WO2020073283A1

WO2020073283A1 - Method, device and computer readable medium for uplink control information transmission

Info

Publication number: WO2020073283A1
Application number: PCT/CN2018/109864
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fang Yuan; Gang Wang
Original assignee: Nec Corporation
Priority date: 2018-10-11
Filing date: 2018-10-11
Publication date: 2020-04-16
Also published as: JP7314992B2; JP2023109997A; JP2022510547A

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to method, device and computer readable medium for uplink control information transmission. In example embodiments, a method includes determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot. The method also includes determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols. The method further includes at least transmitting uplink control information on the first uplink control channel.

Description

METHOD, DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR UPLINK CONTROL INFORMATION TRANSMISSION

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and in particular, to method, device and computer readable medium for uplink control information (UCI) transmission.

BACKGROUND

With the development of new radio access (NR) communication technologies, multiple types of services or traffic have been proposed, for example, ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) . Various aspects of communications have been changed in the NR communication technologies. Particularly, uplink control information (UCI) transmission has been discussed in the NR specification works. UCI includes different types of uplink feedback information such as positive or negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) to downlink transmission, and/or channel state information (CSI) such as periodic CSI (P-CSI) reporting, semi-persistent CSI (SP-CSI) reporting and aperiodic CSI (A-CSI) reporting.

Typically, ACK/NACK is transmitted on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) from a terminal device such as user equipment (UE) to a network device (for example, gNB) . In NR, particularly for transmissions related to URLLC, efficient transmission of ACK/NACK is desirable. Therefore, there is a need to propose a solution for enabling more than one PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission within a slot and also a solution for handling partially overlapped PUCCH in case of two PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide method, device and computer readable medium for UCI transmission.

In a first aspect, there is provided a method implemented at a terminal device. The method comprises determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot. The method further comprises determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols. The method further comprises at least transmitting uplink control information on the first uplink control channel.

In a second aspect, there is provided a device. The device includes a processor; and a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform actions comprising determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot. The actions further comprise determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols. The actions further comprise at least transmitting uplink control information on the first uplink control channel.

In a third aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to the first aspects.

Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication environment in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing ACK/NACK transmission in a slot in a conventional solution;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of UCI transmission according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing how to determine two PUCCH in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing how to map a plurality of ACK/NACK to two PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process for mapping a set of ACK/NACK to PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGs. 7A-7B are schematic diagrams showing priority orders of different types of UCI in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing overlapped PUCCHs in a slot in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the term “network device” or “base station” (BS) refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an Evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NodeB in new radio access (gNB) a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, and the like. For the purpose of discussion, in the following, some embodiments will be described with reference to eNB as examples of the network device.

As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, image capture devices such as digital cameras, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like.

As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term “includes” and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean “includes, but is not limited to. ” The term “based on” is to be read as “based at least in part on. ” The term “one embodiment” and “an embodiment” are to be read as “at least one embodiment. ” The term “another embodiment” is to be read as “at least one other embodiment. ” The terms “first, ” “second, ” and the like may refer to different or same objects. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as “best, ” “lowest, ” “highest, ” “minimum, ” “maximum, ” or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

FIG. 1 shows an example communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The network 100 includes a network device 110 and a terminal device 120 served by the network device 110. The serving area of the network device 110 is called as a cell 102. It is to be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The network 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it is to be understood that one or more terminal devices may be located in the cell 102 and served by the network device 110.

In the communication network 100, the network device 110 can communicate data and control information to the terminal device 120 and the terminal device 120 can also communication data and control information to the network device 110. A link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 120 is referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the terminal device 120 to the network device 110 is referred to as an uplink (UL) .

Communication discussed in the network 100 may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, New Radio Access (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the like. Furthermore, the communications may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols.

In communications, the terminal device 120 may transmit uplink control information (UCI) to the network device 110. UCI may include different types of control information. In an example, ACK/NACK transmission provides feedback information from the terminal device 120 to the network device 110 regarding whether a downlink transmission on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is successfully received or not. The ACK/NACK may be transmitted in a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process and thus may be referred to HARQ ACK/NACK. The ACK/NACK feedback information may be a type of UCI. In another example, the terminal device 120 may also transmit channel state information (CSI) to the network device 110 to report information on a channel between the terminal device 120 and the network device 110.

