HK1237154B - Joint processing of transport blocks on multiple component carriers for ca (carrier aggregation) and laa (license assisted access) - Google Patents

Description

Joint processing of transport blocks on multiple component carriers for CA (carrier aggregation) and LAA (licensed assisted access)

Citation of Related Applications

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/095,217, filed December 22, 2014, entitled “METHOD ON JOINT PROCESSING OF TRANSPORT BLOCKS ON MULTIPLE COMPONENT CARRIERS FOR CA AND LAA,” the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to wireless technologies, and more particularly to technologies for jointly processing the same transport block on more than one carrier in a wireless system.

Background Art

Carrier aggregation (CA) involves using multiple component carriers (CCs) to transmit to a user equipment (UE), thereby increasing the bandwidth (and bit rate) available for transmission to the UE. Support for CA in the LTE (Long Term Evolution) specifications began with Release 10 (Rel-10) of the LTE specifications with support for basic CA features, enabling aggregation of up to five CCs within the same frame structure. With the tremendous growth of LTE-enabled devices, many LTE deployments are becoming capacity-constrained due to interference and the amount of data being transmitted. 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is considering supporting wider spectrum bands on the UE side to improve peak data rate performance by standardizing enhanced CA operation with an increased number of carriers (e.g., up to 16 or 32 CCs) for LAA (Licensed Assisted Access) in the C-band (3.4-4.2 GHz) licensed band and 5 GHz (with 500 MHz of unlicensed spectrum), thereby providing more resources for data capabilities and better managing interference.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus configured to be employed within an evolved Node B (eNB), comprising: a processor configured to: generate a common transport block (TB); prepare an associated physical layer code of the common TB for each of a plurality of carriers comprising different frequency ranges; schedule each physical layer code of the common TB to a physical resource set on an associated carrier of the plurality of carriers; and generate one or more control channel messages associated with the physical layer code; a transmitter circuit configured to: send the physical layer code via the scheduled physical resource set and send the one or more control channel messages on at least one carrier of the plurality of carriers; and a receiver circuit configured to: receive a common hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer code.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause an evolved Node B (eNB) to: configure a user equipment (UE) for joint transmission via multiple carriers, wherein each of the multiple carriers comprises a different frequency range; schedule a physical resource set for the UE on each of the multiple carriers; send one or more control channel messages indicating an uplink grant associated with each physical resource set scheduled for the UE; receive transmissions from the UE on the multiple carriers via the scheduled physical resource sets, wherein each received transmission is a physical layer encoding of a common transport block (TB); perform decoding on at least one transmission received via the scheduled physical resource set to attempt to recover the common TB; and, in response to the received message, send a single hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) message including an acknowledgment (ACK) or a negative acknowledgment (NACK) based on whether the common TB is successfully recovered.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, it relates to an apparatus configured to be employed within a user equipment (UE), comprising: a receiver circuit configured to: receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode, and receive one or more control channel messages, the one or more control channel messages indicating a scheduled physical resource set of each carrier in a plurality of carriers for downlink (DL) allocation of the UE, wherein each carrier includes a different frequency range, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to: receive transmissions via the scheduled physical resource set, and wherein two or more of the received transmissions are physical layer encodings of a common transport block (TB); a processor operably coupled to the receiver circuit and configured to: perform decoding on at least a subset of the two or more received transmissions to attempt to recover the common TB; and a transmitter circuit configured to: send, in response to the two or more received messages, a single hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) message including an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) based on whether the common TB is successfully recovered.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a user equipment (UE) to: receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode associated with a plurality of carriers, wherein each carrier comprises a different frequency range; receive one or more control channel messages indicating an uplink (UL) approval for the UE in a scheduled physical resource group of each of the plurality of carriers; generate a common transport block (TB); prepare an associated physical layer coding of the common TB for each of the plurality of carriers; send the associated physical layer coding on each of the plurality of carriers via the scheduled physical resource set of the carrier; and receive a common hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer coding.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example user equipment (UE) that may be used in conjunction with various aspects described herein.

2 is a block diagram of a system that can be employed in an enhanced Node B (eNB) or other base station to facilitate joint processing of common transport blocks (TBs) on more than one carrier in accordance with various aspects described herein.

3 is a block diagram of a system that can be employed in a UE to facilitate joint processing of common transport blocks (TBs) on more than one carrier in accordance with various aspects described herein.

4 is a flow chart illustrating a methodology that facilitates joint processing of a common TB for downlink (DL) at an eNB in accordance with various aspects described herein.

5 is a flow chart illustrating a methodology that facilitates joint processing of a common TB for uplink (UL) at an eNB in accordance with various aspects described herein.

6 is a flow chart illustrating a methodology that facilitates joint processing of a common TB for DL at a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein.

7 is a flow chart illustrating a methodology that facilitates joint processing of a common TB for a UL at a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein.

8 is a pair of graphs illustrating a comparison between single processing of TBs and joint processing of TBs according to various aspects described herein.

9 is a pair of diagrams illustrating two choices for starting positions of contiguous carriers in a circular buffer for rate matching in accordance with various aspects described herein.

10 is a diagram illustrating joint transmission of common TBs in multiple carriers using a single PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) scheduling in accordance with various aspects described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same reference numerals are used to refer to the same elements from time to time, and the structures and devices shown therein are not necessarily drawn to scale. As used herein, the terms "component", "system", "interface" etc. are intended to represent computer-related entities, hardware, software (e.g., in execution) and/or firmware. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller or other processing equipment), a process running on the processor, a controller, an object, an executable file, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC and/or a user device (e.g., a mobile phone etc.) with a processing device. As an illustration, the application and the server running on the server can also be a component. One or more components can be present in the process, and the component can be localized on a computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. A group of elements or a group of other components can be described herein, wherein the term "group" can be interpreted as "one or more".

Furthermore, for example, these components can execute from various computer-readable storage media (e.g., modules) having various data structures stored thereon. Components can communicate via local and/or remote processes, for example, based on signals having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and/or a network (e.g., the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or the like), or interacting with other systems via signals).

As another example, a component may be a device having a specific functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electrical or electronic circuitry, in which the electrical or electronic circuitry may be operated by a software application or firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors may be internal or external to the device and may execute at least a portion of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component may be a device having a specific functionality provided by an electronic component without mechanical parts; the electronic component may include one or more processors to execute the software and/or firmware that at least partially imparts the functionality to the electronic component.

The use of the term "exemplary" is intended to present concepts in a concrete manner. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or." That is, unless specified otherwise or clear from the context, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then "X employs A or B" is satisfied in any of the foregoing cases. In addition, the words "a" and "an" as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from the context to be directed to the singular. Furthermore, to the extent the detailed description and claims use the terms "including," "containing," "having," "having," "with," or variations thereof, such terms are intended to be included in a manner similar to the term "comprising."

