EP4666742A1

EP4666742A1 - Methods, communications devices and infrastructure equipment

Info

Publication number: EP4666742A1
Application number: EP24705101.4A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Shin Horng Wong; Martin Warwick Beale; Yassin Aden Awad; Naoki Kusashima
Original assignee: Sony Europe BV; Sony Group Corp
Current assignee: Sony Europe BV; Sony Group Corp
Priority date: 2023-02-16
Filing date: 2024-02-12
Publication date: 2025-12-24
Also published as: WO2024170481A1; CN120770189A

Abstract

A method of operating a half duplex communications device to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network is provided. The method comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment. The method comprises determining to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources. The method comprises determining whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period. If the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, the method comprises determining a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation. Alternatively, if the half- duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, the method comprises creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation. The creation of the guard period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

Description

METHODS, COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE EQUIPMENT

BACKGROUND

Field of Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to half duplex communications devices, infrastructure equipment, and methods of operating half duplex communications devices and infrastructure equipment in a wireless communications network.

This application claims the Paris Convention priority from EP Patent Application Number: EP23157024.3, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Description of Related Art

The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.

Previous generation mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, are able to support a wider range of services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy such networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to continue to increase rapidly.

Current and future wireless communications networks are expected to routinely and efficiently support communications with an ever- in creasing range of devices associated with a wider range of data traffic profiles and types than existing systems are optimised to support. For example, it is expected future wireless communications networks will be expected to efficiently support communications with devices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets, extended Reality (XR) and so on. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the “The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with the transmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example supporting high- definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterised by data that should be transmitted through the network with low latency and high reliability. A single device type might also be associated with different traffic profiles / characteristics depending on the application(s) it is running. For example, different consideration may apply for efficiently supporting data exchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streaming application (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or being used for voice communications by an emergency responder in an emergency scenario (data subject to stringent reliability and latency requirements).

In view of this there is expected to be a desire for current wireless communications networks, for example those which may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems I new radio access technology (RAT) systems, or indeed future 6G wireless communications, as well as future iterations I releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements.

One example of a new service is referred to as Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services which, as its name suggests, requires that a data unit or packet be communicated with a high reliability and with a low communications delay. Another example of a new service is enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services, which are characterised by a high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. URLLC and eMBB type services therefore represent challenging examples for both LTE type communications systems and 5G/NR communications systems.

5G NR has continuously evolved and the current work plan includes 5G-NR-advanced in which some further enhancements are expected, especially to support new use- cases/scenarios with higher requirements. The desire to support these new use-cases and scenarios gives rise to new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless communications systems that need to be addressed.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above.

Embodiments of the present technique can provide a method of operating a half-duplex communications device to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network. The method comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment. The method comprises determining to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources. The method comprises determining whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period. If the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, the method comprises determining a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation. Alternatively, if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, the method comprises creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation. The creation of the guard period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions. Embodiments can provide a method of operating infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network to communicate with a half-duplex communications device. The method comprises transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission. The method comprises transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device. The method comprises transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device. The guard period is for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation. The guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period Alternatively, or in addition, the method comprises transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period. The guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

As will be appreciated from an understanding of the detailed description below, embodiments can provide reduced communications resource wastage while maintaining scheduling flexibility in situations where a half duplex communications device switches from a downlink mode of operation to an uplink mode of operation.

Embodiments of the present technique, which, in addition to methods of operating communications devices, relate to methods of operating infrastructure equipment circuitry for communications devices, circuitry for infrastructure equipment computer programs, and computer-readable storage mediums, can allow for the more efficient use of radio resources by a communications device operating in a wireless communications network.

Respective aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, but are not restrictive, of the present technology. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 schematically represents some aspects of an LTE-type wireless telecommunication system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure; Figure 2 schematically represents some aspects of a new radio access technology (RAT) wireless telecommunications system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of an example infrastructure equipment and communications device which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 4 schematically represents an example of non-overlapping subbands for uplink and downlink transmissions;

Figure 5 schematically represents an example of non-overlapping subbands for uplink and downlink transmissions;

Figure 6 schematically illustrates an example of a propagation delay and timing advance on a radio resource grid;

Figure 7 schematically illustrates an example of a collision between an uplink and a downlink transmission on a radio resource grid;

Figure 8 schematically illustrates an example of a flexible subband as a guard period on a radio resource grid;

Figure 9 schematically illustrates an example of an uplink and downlink transmission in the same SBFD slot on a radio resource grid;

Figure 10 schematically illustrates an example of a guard period based on gNB scheduling on a radio resource grid;

Figure 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of operating a communications device in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 12 schematically illustrates an example of a guard period in empty OFDM symbols on a radio resource grid in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 13 schematically illustrates an example of a guard period created in non-D RS OFDM symbols on a radio resource grid in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 14 schematically illustrates a radio resource grid in which a guard period is created such that at least one DMRS remains in a transmission in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 15 schematically illustrates an example of creating a guard period in a low priority channel on a radio resource grid in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 16 schematically illustrates an example of creating a guard period in earlier scheduled transmissions on a radio resource grid in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 17 schematically illustrates an example of creating a guard period in a repetition that has at least one punctured sample on a radio resource grid in accordance with example embodiments;

Figure 18 schematically illustrates an example of a shared guard period on a radio resource grid in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Long Term Evolution Advanced Radio Access Technology (4G)

Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basic functionality of a mobile telecommunications network / system 6 operating generally in accordance with LTE principles, but which may also support other radio access technologies, and which may be adapted to implement embodiments of the disclosure as described herein. Various elements of Figure 1 and certain aspects of their respective modes of operation are well-known and defined in the relevant standards administered by the 3GPP (RTM) body, and also described in many books on the subject, for example, Holma H. and Toskala A [1], It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications networks discussed herein which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to the relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to the relevant standards.

The network 6 includes a plurality of base stations 1 connected to a core network 2. Each base station provides a coverage area 3 (i.e. a cell) within which data can be communicated to and from communications devices 4. Although each base station 1 is shown in Figure 1 as a single entity, the skilled person will appreciate that some of the functions of the base station may be carried out by disparate, inter-connected elements, such as antennas (or antennae), remote radio heads, amplifiers, etc. Collectively, one or more base stations may form a radio access network.

Data is transmitted from base stations 1 to communications devices 4 within their respective coverage areas 3 via a radio downlink. Data is transmitted from communications devices 4 to the base stations 1 via a radio uplink. The core network 2 routes data to and from the communications devices 4 via the respective base stations 1 and provides functions such as authentication, mobility management, charging and so on. Terminal devices may also be referred to as mobile stations, user equipment (UE), user terminal, mobile radio, communications device, and so forth. Services provided by the core network 2 may include connectivity to the internet or to external telephony services. The core network 2 may further track the location of the communications devices 4 so that it can efficiently contact (i.e. page) the communications devices 4 for transmitting downlink data towards the communications devices 4.

Base stations, which are an example of network infrastructure equipment, may also be referred to as transceiver stations, nodeBs, e-nodeBs, eNB, g-nodeBs, gNB and so forth. In this regard different terminology is often associated with different generations of wireless telecommunications systems for elements providing broadly comparable functionality. However, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be equally implemented in different generations of wireless telecommunications systems, and for simplicity certain terminology may be used regardless of the underlying network architecture. That is to say, the use of a specific term in relation to certain example implementations is not intended to indicate these implementations are limited to a certain generation of network that may be most associated with that particular terminology.

New Radio Access Technology (5G)

Systems incorporating NR technology are expected to support different services (or types of services), which may be characterised by different requirements for latency, data rate and/or reliability. For example, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services are characterised by high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. The requirements for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services are for one transmission of a 32 byte packet to be transmitted from the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDU ingress point to the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDU egress point of the radio interface within 1 ms with a reliability of 1 - 10’⁵ (99.999 %) or higher (99.9999%) [2], Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) is another example of a service which may be supported by NR-based communications networks. In addition, systems may be expected to support further enhancements related to Industrial Internet of Things (lloT) in order to support services with new requirements of high availability, high reliability, low latency, and in some cases, high-accuracy positioning.

An example configuration of a wireless communications network which uses some of the terminology proposed for and used in NR and 5G is shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2 a plurality of transmission and reception points (TRPs) 10 are connected to distributed control units (DUs) 41 , 42 by a connection interface represented as a line 16. Each of the TRPs 10 is arranged to transmit and receive signals via a wireless access interface within a radio frequency bandwidth available to the wireless communications network. Thus, within a range for performing radio communications via the wireless access interface, each of the TRPs 10, forms a cell of the wireless communications network as represented by a circle 12. As such, wireless communications devices 14 which are within a radio communications range provided by the cells 12 can transmit and receive signals to and from the TRPs 10 via the wireless access interface. Each of the distributed units 41 , 42 are connected to a central unit (CU) 40 (which may be referred to as a controlling node) via an interface 46. The central unit 40 is then connected to the core network 20 which may contain all other functions required to transmit data for communicating to and from the wireless communications devices and the core network 20 may be connected to other networks 60.

The elements of the wireless access network shown in Figure 2 may operate in a similar way to corresponding elements of an LTE network as described with regard to the example of Figure 1. It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications network represented in Figure 2, and of other networks discussed herein in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure, which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to currently used approaches for implementing such operational aspects of wireless telecommunications systems, e.g. in accordance with the relevant standards.

The TRPs 10 of Figure 2 may in part have a corresponding functionality to a base station or eNodeB of an LTE network. Similarly, the communications devices 14 may have a functionality corresponding to the UE devices 4 known for operation with an LTE network. It will be appreciated therefore that operational aspects of a new RAT network (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be different to those known from LTE or other known mobile telecommunications standards. However, it will also be appreciated that each of the core network component, base stations and communications devices of a new RAT network will be functionally similar to, respectively, the core network component, base stations and communications devices of an LTE wireless communications network.