Typically, UCI is transmitted on a PUCCH resource. PUCCH resources may be configured with different formats, each of the formats being defined with parameters related to the corresponding PUCCH resource. Such parameters include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following: the starting location of the PUCCH resource, the length of the PUCCH resource (the number of symbols, the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) ) , frequency hopping, cyclic shifts, the index and/or length for orthogonal cover code, the spatial setting, and/or the like. Currently, there are five different formats specified in the NR specifications, including PUCCH format 0 to PUCCH format 4.

The tenninal device 120 may be configured with a number of sets of PUCCH resources by the network device 110, each including a plurality of PUCCH resources. For example, the number of sets of PUCCH resources may be configured by higher layer parameters, indicating the number of PUCCH resources and the location of PUCCH resources included in each set of PUCCH resources.

To transmit different types of UCI, PUCCH resources with different formats may be determined from the configured sets of PUCCH resources by the terminal device 120 according to signaling from the network device 110. For example, to transmit the HARQ ACK/NACK, PUCCH resources of PUCCH formats 0 to 4 may be used. The terminal device 120 is allowed to determine a set of PUCCH resources from a plurality of preconfigured sets of PUCCH resources based on a payload size, and then select a PUCCH resource from the set of PUCCH resources based on downlink control information (DCI) , e.g., based on ACK/NACK resource indicator (ARI for short) . The ARI may be explicitly carried by the DCI. The ARI may also be implicitly derived from the other information associated with the reception of DCI, e.g., the location of DCI.

Currently in NR, a plurality of ACK/NACK feedbacks are transmitted on a PUCCH in a single slot. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram 200 showing ACK/NACK transmission in a slot in a conventional solution. FIG. 2 schematically shows four ACK/NACKs 211-214 (shown as A/N 1-A/N 4 in FIG. 2) to be transmitted in a slot 230. The ACK/NACKs 211-214 are related to downlink transmissions on a first PDSCH 201, a second PDSCH 202, a third PDSCH 203 and a fourth PDSCH 204, and each ACK/NACK can have one or two bits for one or two transport blocks of PDSCH. The first PDSCH 201 is received prior to the second PDSCH 202, and the second PDSCH 202 is received prior to the third PDSCH 203 and so on. Thus, the fourth PDSCH 204 may be considered as the last PDSCH among a plurality of PDSCHs of which ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot 230.

A PUCCH 220 is configured to transmit the ACK/NACKs 211-214. The A/N PUCCH 220 is determined based on the DCI associated with the fourth PDSCH 204. For example, the PUCCH 220 is determined by selecting an uplink resource based on the ARI associated with the DCI of fourth PDSCH 204. Then the ACK/NACKs 211-214 can be transmitted on the A/N PUCCH 220 in the slot 230.

As mentioned above, to achieve a more efficient manner of ACK/NACK transmission especially for URLLC, it is desirable to enable more than one PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission in a single slot, such that the ACK/NACKs to previously received PDSCH can be transmitted in a PUCCH of less latency without waiting for determining the PUCCH based on the last DCI whose ARI indicates ACK/NACK to be transmitted in the same slot. Different from the case where one PUCCH is transmitted in a single slot, it is still a question regarding how to determine the more than one PUCCH in the single slot and how to map a plurality of ACK/NACKs (and possibly other types of UCI) to the more than one PUCCH. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide solutions for determining the more than one PUCCH in a slot, for mapping UCI to the more than one PUCCH and for handling PUCCH collision.

Principle and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 3, which shows a flowchart of an example method 300 of UCI transmission according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 300 can be implemented at a terminal device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. For the purpose of discussion, the method 300 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 120 with reference to FIG. 1.

