CN112042247B

CN112042247B - Two-stage PDCCH design to support multiple BWPs

Info

Publication number: CN112042247B
Application number: CN201880092963.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨涛; K·肖伯; 徐夏刚
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
Priority date: 2018-05-22
Filing date: 2018-05-22
Publication date: 2023-01-06
Anticipated expiration: 2038-05-22
Also published as: WO2019222922A1; CN112042247A

Abstract

Multiple BWPs are configured for a carrier. It is determined which BWPs of the plurality of BWPs are to be active and scheduled. In a first DCI on a first PDCCH of the active and scheduled multiple BWPs, the base station transmits content to the UE, the content including an indication of the determined active and scheduled BWPs. In a second DCI on a second PDCCH of the determined active and scheduled BWP(s), the base station transmits scheduling information to the UE indicating transmission parameters to be used by the UE for communication on the corresponding BWP(s). The UE receives the content in a first DCI and then receives scheduling information in a second DCI on a second PDCCH of BWP(s), the BWP-degree information(s) being determined to be active and scheduled based on the content. The scheduling information indicates transmission parameters for communicating over the corresponding plurality of bandwidth portions(s).

Description

Two-stage PDCCH design to support multiple BWPs

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to downlink control channel design.

Background

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Thus, unless expressly indicated otherwise herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. At the beginning of the detailed description section, abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawings are defined below.

The wider/adaptive Bandwidth (BW) functionality of release 15 (R15) is based on the configuration of multiple BW Segments (BWPs), where each BWP is a set of consecutive Resource Blocks (RBs) on the network RB grid, referred to as the common RB grid in 3gpp TS 36.213. One reference point may serve as a reference for a plurality of BWPs. Items within the BWP may be referenced to different reference points, such as the beginning of the BWP.

Disclosure of Invention

This section is intended to include examples, and is not intended to be limiting.

In an example of an embodiment, a method is disclosed, the method comprising: configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuring being performed by a base station to a user equipment; determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled; transmitting, by the base station, content to the user equipment on a first physical downlink control channel of one of the active and scheduled portions of bandwidth, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled portions of bandwidth; and transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, after the transmission of the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Additional examples of embodiments include a computer program comprising code for performing the method of the preceding paragraph when the computer program is run on a processor. A computer program according to this paragraph, wherein the computer program is a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer.

An example of an apparatus includes one or more processors and one or more memories including computer program code. The one or more memories and the computer program code are configured to, with the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuration being performed by a base station to a user equipment; determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled; transmitting, by the base station, content to the user equipment in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of one of the active and scheduled plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth parts; and transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, after the transmission of the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Examples of a computer program product include a computer-readable storage medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer. The computer program code includes: code for configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuring being performed by a base station to a user equipment; code for determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled; code for transmitting, by a base station, content to a user equipment in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel for one of a plurality of bandwidth portions that are active and scheduled, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth portions; and code for transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment, in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel in the determined active and scheduled one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, after the transmission of the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

In another example of an embodiment, an apparatus comprises: means for configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuring being performed by a base station to a user equipment; means for determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled; means for transmitting, by the base station, content to the user equipment in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel for one of the active and scheduled portions of bandwidth, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled portions of bandwidth; and means for transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, after the transmission of the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

In an example of an embodiment, a method is disclosed, the method comprising: receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a configuration for a plurality of bandwidth parts of a carrier; receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information allowing the user equipment to determine which bandwidth parts of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts determined to be active and scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

An example of an apparatus includes one or more processors and one or more memories including computer program code. The one or more memories and the computer program code are configured to, with the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a configuration for a plurality of bandwidth parts of a carrier; receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information allowing the user equipment to determine which of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions determined to be active and scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions.

Examples of a computer program product include a computer-readable storage medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer. The computer program code includes: code for receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a configuration for a plurality of bandwidth parts of a carrier; code for receiving, by a user equipment, content from a base station in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information that allows the user equipment to determine which bandwidth parts of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and code for receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts determined to be active and scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on a corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

In another example of an embodiment, an apparatus comprises: means for receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a plurality of bandwidth portions of a carrier; means for receiving, by a user equipment, content from a base station in a first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information that allows the user equipment to determine which of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and means for receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts determined to be active and scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Drawings

In the attached drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one possible and non-limiting exemplary system in which the exemplary embodiments may be practiced;

fig. 2 is an illustration of BWP on a network PRB grid; and

FIG. 3 is a table illustrating a protocol for confirming values for case 1-1, case 1-2, and case 2-2 for a maximum number of PDCCH BD per slot with respect to subcarrier spacing (SCS);

fig. 4, which is divided into fig. 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D and 4E, illustrates a flowchart of an example of a two-stage PDCCH design supporting multiple BWPs.

Detailed description of the drawings

The following abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawings are defined as follows:

1st first

2nd second

3GPP third generation partnership project

5G fifth generation

AI agenda items

AL polymerization grade

BD blind decoding

BW bandwidth

BWP bandwidth portion

CA carrier aggregation

CCE control channel elements

CORESET control resource aggregation

CP Cyclic Prefix

CSI channel state information

DCI downlink control information

DL Downlink (from base station to user equipment)

eNB (or eNodeB) evolved node B (e.g., LTE base station)

Base station for gNB (or gNodeB) for 5G/NR

FFS for future study

HARQ ID hybrid automatic repeat request ID

ID identification

IE information element

I/F interface

LTE Long term evolution

MAC-CE medium access control-control element

MCS modulation coding scheme

MME mobility management entity

MUST multi-user overlapping transmission

NCE network control element

NR new radio

N/W or NW network

OFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

PDCCH physical downlink control channel

Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)

PHY physical layer

PRB physical resource block

R15 issue 15

R16 Release 16

RA resource allocation

RB resource block

RBG resource block group

REG resource element group

RRC radio resource control

RRH remote radio head

Rx receiver

SGW service gateway

SCS subcarrier spacing

SI system information

TB transport block

TS technical Specification

TTI Transmission time Interval

Tx transmitter

UE user equipment (e.g., wireless device, typically a mobile device)

UL uplink (from user equipment to base station)

V version

WB broadband

The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. All of the embodiments described in this detailed description are exemplary embodiments provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention which is defined by the claims.

Example embodiments herein describe techniques for a two-stage PDCCH design to support multiple active BWPs. Having described a system in which the illustrative embodiments may be used, additional description of these techniques is presented.

Turning to FIG. 1, the figure illustrates a block diagram of one possible and non-limiting exemplary system in which the exemplary embodiments may be practiced. In fig. 1, a User Equipment (UE) 110 is in wireless communication with a wireless network 100. A UE is a wireless device (typically a mobile device) that can access a wireless network. UE 110 includes one or more processors 120, one or more memories 125, and one or more transceivers 130 interconnected by one or more buses 127. Each of the one or more transceivers 130 includes a receiver Rx 132 and a transmitter Tx 133. The one or more buses 127 may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, an optical fiber, or other optical communication device, and so forth. One or more transceivers 130 are connected to one or more antennas 128. The one or more memories 125 include computer program code 123.UE 110 includes a PDCCH module 140 that includes one or both of portions 140-1 and/or 140-2, which may be implemented in a variety of ways. The PDCCH module 140 may be implemented in hardware as the PDCCH module 140-1, such as being implemented as part of one or more processors 120. PDCCH module 140-1 may also be implemented as an integrated circuit or by other hardware, such as a programmable gate array. In another example, the PDCCH module may be implemented as PDCCH module 140-2, which is implemented as computer program code 123 and executed by the one or more processors 120. For example, the one or more memories 125 and the computer program code 123 may be configured to, with the one or more processors 120, cause the user equipment 110 to perform one or more of the operations described herein. UE 110 communicates with gNB 170 via radio link 111.