In terms of broad top-level functionality, the core network 20 connected to the new RAT telecommunications system represented in Figure 2 may be broadly considered to correspond with the core network 2 represented in Figure 1, and the respective central units 40 and their associated distributed units / TRPs 10 may be broadly considered to provide functionality corresponding to the base stations 1 of Figure 1. The term network infrastructure equipment / access node may be used to encompass these elements and more conventional base station type elements of wireless telecommunications systems. Depending on the application at hand the responsibility for scheduling transmissions which are scheduled on the radio interface between the respective distributed units and the communications devices may lie with the controlling node I central unit and / or the distributed units / TRPs. A communications device 14 is represented in Figure 2 within the coverage area of the first communication cell 12. This communications device 14 may thus exchange signalling with the first central unit 40 in the first communication cell 12 via one of the distributed units / TRPs 10 associated with the first communication cell 12.

It will further be appreciated that Figure 2 represents merely one example of a proposed architecture for a new RAT based telecommunications system in which approaches in accordance with the principles described herein may be adopted, and the functionality disclosed herein may also be applied in respect of wireless telecommunications systems having different architectures.

Thus, certain embodiments of the disclosure as discussed herein may be implemented in wireless telecommunication systems / networks according to various different architectures, such as the example architectures shown in Figures 1 and 2. It will thus be appreciated the specific wireless telecommunications architecture in any given implementation is not of primary significance to the principles described herein. In this regard, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be described generally in the context of communications between network infrastructure equipment / access nodes and a communications device, wherein the specific nature of the network infrastructure equipment / access node and the communications device will depend on the network infrastructure for the implementation at hand. For example, in some scenarios the network infrastructure equipment / access node may comprise a base station, such as an LTE-type base station 1 as shown in Figure 1 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein, and in other examples the network infrastructure equipment may comprise a control unit I controlling node 40 and / or a TRP 10 of the kind shown in Figure 2 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein.

A more detailed diagram of some of the components of the network shown in Figure 2 is provided by Figure 3. In Figure 3, a TRP 10 as shown in Figure 2 comprises, as a simplified representation, a wireless transmitter 30, a wireless receiver 32 and a controller or controlling processor 34 which may operate to control the transmitter 30 and the wireless receiver 32 to transmit and receive radio signals to one or more UEs 14 within a cell 12 formed by the TRP 10. As shown in Figure 3, an example UE 14 is shown to include a corresponding transmitter 49, a receiver 48 and a controller 44 which is configured to control the transmitter 49 and the receiver 48 to transmit signals representing uplink data to the wireless communications network via the wireless access interface formed by the TRP 10 and to receive downlink data as signals transmitted by the transmitter 30 and received by the receiver 48 in accordance with the conventional operation.

The transmitters 30, 49 and the receivers 32, 48 (as well as other transmitters, receivers and transceivers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may include radio frequency filters and amplifiers as well as signal processing components and devices in order to transmit and receive radio signals in accordance for example with the 5G/NR standard. The controllers 34, 44 (as well as other controllers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc., configured to carry out instructions which are stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-volatile memory. The processing steps described herein may be carried out by, for example, a microprocessor in conjunction with a random access memory, operating according to instructions stored on a computer readable medium. The transmitters, the receivers and the controllers are schematically shown in Figure 3 as separate elements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciated that the functionality of these elements can be provided in various different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configured application-specific integrated circuit(s) / circuitry / chip(s) / chipset(s). As will be appreciated the infrastructure equipment I TRP I base station as well as the UE I communications device will in general comprise various other elements associated with its operating functionality.

As shown in Figure 3, the TRP 10 also includes a network interface 50 which connects to the DU 42 via a physical interface 16. The network interface 50 therefore provides a communication link for data and signalling traffic from the TRP 10 via the DU 42 and the CU 40 to the core network 20.

The interface 46 between the DU 42 and the CU 40 is known as the F1 interface which can be a physical or a logical interface. The F1 interface 46 between CU and DU may operate in accordance with specifications 3GPP TS 38.470 and 3GPP TS 38.473, and may be formed from a fibre optic or other wired or wireless high bandwidth connection. In one example the connection 16 from the TRP 10 to the DU 42 is via fibre optic. The connection between a TRP 10 and the core network 20 can be generally referred to as a backhaul, which comprises the interface 16 from the network interface 50 of the TRP 10 to the DU 42 and the F1 interface 46 from the DU 42 to the CU 40.

Full Duplex Time Division Duplex (FD-TDD)

NR/5G networks can operate using Time Division Duplex (TDD), where an entire frequency band or carrier is switched to either downlink or uplink transmissions for a time period and can be switched to the other of downlink or uplink transmissions at a later time period. Currently, TDD operates in Half Duplex mode (HD-TDD) where the gNB or UE can, at a given time, either transmit or receive packets, but not both at the same time. As wireless networks transition from NR to 5G-Advanced networks, a proposed new feature of such networks is to enhance duplexing operation for Time Division Multiplexing (TDD) by enabling Full Duplex operation in TDD (FD-TDD) [3], [4],

In FD-TDD, a gNB can transmit and receive data to and from the UEs at the same time on the same frequency band. In addition, a UE can operate either in HD-TDD or FD-TDD mode, depending on its capability. For example, when UEs are only capable of supporting HD-TDD, FD-TDD is achieved at the gNB by scheduling a DL transmission to a first UE and scheduling a UL transmission from a second UE within the same orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol (i.e. at the same time). Conversely, when UEs are capable of supporting FD-TDD, FD-TDD is achieved both at the gNB and the UE, where the gNB can simultaneously schedule this UE with DL and UL transmissions within the same OFDM symbol by scheduling the DL and UL transmissions at different frequencies (e.g. physical resource blocks (PRBs)) of the system bandwidth. A UE supporting FD-TDD requires more complex hardware than a UE that only supports HD-TDD. Development of current 5G networks is focused primarily on enabling FD-TDD at the gNB with UEs operating in HD-TDD mode.

Motivations for enhancing duplexing operation for TDD include an improvement in system capacity, reduced latency, and improved uplink coverage. For example, in current HD-TDD systems, OFDM symbols are allocated only for either a DL or UL direction in a semi-static manner. Hence, if one direction experiences less or no data, the spare resources cannot be used in the other direction, or are, at best, under-utilized. However, if resources can be used for DL data and UL data (as in FD-TDD) at the same time, the resource utilization in the system can be improved. Furthermore, in current HD-TDD systems, a UE can receive DL data, but cannot transmit UL data at the same time, which causes delays. If a gNB or UE is allowed to transmit and receive data at the same time (as with FD-TDD), the traffic latency will be improved. In addition, UEs are usually coverage limited in their UL transmissions when located close to the edge of a cell. While the UE coverage at the cell-edge can be improved if more time domain resources are assigned to UL transmissions (e.g. repetitions), if the UL direction is assigned more time resources, fewer time resources can be assigned to the DL direction, which can lead to system imbalance. Enabling FD-TDD would allow a UE to be assigned more UL time resources when required, without sacrificing DL time resources.

Subband Full Duplex (SBFD)

In SBFD, the frequency resource of a TDD system bandwidth or Bandwidth Part (BWP) (i.e. at the UE/gNB) is divided into two or more non-overlapping sub-bands, where each sub-band can be DL or UL [5], Guard subbands may be used between DL and UL subbands to reduce inter subband interference.

An example is shown in Figure 4, where simultaneous DL and UL transmissions occur in different non-overlapping sub-bands 401 to 404, i.e. in different sets of frequency Resource Blocks (RB): Sub-band#1 401 , Sub-band#2 402, Sub-band#3 403 and Sub-band#4 404 such that Sub-band#1 401 and Sub-band#3 403 are used for DL transmissions whilst Sub-band#2 402 and Sub-band#4404 are used for UL transmissions.

While Figure 4 shows the system bandwidth as being divided into four sub-bands, substantially any number of sub-bands could be used. For example, the system bandwidth may be divided into three sub-bands, which may include two downlink sub-bands 401 , 403 and one uplink sub-band 402, though other sub-band arrangements are envisioned. To reduce leakage from one sub-band 401 to 404 to another, a guard sub-band 410 may be configured between UL and DL sub-bands 401 to 404. Guard sub-bands 410 are configured between UL Sub-band#4 404 and DL Sub-band#3 403, between DL Sub-band#3 403 and UL Sub-band#2 402 and between UL Sub-band#2 402 and DL Sub-band#1 401 .

The arrangement of sub-bands 401 to 404 shown in Figure 4 is just one possible arrangement of the sub-bands and other arrangements are possible, and guard bands may be used in substantially any sub-band arrangement.

Figure 5 shows two further examples with a DL and UL subband separated by a guard subband. For example, on the left-side of Figure 5, a UL subband#1 501 is separated from a DL subband#2 503 by a guard subband 502. In this case, the DL subband#2 503 occupies a higher frequency portion of the system bandwidth than the UL subband#1 501. On the right- side of Figure 5, a DL subband#1 504 is separated from a UL subband#2 506 by a guard subband 505. In this case, the UL subband#2 506 occupies a higher frequency portion of the system bandwidth than the DL subband#1 504.

DL-UL Guard Period in TDD

As will be known to a person skilled in the art, transmissions from a gNB to a UE experience a propagation delay due to the time taken for the transmission to propagate from the gNB to the UE. Therefore, a slot boundary for the gNB starts earlier in time than a slot boundary for the UE. An example of a propagation delay on a radio resource grid for the UE and gNB is shown in Figure 6.

As shown in Figure 6, a slot boundary of slot n for the gNB starts at time to, where the gNB transmits a PDSCH to the UE. Due to propagation delay, the UE receives the PDSCH at time fi, which defines the start of a slot boundary of slot n for the UE. The propagation delay is equal to fi - to. In the example shown, the propagation delay is equal to one OFDM symbol for clarity of explanation. However, it will be appreciated that the propagation delay may be less than or greater than one OFDM symbol. For example, NR supports high subcarrier spacings (SCS) for which the OFDM symbol duration decreases. In a particular example, with a 60kHz SCS, a 20 ps timing advance period (which includes a common timing advance offset) spans more than one OFDM symbol.

