WO2017136706A1

WO2017136706A1 - Multi-shot aperiodic channel state information report for full dimension-multiple input multiple output systems

Info

Publication number: WO2017136706A1
Application number: PCT/US2017/016479
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alexei Davydov
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2016-02-03
Filing date: 2017-02-03
Publication date: 2017-08-10
Also published as: EP3411997A1; EP3411997A4

Abstract

User equipment (UE) includes an interface and processing circuitry in communication with the interface, where the processing circuitry is arranged to decode a channel control message including a request to send multiple channel state information (CSI) reports to an evolved Node B (eNB) or generation Node B (gNB), each CSI report describing channel status for a channel between the eNB/gNB and the UE. The processing circuitry is further configured to identify each sub-frame of a plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports is to be inserted and, for each identified sub-frame, generate the CSI report, insert the generated CSI report in the identified sub-frame and encode the identified sub-frame for transmission to the eNB/gNB via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

Description

MULTI-SHOT APERIODIC CHANNEL STATE INFORMATION REPORT FOR FULL DIMENSION-MULTIPLE INPUT MULTIPLE

OUTPUT SYSTEMS

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

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

Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/290,627, filed February 3, 2016 and entitled "MULTI-SHOT APERIODIC CHANNEL STATE INFORMATION REPORT FOR FULL DIMENSION-MULTIPLE INPUT MULTIPLE OUTPUT SYSTEMS" which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] This application relates to radio access networks and, in particular, to apparatus for determining channel state information by requesting multiple aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reports.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Wireless communication systems send and receive data at increasing rates using a variety of transmission modes, encoding techniques and modulation schemes. These communication systems employ multiple antennas and modulation schemes such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) as well as transmission techniques such as carrier aggregation (CA) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). The systems support downlink data rates and upload data rates greater than one gigabit per second ( 1 Gbit/s). The communication systems may be used to send a small number of high-data rate communications or a larger number of lower data rate communications. The peak rates assume channels having minimal noise and interference. Wireless channels, however, are subject to noise, multipath fading, inter-symbol interference, Doppler shifts due to mobile user equipment (UE) and other noise or distortion sources.

[0004] The communications standards include a number of encoding techniques for overcoming noise and distortion in a channel. These include encoding the data with a forward error correction (FEC), and employing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement (ACK) scheme to resend corrupted data.

[0005] The status of the channel or channels used to transmit data may change rapidly, especially for mobile UEs. It is desirable for a base station, such as an evolved Node B (eNB) or generation Node B (gNB) to be able to rapidly and continually determine channel status for a number of channels in order to determine which channels to use and what type of encoding and transmission techniques to use on each of the channels so that the data in each channel is transmitted in a way that compensates for the status of the channels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example wireless communication system in accordance with some embodiments.

[0007] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example base station and UE in accordance with some embodiments.

[0008] FIG. 3A is a data diagram illustrating the structure of a wireless frame in accordance with some embodiments.

[0009] FIG. 3B is a data diagram illustrating the structure of a sequence of wireless resource blocks in accordance with some embodiments.

[0010] FIGs. 4A and 4B are data diagrams illustrating the structure of example downlink control information (DCI) in accordance with some embodiments.

[0011] FIGs. 5, 6 and 7 are signalling charts showing communications between an example base station and an example UE in accordance with some embodiments. DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0012] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail.

[0013] FIG. 1 shows a wireless communication system 100 that includes a core network 1 10 which controls a number of base stations, for example, base stations 1 12A, 112B and 112C. The base stations, in turn, provides communications services to one or more user equipment (UE) 1 14 A 1 , 1 14A2, 114B 1, 114B2, 114C1 and 114C2 in respective geographical areas 115A, 115B and 115C. The geographical areas are known as cells and the cell serving a particular UE is known as the serving cell for that UE. Each cell, in turn, may be divided into a plurality of sectors. In a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or multiple-input single-output (MISO) system, UEs in different sectors may be served individually using beam forming techniques that define a matrix of spatially multiplexed channels. While a base station generally provides communication services to UE in its serving cell, it may also provide services to UE in one or more neighboring cells. As shown in FIG. 1, for example, the base station 112C provides communication services to the UE 114C 1 in cell 115C as well as to UE 1 14A2 in cell 115A, Conversely, a base station may provide multiple transmission points to a UE.

[0014] The communication system 100 may include, without limitation, an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN) or a wireless personal area network (WPAN). The network 100 may be compatible with one or more wireless communication protocols including, without limitation Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 wireless technology (WiMax), IEEE 802.15 wireless technology (ZigBee), IEEE 802.11 wireless technology (WiFi) including IEEE 802. Had, 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.

[0015] The base stations 112 may be, for example, fixed stations that communicate with one or more UEs 114 which belong to a service defined by the core network 110. A base station, also known as a base transceiver station (BTS) may be an evolved Node B (eNB), a generation Node B (gNB), a macrocell, microcell, picocell or femtocell. One or more of the base stations 112 may also be wireless access points.

[0016] The UE 114 may be a mobile device or a fixed device that operates according to a mobile protocol. The UE 114 may include, without limitation, a tablet computer, a wearable computer such as a smart watch or head-mounted display, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a game console, a portable media player, a mobile telephone and/or a smart phone.