At 310, the terminal device 120 determines a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot. At 320, the terminal device 120 determines a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols. The first and second sets of symbols are not overlapped with each other. For purpose of discussion, the determining of the first and second uplink control channels will be described with reference to FIG. 4, which is a schematic diagram showing how to determine two PUCCH in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As an example, FIG. 4 shows two PUCCHs in a slot 430. At 310, the terminal device 120 may determine a first PUCCH 421 which corresponds to a first set of symbols, for example, symbols 1-5 of the slot 430. At 310, the terminal device 120 may determine a second PUCCH 422 which corresponds to a second set of symbols, for example, symbols 7-9 of the slot 430. Since the first set of symbols are prior to the second set of symbols in time, the first PUCCH 421 may also be referred to as the earlier PUCCH and the second PUCCH 422 may be referred to as the later PUCCH. The earlier and later PUCCHs may be determined separately.

It is to be noted that the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 may be PUCCHs dedicated for URLLC, which are also referred to as URLLC PUCCHs for convenience of discussion. It is to be understood that the number of PUCCHs is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations and more than two PUCCHs may be determined in a slot. Each pair of the more than two PUCCHs may be not overlapped in time or frequency domain.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may determine the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 based on preconfigured uplink resources. The terminal device 120 may receive, from the network device 110, an indication of configured uplink resources and determine the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 based on the indication of the configured uplink resources.

In some cases, the indication of the configured uplink resources may be included in at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) , or downlink control information. For example, the terminal device 120 may receive from the network device 110 the RRC signaling and determine the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 based on the indication included in the RRC signaling. RRC signaling may configure several groups of the configured uplink resources. PUCCHs in the same group may be overlapped in time or frequency, and PUCCHs in different groups may not be overlapped. The MAC CE can be used to indicate one or more PUCCH from each group, or the MAC CE can be used to indicate one or more groups from the RRC configured PUCCH groups. The indication of the configured uplink resources may be also included in DCI from the network device 110. For example, the DCI can carry a group indicator to indicate one group out of more than one group of PUCCHs where one PUCCH from the indicated group is further selected for ACK/NACK transmission. The group indicated by the group indicator may be determined by the time offset between the reception of PDSCH and the transmission of the indicated PUCCH. For example, the group indicator may indicate a PUCCH group by specifying a time offset between the reception of PDSCH and the PUCCH group. The time offset may be counted in number of symbols rather than slot.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may determine the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 based on more than one resource indications associated with the downlink transmissions from the network device 110. The resource indications can be ARIs in the DCIs, and each ARI may indicate a PUCCH for ACK/NACK transmission. A subset of PUCCHs are determined from the set of all the ARI indicated PUCCHs. In such embodiments, the downlink transmissions are related to URLLC, and the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 are URLLC PUCCHs.

In one embodiment, the terminal device 120 may determine a first resource indication associated with a downlink transmission of a first type (e.g. URLLC) , wherein DCI of the downlink transmission is the first DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot. The term “first DCI” used herein means that this DCI is received by the terminal device 120 prior to other DCI of downlink transmissions whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the same slot. The terminal device 120 may further determine the first uplink control channel by selecting a first uplink resource based on the first resource indication.

In a further embodiment, the terminal device 120 may determine a second resource indication associated with a further downlink transmission of the first type (e.g. URLLC) , wherein DCI of the further downlink transmission is another DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the same slot. For example, the other DCI may be the last DCI. The term “last DCI” used herein means that this DCI is received by the terminal device 120 after other DCI of downlink transmissions whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the same slot. The terminal device 120 may further determine the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication.

These embodiments will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 schematically shows four PDSCHs from the network device 110. Similar with the PDSCHs 201-204 in FIG. 2, the first PDSCH 401 (and its DCI) is received prior to the second PDSCH 402 (and its DCI) , and the second PDSCH 402 (and its DCI) is received prior to the third PDSCH 403 (and its DCI) and the third PDSCH 403 (and its DCI) is received prior to the fourth PDSCH 404 (and its DCI) . ACK/NACKs (not shown) related to the four PDSCHs 401-404 are to be transmitted in the slot 430. As an example of resource indication, the ARIs 451-454 are associated with the PDSCH 401-404, respectively.

