WO2018053359A1 - Sounding reference signal generation in millimeter wave system - Google Patents

Abstract

Described is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE). The apparatus may comprise a first circuitry and a second circuitry. The first circuitry may be operable to process an Uplink (UL) grant for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators. The second circuitry may be operable to generate an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators.

Description

SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL GENERATION IN MILLIMETER WAVE SYSTEM

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

[0001] The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 365(c) to Patent

Cooperation Treaty International Patent Application Number PCT/CN2016/099140 filed September 15, 2016, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 365(c) to Patent Cooperation Treaty International Patent Application Number PCT/CN2016/099141 filed September 15, 2016, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to United States Provisional Patent Application Serial Number 62/427,350 filed November 29, 2016, which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

[0002] A variety of wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented, including a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) Universal Mobile

Telecommunications System, a 3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system, and a 3GPP LTE- Advanced (LTE-A) system. Next-generation wireless cellular communication systems based upon LTE and LTE-A systems are being developed, such as a fifth generation (5G) wireless system / 5G mobile networks system. Next-generation wireless cellular communication systems may provide support for higher bandwidths in part by supporting higher carrier frequencies, such as centimeter-wave and millimeter-wave frequencies. Next-generation wireless cellular communication systems may provide support for higher bandwidths in part by supporting beamforming.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0003] The embodiments of the disclosure will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the disclosure. However, while the drawings are to aid in explanation and understanding, they are only an aid, and should not be taken to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments depicted therein.

[0004] Fig. 1 illustrates a scenario of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource mapping, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0005] Fig. 2 illustrates scenarios of SRS transmission opportunities in self-contained subframe structures, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. [0006] Fig. 3 illustrates a scenario of multiple SRS processes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0007] Fig. 4 illustrates a scenario of semi-persistent or periodic or defined Physical

Random Access Channel (PRACH) subframes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0008] Fig. 5 illustrates a scenario of SRS mapping without overlap with reserved

Resource Blocks (RBs), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0009] Fig. 6 illustrates a scenario of resource allocation of SRS sequences, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0010] Fig. 7 illustrates scenarios of signal replications in the time domain, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0011] Fig. 8 illustrates multiplexing between SRS and data, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0012] Fig. 9 illustrates scenarios of frame structures, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0013] Fig. 10 illustrates a scenario of Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) Rate

Matching (RM), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0014] Fig. 11 illustrates a scenario of joint SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signals

(BRRS) and Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0015] Fig. 12 illustrates a scenario of joint BRRS and SRS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0016] Fig. 13 illustrates a scenario of CQI reporting associated with CSI-RSes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0017] Fig. 14 illustrates a scenario of one CQI report associated with multiple CSI-

RSes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0018] Fig. 15 illustrates an Evolved Node B (eNB) and a User Equipment (UE), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0019] Fig. 16 illustrates hardware processing circuitries for a UE for flexible SRS signal generation, SPS or periodic resource mapping for SRS, and SPS of CSI-RS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0020] Fig. 17 illustrates methods for a UE for flexible SRS signal generation, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. [0021] Fig. 18 illustrates methods for a UE for SPS or periodic resource mapping for

SRS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0022] Fig. 19 illustrates methods for a UE for SPS of CSI-RS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0023] Fig. 20 illustrates example components of a device, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

[0024] Fig. 21 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Various wireless cellular communication systems have been implemented or are being proposed, including a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a 3GPP Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system, a 3GPP LTE-Advanced system, and a 5th Generation wireless system / 5th Generation mobile networks (5G) system / 5th Generation new radio (NR.) system. Some proposed cellular communication systems may incorporate radio frequencies including one or more frequency bands between 30 gigahertz and 300 gigahertz. Corresponding with radio wavelengths from 10 mm to 1 mm, such communication systems may sometimes be referred to as millimeter wave (mmWave) systems.

[0026] In 5G systems, larger bandwidth may be used to increase user data rates and system data rates. The mmWave band may be used to provide such wide bandwidth. A larger subcarrier spacing may be used in this wideband system. For example, each subcarrier may take 750 kilohertz (kHz).

[0027] However, depending in part upon the subcarrier spacing, a degree or extent of coverage may be reduced due to a Transmit (Tx) power limitation. A higher power control target may be configured, since a noise power in one subcarrier may increase. In legacy LTE systems, a UE may transmit a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) within one symbol. Its density may fixed to be six subcarriers per Resource Block (RB). As a result, a cell-edge user, may advantageously use a larger density to cover more RBs for SRS transmission.

[0028] To support a flexible duplex configuration, an SRS might not be transmitted in a periodic manner, but may instead be triggered in Downlink Control Information (DO), or may be scheduled by an Uplink (UL) grant for SRS.

[0029] Furthermore, a UL beam aggregation may be used to increase a precoder rank, by which more than one Evolved Node-B (eNB) may be used to receive the UL data for one UE. Thus how to design the SRS to support the uplink beam aggregation becomes a problem.

[0030] For various embodiments, disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for flexible SRS signal generation, which may advantageously reduce or otherwise mitigate a scenario of Tx power limitation. Also disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for improved control signaling design for SRS. Also disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for SRS design to support UL beam aggregation.

[0031] Accordingly, an SRS transmission in a self-contained subframe structure is described herein, especially an SRS transmission in an mmWave system. There may be a fixed space for an SRS transmission in a self-contained structure for both UL and Downlink (DL) subframe, which may be used for periodic SRS transmission. An SRS transmission time may be used by an eNB and a UE to relax a data processing time, which may be advantageous to designs comprising self-contained subframes.

[0032] In addition, SRS processes related to UE panel indices and beamforming are also described herein. An SRS process may be a group of SRS resources; in different SRS resources, different UE beams and/or different eNB beams may be used, and in different SRS processes (or groups), different targeting eNBs may be applied. Each SRS process may advantageously be associated with a particular UE Tx beamforming direction and an eNB Receive (Rx) direction. Mechanisms and methods for supporting SRS processes are disclosed herein, which may be used for UL beam aggregation and cell-less operation.

[0033] Moreover, for various embodiments, in massive Multiple-Input Multiple-

Output (MIMO) systems, mmWave and beamforming technologies may be applied at both an eNB side and a UE side for high antenna gain. Hence, the elements of the system may be disposed to performing a Tx beam and Rx beam matching procedure. Generally, some beamformed reference signals may be a basis for beam acquisition, such as, for example, Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) in DL or SRS in UL.

[0034] In an NR system, multiple subframes for Physical Random Access Channel

(PRACH) transmission may be configured in a Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) or periodic fashion. These subframes may be viewed as SPS or periodic UL subframes, which may be utilized for SPS or periodic SRS transmission.

[0035] Disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for SPS or periodic resource mapping for SRS. Also disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for bream refinement based on SRS [0036] Moreover, with respect to various embodiments, mobile communication has evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly sophisticated integrated communication platforms. 5G systems may provide access to information and sharing of data anywhere, at anytime, by a variety of users and applications. 5G systems may present unified networks that nevertheless is targeted to meet vastly different (and sometime conflicting) performance dimensions and services. These diverse, multidimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. In general, 5G may evolve based on LTE-A systems, along with additional potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs) to provide better, simpler, seamless wireless connectivity solutions. 5G may enable a wide variety of wirelessly-connected applications, and may deliver fast, rich content and services.

[0037] For the mid band (e.g., carrier frequencies between 6 gigaHertz (GHz) and 30

GHz) and for the high band (e.g., carrier frequencies beyond 30 GHz), beamforming may improve signal quality and reduce inter-user interference by directing narrow radiated beams toward target users. For mid-band systems and high-band systems, a path loss caused by weather (e.g., rain or fog) or by blocking objects may severely deteriorate a signal strength and damage a performance of a communications system. Beamforming (which may include both eNB-side beamforming and UE-side beamforming) may advantageously help compensate for the severe path loss, and may thereby improve coverage range.

[0038] When a UE moves, the Tx beams and Rx beams at both the eNB side and the

UE side may be disposed to being refined accordingly. In such circumstances, semi- persistent reference signal triggering and measurement reporting may be designed to enable beam refinement in time. Furthermore, an overhead for control signaling transmission may be reduced.

[0039] Disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for SPS of CSI-RS, as well as mechanisms and methods for related configuration. Also disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signals (BRRSes) and SRS, as well as mechanisms and methods for joint transmission of these RSes in an SPS manner. Also disclosed herein are mechanisms and methods for SPS CSI reporting, which may include one or more of Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Pre-coding Matrix Indicator (PMI), and Rank Indicator (RJ). Also disclosed herein are dedicated DCI designs.

[0040] In the following description, numerous details are discussed to provide a more thorough explanation of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art, however, that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0041] Note that in the corresponding drawings of the embodiments, signals are represented with lines. Some lines may be thicker, to indicate a greater number of constituent signal paths, and/or have arrows at one or more ends, to indicate a direction of information flow. Such indications are not intended to be limiting. Rather, the lines are used in connection with one or more exemplary embodiments to facilitate easier understanding of a circuit or a logical unit. Any represented signal, as dictated by design needs or preferences, may actually comprise one or more signals that may travel in either direction and may be implemented with any suitable type of signal scheme.

[0042] Throughout the specification, and in the claims, the term "connected" means a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between the things that are connected, without any intermediary devices. The term "coupled" means either a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection between the things that are connected or an indirect connection through one or more passive or active intermediary devices. The term "circuit" or "module" may refer to one or more passive and/or active components that are arranged to cooperate with one another to provide a desired function. The term "signal" may refer to at least one current signal, voltage signal, magnetic signal, or data/clock signal. The meaning of "a," "an," and "the" include plural references. The meaning of "in" includes "in" and "on." [0043] The terms "substantially," "close," "approximately," "near," and "about" generally refer to being within +/- 10% of a target value. Unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first," "second," and "third," etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

[0044] It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.

[0045] The terms "left," "right," "front," "back," "top," "bottom," "over," "under," and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. [0046] For purposes of the embodiments, the transistors in various circuits, modules, and logic blocks are Tunneling FETs (TFETs). Some transistors of various embodiments may comprise metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors, which include drain, source, gate, and bulk terminals. The transistors may also include Tri-Gate and FinFET transistors, Gate All Around Cylindrical Transistors, Square Wire, or Rectangular Ribbon Transistors or other devices implementing transistor functionality like carbon nanotubes or spintronic devices. MOSFET symmetrical source and drain terminals i.e., are identical terminals and are interchangeably used here. A TFET device, on the other hand, has asymmetric Source and Drain terminals. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other transistors, for example, Bi-polar junction transistors-BJT PNP/NPN, BiCMOS, CMOS, etc., may be used for some transistors without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

[0047] For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases "A and/or B" and "A or

B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase "A, B, and/or C" means (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

[0048] In addition, the various elements of combinatorial logic and sequential logic discussed in the present disclosure may pertain both to physical structures (such as AND gates, OR gates, or XOR gates), or to synthesized or otherwise optimized collections of devices implementing the logical structures that are Boolean equivalents of the logic under discussion.

