CN117811707A

CN117811707A - Apparatus and method for coverage enhancement of PUCCH

Info

Publication number: CN117811707A
Application number: CN202311254671.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 熊岗; 维克多·谢尔盖耶夫
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2022-09-29
Filing date: 2023-09-26
Publication date: 2024-04-02

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for coverage enhancement of PUCCH. An apparatus, comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding Msg4 received from the AN during a RACH procedure via the interface circuit; encoding one or more PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACKs in response to the Msg 4; determining at least one repetition level for the one or more PUCCH repetitions based on DCI; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined at least one repetition level. Other embodiments may also be disclosed and claimed.

Description

Apparatus and method for coverage enhancement of PUCCH

Priority statement

The present application is based on U.S. provisional application serial No. 63/411,557 filed on month 29 of 2022 and claims priority from that application. The entire contents of this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of communications, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for coverage enhancement of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) carrying a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgement (ACK) in response to an Msg4 Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).

Background

Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly complex integrated communication platforms. The next generation wireless communication system, fifth generation (5G) or New Radio (NR) will provide information access and data sharing by various terminals and applications whenever and wherever possible. NR is expected to be a unified network/system aimed at meeting distinct and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such different multidimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. In general, NR can evolve based on the third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) -advanced and other potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs), enriching people's lives through a better, simple and seamless wireless connection solution. NR can enable everything through a wireless connection and provide fast, rich content and services.

Disclosure of Invention

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure via the interface circuit; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining at least one repetition level for the one or more PUCCH repetitions based on Downlink Control Information (DCI); and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined at least one repetition level.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetition carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgement (ACK) in response to Msg4 of a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, configuring a plurality of repetition levels; and indicating one of the plurality of repetition levels to a User Equipment (UE) through the interface circuit via Downlink Control Information (DCI).

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of example and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 shows a 4-step RACH procedure for initial access.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of inter-slot frequency hopping of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of an association between repetition levels for multiple PRACH transmissions and repetition levels for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a method flow diagram for determining available slots for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a method flow diagram for determining a spatial domain filter with PUCCH repetition of HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a method flow diagram for determining a frequency hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates a method flowchart for determining a repetition level of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates a method flowchart for indicating a repetition level of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 illustrates a network in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 12 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

Detailed Description

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of the disclosure to others skilled in the art. However, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that many alternative embodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Moreover, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrases "in an embodiment," "in one embodiment," and "in some embodiments" are repeated herein. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may refer to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrases "A or B" and "A/B" mean "(A), (B) or (A and B)".

Fig. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system 100 according to some embodiments of the disclosure. The following description is provided for an example system 100 that operates in conjunction with a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system standard and a 5G or New Radio (NR) system standard provided by a 3GPP Technical Specification (TS). However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 protocols (e.g., wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.), and so forth.

As shown in fig. 1, the system 100 may include a UE 101a and a UE 101b (collectively referred to as UE(s) 101 "). As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may refer to a device having radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio, reconfigurable mobile, etc. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface. In this example, the UE 101 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, notebook computers, in-Vehicle Infotainment Systems (IVIs), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, dashboards (Instrument Cluster, ICs), heads-up display (HUD) devices, in-vehicle diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashboard mobile Devices (DME), mobile Data Terminals (MDT), electronic Engine Management Systems (EEMS), electronic/Engine Control Units (ECU), electronic/Engine Control Modules (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine Management Systems (EMS), or "smart" devices, machine-type communication (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M), internet of things (IoT) devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 may include an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via PLMNs, proximity-based services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The data exchange of M2M or MTC may be a machine initiated data exchange. IoT networks describe interconnected IoT UEs that may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute a background application (e.g., keep-alive message, status update, etc.) to facilitate connection of the IoT network.

UE 101 may be configured to connect (e.g., communicatively couple) with RAN 110. In an embodiment, RAN 110 may be a Next Generation (NG) RAN or a 5G RAN, an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network) or a GERAN (GSM (global system for Mobile communications or group Sp service Mobile) EDGE (GSM evolution) radio access network). As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to RAN 110 operating in NR or 5G system 100, and the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 110 operating in LTE or 4G system 100. The UE 101 utilizes connections (or channels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below). As used herein, the term "channel" may refer to any tangible or intangible transmission medium for transmitting data or a data stream. The term "channel" may be synonymous and/or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and/or any other similar term indicating a path or medium through which data is transmitted. In addition, the term "link" may refer to a connection between two devices for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information via a Radio Access Technology (RAT).

In this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to enable communicative coupling, and may be consistent with cellular communication protocols, such as global system for mobile communications (GSM) protocols, code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocols, push-to-talk (PTT) protocols, push-to-cellular PTT (POC) protocols, universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocols, fifth generation (5G) protocols, new Radio (NR) protocols, and/or any other communication protocols discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 101 may exchange communication data directly via the ProSe interface 105. ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as a Sidelink (SL) interface 105 and may include one or more logical channels including, but not limited to, a physical side link control channel (PSCCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical side link discovery channel (PSDCH), and a physical side link broadcast channel (PSBCH).

The UE 101b is shown configured to access an Access Point (AP) 106 (also referred to as a "WLAN node 106", "WLAN terminal 106", or "WT 106", etc.) via a connection 107. Connection 107 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown connected to the internet and not to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 101b, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and/or WLAN LTE/WLAN radio level integration (LWIP) operation with IPsec tunneling. The LWA operation may involve the UE 101b in rrc_connected being configured by the RAN node 111 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operations may involve the UE 101b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., internet Protocol (IP) packets) sent over connection 107 via an internet protocol security (IPsec) protocol tunnel. IPsec tunnels may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, protecting the original header of the IP packet.

RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as RAN node(s) 111 ") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, the terms "Access Node (AN)", "access point", "RAN node", and the like may describe devices that provide radio baseband functionality for data and/or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as Base Stations (BS), next generation node BS (gNB), RAN nodes, evolved nodebs (enbs), nodebs, roadside units (RSUs), transmission reception points (TRxP or TRP), and the like, and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., cell). As used herein, the term "NG RAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 100, and the term "E-UTRAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. According to various embodiments, RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and/or a Low Power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than the macrocell.

In some embodiments, all or part of RAN node 111 may be implemented as part of a virtual network as one or more software entities running on a server computer, which may be referred to as a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) and/or virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning, such as: PDCP partitioning, wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by CRAN/vbup, while other layer 2 (L2) protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; MAC/PHY partitioning, where RRC, PDCP, RLC and MAC layers are operated by CRAN/vbup and PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or "lower PHY" split, where RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 111. The virtualization framework allows freeing up the processor cores of RAN node 111 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, individual RAN node 111 may represent an individual gNB-DU connected to the gNB-CU via an individual F1 interface (not shown in fig. 1). In these implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or Radio Front End Modules (RFEM), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in RAN 110 or by a server pool in a similar manner as CRAN/vbBup. Additionally or alternatively, one or more RAN nodes 111 may be a next generation eNB (NG-eNB), which is a RAN node providing E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol termination to the UE 101, and which is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface.

In a V2X scenario, one or more RAN nodes 111 may be or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSUs may be implemented in or by suitable RAN nodes or fixed (or relatively stationary) UEs, wherein RSUs implemented in or by UEs may be referred to as "UE-type RSUs", RSUs implemented in or by enbs may be referred to as "eNB-type RSUs", RSUs implemented in or by gnbs may be referred to as "gNB-type RSUs", etc. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with a radio frequency circuit located at the roadside that provides connectivity support for a passing vehicle UE 101 (vUE 101). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing junction map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate over the 5.9GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as avoiding collisions, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X frequency band to provide the low-latency communications described above, as well as other cellular communication services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a WiFi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device(s) and some or all of the radio frequency circuitry of the RSU may be enclosed in a weather-proof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired (e.g., ethernet) connection with the traffic signal controller and/or the backhaul network.

Any RAN node 111 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments, any RAN node 111 may satisfy various logical functions of RAN 110 including, but not limited to, radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In embodiments, UE 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or any RAN node 111 over a multicarrier communication channel using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals in accordance with various communication techniques such as, but not limited to, orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or side-link communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any RAN node 111 to the UE 101, while uplink transmissions may use similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource of each time slot in the downlink. This time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in the radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks that describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can be currently allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, UE 101 and RAN node 111 transmit (e.g., send and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and/or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum and/or" unlicensed band "). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of about 400MHz to about 3.8GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5GHz band.