In order for a UL transmission to arrive at a targeted slot and OFDM symbol at the gNB, the UE advances the UL transmission in time by a timing advance period. The timing advance period is the period between t₅ and f₇ in Figure 6. The timing advance period is equal to the sum of the propagation delay for transmissions from the gNB to the UE and the propagation delay for transmissions from the UE to the gNB. It will be understood by a person skilled in the art that, in most scenarios, the propagation delay for transmissions from the gNB to the UE and for transmissions from the UE to the gNB are equal and therefore that the timing advance period is twice the propagation delay. However, in some scenarios (e.g. a high speed scenario such as in Non-Terrestrial Networks), the propagation delay may be unequal. Even in such cases, the difference in propagation delay is typically very small so that the timing advance period can be approximated as twice the propagation delay for transmissions from the gNB to the UE or twice the propagation delay from transmissions from the UE to the gNB. In the example shown in Figure 6, the propagation delays of transmissions from the gNB to the UE and transmissions from the UE to the gNB are equal. Therefore, the timing advance period is equal to twice the propagation delay.

In Figure 6, a PUSCH is scheduled at the start of Slot n+2 and in order for the UE’s PUSCH to reach the gNB at the start of Slot n+2 at time to, the UE transmits the PUSCH 2 OFDM symbols earlier at time to, that is the PUSCH transmission is time advanced by 2 OFDM symbols, which is twice the propagation delay.

For half-duplex mode operation at the UE, in TDD or FDD operation, a guard period (GP) is used for the UE to switch from a DL mode of operation to a UL mode of operation. For example, the guard period may be used for an HD-TDD UE or HD-FDD UE to switch its RF (Radio Frequency) front end between receive mode and transmit mode (or vice versa). One of the most important purposes of the guard period is to provide time for the UE to perform timing advance for the UL transmission.

Typically, in TDD, “flexible” OFDM symbols are configured prior to a UL slot to act as a Guard Period. For example, as shown in Figure 6, Slot n+2 is a UL slot and the last two symbols of slot n+1 are configured as flexible symbols. Therefore, the UE uses the last two symbols of slot n+1 as a guard period.

It is expected that network operators will reuse existing slot formats and implement SBFD by configuring UL Subbands onto one or more DL subbands. An example is shown in Figure 7. As shown in Figure 7, an existing slot format comprises four DL slots, namely, Slot n, Slot n+1 , Slot n+2 and Slot n+3 followed by a UL slot, namely, Slot n+4. This slot format is repeated for every five slots.

To support SBFD, the operator may configure a UL subband in three of the DL slots such as Slot n+1 , Slot n+2 and Slot n+3 in Figure 7. As part of the operator’s legacy operations, flexible OFDM symbols may already be configured in the last two symbols of Slot n+3 between time t7 and ts to provide a guard period for the UE to switch from a DL mode of operation in Slot n+3 to a UL mode of operation in Slot n+4. However, guard periods are not available in the operator’s legacy operations for switching from DL to UL within a UL subband. For example, the UE may be scheduled PDS0H#1 between time to to in Slot n followed by PUSCH#1 to be transmitted in the beginning of Slot n+1. In order for PUSCH#1 to arrive at the start of Slot n+1 of the gNB, the UE advances PUSCH#1 in time by a timing advance period. In this example, the timing advance period is two OFDM symbols which is twice the propagation delay. As a result of PUSCH#1 being advanced in time by two symbols, it collides with PDSCH#1 during the two OFDM symbols of the timing advance period. In other words, PDSCH#1 overlaps with the timing advance period.

Similar collisions may occur between two SBFD slots. For example, as shown in Figure 7, PDSCH#2 is scheduled between time f₄ to t₆ in Slot n+2 and PUSCH#2 is scheduled to start at Slot n+3. PUSCH#2 is advanced in time by a timing advance period of two OFDM symbols and starts transmission at time t₅, which collides with the last two OFDM symbols of PDSCH#2.

Therefore, the absence of guard periods between a DL slot and an SBFD slot, and between two SBFD slots may cause collisions between a UE’s DL and UL transmissions. As will be understood by a person skilled in the art, the TDD (or HD-FDD) UE cannot simultaneously transmit a UL transmission and receive a DL transmission because it is half duplex.

It has been proposed to introduce a flexible subband to be used as guard period [6], In other words, instead of using the entire frequency bandwidth as flexible, only a portion of the frequency bandwidth is labelled as flexible. An example is shown in Figure 8.

As shown in Figure 8, flexible subbands occupying 2 OFDM symbols are configured in Slot n between times ti to t₂, Slot n+1 between times t₄ to t₅, and Slot n+2 between times to to f₇. In this example, the flexible subbands are used as guard periods.

For example, as shown in Figure 8, PUSCH#1 and PUSCH#2 are each advanced in time by a timing advance period of 2 OFDM symbols to transmit PUSCH#1 at fi and to transmit PUSCH#2 at t₆. The flexible subbands coincide with the timing advance periods. Therefore, the flexible subbands are used as guard periods. Since the flexible Subbands do not occupy the entire bandwidth, DL transmissions for another UE can be scheduled. For example, as shown in Figure 8, PDSCH#1 and PDSCH#2 can be scheduled for transmission in Slot n and Slot n+2 respectively. However, for the same half duplex UE, collisions occur between PDSCH#1 and PUSCH 1 and between PDSCH#2 and PUSCH#2.

Conventionally, flexible OFDM symbols or flexible subbands are semi-statically configured and can be changed by Slot Format Indicator (SFI) or by dynamic scheduling to either UL or DL. Since flexible symbols may or may not be converted to UL or DL symbols, it is difficult to utilize flexible OFDM symbols or flexible subbands for semi-statically configured resources such as SPS and CG-PUSCH. This is because semi-statically configured resources expect to be reserved or guaranteed for transmissions. However, when semi-statically configured resources comprise flexible symbols, it is not guaranteed that flexible symbols will be converted into a UL or DL symbol.

Furthermore, utilising flexible OFDM symbols or subbands as guard periods cannot resolve a collision between a DL transmission and a UL transmission that occurs within a single SBFD slot. An example is shown in Figure 9.

As shown in Figure 9, a UE is scheduled with PDSCH#2 which occupies the first half of slot n+2 (i.e. the first 7 OFDM symbols in slot n+2) and PUSCH#2 which occupies the second half of slot n+2 (i.e. the last 7 OFDM symbols in slot n+2) at the gNB. In this example, PUSCH#2 is dynamically scheduled and hence can occupy the flexible subband between time fe and t₉. The UE time advances PUSCH#2 by 2 OFDM symbols and thereby transmits it at time t₆, which causes collision with PDSCH#2 between time t₆ and t₇. Since flexible subbands or symbols are not configured between t₆ and t₇, it is unclear how a guard period is created.

It has been proposed that the last few OFDM symbols of a DL transmission or the first few OFDM symbols of a UL transmission are punctured or rate-matched around to create guard periods [7],

For the case where a UL transmission is punctured or rate matched around, the guard period is created at the beginning of the slot whereas, for the case where a DL transmission is punctured or rate-matched around, the guard period is created at the end of the slot.

It has been proposed that the gNB should be able to configure where the UE should create the guard period [7], However, it may be difficult for the gNB to manage such configurations especially for semi-persistent transmissions such as SPS or CG-PUSCH. An example is shown in Figure 10.

As shown in Figure 10, the gNB may configure the UE to puncture the first two OFDM symbols of a UL transmission to create a guard period for the UL transmission at the beginning of an SBFD slot so that DL transmissions are not impacted.

In this example, the gNB activates an SPS (DL) for the UE which occurs in Slot n and Slot n+2. At Slot n, gNB schedules PUSCH#1 for the UE and since the gNB is aware that the UE will puncture the first two OFDM symbols of PUSCH#1 , the gNB schedules PUSCH#1 later into Slot n+1 so that PUSCH#1 arrives at the gNB at time fc which is at start of the fifth OFDM symbol of Slot n+1. In order for PUSCH#1 to arrive at the gNB at time t₅, the UE advances PUSCH#1 in time by two OFDM symbols. Therefore, the UE transmits PUSCH#1 at time t₄ so that it arrives at the gNB at time t₅. At Slot n+2 another SPS arrives at the UE. However, in this case, the gNB schedules PUSCH#2 which comprises a UL URLLC packet to start in the beginning of Slot n+3 instead of a few OFDM symbols later in Slot n+3 since URLLC transmission has a low latency requirement.

Therefore, the UE advances PUSCH#2 in time by two OFDM symbols. As a result, the UE starts transmitting PUSCH#2 at time tn so that it arrives at the gNB at time ti₂ which is at the start of SIot n+3 at the gNB. This would result in the UE puncturing the first two OFDM symbols of PUSCH#2 which is not desirable for a URLLC service which also requires high reliability (in addition to low latency).

As explained above, existing techniques can create guard periods using reserved OFDM symbols or resource elements which are semi-statically configured. However, a fixed guard period cannot handle transmissions within an SBFD slot, where the DL and UL transmissions for a UE may occur in any OFDM symbol within that slot. Other techniques discussed above configure guard periods semi-statically in UL or DL transmissions. However, these techniques are not suitable for multi service traffic in a UE that has different priorities and requirements.

There is therefore a need for improved methods and communications devices reducing communications resource wastage while maintain scheduling flexibility.

Figure 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of operating a half-duplex communications device (such as a half-duplex UE) to communicate with infrastructure equipment (such as a gNB) of a wireless communications network in accordance with example embodiments.

The method starts in step S1.

In step S2, the method comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment.

In step S3, the method comprises determining to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources.

For example, the infrastructure equipment may allocate resources for an uplink transmission for the half-duplex communications device to transmit. The half-duplex communications device may then determine an amount of time by which the transmission of the uplink transmission needs to be brought forward in time so that it arrives at the infrastructure equipment in the allocated resources. The time by which the uplink transmission is brought forward, or advanced, in time is equal to a “timing advance period”. The timing advance period is defined by the period between the start of the uplink transmission as allocated to the half duplex communications device by the infrastructure equipment and the start of the uplink transmission as transmitted by the communications device after time advancing the uplink transmission.