[0049] In addition, for purposes of the present disclosure, the term "eNB" may refer to a legacy LTE capable Evolved Node-B (eNB), a next-generation or 5G capable eNB, a millimeter-wave (mmWave) capable eNB or an mmWave small cell, and/or another base station for a wireless communication system. For purposes of the present disclosure, the term "UE" may refer to a legacy LTE capable User Equipment (UE), a next-generation or 5G capable UE, an mmWave capable UE, and/or another mobile equipment for a wireless communication system.

[0050] Various embodiments of eNBs and/or UEs discussed below may process one or more transmissions of various types. Some processing of a transmission may comprise demodulating, decoding, detecting, parsing, and/or otherwise handling a transmission that has been received. In some embodiments, an eNB or UE processing a transmission may determine or recognize the transmission's type and/or a condition associated with the transmission. For some embodiments, an eNB or UE processing a transmission may act in accordance with the transmission's type, and/or may act conditionally based upon the transmission's type. An eNB or UE processing a transmission may also recognize one or more values or fields of data carried by the transmission. Processing a transmission may comprise moving the transmission through one or more layers of a protocol stack (which may be implemented in, e.g., hardware and/or software-configured elements), such as by moving a transmission that has been received by an eNB or a UE through one or more layers of a protocol stack.

[0051] Various embodiments of eNBs and/or UEs discussed below may also generate one or more transmissions of various types. Some generating of a transmission may comprise modulating, encoding, formatting, assembling, and/or otherwise handling a transmission that is to be transmitted. In some embodiments, an eNB or UE generating a transmission may establish the transmission's type and/or a condition associated with the transmission. For some embodiments, an eNB or UE generating a transmission may act in accordance with the transmission's type, and/or may act conditionally based upon the transmission's type. An eNB or UE generating a transmission may also determine one or more values or fields of data carried by the transmission. Generating a transmission may comprise moving the transmission through one or more layers of a protocol stack (which may be implemented in, e.g., hardware and/or software-configured elements), such as by moving a transmission to be sent by an eNB or a UE through one or more layers of a protocol stack.

[0052] In various embodiments, resources may span various Resource Blocks (RBs),

Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), and/or time periods (e.g., frames, subframes, and/or slots) of a wireless communication system. In some contexts, allocated resources (e.g., channels, Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, subcarrier frequencies, resource elements (REs), and/or portions thereof) may be formatted for (and prior to) transmission over a wireless communication link. In other contexts, allocated resources (e.g., channels, OFDM symbols, subcarrier frequencies, REs, and/or portions thereof) may be detected from (and subsequent to) reception over a wireless communication link.

[0053] In a first aspect, for various embodiments, an SRS symbol may be generated based on a Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence (e.g., the ZC sequence defined in 3GPP TS 36.211). One SRS subcarrier may be used for a single user, and an angle for the ZC sequence may be as follow:

Where N_ap may indicate a number of Antenna Ports (APs) for a current UE; p may be an antenna port index; and p∈ {0,1, - , N_ap— 1}. [0054] For some embodiments, a density for SRS may be different for different UEs, and may furthermore be configured by control signaling. For cell-edge users, a large SRS density may be employed to avoid a Tx power limitation. For large delay spread users, which may come from an improper analog beamforming weight, an SRS density may be small. One UE may use more than one symbol to transmit SRS so that an eNB may perform an Rx beam sweeping procedure in those symbols. In some embodiments, an SRS sequence for one UE may be the same in different symbols.

[0055] Fig. 1 illustrates a scenario of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource mapping, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A scenario 100 may comprise a plurality of REs spanning one or more OFDM symbols and one or more subcarrier frequencies. Various REs in scenario may carry SRS associated with one or more UEs.

[0056] In some embodiments, a UE 1 and a UE 2 may have the same SRS density, with a subcarrier spacing of 6 subcarriers. For some embodiments, a UE 3 may have an SRS density with a subcarrier spacing of 3 subcarriers. In some embodiments, UE 1 and UE 3 might use merely 1 OFDM symbol, and UE 2 might use 2 OFDM symbols.

[0057] In various embodiments, an SRS transmission may be scheduled or schedule- based, or may be trigger-based. For schedule-based SRS transmission, a UL grant may be used to indicate an SRS resource. The UL grant may be transmitted a number g of subframes before the SRS transmission. In some embodiments, g may be 4, which may be substantially similar to a legacy LTE scenario. In some embodiments, g may be 0, such as in scenarios of self-contained subframe structure.

[0058] In some embodiments, a UL grant for SRS may contain one or more of the following indicators: a bit-map indicator for an SRS Tx symbol index; a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator; an antenna group enabling index indicator; an antenna group shift type indicator; an RB assignment indicator; a closed-loop power control factor indicator; an SRS process index indicator; and/or a panel index indicator. In various embodiments, Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling (e.g., one or more RRC messages or RRC transmissions) may carry at least one of the indicators.

[0059] The bit-map indicator for an SRS Tx symbol index may have a number N of bits, where N may indicate a maximum number of SRS symbols. N may be fixed in the system, or may be indicated via RRC signaling. In the bit-map indicator, a first value (e.g., a value of "1") may indicate that an SRS Tx should occur in the corresponding symbol, while a second value (e.g., a value of "0") may indicate that the SRS Tx should not occur in the corresponding signal. This indicator might not be used if merely one symbol is allowed for one UE's SRS transmission.

[0060] The density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator may be used to indicate an SRS signal density and/or its subcarrier offset in a resource mapping. In some embodiments, a lookup table may be used to indicate the density and subcarrier offset information, as in Table 1 below. For example, if the density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator has a first value (e.g., a value of "0"), the SRS may use subcarriers 0, 12, and so on within the scheduled RBs.

Tabl e 1 : Exam le of densit and subcarrier offset confi uration indicator

[0061] The antenna group enabling index indicator may be used to trigger whether one or more antennas may be divided into groups for SRS transmission. In some embodiments, when multiple APs are used, if a number of scheduled subcarriers for one user is not too large (e.g., if the number does not exceed a predetermined threshold), a time domain channel estimation performance may be impacted. An eNB may then trigger that the APs be divided into N_AP__group groups, where each group may contain N_ap I N_AP__group antenna elements. An example of a two-bits length case may be illustrated in Table 2 below, for ranges from 1 AP per transmission to all APs per transmission.

[0062] The antenna group shift type indicator may be used to indicate whether different groups may be transmitted by shifting one or more subcarriers or symbols (as depicted herein). In some embodiments, a first value (e.g., a value of "0") may indicate a shift in a subcarrier domain, and a second value (e.g., a value of "1") may indicate a shift in the symbol domain.

[0063] The RB assignment indicator may be used to allocate one or more resources for SRS (e.g., one or more RBs). In some embodiments, this indicator may use the same indication as Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). For some embodiments, a closed- loop power control factor indicator may be used for closed-loop power control, and may indicate a power offset relative to a target Rx power for SRS.

[0064] The SRS process index indicator may be used to indicate a number of SRS processes. In some embodiments, a UE may be assigned multiple SRS processes. Each SRS process may be associated with a set of eNB Rx beam directions (e.g., one or more eNB Rx beam directions). An eNB may then use the Rx beams associated with each of the SRS processes.

[0065] The element panel index indicator may be used to indicate whether a particular configuration is applicable for particular panels. In some embodiments having a two-bit implementation, a first value, a second value, a third value, and a fourth value (e.g., values of "00," "01," "10," and "11," respectively) may represent a first panel, a second panel, both the first panel and the second panel, or a reserved implementation, respectively. The panel index indicator may be used in beam aggregation and cell-less operation.

[0066] For some embodiments, an SRS transmission may be triggered in both DL assignment and UL grant related DCI. A SRS transmission may happen in a number g of subframes after the trigger, where g may be fixed in the system, or may be configured via RRC signaling, or may be indicated by a DCI.

[0067] In some embodiments, an SRS configuration index indicator and/or a starting subcarrier index indicator may be added in a triggered DCI. For some embodiments, the starting subcarrier index indicator may be used to indicate a starting subcarrier index in an RB, and in some embodiments a value of the starting subcarrier index indicator may be interpreted in accordance with column 3 in Table 1 herein. For some embodiments, a set of dedicated SRS configurations may be configured via RRC signaling, and the SRS configuration index indicator may indicate which configuration is used for a current UE's SRS transmission.

[0068] In some embodiments, an SRS configuration may contain one or more of the following indicators: a number of RBs indicator; a bit-map for SRS symbol index indicator (e.g., a bit map for SRS Tx symbol index indicator); a trigger for SRS antenna selection enabling indicator; an SRS process index indicator; and/or a panel index indicator.

[0069] The number of RBs indicator may indicate a number of RBs for a current SRS transmission, and in some embodiments, a full band of RBs may be obtained by frequency hopping. Other indicators may have interpretations substantially similar to the interpretations of the various indicators in the schedule based SRS transmission.

[0070] In some embodiments, a subcarrier density for SRS may be configured via

RRC signaling. The number of SRS symbols in one UL subframe may be indicated by RRC signaling, or may be indicated by a common control channel.

[0071] Fig. 2 illustrates scenarios of SRS transmission opportunities in self-contained subframe structures, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A first self- contained subframe structure 200 may comprise a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) 202, a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) 204, a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) 206, an SRS 208, and an Acknowledge/Negative Acknowledge

(ACK/NACK) 210. A second self-contained subframe structure 250 may comprise a PDCCH 252, a DMRS 204, a PUSCH 256, an SRS 258, and an ACK/NACK 260. In various embodiments, a self-contained subframe structure may have a UL opportunity which may be used to transmit SRS. [0072] In various embodiments, an SRS may be transmitted periodically, and each

SRS process may have one its own period and/or subframe offset. For a subframe in which there may be no SRS transmission, a symbol of SRS may be considered as a large GP. The SRS transmission may happen at the following subframes.

n_sf mod T_srs = O_srs

Where n_Sf may indicate a number of a subframe index; T_srs may indicate a period of the SRS process; and O_srs may indicate a subframe offset.

[0073] In various embodiments, control signaling for each SRS process may contain one or more of the following indicators: a bit-map for SRS Tx symbol index indicator; a number of RBs indicator; a trigger for SRS AP selection indicator; a starting subcarrier index indicator; a panel index indicator; a period indicator, and/or a subframe offset indicator. In various embodiments, Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling (e.g., one or more RRC messages or RRC transmissions) may carry at least one of the indicators.

[0074] In some embodiments, an aperiodic SRS may be used in a self-contained subframe. In various embodiments, schedule based SRS and trigger based SRS as described herein may be employed.

