WO2018146834A1

WO2018146834A1 - Methods and systems for enabling grant-free transmission in advanced wireless communication systems

Info

Publication number: WO2018146834A1
Application number: PCT/JP2017/028975
Authority: WO
Inventors: Phong Nguyen
Original assignee: Nec Corporation
Priority date: 2017-02-10
Filing date: 2017-08-09
Publication date: 2018-08-16

Abstract

Advanced wireless communication systems, and methods for use in advanced wireless communication systems, to provide grant-free transmission between mobile devices (16) and an associated base station (11) are disclosed. The method comprises: transmitting, from the advanced base station (11) and to one or more mobile devices (16), grant-free transmission configuration information defining one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission; monitoring, at the advanced base station (11), the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission; receiving, at the advanced base station (11) and on a resource of the one or more monitored resources, precoded data from a mobile device of the one or more mobile devices (16); and transmitting, from the advanced base station (11) and to the mobile device, acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data.

Description

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ENABLING GRANT-FREE TRANSMISSION IN ADVANCED WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

　　The present invention relates to advanced wireless communication. In particular, although not exclusively, the invention relates to providing grant-free transmission in a 5G wireless communication systems.
<Abbreviations>
3GPP
3^rd Generation Partnership Project
4G
4th generation
5G
5th generation
ACK
Acknowledgement (positive)
CCTV
Closed-Circuit Television
DL
Downlink
DMRS
Demodulation Reference signal
eMBB
Enhanced mobile broadband
eMTC
Enhanced machine type communication
FDMA
Frequency Division Multiple access
HARQ
Hybrid automatic repeat request
ICT
Information and Communication Technology
IE
Information Element
IMT
International Mobile Telecommunications
IoT
Internet of Things
ISI
Inter Symbols Interferences
ITU
International Telecommunication Union
ITU-R
International Telecommunication Union Radio
L1
Layer 1 or Physical layer
LTE
Long Term Evolution
LTE-A
LTE-Advanced
M2M
Machine to machine communication
MCC
Mission critical communication
mMTC
Massive machine type communication
MTC
Machine type communication
NACK
Negative acknowledgement
NR
New Radio
N-RAT
New Radio Access Technology
OFDMA
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
PRB
Physical Resource Block
QoE
Quality of Experience
QoS　　
Quality of Service
RAN
Radio Access network
RAT
Radio Access technology
RB
Resource Block
RE
Resource Element
RRC
Radio Resources Control
RS
Reference signal
SA
System Aspects
SC-FDMA
Single Carrier - FDMA
TBS
Transport Block Size
TSG
Technical Specification Group
UL
Uplink
WLAN
Wireless local area network
WMAN
Wireless metropolitan area network

　　Fourth generation (4G) 3GPP telecommunications systems are being successfully deployed at an accelerating pace all over the world. These systems enables more advanced services and applications that make use of the inherent benefits of LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro technologies, such as higher data rate, lower latency, enhanced coverage, and sidelink communication.

　　Much attention has now been focused on the development of the next generation technology and services, also called fifth generation (5G) technology. In particular, development of 5G systems is currently being investigated, with the initial target of commercial deployment of 5G systems commencing in 2020, and lately being brought forward to 2018. In this regard, work has started in ITU and 3GPP in developing requirements for 5G systems, and to perform feasibility studies for technological specification development for new radio (NR) systems.

　　According to 3GPP TSG Radio Access Network (RAN), 3GPP is obliged to identify and develop the technology components, including NR access technology (also called new RAT), needed to satisfy both urgent market needs, and more long-term requirements, set forth by among others ITU. Furthermore, the NR access technology should be able to use any spectrum band ranging at least up to 100 GHz that may be made available for wireless communications even in a more distant future.

　　More specifically, 3GPP NR access technology (new RAT, N-RAT) shall be designed to meet a broad range of use cases including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive MTC (mMTC), critical MTC, mission critical communication (MCC) and ultra-reliable and ultra-low latency communications (URLLC).

　　3GPPs new RAT design and specification must also be inherently forward compatible and developed in two phases, namely PHASE-1 and PHASE-2. The design and specification of PHASE-1 RAT is to be forward compatible to PHASE-2 RAT design and specification. In particular, the PHASE-2 RAT design and specification shall be built on the foundation of the PHASE-1 design and specification, and will meet all the set requirements for the new RAT.

　　Furthermore, smooth technological evolution beyond the PHASE-2 is to be ensured to support later and more advanced features, and to enable support of new service requirements identified later than PHASE-2 specification.

　　In order to achieve forward compatibility for new RAT's design, and in particularly the NR air interface design, 3GPP TSG RAN has agreed to focus on a fundamental physical layer signal structure for new RAT (N-RAT), such as waveform and associated multiple access methods, basic frame and channel coding structures, radio interface protocol architecture and procedures, Radio Access Network architecture, interface protocols and procedures, and fundamental RF aspects.

　　It is anticipated that an adaptive solution may be provided in 3GPP N-RAT and 5G systems for waveform selection, where the waveform is chosen for a given situation, given service, or given traffic pattern, and at given time and/or on a given target, to improve link level performance and thus optimise latency.

　　4G systems, i.e. LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, provide low latency mobile broadband services and excellent spectrum efficiency. The OFDM based waveforms can be processed and handled with the processing levels achievable in current mobile handsets or user equipment, and it operates well with high data rate streams occupying wide bandwidths.

　　However, the 4G systems utilise random access and scheduling request-grant procedures prior to data transmission, which may not be suitable for 3GPP N-RAT and 5G systems. In particular, these procedures may form a bottle-neck and restrict (or negate) any gains of using adaptive wave forms if used in 3GPP N-RAT and 5G systems. Furthermore, these procedures provide a major hurdle in realising ultra-reliable and ultra-low latency communication (URLLC) in mission critical communication, including the emerging MC-MTC (Mission Critical MTC), which demand instant or immediate network access.

　　Furthermore, the 4G-based pre-transmission procedures provide a major hurdle in realising massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) services/applications, which appear to be particularly important in the transition to a networked society and in creating smart cities. In particular, a massive number of devices (up to billions of connected devices), from simple sensors and meters to more sophisticated remotely controllable/programmable smart meters, home devices, and programmable-secured biometric embedded CCTV cameras for safe cities, are connected to the network. These devices may transmit very small and fixed amounts of data periodically or occasionally, and may be required to operate for years on a single battery charge. As such, these devices often require very low power consumption, and low cost (and massive) connectivity, which may not be compatible with the 4G-based pre-transmission procedures.

　　As such, there is clearly a need for improved advanced wireless communication systems and methods, and in particular those that are able to utilise adaptive waveforms while providing immediate or instant network access, scheduling request-grant-free transmission, and with zero (or low) overhead transmission.

　　It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.

　　The present invention is directed to methods and systems that enable grant-free transmission in advanced wireless communication systems, which may at least partially overcome at least one of the abovementioned disadvantages or provide the consumer with a useful or commercial choice.

　　With the foregoing in view, the present invention in one form, resides broadly in a method for use in an advanced wireless communication system, to provide grant-free transmission between mobile devices and an associated base station, the method comprising:
　　transmitting, from the advanced base station and to one or more advanced mobile devices, grant-free transmission configuration information defining one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　monitoring, at the advanced base station, the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　receiving, at the advanced base station and on a resource of the one or more monitored resources, precoded data from a mobile device of the one or more mobile devices; and
　　transmitting, from the advanced base station and to the mobile device, acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data.

　　Preferably, the method further comprises: determining, at the advanced base station, the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission.

　　The resources may be determined according to at least one of a number of advanced mobile devices using grant-free transmission, a traffic profile, and a service demand, in an area.

　　The one or more resources may be defined at least in part according to a super-pool structure, a pool structure, a sub-pools structure, or a region structure.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may be broadcasted periodically.

　　Preferably, the method further comprises: determining, at the mobile device and according to the grant-free transmission configuration information, an appropriate resource for transmitting the precoded data.

　　The acknowledgement may identify the mobile device using a device identifier. The acknowledgement may comprise a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement.

　　The mobile device may be configured to retransmit the precoded data when acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data is not received.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may define a logical resource super-pool for grant-free transmission in a super frame of 10x1024ms.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may define one or more resource blocks in the equivalent 5G transmission time based units, which are scaled according to configured waveform's numerology.

　　The equivalent 5G transmission time based units may comprise subframes, slots or mini-slots within the radio frames that are reserved for grant-free transmission.

　　The resource blocks may be localised in a subband or consecutive subbands, or distributed within a subband or across subbands.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may define an integer number of time-multiplexed logical resource pools for grant-free transmission.

　　The logical resource pools may be equal in size. One of the logical resource pools may be truncated at a boundary of a super frame.

