WO2018143879A1 - Allocation dependent uplink control information (uci) mapping - Google Patents

Abstract

A method, network node and wireless device for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on a location of distortions to a transmission signal configured to carry the UCI are provided. According to one aspect, a method includes determining a location of distortions within a symbol of the transmission signal, and mapping the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

Description

ALLOCATION DEPENDENT UPLINK CONTROL INFORMATION (UCI) MAPPING

FIELD This disclosure relates to wireless communications, and in particular, to allocation dependent uplink control information (UCI) mapping.

BACKGROUND

In third generation partnership long term evolution (3 GPP LTE) systems, data transmissions in both the downlink (i.e. from a network node, network node or evolved node B (eNB) to a wireless device or WD) and the uplink (from a WD to a network node, base station or eNB) are organized into radio frames of 10 ms, each radio frame consisting of ten equally-sized sub frames of length T_subframe ⁼ 1 ms, as shown in FIG. 1.

LTE uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in the downlink and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) in the uplink. The basic LTE downlink physical resource can thus be seen as a time-frequency grid as illustrated in FIG. 2, where each resource element corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval.

Furthermore, resource allocation in LTE is typically described in terms of resource blocks (RBs), where a resource block corresponds to one slot (0.5 ms) in the time domain and 12 contiguous subcarriers in the frequency domain. Resource blocks are numbered in the frequency domain, starting with 0 from one end of the system bandwidth.

Similarly, the LTE uplink resource grid is illustrated in FIG. 3, where NR is the number of resource blocks (RBs) contained in the uplink system bandwidth, N^_C ^B is the number subcarriers in each RB, typically N^_C ^B = 12, N_gy ^L _mb is the number of SC-FDMA symbols in each slot. N_gy ^L _mb = 7 for normal cyclic prefix (CP) and N_gy ^L _mb = 6 for extended CP. A subcarrier and a SC-FDMA symbol forms an uplink resource element (RE).

Downlink data transmissions from an eNB to a wireless device (WD) are dynamically scheduled, i.e., in each sub frame the network node transmits control information about to which terminals data is transmitted and upon which resource blocks the data is transmitted, in the current downlink sub frame. This control signaling is typically transmitted in the first 1, 2, 3 or 4 orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) symbols in each sub frame. A downlink system with 3 OFDM symbols as control is illustrated in FIG. 4.

Transmissions in the uplink (from a WD to an e B) are, as in the downlink, also dynamically scheduled through the downlink control channel. When a WD receives uplink grant in sub frame n, it transmits data in the uplink at sub frame n+k, where k=4 for frequency division duplex (FDD) systems and k varies for time division duplex (TDD) systems.

In LTE, a number of physical channels are supported for data transmissions. A downlink or an uplink physical channel corresponds to a set of resource elements carrying information originating from higher layers, whereas a downlink or an uplink physical signal is used by the physical layer but does not carry information originating from higher layers. Some of the downlink physical channels and signals supported in LTE are:

• Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH;

• Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH;

• Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel, EPDCCH;

• Reference signals:

• Cell Specific Reference Signals (CRS);

• DeModulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for PDSCH;

• Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS).

The PDSCH is used mainly for carrying user traffic data and higher layer messages in the downlink and is transmitted in a DL sub frame outside of the control region as shown in FIG. 4. Both PDCCH and EPDCCH are used to carry Downlink Control Information (DCI) such as PRB allocation, modulation level and coding scheme (MCS), precoder used at the transmitter, etc. PDCCH is transmitted in the first one to four OFDM symbols in a DL sub frame, i.e. the control region, while EPDCCH is transmitted in the same region as PDSCH.

Some of the uplink physical channels and signals supported in LTE are:

• Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH;

• Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH;

• DeModulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for PUSCH; and • DeModulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for PUCCH.

The PUSCH is used to carry uplink data or/and uplink control information (UCI) from the WD to the eNodeB. The PUCCH is used to carry uplink control information (UCI) from the WD to the eNodeB. Packet data latency is one of the performance metrics that vendors, operators, and end-users (via speed test applications) regularly measure. Latency measurements are done in all phases of a radio access network system lifetime, when verifying a new software release or system component, when deploying a system and when the system is in commercial operation. Shorter latency than previous generations of 3 GPP radio access technologies (RATs) was one performance metric that guided the design of Long Term Evolution (LTE). The end- users also now recognize LTE to be a system that provides faster access to internet and lower data latencies than previous generations of mobile radio technologies.

Packet data latency is important not only for the perceived responsiveness of the system; it is also a parameter that indirectly influences the throughput of the system.

Hypertext transport protocol/transmission control protocol (HTTP/TCP) is the dominating application and transport layer protocol suite used on the Internet today. According to HTTP Archive (http://httparchive.org/trends.php), the typical size of HTTP based transactions over the Internet are in the range of a few 10s of Kbyte up to 1 Mbyte. In this size range, the TCP slow start period is a significant part of the total transport period of the packet stream.

During TCP slow start the performance is latency limited. Hence, improved latency can rather easily be showed to improve the average throughput, for this type of TCP based data transactions.

Latency reductions could positively impact radio resource efficiency. Lower packet data latency could increase the number of transmissions possible within a certain delay bound; hence higher Block Error Rate (BLER) targets could be used for the data

transmissions freeing up radio resources potentially improving the capacity of the system.

One approach to latency reduction is the reduction of transport time of data and control signaling, by addressing the length of a transmission time interval (TTI). By reducing the length of a TTI and maintaining the bandwidth, the processing time at the transmitter and the receiver nodes is also expected to be reduced, due to less data to process within the TTI. As described above, in LTE release 8, a TTI corresponds to one sub frame (SF) of length 1 millisecond. One such 1 ms TTI is constructed by using 14 OFDM or SC-FDMA symbols in the case of normal cyclic prefix and 12 OFDM or SC-FDMA symbols in the case of extended cyclic prefix. In LTE release 14 in 3 GPP, a study item on latency reduction has been conducted, with the goal of specifying transmissions with shorter TTIs, such as a slot or a few symbols.