[0017] Communications sent from the base station 112 to the UE 1 14 are referred to as downlink (DL) communications while communications sent from the UE 114 to the base station 112 are referred to as uplink (UL) communications. The wireless communication system 100 may be a ΜΙΜΌ system having multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas or a MISO system having multiple transmit antennas and a single receive antenna. The multiple antennas may be coupled to the base station and/or the UE. The system 100 may also be a single input, single output (SISO) system having a single transmit antenna and a single receive antenna. [0018] The example communication system may use between one and five frequency bands having bandwidths of 1.4MHz, 3 Mi l/. 5MHz, IGMHz, 15MHz, 20MHz or more than 20MHz. Furthermore, the communication system may perform earner aggregation (CA) in which multiple earners may be aggregated to send a single data stream. As many as 32 carriers can be aggregated in CA.

[0019] As used herein, the term, "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include a core processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD) an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitr - may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.

[0020] Embodiments described herein may be implemented in a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 2 illustrates, for one embodiment, example components of two electronic devices 200 and 250. In embodiments, the electronic device 200 may be incorporated into, or othenvise be a part of an eNB or gNB, or some other suitable electronic device. Electronic device 250 may be incorporated into or otherwise a part of a UE. In some embodiments, the electronic device 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.

[0021] The application 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 (not separately shown). The processor(s) may include any combination of general- purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, DSPs, 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.

[0022] 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 (5G), 6G, etc.).

[0023] 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 Fast-Fourier Transform (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 oilier suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0024] 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 signalling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (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.

[0025] The baseband circuitr ' 204 may further include memory/storage

204G. The memory/storage 204G may be used to load and store data and/or instructions for operations performed by the processors of the baseband circuitry 204. Memory/storage for one embodiment may include any combination of suitable volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The memory/storage 204G may include any combination of various levels of memory/storage including, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) having embedded software instructions (e.g., firmware), random access memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM)), cache, buffers, etc. The memory/storage 204G may be shared among the various processors or dedicated to particular processors.

[0026] 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).

[0027] 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. [0028] 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 one or more receive signal paths 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 circuity 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.

[0029] In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include a one or more receive signal paths and transmit signal paths. The receive signal path of the RP circuitry 206 may include mixer circuitry 206A, amplifier circuitry 206B and filter circuitry 206C. The transmit signal path of the RP circuitry 1 6 may include filter circuitry 206C and mixer circuitry 206A. RP circuitry 206 may also include synthesizer circuits"}' 206D for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitr - 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 206D. 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 circuity 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be, without limitation, low intermediate frequency (LIF), very low intermediate frequency (VLIF) or zero-frequency baseband signals. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206A of the receive signal path may comprise, without limitation, active or passive mixers.

[0030] 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 circuitiy 208. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and may be filtered by filter circuitiy 206C. The filter circuitry 206C may include a BPF or a high-pass filter (HPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0031] 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 circuitiy 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 circuiti 206A may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206 A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206A of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0032] 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) circuitry (not shown) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry (not shown) and the baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 206.

[0033 ] In some dual -mode embodiments, 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.

[0034] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206D may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 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.

[0035] 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.

[0036] Sy nthesizer circuitr - 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 cany 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.

[0037] In some embodiments, frequency input to the synthesizer 206D may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) (not shown), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input for the synthesizer 206D 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.

[0038] 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 carrier 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 oilier. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a local oscillator (LO) frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include an IQ/polar converte .

[0039] FEM circuitiy 208 may include a receive signal path that 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 circuitiy 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 21 .

[0040] 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 circuitiy 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). Tire transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitiy 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).

[0041] In some embodiments, the communication device 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 communication device 200 described herein may be past 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 gaming system, a smartphone, a smart watch, 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 communication device 200 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user

I I interaction with the system and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system. For example, the communication device 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 a liquid crystal device (LCD), electroluminescent (EL) or light emitting diode (LED) screen that may include a touch screen input device. The sensor may include a gyro sensor, an aceelerometer, 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.

[0042] 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, fractal antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some ΜΓΜΟ or MISO embodiments, the antennas 210 may be effectively separated and/or polarized to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics among the different transmission points of the base station to implement multi-layer communication. Alternatively, or in addition, the antennas 210 may be configured in a beam-forming array to direct a transmitted beam toward a particular UE to implement spatial multiplexing and/or spatial diversity and/or to determine the angle of arrival (AoA) of a signal received from, a LIE.

[0043] Although the communication device 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 software-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), programmable logic devices (PLDs), 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.

f In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0044] 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, including optical storage media. Some embodiments may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

[0045] As described above, although the circuitry used by device 2.00 is described as implementing a base station, such as an eNB/gNB, similar circuitry may be used to implement a UE. FIG. 2 includes a block diagram of an example UE communication device 250 in accordance with some embodiments. The device may be a UE, for example, such as any of the UEs 1 14 shown in FIG. 1. The physical layer circuitry 252 may perform various encoding and decoding functions that may include formation of baseband signals for transmission and decoding of received signals. The communication device 250 may also include media access control (MAC) layer circuitry 254 for controlling access to the wireless medium. The communication device 250 may further include processing circuitry 258, such as one or more single-core or multi-core processors, and memory 260 arranged to perform the operations described herein. The physical layer circuitry 252, MAC circuitry 254, transceiver circuitry 256, processing circuitry' 258, memory 260 and interface circuitry 262 may be the same as the base station circuitry 200, described above, and 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. [0046] For example, similar to the device 200 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 250 can be configured to operate in accordance with 3GPP standards or other protocols or standards, including ZigBee, WiMax, Wi-Fi, WiGig, GSM, EDGE, GERAN, UMTS, UTRAN, or oilier 3G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. technologies either already developed or to be developed. The communication device 250 may include transceiver circuitry 256 to enable communication with other external devices wirelessly and interfaces 262 to enable wired communication (including optical fiber communication) with other external devices. As another example, the transceiver circuitry 262 may perform various transmission and reception functions such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a Radio Frequency (RF) range.