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be a part of, or include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or grouped), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or grouped) that executes one or more software or firmware programs, combinational logic circuits, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuit may be implemented as one or more software or firmware modules, or functionality associated with the circuit may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuit may include logic that is at least partially operable in hardware.

The embodiments described herein can be implemented as a system using any appropriately configured hardware and/or software. FIG1 illustrates example components of a user equipment (UE) device 100 for one embodiment. In some embodiments, the UE device 100 may include at least application circuitry 102, baseband circuitry 104, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 106, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 108, and one or more antennas 110 coupled together as shown.

The application circuitry 102 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 102 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and specialized processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled to and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

The baseband circuitry 104 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 104 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 106 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 106. The baseband processing circuitry 104 may interface with the application circuitry 102 to generate and process baseband signals and to control the operation of the RF circuitry 106. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 104 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 104a, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 104b, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 104c, and/or other baseband processors 104d for other current, developing, or future generations (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 104 (e.g., one or more baseband processors 104a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 106. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 104 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 104 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions. Embodiments of the modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 104 may include elements of a protocol stack, such as elements of the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) protocol, including, for example, physical (PHY) elements, media access control (MAC) elements, radio link control (RLC) elements, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) elements, and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. The central processing unit (CPU) 104e of the baseband circuitry 104 may be configured to execute elements of the protocol stack for signaling at the PHY layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, and/or RRC layer. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 104f. The audio DSPs 104f may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may include other suitable processing elements. In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuitry may be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or provided on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the components of the baseband circuitry 104 and the application circuitry 102 may be implemented together, for example, on a system-on-chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 104 can provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 104 can support communications with the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), and wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 104 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 106 can enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 106 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 106 can include a receive signal path, which can include circuitry for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 108 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 104. The RF circuitry 106 can also include a transmit signal path, which can include circuitry for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 104 and providing an RF output signal to the FEM circuitry 108 for transmission.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 106 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of RF circuitry 106 may include mixer circuitry 106a, amplifier circuitry 106b, and filter circuitry 106c. The transmit signal path of RF circuitry 106 may include filter circuitry 106c and mixer circuitry 106a. RF circuitry 106 may also include synthesizer circuitry 106d for synthesizing frequencies used by mixer circuitry 106a in the receive and transmit signal paths. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 106a in the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from FEM circuitry 108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 106d. Amplifier circuitry 106b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and filter circuitry 106c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 104 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required.In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert the input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 106d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 108. The baseband signal can be provided by the baseband circuit 104 and can be filtered by the filter circuit 106c. The filter circuit 106c can include a low-pass filter (LPF), but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuits, and the baseband circuit 104 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuit 106.

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

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 106 d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 106 d may be a sigma-delta synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

Synthesizer circuit 106d may be configured to synthesize, based on the frequency input and the divider control input, an output frequency for use by mixer circuit 106a of RF circuit 106. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 106d may be a fractional-N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. Depending on the desired output frequency, the divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 104 or application processor 102. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application processor 102.

The synthesizer circuit 106d of the RF circuit 106 may include a frequency divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-modulus frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry output) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some exemplary embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 106d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 106d can include an IQ/polarity converter.

FEM circuitry 108 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 110, amplify the received signals, and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 106 for further processing. FEM circuitry 108 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by RF circuitry 106 for transmission by one or more of one or more antennas 110.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 108 may include a TX/RX switch that switches between transmit and receive modes of operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) for amplifying a received RF signal and providing the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 106). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 108 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 106) and one or more filters for generating an RF signal that is subsequently transmitted (e.g., via one or more of the one or more antennas 110).

In some embodiments, the UE device 100 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, displays, cameras, sensors, and/or input/output (I/O) interfaces.

In accordance with various embodiments described herein, techniques may be employed to facilitate joint transmission of transport blocks on more than one carrier via carrier aggregation (CA) or licensed assisted access (LAA) operating modes, which may provide improved spectral efficiency and gains for, for example, cell edge users.

In Rel-10, the PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) scheduled by each CC is coded and transmitted separately. Cross-carrier scheduling is supported for up to 5 CCs, whereby the PDCCHs scheduling the PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) on a CC may come from different CCs. Due to the large number of aggregated CCs and the increasing number of active UEs with CA capabilities, large PDCCH overhead may arise, especially when considering the typical scenario where a limited number of CCs in the licensed band (e.g., 1 CC) transmit all DL/UL control signaling for all CCs in the licensed and/or unlicensed bands (e.g., 16 or 32 CCs). Each PDCCH occupies at least one CCE (Control Channel Element) for its transmission. When there are a large number of UEs in the network, the PDCCH overhead may become a bottleneck for scheduling data channels transmitted on multiple CCs.

In various aspects discussed herein, a compact DCI format containing scheduling information for multiple CCs can be employed to reduce PDCCH overhead. Specifically, several CC-specific information fields of the DCI format can be shared/common across all or a subset of configured CCs, such as a frequency band-specific compact DCI design. The compact DCI format can include scheduling information for each CC and can include a CC index (CIF) for joint processing of multiple CCs.

Various embodiments discussed herein may employ techniques for jointly processing transport blocks across multiple CCs, which may facilitate efficient carrier aggregation (CA) operation for supporting a large number of CCs. In some aspects, these techniques may allow multiple CCs to transmit or receive the same transport block, which may help improve spectral efficiency (e.g., at cell-edge users, etc.) due to potential frequency diversity gain. In some aspects, a single PDCCH may be employed to schedule PDSCH transmissions or PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) receptions across multiple CCs, and in these aspects, certain CC-specific information fields (e.g., HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) process number, Redundancy Version (RV), and New Data Indicator (NDI)) may be designed as common fields to further reduce PDCCH overhead and thereby increase PDCCH capacity. Additionally, the techniques employed herein may allow for single HARQ ACK/NACK (acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement) feedback on a PCell, which may help increase HARQ ACK/NACK capacity in the system.

In various aspects discussed herein, a transport block (TB) is referred to as 1 transport block (in the case of single codeword transmission) or 2 transport blocks (in the case of dual codeword transmission). In addition, the proposed scheme can be applied to both CA and License Assisted Access (LAA) operations.

2, a block diagram of a system 200 is shown that facilitates joint processing of one or more common transport blocks (TBs) on more than one carrier at a base station in accordance with various aspects described herein. The system 200 may include a processor 210, a transmitter circuit 220, an optional receiver circuit 230, and a memory 240. In various aspects, the system 200 may be included in an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) or other base station in a wireless communication network. As described in more detail below, the system 200 may facilitate joint processing of common TBs on multiple carriers, which may improve gains for cell-edge users, etc.

In various embodiments, the system 200 may be configured to jointly process transport blocks in conjunction with one or both of the downlink (DL) mode or the uplink (UL) mode.

Although, as discussed herein, joint processing can involve sending one or two TBs simultaneously, depending on the number of codewords, the processing of each TB is similar, so the discussion herein focuses on techniques for processing one TB. In terms of processing two TBs, each can be processed independently in a similar manner.