[0075] Fig. 3 illustrates a scenario of multiple SRS processes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a scenario 300, a UE 310 may be in wireless communication with an eNB 321 and/or an eNB 322. In various embodiments, for UL beam aggregation, multiple SRS processes may be used to transmit SRS to different Receiving Points (RPs) (e.g., eNBs).

[0076] A first SRS process may be used to transmit SRS to a first RP, and a second

SRS process may be used to transmit SRS to a second RP. The Tx beams and/or power control target cells for the two SRS processes may be different.

[0077] In some embodiments, Tx beams for one or more SRS processes may be the same. For some embodiments, a target RP for an SRS process may be configured via RRC signaling. In some embodiments, a UE may use a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP) and/or a target Rx power of a cell for power control.

[0078] In some embodiments, a number of SRS processes may be larger a the number of RPs for one UE, and Tx beam sweeping may be performed for SRS processes with the same target RP. An eNB may configure an SRS processes with a primary Tx beam and one or more neighboring Tx beams for UEs with the directional Tx capability. For some embodiments, for Tx beam switching, an eNB may indicate an SRS process index to a UE, and the UE may then use the Tx beam in a corresponding SRS process for UL transmission.

[0079] In another aspect, for various embodiments, a ZC sequence or Quadrature

Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) symbol may be utilized to generate SRS, and may be utilized for UL channel quality measurement.

[0080] Fig. 4 illustrates a scenario of semi-persistent or periodic or defined Physical

Random Access Channel (PRACH) subframes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a scenario 400, in some embodiments, a PRACH resource may be predefined, or may be SPS or periodically configured by an eNB, so that a UE may transmit the access request. For some embodiments, UL subframes may be utilized for SPS or periodic UL beam refinement.

[0081] In some embodiments, an SRS might not mapped to a resource reserved for a

PRACH and/or a Scheduling Request (SR).

[0082] For some embodiments, a UE may have N_ap APs, where each AP may be associated with one SRS sequence, and a resource reserved for PRACH and/or SR may be ^NRB,Reserved consecutive RBs starting with RB index ί

Then N_ap SRS sequences may be arranged into available RBs, e.g.,

RBs. For example, RBs indexed from 10 to 15 may be reserved, and and after adding SRS sequences into the available

RBs, then RBs with SRS may be mapped to the original RBs according to the following formula:

[0083] Fig. 5 illustrates a scenario of SRS mapping without overlap with reserved

Resource Blocks (RBs), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A scenario 500 may comprise twenty -five RBs (indexed 0 through 24), six of which (indexed 10 through 15) may be reserved. In a first step, RBI 6 through RB24 may be renumbered as RBI 0 through RBI 8. In a second step, SRS sequences may be added into the renumbered RBs. In a third step, the RBs (now with SRS) may be mapped back to the original RBs in the frequency domain, e.g., RBIO through RBI 8 may be mapped back to RBI 6 through RB24 [0084] In some embodiments, reserved RBs and the spread frequency range may be configured or pre-defined (or otherwise predetermined) by a eNB through higher-layer signaling. [0085] For some embodiments, APs of SRS in these subframes may be configured according to available RBs. If multiple RBs are reserved for PRACH and SR, then smaller SRS number ports may be configured (e.g., 4); otherwise, larger SRS number ports may be configured (e.g., 8).

[0086] In some embodiments, different SRS ports may be mapped to corresponding

RBs in an interleaved fashion. For example, if an SRS sequence is r_SRS(m). If p =

[(k"mod N_ap )]modN_ap, then

Otherwise

Where:

may indicate one or more renumbered subcarrier indices without reserved RBs; / may indicate an OFDM symbol index; p∈ {0,1, - , N_ap— 1} may represent an AP; and Δ_0ffset may be a cell specific shift, and may be configured by high layer signaling.

[0087] Fig. 6 illustrates a scenario of resource allocation of SRS sequences, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a scenario

[0088] Some embodiments may utilize an Interleaved Single-Carrier Frequency-

Division Multiple- Access (IFDMA) structure, where one or more SRS may be mapped to one or more REs with fixed subcarrier gap. For example, for 4 times replication, a mapping rule may equal

[0089] Fig. 7 illustrates scenarios of signal replications in the time domain, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A scenario 700 may comprise four duplications during one symbol (e.g., and OFDM symbol), and may have two orthogonal sequences. Scenario 700 may accordingly present two alternatives of signal replication in the time domain.

[0090] For some embodiments, SRS may be multiplexed with data and/or DMRS and/or control within the same OFDM symbol for a low-band NR system, which is illustrated in the following figure.

[0091] Fig. 8 illustrates multiplexing between SRS and data, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A scenario 800 may pertain to an RB 810 comprising a plurality of REs 820 (which may in turn span a plurality of OFDM symbols and a plurality of subcarrier frequencies). DMRS may be present in a third OFDM symbol, and SRS of various ports may be present in various respectively corresponding subcarrier frequencies of a fourteenth OFDM symbol.

[0092] In some embodiments, SRS may be multiplexed with a UL control channel in the same symbol. Note that although SRS is depicted as spanning one OFDM symbol, it may span two or more OFDM symbols. SRS spanning two symbols may advantageously allow an eNB to estimate a frequency offset or a Doppler spread from one UE.

[0093] For some embodiments, a cell specific SRS configuration may be predefined, or may be configured by higher layers via a 5G (or NR) System Information Block (xSIB), or via RRC signaling. The SRS configuration may contain one or more of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an OFDM symbols indicator, and a time period; a spanned bandwidth or spanned subcarrier index; and a port number. Note that when transmitting PUSCH or PUCCH, a UE may perform rate matching around, and/or may perform puncturing on, REs where SRS is allocated.

[0094] In some embodiments, UE-specific SRS information may be configured on top of a cell-specific SRS configuration through higher-layer signaling, or through dedicated DCI.

[0095] For some embodiments, a UE-specific bitmap may be configured by an eNB through higher-layer signaling, or through dedicated DCI, to inform the UE how to perform rate matching or puncturing.

[0096] In some embodiments, a frame structure of SRS may align with a frame structure of PRACH. For example, if PRACH utilizes an OFDM concatenation structure, SRS may utilize this structure as well, and two adjacent OFDM symbols may be paired, where the first OFDM symbol may naturally be (or include) a Cyclic Prefix (CP) for the second OFDM symbol. If a PRACH re-uses the CP-plus-OFDM structure, SRS may utilize it too. [0097] Fig. 9 illustrates scenarios of frame structures, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a first scenario 900, an OFDM symbol #0 may be followed by an OFDM symbol #1 (e.g., OFDM symbol #0 may naturally be, or include, a CP for OFDM symbol #1). In contrast, in a second scenario 950, OFDM symbols may be separated by CP.

[0098] For some embodiments, a UE may transmit the SRS based on the same Tx beam, which may advantageously facilitate performance of Rx beam refinement by an eNB. In some embodiments, a UE may transmit the SRS based on different Tx beams, which may advantageously facilitate performance of Tx beam refinement by the UE.

[0099] In some embodiments, a UE may alternatively change beams for SRS. For example, at one occasion, the SRS may be transmitted by a UE with different beams, and at the next occasion, the SRS may be transmitted by a UE with the same beams.

[00100] For some embodiments, a two-bit field may be configured by an eNB (e.g., through DCI), where a first value (e.g., a value of "00") may indicate eNB side beam refinement, a second value (e.g., a value of "01") may indicate UE side beam refinement, a third value (e.g., a value of "10") may indicate iterative eNB side beam refinement and UE side beam refinement, and a fourth value (e.g., a value of "11 ") may be reserved.

[00101] In another aspect, for various embodiments, one activation window may be defined by an eNB through higher-layer signaling. In some embodiments, it may be configured to have a fixed window length, and/or may be activated by a 1-bit trigger in a DCI transmission, or in higher-layer signaling. For some embodiments, an activation window may start when a higher-layer indicator is switched to a first (or "on") value, and may stop when the higher-layer indicator is switched to a second (or "off') value.

[00102] In some embodiments, within an activation window, a time resource reserved for SPS RSes may be configured by higher-layer signaling. The higher-layer signaling may include one or more of: a radio frame index, a subframe index, and/or an OFDM index. In some embodiments, different RSes may be configured to have the same configuration. In some embodiments, different RSes may be configured to have different configurations.

[00103] Fig. 10 illustrates a scenario of Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) Rate Matching (RM), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A scenario 1000 may comprise a plurality of subframes spanning one activation window. One or more of the subframes may end with an RM portion.

[00104] In some embodiments, multiple users may share the same activation window, with different occasions being assigned to different UEs in a Time-Division Multiplexed (TDM) manner. A configuration for time domain resource may be configured in a UE- specific manner, or may be dynamically indicated via DCI. For some embodiments, a new DCI format may be defined to trigger CSI-RS transmission, or BRRS transmission, or SRS transmission for multiple UEs. In particular, the new DCI format may contain the CSI-RS configuration, BRRS configuration, and/or SRS configuration.

[00105] In some embodiments, a new Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) may be defined for the transmission of PDCCH. For example, a new SPS-CSI-RNTI, or SPS-BRRS-RNTI, or SPS-SRS-RNTI may be defined for the transmission of PDCCH, and a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) may be scrambled by the SPS-CSI-RNTI, or the SPS- BRRS-RNTI, or the SPS-SRS-RNTI, respectively. The new RNTI may be predefined, or may be configured by higher layers via an xSIB, or may be configured via RRC signaling.

[00106] For some embodiments, an SPS BRRS and/or an SPS SRS may be defined to enable a semi-static Rx beam refinement, and/or UL beam refinement, and may include a configuration of time, frequency, code, and/or port.

[00107] In some embodiments, an SPS BRRS and/or an SPS CSI-RS may be configured jointly, which may enable an eNB-side beam and a UE-side beam iteratively. For example, Fig. 11 illustrates a scenario of joint SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signals (BRRS) and Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS), in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a scenario 1100, the Tx beam for BRRS may be updated according to a reported CQI.

[00108] For some embodiments, a subframe offset between a BRRS and a CSI-RS may be configured by higher-layer signaling.

[00109] In some embodiments, an SPS BRRS and/or an SPS CSI-RS may be configured jointly, which may advantageously enable an eNB-side beam and a UE-side beam iteratively. For example, Fig. 12 illustrates a scenario of joint BRRS and SRS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a scenario 1200, an eNB side beam may be refined based on SRS, and a UE side beam may be refined based on BRRS.

[00110] For some embodiments, for dynamic DCI, a two-bit field nay be used to instruct UE behavior with regard to rate matched OFDM symbols within an SPS activation window. The meaning of the two-bits field with respect to PDSCH transmission and/or PUSCH transmission may be in accordance with Table 3 below, for example. Table 3: Exam le of two-bit field for RS indication

[00111] In some embodiments, one Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) for an SPS Rate Matching (RM) activation and deactivation may be configured by an eNB. New Logical Channel ID (LCID) values for SPS RM activation and deactivation may be in accordance with Table 4 below, for example.