To operate in unlicensed spectrum, the UE 101 and RAN node 111 may operate using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and/or other eLAA (feLAA) mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 101 and RAN node 111 may perform one or more known media sensing operations and/or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmission in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operation may be performed according to a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism in which a device (e.g., UE 101, RAN node 111,112, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) that utilizes at least Energy Detection (ED) to determine whether other signals are present on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. The LBT mechanism allows the cellular/LAA network to coexist with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing Radio Frequency (RF) energy over an expected transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predetermined or configured threshold.

In general, incumbent systems in the 5GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism called carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a Mobile Station (MS) such as UE 101, AP 106) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. In addition, a back-off mechanism is used to avoid collisions in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is randomly drawn within the Contention Window Size (CWS), which increases exponentially when collisions occur and is reset to a minimum when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA/CA for WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmission bursts comprising PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y extended CCA (ECCA) slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values of CWS for the LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

LAA mechanisms are established based on Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology of LTE-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a Component Carrier (CC). CCs may have bandwidths of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20MHz, and may aggregate up to five CCs, thus the maximum aggregate bandwidth is 100MHz. In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, the number of aggregated carriers may be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs may have different bandwidths than other CCs. In a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL and UL.

The CA also includes a separate serving cell to provide a separate CC. The coverage of the serving cell may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. A primary serving cell or primary cell (PCell) may provide a primary CC (PCC) for both UL and DL, and may handle Radio Resource Control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. Other serving cells are referred to as secondary cells (scells), and each SCell may provide a separate secondary CC (SCC) for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, while changing PCC may require UE 101 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all scells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA scells"), and the LAA scells are assisted by PCell operating in licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive a UL grant on the configured LAA SCell indicating a different Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting location within the same subframe.

A Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 101. The Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may carry information on a transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel, etc. It may also inform the UE 101 about transport format, resource allocation and H-ARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 101b within a cell) may be performed at any RAN node 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any UE 101. The downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted on a PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each UE 101.

The PDCCH may use a Control Channel Element (CCE) to convey control information. The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruples before being mapped to resource elements, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called Resource Element Groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of Downlink Control Information (DCI) and channel conditions. Four or more different PDCCH formats with different numbers of CCEs may be defined in LTE (e.g., aggregation level, l=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use a concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may use an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements referred to as Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs). In some cases, ECCEs may have other amounts of EREGs.

RAN nodes 111 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 112. In embodiments where the system 100 is an LTE system, the interface 112 may be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more enbs, etc.) connected to EPC 120 and/or two enbs connected to EPC 120. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transmitted over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information about user data transfer between enbs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transmitted from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB); information about successful sequential transmission of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 101 for user data; information of PDCP PDUs not delivered to the UE 101; information about a current minimum required buffer size at the SeNB for data sent to the UE user; etc. X2-C may provide LTE access mobility functions including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transfer control, etc.; a load management function; inter-cell interference coordination function.

In embodiments where system 100 is a 5G or NR system, interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. An Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gnbs, etc.) connected to the 5gc 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) connected to the 5gc 120 and an eNB, and/or between two enbs connected to the 5gc 120. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. Xn-U may provide for the unsecured transport of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functions. Xn-C may provide: management and error handling functions; managing the function of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UEs 101 in CONNECTED mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functionality to manage UE mobility for CONNECTED modes between one or more RAN nodes 111. Mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 111 to a new (target) serving RAN node 111; and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of an Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on top of an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer above the UDP and/or IP layer(s) for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol, referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP), and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be located above the IP layer and may provide for the vouching transfer of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane(s) and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

RAN 110 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment Core Network (CN) 120.CN 120 may include a plurality of network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to clients/subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN 120 through RAN 110. The term "network element" may describe a physical or virtualized device for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and/or referred to as: networked computers, network hardware, network devices, routers, switches, hubs, bridges, radio network controllers, radio access network devices, gateways, servers, virtualized Network Functions (VNFs), network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and/or the like. The components of the CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or in a separate physical node, including components that read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, network Function Virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions (described in further detail below) via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media. The logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and the logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more network functions or be executed by dedicated hardware onto physical resources including industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or a combination of switches. In other words, NFV systems may be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions.

In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides an application that uses IP bearer resources with a core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 101 via the EPC 120.

In an embodiment, CN 120 may be 5GC (referred to as "5GC 120" or the like), and RAN 110 may be connected with CN 120 via NG interface 113. In an embodiment, NG interface 113 may be split into two parts: a NG user plane (NG-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and User Plane Functions (UPFs); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the AMF.

Coverage is an important factor for a cellular system to operate successfully. NR can be deployed on a relatively high carrier frequency in frequency range 1 (FR 1), such as 3.5GHz, compared to LTE. In this case, coverage loss is unexpected due to the larger path loss, which makes it more challenging to maintain adequate quality of service. Typically, uplink coverage becomes a bottleneck for system operation due to the lower UE side transmit power. Furthermore, the 5G NR cellular standard may be used for non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), where UEs provide services through satellites or aerial platform stations. Given the vast distance between satellites and UEs, NTN deployment requires additional coverage enhancements.

In NR Rel-15, a four-step process is defined. Fig. 2 shows a 4-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure for initial access. In a first step, the UE transmits Msg1 to the gNB via a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) in the uplink by randomly selecting one of the preamble signatures, which will allow the gNB to estimate the delay between the gNB and the UE for subsequent UL timing adjustment. Subsequently, in a second step, the gNB sends Msg2 to the UE to feed back a Random Access Response (RAR) carrying Timing Advance (TA) command information and an uplink grant for the uplink transmission in the third step. The UE expects to receive the RAR within a time window, the beginning and end of which are configured by the gNB through System Information Blocks (SIBs). In the third step, the UE sends Msg3 to the gNB to carry the L2/L3 message. In response, in a fourth step, the gNB sends Msg4 to the UE to inform about the contention resolution.

For 4-step RACH, enhanced coverage is critical to the proper operation of the system, since initial access is the first step for the UE to access the network. As described above, uplink coverage is often a bottleneck considering that UE side transmit power is low. In this case, some mechanism needs to be considered to improve the coverage of PUCCH carrying hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) in response to Msg4 transmission.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will describe enhanced transmission of PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4PDSCH, including, for example: determining an available slot for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg 4; determining a spatial domain filter for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg 4; determining a frequency hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg 4; and determining a repetition level for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg 4. The terms "repetition level", "repetition number", "number of slots" and "aggregation factor" are used interchangeably herein.

An embodiment of determining available slots for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 will be provided below.

In some embodiments, one or more available slots for one or more PUCCH repetition may be determined based on the spectral characteristics.

In some embodiments, for unpaired spectrum, the UE may determine available slot(s) for PUCCH repetition(s) with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 PDSCH. The symbols of PUCCH transmission do not include the following symbols: the symbol indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command is a downlink symbol or a symbol indicated as a Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block with an index provided by ssb-posion infurst. In other words, if the symbols of the PUCCH transmission overlap with DL symbols indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command or with the symbols of the SS/PBCH block with the index provided by ssb-posion infurst, the time slot repeated for the PUCCH with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4PDSCH is not counted as an available time slot.

In some embodiments, for unpaired spectrum, if the symbols of PUCCH transmission overlap with the symbols indicated by the PDCCH-configsb 1 in the Master Information Block (MIB) for the control resource set (CORESET) of the Type0-PDCCH Common Search Space (CSS), then the time slot repeated for PUCCH with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4PDSCH is not counted as an available time slot.

In other words, if the spectrum is unpaired, the UE may determine that one or more available slots for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4PDSCH do not overlap with: symbols for downlink indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command; the symbols for the SS/PBCH blocks with the index provided by ssb-posion infurst; or the symbol indicated by PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 in the MIB for CORESET of the Type0-PDCCH CSS set.

In certain aspects, the above embodiments may also be applied to a first slot (e.g., a first slot in order) repeated for a PUCCH with HARQ-ACK in response to an Msg4 PDSCH. In this case, the slot indicated to the UE may not be determined as an available slot for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4 PDSCH. The first slot (e.g., the first slot in order) for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4PDSCH is the first available slot (e.g., the first possible slot in order) after the slot indicated to the UE.

In some embodiments, the UE may, for paired spectrum or supplemental uplink bands, indicate to the UE a time fromStarting from a gapThe consecutive slots are determined as +_ for PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4PDSCH>And each time slot.

In some embodiments, the available time slots may be continuous or discontinuous. The present application is not limited in this respect.

An embodiment for determining spatial filters for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 will be provided below.