An sTTI can be decided to have any duration in time and comprise resources on any number of OFDM or SC-FDMA symbols, and start at a symbol position within the overall frame. For the work in LTE, the focus of the work currently is to only allow the sTTIs to start at fixed positions with durations of either 2, 3 or 7 symbols. Furthermore, the sTTI is not allowed to cross either slot or sub frame boundaries.

One example is shown in FIG. 5, where the duration of the uplink short TTI is 0.5 ms, i.e., seven SC-FDMA symbols for the case with normal cyclic prefix. Also a combined length of 2 or 3 symbols are shown for the sTTI. Here, the "R" in the figures indicate the DMRS symbols, and "D" indicate the data symbols. Other configurations are not excluded, and the figure is only an attempt to illustrate differences in sTTI lengths.

The uplink control information (UCI) regarding Channel State Information (CSI), Rank Indication (RI) and hybrid automated repeat request (HARQ) feedback from

transmitted downlink (DL) blocks, can be included in the UL control channel (SPUCCH or be sent as part of the UL data block (i.e., slot or sub slot PUSCH ((PUSCH)). The mapping of the uplink control information (UCI) is done together with the channel interleaver.

The channel interleaver implements a time-first mapping of coded bits onto the transmit waveform. FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the channel interleaver matrix for PUSCH, assuming one transport block with two layers, and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation. The demodulation reference symbols (DMRS) are not included in the figure. Each box corresponds to a coded bit. The boxes with the same number relate to the same coded modulation symbol. The number of columns in the channel interleaver matrix in LTE is equal to the number of SC-FDMA data symbols in a 1ms UL sub frame, i.e. 12. The coded bits are placed in the channel interleaver matrix row by row and are read column by column to build the bit sequence that is fed to the modulator. First, the rank indicator (RI) bits are mapped to the matrix from the bottom row and moving upwards. The coded RI bits are mapped to all four SC-FDMA symbols before moving upwards. The columns used for the mapping are predetermined, and for normal cyclic prefix (CP) they are { 1, 4, 7, 10}, while for extended CP they are {0, 3, 5, 8}. Then, the channel quality indicator (CQI) and data are mapped from top to bottom, by mapping to all the SC-FDMA symbols before moving downwards, and skipping the boxes that are already occupied by RI. The mapping is performed over a set of rows defined by the modulation order and the number of layers used. In this case quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation (2 bits per modulation symbol) and 2 layers are assumed, and hence the mapping is performed over sets of 2*2 = 4 rows. Finally, the coded hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) bits are mapped to the interleaver matrix. As with the RI, the HARQ bits are mapped onto predefined columns in the matrix, using {2,3,8,9} for normal CP, and { 1,2,6,7} for extended CP, by puncturing the data (i.e. overriding the corresponding data symbol).

The reason for this mapping can be described by the following principles:

• HARQ needs to be separated from the data decoding in case the WD has missed the DL assignment of the block. Hence it is punctured, and not rate matched onto the resources; · HARQ needs to be robustly transmitted and hence is placed close to the DMRS symbol (channel response would basically be the same over DMRS and HARQ); and

• The resource indicator (RI) needs to be robustly transmitted since the decoding of the channel quality indicator (CQI)/precoder matrix indicator (PMI) will depend on a correctly decoded RI. The amount of resources taken up by the RI, HARQ and CQI/PMI can be changed by the network to make the transmission more or less robust. Hence, they are mapped to the resources so that an increase in size, using the above mapping rules, would minimize conflicts of different fields of the UCI using the same resource elements.

The UL channel interleaver spreads the coded information bits in the time domain, and thereby, improve the robustness of UL data transmission in high mobility scenarios. It also improves the robustness of UL data transmission to a deep fading in frequency with relatively long channel coherent bandwidth.

For a transmitter to not cause harmful interference to the network and in order not to transmit when there is no useful signal for the receiver to send, an ON/OFF mask is defined in the LTE specifications. In the OFF region the transmitter is not allowed to transmit and cause harmful interference while in the ON region the signal needs to follow the theoretical signal to a certain extent (which is ensured by the error vector magnitude (EVM) requirement). Between the end of the OFF region and the start of the ON region is a transition period where the signal is undefined. Transitions take place for example when turning of/on RF components and when for example changing frequency where the oscillators must be re-turned and stabilized.

As stated in TS 36.101, vl4.1.0, Section 6.3.4:

"The General ON/OFF time mask defines the observation period between Transmit OFF and ON power and between Transmit ON and OFF power. ON/OFF scenarios include; the beginning or end of DTX, measurement gap, contiguous, and non-contiguous

transmission.

The OFF power measurement period is defined in a duration of at least one sub-frame excluding any transient periods. The ON power is defined as the mean power over one sub- frame excluding any transient period.

There are no additional requirements on WD transmit power beyond that which is required in sub clause 6.2.2 and sub clause 6.6.2.3."

The current ON/OFF mask requirement in today's LTE specification is shown in FIG. 7. There are multiple masks depending on different situations when the WD is transmitting. The one shown in Figure 7 represents the case of a single TTI transmission with no other transmissions preceding or succeeding the TTI. As seen in FIG. 7, the ON/OFF time mask is design for 1 ms TTI in Rel-8 legacy LTE systems. A typical value for the transient period in Rel-8 LTE is 20us. A similar maximum duration is considered for the transient period for LTE short TTI. Thus, the transient period will represent a larger portion of the UL transmission with short TTI. Several ON/OFF masks will be defined for short TTI to cover various transmission cases, e.g. the case of consecutive sTTI transmission with or without power change or the case of SRS

transmission.