[0047] The example UE device 250 may also include antennas 263 that may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip, fractal antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO embodiments, the antennas 263 may be effectively separated and/or polarized to take advantage of spatial di versity and the different channel characteristics among the different transmission points of the base station to support multi-layer communication. Alternatively, or in addition, the antennas 263 may be configured in a beam-forming array to direct a transmitted beam toward a particular base station and/or to determine the angle of arrival (AoA) of a signal received from a base station,

[0048] Although the communication device 250 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, PLDs, 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.

[0049] In embodiments where the electronic device 200 and/or 250 is, implements, is incorporated into, or is otherwise part of a UE, the physical layer circuitry 252 and MAC layer circuitry 254 may be configured to determine, based on one or more signals received from an eNB/gNB, whether multi-shot aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reporting is configured for the UE. Transceiver circuitry 256 may be configured to receive an aperiodic CSI request which is processed in the physical layer circuitry 252, where the aperiodic CSI request is to trigger the multi-shot aperiodic CSI reporting by the UE and insert and encode multiple aperiodic CSI reports into the PUCCH or PUSCH for transmission to the base station in response to the aperiodic CSI request.

[0050] In embodiments where the electronic device 200 and/or 250 is, implements, is incorporated into, or is otherwise pail of a base station, the baseband circuitry 204 may be configured to determine whether a user equipment (UE) should be configured for an aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reporting process. The application circuitry 202 may send a message, via the RP circuitry 206, to configure the UE to send multiple aperiodic CSI reports and, then, may send a CSI request as a part of a channel control message, for example, downlink control information (DCT), to trigger the multi-shot aperiodic CSI reporting by the UE. The application circuitry 202 may also process the received multi-shot aperiodic CSI reports to cause the base station to reconfigure its communications with the UE to compensate for the reported channel conditions.

[0051] As shown in FIG. 1, each base station 1 12 may communicate with

UEs in the serving cell 115 of the base station as well as with UEs in neighboring cells. Conversely, using coordinated multipoint (CoMP), a UE may communicate with multiple base stations. At any given time, each base station has a number of communications in process. The status of a channel used to communicate with one or more UE may change quickly, especially for mobile UE. Thus, it is beneficial for each base station 112 to be able to quickly determine any change in channel status so that the base station 112 may dynamically adjust the channels used, the bandwidth of the channels as well as encoding, modulation and transmission techniques used on the channels to ensure that the most important data is transmitted in a way to reduce reception errors and otherwise increase throughput.

[0052] In order to determine the status of data channels between the base stations 112 and the UEs 114, Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) supports two types of CS1 - periodic and aperiodic. Periodic CS1 reporting is mainly used to indicate current encoding and modulation techniques being used as well as channel status of the downlink channel at the UE on a relatively long-term basis. Periodic CSI reports are provided by the UE in accordance with a predefined reporting time schedule configured by a serving base station or serving e^'NB/gNB using a resource control message sent via higher layer signalling (e.g., radio resource control (RRC) signalling and the like). Periodic CSI reporting usually has relatively low overhead. By contrast, in one embodiment, multi-shot aperiodic CSI reporting may be used to provide relatively large and relatively more detailed reporting in a multiple reporting instances based on one dynamic CSI request triggered by the serving cell/serving eNB/gNB using the one CSI request sent in a channel control message, for example in DCI of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or in a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0053] FIGs. 3A and 3B are data diagrams that illustrate the structure of a down link (DL) data frame. As shown in FIG. 3 A, each frame includes 20 sub- frames and each sub-frame includes two slots. FIG. 3B illustrates the structure of a slot. Each slot includes seven symbols in the time domain, where each symbol includes a number, M, modulated subcarriers in the frequency domain. The modulated subcarriers in a slot are divided into resource blocks, where each resource block includes seven symbols and each symbol is represented by 12 modulated subcarriers. The subcarriers are mutually orthogonal having a spacing of 15 kHz. Each subcarner may be modulated using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), 64QAM or 256QAM. Multiple resource blocks may be divided among multiple UEs. In order to effectively transmit downlink data, it is desirable for the base station to continually know the characteristics of the channel on each resource block to each UE being served.

[0054] Uplink (UL) frames have a similar format but may have fewer subcarriers as uplink transmissions may use single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDMA). The uplink transmissions may also use OFDMA.

[0055] In LTE, aperiodic CSI requests are sent from the base station(s) to the UEs in DCIs. The PDCCH is allocated in the resource blocks by the base station. As described above, a base station may concurrently determine the status of several channels using an aperiodic CSI request. In CA, multiple CSI corresponding to multiple carriers (or serving cells) can be requested by the serving base station in accordance with Table 1. The set of serving base stations for reporting corresponding to CSI request fields ' 10' and Ί may be configured using a resource control message sent via radio resource control (RRC) signalling.