The gNB 170 is a base station that provides access to the wireless network 100 for wireless devices such as UE 110. The gNB 170 is a base station for 5G (also referred to as New Radio (NR)). The gNB 170 may also be an eNB (evolved NodeB) base station for LTE (long term evolution) or any other suitable base station. The gNB 170 includes one or more processors 152, one or more memories 155, one or more network interfaces (N/W I/F) 161, and one or more transceivers 160 interconnected by one or more buses 157. Each of the one or more transceivers 160 includes a receiver Rx 162 and a transmitter Tx 163. One or more transceivers 160 are connected to one or more antennas 158. The one or more memories 155 include computer program code 153. The gNB 170 includes a PDCCH module 150 that includes one or both of the portions 150-1 and/or 150-2, which can be implemented in a variety of ways. PDCCH module 150 may be implemented in hardware as PDCCH module 150-1, such as part of one or more processors 152. PDCCH module 150-1 may also be implemented as an integrated circuit or by other hardware, such as a programmable gate array. In another example, PDCCH module 150 may be implemented as PDCCH module 150-2, which is implemented as computer program code 153 and executed by one or more processors 152. For example, the one or more memories 155 and the computer program code 153 may be configured, with the one or more processors 152, to cause the gNB 170 to perform one or more operations described herein. One or more network interfaces 161 communicate over a network, such as via

links

176 and 131. Two or more gnbs 170 communicate using, for example, link 176. The link 176 may be wired or wireless or both, and may implement, for example, an X2 interface.

The one or more buses 157 may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of wires on a motherboard or integrated circuit, an optical fiber or other optical communication device, a wireless channel, or the like. For example, one or more transceivers 160 may be implemented as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) 195, other elements of the gNB 170 are physically in a different location than the RRHs, and one or more buses 157 may be implemented in part as fiber optic cables to connect the other elements of the gNB 170 to the RRHs 195.

The wireless network 100 may include a Network Control Element (NCE) 190, which may include MME (mobility management entity)/SGW (serving gateway) functionality and provide connectivity to yet another network, such as a telephony network and/or a data communications network (e.g., the internet). The gNB 170 is coupled to NCE 190 via link 131. Link 131 may be implemented as, for example, an S1 interface. NCE 190 includes one or more processors 175, one or more memories 171, and one or more network interfaces (N/W I/F) 180 interconnected by one or more buses 185. The one or more memories 171 include computer program code 173. The one or more memories 171 and the computer program code 173 are configured to, with the one or more processors 175, cause the NCE 190 to perform one or more operations.

Wireless network 100 may implement network virtualization, which is a process that combines hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single software-based management entity (virtual network). Network virtualization involves platform virtualization, often in combination with resource virtualization. Network virtualization is classified as external, combining many networks or portions of networks into a virtual unit, or internal, providing network-like functionality to software containers on a single system. It is noted that to some extent, the virtualized entities resulting from network virtualization are still implemented using hardware such as the

processors

152 or 175 and

memories

155 and 171, and such virtualized entities also produce technical effects.

The computer-

readable memories

125, 155, and 171 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based memory devices, flash memory, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory, and removable memory. The computer-

readable memories

125, 155 and 171 may be means for performing a storage function.

Processors

120, 152, and 175 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and processors based on a multi-core processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.

Processors

120, 152, and 175 may be means for performing functions such as controlling UE 110, gNB 170, and other functions described herein.

In general, the various embodiments of the user device 110 can include, but are not limited to, cellular telephones such as smartphones, tablet computers, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) having wireless communication capabilities, portable computers having wireless communication capabilities, image capture devices such as digital cameras having wireless communication capabilities, gaming devices having wireless communication capabilities, music storage and playback appliances having wireless communication capabilities, internet appliances permitting wireless Internet access and browsing, tablet computers having wireless communication capabilities, and portable units or terminals that incorporate combinations of such functions.

Having thus introduced a suitable and non-limiting technical context to practice the exemplary embodiments of this invention, the exemplary embodiments will now be described in greater detail.

I. Additional overview

As stated above, one reference point of the RB grid including BWPs may be used as a reference for a plurality of BWPs. Items within the BWP may be referenced to different reference points, such as the beginning of the BWP. FIG. 2 is used to explain this in more detail, and illustrates an example of two BWPs 210-1, 210-2 configured on a Network (NW) PRB grid 200, the two BWPs 210-1, 210-2 defined in part by a reference point A205 and a digital basic configuration. The digital basic configuration refers to a parameter/configuration set related to PHY processing and a corresponding frame structure, such as SCS (sub-carrier space), TTI length, number of OFDM symbols, CP length, and the like. For example, see section 4.2 "digital basic configuration" of, for example, 3gpp TS 38.211 v15.1.0 (2018-03), for a description of various digital basic configurations. For information about carrier BWP, see section 4.4.5 "carrier bandwidth part" of 3gpp TS 38.211 v15.1.0 (2018-03), where it states the following: "bandwidth part is the basic configuration μ in subclause 4.4.4.3 for a given number in bandwidth part i on a given carrier _i Successive commonalities of definitionA subset of resource blocks. See also, e.g., 3gpp TS 38.331 v15.0.0 (2017-12), section 6.3.2 "radio resource control information element," bandwidth hop-Configuration, which provides information about IEs that can be used to configure BWPs.

In fig. 2, an NW channel center 220 is also illustrated. The first available PRB 215-0 is PRB-0 and the last PRB is PRB-19 (PRB 215-19), for a total of 20 PRBs. The first BWP 210-1 (BWP 1 with bandwidth BW 1) is 20 PRBs and the second BWP 210-2 (BWP 2 with bandwidth BW 2) is eight PWBs and overlaps PWB-8 to PWB-15 in the first BWP 1. Reference point a 205 serves as a reference for different grids such as RBG grid 201, control resource set (CORESET) chunk 202, CSI subband grid 203, and so on. On the other hand, the frequency resource allocation of PDSCH/PUSCH transmitted on BWP indicated in DL assignment or UL grant is not indicated with respect to reference point a 205, but is instead indicated with respect to the start of BWP. Thus, fig. 2 provides context for the BWP concept and how to identify the assigned resources per BWP for both UL/DL.

In R15, the gNB 170 may configure up to four BWPs to the UE 110 for each configured serving cell, and at most only one BWP 210 may be active at a given time.

The following protocol is achieved.

1) The main focus is the case where a single active bandwidth portion is completed.

2) If there is time available later after the case of a single active bandwidth portion is completed, the following should be considered for the UE:

for single carrier WB UEs, multiple active bandwidth portions with different digital basic configurations are configured for the UE simultaneously:

a) 1TB is mapped per active BWP.

b) FFS: multiple active BWPs may overlap in the frequency domain.

c) FFS: cross BWP scheduling is supported.

The following protocol is reached. In release 15, there is at most one active DL BWP and at most one active UL BWP for the serving cell at a given time for the UE.

R16 work will begin at month 8 of 2018. And in R16, it is expected that multi-active BWP will be introduced in the specification, which is an enhancement to R15 operation. The major chipset vendors in 3GPP have supported multi-active BWP enhancements.

In R16, multiple active BWPs may be introduced per carrier, thus providing an alternative to intra-band CA. Compared to CA, there are multiple active BWPs per carrier:

a) Providing a single set of HARQ processes per serving cell that supports retransmission across BWP;

b) Support overlapping active BWPs with different digital base configurations (e.g., support reading system information in a different digital base configuration than the data);

c) DL control is supported that reads different digital basic configurations simultaneously, but requires multiple baseband.

To support this functionality in R16, an important topic is the discussion of how to enhance PDCCH design. Blind Decoding (BD) attempts for DCI reception must increase significantly in cases where multiple BWPs are involved in the data transmission. It is noted that the enhancements of the PDCCH design proposed herein are not limited to multiple active BWPs within a single serving cell, but may also be applied in case the active BWPs are part of different serving cells. For example, HARQ processes may be shared between serving cells and may be shared between active BWPs of different serving cells. Also, different serving cells may share the same reference point a.

To address scheduling on a single active BWP, the two-stage PDCCH concept (stage 1 and stage 2) has been widely discussed during the research project for NR, but the design of the two-stage concept is deferred until after the single-stage design of NR is completed. It is expected that the two-stage PDCCH design will be reintroduced and re-discussed again in R16, particularly because the number of BDs per cell in R15 is very small, as shown in fig. 3, which is a table illustrating the protocol for confirming the values of case 1-1, case 1-2, and case 2-2 with respect to subcarrier spacing (SCS) for the maximum number of PDCCH BDs per slot per serving cell. Case 1-1 is a slot-based schedule, case 1-2 is a slot-based schedule with timely shifted processing pipelines, and case 2-2 is a micro-slot schedule. It is expected that the amount of BD per unit in R16 will not be greater than the amount in R15. Similar restrictions are introduced for the maximum number of CCEs that a UE can handle, which limits the number of PDCCH candidates that a UE can monitor, especially for cell-edge UEs. For PDCCH candidates and the definition of these, see, e.g., subclause 10 of 3GPP TS 38.213 v15.1.0 (2018-03) ("UE procedure for receiving control information") and a Change Request (CR) of "CR to TS 38.213 acquisition RAN1#92bis conference agreement" published on R1-1805795 of 3GPP TSG-RAN1 conference #92bis of san china on 4, 16 to 20 days of 2018.

