WO2017099860A1 - Device for non-scheduled uplink transmission in the unlicensed spectrum - Google Patents

Abstract

Devices and methods of transmitting on an unlicensed band are generally described. A UE determines that an unlicensed medium is idle using a LBT procedure and transmits a burst that ranges from a partial PUSCH to multiple PUSCHs that are aligned or asynchronistic with the PCell boundary. The burst can be scheduled by the eNB or autonomously scheduled by the UE. In the latter case, the UE indicates the presence of the burst in a preamble and aligns to the boundary. In the former case, an initial and ending PUSCH is generated that occupies a partial or super frame. Control information is provided in a UCI of a PUCCH, which is provided simultaneously with the PUSCHs or before start of the UL burst that spans one or more OFDM symbols.

Description

DEVICE FOR NON-SCHEDULED UPLINK TRANSMISSION IN THE UNLICENSED SPECTRUM

PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to United

States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/2643)7, filed

December 7, 2015, and United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/290,599, filed February 3, 2016, each of which is entitled "NON- SCHEDULED UPLINK TRANSMISSION IN THE UNLICENSED SPECTRUM," and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] Embodiments pertain to radio access networks. Some embodiments relate to providing data in cellular and wireless local area network (WLAN) networks, including Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) networks and LTE advanced (LTE-A) networks as well as 4^th generation (4G) networks and 5^th generation (5G) networks. Some embodiments relate to Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) in 4G, 5G networks and the MuLTEfire system

BACKGROUND

[0003] The use of 3GPP LTE systems (including LTE and LTE- Advanced systems) has increased due to both an increase in the types of devices user equipment (UEs) using network resources as well as the amount of data and bandwidth being used by various applications, such as video streaming, operating on these UEs. As a result, 3GPP LTE systems continue to develop, with the next generation wireless communication system, 5G, to improve access to information and data sharing. 5G looks to provide a unified network/system that is able to meet vastly different and sometime conflicting performance dimensions and services driven by disparate services and applications while maintaining compatibility with legacy UEs and applications. [0004] LTE networks operate in a number of specific frequency bands and deliver a wide variety of information to an ever-increasing number and type of user equipment (UE). Typically, the use of different communication techniques is limited to licensed bands regulated by the federal government. The growth of network use has sparked an interest in expanding LTE use beyond these licensed bands. UEs and evolved node Bs (eNBs) may be able to make use of unlicensed spectrum in Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) communications. While only LTE systems are able to legally operate in LTE bands, other systems, such as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems, coexist with LAA systems in the unlicensed spectrum. In particular, WLAN systems using, for example, IEEE 802.1 la/n/ac technologies have enjoyed widespread use in the SGHz Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-ΝΠ) bands by both individuals and operators for a variety of purposes. The use of the unlicensed spectrum comes at the cost of increased complexity, as well as a variety of issues related to access to the unlicensed spectrum.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0005] In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

[0006] FIG. 1 is a functional diagram of a wireless network in accordance with some embodiments.

[0007] FIG. 2 illustrates components of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments.

[0008] FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments.

[0009] FIG. 4 illustrates another block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments.

[0010] FIGS. SA and SB illustrate contention-based LAA communications in accordance with some embodiments. [0011] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate Physical Uplink Shared Channel

(PUSCH) transmissions in accordance with some embodiments.

[0012] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an uplink listen before talk

(LBT) procedure for a non-scheduled PUSCH transmission.

[0013] FIG. 8 illustrates different PUSCH designs including a slot- aligned partial subframe according to some embodiments.

[0014] FIG. 9 illustrates a method of performing UL transmission in accordance with some embodiments.

[0015] FIG. 10 illustrates a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) design in accordance with some embodiments.

[0016] FIGS. 11 A-l ID illustrate PUCCH designs in accordance with some embodiments.

[0017] FIG. 12 illustrates a PUCCH design in accordance with some embodiments.

[0018] FIG. 13 illustrates a PUCCH design in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments.

Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0020] FIG. 1 shows an example of a portion of an end-to-end network architecture of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network with various components of the network in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, an LTE network refers to both LTE and LTE Advanced (LTE- A) networks as well as other versions of LTE networks to be developed. The network 100 may comprise a radio access network (RAN) (e.g., as depicted, the E-UTRAN or evolved universal terrestrial radio access network) 101 and core network 120 (e.g., shown as an evolved packet core (EPC)) coupled together through an SI interface 1 IS. For convenience and brevity, only a portion of the core network 120, as well as the RAN 101, is shown in the example.

[0021] The core network 120 may include a mobility management entity (MME) 122, serving gateway (serving GW) 124, and packet data network gateway (PDN GW) 126. The RAN 101 may include evolved node Bs (eNBs) 104 (which may operate as base stations) for

communicating with user equipment (UE) 102. The eNBs 104 may include macro eNBs 104a and low power (LP) eNBs 104b. The eNBs 104 and UEs 102 may employ the techniques as described herein.

[0022] The MME 122 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN). The MME 122 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The serving GW 124 may terminate the interface toward the RAN 101 , and route data packets between the RAN 101 and the core network 120. In addition, the serving GW 124 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-eNB handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The serving GW 124 and the MME 122 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes.

[0023] The PDN GW 126 may tenninate a SGi interface toward the packet data network (PDN). The PDN GW 126 may route data packets between the EPC 120 and the external PDN, and may perform policy enforcement and charging data collection. The PDN GW 126 may also provide an anchor point for mobility devices with non-LTE access. The external PDN can be any kind of IP network, as well as an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain. The PDN GW 126 and the serving GW 124 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes.

[0024] The eNBs 104 (macro and micro) may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for a UE 102. In some embodiments, an eNB 104 may fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 101 including, but not limited to, RNC (radio network controller functions) such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. In accordance with embodiments, UEs 102 may be configured to communicate orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication signals with an eNB 104 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with an OFDMA communication technique. The OFDM signals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0025] The SI interface 1 IS may be the interface that separates the

RAN 101 and the EPC 120. It may be split into two parts: the Sl-U, which may carry traffic data between the eNBs 104 and the serving GW 124, and the SI -MME, which may be a signaling interface between the eNBs 104 and the MME 122. The X2 interface may be the interface between eNBs 104. The X2 interface may comprise two parts, the X2-C and X2-U. The X2-C may be the control plane interface between the eNBs 104, while the X2-U may be the user plane interface between the eNBs 104.

[0026] With cellular networks, LP cells 104b may be typically used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to add network capacity in areas with dense usage. In particular, it may be desirable to enhance the coverage of a wireless communication system using cells of different sizes, macrocells, microcells, picocells, and femtocells, to boost system performance. The cells of different sizes may operate on the same frequency band, or may operate on different frequency bands with each cell operating in a different frequency band or only cells of different sizes operating on different frequency bands. As used herein, the term LP eNB refers to any suitable relatively LP eNB for implementing a smaller cell (smaller than a macro cell) such as a femtocell, a picocell, or a microcelL Femtocell eNBs may be typically provided by a mobile network operator to its residential or enterprise customers. A femtocell may be typically the size of a residential gateway or smaller and generally connect to a broadband line. The femtocell may connect to the mobile operator's mobile network and provide extra coverage in a range of typically 30 to SO meters. Thus, a LP eNB 104b might be a femtocell eNB since it is coupled through the PDN GW 126. Similarly, a picocell may be a wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. A picocell eNB may generally connect through the X2 link to another eNB such as a macro eNB through its base station controller (BSC)

functionality. Thus, LP eNB may be implemented with a picocell eNB since it may be coupled to a macro eNB 104a via an X2 interface. Picocell eNBs or other LP eNBs LP eNB 104b may incorporate some or all functionality of a macro eNB LP eNB 104a. In some cases, this may be referred to as an access point base station or enterprise femtocell.

[0027] Communication over an LTE network may be split up into

10ms radio frames, each of which may contain ten 1ms subframes. Each subframe of the frame, in turn, may contain two slots of 0.5ms. Each subframe may be used for uplink (UL) communications from the UE 102 to the eNB 104 or downlink (DL) communications from the eNB 104 to the UE. In one embodiment, the eNB 104 may allocate a greater number of DL communications than UL communications in a particular frame. The eNB 104 may schedule transmissions over a variety of frequency bands. Each slot of the subframe may contain 6-7 OFDM symbols, depending on the system used. In one embodiment, each subframe may contain 12 subcarriers. In the SG system, however, the frame size (ms) and number of subframes within a frame may be different from that of a 4G or LTE system. The subframe size may also vary in the SG system from frame to frame. In some embodiments, the SG system may span S times the frequency of the LTE/4G system, in which case the frame size of the SG system may be S times smaller than that of the LTE/4G system.