The problem with the UCI mapping becomes most apparent when combining the information above: that is, using sTTI together with an unknown transient period, and, with the transient period spanning a non-negligible part of the overall sTTI duration. Due to the modulation used in the UL (SC-FDMA), the symbols transmitted over the air will be more or less time multiplexed (relatively well confined within the symbol duration). Hence, symbols that are mapped early (at the top) in FIG. 6 would be transmitted early in time, and vice versa with symbols mapped at the bottom. If the transient period occurs at the start of the sTTI, the symbols mapped to the beginning of the first SC-FDMA symbol will be impacted, while if the transient period occurs at the end of the sTTI, the symbols mapped to the end of the last SC-FDMA symbol will be impacted. If HARQ bits are mapped to the end of the last symbol and if the transient period for example would occur over 1/3 of the last UL symbol, a big portion or all of HARQ bits would be impacted.

In Rel-8 LTE, HARQ bits and RI bits are protected from the transient period that may occur at the beginning or at the end of the TTI since they are mapped in the middle of the 1ms TTI. A unique uplink control information (UCI) mapping is sufficient in Rel-8 LTE independently of the position of the transient period. However, for short TTI, especially 2- symbol TTI, some important UCI bits (HARQ bits, RI mapping) can be placed close to one extremity of the short TTI due to the very short TTI duration. A static UCI mapping in a system where the transient period may change position will result in the corruption of these important UCI bits and in degraded UCI performance.

SUMMARY

Some embodiments advantageously provide a method, wireless device and network node for mapping uplink control information (UCI) to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur. According to one aspect, a method includes determining the at least one location where distortion in the transmission signal is permitted to occur, and mapping the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur. According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access, SC-FDMA, symbols. In some embodiments, the UCI is mapped such that the UCI is non-contiguous in time. In some embodiments, the mapping of the UCI is based on rules that are based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions. In some embodiments, a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region. In some embodiments, the UCI is mapped to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a location where distortions are permitted to occur is at a beginning and end of a short transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration. In some embodiments, the UCI mapping is based on signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the wireless device.

According to another aspect, a wireless device for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on at least one regions where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The wireless device includes processing circuitry configured to determine the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur, and map the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols. In some embodiments, the UCI is mapped such that the UCI is non-contiguous in time. In some embodiments, the mapping of the UCI is according to rules based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions. In some embodiments, a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region. In some embodiments, UCI is mapped to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a region where distortions are permitted to occur a beginning and end of a short transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration. In some embodiments, the UCI mapping is according to signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the receiving node.

According to yet another aspect, a wireless device for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The wireless device includes a location determining module configured to determine the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur and a mapping module configured to map the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to another aspect, a method for use in a network node configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The method includes receiving the transmission signal, the transmission signal including a location of the UCI, and extracting the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location.

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is extracted at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, the UCI is extracted at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some

embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols. In some embodiments, the method includes transmitting to a wireless device scheduling information from which the wireless device determines the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to yet another aspect, a network node configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The network node includes a transceiver configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including a location of the UCI, and a processor configured to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location.

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is extracted at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, the UCI is extracted at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols. In some embodiments, the network node further includes a transmitter configured to transmit to a wireless device scheduling information from which the wireless device determines the regions where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to another aspect, a network node configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The network node includes a receiver module configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including the location of the UCI, and a UCI processing module to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present embodiments, and the attendant advantages and features thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is radio frame consisting of sub frames according to known techniques for forming radio frames;

FIG. 2 is a time-frequency grid according to known techniques; FIG. 3 is an LTE uplink resource grid according to known techniques; FIG. 4 is a time frequency grid for 3 OFDM symbols according to known techniques; FIG. 5 is an example of uplink short TTIs; FIG. 6 is a mapping by a channel interleaver; FIG. 7 is a current on/off mask requirement in an LTE system;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a wireless communication network constructed in accordance with principles set forth herein;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a WD constructed in accordance with principles set forth herein;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of a wireless device built in accordance with principles set forth herein;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a network node, such as a base station, configured to receive UCI mapped according to a region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur;

FIG. 12 is an alternative embodiment of the network node having a UCI processor configured to extract UCI from an uplink signal received from a WD via a receiver; FIG. 13 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for mapping UCI in the presence of distortions in a transmission signal of a WD;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for receiving, at a network node, UCI from a WD; FIG. 15 is one example of mapping of UCI; FIG. 16 is another example of mapping of UCI;

FIG. 17 is an example of mapping where a transient period of one WD is used to avoid mapping UCI on the same symbols for a second WD;

FIG. 18 is a UCI mapping chosen that is the same whether and SRS is transmitted or not; and FIG. 19 shows examples of UCI mapping considering different sTTIs.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before describing in detail exemplary embodiments, it is noted that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of apparatus components and processing steps related to allocation dependent uplink control information (UCI) mapping. Accordingly, components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. As used herein, relational terms, such as "first" and "second," "top" and "bottom," and the like, may be used solely to distinguish one entity or element from another entity or element without necessarily requiring or implying any physical or logical relationship or order between such entities or elements.

In this disclosure, a first node and a second node are referenced. An example of a first node could be a network node, which could be a more general term and can correspond to any type of radio network node or any network node such as a base station, which communicates with a WD and/or with another network node. Examples of network nodes are NodeB, base station (BS), multi- standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB. MeNB, SeNB, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. mobile switching center (MSC), mobile management entity (MME), etc.), operation and management (O&M), operation support systems (OSS), self- organizing networks (SON), positioning node (e.g. evolved serving mobile location center (E-SMLC)), mobile data terminal (MDT), etc.

Another example of a node could be user equipment (UE) or wireless device (WD), which refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another WD in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of WDs are target device, device to device (D2D) WD, machine type WD or WD capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, iPad, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.

In some embodiments generic terminology, "radio network node" or simply "network node (NW node)", is used. It can be any kind of network node which may include a base station, radio base station, base transceiver station, base station controller, network controller, evolved Node B (eNB), Node B, relay node, access point, radio access point, Remote Radio Unit (RRU) Remote Radio Head (RRH) etc.

In this disclosure, any of the above mentioned nodes could become "the first node" and/or "the second node".