That is, in case of multi-active BWP operation, where one DCI schedules one active BWP, BD and CCE restrictions may be an even larger problem. The main goal of this two-stage PDCCH is to reduce the number of Blind Decodes (BD) and achieve greater flexibility for DCI transmission and reception.

In this disclosure, we enhance the two-stage PDCCH design to support multi-active BWP operation. The focus is on the following:

a) Where/how the phase 1DCI will be transmitted. For example, one problem is that if phase 1 is to be monitored on deactivated BWP, phase 1 cannot be delivered to the UE.

b) What the content of phase 1 should include.

c) How to indicate the stage 2 search space in stage 1.

The two-stage PDCCH concept has been discussed in R15 with an offline summary (R1-170863). See Ericsson "off-line discussion on two-stage DCI" published on R1-1703863 of 3GPP TSG-RAN WG1#88 of Athens Greece, anchorea, from 13.13 to 17.2017.

The design options discussed are as follows:

1) The first phase with DCI size in the PDCCH region is as follows: subset of single-stage DCI size (HW, hua is technology limited); and is different in size from the single-stage DCI.

2) The first phase is always in the PDCCH region, the second phase is in one of the following:

a) PDSCH region (HW, simultaneous transmission technology): for UL, if there is no DL transmission, then single-stage DCI is used; if there is a DL transmission, it is a 2-stage DCI with a second stage UL grant in the PDSCH region and a first stage in the PDCCH region.

b) PDCCH region (CATT, co-transmission technology).

c) PDCCH/PDSCH region of subsequent time slots.

3) Dynamic indication or semi-static configuration of 2-stage and single-stage DCIs.

4) Single and 2 phases in the slot are supported: the blind decoding is split between the single stage and the first stage of the 2-stage.

5) Aggregating DCI messages to reach a single larger size is an option.

The advantages of two-stage DCI are believed to include the following (but no consensus has yet been reached):

a) Dynamic indication of more than two transmission schemes?

b) Reduced blind decoding?

c) Lower obstruction?

d) Can the second phase have a more flexible size?

e) Is forward compatibility?

The focus of the discussion is on which DCI fields of the scheduling DCI should be in phase 1 and which are in phase 2, and whether phase 2 should be in PDSCH or PDCCH and in which slot.

Dynamic configuration of the 2-phase and single-phase DCI is performed so that the UE knows (configures) which single-phase or two-phase configuration to use. It is noted that dynamic configuration is typically performed by PDCCH (e.g., via DCI), which may vary on a per-TTI basis. Meanwhile, semi-static configuration, which is not as frequent as a dynamic manner and thus is not changed as frequently, may be performed through MAC-CE or RRC signaling. Thus, this type of configuration is "semi-static" in that it is less dynamic, but not static (e.g., does not change).

Another discussion of the two-stage concept is discussed in MUST AI. See "mechanism for efficient operation of MUST" published by Goutong on R1-164436 of 3GPP TSG RAN WG1#85 of Nanjing, china, from 23/5/2016 to 27/3/2016.

This states the following. Another example is the use of two bits, where

00: no accompanying DCI, and the UE is being served by a single user PDSCH;

01: a companion DCI at the same AL and a first predetermined decoding candidate;

10: a companion DCI at the same AL and a second predetermined decoding candidate; and

11: the accompanying DCI at the next higher AL and the first predetermined decoding candidate.

In the above, the phase 2 candidate (accompanying DCI) is notified in the phase 1.

The above discussion/solution is not able to support R16 multi-active BWP scenarios. Also in this case we will focus on the two-phase aspects related to multi-active BWP operation.

Overview of exemplary embodiments

As stated above, the focus herein is on the following issues:

a) Where/how the stage 1DCI will be transmitted.

b) What the content of phase 1 should include.

c) How to indicate the stage 2 search space in stage 1.

These problems are solved via the following embodiments. The following examples provide an overview and additional details regarding these are set forth below.

In a first exemplary embodiment (e.g., with respect to issue (a), where/how to partially transmit the stage 1 DCI), the following operations are performed in an example:

1) The gNB configures N BWPs to the UE.

2) The gNB configures one "always active" BWP among those configured for the UE (see also "option 1", as described below), also configures search space information for phase 1DCI transmission on that BWP, and sends these information to the UE through higher layer signaling including RRC signaling and/or SI.

3) This "always active BWP" will not be deactivated and will only be used for phase 1DCI transmission for a specific UE.

4) The gNB 170 sends stage 1DCI on this "always active BWP".

5) The UE monitors the configured "always active BWP" in each scheduling instance based on the search space information for this stage 1DCI detection.

In a second exemplary embodiment (e.g., with respect to issue (a), where/how to partially transmit the phase 1 DCI), the following operations are performed in an example:

1) The gNB configures N BWPs to the UE.

2) The gNB configures search space information for each BWP for stage 1DCI transmission and transmits the configuration information to the UE through higher layer signaling including RRC signaling and/or SI.

3) Predefined rules are used by the gNB and the UE, and the gNB 170 may inform the UE of the predefined rules regarding active BWP selection for phase 1DCI transmission, such as minimum/maximum BWP ID in the active BWP. See also "option 2" described below.

4) The gNB selects one active BWP according to predefined rules for phase 1DCI transmission.

5) In each scheduling instance, the UE selects and monitors active BWPs for stage 1DCI detection according to previously configured rules and configured corresponding search space information.

In a third exemplary embodiment (e.g., with respect to issue (a), where/how the phase 1DCI is partially transmitted), the following operations are performed in an example:

1) The gNB configures N BWPs to the UE.

2) The gNB configures each BWP for phase 1DCI transmission with the search space information and transmits the configuration information to the UE through higher layer signaling including RRC signaling and/or SI. See also "option 3" described below.

3) The gNB is free to select one active BWP for the phase 1DCI transmission.

4) In each scheduling instance, the UE should monitor all active BWPs according to its configured search space information for stage 1DCI detection.

The fourth exemplary embodiment deals with, for example, the question (b) what the content of phase 1 should include, and (c) how to indicate the phase 2 search space in phase 1. In a fourth exemplary embodiment, after the UE detects the stage 1DCI, the stage 1DCI will notify the UE according to the following example:

1) The UE is notified of the active/inactive state of each configured BWP. One option to implement is to design an N-bit IE (e.g., IE 1) in the stage 1DCI, where 1 bit refers to the active/inactive state of one BWP. As is well known, IEs are parameters contained within signaling messages.

2) The scheduling status of each BWP is notified to the UE. In the following, the UE will continue to monitor the corresponding activity and scheduled BWP for phase 2DCI reception. One option to implement this idea is to design an M-bit IE (e.g., IE 2) in the stage 1DCI, where 1 bit refers to the scheduling case of one BWP.

3) The UE is informed of the alignment of all scheduled BWP DCI format sizes. One option to achieve this idea is to design a 1-bit IE (e.g., IE 3) in the stage 1DCI for this purpose: if all BWP DCI format sizes are aligned, the stage 2DCI format has a fixed size; or configuring a common DCI format size previously through higher layer signaling; or another new alternative is to indicate BWP RA size alignment to the UE through higher layer signaling. Alignment may be achieved by padding zeros or truncations.

4) The UE is notified of search space information dedicated to the corresponding BWP for stage 2DCI detection. One solution to achieve this idea is to introduce another L-bit IE (e.g., IE 4) in the stage 1 DCI. And three alternatives are proposed to explain these L-bit IEs 4.

In alternative #1, there is always an L-bit IE to identify the search space information for all N configured BWPs, regardless of the scheduled/unscheduled/active/inactive state of the BWPs, each of the N configured BWPs having L (N) bits, N =1.. N. For unscheduled BWP (active/inactive), the corresponding L (n) bits may be set to a particular value, such as "000 \8230;".

