JP7314992B2 - Method, device and program for uplink control information transmission - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to methods, devices and programs for uplink control information (UCI) transmission.

With the development of new radio access (NR) communication technology, multiple types of services and traffic, such as ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), have been proposed. NR communication technology changes various aspects of communication. In particular, the transmission of uplink control information (UCI) is being considered in the specification of NR. UCI can carry different types of uplink feedback information such as positive or negative acknowledgments (ACK/NACK) for downlink transmissions and/or channel state information (CSI) such as periodic CSI (P-CSI) reports, semi-persistent CSI (SP-CSI) reports, aperiodic CSI (A-CSI) reports, etc. nel state information).

Typically, ACK/NACKs are sent from a terminal device such as a user equipment (UE) to a network device (eg gNB) on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). Efficient transmission of ACK/NACK is desired in NR, especially in transmissions related to URLLLC. Therefore, there is a need to provide a solution that allows more than one PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission in one slot, a solution that addresses partially overlapping PUCCHs when there are two PUCCHs for ACK/NACK transmission.

Generally, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices, and computer-readable media for UCI transmission.

In a first aspect, a method implemented in a terminal device is provided. The method includes determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within the slot. The method further includes determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols in the slot after the first set of symbols. The method further includes transmitting uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel.

In a second aspect, a device is provided. The device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processing unit and containing instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, cause the device to perform operations, the operations including determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols in the slot. The operations further include determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols in the slot after the first set of symbols. The operation further includes transmitting uplink control information on at least a first uplink control channel.

In a third aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method of the first aspect.

Other features of the present disclosure will become readily apparent from the discussion that follows.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent through a more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a communication environment in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented; FIG.

1 is a schematic diagram showing ACK/NACK transmission in a slot in a conventional solution; FIG.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of UCI transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of determining two PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG.

4 is a schematic diagram illustrating how multiple ACK/NACKs are mapped to two PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of mapping a set of ACK/NACKs to PUCCH within a slot in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

4 is a schematic diagram illustrating priorities of different types of UCIs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating priorities of different types of UCIs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG.

4 is a schematic diagram illustrating overlapping PUCCH in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG.

1 is a simplified block diagram of a device suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG.

Throughout the drawings, same or similar reference numbers represent same or similar elements.

The principles of the present disclosure will be explained with reference to several exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are described for illustrative purposes only, and do not imply any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure, and will assist those skilled in the art in understanding and practicing the present disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be embodied in various ways other than those described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the term “network device” or “Base Station” (BS) refers to a device capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage with which terminal devices can communicate. Examples of network devices include Node B (NodeB or NB), Evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), Next Generation NodeB (gNB), Remote Radio Unit (RRU), Radio Head (RH), Remote Radio Head (RRH). , and low power nodes such as femto nodes and pico nodes. For purposes of explanation, some embodiments are described below with reference to an eNB as an example of a network device.

As used herein, the term "terminal device" refers to any device with wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of terminal devices include, but are not limited to, user equipment (UE), personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, image capture devices such as digital cameras, gaming devices, music storage and playback devices, or Internet appliances that enable wireless or wired Internet access and browsing, and the like.

As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term "including" and variations thereof are read as open terms meaning "including but not limited to." The term "based on" is read as "based at least in part on". The terms "one embodiment" and "embodiment" are read as "at least one embodiment". The term "another embodiment" is read as "at least one other embodiment". Terms such as "first", "second" can refer to different objects or the same object. The following may contain other definitions, both explicit and implicit.

In some instances, values, procedures, or devices are referred to as "best," "lowest," "highest," "minimum," "maximum," and the like. It should be understood that such statements are intended to indicate that there are many possible functional options to choose from, and that such choices need not be better, smaller, higher, or more preferable than other choices.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. Communication network 100 includes network device 110 and terminal devices 120 served by network device 110 . The serving area of network device 110 is referred to as cell 102 . It should be understood that the numbers of network devices and terminal devices are for illustrative purposes only and do not imply any limitation. Communication network 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it should be understood that one or more terminal devices may be located in cell 102 and served by network device 110 .

In communication network 100 , network device 110 can communicate data and control information to terminal device 120 , and terminal device 120 can also communicate data and control information to network device 110 . The link from network device 110 to terminal device 120 is called a downlink (DL), and the link from terminal device 120 to network device 110 is called an uplink (UL).

Communications contemplated by communications network 100 may conform to any suitable standard, where standards include New Radio Access (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA). e Division Multiple Access), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), etc. Further, communication may be performed according to any generation of communication protocols now known or developed in the future. Examples of communication protocols include, but are not limited to, first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G) communication protocols.

