CN116420330A

CN116420330A - Multicast and broadcast service scheduling

Info

Publication number: CN116420330A
Application number: CN202080106335.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 寇帅华; 刘星; 郝鹏; 苟伟; 魏兴光
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2020-10-15
Filing date: 2020-10-15
Publication date: 2023-07-11
Also published as: WO2022077300A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, a device and a system for realizing multicast and broadcast configuration at a high level. In one example aspect, a method for wireless communication includes: the base station sends a first signaling message to the user equipment at a radio resource control, RRC, layer. The first signaling message includes scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The method also includes the base station transmitting at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services to the user device based on the scheduling information in the first signaling message.

Description

Multicast and broadcast service scheduling

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to wireless communications.

Background

Mobile communication technology has changed the world towards enhanced contact and networked society. The rapid growth and technological advances in mobile communication technology have led to greater demands for capacity and connectivity. Other things, such as energy consumption, equipment cost, spectral efficiency, and latency are also important to meet the needs of various communication schemes. Various techniques are being discussed, including new ways of providing higher quality services, longer battery life, and improved performance.

Disclosure of Invention

Among other things, embodiments of the present invention describe techniques to implement multicast and broadcast configurations at a higher layer, thereby reducing and/or minimizing physical layer signaling overhead and identifying the multicast and broadcast traffic type of transmission.

In one exemplary embodiment, a wireless communication method includes a base station transmitting a first signaling message to a user equipment at a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer. The first signaling message includes scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The method also includes the base station transmitting at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services to the user device based on the scheduling information in the first signaling message.

In another exemplary embodiment, a wireless communication method includes: the user equipment receives a first signaling message from a base station at a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer. The first signaling message includes scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The method further comprises the steps of: the user equipment receives a transmission for at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services from the base station based on the scheduling information in the first signaling message.

In another exemplary embodiment, a communication device is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processor configured to implement the above-described method.

In yet another exemplary embodiment, a computer program storage medium is disclosed. The computer program storage medium includes code stored thereon. The code, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to implement the described methods.

These and other aspects are described in the present disclosure.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flow chart of a wireless communication method according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of another method for wireless communication in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example semi-persistent scheduling configuration in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 4 illustrates another example semi-persistent scheduling configuration in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 5 illustrates yet another example semi-persistent scheduling configuration in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example HARQ process allocation according to the present invention.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example codebook construction process in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system to which the techniques in one or more embodiments of the invention may be applied.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a portion of a wireless station employing techniques in one or more embodiments of the invention.

Detailed Description

Section headings are used in this disclosure only to improve readability and do not limit the scope of the embodiments and techniques disclosed in each section to only that section. Certain features are described using an example of a fifth generation wireless protocol (Fifth Generation wireless protocol, 5G). However, applicability of the disclosed technology is not limited to 5G wireless systems.

In long term evolution (Long Term Evaluation, LTE) communication systems, a broadcast technology called evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service (Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services, EMBMS) is designed for video program communication on a semi-static basis. That is, once a video program begins, the network transmits content to the user device in the air interface or service layer without obtaining feedback from the user device to the network. Due to lack of feedback, the network cannot effectively change the broadcast area or balance the occupied radio resources to improve transmission reliability. The first version of the 5G multicast/broadcast system introduced new services with different requirements such as ad hoc multicast/broadcast streaming, transparent internet protocol version 4 (Internet Protocol version, IPv 4)/IPv 6 multicast delivery, IPTV, wireless software delivery, group communication and broadcast/multicast internet of things applications, V2X applications and/or public safety. Some of these services require higher reliability than the semi-static broadcast techniques described above. For example, unlike video transmission, in which a viewer may not notice the loss of video packets due to error correction performed in decoding and displaying video, other techniques such as software transmission may be more sensitive to lost data packets. Thus, there remains a need for multimedia broadcast multicast services (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services, MBMS) or multicast broadcast services (Multicast Broadcast Services, MBS) to enable a network to support best effort delivery (e.g., to achieve service continuity in a mobile scenario) and to provide power savings.

Currently, base stations schedule MBS via control information on user equipment specific (UE specific) physical channels, e.g., physical downlink control channels (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH). Due to the broadcast nature of MBS, relying solely on the physical channel for MBS control may result in excessive signaling overhead on the physical channel, especially when there are many UEs receiving MBS. Techniques are disclosed that may be implemented in various embodiments to enable scheduling and controlling MBMS (e.g., radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC), or medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC)) in other layers to reduce signaling burden on physical channels. Furthermore, these different embodiments may be used to identify the MBS type of transmission prior to decoding the transmission.

