GB2558586A

GB2558586A - Resource block waveform transmission structures for uplink communications

Info

Publication number: GB2558586A
Application number: GB1700271.8A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Liu Guang
Original assignee: TCL Communication Ltd
Current assignee: TCL Communication Ltd
Priority date: 2017-01-06
Filing date: 2017-01-06
Publication date: 2018-07-18
Also published as: WO2018126870A1; GB201700271D0; CN110313204B; CN110313204A

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for implementing waveform transmission structures for uplink data transmission of a radio burst between a UE and a base station in a telecommunications network. The radio burst includes a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, RBs, spanning the available frequency bandwidth. A plurality of modulated symbols are divided into multiple groups 145a-l. Each group of modulated symbols is assigned to a different OFDM symbol 112a-n of the radio burst. For each group, the subcarriers associated with the modulated symbols are mapped to multiple RBs 114 where at least one of the RBs is non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs.

Description

(54) Title of the Invention: Resource block waveform transmission structures for uplink communications Abstract Title: Resource block waveform transmission structures for uplink communications (57) Methods and apparatus are provided for implementing waveform transmission structures for uplink data transmission of a radio burst between a UE and a base station in a telecommunications network. The radio burst includes a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, RBs, spanning the available frequency bandwidth. A plurality of modulated symbols are divided into multiple groups 145a-l. Each group of modulated symbols is assigned to a different OFDM symbol 112a-n of the radio burst. For each group, the subcarriers associated with the modulated symbols are mapped to multiple RBs 114 where at least one of the RBs is non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs.

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Application No. GB1700271.8

RTM

Date :23 June 2017

Intellectual

Property

Office

The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document:

LTE

Wi-Fi

WIMAX

GSM

IEEE

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.gov.uk/ipo

RESOURCE BLOCK WAVEFORM TRANSMISSION STRUCTURES FOR UPLINK COMMUNICATIONS

Technical Field [0001] Embodiments or examples of the present invention generally relate to methods and apparatus for transmitting uplink data and/or control data from a user equipment (UE) served by a base station in which the UE assigns resource blocks (RBs) and OFDM symbols in a particular manner for efficiently transmitting the uplink data and/or control data to the base station to minimise latency and maximise reliability.

Background [0002] Current telecommunications networks operate using radio spectrum in which multiple accesses to the communications resources of the radio spectrum is strictly controlled. Each user of the network is essentially provided a “slice” of the spectrum using a variety of multiple access techniques such as, by way of example only but not limited to, frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, code division multiplexing, and space division multiplexing or a combination of one or more of these techniques. Even with a combination of these techniques, with the popularity of mobile telecommunications, the capacity of current and future telecommunications networks is still very limited, especially when using licensed radio spectrum.

[0003] 5G New Radio (5G/NR) is the name chosen by Third Generation Partnership Project defining the global 5G telecommunications standard for the specification of a new 5G wireless air interface. 3G and 4G communications standards such as current Long Term Evolution (LTE)/LTE advanced standards were directed to connecting people. Instead, 5G/NR will connect everything and provide a unifying connectivity fabric for the next decade and beyond. 5G/NR may bring about a suite of families such as enhanced Mobile Broadband, massive Machine Type Communications, and Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC). URLLC is defined as one of the key target scenarios to be supported by 5G/NR and should provide low latency communications and high reliability (e.g. URLLC reliability requirement for one transmission of a packet is 1-10⁵ for X bytes (e.g., 20 bytes) with a user plane latency of 1ms) and high reliability. Thus, concepts from current LTE/LTE advanced standards such as physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for License Assisted Access (LAA) and enhanced LAA may be further improved upon to provide low latency and high reliability communications and thus further improve link performance.

[0004] The current waveform transmission structure for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), which is a data channel, and/or physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), which is a control channel, are designed to satisfy two regulation requirements if it is operated in 5GHz unlicensed band. Currently there are two main regulations in sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the ETSI EN 301 893 V1.7.2 (2014-07) “Broadband Radio Access Networks (BRAN); 5 GHz high performance RLAN; Harmonized EN covering the essential requirements of article 3.2 of the R&TTE Directive” draft standard that each uplink (UL) wireless communication unit should comply with for the UL when using the unlicensed spectrum. The first regulation, in section 4.3 ETSI EN 301 893 V1.7.2 (2014-07), the output signal of each wireless communication unit must be able to occupy at least 80% of the whole bandwidth. Even when only 2 RBs are allocated to one terminal, they must be located with enough distance in between, e.g., one RB at the left end and the other on the right end of the system bandwidth, while they could be located anywhere next to each other currently.

[0005] The second regulation, in section 4.4 ETSI EN 301 893 V1.7.2 (2014-07), describes the power density per MHz is limited to a certain level measured in dBm (e.g., 10dBm), this means even only one RB (e.g. 180KHz) needs to be sent and the UE cannot use full power (e.g., 23dBm). To use more power, it is expected that the UE distributes the subcarriers in frequency in a way that they are mapped into as many “MHz” as possible.

[0006] Although the following description describes, by way of example only but is not limited to, the use of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), single-carrier and multi-carrier transmitters/receivers based on OFDM and other carrier formats, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that the following description may be applied, not only to OFDMA, FDMA or SC-FDMA or other OFDM related systems, but also to other communication systems, receivers and transmitters, such as, byway of example only but is not limited to, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, any other Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, or Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) systems, or any other suitable communication system or combinations thereof.

[0007] There is a desire and a need for a mechanism that further improves the link performance of current uplink waveform transmission structures for data channels and/or control channels such as PUSCH and/or PUCCH for LTE/LTE Advanced to meet the new requirements of the 5G/NR and beyond standards and the like such as low latency and high reliability.

Summary [0008] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0009] Methods and apparatus according to the invention are provided for implementing waveform transmission structures for uplink data transmission of a radio burst between a UE and a base station in a telecommunications network. The radio burst includes a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, RBs, spanning the available frequency bandwidth. A plurality of modulated symbols are divided into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number of modulated symbols. Each group of modulated symbols is assigned to a different OFDM symbol of the radio burst. Various configurations for pre-coding the groups of modulated symbols with multiple or single DFTs, afterwhich subcarriers associated with the pre-coded modulated symbols are mapped to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs of one or more OFDM symbols, where at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs. Similarly, without a DFT subcarriers associated with the groups of modulated symbols are mapped to multiple RBs associated with the OFDM symbols. Transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs. Some advantages of the invention are an improved reliability and/or reduced latency in decoding the received data making it suitable for current 3G networks and/or future 5G/NR networks and beyond.

[0010] According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a user equipment (UE) and a base station over a telecommunication network. The radio burst comprises a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks (RBs) spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method including: dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, Ni, of modulated symbols, where i is the index of the said group; assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst; for each group of modulated symbols: pre-coding said each group of modulated symbols based on an L-point Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) where L >= Ni; and mapping the subcarriers associated with the pre-coded modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs, wherein at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs; and transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs.

[0011] According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network, where the radio burst comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth including a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method includes: dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, Ni, of modulated symbols, where i is the index of the said group; assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst; and for each group of modulated symbols assigned to an OFDM symbol, performing the steps of: dividing each group of modulated symbols into multiple subgroups of modulated symbols; pre-coding said each subgroup of modulated symbols based on a L-point DFT, L> K wherein K is the number of modulated symbols in said each subgroup; and mapping the subcarriers associated with the pre-coded modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs of an OFDM symbol; and transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs.

[0012] Optionally, for at least one RB, the precoded modulated symbols are scrambled by a scrambling sequence before being mapped to the subcarriers of the at least one said RB. As an option, the said scrambling sequence is pre-defined and known by both the UE and the base station.

[0013] Optionally, at least for one or more RBs, the precoded modulated symbols from one or more different OFDM symbols are mapped to the subcarriers of the said at least one or more RBs associated with said OFDM symbol. As an option, the said different OFDM symbols are determined according to a predefined mapping pattern known by both the UE and the base station. As another option, the said predefined mapping pattern is a set of cyclic shifts or rotations of the same mapping sequence.

[0014] Optionally, the number, K, of modulated symbols is selected by the base station based on the channel condition and the subcarrier numerology. As another option, the said number, K, is manually configured according to the channel conditions of the UE within the coverage area of the said base station. As a further option, the said number, K, is automatically selected by the base station according to its and/or the specific UE’s channel measurement results and different values could be selected for different UEs. Optionally, the number, K, of the modulated symbols is indicated to the UE and one or more other UEs served by this base station.

[0015] According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network, where the radio burst comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth including a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method includes: dividing a plurality of modulated symbols associated with data for transmission into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, Ni, of modulated symbols, where i is the index of the said group; assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst; and for each group of modulated symbols of an OFDM symbol: mapping the subcarriers associated with the modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs in the OFDM symbol, where at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs; and transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs.

[0016] Optionally, the method(s) further include allocating the multiple RBs based on a set of predefined interlaces with available RBs for the uplink transmission, each interlace in the set of predefined interlaces defining a unique plurality of non-contiguous RBs selected from the plurality of contiguous RBs.

[0017] As an option, the method(s) further include starting transmission after a Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedure, wherein OFDM symbols overlapping with an LBT period are discarded and remaining symbols of said radio burst are transmitted.

[0018] As an option, the multiple RBs comprise at least two RBs that span at least 80% of the declared system bandwidth or available frequency bandwidth of the licensed or unlicensed radio frequency spectrum. Optionally, two or more of the multiple RBs are contiguous.

[0019] According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method for receiving data transmitted in a radio burst between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network in accordance with the first aspect of the invention. The radio burst comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method including: receiving a plurality of OFDM symbols comprising a plurality of RBs representing the transmitted data; retrieving multiple groups of pre-coded modulation symbols by demapping multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs of each OFDM symbol, at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs, to the subcarriers associated with pre-coded modulation symbols; performing, on each group of precoded modulation symbols an L-point inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) to output multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, Ni, of modulated symbols, where L >= Ni, and Ni is the number of modulated symbols in a group of modulated symbols, and demultiplexing the multiple groups of modulated symbols fordecoding the data.

[0020] According to a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided a method for receiving data in a radio burst transmitted between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network in accordance with the second aspect of the invention, where the radio burst comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth including a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method includes: receiving the OFDM symbols of the radio burst comprising mapped RBs; demapping the subcarriers of multiple RBs to groups of pre-coded modulated symbols; performing, on each group of precoded-modulated symbols, an L-point inverse DFT to output multiple subgroups of modulated symbols associated with each OFDM symbol, where L> K and K is the number of modulated symbols in said each subgroup of modulated symbols corresponding to each group of precoded-modulated symbols; demultiplexing each subgroup of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, Ni, of modulated symbols, where Ni is the number of modulated symbols in a group of modulated symbols, and demultiplexing the multiple groups of modulated symbols for decoding the data.

[0021] Optionally, for at least one RB, the descrambling the precoded modulated symbols by a descrambling sequence after demapping the subcarriers of the at least one said RB. As an option, the said descrambling sequence is pre-defined and known by both the UE or the base station.

[0022] Optionally, at least for one or more RBs, demapping RBs to subcarriers associated with the precoded modulated symbols of the OFDM symbol to one or more different OFDM symbols. As an option, the said different OFDM symbols are determined according to a predefined mapping pattern known by both the UE and the base station. As another option, the said predefined mapping pattern is a set of cyclic shifts or rotations of the same mapping sequence.

[0023] According to a sixth aspect of the invention there is provided a method for receiving a radio burst transmitted between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network in accordance with the third aspect of the invention, where the radio burst comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth including a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method includes: receiving OFDM symbols of the radio burst comprising mapped RBs; demapping the subcarriers of multiple RBs to groups of modulated symbols, where at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs; demultiplexing the groups of modulated symbols into a plurality of modulated symbols associated with the data for decoding the data.

[0024] According to further aspects of the invention there is provided a UE apparatus including a processor, a storage unit and a communications interface, where the processor unit, storage unit, and communications interface are configured to perform the method(s) as described or as described herein.

[0025] According to yet further aspects of the invention there is provided a base station apparatus including a processor, a storage unit and a communications interface, wherein the processor unit, storage unit, communications interface are configured to perform the method(s) as described or as described herein.

[0026] According to still further aspects of the invention there is provided a telecommunications network including a plurality of UEs configured as described with reference to the UE apparatus or as described herein, a plurality of base stations configured as described with reference to base station apparatus or as described herein, each base station configured for communicating with one or more of the plurality of UEs.

[0027] The methods described herein may be performed by software in machine readable form on a tangible storage medium or computer readable medium e.g. in the form of a computer program comprising computer program code means adapted to perform all the steps of any of the methods described herein when the program is run on a computing device or UE and where the computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium. Examples of tangible (or non-transitory) storage media include disks, thumb drives, memory cards etc. and do not include propagated signals. The software can be suitable for execution on a parallel processor or a serial processor such that the method steps may be carried out in any suitable order, or simultaneously. For example, another other aspect of the invention there is provided a computer readable medium comprising a computer program, program code or instructions stored thereon, which when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a user equipment (UE) and a base station over a telecommunication network or as described herein. In a further aspect of the invention there is provided a computer readable medium comprising a computer program, program code or instructions stored thereon, which when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method for transmitting uplink data from a UE to a base station using licensed or unlicensed radio spectrum and/or as described herein.

[0028] This acknowledges that firmware and software can be valuable, separately tradable commodities. It is intended to encompass software, which runs on or controls “dumb” or standard hardware, to carry out the desired functions. It is also intended to encompass software which “describes” or defines the configuration of hardware, such as HDL (hardware description language) software, as is used fordesigning silicon chips, or for configuring universal programmable chips, to carry out desired functions.