The term radio access technology, or RAT, may refer to any RAT, e.g., universal terrestrial radio (UTRA), evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), narrow band Internet of things (NB- IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT (NR), 4G, 5G, etc. Any of the first and the second nodes may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.

The term "signal" used herein can be any physical signal or physical channel.

Examples of physical signals are a reference signal such as a primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), common reference signal (CRS), positioning reference signal (PRS), etc. The term physical channel (e.g., in the context of channel reception) used herein is also called a channel. Examples of physical channels are management information base (MIB), physical broadcast channel (PBCH), narrowband- PBCH (NPBCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), shortened physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH), shortened PDSCH (sPDSCH). shortened PUCCH (sPUCCH). shortened physical uplink shared channel

(sPUSCH), machine type communication PDCCH (MPDCCH), narrowband PDCCH ( PDCCH), narrowband PDSCH ( PDSCH), evolved PDCCH (E-PDCCH), PUSCH, PUCCH, narrowband PUSCH ( PUSCH), etc.

The term time resource used herein may correspond to any type of physical resource or radio resource expressed in terms of length of time. Examples of time resources are: symbol, time slot, sub frame, radio frame, TTI, interleaving time, etc.

The term TTI used herein may correspond to any time period (TO) over which a physical channel can be encoded and interleaved for transmission. The physical channel is decoded by the receiver over the same time period (TO) over which it was encoded. The TTI may also interchangeably called short TTI (sTTI), transmission time, slot, sub-slot, mini-slot, short sub frame (SSF), mini-sub frame etc.

The term requirements used herein may comprise any type of WD requirements related to WD measurements aka radio requirements, measurement requirements, radio resource management (RRM) requirements, mobility requirements, positioning measurement requirements etc. Examples of WD requirements related to WD 20 measurements are measurement time, measurement reporting time or delay, measurement accuracy (e.g.

RSRP/RSRQ accuracy), number of cells to be measured over the measurement time etc. Examples of measurement time are LI measurement period, cell identification time or cell search delay, CGI acquisition delay, etc.

The technology background and implementation examples are given for the LTE system. However, the principles set forth herein may apply to any radio access technology (e.g. new radio, 5G) relying on reference signal transmission where there is a predictable part of the signal that might be distorted, the part of the signal being distorted being known, while the actual distortion is possibly unknown.

Embodiments provide different mapping of some information to be safely received by the receiving node. The mapping of this information is chosen depending on the region where distortions to the transmitted signal are permitted to occur, in order to protect the information transmitted. In different embodiments, the region where the distortions are permitted to occur is obtained by specification and/or scheduling information and/or other type of signaling information received by the WD from the network node. In the embodiments below, some information is control information related to uplink transmission, called uplink control information (UCI) in the LTE specifications. Many of the embodiments are, however, more general, and may be applied to other types of control information transmitted, in systems other than LTE. Note that the term UCI is meant to include uplink control information, however named, for any one of one or more radio access technologies. In other words, use of the acronym "UCI" does not refer to any particular radio access technology or standard. FIG. 8 is a block of a wireless communication network 10, including a network cloud

16, wireless devices 20 A and 20B, herein referred to collectively as WDs 20, and network nodes 40A and 40B, herein referred to collectively as network nodes 40. Network nodes 40 are typically base stations. The cloud 16 may include the Internet and/or the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and may include a backhaul network for the network nodes 40. The network nodes 40 are in communication with the WDs 20. Although only two network nodes 40 and two WDs 20 are shown for convenience, more or fewer network nodes 40 and WDs 20 may be employed in practice. A wireless device 20 constructed in accordance with principles set forth herein include a distortion location determiner 30 and a UCI mapper 32. The distortion location determiner 30 determines a region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, and the UCI mapper 32 maps UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where the distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur. Note that regions where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur may include distortion that is undesirable but not suppressed. Although embodiments are described herein with reference to certain functions being performed by network nodes 40, it is understood that the functions can be performed in other network nodes and elements. It is also understood that the functions of the network nodes 40 or other network nodes can be distributed across network cloud 16 so that other nodes can perform one or more functions or even parts of functions described herein. In some embodiments, the mapping of the UCI content is defined so that the UCI content is confined within a UCI mapping region where no distortions of the transmitted signal will occur. In this case, legacy principles can still be maintained to a large extent.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a WD 20 constructed in accordance with principles set forth herein. The WD 20 has processing circuitry 22. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may include a memory 24 and processor 26, the memory 24 containing instructions which, when executed by the processor 26, configure processor 26 to perform the one or more functions described herein. In addition to a traditional processor and memory, processing circuitry 22 may comprise integrated circuitry for processing and/or control, e.g., one or more processors and/or processor cores and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array) and/or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuitry).

Processing circuitry 22 may include and/or be connected to and/or be configured for accessing (e.g., writing to and/or reading from) memory 24, which may include any kind of volatile and/or non-volatile memory, e.g., cache and/or buffer memory and/or RAM (Random Access Memory) and/or ROM (Read-Only Memory) and/or optical memory and/or EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory). Such memory 24 may be configured to store code executable by control circuitry and/or other data, e.g., data pertaining to communication, e.g., configuration and/or address data of nodes, etc. Processing circuitry 22 may be configured to control any of the methods described herein and/or to cause such methods to be performed, e.g., by processor 26. Corresponding instructions may be stored in the memory 24, which may be readable and/or readably connected to the processing circuitry 22. In other words, processing circuitry 22 may include a controller, which may comprise a

microprocessor and/or microcontroller and/or FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) device and/or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) device. It may be considered that processing circuitry 22 includes or may be connected or connectable to memory, which may be configured to be accessible for reading and/or writing by the controller and/or processing circuitry 22. The memory 24 is configured to store UCI mappings 28 in accordance with locations of distortions within a symbol of a transmission signal. The processor 26 is configured to implement a distortion location determiner 30. The location of distortion may be based on scheduling data received from a network node 40 or may be predefined or discovered by the WD 20. A UCI mapper 32 is implemented by the processor 26 to map UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