Fig. 1 is a flow chart of a wireless communication method 100 according to the present invention. The method 100 includes an operation 110 of the base station transmitting a first signaling message to a user equipment at a radio resource control, RRC, layer. The first signaling message includes scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The method 100 further includes an operation 120 of the base station performing transmission of at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services to the user device based on the scheduling information in the first signaling message.

In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes a Semi-persistent scheduling (Semi-Persistent Scheduling, SPS) configuration. In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes a frequency range for frequency resource allocation for transmission of at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services.

In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes one or more identifiers, each identifier corresponding to a multicast or broadcast service or a unicast service. In some embodiments, transmissions of at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services are scrambled based on the corresponding identifiers. In some embodiments, the identifier of the multicast or broadcast service comprises at least one of a multicast or broadcast service index, a group radio network temporary radio identifier, a logical channel identification, a search space identifier, a control resource set identifier, an identifier of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, monitoring occasion, a downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) format, a PDCCH candidate identifier, a control channel element (Control Channel Element, CCE) index, a multicast traffic channel (Multicast Traffic Channel, MTCH) identifier, or a temporary mobile group identification (Temporary Mobile Group Identity, TMGI).

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, prior to performing the transmission, the base station sending a second signaling message to the user equipment, the second signaling message indicating a multicast or broadcast service corresponding to the SPS configuration. The indicated multicast or broadcast service is one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or a multicast or broadcast service different from the one or more multicast or broadcast services. In some embodiments, the second signaling message includes information for updating at least one of: the SPS configured transmission period, the aggregation factor, the modulation and coding scheme table, the total number of hybrid automatic repeat request (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ) processes, the HARQ codebook identifier, or the HARQ process identifier offset.

In some embodiments, one or more multicast or broadcast services and unicast services are allocated in one or more cells. The method further comprises the steps of: the base station receives acknowledgement information from the user equipment for a plurality of services including at least one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The codebook of acknowledgement information is determined based on at least one of a predetermined order, the predetermined order being: based on (1) multiple HARQ process numbers, (2) multiple services, or (3) one or more cells. In some embodiments, the codebook is determined based on: (1) concatenating the codebook of different HARQ processes for each of the plurality of services, (2) concatenating the codebook of the plurality of services for each of the one or more cells, and (3) concatenating the resulting codebook of the one or more cells. In some embodiments, acknowledgement information is generated for HARQ process numbers and services in the absence of HARQ processes associated with the HARQ process numbers and services.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a wireless communication method 200 according to the present invention. The method 200 includes an operation 210 in which the user equipment receives a first signaling message from a base station at a radio resource control, RRC, layer. The first signaling message includes scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The method 200 includes an operation 220 in which the user equipment receives a transmission for at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services from the base station based on scheduling information in the first signaling message.

In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes a semi-persistent scheduling SPS configuration. In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes a frequency range for frequency resource allocation for transmission of at least one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. In some embodiments, the scheduling information includes one or more identifiers, each identifier identifying a corresponding multicast or broadcast service or unicast service. In some embodiments, transmissions of at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services are scrambled based on an identifier of the one or more identifiers. In some embodiments, the identifier of the multicast or broadcast service includes at least one of: multicast or broadcast service index, group radio network temporary identifier, logical channel identification, search space identifier, control resource set identifier, identifier of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasion, downlink Control Information (DCI) format, PDCCH candidate identifier, control Channel Element (CCE) index, multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH) identifier or Temporary Mobile Group Identification (TMGI).

In some embodiments, the method further comprises, prior to receiving the transmission, the user equipment receiving a second signaling message from the base station to indicate a multicast or broadcast service corresponding to the SPS configuration. The indicated multicast or broadcast service is one of one or more multicast or broadcast services or a multicast or broadcast service different from the one or more multicast or broadcast services. In some embodiments, the second signaling message includes information for updating at least one of: the SPS configured transmission period, aggregation factor, modulation and coding scheme table, total number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, HARQ codebook identifier, or HARQ process identifier offset.

In some embodiments, one or more multicast or broadcast services and unicast services are allocated in one or more cells. The method further comprises the user equipment sending acknowledgement information to the base station for a plurality of services including at least one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services. The codebook of acknowledgement information is determined based on at least one of a predetermined order, the predetermined order being: (1) a plurality of HARQ process numbers, (2) a plurality of services, or (3) one or more cells. In some embodiments, the method includes determining the codebook based on: (1) concatenating the codebooks of the different HARQ processes for each of the plurality of services, (2) concatenating the codebooks of the plurality of services for each of the one or more cells, and (3) concatenating the resulting codebooks of the one or more cells. In some embodiments, acknowledgement information is generated for HARQ process numbers and services in the absence of HARQ processes associated with the HARQ process numbers and services.