[0029] The preferred features may be combined as appropriate, as would be apparent to a skilled person, and may be combined with any of the aspects of the invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings [0030] Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to, by way of example only but not limited to, the following drawings, in which:

[0031] Figure 1 a is a schematic diagram of a telecommunications network;

[0032] Figure 1 b is a schematic diagram of an example communication resource grid illustrating an RB structure for the uplink and/or downlink of the telecommunications network of figure 1a;

[0033] Figure 1 c is a schematic diagram of an example conventional uplink control waveform transmission structure;

[0034] Figure 2a is a schematic diagram of an example uplink waveform transmission structure for transmitting a radio burst of payload data according to the invention;

[0035] Figure 2b is a schematic diagram of an example transmitter structure for the waveform transmission structure of figure 2a according to the invention;

[0036] Figure 2c is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for the uplink waveform transmission structure of figure 2a according to the invention;

[0037] Figure 3a is a schematic diagram of another example uplink waveform transmission structure for transmitting a radio burst of payload data according to the invention;

[0038] Figure 3b is a schematic diagram of another example transmitter structure for the waveform transmission structure of figure 3a according to the invention;

[0039] Figure 3c is a schematic diagram of a set of scheduled RBs based on the waveform transmission structure of figures 3a and 3b;

[0040] Figure 3d is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for the uplink waveform transmission structure of figures 3a-3c according to the invention;

[0041] Figure 4a is a schematic diagram of a further example uplink waveform transmission structure for transmitting a radio burst of payload data according to the invention;

[0042] Figure 4b is a schematic diagram of a yet a further example uplink waveform transmission structure for transmitting a radio burst of payload data according to the invention;

[0043] Figure 4c is a schematic diagram of another example transmitter structure for the waveform transmission structure of figure 4b according to the invention;

[0044] Figure 4d is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for the uplink waveform transmission structure of figures 4b-4c according to the invention;

[0045] Figure 4e is a schematic diagram of a yet a further example uplink waveform transmission structure for transmitting a radio burst of payload data according to the invention;

[0046] Figure 4f is a schematic diagram of another example transmitter structure for the waveform of figure 4e according to the invention;

[0047] Figure 4g is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for the uplink waveform transmission structure of figures 4e-4g according to the invention;

[0048] Figure 5a is a schematic diagram of a further example uplink waveform transmission structure for transmitting a radio burst of payload data according to the invention;

[0049] Figure 5b is a flow diagram illustrating an example method for the uplink waveform transmission structure of figure 5a according to the invention;

[0050] Figure 6a is a schematic diagram of an generalised overview of examples of the uplink waveform transmission structures of figures 2a-5b according to the invention;

[0051] Figure 6b is a schematic diagram of an Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedure for use with the waveform transmission structures according to the invention;

[0052] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating the BLER vs. SNR performance of example waveform transmission structures according to the invention;

[0053] Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of a base station device for implementing one or more aspects or functions of the invention; and [0054] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a UE device for implementing one or more aspects or functions of the invention.

[0055] Common reference numerals are used throughout the figures to indicate similar features.

Detailed Description [0056] Embodiments of the present invention are described below by way of example only. These examples represent the best ways of putting the invention into practice that are currently known to the Applicant although they are not the only ways in which this could be achieved. The description sets forth the functions of the example and the sequence of steps for constructing and operating the example. However, the same or equivalent functions and sequences may be accomplished by different examples.

[0057] The inventors have found that it is possible to improve the performance of uplink data and/or control data (e.g. control) transmission over uplink data channels and/or uplink control channels, respectively, and the like to meet the requirements of future communications standards such as 5G and beyond that regulate the licensed and/or unlicensed radio spectrum whilst providing improvements in latency of uplink data and/or control data transmission and thus enhancing network capacity of the frequency bandwidth of the licensed and/or unlicensed radio spectrum for multiple users. A UE may comprise or represent any portable computing device for communications. Examples of UEs that may be used in certain embodiments of the described apparatus, methods and systems may be wired or wireless devices such as mobile devices, mobile phones, terminals, smart phones, portable computing devices such as laptops, handheld devices, tablets, tablet computers, netbooks, phablets, personal digital assistants, music players, and other computing devices capable of wired or wireless communications.

[0058] Figure 1 a is a schematic diagram of a telecommunications network 100 comprising telecommunications infrastructure 102 (e.g. telecoms, infrastructure 102), a plurality of communication network nodes 104a-104m with cells 106a-106m for serving a plurality of UEs 108a-108I. The plurality of communication network nodes 104a-104m are connected by links to the telecommunications infrastructure 102. The links may be wired or wireless (for example, radio communications links, optical fibre, etc.). The telecommunications infrastructure 102 may include one or more core network(s) that may be in communication with one or more radio access network(s) including the plurality of network nodes 104a-104m.

[0059] In this example, the network nodes 104a-104m are illustrated as base stations, which, by way of example only but not limited to, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced telecommunications network may be eNodeBs (eNBs). The plurality of network nodes 104a104m (e.g. base stations) each have a footprint indicated schematically in figure 1 as corresponding hexagonal cells 106a-106m for serving one or more of the UEs 108a-108I.

UEs 108a-108I are able to receive services from the telecommunications network 100 such as voice, video, audio and other services.

[0060] Telecommunications network 100 may comprise or represent any one or more communication network(s) used for communications between UEs 108a-108I and other devices, content sources or servers that are connected to the telecommunications network 100. The telecommunication infrastructure 102 may also comprise or represent any one or more communication network(s), one or more network nodes, entities, elements, application servers, servers, base stations or other network devices that are linked, coupled or connected to form telecommunications network 100. The coupling or links between network nodes may be wired or wireless (for example, radio communications links, optical fibre, etc.). The telecommunication network 100 and telecommunication infrastructure 102 may include any suitable combination of core network(s) and radio access network(s) including network nodes or entities, base stations, access points, etc. that enable communications between the UEs 108a-108I, network nodes 104a-104m of the telecommunication network 100 and telecommunication infrastructure 102, content sources and/or other devices connecting to the network 100.

[0061] Examples of telecommunication network 100 that may be used in certain embodiments of the described apparatus, methods and systems may be at least one communication network or combination thereof including, but not limited to, one or more wired and/or wireless telecommunication network(s), one or more core network(s), one or more radio access network(s), one or more computer networks, one or more data communication network(s), the Internet, the telephone network, wireless network(s) such as the WiMAX, WLAN(s) based on, by way of example only, the IEEE 802.11 standards and/or Wi-Fi networks, or Internet Protocol (IP) networks, packet-switched networks or enhanced packet switched networks, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks, or communications networks based on wireless, cellular or satellite technologies such as mobile networks, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), GPRS networks, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), CDMA2000 or Long Term Evolution (LTE)/LTE Advanced networks or any 2nd, 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th Generation and beyond type communication networks and the like.

[0062] In the example of figure 1 a, the telecommunications network may be, by way of example only but is not limited to, an LTE/LTE advanced communication network that uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technologies for the downlink and uplink channels. The downlink may include one or more communication channel(s) for transmitting data from one or more base stations 104a-104m to one or more UEs 108a-108I. Typically, a downlink channel is a communication channel for transmitting data, for example, from a base station 104a to a UE 108a. In LTE/LTE advanced communication networks, the multiple access method used in the downlink may be orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA).

[0063] The uplink may include one or more communication channel(s) for transmitting data from one or more UE(s) 108a-108I to one or more base station(s) 104a-104m. The LTE/LTE advanced uplink may use single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) mode, which is considered equivalent to OFDM. Typically, an uplink channel is a communication channel for transmitting data, for example, from a UE 108a to a base station 108a. In OFDM, multi-carrier transmission is used to carry data in the form of OFDM symbols over the uplink and downlink channels. For example, an uplink channel or downlink channel between UE 108a and base station 104a may comprise or represent one or more narrowband carriers in which each narrowband carrier may further include a plurality of narrowband sub-carriers.

This is known as multi-carrier transmission. Each of the narrowband sub-carriers is used for transmitting data in the form of OFDM symbols.

[0064] Although the uplink and downlink for LTE/LTE advanced networks use OFDM technologies, OFDM technologies are also being proposed for use with 5G/NR and beyond networks. The main candidates include: Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing (SCFDM) or called differently Cyclic Prefix (CP) DFT-Spread-OFDM (as in 4G LTE Uplink), ZeroTail (ZT) or Unique-Word (UW) DFT-Spread-OFDM, Generalised FDM, UW-OFDM, CPOFDM (as in 4G LTE Downlink), Resource-Block-Filtered OFDM, Universal Filter MultiCarrier (UFMC), and Filter-Bank-Multi-carrier (FBMC). For simplicity, SC-FDM is considered to be equivalent to OFDM, thus the term OFDM will, for simplicity and by way of example, be primarily used herein.

[0065] In OFDM, the uplink and downlink may be divided into radio bursts or radio frames (e.g. in LTE/LTE Advanced each burst or frame may be 10ms in length), in which each burst or frame may be divided into a plurality of subframes. For example, for LTE/LTE Advanced, each frame may include ten subframes of equal length, with each subframe consisting of a number of time slots (e.g. 2 slots) for transmitting data. In addition to the time slots, a subframe may include several additional special fields or OFDM symbols that may include, by way of example only, synchronization symbols (s), broadcast symbol(s), and/or uplink reference symbol(s). For OFDM, the smallest resource unit or element in the time domain is an OFDM symbol, which may also be called an SC-FDMA symbol and both mean the time length of all samples together after CP is added as shown in Figure 2b, Figure 3b, Figure 4c and Figure 4f. Although OFDM symbols are described herein, this is by way of example only, it will be appreciated by the skilled person that other similar types of FDM symbols and the like may be used in place of OFDM symbols or SC-FDM symbols and the like without departing from the scope of the invention as described herein.

[0066] Figure 1 b is a schematic diagram illustrating a communication resource grid 110 in the frequency and time domain for a radio burst comprising a plurality of OFDM symbols 112a-112n for either the uplink or the downlink. . In this example, the radio burst comprising

Nsymb OFDM symbols 112a-112n (e.g. OFDM symbol #0, OFDM symbol #1,......, OFDM symbol #4,......, OFDM symbol #( N_SYMb -1))· The communication resource grid 110 is illustrated with the frequency domain on the y axis of the communication resource grid 110 and the time domain on the x axis of the communication resource grid 110. The communication resource grid 110 may represent one carrier of a plurality of carriers in the frequency domain. The communication resource grid 110 includes a plurality of RBs in which each RB 114i or RB #i may be associated with a particular carrier frequency of the plurality of carriers.

[0067] Each carrier for uplink communications may be divided into a number, N_RB, of one or more RBs in which each RB 114i has a plurality of subcarriers, e.g. each RB 114i may have a number, N_sc, of one or more subcarriers ora plurality of subcarriers, in which each subcarrier may be offset from the carrier frequency associated with the RB 114i. Each carrier includes a number of N_RB x N_sc subcarriers (i.e. a plurality of subcarriers) associated with the one or more RB(s). Each RB 114i may be represented by a subset of the plurality of subcarriers, e.g. N_sc subcarriers, in the frequency domain and a plurality of OFDM symbols 112a-112n in the time domain , e.g. N_SYMb symbols, in which each OFDM symbol has a symbol period.

[0068] The RB 114i defines a grid in the frequency and time domain of N_sc x N_SYMb resource elements 116. ForRB 114i, a resource element 116 is associated with a particular subcarrier of the N_sc subcarriers and with a particular OFDM symbol of the N_SYMB OFDM symbols. The communications resources that may be allocated and assigned to a UE may be based on the communication resource grid 110 and are typically assigned in terms of one or more RBs/subcarriers associated with a corresponding carrier. The communication resources may be described in terms of one or more carrier(s), one or more subcarrier(s), and/or one or more RB(s). When RB 114i is assigned to a UE for data transmission, each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112n may be assigned a portion RB 114i, namely, one of N_SYMb RB columns 114a,i 114n,i. Two RB columns 114a,i and 114n,i are illustrated in resource gird 110 by dotted columns of N_sc contiguous resource elements associated with OFDM symbols 112a and 112n, respectively. Each of the RB columns 114a,i - 114n,i includes a plurality of N_sccontiguous resource elements associated with a respective one of OFDM symbols 112a-112n. For example, RB column 114a,i represents the plurality of N_sc resource elements associated with OFDM symbol 112a, which comprises N_sc subcarriers associated with OFDM symbol 112a. RB column 114n,i represents the plurality of N_sc resource elements associated with OFDM symbol 112n, which comprises N_sc subcarriers associated with OFDM symbol 112n.

[0069] The communication resource grid 110 for the downlink and uplink are effectively the same type of structure, with some slight differences. For example, the downlink for LTE/LTE Advanced networks typically uses OFDM multiple access (OFDMA), hence the downlink may use OFDMA symbols in the time domain. The uplink for LTE/LTE Advanced networks typically uses SC-FDMA for accessing the uplink, and so SC-FDMA symbols may be used for a radio frame in the time domain. Although this may be the case for current LTE/LTE Advanced networks, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that furture networks may use various OFDM technologies as outlined herein for the uplink and/or the downlink.

[0070] Referring to figures 1a and 1b, typically, in LTE networks, communication resources may be allocated by base stations 104a-104m (e.g. eNBs) to UEs 108a-108I in terms of a list of carriers and/or RBs. For example, in current LTE network(s), the smallest dimensional unit for assigning resources in the frequency domain is a RB with bandwidth 180kHz, which corresponds to N_sc =12 subcarriers, each at 15kHz offset from the carrier frequency associated with the RB. However, although LTE networks may assign communication resources in terms of a list of carriers or a number of one or more RBs, it is to be appreciated by the person skilled in the art that communication resources may be assigned in terms of one or more carriers, one or more RBs, one or more subcarriers, and/or, in future, in terms of one or more resource elements or any combination thereof.

[0071] As an example, for LAA with 20MHz bandwidth of licensed/unlicensed spectrum in which each RB is 180kHz, then a total of 100 RBs may be allocated by a base station to each UE. There have been several proposals to allocate a limited set of RB mappings or so-called interlaces that satisfy the two main regulations of sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the ETSI EN 301 893 V1.7.2 (2014-07) as described above. Each RB mapping or interlace corresponds to a particular number of RBs that may be allocated to the UE. When the number of RBs required by a UE is not one of these particular numbers, padding bits may be added until an interlace is fully occupied by that UE.