　　The logical resource pools may comprise two or more sub-pools. The sub-pools may be overlapping or non-overlapping.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may include information elements (IEs) defining one or more of: a time duration of a sub-pool, a time-offset for a sub-pool, a frequency duration of a sub-pool, and a frequency offset of a sub-pool.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may enable sub-pools to be defined in every resource pool or only in designated resource pools.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may include information elements (IEs) defining one or more of a start resource pool for a sub-pool, and a periodicity of the sub-pool in resource pools.

　　The configuration information may further define one or more control channels and/or one or more data channels, associated with the resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may be configured to define a) zero overhead grant free transmission, b) limited overhead grant free transmission, or c) a combination of zero overhead grant free transmission and limited overhead grant free transmission.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may be configured to define a combination of zero overhead grant free transmission and limited overhead grant free transmission for a resource pool or sub-pool, and an associated resource pool or sub-pool comprises a first region for zero overhead grant free transmission and a second region for limited overhead grant free transmission.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may be configured to define zero overhead grant free transmission for a resource pool or sub-pool, and an associated resource pool or sub-pool comprises a plurality time-frequency-code multiplexed data channels with configurable size.

　　Each data channel may span across one or more 5G transmission time based units such as subframes, slot or mini slots in time and/or one or more resource blocks in frequency.

　　A data channel of the plurality time-frequency-code multiplexed data channels may be selected by two or more mobile devices with differentiable DMRS sequences and channel gains, and concurrent data channel transmissions on the data channel by the two or more mobile devices may be differentiated at the base station receiver.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may be configured to define limited overhead grant free transmission for a resource pool or sub-pool, and an associated resource pool or sub-pool may comprise a control channel pool and corresponding data pool.

　　The control channel pool may comprise a plurality time-frequency multiplexed control channels with configurable size.

　　The control channel may be configured or reconfigured to span across one or more 5G transmission time based units such as subframes, slots, or mini-slots in time and one or more resource blocks in frequency.

　　The data pool corresponding to the control channel pool may comprise a plurality time-frequency-code multiplexed resource blocks for selection by the mobile device.

　　The resource block(s) in a data pool may be selected by two or more mobile devices with differentiable DMRS sequences and channel gains, wherein concurrent data channel transmission on the data channel by the two or more mobile devices is differentiated at the base station receiver.

　　The data channel(s) of a data pool corresponding to the control channel pool may be precoded with a selected orthogonal code for transmission over one or more resource blocks.

　　The control channel pool and the corresponding data pool may be frequency-multiplexed.

　　The control channel pool may comprise resource blocks from the low and high sub-band edges, and the corresponding data pool comprises resource blocks centrally located on the sub-band.

　　Resource blocks being reserved for grant free transmission may be distributed across the sub-pool.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may identify resource blocks of the control channel pool within a configured sub-pool.

　　The sub-pools may be overlapping between a region configured for zero control overhead grant free transmission and data pool of a region being configured for limited control overhead grant free transmission.

　　The method may further comprise partitioning, at the base station, a coverage area into multiple zones, and associated a timing advance (TA) and a mobile device maximum transmit power with each of the zones.

　　The grant-free transmission configuration information may include information for assisting a mobile device in determining an appropriate zone of the multiple zones.

　　Each configured resource sub-pool may be allocated for use by advanced mobile devices within a defined zone.

　　In another form, the invention resides broadly in an advanced wireless communication system, including an advanced base station and a plurality of mobile devices, the base station configured to:
　　transmit, to one or more mobile devices, grant-free transmission configuration information defining one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　monitor the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　receive, on a resource of the one or more monitored resources, precoded data from a mobile device of the one or more mobile devices; and
　　transmit, to the mobile device, acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data.

　　The advanced wireless communication system may implement any or all of the features of the method described above.

　　Embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods for use in an advanced wireless communication system, such as a 3GPP fifth generation (5G) or New Radio (NR) system, supporting grant-free transmission for reducing wireless communication latency.

　　In one embodiment, the invention relates to cell resource structures and configurations, system information and system operational methods, providing grant free transmission in an advanced wireless communication system. The advanced wireless communication system may be a single cell system comprising an advanced base station (BS) providing wireless services and connectivity concurrently to under network coverage legacy user equipment (UEs) and advanced mobile devices.

　　The advanced BS and advanced mobile devices under coverage thereof are capable of grant-free transmission and reception. The servicing advanced BS may periodically, or from time to time, determine cell resources to be reserved and configured for grant-free transmission activities and periodically indicate those configurations or reconfigurations to advanced mobile devices within its coverage.

　　An advanced mobile device may periodically, or from time to time, acquire the grant-free resource configuration and use that configuration to gain immediate network access for its application/user data transmission and/or in performing scheduling request-grant free transmission for transmitting its data with or without associated layer 1 (i.e. physical layer) control overhead.

　　In some embodiments, the configurable cell resources for grant-free transmission in a super-frame of 10x1024ms may comprise resource blocks (RBs) in transmission time-base units (i.e. including, but not being limited to, subframes, slots or mini-slots), within radio frames, being reserved for grant-free transmission.

　　The collection of the reserved RBs in the super-frame may form a logical grant-free transmission resource super-pool. In such case, the RBs that are reserved for grant-free transmission in a transmission time-base may be localised (group of consecutive physical RBs - i.e. sub-band or consecutive sub-bands) or distributed (i.e. selected RBs are distributed across the system operation bandwidth).

　　A logical resource super-pool may be further partitioned into a plurality of non-overlapping logical resource pools with configurable length 'N' transmission time-base units. These units may, for example, comprise mini-slots, slots or subframes, allowing a configured logical resource pool structure being repeatable at desirable interval without the waste of unusable resources. The last resource pool in a super-pool may be truncated, i.e. having the length less than N transmission-time-base units.

　　A resource pool may further comprise a plurality of non-overlapping and/or overlapping sub-pools where a sub-pool within a resource pool may be configured for use by mobile devices with the same configured/preconfigured timing advance (TA) and similar transmit-power. In order to control the periodicity and instance that a sub-pool should occur and also minimise the risk of collision due insufficient resources in a sub-pool at a particular instance, the sub-pool configuration information elements (IEs) comprise a 'resource pool start' IE and a 'sub-pool periodicity' IE. Furthermore, in order to manage positions of sub-pool resources and control the non-overlapping sub-pools or overlapping sub-pools to enable resource sharing without the risk of resource collision, the sub-pool configuration information element (IEs) comprise a 'sub-pool time duration' IE, a 'sub-pool time offset' IE, a 'sub-pool frequency duration' IE, and a 'sub-pool frequency offset' IE.

　　In another embodiment of the invention, a resource pool or a resource sub-pool may be configured and reconfigured for 'zero layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission and/or for 'limited layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission'.

　　When being configured/reconfigured for 'zero layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission, a resource pool or sub-pool may comprise a plurality of implicitly indexed time-frequency-code multiplexed data channels with configurable size, where a data channel may be configured to span across number of RBs and number of transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes, slots or mini-slots).

　　When being configured/reconfigured for 'limited layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission, a resource pool or sub-pool may comprise a 'control channel pool' and a corresponding non-overlapping 'data pool'. The 'control channel pool' may be configured to comprise a plurality of implicitly indexed time-frequency multiplexed control channels with configurable size and a data channel may be configured to span across number of RBs and number of transmission time-base units, such as subframes, slots and mini-slots. A control channel transmitted in a 'control channel pool' provides scheduling information for RB extraction, reception and decoding of the associated data channel transmitted in the corresponding 'data pool'.

　　When being configured/reconfigured for 'zero layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission and 'limited layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission, a resource pool or sub-pool may comprise two overlapping or non-overlapping regions, where each configured region may be either allocated for 'zero layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission or 'limited layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission.

　　Preferably, the 'control pool' and corresponding 'data pool' of a resource pool, sub-pool or region are frequency-multiplexed.

　　RBs in a transmission time-base unit may be localised, and the RBs forming a control channel pool may come from the low and high subbands edges leaving central subband portion for the corresponding data pool.

　　RBs forming a control channel pool may come from RBs that are distributed across the resource pool, sub-pool or region that are configured for limited layer 1 control overhead grant free transmission, leaving the remaining RBs in the resource pool, sub-pool or region for the corresponding data pool. Advanced mobile devices may be further provided with additional configuration/reconfiguration IEs to identify RBs of the control channel pool.

　　In certain embodiments, an advanced BS may virtually partition its cell coverage into one or more zones. In such case, mobile devices within a particular partitioned zone may be implicitly identified with a TA value and specific transmit power value range for use in grant-free transmission.

　　An advanced BS may further configure a grant-free transmission resource sub-pool for each partitioned zone. When entering a cell, when moving around, or when deployed at a fixed location in a cell, an advanced mobile device may acquire cell zone information and further perform measurements to self-determine an appropriate zone and acquire a corresponding resource configuration for achieving optimum grant-free transmission performance.