In communication, terminal device 120 may transmit uplink control information (UCI) to network device 110 . A UCI may contain different types of control information. In one example, ACK/NACK transmissions provide feedback information from terminal device 120 to network device 110 regarding whether downlink transmissions on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) were successfully received. ACK/NACK may be transmitted in a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process, and thus may be referred to as HARQ ACK/NACK. Also, the ACK/NACK feedback information may be a kind of UCI. Also, in another example, terminal device 120 may transmit channel state information (CSI) to network device 110 to report information regarding the channel between terminal device 120 and network device 110 .

Typically, UCI is transmitted on PUCCH resources. PUCCH resources may be configured in different formats. Each of the different formats is defined with parameters associated with the corresponding PUCCH resource. Such parameters include, but are not limited to, one or more of the starting position of PUCCH resources, length of PUCCH resources (number of symbols, number of physical resource blocks (PRBs)), frequency hopping, cyclic shift, orthogonal cover code index and/or length, spatial configuration, and the like. Currently, the NR specification defines five different formats from PUCCH format 0 to PUCCH format 4.

Terminal device 120 may be configured by network device 110 with several PUCCH resource sets that include multiple PUCCH resources. For example, the number of PUCCH resource sets may be configured by higher layer parameters indicating the number of PUCCH resources included in each PUCCH resource set and the location of the PUCCH resources.

To transmit different types of UCI, terminal device 120 may determine PUCCH resources with different formats from the configured PUCCH resource set according to signaling from network device 110 . For example, PUCCH resources of PUCCH formats 0-4 may be used to transmit HARQ ACK/NACK. Terminal device 120 is allowed to determine a PUCCH resource set from multiple preconfigured PUCCH resource sets based on payload size and select PUCCH resources from this PUCCH resource set based on downlink control information (DCI), e.g., based on an ACK/NACK resource indicator (ARI for short). ARIs may be explicitly carried by DCI. The ARI may also be implicitly derived from other information associated with receiving the DCI, eg, the location of the DCI.

Currently, in NR, multiple ACK/NACK feedbacks are sent on one PUCCH in a single slot. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram 200 showing ACK/NACK transmission in slots in a conventional solution. FIG. 2 schematically shows four ACK/NACKs 211-214 (shown as A/N1-A/N4 in FIG. 2) transmitted in slot 230. FIG. ACK/NACKs 211-214 are associated with downlink transmissions on the first PDSCH 201, the second PDSCH 202, the third PDSCH 203, and the fourth PDSCH 204, and each ACK/NACK can have one or two bits for one or two transport blocks of the PDSCH. The first PDSCH 201 is received before the second PDSCH 202, the second PDSCH 202 is received before the third PDSCH 203, and so on. Therefore, the fourth PDSCH 204 may be considered the last PDSCH among multiple PDSCHs for which ACK/NACK is transmitted in slot 230 .

PUCCH 220 is configured to transmit ACK/NACK 211-214. A/N PUCCH 220 is determined based on the DCI associated with fourth PDSCH 204 . For example, PUCCH 220 is determined by selecting uplink resources based on the ARI associated with DCI for the fourth PDSCH 204 . ACK/NACKs 211 - 214 may then be transmitted on A/N PUCCH 220 in slot 230 .

As mentioned above, it is desirable to allow more than one PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission in a single slot to achieve more efficient ACK/NACK transmission aspects, especially in URLLC. This allows the ACK/NACK for the previously received PDSCH to be sent on a lower latency PUCCH without waiting to determine the PUCCH based on the last DCI (the ARI of that DCI indicates the ACK/NACK sent in the same slot). There remains the question of how to determine more than one PUCCH in a single slot and how to map multiple ACK/NACKs (possibly other types of UCI) to this more than one PUCCH, as opposed to when one PUCCH is transmitted in a single slot. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for determining more than one PUCCH in a slot, a solution for mapping UCI to this more than one PUCCH, and a solution for dealing with PUCCH collisions.

The principles and embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 300 of UCI transmission in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Method 300 may be implemented at terminal device 120 shown in FIG. For purposes of explanation, method 300 is described from the perspective of terminal device 120 with reference to FIG.

At 310, terminal device 120 determines a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols in the slot. At 320, terminal device 120 determines a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols in the slot after the first set of symbols. The first and second symbol sets are non-overlapping with each other. For purposes of explanation, the determination of the first and second uplink control channels will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of determining two PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

As an example, FIG. 4 shows two PUCCHs in slot 430 . At 310, terminal device 120 may determine a first PUCCH 421 corresponding to a first set of symbols for slot 430, eg, symbols 1-5. At 310, terminal device 120 may determine a second PUCCH 422 corresponding to a second set of symbols for slot 430, eg, symbols 7-9. Since the first set of symbols precedes the second set of symbols in time, the first PUCCH 421 may also be referred to as an earlier PUCCH and the second PUCCH 422 may also be referred to as a later PUCCH. Earlier PUCCH and later PUCCH may be determined separately.