In step S4, the method comprises determining whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period. If a downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period, then the downlink transmission also overlaps with the uplink transmission because the start of the timing advance period is defined by the start of the uplink transmission. Since the communications device is half-duplex, it cannot simultaneously transmit the uplink transmission and receive the downlink transmission during the timing advance period. Therefore, if a downlink transmission overlaps in time with the timing advance period, then the uplink and downlink transmission may be said to “collide” in the timing advance period.

If the half-duplex communications device is determined, in step S4, not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, the method proceeds to step S5.

In step S5, the method comprises determining a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and an uplink mode of operation.

Since the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, it does not collide with the uplink transmission. Therefore, by determining a guard period which comprises the timing advance period, the half-duplex communications device can switch between the downlink and uplink modes of operation during the determined guard period without collision.

A downlink mode of operation is a mode of operation where the half duplex communications device is configured to receive downlink transmissions. For example, the radio frequency front end of the half duplex communications device may be configured in a receive mode.

An uplink mode of operation is a mode of operation where the half duplex communications device is configured to transmit transmissions. For example, the radio frequency front end of the half duplex communications device may be configured in a transmit mode.

Alternatively, if the half-duplex communications device is determined, in step S4, to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, the method proceeds to step S6.

In this case, since the downlink transmission overlaps in time with the timing advance period, then the downlink transmission collides with the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

In step S6, the method comprises creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation. The creation of the guard period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

By creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, at any point in time within the timing advance period only one of the uplink or the downlink transmission will be transmitted or received. Therefore, the collision of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period is resolved. This is achieved by disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions. For example, the disabling may comprise: disabling the entire portion of the uplink transmission which is in the timing advance period and not disabling any of the downlink transmission which is in the timing advance period; or disabling the entire portion of the downlink transmission which is in the timing advance period and not disabling any of the uplink transmission which is in the timing advance period; or disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period and a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period such that there is no point in time in the timing advance period at which the uplink transmission will be transmitted as the downlink transmission is received and vice versa.

The disabling of a portion of a transmission may comprise puncturing and/or rate-matching the portion of the transmission.

As will be explained in detail below with reference to example embodiments, the one or more conditions may be based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprise DMRS in the timing advance period, an L1 priority associated with the uplink and/or the downlink transmission, a type of channel used for transmitting the uplink and/or the downlink transmission, a scheduling order of the uplink and/or downlink transmission, a number of repetitions of the uplink and/or downlink transmission, an indication received from the infrastructure equipment or an OFDM numerology of the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

After step S5, or step S6, the method ends in step S7.

As explained above, embodiments can create guard periods based on predefined conditions. The conditions may, for example, take into account different services that exist for the UE, or the type of the uplink and downlink transmission. Therefore, communication resource wastage can be reduced while maintaining gNB scheduling flexibility in situations where a UE switches between a downlink and uplink mode of operation. In some embodiments, the communications device may be pre-configured to know the one or more conditions. In some embodiments, the one or more conditions are fixed in the specifications. In some embodiments, the infrastructure equipment transmits the one or more conditions to the communications device in the form of conditional instructions.

For clarity of explanation, example embodiments will now be described with reference to half duplex operation on TDD bands in SBFD. However, it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that example embodiments are equally applicable to half-duplex operation on FDD bands.

Figure 12 to 18 schematically illustrate radio resource grids for a gNB and a UE. In each case, the radio resource grid for the gNB and UE comprises five slots, namely, slots n, n+1 , n+2, n+ 3 and n+4. Slots n, n+1, n+2 and n+3 are configured as downlink slots except that slots n+1 , n+2 and n+3 comprise an uplink subband and the last two symbols of slot n+3 are flexible symbols. Slot n+4 is configured as an uplink slot. There is a propagation delay of one OFDM symbol between the radio resource grid for the gNB and the radio resource grid for the UE. Accordingly, assuming the propagation delay is the same for transmissions from the gNB to the UE as for transmissions from the UE to the gNB, then the UE advances uplink transmissions by two OFDM symbols. However, this is only for explanatory purposes so the value of the propagation delay is not limited.

Although reference is made to specific types of uplink and downlink transmissions, such as PDSCH, PUSCH and PUCCH, this is for explanatory purposes only and the skilled person will readily appreciate that example embodiments can be applied to any uplink and downlink transmission, except where the embodiments below specify otherwise. Although example embodiments are discussed with reference to creating the guard period by puncturing, it will be appreciated that the guard period may also be created by rate-matching. Alternatively, the guard period may be created by puncturing and/or rate-matching. In cases, where rate matching is applied, the UE and/or gNB may be aware in advance of which collisions will occur and which OFDM symbols will be disabled. In such cases, the UE and/or gNB are able to set suitable rate matching parameters. In some embodiments, rate matching is applied if the UE and gNB are aware in advance of which collisions will occur and which OFDM symbols will be disabled, or else puncturing is applied.

Empty OFDM Symbols

In some embodiments, the guard period uses unscheduled or empty OFDM symbols. This is to avoid puncturing or rate matching whenever possible, and thereby improve communications efficiency by reducing resource wastage. An example is shown in Figure 12.

As shown in Figure 12, PDSCH#1 is scheduled fora UE at the start of Slot n, which is received at the UE between time ti to f₃. The gNB also schedules PUSCH#1 within the UL Subband at the start of Slot n+1. Therefore, the UE advances PUSCH#1 in time by 2 OFDM symbols and starts the transmission at time t4 so that it arrives at the gNB at time ts. The timing advance period is between kand fc. In accordance with example embodiments, the UE determines that there is no downlink transmission for the UE to receive which overlaps with the timing advance period. Therefore, the UE determines the guard period as comprising the timing advance period. In this example, the guard period is determined to be the period between t4 and k. Since PDSCH#1 ends at time t₃ at the UE, leaving three OFDM symbols empty in the remainder of Slot n, the UE does not need to puncture any transmission to create the guard period.

Also shown in Figure 12, the gNB transmits PDSCH#2 at the start of Slot n+2, occupying thirteen OFDM symbols, which ends at time tn at the UE. The gNB transmits a UL Grant in Slot n+2 to schedule PUSCH#2 within the UL Subband at the second OFDM symbol of Slot n+3, to the same UE. Then, the UE advances PUSCH#2 in time by two OFDM symbols. The timing advance period for PUSCH#2 is therefore the period between tn and ti₃. The UE determines the guard period as comprising the timing advance period. In this example, the guard period is the period between tn and fi₃. Therefore, as shown on Figure 12, the determined guard period comprises one empty OFDM symbol which is the last OFDM symbol in slot n+2 and another OFDM symbol which is the first OFDM symbol at the start of slot n+3.

Therefore, the determined guard period may comprise OFDM symbols from adjacent slots and still avoid puncturing. This is in contrast to the example described with reference to Figure 10, where the guard period is semi-statically configured to always occur in the last two OFDM symbols of Slot n+2 or the first two OFDM symbols of Slot n+3.

In some embodiments, the UE determines that a downlink transmission for the UE to receive overlaps with the timing advance period. Such embodiments are discussed below.

OFDM Symbol with DMRS

In some embodiments, OFDM symbols with DMRS are prioritized for transmission. In other words, the UE avoids creating a guard period using OFDM symbols comprising DMRS for the DL or UL transmission. This recognizes the importance of DMRS for channel estimation, which is required for decoding of the channel. An example is shown in Figure 13. As shown in Figure 13, the gNB transmits PDSCH#1 to a UE in slot n. PDSCH#1 extends across all of the OFDM symbols in slot n. PDSCH#1 comprises a plurality of DMRS including a first DMRS at the third OFDM symbol of slot n and a second DMRS at the twelfth OFDM symbol of slot n. The gNB then schedules PUSCH#1 to the same UE to start at the beginning of Slot n+1 within the UL subband and with a front loaded DMRS, i.e. a DMRS in the first OFDM symbol of PUSCH#1. The UE time advances PUSCH#1 by 2 OFDM symbols and starts its transmission at time f₄. The timing advance period is between f₄and t₆.

In accordance with example embodiments, since the first OFDM symbol of PUSCH#1 comprises a DMRS, it has a transmission priority. Therefore, the last two OFDM symbols of PDSCH#1 are punctured since they do not contain DMRS. In Slot n+2, PDSCH#2 is transmitted to the UE which extends across all of the OFDM symbols in slot n+2. The gNB then schedules PUSCH#2 within the UL subband at the start of Slot n+3, which has a DMRS in the third OFDM symbol of slot n+3. The UE advances PUSCH#2 in time by 2 OFDM symbols. The timing advance period is the period between fn and t . As shown in Figure 13, PDSCH#2 overlaps with the timing advance period. Since none of the OFDM symbols which overlap with the timing advance period comprise DRMS, the UE creates a guard period by puncturing the first OFDM symbol of PUSCH#2 and the last OFDM symbol of PDSCH#2. Therefore, a guard period is created in the period between tn and t-13.

It will be appreciated that guard periods can also be created via rate matching instead of or in addition to puncturing.

In some embodiments, the number of OFDM symbols with DMRS remaining in a channel due to the creation of a guard period by puncturing or rate matching cannot be less than a threshold NDMRS- Such embodiments recognise that a channel may need a minimum number of DMRS OFDM symbols in order to be decoded reliably. Consequently, such embodiments improve reliability of decoding by preventing the number of DMRS from being decreased to a level where the channel cannot be decoded. An indication of NDMRS may be transmitted by the gNB to the UE. For example, the gNB may indicate ND RS in an RRC signal or in downlink control information (DCI). In some embodiments, NDMRS may be defined in the specifications and therefore known to the UE without the gNB having to indicate NDMRS to the UE.

In some embodiments, /DMRS= 1 . In other words, after the creation of a guard period by puncturing or rate matching an uplink or downlink transmission, the uplink or downlink transmission should have at least one OFDM symbol comprising DMRS. An example is shown in Figure 14.