　　Once having broadcasted and continued broadcasting system information having the configured grant-free transmission IEs, an advanced BS may monitor the configured resource pools, sub-pools and regions for intended 'zero layer 1 control overhead' data channels and/or intended control channels leading to the reception and decoding of associated data channel in 'limited layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission. Upon a successful decoding of a grant-free data channel or unsuccessful decoding of a grant-free data channel with positive detection of the mobile device identity (ID), an advanced mobile device may on the next available DL channel transmit a HARQ-Acknowledgement to the intended mobile device.

　　The advanced BS may include additional information to assist the mobile device in avoiding collision in the next transmission/retransmission by providing sub-codebook indexes and/or sub channel indexes for selection.

　　Upon the arrival of a data packet for 'zero layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission, an advanced mobile device may in the current and/or incoming configured resource pool/sub-pool, contend for a data channel on the time-frequency plane which it further selects an orthogonal code in the configured code book for data channel precoding and a DMRS sequence index in a given DMRS index table for DMRS sequence generation. The mobile device may then perform RE mapping for the precoded data channel and associated DMRS sequence on the RBs of the contended data channel. On the transmission of the data channel signal and associated DMRS, an advanced mobile device may set the corresponding HARQ timer and commence monitoring downlink (DL) control channel for the associated HARQ-acknowledgement.

　　Upon the arrival of a data packet for 'limited layer 1 control overhead' grant free transmission, an advanced mobile device may in the current and/or incoming configured 'control channel pool', contend for a control channel on the time-frequency plane. In such case, the device may perform precoding on the modulated control channel using a given code and select a DMRS sequence index in a given DMRS index table for DMRS sequence generation, and then perform RE mapping for the precoded control channel and associated DMRS sequence on the RBs of the contended control channel.

　　Additionally, the advanced mobile device may further select an orthogonal code in the configured code book for the associated data channel precoding, and RBs in the 'data pool' corresponding to the 'control channel pool' in which it will map and transmit the precoded data channel. On transmission of the control channel signal and associated data channel, the advanced mobile device may set the corresponding HARQ timer and commence monitoring a downlink (DL) control channel for an associated HARQ-acknowledgement, which may trigger a retransmission or complete the grant-free transmission process for a data packet.

　　Upon detection of a HARQ-NACK or expiry of a HARQ timer corresponding to a transmitted grant-free data channel, the advanced mobile device may commence the retransmission in the current and/or incoming configured resource pool/sub-pool, where it may use assistant information provided by the BS in selecting a channel index, codebook index and/or a DMRS index. The actions of monitoring the DL control channel after transmission of a grant-free data channel, and performing retransmission upon the detection of an HARQ-NACK, assist in realising asynchronous HARQ in uplink transmission.

　　Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for realising grant free transmission and asynchronous UL HARQ in an advanced communication system, such as a 5G communication system. This is achieved by providing configurable system resources and associated methods for implementation at an advanced base station and plurality of advanced mobile devices, which assist the advanced mobile device in gaining immediate network access for its application data transmission and/or in carrying out scheduling request-grant-free transmission procedure for transmitting its data packet(s) with or without associated layer 1 (i.e. physical layer) control overhead.

　　The system and methods for realising grant free transmission may include configurable logical resources pools/sub-pools being constructed from RBs in 5G equivalent time-base units (e.g. subframes, slots or mini slots) within radio frames being reserved for use in grant free transmission.

　　The system and methods for realising grant free transmission may include a resource pool or sub-pool structure having a configurable sub-pool periodicity or frequency to ensure a configured resource sub-pool has sufficient size and to minimising the risk of channel collision.

　　The systems and methods for realising grant free transmission may include a resources pool/sub-pool structure having configurable overlapping regions among multiple resource sub-pools for effective resource sharing without the risk of increasing resource collisions.

　　The system and methods for realising grant free transmission may include a configurable data channel pool having configurable data/shared channel size and channel capacity, defined as the combination of time-frequency-code and DMRS sequence, for use in grant free transmission without layer 1 control channel overhead.

　　The system and methods for realising grant free transmission may include a configurable resource pool/sub-pool with a control channel pool and a data pool for use in grant free transmission with limited layer 1 control channel overhead, where the control channel pool has configurable control channel size and control channel capacity defined as the combination of time-frequency multiplexed control information and DMRS sequence, and the corresponding data pool has a data/shared channel capacity defined using standard time-frequency-code multiplexed RBs and DMRS sequence.

　　The system and methods for realising grant free transmission may include asynchronous UL HARQ transmission, where the advanced BS only transmits HARQ-acknowledgement to mobile devices upon the decoding of data/shared channels with positive detected mobile device IDs. The mobile devices may perform retransmission upon the reception of a HARQ-NACK or HARQ timer expiry using the current and or next available resources allocated for grant free transmission.

　　Any of the features described herein can be combined in any combination with any one or more of the other features described herein within the scope of the invention.

　　The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge.

　　Various embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the following drawings, in which:

Fig. 1A illustrates 5G wireless communication system, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 1B illustrates 5G wireless communication system, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2A illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2B illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 5 illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool configuration, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6A illustrates an exemplary resource pool configuration for zero layer 1 control overhead transmission, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 6B illustrates an exemplary resource pool configuration for zero layer 1 control overhead transmission, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 7A illustrates an exemplary resource pool configuration for control and associated data and shared channel transmission, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 7B illustrates an exemplary resource pool configuration for control and associated data and shared channel transmission, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 8A illustrates a method of providing grant-free communication, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 8B illustrates a method of providing grant-free communication, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 9A illustrates a method of providing grant-free communication, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 9B illustrates a method of providing grant-free communication, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

　　Preferred features, embodiments and variations of the invention may be discerned from the following Detailed Description which provides sufficient information for those skilled in the art to perform the invention. The Detailed Description is not to be regarded as limiting the scope of the preceding Summary of the Invention in any way.

　　Data streams from mobile devices in a 5th generation (5G) wireless communication system may be channel-encoded, modulated and mapped on uplink (UL) channel resources. The data streams may be transmitted from a single source or multiple sources, and via either a single transmitter (i.e. antenna port) or multiple transmitters (i.e. antenna ports), and using a specific waveform.

　　The UL channel resources may be assigned by the servicing network or may be selected by the mobile device among the network's configured/pre-configured channel resources. Additionally, the specific waveform may be designed and selected for a targeted service or mobile traffic, such as an enhanced Mobile broadband (eMBB) service which demands low latency, high bandwidth per mobile device, high spectral efficiency, and high user experience throughput.

　　An example of another targeted service is massive machine type communication (mMTC), which demands low bandwidth, occasional small data packet transmission with data loss intolerant, delay tolerant, improved link budget, low cost connectivity. Furthermore, mMTC requires high density devices deployment, which in turn requires a network having capability of accommodating a massive number of simultaneous network access requests and/or scheduling request-grant prior to data transmissions from massive number of connected devices.

　　Other targeted services, such as critical MTC or mission critical communication (MCC), demand low bandwidth transmission of small data packets or streams of small data packets, from time to time or upon an event trigger, and are data loss intolerant and require delay intolerant, instant or immediate network access for critical communication.

　　Fig. 1A and Fig. 1B illustrate 5G wireless communication system 10, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system 10 comprises a single cell system having a first access node 11 in the form of an advanced base station (BS) having overall cell coverage 12 to provide wireless services and connectivity concurrently to legacy mobile devices/user equipment 16 and advanced mobile devices in

groups

13, 14 and 15.

　　In accessing the network for its user data transmission, the legacy mobile devices 16 follow the 3GPP LTE-based, 4-step random access procedure, which includes obtaining timing advance commands from the BS 11 for adjusting uplink timing prior to transmitting the data to the servicing advanced BS 11. Alternatively or additionally, the legacy mobile devices 16 follow a scheduling request-grant procedure in RRC-connected mode prior to transmitting user data to the servicing advanced BS 11.

　　The advanced mobile devices in

group

13, 14 or 16, on the other hand, acquire a resource configuration from system information broadcast from the servicing advanced BS 11, periodically or when in need. This enables immediate network access for transmission of the data. The advanced mobile devices in

group

13, 14 or 16 may also acquire a resource configuration for scheduling request-grant free transmission from system information broadcast by the servicing advanced BS 11. This enables the advanced mobile devices to perform a scheduling request-grant free transmission procedure for transmitting its user data packet(s) with or without associated layer 1 control overhead (i.e. zero/limited L1 control overhead transmission).

　　The resource configurations broadcast by the advanced BS 11 for immediate network access and/or for scheduling request-grant free transmission, comprise information elements (IEs) defining logical resource pools and sub-pools with predefined scalable channels and channel indexes for use by advanced mobile devices residing within the coverage of the advanced BS, as illustrated by resource pool structure 30.