Based on the UL mode or the DL mode (or both), the processor 210 may determine to employ joint processing in DL communications with the UE (e.g., via a scheduling algorithm at a scheduler in the eNB, etc.). The processor 210 may configure the UE for joint processing by generating higher layer signaling (e.g., via a system information block (SIB), UE-specific RRC (radio resource control) signaling, etc.). In various aspects, joint processing may be configured independently or simultaneously for the UL mode or the DL mode. For joint transmission on multiple carriers, the processor 210 may determine a primary carrier among the multiple carriers, which may also be configured to the UE via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC). The transmitter circuit 220 may send higher layer signaling configuring the UE for joint processing and for the determined primary carrier.

In DL mode, the processor 210 may generate a common transport block (TB) for transmission to the UE via joint processing, the common TB may include some data payload to be sent to the UE. Based on the common TB, the processor 210 may generate physical layer coding for each of the multiple carriers. In some aspects, the multiple carriers may include multiple component carriers (CCs) for carrier aggregation (CA) (e.g., having a primary CC and one or more secondary CCs). In the same or other aspects, the multiple carriers may include one or more unlicensed carriers (e.g., including an unlicensed frequency range) and one or more licensed carriers (e.g., including a licensed frequency range) for licensed assisted access (LAA). The multiple carriers may include essentially any number of carriers, although compliance with standards or device (e.g., a UE designated to receive the transmission) capabilities may limit the number of carriers actually used for joint transmission to a single UE in various scenarios (e.g., to 2, 5, 16, 32, etc.). The processor 210 may schedule each physical layer code on one of the multiple carriers to an associated set of physical resources (e.g., time/frequency resources, etc.), and may generate one or more control channel messages associated with the physical layer code (e.g., PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) or ePDCCH (Enhanced PDCCH) DCI (Downlink Control Information) messages) that provide information that facilitates the positioning and decoding of the physical layer code. In some aspects, a single (e)PDCCH (i.e., PDCCH or ePDCCH) may be employed, wherein the control channel message is only on the primary carrier among the multiple carriers. In other aspects, a separate ePDCCH may be employed, wherein each carrier used for the joint transmission of a common TB may have a control channel message associated with the physical layer code to be sent on that carrier.

The control channel message may be in an existing format (which, in some aspects, may be modified to include one or more bits to indicate joint processing of a common TB), or in a compact format that may facilitate scheduling multiple carriers via a single message. The control channel message in DL mode may vary based on whether single or independent messaging is employed. For example, in aspects employing single messaging (e.g., a single (e)PDCCH message on a primary carrier), one or more fields of the single message may be common fields that may be applied to each physical layer coding, such as a common redundancy version (RV), a common HARQ process number, a common new data indicator (NDI), etc. In aspects employing a common RV, the starting position in the circular buffer used for rate matching for each carrier (except the first (e.g., primary) carrier) may be aligned with the ending position of the other carrier, and the primary carrier may have a starting position indicated via a common RV (e.g., RV 0, etc.). Alternatively, each carrier may employ the same starting position indicated via a common RV, which may facilitate coherent combining at the UE. In aspects involving separate (e)PDCCHs for each carrier, each may have the same or different RV, etc. In the case of a common RV, this may facilitate coherent combining as discussed, and in the case of different RVs, each carrier may have a starting position indicated by an associated RV.

In DL mode, the transmitter circuit 220 may transmit one or more control channel messages and physical layer codes. The transmitter circuit 220 may transmit each physical layer code via an associated set of physical resources on which it is scheduled (e.g., one code per carrier on some or all of the multiple carriers, etc.). As described above, a single (e)PDCCH may be employed, wherein the control channel message may be transmitted on the primary carrier, or a separate (e)PDCCH may be employed, wherein the control channel message may be transmitted on each carrier on which the physical layer code of the common TB is transmitted. Multiple physical layer codes of the common TB may provide diversity gain at the UE, which may reduce retransmissions, particularly for cell-edge UEs.

In DL mode, the receiver circuit 230 can receive a common hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) message associated with the physical layer encoding of the common TB, which can significantly reduce the amount of HARQ signaling compared to conventional CA and LAA techniques. If appropriate (e.g., the HARQ message includes a negative acknowledgement (NACK)), the system 200 can retransmit at least a portion of the common TB.

Furthermore, joint processing of a common TB may be employed concurrently with independent processing of multiple TBs (e.g., according to conventional CA or LAA modes, etc.). In such aspects, the processor 210 may independently process and schedule different TBs, wherein each carrier may have resources scheduled toward the physical layer encoding of the common TB for joint processing, resources scheduled toward the physical layer encoding of different TBs for individually processing TBs (e.g., according to conventional CA or LAA modes, etc.), or both. In these aspects, the transmitter circuit 220 may transmit the encoding of the multiple TBs via the physical resources scheduled for each TB, and the receiver circuit 230 may receive HARQ messages associated with each TB, thereby still reducing the overhead for the TBs transmitted as common TBs via the joint processing mode. In some aspects, the multiple jointly processed TBs may be processed independently of each other (e.g., with or without one or more additional independently processed TBs being jointly processed).

In DL mode, UL mode, or both, memory 240 may store instructions and/or other data associated with one or more of processor 210, transmitter circuitry 220, or receiver circuitry 230. In various aspects, memory 240 may include any of a variety of storage media.

In UL mode, the processor 210 may schedule one or more UEs for joint transmission, where each UE for the joint transmission may be scheduled on multiple carriers, each carrier being associated with a different frequency range (e.g., in LAA terms, one or more carriers may be unlicensed). For each of the multiple carriers to be used for the joint transmission, the processor 210 may schedule a set of physical resources in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The processor 210 may additionally generate one or more control channel messages (e.g., a single or separate message indicating an uplink grant associated with the UE and the scheduled set of physical resources).

In UL mode, the transmitter circuit 220 may send one or more control channel messages indicating an uplink grant (eg, via single or separate messaging as described herein) as well as higher layer signaling to configure the UE for joint transmission, designate a primary carrier, etc.

In UL mode, the receiver circuit 230 may receive transmissions from the UE via scheduled physical resource sets on multiple carriers. Because the UE is configured for joint transmission via the scheduled physical resource sets, each transmission received via the scheduled physical resource sets may be a physical layer encoding of a common TB sent by the UE (in some aspects, as discussed elsewhere herein, other multi-carrier transmission modes may also be employed concurrently with the joint transmission mode discussed herein).

Based on the received transmissions, the processor 210 may perform decoding to attempt to recover the common TBs. Each physical layer code may be self-decodable, so in some cases, the processor 210 may decode one (or a subset) of the received transmissions to successfully recover the common TBs (and may discard the rest to avoid unnecessary processing). In other aspects, the processor 210 may recover only the common TBs by attempting to decode all received transmissions, or may not be able to successfully recover the common TBs. If the common TBs are successfully recovered, the processor 210 may generate a common HARQ message that may include an ACK (acknowledgement), or if the common TBs are not successfully recovered, a common HARQ message that may include a NACK (negative acknowledgment).