[0072] An interlace may be defined as a plurality of non-contiguous RBs selected from a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning an available frequency bandwidth of the licensed/unlicensed radio frequency spectrum. The interlace may be a pre-defined set of RBs selected to span the frequency bandwidth. The non-contiguous RBs may be selected in such a manner that the RBs span at least 80% of the available frequency bandwidth of the licensed/unlicensed radio frequency spectrum and/or satisfying the first main regulation of section 4.3 of the ETSI EN 301 893 V1.7.2 (2014-07) as described above. There may be a plurality of pre-defined interlaces in which each interlace defines a different plurality of noncontiguous RBs or a different set of RBs selected from the plurality of contiguous RBs. Typically, the set of RBs of each interlace are different to the sets of RBs of every other interlace. That is, each interlace may define a unique plurality of non-contiguous RBs from the plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the frequency bandwidth or a unique set of RBs.

[0073] Each interlace in a set of predefined interlaces may have a unique interlace identifier, which may be used by the base station when allocating RBs to a UE for uplink transmission over the frequency bandwidth of the unlicensed spectrum. If both the base station and the UE have knowledge of the set of predefined interlaces and corresponding interlace identifiers, then the base station can allocate a set of RBs by allocating an interlace or one or more interlaces to a UE using the corresponding interlace identifier rather than the exact RB position within the plurality of contiguous RBs. Thus, each allocated interlace defines a plurality of non-contiguous RBs that the UE may use for its uplink transmissions.

[0074] For example, the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) may have 100 RBs per 20 MHz in which all RBs are grouped into 10 interlaces. In this case, each interlace, byway of example only but is not limited to, may have 10 RBs, for instance, interlace #k includes RB #k, RB #k+10, RB #k+20 ... RB #k+90, k = 0,1,2...9. The end-to-end bandwidth is approximately 16.38 MHz (= 0.18 MHz / RB x 91 RB). As described with reference to figure 1b, each RB has 12 subcarriers, each subcarrier is 15 KHz wide, and hence the bandwidth of one RB is approximately 180 KHz. It is possible for a base station to allocate multiple interlaces to one UE. Interlaces not scheduled are filed with “0”.

[0075] If one interlace is scheduled fora UE, then all RBs between two adjacent RBs of the same interlace are not used, the permitted power of 10dBm can be used by one RB and totally 20dBm is permitted per interlace. In this example, although an interlace is a set of 10 RBs with identical gaps between two adjacent RBs, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that the waveforms and RB scheduling patterns described herein according to the invention can be applied to any other RB scheduling patterns, for instance, interlaces with unequal gaps or several groups of contiguous RBs with one or more identical and/or one or more unequal or non-identical gaps between.

[0076] The PUSCH waveform formats and interlaces have been proposed to be used on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for enhanced LAA communications. The inventors have found that it is possible to further enhance the communications performance of the PUCCH and/or PUSCH waveform formats for different scenarios by modifying the uplink (UL) waveform transmission structures, designs and technologies for operating in unlicensed and/or licensed radio bands. For example, enhancements to the discrete fourier transform (DFT) SC-OFDM/OFDM waveform transmission structures are proposed for use in 4G and/or 5G/NR and beyond type networks that make use of multiple DFTs in the pre-coder before the subcarrier mapping to RBs in which the DFT size may be configurable by the base station when allocating user data and control data communication resources (e.g. PUCCH and/or PUSCH resources) to UE(s). This may achieve an optimal performance over conventional PUCCH or PUSCH waveform transmission structures in different scenarios (e.g. delay spread). The mechanisms of the invention may also achieve an optimal overall performance between cubic metric (CM) values and communication link performance and enable a pipeline processing in the uplink receiver which can benefit the communication link with a a higher reliability and/or reduced latency.

[0077] Figure 1 c illustrates a schematic diagram of an example conventional or legacy PUCCH waveform transmission structure 130 for used by a UE for transmitting control data in the uplink of a licensed radio frequency band based on the LTE PUCCH waveform format 4. Although the legacy PUCCH waveform transmission structure 130 is described for transmitting control data, this waveform is used for simplicity and byway of example only, and it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that such waveform transmission structures may be applied not only for control data but also for uplink data transmission over data channels such as, by way of example only but not limited to legacy Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) formats and/or any other type of communication channel or data communication channel format that may be used or used for 3G/4G/5G and beyond telecommunications systems and the like. Although a legacy PUCCH waveform transmission structure 130 is described, this is by way of example only, and it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that similar waveform transmission structures or designs based on other PUCCH formats and/or any other type of communication channel or control data format that may be used or used for 3G/4G/5G and beyond telecommunications systems and the like.

[0078] Referring back to figure 1 c, the legacy PUCCH waveform transmission structure 130 is transmitted over a radio frame comprising a plurality of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112n, each with a particular SC-FDMA symbol period. In this case, the radio frame comprises 14 SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112n that are respectively numbered SC-FDMA symbol #0 to #13. Each SC-FDMA symbol 112a-112n or SC-FDMA symbol #0-#13 may have a number of RBs depending on the bandwidth, e.g. 100 RBs of RB#0-RB#99 for LTE 20 MHz, assigned to it.

[0079] In this example, the legacy PUCCH waveform transmission structure 130 that is transmitted by a UE is generated by the UE from a PUCCH data payload that is output from a data source 132. The data source 132 may output data representative of Nb data bits, which may include by way of example only but is not limited to, any data for transmission and/or one or more or multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) ACK/NAK bits and any other data required for the uplink data transmission. In this example, the data source 132 outputs the PUCCH data payload comprising control data representing Nb control data bits, which may include, by way of example only but is not limited to, control data representative of one or more or multiple HARQ ACK/NACK bits, channel quality indicators (CQI), multiple input multiple output (ΜΙΜΟ) feedback such as rank indicator(s) Rl, precoding matrix indicator(s) PMI and the like etc., scheduling requests for uplink transmission, or any other control data or data that may be transmitted by a UE over a channel (e.g. the PUCCH) of the uplink to the base station. Although a PUCCH data payload is described, this is by way of example only, and it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that the PUCCH data payload may be replaced with any other type of data payload, such as by way of example only but not limited to, a PUSCH data payload for PUSCH or any other data payload for data channels or user data channels and the like.

[0080] The Nb bits of PUCCH data payload output from PUCCH data source 132 together with, by way of example only but not limited to, cyclic redundancy coding (CRC) bits (e.g. 8 bit CRC) is encoded by error control coder (ECC) 134. The ECC 134 may use any error control coding scheme that takes the Nb bit PUCCH data payload and 8 CRC bits and outputs a number Nk of encoded bits. In this example, the ECC 134 uses 1/3 Tail Biting Convolutional Coding (TBCC), which outputs a number Nk of encoded bits that is 3 times the number of data bits input to the ECC 134 (e.g. 3*(Nb+8) bits).

[0081] The ECC 134 outputs the 3*(Nb+8) encoded payload data bits for input to a rate matching module 136 in which the 3*(Nb+8) encoded bits are interleaved and rate matched according to the amount of scheduled radio resources (e.g., 288 bits for 1 RB, 576 bits for 2 RBs, etc.). In this example, the encoded bits are rate matched by rate matching module 136 which outputs 288 coded bits for input to a scrambling module 138. The encoded bits after rate matching are scrambled with a cell specific scrambling code which is used to differentiate different cells and associated base stations.

[0082] The scrambling module 138 outputs scrambled coded bits for input to modulator module 140, which in this example but is not limited to, modulates the 288 scrambled coded bits using a Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation scheme. Thus the 288 scrambled coded bits are modulated by the modulator module 140 into 144 modulated QPSK symbols. The 144 QPSK symbols output from the modulator module 140 are assigned to a radio burst comprising at least one SC-FDMA symbol 112a or a plurality of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112I. In this example, the radio burst includes a plurality of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-1121.

[0083] The 144 QPSK symbols are divided by a de-multiplexor module 144 into 12 groups of QPSK symbols 145a-145I, in which each group 145a-145I has 12 QPSK symbols and each group of 12 QPSK symbols is assigned to a corresponding different one of the plurality of SCFDMA symbols 112a-112n, except SC-FDMA symbols 112d and 112k, which are assigned to transmit, by way of example only but is not limited to, demodulation reference symbols (DRMS) 148. DMRS 148 are inserted into the middle SC-FDMA symbols 112d and 112k of each set of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112g and 112h-112n to aid channel estimation. For example, a first group 145a of 12 QPSK symbols is assigned SC-FDMA symbol 112a, a second group 145b of 12 QPSK symbols is assigned SC-FDMA symbol 112b, a third group 145c of 12 QPSK symbols is assigned SC-FDMA symbol 112c, a fourth group 145d of 12 QPSK symbols is assigned SC-FDMA symbol 112e, and so on until all of the 12 groups 145a1451 of QPSK symbols have been assigned 12 SC-FDMA symbols from the radio burst comprising the plurality of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112n.

[0084] For each SC-FDMA symbol 112a-112n, except SC-FDMA symbols 112d and 112k, each group of 12 QPSK symbols 145a-145I are pre-coded by a 12-point DFT module 146 in which the outputs are mapped to 12 subcarriers of one RB associated with the corresponding SC-FDMA symbol. Note, the same 12-point DFT module 146 is used for each SC-FDMA symbol 112a-112n, except 112d and 112k. In this example, each SC-FDMA symbol has, by way of example only but is not limited to, 100 RB positions from RB #0 to RB#99, one of which may be used for transmitting the pre-coded symbols.

[0085] As can be seen, a first set of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112g (e.g. SC-FDMA symbols #0 to #6) are assigned the same RB for transmitting the corresponding pre-coded symbols associated with each group 145a-145f of 12 QPSK symbols, but in different SC-FDMA symbols. As well, a second set of SC-FDMA symbols 112h-112n (e.g. SC-FDMA symbols #7 to #13) are assigned the same RB for transmitting the corresponding pre-coded symbols associated with each group 145g-145I of 12 QPSK symbols, but in different SC-FDMA symbols. The RB assigned to the first set of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112g is different to the RB assigned to the second set of SC-FDMA symbols 112h-112n.

[0086] For example, the first set of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112g that are assigned to the first RB 114a (e.g. RB #0) are each assigned to RB columns 114a,a-114g,a of the first RB 114a. In this example, the second set of SC-FDMA symbols 112h-112n that are assigned the last RB 114b (e.g. RB #99) are each assigned to RB columns 114h,b-114n,b of RB 114b. It is to be appreciated by the skilled person that any RB from the 100 RBs may be assigned to the first set and second set of SC-FDMA symbols, as long as these RBs are different and are separated as much as possible in the frequency domain to maximise frequency diversity. Thus, different RBs are used in the first set of SC-FDMA symbols 112a-112g (e.g. SC-FDMA symbols #0 to #6) and the second set of SC-FDMA symbols 112h-112n (e.g. SC-FDMA symbols #7 to #13) and the two RBs that are used (e.g. RB #0 and RB#99) are separated as much as possible in the frequency domain to maximize the frequency diversity.

[0087] Figure 2a is a schematic diagram illustrating an example waveform transmission structure 200 for transmitting a radio burst of uplink data according to the invention. Common reference numerals are used throughout the figures to indicate similar or the same features and/or components. In this example, an interlace has been scheduled to the UE for transmitting a particular set of multiple RBs in each of a plurality of OFDM symbols 112a-112n of the radio burst. In this example, one 120-point DFT module is used to pre-code the modulated symbols. In this example, the rate matching module 136 is configured to output 10 times more encoded bits compared with the waveform transmission structure 130 of figure 1c. That is, 2880 coded bits are output from the rate matching module 136, which are scrambled by scrambling module 138 and then modulated by modulation module 140 into 1440 QPSK symbols. The modulated symbols are divided into 12 groups of QPSK symbols 145a-145l, in which each group 145a-145I has 120 QPSK symbols. For each of the OFDM symbols 112a112n, a corresponding group of 120 QPSK symbols is pre-coded with a 120-point DFT by DFT module 202 and are mapped to 120 subcarriers of 10 discontinuous or non-contiguous RBs of one interlace.

[0088] In particular, a data source 132 may output data representative of Nb data bits, which may include by way of example only but is not limited to, any data, user data, control data for transmission and/or one or more or multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) ACK/NAK bits and any other data required for the uplink data transmission. The Nb bits of the data payload output from data source 132 together with, by way of example only but is not limited to, CRC bits (e.g. 8 bit CRC) is encoded by ECC 134. The ECC 134 may use any error control coding scheme that takes the Nb bit data payload and 8 CRC bits and outputs a number Nk of encoded bits. In this example, the ECC 134 uses 1/3 TBCC, which outputs a number Nk of encoded bits that is 3 times the number of data bits input to the ECC 134 (e.g. 3*(Nb+8) bits).

[0089] The ECC 134 outputs the 3*(Nb+8) encoded payload data bits for input to a rate matching module 136 in which the 3*(Nb+8) encoded bits are interleaved and rate matched according to the amount of scheduled radio resources i.e. multiple RBs (e.g., 2880 bits for 10 RB, 5760 bits for 20 RBs, etc.). In this example, instead of rate matching to 1 RB as in figure 1c, the rate matching module 136 is configured to rate match to 10 RBs and so outputs 10 times more encoded bits, and in this example, 2880 coded bits are output from the rate matching module 136. The output 2880 coded bits are input to scrambling module 138, which outputs 2880 scrambled coded bits for input to modulator module 140. In this example, the modulator module 140, by way of example only but it not limited to, modulates the 2880 scrambled coded bits using a QPSK modulation scheme to output 1440 modulated QPSK symbols.

[0090] The 1440 QPSK symbols output from the modulator module 140 are assigned to a radio burst comprising at least one OFDM symbol 112a or a plurality of OFDM symbols 112a112n. The radio burst may be a radio frame comprising a plurality of OFDM symbols 112a112n. The modulated symbols are divided by de-multiplexor module 144 into 12 groups of QPSK symbols 145a-145I, in which each group of QPSK symbols 145a-145I has 120 QPSK symbols. Each group of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned to a corresponding different one of the plurality of OFDM symbol 112a-112n, except OFDM symbols 112d and 112k, which are assigned to transmit, byway of example only but is not limited to, DMRS 148. DMRS 148 are inserted into OFDM symbol 112d and 112k based on the RB interlace to aid channel estimation. For example, a first group 145a of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112a, a second group 145b of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112b, a third group 145c of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112c, a fourth group 145d of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112e, and so on until all of the 12 groups 145a-145I of QPSK symbols have been assigned 12 OFDM symbols from the radio burst of the plurality of OFDM symbols 112a-112n.