　　The cell coverage 12 of the 5G system 10 is virtually zoned into one for more zones, including a first zone 23, a second zone 24, and a third zone 25. The zones are allocated according to a relative distance of groups of advanced mobile device(s) (

e.g. group

13 or 14 or 15) to the servicing advanced BS 11. All advanced mobile devices within a designated zone (e.g.

zone

23, 24, or 25) independently apply the same timing advance value(s) and a similar transmit power, as nominated or configured by the servicing BS 11 when transmitting UL data. As such, UL signals concurrently transmitted from more than one advanced mobile device within the same zone (e.g. zone 23, or zone 24, or zone 25) will arrive at the serving advanced BS within a designed cyclic prefix (CP) length and with approximately same received power.

　　For example, mobile devices in group 13 within zone 23 (or mobile devices in group 14 within zone 24, or mobile devices in group 15 within zone 25), may use the same timing advance value and similar transmit power value as configured/reconfigured by the servicing advanced BS 11 for zone 23 (or 24 or 25) to concurrently transmit their UL data to the BS 11.

　　By carefully configuring different timing advances for different groups of mobile devices, UL signals concurrently transmitted from mobile devices in different groups arrive at the servicing BS 11 within a designed cyclic prefix (CP) length, which therefore effectively manages inter symbol interference (ISI).

　　The BS 11 may configure and reconfigure (semi-static configuration/reconfiguration) the number of virtual zones and/or zone configuration IEs, to accommodate and/or adapt to changes in number of mobile devices, traffic and services within its cell coverage. This may occur from time to time, or at specific intervals. The configuration IEs may assist with the reconstruction of logical resource pool(s) or sub-pools with channel resources IEs, and for use at an advanced mobile device to gain access to the mobile network and/or to transmit its UL data to the servicing BS.

　　The servicing BS 11 may periodically broadcast its zone's configurations, which may be decodable by advanced mobile devices within that zone and other advanced mobile devices in the cell coverage.

　　Furthermore, when entering and while being within the cell coverage 12 of the advance BS 11, an advanced mobile device may self-determine and then re-determine a zone that is appropriate for it according to its present position or mobility in the servicing cell, and acquire configuration information elements for the selected zone. In performing self-determination of the appropriate zone, an advanced mobile device may use a signal strength from the BS 11 and/or signal quality detected at its receiver.

　　The 5G system 10 utilises a resource pool structure 30 comprising logical resource pool(s) with a specific configuration for immediate network access and/or request-grant free transmission (also referred to as grant-free transmission) at an advanced mobile device.

　　The resource pools are periodically repeated in time, as indicated by resource pools (n) 31, and (n+1) 32, until there is a reconfiguration, as indicated by resource pool (k) 36.

　　The resource pools are partitioned into sub-pools, and each sub-pool may be allocated to the advanced mobile devices in a designated zone. For example a first sub-pool 33, 33.1, a second sub-pool 34, 34.1, and a third sub-pool 35 may be allocated to advanced mobile devices in zone 25, zone 24, and zone 23 respectively.

　　Each sub-pool may be allocated to one region (e.g. region A or B), or divided into 2 regions (e.g. A and B). Each region may be configured by the servicing advanced BS either for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission (e.g. region A) or zero-L1-control overhead data transmission (i.e. region B).

　　For example, the first sub-pool 33 is divided into a first region 40 (A), which is configured for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission from some mobile devices in group 15, and a second region 50 (B) which is configured for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission from other mobile devices in group 15. In a region being configured for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission, such as the first region 40, the sub-pool may be partitioned into a control sub-pool 41 and a data sub-pool 42.

　　The control sub pool 41 and the data sub-pool 42 can be time-multiplexed, as illustrated by 60, or frequency-multiplexed, as illustrated by 40. Both time-multiplexed control-data sub-pool(s) and frequency-multiplexed control-data sub-pool(s) are allowed within a configured resource pool (e.g. 40 and 60 are in resource pool 31). Furthermore, a partitioned control sub-pool may comprise a configurable number of control channels, where each control channel may be further configured to map onto one transmission unit (e.g. 43) or multiple transmission units to accommodate different control channel sizes.

　　All control channels within a control sub-pool are indexed in such a way that they are implicitly known the servicing BS and the advanced mobile devices. When there is data for transmitting to the servicing advanced BS utilising the grant-free transmission method, an advanced mobile device may randomly select an indexed control channel (e.g. 43) among the available indexed control channels for use and then map its modulated control channel onto the selected control channel for further signal generation and transmission. The control channel (e.g. 43) transmitted in the control sub-pool (e.g. 41) will act as scheduling assistance to provide control information for the extraction of resource blocks having associated data channel(s), reception and decoding of associated data channel (e.g. 44) transmitted in the corresponding data sub-pool (e.g. 42).

　　In a region being configured for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission, the entire resource sub-pool comprises a data sub-pool (e.g. 50) which is allocated for data channel mapping and transmission. Data sub-pools for zero-L1-control overhead grant-free data transmission (e.g. 50) comprise a configurable number of data channels, where each data channel may be further configured to map on one transmission unit or multiple transmission units (e.g. 4 transmission unit as 51) to accommodate different data channel sizes. The transmission unit or time-base unit may, for example, include, time-base units such as subframes, slots or mini slots which are scaled according to configured waveform's numerology.

　　All data channels within a control sub-pool are also logically indexed in such a way that they are implicitly and transparently derivable at the servicing BS and advanced mobile devices participating in zero-L1-control overhead data transmission. When there is data with predefined-fixed sizes for transmitting to its servicing advanced BS utilising the zero-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission method, an advanced mobile device may randomly select a data channel with index among the available data channels and then map its predefined fixed size modulated data channel onto the selected indexed data channel(s) for further signal generation and transmission.

　　In order to have channel resources adaptive to the varied traffic within a designated zone, while minimising the risk of collisions, a sub-pool being allocated to the advanced mobile devices of a designated zone may be configured to appear in every resource pool. For example, resource sub-pool 35 with region A and B being allocated to the advanced mobile devices of a designated zone 24 is configured to occur in resource pool 'n' 31, resource pool 'n+1' 32 and so on. Concurrently, sub-pools being allocated to the advanced mobile devices of other designated zones may be configured to appear at a configurable interval. For example, the resource sub-pool (33 or 34), with configured region A and B being allocated to the advanced mobile devices in designated zone (25 or 23), is configured to occur only at every second resource pool, starting from resource pool 'n' 33, and then reoccur again at resource pool 'n+2', 'n+4' and so on. Resource sub-pool (33.1 or 34.1) with only region A 33.1 or B 34.1 being allocated to the advanced mobile devices in designated zone (25 or 23) is also configured to occur only at every second resource pool, but starting from resource pool 'n+1' (32), and then reoccur again at resource pool 'n+3', 'n+5' and so on.

　　Embodiments of the present invention provide methods to establish a configurable logical channel resources pool (or pools) for grant-free transmission in a 5G wireless communication system. In such case, logical channel resources pools for grant-free transmission are formed by collecting resource blocks (RBs) on 5G transmission time base-units (such as subframes, slots or mini-slots) within radio frames which are reserved for grant-free transmission.

　　Fig. 2A and Fig. 2B illustrate an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The structure 100 includes a plurality of radio frames 120, 130, 140, 150 within a super-frame 110 of 1024x10ms.

　　Each

radio frame structure

120, 130, 140, 150 includes a plurality of transmission time-

base units

111, 112, 113 having grant-free transmission resource blocks (RBs) that are reserved for grant-free transmission.

　　All RBs in the super-frame 110 being reserved for grant-free transmission are concatenated in frequency and in time to form a logical channel resource super-pool 30. The logical channel resource super-pool 30 is further partitioned into K non-overlapping grant-free transmission

logical resource pools

31, 32, 61, 36, 62, where the first K-1 grant-free transmission logical resource pools [e.g. grant-free transmission resource pool(0) (e.g. 31) to grant-free transmission resource pool(K-2)] are identical and may be configured to comprise L grant-free transmission time-base units.

　　The last grant-free transmission logical resource pool (K-1) 62 of a super-frame may be truncated, and as such may consist less than L grant-free transmission time-base units. A grant-free transmission resource pool (k) (e.g. 36) may be further configured to comprise one or multiple sub-pools, where the configured sub-pools may be reserved for use by mobile devices of the aforementioned zones (i.e. 37, 38 and 39).

　　Partitioned sub-pools in a grant-free transmission resource pool can be configured to be non-overlapping sub-pools and/or partially overlapping sub-pools, where an overlapping region can be configured for sharing among mobile devices of two or more zones without the risk of increasing collisions.

　　Configuration information elements (IEs) for a grant-free transmission resource sub-pool may include a start-grant-free-resource-pool IE, a periodicity IE, a time-duration IE, a time-offset IE, a frequency-duration IE, and a frequency-offset IE.

　　The start-grant-free-resource-pool IE comprises an integer [0, 1, 2, 3, … 'K-1'] identifying a start of the resource pool, such as IE 126 for the sub-pool of zone 1, IE 136 for the sub-pool of zone 2 and IE 146 for the sub-pool of zone 3.