Some examples of the above disclosed techniques and methods are further described in the following example embodiments.

Example 1

Configuration of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) includes at least a period, a number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, a corresponding Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resource or Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) table, an HARQ process identifier offset, an HARQ codebook ID, a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) aggregation factor, and the like.

In some embodiments, a base station may configure multiple multicast broadcast services using semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) at the RRC layer. For example, a base station may transmit a plurality of SPS configurations to a user equipment (e.g., user equipment, UE) to configure a plurality of multicast broadcast services. Each SPS configuration is associated with one or more MBS or unicast services. For example, information about one or more MBS is included in the SPS configuration and the one or more MBS is associated with subsequent SPS transmissions. The SPS transmissions may carry data for the corresponding one or more MBS. In this disclosure, MBS associated with SPS configuration means that parameters or configurations identifying MBS are associated with SPS configuration. The MBS included in the SPS configuration means that parameters or configurations identifying the MBS are included in the SPS configuration. In some embodiments, no SPS configuration of the associated MBS or SPS configuration that does not include the MBS is used for unicast service transmission.

In some embodiments, the SPS configuration includes a frequency range configuration for one or more MBS. The frequency range configuration indicates the location and size of the frequency range for MBS transmission or unicast transmission. For example, the frequency configuration indicates a starting Resource Block (RB) of the frequency range and the number of RBs occupied by the frequency range. The allocation of frequency resources for SPS transmissions carrying data for MBS or unicast services is based on a frequency range. Further, the number of bits of the frequency domain resource allocation field in the control information activating SPS transmissions is determined by the size of the frequency range. In some embodiments, the frequency range included in the SPS configuration is different from the frequency range used for unicast transmissions (e.g., the portion of bandwidth used for unicast transmissions).

In some embodiments, the SPS configuration includes a plurality of scrambling identifications. Each scrambling identity corresponds to an MBS or unicast service associated with the SPS configuration. The scrambling identity may be used to scramble transmissions carrying corresponding MBS or unicast service data. For example, three scrambling identifications (represented by ID W, ID X, ID Y, ID Z) are included in the SPS configuration. MBS a, MBS B, MBS C and unicast services are associated with SPS configurations. The scrambling ID W corresponds to unicast services, the scrambling ID X corresponds to MBS A, the scrambling ID Y corresponds to MBS B, and the scrambling ID Z corresponds to MBS C. If the SPS configuration carries data for the unicast service, the SPS transmission is scrambled by a sequence determined by the scrambling ID W. If the SPS configuration carries data for MBS A, the SPS transmission is scrambled by the sequence determined by scrambling ID X. If the SPS configuration carries data for MBS B, the SPS transmission is scrambled by the sequence determined by scrambling ID Y. If the SPS configuration carries data for MBS C, the SPS transmission is scrambled by a sequence determined by scrambling ID Z.

In some embodiments, the parameters used to identify the transmission of the MBS may be a group radio network temporary identifier (Group Radio Network Temporary Identifier, G-RNTI), a logical channel identity, a search space ID, a set of control resources, a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasion, a DCI format, a PDCCH candidate, a Control Channel Element (CCE) index, a Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH), or a Temporary Mobile Group Identity (TMGI). For example, the G-RNTI may be included in the SPS configuration. The ascending or descending order of the service is indicated based on the ascending or descending order of the parameters (e.g., the ascending or descending order of the G-RNTI).

In some embodiments, after SPS configuration, control information may be transmitted on the MAC layer (e.g., using MAC control element CE) or physical layer (e.g., using downlink control indication DCI) to activate SPS transmissions and/or to indicate that SPS transmissions carry data for one of multiple MBS or unicast services. In some embodiments, the control information may include a dedicated field to indicate that the SPS transmissions carry data for one of the plurality of MBS or unicast services. The dedicated field may be a new field or an existing field. For example, when a DCI signaling message is used to activate SPS transmissions, a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resource indicator field in the DCI may be used to indicate that the activated SPS transmissions carry data for one of a plurality of MBS. Because one SPS configuration may be associated with N MBS, where N is an integer greater than 1. The length of the private field may be defined as log ₂ N]Wherein [ therein]Representing an upper bound operation that returns a minimum integer greater than or equal to the input value. For example, assume that for eightThe multicast and broadcast service, the length of the field is 3, the value "000" indicates that the SPS transmission carries data of the first MBS, and the value "001" indicates that the SPS transmission carries data of the second MBS.