Table 1

[0056] In transmission mode 10, for multi-antenna base stations, multiple

CSI reports corresponding to multiple CSI processes on the same serving frequency but on different channels (transmission points) for each base station can be requested by a serving base station in accordance to the Table 2. The set of CSI processes for reporting corresponding to CSI request fields ΌΓ, ΊΟ' and Ί Γ may be configured using RRC signalling.

Table 2

Aperiodic CSI report is triggered for a set of CSI process(es)

ΌΓ

configured by higher layers for serving cell C

Aperiodic CSI report is triggered for a 1^st set of CSI

ΊΟ'

process(es) configured by higher layer signalling

Aperiodic CSI report is triggered for a 2^nd set of CSI

Ί Γ

process(es) configured by higher layer signalling

[0057] The aperiodic CSI triggering is performed by setting, in the DCI formats 0 or 4, the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and resource allocation size in such way that the MCS index, denoted as IMCS, is 29 and resource allocation size (number of resource blocks), denoted as NPRB, to be less than x (e.g., x ^:= 4 or 20). The base station sends the DCI in the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the enhanced PDCCH.

[0058] The CSI report includes detailed information regarding the status of channels between a UE and one or more base stations. Each report includes a rank indicator (RI), a preceding matrix indicator (PMI), a preceding type indicator (PTI) and a channel quality indicator (CQI) for each DL channel. In response to an aperiodic CSI request, the UE obtains this information for the requested channel or channels and sends it to the requesting base station. The CSI reports are encoded by the UE and sent from the UE to the base station in the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). As described below, the CSI reports may also be encoded and sent via the PUCCH

[0059] FIGs. 4A and 4B are data diagram showing example channel control messages, in this case, a format 0 DCI and a format 4 DCI, respectively. The fonnat 0 DCI includes a 1 bit flag 402 that differentiates the format 0 DCI from a fonnat I A DCI, a 1 bit hopping flag 404, a 2 bit hopping resource allocation ( NUL hop) field 406, a resource block assignment field 408 that has between 5 and 13 bits, a 5 bit field 410 containing modulation coding scheme (MCS), redundancy version (RV) and new-data indicator (NDI) subfields a 2 bit power control command (TPC) field 412 for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a 3 bit cyclic shift field 414 for the demodulation reference (RM RS) signal, a 2 bit uplink (UL) index field 416, a 2 bit downlink assignment index (DAI) field 418 and a 1 or 2 bit CSI request field. The UL index and DAI fields are only used for time division duplex (TTD) transmissions.

[0060] The format 4 DCI includes a carrier indicator field 452 that has between 0 and 3 bits, a resource block assignment field 545 having between 5 and 13 bits, a 2 bit TPC power control field 456, a 3 bit cyclic shift for DM RS and orthogonal cover code (OCC) index field 458, a 1 or 2 bit CSI request field 462, a 2 bit sounding reference signal (SRS) request field 464, a 1 bit resource allocation type field 466, a 6 bit field 468 containing a first sub field for the modulation coding scheme and redundancy version (MCS and RV) for transport block I (TB 1) and a second subfield containing the NDI for TB 1 , a 6 bit field 470 containing the MCS, RV and NDI for transport block 2 (TB2), and a field 472 having between 0 and 7 bits that defines the preceding index and number of layers.

[006!] In the case of aperiodic CSI feedback, the UE can send a DCI including a CSI request in every sub-frame. This gives the network flexibility in assigning the resources to the UE for CSI transmission. A drawback is that there may be additional overhead associated with the transmission of the triggering DCIs on PDCCH or enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) in every sub-frame. In a Full Dimension Multiple Input Multiple Output (FD-M1MO) system with many UEs the overhead may be significant because each DCI may have as many as 45 bits. Thus, the DCI including the CSI request for each UE may occupy 45 bits in each downlink sub-frame. Some methods to reduce the control channel overhead should be considered.

[0062] According to example embodiments, multi-shot CSI reporting is provided. In accordance with various implementations, a UE can receive a CSI request in DCI or MAC CE that activates multi-shot CSI calculation and reporting. The number of reports and/or periodicity can be configured using higher layer signalling such as RRC signalling. In the other embodiments, the number of CSI reports can be also determined by another DCI or MAC CE which releases the multi-shot CSI reporting at the UE. In one implementation, the UE may be configured to encode and send the CSI reports by signalling data in the DCI containing the aperiodic CSI request. As an alternative to sending the DCI containing the CSI request in the PDCCH, the base station may send CSI requests using a MAC CE.

[0063] In various embodiments, the base station can configure the UE with multi-shot aperiodic CSI reporting using a resource control message sent via higher layer signalling such as RRC signalling and the like. This signalling may include the index, I, of an initial sub-frame into which the CSI report is to be inserted, the configuration of CSI reporting periodicity, P, and the number of CSI report instances, N, a bit map, and/or reporting parameter threshold values. After the UE has been configured, the multi-shot aperiodic CSI reporting is triggered by the reception of a DCI (e.g., DCI Format 0 or 4) with a non-zero CSI request field. Responsive to receiving this CSI request, the UE performs CSI calculation and reporting of CSI for N uplink sub-frames with periodicity of P sub-frames.