　　The periodicity IE comprises an integer [1, 2, 3, … K] identifying a periodicity of the sub-pool. The Time-duration IE comprises an integer [0, 1, 2, … 'L-1']; identifying the number of transmission time-base units defining a duration of the sub-pool, such as IE 122 for the sub-pool of zone 1, IE 132 for the sub-pool of zone 2 and IE 142 for the sub-pool of zone 3. Similarly, the time-offset IE comprises an integer [0, 1, 2, … 'L-1'] identifying the number of transmission time-base units the sub-pool is offset in the logical resource pool start boundary, such as IE 123 for the sub-pool of zone 1, IE 133 for the sub-pool of zone 2, and IE 143 for the sub-pool of zone 3.

　　The Frequency-duration IE comprises an integer [0, 1, 2, 3…] identifying a frequency duration of the sub-pool as a number of RBs, such as IE 124 for the sub-pool of zone 1, IE 134 for the sub-pool of zone 2, and IE 144 for the sub-pool of zone 3. Similarly, the frequency-offset IE comprises an integer [0, 1, 2, 3…] identifying a frequency offset of the sub-pool as a number of RBs, such as IE 125 for the sub-pool of zone 1, IE 135 for the sub-pool of zone 2, and IE 145 for the sub-pool of zone 3.

　　The Start-Grant-free-resource-pool and Periodicity IEs are together configured to manage how often a configured sub-pool shall appear at grant-free transmission resource pool level and which resource pool in a super-pool the first configured sub-pool starts to appear. For example, configuring two or more sub-pools with the same periodicity value but with different start-grant-free-resource-pool values provides for the interleaving of the configured sub-pools at resource pool level.

　　Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure 200, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

　　As described above, a servicing BS may zone its servicing cell into 3 differentiated zones, namely ZONE 1, ZONE 2 and ZONE 3. The servicing BS may further reserve a number of RBs, transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes, slots or mini-slots), and radio frames for grant-free transmission, defining a grant-free transmission logical resource super pool 201.

　　The servicing BS may further partition each grant-free transmission logical resource super pool 201 into K grant-free transmission resource pools, including a first grant-free transmission resource pool 210, a second grant-free transmission resource pool 220, and a third grant-free transmission resource pool 230. The skilled addressee will readily appreciate that K may be any suitable integer.

　　Based on the number of mobile devices in each of the zones (i.e. ZONE 1, ZONE 2 and ZONE 3), and service demands in each zone, the servicing BS may further partition the configured resource pools into 3 non-overlapping sub-pools and each configured sub-pool is allocated to mobile devices in zone1, zone2 and zone3.

　　The sub-pool of zone1 may be configured with: start-grant-free-resource-pool = 0 (as illustrated by 211), periodicity = 1 (as illustrated by 212), time-offset = 0 (as illustrated by 221), and frequency-offset = 0 (as illustrated by 231). As such, the sub-pool of zone 1 240 occurs on every configured grant-free resource pool (e.g. 210, 220, 230 and so on).

　　The sub-pool of zone 2 may be configured with: start-grant-free-resource-pool = 0 (as illustrated by 213), periodicity = 2 (as illustrated in 214), time-offset = time duration of zone 1 (as illustrated by 223), and frequency-offset = 0 (as illustrated in 231). As such, the sub-pool of Zone 2 250 occurs on every second grant-free resource pool starting from the first grant-free resource pool (e.g. 210, 230 and so on). Furthermore, with the time offset of zone 2 equal to the time duration of zone 1, the sub-pools of zone 1 and zone 2 are not overlapping.

　　The sub-pool of zone 3 may be configured with: start-grant-free-resource-pool = 1 (as illustrated in 215), periodicity = 2 (as illustrated in 216), time-offset = time duration of zone 1 (as illustrated by 225), and frequency-offset = 0 (as illustrated by 231). As such, the sub-pol of zone 3 260 also occurs on every second grant-free resource pool, but starting from the second grant-free resource pool (e.g. 220, and so on). Furthermore, with the time-offset of zone 3 equal to the time duration of zone 1, the sub-pools of zone 1 and zone 3 are not overlapping.

　　The above grant-free transmission resource pool configuration allows a sufficient number of channels for selection within the sub-pools of zone 2 and zone3, and hence minimises the risk of collisions when compared to alternative options where the sub-pools of zone 2 and zone 3 occur in every grant-free transmission resource pool, as such option results in a smaller number of channels for contention at a time and therefore increases the risk of collision.

　　Additionally, when configuring the time-duration, time-offset, frequency-duration and frequency-offset configuration IEs of a sub-pool together with the start-grant-free-resource-pool and periodicity configuration, one or more overlapping regions can be created for sharing, which allows mobile devices of one zone to utilise the grant-free transmission resource configured for another zone without the risk of creating additional collision.

　　Fig. 4 illustrates an exemplary grant-free transmission resource pool structure 300, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described above, a servicing BS may zone its servicing cell into 3 differentiated zones, namely zone 1, zone 2 and zone 3. The servicing BS may further reserve number of RBs, transmission time-base units, and radio frames for grant-free transmission, defining a configurable grant-free transmission logical resource super pool 301.

　　The servicing BS may partition a grant-free transmission logical resource super pool 301 into K grant-free transmission resource pools, including a first grant-free transmission resource pool 310, a second grant-free transmission resource pool 320, and so on. The skilled addressee will appreciate that K may be any suitable integer.

　　Based on a high population of mobile devices in zone 1 and zone 3, the servicing BS may partition the configured resource pools into two non-overlapping sub-pools and allocate the sub-pools to the mobile devices in zone 1 and zone 3 respectively (as illustrated by 330 and 340). In order to meet frequent traffic demanding channel resources from mobile devices in zone 1 and zone 3, the servicing BS may further configure the sub-pools of zone 1 and zone 3 to occur on every grant-free transmission resource pool (as illustrated by 330s and 340s).

　　Based on the population and less frequent traffic demands for channel resources from the mobile devices in zone 2, the service BS may further configure the sub-pool of zone 2 350 to occur on every second grant-free transmission resource pool, and to overlap partially with the sub-pools of zone 1 and zone 3, without the risk of increasing the collisions between the mobile devices of zone 1 zone 2, and between the mobile devices of zone 3 and zone 4.

　　The sub-pool of zone 1 330 may be configured with: start-grant-free-resource-pool = 0 (as illustrated by 312), periodicity = 1 (as illustrated by 311), time-offset = 0 (as illustrated by 321), and frequency-offset = 0 (as illustrated by 331). As such, the sub-pool of zone 1 330 occurs on every configured grant-free resource pool (e.g. 310, 320, and so on).

　　The sub-pool of zone 3 340 may be configured with: start-grant-free-resource-pool = 0 (as illustrated by 314), periodicity = 1 (as illustrated by 313), time-offset = time duration of zone 1 (as illustrated by 323 and 322), and frequency-offset = 0 (as illustrated by 331). As such, the sub-pool of zone 3 occurs on every configured grant-free resource pool (e.g. 310, 320, and so on). Furthermore, with the time offset 323 of zone 3 being equal to the time duration 322 of zone 1, the sub-pools of zone 1 and zone 2 are non-overlapping.

　　The sub-pool of zone 2 350 may be configured with: start-grant-free-resource-pool = 1 (as illustrated by 316), periodicity = 2 (as illustrated by 315), time-offset less than the time duration of zone 1 (as illustrated by 325), time-duration greater than the time duration of zone 3 (as illustrated by 326 and 324), frequency-offset less than the frequency duration of zone 1 (as illustrated by 333 and 332), and frequency-duration less than the frequency duration of zone 1 (as illustrated by 334 and 332).

　　As such, the sub-pool of zone 2 350 is configured to occur on every second grant-free resource pool, but starting from the second grant-free resource pool (e.g. 320, and so on), to create shared regions partially overlapping with the sub-pool of zone 1 341 and partially with the sub-pool of zone 3 342. Mobile devices of zone 1 and zone 3 are thus able to receive and decode the sub-pool configuration(s) of zone 2, and therefore are able to exclude any channels that are partially or fully overlapping with the shared regions occurring in every second grant-free resource pool.

　　Fig. 5 illustrates grant-free transmission resource pool configurations 400, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

　　A first configuration 410 illustrates only limited-L1-control overhead data transmission. In such case, control channel pools/sub-pools 412, 413 and data channel pools/sub-pools 414 can be time-multiplexed (as illustrated by 412 and 414) or frequency-multiplexed (as illustrated by 413 and 414).

　　A second configuration 415 illustrates only zero-L1-control overhead data transmission. In such case, a single data channel pool/sub-pool 417 is provided.

　　A third configuration 420 illustrates non-overlapping limited-L1-control overhead data transmission and zero-L1-control overhead data transmission. In such case, a resource pool or resource sub-pool comprises "region A" 421 being allocated for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission, and "region B" 426 being allocated for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission. Region A 421 may comprises a control channel pool/sub-pool 422 and a data channel pool/sub-pool 424. The configured control channel pool/sub-pool and data channels pool/sub-pool within region A can be time-multiplexed or frequency-multiplexed (as illustrated by 422 and 423). Region B 426 comprises only a data channel pool/sub-pool 427.