As shown in Figure 14, the gNB schedules the UE with PDSCH#1 having a duration of eight OFDM symbols in slot n+1. PDSCH#1 comprises two DMRS located in the third OFDM symbol and the eighth OFDM symbol of slot n+1.

The gNB then schedules PUSCH#1 to start at the 10^th OFDM symbol of Slot n+1 within the UL subband. Therefore, UE advances PUSCH#1 in time by 2 OFDM symbols to start its transmissions at time t₄. Accordingly, the timing advance period is between f₄and t_e. As shown in Figure 14, the last symbol of PDSCH#1 overlaps with the timing advance period. In this example, a portion of PUSCH#1 in the timing advance period comprises DMRS (i.e. the first symbol of PUSCH#1) and a portion of PDSCH#1 comprises DMRS (the last symbol of PDSCH#1). In accordance with example embodiments, the last OFDM symbol of PDSCH#1 is punctured to create the guard period since the number of remaining DMRS left in PDSCH#1 is one. This is because, if the first OFDM symbol of PUSCH#1 was punctured, then there would be no DMRS left in PUSCH#1, which would mean that PUSCH#1 cannot be decoded.

As will be appreciated from Figure 14, such embodiments can resolve collisions between uplink and downlink transmissions within the same SBFD slot.

L1 Priority

As will be understood by a person skilled in the art, L1 priority is used for indicating a priority of a physical channel. In some examples, L1 priority may be indicated in a DCI. For Type 1 CG-PUSCH, L1 priority may be semi-statically configured. In some embodiments, a guard period is created in the uplink or downlink transmission depending on which has the lower associated L1 priority. In some examples, the L1 priority associated with an uplink transmission may be the L1 priority of a PUCCH or PUSCH. In some examples, the L1 priority associated with a PDSCH may be the L1 priority of the PUCCH carrying a HARQ-ACK/NACK in respect of the PDSCH.

Transmissions associated with a high L1 priority are typically used for URLLC which has an ultra-high reliability requirement. Any puncturing of URLLC packets reduces the reliability of such packets which may cause the packet to fail to meet the stringent reliability requirements of URLLC. Example embodiments where a guard period is created in the uplink or downlink transmission depending on which has the lower associated L1 priority can improve reliability by preventing guard periods from being created in high priority transmissions. An example is shown in Figure 15

As shown in Figure 15, a DL Grant is transmitted to a UE in Slot n. The DL grant schedules PDSCH#1 in Slot n+1 with a corresponding low L1 priority (LP) PUCCH#1 in Slot n+4 to carry the HARQ-ACK. In Slot n+1 , the gNB transmits a UL Grant to the UE. The UL grant schedules a High L1 priority (HP) PUSCH 1 in the UL subband at the start of Slot n+2. The UE advances PUSCH#1 in time by 2 OFDM symbols to start its transmission at time t₆. Accordingly, the timing advance period is the period between t₆ and k. As shown in Figure 15, PDSCH#1 overlaps in time with the timing advance period. In particular, the first two symbols of PUSCH#1 and the last two symbols of PDSCH#1 collide in the timing advance period. PUCCH#1 has a lower L1 priority than PUSCH#1. Therefore, the L1 priority associated with PDSCH#1 is lower than the L1 priority associated with PUSCH#1. Therefore, the last two symbols of PDSCH#1 , which are in the timing advance period, are punctured to create the guard period. Consequently, the guard period is created in the period between ts and fe. Alternatively or additionally, the guard period can also be created via rate matching.

Type of Channel

In some embodiments, where the guard period is created depends on the type of channel used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission. Types of channels which may be used for transmitting the uplink transmission include PUSCH and PUCCH. Types of channels which may be used for transmitting the downlink transmission may include PDCCH and PDSCH. In some embodiments, if a PUSCH is advanced in time, and a PDCCH overlaps with the timing advance period so that it collides with the PUSCH, then the portion of the PUSCH in the timing advance period is punctured or rate matched to create the timing advance period. Such embodiments recognise that PDCCH may be used to carry scheduling information (such as information for scheduling a URLLC transmission), and therefore it is preferable that such information is not lost by puncturing or rate matching.

In some embodiments, if a PUCCH is advanced in time, and a PDSCH overlaps with the timing advance period so that it collides with the PUCCH, then whether the PUCCH or PDSCH is used to create the guard period depends on the content of the PUCCH.

In some embodiments, if a PUCCH carrying a Scheduling Request (SR) collides with a PDSCH, then the guard period is created in the PDSCH. Such embodiments recognise that the SR is used to inform the gNB that the UE has data to transmit and delaying the SR would delay the transmission of the data in the UE buffer.

In some embodiments, if a PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACK for a PDSCH collides with another PDSCH, then the UE may implement one of two behaviours (Behaviour (i) and Behaviour (ii)). In such embodiments, the behaviour implemented by the UE may be known to the gNB because it is defined in the specifications or indicated to the gNB in a signal from the UE such as an RRC signal. Alternatively, if the gNB does not know the behaviour implemented by the UE, then the gNB may blind decode for the PUCCH and determine whether the PUCCH comprises an ACK or NACK:

Behaviour (i): The UE creates a guard period on a PUCCH carrying an ACK. This implementation recognises that that, in a majority of cases, PDSCHs are successfully decoded. Therefore, the transmission of the ACK indicating successful decoding of the PDSCH for which the PUCCH is carrying the ACK may not always be necessary. A NACK on the other hand normally requires PDSCH retransmission. Therefore, if the gNB knows that the UE is implementing behaviour (i), then the gNB treats the absence of a HARQ-ACK as an ACK. If the PUCCH carries a NACK, then the guard period is created in the colliding PDSCH.

- Behaviour (ii): The UE creates a guard period on a PUCCH carrying a NACK. In such embodiments, if the gNB is aware that the UE is implementing behaviour (ii), then the gNB will treat the absence of a HARQ-ACK as a NACK. The gNB may then retransmit the PDSCH that the absent HARQ-ACK corresponds to. If the PUCCH carries an ACK then the guard period is created in the colliding PDSCH.

In some embodiments, if a PUCCH comprises a plurality of HARQ-ACKs for a plurality of PDSCHs, and the PUCCH collides with a PDSCH, then the guard period is created in the PDSCH. Such embodiments recognise that the gNB may have to retransmit multiple PDSCHs if it missed the HARQ-ACKs for these PDSCHs.

In some embodiments, if a PUCCH comprises channel state information (CSI), and the PUCCH collides with a PDSCH, then the guard period is created in the PUCCH. Such embodiments recognise that CSI information is typically used in the long term, for example used for link adaptation and is therefore not usually urgent. In other words, missing one CSI report is not critical to the gNB’s link adaptation. In some embodiments, the guard period is created in the downlink transmission if the uplink coverage level of the UE is below a predefined threshold. The uplink coverage level of the UE may be determined as a maximum uplink power which the UE can transmit uplink transmissions, a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, applied for uplink transmissions transmitted by the UE, or a pathloss for uplink transmissions transmitted by the UE. The UE may estimate the pathloss based on a transmit power of the gNB and a transmit power of the UE, both of which can be known by the UE. In some embodiments, a coverage level is below a predefined threshold if a first value that characterizes the coverage level is less than a second value, where the second value indicates the predetermined threshold. For example, if the MCS (first value) is less than a threshold value of MCS (second value), the coverage is less than a predetermined threshold. In some embodiments, a coverage level is below a predefined threshold if a first value that characterizes the coverage level is greater than a second value, where the second value indicates the predetermined threshold. For example, if the pathloss (first value) is greater than a threshold value of pathloss (second value), the coverage level is less than a predetermined threshold.

Scheduling Order

In some embodiments, where a PUSCH is time advanced, and a PDSCH overlaps with the timing advance period and therefore collides with the PUSCH, the guard period is created in whichever of the PUSCH or PDSCH is scheduled earlier. Such embodiments recognise that later transmissions are more likely to be urgent or may provide more updated information than earlier transmissions. An example is shown in Figure 16.

As shown in Figure 16, the gNB transmits an uplink grant to the UE in slot n which schedules PUSCH#1 in a UL subband at the start of slot n+2. In Slot n+1, the gNB transmits a DL grant which schedules PDSCH#1 to start at the third OFDM symbol of Slot n+1. Since the UL grant which schedules PUSCH#1 is transmitted earlier than the DL grant which schedules PDSCH#1 , then the guard period is created by puncturing the first two OFDM symbols of PUSCH#1.

In some embodiments, when a CG-PUSCH collides with a dynamically scheduled PDSCH, the guard period is created in the CG-PUSCH. This is because a CG-PUSCH is an earlier scheduled or configured transmission, which is configured prior to the scheduling of the dynamic PDSCH.

In some embodiments, when an SPS PDSCH collides with a dynamically scheduled PUSCH, the guard period is created in the SPS PDSCH. Similarly, this is because the SPS PDSCH is an earlier scheduled or configured transmission, which is configured prior to the scheduling of the dynamic PUSCH.

Repetitions

In some embodiments, a plurality of repetitions of the uplink transmission may be transmitted by the UE to the gNB. The UE may determine to create the guard period in a repetition of the uplink transmission if at least NR_8P previous repetitions of the uplink transmission have not been punctured. The indication of NR_8P may be transmitted to the UE by the gNB. For example, the gNB may transmit an RRC signal, or DCI, which comprises an indication of NR_8P. Such embodiments recognise that repetitions of the same uplink transmission are combined at the gNB. Therefore, if one repetition sample has missing encoded bits due to puncturing, the receiver of the gNB may recover these missing bits from another repetition of the uplink transmission that is not punctured.

In some embodiments, N_Rep='] . Therefore, if at least one previous repetition of the uplink transmission has not been punctured then the current uplink transmission can be used to create a guard period.

In some embodiments, if all previous repetitions of the uplink transmission have been punctured then the current uplink transmission repetition is not used to create a guard period. This ensures that at least one full uplink repetition is available at the receiver of the gNB. An example is shown in Figure 17.