In UL mode, the transmitter circuit 220 may send a common HARQ message via a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) on the primary carrier. The HARQ message may have a PHICH resource index, which may be based on an index of a first resource block indicated in an uplink grant for a scheduled physical resource set on the primary carrier, based on a cyclic shift indicated via the uplink grant, or a combination thereof.

3, a block diagram of a system 300 is shown that facilitates joint processing of one or more common transport blocks (TBs) on more than one carrier at a mobile terminal in accordance with various aspects described herein. The system 300 may include a receiver circuit 310, a processor 320, a transmitter circuit 330, and a memory 340 (which may include any of a variety of storage media and may store instructions and/or data associated with one or more of the receiver circuit 310, the processor 320, or the transmitter circuit 330). In various aspects, the system 300 may be included within a user equipment (UE). As described in more detail below, the system 300 may facilitate joint processing of transport blocks in conjunction with one or both of a DL mode or an UL mode.

In either or both of the UL mode or the DL mode, the receiver circuit 310 may receive higher layer signaling (e.g., via SIB, RRC, etc.) indicating a joint transmission mode (alternatively, the joint transmission mode may be indicated via DCI). In some aspects, the configuration received via higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC) may also indicate details about the joint transmission mode, such as whether a single or independent ePDCCH message delivery will be employed, etc. In addition, the receiver circuit 310 may receive one or more control channel messages (e.g., via a single message delivery as discussed herein (e.g., which may employ a compact DCI format as discussed herein) or independent messaging, etc.) that indicates multiple DL allocations on multiple carriers for a UE employing the system 300. The multiple DL allocations may include scheduled physical resource sets on each of the multiple carriers. The receiver circuit 310 may receive a transmission via the scheduled physical resource sets. Because the UE is configured for joint transmission via the scheduled physical resource set, each transmission received via the scheduled physical resource set can be a physical layer encoding of the common TB sent by the eNB (as discussed above, in some aspects, other transmission modes (e.g., independent processing of additional TBs, etc.) may also be employed, involving one or more of the multiple carriers used for joint transmission, other carriers, or a combination thereof).

In DL mode, processor 320 may attempt to recover the common TBs by performing decoding on one or more received transmissions. For example, if the common TBs are successfully recovered after attempting to decode less than all received transmissions, the remaining transmissions may be discarded to minimize the processing load on processor 320.

In DL mode, the transmitter circuit 330 may send a single common HARQ message in response to the received transmission, which may include an ACK if the processor 320 successfully recovers the common TB, or a NACK if the recovery is unsuccessful. The transmitter circuit 330 may send the single common HARQ message via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), and it may have a PUCCH resource index that may depend at least in part on the first CCE (control channel element) of a control channel message indicating a DL allocation on a primary carrier among the multiple carriers.

In DL mode, if independent processing of the second TB is also employed (e.g., if also configured in a CA mode involving independent processing), the receiver circuit 310 may additionally receive a control channel message indicating one or more DL allocations associated with one or more independently processed TBs, which may optionally include one or more additional common TBs. For the additional TBs, reception, decoding, and HARQ messaging may be performed in parallel with that described above for the common TBs, and the transmitter circuit 330 may send a separate HARQ message for each independent TB (including any TB also designated for joint processing, e.g., the second TB, etc.).

In UL mode, as in DL mode, the receiver circuit 310 may receive the configuration via higher layer signaling. In addition, the receiver circuit 310 may receive one or more control channel messages (e.g., as discussed herein, via a single or separate (e)PDCCH message delivery) that may indicate one or more UL grants, each of which may indicate a scheduled set of physical resources on a carrier among the multiple carriers.

In UL mode, the processor 320 may generate a common TB and a physical layer code for the common TB for each of a plurality of carriers designated for joint transmission.

In UL mode, the transmitter circuit 330 may transmit each physical layer code via a scheduled set of physical resources on an associated carrier.

In UL mode, in response to the joint transmission of the common TB, the receiver circuit 330 may also receive a HARQ message indicating ACK or NACK via the PHICH on the primary carrier. The PHICH resource index may be as described above in conjunction with the system 200.

As with other systems and modes discussed herein, in UL mode, system 300 may, in some aspects, additionally perform independent processing of one or more independent TBs for transmission (with some or all of the independent TBs optionally being processed jointly).

4 , shown is a flow chart of a method 400 for facilitating joint processing of a common TB for DL at an eNB in accordance with various aspects described herein.

At 410, the UE may be configured into joint transmission mode, for example, via higher layer signaling (eg, via SIB or RRC) or via DCI messaging.

At 420, a common TB including data to be sent to the UE may be generated.

At 430, a physical layer code of a common TB may be generated for each of a plurality of carriers to be used for joint transmission.

At 440, DL resources (eg, a scheduled set of physical resources on each carrier) may be scheduled on each of the multiple carriers for the joint transmission.

At 450, one or more control channel messages (eg, (e)PDCCH messages) indicating the allocated DL resources scheduled for the joint transmission can be generated (eg, via single or separate messaging as discussed herein).

At 460, one or more control channel messages can be sent (eg, via a primary carrier or each of a plurality of carriers) along with a physical layer code (which can be sent via the scheduled set of physical resources).

A HARQ message indicating whether the common TBs were successfully decoded (ACK) or unsuccessfully decoded (NACK) may be received from the UE at 470. If unsuccessfully decoded, at least a portion of the common TBs may be retransmitted.

5 , shown is a flow chart of a method 500 for facilitating joint processing of a common TB for UL at an eNB in accordance with various aspects described herein.

At 510, the UE may be configured into joint transmission mode, for example, via higher layer signaling (eg, via SIB or RRC) or via DCI messaging.

At 520, UL resources (eg, a scheduled set of physical resources on each carrier) may be scheduled for joint transmission for the UE on each of the multiple carriers.

At 530, one or more control channel messages (eg, (e)PDCCH messages) indicating the UL grant and resources scheduled for the joint transmission may be generated (eg, via single or separate messaging as discussed herein).

At 540, one or more control channel messages may be sent to the UE.

At 550, a physical layer coded transmission of a common TB may be received from a UE on multiple carriers via a scheduled set of physical resources.

At 560, decoding can be performed on the received at least one transmission to attempt to recover the common TBs.

At 570, a HARQ message may be sent to the UE indicating whether the common TB was successfully decoded (ACK) or not successfully decoded (NACK).

6 , shown is a flow chart of a method 600 for facilitating joint processing of a common TB for DL at a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein.

At 610, the UE may be configured into joint transmission mode, for example, via higher layer signaling (eg, via SIB or RRC) or via DCI messaging.

At 620, one or more control channel messages indicating DL allocations associated with scheduled physical resource sets on multiple carriers can be received (eg, via single or separate messaging).