With respect to a PDSCH received prior to another PDSCH, the other PDSCH may be considered as a later PDSCH. For example, with respect to the second PDSCH 402, the third PDSCH 403 and the fourth PDSCH 404, the first PDSCH 401 may be considered as an earlier PDSCH. With respect to the first PDSCH 401, the second PDSCH 402 and the third PDSCH 403, the fourth PDSCH 404 may be considered as a later PDSCH. Generally, the ACK/NACK transmission of an earlier PDSCH (e.g. PDSCH 401) is assigned with the resource of the earlier PUCCH (PUCCH 421) . The terminal device 120 may not be allowed to determine the later PUCCH (PUCCH 422) based on the ARI associated with an earlier PDSCH, ifthe earlier PUCCH (PUCCH 421) is available.

In the example shown in the FIG. 4, the terminal device 120 may determine the first PUCCH 421 based on the first ARI 451. For example, the terminal device 120 may configure an uplink resource indicated by the first ARI 451 as the resource for the first PUCCH 421. The terminal device 120 may further determine the second PUCCH 422 based on the fourth ARI 454. For example, the terminal device 120 may configure an uplink resource indicated by the fourth ARI 454 as the resource for the second PUCCH 422.

In some embodiments, a first list of URLLC PUCCHs with different capacities may be configured for the first PUCCH 421 (the earlier PUCCH) and a second list of URLLC PUCCHs with different capacities may be configured for the second PUCCH 422 (the later PUCCH) . In these cases, the terminal device 120 may select one PUCCH from the first list or the second list, with the smallest PUCCH capacity being no less than the number of UCI bits to be transmitted in the same list. For example, the terminal device 120 may select from the first list one PUCCH to use as the first PUCCH 421.

The determination of the earlier and later PUCCHs in a single slot has been described above with reference to FIG. 4. In this way, the PUCCHs to be used to transmit ACK/NACK related to URLLC can be determined. It is to be understood that the number of PDSCHs, ARIs and determined PUCCHs in FIG. 4 are shown for illustrative purpose without any limitation.

Still referring to FIG. 3, at 330, the terminal device 120 at least transmits uplink control information on the first uplink control channel, for example, the first PUCCH 421. In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may map a plurality of ACK/NACK to the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422, and transmit them in the slot 430 to the network device 110. Such embodiments will be described below in detail with reference to FIGs. 5 and 6.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 120 may multiplex the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 with different types of UCI, for example, ACK/NACK and CSI for URLLC transmission, ACK/NACK and CSI for non-URLLC transmission. Such embodiments will be described below in detail with reference to FIG. 7.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram 500 showing how to map a set of ACK/NACK to two PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The two PUCCHs shown in FIG. 5 may be determined by the approach described above with reference to FIG. 4. Alternatively, they may be determined by other approaches. The scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this aspect.

The four PDSCHs 501-504 are similar to those PDSCHs shown in FIG. 4. In the case where the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 are determined based on the resource indications associated with the downlink transmissions as described above with reference to FIG. 4, the PDSCHs 501-504 may be the same as the PDSCHs 401-404. As schematically shown in FIG. 5, the first PDSCH 501 is received prior to the second PDSCH 502, and the second PDSCH 502 is received prior to the third PDSCH 503 and the third PDSCH 503 is received prior to the fourth PDSCH 504. The ACK/NACKs 511-514 are related to the PDSCH 501-504, respectively.

Generally, ACK/NACK related to earlier PDSCH should have a higher priority to be mapped to the earlier PUCCH. That is, ACK/NACK related to earlier PDSCH should have a higher priority to be transmitted on the earlier PUCCH. For example, compared with the second PUCCH 422, the ACK/NACK 512 may have a higher priority to be transmitted on the first PUCCH 421.

In order to determine the mapping of the plurality of ACK/NACKs 511-514 to the two

PUCCH

421 and 422, a timeline requirement may be defined. A timeline is at a certain number of symbols from last symbol of a PDSCH. The timeline requirement may be defined as follow: only the PUCCH after the timeline of a PDSCH can be used to transmit the corresponding ACK/NACKs related to that PDSCH. If the timeline requirement of a PDSCH is met, the ACK/NACK related to that PDSCH will be mapped to the earlier PUCCH (the first PUCCH 421 in FIG. 5) , otherwise the ACK/NACK related to that PDSCH will be mapped to the later PUCCH (the second PUCCH 422 in FIG. 5) .