In Figure 17, a first and second repetition of a PUSCH are scheduled in the UL subband at the start of slots n+1 and n+2 respectively. In Slot n, the first PUSCH repetition collides with PDSCH#1. A guard period is created by puncturing or rate matching around a portion of PDSCH#1 in the timing advance period. In Slot n+1 , another collision occurs between PDSCH#2 and the second PUSCH repetition. Since the first PUSCH repetition was transmitted without puncturing, the second PUSCH repetition is punctured to create another guard period.

Shared Guard Period

In some embodiments, the guard period is created by puncturing or rate matching a portion of both the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

In some embodiments, the guard period is created by puncturing or rate matching a portion of both the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions. For example, the guard period may be created by puncturing or rate matching a portion of both the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period if:

- The uplink and downlink transmissions are associated with the same L1 priority;

- The creation of the guard period does not impact DMRS comprised in the uplink and the downlink transmission, or the creation of the guard period impacts the DMRS comprised in the uplink and the downlink transmission equally;

- The uplink and the downlink transmissions are carried by the same type of channel e.g. both are transmitted by data channels or both are transmitted by control channels.

An example is shown in Figure 18. As shown in Figure 18, PDSCH#1 and PUSCH#1 collide in Slot n+2. In this example both PDSCH#1 and PUSCH#1 are associated with the same L1 priority and the DMRS comprised in PDSCH#1 and PUSCH# are not impacted if a guard period is created (because the DRMS does not fall within the timing advance period). In this example, the guard period is created by puncturing the first OFDM symbol of PUSCH#1 and the last OFDM symbol of PDSCH#1 .

In some embodiments, if the number of overlapping symbols between the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period is an odd number of symbols, then one or more further conditions are used to determine whether to puncture or rate match a greater number of symbols of the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission.

For example, the one or more further conditions may require that the uplink transmission is to be prioritised. Therefore, in a case where there are three OFDM symbols in the timing advance period, the UE rate matches or punctures two symbols of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period and one symbol from the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

Indication from gNB

In some embodiments, the gNB transmits an indication to the UE for use by the UE to determine whether to puncture and/or rate match a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

The indication may be an indication of a portion of the uplink transmission and/or the downlink transmission to rate match and/or puncture. For example, the gNB may send an instruction to the UE indicating which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission the UE should puncture and/or rate match. In some examples, the instruction is a conditional instruction to the UE indicating which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission the UE should puncture and/or rate match according to a condition. In such embodiments, the UE may determine which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission the UE should puncture and/or rate match based on the condition in the conditional instruction received from the gNB.

In some embodiments, the indication may be transmitted as part of a signal to the UE which informs the UE that it can operate according to SBFD or informs the UE that guard period creation is permitted.

In some embodiments, the indication is comprised in DCI which schedules the uplink or downlink transmission (for example, in a UL or DL grant). The indication may be included in the DCI as a new 1 -bit indicator field to indicate whether the uplink or downlink transmission being scheduled by the DCI can be used for guard period creation. For example, the 1 -bit indicator may indicate which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission are permitted to be used for guard period creation or the 1 bit indicator may instruct the UE to create the guard period in the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

In some embodiments, the indication may be comprised in DCI without the introduction of a new field. For example, the UE may be configured to re-interpret existing one or more fields in the DCI to determine whether or not the indication is present. In other words, the one or more existing DCI fields may implicitly provide the indication to the UE. In one example, the existing MCS field in DCI may be used to provide the indication. In one example, if the MCS is below a threshold then the transmission being scheduled by the DCI (such as PDSCH or PUSCH) can be used to create the guard period. For example, the indication may indicate to the UE that if the UE determines the MCS to be below a threshold, then the UE is permitted to create the guard period in the transmission being scheduled by the DCI; or the indication may be a conditional instruction which instructs the UE that if the UE determines the MCS to be below a threshold, then the UE should create the guard period in the transmission being scheduled by the DCI. If the MCS is above the threshold, then the transmission being scheduled by the DCI cannot be used to create the guard period. For example, the indication may indicate to the UE that if the UE determines the MCS to be above a threshold, then the UE is not permitted to create the guard period in the transmission being scheduled by the DCI; or the indication may be a conditional instruction which tells the UE that if the UE determines the MCS to be above a threshold, then the UE should not create the guard period in the transmission being scheduled by the DCI. In some embodiments, the threshold is signalled by the gNB to the UE, for example via RRC or DCI signalling. Such embodiments recognise that a low MCS is more robust than a high MCS therefore can afford to be punctured.

In some embodiments, a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) table may be extended to include a column that indicates whether the uplink or downlink transmission can be used to create a guard period or not. The column of the TDRA table is indicated to the UE by a DCI field. For example, the column may indicate which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission are permitted to be used for guard period creation or the column may instruct to the UE to create the guard period in the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

In some embodiments, the indication is comprised in an activation DCI for a CG-PUSCH or SPS.

In some embodiments, the indication is a parameter in the configuration of a CG-PUSCH or an SPS. As will be understood by one skilled in the art, there can be up to 12 CG-PUSCH configurations and 8 SPS configurations. In this example, each CG-PUSCH and SPS configuration can be configured to independently indicate whether they can be used to create a guard period. . For example, the CG-PUSCH and/or SPS configuration may indicate which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission are permitted to be used for guard period creation or the CG-PUSCH and/or SPS configuration may instruct to the UE to create the guard period in the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

In some embodiments, if the indication from the gNB indicates that a guard period can be created in both of the uplink and the downlink transmission, then the UE punctures or rate matches a portion of both the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period (see section above relating to shared guard period). For example, the indication may indicate that both the uplink and downlink transmission are permitted to be used for guard period creation or the indication may instruct to the UE to create the guard period in both the uplink and downlink transmission.

In some embodiments, if the indication from the gNB indicates that a guard period cannot be created in either of the uplink and the downlink transmission, then the UE punctures or rate matches a portion of both the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period (see section above relating to shared guard period).

OFDM Numerologies (SCS)

As will be understood by one skilled in the art, UL and DL subbands may have different OFDM numerologies (for example, they may have a different sub-carrier spacing (SCS)).

In some embodiments, OFDM symbols with a higher OFDM numerology are prioritised for transmission/reception and OFDM symbols with a lower OFDM numerology are punctured.

For example, a DL subband is configured as 15 kHz SCS whereas a UL subband is configured as 60 kHz SCS. Therefore, since the symbols of the UL subband have a higher OFDM numerology, they are prioritised for transmission. Consequently, DL OFDM symbols which overlap with UL OFDM symbols in the timing advance period are punctured. Such embodiments recognise that lower SCS means that the OFDM symbol length is longer than the OFDM symbol length with a higher SCS. Therefore, there is more room to puncture a longer length OFDM symbol with low SCS. Furthermore, higher SCS is commonly used for URLLC transmissions. Therefore, such embodiments also reduce instances in which URLLC packets are punctured.

It will be understood that the above embodiments can be combined in any logical manner.

In one example, if a UE determines that it is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with a timing advance period of an uplink transmission, then the UE may firstly determine which of the uplink or the downlink transmission are associated with the a higher L1 priority. If one of the uplink or the downlink transmission have a lower L1 priority, then the UE may puncture a portion of that transmission in the timing advance period. If both the uplink and the downlink transmission are associated with the same L1 priority, then the UE may proceed to determine whether the uplink or the downlink transmission comprises DM RS in the timing advance period. The UE may determine to puncture a portion of the transmission which does not comprise DMRS in the timing advance period. However, if both the uplink and the downlink transmission comprise DMRS in the timing advance period, then the UE may puncture a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period (see section on shared guard period above).

In another example, if a UE determines that it is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with a timing advance period of an uplink transmission, then the UE may firstly determine which of the uplink or the downlink transmission are associated with the a higher L1 priority. If one of the uplink or the downlink transmission have a lower L1 priority, then the UE may puncture a portion of that transmission in the timing advance period. If both the uplink and the downlink transmission are associated with the same L1 priority, then the UE may proceed to determine the type of channels used for transmitting the uplink and downlink transmission and determine which transmission to puncture based on the type of channel. If the channel type is not decisive, then the UE may proceed to determine which of the uplink or the downlink transmission was scheduled earlier, and puncture the one which was scheduled earlier. However, if they were scheduled at the same time, then the UE may puncture a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period (see section on shared guard period above).

The following numbered paragraphs provide further example aspects and features of the present technique:

Paragraph 1 . A method of operating a half-duplex communications device to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the method comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment, determining to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources, determining whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, and if the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, determining a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, or if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation, the creation of the guard period comprising disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

Paragraph 2. A method according to paragraph 1, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining that the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a Demodulation Reference Signal, DM RS, in the timing advance period and disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise DMRS in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 3. A method according to paragraph 2, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise DMRS in the timing advance period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the downlink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period, and/or disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 4. A method according to paragraph 2, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission based on whether the uplink transmission and/or the downlink transmission is determined to comprise a DRMS in the timing advance period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink and/or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period such that a remaining number of DMRS transmitted by the uplink and/or downlink transmission is above a predefined threshold.

Paragraph 5. A method according to paragraph 4, comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of the predefined threshold.

Paragraph 6. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 5, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining an L1 priority level associated with the uplink transmission and an L1 priority level associated with the downlink transmission, disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period according to which of the uplink and the downlink transmission has the lower L1 priority level.

Paragraph 7. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 6, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining a channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission and a channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission, disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

Paragraph 8. A method according to paragraph 7, wherein the determining a channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission and a channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission comprises determining that the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, determining that the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, wherein the disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 9. A method according to paragraph 7, wherein the determining a channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission and a channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission comprises determining that the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, determining that the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH, wherein the disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises determining a content of the uplink transmission, and disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission.