In some embodiments, the UE may determine the spatial domain filter for one or more PUCCH repetitions based on the spatial domain filter for PUSCH transmissions scheduled by the RAR UL grant during the RACH procedure.

For example, if the UE does not have a dedicated PUCCH resource configuration, or for PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4PDSCH, the UE may transmit PUCCH repetition using the same spatial domain filter as the PUSCH transmission scheduled by the RAR UL grant.

An embodiment of determining a hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 will be provided below.

In some embodiments, the UE may determine a frequency hopping pattern for one or more PUCCH repetition based on the configuration from the higher layer.

In some embodiments, inter-slot hopping may be configured for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 PDSCH. In one example, the UE may perform frequency hopping on a per-slot basis, e.g., following a mirror pattern of an initial UL bandwidth part (BWP).

In one example, the UE may determine an inter-slot hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 as follows:

if it isAnd the UE provides PUCCH resources by PUCCH-ResourceCommon but does not provide useimterlaceucch-PUSCH in BWP-uplink com, then:

-the UE determining the lowest PRB index of the PUCCH transmission in the first hop as in the even slotAnd determining the lowest PRB index of the PUCCH transmission in the second hop as +.>Where n_cs is the initial cyclic shift index total number in the initial cyclic shift index set.

-the UE determining the lowest PRB index of the PUCCH transmission in the first hop as in the even slotAnd determining the lowest PRB index of the PUCCH transmission in the second hop as +. >

Wherein N is _CS Is the initial cyclic shift index total number in the initial cyclic shift index set,is PRB offset, N _RB The number of RBs, r, for PUCCH transmission _PUCCH Is PUCCH resource index, ++>Is the size of BWP.

In some embodimentsThe UE may determine an inter-slot hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 according to the relative slot index. For example, the slot number of the first repetition (e.g., the first repetition in order) for PUCCH transmission indicated to the UE is 0, and until the UE transmits PUCCHEach subsequent slot of the number of slots is counted regardless of whether the UE transmits the PUCCH in the slot.

In some embodiments, the UE may determine an inter-slot hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 from a physical slot index and/or a system frame number.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of inter-slot frequency hopping of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example of fig. 3, based on the above embodiment, PUCCH repetition in the first slot is transmitted in the lowest PRB in the initial UL BWP, and PUCCH repetition in the second slot is transmitted in the last PRB in the initial UL BWP.

In some embodiments, whether intra-slot hopping and/or inter-slot hopping is enabled for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 may be configured by higher layers via system information block 1 (SIB 1), NR Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

In some embodiments, intra-slot frequency hopping and inter-slot frequency hopping may be enabled simultaneously. In some other embodiments, intra-slot frequency hopping and inter-slot frequency hopping cannot be enabled simultaneously.

In some embodiments, the same initial cyclic shift index may be applied to PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg 4. The initial cyclic shift index may be determined according to the formula defined in section 9.2.1 of 3GPP TS 38.213 V17.3.0 (2022-09) "NR: physical layer control procedure (release 17)".

Embodiments of determining or indicating repetition levels for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 will be provided below.

In some embodiments, the UE may determine at least one repetition level for one or more PUCCH repetitions based on Downlink Control Information (DCI).

In some embodiments, the repetition level for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 may be indicated using a downlink allocation index field (e.g., using reserved bit (s)) via DCI format 1_0, which has a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI). This may be applicable in case one repetition level is configured for PUCCH transmission carrying HARQ-ACK feedback in response to Msg 4. This may also apply in case more than one repetition level is configured for PUCCH transmission carrying HARQ-ACK feedback in response to Msg 4. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

3GPP TS 38.212V17.3.0 (2022-09) "NR: the text in section 7.3.1.2.1 of multiplexing and channel coding (version 17) may be updated as follows:

the following information is transmitted by way of DCI format 1_0 with CRC scrambled by TC-RNTI:

identifier-1 bit for DCI format

The value of the bit field is always set to 1 for indicating the DL DCI format

-frequency domain resource allocationBits of

-Is the size of CORESET 0

4 bits defined in section 5.1.2.1 of time domain resource allocation- [6, TS38.214]

VRB to PRB mapping-1 bit according to table 7.3.1.2.2-5

5 bits defined in 5.1.3 of the modulation and coding scheme- [6, TS38.214] using Table 5.1.3.1-1

New data indicator-1 bit

2 bits defined in redundancy version-table 7.3.1.1.1-2

Number of HARQ processes-4 bits

Downlink allocation index-reserved 2 bits, or repetition number of scheduled PUCCH-2 bits

2 bits defined in section 7.2.1 of TPC command- [5, ts38.213] for scheduled PUCCH

3 bits defined in section 9.2.3 of PUCCH resource indicator- [5, ts38.213]

PDSCH to HARQ feedback (PDSCH-to-harq_feedback) timing indicator- [5, 3 bits defined in section 9.2.3 of ts38.213]

In some embodiments, the Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field for the scheduled PUCCH may be used to indicate the repetition level(s) for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 via DCI format 1_0, which has a CRC scrambled by TC-RNTI.

In some embodiments, the repetition level(s) for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 may be indicated using a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) field via DCI format 1_0, which has a CRC scrambled by TC-RNTI.

In some embodiments, the repetition level(s) for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 may be indicated using a combination of DCI fields via DCI format 1_0, which has a CRC scrambled by TC-RNTI. For example, a combination of a downlink allocation index field, a TPC command field for the scheduled PUCCH, and/or an MCS field may be used to indicate the number of repetitions of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg 4.

In some embodiments, each repetition level for multiple PRACH transmissions or Msg3 PUSCH repetitions is associated with one or more repetition levels for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4 PDSCH.

In some embodiments, the repetition level of multiple PRACH transmissions or Msg3PUSCH repetitions is associated with more than one repetition level for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4 PDSCH, which may be configured by higher layers via RMSI, OSI or RRC signaling, etc.

In some embodiments, upon successful detection of multiple PRACH transmissions or decoding to an Msg3PUSCH repetition, the gNB may determine the number of repetitions of the PRACH transmission or the number of Msg3PUSCH repetitions, and a corresponding set of repetition levels for PUCCH repetitions with HARQ-ACKs in response to the Msg4 PDSCH. Further, the gNB may determine a number of repetitions of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4 PDSCH from the repetition level set.

Subsequently, the gNB may indicate the repetition level(s) for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4 PDSCH according to the above-described embodiments, e.g., using one or more fields in DCI format 1_0 with CRC scrambled by TC-RNTI or reusing one or more fields in DCI format 1_0 to indicate the repetition level(s) from the set of repetition levels for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4 PDSCH.

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of an association between repetition levels for multiple PRACH transmissions and repetition levels for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example of fig. 4, two repetition levels 2 and 8 are configured for multiple PRACH transmissions. Furthermore, repetition level 2 of the multiple PRACH transmissions is associated with repetition levels 2 and 4 for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 PDSCH, while repetition level 8 of the multiple PRACH transmissions is associated with repetition levels 4 and 8 for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4 PDSCH. In this case, if the UE transmits PRACH using repetition level 8, the gNB may select one of repetition levels 4 and 8 for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4 PDSCH, and indicate this in a Downlink Allocation Indicator (DAI) field of DCI format 1_0 with CRC scrambled by TC-RNTI.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method 500 for determining available slots for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 500 may be performed by a UE. Method 500 may include operations 510 through 540.

At operation 510, msg4 received from the AN during the RACH procedure is decoded.

At operation 520, one or more PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACKs are encoded in response to Msg 4.

At operation 530, one or more available slots repeated for one or more PUCCHs are determined.

At operation 540, one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the one or more available slots.

In some embodiments, method 500 may include more or fewer or different operations. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

The method 500 may be understood in conjunction with the embodiments described above.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method 600 for determining a spatial domain filter with PUCCH repetition of HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 600 may be performed by a UE. Method 600 may include operations 610 through 640.

At operation 610, msg4 received from the AN during the RACH procedure is decoded.

At operation 620, one or more PUCCH repetitions carrying HARQ-ACKs are encoded in response to Msg 4.

At operation 630, a spatial domain filter for one or more PUCCH repetitions is determined based on the spatial domain filter for PUSCH transmissions scheduled by the RAR UL grant during the RACH procedure.

At operation 640, one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined spatial domain filter.

In some embodiments, method 600 may include more or fewer or different operations. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Method 600 may be understood in conjunction with the embodiments described above.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method 700 for determining a frequency hopping pattern for PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 700 may be performed by a UE. Method 700 may include operations 710 through 740.

At operation 710, msg4 received from the AN during the RACH procedure is decoded.