[0064] In other embodiments, the number of CSI reports can be determined by another DCI, which releases the multi-shot aperiodic CSI reporting at the UE. In yet other embodiments, the UE may be configured by the DCI or MAC CE without using any higher level signalling.

[0065] FIG. 5 shows examples of these embodiments for a Frequency

Division Duplex (FDD) system. The embodiment is described with reference to a single base station 112 and a single UE 1 14. It is contemplated, however, that it may be implemented in systems having multiple base stations and multiple UEs. When a UE has multiple serving base stations, any one of the base stations can receive a CSI report including the status of the channels between the UE and the other base stations as described above with reference to Tables 1 and 2.

[0066] At 502, the base station 112 may configure the UE 114 using higher-layer signalling such as RRC signalling. For a single aperiodic CSI request, the base station 112 may signal an initial sub-frame index, I, identifying the sub-frame in which the UE is to insert and encode the CSI report. For multi- shot CSI requests, the sub-frame index may indicate when the first CSI report is to be sent and the base station 112 may further configure the UE device in several ways for multi-shot CSI reports. First, the base station may configure the UE with only a period value P. Second, the base station may configure the U E with both a period value P and a number of CSl reports N. Third, the base station ma - configure the UE with a bit-map where each bit corresponds to a sub-frame in which the CSl report is to be generated, inserted and encoded. Fourth, the base station may send a period value P and one or more parameters to the UE describing threshold values (maximum and/or minimum) for one or more of the values in the CSl report. Using the higher level signalling, the base station may also assign the serving cells (component carriers) for the UE to the first and second sets, as described above with reference to Table 1 or it may assign the CSl processes for the different layers to sets 1 and 2 as described above with reference to Table 2. The higher-layer signalling may also configure the UE to insert and encode the CSl reports in the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) rather than the PUSCH to limit the impact of the increased reporting on the transmission of uplink data. Upon receiving the RCC signalling, the UE 114 extracts the sub-frame index, the values P and N, the bit map and/or the parameter threshold values and uses these values to configure processing of the CSl reports.

[0067] The remainder of FIG. 5 illustrates the first two alternatives described above. At 504, the base station 112 sends a DCI or MAC CE with a CSl request. Depending on how the UE has been configured, it may respond by inserting a first CSl report 506 into the sub-frame identified by the initial sub- frame index, I, and then by inserting subsequent CSl reports 508, 510 and 512 with a period of P sub-frames until a deactivating DCI or MAC CE 514 is received. Such a deactivating DCI may, for example, have a non-zero DCI field, but zero- valued Transmit Power Control (T^'PC) command and Demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) shift fields. In the other embodiment, the MAC CE can be sent to de-activate CSl reporting. According to the second alternative, when the UE has been configured to send N CSl reports, the UE may insert and encode the subsequent CSl reports 508, 510 and 512 into sub-frames with a period of P until N reports have been sent. In this alternative, there is no deactivation DCI, as indicated by 514 being a dashed line.

[0068] FIG. 6 illustrates the third alternative, described above, in which the CSl reports are generated and transmitted in sub-frames determined from a bit-map. In the third alternative, at 602, the base station 112, using higher level signalling, configures the UE with a bit-rnap 620 describing the sub-frames in which a CSI report is to be inserted. As shown in FIG. 6, the CSI request received at 604 aligns the bit-map 620 with the sub-frames such that the UE inserts a CSI report for each sub-frame 606, 608, 612, 614, 616 and 618 corresponding to a "1" valued bit in the bitmap 620. No CSI report is sent for sub-frames corresponding to "0^"' valued bits in the bitmap. The bit-map 620 may be retained by the UE and used for subsequent multi-shot CSI reports.

[0069] FIG 6 may also describe the fourth alternative in which the base station, using the higher level signalling, has configured the UE with threshold values for the data in the CSI report. In this alternative, the UE may insert, encode and send a first CSI report 606 in response to receiving a CSI request. The UE then calculates the CSI values (e.g. RI, PMI, PTI and CQI) for each DL channel but only inserts reports in sub-frames 606, 608, 612, 614, 616 and 618, in which at least one of the calculated CSI values is greater than a maximum threshold value or less than a minimum threshold value. This alternative may be combined with the alteraatives shown in FIG. 5 so that the UE only calculates the CSI values for every P* sub-frame and may be limited in the number of CSI reports it sends either by the value N or by a deactivating DCI or MAC CE.

[0070] FIG. 7 shows another implementation which does not use higher- level signalling. In this embodiment, the base station configures the UE using the TPC and DM-RS cyclic shift fields. In this embodiment, the base station may- configure the UE by sending a DCI having a non-zero valued CSI field, a zero- valued TPC field and a non-zero value in the DM-RS cyclic shift field. In one implementation, the non-zero value in the DM-RS field may represent the period value P so that a periodicity of between 1 and 7 sub-frames can be specified. After the CSI request is received at 702, the UE calculates, inserts and encodes CSI reports into sub-frames 704, 706, 708 and 710 with a period of P until a deactivating DCI, having a non-zero CSI field and zero-valued TPC and DM-RS cyclic shift fields, is received at 712.

EXAMPLES [0071] Example 1 may include apparatus for UE, the apparatus comprising: an interface and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry, in communication with the interface is arranged to: decode a channel control message, the channel control message including a request to send multiple channel state information (CSI) reports to a base station, each CSI report describing channel status for a channel between the base station and the UE; and identify each sub-frame of a plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI data sets is to be inserted. For each identified sub-frame, the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate the CSI report; insert the generated CSI report in the identified sub-frame; and encode the identified sub-frame for transmission to the base station on a PUSCH or the PUCCH.