A transmission may be received via the scheduled set of physical resources at 630. Because the resources are configured for the joint transmission mode, each received transmission may be a physical layer encoding of a common TB sent via the joint transmission mode.

At 640, decoding can be performed on the received at least one transmission to attempt to recover the common TBs.

At 650, a HARQ message may be sent to the eNB indicating whether the common TB was successfully decoded (ACK) or not successfully decoded (NACK).

7 , shown is a flow chart of a method 700 for facilitating joint processing of a common TB for a UL at a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein.

At 710 , the UE may be configured into a joint transmission mode, for example, via higher layer signaling (eg, via SIB or RRC) or via a DCI message.

At 720, one or more control channel messages indicating a UL grant and associated scheduled physical resource sets on multiple carriers can be received (eg, via a single or separate messages).

At 730, a common TB including data to be transmitted by the UE may be generated.

At 740, a physical layer code for a common TB may be generated for each of a plurality of carriers to be used for joint transmission.

At 750, the physical layer code may be sent to the eNB via the scheduled set of physical resources.

At 760, a HARQ message indicating whether the common TBs were successfully decoded (ACK) or unsuccessfully decoded (NACK) may be received from the eNB. If unsuccessfully decoded, at least a portion of the common TBs may be retransmitted.

Referring to FIG8 , a pair of diagrams comparing individual TB processing and joint TB processing according to various aspects described herein are shown. In conventional LTE systems, the basic principle of CA is to independently process CCs in the physical layer, including control signaling, scheduling, and HARQ retransmissions, while CA is invisible to the Radio Link Control (RLC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). As shown in 800 , the MAC multiplexing function is also responsible for processing multiple CCs in the case of CA, where logical channels including any MAC control elements are multiplexed to form one (two in the case of spatial multiplexing) transport block per CC, and each CC maintains its own HARQ entity.

With the large number of CCs planned for LTE development in the near future, existing LTE mechanisms that process transport blocks independently on each CC may not be efficient. In particular, since the PDCCH scheduled by each CC is encoded and transmitted separately, this results in a significant amount of PDCCH control overhead, especially in heavily loaded systems with a large number of CA-capable devices in the network. In this case, PDCCH overhead may be a bottleneck for scheduling data channel transmissions on multiple CCs.

To address these issues, the various embodiments described herein may employ joint processing of transport blocks to allow multiple CCs to send or receive the same transport block using a single HARQ entity. In Figure 8, diagram 810 illustrates a technique for jointly processing transport blocks on multiple CCs, which may contribute to efficient CA operation. For example, a scheduler in an eNB may jointly select resources on multiple CCs based on radio link conditions. In addition, the number of PRBs (physical resource blocks) used to send a transport block may be different for each CC. For example, 6 PRBs may be allocated in a first CC, while 10 PRBs may be allocated in a second CC.

CCs for joint processing according to various aspects described herein may be configured by higher layers via SIB (System Information Block) or UE-specific dedicated RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling. In various aspects, each CC may operate in conventional CA mode for independently processing transport blocks and/or in the proposed mode for jointly processing transport blocks. For example, a first CC may operate only in the existing mode for independently processing transport blocks, a second CC may operate in both the existing mode and the mode for jointly processing transport blocks discussed herein; and a third CC may operate only in the joint processing mode discussed herein. Additionally, the second and third CCs may be configured to jointly process the same transport blocks using a single HARQ entity.

From the UE's perspective, a primary CC can be defined when configuring joint processing. This primary CC can be configured by higher layers, for example, via dedicated RRC signaling. When a single (e)PDCCH is used as described herein, this primary CC can be used to transmit a PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) or an ePDCCH (enhanced PDCCH) for scheduling transport blocks. In various embodiments, transport blocks can be transmitted in this primary CC using an RV (Redundancy Version) of 0, which can facilitate robust decoding of data channels.

9, a pair of diagrams illustrating two options for the starting position of consecutive carriers in a rate matching circular buffer according to various aspects described herein is shown. As can be seen in FIG9, for each CC, several options can be used for the starting position of the rate matching circular buffer.

In a first option that can be used in various embodiments, the starting positions of the circular buffer for rate matching in each CC can be aligned with each other. Thus, the starting position of rate matching for the first CC can be aligned with the starting position defined for the RV indicated in the DCI (Downlink Control Information) format. The starting position of rate matching for the second CC can follow the last position of rate matching for the first CC, and so on for additional CCs. FIG9 shows at 900 a case where the starting positions of the circular buffer for rate matching in each CC are aligned with each other.

This choice of aligning the starting position of consecutive CCs can be used in various embodiments, including embodiments where a single PDCCH (or ePDCCH) can be used to schedule the transmission of transport blocks on multiple CCs. In such embodiments, the MCS (modulation and coding scheme) on each CC can be different or the same. The configuration of different or the same MCS can be semi-statically configured by higher layers. When the same MCS is used, additional overhead can be reduced in the DCI format.

In a second option that can be used in various embodiments, the starting position of the circular buffer used for rate matching for each CC can be aligned with the starting position defined for the RV indicated in the DCI format for that CC. FIG9 illustrates at 910 how the starting position of the circular buffer used for rate matching for each CC is aligned with the starting position defined for the RV. In the example shown in 910, the coded bits for CC#0 start at RV=0, while the coded bits for CC#1 start at RV=2. However, in various embodiments, the RVs of one or both CC#0 and CC#1 may be the same or may vary.

This second option can also be used in various embodiments, including embodiments in which a separate PDCCH or ePDCCH is used to schedule the transmission of transport blocks on each CC. In various aspects, the RV on each CC can be the same or different (the diagram of 910 shows different RVs), depending on the decision reached by the scheduler. In the case of using the same RV (e.g., RV=0) and MCS for multiple CCs, the UE can perform coherent combining for PDSCH decoding. In addition, the transmission on each CC can be self-decodable. Therefore, after successfully decoding the transmission on the first CC, the receiving UE can skip decoding of the transport blocks on the remaining CCs to reduce power consumption.

Several options can also be configured for joint processing of transport blocks on multiple CCs.

In a first option, the configuration for joint processing of transport blocks may be predefined for certain CCs or configured via SIB or UE-specific dedicated RRC signaling.

In the second option, the configuration for joint processing of transport blocks can be explicitly signaled in the DCI format. For example, an additional bit can be included in the uplink grant or downlink assignment to distinguish between joint processing and independent processing of transport blocks. A UE that is configured with an indicator field for joint processing of transport blocks for a given serving cell can assume that the joint processing indicator field is only present in PDCCHs located in the UE-specific search space.

Furthermore, for joint processing of transport blocks on multiple CCs, several options may be employed for scheduling on the PDCCH.