At operation 720, one or more PUCCH repetitions carrying HARQ-ACKs are encoded in response to Msg 4.

At operation 730, a hopping pattern repeated for one or more PUCCHs is determined based on the configuration from the higher layer.

At operation 740, one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined hopping pattern.

In some embodiments, method 700 may include more or fewer or different operations. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Method 700 may be understood in conjunction with the embodiments described above.

Fig. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method 800 for determining a repetition level of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 800 may be performed by a UE. Method 800 may include operations 810 through 840.

At operation 810, msg4 received from the AN during the RACH procedure is decoded.

At operation 820, one or more PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACKs are encoded in response to Msg 4.

At operation 830, at least one repetition level for one or more PUCCH repetitions is determined based on the DCI.

At operation 840, one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined at least one repetition level.

In some embodiments, method 800 may include more or less or different operations. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

The method 800 may be understood in conjunction with the embodiments described above.

Fig. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a method 900 for indicating a repetition level of PUCCH repetition with HARQ-ACK in response to Msg4, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 900 may be performed by a UE. Method 900 may include operations 910 and 920.

At operation 910, a plurality of repetition levels of PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACKs in response to Msg4 of the RACH procedure are configured.

At operation 920, one of a plurality of repetition levels is indicated to the UE via the DCI.

In some embodiments, method 900 may include more or fewer or different operations. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Method 900 may be understood in conjunction with the embodiments described above.

By the technical scheme of the disclosure, the transmission of the PUCCH repetition carrying HARQ-ACK in response to the Msg4 PDSCH is enhanced in the following aspects: determining available time slots; determining a spatial domain filter; determining a frequency hopping mode; and determining a repetition level. Thereby, the coverage can be enhanced.

Fig. 10 shows a diagram of a network 1000 in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. The network 1000 may operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications of LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems and the like.

The network 1000 may include UEs 1002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 1004 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 1002 may be, but is not limited to, a smart phone, tablet, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment device, in-vehicle entertainment device, instrument cluster, heads-up display device, on-vehicle diagnostic device, dashboard mobile device, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networking appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, internet of things device, etc.

In some embodiments, the network 1000 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other through a side link interface. The UE may be an M2M/D2D device that communicates using a physical side link channel (e.g., without limitation, a physical side link broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical side link discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical side link control channel (PSCCH), a physical side link fundamental channel (PSFCH), etc.).

In some embodiments, UE 1002 may also communicate with AP 1006 over an over-the-air connection. The AP 1006 may manage WLAN connections that may be used to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 1004. The connection between the UE 1002 and the AP 1006 may be in accordance with any IEEE 802.13 protocol, where the AP 1006 may be wireless fidelityAnd a router. In some embodiments, UE 1002, RAN 1004, and AP 1006 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA)/lightweight IP (LWIP)). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 1002 configured by the RAN 1004 utilizing both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

RAN 1004 may include one or more access nodes, e.g., AN 1008.AN 1008 may terminate the air interface protocol of UE 1002 by providing access layer protocols including RRC, packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), radio Link Control (RLC), medium Access Control (MAC), and L1 protocols. In this way, the AN 1008 may enable data/voice connectivity between the CN 1020 and the UE 1002. In some embodiments, AN 1008 may be implemented in a separate device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool, for example. AN 1008 may be referred to as a Base Station (BS), a gNB, a RAN node, AN evolved node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a node B (NodeB), a roadside unit (RSU), a TRxP, a TRP, and the like. AN 1008 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing a microcell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

In embodiments where the RAN 1004 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other through AN X2 interface (in the case where the RAN 1004 is AN LTE RAN) or AN Xn interface (in the case where the RAN 1004 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interface, which in some embodiments may be separated into a control plane interface/user plane interface, may allow the AN to communicate information related to handoff, data/context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The AN of the RAN 1004 may respectively manage one or more cells, groups of cells, component carriers, etc. to provide AN air interface for network access to the UE 1002. The UE 1002 may be connected simultaneously with multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1004. For example, the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 1002 to connect with multiple component carriers, each component carrier corresponding to a primary cell (Pcell) or a secondary cell (Scell). In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a primary node providing a primary cell group (MCG) and the second AN may be a secondary node providing a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The first/second AN may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-enbs, etc.

RAN 1004 may provide the air interface over licensed spectrum or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may use License Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and/or further enhanced LAA (feLAA) mechanisms based on Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology with PCell/Scell. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform media/carrier sensing operations based on, for example, a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, the UE 1002 or AN 1008 may be or act as a roadside unit (RSU), which may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; RSUs implemented in or by next generation nodebs (gnbs) may be referred to as "gNB-type RSUs"; etc. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled with a radio frequency circuit located at the roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic alerts, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be enclosed in a weather-proof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or backhaul network.

In some embodiments, the RAN 1004 may be an LTE RAN 1010 including an evolved node B (eNB), e.g., eNB 1012. The LTE RAN 1010 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; a CP-OFDM waveform for DL and an SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo code for data, TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation is performed depending on PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation reference signals (DMRS); and relying on CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate over the sub-6 GHz band.

In some embodiments, RAN 1004 may be a Next Generation (NG) -RAN 1014 with a gNB (e.g., gNB 1016) or a gn-eNB (e.g., NG-eNB 1018). The gNB 1016 may connect with 5G enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 1016 may connect with the 5G core through a NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. Ng-eNB 1018 may also connect with the 5G core over the Ng interface, but may connect with the UE over the LTE air interface. The gNB 1016 and the ng-eNB 1018 may be connected to each other through an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts, a NG user plane (NG-U) interface that carries traffic data between the NG-RAN1014 and the nodes of the UPF 1048, and a NG control plane (NG-C) interface that is a signaling interface (e.g., an N2 interface) between the NG-RAN1014 and the nodes of the access and mobility management function (AMF) 1044.

The NG-RAN1014 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: a variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM for UL, and DFT-s-OFDM; polarity, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller (Reed-Muller) codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; phase tracking of PDSCH using PTRS; and performing time tracking using the tracking reference signal. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on an FR1 band including a sub-6 GHz band or an FR2 band including 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz bands. The 5G-NR air interface may comprise an SSB, which is an area of the downlink resource grid comprising PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may use BWP for various purposes. For example, BWP may be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For example, UE 1002 may be configured with multiple BWP's, where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 1002, the SCS of the transmission is also changed. Another use case of BWP relates to power saving. In particular, the UE 1002 may be configured with multiple BWPs having different numbers of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission in different traffic load scenarios. BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs may be used for data transmission with smaller traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 1002 and in some cases the gcb 1016. BWP comprising a large number of PRBs may be used for scenes with higher traffic loads.

The RAN 1004 is communicatively coupled to a CN 1020 including network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to clients/subscribers (e.g., users of the UE 1002). The components of CN 1020 may be implemented in one physical node or in a different physical node. In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the functionality provided by the network elements of CN 1020 onto physical computing/storage resources in servers, switches, and the like. The logical instance of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and the logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

In some embodiments, the CN 1020 may be an LTE CN 1022, which may also be referred to as an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). LTE CN 1022 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 1024, a Serving Gateway (SGW) 1026, a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 1028, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 1030, a Proxy Gateway (PGW) 1032, and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) 1034, which are coupled to each other through an interface (or "reference point"), as shown. The functions of the elements of LTE CN 1022 may be briefly described as follows.

MME 1024 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of UE 1002 to facilitate policing, bearer activation/deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 1026 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1022. SGW 1026 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handover and may also provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, billing, and some policy enforcement.

SGSN 1028 can track the location of UE 1002 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, SGSN 1028 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; MME 1024 specified PDN and S-GW selection; MME selection for handover, etc. The S3 reference point between MME 1024 and SGSN 1028 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP network mobility in the idle/active state.

HSS1030 may include a database for network users that includes subscription-related information that supports network entity handling communication sessions. HSS1030 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, permissions, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, and the like. The S6a reference point between the HSS1030 and the MME 1024 may enable the transmission of subscription and authentication data to authenticate/grant the user access to the LTE CN 1020.

PGW 1032 may terminate the SGi interface towards a Data Network (DN) 1036, which may include an application/content server 1038. PGW 1032 may route data packets between LTE CN 1022 and data network 1036. PGW 1032 may be coupled to SGW 1026 via an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. PGW 1032 may also include nodes (e.g., PCEFs) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. In addition, the SGi reference point between PGW 1032 and data network 1036 may be, for example, an operator external public, private PDN, or an operator internal packet data network for providing IMS services. PGW 1032 may be coupled with PCRF 1034 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 1034 is a policy and charging control element of LTE CN 1022. PCRF 1034 may be communicatively coupled to application/content server 1038 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for the service flows. PCRF 1032 may provide the associated rules to the PCEF with the appropriate TFT and QCI (via the Gx reference point).