Note that the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 may be URLLC dedicated PUCCHs, also called URLLC PUCCHs for convenience of explanation. It should be appreciated that the number of PUCCHs is for illustrative purposes only and does not imply limitation, and more than two PUCCHs may be determined for one slot. Also, each pair of more than two PUCCHs may not overlap in the time or frequency domain.

In some embodiments, terminal device 120 may determine first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 based on pre-configured uplink resources. Terminal device 120 may receive a configured uplink resource indication from network device 110 and determine a first PUCCH 421 and a second PUCCH 422 based on the configured uplink resource indication.

In some aspects, the indication of the configured uplink resources may be included in at least one of Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or downlink control information. For example, terminal device 120 may receive RRC signaling from network device 110 and determine first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 based on instructions included in the RRC signaling. RRC signaling may configure multiple groups of configured uplink resources. PUCCHs in the same group may overlap in time or frequency, and PUCCHs in different groups may not overlap. MAC CE can be used to indicate one or more PUCCHs from each group, or can be used to indicate one or more groups from the RRC-configured PUCCH groups. An indication of configured uplink resources may also be included in DCI from network device 110 . For example, DCI may carry a group indicator to indicate one of more than one PUCCH groups, where one more PUCCH from the indicated group is selected for ACK/NACK transmission. The group indicated by the group indicator may be determined by the time offset between the PDSCH reception and the indicated PUCCH transmission. For example, the group indicator may indicate the PUCCH group by specifying the time offset between reception of the PDSCH and the PUCCH group. Time offsets may be counted in symbols instead of slots.

In some embodiments, terminal device 120 may determine first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 based on more than one resource indication associated with downlink transmissions from network device 110 . The resource indication may be an ARI in DCI and each ARI may indicate PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission. The PUCCH subset is determined from the entire set of PUCCHs indicated by the ARI. In such embodiments, the downlink transmission is associated with URLLC, and the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 are URLLLC PUCCHs.

In one embodiment, terminal device 120 may determine a first resource indication associated with a first type of downlink transmission (eg, URLLC). Here, the DCI of this downlink transmission is the first DCI of the DCI of the first type of downlink transmission in which ACK/NACK is transmitted in the slot. As used herein, the term “first DCI” means that this DCI is received by terminal device 120 before other DCIs in downlink transmissions in which ACK/NACK is sent in the same slot. Terminal device 120 may also determine the first uplink control channel by selecting the first uplink resource based on the first resource indication.

In a further embodiment, terminal device 120 may determine a second resource indication associated with further downlink transmissions of the first type (eg, URLLC). Here, the DCI of this further downlink transmission is another DCI of the DCI of the first type of downlink transmission in which ACK/NACK is transmitted in the same slot. For example, this other DCI may be the last DCI. As used herein, the term “last DCI” means that this DCI is received by terminal device 120 after another DCI in a downlink transmission in which ACK/NACK is sent in the same slot. Terminal device 120 may also determine a second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication.

These embodiments are described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 schematically shows four PDSCHs from network device 110 . 2, the first PDSCH 401 (and its DCI) is received before the second PDSCH 402 (and its DCI), the second PDSCH 402 (and its DCI) is received before the third PDSCH 403 (and its DCI), and the third PDSCH 403 (and its DCI) is received before the fourth PDSCH 404 (and its DCI). and its DCI). ACK/NACKs (not shown) associated with the four PDSCHs 401 - 404 are transmitted in slot 430 . As an example resource indication, ARIs 451-454 are associated with PDSCHs 401-404, respectively.

With respect to one PDSCH being received prior to another PDSCH, the other PDSCH may be considered the subsequent PDSCH. For example, with respect to the second PDSCH 402, the third PDSCH 403 and the fourth PDSCH 404, the first PDSCH 401 may be considered the previous PDSCH. Also, with respect to the first PDSCH 401, the second PDSCH 402 and the third PDSCH 403, the fourth PDSCH 404 may be considered the later PDSCH. In general, ACK/NACK transmissions on the previous PDSCH (eg, PDSCH 401) are allocated resources on the previous PUCCH (PUCCH 421). Terminal device 120 may not be allowed to determine the subsequent PUCCH (PUCCH 422) based on the ARI associated with the earlier PDSCH if the earlier PUCCH (PUCCH 421) is available.