Paragraph 10. A method according to paragraph 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a scheduling request, SR, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 11. A method according to paragraph 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgement, ACK, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 12. A method according to paragraph 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, negative acknowledgement, NACK, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 13. A method according to paragraph 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a plurality of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgements, ACKs, or HARQ negative acknowledgments, NACKs, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 14. A method according to paragraph 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises channel state information, CSI, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 15. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 14, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining an uplink coverage level of the half duplex communications device, disabling a portion the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the determined uplink coverage level is above a predefined threshold, or disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the determined uplink coverage level is below the predefined threshold.

Paragraph 16. A method according to paragraph 15, wherein the determining an uplink coverage level of the half duplex communications device comprises determining a maximum uplink power with which the half duplex communications device can transmit uplink transmissions, a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, applied for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device, or a pathloss for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device.

Paragraph 17. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 16, comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for receiving the downlink transmission, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining a time at which the indication of resources allocated for the uplink transmission was received and a time at which the indication of resources allocated for the downlink transmission was received, and disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission, or disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission.

Paragraph 18. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 17, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining that one of the uplink and the downlink transmission is a semi-statically configured transmission, determining that the other of the uplink and the downlink transmission is a dynamically allocated transmission, disabling a portion of the semi-statically allocated transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 19. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 18, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining that the uplink transmission is a repetition of one or more previous uplink transmissions, determining that a number of the previous uplink transmissions which were not disabled by the half-duplex communications device is above a predefined threshold, disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 20. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 19, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of the portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period to disable.

Paragraph 21. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 20, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises disabling a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 22. A method according to paragraph 21 , wherein the disabling a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises determining that an amount of overlap between the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an odd number of symbols, determining whether to disable a greater number of symbols of the uplink or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more further conditions.

Paragraph 23. A method according to any of paragraphs 1 to 22, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises puncturing and/or rate matching the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 24. A method of operating infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network to communicate with a half-duplex communications device, the method comprising transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission, transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device, and either transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device, the guard period being for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, and/or transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, wherein the guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

Paragraph 25. A method according to paragraph 24, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 26. A method according to paragraph 25 wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise a Demodulation Reference Signal, DM RS, in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 27. A method according to paragraph 26, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the downlink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period, and/or a conductional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 28. A method according to paragraph 26, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise a DMRS in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period such that a remaining number of DMRS transmitted by the uplink and/or downlink transmission is above a predefined threshold.

Paragraph 29. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 28, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period according to which of the uplink and the downlink transmission has a lower L1 priority level. Paragraph 30. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 29, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

Paragraph 31. A method according to paragraph 30, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, and the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH.

Paragraph 32. A method according to paragraph 30, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission if the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, and the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH.

Paragraph 33. A method according to paragraph 32, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a scheduling request, SR.

Paragraph 34. A method according to paragraph 32, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgement, ACK.

Paragraph 35. A method according to paragraph 32, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, negative acknowledgement, NACK. Paragraph 36. A method according to any of paragraphs 34 to 35, comprising re-transmitting the PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ in response to receiving the uplink transmission when the uplink transmission comprises a disabled portion. .

Paragraph 37. A method according to paragraph 32, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a plurality of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgements, ACKs, or HARQ negative acknowledgments, NACKs.

Paragraph 38. A method according to paragraph 32, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises channel state information, CSI.

Paragraph 39. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 38, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if an uplink coverage level is above a predefined threshold, and/or a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink coverage level is below the predefined threshold.

Paragraph 40. A method according to paragraph 39, wherein the uplink coverage level is determined by, a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, applied for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device, or the uplink coverage level is determined by a pathloss for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device.

Paragraph 41. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 40, comprising transmitting, to the half duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving the downlink transmission, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission, and/or a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission. Paragraph 42. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 41, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission is semi-statically configured, and/or a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the downlink transmission is semi-statically configured.

Paragraph 43. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 42, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission is a repetition of one or more previous uplink transmissions and a number of the previous uplink transmissions which were not disabled by the half-duplex communications device is above a predefined threshold.

Paragraph 44. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 43, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an indication to disable a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 45. A method according to paragraph 44, wherein the indication to disable a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction of whether to disable a greater number of symbols of the uplink or the downlink transmission if an amount of overlap between the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an odd number of symbols.

Paragraph 46. A method according to any of paragraphs 24 to 45, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an indication to puncture and/or rate match the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 47. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 46, wherein the guard period creation information is downlink control information, DCI , and the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is indicated by a 1 bit indicator indicating whether to puncture a portion of the uplink or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

Paragraph 48. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 46, wherein the guard period creation information downlink control information, DCI, and the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is indicated by one or more existing fields in the DCI. Paragraph 49. A method according to paragraph 48, wherein the existing field of DCI comprises the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is a modulation and coding, MCS, field, and the MCS field indicates to disable a portion of the one of the uplink or downlink transmission which is scheduled by the DCI if the MCS is below a predefined threshold.

50. A method according to any of paragraphs 24 to 46, wherein the guard period creation information comprises downlink control information, DCI, indicating a column of a time domain resource allocation, TDRA, table adapted to provide the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

51 . A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 46, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an activation downlink control information, DCI, for configured grant Physical Uplink Shared Channel, CG-PUSCH, and the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is comprised in the activation DCI.

Paragraph 52. A method according to paragraph 24, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an indication of a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period which the half-duplex communications device is permitted to disable.

Paragraph 53. A method according to any of paragraphs 25 to 52, wherein the indication is comprised in a semi-static or dynamic signal to the communications device.

Paragraph 54. A method according to any of paragraphs 24 to 53, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an indication of one or more predefined thresholds for use by the half-duplex communications device to determine which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in which to disable a portion, the one or more predefined thresholds comprising one or more of a threshold number of DMRS which should remain in the uplink and/or downlink transmission after a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission has been disabled; a threshold uplink coverage level above which a portion of the uplink transmission should be disabled; a threshold number of previous repetitions of the uplink transmission which were not disabled; a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, threshold.

Paragraph 55. A method according to paragraph 54, wherein the threshold uplink coverage level above which a portion of the uplink transmission should be disabled comprises a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, threshold of the uplink transmission, or a pathloss threshold of the uplink transmission. Paragraph 56. A method according to paragraph 54 or paragraph 55, wherein the indication of the one or more pre-defined thresholds are transmitted in one or more dynamic or semistatic signals to the half-duplex communications device

Paragraph 57. A method according to any of paragraphs 24 to 56, wherein the guard period determining information comprises a conditional instruction to determine the guard period as comprising the timing advance period if the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period.

Paragraph 58. A half-duplex communications device operable to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising a transmitter configured to transmit signals, a receiver configured to receive signals, and a controller configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to receive, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment, determine to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources, determine whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, and if the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, determine a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, or if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, create a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to create the guard period by disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

Paragraph 59. Infrastructure equipment for a wireless communications network operable to communicate with a half-duplex communications device, the infrastructure equipment comprising a transmitter configured to transmit signals, a receiver configured to receive signals, and a controller configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission, transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device, and either transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device, the guard period being for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, and/or transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, wherein the guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

Paragraph 60. Circuitry for a half-duplex communications device operable to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals, receiver circuitry configured to receive signals, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry to receive, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment, determine to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources, determine whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, and if the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, determine a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, or if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, create a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to create the guard period by disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

Paragraph 61. Circuitry for infrastructure equipment for a wireless communications network operable to communicate with a half-duplex communications device, the circuitry comprising transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals, receiver circuitry configured to receive signals, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry to transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission, transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device, and either transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device, the guard period being for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, and/or transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, wherein the guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

Paragraph 62. A wireless communications network comprising a half-duplex communications device according to paragraph 58 and infrastructure equipment according to paragraph 59.

Paragraph 63. A computer program comprising instructions which, when loaded onto a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of paragraphs 1 to 57.

Paragraph 64. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program according to paragraph 63.

In the above mentioned numbered paragraphs, the one or more conditions may be known to the half-duplex communications device because they are preconfigured for the half-duplex communications device, fixed in the half-duplex communications device or indicated to the half-duplex communications device by the infrastructure equipment in the form of conditional instructions. In the above numbered paragraphs, the one or more conditions, or conditional instructions, may be combined by the half-duplex communications device in any logical way. For example, if the half-duplex communications device receives a plurality of the conditional instructions from the infrastructure equipment then the half-duplex communications device may determine that all received conditions need to be met to perform the actions outlined in the conditional instructions. In other examples, if the half-duplex communications device receives a plurality of the conditional instructions from the infrastructure equipment then the half-duplex communications device may determine that only one of the conditions need to be met to perform the actions outlined in the conditional instructions

In the above numbered paragraphs where a “conditional instruction” is mentioned, the conditional instruction may, in other embodiments, instead be a “conditional permission”. For example, with reference to paragraph 29, the conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period according to which of the uplink and the downlink transmission has a lower L1 priority level may instead be a conditional permission to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period according to which of the uplink and the downlink transmission has a lower L1 priority level. In this case, the half-duplex communications device determines that it is permitted, but is not necessarily obliged to, disable a portion of the downlink transmission if it has a lower L1 priority than the uplink transmission.

It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity has described embodiments with reference to different functional units, circuitry and/or processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, circuitry and/or processors may be used without detracting from the embodiments.

Described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. Described embodiments may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any embodiment may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuitry and/or processors.

Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognise that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner suitable to implement the technique. REFERENCES

[1] Holma H. and Toskala A, “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radio access”, John Wiley and Sons, 2009.

[2] TR 38.913, “Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies (Release 14)”, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, v14.3.0, August 2017.

[3] RP-213591 , “New SI: Study on evolution of NR duplex operation,” CMCC, RAN#94e, December 2021.

[4] RP-220633, “Revised SID: Study on evolution of NR duplex operation,” CMCC, RAN#95e, March 2022. [5] European Patent No. 3545716.

[6] R1-2212249, “Discussion on subband non-overlapping full duplex for NR,” MediaTek, RAN1#111.

[7] R1-2211737, “Discussion on subband non-overlapping full duplex operations,” InterDigital, Inc., RAN1#111.