In some embodiments, the CN 1020 may be a 5G core network (5 GC) 1040. The 5gc 1040 may include an authentication server function (AUSF) 1042, an access and mobility management function (AMF) 1044, a Session Management Function (SMF) 1046, a User Plane Function (UPF) 1048, a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 1050, a network open function (NEF) 1052, an NF storage function (NRF) 1054, a Policy Control Function (PCF) 1056, a Unified Data Management (UDM) 1058, and an Application Function (AF) 1060, which are coupled to each other through an interface (or "reference point") as shown. The function of the elements of the 5gc 1040 may be briefly described as follows.

The AUSF 1042 may store data for authentication of the UE 1002 and process authentication related functions. AUSF 1042 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5gc 1040 through a reference point as shown, the AUSF 1042 may also present an interface based on the Nausf service.

The AMF 1044 may allow other functions of the 5gc 1040 to communicate with the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 and subscribe to notifications about mobility events of the UE 1002. The AMF 1044 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., registering the UE 1002), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful intercept AMF related events, and access authentication and permissions. The AMF 1044 may provide for the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between the UE 1002 and the SMF 1046 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 1044 may also provide for transmission of SMS messages between the UE 1002 and the SMSF. The AMF 1044 may interact with the AUSF 1042 and the UE 1002 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. Furthermore, the AMF 1044 may be an end point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 1004 and the AMF 1044; the AMF 1044 may serve as an endpoint for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 1044 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1002 over the N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 1046 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 1048 and AN 1008); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional permissions); selection and control of the UP function; configuring flow control at the UPF 1048 to route traffic to an appropriate destination; termination of the interface to the policy control function; control policy enforcement, charging, and a portion of QoS; legal interception (for SM events and interfaces to LI systems); terminating the SM portion of the NAS message; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information (sent to AN 1008 on N2 through AMF 1044); and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of PDU sessions, and PDU sessions or "sessions" may refer to PDU connectivity services that provide or enable PDU exchanges between UE 1002 and data network 1036.

The UPF 1048 may serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with the data network 1036, and a branching point to support multi-homing PDU sessions. The UPF 1048 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform user plane parts of policy rules, lawful interception packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport layer packet tagging in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 1048 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to the data network.

NSSF 1050 may select a set of network slice instances that serve UE 1002. The NSSF 1050 can also determine, if desired, the allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and the mapping to subscribed individual NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs). NSSF 1050 may also determine the set of AMFs to be used to serve UE 1002, or a list of candidate AMFs, based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying NRF 1054. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 1002 may be triggered by AMF 1044 (with which UE 1002 registers by interacting with NSSF 1050), which may result in a change in AMF. NSSF 1050 may interact with AMF 1044 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). In addition, NSSF 1050 may expose an interface based on the Nnssf service.

The NEF 1052 may securely disclose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal disclosure/rediscovery, AF (e.g., AF 1060), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In these embodiments, NEF 1052 can authenticate, permit, or throttle AFs. NEF 1052 can also translate information exchanged with AF 1060 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1052 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 1052 may also receive information from other NFs based on their public capabilities. This information may be stored as structured data at NEF 1052 or at data storage NF using a standardized interface. The NEF 1052 may then re-disclose the stored information to other NFs and AFs, or for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF 1052 may expose an interface based on Nnef services.

NRF 1054 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 1054 also maintains information of available NF instances and services supported by them. As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instance," and the like may refer to creating an instance, "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Furthermore, NRF 1054 may expose an interface based on Nnrf services.

PCF 1056 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them and may also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. PCF 1056 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of UDM 1058. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, PCF 1056 also presents an interface based on the Npcf service.

The UDM 1058 may process subscription related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions and may store subscription data for the UE 1002. For example, subscription data may be transmitted via an N8 reference point between the UDM 1058 and the AMF 1044. UDM 1058 may include two parts: application front-end and UDR. The UDR may store policy data and subscription data for the UDM 1058 and PCF 1056, and/or structured data for disclosure and application data (including PFD for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1002) for the NEF 1052. UDR 221 may expose an interface based on the Nudr service to allow UDM 1058, PCF 1056, and NEF 1052 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE that is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access permissions, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown, the UDM 1058 may also expose a Nudm service-based interface.

AF 1060 may provide application impact on traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5gc 1040 may enable edge computation by selecting an operator/third party service that is geographically close to the point where the UE 1002 attaches to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementations, the 5gc 1040 may select the UPF 1048 near the UE 1002 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 1048 to the data network 1036 over the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, the UE location, and the information provided by AF 1060. In this way, AF 1060 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator deployment, the network operator may allow the AF 1060 to interact directly with the relevant NF when the AF 1060 is considered a trusted entity. In addition, AF 1060 may expose an interface based on Naf services.

Data network 1036 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, application/content server 1038.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network 1100 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 1100 may include a UE 1102 in wireless communication with AN 1104. The UE 1102 and the AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the mission components described elsewhere herein.

UE 1102 may be communicatively coupled with AN 1104 via a connection 1106. Connection 1106 is shown as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol operating at millimeter wave (mmWave) or sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as the LTE protocol or the 5G NR protocol.

The UE 1102 may include a host platform 1108 coupled with a modem platform 1110. Host platform 1108 may include application processing circuitry 1112 that may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1114 of modem platform 1110. Application processing circuitry 1112 may run various applications of source/receiver application data for UE 1102. The application processing circuitry 1112 may also implement one or more layer operations to transmit and receive application data to and from the data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and internet (e.g., IP) operations.

Protocol processing circuitry 1114 may implement one or more layers of operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data over connection 1106. Layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

Modem platform 1110 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1116, which digital baseband circuitry 1116 may implement one or more layer operations that are "lower" than layer operations performed by protocol processing circuitry 1114 in the network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, where these functions may include one or more of: space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

The modem platform 1110 may further include transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, and RF front end (RFFE) circuitry 1124, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 1126. Briefly, the transmit circuit 1118 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate Frequency (IF) components, and the like; the receive circuitry 1120 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 1122 may include low noise amplifiers, power tracking components, and the like; RFFE circuit 1124 may include filters (e.g., surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beam forming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), and so forth. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuit 1118, receive circuit 1120, RF circuit 1122, RFFE circuit 1124, and antenna panel 1126 (collectively "transmit/receive components") may be specific to the specifics of a particular implementation, e.g., whether the communication is TDM or FDM, at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in a plurality of parallel transmit/receive chains, and may be arranged in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 1114 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

UE reception may be established through and via antenna panel 1126, RFFE circuitry 1124, RF circuitry 1122, receive circuitry 1120, digital baseband circuitry 1116, and protocol processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the antenna panel 1126 may receive transmissions from the AN 1104 by receiving beamformed signals received by multiple antennas/antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 1126.

UE transmissions may be established via and through the protocol processing circuitry 1114, the digital baseband circuitry 1116, the transmit circuitry 1118, the RF circuitry 1122, the RFFE circuitry 1124, and the antenna panel 1126. In some embodiments, the transmit component of UE 1104 may apply spatial filters to data to be transmitted to form transmit beams that are transmitted by antenna elements of antenna panel 1126.

Similar to UE 1102, AN 1104 may include a host platform 1128 coupled with a modem platform 1130. Host platform 1128 may include application processing circuitry 1132 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1134 of modem platform 1130. The modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 1136, transmit circuitry 1138, receive circuitry 1140, RF circuitry 1142, RFFE circuitry 1144, and antenna panel 1146. The components of AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the same name components of UE 1102. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, components of AN 1108 may perform various logical functions including, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Fig. 12 illustrates example components of a device 1200 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 1200 may include application circuitry 1202, baseband circuitry 1204, radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1206, front End Module (FEM) circuitry 1208, one or more antennas 1210, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC) 1212 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 1200 may be included in a UE or AN. In some embodiments, device 1200 may include fewer elements (e.g., AN may not use application circuitry 1202, but instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 1200 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., the circuitry may be separately included in more than one device for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

The application circuitry 1202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 1202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the device 1200. In some embodiments, the processor of application circuitry 1202 may process IP packets received from the EPC.