In the example shown in FIG. 4 , terminal device 120 may determine first PUCCH 421 based on first ARI 451 . For example, terminal device 120 may configure the uplink resources indicated by first ARI 451 as resources for first PUCCH 421 . Terminal device 120 may also determine second PUCCH 422 based on fourth ARI 454 . For example, terminal device 120 may configure the uplink resources indicated by fourth ARI 454 as resources for second PUCCH 422 .

In some embodiments, a first list of URLLC PUCCHs with different capacities may be configured for the first PUCCH 421 (previous PUCCH) and a second list of URLLC PUCCHs with different capacities may be configured for the second PUCCH 422 (later PUCCH). In these cases, terminal device 120 may select one PUCCH from the first list or the second list for which the minimum PUCCH capacity is no less than the number of UCI bits transmitted in the same list. For example, terminal device 120 may select one PUCCH from the first list to use as first PUCCH 421 .

Determination of earlier PUCCH and later PUCCH in a single slot was described above with reference to FIG. In this way, it is possible to determine the PUCCH used for transmitting ACK/NACK related to URLLC. It should be understood that the PDSCH number, ARI number, and determined PUCCH number in FIG. 4 are shown for illustrative purposes without any limitation.

Referring to FIG. 3 , at 330 terminal device 120 transmits at least uplink control information on a first uplink control channel, eg, first PUCCH 421 . In some embodiments, terminal device 120 may map multiple ACKs/NACKs to first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 and transmit to network device 110 in slot 430 . Such embodiments are described in detail below with reference to FIGS.

In some embodiments, terminal device 120 may multiplex first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 with different types of UCI, e.g., ACK/NACK and CSI for URLLLC transmissions, ACK/NACK and CSI for non-URLLC transmissions. Such an embodiment is described in detail below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram 500 illustrating how a set of ACK/NACKs are mapped to two PUCCHs in a slot in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The two PUCCHs shown in FIG. 5 may be determined by the approach described above with reference to FIG. Alternatively, it may be determined by other approaches. The scope of the disclosure is not limited in this aspect.

The four PDSCHs 501-504 are similar to the PDSCHs shown in FIG. PDSCHs 501-504 are similar to PDSCHs 401-404 when determining a first PUCCH 421 and a second PUCCH 422 based on resource indications associated with downlink transmissions, as described above with reference to FIG. As shown schematically in FIG. 5, the first PDSCH 501 is received before the second PDSCH 502, the second PDSCH 502 is received before the third PDSCH 503, and the third PDSCH 503 is received before the fourth PDSCH 504. ACK/NACKs 511-514 are associated with PDSCHs 501-504, respectively.

In general, ACK/NACK related to earlier PDSCH should have higher priority mapped to earlier PUCCH. That is, ACK/NACK related to previous PDSCH should have higher priority to be sent on previous PUCCH. For example, ACK/NACK 512 has a higher priority transmitted on the first PUCCH 421 as compared to the second PUCCH 422 .

A timeline requirement may be defined to determine the mapping of ACK/NACKs 511-514 to two PUCCHs 421,422. The timeline is a certain number of symbols from the last symbol of PDSCH. The timeline requirement may be defined such that only PUCCH after the PDSCH timeline can be used for transmission of the corresponding ACK/NACK associated with that PDSCH. If the PDSCH timeline requirements are met, the ACK/NACK associated with the PDSCH is mapped to the earlier PUCCH (first PUCCH 421 in FIG. 5), otherwise the ACK/NACK associated with the PDSCH is mapped to the later PUCCH (second PUCCH 422 in FIG. 5).

FIG. 5 schematically shows a first timeline 561 for the first PDSCH 501, a second timeline 562 for the second PDSCH 502, a third timeline 563 for the third PDSCH 503, and a fourth timeline 564 for the fourth PDSCH 504. In the example shown in FIG. 5, ACK/NACK511 and ACK/NACK512 are mapped to the first PUCCH421. Accordingly, terminal device 120 can transmit ACK/NACK 511 and ACK/NACK 512 on first PUCCH 421 in slot 430 . Moreover, ACK/NACK513 and ACK/NACK514 are mapped by 2nd PUCCH422. Accordingly, terminal device 120 can transmit ACK/NACK 513 and ACK/NACK 514 on second PUCCH 422 in slot 430 .

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process 600 for mapping multiple ACK/NACKs to PUCCH within a slot in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In FIG. 6 and the corresponding description, index 'i' is used to denote the i-th received PDSCH among multiple PDSCHs for which ACK/NACK is transmitted in the same slot. For example, the first PDSCH 501 has an index i of 0, the second PDSCH 502 has an index i of 1, and so on. Also, the index 'j' is used to denote the PUCCH within a single slot. For example, the first PUCCH 421 may have an index j of 0 and the second PUCCH 422 may have an index j of 1.