[0028] A downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from an eNB 104 to a UE 102, while an uplink resource grid may be used for uplink transmissions from a UE 102 to an eNB 104 or from a UE 102 to another UE 102. The resource grid may be a time- frequency grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid may be denoted as a resource element (RE). Each column and each row of the resource grid may correspond to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The resource grid may contain resource blocks (RBs) mat describe the mapping of physical channels to resource elements and physical RBs (PRBs). A PRB may be the smallest unit of resources that can be allocated to a UE. A RB in some embodiments may be 180 kHz wide in frequency and 1 slot long in time. In frequency, RBs may be either 12 x 15 kHz subcarriers or 24 x 7.S kHz subcarriers wide, dependent on the system bandwidth. In Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems, both the uplink and downlink frames may be 10ms and frequency (full-duplex) or time (half-duplex) separated. In TDD systems, the uplink and downlink subframes may be transmitted on the same frequency and are multiplexed in the time domain. The duration of the resource grid 400 in the time domain corresponds to one subframe or two resource blocks. Each resource grid may comprise 12 (subcarriers) *14 (symbols) =168 resource elements.

[0029] TDD systems may include UL, DL and, unlike FDD systems, special subframes due to the time-division aspect of the system when switching between UL and DL subframes. In particular, the special subframe may be preceded by a DL or UL subframe (and succeeded by a subframe of the opposite type) and may include both a UL and DL control region. A guard period may be reserved at the initiation of the special subframe to permit the UE 102 to switch between the receiver and transmitter chain.

[0030] Each OFDM symbol may contain a cyclic prefix (CP) which may be used to effectively eliminate Inter Symbol Interference (IS I), and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) period. The duration of the CP may be determined by the highest anticipated degree of delay spread. Although distortion from the preceding OFDM symbol may exist within the CP, with a CP of sufficient duration, preceding OFDM symbols do not enter the FFT period. Once the FFT period signal is received and digitized, the receiver may ignore the signal in the CP.

[0031] There may be several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks, including the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). Each downlink subframe may be partitioned into the PDCCH and the PDSCH. The PDCCH may normally occupy the first two symbols of each subframe and carry, among other things, information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, as well as H-ARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to a UE and occupy the remainder of the subframe. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs within a cell) may be performed at the eNB based on channel quality information provided from the UEs to the eNB, and then the downlink resource assignment information may be sent to each UE on the PDCCH used for (assigned to) the UE. The PDCCH may contain downlink control information (DO) in one of a number of formats that indicate to the UE how to find and decode data, transmitted on PDSCH in the same subframe, from the resource grid. The DO format may provide details such as number of resource blocks, resource allocation type, modulation scheme, transport block, redundancy version, coding rate etc. Each DO format may have a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) and be scrambled with a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) that identifies the target UE for which the PDSCH is intended. Use of the UE-specific RNTI may limit decoding of the DO format (and hence the corresponding PDSCH) to only the intended UE.

[0032] In addition to the PDCCH, an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) may be used by the eNB 104 and UE 102. Unlike the PDCCH, the EPDCCH may be disposed in the resource blocks normally allocated for the PDSCH. Different UEs may have different EPDCCH configurations that are configured via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. Each UE 102 may be configured with sets of EPDCCHs, and the configuration can also be different between the sets. Each EPDCCH set may have 2, 4, or 8 PRB pairs. In some embodiments, resource blocks configured for

EPDCCHs in a particular subframe may be used for PDSCH transmission if the resource blocks are not used for the EPDCCH transmissions during the subframe.

[0033] In order to enable retransmission of missing or erroneous data, the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) scheme may be used to provide the feedback on success or failure of a decoding attempt to the transmitter after each received data block. When an eNB 104 sends data to the UE 102 in a PDSCH, the data packets may be sent together with indicators in a PDCCH in the same subframe that inform the UE 102 about the scheduling of the PDSCH, including the transmission time and other scheduling information of the transmitted data. For each PDSCH codeword that the UE 102 receives, the UE 102 may respond with an ACK when the codeword is successfully decoded, or a NACK when the codeword is not successfully decoded. The eNB 104 may expect the ACK/NACK feedback after a predetermined number of subframes from the subframe in which the PDSCH data is sent. Upon receiving a NACK from the UE 102, the eNB 104 may retransmit the transport block or skip the retransmission if the retransmission number exceeds a maximum value. The ACK/NACK for the corresponding the PDSCH may be transmitted by the UE four subframes after the PDSCH is received from the eNB 104. Depending on the number of codewords present, HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH may contain, for example, 1 or 2 information bits (DO formats la and lb, respectively). The HARQ-ACK bits may then be processed, as per the PUCCH.

[0034] Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 2 illustrates components of a UE in accordance with some embodiments. At least some of the components shown may be used in the UE 102 (or eNB 104) shown in FIG. 1. The UE 200 and other components may be configured to use the synchronization signals as described herein. The UE 200 may be one of the UEs 102 shown in FIG. 1 and may be a stationary, non-mobile device or may be a mobile device. In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208 and one or more antennas 210, coupled together at least as shown. At least some of the baseband circuitry 204, RF circuitry 206, and FEM circuitry 208 may form a transceiver. In some embodiments, other network elements, such as the eNB may contain some or all of the components shown in FIG. 2. Other of the network elements, such as the MME, may contain an interface, such as the SI interface, to communicate with the eNB over a wired connection regarding the UE.

[0035] The application or processing circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with 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.

[0036] The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband processing circuity 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 204a, third generation (3G) baseband processor 204b, fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 204d for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (SG), SG, etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 204a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include FFT, preceding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. [0037] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 204e of the baseband circuitry 204 may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processors) (DSP) 204f. The audio DSP(s) 204f may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0038] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio

technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry. In some embodiments, the device can be configured to operate in accordance with communication standards or other protocols or standards, including Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 wireless technology (WiMax), IEEE 802.11 wireless technology (WiFi) including IEEE 802.11 ad, which operates in the 60 GHz millimeter wave spectrum, various other wireless technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN), or other 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. technologies either already developed or to be developed.

[0039] RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

[0040] In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include mixer circuitry 206a, amplifier circuitry 206b and filter circuitry 206c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include filter circuitry 206c and mixer circuitry 206a. RF circuitry 206 may also include synthesizer circuitry 206d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206& The amplifier circuitry 206b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 206c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0041] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 208. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 206c. The filter circuitry 206c may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0042] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a 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 circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0043] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to- analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 206.

[0044] In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. [0045] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 206d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0046] The synthesizer circuitry 206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206a of the RF circuitry 206 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206d may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

[0047] In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 204 or the applications processor 202 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 202.

[0048] Synthesizer circuitry 206d of the RF circuitry 206 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus 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 either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example 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 break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, 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.

[0049] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 206d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the earner frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fix>). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include an IQ/polar converter.

[0050] FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 210.

[0051] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 may include a

TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210.

[0052] In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface as described in more detail below. In some embodiments, the UE 200 described herein may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or other device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly. In some embodiments, the UE 200 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system. For example, the UE 200 may include one or more of a keyboard, a keypad, a touchpad, a display, a sensor, a non- volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, one or more antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, a speaker, a microphone, and other I/O components. The display may be an LCD or LED screen including a touch screen. The sensor may include a gyro sensor, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a positioning unit. The positioning unit may communicate with components of a positioning network, e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) satellite.

[0053] The antennas 210 may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas 210 may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

[0054] Although the UE 200 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of sofrware- configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0055] Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer- readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random- access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. Some embodiments may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

[0056] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments. The device may be a UE or eNB, for example, such as the UE 102 or eNB 104 shown in FIG. 1 that may be configured to track the UE as described herein. The physical layer circuitry 302 may perform various encoding and decoding functions that may include formation of baseband signals for transmission and decoding of received signals. The communication device 300 may also include medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry 304 for controlling access to the wireless medium. The communication device 300 may also include processing circuitry 306, such as one or more single-core or multi-core processors, and memory 308 arranged to perform the operations described herein. The physical layer circuitry 302, MAC circuitry 304 and processing circuitry 306 may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks compatible with one or more radio technologies. The radio control functions may include signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. For example, similar to the device shown in FIG. 2, in some embodiments, communication may be enabled with one or more of a WMAN, a WLAN, and a WPAN. In some embodiments, the communication device 300 can be configured to operate in accordance with 3GPP standards or other protocols or standards, including WiMax, WiFi, WiGig, GSM, EDGE, GERAN, UMTS, UTRAN, or other 3G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. technologies either already developed or to be developed. The communication device 300 may include transceiver circuitry 312 to enable communication with other external devices wirelessly and interfaces 314 to enable wired communication with other external devices. As another example, the transceiver circuitry 312 may perform various transmission and reception functions such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a Radio Frequency (RF) range.