In some embodiments, the control information may further indicate and/or update periodicity, a number of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) table, or other attributes of the SPS configuration. In some embodiments, control information (e.g., MAC CEs) on the MAC layer may update and/or change SPS configurations. For example, the MAC CE may include an SPS configuration index indicating which SPS configuration to update, one or more MBS indexes corresponding to one or more MBS, SPS transmission period, number of HARQ processes, MCS table index, and/or other types of configuration information. Similarly, in some embodiments, control information carried on the physical channel may change and/or update the SPS configuration of the SPS. For example, the DCI may include an SPS configuration index indicating which SPS configuration to update, one or more MBS indexes corresponding to one or more MBS, an SPS transmission period, a number of HARQ processes, an MCS table index, and/or other types of configuration information.

In some embodiments, the control information may include a dedicated field to distinguish between the update of the SPS configuration and the activation of the SPS transmissions. For example, a value of "1" of the dedicated field indicates that control information is used to change/update SPS configuration. A value of "0" for the dedicated field indicates that the control information is used to activate SPS transmissions.

When the user equipment receives control information for updating the SPS configuration SPS, the user equipment may transmit corresponding feedback (e.g., HARQ acknowledgement feedback, HARQ ACK) on an uplink channel (e.g., physical uplink control channel PUCCH or physical uplink shared channel PUSCH). The SPS configuration is then updated starting from the next time slot, or from the first time slot after the time interval following the time slot over which the feedback was sent. In other words, the new SPS configuration indicated by the control information is applied starting from the next slot, or starting from the first slot after a time interval following the slot over which the feedback is transmitted. The time interval may be predefined or configured by the network.

In some embodiments, the new SPS configuration includes a periodicity of the SPS that is different from a periodicity of the original configuration. The new configuration is applied starting from the next time slot or starting from the first time slot after the time interval after the time slot over which the feedback is sent. When the new configuration is in effect, a new period may be applied. Alternatively or additionally, the new periodicity of the SPS configuration is applied after the first SPS transmission is performed using the new configuration (except for the new periodicity). The first SPS transmission after the new configuration is validated may be used to determine a subsequent SPS transmission opportunity (e.g., time domain resources).

FIG. 3 illustrates an example SPS configuration 300 in accordance with this invention. In fig. 3, the horizontal axis represents the time of increase. The network (e.g., base station) configures the first SPS configuration SPS1 with a period P corresponding to the multicast and broadcast service MBS a. SPS1 may be configured via RRC signaling. After configuration, DCI may be sent to activate SPS transmissions corresponding to SPS1 configuration. The data for MBS a is then transmitted via a physical channel (e.g., PDSCHs). The period of the SPS transmission is P.

Fig. 4 shows another SPS configuration 400 according to the present invention. In fig. 4, the horizontal axis represents the time of increase. The network (e.g., base station) configures a first SPS configuration SPS1, which corresponds to a plurality of multicast and broadcast services MBS a, MBS B, and MBS C, via RRC signaling. The base station sends a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) 1 to update the SPS1 configuration and indicate that the SPS1 configuration now corresponds to MBS B. The updated SPS1 configuration is applied starting at slot n. DCI signaling is then sent to activate SPS transmissions corresponding to the updated SPS1 configuration. Data for MBS B is transmitted via a physical channel (e.g., PDSCH 1, PDSCH 2, etc.) according to the SPS1 configuration. Subsequently, the base station sends MAC CE 2 to update the SPS1 configuration again and indicates that SPS1 configuration now corresponds to MBS C. The updated SPS1 configuration is applied starting at slot m. In some embodiments, when an updated configuration (e.g., SPS1 corresponding to MBS C) is applied, the SPS transmissions are released and need to be activated again. DCI signaling may be used to activate SPS transmissions according to the updated SPS1 configuration, and data for MBS C may be sent after DCI activation. In some embodiments, when an updated configuration (e.g., SPS1 corresponding to MBS C) is applied, the SPS transmissions may be performed using the updated configuration without additional activation. The data for MBS C may be transmitted from slot m using a physical channel (e.g., PDSCH k, etc.).