[0072 ] Example 2 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to: decode a resource control message to obtain an integer initial sub-frame index, ΐ, and an integer periodicity value, P; identify a sub-frame having the index I as a first sub- frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports is to be inserted; and identify each subsequent sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub- frames.

[0073] Example 3 may include the apparatus of example 2 and/or some oilier example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: extract from the resource control message, an integer, N, specifying a number of sub-frames into which respective CSI reports are to be inserted; and stop identifying the sub-frames into which one of the CSI data is to be inserted after the Nth identified sub-frame for the channel has been identified.

[0074] Example 4 may include the apparatus of example 2 and/or some oilier example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decode a deactivating channel control message for the channel; and in response to decoding the deactivating channel control message, stop identifying the sub- frames into which the CSI reports are to be inserted. [0075] Example 5 may include die apparatus of example 4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the channel control message and the deactivating channel control message include downlink control information (DCl), the DCl of the deactivating channel control message including a non- zero valued CSI request field, a zero-valued transmit power control field and a zero-valued demodulation reference signal cyclic shift field.

[0076] Example 6 may include the apparatus of example 5 and/or some oilier example herein, wherein the DCl is a DCl format 0 or a DCl format 4.

[0077] Example 7 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: decode a resource control message to obtain a bit map; and identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the CSI reports are to be inserted based on the bit-map.

[0078] Example 8 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the CSI data is to be inserted based on the channel status data for the channel.

[0079] Example 9 may include the apparatus of example 8 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing circuitry is further arranged to extract, from the resource control message a threshold value for the channel status data and to identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the CSI data, is to be inserted by comparing the channel status data to the threshold value.

[0080] Example 10 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: extract, from the channel control message, an integer periodicity value P; identify a first sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports is to be inserted; and identify each subsequent sub-frame of the plurality of sub- frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub-frames.

[0081] Example 11 may include the apparatus of example 10, wherein the processing circuitr ' is further arranged to: decode a deactivating channel control message for the channel; and in response to decoding the deactivating channel control message, stop identifying the sub-frames into which the CSI reports are to be inserted.

[0082] Example 12 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1 -4 or

7-1 1, wherein the channel control message includes either downlink control information (DC1) or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0083] Example 13 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-11, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to decode the resource control message from radio resource control (RRC) data.

[0084] Example 14 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-1 1, wherem each CSI report includes data describing channel status for a channel defined by a single carrier.

[0085] Example 15 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-11, wherein each CSI report includes in formal ion describing status of a channel defined by multiple, aggregated carriers.

[0086] Example 16 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-11, wherein a first CSI report of the multiple CSI reports includes information describing status of a first group of aggregated carriers and a second CSI report of the multiple CSI reports includes information describing status of a second group of aggregated carriers.

[0087] Example 17 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-1 1, wherem the CSI report is generated by a CSI process.

[0088] Example 18 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-11, wherein the base station comprises multipie transmission points, the channel state information between each transmission point and the UE is described by a CSI process and the wherein a first CSI report of the multiple CSI reports includes information describing status of a first group of CSI processes and a second CSI report of the multiple CSI reports includes information describing status of second group of CSI processes.

[0089] Example 19 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-11, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: monitor data provided by the interface for data received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the control message; and send the multiple CSI reports on the PUSCH.

[0090] Example 20 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-1 1 , wherein: the resource control message configures the UE to send the multiple CSI reports via the PUCCH; and the processing circuitry is further arranged to: monitor data provided by the interface for data received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the control message; and send the multiple CSI reports via the PUCCH.

[0091] Example 21 may include a non-transitory computer readable medium including program instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of user equipment (UE) are configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode a resource control message to obtain parameters defining the transmission of multiple channel state information (CSI) reports in response to the UE receiving an CSI request; decode a channel control message containing the CSI request; identify, based on the parameters received in the resource control message, each sub-frame of a plurality of sub-frames into which one of the multiple CSI reports is to be inserted; and for each identified sub-frame: generate one of the multiple CSI report; insert the generated CSI report in the identified sub-frame; and encode the identified sub-frame for transmission to the eNB/gNB on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

[0092] Example 22 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 21 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode the resource control message to obtain the parameters including an integer initial sub-frame index, I, and an integer periodicity value, P; identify a sub-frame having the index I as a first sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the multiple CSI reports is to be inserted; and identify each subsequent sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub- frames. [0093] Example 23 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 22, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuity to: decode the channel control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, an integer, N, the integer N specifying a number of sub- frames into which respective ones of the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted; and stop identifying the sub-frames mto which one of the multiple CSI reports is to be inserted after an Nth identified sub-frame has been identified.

[0094] Example 24 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 22, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode a deactivating channel control message; and in response to decoding die deactivating channel control message, stop identifying the sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted.

[0095] Example 25 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 24, wherein the channel control message and the deactivating channel control message include downlink control infoiTnation (DCI), the DCI of the deactivating channel controi message including a non-zero valued CSI request field, a zero-valued transmit power control field and a zero-valued demodulation reference signal cyclic shift field.