Table 4: Exam le of MAC CE for SPS RM activation/deactivation

[00112] In some embodiment, to support RM, a reserved resource for SPS CSI-RS, SPS BRRS, and/or SPS SRS may be configured by broadcast signaling of a 5G eNB (or a legacy LTE system), such as System Information (SI), or by a common search space PDCCH of a 5G eNB (or a legacy LTE system), or by separate, UE-specific DCI.

[00113] In various embodiments, PUCCH and/or PUSCH may be used to carry an SPS CSI report. In some embodiments, a resource in the time domain for a related CSI report may be associated with a CSI-RS. For example, Fig. 13 illustrates a scenario of CQI reporting associated with CSI-RSes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In a scenario 1300, a time relationship may be configured by an eNB in which CSI may be reported after a number NCSIRS-CQI of subframes following a corresponding CSI-RS.

[00114] For some embodiments, the number NCSIRS-CQI of subframes may be configured by higher-layer signaling, or be pre-defined (or otherwise predetermined).

[00115] In some embodiments, a resource in the frequency domain for a related CSI report may be configured by higher layers via dedicated RRC signaling, or may be dynamically indicated via DCI. For some embodiments, a frequency resource for PUCCH that may carry a CSI report may be dynamically indicated via DCI, where the same frequency resource or resources may be used for the SPS CSI report within the activation window. [00116] For some embodiments a resource hopping pattern may be defined for PUCCH or PUSCH transmission which may carry one or more SPS CSI reports. The resource hopping pattern may be defined as a function of at least one following parameters: a physical cell ID, a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index for a first PUCCH transmission, and/or a starting frequency resource index for the first PUCCH transmission. This time and/or frequency hopping pattern may be defined in a cell-specific manner or in a UE-specific manner, which may advantageously assist in avoiding collisions and exploiting the benefits of time diversity and/or frequency diversity.

[00117] In some embodiments, multiple CSI-RS transmissions may be associated with one CSI report, which may advantageously facilitate or enable a UE to average multiple measurement results, and may reduce a reporting overhead.

[00118] For some embodiments, a number of CSI-RS which are reported within one CSI may be configured by eNB through higher-layer signaling. For example, Fig. 14 illustrates a scenario of one CQI report associated with multiple CSI-RSes, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. A scenario 1400 may comprise a plurality of CSI- RSes that are associated with one CQI report.

[00119] In some embodiments, one CSI-RS may be associated with multiple CSI reporting resource. For example, a CSI of an active beam may be reported at a first CSI reporting entry, and a CSI of a candidate beam may be reported at a second CSI reporting entry.

[00120] For some embodiments, a PUSCH resource may be reserved for SPS CSI feedback. In some embodiments, one or more frequency resources for a CSI report may be configured by higher-layer signaling, or may be associated with a DCI that enabled an activation window, or both. For some embodiments, one dedicated time resource, or frequency resource, or code resource may be reserved for an SPS CSI report, which may avoid a collision between an SPS CSI report and a dynamic CSI report.

[00121] In some embodiments, if a channel measurement result is the same as a previous measurement, a UE may save a CSI report to save power. For some embodiments, in cases in which BRRS reporting may be supported for an NR beamformed system, a similar mechanism may be applied for SPS BRRS reporting.

[00122] For some embodiments, a dedicated DCI may be designed for an SPS CSI-RS configuration, an SPS BRRS configuration, and/or an SPS SRS configuration. The dedicated DCI may be scrambled by an SPS-RNTI or a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (CRNTI), and a time resource, a frequency resource, and/or a code resource for CSI-RS, BRRS, and/or SRS may be configured by this dedicated DCI.

[00123] In some embodiments, this DCI may reuse a DCI format for DL assignment or UL grant. However, some of the fields may be reserved for verification purposes.

[00124] Fig. 15 illustrates an eNB and a UE, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Fig. 15 includes block diagrams of an eNB 1510 and a UE 1530 which are operable to co-exist with each other and other elements of an LTE network. High-level, simplified architectures of eNB 1510 and UE 1530 are described so as not to obscure the embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, eNB 1510 may be a stationary non-mobile device.

[00125] eNB 1510 is coupled to one or more antennas 1505, and UE 1530 is similarly coupled to one or more antennas 1525. However, in some embodiments, eNB 1510 may incorporate or comprise antennas 1505, and UE 1530 in various embodiments may incorporate or comprise antennas 1525.

[00126] In some embodiments, antennas 1505 and/or antennas 1525 may comprise one or more directional or omni-directional antennas, including monopole antennas, dipole antennas, loop antennas, patch antennas, microstrip antennas, coplanar wave antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO (multiple- input and multiple output) embodiments, antennas 1505 are separated to take advantage of spatial diversity.

[00127] eNB 1510 and UE 1530 are operable to communicate with each other on a network, such as a wireless network. eNB 1510 and UE 1530 may be in communication with each other over a wireless communication channel 1550, which has both a downlink path from eNB 1510 to UE 1530 and an uplink path from UE 1530 to eNB 1510.

[00128] As illustrated in Fig. 15, in some embodiments, eNB 1510 may include a physical layer circuitry 1512, a MAC (media access control) circuitry 1514, a processor 1516, a memory 1518, and a hardware processing circuitry 1520. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that other components not shown may be used in addition to the components shown to form a complete eNB.

[00129] In some embodiments, physical layer circuitry 1512 includes a transceiver 1513 for providing signals to and from UE 1530. Transceiver 1513 provides signals to and from UEs or other devices using one or more antennas 1505. In some embodiments, MAC circuitry 1514 controls access to the wireless medium. Memory 1518 may be, or may include, a storage media/medium such as a magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tapes or magnetic disks), an optical storage media (e.g., optical discs), an electronic storage media (e.g., conventional hard disk drives, solid-state disk drives, or flash-memory-based storage media), or any tangible storage media or non-transitory storage media. Hardware processing circuitry 1520 may comprise logic devices or circuitry to perform various operations. In some embodiments, processor 1516 and memory 1518 are arranged to perform the operations of hardware processing circuitry 1520, such as operations described herein with reference to logic devices and circuitry within eNB 1510 and/or hardware processing circuitry 1520.

[00130] Accordingly, in some embodiments, eNB 1510 may be a device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antenna ports, and an interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device.

[00131] As is also illustrated in Fig. 15, in some embodiments, UE 1530 may include a physical layer circuitry 1532, a MAC circuitry 1534, a processor 1536, a memory 1538, a hardware processing circuitry 1540, a wireless interface 1542, and a display 1544. A person skilled in the art would appreciate that other components not shown may be used in addition to the components shown to form a complete UE.

[00132] In some embodiments, physical layer circuitry 1532 includes a transceiver 1533 for providing signals to and from eNB 1510 (as well as other eNBs). Transceiver 1533 provides signals to and from eNBs or other devices using one or more antennas 1525. In some embodiments, MAC circuitry 1534 controls access to the wireless medium. Memory 1538 may be, or may include, a storage media/medium such as a magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tapes or magnetic disks), an optical storage media (e.g., optical discs), an electronic storage media (e.g., conventional hard disk drives, solid-state disk drives, or flash- memory -based storage media), or any tangible storage media or non-transitory storage media. Wireless interface 1542 may be arranged to allow the processor to communicate with another device. Display 1544 may provide a visual and/or tactile display for a user to interact with UE 1530, such as a touch-screen display. Hardware processing circuitry 1540 may comprise logic devices or circuitry to perform various operations. In some embodiments, processor 1536 and memory 1538 may be arranged to perform the operations of hardware processing circuitry 1540, such as operations described herein with reference to logic devices and circuitry within UE 1530 and/or hardware processing circuitry 1540.

[00133] Accordingly, in some embodiments, UE 1530 may be a device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch-screen display. [00134] Elements of Fig. 15, and elements of other figures having the same names or reference numbers, can operate or function in the manner described herein with respect to any such figures (although the operation and function of such elements is not limited to such descriptions). For example, Figs. 16 and 20-21 also depict embodiments of eNBs, hardware processing circuitry of eNBs, UEs, and/or hardware processing circuitry of UEs, and the embodiments described with respect to Fig. 15 and Figs. 16 and 20-21 can operate or function in the manner described herein with respect to any of the figures.

[00135] In addition, although eNB 1510 and UE 1530 are each described 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 and/or other hardware elements. In some embodiments of this disclosure, the functional elements can refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements. Examples of software and/or hardware configured elements include Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), one or more microprocessors, DSPs, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs), and so on.

[00136] Fig. 16 illustrates hardware processing circuitries for a UE for flexible SRS signal generation, SPS or periodic resource mapping for SRS, and SPS of CSI-RS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. With reference to Fig. 15, a UE may include various hardware processing circuitries discussed herein (such as hardware processing circuitry 1600 of Fig. FIGURE), which may in turn comprise logic devices and/or circuitry operable to perform various operations. For example, in Fig. 15, UE 1530 (or various elements or components therein, such as hardware processing circuitry 1540, or combinations of elements or components therein) may include part of, or all of, these hardware processing circuitries.

[00137] In some embodiments, one or more devices or circuitries within these hardware processing circuitries may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements and/or other hardware elements. For example, processor 1536 (and/or one or more other processors which UE 1530 may comprise), memory 1538, and/or other elements or components of UE 1530 (which may include hardware processing circuitry 1540) may be arranged to perform the operations of these hardware processing circuitries, such as operations described herein with reference to devices and circuitry within these hardware processing circuitries. In some embodiments, processor 1536 (and/or one or more other processors which UE 1530 may comprise) may be a baseband processor. [00138] Returning to Fig. 16, an apparatus of UE 1530 (or another UE or mobile handset), which may be operable to communicate with one or more eNBs on a wireless network, may comprise hardware processing circuitry 1600. In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1600 may comprise one or more antenna ports 1605 operable to provide various transmissions over a wireless communication channel (such as wireless

communication channel 1550). Antenna ports 1605 may be coupled to one or more antennas 1607 (which may be antennas 1525). In some embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1600 may incorporate antennas 1607, while in other embodiments, hardware processing circuitry 1600 may merely be coupled to antennas 1607.

[00139] Antenna ports 1605 and antennas 1607 may be operable to provide signals from a UE to a wireless communications channel and/or an eNB, and may be operable to provide signals from an eNB and/or a wireless communications channel to a UE. For example, antenna ports 1605 and antennas 1607 may be operable to provide transmissions from UE 1530 to wireless communication channel 1550 (and from there to eNB 1510, or to another eNB). Similarly, antennas 1607 and antenna ports 1605 may be operable to provide transmissions from a wireless communication channel 1550 (and beyond that, from eNB 1510, or another eNB) to UE 1530.