Fig. 5 shows another SPS configuration 500 in accordance with the present invention. In fig. 5, the horizontal axis represents the time of increase. The network (e.g., base station) configures the first SPS configuration SPS1 with a period P1 corresponding to the multicast and broadcast service MBS a. DCI signaling is sent to activate SPS transmissions corresponding to SPS1 configuration. And then transmits data for MBS a via a physical channel (e.g., PDSCH 1, PDSCH 2, etc.). The period of the SPS transmission is P1. In this example, PDSCH 1 is the first PDSCH used to determine SPS PDSCH transmission opportunities and the time domain resources are indicated by DCI signaling. After several SPS transmissions, the MAC CE is sent to change/update the SPS1 configuration. The MAC CE indicates that SPS1 now corresponds to MBS B, and the periodicity of SPS1 is updated to P2. In some embodiments, the updated SPS1 configuration is applied starting at time slot n. The data for MBS B is then transmitted from slot m via a physical channel (e.g., PDSCH k, PDSCH k+1, etc.) with period P2. The PDSCH transmission opportunity is determined according to the resource location of PDSCH 1 and the period of P2. In some embodiments, the updated SPS1 configuration is applied from slot n, except for the periodicity of SPS1 (e.g., P2). Then, using the original period P1, data for MBS B is transmitted from the slot m via a physical channel (e.g., PDSCH k). The time domain resources (e.g., PDSCH k) of the first PDSCH transmission starting from slot n are determined by the resource location of PDSCH 1 and the period of P1. Then, the PDSCH k and the updated period P2 are used to determine subsequent SPS PDSCH transmission opportunities (e.g., PDSCH k+1, PDSCH k+2, etc.). The updated period P2 is applied after the PDSCH k is transmitted.

Example 2

In some embodiments, multiple HARQ processes are configured for one or more multicast and broadcast services or unicast services. If the user equipment receives one or more transport blocks corresponding to the HARQ process and has not reported ACK information for these transport blocks, the corresponding HARQ process is deemed to be occupied. If the user equipment reports ACK information for all transport blocks corresponding to the HARQ process and then no control information to schedule transmission corresponding to the HARQ process is detected, or the user equipment never receives transport blocks corresponding to the HARQ process, the corresponding HARQ process is considered unoccupied. Furthermore, if the soft buffer for the HARQ process is flushed, the HARQ process is considered unoccupied. For SPS transmissions corresponding to an MBS, the first (or last) unoccupied HARQ process for the MBS may be allocated to the transmission.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example HARQ process allocation 600 in accordance with this invention. In this example, four HARQ processes corresponding to multicast and broadcast services are denoted as HARQ processes 0, 1, 2, 3. The user equipment never receives any transport blocks for HARQ process 3 and therefore considers HARQ process 3 to be unoccupied. The user equipment receives transport blocks of HARQ processes 1, 2 and 3 and reports ACK information for

HARQ processes

1 and 2. Thus, HARQ processes 1 and 2 are considered unoccupied. The UE does not report ACK information for HARQ process 0 and thus considers HARQ process 0 to be occupied. For SPS transmissions to the UE, the HARQ process of the SPS transmissions may be a first unoccupied HARQ process (e.g., HARQ process 1). In some embodiments, control information (e.g., DCI signaling) may indicate the HARQ process number of the PDSCH.

Example 3

In some embodiments, a mobile device is configured with multiple serving cells by a network. The mobile device is configured to receive a plurality of services (e.g., a unicast service and one or more multicast and broadcast services) in a serving cell. The user equipment is also configured with a plurality of HARQ processes for each service of each cell. The user equipment receives multiple transmissions carrying a unicast service and one or more multicast and broadcast services with the same or different HARQ process numbers.

In some embodiments, to send the correct acknowledgement information to the base station, the user equipment may determine the first type of HARQ-ACK codebook based on the order of HARQ process numbers for each service type (e.g., unicast, MBS a, MBS B, etc.) for each serving cell. The HARQ process may support multiple transport blocks configured by the network. The transport block includes a plurality of code block groups. If the network enables code block group based feedback, a plurality of bits are generated for the transport block, where each bit corresponds to a code block group. If the network disables the code block group based feedback, only 1 bit is generated for the transport block. If a new data index (New Data Indicator, NDI) is included in the codebook, a value of NDI corresponding to a transport block is appended to the bits generated for the transport block. If there is no NDI for a transport block of a HARQ process, then the value of NDI is assumed to be 0. All generated bits of these transport blocks for the HARQ process (including additional bits for NDI, if any) are concatenated to form HARQ-ACK bits for the HARQ process in the order of the transport blocks. All HARQ-ACK bits for these HARQ processes for the serving of the serving cell are concatenated to form a first type HARQ-ACK codebook for the serving of the serving cell in the order of the HARQ process numbers.