The wireless device 20 also has a receiver 34 to receive downlink data from a network node 40, which may include scheduling data from which the distortion location determiner 30 may ascertain the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur. The transmitter 36 of the WD 20 functions to transmit UCI on a PUSCH or PUCCH.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of a wireless device 20 built in accordance with principles set forth herein. The WD 20 of FIG. 10 has software modules containing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to implement functions of the WD 20. For example, a distortion location determining module 31 includes software that causes the processor to determine regions in a sub frame where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur. A UCI mapping module 33 causes the processor to map UCI in locations in a sub frame, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur as determined by the distortion location determining module 31. The receiver module 35 and transmitter module 37 may be implemented in part by software executed by the processor. The receiver module 35 is configured to receive scheduling or signaling information that enables the distortion location determining module 31 to locate where distortion in sub frames of the transmission signal of the WD 20 are permitted to occur. The transmitter module 37 transmits the transmission signal carrying the UCI and may also carry information about the locations of the UCI.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a network node 40, such as a network node, configured to receive UCI mapped according to a location where distortions to a transmission signal are permitted to occur. The network node 40 has processing circuitry 42. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may include a memory 44 and processor 46, the memory 44 containing instructions which, when executed by the processor 46, configure processor 46 to perform the one or more functions described herein. In addition to a traditional processor and memory, processing circuitry 42 may comprise integrated circuitry for processing and/or control, e.g., one or more processors and/or processor cores and/or FPGAs (Field

Programmable Gate Array) and/or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuitry).

Processing circuitry 42 may include and/or be connected to and/or be configured for accessing (e.g., writing to and/or reading from) memory 44, which may include any kind of volatile and/or non-volatile memory, e.g., cache and/or buffer memory and/or RAM (Random Access Memory) and/or ROM (Read-Only Memory) and/or optical memory and/or EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory). Such memory 44 may be configured to store code executable by control circuitry and/or other data, e.g., data pertaining to communication, e.g., configuration and/or address data of nodes, etc. Processing circuitry 42 may be configured to control any of the methods described herein and/or to cause such methods to be performed, e.g., by processor 46. Corresponding instructions may be stored in the memory 44, which may be readable and/or readably connected to the processing circuitry 42. In other words, processing circuitry 42 may include a controller, which may comprise a microprocessor and/or microcontroller and/or FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) device and/or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) device. It may be considered that processing circuitry 42 includes or may be connected or connectable to memory, which may be configured to be accessible for reading and/or writing by the controller and/or processing circuitry 42.

The memory 44 may include UCI locations 48 determined from an uplink signal received from a wireless device 20. The processor 46 implements a UCI processor 50 which is configured to extract the UCI from the uplink signal based on the UCI location information received from the WD 20. The receiver 52 receives the uplink signal from the WD 20 that includes information concerning UCI locations as well as the UCI. The transmitter 54 may transmit scheduling and/or signaling information to the WD 20 that enables the WD 20 to locate where distortions in a transmission signal transmitted by the WD 20 are permitted to occur.

FIG. 12 is an alternative embodiment of the network node 40 having a UCI processor 51 configured to extract UCI from an uplink signal received from a WD 20 via the receiver 53. The transmitter module 55 may transmit scheduling information to the WD 20 that enables WD 20 to locate distortions in the transmission signal of the WD 20, in some embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for mapping UCI in the presence of distortions in a transmission signal of a WD 20. The process includes determining a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur via a distortion location determiner 30 (block S100). The process also includes mapping UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur, (block SI 02). FIG. 14 is a flowchart of an exemplary process for receiving, at a network node, UCI from a WD 20. The process includes receiving a transmission signal via a receiver 52, the transmission signal including information concerning the location of the UCI (block SI 04). The process also includes extracting via a UCI processor 50 the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location information (block SI 06). An example of the mapping is shown in FIG. 15. A more specific embodiment is shown in FIG. 16 where the UCI is mapped at the end (a) of the SC-FDMA symbol if the signal distortion (in this case an undefined transient period) occurs at the beginning of the symbol, and in case the signal distortion occurs at the end of the SC-FDMA symbol the UCI is mapped to the beginning of the symbol (b). It should be noted that the mapping region for UCI need not be contiguous, but could be multiplexed with for example data symbols. Using SC-FDMA enables placement of the information carried by the resource elements relatively well-confined in time in a small portion of a symbol duration.

In one embodiment, the transmitting node applies the UCI mapping rules based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions. One such allowed signal distortion is the transient period between the power ON and OFF region in the LTE specifications (see 3GPP TS 36.101). In 3GPP TS 36.101, the location and duration of the transient period may be determined by scheduling information sent by, e.g., a network node 40 to the WD 20. The scheduling information includes information about allocated time and frequency resources and WD 20 transmit power. Hence the UCI mapping would be dependent on the scheduling information received from a network node 40, on how the resources are allocated and which transition regions are allowed in the implementation. This scheduling information schedules a data transmission on short TTI (sTTI) or it can schedule the transmission of a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) for channel quality estimation. In one embodiment, the scheduling information used to determine the location of the allowed signal distortion, such as transient period, relates to the UL transmission of the device applying the hereby proposed UCI mapping. In another embodiment, the scheduling information used to determine the location of signal distortion such as transient period relates to an UL transmission performed by another device than the device applying the UCI mapping. This embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 16 where the transient period of the SRS of WD 1 is used to avoid mapping the UCI on those symbols for WD2.

In another embodiment, the UCI mapping is performed based on the transmitting node's, e.g., the wireless device 20' s, own knowledge of the signal distortions caused by the transmitting node, e.g., the wireless device 20. In one embodiment, such implementation could be based on a limited set of allowed UCI mapping options that are detected by the receiving node, e.g., the network node 40. As an optional embodiment, the UCI mapping used can be signaled to the receiver node, e.g., the network node 40, to avoid the use of detection.