[00140] Hardware processing circuitry 1600 may comprise various circuitries operable in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. With reference to Fig. 16, hardware processing circuitry 1600 may comprise a first circuitry 1610, a second circuitry 1620, a third circuitry 1630, and/or a fourth circuitry 1640.

[00141] In various embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a UL grant for an SRS transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators. Second circuitry 1620 may be operable to generate an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators. First circuitry 1610 may be operable to provide information related to the one or more indicators to second circuitry 1620 via an interface 1615. The one or more indicators may comprise an SRS process indicator. Hardware processing circuitry 1600 may also comprise an interface for receiving the UL grant from a receiving circuitry and for sending the SRS transmission to a transmission circuitry.

[00142] In some embodiments, the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission may determine a UE Tx beamforming direction and/or an eNB Rx beamforming direction. For some embodiments, the one or more indicators may comprise a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator and/or a RB assignment indicator. [00143] In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process an SRS configuration transmission carrying a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator and/or a RB assignment indicator, and to process a DCI carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission. For some embodiments, second circuitry 1620 may be operable to generate one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator. In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a RRC transmission carrying a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of RBs indicator, and/or a density and subcarrier offset indicator.

[00144] For some embodiments, the eNB may be a first RP, and the SRS transmission may be a first SRS transmission. In some embodiments, second circuitry 1620 may be operable to generate a second SRS transmission. The first SRS transmission may correspond with a first UE Tx beamforming direction associated with the first RP, and the second SRS transmission may correspond with a second UE Tx beamforming direction associated with the second RP.

[00145] In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process an RRC transmission carrying a target RP index and an Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission. For some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a DCI transmission carrying a target RP index and an Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00146] In various embodiments, third circuitry 1630 may be operable to determine an SRS mapping rule. Second circuitry 1620 may be operable to generate one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule. Third circuitry 1630 may be operable to provide information regarding the SRS mapping rule to second circuitry 1620 via an interface 1635. Hardware processing circuitry 1600 may also comprise an interface for receiving the UL grant from a receiving circuitry and for sending the SRS transmission to a transmission circuitry.

[00147] In some embodiments, the one or more resources may lack PRACH and/or SR. For some embodiments, the one or more resources may span a set of RBs that do not carry non-SRS UL channels. In some embodiments, one or more SRS ports may be mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion. For some embodiments, the one or more SRS transmissions may be mapped to REs of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

[00148] For some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a cell specific SRS configuration transmission carrying a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an OFDM symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, and/or a port number. In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a transmission carrying a UE-specific bitmap comprising at least a rate-matching indication and/or or a puncturing indication.

[00149] In some embodiments, a frame structure of the one or more SRS transmissions may align with a PRACH frame structure. For some embodiments, one or more SRS resources may be carried on the same UE Tx beam. In some embodiments, one or more SRS resources may be carried on different UE Tx beams. For some embodiments, the one or more SRS transmissions may be carried on one or more respectively corresponding UE Tx beams.

[00150] For some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a DCI transmission carrying a beam refinement indicator.

[00151] In some embodiments, one or more of the SRS transmissions may be carried on the same UE Tx beam. For some embodiments, one or more of the SRS transmissions may be carried on different UE Tx beams. In some embodiments, one or more of the SRS transmissions may be carried on the same UE beam, and the remaining SRS transmissions not carried on the same UE beam may be carried on different UE beams.

[00152] In various embodiments, third circuitry 1630 may be operable to determine an activation window for SPS of an RS. Fourth circuitry 1640 may be operable to establish a semi-persistent schedule for the RS. Second circuitry 1620 may be operable to generate a plurality of RSes in accordance with the schedule. Fourth circuitry 1640 may be operable to provide information regarding the semi-persistent schedule to second circuitry 1620 via an interface 1645. Hardware processing circuitry 1600 may also comprise an interface for sending the plurality of RSes to a transmission circuitry.

[00153] In some embodiments, the plurality of RSes may include at least one of: one or more BRRSes, one or more CSI-RSes, or one or more SRSes. For some embodiments, the activation window may be determined to have a fixed window length.

[00154] For some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a transmission carrying an indicator to trigger the activation window. The transmission may be a DCI transmission, a received MAC CE, or a received RRC signaling transmission.

[00155] In some embodiments, the activation window may start when the indicator has a first value, and the activation window ends when the indicator has a second value. For some embodiments, the RSes may include a first RS having a first configuration and a second RS having a second configuration, and at least one of the first configuration and the second configuration may have one or more parameters of a set of parameters comprising: a radio frame index, a subframe index, or an OFDM index.

[00156] For some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a PDCCH transmission comprises a Cyclic Redundancy Check scrambled by one of: an SPS- CSI-RNTI, an SPS-BRRS-RNTI, or an SPS-SRS-RNTL In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a higher-layer signaling configuration transmission carrying a subframe offset indicator.

[00157] In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610 may be operable to process a DCI transmission comprising an RS OFDM symbol indicator. For a first value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols may be indicated for PUSCH transmission, and for a second value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols may be indicated for CSI

measurement.

[00158] For some embodiments, second circuitry 1620 may be operable to generate an SPS CSI report in accordance with a resource hopping pattern defined for at least one of PUCCH transmission or PUSCH transmission. The resource hopping pattern may be a function of one or more of the parameters: a physical cell ID, a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index, or a starting frequency resource index.

[00159] In some embodiments, first circuitry 1610, second circuitry 1620, third circuitry 1630, and/or fourth circuitry 1640 may be implemented as separate circuitries. In other embodiments, first circuitry 1610, second circuitry 1620, third circuitry 1630, and/or fourth circuitry 1640 may be combined and implemented together in a circuitry without altering the essence of the embodiments.

[00160] Fig. 17 illustrates methods for a UE for flexible SRS signal generation, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Fig. 18 illustrates methods for a UE for SPS or periodic resource mapping for SRS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Fig. 19 illustrates methods for a UE for SPS of CSI-RS, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. With reference to Fig. 15, methods that may relate to UE 1530 and hardware processing circuitry 1540 are discussed herein. Although the actions in the method 1700 of Fig. 17, method 1800 of Fig. 18, and method 1900 of Fig. 19 are shown in a particular order, the order of the actions can be modified. Thus, the illustrated embodiments can be performed in a different order, and some actions may be performed in parallel. Some of the actions and/or operations listed in Figs. 17-19 are optional in accordance with certain embodiments. The numbering of the actions presented is for the sake of clarity and is not intended to prescribe an order of operations in which the various actions must occur. Additionally, operations from the various flows may be utilized in a variety of combinations.

[00161] Moreover, in some embodiments, machine readable storage media may have executable instructions that, when executed, cause UE 1530 and/or hardware processing circuitry 1540 to perform an operation comprising the methods of Figs. 17-19. Such machine readable storage media may include any of a variety of storage media, like magnetic storage media (e.g., magnetic tapes or magnetic disks), optical storage media (e.g., optical discs), electronic storage media (e.g., conventional hard disk drives, solid-state disk drives, or flash- memory -based storage media), or any other tangible storage media or non-transitory storage media

[00162] In some embodiments, an apparatus may comprise means for performing various actions and/or operations of the methods of Figs. 17-19.

[00163] Returning to Fig. 17, various methods may be in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. A method 1700 may comprise a processing 1710 and a generating 1715. Method 1700 may also comprise a processing 1720, a processing 1725, a generating 1730, a processing 1740, a generating 1750, a processing 1760, and/or a processing 1770.

[00164] In processing 1710, a UL grant for an SRS transmission may be processed, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators. In generating 1715, an SRS transmission may be generated based at least in part upon the one or more indicators. The one or more indicators may comprise an SRS process indicator.

[00165] In some embodiments, the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission may determine a UE Tx beamforming direction and/or an eNB Rx beamforming direction. For some embodiments, the one or more indicators may comprise a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator and/or a RB assignment indicator.

[00166] In some embodiments, in processing 1720, an SRS configuration transmission carrying a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator and/or an RB assignment indicator may be processed. In processing 1725, a DCI carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission may be processed. For some embodiments, in generating 1730, one or more additional SRS transmissions may be generated periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator. In some embodiments, in processing 1740, an RRC transmission carrying a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of RBs indicator, and/or a density and subcarrier offset indicator may be processed.

[00167] For some embodiments, the eNB may be a first RP, and the SRS transmission may be a first SRS transmission. In some embodiments, in generating 1750, a second SRS transmission may be generated. The first SRS transmission may correspond with a first UE Tx beamforming direction associated with the first RP, and the second SRS transmission may correspond with a second UE Tx beamforming direction associated with the second RP.

[00168] In some embodiments, in processing 1760, an RRC transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission may be processed. For some embodiments, a DCI transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission may be processed.

[00169] Returning to Fig. 18, various methods may be in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. A method 1800 may comprise a determining 1810 and a generating 1815. Method 1800 may also comprise a processing 1820, a processing 1830, and/or a processing 1840.

[00170] In determining 1815, an SRS mapping rule may be determined. In generating 1815, one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources may be generated in accordance with the SRS mapping rule.

[00171] In some embodiments, the one or more resources may lack PRACH and/or SR. For some embodiments, the one or more resources may span a set of RBs that do not carry non-SRS UL channels. In some embodiments, one or more SRS ports may be mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion. For some embodiments, the one or more SRS transmissions may be mapped to REs of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

[00172] For some embodiments, in processing 1820, a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an OFDM symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, and/or a port number may be processed. In some embodiments, in processing 1830, a transmission carrying a UE-specific bitmap comprising a rate-matching indication and/or a puncturing indication may be processed.

[00173] In some embodiments, a frame structure of the one or more SRS transmissions may align with a PRACH frame structure. For some embodiments, one or more SRS resources may be carried on the same UE Tx beam. In some embodiments, one or more SRS resources may be carried on different UE Tx beams. For some embodiments, the one or more SRS transmissions may be carried on one or more respectively corresponding UE Tx beams. [00174] For some embodiments, in processing 1840, a DCI transmission carrying a beam refinement indicator may be processed.

[00175] In some embodiments, one or more of the SRS transmissions may be carried on the same UE Tx beam. For some embodiments, one or more of the SRS transmissions may be carried on different UE Tx beams. In some embodiments, one or more of the SRS transmissions may be carried on the same UE beam, and the remaining SRS transmissions not carried on the same UE beam may be carried on different UE beams.

[00176] Returning to Fig. 19, various methods may be in accordance with the various embodiments discussed herein. A method 1900 may comprise a determining 1910, an establishing 1915, and a generating 1920. Method 1900 may also comprise a processing 1930, a processing 1940, a processing 1950, a processing 1960, and/or a generating 1960.

[00177] In determining 1910, an activation window for SPS of an RS may be determined. In establishing 1915, a semi-persistent schedule may be established for the RS. In generating 1920, a plurality of RSes may be generated in accordance with the schedule.