To construct HARQ-ACK information, if the UE detects a DCI format providing PDSCH release or decodes a transport block or code block set correctly, the user equipment generates a positive Acknowledgement (ACK) and if the user equipment does not decode the transport block or code block set correctly, generates a negative Acknowledgement (Negative Acknowledgement, NACK). The HARQ-ACK information bit value of 0 represents NACK and the HARQ-ACK information bit value of 1 represents ACK. In some embodiments, a NACK is generated for a TB of a HARQ process number on a serving cell if the user equipment has reported HARQ-ACK information for that TB and then either no DCI format for scheduling PDSCH reception is detected or no SPS PDSCH transmission for the HARQ process number on the serving cell is received with that TB.

In some embodiments, NACK information is generated for HARQ process and serving HARQ-ACK bits if there is no HARQ process associated with the HARQ process number and the serving. For example, for HARQ process number 1 and MBS B, if there is no HARQ process associated with HARQ process number 1 and MBS B, the corresponding HARQ-ACK information bit is a NACK. If the network enables code block group based feedback or the HARQ process supports multiple transport blocks, then all HARQ-ACK information for the transport block or code block group is NACK.

All the first type HARQ-ACK codebooks for a serving cell are concatenated in order of the service type to form a second type HARQ codebook for the serving cell. For example, the order is first an MBS service, then unicast, where the ascending order of MBS indexes is for multiple MBSs. Then, all the HARQ-ACK codebooks of the second type are concatenated in the order of the cell index to form a codebook of the third type. When the UE receives the HARQ-ACK feedback request (e.g., the UE detects a DCI format including a single HARQ-ACK request field having a value of 1), a first type of codebook, a second type of codebook, or a third type of codebook is determined and transmitted.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example codebook construction process 700 in accordance with this invention. In this particular example, the user equipment is configured with two cells. The user equipment is configured to receive a unicast service and three multicast and broadcast services (denoted MBS a, MBS B, MBS C). MBS a, MBS B and unicast service are transmitted on cell 0. MBS C and unicast services are sent on cell 1. The number of HARQ processes configured for unicast service transmitted on MBS a, MBS B, cell 0, MBS C and unicast service transmitted on cell 1 is 8, 4, 8, respectively.

In this example, it is assumed that there is one transport block for one HARQ process, and feedback based on the code block group is disabled. It is also assumed that NDI is not included in the codebook. That is, there is one bit per HARQ process. A first type of codebook of "a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, a7" is determined for MBS a, where a0 corresponds to a first HARQ process of MBS a, a1 corresponds to a second HARQ process of MBS a, and so on. A first type of codebook "B0, B1, B2, B3" is determined for MBS B, where B0 corresponds to the first HARQ process of MBS B, B1 corresponds to the second HARQ process of MBS B, and so on. A first type of codebook "c0, c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7" is determined for unicast service in cell 0, where c0 corresponds to a first HARQ process for unicast service in cell 0, c1 corresponds to a second HARQ process for unicast service in cell 0, and so on. A first type of codebook "d0, d1, d2, d3" is determined for MBS C, where d0 corresponds to the first HARQ process of MBS C, d1 corresponds to the second HARQ process of MBS C, and so on. A first type of codebook "e0, e1, e2, e3, e4, e5, e6, e7" is determined for unicast service in cell 1, where e0 corresponds to a first HARQ process for unicast service in cell 1, e1 corresponds to a second HARQ process for unicast service in cell 1, and so on.

The codebooks of the first type for MBS a, MBS B and unicast services in cell 0 are concatenated to form a codebook of the second type for cell 0. The order of concatenation is assumed to be MBS a, MBS B, unicast service. The second type of codebook for cell 0 is "a1, a2,., a7, b0, b1,., b3, c0, c1,., c7". The codebook of the first type for MBS C and the unicast service in cell 1 are concatenated to form a codebook of the second type for cell 1. Suppose the order of concatenation is MBS a, unicast service. The second type of codebook for cell 1 is "d1, d2, a3, e0, e1, e7".

The codebooks of the second type for cell 0 and cell 1 are concatenated to form a codebook of the third type. Suppose the order of concatenation is cell 0, cell 1. The third type of codebook is "a1, a2, a7, b0, b1, b3, c0, a. c1,.. a3, e0, e1 once again, e7".