In alternative #2, the L-bit IE refers to search space information of all scheduled BWPs, each scheduled BWP having L (Q) bits, where the cardinality of the set Q is Q. Given that IE2 is proposed in the stage 1DCI, the parameter "Q" is determined by the number of scheduled BWPs indicated in the IE2 information. For example, if IE2 is 1101, Q =3 and Q = {1,2,4} is set. For this alternative, the L-bit IE4 size may be changed dynamically per TTI with the reduction in the stage 1DCI size. On the other hand, a variable stage 1DCI format size may require multiple blind decodes of stage 1 DCI.

In alternative #3, the L-bit IE refers to search space information of all active BWPs, where each active BWP has L (P) bits, where the cardinality of the active set P is P. The value "P" is determined by the number of active BWPs indicated in the IE1 information. For this alternative, the L-bits may be dynamically changed per TTI with the reduction in the stage 1DCI size. On the other hand, a variable stage 1DCI format size may require multiple blind decodes of stage 1 DCI.

The fifth exemplary embodiment deals with, for example, the question (b) what the content of phase 1 should include, and (c) how to indicate the phase 2 search space in phase 1. In this fifth exemplary embodiment, after the UE detects the stage 1DCI, one L-bit IE (e.g., IE4 set forth above) is included in the stage 1DCI to inform the UE of the search space information of the corresponding BWP. In a fourth embodiment, this embodiment relates to search space information of which BWPs should be included. In this fifth embodiment, we define an example of what the content in IE4 might be, e.g., absolute search space indication or index information. Two options are proposed to define IE4 content:

1) In the first selection, #1: l (i) bit(s) (e.g., L (i) is L bit for BWP i, and may alternatively be captured as L _ i) may directly indicate the search space information for the corresponding BWP i for stage 2DCI delivery.

2) In the second selection, #2: the L (i) bit(s) may identify a subset of the preconfigured search space that includes an empty set of corresponding BWPs (i) for stage 2DCI delivery. For example, the gNB may select a subset of the set(s) of search spaces (including the null set) among the previously configured set(s) of search spaces on the BWP. If the corresponding BWP is not scheduled, a specific value is set for the corresponding L (i) bit. That is, one particular index value is designed to indicate that the corresponding BWP is not scheduled, so the UE will not attempt to detect the relevant stage 2DCI in the following.

The sixth exemplary embodiment relates to the question, for example, (b) what the phase 1 content should include and (c) how to indicate the phase 2 search space in phase 1. In this sixth exemplary embodiment, in view of the trade-off between BD number and signaling overhead, three formats are proposed to define the phase 1DCI content related to IE 1-IE 4:

1) Format #1: IE1+ IE2+ IE3+ IE4 is used and IE4 refers only to search space information for those BWPs that are to be activated and/or scheduled.

2) Format #2: IE1+ IE2+ IE4 is used and IE4 refers to the active and scheduled BWP. IE3 is not included here and notification of RA alignment is sent to the UE by higher layer signaling. And for those non-scheduled BWPs the UE will not attempt to decode stage 2DCI on those non-scheduled BWPs.

3) Format #3: IE1+ IE4 is used and IE4 refers to all configured BWPs. For this format, higher layer signaling is used to configure whether the RA sizes of the scheduled BWPs are aligned. If so, the RA size of all scheduled BWPs is the same, and BD for phase 2 detection is not performed.

Additional details

In R16, the two-stage PDCCH will be discussed and specified in NR normalization. And how to support multiple active BWPs will be a key requirement for the two-stage PDCCH enhancement specification. In R16, each BWP has at least five states:

1) Active and scheduled;

2) Active but not scheduled;

3) Simultaneously activated and scheduled;

4) Activated but unscheduled; and

5) Is deactivated.

UE 110 should clearly understand these states to be able to interpret the DCI field correctly. And with respect to the two-stage PDCCH concept, the following issues should be addressed to make the concept work in R16:

1) What is the role of the stage 1 and stage 2 PDCCHs when multiple active BWPs are supported in R16?

2) How are phase 1/phase 2 PDCCHs transmitted and monitored, respectively?

3) What is the relationship between the phase 1 and phase 2 PDCCHs?

These problems are addressed by a new idea presented below to efficiently support R16 multiple active BWP operations.

The following ideas and concepts are explained using fig. 4, which is divided into fig. 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, and 4E. Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a two-stage PDCCH design supporting multiple BWPs. The figure is a logic flow diagram that illustrates operations performed by both the network side (e.g., gNB 170) and the receiver side (e.g., UE 110). The figure also illustrates the operation of one or more exemplary methods, the results of execution of computer program instructions embodied on a computer-readable memory, the functions performed by logic embodied in hardware, and/or the interconnected components for performing the functions in accordance with the exemplary embodiments. The gNB 170 is assumed to be at least partially under control of the PDCCH module 150, and the UE 110 is assumed to be at least partially under control of the PDCCH module 140. It is noted that depending on the context, information is described as being communicated, and this may be interpreted as being transmitted by the gNB 170 and/or received by the UE 110.

The blocks in fig. 4 proceed in a general order of how they will be performed by the gNB 170 and the UE 110. However, for ease of reference and description, the blocks may not be in the order in which they are actually performed. Moreover, although the blocks in the drawings have a general order, for ease of description, the following description will refer to the blocks in an out-of-order manner.

Key roles/content of stage 1/stage 2DCI in III.1.R16

As mentioned above, the two-stage PDCCH concept is mainly used to reduce DCI decoding BD and guarantee scheduling flexibility. As mentioned above, in R16, when a plurality of active BWPs are supported, each BWP has a maximum of five states. Therefore, the best principle is that the UE only needs to monitor the scheduling DCI when activating and scheduling the corresponding BWP. In view of this principle, as mentioned below, the role of the stage 1 and stage 2DCI is different.

The phase 1DCI should accurately inform the UE of the status of all configured BWPs, including active/inactive and scheduled/unscheduled states. The IE (or other information) used to do this is important to ensure correct UE behavior and to improve power saving efficiency:

1. the phase 2DCI is monitored only when the corresponding BWP is active and scheduled and there are no additional BDs.

2. For those BWPs that are active but not scheduled, the UE will not monitor the DCI of the stage 2DCI, but will perform DL measurements for RRM purposes.

3. The UE will not perform any DL measurements and DCI monitoring for those BWPs that are in the inactive BWPs.

In principle, for all active BWPs, the UE should perform it unless the gNB configures the UE to not perform DL RRM measurements. It is proposed to include active/inactive state information in the phase 1DCI with the goal of letting the UE know which BWP is to be initiated by the DCI, and then the UE knows to perform DL RRM measurements. In an exemplary embodiment, RRM measurements will be performed for active and scheduled BWPs and active but unscheduled BWPs.

Given that the stage 2DCI is to be monitored, the stage 1DCI may also optionally direct the UE how to detect the stage 2DCI in view of flexibility and signaling overhead and the number of BDs that the stage 1DCI decodes.

The stage 2DCI may provide resource allocation information and guide the UE how to transmit/receive data on the corresponding scheduled BWP(s).

Referring to fig. 4, the following description corresponds to block 440 (see fig. 4B), where the gNB 170 populates the message(s) with the content 443 of the phase 1DCI, and illustrates an example of the content 443.

According to these principles, the content of the stage 1DCI may include the following.

A) An N-bit IE (e.g., IE 1) may be used to identify the active/inactive state of each configured BWP. See block 445-1 of fig. 4B. For four configured BWPs, N =4 will be proposed, with each configured BWP1 bit:

1. for BWPs that are in an active state, the UE 110 will perform DL measurements on the corresponding BWPs, e.g., for those BWPs that will be activated or remain in an active state. However, unless BWP is scheduled, UE 110 will not monitor the stage 2DCI in the corresponding BWP.

2. For inactive BWP, the UE will typically not perform DL measurements to save power.

3. For active and scheduled BWPs (e.g., indicated by IE2 set forth below), the UE will monitor the phase 2DCI below. This idea helps to save the UE load on DCI detection.