In order to map multiple ACK/NACKs to multiple PUCCHs within a single slot, PUCCH availability for PDSCH-related ACK/NACKs is defined herein. In this disclosure, if PUCCH is available for ACK/NACK associated with PDSCH, it means that the above timeline requirements are met and the capacity of this PUCCH is sufficient to carry the bits of this ACK/NACK.

At 605 , terminal device 120 initiates process 600 with a first PDSCH (i=0), eg, first PDSCH 501 . At 610, terminal device 120 selects or determines an ACK/NACK associated with the first PDSCH. For example, for first PDSCH 501 , terminal device 120 may select ACK/NACK 511 . At 615 , terminal device 120 selects a first PUCCH (j=0), eg, first PUCCH 421 . At 620, terminal device 120 determines whether the j th PUCCH is available for ACK/NACK associated with the i th PDSCH.

If terminal device 120 determines at 620 that the j th PUCCH is available for ACK/NACK associated with the i th PDSCH, process 600 proceeds to 625 . At 625, terminal device 120 maps the ACK/NACK associated with the i-th PDSCH to the j-th PUCCH. That is, terminal device 120 determines to transmit ACK/NACK associated with i-th PDSCH on i-th PUCCH. Although not shown, after mapping the ACK/NACK associated with the i-th PDSCH, process 600 may proceed to block 645, described below.

If terminal device 120 determines 620 that the j th PUCCH is not available for ACK/NACK associated with the i th PDSCH, then process 600 proceeds to block 630 . At 630, terminal device 120 determines whether the (current) jth PUCCH is the last PUCCH in the slot. If terminal device 120 determines that the (current) jth PUCCH is the last PUCCH in the slot, process 600 may proceed to block 635 . At 635, terminal device 120 selects the next PUCCH (j=j+1). For example, if the j th PUCCH is the first PUCCH 421 at 630 , terminal device 120 may select the second PUCCH 422 at 635 . Process 600 then returns to block 620 to determine if the (j+1)th PUCCH is available for ACK/NACK associated with the ith PDSCH.

If terminal device 120 determines at 630 that the (current) j-th PUCCH is the last PUCCH in the slot, terminal device 120 may drop the ACK/NACK associated with the i-th PDSCH and process 600 may proceed to block 640. At 640, terminal device 120 determines whether the i-th PDSCH is the last PDSCH. If terminal device 120 determines that the i-th PDSCH is the last PDSCH, eg, fourth PDSCH 504 shown in FIG. 5, process 600 may proceed to block 650 and terminate the process. This means that ACK/NACK mapping related to PDSCH is completed.

If terminal device 120 determines at 640 that the i th PDSCH is not the last PDSCH, process 600 may proceed to block 645 . At 645, terminal device 120 selects the next PDSCH (i=i+1). For example, if the i-th PDSCH at 640 is the second PDSCH 502 shown in FIG. Process 600 then returns to block 610 to map the ACK/NACK associated with the (i+1)th PDSCH.

In such embodiments, terminal device 120 may map multiple ACKs/NACKs to multiple PUCCHs in a slot and transmit multiple ACKs/NACKs on respective PUCCHs in a slot by performing process 600 based on PUCCH availability for ACK/NACK. In this way, ACK/NACK can be sent in a well-defined and efficient way.

As mentioned above, the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 may be multiplexed with different types of UCI. In this case, it is necessary to propose a solution for arranging different types of UCI, especially when PUCCH capacity is not sufficient. Such an embodiment is described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 7A-7B. FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram 701 showing priorities for different types of UCIs in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, and FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram 702 illustrating alternative priorities for different types of UCIs in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure.

7A-7B, the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 are URLLLC PUCCHs. ACK/NACKs 711-714 relate to URLLC downlink transmissions, and for convenience of explanation this type of ACK/NACK is sometimes referred to as URLLLC ACK/NACK. 4 and 5, the PDSCH associated with ACK/NACK 711 is received before the PDSCH associated with ACK/NACK 712, and so on. Furthermore, ACK/NACKs not related to URLLC downlink transmissions may be referred to as non-URLLC ACK/NACKs.

In addition to URLLC ACK/NACK 711 - 714 , another type of UCI may be transmitted on first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 . As shown in FIGS. 7A-7B, aperiodic CSI (A-CSI) 715, non-URLLC ACK/NACK 716, and periodic/semi-persistent CSI (P/SP-CSI) 717 are transmitted on the PUCCH. A-CSI may be associated with one of URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714, eg, ACK/NACK 712. Since the capacity of the two PUCCHs 421 and 422 may not be enough to transmit all UCI, a priority needs to be defined for transmitting these different types of UCI.