In the first option, a separate (e)PDCCH can be used to schedule transport block transmissions on each CC. In this case, existing DCI formats can be reused for uplink grants or downlink assignments. Alternatively, cross-carrier scheduling on the PDCCH can also be applied to schedule transport block transmissions on each CC. As discussed, an additional bit can be included to distinguish between the existing mode of independent transport block processing and the mode of joint transport block processing discussed herein.

In the second option, a single (e)PDCCH on the primary CC can be used to schedule transport block transmissions on multiple CCs. For example, a compact DCI format containing scheduling information for multiple CCs can be used to further reduce control overhead, thereby increasing PDCCH capacity. Figure 10 illustrates an example scenario in which a single PDCCH can be used to schedule transport block transmissions on three CCs.

In a compact DCI format such as the second option, a CC index (CIF) can be included for joint processing of the same transport block. Furthermore, one or more of the HARQ process number, NDI, or RV can be designed as a common value for multiple CCs. To further reduce overhead, the same MCS can be used across multiple CCs. Similarly, the transmit power control (TPC) used for PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) or PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) transmissions across multiple CCs can also be the same.

For joint processing of transport blocks on multiple CCs, certain design changes can be made to the DL and UL HARQ processes. Assuming that one HARQ entity is used to send a transport block, only one (one transport block) or two (two transport blocks) ACK/NACK bits can be used, which can help increase the HARQ ACK/NACK capacity in the system.

For DL HARQ processes that jointly process transport blocks on multiple CCs, ACK/NACK feedback on the PUCCH can be sent only on the primary cell (PCell). In addition, if only joint processing of transport blocks on multiple CCs is configured for the UE, the PUCCH resource index can be given based on the first CCE in the (e)PDCCH from the primary CC used to schedule downlink transmissions. This can be applied to the case when independent (e)PDCCH or a single (e)PDCCH is used to schedule transport blocks on multiple CCs. In the former case (independent (e)PDCCH), rules can be defined for the case when the UE cannot decode the (e)PDCCH on the primary CC.

If both joint and independent processing of transport blocks on multiple CCs is configured for one UE, both PUCCH format 1b with channel selection and PUCCH format 3 can be supported for ACK/NACK feedback. In addition, PUCCH resource indexing can follow the same principle as existing (independent processing only) CA operation.

In one example, when two CCs are configured for a UE to jointly process a transport block, PUCCH formats 1a and 1b may be used to send 1-bit and 2-bit ACK/NACK feedback on the PCell, respectively. As described above, the PUCCH resource index may be given based on the first CCE in the (e)PDCCH from the primary CC used to schedule downlink transmissions.

In another example, for a UE, when two CCs (e.g., CC#1 as a primary CC and CC#2 as a secondary CC, etc.) are configured to jointly process a first transport block, and another CC (e.g., CC#3) is configured to independently process a second transport block, a PUCCH format 1b with channel selectivity can be used to send ACK/NACK feedback on the PCell. In various aspects, the PUCCH resource index can be determined based on the first CCE of the (e)PDCCH from CC#1 and the Acknowledgement Resource Indicator (ARI) of CC#3.

In existing LTE specifications, the PHICH (Physical HARQ Indicator Channel) resource can be derived from the lowest PRB index in the first slot of the corresponding PUSCH transmission. Additionally, the PHICH resource can also depend on the reference signal phase rotation (cyclic shift of the DM-RS field in the nearest PDCCH associated with the PUSCH transmission) signaled as part of the uplink grant.

For UL HARQ processes that jointly process transport blocks on multiple CCs, ACK/NACK feedback on the PHICH can be sent on the primary CC. To avoid ambiguity, the PHICH resource index can be derived from the first resource block index where the corresponding PUSCH appears in the primary CC. Similarly, the cyclic shift value signaled in the uplink grant for PUSCH transmission on the primary CC can be used to calculate the PHICH resource index. This applies when transport block transmissions on multiple CCs are scheduled using independent (e)PDCCHs or a single (E)PDCCH.

Examples herein may include subject matter such as: methods; modules for performing actions or blocks of methods; at least one machine-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a machine (e.g., a processor with memory, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.), cause the machine to perform the actions of the method, apparatus, or system using a plurality of communication technologies according to the described embodiments and examples for concurrent communication.

Example 1 is an apparatus configured to be employed within an evolved Node B (eNB), comprising a processor, a transmitter circuit, and a receiver circuit. The processor is configured to: generate a common transport block (TB); prepare a physical layer code associated with the common TB for each of a plurality of carriers comprising different frequency ranges; schedule each physical layer code of the common TB to a physical resource set on an associated carrier of the plurality of carriers; and generate one or more control channel messages associated with the physical layer code. The transmitter circuit is configured to: send the physical layer code via the scheduled physical resource set and send one or more control channel messages on at least one of the plurality of carriers. The receiver circuit is configured to: receive a common hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer code.

Example 2 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the plurality of carriers includes at least one carrier having a licensed frequency range and at least one carrier having an unlicensed frequency range, and wherein the processor is configured to operate in a licensed assisted access (LAA) mode.

Example 3 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the processor is configured to operate in a carrier aggregation (CA) mode, wherein the plurality of carriers includes a primary component carrier (CC) and at least one secondary CC.

Example 4 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 1-3, including or omitting the optional features, wherein a starting position in a circular buffer for rate matching of a second carrier among the multiple carriers is aligned with an ending position in a circular buffer for rate matching of a first carrier among the multiple carriers.

Example 5 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 1-3, including or omitting the optional features, wherein a starting position in a circular buffer for rate matching for each of a plurality of carriers is aligned with a starting position associated with a redundancy version indicated for the carrier via one or more control channel messages.

Example 6 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 1-3, including or omitting the optional features, wherein the one or more control channel messages include at least one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) message or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) message associated with each of a plurality of carriers, wherein the transmitter circuit is configured to transmit each of the one or more control channel messages on the associated carrier.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of Example 6, wherein a first control channel message of the one or more control channel messages indicates a first redundancy version of a first carrier of the plurality of carriers, and wherein a second control channel message of the one or more control channel messages indicates a second redundancy version of a second carrier of the plurality of carriers.

Example 8 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein a start position in a rate-matched circular buffer for a second carrier among the plurality of carriers is aligned with an end position in a rate-matched circular buffer for a first carrier among the plurality of carriers.

Example 9 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein a starting position in a rate-matched circular buffer for each of the plurality of carriers is aligned with a starting position associated with a redundancy version indicated for the carrier via one or more control channel messages.

Example 10 includes the apparatus of Example 1, wherein the one or more control channel messages include at least one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) message or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) message associated with each of a plurality of carriers, wherein the transmitter circuit is configured to: send each of the one or more control channel messages on the associated carrier.

Example 11 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 1-5, including or omitting optional features, wherein the one or more control channel messages include at least one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) message or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) message associated with each of a plurality of carriers, wherein the transmitter circuit is configured to: send each of the one or more control channel messages on the associated carrier.