B) The scheduling state information for each BWP may be indicated using an M-bit IE (e.g., IE 2), where M ≦ N. See block 445-2 of fig. 4B. For scheduled BWPs, the UE will attempt to monitor the corresponding stage 2 DCI. For active but unscheduled BWPs, the UE will only perform DL measurements, and will not attempt to detect the stage 2DCI for the corresponding BWP. In principle, M equals the active state BWP number, e.g., determined by IE 1. However, scheduled and active BWPs are only a part of the active BWPs. The reason is that there may be some active BWPs that are not scheduled for data transmission. Of course, if all active BWPs are scheduled, the active and scheduled BWP numbers are the same as the active BWPs, but this may not always be the case. This is one of the reasons why M.ltoreq.N.

C) Another important IE (e.g., IE3 (e.g., 1-bit IE)) in the stage 1DCI is used to indicate to the UE whether the DCI format sizes of all BWPs are aligned. See block 445-3 of fig. 4B. Phase 2DCI will schedule (e.g., transmit resource allocation information) for all those active and scheduled BWPs. In principle, the stage 2DCI may be sent on any active BWP. But this is determined by the search space indication in the stage 1 DCI. For example, the UE will further check all BWPs including search space information in the stage 1DCI for stage 2DCI detection. And is aligned for RA size, which is used to indicate whether all RA IEs for scheduled BWPs have the same size regardless of their BWP size. If all BWP RA sizes are aligned, the stage 2DCI will have the same size regardless of which stage 2DCI is scheduled on which active BWP. From this perspective, there are no BDs for stage 2DCI decoding. It is beyond the scope of this document as to how the RA information for each BWP is defined if its RA sizes are aligned.

Note that this IE will affect the stage 2DCI and the corresponding number of Blind Decodes (BD). If aligned, all BWP DCI format sizes take the same value, so BD will not be performed for stage 2DCI detection. Alignment may be achieved by zero padding or truncation, for example. In an exemplary embodiment, IE3 is simply a 1-bit IE for identifying whether the scheduled BWP DCI format size is aligned. For example, if the bit =1, the DCI format sizes of all BWPs are aligned (and BD addition is not performed). And if the bit =0, the RA sizes of all BWPs are not aligned (and additional BDs are performed). Another alternative for BWP DCI format size alignment indication is through higher layer signaling configuration, e.g. through RRC messages. This alternative is based on the following assumptions: BWP DCI format size alignment is a semi-statically changing configuration, not a dynamically changing value. Based on this alternative, 1-bit IE3 is not needed in the stage 1 DCI. This idea provides another alternative on how to align the RA size of BWP, which is achieved by higher layer signaling, but is not dynamically indicated by the stage 1 DCI.

D) The fourth important IE in the stage 1DCI may be used to guide stage 2DCI monitoring. See block 445-4 of fig. 4B. It is therefore proposed in the exemplary embodiment to include an L-bit IE (IE 4) in the stage 1DCI to identify the search space information of BWP so that the UE can correctly detect the relevant stage 2DCI without causing confusion. The following are three possible innovative solutions proposed to design this L-bit IE 4:

1. alternative #1 (see box 447-1): the L-bit IE refers to search space information of all configured BWPs regardless of scheduling and/or active/inactive states of the BWPs. Thus, there are L (N) bits per BWP (of the N BWPs), and these may be arranged according to the BWP ID sequence. For (active/inactive) unscheduled BWPs, the corresponding L (n) bit may be set to a particular value, such as "000 \8230;". Therefore, if the UE detects that the search space information of the BWP is a specific value, the UE knows that the BWP is not scheduled by the two-stage DCI, and thus will not attempt to monitor the stage 2DCI of the corresponding BWP. This will reduce the power consumption of the UE and the number of BDs. The benefit of this alternative is that no BD need be used for stage 1DCI detection, but a high signalling overhead is required.

2. Alternative #2 (see box 447-2): the L-bit IE refers to only search space information for those scheduled BWPs. That is, only those search space information for scheduled BWPs are included in the stage 1DCI, each scheduled BWP Q having L (Q) bits with a cardinality of Q for the set Q. The parameter "Q" is determined by IE2 information. And the L (q) section may be arranged according to a BWP ID sequence of the scheduled BWP. For this alternative, the L-bit IE4 size may be dynamically changed TTI by TTI with a corresponding reduction in the stage 1DCI size. By way of example, IE2 refers to the scheduled and unscheduled state of each active BWP. For example, assume that there are 4 configured BWPs, of which only 3 are active and only 2 are scheduled in the current instance. Thus, the following is an example: IE2 is 3 bits and refers to these 3 active states BWPs, but 2 bits of IE2=1 identify the two BWPs scheduled in the current TTI, and another bit of IE2=0 indicates that the corresponding active BWP is not scheduled. Therefore, based on IE2, the UE will collect the number of bits as one (1) and determine the value of "Q".

3. Alternative #3 (see box 447-3): the L-bit IE refers to search space information of all active BWPs, where each active BWP has L (P) bits, where the cardinality of the set P is P. The parameter "P" is determined by IE1 information. And these "P" L (P) sections may be configured according to the BWP ID sequence of the active BWP. For this alternative, the L bits would be changed dynamically per TTI with the reduction in the stage 1DCI size. By way of illustration, IE1 refers to the active/inactive state of all configured BWPs. One example is if the bit of IE1=1 is set to identify that the corresponding BWP is in the active state, then for this case the UE collects the number of bits =1 in IE1, then the UE knows the number of active BWPs and hence the value of "P".

Blocks 445-4, 447-1, 447-2 and 447-3 relate to which BWP search space information should be included. Examples of content in IE4 may include, for example, an absolute search space indication or index information. Two options are proposed to define IE4 content:

1) In the first selection, #1 is selected (see block 449-1 of FIG. 4C of FIG. 4): the L (i) bit(s) may directly indicate search space information for a corresponding BWP i for stage 2DCI delivery.

2) In a second selection, #2 is selected (see box 449-2): the L (i) bit(s) may identify a subset of the preconfigured search space, including an empty set of corresponding BWPs (i) for stage 2DCI delivery. For example, the gNB may select a subset of the set(s) of search spaces (including the null set) among the previously configured set(s) of search spaces on the BWP. If the corresponding BWP is not scheduled, a specific value is set for the corresponding L (i) bit. That is, one particular index value is designed to indicate that the corresponding BWP is not scheduled, so the UE will not attempt to detect the relevant stage 2DCI in the following.

Based on the new IE presented above, we can design a number of exemplary new stage 1DCI formats presented below.

The first format is format 1 (see block 448-1 of fig. 4C of fig. 4): IE1+ IE2+ IE3+ IE4. For this exemplary solution, all proposed IEs are included in the stage 1 DCI. And considering the trade-off between the phase 1DCI BD and the signaling overhead, any of the alternatives proposed above for IE4 are valid

The second format is format 2: IE1+ IE2+ IE4 (see block 448-2). For this exemplary solution, IE3 is not included in the stage 1 DCI. Then, an indication that the BWP RA size is aligned is sent to the UE through higher layer signaling in advance. And any alternative to IE4 may be employed depending on the trade-off between phase 1DCI BD and signaling overhead. This format is used to indicate that RA alignment is signaled by higher layer signaling, not by DCI.

The third format is format 3: IE1+ IE4 (see block 448-3). Here, both IE2 and IE3 are removed from the stage 2 DCI. For IE4, the alternative 2 presented above is unlikely to work. That is, only alternatives 1 and 3 may be valid for this stage 1DCI format solution. The reason is that without IE2, the UE would then not know how many and which BWPs the two-stage DCI schedules. Therefore, the UE may not be able to identify which BWPs the L-bit IE is for. And thus, may not be able to direct the stage 2DCI detection procedure for BWP. For this format, higher layer signaling is used to configure whether the RA sizes of the scheduled BWPs are aligned. If so, the RA size of all scheduled BWPs is the same, and no BD for stage 2 detection is performed. For this alternative, there is no IE2 in the stage 1 DCI. For this case, the UE cannot know which BWP is scheduled for the phase 2 DCI. But the stage 2DCI will include a BWP ID, which will indicate to the UE for which BWP the resource allocation information in the stage 2DCI is. The missing IE2 will affect the definition of IE4. Since it is not yet known which BWP to schedule, you have to assume that all active BWPs will be scheduled. This is why the IE4 length is related to the number of active BWP(s).