In another embodiment, UCI bits such as HARQ or RI bits are mapped close to the middle of the short TTI, e.g. at the end of the first symbol and/or at the beginning of the second symbol in case of 2 symbol TTI, if the signal distortion (e.g. a transient period) occurs at the beginning and at the end of the short TTI. This can happen if a WD 20 is scheduled over 3 consecutive short TTIs with different transmit powers, which results in middle transient period between the short TTIs.

In another embodiment, the UCI mapping is done according to signaling information sent by the network node 40 in the UL grant of the UL data transmission to be performed by a wireless device 20. For instance, this signaling information can be UCI location or transient period location.

In a further embodiment, UCI mapping to apply in each transmission opportunity is predefined. This would, for example, be used in case of grant-free access and/or Semi- Persistent-Scheduling (SPS) where the WD 20 is allocated resources the WD 20 is allowed to access the network on, but the network will not explicitly grant the WD 20 an access every transmission opportunity.

In a further embodiment, the UCI mapping is chosen based only on potential distortions to the signal. For example, the WD 20 might miss the scheduling of the SRS and hence, it will not know if the last symbol of the last sTTI in the sub frame will be replaced by an SRS symbol or not. In this case, the UCI mapping may always map the UCI in order to protect it from the potential SRS transmission. This embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 18 where it can be seen that the UCI mapping is chosen the same whether the SRS is transmitted or not. That is, the WD 20 could miss the scheduling of the SRS but receive the scheduling of the sTTI transmission, and still the network and the WD 20 would be aligned in mapping of UCI that is used by the WD 20.

Some examples of the UCI mapping are shown in FIG. 19, considering different sTTI configurations, i.e. demodulation reference signal (DMRS) position and the number of data symbols within the sTTI. In the examples shown in FIG. 19, the maximum allowed transient period corresponds to two modulated symbols, i.e., two boxes in the figure. It should be noted that the duration can be of any length, but the maximum length may be known from the specification. Also, the maximum length allowed could vary depending on the situation, which would also be defined in the specification.

The UCI is multiplexed to the SC-FDMA data symbol that is the closest to the corresponding DMRS symbol. If the SC-FMDA symbol, where the UCI is mapped, is the last SC-FDMA symbol of the sTTI, then, the UCI mapped to the end of the SC-FDMA symbol (e.g., the modulated HARQ-ACK symbols in FIG. 19) should be mapped before the maximum number of coded modulation symbols potentially impacted by the maximum allowed transient period, e.g., from the third coded modulation symbol from the bottom of the SC-FDMA symbol shown in FIG. 19.

If the SC-FMDA symbol, where the UCI is mapped, is the first SC-FDMA symbol of the sTTI, then, the UCI mapped to the beginning of the SC-FDMA symbol (e.g., the modulated RI symbols in FIG. 19) should be mapped after the maximum number of coded modulation symbols corresponding to the maximum allowed transient period, e.g., from the third coded modulation symbol from the top of the SC-FDMA symbol shown in FIG. 19.

The current scenarios covered by the specifications (3GPP TS 36.101) regarding the transient period for 1 ms legacy TTI in LTE is listed below, and is also mapped to the corresponding case for sTTI. In each case, the mapping options outlined in FIG. 19 are mapped to the respective requirement:

1. General: Current assumption (see R4-1610953) is that the transient period is allowed outside the nominal sTTI border, and hence the UCI can be mapped over the full symbol;

2. sTTI followed by sTTI where the power is not changed between the sTTIs; a. Current assumption (see R4-1610953) is that the transient period is allowed outside the nominal sTTI border, and hence the UCI can be mapped over the full symbol;

3. sTTI followed by sTTI where the power is changed between the sTTIs; a. Two options are foreseen (see R4-1610953) where: i. in the first case the transient period occurs between the two sTTIs;

1. 1^st sTTI: a2, d2;

2. 2^nd sTTI: b2, c2, f2;

ii. in the second case the transient period occurs at the start of each sTTI;

1. 1^st sTTI: b2, c2, f2;

2. 2^nd sTTI: b2, c2, f2; 4. sTTI followed by SRS: e2;

5. sTTI followed by SRS followed by sTTI: a. 1^st sTTI: e2; b. 2^nd sTTI: b2 or c2 (depending on DMRS placement);

6. SRS followed by sTTI: b2 or c2.

It is noted that the sTTI transmission in the list above can be either mapped to sPUSCH or sPUCCH in the shortened TTI feature in LTE.

It should also be noted that the UCI region is defined from the first RI symbol to the last HARQ symbol, and that the relative placement of the different UCI fields could be different than outlined in FIG. 19.

The proposed solutions protect uplink control information sent on the PUSCH with shortened TTI from allowed signal distortions at the transmitter. The protection is achieved by placing the uplink control information appropriately depending on the location of the allowed signal distortion obtained by specification and/or scheduling information.

Thus, some embodiments advantageously provide a method, wireless device 20 and network node 40 for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node 40, the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur. According to one aspect, a method includes determining the at least one location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur (block SI 00), and mapping the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur (block SI 02).

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped, via UCI mapper 32, at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access, SC-FDMA, symbols. In some embodiments, the UCI is mapped, via the UCI mapper 32, such that the UCI is non-contiguous in time. In some embodiments, the mapping of the UCI is based on rules that are based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions. In some embodiments, a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region. In some embodiments, UCI is mapped, via the UCI mapper 32, to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a region where distortions are permitted to occur is at a beginning and end of a short transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration. In some

embodiments, the UCI mapping is based on signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the wireless device 20.

According to another aspect, a wireless device 20 for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node 40, the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The wireless device 20 includes processing circuitry 22 configured to determine, via

implementing a distortion location determiner 30, the at least one location where distortion in the transmission signal exceeds the threshold, and map, via the UCI mapper 32, the UCI to avoid the at least one location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at the threshold at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped, via the mapper 32, at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, the UCI is mapped at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols. In some embodiments, the UCI is mapped, via mapper 32, such that the UCI is non-contiguous in time. In some embodiments, the mapping of the UCI is according to rules based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions. In some embodiments, a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region. In some embodiments, UCI is mapped, via the mapper 32, to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a location where distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning and end of a short transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration. In some

embodiments, the UCI mapping is according to signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the receiving node.