[0091] For each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, except OFDM symbol 112d and 112k, each group of 120 QPSK symbols 145a-145I are pre-coded by the 120-point DFT module 202 in which the outputs are mapped to 120 subcarriers of 10 RBs associated with the corresponding OFDM symbol. In this example, each RB is assumed to have 12 subcarriers. Note, the same 120-point DFT module 202 is used for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, except OFDM symbols 112d and 112k. In this example, each OFDM symbol has, by way of example only but is not limited to, 100 RB positions from RB #0 to RB#99, 10 of which may be used for transmitting the pre-coded symbols output from the DFT module 202. For each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, a corresponding group of 120 QPSK symbols are thus pre-coded with the 120-point DFT by DFT module 202 and are mapped to 120 subcarriers of 10 RBs, which may be a set of RBs of a predefined interlace. Although an interlace corresponding to 10 RBs is described, this is by way of example only, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that other interlaces or RB scheduling patterns with a number of Nrb RBs may be selected, where Nrb is greater than or equal to 10 or less than 10.

[0092] In this example, a predefined interlace is used to assign 10 RBs out of the 100 available RB positions to each OFDM symbol. In this example, each interlace has, by way of example only but is not limited to, 10 RBs, for instance, interlace #k may be assigned RB #k, RB #k+10, RB #k+20 ... RB #k+90, k = 0, 1, 2... 9. For such an interlace definition, the endto-end bandwidth is approximately 16.38 MHz (= 0.18 MHz / RBx91 RB). As described with reference to figure 1b, each RB has 12 subcarriers, each subcarrier is 15 KHz wide, and hence the bandwidth of one RB is approximately 180 KHz. It is possible for a base station to allocate multiple interlaces to one UE, for example, should the UE require to send more than 10 RBs per time slot 112a-112n. Interlaces not scheduled are filed with “0”.

[0093] If one interlace is scheduled for use by a UE, then all RBs between two adjacent RBs of the same interlace are not used, the permitted power of 10dBm can be used by one RB and totally 20dBm is permitted per interlace. In this example, although an interlace is a set of 10 RBs with identical gaps between two adjacent RBs, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that the interlaces, waveforms and RB scheduling patterns may comprise a set of Nrb RBs with equal or unequal gaps and/or with several groups of contiguous RBs with one or more identical and/or one or more unequal or non-identical gaps between.

[0094] In this example, interlace #0 has been scheduled to the UE for use in transmitting the 120 QPSK symbols and/or the DMRS 148 using the OFDM symbols 112a-112n. As can be seen, all the OFDM symbol 112a-112n (e.g. OFDM symbols #0 to #13) have been assigned to use the same interlace #0 and thus are each assigned the same RBs for transmitting the corresponding pre-coded symbols associated with each group 145a-145I of 120 QPSK symbols, but in different OFDM symbols 112a-112n. Interlace #0 defines that RB #0, RB #(k*10) for k=1,......,8, and RB#90 will be used for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n. For example, for the first group 145a of QPSK symbols assigned to the first OFDM symbol 112a, the pre-coded symbols output from the DFT module 202 for the first OFDM symbol 112a are mapped to 120 carriers of 10 RBs associated with interlace #0. Thus, the first OFDM symbol

112a is assigned RB columns 114a,a,......, 114a,d,......,114a, j for transmitting the 120 subcarriers associated with the 120 QPSK symbols. In this example, the OFDM symbols

112a-112n are assigned, based on interlace #0, RB columns 114a,0,......, 114a,(k*10),...

...,114a, 90, for k=1 ,..,8. The RB columns 114a,0, ..., 114a,(k*10),......114a,90 are for transmitting the 120 subcarriers associated with the 120 QPSK symbols that are assigned to OFDM symbol 112a. The interlace defines that the RBs are separated as much as possible in the frequency domain to maximize the frequency diversity.

[0095] The link performance of this exemplary uplink data transmission waveform transmission structure 200 compared with that of the legacy waveform transmission structure 130 of figure 1c is that the waveform transmission structure 200 exhibits a performance advantage for payload sizes greater than 160-172 bits in which the performance advantage continues to increase as the payload size increases beyond 172 bits. However, for 32 bit payload sizes (CRC bits are not included) and 1% target BLER, the waveform transmission structure 200 over 1 interlace has a 3dB coverage loss, but when the data payload size increases, the coverage loss decreases until a positive gain when the payload size is 172 to 242 bits.

[0096] At lower data payload sizes of 32-128 bits, the reasons for the link performance loss may include: 1) Going from 1 RB (as in figure 1c) to 10 RBs defined by 1 interlace, means that the bandwidth is much wider and channel response in frequency domain cannot be treated as “flat” anymore; the performance of waveform 200 with DFT pre-coding degrades when the channel response in frequency domain is not flat; and 2) Going from 1 RB (as in figure 1c) to 10 RBs defined by 1 interlace, the per-RB SNR for waveform 200 is 10 dB lower due to the same total power being divided over 10 RBs, which means that the channel estimation of the 1 interlace waveform 200 is less accurate than that for the 1 RB legacy waveform 130; and 3) Going from 1 RB (as in figure 1c) to 10 RBs defined by 1 interlace as in waveform 200, the gain from a lower coding rate cannot compensate the performance losses due to 1) and 2), but when the payload size increases, the channel coding gain of the 1 RB legacy waveform 130 reduces faster than that of the 1 Interlace waveform 200, so the coverage loss changes into a coverage gain when the payload size is bigger than a certain value (e.g. 172 bits).

[0097] The coverage losses for different payload sizes are compared in Table 1. Note that the same transmission power is assumed for both the 1 RB legacy waveform 130 and 1 interlace waveform 200 (to compare the coverage loss, the SNR of the waveform 200 using 1 interlace is added by 10dB).

Payload Size, [bits]	32	128	172	242
Coverage loss of 1 Interlace, [dB]	3	2.5	0.5	-2

Table 1: Coverage Losses for different payload sizes [0098] A consequence of the higher level of rate matching by rate matching module 136 is that a substantial portion of the encoded data bits output from the ECC module 134 will be represented by at least two or more or several of the OFDM symbols 112a-112n. This means that a receiver may attempt to decode making use of error correction the data that is output from the first two or more or several OFDM symbols 112a-112c that were used to transmit the data. This means the receiver does not have to wait until all the remaining OFDM symbols 112e-112j and 1121-112n have been received. This provides the advantage of reducing the latency in receiving and decoding the data that has been assigned the OFDM symbols 112a112c, 112e-112j and 1121-112n such that the computational resources of the receiver may be used for decoding other groups of precoding symbols and/or other tasks.

[0099] Figure 2b is a schematic diagram of an example transmitter structure 210 for implementing the uplink data waveform transmission structure 200 of figure 2a according to the invention. The transmitter structure 210 may be implemented by a digital signal processor and/or other hardware/software of a UE. The transmitter structure 210 includes a DFT module 212 that is coupled to a subcarrier mapping module 214 for mapping to the subcarriers of RBs associated with a OFDM symbol. For each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, a group of QPSK symbols 145a-145l are input to the DFT module 212 for performing a 120point DFT for precoding. The QPSK symbols are pre-coded by the 120-point DFT in which the output pre-coding is mapped by the subcarrier mapping module 214 to 120 subcarriers of 10 RBs associated with the corresponding OFDM symbol. Given the UE has been scheduled a predefined interlace, this predefined interlace is applied during subcarrier mapping to assign particular RBs for transmitting the QPSK symbols. Interlaces that are not scheduled are filed with “0”. The output of the subcarrier mapping module 214 is input to an inverse fast fourier transform module 216, which outputs a time domain signal for Cyclic Prefix module 218 for inserting a cyclic prefix for subsequent transmission of the transformed group of 120 QPSK symbols as an uplink data transmission to the base station. The base station for each uplink transmission received from each UE performs the reciprocal operations for receiving and decoding the received OFDM symbols and associated RBs back into precoded symbols and groups of modulated symbols which are subsequently descrambled and decoded (including detecting and correcting errors based on the error control coding used to encode the data) to output the data payload.

[00100] Figure 2c is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 220 of transmitting a radio burst of data according to the invention in the uplink between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network based on the waveform transmission structure 200 of figure 2a. The radio burst includes a plurality of OFDM symbols, in which each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth that includes a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method 220 includes the following steps of:

[00101] In step 222, dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, where each group of modulated symbols includes a number, Ni > 0, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group of modulated symbols. In step 224, assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst.

[00102] In step 226, each group of modulated symbols is processed for transmission. For each group of modulated symbols in step 226a, pre-coding is performed in step 226a on said each group of modulated symbols into corresponding subcarriers, and in step 226b the subcarriers are mapped to multiple RBs associated with said each OFDM symbol. In particular, step 226a involves precoding each group of modulated symbols based on an Lpoint DFT into corresponding subcarriers, where L > Ni, and step 226b involves mapping the subcarriers associated with the pre-coded modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs, where at least one of the multiple RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs. In step 228, the data is transmitted based on the mapped RBs.

[00103] Figure 3a is a schematic diagram of another example uplink waveform transmission structure 300 for transmitting a radio burst of uplink data according to the invention. In this example, multiple DFT modules 302a-302j may be used to implement the waveform transmission structure 300 and to further improve the link performance by reducing the size of the L-point DFT or even to bypass the L-point DFT. By performing multiple DFTs of reduced size on each group of QPSK symbols 145a-145I associated with one of the OFDM symbols 112a-112n provides the advantage of the UE transmitter being able to take into account or even approximate variations such as delay spread in the frequency response of the control channel. This further improves the link performance of the waveform transmission structure 300.

[00104] In particular, data source 132 may output data representative of Nb data bits, which may include by way of example only but is not limited to, any data, user data, control data for transmission and/or one or more or multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) ACK/NAK bits and any other data required for the uplink data transmission. The Nb bits of data payload output from data source 132 together with, by way of example only but is not limited to, CRC bits (e.g. 8 bit CRC) is encoded by ECC 134. The ECC 134 outputs the encoded payload data bits for input to a rate matching module 136 in which the encoded bits are interleaved and rate matched according to the amount of scheduled radio resources i.e. multiple RBs (e.g., 2880 bits for 10 RB, 5760 bits for 20 RBs, etc.). In this example, instead of rate matching to 1 RB as in figure 1c, the rate matching module 136 is configured rate match to 10 RBs and so outputs 10 times more encoded bits, and in this example, 2880 coded bits are output from the rate matching module 136. The output 2880 coded bits are input to scrambling module 138, which outputs 2880 scrambled coded bits for input to modulator module 140. In this example, the modulator module 140, by way of example only but it not limited to, modulates the 2880 scrambled coded bits using a QPSK modulation scheme to output 1440 modulated QPSK symbols.

[00105] The 1440 QPSK symbols output from the modulator module 140 are assigned to a radio burst comprising a plurality of OFDM symbols 112a-112n. The modulated symbols are divided by de-multiplexor module 144 into 12 groups of QPSK symbols 145a-145I, in which each group of QPSK symbols 145a-145I has 120 QPSK symbols. Each group of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned to a corresponding different one of the plurality of OFDM symbols 112a112n, except OFDM symbols 112d and 112k, which are assigned to transmit DMRS 148. DMRS 148 are inserted into RBs associated with a predefined interlace (e.g. interlace #0), which in this example is 10 RBs in OFDM Symbols 112d and 112k for aiding channel estimation.

[00106] For example, a first group 145a of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112a, a second group 145b of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112b, a third group 145c of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112c, a fourth group 145d of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned OFDM symbol 112e, and so on until all of the 12 groups 145a-145I of QPSK symbols have been assigned 12 OFDM symbols from the radio burst comprising the plurality of OFDM symbol 112a-112n.

[00107] Each group of 120 QPSK symbols 145a-145I are further divided by de-multiplexors 146 into 10 further groups of 12 QPSK symbols. Each of the 10 further groups of 12 QPSK symbols are input to a corresponding one of the multiple 12-point DFT modules 302a-302j. In this example, for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, except OFDM symbol 112d and 112k, each further group of 12 QPSK symbols are each pre-coded by a corresponding 12-point DFT module 302a-302j in which the outputs are mapped to 12 subcarriers of one of theft) RBs associated with the corresponding OFDM symbol. Note, the same set of 12-point DFT modules 302a-302j are used for each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112n, except OFDM symbols 112d and 112k, which are instead used to transmit DRMS.

[00108] In this example, each OFDM symbol has, by way of example only but is not limited to, 100 RB positions from RB #0 to RB#99, 10 of which may be used for transmitting the precoded symbols output from the corresponding DFT module 302a-302j. For each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, a corresponding further group of 12 QPSK symbols are thus pre-coded with a 12-point DFT by DFT modules 302a-302 and mapped into 12 subcarriers of one of the 10 RBs. Given that the predefined interlace #0 has been scheduled for the UE, then there are 10 RBs for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, [00109] The waveform transmission structure 300 is similar to the waveform transmission structure 200 described with reference to figure 2a. The primary difference being that the waveform transmission structure 300 of this example uses ten 12-point DFT modules 302a302j for each OFDM symbol rather than one 120-point DFT module per OFDM symbol as used with the waveform transmission structure 200. Each group of 120 QPSK symbols 145a145I are further grouped into 10 groups of 12 QPSK symbols. Each group of 12 QPSK symbols is pre-coded with a corresponding 12-point DFT of a DFT module 302a-302j, which are then mapped onto 1 RB of the 10 RBs. Since the DFT size of 12 points is much smaller than 120 points used in waveform transmission structure 200 and all pre-coded symbols from each of the DFT modules 302a-302j are mapped onto a corresponding but different RB of the

RBs, then this means that the channel response is practically flat due to the very narrow bandwidth (i.e., 180 KHz). This further improves the link performance.

[00110] Note that although the interlace concept is used by way of example only, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that this waveform can be used for any type of wideband RB scheduling as what could be used in 5G/NR (any set of RBs may be used). The key point is that modulated symbols are pre-coded by a set of DFTs before being mapped to the scheduled RBs.

[00111] Although the number of DFT modules 302a-302j is the same as the number of scheduled RBs for interlace #0, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that the number of DFT modules 302a-302j does not have to be same as the number of scheduled RBs.