The N, M values will be specified in the standardization or pre-configured to the UE through higher layer signaling. Although the Q, P values are determined based on IE1 and IE2 of the stage 1 DCI.

For stage 2DCI, an important task is to inform the UE of radio resource allocation information so that the UE can do correct data reception and/or transmission behavior. Therefore, the key content of the stage 2DCI is on the RA (radio resource allocation) IE.

How to send the phase 1/phase 2PDCCH

In principle, the phase 1DCI should be monitored in each scheduling instance, while the phase 2DCI detection is monitored only conditionally. Therefore, the second issue is how to send the PDCCH in these two phases to ensure correct UE behavior.

In order to receive DCI, the UE must know the following information in advance: which BWP, which CCE, which search space, etc. To address these issues, we propose the following new idea for stage 1PDCCH transmission to guarantee robust stage 1DCI transmission and reception.

III.2.1 BWP for stage 1DCI Transmission

As mentioned above (e.g., see the first, second, and third embodiments above), the gNB 170 may configure N BWPs to the UE 110. See block 405 of figure 4A of figure 4. UE 110 receives a configuration of N BWPs in block 406. In block 410, the gNB 170 determines which BWP(s) are to be active, and in block 415, for at least one active BWP(s), the gNB 170 transmits search space information to the UE, which may include one or more PDCCH candidates for stage 1DCI transmission. The PDCCH candidates may be configured using an NR R15 configuration framework or may be directly configured by defining CCE sets of PDCCH candidates. It is noted that CCE denotes a control channel element consisting of REG resource element groups for PDCCH transmission. In block 416, UE 110 receives search space information for phase 1DCI transmission by gNB 170 from the network, at least for active BWP(s).

In block 420, the gNB 170 determines which active BWP(s) to use to transmit the stage 1 DCI. With regard to this determination, as also mentioned above, the UE needs to monitor the phase 1DCI in each scheduling location (scheduling state). In principle, the UE only needs to monitor DCI in the active DL BWP. Therefore, we propose the following three innovative options to send/receive stage 1 DCI:

option 1 (box 422-1): one "always active" DL BWP is defined for phase 1 transmission.

Option 2 (box 422-2): predefined rules are created to synchronize base stations and UEs on BWP for phase 1DCI transmission/reception.

Option 3 (box 422-3): the gNB 170 is allowed to freely select one active BWP for phase 1DCI transmission, and the UE monitors all active DL BWPs to guarantee phase 1DCI reception.

For option 1, one "always active" BWP may be configured per carrier and will be notified to the UE through higher layer signaling from the gNB 170, including, for example, RRC signaling or System Information (SI) broadcast. From the gNB perspective, the phase 1DCI is sent on this "always active" BWP. And the UE will attempt to monitor this BWP for each scheduling instance for phase 1DCI reception.

Here, "always active" is used only from the UE's perspective for stage 1DCI reception. Whether such BWP will always be used for data transmission is a different case and is beyond the scope of this disclosure. Of course, such always active BWP can be reconfigured to the UE through higher layer signaling to handle different situations.

For option 2, the gnb 170 will select one active DL BWP for the phase 1DCI transmission. And the UE should be implicitly synchronized on the selected BWP to guarantee phase 1DCI reception. This may be achieved by predefined rules, such as the active BWP with the minimum/maximum BWP ID will be selected for the phase 1DCI transmission. On the UE side, no confusion should occur because due to predefined rules, gNB 170 and UE 110 are already synchronized by the active BWP group. Thus, the UE 110 may correctly monitor the corresponding DL BWP for stage 1DCI detection. In addition, the predefined rules may be statically defined in the specification or may be semi-statically configured to the UE through higher layer signaling.

For option 3, the gnb 170 may freely select one active DL BWP for phase 1DCI transmission, and the UE does not know which one is to be selected. Therefore, the UE will monitor all active DL BWPs to see if phase 1DCI will be sent on which DL BWP. This option does not require any DL configuration information, but the cost is that the UE has to monitor all active DL BWPs.

In block 425, the gNB 170 signals the active BWP to be used to send the phase 1DCI to the UE, and in block 430 the UE receives the signaling. In block 435, UE 110 (see fig. 4B of fig. 4) also determines which active BWP(s) to use to receive stage 1DCI, e.g., based on the received signaling. It is noted that blocks 425 and 430 may not be performed for some of the options described above. For example, blocks 425 and 430 would not be performed for option 2, where both gNB 170 and UE 110 use predefined rules to determine the active BWP to be used to transmit the phase 1 DCI.

III.2.2 search space determination for stage 1DCI detection

After selecting the correct DL active BWP, the next problem is to monitor the correct search space for stage 1DCI detection. The gNB 170 in block 450 of fig. 4D of fig. 4 configures the UE for the search space for stage 1DCI detection, and the UE receives the configuration in block 455 (see fig. 4D of fig. 4).

The following innovations and exemplary solutions are proposed for this goal.

Solution 1 (see block 452-1): for stage 1PDCCH, the set of CCEs carrying one or more PDCCH candidates is semi-statically configured, e.g., through higher layer signaling (e.g., such that content is delivered on one of the one or more PDCCH candidates respectively determined by the set of CCEs, see blocks 460 and 465, described below).

Solution 2 (see block 452-2): for the stage 1PDCCH, the PDCCH has full flexibility of NR search space set (e.g., such that content is to be delivered on one of one or more PDCCH candidates, e.g., implicitly determined by a predetermined rule for given search space information, see blocks 460 and 465 described below), according to possible options.

1. Higher layer signaling may be used to configure one or more PDCCH candidates in one or more search space sets on BWP to the UE, and to determine CCEs, such as hash functions, for example, for the PDCCH candidates configured in the search space sets based on predefined rules.

2. The base station may freely select one PDCCH candidate configured for stage 1PDCCH transmission.

For solution 1, the higher layer signaling will semi-statically configure (see block 450) the exact CCE of each one or more PDCCH candidates for stage 1DCI monitoring to the UE, taking into account the BWP selected for stage 1DCI transmission. Based on this information, the UE can correctly monitor the search space of the relevant BWP for stage 1DCI reception. This solution is suitable for option 1 above, e.g. in section 2.1, where an "always active" BWP is defined for phase 1 transmission.

For solution 2, higher layer signaling (e.g., see block 450) will configure the UE with multiple search space offset/CCE information sets, e.g., one set per BWP. In each scheduling instance, the gNB 170 will select one search space according to some rules for stage 1DCI transmission. On the UE side, the UE will monitor one or all search spaces for phase 1DCI reception, depending on which option in section 2.1 above will be selected. Based on this behavior, the stage 1DCI will be decoded without confusion.

In block 460, the gNB 170 transmits the message(s) with content 443 on a PDCCH in a CCE of a PDCCH candidate of a stage 1DCI of an active (e.g., and scheduled) BWP. As configured in block 455, UE 110 searches for one or more PDCCH candidates for stage 1DCI transmission in block 465.

In block 470, if the content 443 is received in the phase 1DCI, the UE 110 determines information for BWP for subsequent communications including the phase 1 DCI. For example, the active/inactive state of the N BWPs may be determined by the information in block 445-1, and the scheduled/unscheduled state of the (e.g., active) BWPs may be determined by the information in block 445-2.

III.2.3 stage 2DCI search space determination

In block 475 (fig. 4E of fig. 4), if the content 443 received in the phase 1DCI is for a phase 2DCI, UE 110 determines information to direct phase 2DCI monitoring. As suggested above, based on the stage 1DCI content, UE 110 will determine whether and how to monitor the stage 2DCI, for example, according to the following. To this end, the first problem is to accurately determine the relevant stage 2DCI search space information. The following three exemplary schemes are proposed to address this challenge, which will affect the stage 1DCI content:

scheme 1 (box 477-1): the relevant stage 2DCI search space information (e.g., PDCCH candidates) is dynamically indicated and conveyed in the stage 1DCI (see blocks 490 and 480 described below). Note that block 475 is performed with this scheme.

Scheme 2 (box 477-2): relevant stage 2DCI search space information (e.g., PDCCH candidates) is semi-statically configured for each BWP by higher layer signaling and the indication in stage 1PDCCH is not used (IE 4 is not present). Note that block 475 is not performed with this scheme.