According to yet another aspect, a wireless device 20 for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node 40, the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The wireless device 20 includes a location determining module 31 configured to determine the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur and a UCI mapping module 33 configured to map the UCI to avoid the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to another aspect, a method for use in a network node 40 configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal exceeds are permitted to occur is provided. The method includes receiving, via the receiver 52, the transmission signal, the transmission signal including a location of the UCI (block SI 04), and extracting, via the UCI processor 50, the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location (block SI 06).

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, the UCI is extracted at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, extracting the UCI at the beginning of the transmission signal. In some embodiments, the signal contains a single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbol. In some embodiments, the method includes transmitting, via the transmitter 54, to a wireless device 20 scheduling information from which the wireless device 20 determines the at least one location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to yet another aspect, a network node 40 configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The network node 40 includes the receiver 52, configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including information concerning location of the UCI, and includes a processor 46 configured to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location information.

According to this aspect, in some embodiments, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the signal, the UCI is extracted at an end of the signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the signal, the UCI is extracted at the beginning of the signal. In some embodiments, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols. In some embodiments, the network node 40 further includes a transmitter 54 configured to transmit to a wireless device 20 scheduling information from which the wireless device 20 determines the at least one location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

According to another aspect, a network node 40 configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur is provided. The network node 40 includes a receiver module 53 configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including information concerning location of the UCI, and a UCI processing module 51 to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location information.

Some embodiments include the following:

Embodiment 1. A method for use in a wireless device for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the method comprising:

determining the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur; and

mapping the UCI to avoid the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

Embodiment 2. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein, when distortion is permitted to occur at a beginning of the signal, mapping the UCI at an end of the signal, and when distortion is permitted to occur at the end of the signal, mapping the UCI at the beginning of the signal.

Embodiment 3. The method of any of Embodiments 1 and 2, wherein, the signal is a Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) symbol.

Embodiment 4. The method of any of Embodiments 1-3, wherein the UCI is mapped such that information of the UCI is non-contiguous.

Embodiment 5. The method of any of Embodiments 1-4, wherein the mapping of the UCI is based on rules that are based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions.

Embodiment 6. The method of Embodiment 5, wherein a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region.

Embodiment 7. The method of any of Embodiments 3-6, wherein UCI is mapped to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a location where distortion is permitted to occur is at a beginning and end of a short

transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration.

Embodiment 8. The method of any of Embodiments 1-7, wherein the UCI mapping is based on signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the wireless device.

Embodiment 9. A wireless device for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the wireless device comprising: processing circuitry configured to:

determine the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur; and

map the UCI to avoid the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

Embodiment 10. The wireless device of Embodiment 9, wherein, when distortion is permitted to occur at a beginning of the signal, mapping the UCI at an end of the signal, and when distortion is permitted to occur at the end of the signal, mapping the UCI at the beginning of the signal.

Embodiment 11. The wireless device of any of Embodiments 9 and 10, wherein, the signal is a Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) symbol.

Embodiment 12. The wireless device of any of Embodiments 9-12, where the UCI is mapped such that information of the UCI is non-contiguous.

Embodiment 13. The wireless device of any of Embodiments 9 and 12, wherein the mapping of the UCI is according to rules based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions.

Embodiment 14. The wireless device of Embodiment 13, wherein a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region.

Embodiment 15. The wireless device of any of Embodiments 9-14, wherein UCI is mapped to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a location where distortion is permitted to occur at a beginning and end of a short

transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration.

Embodiment 16. The wireless device of any of Embodiments 9-15, wherein the UCI mapping is according to signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the receiving node.

Embodiment 17. A wireless device for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node, the mapping depending on a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the wireless device comprising:

a location determining module configured to determine the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur; and

a mapping module configured to map the UCI to avoid the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur. Embodiment 18. A method for use in a network node configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, mapped according to a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the method including:

receiving the transmission signal, the transmission signal including information concerning a location of the UCI; and

extracting the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location information.

Embodiment 19. The method of Embodiment 18, wherein, when distortion is permitted to occur at a beginning of the signal, mapping the UCI at an end of the signal, and when distortion is permitted to occur at the end of the signal, mapping the UCI at the beginning of the signal.

Embodiment 20. The method of any of Embodiments 20 and 21 wherein the signal is a Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) symbol.

Embodiment 21. The method of any of Embodiments 18-20, further comprising transmitting to a wireless device scheduling information from which the wireless device determines the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

Embodiment 22. A network node configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, mapped according to a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the network node including:

processing circuitry configured to:

receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including information concerning location of the UCI; and

extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location information.

Embodiment 23. The network node of Embodiment 22, wherein, when distortion is permitted to occur at a beginning of the signal, mapping the UCI at an end of the signal, and when distortion is permitted to occur at the end of the signal, mapping the UCI at the beginning of the signal.

Embodiment 24. The method of any of Embodiments 22 and 23 wherein the signal is a Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) symbol.

Embodiment 25. The network node of any of Embodiments 22-24, further comprising a transmitter configured to transmit to a wireless device scheduling information from which the wireless device determines the location where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur. Embodiment 26. A network node configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, mapped according to a location where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the network node including:

a receiver module configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including information concerning location of the UCI; and

a UCI processing module to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location information.