Actually, the number of DFT modules 302a-302j may be selected based on the trade-off between the link performance gain and the increased Cubic Metric value. Each of the DFT modules 302a-302j can be used to pre-code a number, Nrb, of contiguous or discontinuous RBs in which Nrb can be selected to be different for different scenarios or environments. For example, the number of RBs, Nrb, could be selected to be bigger than, by way of example only but it not limited to, 10 for narrow delay spread scenarios or a particular threshold number of RBs depending on the delay spread. In another example, Nrb could be selected to be smaller in wide delay spread scenarios. The value of Nrb may be selected from a delay spread look-up table in which estimated delay spreads or delay spread ranges have been calculated to correspond to a particular or specific value of Nrb, this may also be based on signal to noise ratio of the signal and other factors.

[00112] In another example, for eMBB with beamforming, a narrow delay spread may be expected such that a bigger or larger Nrb can be selected used to reduce the CM value while for URLLC, a wide delay spread may be expected such that a smaller Nrb can be selected and used to obtain a better link performance. Nrb could be indicated by the base station (e.g. eNB) to the UE or bundled with specific configurations, e.g., if beamforming is used, if a MCS dedicated for URLLC is selected, if the TA value is bigger than a predefined threshold, etc.

[00113] Figure 3b is a schematic diagram of an example transmitter structure 310 for transmitting the uplink control RB waveform transmission structure 300 of figure 3a according to the invention. The transmitter structure 310 may be implemented by a DSP and/or other hardware/software of a UE. The transmitter structure 310 includes multiple DFT module(s) 312a-312j, each of which are coupled to a subcarrier mapping module 314 for mapping the resulting subcarriers of multiple RBs associated with each OFDM symbol. For each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, a different group of QPSK symbols are input to each of the multiple DFT modules 312a-312j for performing multiple 12-point DFTs for precoding. Each group of

QPSK symbols are pre-coded by the 12-point DFT in which the output pre-coding is mapped by the subcarrier mapping module 214 to 12 subcarriers of a different 1 RB of the multiple RBs associated with the corresponding OFDM symbol. Given the UE has been scheduled a predefined interlace, this predefined interlace is applied during subcarrier mapping to assign particular RBs for transmitting each group of QPSK symbols. Interlaces that are not scheduled are filed with “0”. The output of the subcarrier mapping module 314 is input to an IFFT module 316, which outputs a time domain signal for Cyclic Prefix module 318 for inserting a cyclic prefix for subsequent transmission of the transformed multiple groups of 12 QPSK symbols as an uplink control data transmission to the base station.

[00114] Figure 3c is a schematic diagram of a set of scheduled RBs 320 based on the RB waveform transmission structure 300 of figure 3a. All scheduled RBs include 5 segments and RBs of each segment are continuous. There are in total 27 RBs in the set of scheduled RBs 320 for input to DFT modules 302a-302j or for input to DFT modules 302'a-302'd depending on the number of RBs, Nrb, selected for each DFT module. In a first example, the delay spread may be considered to have a wide delay spread or large delay spread such that Nrb is selected to be, Nrb=3, in which 3 RBs are selected to be input to each DFT module 302a-302j (e.g. DFT1-DFT10). The DFT pre-coders are mapped to the scheduled RBs as illustrated in figure 3c in which each small square is one RB. In a second example, the delay spread may be considered to have a narrow delay spread or small delay spread such that Nrb is selected to be, Nrb=8, in which 8 RBs are selected to be input to each DFT module 302'a-302'd (e.g. DFT1-DFT4). The DFT pre-coders are mapped to the scheduled RBs as illustrated in figure 3c in which each small square is one RB. As can be seen, multiple DFTs may be used to pre-code the UL modulated symbols and the number of DFT modules and DFT size may be configured by the eNB according to channel conditions, e.g., delay spread, Doppler spread, and subcarrier numerology, etc. The base station for each uplink transmission received from each UE performs the reciprocal operations for receiving and decoding the received OFDM symbols and associated RBs back into precoded symbols and groups of modulated symbols which are subsequently descrambled and decoded (including detecting and correcting errors based on the error control coding used to encode the data) to output the data payload.

[00115] Figure 3d is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 330 for transmitting a radio burst of data according to the invention in the uplink between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network. The method 320 is based on the waveform transmission structure 300 of figure 3a. The radio burst includes a plurality of OFDM symbols, in which each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth that includes a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method 330 includes the following steps of:

[00116] In step 332, dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, where each group of modulated symbols includes a number, Ni > 0, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group of modulated symbols. In step 334, assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst.

[00117] In step 336, each group of modulated symbols assigned to an OFDM symbol is processed for transmission. In step 336a, each group of modulated symbols that is assigned to an OFDM symbol is divided into a number, K, of subgroups (e.g. further groups) of modulated symbols. In step 336b, each of the subgroups of modulated symbols is pre-coded into corresponding subcarriers using an L-point DFT, where L > K, and K is the number of modulated symbols in said each subgroup. In step 336c the subcarriers associated with each subgroup of modulated symbols are mapped to an RB of multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs associated with said each OFDM symbol. Preferably, at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs. In step 338, the data is transmitted based on the mapped RBs from the UE to the base station.

[00118] K may automatically be selected by the base station or manually configured according to the deployment scenario of the base station. If it is automatically selected by the base station, it is possible to select a different value of K for different UEs according to each UE’s specific scenario or operating environment. For example, a larger K can be given to UEs close to the base station, whilst a smaller value of K can be given to UEs far from the base station. The distance (or correlated delay spread) can be estimated from measurement results like TA, which can be used to select a suitable value of K for each UE. The value of K may be indicated by control signalling or a resource message via a control channel, broadcast channels, peer-to-peer signalling, or any other type of channel for transmitting such control data.

[00119] A consequence of the higher level of rate matching by rate matching module 136 is that a substantial portion of the encoded data bits output from the ECC module 134 will be represented and transmitted by at least two or more or several of the OFDM symbols 112a112n. This means that a receiver may attempt to decode making use of error correction the data that is output from the first two or more or several OFDM symbols 112a-112c that were used to transmit the data. This means the receiver does not have to wait until all the remaining OFDM symbols 112e-112j and 1121-112n have been received. This provides the advantage of reducing the latency in receiving and decoding the data that has been assigned the OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j and 1121-112n such that the computational resources of the receiver may be used fordecoding other groups of precoding symbols and/or other tasks.

[00120] Figure 4a is a schematic diagram of another example waveform transmission structure 400 for transmitting a radio burst of uplink data according to the invention. Common reference numerals are used throughout the figures to indicate similar or the same features and/or components. In this example, a single DFT module 402 is used to generate the FDMA waveform transmission structure. In this example, the components 132-146 used in the 1 RB legacy waveform transmission structure 130 are similarly used. Instead, after the 12-point DFT module 402 the pre-coded symbols associated with each OFDM symbol 112a-112n are copied, by way of example only, 10 times and mapped to 10 different RBs of a predetermined or selected interlace of the corresponding OFDM symbol 112a-112n. In this example, interlace #0 has been selected and for OFDM symbol 112a, the same pre-coding symbols are mapped into the subcarriers of each of the RB columns 114a,a,......, 114a,d, ..., 114a,j associated with OFDM symbol 112a. That is, the same pre-coding symbols are mapped into subcarriers of RB columns 114a,0, ..., 114a, (k*10),......, 114a,90.

[00121] Given that one DFT is used to pre-coded symbols are mapped onto one RB only, and that one RB is 180 KHz (narrow band), the link performance is better than the 1 RB legacy waveform transmission structure 130. However, copying the same pre-coded symbols over the RBs of the same OFDM symbol increases the PAPR/CM value in the time domain since all 10 RBs for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n are copied and mapped with exactly the same symbols (e.g. the CM value can be 12dB). To reduce the PAPR/CM values, the pre-coded symbols that are mapped on different RBs can be randomized based on the following example waveform transmission structures 410 and 440.

[00122] Figure 4b is a schematic diagram of a further example waveform transmission structure 410 for transmitting a radio burst of uplink data according to the invention that is based on the waveform transmission structure 400, but in which the pre-coded symbols output by the DFTs and mapping to RBs are randomized. In this example, the RB columns 114a,a-114a,j (e.g. RB#0-RB#90) are shown on a horizontal frequency axis, and the OFDM symbols 112a-112n are shown on an time axis going into the page. In addition to the components 132-144 and DFT module 402, multiple groups of symbol scrambling modules 404a,a-404a,j, 404b,a-404b,j, ..., 404n,a-404n,j are used for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n. In this example, symbol scrambling modules 404a,a-404a,j are used to scramble the precoded symbols output by DFT 402 for OFDM symbol 112a, symbol scrambling modules 404b,a-404b,j are used to scramble the precoded symbols output by DFT 402 for OFDM symbol 112b and so on.

[00123] Each group of DFT pre-coded symbols that are output by the DFT module 402 for a particular OFDM symbolare scrambled by multiple pre-defined scrambling sequences (e.g. pseudo random sequence) before being mapped to the subcarriers of corresponding RBs associated with each OFDM symbol based on an interlace. Each of the multiple pre-defined scrambling sequences are different for different RBs of the same OFDM symbol. The scrambling sequences need to be specified so that both transmitters and receivers implementing the waveform transmission structure 410 use exactly the same scrambling sequences.

[00124] For example, if w_1t w₂, w₃... w₁₂ are the 12 DFT pre-coded symbols, and x\, x^k2, x'₃... 12, k = 0, 1, 2, 3...9, are the scrambling symbols associated with RB #k, the output symbols of the symbol scrambling would be w₇*x^k7, w₂* x^k2, w₃* >f₃... w₁₂* χ\₂. The scrambling sequences of all RBs for a particular OFDM symbol need to be different so that they output different scrambled symbols. All scrambling symbols should have same amplitude as 1 to ensure the power of each RB is not distorted.

[00125] Figure 4c is a schematic diagram of an example transmitter structure 420 for transmitting the uplink control RB waveform transmission structure 410 of figure 4b according to the invention. The transmitter structure 420 may be implemented by a DSP and/or other hardware/software of a UE. The transmitter structure 420 includes a DFT module 422 for receiving a group of modulated symbols (e.g. QPSK symbols), a group of precoded-symbols are output from the DFT module 422 and are scrambled by symbol scrambling module 424, where the group of precoded symbols are scrambled multiple times to produce multiple groups of scrambled precoded symbols, which are input to a subcarrier mapping module 426, which maps each group of scramble precoded symbols 314 onto the subcarriers of RBs associated with a OFDM symbol. For each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112n, a different group of QPSK symbols are input to DFT module 422 and then scrambled by symbol scrambling module 424 as described.

[00126] For example, a group of 12 QPSK symbols may be input to the DFT 422 and precoded by the 12-point DFT in which the output pre-coding is scrambled by 10 different scrambling codes of the symbol scrambling module 424 to produce 10 different groups of 12 scrambled precoded symbols. Each group of 12 scrambled precoded symbols are mapped by the subcarrier mapping module 426 to 12 subcarriers of a different 1 RB of the set of RBs (or multiple RBs) associated with a particular OFDM symbol. As the UE may have been scheduled a predefined interlace, this predefined interlace is applied during subcarrier mapping to assign particular RBs (e.g. RB columns) to each OFDM symbol for transmitting each group of scrambled precoded symbols. Interlaces that are not scheduled are filed with “0”. The output of the subcarrier mapping module 426 is input to an IFFT module 428, which outputs a time domain signal for Cyclic Prefix module 429 for inserting a cyclic prefix for subsequent transmission of the transformed multiple groups of 12 QPSK symbols as an uplink control data transmission to the base station. The base station for each uplink transmission received from each UE performs the reciprocal operations for receiving and decoding the received OFDM symbols and associated RBs back into precoded symbols and groups of modulated symbols which are subsequently descrambled and decoded (including detecting and correcting errors based on the error control coding used to encode the data) to output the data payload.

[00127] Figure 4d is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 430 of transmitting a radio burst of data according to the invention in the uplink between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network based on the waveform transmission structure 410 of figure 4b. The radio burst includes a plurality of OFDM symbols, in which each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth that includes a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method 430 includes the following steps of:

[00128] Step 432 perfomrs the operation(s) of dividing a plurality of modulated symbols representing a data payload (e.g. encoded and scrambled data payload as described with reference to figure 4b) for transmission into multiple groups of modulated symbols, where each group of modulated symbols includes a number, Ni > 0, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group of modulated symbols. Step 434 performs the operation(s) of assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst.

[00129] In step 436, each group of modulated symbols assigned to an OFDM symbol is processed for transmission. In step 436a, each group of modulated symbols that is assigned to an OFDM symbol is divided into a number, K, of subgroups (e.g. further groups) of modulated symbols. In step 436b, each of the K subgroups of modulated symbols is precoded into corresponding subcarriers using an L-point DFT, where L > K, and K is the number of modulated symbols in said each subgroup. In step 436c, each subgroup of precoded symbols is scrambled with a scrambling sequence to output a scrambled subgroup of precoded symbols. In step 436d the subcarriers associated with each scrambled subgroup of precoded symbols are mapped to an RB of the multiple RBs from the plurality of contiguous RBs associated with said each OFDM symbol. Preferably, at least one of the RBs are noncontiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs. In step 438, the data is transmitted based on the mapped RBs from the UE to the base station.

[00130] K may automatically be selected by the base station or manually configured according to the deployment scenario of the base station. If it is automatically selected by the base station, it is possible to select a different value of K for different UEs according to each UE’s specific scenario or operating environment. For example, a larger K can be given to UEs close to the base station, whilst a smaller value of K can be given to UEs far from the base station. The distance (or correlated delay spread) can be estimated from measurement results like TA, which can be used to select a suitable value of K for each UE. The value of K may be indicated by control signalling or a resource message via a control channel, broadcast channels, peer-to-peer signalling, or any other type of channel for transmitting such control data.