FIG. 5 schematically shows a first timeline 561 for the first PDSCH 501, a second timeline 562 for the second PDSCH 502, a third timeline 563 for the third PDSCH 503, and a fourth timeline 564 for the fourth PDSCH 504. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the ACK/NACK 511 and ACK/NACK 512 are mapped to the first PUCCH 421. Thus, the terminal device 120 may transmit the ACK/NACK 511 and ACK/NACK 512 on the first PUCCH 421 in the slot 430. The ACK/NACK 513 and ACK/NACK 514 are mapped to the second PUCCH 422. Thus, the terminal device 120 may transmit the ACK/NACK 513 and ACK/NACK 514 on the second PUCCH 422 in the slot 430.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process 600 for mapping a plurality of ACK/NACKs to PUCCHs in a slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In FIG. 6 and corresponding description, the index “i” is used to indicate the ith received PDSCHs in a plurality of PDSCHs whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted the same slot. For example, the first PDSCH 501 may have an index i of 0 and the second PDSCH 502 may have an index i of 1, and so on. The index “j” is used to indicate PUCCH in a single slot. For example, the first PUCCH 421 may have an index j of 0 and the second PUCCH 422 may have an index j of 1.

In order to map the plurality of ACK/NACKs to the plurality of PUCCHs in a single slot, availability of a PUCCH for an ACK/NACK related to a PDSCH is defined herein. In the present disclosure, if a PUCCH is available for an ACK/NACK related to a PDSCH, it means that both the above timeline requirement is met and the capacity of that PUCCH is enough to carry the bit (s) of the ACK/NACK.

At 605, the terminal device 120 starts the process 600 with the first PDSCH (i=0) , e.g., the first PDSCH 501. At 610, the terminal device 120 selects or determines the ACK/NACK related to the first PDSCH. For example, in the case of the first PDSCH 501, the terminal device 120 may select the ACK/NACK 511. At 615, the terminal device 120 select the first PUCCH (j=0) , for example, the first PUCCH 421. At 620, the terminal device 120 determines whether the jth PUCCH is available for the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH.

If the terminal device 120 at 620 determines that the jth PUCCH is available for the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH, then the process 600 proceed to 625. At 625, the terminal device 120 maps the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH to the jth PUCCH. That is, the terminal device 120 determines to transmit the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH on the ith PUCCH. Although not shown, after mapping of the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH, the process 600 may proceed to block 645, which will be described below.

If the terminal device 120 at 620 determines that the jth PUCCH is unavailable for the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH, then the process 600 proceed to block 630. At 630, the terminal device 120 determines whether the (current) jth PUCCH is the last PUCCH in the slot. Ifthe terminal device 120 determines that the (current) jth PUCCH is the last PUCCH in the slot, then the process 600 may proceed to block 635. At 635, the terminal device 120 select the next PUCCH (j=j+1) . For example, ifjth PUCCH at 630 is the first PUCCH 421, then the terminal device 120 may select the second PUCCH 422 at 635. Then, the process 600 is returned back to the block 620 to determine whether the (j+1) th PUCCH is available for the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH.

If the terminal device 120 at 630 determines that the (current) jth PUCCH is the last PUCCH in the slot, then the terminal device 120 may drop the ACK/NACK related to the ith PDSCH and the process 600 may proceed to block 640. At 640, the terminal device 120 determines whether the ith PDSCH is the last PDSCH. Ifthe terminal device 120 determines that the ith PDSCH is the last PDSCH, e.g., the fourth PDSCH 504 shown in FIG. 5, then the process 600 may proceed to block 650 to end the process, which means the mapping of the ACK/NACKs related to the PDSCHs have been completed.

If the terminal device 120 at 640 determines that the ith PDSCH is not the last PDSCH, then the process 600 may proceed to block 645. At 645, the terminal device 120 selects the next PDSCH (i=i+1) . For example, if the ith PDSCH at 640 is the second PDSCH 502 shown in FIG. 5, the terminal device 120 may select the third PDSCH 503 at 645. Then the process 600 is returned back to block 610 to map the ACK/NACK related to the (i+1) th PDSCH.