[0096] Example 26 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 25, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0 or a DCI format 4.

[0097] Example 27 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 21, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode the resource control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, a bit-map; and identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted based on the bit-map.

[0098] Example 28 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 21 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the CSI data is to be inserted based on the channel status data for the channel. [0099] Example 29 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 28, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause processing circuitry to: decode the resource control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, a threshold value for the channel status data; and to identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted by comparing part of the channel status data to the threshold value.

[0100] Example 30 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of example 21, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuity to: decode the channel control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, an integer periodicity value P; identify a first sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports are to be inserted; and identify each subsequent sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub-frames,

[0101] Example 31 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of any of examples 21-24 and 27-30, wherein the channel control message includes either a downlink control information (DCI) message or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0102] Example 32 may include the non-transitory computer readable medium of any of examples 21-24 and 27-30, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: monitor data provided by the interface for data received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for the control message; and send the multiple CSI reports via the PUSCH.

[0103] Example 33 may include an apparatus of an evolved Node B (eNB) or generation Node B (gNB), the apparatus comprising: an interface; and processing circuity in communication with the interface and arranged to: encode a resource control message with data configuring a user equipment (UE) to identify a plurality of sub-frames into which the UE is to insert respective channel state information (CSI) reports; encode a channel control message, the channel control message including a request to send the multiple CSI reports to the eNB/gNB in respective multiple sub-frames identified according to the resource control message, each CSI report describing channel status for a channel between the eNB/gNB and the UE; decode the multiple sub-frames to extract the multiple CSI reports; and assign downlink resources to the UE responsive to the extracted multiple CSI reports.

[0104 ] Example 34 may include the apparatus of example 33, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to: encode the data configuring a user equipment to identify the plurality of sub-frames in a radio resource control (RRC) message; encode the request to send the multiple CSI reports as downlink control information (DCI) to be transmitted through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); decode respective physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data to extract the multiple CSI reports.

[0105] Example 35 may include the apparatus of example 33, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to: encode the resource control message with data configuring a user equipment to send the multiple CSI reports through a physical uplink control channel (PI C O I): encode the request to send the multiple CSI reports as downlink control information (DCI) to be transmitted through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and decode sub-frames received via the PUCCH to extract the multiple CSI reports.

[0106] Example 36 may include the apparatus of any of examples 33-35 wherein the eNB/gNB is one eNB/gNB of a plurality of eNB/gNBs serving the UE and the processing circuitry is arranged to: encode the resource control message to configure the UE to assign first and second groups of eNB/gNBs of the plurality of eNB/gNBs to respective first and second sets; encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from the first group of eNB/gNBs; decode a first plurality of CSI reports of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status of downlink channels of the first group of eNB/gNBs; encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive a plurality of CSI reports from the second group of eNB/gNBs; and decode a second plurality of CSI report of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status downlink channels of the second group of eNB/gNBs. [0107] Example 37 may include the apparatus of any of examples 33-35 wherein the eNB/gNB comprises multiple transmission points channel state information between each transmission point and the UE is described by a CSI process and the processing circuitr - is arranged to: encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from a first group of CSI processes of the channel matrix; decode a first plurality of CSI report of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status of dow-nlink channels of the first group of CSI processes; encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from a second group of CSI processes; and decode a second plurality of CSI report of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status downlink channels of the second group of CSI processes.

[0108] Example 38 may include the apparatus of any of examples 33-35, wherein the channel control message includes either downlink control information (DCI) or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

[0109] Example 39 may include the apparatus of any of claims 33-35 wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: generate a deactivating control message including DCI having a non-zero valued CSI request field, a zero- valued transmit power control field and a zero-valued demodulation reference signal cyclic shift field; and encode the deactivating control message to be sent to the UE on the PDCCH.

[01 10] The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from, practice of various implementations of the embodiments.

[0111] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b) requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

CLAIMS:

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

an interface; and

processing circuitry in communication with the interface and arranged to:

decode a channel control message, the channel control message including a request to send multiple channel state information (CSI) reports to an evolved Node B (eNB) or a generation Node B (gNB), each CSI report describing channel status for a channel between the eNB or gNB and the UE;

identify each sub-frame of a plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports is to be inserted; and

for each identified sub-frame:

generate one of the multiple CSI reports;

insert the generated CSI report in the identified sub-frame; and encode the identified sub-frame for transmission to the eNB or gNB on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to: decode a resource control message to obtain an integer initial sub-frame index, I, and an integer periodicity value, P;

identify a sub-frame having the index I as a first sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports is to be inserted; and

identify each subsequent sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub-frames.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to: extract from the resource control message, an integer, N, the integer N specifying a number of sub-frames into which respective N CSI reports are to be inserted: and

stop identifying the sub-frames into which one of the CSI reports is to be inserted after an Nth identified sub-frame for the channel has been identified.

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

decode a deactivating channel control message for the channel; and

in response to decoding the deactivating channel control message, stop identifying the sub-frames into which the CSI reports are to be inserted.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the channel control message and the deactivating channel control message include downlink control information (DCI), the DCI of the deactivating channel control message including a non-zero valued CSI request field, a zero-valued transmit power control field and a zero- valued demodulation reference signal cyclic shift field.

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

decode a resource control message to obtain a bit-map: and

identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the CSI reports are to be inserted based on the bit-map.