[0057] The antennas 301 may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO embodiments, the antennas 301 may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

[0058] Although the communication device 300 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including DSPs, and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, RFICs and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements. Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein.

[0059] FIG. 4 illustrates another block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments. In alternative embodiments, the communication device 400 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other communication devices. In a networked deployment, the communication device 400 may operate in the capacity of a server communication device, a client communication device, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the communication device 400 may act as a peer communication device in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The communication device 400 may be a UE, eNB, PC, a tablet PC, a STB, a PDA, a mobile telephone, a smart phone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any communication device capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that communication device. Further, while only a single communication device is illustrated, the term "communication device" shall also be taken to include any collection of communication devices that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

[0060] Examples, as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example, circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In an example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g. , instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a module that operates to perform specified operations. In an example, the software may reside on a communication device readable medium. In an example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

[0061] Accordingly, the term "module" is understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operation described herein. Considering examples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of the modules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example, where the modules comprise a general-purpose hardware processor configured using software, the general-purpose hardware processor may be configured as respective different modules at different times. Software may accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, to constitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitute a different module at a different instance of time.

[0062] Communication device (e.g., computer system) 400 may include a hardware processor 402 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 404 and a static memory 406, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 408. The communication device 400 may further include a display unit 410, an alphanumeric input device 412 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 414 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display unit 410, input device 412 and UI navigation device 414 may be a touch screen display. The communication device 400 may additionally include a storage device (e.g., drive unit) 416, a signal generation device 418 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 420, and one or more sensors 421, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The communication device 400 may include an output controller 428, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (1R), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

[0063] The storage device 416 may include a communication device readable medium 422 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 424 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 424 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 404, within static memory 406, or within the hardware processor 402 during execution thereof by the communication device 400. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 402, the main memory 404, the static memory 406, or the storage device 416 may constitute communication device readable media.

[0064] While the communication device readable medium 422 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "communication device readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 424.

[0065] The term "communication device readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device 400 and that cause the communication device 400 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or mat is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated with such

instructions. Non-limiting communication device readable medium examples may include solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of communication device readable media may include: non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM),

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, communication device readable media may include non-transitory communication device readable media. In some examples, communication device readable media may include communication device readable media that is not a transitory propagating signal.

[0066] The instructions 424 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 426 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 420 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as WiFi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device 420 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 426. In an example, the network interface device 420 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), MIMO, or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device 420 may wirelessly communicate using Multiple User MIMO techniques. The term

"transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device 400, and includes digital or analog

communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software.

[0067] As above, to increase the capacity and/or speed of communications between the LTE devices shown in FIGS. 1-4, carrier aggregation (CA) may be used in the LTE networks. CA may contain multiple Component Carriers (CCs). The use of CA permits cross-carrier scheduling in which a PDCCH or EPDCCH (referred to as an (E)PDCCH for convenience) on one CC may schedule data transmissions on another CC using a Carrier Indicator Field (OF) inserted at the beginning of the (E)PDCCH. A UE may receive scheduling messages on the (E)PDCCH on one CC, e.g., either the same CC or a different CC as the PDSCH. CCs may use the primary, licensed band and one or more secondary, unlicensed bands. The number of CCs, as well as the bandwidth of individual CCs, may be the same (symmetric) or may be different (asymmetric) for DL and UL communications. A CA-capable UE may be assigned a primary cell (PCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCells). The Pee 11 may be always active while die SCells may be activated or deactivated dynamically.

[0068] As indicated above, the use of the unlicensed bands, however, comes at the cost of complexity as unlicensed spectrum can be simultaneously used by multiple different technologies including both LTE and WLAN, e.g., IEEE 802.il (WiFi). WiFi performance may be degraded if the eNB and UE operate in the unlicensed spectrum in the same manner as in the licensed spectrum as WiFi devices do not transmit if the channel is occupied. Specifically, WLAN networks may implement listen- before-talk (LBT) mechanisms in the LSA spectrum in which UEs perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) to acquire or gain access to a channel and can communicate over the acquired channel without requiring scheduling of resources. CCA may be used to determine the state of the medium and make a determination as to whether to transmit based on channel use. In CCA, if the channel is determined to be busy, the transmission is delayed until the channel is idle.

[0069] During CCA, each UE may, depending on the LBT category, maintain a backoff counter. The backoff counter may have a constant (category 3) or random (category 4) backoff time with a variable size contention window, in which the contention window is the maximum possible random back-off value. The use of a random backoff time may help to reduce the collision probability between multiple UEs accessing a LSA medium when collisions are most likely to occur, which may be immediately after the medium becomes free as multiple UEs may have been waiting for the medium to become available.

[0070] In WiFi devices, if the channel is idle for a period of time greater than the DCF Inter Frame Space (DIFS) period and the backoff counter of the UE reaches zero, the UE may transmit the data packet during a transmission opportunity (TXOP). Specifically, the UE may transmit a request to send (RTS). After a Short Inter Frame Space (SIFS) period, if the medium is available, the UE may receive a response to the RTS via a clear to send (CTS) broadcast. After the CTS is received by the UE, the UE may wait until the backoff counter of the UE reaches zero. The UE may then transmit the data packet during the TXOP. If the medium becomes busy before the backoff counter of the UE reaches zero, the UE may sense when the medium again becomes available and transmit another RTS.

[0071] After each transmission, the UE may pick a new backoff time. Assuming the UE received an acknowledgment (ACK) indicating reception of the packet, if the backoff counter expires before the next packet arrives for transmission, the UE can transmit after sensing the channel to be idle for the DIPS period. If the last transmission was unsuccessful, as evidenced by the lack of reception of the ACK by the UE, the UE may wait for an Extended Inter Frame Space (EIFS) period, which is longer than the DIFS period. If the UE has a data packet waiting for transmission and the backoff counter expires, but the carrier sensing detects that the carrier is occupied, the UE may select a second backoff time for the backoff counter and transmit the packet when the second backoff time has expired.

[0072] In some embodiments, UEs may use a Short Inter Frame

Space (SIFS) used for RTS/CTS and for a positive ACK-based high priority transmission. Once the SIFS duration elapses, the transmission can immediately start. Depending on the physical layer configuration, the SIFS duration may be 6, 10 or 28 μβ. A PCF Inter Frame Space (PIFS) may be used by the PCF during contention free operations. After the PIFS period elapses, UEs having data to be transmitted in contention free period can be initiated, preempting contention based traffic. The DIFS period is the minimum idle time for contention based services. UEs may access the channel immediately if it is free after the DIFS period. The EIFS period may be used, as above, when there is erroneous frame transmission. The Arbitration Inter Frame Space period (AIFS) may be used by QoS UEs to transmit all frames (data and control).

[0073] A scheduled-based UL LA A design in which UL data transmissions using the PUSCH transmission is determined based on an explicit UL grant transmission. The UL grant is transmitted via the PDCCH through the use of DC1 format 0. The eNB may, as above, transmit the UL grant after completing the LBT procedure on the CC over which PUSCH transmission is expected. After receiving the UL grant, the scheduled UE may perform a short LBT or category 4 LBT during the allocated time interval. If the LBT is successful at the scheduled UE, the UE may transmit the PUSCH on the resources indicated by the UL grant. FIGS. SA and SB illustrate contention-based LAA communications in accordance with some embodiments. One or more of the devices shown in FIGS. 1 -4 may perform the communications shown in FIGS. 5 A and 5B. FIGS. SA and SB show timelines of both the PCell subframe timing and channel transmissions (of both the UE and the cNB) using the unlicensed band. As shown in FIG. 5 A, a UE may perform a single interval LBT 502 for a PIFS interval prior to the eNB transmitting a DL LAA burst 510 on the unlicensed carrier. The DL LAA burst 510 may contain multiple

PDSCHs 512 each with a UL grant 514 to the same or different UEs. The transmissions may be synchronized with the PCell subframes 500. The single interval LBT 502 may also occur before the transmission of PUSCHs 516 from the UE(s). The PUSCH 516 may contain data transmitted on 13 transmission time intervals (Tils) or symbols, with a portion of die first symbol reserved as a guard period (i.e., empty) and at least part of the first symbol being reserved for channel sensing.

[0074] Similarly, as shown in FIG. 5B, a UE may perform a single interval LBT 502 for a PIFS interval prior to the eNB transmitting a DL LAA burst 510 on the unlicensed carrier. The DL LAA burst 510 may contain multiple PDSCHs 512 each with a UL grant 514 to the same or different UEs. The transmissions may be synchronized with the PCell subframes 500. The single interval LBT 502 may also occur before the transmission of PUSCHs 516 from the UE(s). The PUSCH 516 may contain data transmitted on 13 transmission time intervals (TTIs) or symbols. Similar to the above, a portion of the first symbol may be reserved as a guard period and at least part of the first symbol being reserved for channel sensing. The channel sensing in FIG. 5B may be more aggressive than that in FIG. 5 A, with die UE performing a Cat 4 LBT with more aggressive LBT parameters than the eNB. This may include the use of both an initial and extended CCA and a reservation signal, in addition to the guard period in the first symbol.