In various embodiments, different cascading sequences may be used. For example, in some embodiments, all HARQ-ACK codebooks of a first type for a service are concatenated in the order of the serving cell index to form a HARQ codebook of a second type for the service. Then, all the HARQ-ACK codebooks of the second type are concatenated in order of service type to form a codebook of a third type.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 800 to which the techniques in one or more embodiments of the invention can be applied. The wireless communication system 800 may include one or more Base Stations (BSs) 805a, 805b, one or more wireless devices (e.g., user devices) 810a, 810b, 810c, 810d, and a core network 825.

Base stations

805a, 805b may provide access services for

wireless devices

810a, 810b, 810c, and 810d in one or more wireless sectors. In some implementations, the

base stations

805a, 805b include directional antennas that generate two or more directional beams to provide wireless coverage for different sectors.

The core network 825 may communicate with one or

more base stations

805a, 805 b. The core network 825 provides connectivity to other wireless communication systems and to wired communication systems. The core network may include one or more service subscription databases to store information related to subscribed

wireless devices

810a, 810b, 810c, and 810 d. The first base station 805a may provide wireless service based on a first radio access technology, and the second base station 805b may provide wireless service based on a second radio access technology. The

base stations

805a and 805b may be co-located or installed separately on site depending on the deployment scenario.

Wireless devices

810a, 810b, 810c, and 810d may support a plurality of different radio access technologies. The techniques and embodiments described in this disclosure may be implemented by a base station of a wireless device described in this disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a portion of a wireless station employing techniques in one or more embodiments of the invention. A radio station 905, such as a base station or a wireless device (or wireless device), may include a processor circuit 910, such as a microprocessor, that applies one or more of the wireless technologies presented in the present invention. Radio 905 may include transceiver circuitry 915 to transmit and/or receive wireless signals over one or more communication interfaces, such as antenna 920. Radio station 905 may include other communication interfaces for transmitting and receiving data. Radio station 905 may include one or more memories (not explicitly shown) configured to store information such as data and/or instructions. In some applications, the processor circuit 910 may include at least a portion of the transceiver circuit 915. In some embodiments, at least some of the techniques, modules, or functions of this invention are implemented using radio station 905. In some embodiments, the radio station 905 may be configured to perform the methods described herein.

It should be appreciated that techniques are disclosed that may be embodied in various embodiments to implement multicast and broadcast configuration at a high level to reduce and/or minimize signaling overhead on physical channels. Other embodiments, modules, and functional operations of the present disclosure and described herein may be applied to digital electronic circuitry, or computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the architectures disclosed herein and their equivalent architectures, or combinations of one or more of them. Other embodiments disclosed and described may be implemented as one or more computer program products, such as one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a computer-readable medium, for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. The computer readable medium can be a machine readable storage device, a machine readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter effecting a machine readable transmission signal, or a combination of one or more thereof. The term "data processing apparatus" encompasses all apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple processors or computers. The apparatus may comprise, in addition to hardware, code for creating an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code, comprising processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, or a combination of one or more of them. A transmitted signal is a manually generated signal, such as a machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, that is generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiving devices.

A computer program (also known as a program, software application, script, or code) can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computer environment. The computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file in the file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language publication), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this invention can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more programs to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows can also be performed by, and apparatus can also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., a field programmable gate array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose functional processors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operable to receive, or transmit, data to, or from, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., a magnetic, magneto-optical disk, or optical disk. However, the computer need not have such devices. Computer readable media suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disk; and CD ROM and DVD-ROM discs. The processor and the memory may be supplemented by, or incorporated in special purpose logic circuitry.

Since the present invention includes many details, it should not be construed as limiting the scope of any invention or of the claims, but rather as describing the particular features of particular embodiments of particular inventions. Suitable features from the description of different embodiments of the invention may also be combined in a single embodiment. Rather, the various features of the description of a single embodiment can be applied to multiple separate embodiments, or in any suitable subcombination. Furthermore, although features may be described above as applied in appropriate combinations and as initially claimed, one or more features from a claimed combination may in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.

Similarly, operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, which should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. Furthermore, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described herein should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments.

Only a few applications and examples have been described, while other applications, enhancements and variations may be made based on the description and illustration of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

the base station sends a first signaling message to the user equipment at a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, wherein the first signaling message comprises scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services;

the base station transmits at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service to the user equipment based on the scheduling information in the first signaling message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling information comprises a semi-persistent scheduling, SPS, configuration.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the scheduling information comprises a frequency range used for frequency resource allocation for the transmission of at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the scheduling information comprises one or more identifiers, each corresponding to the multicast or broadcast service or the unicast service.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transmission of at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service is scrambled based on the identifier.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the identifier of a multicast or broadcast service comprises at least one of: a multicast or broadcast service index, a group radio network temporary radio identifier, a logical channel identifier, a search space identifier, a control resource set identifier, an identifier of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, monitoring occasion, a downlink control information, DCI, format, PDCCH candidate identifier, a control channel element, CCE, index, a multicast traffic channel, MTCH, identifier or a temporary mobile group identifier, TMGI.