In such embodiments, by performing the process 600 based on the availability of a PUCCH for an ACK/NACK, the terminal device 120 may map a plurality of ACK/NACKs to a plurality of PUCCH in a slot and transmit the plurality of ACK/NACKs on the respective PUCCH in the slot. In this way, the ACK/NACKs can be transmitted in a clearly defined and effective manner.

As mentioned above, the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 may be multiplexed by different types of UCI. In this case, there is a need to propose to solution for arranging the different typed of UCI, especially in the case when the capacity of the PUCCH is not enough. Such embodiments will be described below in detail with reference to FIGs. 7A-7B. FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram 701 showing a priority order of different types of UCI in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram 702 showing another priority order of different types of UCI in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure.

In FIGs. 7A-7B, the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422 are the URLLC PUCCHs. The ACK/NACKs 711-714 are related to downlink transmission of URLLC and for convenience of discussion an ACK/NACK of this type may be referred to as URLLC ACK/NACK. Similar to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the PDSCH related to the ACK/NACK 711 is received prior to the PDSCH related to the ACK/NACK 712 and so on. Further, an ACK/NACK which is not related to downlink transmission of URLLC may be referred to as non-URLLC ACK/NACK.

In addition to the URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714, UCI of other types may be transmitted on the first PUCCH 421 and the second PUCCH 422. As shown in FIGs. 7A-7B, a aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) 715, non-URLLC ACK/NACK 716, and periodic/semi-persistent CSI (P/SP-CSI) 717 are to be transmitted on PUCCH. The A-CSI may be associated with one of the URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714, for example, the ACK/NACK 712. A priority order needs to be defined to transmit these different types of UCI, since the capacity of the two PUCCHs 421 and 422 may be not enough for transmission of all the UCI.

According to the priority order shown in FIG. 7A, the URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714 may be transmitted first. The transmission of the URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714 may be determined as described above. The A-CSI 715 has a lower priority than all the URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714. Then, the non-URLLC ACK/NACK 716 has a lower priority than the A-CSI 715. The P/SP-CSI 717 has the lowest priority among all the UCIs. In the priority order shown in FIG. 7A, the A-CSI 715 has lower priority than all of the URLLC ACK/NACKs 711-714, but has a higher priority than all of the non-URLLC UCIs.

In another priority order shown in FIG. 7B, the A-CSI 715 is associated with the URLLC ACK/NACK 712. For example, the same DCI may indicate both the URLLC ACK/NACK 712 and the A-CSI 715 transmission. The A-CSI 715 has a priority order lower than the URLLC ACK/NACK 712, and may have a higher priority to be transmitted than the URLLC ACK/NACK 713.

It is to be understood the order of the different types of UCI shown in FIGs. 7A-7B is only for illustration and does not indicates their time location in the slot. The terminal device 120 may map these different types of UCI to the first PUCCH 421 and second PUCCH 422 based on the priority order shown in FIG. 7A or the priority order shown in FIG. 7B. The UCI with a higher priority is prioritized to be mapped to an earlier PUCCH. The UCI mapped to the same PUCCH are multiplexed together. If the capacity of the PUCCHs configured for the slot 430 is not enough to carry all of the UCI, the terminal device 120 may drop the UCI with lower priority.

In some cases, the UCI for URLLC and the UCI for non-URLLC are transmitted on separate PUCCHs, and PUCCH collision may occur in a slot. The multiplexing of UCI for URLLC and UCI for non-URLLC is not supported. Thus, there is a need to propose a solution for handling partially overlapped PUCCHs. In the present disclosure, if two PUCCHs partially overlap with each other, it means that the two PUCCHs overlap over at least one symbol.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram 800 showing overlapped PUCCHs in a slot 430 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In addition to the

URLLC PUCCHs

421 and 422 similar to those in FIGs. 4, 5 and 7, FIG. 8 shows other PUCCHs configured for non-URLLC purpose, which are referred to as non URLLC PUCCHs for convenience of discussion. As shown, the PUCCH 824 is configured for transmission of the P/SP CSI 1, the PUCCH 823 is configured for transmission of the P/SP CSI 2, the PUCCH 825 is configured for transmission ofnon-URLLC ACK/NACK 1 and the PUCCH 826 is configured for transmission ofnon-URLLC ACK/NACK 2.