　　A fourth configuration 430 illustrates overlapping limited-L1-control overhead data transmission and zero-L1-control overhead data transmission. In this case, a resource pool or resource sub-pool "region A" 431 is allocated for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission, and "region B" 436 is allocated for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission. Region A 431 comprises a control channel pool/sub-pool 432 and an associated data channel pool/sub-pool 434. The control channel pool/sub-pool and associated data channel pool/sub-pool within region A 431 may be being time-multiplexed or frequency-multiplexed (as illustrated by 432 and 434), and region B 436 may comprises only a data channel pool/sub-pool 427. Region A and region B may be configured to have fully or partially overlapping of data channels pool/sub-pools. The configured overlapping region 439 is shared between limited-L1-control overhead data transmission services and zero-L1-control overhead data transmission services.

　　A grant free transmission resource pool, or resource sub-pool, or a region within a resource pool/sub-pool being configured for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission may comprise a plurality of time-frequency-code multiplexed data channels for being use by mobile devices within one or more configured zones. The size of a physical data channel may be configurable/reconfigurable, and span over one or more RBs in frequency and one or more transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes, slots, mini-slots) in time to accommodate a wide range of current and future services and/or applications.

　　Once configured, a physical channel has a fixed size (i.e. fixed size data channel means the data channel has fixed number of modulated symbols for further precoding and RE mapping) for the duration of the configuration. A configured fixed size data channel is designed for accommodating a L1 data transport block with several predefined-fixed sizes, i.e. L1 data transport blocks having different sizes in the predefined set can be processed with different coding rates and modulation schemes to result in a same size physical channel.

　　Fig. 6A and Fig.6B illustrate a resource pool/sub-pool configuration 500 for zero layer 1 control overhead data/shared channel transmission, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

　　In order to accommodate a configured data channel (e.g. 515) with size spanning over "Y" RBs 517 and "X" time-units 516 (e.g. subframes, slots, mini-slots), a resource pool, sub-pool or region being configured for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission 510 is partitioned to comprise "N" data/share channels in the time-frequency plane 501. The data channels are indexed first in time and then in frequency starting from data channel index "0" 511, data index "1" 512, data index "2" 513, to data index "g" 515, and to data channel index "N-1" 519. Each data channel on the time-frequency plane, such as data channel "g" 515, may be precoded with orthogonal codes as being illustrated through data channel precoding structure 520.

　　As illustrated in the data channel precoding structure 520, each transmission unit (e.g. transmission unit 525) in a data channel "g" which spans over X TUs 521 and Y RBs 522 comprise data REs 526 and DMRS REs 527. Prior to RE mapping, an advanced mobile device may randomly select an orthogonal code within the orthogonal code book configured or predefined by the servicing BS for modulated data symbol precoding.

　　Concurrently, the advanced mobile device may randomly select a DMRS sequence index within the DMRS sequences indexes table configured or predefined by the servicing BS, for generating DMRS sequence for further mapping. A servicing BS may assign and reassigned DMRS sequence index for use to an advanced mobile device.

　　The combination of orthogonal codes from a code-book and DMRS sequence indexes from a DMRS sequence index table, which results in orthogonal codes with dimension "z" 523 for use in differentiating mobile devices who may select the same channel index on time-frequency plane but with different codes. For example, two or more mobile devices may concurrently select the same channel index in the time-frequency plane and further select the same orthogonal code for data precoding and RE mapping, but with differentiable DMRS sequences. This may allow the servicing advanced BS to successfully receive and decode their transmitted data channels.

　　Fig. 7A and Fig. 7B illustrate a resource pool configuration 600 for control and associated data and/or shared channel transmission, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The resource pool configuration 600 comprises a grant free transmission resource pool, sub-pool, or region being configured for limitted-L1-control overhead data transmission.

　　In particular, the resource pool configuration comprises a logical control resource sub-pool 610 for L1-control channel transmission (as illustrated by 611, 612, 613, 614, and 615) and an associated logical data resource sub-pool 620 for the transmission of associated data channels of different size (as illustrated by 621, 622, 623, 624, and 625).

　　Depending on the type of service or application (e.g. ultra-low transmission latency or latency tolerant), the L1-control channel and its associated data channel may be configured as follows.

　　An L1-control channel 611 and its associated data channel 621 may be transmitted in the same transmission time-base unit (e.g. subframe, slot or mini-slot). The L1 control channel and associated data channel are frequency multiplexed. The associated data channel may be localised and therefore be mapped over a number of consecutive PRBs in the configured data resource sub-pool.

　　Another L1-control channel 612 and its associated data channel 622 may be transmitted in the same transmission time-base unit (e.g. subframe, slot or mini-slot). The L1 control channel and associated data channel are frequency multiplexed. The associated data channel may be distributed and therefore being mapped over a number of PRBs that are distributed across the subband of a configured data resource sub-pool to achieve some degree of frequency diversity.

　　Another L1-control channel 613 and its associated data channel 623 may be transmitted in different transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes, slots or mini-slots). The L1 control channel and associated data channel are time multiplexed. The transmission time-base unit having the associated data channel is mapped to follow the transmission time-base unit having the control channel. Furthermore, the associated data channel may be localised or distributed in frequency, as illustrated in 623.

　　Another L1-control channel 614 and its associated data channel 624 may be transmitted in different transmission time-base units. The L1 control channel and associated data channel are time multiplexed. The associated data channel may be distributed in time and therefore be mapped over a number of PRBs in non-consecutive transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes/slots) that are distributed over the duration of the configured data resource sub-pool to achieve maximum time diversity.

　　Another L1-control channel 615 and its associated data channel 625 may be transmitted in different transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes/slots). The control channel and associated data channel are time multiplexed. The associated data channel may be localised in time and therefore being mapped over a number of PRBs in the consecutive transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes/slots/mini slots) in the configured data resource sub-pool to achieve some time diversity while having shortest possible transmission latency.

　　The logical control resource sub-pool 610 may comprise plurality of indexed time-frequency multiplexed control channels for use by the mobile devices within one or more configured zones. The indexed physical control channels (611, 612, 613, 614 or 615) in the logical control resource sub-pool 610 have a configurable/reconfigurable/pre-configurable size which is fixed for the duration of a (semi-static) configuration.

　　A servicing BS may configure L1-control channels in a configured sub-pool, to spread over one or more RBs in frequency and/or one or more transmission time-base units (e.g. subframes, slots, and mini-slots) in time to cater for wide range of application and future growth. When having data packets for grant-free transmission, a mobile device may perform contention for a control channel(s) within it configured logical control resource sub-pool by randomly selecting a control channel index (or indices) which appear to be available for use. The mobile device may then locate PRBs corresponding to the control channel with the selected index for further RE mapping.

　　The transmitted control channel from an advanced mobile device carries control information for the reception and decoding of associated data channel being transmitted in the corresponding data sub-pool. The control information transmitted on the control channel may include TBS information, a new data indicator (NI), HARQ process number, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) information, Redundancy version (RV), scheduled PRB information; and importantly the orthogonal code which is selected for precoding modulate data symbols.

　　The associated logical data resource sub-pool 620 may comprise plurality of time-frequency-code multiplexed data transmission units (e.g. 629). In such case, a time-frequency-code multiplexed data transmission unit is an RB on the configured orthogonal code-planes (e.g. RB 626 on code "o" plane, RB 627 on code "p" plane, or RB 628 on code "p" plane). Prior to performing RE mapping of modulated data on the determined PRBs, an advanced mobile device may randomly select an orthogonal code in its configured orthogonal code-book for precoding the modulated data channel. The selected orthogonal code is indicated to the servicing BS via the control channel discussed above.

　　A first option 630 for mapping the logical control resource sub-pool 610 and its associated logical data resource sub-pool 620 to a configured grant-free transmission resource pool, sub-pool or region of size [Nt time-base units 601 x Nf PRBs 602] for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission is illustrated and marked as "OPTION 1".

　　The RBs in a configured logical control resource sub-pool 610 may be divided into two equal halves, where the first half is mapped to the high-edge RBs of a configured pool, sub-pool or region 631, and the second half is mapped to the low-edge RBs of the configured pool, sub-pool or region 632. The RBs in the configured logical data resource sub-pool 610 are mapped to the central RBs of the configured pool, sub-pool or region 635.

　　A second option 650 for mapping the logical control resource sub-pool 610 and its associated logical data resource sub-pool 620 to a configured grant-free transmission resource pool, sub-pool or region of size [Nt time-base units 601 x Nf PRBs 602] for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission is illustrated and marked as "OPTION 2".