[00178] In some embodiments, the plurality of RSes may include at least one of: one or more BRRSes, one or more CSI-RSes, or one or more SRSes. For some embodiments, the activation window may be determined to have a fixed window length.

[00179] For some embodiments, in processing 1930, a transmission carrying an indicator to trigger the activation window may be processed. The transmission may be one of a DCI transmission, a received MAC CE, or a received RRC signaling transmission.

[00180] In some embodiments, the activation window may start when the indicator has a first value, and the activation window ends when the indicator has a second value. For some embodiments, the RSes may include a first RS having a first configuration and a second RS having a second configuration, and at least one of the first configuration and the second configuration may have one or more parameters of a set of parameters comprising: a radio frame index, a subframe index, or an OFDM index.

[00181] For some embodiments, in processing 1940, a PDCCH transmission comprising a CRC scrambled by an SPS-CSI-RNTI, an SPS-BRRS-RNTI, or an SPS-SRS- RNTI may be processed. In some embodiments, in processing 1950, a higher-layer signaling configuration transmission carrying a subframe offset indicator may be processed.

[00182] In some embodiments, in processing 1960, a DCI transmission comprising an RS OFDM symbol indicator may be processed. For a first value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols may be indicated for PUSCH transmission, and for a second value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols may be indicated for CSI measurement. [00183] For some embodiments, in generating 1970, an SPS CSI report may be generated in accordance with a resource hopping pattern defined for at least one of PUCCH transmission or PUSCH transmission. The resource hopping pattern may be a function of one or more of the parameters: a physical cell ID, a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index, or a starting frequency resource index.

[00184] Fig. 20 illustrates example components of a device, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In some embodiments, the device 2000 may include application circuitry 2002, baseband circuitry 2004, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 2006, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 2008, one or more antennas 2010, and power management circuitry (PMC) 2012 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 2000 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 2000 may include less elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 2002, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 2000 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory /storage, display, camera, sensor, or input output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C- RAN) implementations).

[00185] The application circuitry 2002 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 2002 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processors) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, an so on). The processors may be coupled with or may include memory /storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory /storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 2000. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 2002 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[00186] The baseband circuitry 2004 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 2004 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 2006 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 2006. Baseband processing circuity 2004 may interface with the application circuitry 2002 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 2006. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 2004 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 2004A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 2004B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 2004C, or other baseband processors) 2004D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), and so on). The baseband circuitry 2004 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 2004A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 2006. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 2004A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 2004G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 2004E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation,

encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and so on. In some embodiments,

modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 2004 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 2004 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, 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.

[00187] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 2004 may include one or more audio digital signal processors) (DSP) 2004F. The audio DSP(s) 2004F 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 2004 and the application circuitry 2002 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[00188] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 2004 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 2004 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) 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 2004 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[00189] RF circuitry 2006 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 2006 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and so on to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 2006 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 2008 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 2004. RF circuitry 2006 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 2004 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 2008 for transmission.

[00190] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 2006 may include mixer circuitry 2006A, amplifier circuitry 2006B and filter circuitry 2006C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 2006 may include filter circuitry 2006C and mixer circuitry 2006A. RF circuitry 2006 may also include synthesizer circuitry 2006D for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 2006A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 2006A of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 2008 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 2006D. The amplifier circuitry 2006B may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 2006C 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 2004 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 2006A of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[00191] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 2006A of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 2006D to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 2008. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 2004 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 2006C.

[00192] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 2006A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 2006A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 2006A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 2006A 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 2006A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 2006A may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 2006A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 2006A of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[00193] 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 2006 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 2004 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 2006.

[00194] 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.

[00195] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 2006D 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 2006D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[00196] The synthesizer circuitry 2006D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 2006A of the RF circuitry 2006 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 2006D may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

[00197] In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (V CO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 2004 or the applications processor 2002 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 2002. [00198] Synthesizer circuitry 2006D of the RF circuitry 2006 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 (DP A). 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.

[00199] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 2006D 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 other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 2006 may include an IQ/polar converter.

[00200] FEM circuitry 2008 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 2010, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 2006 for further processing. FEM circuitry 2008 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 2006 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 2010. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 2006, solely in the FEM 2008, or in both the RF circuitry 2006 and the FEM 2008.

[00201] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 2008 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 an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 2006). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 2008 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 2006), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 2010).

[00202] In some embodiments, the PMC 2012 may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 2004. In particular, the PMC 2012 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 2012 may often be included when the device 2000 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC 2012 may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[00203] While Fig. 20 shows the PMC 2012 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 2004. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 2012 may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 2002, RF circuitry 2006, or FEM 2008.

[00204] In some embodiments, the PMC 2012 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 2000. For example, if the device 2000 is in an RRC Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 2000 may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

[00205] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device 2000 may transition off to an RRC Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, and so on. The device 2000 goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 2000 may not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, it must transition back to

RRC Connected state.

[00206] An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

[00207] Processors of the application circuitry 2002 and processors of the baseband circuitry 2004 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 2004, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 2004 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

[00208] Fig. 21 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 2004 of Fig. 20 may comprise processors 2004A-2004E and a memory 2004G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 2004A-2004E may include a memory interface, 2104A- 2104E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 2004G.

[00209] The baseband circuitry 2004 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 2112 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 2004), an application circuitry interface 2114 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 2002 of Fig. 20), an RF circuitry interface 2116 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 2006 of Fig. 20), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 2118 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 2120 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 2012.

[00210] It is pointed out that elements of any of the Figures herein having the same reference numbers and/or names as elements of any other Figure herein may, in various embodiments, operate or function in a manner similar those elements of the other Figure (without being limited to operating or functioning in such a manner).

[00211] Reference in the specification to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," "some embodiments," or "other embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least some embodiments, but not necessarily all embodiments. The various appearances of "an embodiment," "one embodiment," or "some embodiments" are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments. If the specification states a component, feature, structure, or characteristic "may," "might," or "could" be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included. If the specification or claim refers to "a" or "an" element, that does not mean there is only one of the elements. If the specification or claims refer to "an additional" element, that does not preclude there being more than one of the additional element.

[00212] Furthermore, the particular features, structures, functions, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, a first embodiment may be combined with a second embodiment anywhere the particular features, structures, functions, or characteristics associated with the two embodiments are not mutually exclusive.

[00213] While the disclosure has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, many alternatives, modifications and variations of such embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the foregoing description. For example, other memory architectures e.g., Dynamic RAM (DRAM) may use the

embodiments discussed. The embodiments of the disclosure are intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations as to fall within the broad scope of the appended claims.

[00214] In addition, well known power/ground connections to integrated circuit (IC) chips and other components may or may not be shown within the presented figures, for simplicity of illustration and discussion, and so as not to obscure the disclosure. Further, arrangements may be shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the disclosure, and also in view of the fact that specifics with respect to implementation of such block diagram arrangements are highly dependent upon the platform within which the present disclosure is to be implemented (i.e., such specifics should be well within purview of one skilled in the art). Where specific details (e.g., circuits) are set forth in order to describe example embodiments of the disclosure, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosure can be practiced without, or with variation of, these specific details. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.

[00215] The following examples pertain to further embodiments. Specifics in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments. All optional features of the apparatus described herein may also be implemented with respect to a method or process.

[00216] Example 1 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with a millimeter-wave (mmWave) Evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: one or more processors to: process an Uplink (UL) grant for a

Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators; and generate an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators, wherein the one or more indicators comprises an SRS process indicator; and an interface for receiving the UL grant from a receiving circuitry and for sending the SRS transmission to a transmission circuitry.

[00217] In example 2, the apparatus of example 1, wherein the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission determines at least one of: a UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction, or an eNB Receive (Rx) beamforming direction.

[00218] In example 3, the apparatus of either of examples 1 or 2, wherein the one or more indicators comprises one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator.

[00219] In example 4, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 3, wherein the one or more processors are to: process an SRS configuration transmission carrying one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator; and process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission.

[00220] In example 5, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 4, wherein the one or more processors are to: generate one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator.

[00221] In example 6, the apparatus of example 5, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying at least one of: a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of Resource Blocks (RBs) indicator, or a density and subcarrier offset indicator.

[00222] In example 7, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 6, wherein the eNB is a first Receiving Point (RP), wherein the SRS transmission is a first SRS transmission, and wherein the one or more processors are to: generate a second SRS transmission, wherein the first SRS transmission corresponds with a first UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the first RP, and the second SRS transmission corresponds with a second UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the second RP.

[00223] In example 8, the apparatus of example 7, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00224] In example 9, the apparatus of example 8, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission. [00225] Example 10 provides a User Equipment (UE) device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch-screen display, the UE device including the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 9.

[00226] Example 11 provides a method comprising: processing, for a User Equipment (UE), an Uplink (UL) grant for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators; and generating an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators, wherein the one or more indicators comprises an SRS process indicator.

[00227] In example 12, the method of example 11, wherein the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission determines at least one of: a UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction, or an eNB Receive (Rx) beamforming direction.

[00228] In example 13, the method of either of examples 11 or 12, wherein the one or more indicators comprises one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator.

[00229] In example 14, the method of any of examples 11 through 13, comprising: processing an SRS configuration transmission carrying one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator; and processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission.

[00230] In example 15, the method of any of examples 11 through 14, comprising: generating one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator.

[00231] In example 16, the method of example 15, comprising: processing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying at least one of: a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of Resource Blocks (RBs) indicator, or a density and subcarrier offset indicator.

[00232] In example 17, the method of any of examples 11 through 16, wherein the eNB is a first Receiving Point (RP), wherein the SRS transmission is a first SRS

transmission, comprising: generating a second SRS transmission, wherein the first SRS transmission corresponds with a first UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the first RP, and the second SRS transmission corresponds with a second UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the second RP. [00233] In example 18, the method of example 17, comprising: processing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00234] In example 19, the method of example 18, comprising: processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00235] Example 20 provides machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform a method according to any of examples 11 through 19.

[00236] Example 21 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with a millimeter-wave (mmWave) Evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: means for processing an Uplink (UL) grant for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators; and means for generating an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators, wherein the one or more indicators comprises an SRS process indicator.

[00237] In example 22, the apparatus of example 21, wherein the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission determines at least one of: a UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction, or an eNB Receive (Rx) beamforming direction.

[00238] In example 23, the apparatus of either of examples 21 or 22, wherein the one or more indicators comprises one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator.

[00239] In example 24, the apparatus of any of examples 21 through 23, comprising: means for processing an SRS configuration transmission carrying one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator; and means for processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission.

[00240] In example 25, the apparatus of any of examples 21 through 24, comprising: means for generating one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator.