[00131] Figure 4e is a schematic diagram of a further example waveform transmission structure 440 for transmitting a radio burst of uplink data according to the invention that is based on the waveform transmission structure 400 of figure 4a. In this example,, the precoded symbols output by the DFTs and mapping to RBs are randomized or arranged in a different manner to the waveform transmission structure 410 of figure 4b. In this example, the OFDM symbols 112a-112n are shown on a horizontal time axis, and the RBs #0-#99 or resource block columns 114a,a-114a,j......114n,a-114n,j for each of the OFDM symbols

112a-112n are shown on a frequency axis going into the page. In addition to the components 132-144, a DFT module 442 is configured to output precoded symbols associated with each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, excluding OFDM symbols 112d and 112k, which are assigned for DMRS. Rather than using scrambling modules, the DFT module 442 outputs, for each group of 12 QPSK symbols 145a-145I, corresponding precoded symbols 444a-444l. For each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, a number of the precoded symbols 444a-444l associated with other OFDMA symbols 112a-112n are also assigned to each set of RBs, e.g. RB columns

114a,a, 114a,b,......114a,j,......,114n,a-114n,j of said each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, excluding OFDM symbols 112d and 112k. This achieves a form of randomisation because the groups of QPSK symbols 142a-145I input to the DFT 442 for each symbol 112a-112c,

112e-112j, and 1121-112n should be different.

[00132] For the RB waveform transmission structure 440, the DFT pre-coded symbols 444a444I are not scrambled, but they are instead mixed with other DFTs’ pre-coded symbols 444a-444l that are different. This is likened to frequency domain interleaving over one OFDM symbol of granularity.

[00133] Figure 4e illustrates an example in which the demuliplexor 144 outputs 12 groups of 12 QPSK symbols each, which are each input to DFT module 442, which is designated DFT 442a-442l for each OFDM symbol 112a-112n, except OFDM symbols 112d and 112k. Thus the output of DFTs 442a-442l is 12 groups of 12 DFT precoded symbols 444a, 444b, 444c,

444d, 444e,......, 444I. A set of multiple RBs is assigned to each of the OFDM symbols

112a-112n, for example the multiple RBs may be associated with a predefined interlace. In this example, interlace #0 is assigned by way of example only, in which the number of multiple RBs assigned to each OFDM symbol may be 10. Note, it is assumed in figure 4e that each RB in the multiple RBs are non-contiguous even though figure 4e does not, for simplicity and clarity, explicitly illustrate this. Thus, a number of groups of the precoded symbols are selected to be mapped to the multiple RBs assigned to each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112b until said multiple RBs are occupied. The number of RBs for each OFDM symbol slot may be defined by a selected interlace by the base station and communicated in a resource message to the UE.

[00134] Preferably, the selected precoded symbols that are mapped to the multiple RBs in each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j,and 1121-112n are different. Although the selected pre-coded symbols that are mapped to the RBs in each of the OFDM symbols 112a112c, 112e-112j,and 1121-112n may be different, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that if there are not enough groups of pre-coded symbols to occupy all of the multiple RBs for each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j,and 1121-112n, then the pre-coded symbols may be repeated in each time slot 112a-112c, 112e-112j,and 1121-112n as long as each adjacent RB of the multiple RBs in the time slot is associated with a different pre-coded symbol.

[00135] In this example, each of the precoded symbols are mapped to the first RB (e.g. RB #0) of their corresponding OFDM symbol. For example, the 12 precoded symbols 444a output from DFT 442a is mapped to the first RB column 114a,a of OFDM symbol 112a. The mapping from precoded symbols 444a to RB column 114a,a is illustrated by the tightly spaced diagonal slash pattern. The mapping from precoded symbols 444b to the first RB column of OFDM symbol 112b (e.g. RB#0 of OFDM symbol 112b) is illustrated by the loosely spaced diagonal slash pattern. The mapping from precoded symbols 444c to the first RB column of OFDM symbol 112c (e.g. RB #0 of OFDM symbol 112c) is illustrated by the horizontal spaced apart lines pattern. The mapping from precoded symbols 444d to the first RB column of OFDM symbol 112e (e.g. RB #0 of OFDM symbol 112e) is illustrated by the horizontal and vertical hash lines pattern. The mapping from precoded symbols 444e to the first RB column of OFDM symbol 112f (e.g. RB#0 of OFDM symbol 112f) is illustrated by the vertical spaced apart lines pattern. For clarity, the remaining outputs of DFT 442f-442k are not shown for clarity and simplicity, but the skilled person would understand that this mapping continues for OFDM symbol 112g-112m in relation to the precoded outputs of DFTs 442f442k. Finally, the mapping from precoded symbols 444I to the first RB column 114n,a of OFDM symbol 112n (e.g. RB#0 of OFDM symbol 112n) is illustrated by diagonal hashed pattern.

[00136] For the second RB columns 114a,b-114n,b of each of the corresponding OFDM symbol 112a-112n, the 12 groups of DFT pre-coded symbols 444a-444l are cyclically rotated by one OFDM symbol from the previous RB before mapping to the second RB column 114a,b-114n,b of the corresponding OFDM symbols 112a-112n. That is, the first group of pre-coded symbols 444a moves to the end OFDM symbol 112n and so is mapped onto the second RB column 114n,b of OFDM symbol 112n, and all other groups of pre-coded symbols 444b-444n move one OFDM symbol over to OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j and 1121112m and are mapped to the corresponding second RB of that OFDM symbol 112a-112c,

112e-112j and 1121-112m. For example, pre-coded symbol 444b is mapped to the second RB columna 114a,b of OFDM symbol 112a, pre-coded symbol 444c is mapped to the second RB column of OFDM symbol 112b as shown by the horizontal spaced apart lines pattern, precoded symbol 444d is mapped to the second RB column of OFDM symbol 112c as shown by the hash line pattern, pre-coded symbol 444e is mapped to the second RB column of OFDM symbol 112e as shown by the spaced apart vertical lines pattern, this continues similarly for pre-coded symbols output from DFTs 442f-442j, and pre-coded symbol 444I is mapped to the second RB column of OFDM symbol 112m as shown by the diagonal hashed lines pattern.

For the third and subsequent or remaining RBs in the multiple RBs assigned to each of the OFDM symbol 112a-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n, this cyclic rotation is continued until all of the multiple RBs of each of the OFDM symbol 112a-112n, except OFDM symbol 112d and 112k, are occupied.

[00137] As illustrated for OFDM symbol 112a, the group of pre-coded symbols 444c is mapped to the third RB column 114a,c of OFDM symbol 112a, the group of pre-coded symbols 444d is mapped to the fourth RB column 114a,d of OFDM symbol 112a, the group of pre-coded symbols 444e is mapped to the fifth RB column 114a,e of OFDM symbol 112a, and groups of precoded symbols output from DFTs 442f-442j, are mapped onto the remaining RBs of the multiple RBs that are assigned to OFDM symbol 112a. This cyclic rotation occurs in a similar fashion for OFDM symbol 112b-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n. For OFDM symbol 112n, the group of pre-coded symbols 444b is mapped to the third RB column 114n,c of OFDM symbol 112n, the group of pre-coded symbols 444c is mapped to the fourth RB column 114n,d of OFDM symbol 112n, the group of pre-coded symbols 444d is mapped to the fifth RB column 114n,e of OFDM symbol 112n, the group of pre-coded symbols 444e is mapped to the sixth RB column 114n,f of OFDM symbol 112n, and groups of precoded symbols output from DFTs 442f-442i, are mapped onto the remaining RBs of the multiple RBs that are assigned to OFDM symbol 112n. In this manner, all of the RBs for each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j and 1121-112n are occupied.

[00138] Table 2 further illustrates the cyclical mapping of the groups of pre-coding symbols 444a-444l output from DFT module 442 comprising DFTs 442a-442c, 442e-442j, and 442I442n (e.g. DFTs #0-#2, DFTs #4-#9, and DFTs #11 -#13) to multiple RBs defined by interlace #0, which in this example means the multiple RBs corresponds to RBs #0, #10, #20, #30, #40, #50, #60, #70, #80 and #90. It is noted that when an OFDM symbol is assigned to a particular RB that the OFDM symbol is actually assigned an RB column comprising the plurality of subcarriers associated with that RB for that OFDM symbol period.

OFDM Symbol#

0

1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

11

12

13

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #0

#0

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #10

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

DFT pre-coded

FT

DFT

symbols for RB #20

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #30

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #40

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

#3

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #50

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

#3

#4

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #60

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #70

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #80

#8

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

DFT pre-coded

DFT

symbols for RB #90

#9

#10

#11

#0

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

Table 2: Cyclical mapping of precoding symbols [00139] Note that other patterns of mapping the groups of pre-coded symbols 444a-444l to the multiple RBs are possible only if no two RBs of the multiple RBs have the same DFT precoded symbols in the same OFDM symbol. Preferably, the selected groups of precoded symbols 444a-444l that are mapped to the multiple RBs in each of the OFDM symbols 112a112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n are different. Although the selected groups of pre-coded symbols 444a-444l that are mapped to the RBs in each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c,

112e-112j, and 1121-112n may be different, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that if there are not enough groups of pre-coded symbols 444a-444l to occupy all of the multiple

RBs, then the groups of pre-coded symbols 444a-444l may need to be repeated in each OFDM symbol 112a-112c, 112e-112j and 1121-112n as long as each adjacent RB of the multiple RBs for a particular OFDM symbol is associated with a different group of pre-coded symbols.

[00140] Given that at least two of the OFDM symbols 112a-112n include the same groups of pre-coding symbols 444a-444l, the waveform transmission structure 440 will transmit the same pre-coding symbols 444a-444l over multiple OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n. In this example, since there are 12 groups of precoding symbols 444a-444l and 12 OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n, and only 10 RBs available for use by each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n for transmitting groups of precoding symbols, then each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n can only transmit 10 groups of precoding symbols, which effectively means that the transmission of a precoding symbol is only repeated over 10 OFDM symbols 112a-112c,

112e-112j, and 1121-112n. Nevertheless, given that the same group of precoding symbols 444a is mapped to an RB in each of the multiple OFDM symbols 112a, 112e-112j and 112I112n and transmitted as the data payload then a receiver may be configured to attempt to decode the transmitted data payload by using one or more of the first OFDM symbols 112a,

112e-112j and 1121-112n that are received without waiting to receive the remaining OFDM symbols that also include the same group of precoding symbols 444a in later OFDM symbols. Thus, the receiver may be able to perform the reciprocal operations of extracting and demodulating, descrambling and decoding the groups of modulated symbols from the multiple precoding symbols received in one or more OFDM symbols. In the extreme, the payload can be decoded with only one OFDM symbol if all precoded symbols 444a-444l are mapped to RBs of that OFDM symbol. This may be possible if the channel response in relation to the OFDM symbol is known or has been estimated by the receiver, for example, from a previous or current channel estimation of the communication channel (e.g. PUSCH or PUCCH etc.).

[00141] For example, the receiver may attempt to decode the group of precoding symbols 444a-444l using the first several OFDM symbol 112a, 112e and 112f that were used to transmit these groups of precoding symbols 444a-444l, thus the receiver does not have to wait until the remaining time slots 112g-112j and 1121-112n have been received. This provides the advantage of reducing the latency in receiving and decoding each group of precoding symbols and hence decoding the data payload such that the computational resources of the receiver may be used fordecoding other groups of precoding symbols and/or other tasks.

[00142] Figure 4f is a schematic diagram of another example transmitter structure 450 for transmitting the uplink control RB waveform 440 of figure 4e according to the invention. The transmitter structure 450 may be implemented by a DSP and/or other hardware/software of a UE. The transmitter structure 450 includes a DFT module 452 for receiving, in this example, 12 groups of modulated symbols (e.g. QPSK symbols), in which the DFT module 452 performs a different x-point DFT on each of the 12 groups of modulated symbols to output 12 groups of precoded-symbols. The 12 groups of precoded symbols output from the DFT module 452 are then saved or stored in storage and arranging module 454. The storage and arranging module 454 is configured to generate a different arrangement of two or more of the groups of precoded symbols (e.g. a cyclic rotation of up to 12 groups of precoded symbols) for each OFDM symbol for input to subcarrier mapping module 456, which maps each group of the arrangement of two or more groups of precoded symbols onto the subcarriers of multiple RBs associated with the OFDM symbol as described.

[00143] For example, 12 groups of 12 QPSK symbols may be input to the DFT 452 to output 10 groups of 12 pre-coded symbols using a 12-point DFT. The output groups of pre-coding symbols are stored in storage and arranging module 454. For each OFDM symbol, a different arrangement of two or more groups of the pre-coding symbols are mapped by the subcarrier mapping module 456 to 12 subcarriers of each RB of a multiple RBs assigned to each particular OFDM symbol. As the UE may have been scheduled a predefined interlace, this predefined interlace defines the multiple RBs assigned to each OFDM symbol that are then used during subcarrier mapping for transmitting each of the different arrangements of two or more groups precoded symbols in each OFDM symbol. Interlaces that are not scheduled are filed with “0”. The output of the subcarrier mapping module 456 is input to an IFFT module 458, which outputs a time domain signal for Cyclic Prefix module 459 for inserting a cyclic prefix for subsequent transmission of the transformed multiple groups of 12 QPSK symbols as an uplink control data transmission to the base station. The base station for each uplink transmission received from each UE performs the reciprocal operations for receiving and decoding the received OFDM symbols and associated RBs back into precoded symbols and groups of modulated symbols which are subsequently descrambled and decoded (including detecting and correcting errors based on the error control coding used to encode the data) to output the data payload. The cyclical mapping pattern or other mapping pattern from multiple groups of precoding symbols to the multiple RBs of each OFDM symbol for transmitting the data payload from UE to base station will need to be specified by either the base station or the UE so that both transmitters and receivers implementing the waveform transmission structure 440 use exactly the same mappings and such that the data payload may be received and decoded.

[00144] Figure 4g is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 460 of transmitting a radio burst of data according to the invention in the uplink between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network based on the waveform transmission structure 440 of figure 4e. The radio burst includes a plurality of OFDM symbols, in which each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth that includes a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method 460 includes the following steps of:

[00145] Step 462 performs the operation(s) of dividing a plurality of modulated symbols representing a data payload (e.g. encoded and scrambled data payload as described with reference to figure 4e) for transmission into multiple groups of modulated symbols, where each group of modulated symbols includes a number, Ni > 0, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group of modulated symbols. Step 464 performs the operation(s) of assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst.