The baseband circuitry 1204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1206 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1206. Baseband processing circuit 1204 may interface with application circuit 1202 to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 1206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1204B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 1204C, or other baseband processor(s) 1204D for other existing generations, generations to be developed in or about to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 1204 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 1204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that support communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 1204A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 1204G and these functions may be performed via the Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1204E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to: signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1204 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1204 may include convolution, tail-biting (tail-biting) convolution, turbo, viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions. Embodiments of the modem and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1204 may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 1204F. The audio DSP(s) 1204F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 1204 and application circuitry 1202 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1204 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1204 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 1206 may support communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 1206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with a wireless network. The RF circuitry 1206 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1204. The RF circuitry 1206 may also include transmit signal paths, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1204 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuit 1206 may include a mixer circuit 1206a, an amplifier circuit 1206b, and a filter circuit 1206c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1206 may include a filter circuit 1206c and a mixer circuit 1206a. The RF circuit 1206 may also include a synthesizer circuit 1206d for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1206 d. The amplifier circuit 1206b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 1206c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1206d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1208. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 1204 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1206 c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 1206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuit 1204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 1206.

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

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1206d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 1206d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 1206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 1206a of the RF circuit 1206 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1206d may be a fractional N/n+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1204 or the application processor 1202 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the application processor 1202.

Synthesizer circuit 1206d of RF circuit 1206 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or n+1 (e.g., based on the carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into up to Nd equal phase packets, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1206d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used with quadrature generator and divider circuits to generate a plurality of signals having a plurality of mutually different phases at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be an LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1206 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

The FEM circuitry 1208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1210, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1206 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 1208 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by the RF circuitry 1206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1210. In various embodiments, amplification via either the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be accomplished in the RF circuit 1206 only, the FEM 1208 only, or both the RF circuit 1206 and FEM 1208.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 1208 may include TX/RX switches to switch between transmit and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1206). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 1208 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1206) and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., through one or more of one or more antennas 1210).

In some embodiments, PMC 1212 may manage the power provided to baseband circuitry 1204. Specifically, PMC 1212 may control power supply selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. PMC 1212 may generally be included when device 1200 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. PMC 1212 may improve power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

Although fig. 12 shows PMC 1212 coupled only to baseband circuitry 1204. However, in other embodiments, PMC 1212 may additionally or alternatively be coupled with and perform similar power management operations on other components, such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 1202, RF circuitry 1206, or FEM 1208.

In some embodiments, PMC 1212 may control or otherwise be part of the various power saving mechanisms of device 1200. For example, if the device 1200 is in an RRC Connected state in which the device 1200 is expected to be Connected to the RAN node soon after receiving traffic, then may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 1200 may be powered down for a brief interval, thereby conserving power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 1200 may transition to an rrc_idle state in which the device 1200 is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed. The device 1200 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device 1200 wakes up again periodically to listen for the network and then powers down again. The device 1200 may not receive data in this state and may transition back to the RRC Connected state in order to receive data.

The additional power saving mode may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is completely inaccessible to the network and may be completely powered off. Any data transmitted during this period will incur a significant delay and the delay is assumed to be acceptable.

The processor of the application circuit 1202 and the processor of the baseband circuit 1204 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of baseband circuitry 1204 (alone or in combination) may be used to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of application circuitry 1204 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a Physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node.

In some embodiments, AN or RAN node herein may comprise a server as described above.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device 1300, in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure device 1300 (or "system 1300") may be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node, etc., such as the RAN nodes 111 and 112 shown and described previously. In other examples, system 1300 may be implemented in or by a UE, application server(s) 130, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The system 1300 may include one or more of the following: application circuitry 1305, baseband circuitry 1310, one or more radio front end modules 1315, memory 1320, power management integrated circuits (power management integrated circuitry, PMIC) 1325, power tee 1330, network controller 1335, network interface connector 1340, satellite positioning circuitry 1345, and user interface 1350. In some embodiments, apparatus 1300 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, a sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface elements. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a cloud RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include, hardware components such as the following configured to provide the described functionality: electronic circuitry, logic circuitry, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), application specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), field-programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate array, FPGA), programmable logic devices (programmable logic device, PLD), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable systems on chips (socs)), digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSPs), and the like. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functions. Furthermore, the term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or circuitry for use in an electrical or electronic system) and program code for performing the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

The terms "application circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuitry" and may be referred to as "processor circuitry". As used herein, the term "processor circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include the following: the circuitry is capable of sequentially and automatically performing a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations; and recording, storing and/or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical Central Processing Unit (CPU), a single core processor, a dual core processor, a tri-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer executable instructions such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.

The application circuit 1305 may include one or more central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) cores and one or more of the following: cache memory, low drop-out (LDO) voltage regulators, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface modules, real Time Clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, universal input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD)/multimedia card (MultiMediaCard, MMC), universal serial bus (Universal Serial Bus, USB) interfaces, mobile industrial processor interface (Mobile Industry Processor Interface, MIPI) interfaces and joint test access group (Joint Test Access Group, JTAG) test access ports. By way of example, the application circuit 1305 may include one or more Intel(s) Or->A processor; superfine semiconductor (Advanced Micro Devices, AMD)Processor, acceleration processing unit (Accelerated Processing Unit, APU) or +.>A processor; etc. In some embodiments, system 1300 may not utilize application circuit 1305, but may include, for example, a dedicated processor/controller to process IP data received from EPC or 5 GC.

Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 1305 may include circuitry such as (but not limited to) the following: one or more Field Programmable Devices (FPDs), such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and the like; programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), such as Complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; an ASIC, such as a structured ASIC, etc.; a programmable SoC (PSoC); etc. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 1305 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, including other interconnected resources, that can be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuit 1305 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (static random access memory), antifuse, etc.) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a look-up table (LUT), and so forth.

The baseband circuitry 1310 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Although not shown, baseband circuitry 1310 may include one or more digital baseband systems that may be coupled to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem via an interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and mixed signal baseband subsystem via additional interconnect subsystems. Each interconnect subsystem may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a Network On Chip (NOC) architecture, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, voice processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more amplifiers and filters, and/or other similar components. In an aspect of the disclosure, the baseband circuitry 1310 may include protocol processing circuitry having one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front end module 1315).

The user interface circuit 1350 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 1300 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the system 1300. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (light emitting diode, LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, and so forth. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, audio jacks, power supply interfaces, and the like.

Radio Front End Module (RFEM) 1315 may include millimeter wave RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separate from millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front-end module 1315. RFEM 1315 may include both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave antennas.

Memory circuit 1320 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including dynamic random access memory (dynamic random access memory, DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (synchronous dynamic random access memory, SDRAM); nonvolatile memory (nonvolatile memory, NVM)Including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase-change random access memory (phase change random access memory, PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (magnetoresistive random access memory, MRAM), etc., and may contain data from the group consisting ofAndthree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory. Memory circuit 1320 may be implemented as one or more of a soldered-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

The PMIC 1325 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or a capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a power down (under voltage) and surge (over voltage) condition. The power tee circuit 1330 may provide power drawn from the network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure device 1300 using a single cable.

Network controller circuit 1335 may provide connectivity to the network using standard network interface protocols such as ethernet, GRE tunnel-based ethernet, multiprotocol label switching (Multiprotocol Label Switching, MPLS) based ethernet, or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure device 1300 via a network interface connector 1340 using physical connections, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as "copper interconnects"), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuit 1335 may include one or more special purpose processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the protocols described above. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 1335 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 1345 may include circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more navigation satellite constellations of a global navigation satellite system (global navigation satellite system, GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the united states global positioning system (Global Positioning System, GPS), the russian global navigation system (Global Navigation System, GLONASS), the european union galileo system, the chinese beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., indian constellation navigation (Navigation with Indian Constellation, NAVIC), the japanese Quasi-zenith satellite system (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, QZSS), the french satellite integrated doppler orbital imaging and radio positioning (Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite, DORIS), and so forth). The positioning circuitry 1345 may comprise various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. to facilitate communication over-the-air (OTA) communication) to communicate with components of a positioning network (e.g., navigation satellite constellation nodes).

The node or satellite of the navigation satellite constellation(s) (the "GNSS node") may provide positioning services by continuously transmitting or broadcasting GNSS signals along a line of sight, which may be used by a GNSS receiver (e.g., the positioning circuitry 1345 and/or the positioning circuitry implemented by the UEs 101, 102, etc.) to determine its GNSS position. The GNSS signals may include pseudo-random codes (e.g., a sequence of ones and zeros) known to the GNSS receiver and messages including the time of transmission of the code epoch (time of transmission, toT) (e.g., a defined point in the pseudo-random code sequence) and the GNSS node position at ToT. The GNSS receiver may monitor/measure GNSS signals transmitted/broadcast by a plurality of GNSS nodes (e.g., four or more satellites) and solve various equations to determine the corresponding GNSS positions (e.g., spatial coordinates). The GNSS receiver may also implement a clock that is generally less stable and accurate than the atomic clock of the GNSS node, and may use the measured GNSS signals to determine a bias of the GNSS receiver relative to real time (e.g., a bias of the GNSS receiver clock relative to the GNSS node time). In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 1345 may include a Micro-technology (Micro-Technology for Positioning, navigation, and Timing, micro-PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and Timing that uses a master Timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance.