According to the order of priority shown in FIG. 7A, URLLC ACK/NACK 711-714 may be sent first. The transmission of URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714 may be determined as described above. A-CSI 715 has lower priority than all URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714. And non-URLLC ACK/NACK 716 has lower priority than A-CSI 715 . P/SP-CSI 717 has the lowest priority among all UCIs. In the priority order shown in FIG. 7A, A-CSI 715 has lower priority than all URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714, but higher priority than all non-URLLC UCI.

In another priority order shown in FIG. 7B, A-CSI 715 is associated with URLLC ACK/NACK 712 . For example, the same DCI may indicate both URLLC ACK/NACK 712 and A-CSI 715 transmissions. A-CSI 715 has a lower priority than URLLC ACK/NACK 712 and may be sent with a higher priority than URLLC ACK/NACK 713 .

It should be understood that the order of the different types of UCI shown in FIGS. 7A-7B is for illustrative purposes only and does not indicate their temporal position within the slot. Terminal device 120 may map these different types of UCI to first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 based on the priority shown in FIG. 7A or the priority shown in FIG. 7B. A UCI with a higher priority is prioritized to be mapped to a previous PUCCH. UCIs mapped to the same PUCCH are multiplexed with each other. Terminal device 120 may drop lower priority UCIs if the PUCCH capacity configured for slot 430 is not sufficient to carry all the UCIs.

In some cases, UCI for URLLLC and UCI for non-URLLC may be transmitted on separate PUCCHs, causing PUCCH collisions within a slot. Multiplexing of UCI for URLLLC and UCI for non-URLLC is not supported. Therefore, there is a need to propose a solution to deal with partially overlapping PUCCH. In this disclosure, if two PUCCHs partially overlap each other, it means that the two PUCCHs overlap over at least one symbol.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram 800 illustrating overlapping PUCCHs in slot 430 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In addition to the URLLLC PUCCHs 421, 422 similar to Figures 4, 5 and 7, Figure 8 shows other PUCCHs configured for non-URLLC. This other PUCCH is referred to as non-URLLC PUCCH for convenience of explanation. As shown, PUCCH 824 is configured for P/SP CSI1 transmission, PUCCH 823 is configured for P/SP CSI2 transmission, PUCCH 825 is configured for non-URLLC ACK/NACK1 transmission, and PUCCH 826 is configured for non-URLLC ACK/NACK2 transmission.

As shown in FIG. 8 , non-URLLC PUCCH 824 partially overlaps URLLC PUCCH 421 and non-URLLC PUCCH 826 partially overlaps URLLC PUCCH 422 . In this case, terminal device 120 may drop P/SP CSI1 and non-URLLC ACK/NACK2 that would have been sent in slot 430 .

Since non-URLLC PUCCH 823 and non-URLLC PUCCH 825 do not overlap with any of URLLC PUCCHs 421 and 422, P/SP CSI2 and non-URLLC ACK/NACK1 can be transmitted in slot 430.

According to the above aspects, a method implemented in terminal device 120 is provided. The method includes determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols in a slot, determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols in the slot after the first set of symbols, and transmitting uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, determining the first and second uplink control channels includes receiving an indication of configured uplink resources from a network device and determining the first and second uplink control channels based on the indication of configured uplink resources.

In some embodiments, the indication is included in at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), and downlink control information.

In some embodiments, determining the first uplink control channel includes determining a first resource indication associated with the first type of downlink transmission, wherein the downlink control information (DCI) for this downlink transmission is the first DCI of the DCI for the first type of downlink transmission in which ACK/NACK is transmitted in a slot; and selecting the first uplink resource based on the first resource indication. and including.

In some embodiments, determining the second uplink control channel is to determine the second resource instructions associated with the first type of downlink transmission, and here, the DCI of this further downlink transmission is the first type of downlink transmission DC sent by ACK / NACK in a slot. Includes the last DCI of I and to determine the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink rally based on the second resource instruction.

In some embodiments, transmitting uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel includes transmitting ACK/NACK associated with the first type of downlink transmission on the first uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, determining whether the first uplink control channel is available for further ACK/NACKs associated with further downlink transmissions of the first type after said downlink transmission; transmitting a further ACK/NACK on the first uplink control channel in response to the first uplink control channel being available for further ACKs/NACKs; responding to the first uplink control channel being unavailable for further ACKs/NACKs; and sending a further ACK/NACK on a second uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, the uplink control information includes a first type ACK/NACK and a second type ACK/NACK, wherein the first type ACK/NACK is configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the second type ACK/NACK.

In some embodiments, the uplink control information further includes aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) associated with the first type ACK/NACK, wherein the first type ACK/NACK and A-CSI are configured with higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the second type ACK/NACK.