Case 3 (box 477-3): in stage 1DCI, the relevant stage 2DCI search space information (e.g., PDCCH candidates) is indicated by a combination of semi-static higher layer configuration and dynamic indication. For example, IE4 in the stage 1DCI may indicate a subset of search spaces (e.g., PDCCH candidates) from higher layers pre-configured candidates on BWP (note that block 475 is performed with this scheme):

1. configuring a search space information set by BWP by high-level signaling; or alternatively

2. The stage 1DCI indicates a subset of each BWP that is used to reduce the stage 1DCI blind decoding effort.

For scheme 1, the search space information for all corresponding BWPs is dynamically indicated by the stage 1DCI (e.g., IE4 as set forth above in section 1).

For scheme 2, higher layer signaling semi-statically configures search space information to the UE for each configured BWP with DCI transmission capability. If phase 1 indicates that the phase 2DCI will be monitored below, the UE will monitor the corresponding BWP based on the configured higher layer configured search space.

For scenario 3, this is a combination of semi-static configuration and dynamic indication. For this scheme, higher layer signaling will configure a set of search spaces, each of which may be for one or more BWP scheduling stage 2 DCI. The stage 1DCI will indicate which one is used for the relevant stage 2DCI transmission. The goal of this solution is to trade off DCI blind decoding effort against the flexibility of stage 2DCI transmission.

In block 490, the gNB 170 transmits at least the scheduling information in the search space(s) of the stage 2DCI for active BWP on PDCCH. The scheduling information indicates transmission parameters (such as resource allocation, MCS, HARQ ID, etc.) to be used for communication by the user equipment on a corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts. In block 480, UE 110 performs a search of the stage 2DCI search space(s) based on the search space information. It is noted that the information in blocks 445-3 and 445-4 of fig. 4B may be used in addition to the solutions of blocks 471-1 through 471-3 to direct the search of the search space in block 480. In block 485, if the stage 2DCI is found, the UE 110 determines the scheduling information and uses the scheduling information to transmit/receive data on the corresponding scheduled BWP(s).

Based on these suggestions, the stage 1 and stage 2 DCIs can be correctly detected and decoded, resulting in the expected data transmission/reception of the information in these DCIs.

Additional examples are as follows.

Example 1. A method, comprising:

configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuration being performed by a base station to a user equipment;

determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled;

transmitting, by the base station to the user equipment, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of one of the active and scheduled portions of bandwidth, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled portions of bandwidth; and

after the transmission of the content, transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 2. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a configuration for a plurality of bandwidth parts of a carrier;

receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information allowing the user equipment to determine which of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and

receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts determined to be active and scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 3 the method of any one of examples 1 to 2, further comprising: communicating between the base station and the user equipment on one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions using the resources indicated by the scheduling information.

Example 4 the method of any one of examples 1 to 3, wherein the content is communicated on a bandwidth portion deemed to be always active for a first downlink control information used by the user equipment to receive the physical downlink control channel.

Example 5 the method of any one of examples 1 to 3, wherein the content is delivered on a bandwidth portion determined from a bandwidth portion of the activity by using a predefined rule, the predefined rule being used to synchronize the base station and the user equipment on the determined bandwidth portion.

Example 6 the method of any one of examples 1 to 3, wherein the content is delivered on a bandwidth portion that is freely selected by the base station from the active bandwidth portions, and the user equipment monitors all active bandwidth portions to receive the content.

Example 7 the method of any one of examples 1 to 6, wherein the information in the content comprises a first information element indicating an active state or an inactive state for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 8 the method of any one of examples 1 to 7, wherein the information in the content comprises a second information element indicating a scheduled status or an unscheduled status for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 9 the method of any one of examples 1 to 8, wherein the information in the content comprises a third information element indicating to the user equipment whether all downlink control information sizes for the active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned for the bandwidth part used to communicate the scheduling information.

Example 10 the method of any one of examples 1 to 9, wherein the information in the content includes a fourth information element identifying search space information for the bandwidth part such that the user equipment is able to correctly detect second downlink control information for the determined active and scheduled second physical downlink control channels of the bandwidth part.

Example 11 the method of any of examples 1 to 10, wherein the information in the content comprises all of the first, second, third and fourth information elements.

Example 12 the method of any one of examples 1 to 10, wherein the information in the content includes the first, second and fourth information elements, but not the third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of the active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned for the bandwidth part used for communicating the resource allocation information.

Example 13 the method of any one of examples 1 to 10, wherein the information in the content includes the first information element and the fourth information element, but does not include the second information element or the third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: for a bandwidth part used for communicating resource allocation information, information indicating to a user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of the active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned.

Example 14 the method of any one of examples 1 to 13, wherein the content is communicated on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, each physical downlink control channel candidate determined by a set of control channel elements semi-statically configured to the user equipment as search space information.

Example 15 the method of any one of examples 1 to 13, wherein the content is received on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates that are implicitly determined by a predetermined rule given the search space information.

Example 16 the method of any one of examples 1 to 15, wherein the scheduling information is communicated over a search space on one of the one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, and wherein search space information for the downlink control information is dynamically indicated in the content, the downlink control information being used for the scheduling information.

Example 17 the method of any one of examples 1 to 15, wherein the scheduling information is communicated over a search space on one of the one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, and wherein and the search space information for the downlink control information is semi-statically configured, the downlink control information being used for the scheduling information.

Example 18 the method of any one of examples 1 to 15, wherein the scheduling information is communicated over a search space on one of the one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, and wherein the search space information for the downlink control information is dynamically indicated in content as a search space subset, the downlink control information being used for the scheduling information, the search space subset being semi-statically configured for the downlink control information for the scheduling information.

Example 19 a computer program comprising program code for performing the method of any of examples 1 to 18.

Example 20 the computer program according to example 19, wherein the computer program is a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer.

An apparatus, comprising:

means for configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuring being performed by a base station to a user equipment;

means for determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled;

means for transmitting, by the base station, content to the user equipment in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel for one of the active and scheduled portions of bandwidth, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled portions of bandwidth; and

means for transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more bandwidth parts of the plurality of bandwidth parts after the transmission of the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more bandwidth parts of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

An apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a configuration for a plurality of bandwidth parts of a carrier;

means for receiving, by a user equipment, content from a base station in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information that allows the user equipment to determine which of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and

means for receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, a corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts determined to be active and scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 23 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 22, further comprising: means for communicating between the base station and the user equipment on one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts using the resources indicated by the scheduling information.

Example 24 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 23, wherein the information in the content comprises a first information element indicating an active state or an inactive state for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 25 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 24, wherein the information in the content comprises a second information element indicating a scheduled or unscheduled status for a plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 26 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 25, wherein the information in the content comprises a third information element indicating to the user equipment whether all downlink control information sizes of the active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned for the bandwidth part used to communicate the scheduling information.

Example 27 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 26, wherein the information in the content comprises a fourth information element identifying search space information for the bandwidth part such that the user equipment may correctly detect second downlink control information for the determined active and scheduled second physical downlink control channels for the bandwidth part.

Example 28 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 27, wherein the information in the content comprises all of the first, second, third and fourth information elements.

Example 29 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 27, wherein the information in the content includes the first, second and fourth information elements, but not the third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: for a bandwidth part used for communicating resource allocation information, information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of the active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned.

Example 30 the apparatus of any one of examples 21 to 27, wherein the information in the content comprises the first and fourth information elements but not the second or third information elements, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of the active and scheduled bandwidth portions are aligned for the bandwidth portion used for communicating the resource allocation information.

Example 31 the apparatus of example 22, further comprising: for carrying out the method component according to any one of examples 3 to 18.

Example 32 the apparatus of example 23, further comprising: means for performing a method according to any one of examples 3 to 18.

Example 33. A communication system comprising the apparatus of sensory example 31 and the apparatus according to example 32.

Example 34. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors and one or more memories including computer program code, wherein the one or more memories and the computer program code are configured, with the one or more processors, to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising: configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuration being performed by a base station to a user equipment; determining which of a plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled; transmitting, by the base station to the user equipment, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel for one of the active and scheduled portions of bandwidth, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled portions of bandwidth; and transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment, in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, after the transmission of the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communication on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 35 the apparatus of example 34, wherein the one or more memories and the computer program code are further configured to, with the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform operations for performing the method according to any of examples 3 to 18.