[0075] However, while the use of LAA may increase the bandwidth, UL LAA throughput performance is noticeably degraded compared to UL WiFi performance. Specifically, degradation of throughput performance may be due to several factors. One of these factors includes that the LBT process is duplicated for UL transmission. Both the UE and eNB may perform LBT before PUSCH transmission. In addition, UEs associated with the eNB may also compete for scheduling by the eNB. These limitations may lower the LAA UL transmission probability and increase channel access delay for a UL compared to other transmissions including the LAA eNB, Access Point ("AP") and Stations ("STAs"). Another limitation on the UL LAA performance may be due to the scheduled nature and UL grant processing delay. Specifically, even if transmission of the UL grant occurs in subframe n, the UE cannot transmit a PUSCH before subframe n+4 due to hard constraints on the UE processing delay for the UL grant.

[0076] In addition to LAA operation, LTE may also be operated via dual connectivity or standalone LTE mode. Neither of these latter modes may require much assistance from the licensed spectrum. Recently, a new LTE based technology "MuLTEfire" has been under consideration, requiring no assistance from the licensed spectrum to enable a leaner, self- contained network architecture that is suitable for neutral deployments where any deployment can service any UE.

[0077] Various embodiments disclosed herein may accordingly relate to a non-scheduled UL LAA transmission design to alleviate the above issues. Embodiments may thus include a non-scheduled technique for UL PUSCH transmission in which LBT is performed only at the UE without being performing at the eNB and/or a non-scheduled technique for UL PUSCH transmission in which the UE may not wait for a UL grant, and thus a delay associated with the UL grant may be avoided to thereby reduce the 4 subframe delay for accessing channel for UL transmission. The non- scheduled UL LAA transmission mode disclosed herein may resemble legacy WiFi UL design. However, the embodiments disclosed herein are based on a grantless LTE UL transmission, a significant departure from legacy LTE scheduled UL transmission that demands a number of enhancements with respect to the legacy LTE design. In particular, the embodiments disclosed herein discuss the LBT design, the detection of the PUSCH at eNB, the UL subframe design, the scheduling, link adaptation and HARQ operation, Channel State Information ("CSF') feedback, and control channel design. In some embodiments, use of the non-scheduled mode of operation does not preclude UL operation in which the UEs are scheduled; the UE may operate either or both in the scheduled and/or non- scheduled mode. The mode of operation can be explicitly indicated by cNB by Layer 1 (LI) and/or L2 signaling. In some embodiments, the UE (such as a MTC or other limited UE) may not be able to receive a UL grant.

[0078] FIGS. 6A and 6B accordingly illustrate Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions in accordance with some embodiments. As above, one or more of the devices shown in FIGS. 1-4 may perform the communications shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. FIGS. 6A and 6B show timelines of both the PCell subframe timing and channel transmissions (of bom the UE and the eNB) using the unlicensed WiFi band.

[0079] As shown in FIG. 6 A, the eNB may transmit a DL LAA burst 610 on the unlicensed carrier. The eNB may perform a single interval LBT procedure 602 for a PIFS interval prior to transmitting a DL LAA burst 610 on the unlicensed carrier. The DL PDSCH 612s of the LAA burst 610 may be synchronized with the PCell subframes 600 such that data transmissions during an initial partial PCell subframe 600 are avoided. The DL LAA burst 610 may contain one or more PDSCHs 612 which may or may not contain a UL grant (to the same or different UEs) for transmission on the unlicensed channel, dependent on the embodiment.

[0080] After the DL LAA burst 610, the UE may transmit a UL

LAA burst 620 containing one or more PUSCHs 628. Although multiple PUSCHs 628 are shown, in some embodiments the minimum PUSCH length may be a partial subframe and the maximum PUSCH length may be the maximum transmission opportunity (TXOP) in a particular geographic region (e.g., 10ms). The UE may, prior to transmitting the UL data to the eNB, first perform channel sensing by completing the LBT procedure using a single LBT 602.

[0081] Before transmission of the PUSCH 628, the UE may transmit a preamble 622 and a reservation signal 624. In some

embodiments, the reservation signal 624 may precede the preamble 622. The preamble 622 and the reservation signal 624 may be transmitted instead of the eNB transmitting a UL grant, as discussed in more detail below. The preamble 622 may enable the eNB to detect the PUSCH transmission and other related information regarding the UL burst. The preamble 622 may be a sequence of bits to identify UE information such as an identification of the UE (the UE ID), the starting position of the UL transmission, and MCS information related to the payload transmitted. The preamble 622 may contain DMRS and/or coded control bits; the DMRS may be used for presence detection and decoding of the coded control bits. The reservation signal 624 may contain a predefined signal or a random signal that is used to align the LAA UL transmission burst 620 with the PCell subframe 600.

[0082] The UE may subsequently transmit the PUSCH 628. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission 628 may align with the PCell subframe boundary, as shown in FIG. 6A in which the PUSCH 628 may occupy a partial subframe of greater than 0 ms to less than 1 ms or a super subframe of greater than 1 to less than 2ms and that includes the partial subframe and a full subframe adjacent to the partial subframe. In other embodiments, the PUSCH transmission 628 may not align with the PCell subframe boundary, as shown in FIG. 6B in which the PUSCH 628 is asynchronous. In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the other information regarding the UL scheduling may be provided additional control signaling. This additional information may include, among others, the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), HARQ process and resource assignment.

[0083] Turning to the LBT procedure shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the UE may perform the LBT procedure before transmitting a PUSCH in order to maintain co-existence with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks that may be using the same unlicensed spectrum. In this regard, the LBT procedure for the UEs to use for UL transmission, whether scheduled or non-scheduled, may be used by the eNB prior to transmitting the DL LAA transmission burst. A UE that intends to transmit may first perform a CCA procedure before transmission. As described above, a backoff mechanism may be performed for collision avoidance, to avoid multiple UEs that intend to transmit sense the channel as being idle transmitting at the same time. The backoff counter may be randomly set within the contention window size (CWS). The backoff counter may be increased upon a collision occurring, and may, for example, be increased linearly or exponentially up to the CWS. In some embodiments, the backoff counter may be reset to a predetermined minimum value when the transmission succeeds. In some embodiments, different LBT priority classes may exist. Each LBT priority class may have a different maximum channel occupancy duration and/or choice of maximum and minimum values of CWS. Non-scheduled UEs may, for example, use a priority 4 LBT for best effort traffic with X = 15, Y = 1023. Various X, Y pairings are defined in the 3GPP standard. Table 1 shows PUSCH maximum contiguous transmission (MCOT) for different LBT priority classes.

[0084] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a UL LBT procedure for a non-scheduled PUSCH transmission. The method indicated by the flowchart may be performed by one or more of the UEs shown in FIGS. 1 -4 and follow the timelines of any of FIGS. 5-6. Operations 702, 704 and 706 may occur during an initial CCA period 700A and operations 712, 714, 716, 718, 720 and 722 may occur during an extended CCA period. At operation 702, the UE may be in idle mode or may not be actively transmitting to the eNB or other UEs.

[0085] At operation 704 the UE determines whether an uplink data transmission is to occur. The data to be transmitted may be buffered in memory during the process described by the method. If the UE determines that no data is to be transmitted at operation 704, the operation may return to operation 702 until the next time the UE checks to see whether data is to be transmitted. On the other hand, if the UE determines at operation 704 that data is to be transmitted, the method continues to operation 706.

[0086] At operation 706, the UE may determine whether the channel remains idle for a predetermined period. In some embodiments, the predetermined period may be an initial CCA period, Tint.

[0087] If at operation 706 the UE determines that the channel has remained idle for the initial CCA period, the method continues to operation 708. At operation 708, the UE may transmit data using a PUSCH of the UL transmission burst on the unlicensed channel.

[0088] After transmission of the data at operation 708, at operation

710 the UE may determine whether additional data is to be transmitted after completion of the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) duration/ packet transmission. Operation 710 may thus differentiate between two states: i) the UE has no further data to send, and ii) the UE has additional data to send after the previous transmission at operation 708, but no further time is able to be allotted to the UE for PUSCH transmission. If the UE determines at operation 710 that no additional data is to be transmitted, the UE may return to operation 702 and enter the idle state; when additional data arrives the UE may again enter the initial CCA. .