　　The RBs in a configured logical control resource sub-pool 610 may be distributed across the configured grant-free transmission resource pool, sub-pool or region and an advanced mobile device may be informed by the servicing BS where to locate RBs configured for L1-control channels mapping (e.g. 651, 652, 653 and etc.). The remaining RBs in the configured grant-free transmission resource pool, sub-pool or region which are not reserved for L1 control channel mapping are allocated for data channel mapping. In addition to information to indicate to advanced mobile devices where to locate the RBs reserved for L1-control channels mapping, the advanced BS may optionally configure an orthogonal code for control channel precoding that all advanced mobile devices that use the configured grant-free transmission resource pool, sub-pool or region for limitted-L1-control overhead data transmission.

　　Methods for being implemented at an advanced base station and at advanced mobile devices that utilise the above disclosed structures are described below.

　　Fig. 8A and Fig. 8B illustrate a method 700 of providing grant-free communication, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method 700 is for use in an advanced base station.

　　At 701, and by observing a number of deployed or/and registered grant-free transmission capable advanced mobile devices, and other mobile devices in the coverage, as well as the activities of the mobile devices, the advanced BS constructs a resource super-pool for grant-free transmission by reserving RBs, time-base units (e.g. subframes/slots/mini-slots), and radio frames in a resources super pool of (10x1024ms) for use by advanced mobile devices in grant-free transmission.

　　Furthermore, based on the observed grant-free transmission traffic patterns, traffic profiles, distribution of grant-free transmission capable advanced mobile devices and their mobility within the coverage, the servicing advanced BS partitions the resource super-pool for grant-free transmission into resource pools, sub-pools or zones and derives corresponding pre-configuration IEs, configuration IE or reconfiguration IEs for enabling the grant-free data transmission with limited-L1-control and/or zero-L1-control overhead data transmission within the serving cell.

　　With the established grant-free resource pools, sub-pools or zone structure and the associated configuration/reconfiguration IEs, the servicing advanced BS periodically broadcast the system configuration information in the form of configuration or reconfiguration IEs at 702. The broadcasted grant-free configuration or reconfiguration IEs may include, for example, IEs defining a grant-free resource pool, sub-pool and/or zones structure, code books for data channel precoding, and a DMRS index table for demodulation reference signal sequence selection and generation at an advanced mobile device.

　　Between any 2 consecutively broadcast system information configurations having grant-free configuration/reconfiguration IEs, the advanced BS monitors the configured grant-free resource pools, sub-pools and/or regions in 703. In the case of limited-L1-control overhead data transmission, the BS monitors for transmitted control channels in the logical control resource sub-pools, and in the case of zero-L1-control overhead data transmission, the BS monitors the configured grant-free resource pools, sub-pools and/or regions for transmitted data channels.

　　Upon a successful detection and decoding of control channel(s) (in the case of limitted-L1-control overhead data transmission), and/or data channel(s) (in the case of zero-L1-control overhead data transmission), as indicated by 705, the advanced BS performs the reception and decoding of the associated data channel(s) by extracting the data channel RBs and REs for further demodulation and decoding to retrieve the transmitted data packet, as illustrated in 706.

　　If no control channels are detected in a configured logical control resource sub-pool for limited-L1-control overhead data transmission, and/or no data channels are detected in a configured logical data resource pool or sub-pool for zero-L1-control overhead data transmission, as indicated by 704, the advanced BS may resume the monitoring in 703 on the incoming logical control resource sub-pools and/or incoming logical data resource pools or sub-pools.

　　Upon a successful reception and decoding of a data channel(s) being associated with the detected control channel or a data channel(s) without associated control channel, as indicated by 707, the advanced BS transmits on the next incoming DL control channel a HARQ-Ack to the mobile device, as illustrated in 708. On the same DL control channel carrying HARQ-Ack to the intended UE, the advanced BS may further provide sub-channel indexes, code indexes and/or DMRS sequence indexes to assist the mobile device in avoiding collision in the next grant-free transmission.

　　Upon unsuccessful decoding of a data channel associated with the detected control channel, or a data channel without associated control channel where a positive mobile device ID has been detected, as illustrated by 709, an advanced BS will on the next incoming DL control channel transmit a HARQ-Nack to the intended UE in 710. The advanced BS may further provide sub-channel indexes, code indexes and/or DMRS sequence indexes to assist the mobile device in avoiding collision in the upcoming grant-free retransmission.

　　If a grant free resource configuration broadcasting period has not ended, as illustrated in 711, an the advanced BS resumes the monitoring function on the incoming resource pools/sub-pools for new control channel and/or new/retransmitted data channels as illustrated in 712 and then 703.

　　If, on the other hand, a grant free resource configuration broadcasting period has ended, as illustrated in 713, and a grant free resource configuration/reconfiguration remains valid, as illustrated in 714, the advanced BS resumes periodically broadcasting the system information having grant-free configuration or reconfiguration IEs at 702.

　　If the grant free resource configuration broadcasting period has ended, as illustrated in 713, but the grant free resource configuration has been removed, as illustrated in 715, the advanced BS may terminate grant-free transmission services within its servicing cell.

　　The above disclosed method is for use in an advanced base station, and an associated method for use in advanced mobile-devices is disclosed below.

　　Fig. 9A and Fig. 9B illustrate a method 750 for providing grant-free communication, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

　　The method 750 is triggered by the arrival of a new data packet for grant-free transmission or existing data packet due for grant-free retransmission, as illustrated in 751.

　　Upon the arrival of new data packet for grant-free transmission, and the grant-free configuration may not yet be available, an advanced mobile device may perform the reception and decoding of cell's broadcast channel to acquire system information having cell's grant-free resource configuration, as illustrated by 752.

　　The advanced mobile device may periodically or form time to time acquire system information defining a grant-free resource configuration to keep itself up-to-date with the cell's grant-free resource pool, sub-pool or region structure and an associated configuration/ reconfiguration IEs which can be immediately available for use when needed.

　　At step 753, and based on the acquired grant-free resource configuration with configured zones, the advanced mobile device determines an appropriate zone that it may belong to for further TA selection, TX power selection and other zone specific grant-free resources configuration.

　　At step 754, sub-channel selection is performed. If limited-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is defined, the advanced mobile device first randomly selects a control channel index available in the configured control sub-pool and then selects RBs in the corresponding configured data sub-pool. This may be performed with or without the assistance from its servicing advanced BS.

　　If the transmitting data packet has a pre-defined fixed size that is suitable for zero-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission, the advanced mobile device may randomly select a data channel index available in the configured data pool/sub-pool with or without assistance from it servicing advanced BS.

　　At step 755, and from the configured codebooks and DMRS indexes tables, with or without assistance from the servicing advanced BS, the advanced mobile device selects an orthogonal code for transmitting data channel and associated DMRS indexes assisting the reception of control and/or data channel at the serving advanced BS.

　　At step 756, if zero-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is used, the advanced mobile device performs precoding on the modulated data channel and further generates a DMRS sequence using the above selected code and DMRS index. Otherwise, if limited-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is used, the advanced mobile device generates a DMRS sequence for the transmitting control channel. Optionally, the advanced mobile device may perform the precoding on the modulated control channel using the configured code index. The advanced mobile device then performs precoding on the associated modulated data channel and further generates a DMRS sequence using the above selected code and the DMRS index.

　　At step 757, if zero-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is used, the advanced mobile device determines PRBs corresponding to the selected data channel index in the configured data pool or sub-pool and performs RE mapping for the precoded data channel and its associated DMRS sequence. Otherwise, if limited-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is used, the advanced mobile device determines PRBs corresponding to the selected control channel index in the configured control sub-pool and perform the REs mapping for the precoded control channel and the associated DMRS sequence. The device then determines PRBs corresponding to the selected RBs in the corresponding data sub-pool and performs RE mapping for the precoded data channel and its associated DMRS sequence.

　　At step 758, if zero-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is used, the advanced mobile device generates and transmits a baseband signal having the precoded data channel REs and its associated DMRS sequence REs. Otherwise, if limited-L1-control overhead grant-free transmission is used, an advanced mobile device generates and transmits a baseband signal having the precoded control channel REs and its associated DMRS sequence REs, and generates and transmits a baseband signal having the associated precoded data channel REs and its associated DMRS sequence REs. Either way, the device then sets a HARQ timer for the transmitted packet.

　　At step 759, for each transmitted data channel or control channel and associated data channel, the advanced mobile device monitors the DL control channel for a corresponding HARQ acknowledgement.

　　If the HARQ acknowledgement corresponding to the transmitted data channel or control channel and associated data channel is not received at the expiry of the set HARQ timer, as illustrated by 760, the advanced mobile device initiates a back-off procedure in step 761 and then re-initiates the grant-free transmission procedure for the retransmission.

　　If the HARQ acknowledgement corresponding to the transmitted data channel or control channel and associated data channel is received prior to the expiry of the set HARQ timer, as illustrated by 762, and there is new data packet(s) or retransmission (i.e. NACK was received) for grant-free transmission, as illustrated by 763, the advanced mobile device resumes from step 754 for channel selection with or without network assistance information received together with the HARQ-Acknowledgement.