[00241] In example 26, the apparatus of example 25, comprising: means for processing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying at least one of: a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of Resource Blocks (RBs) indicator, or a density and subcarrier offset indicator. [00242] In example 27, the apparatus of any of examples 21 through 26, wherein the eNB is a first Receiving Point (RP), wherein the SRS transmission is a first SRS

transmission, comprising: means for generating a second SRS transmission, wherein the first SRS transmission corresponds with a first UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the first RP, and the second SRS transmission corresponds with a second UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the second RP.

[00243] In example 28, the apparatus of example 27, comprising: means for processing a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00244] In example 29, the apparatus of example 28, comprising: means for processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00245] Example 30 provides machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a User

Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network to perform an operation comprising: process an Uplink (UL) grant for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators; and generate an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators, wherein the one or more indicators comprises an SRS process indicator.

[00246] In example 31, the machine readable storage media of example 30, wherein the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission determines at least one of: a UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction, or an eNB Receive (Rx) beamforming direction.

[00247] In example 32, the machine readable storage media of either of examples 30 or 31, wherein the one or more indicators comprises one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator.

[00248] In example 33, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 30 through 32, the operation comprising: process an SRS configuration transmission carrying one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator; and process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission.

[00249] In example 34, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 30 through 33, the operation comprising: generate one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator. [00250] In example 35, the machine readable storage media of example 34, the operation comprising: process a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying at least one of: a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of Resource Blocks (RBs) indicator, or a density and subcarrier offset indicator.

[00251] In example 36, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 30 through 35, wherein the eNB is a first Receiving Point (RP), wherein the SRS transmission is a first SRS transmission, and the operation comprising: generate a second SRS transmission, wherein the first SRS transmission corresponds with a first UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the first RP, and the second SRS transmission corresponds with a second UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction associated with the second RP.

[00252] In example 37, the machine readable storage media of example 36, the operation comprising: process a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00253] In example 38, the machine readable storage media of example 37, the operation comprising: process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a target RP index and a Tx beam index for an SRS process of the first SRS transmission.

[00254] Example 39 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: one or more processors to: determine a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) mapping rule; and generate one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule; and an interface for receiving the UL grant from a receiving circuitry and for sending the SRS transmission to a transmission circuitry.

[00255] In example 40, the apparatus of example 39, wherein the one or more resources lack at least one of: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or Scheduling Request (SR).

[00256] In example 41, the apparatus of either of examples 39 or 40, wherein the one or more resources span a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) that do not carry non-SRS Uplink (UL) channels.

[00257] In example 42, the apparatus of example 41, wherein one or more SRS ports are mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion.

[00258] In example 43, the apparatus of example 42, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are mapped to Resource Elements (REs) of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap. [00259] In example 44, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 43, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying at least one of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, or a port number.

[00260] In example 45, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 44, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a transmission carrying a UE-specific bitmap comprising at least one of: a rate-matching indication, or a puncturing indication.

[00261] In example 46, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 45, wherein a frame structure of the one or more SRS transmissions aligns with a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) frame structure.

[00262] In example 47, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 46, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00263] In example 48, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 46, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00264] In example 49, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 48, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are carried on one or more respectively corresponding UE

Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00265] In example 50, the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 49, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a beam refinement indicator.

[00266] In example 51, the apparatus of example 50, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00267] In example 52, the apparatus of example 50, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00268] In example 53, the apparatus of example 50, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE beam, and the remaining SRS transmissions not carried on the same UE beam are carried on different UE beams.

[00269] Example 54 provides a User Equipment (UE) device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch-screen display, the

UE device including the apparatus of any of examples 39 through 53.

[00270] Example 55 provides a method comprising: determining, for a User

Equipment (UE), a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) mapping rule; and generating one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule; and

[00271] In example 56, the method of example 55, wherein the one or more resources lack at least one of: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or Scheduling Request (SR).

[00272] In example 57, the method of either of examples 55 or 56, wherein the one or more resources span a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) that do not carry non-SRS Uplink (UL) channels.

[00273] In example 58, the method of example 57, wherein one or more SRS ports are mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion.

[00274] In example 59, the method of example 58, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are mapped to Resource Elements (REs) of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

[00275] In example 60, the method of any of examples 55 through 59, comprising: processing a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying at least one of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, or a port number.

[00276] In example 61, the method of any of examples 55 through 60, comprising: processing a transmission carrying a UE-specific bitmap comprising at least one of: a rate- matching indication, or a puncturing indication.

[00277] In example 62, the method of any of examples 55 through 61, wherein a frame structure of the one or more SRS ports aligns with a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) frame structure.

[00278] In example 63, the method of any of examples 55 through 62, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam

[00279] In example 64, the method of any of examples 55 through 62, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00280] In example 65, the method of any of examples 55 through 64, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are carried on one or more respectively corresponding UE

Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00281] In example 66, the method of any of examples 55 through 65, comprising: processing a Downlink Control Information (DO) transmission carrying a beam refinement indicator. [00282] In example 67, the method of example 66, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00283] In example 68, the method of example 66, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00284] In example 69, the method of example 66, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE beam, and the remaining SRS transmissions not carried on the same UE beam are carried on different UE beams.

[00285] Example 70 provides machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform a method according to any of examples 55 through 69.

[00286] Example 71 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: means for determining a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) mapping rule; and means for generating one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule; and

[00287] In example 72, the apparatus of example 71, wherein the one or more resources lack at least one of: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or Scheduling Request (SR).

[00288] In example 73, the apparatus of either of examples 71 or 72, wherein the one or more resources span a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) that do not carry non-SRS Uplink (UL) channels.

[00289] In example 74, the apparatus of example 73, wherein one or more SRS ports are mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion.

[00290] In example 75, the apparatus of example 74, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are mapped to Resource Elements (REs) of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

[00291] In example 76, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 75, comprising: means for processing a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying at least one of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an Orthogonal Frequency -Division

Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, or a port number.

[00292] In example 77, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 76, comprising: means for processing a transmission carrying a UE-specific bitmap comprising at least one of: a rate-matching indication, or a puncturing indication. [00293] In example 78, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 77, wherein a frame structure of the one or more SRS ports aligns with a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) frame structure.

[00294] In example 79, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 78, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00295] In example 80, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 78, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00296] In example 81, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 80, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are carried on one or more respectively corresponding UE

Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00297] In example 82, the apparatus of any of examples 71 through 81, comprising: means for processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a beam refinement indicator.

[00298] In example 83, the apparatus of example 82, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00299] In example 84, the apparatus of example 82, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00300] In example 85, the apparatus of example 82, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE beam, and the remaining SRS transmissions not carried on the same UE beam are carried on different UE beams.

[00301] Example 86 provides machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a User

Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network to perform an operation comprising: determine a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) mapping rule; and generate one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule; and

[00302] In example 87, the machine readable storage media of example 86, wherein the one or more resources lack at least one of: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or Scheduling Request (SR).

[00303] In example 88, the machine readable storage media of either of examples 86 or 87, wherein the one or more resources span a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) that do not carry non-SRS Uplink (UL) channels.

[00304] In example 89, the machine readable storage media of example 88, wherein one or more SRS ports are mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion. [00305] In example 90, the machine readable storage media of example 89, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are mapped to Resource Elements (REs) of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

[00306] In example 91, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 90, the operation comprising: process a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying at least one of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, or a port number.

[00307] In example 92, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 91, the operation comprising: process a transmission carrying a UE-specific bitmap comprising at least one of: a rate-matching indication, or a puncturing indication.

[00308] In example 93, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 92, wherein a frame structure of the one or more SRS ports aligns with a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) frame structure.

[00309] In example 94, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 93, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00310] In example 95, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 93, wherein one or more SRS resources are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00311] In example 96, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 95, wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are carried on one or more respectively corresponding UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00312] In example 97, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 86 through 96, the operation comprising: process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission carrying a beam refinement indicator.

[00313] In example 98, the machine readable storage media of example 97, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE Transmit (Tx) beam.

[00314] In example 99, the machine readable storage media of example 97, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on different UE Transmit (Tx) beams.

[00315] In example 100, the machine readable storage media of example 97, wherein one or more of the SRS transmissions are carried on the same UE beam, and the remaining SRS transmissions not carried on the same UE beam are carried on different UE beams. [00316] Example 101 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: one or more processors to: determine an activation window for Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) of a Reference Signal (RS); establish a semi-persistent schedule for the RS; and generate a plurality of RSes in accordance with the schedule; and an interface for sending the plurality of RSes to a transmission circuitry.

[00317] In example 102, the apparatus of example 101, wherein the plurality of RSes includes at least one of: one or more Beam Refinement Reference Signals (BRRSes), one or more Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSes), or one or more Sounding Reference Signals (SRSes).

[00318] In example 103, the apparatus of either of examples 101 or 102, wherein the activation window is determined to have a fixed window length.

[00319] In example 104, the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 103, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a transmission carrying an indicator to trigger the activation window, wherein the transmission is one of: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission, a received Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), or a received Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling transmission.

[00320] In example 105, the apparatus of example 104, wherein the activation window starts when the indicator has a first value, and the activation window ends when the indicator has a second value.

[00321] In example 106, the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 105, wherein the RSes include a first RS having a first configuration and a second RS having a second configuration; wherein at least one of the first configuration and the second configuration has one or more parameters of a set of parameters comprising: a radio frame index, a subframe index, or an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) index.

[00322] In example 107, the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 106, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) transmission comprising a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by one of: an SPS Channel State Information (CSI) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) (SPS-CSI- RNTI), an SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signal (BRRS) RNTI (SPS-BRRS-RNTI), or an SPS Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) RNTI (SPS-SRS-RNTI).

[00323] In example 108, the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 107, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a higher-layer signaling configuration transmission carrying a subframe offset indicator. [00324] In example 109, the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 108, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a Downlink Control Information (DO) transmission comprising an RS Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, wherein for a first value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission; and wherein for a second value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Channel State Information (CSI) measurement.

[00325] In example 110, the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 109, wherein the one or more processors are to: generate an SPS Channel State information (CSI) report in accordance with a resource hopping pattern defined for at least one of Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein the resource hopping pattern is a function of one or more of the parameters: a physical cell Identity (ID), a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index, or a starting frequency resource index.

[00326] Example 111 provides a User Equipment (UE) device comprising an application processor, a memory, one or more antennas, a wireless interface for allowing the application processor to communicate with another device, and a touch-screen display, the UE device including the apparatus of any of examples 101 through 110.

[00327] Example 112 provides a method comprising: determining, for a User Equipment (UE), an activation window for Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) of a Reference Signal (RS); establishing a semi-persistent schedule for the RS; and generating a plurality of RSes in accordance with the schedule; and

[00328] In example 113, the method of example 112, wherein the plurality of RSes includes at least one of: one or more Beam Refinement Reference Signals (BRRSes), one or more Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSes), or one or more Sounding Reference Signals (SRSes).

[00329] In example 114, the method of either of examples 112 or 113, wherein the activation window is determined to have a fixed window length.