7. The method of claims 1-6, further comprising, prior to performing the transmission:

the base station transmits a second signaling message to the user equipment, the second signaling message indicating a multicast or broadcast service corresponding to the SPS configuration, wherein the multicast or broadcast service indicated by the second signaling message is one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or a multicast or broadcast service different from the one or more multicast or broadcast services.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second signaling message includes information for updating at least one of: the SPS configured transmission period, aggregation factor, modulation and coding scheme table, total number of hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ processes, HARQ codebook identifier, or HARQ process identifier offset.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8, wherein the one or more multicast or broadcast services and unicast services are allocated in one or more cells, wherein the method further comprises:

the base station receives acknowledgement information for a plurality of services including at least the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service from the user equipment, wherein a codebook of the acknowledgement information is determined based on at least one of a predetermined order, the predetermined order being: (1) a plurality of HARQ process numbers, (2) the plurality of services, or (3) the one or more cells.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the codebook is determined based on:

(1) Concatenating a codebook of different HARQ processes for each of the plurality of services,

(2) Concatenating a codebook of the plurality of services for each of the one or more cells, and (3) concatenating the resulting codebook of the one or more cells.

11. The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the acknowledgement information is generated for the HARQ process number and the service in the absence of a HARQ process associated with the HARQ process number and the service.

12. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

the user equipment receives a first signaling message from a base station at a radio resource control, RRC, layer, wherein the first signaling message includes scheduling information for one or more multicast or broadcast services or unicast services;

the user equipment receives a transmission of at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service from the base station based on the scheduling information in the first signaling message.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling information comprises a semi-persistent scheduling, SPS, configuration.

14. The method of claim 12 or 13, wherein the scheduling information comprises a frequency range used for frequency resource allocation for the transmission of at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service.

15. The method of any of claims 10 to 12, wherein the scheduling information comprises one or more identifiers, each identifier identifying a corresponding to the multicast or broadcast service or the unicast service.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmission of at least one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service is scrambled based on one of the one or more identifiers.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifier of a multicast or broadcast service comprises at least one of: multicast or broadcast service index, group radio network temporary identifier, logical channel identification, search space identifier, control resource set identifier, identifier of physical downlink control channel PDCCH monitoring occasion, downlink control information DCI format, PDCCH candidate identifier, control channel element CCE index, multicast traffic channel MTCH identifier or temporary mobile group identification TMGI.

18. The method of claims 12 to 17, further comprising, prior to receiving the transmission:

the user equipment receives a second signaling message from the base station, the second signaling message indicating a multicast or broadcast service corresponding to the SPS configuration, wherein the multicast or broadcast service indicated by the second signaling message is one of the one or more multicast or broadcast services or a multicast or broadcast service different from the one or more multicast or broadcast services.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second signaling message includes information for updating at least one of: the SPS configured transmission period, aggregation factor, modulation and coding scheme table, total number of hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ processes, HARQ codebook identifier, or HARQ process identifier offset.

20. The method of any of claims 12-19, wherein the one or more multicast or broadcast services and unicast services are allocated in one or more cells, wherein the method further comprises:

the user equipment transmits acknowledgement information for a plurality of services to the base station, wherein the plurality of services at least comprise the one or more multicast or broadcast services or the unicast service, and a codebook of the acknowledgement information is determined based on at least one of a predetermined order, and the predetermined order is that: (1) a plurality of HARQ process numbers, (2) the plurality of services, or (3) the one or more cells.

21. The method of claim 20, the codebook is based on the following determination: (1) concatenating a codebook of different HARQ processes for each of the plurality of services, (2) concatenating a codebook of the plurality of services for each of the one or more cells, and (3) concatenating the resulting codebook of the one or more cells.

22. The method of claim 20 or 21, wherein the acknowledgement information is generated for the HARQ process number and the service in the absence of a HARQ process associated with the HARQ process number and the service.

23. A communication device comprising a processor configured to implement the method of any one or more of claims 1 to 22.

24. A computer program product having code stored thereon, which when executed by a processor causes the processor to carry out the method of any one or more of claims 1 to 22.