[0089] After determining at operation 706 that the channel has not remained idle for the predetermined period or after completion of the MCOT, if UE determines at operation 710 that additional data is to be transmitted, the UE may not enter idle state; instead, the UE may move into an extended CCA region 700B and directly enter the backoff state at operation 712. In particular, the UE may generate a random number at operation 712. In some embodiments the random number may be a counter and the counter N generated may be limited to between 0 and q-1, where q is the CWS and the integer counter N represents a random amount of time.

[0090] As shown, from time to time the CWS may be updated at operation 724. In particular, the CWS q may be updated between two values, X and Y, based on HARQ-ACK feedback from the UE and/or eNB. The UE may determine the update or the update may be supplied by the eNB. [0091] After generating the random counter at operation 712, the

UE may then determine whether the channel continues to be idle for a longer period at operation 714. In some embodiments, the period may be an enhanced CCA (eCCA) defer period.

[0092] The process continues to monitor the channel until the channel is idle for the eCCA defer period. Thus, at operation 716, the UE may determine whether the counter N has counted down and reached 0. In some embodiments, the counter N may instead increment from 0 to a maximum value rather than decrementing to 0.

[0093] If so, the UE may return to operation 708. If the counter N has not reached 0, at operation 718, the counter may decrement by a predetermined value, shown as an integer. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the counter may instead increment.

[0094] After the counter has decremented at operation 718, the method may continue to operation 720. At operation 720, the UE may again sense whether the channel is idle.

[0095] If the channel is determined to not be idle at operation 720, the method may return to operation 714. If the channel is determined to be idle, the method may continue to operation 722. In this case, at operation 722, the UE may continue to the next slot, which has a 9us duration, and continue to monitor the channel/perform channel sensing before determining whether the counter has again reached 0 at operation 716.

[0096] After the data has been transmitted, the eNB still has to detect the PUSCH. As the eNB has not scheduled the PUSCH, the eNB may not be aware of the UE transmission. This is to say that the eNB may detect certain information related to the PUSCH. This may include the presence of the UL burst, the RNTI of the UE that transmitted the PUSCH, the MCS used for the UL transmission, the duration of the UL burst, and possibly the number of CCs used for the PUSCH transmission. The information may be indicated through a variety of mechanisms.

[0097] For example, the information may, in some embodiments, be explicitly indicated via the preamble shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B (or in another initial signal). In this embodiment, after completion of the LBT procedure, the UE may transmit an initial signal that contains relevant information describing the UL LAA transmission burst. The preamble may contain, among others, a variety of content, including but not limited to: the Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI), the duration of the UL burst transmission (provided in number of symbols or I^'l l), a DMRS-like signal for preamble presence detection, the MCS used for UL transmission (which may be common for all PUSCH subframes), and the number of CCs used for the PUSCH transmission.

[0098] In some embodiments, the PUSCH information may be provided to the cNB via a reference signal supplied by the UE, such as a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS). After completion of the LBT procedure, the UE may initiate a PUSCH transmission. A PUSCH DMRS may be present in the center symbol of a slot (symbol 3 and symbol 10 of a UL subframe). The eNB may perform blind detection of the DMRS sequence. This may enable the eNB to infer the identity of the UE that has transmitted the PUSCH.

[0099] In particular, a DMRS sequence r

is defined by a cyclic shift according to:

[00100] where a is the cyclic shift and is the length of the

DMRS sequence. The CS value a in a slot is given by:

[00101] where is a broadcast value, is a value included

in the uplink scheduling assignment, and is given by a cell-specific

pseudo-random sequence. There can be only 12 usable CS values in total for the DMRS among which the eNB is able to differentiate. Interfering from above, if the eNB uses DMRS-based differentiation between non- scheduled UEs, the eNB can only differentiate between 12 UEs.

Additionally, the UE may map C-RNTI to Such a mapping can be

explicitly indicated to the UE by the eNB. The eNB may also indicate a

Alternatively such a function f may

already be predefined and known at the UE. [00102] With the implicit detection of the DMRS, the UE may not indicate the MCS used for the PUSCH transmission. As one solution, the PUSCH MCS value may be semi-statically fixed for each UE that is already known to the UE and the eNB. The choice of MCS value may be signaled to the UE by LI or L2 signaling. Implicit indication of the UE identification may thus not be a scalable approach but can still be used without introduction of additional signaling at the UE.

[00103] In some embodiments, the PUSCH information may be provided to the eNB via PUCCH-like signaling. Uplink control signaling (UCI) is transmitted via a PUCCH in the legacy LTE design. Such a technique can also be reused for providing control signaling in a UL mode referred to as PUCCH for non-scheduled (PUCCHNS) operation. The PUCCH format 3 provides support for up to 21 bits of information. Thus, the PUCCH design can be reused for providing additional information regarding the ongoing UL burst in non-scheduled operation. This newly defined PUCCHNS can be present in the first subframe of the UL burst or any possible subset of the UL burst. The PUCCHNS can include the C- RNTI, MCS used for the PUSCH transmission, and the duration of the UL burst transmission (in number of symbols or TTI).

[00104] Turning to the UL subframe design, the LAA UE may sense the channel and perform UL transmission at any time while employing the LBT procedure. As shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the UL transmissions may either follow a PCell Subframe boundary aligned transmission or an asynchronous transmission. In the former case, the UE may use a partial subframe. In particular, in some embodiments, the starting point of the UL burst transmission may be aligned with PCell subframe boundary to minimize the implementation impact (as legacy Release- 12 CA mechanism in LTE, which assumes PCell subframe boundary aligned transmission on SCell). If such a PCell aligned restriction is enforced, the interval from the end of the LBT process until the PCell subframe boundary may be wasted as the interval is not be utilized for data transmission. To overcome this, a partial i ll can be defined. The partial i ll for the UL subframe design may be similar to the partial TTI defined for the DL LAA on a subset of OFDM symbols within the UL subframe. This may permit the PCell aligned timing relationship to be maintained for UL burst transmission.

[00105] With the use of a partial subframe, the UE may be able to transmit immediately after completing the LBT process. In some embodiments, however, the UE may initiate the PUSCH transmission at predetermined OFDM symbol positions, which may not immediately follow completion of the LBT process, within a subframe with respect to the PCell subframe boundary to limit the UE scheduling complexity. In particular, as the UE may not a prior know the duration of the partial TTI, the UE may create multiple potential partial subframes corresponding to different hypothesis of possible partial subframes. As this may incur significant computation and buffer complexity at the UE, it is thus desirable for the UE to limit UL transmissions to certain starting positions.

[00106] FIG. 8 illustrates different PUSCH designs including a slot- aligned partial subframe according to some embodiments. FIG. 8 illustrates several subframes, including an initial slot 812, a final slot 816 and one or more normal PUSCH subframes 814. As shown, the initial and final slot 812, 816 each are a partial subframe - there is no corresponding second slot. In one of the embodiments, starting and ending symbols of {0, 7 } in the initial and final slot 812, 816, respectively, can be chosen as potential options for an uplink partial i l l, thereby providing a trade-off between efficiency and UE complexity. Each slot of the initial and final slot 812, 816 and the normal PUSCH subframes 814 contains a DMRS 802 in a predetermined position. As shown, this predetermined position is symbol {4, 10} dependent on the slot.

[00107] In other embodiments, rather than a partial subframe, a super subframe may be used. This is to say that while a normal subframe has 14 OFDM symbols, a super TTI may include comparatively more OFDM symbols. Similar to the above partial TTI embodiment, a PCell aligned timing relationship may be maintained for the UL burst transmission. An initial super subframe may include the first partial subframe and the first normal PUSCH subframe and a terminal super subframe may include the ending partial subframe and the last normal PUSCH subframe. As above, even though the UE may transmit immediately after completing the LBT procedure when using a super subframe, the UE may start a PUSCH transmission at predetermined OFDM symbol positions within a subframe with respect to the PCell subframe boundary to limit the UE scheduling complexity. In particular, as the UE may not know the duration of the super TTI a priori, the UE may create multiple potential partial subframes corresponding to different hypothesis of possible super subframes. As above, as this may incur significant computation and buffer complexity at the UE, it may thus be desirable for the UE to limit transmission to predetermined starting positions. The duration of the super subframe may thus be chosen to be 14 or 21 symbols (at least 14 symbols), with a starting and ending position of the super subframe at OFDM symbol {0, 7}.

[00108] In some embodiments, asynchronous PUSCH transmission may be used. In this case, the PUSCH transmission may not be aligned with the PCell subframe boundary. However, after completion of the LBT procedure, the UE may transmit the PUSCH transmission based on the legacy 1 ms subframe design. This may reduce the above UE complexity as the UE may only create a PUSCH subframe spanning 1ms.