Example 12 is a machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause an evolved Node B (eNB) to: configure a user equipment (UE) for joint transmission via multiple carriers, wherein each of the multiple carriers includes a different frequency range; schedule a physical resource set for the UE on each of the multiple carriers; send one or more control channel messages indicating an uplink grant associated with each scheduled physical resource set for the UE; receive transmissions from the UE on the multiple carriers via the scheduled physical resource sets, wherein each received transmission is a physical layer encoding of a common transport block (TB); perform decoding on at least one transmission received via the scheduled physical resource sets to attempt to recover the common TB; and, in response to the received message, send a single hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) message including an acknowledgment (ACK) or a negative acknowledgment (NACK) based on whether the common TB was successfully recovered.

Example 13 includes the subject matter of Example 12, wherein the single HARQ message is sent via a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) on a primary carrier among the multiple carriers.

Example 14 includes the subject matter of Example 13, wherein the PHICH resource index of the single HARQ message is based at least in part on an index of a first resource block of a resource set scheduled on a primary carrier.

Example 15 includes the subject matter of Example 13, wherein the PHICH resource index of the single HARQ message is based at least in part on a cyclic shift indicated via an uplink grant associated with a resource set scheduled on the primary carrier.

Example 16 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a user equipment (UE), comprising a receiver circuit, a processor, and a transmitter circuit. The receiver circuit is configured to receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode and receive one or more control channel messages, the one or more control channel messages indicating a downlink (DL) allocation for the UE in a scheduled physical resource set for each of a plurality of carriers, wherein each carrier comprises a different frequency range, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to receive a transmission via the scheduled physical resource set, and wherein the two or more received transmissions are physical layer encodings of a common transport block (TB). The processor is operably coupled to the receiver circuit and is configured to: perform decoding on at least a subset of the two or more received transmissions to attempt to recover the common TB. The transmitter circuit is configured to: in response to the two or more received messages, send a single hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) message including an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) based on whether the common TB is successfully recovered.

Example 17 includes the subject matter of Example 16, wherein the one or more control channel messages are received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or an enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) on a single carrier of the multiple carriers.

Example 18 includes the subject matter of Example 17, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to receive radio resource control (RRC) signaling indicating one or more control signals on a single carrier.

Example 19 includes the subject matter of Example 17, wherein the one or more control signals comprise a compact downlink control information (DCI) message.

Example 20 includes the subject matter of Example 19, wherein the compact DCI message includes a component carrier (CC) index for joint processing of the received two or more transmissions.

Example 21 includes the subject matter of Example 19, wherein the compact DCI message comprises one or more common fields associated with each of the plurality of carriers.

Example 22 includes the subject matter of Example 21, wherein the one or more common fields include at least one of a HARQ process number, a redundancy version, or a new data indicator.

Example 23 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 16-22, including or omitting the optional features, wherein the transmitter circuit is configured to: send a single HARQ message via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with a PUCCH resource index based at least in part on a first control channel element associated with a control channel message indicating a DL allocation for a UE in a scheduled physical resource group for a primary carrier of a plurality of carriers in one or more control channel messages.

Example 24 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 16-22, including or omitting optional features, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to receive a second configuration signal indicating a carrier aggregation (CA) mode simultaneously with the joint transmission mode, wherein a second received transmission in the received transmissions includes a physical layer encoding of a second TB that is different from the common TB, wherein the processor is further configured to perform decoding on the second received transmission to attempt to recover the second TB, and wherein the transmitter circuit is further configured to: send a second HARQ message including an ACK or NACK to the second received message based on whether the second TB is successfully recovered.

Example 25 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 17 or 18, including or omitting the optional features, wherein the one or more control signals include a compact downlink control information (DCI) message.

Example 26 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 16-23, including or omitting optional features, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to receive a second configuration signal indicating a carrier aggregation (CA) mode simultaneously with the joint transmission mode, wherein a second received transmission in the received transmissions includes a physical layer encoding of a second TB that is different from the common TB, wherein the processor is further configured to perform decoding on the second received transmission to attempt to recover the second TB, and wherein the transmitter circuit is further configured to: send a second HARQ message including an ACK or NACK to the second received message based on whether the second TB is successfully recovered.

Example 27 is a machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a user equipment (UE) to: receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode associated with multiple carriers, wherein each carrier includes a different frequency range; receive one or more control channel messages indicating a scheduled physical resource set for each of the multiple carriers for uplink (UL) approval of the UE; generate a common transport block (TB); prepare associated physical layer coding for the common TB for each of the multiple carriers; send the associated physical layer coding on each of the multiple carriers via the physical resource set scheduled for the carrier; and receive a common hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer coding.

Example 28 includes the subject matter of Example 27, wherein the configuration signal indicating the joint transmission mode is received via a system information block.

Example 29 includes the subject matter of Example 27, wherein the configuration signal indicating the joint transmission mode is received via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

Example 30 includes the subject matter of Example 27, wherein the configuration signal indicating the joint transmission mode is received via a downlink control information (DCI) message of one or more control channel messages.

Example 31 includes the subject matter of any of Examples 27-30, including or omitting the optional features, wherein the common HARQ message is received via a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) on a primary carrier of the multiple carriers.

Example 32 includes the subject matter of Example 27, wherein the common HARQ message is received via a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) on a primary carrier among the multiple carriers.

Example 33 is an apparatus configured to be employed within an evolved Node B (eNB), comprising a unit for processing, a unit for sending, and a unit for receiving. The unit for processing is configured to: generate a common transport block (TB); prepare an associated physical layer code of the common TB for each carrier of a plurality of carriers comprising different frequency ranges; schedule each physical layer code of the common TB to a physical resource set on an associated carrier of the plurality of carriers; and generate one or more control channel messages associated with the physical layer code. The unit for sending is configured to: send the physical layer code via the scheduled physical resource set, and send one or more control channel messages on at least one carrier of the plurality of carriers. The unit for receiving is configured to: receive a common hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer code.

Example 34 is an apparatus configured to be employed within a user equipment (UE), comprising a unit for receiving, a unit for processing, and a unit for sending. The unit for receiving is configured to receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode and receive one or more control channel messages indicating a downlink (DL) allocation for the UE in a scheduled physical resource set for each of a plurality of carriers, wherein each carrier includes a different frequency range, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to receive a transmission via the scheduled physical resource set, and wherein the two or more received transmissions are physical layer encodings of a common transport block (TB). The unit for processing is operably coupled to the unit for receiving and is configured to perform decoding on at least a subset of the two or more received transmissions to attempt to recover the common TB. The unit for sending is configured to: in response to the two or more received messages, send a single hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) message including an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) based on whether the common TB was successfully recovered.

The above description of the illustrated embodiments of the disclosed subject matter (including what is described in the Abstract) is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the precise implementations disclosed. Although specific embodiments and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possible within the scope of these embodiments and examples as those skilled in the art will recognize.