As shown in FIG. 8, the non-URLLC PUCCH 824 partially overlaps with the URLLC PUCCH 421 and the non URLLC PUCCH 826 partially overlaps with the URLLC PUCCH 422. In this case, the terminal device 120 may drop the P/SP CSI 1 and the non-URLLC ACK/NACK 2, which otherwise would be transmitted in the slot 430.

Since the non-URLLC PUCCH 823 and non-URLLC PUCCH 825 does not overlap with neither of the

URLLC PUCCHs

421 and 422. The P/SP CSI 2 and non-URLLC ACK/NACK 1 can be transmitted in the slot 430.

According to the above aspects, there is provided a method implemented at a terminal device 120. The method comprises determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot; determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols; and at least transmitting uplink control information on the first uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, determining the first and second uplink control channels comprises: receiving, from a network device, an indication of configured uplink resources; and determining the first and second uplink control channels based on the indication of the configured uplink resources.

In some embodiments, the indication is included in at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) and downlink control information.

In some embodiments, determining the first uplink control channel comprises: determining a first resource indication associated with a downlink transmission of a first type, wherein downlink control information (DCI) of the downlink transmission is the first DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot; and determining the first uplink control channel by selecting a first uplink resource based on the first resource indication.

In some embodiments, determining the second uplink control channel comprises: determining a second resource indication associated with a further downlink transmission of the first type, wherein DCI of the further downlink transmission is the last DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot; and determining the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication.

In some embodiments, at least transmitting the uplink control information on the first uplink control channel comprises: transmitting ACK/NACK related to a downlink transmission of a first type on the first uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, further comprising: determining whether the first uplink control channel is available for a further ACK/NACK related to a further downlink transmission of the first type after the downlink transmission; in response to the first uplink control channel being available for the further ACK/NACK, transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the first uplink control channel; and in response to the first uplink control channel being unavailable for the further ACK/NACK, transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the second uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, the uplink control information includes ACK/NACK of a first type and ACK/NACK of a second type, and wherein the ACK/NACK of the first type is configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the ACK/NACK of the second type.

In some embodiments, the uplink control information further includes aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) associated with the ACK/NACK of the first type, and wherein the ACK/NACK of the first type and the A-CSI are configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels the ACK/NACK of the second type.

In some embodiments, the first and second uplink control channels are of a first type, and the method further comprises: in response to determining, within the slot, the presence of a third uplink control channel of a second type, determining whether a part of a resource for the third uplink control channel overlaps with resources for the first and second uplink control channels; and in response to determining that the part of the resource for the third uplink control channel overlaps with at least one of resources for the first and second uplink control channels, dropping uplink control information to be transmitted on the third uplink control channel.

In some embodiments, the first type includes ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) .

It is to be understood that all operations and features related to the network device 110 and terminal device 120 described above with reference to Figs. 2-8G are likewise applicable to the methods 900-1100 and have similar effects. For the purpose of simplification, the details will be omitted.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a device 900 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 900 can be considered as a further example implementation of a network device 110 or a terminal device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the device 900 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the network device 110 or the terminal device 120.

As shown, the device 900 includes a processor 910, a memory 920 coupled to the processor 910, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 940 coupled to the processor 910, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 940. The memory 910 stores at least a part of a program 930. The TX/RX 940 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 940 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2 interface for bidirectional communications between eNBs, S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the eNB, Un interface for communication between the eNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the eNB and a terminal device.