Example 36. An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors and one or more memories including computer program code, wherein the one or more memories and the computer program code are configured, with the one or more processors, to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising: receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, a configuration of a plurality of bandwidth parts of a carrier; receiving, by a user equipment from a base station, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of a plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information that allows the user equipment to determine which of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts determined to be active or scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth parts.

Example 37 the apparatus of example 35, wherein the one or more memories and the computer program code are further configured to, with the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform operations for performing the method according to any of examples 3 to 18.

Embodiments herein may be implemented in software (executed by one or more processors), hardware (e.g., application specific integrated circuits), or a combination of software and hardware. In an example embodiment, the software (e.g., application logic, a set of instructions) is maintained on any one of various conventional computer-readable media. In the context of this document, a "computer-readable medium" may be any media or means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer, with one example of a computer described and depicted in FIG. 1, for example. A computer-readable medium may include a computer-readable storage medium (e.g.,

memory

125, 155, 171 or other device) that may be any media or means that can contain, store, and/or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer. Computer-readable storage media do not include propagated signals.

If desired, the different functions discussed herein may be performed in a different order and/or concurrently with each other. Furthermore, one or more of the above-described functions may be optional or may be combined, if desired.

Although various aspects of the invention are set out in the independent claims, other aspects of the invention comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments and/or the dependent claims with the features of the independent claims, and not solely the combinations explicitly set out in the claims.

It is also noted herein that while the above describes example embodiments of the invention, these descriptions should not be viewed in a limiting sense. Rather, there are several variations and modifications which may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

configuring a plurality of bandwidth parts for a carrier, the configuring being performed by a base station to a user equipment;

determining which of the plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled;

transmitting, by the base station, content to the user equipment in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of one of the plurality of bandwidth portions that is active and scheduled, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth portion; and

after transmitting the content, transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more of the multiple bandwidth parts, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communicating on the corresponding one or more of the multiple bandwidth parts.

2. A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, by the user equipment from the base station, content in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information that allows the user equipment to determine which bandwidth parts of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and

receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions determined to be active or scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions.

3. The method of any of claims 1-2, further comprising: communicating between the base station and the user equipment over the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions using resources indicated by the scheduling information.

4. The method according to any of claims 1-2, wherein the content is communicated on the wide portion of the band that is considered to be always active for the user equipment to receive the first downlink control information of the physical downlink control channel.

5. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the content is delivered over a bandwidth portion determined from an active bandwidth portion by using a predefined rule, the predefined rule being used to synchronize the base station and user equipment over the determined bandwidth portion.

6. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the content is delivered on the bandwidth portion, the bandwidth portion being freely selected by the base station from active bandwidth portions, and the user equipment monitors all active bandwidth portions to receive the content.

7. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content comprises a first information element indicating an active state or an inactive state for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

8. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content comprises a second information element indicating a scheduled status or an unscheduled status for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

9. The method according to any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content comprises a third information element indicating to the user equipment, for the bandwidth part used for communicating the scheduling information, whether all downlink control information sizes for active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content comprises a fourth information element identifying search space information of the bandwidth part such that the user equipment can correctly detect the second downlink control information of the second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth parts.

11. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content includes all of:

a first information element indicating an active state or an inactive state for the plurality of bandwidth portions;

a second information element indicating a scheduled status or an unscheduled status for the plurality of bandwidth portions;

a third information element indicating to the user equipment, for active and scheduled bandwidth parts, whether all downlink control information sizes of the bandwidth parts used for communicating the scheduling information are aligned; and

identifying search space information of the bandwidth part such that the user equipment can correctly detect a fourth information element of the second downlink control information of the second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth parts.

12. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content includes a first information element, a second information element, and a fourth information element, but not a third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: for the bandwidth part used for communicating resource allocation information, information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned, and wherein:

the first information element indicates an active state or an inactive state for the plurality of bandwidth portions,

the second information element indicates a scheduled status or an unscheduled status for the plurality of bandwidth parts,

the third information element indicates to the user equipment whether all downlink control information sizes of the bandwidth part used for communicating the scheduling information are aligned for active and scheduled bandwidth parts, and

the fourth information element identifies search space information of the bandwidth part so that the user equipment can correctly detect the second downlink control information of the second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth parts.

13. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the information in the content includes a first information element and a fourth information element, but not a second information element or a third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: for the bandwidth part used to communicate resource allocation information, information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned, and wherein:

14. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the content is delivered on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, each physical downlink control channel candidate determined by a set of control channel elements that are semi-statically configured to the user equipment as search space information.

15. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the content is received on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates that are implicitly determined by a predetermined rule given search space information.

16. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the scheduling information is communicated over a search space on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, and wherein search space information for the downlink control information is dynamically indicated in the content, the downlink control information being used for the scheduling information.

17. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the scheduling information is communicated over a search space on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, and wherein search space information for the downlink control information is semi-statically configured, the downlink control information being used for the scheduling information.

18. The method of any of claims 1-2, wherein the scheduling information is communicated over a search space on one of one or more physical downlink control channel candidates, and wherein search space information for the downlink control information is dynamically indicated in the content as a search space subset, the downlink control information being used for the scheduling information, the search space subset being semi-statically configured for the downlink control information for the scheduling information.

19. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon program code configured to, when executed, cause an apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 18.

20. An apparatus for communication, comprising:

means for determining which of the plurality of bandwidth portions are to be active and scheduled;

means for transmitting content to the user equipment by the base station in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of one of the plurality of bandwidth parts that is active and scheduled, the content comprising an indication of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth part; and

means for transmitting, by the base station, scheduling information to the user equipment in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled one or more bandwidth portions after transmitting the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used by the user equipment for communicating on corresponding one or more bandwidth portions of the plurality of bandwidth portions.

21. An apparatus for communication, comprising:

means for receiving, by the user equipment, content from the base station in first downlink control information on a first physical downlink control channel of the plurality of bandwidth parts, the content comprising information that allows the user equipment to determine which bandwidth parts of the plurality of bandwidth parts are to be active and scheduled; and

means for receiving scheduling information in second downlink control information on a second physical downlink control channel of one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions, the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions determined to be active or scheduled based on the content, the scheduling information indicating transmission parameters to be used for communicating between the user equipment and the base station on the corresponding one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions.

22. The apparatus of any of claims 20 to 21, further comprising: means for communicating between the base station and the user equipment on the one or more of the plurality of bandwidth portions using resources indicated by the scheduling information.

23. The apparatus of any of claims 20-21, wherein the information in the content comprises a first information element indicating an active state or an inactive state for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

24. The apparatus of any of claims 20 to 21, wherein the information in the content comprises a second information element indicating a scheduled status or an unscheduled status for the plurality of bandwidth parts.

25. The apparatus according to any of claims 20-21, wherein the information in the content comprises a third information element indicating to the user equipment whether all downlink control information sizes for active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned for the bandwidth part used for communicating the scheduling information.

26. The apparatus according to any of claims 20-21, wherein the information in the content comprises a fourth information element identifying search space information of the bandwidth part such that the user equipment can correctly detect the second downlink control information of the second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth parts.

27. The apparatus of any of claims 20-21, wherein the information in the content includes all of:

a second information element indicating a scheduled state or an unscheduled state for the plurality of bandwidth parts;

28. The apparatus according to any of claims 20 to 21, wherein the information in the content comprises a first information element, a second information element and a fourth information element, but not a third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: for the bandwidth part used to communicate resource allocation information, information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned, and wherein:

the second information element indicates a scheduled status or an unscheduled status for the plurality of bandwidth portions,

the fourth information element identifies search space information of the bandwidth part such that the user equipment can correctly detect the second downlink control information of the second physical downlink control channel of the determined active and scheduled bandwidth parts.

29. The apparatus according to any of claims 20 to 21, wherein the information in the content comprises a first information element and a fourth information element, but not a second information element or a third information element, and wherein the following information is communicated via higher layer signaling: for the bandwidth part used to communicate resource allocation information, information indicating to the user equipment whether all resource allocation sizes of active and scheduled bandwidth parts are aligned, and wherein: