CN114365561A

CN114365561A - Apparatus and method for providing and receiving feedback information

Info

Publication number: CN114365561A
Application number: CN201980100274.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李栋; 刘勇
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: 2019-09-12
Filing date: 2019-09-12
Publication date: 2022-04-15
Also published as: WO2021046784A1

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods for providing and receiving feedback information are disclosed. An example apparatus may be configured to generate a first sequence and a second sequence for feedback information, and map the generated first sequence and the generated second sequence to corresponding subcarriers of a first symbol and a second symbol of an associated physical channel for transmission. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing and receiving feedback information

Technical Field

Various example embodiments relate to apparatuses and methods for providing and receiving feedback information.

Background

The 3GPP has introduced a side link for D2D (device-to-device) communication enabling two or more devices or user equipments, such as mobile phones and vehicles, to communicate directly with each other, e.g. without too much involvement of the base station. It has been agreed that in 3GPP Rel-16, a new air interface (NR) side link for the internet of vehicles (V2X) will support unicast, multicast and broadcast side link transmission. In a multicast scenario, a transmitter device sends data to a group of receiver devices, and the receiver devices may feed back data decoding status information to the transmitter device. However, the current 3GPP Rel-15 specification does not support multicast sidelink transmissions with any acknowledgement (acknowledgement) mechanism for sidelink communications.

Disclosure of Invention

In a first aspect, example embodiments of an apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may include computer program code, and the at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following. The actions may include determining feedback information in response to a decoding state of the received data and generating a first sequence and a second sequence for the feedback information. The first and second sequences may correspond to first and second symbols, respectively, of an associated physical channel. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. The actions may also include mapping the first and second sequences to corresponding subcarriers of the first and second symbols of the associated physical channel for transmission thereon.

In some example embodiments, one of the first sequence and the second sequence may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient, and the other of the first sequence and the second sequence may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient.

In some example embodiments, the first sequence may be weighted by a first random weighting coefficient and the second sequence may be weighted by a second random weighting coefficient.

In some example embodiments, the first sequence may include a plurality of first subsequences, and the second sequence may include a plurality of second subsequences corresponding to the plurality of first subsequences, respectively.

For example, in some example embodiments, the plurality of first subsequences may be the same as each other before weighting, and the plurality of second subsequences may be the same as each other before weighting.

For example, in some example embodiments, at least two of the plurality of first subsequences may be different from each other before weighting, and at least two of the plurality of second subsequences may be different from each other before weighting.

For example, in some example embodiments, at most one of the plurality of first subsequences may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, other ones of the plurality of first subsequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient determined separately for each other one of the plurality of first subsequences, and each of the plurality of second subsequences may be weighted by the same weighting coefficient as the weighting coefficient of the corresponding first subsequence.

In some example embodiments, the random weighting factor may be randomly selected from a set of predefined, configured, or pre-configured weighting factors.

In some example embodiments, the feedback information may include hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. A first symbol of the associated physical channel may be used to implement (enable) Automatic Gain Control (AGC) stabilization (setting) and/or transmit HARQ feedback, and a second symbol of the associated physical channel may be used to transmit HARQ feedback.

For example, in some example embodiments, a first sequence corresponding to an AGC-related symbol may have a length that is half the length of a second sequence and may be mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence.

In some example embodiments, the first sequence may be based on a first base sequence indexed by a first base sequence index, the second sequence may be based on a second base sequence indexed by a second base sequence index, and the second base sequence index may be associated with the first base sequence index.

For example, in some example embodiments, the second base sequence index may be equal to the first base sequence index.

In a second aspect, example embodiments of an apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may include computer program code, and the at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following. The actions may include receiving a feedback signal comprising one or more over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information. The feedback channel may include transmitting a first symbol of a first sequence and transmitting a second symbol of a second sequence. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. The actions may also include performing non-coherent detection on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information.

In a third aspect, example embodiments are disclosed of a method for providing feedback information. The method may include determining feedback information in response to a decoding status of received data and generating a first sequence and a second sequence for the feedback information. The first and second sequences may correspond to first and second symbols, respectively, of an associated physical channel. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. The method may also include mapping the first and second sequences to corresponding subcarriers of the first and second symbols of the associated physical channel for transmission thereon.

For example, in some example embodiments, at most one of the plurality of first subsequences may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, other first subsequences of the plurality of first subsequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient determined separately for each other first subsequence of the plurality of first subsequences, and each of the plurality of second subsequences may be weighted by the same weighting coefficient as the weighting coefficient of the corresponding first subsequence.

In some example embodiments, the feedback information may include hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. A first symbol of the associated physical channel may be used to enable AGC stabilization and/or transmit HARQ feedback, and a second symbol of the associated physical channel may be used to transmit HARQ feedback.

For example, in some example embodiments, a first sequence corresponding to AGC-related symbols may have a length that is half the length of a second sequence and may be mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence.

In a fourth aspect, example embodiments are disclosed of a method for receiving feedback information. The method may include receiving a feedback signal comprising one or more over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information. The feedback channel may include transmitting a first symbol of a first sequence and transmitting a second symbol of a second sequence. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. The method may also include performing non-coherent detection on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information.

In a fifth aspect, example embodiments of a computer-readable medium are disclosed. The computer readable medium may have instructions stored thereon. The instructions, when executed by at least one processor of an apparatus, may cause the apparatus to perform any of the methods described above.

In a sixth aspect, example embodiments of an apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus may include a determination circuit, a generation circuit, and a mapping circuit. The determination circuit may be configured to determine the feedback information in response to a decoding status of the received data. The generating circuit may be configured to generate a first sequence and a second sequence for feedback information. The first and second sequences may correspond to first and second symbols, respectively, for an associated physical channel. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. The mapping circuitry may be configured to map the first and second sequences to corresponding subcarriers of first and second symbols of an associated physical channel for transmission thereon.

For example, in some example embodiments, at most one of the plurality of first subsequences may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, and other ones of the plurality of first subsequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient determined separately for each other one of the first subsequences, and each of the plurality of second subsequences may be weighted by the same weighting coefficient as the corresponding first subsequence.

In some example embodiments, the feedback information comprises hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. A first symbol of the associated physical channel may be used to enable AGC stabilization and/or transmit HARQ feedback, and a second symbol of the associated physical channel may be used to transmit HARQ feedback.

In a seventh aspect, an example embodiment of an apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus may include a receiving circuit and a detection circuit. The receive circuitry may be configured to receive a feedback signal comprising one or more over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information. The feedback channel may include transmitting a first symbol of a first sequence and transmitting a second symbol of a second sequence. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. The detection circuit may be configured to perform non-coherent detection on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information.

Drawings

Some example embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example environment in which one or more example embodiments may be implemented.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an example apparatus for providing feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for providing feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 4 illustrates a diagram of example sequences mapped to corresponding subcarriers, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic functional block diagram of an example apparatus for providing feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for receiving feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic functional block diagram of an example apparatus for receiving feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic interaction diagram of communications between a transmitter device and a receiver device, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 9 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example sequence for generating feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example sequence for generating feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic diagram of an example sequence for generating feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic diagram of an example sequence for generating feedback information, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 13 illustrates a graph showing simulation results of detection error rates according to some examples and some comparative examples disclosed herein.

Detailed Description

In a multicast scenario, a transmitter device may transmit data and/or control information to multiple receiver devices, and multiple receiver devices may send feedback, such as hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, to the transmitter device. Depending on the decoding status of the received data at the receiver device, HARQ ACK/NACK or NACK-only feedback will be sent to the transmitter to acknowledge receipt of the data. One option is that each receiver device will send HARQ feedback on a special resource (time/frequency/code) so that the transmitter can distinguish between different receivers. However, this option requires too much feedback resources, especially if the number of group members is large. Another option is that HARQ feedback from multiple receiver devices share the same (dedicated ACK/NACK) resources. In such a case, due to the inherently random nature of the radio signal, multiple HARQ feedback signals sharing the same resource may be destructively combined over the air, such that the transmitter device receives a feedback signal of poor quality, and thus may not be able to detect the feedback information.

Various example embodiments of apparatuses and methods for providing and receiving feedback information are disclosed herein. FIG. 1 shows an example environment 100 in which one or more example embodiments may be implemented. Example environment 100 may include a plurality of user devices, such as

devices

110, 120, and 130, which may be part of a communication network, such as a D2D communication network including, for example, a V2X (vehicle-to-everything) network. The example environment 100 may be overlaid with a 2G/3G/4G/5G network or without any network overlay.

In the example shown in fig. 1, device 110, which is currently the transmitter device, may perform multicast or multicast transmissions to receiver devices including, for example,

devices

120 and 130. Device 110 may transmit data on a data channel such as a physical sidelink shared channel (PSCCH) and/or control information on a control channel such as a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH) to

receiver devices

120 and 130. In response to the decoding status of the received data on the data channel, devices 120 and/or 130 may send feedback information to transmitter device 110 on a feedback channel, such as a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH).

For example, devices 120 and/or 130 may send only HARQ NACKs (negative acknowledgements) to transmitter device 110 when they fail to decode the received data packet (NACK-only scheme), or they also send HARQ ACKs (acknowledgements) to transmitter device 110 when they successfully decode the received data packet (ACK/NACK scheme). In some embodiments, the

receiver devices

120, 130 will share resources (time/frequency/code) to send HARQ feedback to the transmitter device 110. For example, in a NACK-only scheme, all NACK feedback may be sent on the same resources (time/frequency/code); in the ACK/NACK scheme, all ACK feedbacks may share the same resource, and all NACK feedbacks may share the same resource different from the resource for ACK feedback.

In some example embodiments, a feedback channel such as a PSFCH may have a sequence-based format, e.g., a format similar or identical to PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) format 0 defined in NR Rel-15 with one Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, or may have any other suitable format, e.g., an X-symbol PSFCH format with repetition of one-symbol PSFCH format (e.g., X ═ 2 or more). Multiple feedback channels (e.g., PSFCHs) from different receiver devices may share the same resources such as time, frequency, and code to reduce occupied resources. Thus, feedback channels sent by multiple receiver devices may be combined over the air before reaching a transmitter device, such as device 110.

Fig. 2 shows an example apparatus 200, which may be, for example, a receiver device such as

devices

120 and 130, or may be at least a portion of a receiver device, or may be provided, combined, or included in a receiver device, according to an example embodiment. Moreover, example apparatus 200 may also be at least a part of a transmitter device (e.g., transmitter device 110), or may also be equipped, combined, or otherwise embodied in a transmitter device such that a receiver device may also function as a transmitter device in other communications, such as multicast communications initiated by receiver devices 120 and/or 130.

As shown in fig. 2, an example apparatus 200 may include at least one processor 210 and at least one memory 220, which may include computer program code 230. The at least one memory 220 and the computer program code 230 may be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus 200 to perform at least the method for providing feedback information as described below with reference to fig. 3 and/or the method for receiving feedback information as described below with reference to fig. 6.

In various example embodiments, the at least one processor 210 in the example apparatus 200 may include, but is not limited to, at least one hardware processor including at least one microprocessor, e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a portion of at least one hardware processor, and any other suitable special purpose processor, such as those developed based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Furthermore, the at least one processor 210 may also include at least one other circuit or element not shown in fig. 2, such as a decoding circuit and a baseband processing circuit.

In various example embodiments, the at least one memory 220 in the example apparatus 200 may include various forms of at least one storage medium, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. Volatile memory can include, but is not limited to, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM), cache memory, and the like. Non-volatile memory may include, but is not limited to, for example, Read Only Memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, and the like. Further, at least memory 220 may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination thereof.

Moreover, in various example embodiments, the example apparatus 200 may also include at least one other circuit, element, and interface, such as at least one I/O interface (not shown in fig. 2), at least one antenna element, and/or the like.

In various example embodiments, the circuits, components, elements, and interfaces of example apparatus 200, including the at least one processor 210 and the at least one memory 220, may be coupled together in any suitable manner, such as electrically, magnetically, optically, electromagnetically, etc., via any suitable connection, including but not limited to a bus, a crossbar, wiring, and/or wireless lines.

Fig. 3 shows an example method 300 for providing feedback information, e.g., HARQ feedback, according to an example embodiment, the operations of which may be performed by the example apparatus 200 shown in fig. 2, e.g., described above. For example, the at least one memory 220 and the computer program code 230 in the example apparatus 200 may be configured to, with the at least one processor 210 in the example apparatus 200, cause the apparatus 200 at least to perform the operations of the example method 300.

As shown in fig. 3, feedback information, e.g., HARQ feedback information, may be determined in response to a decoding status of received data at block 310. For example,

device

120 or 130, as a receiver device in the example of fig. 1, may receive data or control information from device 110 via, for example, a data channel (e.g., psch) or a control channel (such as PSCCH), and may decode the received data (including, but not limited to, data on the psch and/or control information on the PSCCH). The feedback information may be determined to indicate, for example, a NACK in the case of a failure in decoding the received data, or an ACK in other cases.

At block 320, a first sequence of first symbols corresponding to an associated feedback channel (e.g., a sidelink feedback channel such as a PSFCH) and a second sequence of second symbols corresponding to the associated feedback channel may be generated for feedback information (e.g., HARQ feedback information). Here, at least a portion of one of the first sequence and the second sequence may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. Some examples of the first sequence and the second sequence will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 9-12.

At block 330, the first sequence may be mapped to corresponding subcarriers of a first symbol of an associated feedback channel and the second sequence may be mapped to corresponding subcarriers of a second symbol of the associated feedback channel. Fig. 4 illustrates a diagram of example sequences mapped to corresponding subcarriers, according to some example embodiments. As shown in fig. 4, a first sequence 410 is mapped to a subcarrier sequence corresponding to a first symbol, e.g., SC001, SC002, etc., and a second sequence 420 is mapped to the same subcarrier sequence corresponding to a second symbol. It is understood that the first symbol and the second symbol may be directly adjacent to each other in the time domain.

In an example embodiment, the first sequence 410 may be based on a first base sequence indexed by a first base sequence index, and the second sequence 420 may be based on a second base sequence indexed by a second base sequence index. The second base sequence index may be associated with the first base sequence index, such as based on a table indicating a predetermined correspondence between the first and second base sequence indices. In some examples, the second base sequence index may be equal to the first base sequence index.

In various example embodiments, weighting at least a portion of one of the first and second sequences by a random weighting coefficient at block 320 in fig. 3 may include two cases, namely, weighting in the time domain and weighting in the frequency domain. In the first case, the sequences corresponding to different symbols are weighted by different coefficients, but one sequence is weighted by the same coefficient. In the second case, the first and second sequences are weighted in the same way, but their positions in the frequency domain are weighted by different coefficients. By weighting the two symbols differently in either the time or frequency domain, the probability of the entire received signal of the PSFCH undergoing severe destructive combination over the air is greatly reduced, thereby mitigating the potential destructive combination effect. Thus, the over-the-air combined feedback signal can be successfully detected with a higher probability.

For example, in an example embodiment, at block 320 in fig. 3, one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient and the other of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient. For example, the predetermined weighting coefficient may have a fixed/constant value. In some examples, the fixed/constant value may be equal to 1, meaning that the corresponding sequence may not be weighted. Of course, the fixed/constant value may have other values. In some embodiments, the random weighting factor may be randomly selected from a set of predefined, configured, or pre-configured weighting factors. In some other embodiments, the random weighting coefficients may be randomly generated by, for example, a random generator.

In another exemplary embodiment, at block 320 in fig. 3, the first sequence may be weighted by a first random weighting coefficient and the second sequence may be weighted by a second random weighting coefficient. For example, the first random weighting factor and the second random weighting factor may be independently randomly selected from a set of predefined, configured, or preconfigured weighting factors, or may be independently randomly generated by, for example, a random generator.

With respect to the first sequence and the second sequence, in one example embodiment, the first sequence may include a plurality of first subsequences, and the second sequence may include a plurality of second subsequences corresponding to the plurality of first subsequences, respectively.

For example, as shown in fig. 4, the first sequence 410 may include a plurality of first subsequences. First subsequence 411 may correspond to subcarriers from SC001 to SC012, first subsequence 412 may correspond to subcarriers from SC013 to SC024, and first subsequence 413 may correspond to subcarriers from SC025 to SC036, and so on. The second sequence 420 may include a plurality of second subsequences that respectively correspond to the first subsequences of the first sequence 410. Second subsequence 421 may correspond to first subsequence 411 and be mapped to subcarriers from SC001 to SC012, second subsequence 422 may correspond to first subsequence 422 and be mapped to subcarriers from SC013 to SC024, and second subsequence 423 may correspond to first subsequence 423 and be mapped to subcarriers from SC025 to SC036, and so on.

In one example embodiment, the plurality of first subsequences may be the same as each other before weighting, and the plurality of second subsequences may be the same as each other before weighting. For example, prior to weighting, the first subsequence 411, the first subsequence 412, the first subsequence 413, and the like in the first sequence 410 may be identical, and the second subsequence 421, the second sequence 420, the second subsequence 423, and the like in the second sequence 420 may be identical.

In another example embodiment, at least two of the plurality of first subsequences may be different from each other before weighting, and at least two of the plurality of second subsequences may be different from each other before weighting. For example, all first subsequences in first sequence 410 may be different from each other before weighting, and all second subsequences in second sequence 420 may be different from each other before weighting.

In the case where both the first sequence and the second sequence comprise a plurality of sub-sequences, at block 320 in fig. 3, in a preferred embodiment, all first sub-sequences of the first sequence may be weighted by a first weighting factor and all second sub-sequences of the second sequence may be weighted by a second weighting factor to achieve time-domain weighting as described above. At most one of the first weighting coefficient and the second weighting coefficient is a predetermined weighting coefficient, and the other is a random weighting coefficient.

In another exemplary embodiment, at block 320 in fig. 3, at most one of a first subsequence of the first sequence and a corresponding second subsequence of the second sequence may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, and other first subsequences of the first sequence and corresponding second subsequences of the second sequence may be weighted by one or more random weighting coefficients that are individually determined. In this way, the first sequence 410 and the second sequence 420 are weighted in the frequency domain. For example, the weighting coefficients C1 of the first sub-sequence 411 and the corresponding second sub-sequence 421 in fig. 4 may be predetermined weighting coefficients, while other weighting coefficients including the weighting coefficient C2 for the first sub-sequence 412 and the corresponding second sub-sequence 422, the weighting coefficient C3 for the first sub-sequence 413 and the corresponding second sub-sequence 423, and the like may be random weighting coefficients determined independently. It is understood that any one of the coefficients may be a predetermined weighting coefficient. In some embodiments, all of the weighting coefficients are independently determined random weighting coefficients.

In some example embodiments, both the first symbol and the second symbol of the associated physical channel may be configured to transmit the same feedback information. In some example embodiments, the first symbol may also be used to implement Automatic Gain Control (AGC) stabilization. For example, the transmitter device 110 may use the first symbol to adjust the received power of the feedback signal to a desired level.

Where the first symbol enables, for example, AGC stabilization, in an example embodiment, the length of the first sequence corresponding to the first symbol generated at block 320 in fig. 3 may be less than the length of the second sequence corresponding to the second symbol. For example, the first sequence may have a length that is half the length of the second sequence. Thus, at block 330 in fig. 3, the first sequence may be mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence, for example.

For example, at block 330 in fig. 3, the first sequence 410 in fig. 4 corresponding to AGC-related symbols may be mapped to even subcarriers SC002, SC004 (not shown), … …, SC012, SC014, etc., and odd subcarriers SC001, SC003 (not shown), … …, SC011, SC013, etc., may be NULL (NULL); or in some other embodiments, the first sequence 410 may be mapped to odd subcarriers SC001, SC003 (not shown),. - > SC011, SC013, etc., and even subcarriers SC002, SC004 (not shown),. - > SC012, SC014, etc., may be null. The second sequence 420 in fig. 4 may also be mapped to both even and odd subcarriers. In this example, each of the

first sub-sequences

411, 412, and 413 is half the length of the corresponding

second sub-sequence

421, 422, or 423.

By mapping the first sequence to only even or odd subcarriers, the corresponding first symbol will have a repeating structure in the time domain such that the first half of the first symbol can be used for AGC adjustment and the second half of the first symbol can be used to enhance the detection performance of the side-link feedback channel at the feedback receiving side (transmitter device 110). Thus, the detection performance of the feedback channel is not degraded by distortion in the first half of the first AGC related symbols, e.g., due to AGC adjustment.

The apparatus and method for providing feedback information of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-described example embodiments. For example, as shown in fig. 5, another example apparatus 500 for providing feedback information according to some example embodiments may include a determination circuit 510, a generation circuit 520, and a mapping circuit 530, instead of or in addition to the example implementation of the example apparatus 200 shown in fig. 1.

The term "circuitry" throughout the present disclosure may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry); (b) combinations of hardware circuitry and software, such as (i) analog and/or digital hardware circuitry in combination with software/firmware and (ii) any portion of a hardware processor in combination with software (including a digital signal processor), software, and memory, where applicable, that cooperate to cause an apparatus (such as a mobile telephone or server) to perform various functions; and (c) hardware circuitry and/or a processor, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software (such as firmware) for operation, but which may not be present when operation is not required. The definition of the circuit applies to all uses of the term in this disclosure, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this disclosure, the term circuitry also encompasses implementations of only a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. For example, the term circuitry, if applicable to an element of a claim, also encompasses a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device, or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

In an example embodiment, the determination circuitry 510 in the example apparatus 500 may be configured to determine feedback information (e.g., HARQ feedback information) in response to a decoding status of received data, e.g., may be configured to perform the operation 310 of the example method 300 in fig. 3.

In an example embodiment, the generation circuitry 520 in the example apparatus 500 may be configured to generate the first and second sequences for feedback information. The first and second sequences may correspond to first and second symbols, respectively, for an associated physical channel, and at least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. For example, the generation circuitry 520 may be configured to perform the operation 320 of the example method 300 in fig. 3.

In an example embodiment, the mapping circuitry 530 in the example apparatus 500 may be configured to map the first and second sequences to corresponding subcarriers of the first and second symbols of the associated physical channel for transmission thereon. For example, the mapping circuit 530 may be configured to perform operation 330 of the example method 300 in fig. 3.

Similar to example apparatus 200, in various example embodiments, example apparatus 500 may also include at least one other circuit, element, and interface, e.g., at least one I/O interface, at least an antenna element, etc., and the circuits, components, elements, and interfaces in example apparatus 500 may be coupled together in any suitable manner, e.g., electrically, magnetically, optically, electromagnetically, etc., via any suitable connection, including but not limited to a bus, a crossbar, wiring, and/or wireless lines.

Fig. 6 shows an example method 600 for receiving feedback information, such as HARQ feedback, according to example embodiments, the operations/steps of which may be performed by the example apparatus 200 shown in fig. 2, e.g., described above. For example, the at least one memory 220 and the computer program code 230 in the example apparatus 200 may be configured to, with the at least one processor 210 in the example apparatus 200, cause the apparatus 200 to perform at least the operations of the example method 600.

As shown in fig. 6, at block 610, a feedback signal may be received that includes a plurality of over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information. For example, a sidelink HARQ feedback signal may be received that includes a plurality of sidelink HARQ feedback channels (PSFCHs) combined over the air that contain sidelink HARQ feedback information.

As described above with reference to

example apparatus

200 or 500 and example method 300, the feedback channel (e.g., the PSFCH) involved in example method 600 may include transmitting a first symbol of a first sequence and transmitting a second symbol of a second sequence. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient.

At block 620, detection, such as non-coherent detection, may be performed on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information. The detection step will be described in further detail below in connection with the embodiments shown in fig. 9-12.

The apparatus and method for receiving feedback information such as HARQ feedback of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-described example embodiments. Fig. 7 shows another example apparatus 700 for receiving feedback information, which includes a receive circuit 710 and a detection circuit 720.

In an example embodiment, the receive circuit 710 in the example apparatus 700 may be configured to receive a feedback signal comprising a plurality of over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information. For example, the receive circuitry 710 may be configured to perform the operations 610 of the example method 600 in fig. 6. In an example embodiment, the detection circuit 720 in the example apparatus 700 may be configured to perform detection, such as non-coherent detection, on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information. For example, the detection circuit 720 may be configured to perform operation 620 of the example method 600 in fig. 6.

In various example embodiments, the example apparatus 700 may also include at least one other circuit, element, and interface, e.g., at least one I/O interface, at least an antenna element, etc., and the circuits, components, elements, and interfaces in the example apparatus 700 may be coupled together in any suitable manner, e.g., electrically, magnetically, optically, electromagnetically, etc., via any suitable connection, including but not limited to a bus, a crossbar, wiring, and/or wireless lines.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic interaction diagram of communications between a transmitter device 810 (e.g., device 110 in fig. 1 and

example apparatus

200 or 700 shown in fig. 2 or 7, which are used to implement example method 600 shown in fig. 6) and a receiver device 820 (e.g.,

device

120 or 130 in fig. 1 and

example apparatus

200 or 500 shown in fig. 2 or 5, which are used to implement example method 300 shown in fig. 3).

As shown in fig. 8, at 815, the transmitter device 810 may perform a multicast or multicast transmission to various receiver devices, including receiver device 820. For example, transmitter device 810 may transmit a data channel for data, including, for example, a sidelink data channel such as a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), and/or a control channel, including, for example, a sidelink control channel such as a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), possibly for control information, to various receiver devices including receiver device 820.

In response to the decoding status of the received data on the psch channel, receiver device 820 may perform operations, for example as in example method 300 shown in fig. 3, including an operation 310 for determining feedback information in response to the decoding status of the received data, an operation 320 for generating, for the feedback information, a first sequence corresponding to a first symbol of an associated physical channel and a second sequence corresponding to a second symbol of the associated physical channel, and an operation 330 for mapping the first sequence and the second sequence to corresponding subcarriers of the first symbol and the second symbol of the associated physical channel for transmission.

Then, at 825, the receiver device 820 may send feedback information to the transmitter device 910 on a feedback channel. It should be noted that feedback channels from multiple receiver devices may share the same resources and thus be combined over the air.

As shown in fig. 8, the transmitter device 810 may perform operation 610 in the example method 600 shown in fig. 6, for example, to receive a feedback signal. Here, the feedback signal received by the transmitter device 810 may include multiple feedback channels from multiple receiver devices 820 combined over the air.

The transmitter device 810 may then perform detection, e.g., non-coherent detection, on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information, e.g., as in operation 620 of the example method 600 shown in fig. 6. Since the feedback channels from multiple receiver devices 820 are weighted according to the method 300 of fig. 3, respectively, the over-the-air combined feedback channels will not be destructively combined and thus the feedback information will be successfully decoded.

The present disclosure is not limited to the above-described exemplary embodiments. For example, as shown in some example embodiments to be described below, one or more of the features described above may be modified, omitted, and/or combined, for example, and some additional or alternative features may also be introduced and combined with or replaced by one or more of the features described above.

Fig. 9-12 illustrate some example embodiments of a feedback channel formed in the method 300 of fig. 3. In a first example embodiment shown in fig. 9, a sidelink feedback channel such as a PSFCH may be configured to include two symbols, a first symbol 910 and a second symbol 920. In addition to transmitting feedback information, the first symbol 910 may also be used to achieve AGC stabilization. As shown in fig. 9, the first symbol 910 and the second symbol 920 have the same length and are mapped to N_PSFCHSub-carriers of which N_PSFCHMay be one or more times, e.g., 12 times, 24 times, 36 times, etc., the number of subcarriers in a resource block.

The first and

second sequences

910, 920 may be generated by operation 320 in the method 300 of fig. 3. In operation 320, a first base sequence index for a first sequence on a first symbol 910 and a second base sequence index for a second sequence on a second symbol 920 may be determined. In the first embodiment, the two indexes may be equal to each other. As an example, the index may be determined from at least the source ID of the multicast data packet, i.e., the physical layer source ID of the transmitter device 110 in fig. 1. For example, the index may be determined as u ═ mod (ID)_SRCM), wherein ID_SRCA decimal value representing the source ID and M represents the total number of base sequences indexed by index u, such as M-30.

The first and second sequences may be generated based on the above-determined base sequence index u and feedback information (e.g., HARQ feedback ACK/NACK information), for example, based on the following equation 1:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

denotes a base sequence indexed by an index u, and may be determined according to a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) format 0, k-0, 1, …, N_seq-1 is the index of the sequence element, N_seqIndicating the length of the sequence, e.g.

Feedback information is included, e.g., for NACK, α -0, and for ACK, α -6, m denotes a symbol index, e.g., m-0 denotes the first symbol 910, and m-1 denotes the second symbol 920, and n denotes the receiver device index. As can be seen from equation 1, the first sequence before weighting and the second sequence before weighting have the same length and are identical to each other.

In operation 320 of the method 300, a weighting factor w for a first sequence on a first symbol 910⁽ⁿ⁾(m-0) and a weighting factor w for the second sequence on the second symbol 920⁽ⁿ⁾(m ═ 1) can be determined based on the following equations 2 and 3, respectively:

w⁽ⁿ⁾(m-0-1 (formula 2)

w⁽ⁿ⁾(m＝1)＝e^j2πp/P(formula 3)

Wherein the weighting coefficient w⁽ⁿ⁾(m 1) may be selected from a predefined, configured or preconfigured set of weighting coefficients

Randomly chosen, P is an integer greater than 1, e.g., P is 4 and m is 0,1 denotes the symbol index.

As seen in the first exemplary embodiment, a fixed weighting system may be determined for a first sequence over a first symbol 910And an opportunistic weighting coefficient may be determined for the second sequence on the second symbol 920. Since the fixed weighting factor is equal to 1, this means that the first sequence may not be weighted. Of course, the fixed weighting coefficients may have fixed values other than 1. In some embodiments, the weighting factor w⁽ⁿ⁾(m-0) may be randomly selected from a set of predefined, configured or preconfigured weighting coefficients, and w⁽ⁿ⁾(m ═ 1) has a fixed value; or w⁽ⁿ⁾(m ═ 0) and w⁽ⁿ⁾(m-1) are both independently randomly selected from a set of predefined weighting coefficients.

The first and second sequences may then be weighted and mapped to subcarriers on the first and

second symbols

1010 and 1020, e.g., based on equation 4 below:

wherein k is 0,1, …, N_PSFCH-1，N_PSFCH＝N_seqDenotes the number of subcarriers occupied by the feedback channel, and m is 0, and 1 denotes a symbol index.

As shown in fig. 9, symbol 910 may transmit a weighted first sequence and second symbol 920 may transmit a weighted second sequence.

The feedback channel is then sent to the transmitter device 110, and the transmitter device 110 may receive the feedback channel through the operations of the method 600. Here, it should be noted that the multiple feedback channels generated as described above at the

multiple receiver devices

120, 130 may be transmitted using the same resources (time/frequency/code) and thus combined over the air. The feedback signal received at 610 of method 600 at the transmitter device 110 may be expressed as the following equation 5:

wherein k is 0,1, …, N_PSFCH-1, m-0, 1 denotes a symbol index, H⁽ⁿ⁾Indicating the nth receiver device and the transmitting deviceThe radio channel coefficients between the devices on the radio resource occupied by the feedback channel, and v represents noise plus interference.

Then, at operation 620 in method 600, non-coherent detection may be performed on the feedback sequence by sequence correlation, for example, based on equation 6 below:

wherein the superscript denotes the conjugate operation. If the correlation result of equation 6 exceeds a predetermined threshold, feedback is successfully detected, otherwise feedback is lost. It should be appreciated that the above described non-coherent detection method is merely an example, and other detection methods are possible.

In the second exemplary embodiment shown in fig. 10, the side link feedback channel is further configured to include two symbols, i.e., a first symbol 1010 transmitting a first sequence and a second symbol 1020 transmitting a second sequence. The first symbol may also be used to achieve AGC stabilization. First sequence

And a second sequence

May be generated based on equations 7-8 below:

here, the term

And

respectively denoted by uThe base sequences for the first and second sequences. It can be seen that the first sequence has half the length of the second sequence.

The weighting coefficient w for the first sequence on the first symbol 1010 can be determined in a manner similar to the first embodiment⁽ⁿ⁾(m-0) and a weighting factor w for the second sequence on the second symbol 1020⁽ⁿ⁾(m is 1). In some examples, a fixed weighting factor may be determined for a first sequence on first symbol 1010, while an opportunistic weighting factor may be determined for a second sequence on second symbol 1020. The first and second sequences may then be weighted and mapped to subcarriers on the first and

second symbols

1010 and 1020, e.g., based on equation 9 below:

wherein k is 0,1, …, N_PSFCH-1，N_PSFCHIndicating the number of sub-carriers of the side-link feedback channel, e.g. N_seq＝N_PSFCH＝24。

As shown in fig. 10, since the first sequence has a length of half that of the second sequence, the former is mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence. Although the first sequence is mapped to even subcarriers in equation 9, it may be mapped to odd subcarriers. By mapping the first sequence to only even or odd subcarriers, the corresponding first symbol 1010 will have a repeating structure in the time domain such that the first half of the first symbol 1010 can be used for AGC adjustment and the second half of the first symbol 1010 can be used to enhance the detection performance of the sidelink feedback channel. Thus, the detection performance of the feedback channel is not degraded by distortion in the first half of the first AGC related symbols, e.g., due to AGC adjustment. In this embodiment, it should be noted that the first AGC related symbol transmitting the first sequence may have a power boost of 3dB for each used subcarrier compared to the second symbol transmitting the second sequence, such that the total transmit power between them is equal.

multiple receiver devices

120, 130 are transmitted using the same resources (time/frequency/code) and are thus combined over the air. The feedback signal received at 610 of method 600 at transmitter device 110 may also be represented as equation 5 above.

Then, at 620 of method 600, transmitter device 110 may perform non-coherent detection on the first sequence received on first symbol 1010 and the second sequence received on second symbol 1020 by sequence correlation. The received first sequence may be obtained, for example, from the second half of the first symbol 1010, and the first half may be used for AGC adjustment. Incoherent detection may be based on equation 10 below:

wherein the superscript denotes the conjugate operation. If the correlation result of equation 10 exceeds a predetermined threshold, feedback is successfully detected, otherwise feedback is lost. It should be appreciated that the above described non-coherent detection method is merely an example, and other detection methods are possible.

In the third exemplary embodiment shown in fig. 11, the side link feedback channel may be further configured to include two symbols, i.e., a first symbol 1110 transmitting a first sequence and a second symbol 1120 transmitting a second sequence, and the first symbol 1110 may be configured to implement AGC stabilization. However, the first sequence on the first symbol 1110 includes at least two repetitions of the first subsequence arranged in the frequency domain, and the second sequence on the second symbol 1120 also includes at least two repetitions of the second subsequence arranged in the frequency domain. The first subsequences may correspond to the second subsequences, respectively.

The first and second sequences may then be weighted and mapped to subcarriers based on equation 11 below:

wherein the content of the first and second substances,

denotes a first subsequence (m ═ 0) or a second subsequence (m ═ 1), N_sseqIndicating the number of sub-carriers occupied by a sub-sequence, e.g. N_sseqThe number of subcarriers per physical resource block (e.g., 12). Formula 11 shows only two subsequences of the sequence. In some other embodiments, each sequence may include more than two subsequences.

As shown in fig. 11, symbol 1110 may comprise a weighted first sequence, second symbol 1120 may comprise a weighted second sequence, and both weighted sequences have the same length. The first sequence comprises two repetitions of the

first sub-sequence

1230 and 1240 and the second sequence comprises two repetitions of the

second sub-sequence

1250 and 1260. The first sub-sequence 1230 and the corresponding second sub-sequence 1250 are weighted by the same weighting factor w⁽ⁿ⁾(0) Weighted and the first sub-sequence 1240 and the corresponding second sub-sequence 1260 are weighted by the same weighting factor w⁽ⁿ⁾(1) To be weighted. In this way, the first and second sequences are weighted in the frequency domain. It should be noted that at most one pair of the first subsequence and the second subsequence may be weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, and the other subsequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient.

multiple receiver devices

Then, at operation 620 in method 600, non-coherent detection of the feedback sequence may be performed by sequence correlation, e.g., based on equation 12 below:

wherein the superscript denotes the conjugate operation. Here, it should be noted that non-coherent detection is performed only on the second symbol, since the first symbol is used to achieve AGC settling. In some other embodiments, both the first symbol and the second symbol may be used for non-coherent detection. In such a case, the detection performance of the feedback channel may be deteriorated to some extent due to, for example, distortion in the first symbol caused by AGC adjustment. In order to mitigate or prevent the detection performance from being degraded, in some embodiments, as in the second embodiment, the first sequence may have a length of half of the second sequence, so that only the latter half of the first symbol may be used to improve the detection performance.

It should also be noted that each of the first and second sequences may comprise more than two repetitions of a sub-sequence. In some embodiments, the first subsequence may have a length of half of the second subsequence, and the first subsequence may be mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second subsequence. In such a case, the first half of the first symbol may be used to achieve AGC stabilization, and the second half may be used to improve detection performance. Although the first and second sequences are weighted in the frequency domain in the third embodiment, they may also be weighted in the time domain as in the first and second embodiments.

In the fourth exemplary embodiment shown in fig. 12, the side link feedback channel may also be configured to include two symbols, i.e., a first symbol 1210 transmitting a first sequence and a second symbol 1320 transmitting a second sequence. The fourth embodiment of fig. 12 is similar to the third embodiment of fig. 11, except that the first and second sequences each comprise only a single sequence without repetition of subsequences.

As shown in equation 13 below, the first sequence 1210 and the second sequence 1220 may be weighted in the frequency domain:

wherein N is_perIs the frequency domainThe weighting period in (1). For example, every N of the first/second sequence may be combined_perThe elements are regarded as "subsequences", although a plurality of "subsequences" may not be identical to each other even before weighting, unlike the subsequences before weighting as in the third embodiment. In some embodiments, N_perIt may be preferable that the number of subcarriers in each physical resource block, i.e., N_per12. Then, similarly to the third embodiment, the first sequence and the second sequence may be weighted in the frequency domain.

As shown in fig. 12, the first sequence on the first symbol 1210 may include at least two

first segments

1230 and 1240 and the second sequence on the second symbol 1220 may include at least two

second segments

1250 and 1260. The first segment 1230 corresponds to the second segment 1250, both of which are weighted by the same weighting factor w⁽ⁿ⁾(0) And (4) weighting. The first segment 1240 corresponds to the second segment 1260, both of which are weighted by the same weighting factor w⁽ⁿ⁾(1) And (4) weighting.

The feedback channel may be sent to the transmitter device 110 and received at the transmitter device 110. Similar to the first example embodiment, the feedback signal received at the transmitter device 110 may also be expressed as, for example, equation 5 above.

Non-coherent detection may then be performed on the feedback sequence by sequence correlation, e.g., based on equation 14 below:

wherein the superscript denotes the conjugate operation. It should be noted here that non-coherent detection is only performed on the second symbol, since the first symbol is used to achieve AGC settling. In some other embodiments, both the first symbol and the second symbol may be used for non-coherent detection. In such a case, the detection performance for the feedback channel may deteriorate to some extent due to, for example, distortion in the first symbol caused by AGC adjustment. In order to mitigate or prevent the detection performance from deteriorating, in some embodiments, as in the second embodiment, the first sequence may have a length of half of the second sequence, so that only the latter half of the first symbol may be used to improve the detection performance.

In comparison with some comparative examples in which no weighting was applied, simulations were performed to evaluate the above-described first embodiment. The simulation conditions are listed in the following table, and the simulation results are shown in fig. 13. As can be seen from the simulation results, under the evaluation conditions, as the number of receivers sharing the feedback resource becomes larger, examples of embodiments of the present disclosure achieve significant performance improvements.

TABLE 1

Some example embodiments have been described above. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the above exemplary embodiments.

Another example embodiment may relate to a signal generated, for example, by the example method 300 described above. For example, the signal may be a sidelink feedback signal or a HARQ feedback signal, e.g., in sidelink communications, and the signal may include first and second sequences corresponding to first and second symbols, respectively, of an associated physical channel. At least a portion of one of the first and second sequences may be weighted by a random weighting coefficient. For example, the signal may be a radio signal.

Another example embodiment may relate to computer program code or instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of an apparatus, such as the

example apparatus

200 or 500 or 700 described above, may cause the apparatus to perform any of the methods, such as the

example methods

300 or 600 above.

Another example embodiment may be directed to a computer readable medium having stored thereon such computer program code or instructions. In various example embodiments, such computer-readable media may include at least one storage medium in various forms, such as volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. Volatile memory can include, but is not limited to, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM), cache memory, and the like. Non-volatile memory may include, but is not limited to, for example, Read Only Memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, and the like. Further, at least memory 220 may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any combination thereof.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words "comprise", "comprising", and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is, in the sense of "including, but not limited to". As generally used herein, the term "coupled" refers to two or more elements that may be connected directly or through one or more intermediate elements. Likewise, the word "connected," as generally used herein, refers to two or more elements that may be connected directly or through one or more intermediate elements. Moreover, as used in this application, the words "herein," "above," "below," and words of similar import shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. The word "or" refers to a list of two or more items that covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any item in the list, all items in the list, and any combination of items in the list.