In some embodiments, the first and second uplink control channels are of a first type, and the method comprises, in response to determining that a third uplink control channel of the second type exists in the slot, determining whether a portion of the resources of the third uplink control channel overlaps with the resources of the first and second uplink control channels; and dropping uplink control information sent on a third uplink control channel in response to determining that it overlaps two resources.

In some embodiments, the first type includes Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC).

It should be understood that all operations and features associated with network device 110 and terminal device 120 described above with reference to FIGS. 2-8G are similarly applicable to methods 900-1100 and have similar effects. Details are omitted for brevity.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a device 900 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Device 900 may be considered a further exemplary embodiment of network device 110 or terminal device 120 shown in FIG. Accordingly, device 900 may be implemented in at least a portion of network device 110 or terminal device 120 or implemented as at least a portion of network device 110 or terminal device 120 .

As shown, device 900 includes a processor 910, memory 920 coupled to processor 910, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 940 coupled to processor 910, and a communication interface coupled to TX/RX 940. Memory 920 stores at least part of program 930 . TX/RX 940 is for two-way communication. TX/RX 940 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, although in practice there may be multiple access nodes referred to in this application. The communication interface is an X2 interface for two-way communication between eNBs, an S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME)/serving gateway (S-GW) and an eNB, an Un interface for communication between an eNB and a relay node (RN), or communication between an eNB and a terminal device. may represent any interface required for communication with other network elements, such as the Uu interface for

Program 930 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by associated processor 910, enable device 900 to operate in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, as described herein with reference to FIGS. Embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by processor 910 of device 900, by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. Processor 910 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Further, the combination of processor 910 and memory 920 may form processing means 950 suitable for implementing various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 920 may be of any type suitable for local technology networks and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology such as non-transitory computer readable storage media, semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. Although only one memory 920 is shown in device 900, device 900 may have multiple memory modules that are physically separate. Processor 910 may be of any type suitable for a local technology network, and may include, as non-limiting examples, one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), and processors based on multi-core processor architectures. Device 900 may have multiple processors, such as application specific integrated circuit chips that are temporally dependent on a clock that synchronizes the main processor.

In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuitry, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software, which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated and described using block diagrams, flowcharts, or some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that these blocks, devices, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuitry or logic, general purpose hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof, as non-limiting examples.

The present disclosure further provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. A computer program product comprises computer-executable instructions, such as those contained in program modules, that are executed by a device on a subject real or virtual processor to perform the processes or methods described above with reference to FIGS. 3-6D. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules described in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within local or distributed devices. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code to implement the methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes are provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus such that the program code, when executed by the processor or controller, implements the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams. The program code may run entirely on a machine, partly on a machine, as a standalone software package, partly on a machine and partly on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

The program code may be embodied on a machine-readable medium, which may be any tangible medium capable of containing or storing a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. A machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. Machine-readable media include, but are not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, apparatus, devices, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. As a more specific example of a storage storage medium that can be read, as a more specific example of a single or multiple wires, an electrical connection with one or more wires, a portable computer desk, hard disk, RAM (RANDOM ACCESSS MEMORY), ROM (READ ONLY MEMORY), erasable programmable reading. There are exclusive memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, portable compact disk dedicated memory (CD -ROM), optical storage device, magnetic storage device, or any appropriate combination above.

Additionally, although acts have been depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such acts be performed in the particular order shown or sequential order, or that all depicted acts be performed, in order to achieve a desired result. Multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous in certain situations. Similarly, although the above description contains details of certain specific embodiments, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the disclosure, but rather as descriptions of the unique features of the specific embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

While the disclosure has been described in terms specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the disclosure as defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims (21)