[00109] In addition to the subframe structure, scheduling, link adaptation and HARQ operation is described below. In particular, the use of a non-scheduled mode of operation may enable the UE to autonomously select the resource allocation, MCS selection, retransmission of the PUSCH without much involvement from eNB. In this regard, the design of scheduling operation at the UE may differ from the legacy LTE design. The new design may replicate the operations in the legacy LTE design performed by the PDCCH for the DL link adaptation/MCS selection and HARQ indication by PUCCHNS for the non-schedule transmission.

Additionally, operations such as Channel Quality Information (CQI) feedback performed by the PUCCH in legacy LTE operation may be performed by the PDCCH in the non-scheduled operation.

[00110] FIG. 9 illustrates a method of performing UL transmission in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 9 shows that link adaptation and MCS selection may be performed at the UE based on the CQI feedback at the UE from the eNB. Any of the UEs shown in FIGS. 1-4 may perform the method of FIG. 9. As in the legacy LTE design, a sounding reference signal (SRS) may be transmitted from the UE at operation 910.

[00111] After transmission of the SRS at operation 910, the UE may obtain information for determining selection of the MCS for the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the eNB may indicate which MCS is best suitable for the uplink PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the UE may request CQI information using the PUCCH, in a manner similar to legacy PDCCH operation for DL transmission. Based on the CQI feedback, the UE may determine the MCS for PUSCH transmission at operation 912.

[00112] At operation 914, the UE may transmit the PUSCH along with the scheduling information via the PUCCH. The PUCCH may contain information such as MCS selection and/or HARQ process number. In this case, the PUCCH may perform operations that are normally performed by the PDCCH in the legacy LTE design.

[00113] At operation 916, after the PUSCH is received at the eNB, the eNB may transmit ACK/NACK feedback for each PUSCH transmission via the PDCCH. In some embodiments, the ACK/NACK feedback for each PUSCH transmission may be transmitted separately for each PUSCH. In some embodiments, the ACK/NACK feedback for each PUSCH transmission may be transmitted in a single PDCCH containing the outcome of all subframes within the UL burst. The selection of the MCS to be used by the UE can be done by the eNB based on the latest SRS received and subsequently indicated to the UE. The UE may use the latest MCS selection obtained from the eNB for the transmission of PUSCH. Additionally, the UE may request to obtain the CS1 periodically from the eNB via the PUCCH transmission along with transmission of the SRS. In response to this request, the eNB may compute the CSI and inform the UE. The eNB may also indicate the MCS. The periodic CSI requests can be also be subject to the LBT process.

[00114] In the legacy LTE design, control signaling may be transmitted to inform the eNB as to the CQI feedback for DL operation and ACK/NACK feedback for PDSCH transmission. The control channel design PUCCHNS may be modified from a legacy PUCCH design, or the legacy PUCCH design may be reused. When UEs simultaneously transmit UL data and control signals, control signaling can be multiplexed with data prior to the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) to preserve the single-carrier property of the UL transmission.

[00115] FIG. 10 illustrates a PUCCH design in accordance with some embodiments. In the absence of UL data transmission, the control signaling may be transmitted on the band edge as shown in FIG. 10. In this case, the legacy PUCCH design can be reused for non-scheduled operation. As shown, each slot contains multiple PUCCH regions at the edges of the band. The UE may also be configured to transmit simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH transmissions. For non-scheduled operation, the PUSCH and PUCCH may be transmitted separately to enable the eNB to obtain the scheduling information describing the transmitted PUSCH.

[00116] FIGS. 11 A-l ID illustrate PUCCH designs in accordance with some embodiments. Unlike legacy PUCCH control regions, which may be transmitted using the entire subframe, the PUCCH control regions shown in FIGS. 11 A-l ID may be a single slot long. The PUCCH control regions may be for the same or different UEs. The PUCCH control regions for different UEs may contain the same information (information of the same type) for the UEs or may contain different information, e.g., HARQ ACK/NACK feedback, CQI feedback. Specifically, FIGS. 11 A and 1 IB illustrate a PUCCHNS design for the first partial subframe shown, for example, in FIG. 8. As shown, in FIGS. 11 A and 1 IB, the UE may still be engaged in the LBT procedure during the first slot. Thus, the PUCCH control regions may either occupy one (FIG. 1 IB) or both (FIG. 11 A) of the band edges of the second slot. In either case, however, a single PUCCH control region may extend across the entire second slot of the first partial subframe. Another PUCCH control region may be adjacent in frequency to the PUCCH control region at the band edge.

[00117] FIGS. 11C and 1 ID illustrate a PUCCHNS design for the ending partial subframe shown in FIG. 8. As shown, in FIGS. 11C and 1 ID, the PUCCH control regions may occupy both (FIG. 11C) or one (FIG. 1 ID) of the band edges of the first slot. In either case, however, a single PUCCH control region may extend across the entire first slot of the ending partial subframe. Another PUCCH control region may be adjacent in frequency to the PUCCH control region at the band edge.

[00118] FIG. 12 illustrates a PUCCH design in accordance with some embodiments. In FIG. 12, the PUCCHNS may be transmitted at the start of the PUSCH transmission. The start of the PUSCH transmission may be the first symbol for a normal subframe or the seventh symbol for the first partial subframe

[00119] FIG. 13 illustrates a PUCCH design in accordance with some embodiments. Unlike the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the PUCCHNS transmission may be relaxed such that the PUCCHNS can be transmitted within any symbol, subject to the LBT procedure, if no PUSCH data exists. This may reduce the UL channel occupancy when the PUSCH is not present.

[00120] Whether carried in the first or seventh symbol, or any symbol after the LBT procedure, the PUCCHNS may carry UL control information (UCI). The PUCCHNS may provide scheduling information including MCS selection, HARQ process number, and resource allocation indicating which time-frequency resources are used for PUSCH

transmission. The PUCCHNS may additionally request CSI information from the eNB.

[00121] In addition, in the non-scheduled mode, the PDCCH may provide ACK/NACK feedback to the UE for the PUSCH UL transmission. Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) resources may also be used for this indication. The PHICH may be located in the first OFDM symbol of each subframe.

[00122] As in legacy designs, the SRS may be transmitted on the 14^th symbol of the PUSCH subframe. The SRS may be used as a reference signal for performing CSI computation. Additionally, the UE may transmit the SRS along with the PUCCHNS to request CSI information from the eNB.

[00123] Simulations of performance evaluations for the

embodiments described herein also show benefits. Some of the assumptions for the simulation include the use of a category 4 LAA DL LBT, the duration of the initial CCA and the extended CCA defer period is 34 us, the eCCA slot duration is 9 us, the ED threshold is -72 dBm, and the dynamic exponential backoff with [X,Y] = [15, 63]. For the LAA UL scheduling and LBT, for a scheduled based UL LBT, the LBT is a single interval LBT, the CCA duration is 25 μβ and the CCA ED thresholds are - 72 dBm. For a non-scheduled based UL LBT, a category 4 DL LBT is used, the dynamic exponential backoff is [X,Y] = [32, 1024], and the ED threshold is -77 dBm.

[00124] Other simulation assumptions may include LAA and WiFi assumptions. For the LAA assumptions, the maximum DLAJL LAA burst length is 5ms, the PDSCH/PUSCH communications are transmitted only in the unlicensed band, 2x2 MIMO DL communications use TM4 with CSI feedback, and 1x2 MIMO UL communications use a MCS adaptation based on the SRS, which is transmitted only with the PUSCH transmission. For the WiFi assumptions, 2x2 CL MIMO and 1x2 OL link adaptation communications are used, with a transmission opportunity (TXOP) of 5ms and a short guard interval for each OFDM symbol. RTS and CTS are not applied.

[00125] Multiple elements are present in the scenario. At element 1, WiFi+WiFi is used and at element 2 WiFi + LAA is used in a single channel indoor environment. There are 20UEs/operator. The traffic model uses a file transfer protocol (FTP). Independent traffic generation occurs on the DL and UL for both WiFi and LAA for FTP traffic model. Each UE has a UL/DL traffic arrival rate ratio of 50:50.

[00126] The simulations of DL UPT performance and UL UPT performance with various options of LAA UL modes shows that non- scheduled mode of operation significantly improves the DL and UL LAA performance. In particular, the average performance of DL transmissions for a low load increase by about 24%, from about 50Mbps to about 62Mbps when LAA UL non-scheduled transmissions are used compared to LAA UL scheduled transmissions. The average performance of UL transmissions for a low load increase by about 300%, from about 6Mbps to about 24Mbps when LAA UL non-scheduled transmissions are used compared to LAA UL scheduled transmissions. The average performance of DL transmissions for a medium load increase by about 21%, from about 34Mbps to about 41Mbps when LAA UL non-scheduled transmissions are used compared to LAA UL scheduled transmissions. The average performance of UL transmissions for a medium bad increase by about 400%, from about 3.5Mbps to about 16Mbps when LAA UL non-scheduled transmissions are used compared to LAA UL scheduled transmissions. The average performance of DL transmissions for a high load increase by about 21 %, from about 14Mbps to about 17.5 Mbps when LAA UL non-scheduled transmissions are used compared to LAA UL scheduled transmissions. The average performance of UL transmissions for a high load increase by about 500%, from about 1Mbps to about 6Mbps when LAA UL non-scheduled transmissions are used compared to LAA UL scheduled transmissions.