In this regard, although the disclosed subject matter has been described in conjunction with various embodiments and corresponding drawings, it should be understood that other similar embodiments may be used, or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiments to perform the same, similar, alternative, or substitute functions of the disclosed subject matter, without departing from the disclosed subject matter. Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims.

In particular, with respect to the various functions performed by the above-described components or structures (parts, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), even if not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structures that perform the functions in the exemplary embodiments shown herein, the terms used to describe these components (including references to "modules") are intended to correspond to any component or structure that performs the specific functions of the described components (e.g., functionally equivalent), unless otherwise specified. In addition, although a particular feature may be disclosed with respect to only one of several embodiments, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of other embodiments when it may be desirable and advantageous for any given or particular application.

Claims (25)

1. A device configured for use within an evolved Node B, eNB, comprising: The processor is configured as follows: Generate a common transport block (TB); Prepare associated physical layer coding for the common TB for each of multiple carriers including different frequency ranges; Schedule each physical layer code of the public TB to the physical resource set on the associated carrier among the plurality of carriers; and Generate one or more control channel messages associated with the physical layer encoding; The transmitter circuitry is configured to: transmit the physical layer encoding via a scheduled set of physical resources, and transmit the one or more control channel messages on at least one of the plurality of carriers; and The receiver circuitry is configured to receive a Common Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer coding. Each of the plurality of carriers uses the same redundant version RV. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of carriers includes at least one carrier having a licensed frequency range and at least one carrier having an unlicensed frequency range, and wherein the processor is configured to operate in Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) mode. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to operate in carrier aggregation (CA) mode, wherein the plurality of carriers includes a primary component carrier (CC) and at least one secondary CC. 4. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the starting position in the cyclic buffer for rate matching of the second carrier among the plurality of carriers is aligned with the ending position in the cyclic buffer for rate matching of the first carrier among the plurality of carriers. 5. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the starting position in the circular buffer for rate matching of each of the plurality of carriers is aligned with the starting position associated with the redundant version indicated for that carrier via the one or more control channel messages. 6. The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the one or more control channel messages include at least one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) message or enhanced PDCCH, ePDCCH, message associated with each of the plurality of carriers, wherein the transmitter circuitry is configured to transmit each of the one or more control channel messages on the associated carrier. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein a first control channel message in the one or more control channel messages indicates a first redundancy version of a first carrier among the plurality of carriers, and wherein a second control channel message in the one or more control channel messages indicates a second redundancy version of a second carrier among the plurality of carriers. 8. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause an evolved Node B, eNB: The user equipment (UE) is configured to transmit jointly via multiple carriers, wherein each of the multiple carriers includes a different frequency range; A set of physical resources is scheduled for the UE on each of the plurality of carriers; Send one or more control channel messages indicating uplink approval associated with each physical resource set in the physical resource set scheduled for the UE; Transmissions from the UE are received on the plurality of carriers via a scheduled set of physical resources, wherein each of the received transmissions is a physical layer encoding of a common transport block TB. Decoding is performed on at least one of the transmissions received via the scheduled set of physical resources in an attempt to recover the common TB; and In response to the received message, based on whether the public TB was successfully recovered, a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) message is sent, including either an ACK or a NACK. Each of the plurality of carriers uses the same redundant version RV. 9. The machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the single HARQ message is transmitted via a physical HARQ indication channel (PHICH) on the primary carrier of the plurality of carriers. 10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the PHICH resource index of the individual HARQ message is based at least in part on the index of a first resource block of the scheduled resource set on the primary carrier. 11. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the PHICH resource index of the individual HARQ message is based at least in part on a cyclic shift indicated by an uplink approval associated with the scheduled resource set on the primary carrier. 12. An apparatus configured for use within a user equipment (UE), comprising: The receiver circuit is configured to: receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode, and receive one or more control channel messages, the one or more control channel messages indicating that a set of physical resources for scheduling each of a plurality of carriers is used for downlink (DL) allocation of the UE, wherein each carrier includes a different frequency range, wherein the receiver circuit is further configured to: receive transmissions via the set of scheduled physical resources, and wherein two or more of the received transmissions are physical layer encodings of a common transport block (TB). A processor, operatively coupled to the receiver circuitry, is configured to: perform decoding on at least a subset of the two or more transmissions in the received transmissions to attempt to recover the common TB; and The transmitter circuitry is configured to: in response to two or more messages received, based on whether the common TB has been successfully recovered, send a single Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) message including either an Acknowledgment (ACK) or a Negative Acknowledgment (NACK). Each of the plurality of carriers uses the same redundant version RV. 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more control channel messages are received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) on a single carrier of the plurality of carriers. 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the receiver circuitry is further configured to: receive Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling instructing the one or more control signals on the single carrier. 15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the one or more control signals include a Compact Downlink Control Information (DCI) message. 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the compact DCI message includes component carrier CC indices for jointly processing the two or more transmissions in the received transmission. 17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the compact DCI message includes one or more common fields associated with each of the plurality of carriers. 18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more public fields include at least one of a HARQ process number, a redundant version, or a new data indicator. 19. The apparatus of any one of claims 12 to 18, wherein the transmitter circuitry is configured to transmit the single HARQ message via a PUCCH having a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resource index, based at least in part on a first control channel element associated with a control channel message in the one or more control channel messages that indicates a primary carrier among the plurality of carriers for DL allocation of the UE within a scheduled physical resource set. 20. The apparatus according to any one of claims 12 to 18, wherein the receiver circuitry is further configured to: simultaneously receive a second configuration signal indicating a carrier aggregation (CA) mode with the joint transmission mode, wherein the second received transmission in the received transmission includes physical layer encoding of a second TB different from the common TB, wherein the processor is further configured to: perform decoding on the second received transmission to attempt to recover the second TB, and wherein the transmitter circuitry is further configured to: based on whether the second TB is successfully recovered, send a second HARQ message including an ACK or NACK for the second received message. 21. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a user equipment (UE) to: Receive a configuration signal indicating a joint transmission mode associated with multiple carriers, wherein each carrier includes a different frequency range; Receive one or more control channel messages, the one or more control channel messages indicating that the physical resources scheduled for each of the plurality of carriers are concentrated for the uplink UL approval of the UE; Generate a common transport block (TB); Prepare the associated physical layer coding of the common TB for each of the plurality of carriers; On each of the plurality of carriers, the associated physical layer coding is transmitted via the scheduled physical resource set of that carrier; and Receive the Common Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback message associated with the physical layer coding. Each of the plurality of carriers uses the same redundant version RV. 22. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein a configuration signal indicating the joint transmission mode is received via a system information block. 23. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein a configuration signal indicating the joint transmission mode is received via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. 24. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein a configuration signal indicating the joint transmission mode is received via a downlink control information (DCI) message in one or more control channel messages. 25. The machine-readable medium according to any one of claims 21 to 24, wherein the common HARQ message is received via a physical HARQ indication channel (PHICH) on the primary carrier of the plurality of carriers.