Furthermore, conditional language such as "may," possibly, "" e, "" e.g., "such as" used herein, are generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/or states, unless expressly stated otherwise or otherwise understood in the context of such use. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or states are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or states are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example, and are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, the apparatus, methods, and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. For example, while block diagrams are presented in a given arrangement, alternative embodiments may employ different components and/or circuit topologies to perform similar functions, and some block diagrams may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified. Each of these block diagrams may be implemented in a variety of different ways. The order of these blocks may also be changed. Any suitable combination of the elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the disclosure.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform:

determining feedback information in response to a decoding status of the received data;

generating a first sequence and a second sequence for the feedback information, the first sequence and the second sequence corresponding to a first symbol and a second symbol, respectively, of an associated physical channel, at least a portion of one of the first sequence and the second sequence being weighted by a random weighting coefficient; and

mapping the first and second sequences to corresponding subcarriers of the first and second symbols of the associated physical channel for transmission thereon.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one of the first sequence and the second sequence is weighted by the random weighting coefficient and the other of the first sequence and the second sequence is weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first sequence is weighted by a first random weighting coefficient and the second sequence is weighted by a second random weighting coefficient.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first sequence comprises a plurality of first subsequences, and the second sequence comprises a plurality of second subsequences corresponding to the plurality of first subsequences, respectively.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the plurality of first subsequences are the same as each other before weighting, and the plurality of second subsequences are the same as each other before weighting.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein at least two of the plurality of first subsequences are different from each other before weighting, and at least two of the plurality of second subsequences are different from each other before weighting.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein at most one of the plurality of first subsequences is weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, other ones of the plurality of first subsequences are weighted by a random weighting coefficient determined separately for each other one of the plurality of first subsequences, and each of the plurality of second subsequences is weighted by a weighting coefficient identical to the weighting coefficient of the corresponding first subsequence.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the random weighting factor is randomly selected from a set of predefined, configured, or preconfigured weighting factors.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the feedback information comprises hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, the first symbol of the associated physical channel is used to achieve Automatic Gain Control (AGC) stabilization and/or to transmit the HARQ feedback, and the second symbol of the associated physical channel is used to transmit the HARQ feedback.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first sequence corresponding to the AGC-related symbols has a length that is half the length of the second sequence and is mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first sequence is based on a first base sequence indexed by a first base sequence index, the second sequence is based on a second base sequence indexed by a second base sequence index associated with the first base sequence index.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the second base sequence index is equal to the first base sequence index.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

receiving a feedback signal comprising one or more over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information, the feedback channels comprising a first symbol conveying a first sequence and a second symbol conveying a second sequence, at least a portion of one of the first and second sequences being weighted by a random weighting coefficient; and

performing non-coherent detection on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information.

14. A method for providing feedback information, comprising:

15. The method of claim 14, wherein one of the first sequence and the second sequence is weighted by the random weighting factor and the other of the first sequence and the second sequence is weighted by a predetermined weighting factor.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first sequence is weighted by a first random weighting coefficient and the second sequence is weighted by a second random weighting coefficient.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first sequence comprises a plurality of first subsequences, and the second sequence comprises a plurality of second subsequences corresponding to the plurality of first subsequences, respectively.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein at most one of the plurality of first subsequences is weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, other ones of the plurality of first subsequences are weighted by a random weighting coefficient determined separately for each other one of the plurality of first subsequences, and each of the plurality of second subsequences is weighted by the same weighting coefficient as the corresponding first subsequence.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the feedback information comprises hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, the first symbol of the associated physical channel is used to achieve Automatic Gain Control (AGC) stabilization and/or to transmit HARQ feedback, and a second symbol of the associated physical channel is used to transmit the HARQ feedback.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first sequence corresponding to the AGC-related symbols has a length that is half the length of the second sequence and is mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence.

21. A method for receiving feedback information, comprising:

22. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processor of an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 14-21.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

a determination circuit configured to determine feedback information in response to a decoding state of the received data;

generating circuitry configured to generate first and second sequences for feedback information, the first and second sequences corresponding to first and second symbols, respectively, of an associated physical channel, at least a portion of one of the first and second sequences being weighted by a random weighting coefficient; and

mapping circuitry configured to map the first and second sequences to corresponding subcarriers of the first and second symbols of the associated physical channel for transmission thereon.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein one of the first sequence and the second sequence is weighted by the random weighting factor and the other of the first sequence and the second sequence is weighted by a predetermined weighting factor.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first sequence is weighted by a first random weighting coefficient and the second sequence is weighted by a second random weighting coefficient.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first sequence comprises a plurality of first subsequences and the second sequence comprises a plurality of second subsequences corresponding to the plurality of first subsequences, respectively.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the plurality of first subsequences are the same as each other before weighting, and the plurality of second subsequences are the same as each other before weighting.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein at least two of the first plurality of subsequences are different from each other before weighting, and at least two of the second plurality of subsequences are different from each other before weighting.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein at most one of the plurality of first subsequences is weighted by a predetermined weighting coefficient, other ones of the plurality of first subsequences are weighted by a random weighting coefficient determined separately for each other one of the plurality of first subsequences, and each of the plurality of second subsequences is weighted by the same weighting coefficient as the corresponding first subsequence.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the random weighting factor is randomly selected from a set of predefined, configured, or preconfigured weighting factors.

31. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the feedback information comprises hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback, the first symbol of the associated physical channel is used to achieve AGC stabilization and/or to communicate the HARQ feedback, and the second symbol of the associated physical channel is used to communicate the HARQ feedback.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the first sequence corresponding to the AGC-related symbols has a length that is half the length of the second sequence and is mapped to every other subcarrier occupied by the second sequence.

33. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first sequence is based on a first base sequence indexed by a first base sequence index, the second sequence is based on a second base sequence indexed by a second base sequence index associated with the first base sequence index.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the second base sequence index is equal to the first base sequence index.

35. An apparatus, comprising:

receive circuitry configured to receive a feedback signal comprising one or more over-the-air combined feedback channels containing feedback information, the feedback channels comprising a first symbol conveying a first sequence and a second symbol conveying a second sequence, at least a portion of one of the first and second sequences being weighted by a random weighting coefficient; and

a detection circuit configured to perform non-coherent detection on the received feedback signal to decode the feedback information.