[00146] In step 466, each group of modulated symbols assigned to an OFDM symbol is processed for transmission. In step 466a, each group of modulated symbols that is assigned to an OFDM symbol are pre-coded into corresponding subcarriers using an L-point DFT, where L > Ni, producing a group of precoded symbols. In step 466b the precoded symbols associated the subcarriers are stored for use in mapping the subcarriers of multiple precoded symbols onto each RB of multiple RBs associated with an OFDM symbol.

[00147] In step 468, for each of the OFDM symbols, the subcarriers of the multiple precoded symbols are mapped onto an RB of the multiple RBs that have been assigned to said each OFDM symbol. That is, the precoding for each of the modulated symbols for mapping onto RBs of the same and different OFDM symbols is stored. Thus multiple precoded symbols are each mapped to an RB of multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs associated with each OFDM symbol. This is performed in a cyclical mapping pattern as described with reference to figures 4e-4f or any other mapping pattern that achieves a suitable link performance. Preferably, at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs. In step 438, the data is transmitted based on the mapped RBs from the UE to the base station.

[00148] Performance simulations were performed and indicated that both the RB waveform transmission structures 410 and 440 have the similar link performance as the RB waveform transmission structure 300 but both the RB waveform transmission structures 410 and 440 have a much smaller CM value. For example, the RB wave form structure 440 has a CM value of approximately 3.73dB whilst the RB waveform transmission structure 410 has a CM value of approximately 3.96. Thus, these two waveform transmission structures 410 and 440 may be used in NR with slightly less performance loss but reduced complexity (one DFT per OFDM symbol). These two waveform transmission structures may be used by both FeLAA and NR when performance can be compromised a little bit to achieve a simplified transceiver design.

[00149] Figure 5a is a schematic diagram of a further example waveform transmission structure 500 according to the invention. In this example, the component modules 132-144 are configured in a similar fashion as the waveform transmission structure 200 of figure 2a in which 2880 coded bits are output from the rate matching module 136, which are scrambled by scrambling module 138 and then modulated by modulation module 140 into 1440 QPSK symbols. The modulated symbols are divided into 12 groups of QPSK symbols 145a-145l, in which each group of modulated symbols 145a-145I has 120 QPSK symbols. For each OFDM symbol 112a-112c, 112e-112j, and 1121-112n, a corresponding group of 120 QPSK symbols is assigned and are mapped to 120 subcarriers of 10 discontinuous or non-contiguous RBs of one interlace. By simply bypassing the DFT module(s), a group of modulated QPSK symbols can be mapped to the subcarriers of multiple RBs of each of the OFDM symbols 112a-112c,

112e-112j, and 1121-112n directly. The multiple RBs may be defined by an interlace as described herein.

[00150] Figure 5b is a flow diagram illustrating an example method 510 of transmitting a radio burst of data according to the invention in the uplink between a UE and a base station over a telecommunication network based on the waveform transmission structure 500 of figure 5a. The radio burst includes a plurality of OFDM symbols, in which each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth that includes a plurality of contiguous RBs spanning the available frequency bandwidth. The method 510 includes the following steps of:

[00151] In step 512, dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, where each group of modulated symbols includes a number, Ni > 0, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group of modulated symbols. In step 514, assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst. In step 516, each group of modulated symbols of an OFDM symbol is processed for transmission. For each group of modulated symbols in step 516a, mapping is performed in step 516a on said each group of modulated symbols into corresponding subcarriers associated with multiple RBs of the OFDM symbol. The subcarriers may be mapped to multiple RBs associated with said each OFDM symbol. The mapping may include mapping the subcarriers associated with the groups of modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs associated with an OFDM symbol, where at least one of the multiple RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs associated with the OFDM symbol. In step 518, the data is transmitted based on the mapped RBs.

[00152] Figure 6a is a schematic diagram of a generalised overview of the example waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, 440 and 500 for transmitting a radio burst of payload data from a UE to a base station according to the invention. With reference to figures 2a-5b, after the modulation and scrambling modules 140/144 in relation to waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, and 440, one or more DFTs are used to pre-code one or more groups of input modulated symbols. Waveform transmission structure 500 does not use any DFTs.

[00153] Although the examples with reference to figures 2a-5b used a QPSK modulation, this was by way of example only, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that any type of modulation may be used such as, byway of example but not limited to QPSK, 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), 64QAM, etc. or any other complex modulation structure. K_sc is the total number of scheduled subcarriers, in which the subcarriers could be scheduled in any way or manner such as, by way of example only but not limited to, RB segments, interlaces, or any custom scheduling RB pattern and the like. N_DFT is the total number of DFT units, and M_K is the DFT size of a DFT unit or module #k as shown, where applicable, in figures 2a-5b.

[00154] A UE may be configured to implement one or more of the above waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, 440, and 500 and a base station may instruct a UE to configure itself to operate according to one or more of the above waveform structures 200, 300, 410, 440, and 500. Alternatively, a UE may select or inform the base station of a waveform transmission structure 200, 300, 410, 440, and 500 that it may wish to use (e.g. based on its own channel measurements, complexity, computational resources etc.) and thus the base station may configure itself in hardware/software to operate to receive and decode the payload data from the resulting transmitted waveform output of the waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, 440, and 500 according to the invention. Thus, the UE and/or the base station may have the option of implementing one or more of the waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, 440, and 500 according to the invention.

[00155] In 602, a waveform transmission structure without DFT modules may be selected such that the modulated symbols from modulation module 144 are mapped to the scheduled subcarriers directly, in which case, the UE may be configured to implement waveform transmission structure 500 and thus output subcarrier mapping (or RB mapping) including K_scsubcarriers in which any type of RB scheduling may be used, such as by way of example, interlaces.In 604, there is the option to use one or more DFT modules or units. Thus, in 606, when one DFT (e.g. N_DFT = 1) may be used to pre-code the input symbols for all scheduled subcarriers. In 606b, if M_o (i.e. the DFT size of a single DFT unit) is greater than or equal to the number of scheduled subcarriers K_sc (e.g. M_o > K_sc) then a single DFT unit may be used and waveform transmission structure 200 may be used in which the DFT unit implements 1 K_Sc-point DFT precoding, afterwhich the subcarriers are mapped in 618. However, in 606b if M_o (i.e. the DFT size of a single DFT unit) is less than the number of scheduled subcarriers K_Sc (e.g. M_o< K_sc) then a single DFT unit cannot be used and another waveform transmission structure 410 or 440 that uses multiple DFTs may be selected or required to be used in 608a.

[00156] In 608, when N_DFT > 1 then multiple DFTs can be used to pre-code the modulated symbols for all scheduled subcarriers and the waveform transmission structure that is used

/.-Y_Di_T I may depend on the sum of all DFT sizes = ^M_k . Multiple DFTs are used to pre-code k=0 the modulated symbols and when the total size is less than the number of all scheduled subcarriers (Note that the number of DFTs could be 1 as seen in 606b). Thus, if the sum of

A - V_D| r I all DFT sizes < K_sc, that is the sum of all DFT sizes M_k is less than the number of k=0 all scheduled subcarriers K_sc, then the waveform transmission structures 410 and 440 may be used in 612. Depending on the type of randomization and the complexity requirements, either the symbol scrambling waveform transmission structure 410 may be implemented or alternatively the RB mapping pattern waveform transmission structure 440 may be implemented, in which the subcarrier mapping is performed in 618 for transmitting the data payload.

[00157] When the symbol scrambling waveform transmission structure 410 is used different and multiple scrambling sequences can be used to scramble the DFT pre-coded symbols. For example, with reference to figure 4b, 10 different scrambling sequences were used to scramble one DFT’s pre-codded symbols to generate 10 times more symbols. When the mapping pattern waveform transmission structure 440 is used, different DFT pre-coded symbol sets may be copied and mapped to the scheduled subcarriers by following a predefined pattern as described with reference to figures 4e-4g. For example, as described with reference to figure 4e, when interlace is used 12 sets of DFT pre-coded symbols are copied to 10 RBs of one interlace by following a cyclical or rotational RB mapping pattern.

A-2V_DFt ' [00158] In 608b, if the sum of all DFT sizes ^M_k > K_sc, that is the sum of all DFT sizes

M_k is greater than or equal to the number of all scheduled subcarriers K_sc, then the waveform transmission structure 300 may be used in 616 in which N_DFT K_sc- point DFT precoding may be used. For example, as described with reference to figure 3a with interlace scheduling, 10 12-point DFTs were used to pre-code 120 QPSK symbols for 120 subcarriers.

[00159] Figure 6b is a schematic diagram of an example Listen Before Talk (LBT) implementation 620 for, by way of example only but is not limited to, a Category 4 LBT procedure to assist in coexistence with WiFi 622 signals and the waveform transmission structures according to the invention. Conventionally, LBT is used in LTE/LTE advanced networks for unlicensed radio spectrum. UL LBT for 5GHz is specified in Section 15.2.1 of 3GPP TS 36.213 and defines 4 different channel access priority classes.

[00160] For uplink transmissions when multiple UEs are attempting to access an uplink channel (e.g. data channel or control channel), typically there is a contention window and the contention window size is bounded by CW_min and CW_max. A random value is calculated and bounded within the contention window every time a LBT procedure is required for a UE. This random value is used to determine the number of Channel Clearance Assessments (CCAs) within one LBT procedure. One CCA is one try of the UE to “listen” over the unlicensed channel so one LBT procedure may include multiple times of CCA (9ps each). Currently, a UE implements CCA by simply detecting if the energy is above a predefined threshold or not.

[00161] When the contention window is small, the random value cannot be big and the total time length of corresponding LBT cannot be long. Different priorities have different contention window ranges. The priority is selected according to the traffic type to be sent, for instance, an instant message requires a short latency and a priority with small contention window can be selected so that the UL transmission can start after a short LBT.

[00162] For the same priority, the CW has a set of different sizes and the principle is that a bigger CW size should be selected when there are more devices trying to access this channel. The CW size is dynamically updated according to the transmission feedback.

[00163] Referring back to figure 6b, there have been proposals for LBT type implementation for PUCCH in which priority class 1 of PUSCH for PUCCH may be used. In such cases an LBT gap between 25 ps and 88 ps may be required, which could be 1 or 2 OFDM orSCFDMA symbols long (e.g. about 71 ps). With possible other UEs and devices accessing the same channel, such an LBT procedure may need more time (e.g. see Wi Fi burst in Figure 6b).

[00164] Currently, PUSCH may indicate a starting time for its transmission of a radio burst 624. If LBT is not finished at the starting time, the UE has to give up this radio burst 624 and will need to wait for the next scheduled radio burst(s). However, when the radio burst 624 for transmitting payload data is transmitted using the waveform transmission structures according to the invention, and if the starting time is indicated, then the UE may keep doing the LBT procedure during a beginning portion 624a of the radio burst 624 until the UE has finished and then, if the channel is free, the UE may transmit the remaining portion 624b or OFDM symbols of the radio burst 624 whilst discarding the OFDM symbols or signals that were passed during the LBT procedure.

[00165] In order to support this type of transmission scheme in which the UE can continue to transmit the radio burst 624 after the LBT finished, the transmitted data bits from the TBCC encoder block 134 (e.g. see figures 2a, 3a, 4a, 4b, 4e and 5a) should be evenly distributed as much as possible. When this is the case, then the waveform transmission structure link performance has been found to work well.

[00166] For example, the waveform transmission structure 200 of figure 2a, the waveform transmission structure 300 of figure 3a and the waveform transmission structure 500 of figure

5a both operate and perform well due to the extremely low coding rates. Furthermore, the waveform transmission structure 440 of figure 4e also performs well due to the time domain rotation. These waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 440 and 500 can allow the data payload to be decoded with only 1 OFDM symbol if the channel and/or channel estimate is good enough, i.e. the channel response is known by the receiver from a previous radio burst.

[00167] The waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 440 and 500 all have a better latency performance with possibility for the receiver to only need to receive either the initial several OFDM symbols or initial several OFDM symbols of the remaining portion 624b of the radio burst 624. This may be called pipeline processing in 5G/NR. These waveform transmission structures also allow the possibility of the UE being able to transmit the ending several OFDM symbols when an LBT procedure is applied that interferes with a first portion 624a of a radio burst 624.

[00168] It has been shown that the waveform transmission structures for transmitting a radio burst on the uplink for a data or control channel according to the invention are capable of significantly reducing the latency of a receiver that is configured to receive the transmitted radio burst. A receiver that is configured to receive the transmitted radio burst transmitted by the waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 440 and 500 may be able to decode the payload data with only several initial OFDM symbols, or if the initial OFDM symbols have been corrupted due to other transmissions, the initial OFDM symbols of any remaining transmitted radio burst that may be in the clear. This means that the payload data may be decoded without the receiver having to wait until the whole radio burst comprising a plurality of OFDM symbols representing the data payload has been received. In the extreme, the data payload may be decoded with only one OFDM symbol received if the channel response is known by the receiver, e.g., from previous channel estimation of a previous radio burst.

[00169] Figure 7 is a graph diagram 700 illustrating the Block Error Rate (BLER) vs. Signal-toNoise Ratio (SNR) link performance of the example waveform transmission structures (WTSs) 200, 300, 440 and 500 according to the invention. The Y-Axis of the graph 700 is the BLER 702 and the X-Axis of the graph 700 denotes the SNR in dB (decibels). The performance of the WTS 200 according to the invention is denoted by the line 706a with white circles, the performance of the WTS 440 according to the invention is denoted by the line 706b with plus (+) signs, the performance of the WTS 500 according to the invention is denoted by the line 706c with star or asterisk (*) signs, and the performance of the WTS 300 is denoted by the line 706d with white diamonds.

[00170] The link performances of all above WTS 200, 300, 440 and 500 are compared whilst transmitting a 128 bit payload. Take the 1% BLER as the operating point, WTS 500 (line

706c) has the best performance which is about 4dB better than that of WTS 200 (line 706a) and the performance of WTS 440 (line 706b) is slightly worse which is about 3.7dB better than that of WTS 200. The performance of WTS 300 (line 706d) is nearly same as that of the WTS 500.

[00171] From the Power Spectral Density regulations, the maximum permitted output power of PUSCH is 22.5 dBm (=10dBm + 10*log10 (18 MHz)) so it is assumed that UEs operating in unlicensed bands can have the maximum output power of 23dBm. For 1 interlace, the maximum permitted output power is 20dBm (=10dBm + 10*log10 (10 RBs)) so there is 3dBm room for the device to perform back off if the PAPR/CM exceed the PA (power amplifier)’s linear range.