The GNSS receiver may measure time of arrival (ToA) of GNSS signals from the plurality of GNSS nodes according to its own clock. The GNSS receiver may determine a time of flight (ToF) value for each received GNSS signal based on ToA and ToT, and may then determine a three-dimensional (3D) position and clock bias based on ToF. The 3D location may then be converted to latitude, longitude, and altitude. The positioning circuit 1345 may provide data to the application circuit 1305, which may include one or more of location data or time data. The application circuit 1305 may use the time data to operate synchronously with other radio base stations (e.g., RAN nodes 111, 112, etc.).

The components shown in fig. 13 may communicate with each other using interface circuitry. As used herein, the term "interface circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include circuitry that supports the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an input/output (I/O) interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and so forth. Any suitable bus technology may be used in various implementations, including any number of technologies, including industry standard architecture (industry standard architecture, ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (peripheral component interconnect, PCI), extended peripheral component interconnect (peripheral component interconnect extended, PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in SoC-based systems. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, among others.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, FIG. 14 shows a diagrammatic representation of a hardware resource 1400 that includes one or more processors (or processor cores) 1410, one or more memory/storage devices 1420, and one or more communication resources 1430, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1440. The hardware resources 1400 may be part of a UE, AN, or AN LMF. For embodiments that utilize node virtualization (e.g., NFV), the hypervisor 1402 can be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1400.

The processor 1410 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 1412 and a processor 1414.

Memory/storage 1420 may include main memory, disk memory, or any suitable combination thereof. Memory/storage 1420 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), static Random Access Memory (SRAM), erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state storage, and the like.

Communication resources 1430 may include an interconnection or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1404 or one or more databases 1406 via network 1408. For example, the communication resources 1430 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, bluetooth components (e.g., bluetooth low energy), wi-Fi components, and other communication components.

The instructions 1450 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1410 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 1450 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processor 1410 (e.g., within a buffer memory of the processor), the memory/storage device 1420, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 1450 may be transferred from the peripheral 1404 or any combination of databases 1406 to the hardware resource 1400. Thus, the processor 1410, memory/storage 1420, peripherals 1404, and memory of database 1406 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure via the interface circuit; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining at least one repetition level for the one or more PUCCH repetitions based on Downlink Control Information (DCI); and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined at least one repetition level.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the DCI includes DCI format 1_0, the DCI format 1_0 having a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI).

Example 3 includes the apparatus of example 1 or 2, wherein the at least one repetition level is indicated by a downlink allocation index field.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-3, wherein the at least one repetition level is indicated by at least one of: a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field for the scheduled PUCCH; and a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 4, wherein each repetition level for an Msg3 Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition is associated with one or more repetition levels for the PUCCH repetition.

Example 6 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-5, wherein the processor circuit is further to: determining one or more available slots repeated for the one or more PUCCHs; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined one or more available slots.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-6, wherein the frequency spectrum is unpaired, and wherein the processor circuit is further to determine that the one or more available time slots do not overlap with: symbols for downlink indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command; symbols for a Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block with an index provided by ssb-positioning infurst; or the control resource set (CORESET) for the Type0-PDCCH Common Search Space (CSS) set is indicated by the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 symbol in the Master Information Block (MIB).

Example 8 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-7, wherein the spectrum is paired or includes a supplemental uplink band, the number of the one or more available time slots is N available time slots, and wherein the processor circuit is further to: n consecutive time slots starting from a time slot indicated to a User Equipment (UE) are determined as the N available time slots.

Example 9 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the one or more available time slots are contiguous or non-contiguous.

Example 10 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-9, wherein the processor circuit is further to: determining a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the spatial domain filter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission scheduled by a Random Access Response (RAR) Uplink (UL) grant during the RACH procedure; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined spatial domain filter.

Example 11 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-10, wherein a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetitions is the same as a spatial domain filter for the PUSCH transmission scheduled by the RAR UL grant.

Example 12 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 11, wherein the processor circuit is further to: determining a hopping pattern for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the configuration from the higher layer; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined hopping pattern.

Example 13 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 12, wherein the configuration is carried via system information block 1 (SIB 1), new Radio (NR) Residual Minimum System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

Example 14 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-13, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and/or an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern.

Example 15 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 14, wherein the intra-slot frequency hopping mode and inter-slot frequency hopping mode are not enabled simultaneously.

Example 16 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-15, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the processor circuit is further to perform frequency hopping based on: each time slot; relative slot index; physical slot index; or a system frame number.

Example 17 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 16, wherein the apparatus is adapted for use with a User Equipment (UE).

Example 18 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetition carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgement (ACK) in response to Msg4 of a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, configuring a plurality of repetition levels; and indicating one of the plurality of repetition levels to a User Equipment (UE) through the interface circuit via Downlink Control Information (DCI).

Example 19 includes the apparatus of example 18, wherein the DCI includes DCI format 1_0, the DCI format 1_0 having a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI).

Example 20 includes the apparatus of example 18 or 19, wherein the plurality of repetition levels are indicated by a downlink allocation index field.

Example 21 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 18 to 20, wherein the plurality of repetition levels are indicated by at least one of: a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field for the scheduled PUCCH; and a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

Example 22 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 18 to 21, wherein each repetition level for an Msg3 Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition is associated with one or more repetition levels for the PUCCH repetition.

Example 23 includes the apparatus of any of examples 18-22, wherein the apparatus is adapted for AN Access Node (AN).

Example 24 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure via the interface circuit; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining one or more available slots repeated for the one or more PUCCHs; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined one or more available slots.

Example 25 includes the apparatus of example 24, wherein the frequency spectrum is unpaired, and wherein the processor circuit is further to determine that the one or more available time slots do not overlap with: symbols for downlink indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command; symbols for a Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block with an index provided by ssb-positioning infurst; or the control resource set (CORESET) for the Type0-PDCCH Common Search Space (CSS) set is indicated by the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 symbol in the Master Information Block (MIB).

Example 26 includes the apparatus of example 24 or 25, wherein the spectrum is paired or includes a supplemental uplink band, the number of the one or more available time slots is N available time slots, and wherein the processor circuit is further to: n consecutive time slots starting from a time slot indicated to a User Equipment (UE) are determined as the N available time slots.

Example 27 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 24-26, wherein the one or more available time slots are contiguous or non-contiguous.

Example 28 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 24-27, wherein the apparatus is adapted for use with a User Equipment (UE).

Example 29 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure via the interface circuit; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the spatial domain filter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission scheduled by a Random Access Response (RAR) Uplink (UL) grant during the RACH procedure; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined spatial domain filter.

Example 30 includes the apparatus of example 29, wherein the spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetitions is the same as the spatial domain filter for the PUSCH transmission scheduled by the RAR UL grant.

Example 31 includes the apparatus of example 29 or 30, wherein the apparatus is adapted for use with a User Equipment (UE).

Example 32 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure via the interface circuit; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining a hopping pattern for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the configuration from the higher layer; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined hopping pattern.

Example 33 includes the apparatus of example 32, wherein the configuration is carried via system information block 1 (SIB 1), new Radio (NR) Residual Minimum System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

Example 34 includes the apparatus of example 32 or 33, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and/or an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern.

Example 35 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 32 to 34, wherein the intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and inter-slot frequency hopping pattern are not enabled simultaneously.

Example 36 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 32-35, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the processor circuit is further to perform frequency hopping based on: each time slot; relative slot index; physical slot index; or a system frame number.

Example 37 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 32-36, wherein the apparatus is adapted for use with a User Equipment (UE).

Example 38 includes a method, comprising: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining at least one repetition level for the one or more PUCCH repetitions based on Downlink Control Information (DCI); and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined at least one repetition level.

Example 39 includes the method of example 38, wherein the DCI includes DCI format 1_0, the DCI format 1_0 having a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI).

Example 40 includes the method of example 38 or 39, wherein the at least one repetition level is indicated by a downlink allocation index field.