[00127] Examples

[00128] Example 1 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a memory, and processing circuitry in

communication with the memory and arranged to: encode physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data for transmission to an evolved node B (eNB) on a licensed medium; perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on an unlicensed medium in an unlicensed band; determine, from the LBT procedure, whether the unlicensed medium is idle; and in response to a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle, generate an uplink transmission burst for transmission to the eNB on the unlicensed medium during a PUSCH schedule, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

[00129] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 optionally includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: select a mode of operation to transmit the uplink transmission burst, the mode of operation comprising an autonomous mode in which the PUSCH schedule is determined by the UE free from scheduling by the eNB or a scheduled mode in which the uplink transmission burst is scheduled by the eNB, the mode of operation dynamically indicated by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling from the eNB. [00130] In Example 3, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-2 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 milliseconds (ms).

[00131] In Example 4, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-3 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate the uplink transmission burst in response to a grant from the eNB in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the grant comprising the PUSCH schedule.

[00132] In Example 5, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-4 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate the uplink transmission burst free from a grant from the eNB in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

[00133] In Example 6, the subject matter of Example S optionally includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate a preamble for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst.

[00134] In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 6 optionally includes, wherein one of: the C-RNTI of the UE is mapped to a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs, the mapping predefined and stored in the memory, or the processing circuitry is further arranged to decode, from the eNB, a mapping between the C-RNTI of the UE and a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs.

[00135] In Example 8, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 6-7 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate a reservation signal for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

[00136] In Example 9, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 5-8 optionally include, wherein: the processing circuitry is further arranged to generate a preamble for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, and the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of: semi-statically fixed for the UE, or signaled to the UE by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling.

[00137] In Example 10, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-9 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

[00138] In Example 11 , the subject matter of Example 10 optionally includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst as at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols.

[00139] In Example 12, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-11 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate, for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

[00140] In Example 13, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-12 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate a sounding reference signal (SRS) for transmission to the eNB; obtain a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst by one of: decode the MCS of the uplink transmission burst as specified by the eNB, or request Channel Quality Information (CQI) from the eNB via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and compute the MCS based on the CQI obtained in response to the request; and decode acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment

(ACK/NACK) feedback in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the eNB for the uplink transmission burst, the ACK/NACK feedback received one of: in separate PDCCHs for each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst, or in a single PDCCH containing an outcome of the PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst

[00141] In Example 14, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-13 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry comprises baseband circuitry arranged to one of: generate a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for transmission to the eNB

simultaneously with at least one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst, or generate a second PUCCH for transmission to the eNB, the second PUCCH disposed one of: at a first symbol in a subframe that carries one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst or at a predetermined symbol after the LBT procedure in a subframe of the uplink transmission burst that is free from a PUSCH.

[00142] In Example IS, the subject matter of Example 14 optionally includes, wherein one of: uplink control information (UCI) of the first or second PUCCH is configured to carry a request for channel state information (CSI), and the processing circuitry is further arranged to generate the first or second PUCCH for simultaneous transmission with a sounding reference signal (SRS), or the first PUCCH comprises a plurality of PUCCH control regions, the PUCCH control regions adjacent to one or both edges of the unlicensed medium, the PUCCH control regions comprising different control information of the UE, control information of a same type from different UEs or different control information from different UEs. [00143] In Example 16, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1—15 optionally include, further comprising: an antenna configured to provide communications between the UE and the eNB.

[00144] Example 17 is an apparatus of an evolved NodeB (eNB) comprising: a memory; and processing circuitry in communication with the memory and arranged to: encode physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data for transmission to a user equipment (UE) on an unlicensed medium; and decode an uplink transmission burst for transmission from the UE on the unlicensed medium during a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) schedule determined by the eNB and provided to the UE in a grant in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the eNB, the uplink transmission burst decoded after a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle via a listen before talk (LBT) procedure, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

[00145] In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17 optionally includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decode a preamble from the UE prior to reception of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a duration of the uplink transmission burst, and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst.

[00146] In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 18 optionally includes, wherein one of: a mapping of the C-RNTI of the UE to a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs is predefined, or the processing circuitry is further arranged to generate, for transmission to the UE, the mapping between the C-RNTI of the UE and a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs.

[00147] In Example 20, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 18-19 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decode a reservation signal from the UE prior to reception of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the reservation signal to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

[00148] In Example 21 , the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 18-20 optionally include, wherein: the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of: semi-statically fixed for the UE, or signaled to the UE from the eNB by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling.

[00149] In Example 22, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 17-21 optionally include, wherein one of: the uplink

transmission burst is aligned to a subframe boundary of the PCell, and at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols, or the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 ms.

[00150] In Example 23, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 17-22 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decode, from the UE prior to reception of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid

Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

[00151] In Example 24, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 17-23 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decode a sounding reference signal (SRS) from the UE; generate for transmission to the UE a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst; generate for transmission to the UE acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) feedback in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the uplink transmission burst, the ACK/NACK feedback for transmission in one of: separate PDCCHs for each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst, or a single PDCCH containing an outcome of the PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst.

[00152] In Example 25, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 17-24 optionally include, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to one of: decode a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) from the UE simultaneously with at least one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst, a length of the first PUCCH being 1 slot, or decode a second PUCCH from the UE, a length of the second PUCCH being 1 symbol, the second PUCCH disposed one of: at a first symbol in a subframe that carries one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst or at a predetermined symbol after the LBT procedure in a subframe of the uplink transmission burst mat is free from a PUSCH.

[00153] In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25 optionally includes, wherein one of: uplink control information (UCI) of the first or second PUCCH is configured to carry a request for channel state information (CSI), and the first or second PUCCH is simultaneously received with a sounding reference signal (SRS), or the first PUCCH comprises a plurality of PUCCH control regions, the PUCCH control regions adjacent to one or both edges of the unlicensed medium, the PUCCH control regions comprising different control information of the UE, control information of a same type from different UEs or different control information from different UEs.

[00154] Example 27 is a computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), the one or more processors to configure the UE to:

transmit a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to an evolved node B (eNB) on a licensed medium; receive a grant for transmission of an uplink transmission burst during a PUSCH schedule, the grant received in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the eNB, the grant comprising a PUSCH schedule; determine, using a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on an unlicensed medium in an unlicensed band, whether the unlicensed medium is idle; and in response to a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle, transmit the uplink transmission burst to the eNB on the unlicensed medium during the PUSCH schedule, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

[00155] In Example 28, the subject matter of Example 27 optionally includes, wherein the instructions further configure the UE to: one of: transmit a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, or transmit a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell

Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTT) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, and the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of: semi-statically fixed for the UE, or signaled to the UE by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling, and generate a reservation signal for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

[00156] In Example 29, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27-28 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is aligned to a subframe boundary of the PCell, and at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols.

[00157] In Example 30, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27-29 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 ms, and the instructions further configure the UE to transmit to the cNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid

Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

[00158] Example 31 is an apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: means for transmitting a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to an evolved node B (eNB) on a licensed medium; means for receiving a grant for transmission of an uplink transmission burst during a PUSCH schedule, the grant received in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the eNB, the grant comprising; means for determining, using a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on an unlicensed medium in an unlicensed band, whether the unlicensed medium is idle; and means for transmitting, in response to a determination mat the unlicensed medium is idle, the uplink transmission burst to the eNB on the unlicensed medium during the PUSCH schedule, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

[00159] In Example 32, the subject matter of Example 31 optionally includes, further comprising: one of: means for transmitting a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C- RNTD of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, or means for transmitting a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, and the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of: semi-statically fixed for the UE, or signaled to the UE by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling, and means for generating a reservation signal for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

[00160] In Example 33, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 31-32 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is aligned to a subframe boundary of the PCell, and at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols.