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

decode a resource control message to obtain a threshold value for channel status data reported in the multiple CSI reports; identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted by comparing the channel status data for the channel with the tiireshold value.

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

extract, from, the channel control message, an integer periodicity value P;

identify a first sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the multiple CSI reports is to be inserted; and

identify each subsequent sub-frame of the pluralit ⁷ of sub-frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub-frames.

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

decode a deactivating channel control message for the channel; and

10. The apparatus of any of claims 1-4 or 6-9, wherein the channel control message includes either downlink control information (DCI) or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

1 1. The apparatus of any of claims 1 -9, wherein: the resource control message configures the UE to send the multiple CSI reports via the PUCCH; and the processing circuitry is further arranged to send the multiple CSI reports on the PUCCH.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium including program instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of user equipment (UE) are configured to cause the processing circuitry to:

decode a resource control message to obtain parameters defining the transmission of multiple channel state information (CSl) reports in response to the UE receiving a CSl request;

decode a channel control message containing the CSl request:

identify, based on the parameters decoded from the resource control message, each sub-frame of a plurality of sub-frames into which one of the multiple CSl reports is to be inserted; and

for each identified sub-frame:

generate one of the multiple CSl reports including channel status data for a channel between an evolved Node B (eNB) or generation Node B (gNB) and the UE;

insert the generated CSl report in the identified sub-frame; and encode the identified sub-frame for transmission to the eNB or gNB on a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH),

13 , The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode the resource control message to obtain the parameters including an integer initial sub-frame index, I, and an integer periodicity value, P;

identify a sub-frame having the index 1 as a first sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames into which one of the multiple CSl reports is to be inserted; and identify each subsequent sub-frame of the plurality of sub-frames as separated from an immediately previously identified sub-frame by P-l sub-frames.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode the channel control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, an integer, N, the integer N specifying a number of sub-frames into which respective ones of the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted; and

stop identifying the sub-frames into which one of the multiple CSI reports is to be inserted after an Nth identified sub-frame has been encoded.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode a deactivating channel control message: and

in response to decoding the deactivating channel control message, stop identifying the sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted.

16. The non-transitory- computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause the processing circuitry to: decode the resource control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, a bitmap; and

identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted based on the bit-map.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the program instructions are further configured to cause processing circuitry to: decode the resource control message to obtain, as one of the parameters, a threshold value for the channel status data; and

identify the plurality of sub-frames into which the multiple CSI reports are to be inserted by comparing part of the channel status data to the threshold value.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of any of claims 12-17, wherein the channel control message includes either downlink control information (DCI or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

19. An apparatus of an evolved Node B (eNB) or generation Node B (gNB), the apparatus comprising:

an interface; and

processing circuitry in communication with the interface and arranged to:

encode a resource control message with data configuring a user equipment (UE) to identify a plurality of sub-frames into which the UE is to insert respective channel state information (CSI) reports;

encode a channel control message, the channel control message including a request to send the multiple CSI reports to the eNB or gNB in respective multiple sub-frames identified according to the resource control message, each CSI report describing channel status for a channel between the eNB or gNB and the UE;

decode the multiple sub-frames to extract the multiple CSI reports; and assign downlink resources to the UE responsive to the extracted multiple CSI reports.

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

encode the data configuring the UE to identify the plurality of sub-frames in a radio resource control (RRC) message;

encode the request to send the multiple CSI reports as downlink control information (DCI) to be transmitted through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and

decode respective physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) data to extract the multiple CSI reports.

21 . Tlie apparatus of claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry is arranged to:

encode the resource control message with data configuring the UE to send the multiple CSI reports through the PUCCH;

encode the request to send the multiple CSl reports as downlink control information (DCI) to be transmitted through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and

decode sub-frames received via tlie PUCCH to extract the multiple CSl reports.

22. The apparatus of any of claim s 19-21 wherein the eNB or gNB is one serving cell of a plurality of serving cells and the processing circuitry is arranged to encode tlie resource control message to configure the UE to assign first and second groups of serving cells of the plurality of serving cells to respective first and second sets;

encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from the first group of serving cells;

decode a first plurality of CSI reports of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status of downlink channels of the first group of serving cells;

encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from the second group of serving cells; and

decode a second plurality of CSI report of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status of downlink channels of the second group of serving cells.

23. The apparatus of any of claims 19-21 wherein the eNB or gNB comprises multiple transmission points and CSI between each transmission point and the UE is described by a CSI process, and tl e processing circuitry is arranged to: encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from a first group of CSI processes;

decode a first plurality of CSI report of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status of downlink channels of the first group of CSI processes;

encode the channel control message with a CSI request to receive CSI reports from a second group of CSI processes; and

decode a second plurality of CSI report of the multiple CSI reports including information describing status downlink channels of the second group of CSI processes.

24. The apparatus of any of claims 19-21 , wherein the channel control message includes either downlink control information (DCI) or a media access control (MAC) control element (CE).

25. The apparatus of any of claims 19-21 wherein the processing circuitry is further arranged to:

generate a deactivating control message including downlink control information (DCI) or a media access control (MAC) control element CE having a non-zero valued CSI request field, a zero-valued transmit power control field and a zero- valued demodulation reference signal cyclic shift field; and

encode the deactivating control message to be sent to the UE on the PDCCH.