[00330] In example 115, the method of any of examples 112 through 114, comprising: processing a transmission carrying an indicator to trigger the activation window, wherein the transmission is one of: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission, a received Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), or a received Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling transmission. [00331] In example 116, the method of example 115, wherein the activation window starts when the indicator has a first value, and the activation window ends when the indicator has a second value.

[00332] In example 117, the method of any of examples 112 through 116, wherein the RSes include a first RS having a first configuration and a second RS having a second configuration; wherein at least one of the first configuration and the second configuration has one or more parameters of a set of parameters comprising: a radio frame index, a subframe index, or an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) index.

[00333] In example 118, the method of any of examples 112 through 117, comprising: processing a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) transmission comprising a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by one of: an SPS Channel State Information (CSI) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) (SPS-CSI-RNTI), an SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signal (BRRS) RNTI (SPS-BRRS-RNTI), or an SPS Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) RNTI (SPS-SRS-RNTI).

[00334] In example 119, the method of any of examples 112 through 118, comprising: processing a higher-layer signaling configuration transmission carrying a subframe offset indicator.

[00335] In example 120, the method of any of examples 112 through 119, comprising: processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission comprising an RS

Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, wherein for a first value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission; and wherein for a second value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Channel State Information (CSI)

measurement.

[00336] In example 121, the method of any of examples 112 through 120, comprising: generating an SPS Channel State information (CSI) report in accordance with a resource hopping pattern defined for at least one of Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein the resource hopping pattern is a function of one or more of the parameters: a physical cell Identity (ID), a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index, or a starting frequency resource index.

[00337] Example 122 provides machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform a method according to any of examples 112 through 121. [00338] Example 123 provides an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising: means for determining an activation window for Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) of a Reference Signal (RS); means for establishing a semi-persistent schedule for the RS; and means for generating a plurality of RSes in accordance with the schedule; and

[00339] In example 124, the apparatus of example 123, wherein the plurality of RSes includes at least one of: one or more Beam Refinement Reference Signals (BRRSes), one or more Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSes), or one or more Sounding Reference Signals (SRSes).

[00340] In example 125, the apparatus of either of examples 123 or 124, wherein the activation window is determined to have a fixed window length.

[00341] In example 126, the apparatus of any of examples 123 through 125, comprising: means for processing a transmission carrying an indicator to trigger the activation window, wherein the transmission is one of: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission, a received Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), or a received Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling transmission.

[00342] In example 127, the apparatus of example 126, wherein the activation window starts when the indicator has a first value, and the activation window ends when the indicator has a second value.

[00343] In example 128, the apparatus of any of examples 123 through 127, wherein the RSes include a first RS having a first configuration and a second RS having a second configuration; wherein at least one of the first configuration and the second configuration has one or more parameters of a set of parameters comprising: a radio frame index, a subframe index, or an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) index.

[00344] In example 129, the apparatus of any of examples 123 through 128, comprising: means for processing a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) transmission comprising a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by one of: an SPS Channel State Information (CSI) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) (SPS-CSI- RNTI), an SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signal (BRRS) RNTI (SPS-BRRS-RNTI), or an SPS Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) RNTI (SPS-SRS-RNTI).

[00345] In example 130, the apparatus of any of examples 123 through 129, comprising: means for processing a higher-layer signaling configuration transmission carrying a subframe offset indicator. [00346] In example 131, the apparatus of any of examples 123 through 130, comprising: means for processing a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission comprising an RS Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, wherein for a first value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission; and wherein for a second value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Channel State Information (CSI) measurement.

[00347] In example 132, the apparatus of any of examples 123 through 131, comprising: means for generating an SPS Channel State information (CSI) report in accordance with a resource hopping pattern defined for at least one of Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein the resource hopping pattern is a function of one or more of the parameters: a physical cell Identity (ID), a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index, or a starting frequency resource index.

[00348] Example 133 provides machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network to perform an operation comprising: determine an activation window for Semi- Persistent Scheduling (SPS) of a Reference Signal (RS); establish a semi-persistent schedule for the RS; and generate a plurality of RSes in accordance with the schedule; and

[00349] In example 134, the machine readable storage media of example 133, wherein the plurality of RSes includes at least one of: one or more Beam Refinement Reference Signals (BRRSes), one or more Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RSes), or one or more Sounding Reference Signals (SRSes).

[00350] In example 135, the machine readable storage media of either of examples 133 or 134, wherein the activation window is determined to have a fixed window length.

[00351] In example 136, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 133 through 135, the operation comprising: process a transmission carrying an indicator to trigger the activation window, wherein the transmission is one of: a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission, a received Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), or a received Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling transmission.

[00352] In example 137, the machine readable storage media of example 136, wherein the activation window starts when the indicator has a first value, and the activation window ends when the indicator has a second value. [00353] In example 138, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 133 through 137, wherein the RSes include a first RS having a first configuration and a second RS having a second configuration; wherein at least one of the first configuration and the second configuration has one or more parameters of a set of parameters comprising: a radio frame index, a subframe index, or an Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) index.

[00354] In example 139, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 133 through 138, the operation comprising: process a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) transmission comprising a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) scrambled by one of: an SPS Channel State Information (CSI) Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) (SPS- CSI-RNTI), an SPS Beam Refinement Reference Signal (BRRS) RNTI (SPS-BRRS-RNTI), or an SPS Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) RNTI (SPS-SRS-RNTI).

[00355] In example 140, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 133 through 139, the operation comprising: process a higher-layer signaling configuration transmission carrying a subframe offset indicator.

[00356] In example 141, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 133 through 140, the operation comprising: process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) transmission comprising an RS Orthogonal Frequency -Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, wherein for a first value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission; and wherein for a second value of the RS OFDM symbol indicator, RS symbols are indicated for Channel State Information (CSI) measurement.

[00357] In example 142, the machine readable storage media of any of examples 133 through 141, the operation comprising: generate an SPS Channel State information (CSI) report in accordance with a resource hopping pattern defined for at least one of Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, wherein the resource hopping pattern is a function of one or more of the parameters: a physical cell Identity (ID), a virtual cell ID, a symbol index, a subframe index, a slot index, a starting time resource index, or a starting frequency resource index.

[00358] In example 143, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 9, 39 through 53, and 101 through 110, wherein the one or more processors comprise a baseband processor.

[00359] In example 144, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 9, 39 through 53, and 101 through 110, comprising a memory for storing instructions, the memory being coupled to the one or more processors. [00360] In example 145, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 9, 39 through 53, and 101 through 110, comprising a transceiver circuitry for at least one of: generating transmissions, encoding transmissions, processing transmissions, or decoding transmissions.

[00361] In example 146, the apparatus of any of examples 1 through 9, 39 through 53, and 101 through 110, comprising a transceiver circuitry for generating transmissions and processing transmissions.

[00362] An abstract is provided that will allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit 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 We claim:

1. An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with a millimeter- wave (mmWave) Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising:

one or more processors to:

process an Uplink (UL) grant for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators; and generate an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators,

wherein the one or more indicators comprises an SRS process indicator; and an interface for receiving the UL grant from a receiving circuitry and for sending the SRS transmission to a transmission circuitry.

2. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission determines at least one of: a UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction, or an eNB Receive (Rx) beamforming direction.

3. The apparatus of either of claims 1 or 2,

wherein the one or more indicators comprises one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator.

4. The apparatus of either of claims 1 or 2, wherein the one or more processors are to:

process an SRS configuration transmission carrying one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator; and

process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission.

5. The apparatus of either of claims 1 or 2, wherein the one or more processors are to:

generate one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the one or more processors are to:

process a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying at least one of: a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of Resource Blocks (RBs) indicator, or a density and subcarrier offset indicator.

7. Machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions that, when

executed, cause one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network to perform an operation comprising:

process an Uplink (UL) grant for a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmission, the UL grant carrying one or more indicators; and

generate an SRS transmission based at least in part upon the one or more indicators, wherein the one or more indicators comprises an SRS process indicator.

8. The machine readable storage media of claim 7,

wherein the SRS process indicator for the SRS transmission determines at least one of: a UE Transmit (Tx) beamforming direction, or an eNB Receive (Rx) beamforming direction.

9. The machine readable storage media of either of claims 7 or 8,

wherein the one or more indicators comprises one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator.

10. The machine readable storage media of either of claims 7 or 8, the operation comprising: process an SRS configuration transmission carrying one or more of: a density and subcarrier offset configuration indicator, or a Resource Block (RB) assignment indicator; and

process a Downlink Control Information (DCI) carrying an SRS configuration index for configuring trigger-based transmission of the SRS transmission.

11. The machine readable storage media of either of claims 7 or 8, the operation comprising: generate one or more additional SRS transmissions periodically based upon a period and subframe offset indicator.

12. The machine readable storage media of claim 11, the operation comprising:

process a Radio Resource Control (RRC) transmission carrying at least one of: a period indicator, a subframe offset indicator, a number of Resource Blocks (RBs) indicator, or a density and subcarrier offset indicator.

13. An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved

Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network, comprising:

one or more processors to:

determine a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) mapping rule; and

generate one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule; and

an interface for receiving the UL grant from a receiving circuitry and for sending the SRS transmission to a transmission circuitry.

14. The apparatus of claim 13,

wherein the one or more resources lack at least one of: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or Scheduling Request (SR).

15. The apparatus of either of claims 13 or 14,

wherein the one or more resources span a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) that do not carry non-SRS Uplink (UL) channels.

16. The apparatus of claim 15,

wherein one or more SRS ports are mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion.

17. The apparatus of claim 16,

wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are mapped to Resource Elements (REs) of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

18. The apparatus of either of claims 13 or 14, wherein the one or more processors are to: process a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying at least one of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, or a port number.

19. Machine readable storage media having machine executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a User Equipment (UE) operable to communicate with an Evolved Node-B (eNB) on a wireless network to perform an operation comprising:

determine a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) mapping rule; and

generate one or more SRS transmissions corresponding to one or more resources in accordance with the SRS mapping rule; and

20. The machine readable storage media of claim 19,

wherein the one or more resources lack at least one of: Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), or Scheduling Request (SR).

21. The machine readable storage media of either of claims 19 or 20,

wherein the one or more resources span a set of Resource Blocks (RBs) that do not carry non-SRS Uplink (UL) channels.

22. The machine readable storage media of claim 21,

wherein one or more SRS ports are mapped to a set of RBs in an interleaved fashion.

23. The machine readable storage media of claim 22,

wherein the one or more SRS transmissions are mapped to Resource Elements (REs) of the set of RBs with a fixed subcarrier gap.

24. The machine readable storage media of either of claims 19 or 20, the operation

comprising:

process a cell-specific SRS configuration transmission carrying at least one of: a radio frame indicator, a subframe indicator, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol indicator, a time period indicator, a spanned bandwidth indicator, a subcarrier index, or a port number.