[00172] Compared with legacy PUCCH format 4 with payload size of 128 bits, the estimated coverage loss and CM of different waveforms are illustrated in Table 3:

Waveforms	Coverage Loss, [dB]	CM, [dB]	Note
WTS 200	5.5	2.25	2.5dB link performance loss + 3dB maximum output power less; CM of 1 RB legacy PUCCH (SC-FDMA) is 1.2 dB; 1dB more CM can be tolerable with the 3dB back off room;
WTS 500	1.5	3.97	5.5dB of PUSCH - 4 dB link performance gain; 2.8dB more CM can be tolerated with 3dB back off room;
WTS 300	1.5	3.73	5.5dB of PUSCH - 4 dB link performance gain; 2.6dB more CM can be tolerated with 3dB back off room;
WTS 410	1.8	3.96	5.5dB of PUSCH - 3.7 dB link performance gain; 2.8dB more CM can be tolerated with 3dB back

			off room.
WTS 440	1.8	3.73	5.5dB of PUSCH - 3.7 dB link performance gain; 2.6dB more CM can be tolerated with 3dB back off room.

Table 3: Coverage losses and CM [00173] Although these waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, 440 and 500 have been shown to improve performance, improve reliability and reduce latency for uplink in relation to PUSCH and/or PUCCH type channels, it is to be appreciated by the skilled person that the waveform transmission structures 200, 300, 410, 440 and 500 according to the invention may be applied to other further networks, data channels and control channels such as 5G/NR and beyond type networks and corresponding data and control channels.

[00174] The 5G/NR network has been simulated using a 5G/NR channel model for Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services, which can be found in Tdoc “R110 1700641”. Table 3 of Tdoc R1-1700641 illustrates the CM (dB) performance gain for MultiDFT-OFDM with waveform transmission structures according to the invention based on MultiDFT or WTS 300, which can be applied to 5G/NR and future networks according to the invention. Table 3 of Tdoc R1-1700641 is replicated in Table 4 as follows:

	Case IB	Case 2B
CP-OFDM	3.5	3.8
DFT-S-OFDM (multi-DFT)	2.3	3.6
Difference	1.2	0.2

Table 4: CM(dB) performance gain for Multi-DFT-OFDM [00175] Multi-DFT (e.g. a WTS based on WTS 300) has 1.2 dB gain in CM value with nearly identical link performance as CP-OFDM and accordingly 1.2 dB overall coverage improvement. The waveform transmission structures according to the invention as described with reference to figures 2a-7 are applicable to the uplink data channel and/or control channels of 5G/NR and may be applied to 5G/NR services such as UL URLLC services. The waveform transmission structures according to the invention may assist in achieving the requirements of URLLC which requires the reliability to be 1-1 O'⁵ with a user plane latency of 1 ms (e.g. see 3GPP TR 38.913-e00).

[00176] Figure 8 illustrates various components of an exemplary computing-based device 800 which may be implemented to include the functionality of the scheduling and allocation of communication resources as described, by way of example only, with respect to an eNB 104a of a telecommunications network 100 as described with reference to figures 1a-7.

[00177] The computing-based device 800 comprises one or more processors 802 which may be microprocessors, controllers or any other suitable type of processors for processing computer executable instructions to control the operation of the device in order to perform measurements, receive measurement reports, schedule and/or allocate communication resources as described in the process(es) and method(s) as described herein.

[00178] In some examples, for example where a system on a chip architecture is used, the processors 802 may include one or more fixed function blocks (also referred to as accelerators) which implement the methods and/or processes as described herein in hardware (rather than software or firmware).

[00179] Platform software and/or computer executable instructions comprising an operating system 804a or any other suitable platform software may be provided at the computing-based device to enable application software to be executed on the device. Depending on the functionality and capabilities of the computing device 800 and application of the computing device, software and/or computer executable instructions may include the functionality of perform measurements, receive measurement reports, schedule and/or allocate communication resources and/or the functionality of the base stations oreNBs according to the invention as described with reference to figures 1a-7.

[00180] For example, computing device 800 may be used to implement base station 104a or eNB 104a and may include software and/or computer executable instructions that may include functionality of perform measurements, receive measurement reports, schedule and/or allocate communication resources and/or the functionality of the base stations or eNBs according to the invention as described with reference to figures 1a-7.

[00181] The software and/or computer executable instructions may be provided using any computer-readable media that is accessible by computing based device 800. Computerreadable media may include, for example, computer storage media such as memory 804 and communications media. Computer storage media, such as memory 804, includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.

[00182] Computer storage media may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium that can be used to store information for access by a computing device. In contrast, communication media may embody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave, or other transport mechanism. As defined herein, computer storage media does not include communication media. Although the computer storage media (memory 1004) is shown within the computing-based device 800 it will be appreciated that the storage may be distributed or located remotely and accessed via a network or other communication link (e.g. using communication interface 806).

[00183] The computing-based device 800 may also optionally or if desired comprises an input/output controller 810 arranged to output display information to a display device 812 which may be separate from or integral to the computing-based device 800. The display information may provide a graphical user interface. The input/output controller 810 is also arranged to receive and process input from one or more devices, such as a user input device 814 (e.g. a mouse or a keyboard). This user input may be used to set scheduling for measurement reports, or for allocating communication resources, or to set which communications resources are of a first type and/or of a second type etc. In an embodiment the display device 812 may also act as the user input device 814 if it is a touch sensitive display device. The input/output controller 810 may also output data to devices other than the display device, e.g. other computing devices via communication interface 806, any other communication interface, or a locally connected printing device/computing devices etc.

[00184] Figure 9 illustrates various components of an exemplary computing-based device 900 which may be implemented to include the functionality of the assignment and use of scheduled communication resources as described, byway of example only but not limited to, with respect to UE 104a or UE 104b of a telecommunications network 100 as described with reference to figures 1a-8.

[00185] The computing-based device 900 comprises one or more processors 902 which may be microprocessors, controllers or any other suitable type of processors for processing computer executable instructions to control the operation of the device in order to perform measurements, receive measurement reports, schedule and/or allocate communication resources as described in the process(es) and method(s) as described herein. In some examples, for example where a system on a chip architecture is used, the processors 902 may include one or more fixed function blocks (also referred to as accelerators) which implement the methods and/or processes as described herein in hardware (rather than software or firmware).

[00186] Platform software and/or computer executable instructions comprising an operating system 904a or any other suitable platform software may be provided at the computing-based device to enable application software to be executed on the device. Depending on the functionality and capabilities of the computing device 900 and application of the computing device, software and/or computer executable instructions may include the functionality of performing measurements, sending measurement reports, assigning and using scheduled communication resources and/or the functionality of the UEs according to the invention as described with reference to figures 1a-8. For example, computing device 900 may be used to implement a UE 108a or 108b as described herein and may include software and/or computer executable instructions that may include functionality of performing measurements, transmitting measurement reports, assigning and using scheduled communication resources and/or the functionality of the UEs according to the invention as described with reference to figures 1a-8.

[00187] The software and/or computer executable instructions may be provided using any computer-readable media that is accessible by computing based device 900. Computerreadable media may include, for example, computer storage media such as memory 904 and communications media. Computer storage media, such as memory 904, includes volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data.

[00188] Computer storage media may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium that can be used to store information for access by a computing device. In contrast, communication media may embody computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave, or other transport mechanism. As defined herein, computer storage media does not include communication media. Although the computer storage media (memory 904) is shown within the computing-based device 900 it will be appreciated that the storage may be distributed or located remotely and accessed via a network or other communication link (e.g. using communication interface 906).

[00189] The computing-based device 900 may also optionally or if desired comprises an input/output controller 910 arranged to output display information to a display device 912 which may be separate from or integral to the computing-based device 900. The display information may provide a graphical user interface. The input/output controller 1110 is also arranged to receive and process input from one or more devices, such as a user input device 914 (e.g. keypad, touch screen or other input). This user input may be used to operate the computing device. In an embodiment the display device 912 may also act as the user input device 914 if it is a touch sensitive display device. The input/output controller 910 may also output data to devices other than the display device, e.g. other computing devices via communication interface 906, any other communication interface, or a locally connected printing device/computing devices etc.

[00190] The term 'computer' is used herein to refer to any device with processing capability such that it can execute instructions. Those skilled in the art will realise that such processing capabilities are incorporated into many different devices and therefore the term 'computer' or 'computing device' includes PCs, servers, base stations, eNBs, network nodes and other network elements, mobile telephones, UEs, personal digital assistants, other portable wireless communications devices and many other devices.

[00191] Those skilled in the art will realise that storage devices utilised to store program instructions can be distributed across a network. For example, a remote computer may store an example of the process described as software. A local or terminal computer may access the remote computer and download a part or all of the software to run the program. Alternatively, the local computer may download pieces of the software as needed, or execute some software instructions at the local terminal and some at the remote computer (or computer network). Those skilled in the art will also realise that by utilising conventional techniques known to those skilled in the art that all, or a portion of the software instructions may be carried out by a dedicated circuit, such as a DSP, programmable logic array, or the like.

[00192] Any range or device value given herein may be extended or altered without losing the effect sought, as will be apparent to the skilled person.

[00193] It will be understood that the benefits and advantages described above may relate to one example or embodiment or may relate to several examples or embodiments. The examples or embodiments are not limited to those that solve any or all of the stated problems or those that have any or all of the stated benefits and advantages.

[00194] Any reference to 'an' item refers to one or more of those items. The term 'comprising' is used herein to mean including the method blocks, features or elements identified, but that such blocks, features or elements do not comprise an exclusive list and a method or apparatus may contain additional blocks, features or elements.

[00195] The steps of the methods described herein may be carried out in any suitable order, or simultaneously where appropriate. Additionally, individual blocks may be deleted from any of the methods without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. Aspects of any of the examples described above may be combined with aspects of any of the other examples described to form further examples without losing the effect sought.

[00196] It will be understood that the above description of a preferred embodiment is given by way of example only and that various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art. Although various embodiments have been described above with a certain degree of particularity, or with reference to one or more individual embodiments, those skilled in the art could make numerous alterations to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a user equipment, UE, and a base station over a telecommunication network, wherein the radio burst comprises a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex, OFDM, symbols, each OFDM symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, RBs, spanning the available frequency bandwidth, the method comprising:

dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, N, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group;

assigning each group of modulated symbols to different OFDM symbols of the radio burst;

for each group of modulated symbols, pre-coding said each group of modulated symbols based on an L-point

Discrete Fourier Transform, DFT, where L >= Ni; and mapping the subcarriers associated with the pre-coded modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs, wherein at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs; and transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs.

2. A method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a user equipment, UE, and a base station over a telecommunication network, wherein the radio burst comprises a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex, OFDM, symbols, each symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, RBs, spanning the available frequency bandwidth, the method comprising:

dividing a plurality of modulated symbols into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, N,, of modulated symbols, where i is the index of the said group;

for each group of modulated symbols assigned to an OFDM symbol, performing the steps of:

dividing each group of modulated symbols into multiple subgroups of modulated symbols;

pre-coding said each subgroup of modulated symbols based on a L-point

Discrete Fourier Transform, DFT, L> K wherein K is the number of modulated symbols in said each subgroup; and mapping the subcarriers associated with the pre-coded modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs of an OFDM symbol; and transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein for at least one RB, the precoded modulated symbols are scrambled by a scrambling sequence before being mapped to the subcarriers of the at least one said RB.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the said sequence is pre-defined and known by both the UE and the base station.

5. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein for at least for one RB, the precoded modulated symbols from one or more different OFDM symbols are mapped to the subcarriers of the said RB in the said OFDM symbol.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the said different OFDM symbols are determined according to a predefined mapping pattern known by both the UE and the base station.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the said predefined mapping pattern is a set of cyclic shifts of the same mapping sequence.

8. A method as claimed in any of claims 2 to 7, wherein the number, K, of modulated symbols is selected by the base station based on the channel condition and the subcarrier numerology.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the said number, K, is manually configured according to the channel conditions of the UE within the coverage area of the said base station.

10. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the said number, K, is automatically selected by the base station according to its and/or the specific UE’s channel measurement results and different values could be selected for different UEs.

11. A method as claimed in any of claims 2 to 10, wherein the number, K, of the modulated symbols is indicated to UEs served by this base station.

12. A method for transmitting data in a radio burst between a user equipment, UE, and a base station over a telecommunication network, wherein the radio burst comprises a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex, OFDM, symbols, each symbol covers an available frequency bandwidth comprising a plurality of contiguous resource blocks, RBs, spanning the available frequency bandwidth, the method comprising:

dividing a plurality of modulated symbols associated with data for transmission into multiple groups of modulated symbols, each group of modulated symbols comprising a number, N s, of modulated symbols, where / is the index of the said group;

for each group of modulated symbols of an OFDM symbol, mapping the subcarriers associated with the modulated symbols to multiple RBs of the plurality of contiguous RBs in the OFDM symbol, wherein at least one of the RBs are non-contiguous with at least one other RB of the multiple RBs; and transmitting the data based on the mapped RBs.

13. A method as claimed in any of claims 1 to 12, further comprising allocating the multiple RBs based on a set of predefined interlaces with available RBs for the uplink transmission, each interlace in the set of predefined interlaces defining a unique plurality of non-contiguous RBs selected from the plurality of contiguous RBs.

14. A method as claimed in any of claims 1 to 13, further comprising starting transmission after a LBT procedure, wherein OFDM symbols overlapping with a LBT period will be discarded and remaining symbols of said radio burst are transmitted.

15. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the multiple RBs comprise at least two RBs that span at least 80% of the declared system bandwidth or available frequency bandwidth of the licensed or unlicensed radio frequency spectrum.

16. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein two or more of the multiple RBs are contiguous.

17. A computer readable medium comprising program code stored thereon, which when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method according to any of claims 1-16.

18. A UE apparatus comprising a processor, a storage unit and a communications interface, wherein the processor unit, storage unit, and communications interface are configured to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 1-16.

Intellectual

Property

Office

Application No: GB 1700271.8