[00161] In Example 34, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 31-33 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 ms, and the apparatus further comprises means for transmitting to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

[00162] Example 35 is a method of scheduling uplink transmissions on an unlicensed medium, the method comprising: transmitting a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to an evolved node B (eNB) on a licensed medium; receiving a grant for transmission of an uplink transmission burst during a PUSCH schedule, the grant received in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the eNB, the grant comprising; determining, using a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on the unlicensed medium in an unlicensed band, whether the unlicensed medium is idle; and in response to a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle, transmitting the uplink transmission burst to the eNB on the unlicensed medium during the PUSCH schedule, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

[00163] In Example 36, the subject matter of Example 35 optionally includes, wherein the instructions further configure the UE to: one of: transmitting a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, or transmitting a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTT) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, and the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of: semi-statically fixed for the UE, or signaled to the UE by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling, and generating a reservation signal for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

[00164] In Example 37, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 35-36 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is aligned to a subframe boundary of the PCell, and at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols. [00165] In Example 38, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 35-37 optionally include, wherein: the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 ms, and the method further comprises transmitting to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid

Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

[00166] Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show, by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The embodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

[00167] Such embodiments of the subject matter may be referred to herein, individually and/or collectively, by the term "embodiment" merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single inventive concept if more man one is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.

[00168] In this document, the terms "a" or "an" are used, as is common in patent documents, to include one or more than one, independent of any other instances or usages of "at least one" or "one or more." In this document, the term "or" is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that "A or B" includes "A but not B," "B but not A," and "A and B," unless otherwise indicated. In this document, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms "comprising" and "wherein." Also, in the following claims, the terms "including" and "comprising" are open-ended, that is, a system, UE, article, composition, formulation, or process that includes elements in addition to those listed after such a term in a claim are still deemed to fall within the scope of that claim Moreover, in the following claims, the terms "first," "second," and "third," etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

[00169] The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus of user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a memory, and

processing circuitry in communication with the memory and arranged to:

encode physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data for transmission to an evolved node B (eNB) on a licensed medium; perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on an unlicensed medium in an unlicensed band;

determine, from the LBT procedure, whether the unlicensed medium is idle; and

in response to a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle, generate an uplink transmission burst for transmission to the eNB on the unlicensed medium during a PUSCH schedule, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

select a mode of operation to transmit the uplink transmission burst, the mode of operation comprising an autonomous mode in which the PUSCH schedule is determined by the UE free from scheduling by the eNB or a scheduled mode in which the uplink transmission burst is scheduled by the eNB, the mode of operation dynamically indicated by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling from the eNB.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein:

the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 milliseconds (ms).

4. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate the uplink transmission burst in response to a grant from the eNB in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the grant comprising the PUSCH schedule.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate the uplink transmission burst free from a grant from the eNB in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

6. The apparatus of claim S, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate a preamble for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein one of:

the C-RNTI of the UE is mapped to a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs, the mapping predefined and stored in the memory, or

the processing circuitry is further arranged to decode, from the eNB, a mapping between the C-RNTI of the UE and a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate a reservation signal for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

9. The apparatus of claim S, wherein:

the processing circuitry is further arranged to generate a preamble for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, and

the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of:

semi- statically fixed for the UE, or

signaled to the UE by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

1 1. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst as at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more man 14 symbols.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate, for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid

Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate a sounding reference signal (SRS) for transmission to the eNB;

obtain a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst by one of:

decode the MCS of the uplink transmission burst as specified by the eNB, or

request Channel Quality Information (CQI) from the eNB via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and compute the MCS based on the CQI obtained in response to the request; and decode acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) feedback in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the eNB for the uplink transmission burst, the ACK/NACK feedback received one of:

in separate PDCCHs for each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst, or

in a single PDCCH containing an outcome of the PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing circuitry comprises baseband circuitry arranged to one of:

generate a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for transmission to the eNB simultaneously with at least one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst, or

generate a second PUCCH for transmission to the eNB, the second

PUCCH disposed one of: at a first symbol in a subframe that carries one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst or at a predetermined symbol after the LBT procedure in a subframe of the uplink transmission burst that is free from a PUSCH.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein one of:

uplink control information (UCI) of the first or second PUCCH is configured to carry a request for channel state information (CSI), and the processing circuitry is further arranged to generate the first or second PUCCH for simultaneous transmission with a sounding reference signal (SRS), or

the first PUCCH comprises a plurality of PUCCH control regions, the PUCCH control regions adjacent to one or both edges of the unlicensed medium, the PUCCH control regions comprising different control information of the UE, control information of a same type from different UEs or different control information from different UEs.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

an antenna configured to provide communications between the UE and the eNB.

17. An apparatus of an evolved NodeB (eNB) comprising:

a memory, and

processing circuitry in communication with the memory and arranged to:

encode physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) data for transmission to a user equipment (UE) on an unlicensed medium; and

decode an uplink transmission burst for transmission from the UE on the unlicensed medium during a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) schedule determined by the eNB and provided to the UE in a grant in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the eNB, the uplink transmission burst decoded after a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle via a listen before talk (LBT) procedure, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

decode a preamble from the UE prior to reception of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C- RNTT) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a duration of the uplink transmission burst, and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein one of:

a mapping of the C-RNTI of the UE to a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs is predefined, or

the processing circuitry is further arranged to generate, for transmission to the UE, the mapping between the C-RNTI of the UE and a specific DMRS of a plurality of DMRSs for different UEs.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 or 19, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

decode a reservation signal from the UE prior to reception of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the reservation signal to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 or 19, wherein:

the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme

(MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of:

semi-statically fixed for the UE, or

signaled to the UE from the eNB by Layer 1 (LI ) or L2 signaling.

22. Trie apparatus of claim 17 or 18, wherein one of:

the uplink transmission burst is aligned to a subframe boundary of the PCell, and at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols, or

the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 ms.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

decode, from the UE prior to reception of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.

24. The apparatus of claim 17 or 23, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

decode a sounding reference signal (SRS) from the UE;

generate for transmission to the UE a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst;

generate for transmission to the UE acknowledgment/non- acknowledgment ( ACK/NACK) feedback in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the uplink transmission burst, the ACK/NACK feedback for transmission in one of:

separate PDCCHs for each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst, or

a single PDCCH containing an outcome of the PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst.

25. The apparatus of claim 17 or 23, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to one of: decode a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) from the UE simultaneously with at least one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst, a length of the first PUCCH being 1 slot, or

decode a second PUCCH from the UE, a length of the second PUCCH being 1 symbol, the second PUCCH disposed one of: at a first symbol in a subframe that carries one of the PUSCHs of the uplink transmission burst or at a predetermined symbol after the LBT procedure in a subframe of the uplink transmission burst that is free from a PUSCH.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein one of:

uplink control information (UCI) of the first or second PUCCH is configured to carry a request for channel state information (CSI), and the first or second PUCCH is simultaneously received with a sounding reference signal (SRS), or

the first PUCCH comprises a plurality of PUCCH control regions, the PUCCH control regions adjacent to one or both edges of the unlicensed medium, the PUCCH control regions comprising different control information of the UE, control information of a same type from different UEs or different control information from different UEs.

27. A computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), the one or more processors to configure the UE to:

transmit a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) to an evolved node B (eNB) on a licensed medium;

receive a grant for transmission of an uplink transmission burst during a PUSCH schedule, the grant received in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) from the eNB, the grant comprising a PUSCH schedule; determine, using a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on an unlicensed medium in an unlicensed band, whether the unlicensed medium is idle; and

in response to a determination that the unlicensed medium is idle, transmit the uplink transmission burst to the eNB on the unlicensed medium during the PUSCH schedule, the uplink transmission burst selectable from a partial PUSCH to a plurality of PUSCHs over a plurality of consecutive primary cell (PCell) subframes.

28. The medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions further configure the UE to:

one of:

transmit a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, or

transmit a preamble to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure, the preamble comprising a set of the parameters to indicate the uplink transmission burst to the eNB, the set of parameters comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTT) of the UE, a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a duration and a number of component carriers of the uplink transmission burst, and the set of parameters is free from a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) used for the uplink transmission burst, the MCS one of: semi-statically fixed for the UE, or signaled to the UE by Layer 1 (LI) or L2 signaling, and generate a reservation signal for transmission to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst and after completion of the LBT procedure to align transmission of the uplink transmission burst to a subframe boundary of the PCell.

29. The medium of claim 27 or 28, wherein:

the uplink transmission burst is aligned to a subframe boundary of the PCell, and at least one of an initial or ending PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is at least one of a partial PUSCH that comprises fewer than 14 symbols or a super PUSCH that comprises more than 14 symbols.

30. The medium of claim 27 or 28, wherein:

the uplink transmission burst is asynchronous with a subframe boundary of the PCell and a duration of each PUSCH of the uplink transmission burst is 1 ms, and

the instructions further configure the UE to transmit to the eNB prior to transmission of the uplink transmission burst, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) that carries uplink control information (UCI), the UCI comprising a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the uplink transmission burst, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number, and a duration of the uplink transmission burst.