherein the updated mapping information comprises remapping the one or more transmission units onto the one or more physical resource units for unlicensed transmission;

11. A method for a network node (100), the method (200) comprising:

partitioning (202) one or more applications associated with one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) into one or more classes of service, wherein each class of service corresponds to a quality of service, QoS, requirement;

aggregating (204) applications in a service class into one or more transmission units of the service class;

mapping (206) one or more transmission units of the service class onto one or more physical resource units based on at least one of the QoS requirements of the service class and channel quality information associated with the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the one or more physical resource units are allocated for unlicensed transmission of the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) to a network node (100);

sending (208) mapping information to the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n), wherein the mapping information comprises mapping one or more transmission units of the service class onto the one or more physical resource units;

determining an active client device group of the one or more client devices (300a, 300b, … …, 300n) based on the one or more temporary transmission unit identifications;

decoding an unlicensed transmission from the active client device group.

12. A method for a client device (300), the method (400) comprising:

running (402) one or more applications, wherein each application is divided into one or more service classes, each application being associated with a quality of service, QoS, requirement, wherein each application is aggregated into one or more transmission units of the corresponding service class;

receiving (404) mapping information from a network node (100), wherein the mapping information comprises mapping one or more transmission units onto one or more physical resource units for unlicensed transmission;

sending (406) data to a network node (100) over the one or more physical resource units based on the mapping information, wherein the data is associated with the one or more applications;

13. A computer storage medium, characterized in that it comprises computer program code which, when said computer program is run on a computer, can carry out the method according to claim 11 or 12.