　　If the HARQ acknowledgement corresponding to the transmitted data channel or control channel and associated data channel is received prior to the expiry of the set HARQ timer, as illustrated in step 762, and there are no new data packets or retransmission is not required (i.e. ACK was received) for grant-free transmission, as illustrated by 763, the advanced mobile device ends the procedure at step 765 and may enter sleeping mode to conserve its battery.

　　The systems and methods described above enable an advanced mobile device to gaining immediate network access for transmission. The transmission may comprise data transmission or scheduling request-grant-free transmission, and may be with or without an associated layer 1 (i.e. physical layer) control overhead.

　　These systems and methods enable an advanced network access node to meet currently known wireless traffic requirements and adopt to new traffic requirements, while assisting in reducing end-to-end wireless communication latency.

　　The use of the configurable resource pools or sub-pools in grant free transmission, with or without layer 1 control channel overhead, and having a controllable periodicity and frequency enables the risk of collision to be kept at a desirable level.

　　The use of configurable resources pools or sub-pools in grant free transmission, with or without layer 1 control channel overhead, and having a configurable overlapping region among multiple resource sub-pools, provides effective resource sharing without the risk of increasing channel collisions.

　　The high capacity data channel pool structure for zero layer 1 control overhead grant free transmission, where the channel capacity may be configured to span over time, frequency and code, for data or shared channels, and the associated DMRS sequences set assist the BS in receiving and decoding data/shared channels, and allows data transmitted from mobile devices who select the same time-frequency-code channel with differentiable DMRS sequences, to be decodable at the BS receiver.

　　The high capacity resource pool or sub-pool structure, having a control channel pool and an associated data pool for limited layer 1 control overhead grant free transmission, may be configured to span over time or frequency and corresponding data pool capacity may be configured to span over time/frequency/code.

　　The configurable resources pools or sub-pool structure and associated methods enable asynchronous HARQ in uplink data transmission.

　　Virtual zones and implicit signalling are provided to assist zone self-determination at an advanced mobile device and well as configurable resources sub-pools for use by mobile devices in each and every configured virtual zones.

　　In the present specification and claims (if any), the word 'comprising' and its derivatives including 'comprises' and 'comprise' include each of the stated integers but does not exclude the inclusion of one or more further integers.

　　Reference throughout this specification to 'one embodiment' or 'an embodiment' means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases 'in one embodiment' or 'in an embodiment' in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more combinations.

　　In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the proper scope of the appended claims (if any) appropriately interpreted by those skilled in the art.

　　This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Australian provisional patent application No. 2017900432, filed on February 10, 2017, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

10　　5G wireless communication system
11　　advanced base station (BS)
12　　cell coverage
13, 14, 15　　group
23, 24, 25, 37, 38, 39　　zone
30, 100, 200, 300　　resource pool structure
31, 32, 36　　resource pool
33, 34, 35, 41, 42　　sub-pool
40, 50　　region
110　　super-frame
111, 112, 113　　transmission time-base unit
120, 130, 140, 150　　radio frame
400, 600　　resource pool configuration
500　　resource pool/sub-pool configuration
700, 750　　method

Claims

　　A method for use in an advanced wireless communication system, to provide grant-free transmission between mobile devices and an associated base station, the method comprising:
　　transmitting, from the advanced base station and to one or more mobile devices, grant-free transmission configuration information defining one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　monitoring, at the advanced base station, the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　receiving, at the advanced base station and on a resource of the one or more monitored resources, precoded data from a mobile device of the one or more mobile devices; and
　　transmitting, from the advanced base station and to the mobile device, acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data.
　　The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, at the advanced base station, the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission.
　　The method of claim 2, wherein the resources are determined according to at least one of a number of advanced mobile devices using grant-free transmission, a traffic profile, and a service demand, in an area.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more resources are defined at least in part according to a super-pool structure, a pool structure, a sub-pools structure, or a region structure.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information is broadcasted periodically.
　　The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, at the mobile device and according to the grant-free transmission configuration information, an appropriate resource for transmitting the precoded data.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement identifies the mobile device using a device identifier.
　　The method of claim 7, wherein the acknowledgement comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is configured to retransmit the precoded data when acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data is not received.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information defines a logical resource super-pool for grant-free transmission in a super frame of 10x1024ms.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information defines one or more resource blocks in time based units, which are scaled according to configured waveform's numerology.
　　The method of claim 11, wherein the scalable time based units comprise subframes, slots or mini-slots within the radio frames that are reserved for grant-free transmission.
　　The method of claim 11, wherein the resource blocks are localised in a subband or consecutive subbands, or are distributed within a subband or across subbands.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information defines an integer numbers of time-multiplexed logical resource pools for grant-free transmission.
　　The method of claim 14, wherein the logical resource pools are equal in size.
　　The method of claim 15, wherein one of the logical resource pools is truncated at a boundary of a super frame.
　　The method of claim 14, wherein the logical resource pools comprise two or more sub-pools.
　　The method of claim 17, wherein the sub-pools are overlapping or non-overlapping.
　　The method of claim 17, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information includes information elements (IEs) defining one or more of: a time duration of a sub-pool, a time-offset for a sub-pool, a frequency duration of a sub-pool, and a frequency offset of a sub-pool.
　　The method of claim 17, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information enables sub-pools to be defined in every resource pool or only in designated resource pools.
　　The method of claim 20, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information includes information elements (IEs) defining one or more of a start resource pool for a sub-pool, and a periodicity of the sub-pool in resource pools.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information further defines one or more control channels and/or one or more data channels, associated with the resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission.
　　The method of claim 1, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information is configured to define a) zero overhead grant free transmission, b) limited overhead grant free transmission, or c) a combination of zero overhead grant free transmission and limited overhead grant free transmission.
　　The method of claim 23, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information is configured to define a combination of zero overhead grant free transmission and limited overhead grant free transmission for a resource pool or sub-pool, and an associated resource pool or sub-pool comprises a first region for zero overhead grant free transmission and a second region for limited overhead grant free transmission.
　　The method of claim 23, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information is configured to define zero overhead grant free transmission for a resource pool or sub-pool, and an associated resource pool or sub-pool comprises a plurality time-frequency-code multiplexed data channels with configurable size.
　　The method of claim 25, wherein an each data channel spans across one or more scalable time-base units in time and/or one or more resource blocks in frequency.
　　The method of claim 25, where a data channel of the plurality time-frequency-code multiplexed data channels is selected by two or more mobile devices with differentiable DMRS sequences and channel gains, and concurrent data channel transmissions on the data channel by the two or more mobile devices is differentiated at the base station receiver.
　　The method of claim 23, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information is configured to define limited overhead grant free transmission for a resource pool or sub-pool, and an associated resource pool or sub-pool comprises a control channel pool and corresponding data pool.
　　The method of claim 28, wherein the control channel pool comprises a plurality time-frequency multiplexed control channels with configurable size.
　　The method of claim 29, where the control channel is configured and reconfigured to span across one or more scalable time-base units in time and one or more resource blocks in frequency.
　　The method of claim 28, where the data pool corresponding to the control channel pool comprises a plurality time-frequency-code multiplexed resource blocks for selection by the mobile device.
　　The method of claim 31, wherein the resource block(s) in a data pool is selected by two or more mobile devices with differentiable DMRS sequences and channel gains, and concurrent data channel transmission on the data channel by the two or more mobile devices is differentiated at the base station receiver.
　　The method of claim 28, wherein the data channel(s) of a data pool corresponding to the control channel pool is precoded with a selected orthogonal code for transmission over one or more resource blocks.
　　The method of claim 28, wherein the control channel pool and the corresponding data pool are frequency-multiplexed.
　　The method of claim 28, wherein the control channel pool comprises resource blocks from the low and high sub-band edges, and the corresponding data pool comprises resource blocks centrally located on the sub-band.
　　The method of claim 28, where resource blocks being reserved for grant free transmission are distributed across the sub-pool.
　　The method of claim 36, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information identifies resource blocks of the control channel pool within a configured sub-pool.
　　The method of claim 18, wherein the sub-pools are overlapping between a region configured for zero control overhead grant free transmission and data pool of a region being configured for limited control overhead grant free transmission.
　　The method of claim 1, further comprising partitioning, at the base station, a coverage area into multiple zones, and associated a timing advance (TA) and a mobile device maximum transmit power with each of the zones.
　　The method of claim 39, wherein the grant-free transmission configuration information includes information for assisting a mobile device in determining an appropriate zone of the multiple zones.
　　The method of claim 39, where each configured resource sub-pool may be allocated for use by advanced mobile devices within a defined zone.
　　An advanced wireless communication system, including a base station and a plurality of mobile devices, the base station configured to:
　　transmit, to one or more mobile devices, grant-free transmission configuration information defining one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　monitor the one or more resources that have been allocated to grant-free transmission;
　　receive, on a resource of the one or more monitored resources, precoded data from a mobile device of the one or more mobile devices; and
　　transmit, to the mobile device, acknowledgement of receipt of the precoded data.