Example 41 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 40, wherein the at least one repetition level is indicated by at least one of: a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field for the scheduled PUCCH; and a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

Example 42 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 41, wherein each repetition level for an Msg3 Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition is associated with one or more repetition levels for the PUCCH repetition.

Example 43 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 42, further comprising: determining one or more available slots repeated for the one or more PUCCHs; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined one or more available slots.

Example 44 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 43, wherein the spectrum is unpaired, and wherein the method further comprises determining that the one or more available time slots do not overlap with: symbols for downlink indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command; symbols for a Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block with an index provided by ssb-positioning infurst; or the control resource set (CORESET) for the Type0-PDCCH Common Search Space (CSS) set is indicated by the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 symbol in the Master Information Block (MIB).

Example 45 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 44, wherein the spectrum is paired or includes a supplemental uplink band, the number of the one or more available time slots is N available time slots, and wherein the method further comprises: n consecutive time slots starting from a time slot indicated to a User Equipment (UE) are determined as the N available time slots.

Example 46 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 45, wherein the one or more available time slots are contiguous or non-contiguous.

Example 47 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 46, further comprising: determining a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the spatial domain filter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission scheduled by a Random Access Response (RAR) Uplink (UL) grant during the RACH procedure; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined spatial domain filter.

Example 48 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 47, wherein a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetitions is the same as a spatial domain filter for the PUSCH transmission scheduled by the RAR UL grant.

Example 49 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 48, further comprising: determining a hopping pattern for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the configuration from the higher layer; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined hopping pattern.

Example 50 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 49, wherein the configuration is carried via system information block 1 (SIB 1), new Radio (NR) Residual Minimum System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

Example 51 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 50, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and/or an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern.

Example 52 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 51, wherein the intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and inter-slot frequency hopping pattern are not enabled simultaneously.

Example 53 includes the method of any of examples 38-52, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the method further comprises performing frequency hopping based on: each time slot; relative slot index; physical slot index; or a system frame number.

Example 54 includes the method of any one of examples 38 to 53, wherein the method is applicable to a User Equipment (UE).

Example 55 includes a method, comprising: for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetition carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgement (ACK) in response to Msg4 of a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, configuring a plurality of repetition levels; and indicating one of the plurality of repetition levels to a User Equipment (UE) via Downlink Control Information (DCI).

Example 56 includes the method of example 55, wherein the DCI includes DCI format 1_0, the DCI format 1_0 having a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI).

Example 57 includes the method of example 55 or 56, wherein the plurality of repetition levels are indicated by a downlink allocation index field.

Example 58 includes the method of any of examples 55 to 57, wherein the plurality of repetition levels are indicated by at least one of: a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field for the scheduled PUCCH; and a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

Example 59 includes the method of any one of examples 55-58, wherein each repetition level for an Msg3 Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition is associated with one or more repetition levels for the PUCCH repetition.

Example 60 includes the method of any one of examples 55 to 59, wherein the method is adapted for AN Access Node (AN).

Example 61 includes a method, comprising: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining one or more available slots repeated for the one or more PUCCHs; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined one or more available slots.

Example 62 includes the method of example 61, wherein the spectrum is unpaired, and wherein the method further comprises determining that the one or more available time slots do not overlap with: symbols for downlink indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command; symbols for a Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block with an index provided by ssb-positioning infurst; or the control resource set (CORESET) for the Type0-PDCCH Common Search Space (CSS) set is indicated by the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 symbol in the Master Information Block (MIB).

Example 63 includes the method of example 61 or 62, wherein the spectrum is paired or includes a supplemental uplink band, the number of the one or more available time slots is N available time slots, and wherein the method further comprises: n consecutive time slots starting from a time slot indicated to a User Equipment (UE) are determined as the N available time slots.

Example 64 includes the method of any one of examples 61 to 63, wherein the one or more available time slots are contiguous or non-contiguous.

Example 65 includes the method of any of examples 61-64, wherein the method is applicable to a User Equipment (UE).

Example 66 includes a method comprising: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the spatial domain filter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission scheduled by a Random Access Response (RAR) Uplink (UL) grant during the RACH procedure; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined spatial domain filter.

Example 67 includes the method of example 66, wherein the spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetitions is the same as the spatial domain filter for the PUSCH transmission scheduled by the RAR UL grant.

Example 68 includes the method of example 66 or 67, wherein the method is applicable to a User Equipment (UE).

Example 69 includes a method, comprising: decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; in response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs); determining a hopping pattern for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the configuration from the higher layer; and causing the one or more PUCCHs to be repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined hopping pattern.

Example 70 includes the method of example 69, wherein the configuration is carried via system information block 1 (SIB 1), new Radio (NR) Residual Minimum System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

Example 71 includes the method of example 69 or 70, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and/or an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern.

Example 72 includes the method of any one of examples 69-71, wherein the intra-slot frequency hopping mode and inter-slot frequency hopping mode are not enabled simultaneously.

Example 73 includes the method of any one of examples 69-72, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the method further comprises performing frequency hopping based on: each time slot; relative slot index; physical slot index; or a system frame number.

Example 74 includes the method of any one of examples 69-73, wherein the method is applicable to a User Equipment (UE).

Example 75 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform the method of any of examples 38 to 54.

Example 76 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform the method of any of examples 55 to 60.

Example 77 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform the method of any of examples 61-65.

Example 78 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform the method of any of examples 66 to 68.

Example 79 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing circuit, cause the processing circuit to perform the method of any of examples 69-74.

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, various alternative and/or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Accordingly, it is readily understood that the embodiments described herein are limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled to the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is configured to:

decoding Msg4 received from AN Access Node (AN) during a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure via the interface circuit;

In response to the Msg4, encoding one or more Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetitions carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgements (ACKs);

determining at least one repetition level for the one or more PUCCH repetitions based on Downlink Control Information (DCI); and

such that the one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined at least one repetition level.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the DCI comprises a DCI format 1_0, the DCI format 1_0 having a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI).

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one repetition level is indicated by a downlink allocation index field.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one repetition level is indicated by at least one of:

a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field for the scheduled PUCCH; and

modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) field.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each repetition level for an Msg3 Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) repetition is associated with one or more repetition levels for the PUCCH repetition.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to:

determining one or more available slots repeated for the one or more PUCCHs; and

such that the one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined one or more available slots.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein frequency spectrum is unpaired, and wherein the processor circuit is further configured to determine that the one or more available time slots do not overlap with:

symbols for downlink indicated by tdd-UL-DL-configuration command;

symbols for a Synchronization Signal (SS)/Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block having an index provided by ssb-positioning infurst; or alternatively

The control resource set (CORESET) for the Type0-PDCCH Common Search Space (CSS) set is indicated by the PDCCH-ConfigSIB1 symbols in the Master Information Block (MIB).

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein a frequency spectrum is paired or includes a supplemental uplink frequency band, the number of the one or more available time slots is N available time slots, and wherein the processor circuit is further to:

n consecutive time slots starting from a time slot indicated to a User Equipment (UE) are determined as the N available time slots.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the one or more available time slots are contiguous or non-contiguous.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to:

determining a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the spatial domain filter for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission scheduled by a Random Access Response (RAR) Uplink (UL) grant during the RACH procedure; and

such that the one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined spatial domain filter.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a spatial domain filter for the one or more PUCCH repetitions is the same as a spatial domain filter for the PUSCH transmission scheduled by the RAR UL grant.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to:

determining a hopping pattern for the one or more PUCCH repetition based on the configuration from the higher layer; and

such that the one or more PUCCHs are repeatedly transmitted to the AN based on the determined hopping pattern.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the configuration is carried via system information block 1 (SIB 1), new Radio (NR) Residual Minimum System Information (RMSI), NR Other System Information (OSI), or dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an intra-slot frequency hopping pattern and/or an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the intra-slot frequency hopping mode and inter-slot frequency hopping mode are not enabled simultaneously.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the frequency hopping pattern comprises an inter-slot frequency hopping pattern, and wherein the processor circuit is further configured to perform frequency hopping based on:

each time slot;

relative slot index;

physical slot index; or alternatively

System frame number.

17. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 16, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a User Equipment (UE).

18. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled to the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is configured to:

for Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) repetition carrying hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -Acknowledgement (ACK) in response to Msg4 of a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, configuring a plurality of repetition levels; and

one of the plurality of repetition levels is indicated to a User Equipment (UE) through the interface circuitry via Downlink Control Information (DCI).

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the DCI comprises a DCI format 1_0, the DCI format 1_0 having a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (TC-RNTI).

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the plurality of repetition levels are indicated by a downlink allocation index field.