A method implemented in a terminal device, comprising:
determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols in a slot for transmission of first ACK/NACK information;
determining a second uplink control channel that is a second set of symbols in the slot after the first set of symbols and that corresponds to the second set of symbols for transmission of second ACK/NACK information;
determining whether to transmit the first ACK/NACK information on the first uplink control channel corresponding to the first set of symbols;
if not transmitting the first ACK/NACK information on the first uplink control channel, transmitting the first ACK/NACK information on the second uplink control channel corresponding to the second symbol set ;
transmitting uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel;
the first and second uplink control channels are of a first type;
The method includes:
responsive to determining that a third uplink control channel of a second type is present within the slot, determining whether a portion of the resources of the third uplink control channel overlap with the resources of the first and second uplink control channels;
dropping uplink control information transmitted on the third uplink control channel in response to determining that a portion of the resources of the third uplink control channel overlaps with at least one of the resources of the first and second uplink control channels;
Method. Determining the first and second uplink control channels comprises:
receiving an indication of configured uplink resources from a network device;
determining the first and second uplink control channels based on the indication of the configured uplink resources;
The method of claim 1. the indication is included in at least one of Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), and downlink control information;
3. The method of claim 2. Determining the first uplink control channel comprises:
determining a first resource indication associated with a first type of downlink transmission;
determining the first uplink control channel by selecting a first uplink resource based on the first resource indication;
The downlink control information (DCI) for the downlink transmission is the first DCI of DCIs for the first type of downlink transmission in which ACK/NACK is transmitted in slots of the first symbol set.
The method of claim 1. Determining the second uplink control channel comprises:
determining a second resource indication associated with further downlink transmissions of the first type;
determining the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication;
the DCI of the further downlink transmission is the last DCI of the DCIs of the first type of downlink transmission for which ACK/NACK is transmitted in slots of the first symbol set;
The method of claim 1. transmitting the uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel;
transmitting on the first uplink control channel an ACK/NACK associated with a first type of downlink transmission;
The method of claim 1. determining whether the first uplink control channel is available for further ACK/NACKs associated with further downlink transmissions of the first type after the downlink transmission;
transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the first uplink control channel in response to the first uplink control channel being available for the further ACK/NACK;
transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the second uplink control channel in response to the first uplink control channel being unavailable for the further ACK/NACK;
7. The method of claim 6. the uplink control information includes a first type ACK/NACK and a second type ACK/NACK;
A first type ACK/NACK is configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the second type ACK/NACK.
The method of claim 1. The uplink control information further includes aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) associated with the first type ACK/NACK;
The first type ACK / NACK and the A-CSI are configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the second type ACK / NACK,
9. The method of claim 8. The first type includes ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC).
The method according to any one of claims 4-9. a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor and in which instructions are stored;
the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause a device to perform an operation;
The operation is
determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols in a slot for transmission of first ACK/NACK information;
determining a second uplink control channel that is a second set of symbols in the slot after the first set of symbols and that corresponds to the second set of symbols for transmission of second ACK/NACK information;
determining whether to transmit the first ACK/NACK information on the first uplink control channel corresponding to the first set of symbols;
if not transmitting the first ACK/NACK information on the first uplink control channel, transmitting the first ACK/NACK information on the second uplink control channel corresponding to the second symbol set ;
transmitting uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel;
the first and second uplink control channels are of a first type;
The operation is
responsive to determining that a third uplink control channel of a second type is present within the slot, determining whether a portion of the resources of the third uplink control channel overlap with the resources of the first and second uplink control channels;
dropping uplink control information transmitted on the third uplink control channel in response to determining that a portion of the resources of the third uplink control channel overlaps with at least one of the resources of the first and second uplink control channels;
device. Determining the first and second uplink control channels comprises:
receiving an indication of configured uplink resources from a network device;
determining the first and second uplink control channels based on the indication of the configured uplink resources;
Device according to claim 11 . the indication is included in at least one of radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), and downlink control information;
13. Device according to claim 12. Determining the first uplink control channel comprises:
determining a first resource indication associated with a first type of downlink transmission;
determining the first uplink control channel by selecting a first uplink resource based on the first resource indication;
the downlink control information (DCI) of the downlink transmission is the first DCI of DCIs of the first type of downlink transmission in which ACK/NACK is transmitted in slots of the first symbol set;
Device according to claim 11 . Determining the second uplink control channel comprises:
determining a second resource indication associated with further downlink transmissions of the first type;
determining the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication;
the DCI of the further downlink transmission is the last DCI of the DCIs of the first type of downlink transmission for which ACK/NACK is transmitted in slots of the first symbol set;
Device according to claim 11 . transmitting the uplink control information on at least the first uplink control channel;
transmitting on the first uplink control channel an ACK/NACK associated with a first type of downlink transmission;
Device according to claim 11 . The operation is
determining whether the first uplink control channel is available for further ACK/NACKs associated with further downlink transmissions of a first type after the downlink transmission;
transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the first uplink control channel in response to the first uplink control channel being available for the further ACK/NACK;
17. The device of claim 16, further comprising transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the second uplink control channel in response to the first uplink control channel being unavailable for the further ACK/NACK. the uplink control information includes a first type ACK/NACK and a second type ACK/NACK;
The first type ACK/NACK is configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the second type ACK/NACK.
Device according to claim 11 . The uplink control information further includes aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) associated with the first type ACK/NACK;
The first type ACK / NACK and the A-CSI are configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the second type ACK / NACK,
19. Device according to claim 18. The first type includes Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC).
A device according to any one of claims 14-19. A program which, when run on at least one processor, causes said at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

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