Claims

1. A method of operating a half-duplex communications device to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the method comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment, determining to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources, determining whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, and if the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, determining a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, or if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation, the creation of the guard period comprising disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining that the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a Demodulation Reference Signal, DMRS, in the timing advance period and disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise DMRS in the timing advance period.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise DMRS in the timing advance period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the downlink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period, and/or disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission based on whether the uplink transmission and/or the downlink transmission is determined to comprise a DRMS in the timing advance period comprises disabling a portion of the uplink and/or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period such that a remaining number of DMRS transmitted by the uplink and/or downlink transmission is above a predefined threshold.

5. A method according to claim 4, comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of the predefined threshold.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining an L1 priority level associated with the uplink transmission and an L1 priority level associated with the downlink transmission, disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period according to which of the uplink and the downlink transmission has the lower L1 priority level.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining a channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission and a channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission, disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the determining a channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission and a channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission comprises determining that the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, determining that the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, wherein the disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

9. A method according to claim 7, wherein the determining a channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission and a channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission comprises determining that the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, determining that the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH, wherein the disabling a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises determining a content of the uplink transmission, and disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a scheduling request, SR, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgement, ACK, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

12. A method according to claim 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, negative acknowledgement, NACK, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

13. A method according to claim 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises a plurality of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgements, ACKs, or HARQ negative acknowledgments, NACKs, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

14. A method according to claim 9, wherein the determining a content of the uplink transmission comprises determining that the uplink transmission comprises channel state information, CSI, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on the determined content of the uplink transmission comprises disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

15. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining an uplink coverage level of the half duplex communications device, disabling a portion the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the determined uplink coverage level is above a predefined threshold, or disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the determined uplink coverage level is below the predefined threshold.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the determining an uplink coverage level of the half duplex communications device comprises determining a maximum uplink power with which the half duplex communications device can transmit uplink transmissions, a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, applied for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device, or a pathloss for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device.

17. A method according to claim 1 , comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for receiving the downlink transmission, wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining a time at which the indication of resources allocated for the uplink transmission was received and a time at which the indication of resources allocated for the downlink transmission was received, and disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission, or disabling a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission.

18. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining that one of the uplink and the downlink transmission is a semi-statically configured transmission, determining that the other of the uplink and the downlink transmission is a dynamically allocated transmission, disabling a portion of the semi-statically allocated transmission in the timing advance period.

19. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises determining that the uplink transmission is a repetition of one or more previous uplink transmissions, determining that a number of the previous uplink transmissions which were not disabled by the half-duplex communications device is above a predefined threshold, disabling a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period.

20. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of the portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period to disable.

21 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions comprises disabling a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

22. A method according to claim 21 , wherein the disabling a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises determining that an amount of overlap between the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an odd number of symbols, determining whether to disable a greater number of symbols of the uplink or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more further conditions.

23. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the disabling a portion of the uplink and/or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises puncturing and/or rate matching the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

24. A method of operating infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network to communicate with a half-duplex communications device, the method comprising transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission, transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device, and either transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device, the guard period being for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, and/or transmitting, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, wherein the guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise a Demodulation Reference Signal, DMRS, in the timing advance period.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the downlink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period, and/or a conductional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a DMRS in the timing advance period.

28. A method according to claim 26, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on whether the uplink and/or downlink transmission is determined to comprise a DMRS in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period such that a remaining number of DMRS transmitted by the uplink and/or downlink transmission is above a predefined threshold.

29. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period according to which of the uplink and the downlink transmission has a lower L1 priority level.

30. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission.

31 . A method according to claim 30, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, and the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH.

32. A method according to claim 30, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of either the uplink transmission or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a channel type used for transmitting the uplink and/or downlink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission if the channel type used for transmitting the uplink transmission is a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, and the channel type used for transmitting the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH.

33. A method according to claim 32, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a scheduling request, SR.

34. A method according to claim 32, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgement, ACK.

35. A method according to claim 32, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, negative acknowledgement, NACK.

36. A method according to claim 34, comprising re-transmitting the PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ in response to receiving the uplink transmission when the uplink transmission comprises a disabled portion. .

37. A method according to claim 32, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises a plurality of Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, acknowledgements, ACKs, or HARQ negative acknowledgments, NACKs.

38. A method according to claim 32, wherein the conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on a content of the uplink transmission comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission comprises channel state information, CSI.

39. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if an uplink coverage level is above a predefined threshold, and/or a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink coverage level is below the predefined threshold.

40. A method according to claim 39, wherein the uplink coverage level is determined by, a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, applied for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device, or the uplink coverage level is determined by a pathloss for uplink transmissions transmitted by the half duplex communications device.

41 . A method according to claim 25, comprising transmitting, to the half duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving the downlink transmission, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission, and/or a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the indication of the resources allocated for the downlink transmission was received before the indication of the resources allocated for the uplink transmission.

42. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission is semi-statically configured, and/or a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the downlink transmission in the timing advance period if the downlink transmission is semi-statically configured.

43. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction to disable a portion of the uplink transmission in the timing advance period if the uplink transmission is a repetition of one or more previous uplink transmissions and a number of the previous uplink transmissions which were not disabled by the half-duplex communications device is above a predefined threshold.

44. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an indication to disable a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

45. A method according to claim 44, wherein the indication to disable a portion of both of the uplink and the downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises a conditional instruction of whether to disable a greater number of symbols of the uplink or the downlink transmission if an amount of overlap between the uplink and downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an odd number of symbols.

46. A method according to claim 24, wherein the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period comprises an indication to puncture and/or rate match the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

47. A method according to claim 25, wherein the guard period creation information is downlink control information, DCI, and the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is indicated by a 1 bit indicator indicating whether to puncture a portion of the uplink or the downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

48. A method according to claim 25, wherein the guard period creation information downlink control information, DCI, and the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is indicated by one or more existing fields in the DCI.

49. A method according to claim 48, wherein the existing field of DCI comprises the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is a modulation and coding, MCS, field, and the MCS field indicates to disable a portion of the one of the uplink or downlink transmission which is scheduled by the DCI if the MCS is below a predefined threshold.

50. A method according to claim 24, wherein the guard period creation information comprises downlink control information, DCI, indicating a column of a time domain resource allocation, TDRA, table adapted to provide the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period.

51 . A method according to claim 25, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an activation downlink control information, DCI, for configured grant Physical Uplink Shared Channel, CG-PUSCH, and the indication to disable a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period is comprised in the activation DCI.

52. A method according to claim 24, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an indication of a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period which the half-duplex communications device is permitted to disable.

53. A method according to claim 25, wherein the indication is comprised in a semi-static or dynamic signal to the communications device.

54. A method according to claim 24, wherein the guard period creation information comprises an indication of one or more predefined thresholds for use by the half-duplex communications device to determine which of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in which to disable a portion, the one or more predefined thresholds comprising one or more of a threshold number of DMRS which should remain in the uplink and/or downlink transmission after a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission has been disabled; a threshold uplink coverage level above which a portion of the uplink transmission should be disabled; a threshold number of previous repetitions of the uplink transmission which were not disabled; a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, threshold.

55. A method according to claim 54, wherein the threshold uplink coverage level above which a portion of the uplink transmission should be disabled comprises a modulation and coding scheme, MCS, threshold of the uplink transmission, or a pathloss threshold of the uplink transmission.

56. A method according to claim 54, wherein the indication of the one or more predefined thresholds are transmitted in one or more dynamic or semi-static signals to the halfduplex communications device

57. A method according to claim 24, wherein the guard period determining information comprises a conditional instruction to determine the guard period as comprising the timing advance period if the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period.

58. A half-duplex communications device operable to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising a transmitter configured to transmit signals, a receiver configured to receive signals, and a controller configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to receive, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment, determine to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources, determine whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, and if the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, determine a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, or if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, create a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to create the guard period by disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

59. Infrastructure equipment for a wireless communications network operable to communicate with a half-duplex communications device, the infrastructure equipment comprising a transmitter configured to transmit signals, a receiver configured to receive signals, and a controller configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission, transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device, and either transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device, the guard period being for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, and/or transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, wherein the guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

60. Circuitry for a half-duplex communications device operable to communicate with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals, receiver circuitry configured to receive signals, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry to receive, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of resources allocated for transmitting an uplink transmission to the infrastructure equipment, determine to advance the uplink transmission in time by a timing advance period to transmit the uplink transmission in accordance with the allocated resources, determine whether or not the half-duplex communications device is to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, and if the half-duplex communications device is determined not to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, determine a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, or if the half-duplex communications device is determined to receive a downlink transmission which overlaps in time with the timing advance period, create a guard period comprising the timing advance period for the half-duplex communications device to switch between the downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transmitter and the receiver to create the guard period by disabling a portion of the uplink and/or downlink transmission in the timing advance period based on one or more conditions.

61 . Circuitry for infrastructure equipment for a wireless communications network operable to communicate with a half-duplex communications device, the circuitry comprising transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals, receiver circuitry configured to receive signals, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry to transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, a downlink transmission, transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, an indication of resources allocated for receiving an uplink transmission from the half-duplex communications device, and either transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period determining information for determining a guard period comprising a timing advance period by which the uplink transmission is advanced in time by the half-duplex communications device, the guard period being for the half-duplex device to switch between a downlink and uplink mode of operation, wherein the guard period determining information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission does not overlap with the timing advance period, and/or transmit, to the half-duplex communications device, guard period creation information for creating a guard period comprising the timing advance period, wherein the guard period creation information is for use by the half-duplex communications device when it determines that the downlink transmission overlaps with the timing advance period.

62. A wireless communications network comprising a half-duplex communications device according to claim 58 and infrastructure equipment according to claim 59.

63. A computer program comprising instructions which, when loaded onto a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1 or claim 24.

64. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program according to claim 63.