Abbreviation Explanation

BBU Baseband Unit

BLER Block Error Rate

CFI Control Format Indicator

CRS Common Reference Symbols

CSI Channel State Information

DCI Downlink Control Information

DL Downlink

DFT Discrete Fourier Transform

DMRS Demodulation Reference Symbols

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

FS Frame Structure

HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol

MAC Medium Access Control

MIB Master Information Block

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

RF Radio Frequency

RI Rank Indicator

RRU Remote Radio Unit

RRC Radio Resource Control

SC Single Carrier

SF Subframe

SIB System Information Block sPUCCH Short PUCCH sPUSCH Short PUSCH sPDCCH Short Physical Downlink Control Channel sTTI Short TTI

TCP Transmission Control Protocol

TDD Time Division Duplex

TTI Transmission Time Interval

UE User Equipment

UL Uplink

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the concepts described herein may be embodied as a method, data processing system, and/or computer program product.

Accordingly, the concepts described herein may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects all generally referred to herein as a "circuit" or "module." Furthermore, the disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a tangible computer usable storage medium having computer program code embodied in the medium that can be executed by a computer. Any suitable tangible computer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks, CD-ROMs, electronic storage devices, optical storage devices, or magnetic storage devices. Some embodiments are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, systems and computer program products. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer (thereby creating a special purpose computer), special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable memory or storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It is to be understood that the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved. Although some of the diagrams include arrows on communication paths to show a primary direction of

communication, it is to be understood that communication may occur in the opposite direction to the depicted arrows. Computer program code for carrying out operations of the concepts described herein may be written in an object oriented programming language such as Java® or C++.

However, the computer program code for carrying out operations of the disclosure may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).

Many different embodiments have been disclosed herein, in connection with the above description and the drawings. It will be understood that it would be unduly repetitious and obfuscating to literally describe and illustrate every combination and subcombination of these embodiments. Accordingly, all embodiments can be combined in any way and/or combination, and the present specification, including the drawings, shall be construed to constitute a complete written description of all combinations and subcombinations of the embodiments described herein, and of the manner and process of making and using them, and shall support claims to any such combination or subcombination.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein are not limited to what has been particularly shown and described herein above. In addition, unless mention was made above to the contrary, it should be noted that all of the accompanying drawings are not to scale. A variety of modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings without departing from the scope of the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for use in a wireless device (20) for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node (40), the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the method comprising:

determining the at least one region where distortion in the transmission signal are permitted to occur (SI 00); and

mapping the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur (SI 02).

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, mapping the UCI at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, mapping the UCI at the beginning of the transmission signal.

3. The method of any of Claims 1 and 2, wherein, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access, SC-FDMA, symbols.

4. The method of any of Claims 1-3, wherein the UCI is mapped such that the UCI is non-contiguous in time.

5. The method of any of Claims 1-4, wherein the mapping of the UCI is based on rules that are based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions.

6. The method of Claim 5, wherein a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region.

7. The method of any of Claims 3-6, wherein UCI is mapped to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a location of the at least one location where distortions are permitted to occur is at a beginning and end of a short transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration.

8. The method of any of Claims 1-7, wherein the UCI mapping is based on signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the wireless device (20).

9. A wireless device (20) for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node (40), the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the wireless device comprising: processing circuitry (22) configured to:

determine the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur; and

map the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

10. The wireless device (20) of Claim 9, wherein, when distortions are permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, mapping the UCI at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, mapping the UCI at the beginning of the transmission signal.

11. The wireless device (20) of any of Claims 9 and 10, wherein, the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols.

12. The wireless device (20) of any of Claims 9-12, where the UCI is mapped such that the UCI is non-contiguous in time.

13. The wireless device (20) of any of Claims 9 and 12, wherein the mapping of the UCI is according to rules based on pre-defined regions of allowed signal distortions.

14. The wireless device (20) of Claim 13, wherein a region of an allowed signal distortion is a transient time period between a power ON region and a power OFF region.

15. The wireless device (20) of any of Claims 9-14, wherein UCI is mapped to at least one of an end of a first symbol and beginning of a second symbol when a location of the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur is at a beginning and end of a short transmission time interval, sTTI, of two symbols duration.

16. The wireless device (20) of any of Claims 9-15, wherein the UCI mapping is according to signaling information sent in an uplink grant to the receiving node.

17. A wireless device (20) for mapping uplink control information, UCI, to be received at a network node (40), the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the wireless device (20) comprising:

a location determining module (31) configured to determine the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur; and

a mapping module (33) configured to map the UCI, the mapping being performed depending on the determined at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

18. A method for use in a network node (40) configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the method including:

receiving the transmission signal, the transmission signal including a location of the UCI (SI 04); and

extracting the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location (SI 06).

19. The method of Claim 18, wherein, when distortions that are permitted to occur are at a beginning of the transmission signal, extracting the UCI at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions that are permitted to occur are at the end of the transmission signal, extracting the UCI at the beginning of the transmission signal.

20. The method of any of Claims 20 and 21 wherein the transmission signal is carried by at least two a single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols.

21. The method of any of Claims 18-20, further comprising transmitting to a wireless device (20) scheduling information from which the wireless device (20) determines a location of the at least one location where distortion in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

22. A network node (40) configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, a mapping of the UCI depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the network node (40) including:

a receiver (52) configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including a location of the UCI; and

processing circuitry (42) configured to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location.

23. The network node (40) of Claim 22, wherein, when distortion is permitted to occur at a beginning of the transmission signal, extracting the UCI at an end of the transmission signal, and when distortions are permitted to occur at the end of the transmission signal, extracting the UCI at the beginning of the transmission signal.

24. The method of any of Claims 22 and 23 wherein the transmission signal is carried by at least two single carrier frequency division multiple access SC-FDMA symbols.

25. The network node (40) of any of Claims 22-24, further comprising a transmitter configured to transmit to a wireless device (20) scheduling information from which the wireless device (20) determines a location of the at least one region where distortions in the transmission signal are permitted to occur.

26. A network node (40) configured to receive uplink control information, UCI, the mapping depending on at least one region where distortions in a transmission signal are permitted to occur, the network node (40) including:

a receiver module (53) configured to receive the transmission signal, the transmission signal including a location of the UCI; and

a UCI processing module (51) configured to extract the UCI from the transmission signal based on the UCI location.