The program 930 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 910, enable the device 900 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to FIGs. 3 to 8. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 910 of the device 900, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 910 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 910 and memory 910 may form processing means 950 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 910 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 910 is shown in the device 900, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 900. The processor 910 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 900 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to any of Figs. 3 to 6D. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the machine readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A method implemented at a terminal device, comprising:

determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot;

determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols; and

at least transmitting uplink control information on the first uplink control channel.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first and second uplink control channels comprises:

receiving, from a network device, an indication of configured uplink resources; and

determining the first and second uplink control channels based on the indication of the configured uplink resources.
The method of claim 2, wherein the indication is included in at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) and downlink control information.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first uplink control channel comprises:

determining a first resource indication associated with a downlink transmission of a first type, wherein downlink control information (DCI) of the downlink transmission is the first DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot; and

determining the first uplink control channel by selecting a first uplink resource based on the first resource indication.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the second uplink control channel comprises:

determining a second resource indication associated with a further downlink transmission of the first type, wherein DCI of the further downlink transmission is the last DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot; and

determining the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication.
The method of claim 1, wherein at least transmitting the uplink control information on the first uplink control channel comprises:

transmitting ACK/NACK related to a downlink transmission of a first type on the first uplink control channel.
The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether the first uplink control channel is available for a further ACK/NACK related to a further downlink transmission of the first type after the downlink transmission;

in response to the first uplink control channel being available for the further ACK/NACK, transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the first uplink control channel; and

in response to the first uplink control channel being unavailable for the further ACK/NACK, transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the second uplink control channel.
The method of claim 1, wherein the uplink control information includes ACK/NACK of a first type and ACK/NACK of a second type, and

wherein the ACK/NACK of the first type is configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the ACK/NACK of the second type.
The method of claim 8, wherein the uplink control information further includes aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) associated with the ACK/NACK of the first type, and

wherein the ACK/NACK of the first type and the A-CSI are configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the ACK/NACK of the second type.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second uplink control channels are of a first type, and the method further comprises:

in response to determining, within the slot, the presence of a third uplink control channel of a second type, determining whether a part of a resource for the third uplink control channel overlaps with resources for the first and second uplink control channels; and

in response to determining that the part of the resource for the third uplink control channel overlaps with at least one of resources for the first and second uplink control channels, dropping uplink control information to be transmitted on the third uplink control channel.
The method of any of claims 4-10, wherein the first type includes ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) .
A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processing unit and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, causing the device to perform the actions comprising:

determining a first uplink control channel corresponding to a first set of symbols within a slot;

determining a second uplink control channel corresponding to a second set of symbols within the slot after the first set of symbols; and

at least transmitting uplink control information on the first uplink control channel.
The device of claim 12, wherein determining the first and second uplink control channels comprises:

receiving, from a network device, an indication of configured uplink resources; and

determining the first and second uplink control channels based on the indication of the configured uplink resources.
The device of claim 13, wherein the indication is included in at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) and downlink control information.
The device of claim 12, wherein determining the first uplink control channel comprises:

determining a first resource indication associated with a downlink transmission of a first type, wherein downlink control information (DCI) of the downlink transmission is the first DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs to be transmitted in the slot; and

determining the first uplink control channel by selecting a first uplink resource based on the first resource indication.
The device of claim 12, wherein determining the second uplink control channel comprises:

determining a second resource indication associated with a further downlink transmission of the first type, wherein DCI of the further downlink transmission is the last DCI of downlink transmissions of the first type whose ACK/NACKs are to be transmitted in the slot; and

determining the second uplink control channel by selecting a second uplink resource based on the second resource indication.
The device of claim 12, wherein at least transmitting the uplink control information on the first uplink control channel comprises:

transmitting ACK/NACK related to a downlink transmission of a first type on the first uplink control channel.
The device of claim 17, wherein the actions further comprise:

determining whether the first uplink control channel is available for a further ACK/NACK related to a further downlink transmission of the first type after the downlink transmission;

in response to the first uplink control channel being available for the further ACK/NACK, transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the first uplink control channel; and

in response to the first uplink control channel being unavailable for the further ACK/NACK, transmitting the further ACK/NACK on the second uplink control channel.
The device of claim 12, wherein the uplink control information includes ACK/NACK of a first type and ACK/NACK of a second type, and

wherein the ACK/NACK of the first type is configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the ACK/NACK of the second type.
The device of claim 19, wherein the uplink control information further includes aperiodic channel state information (A-CSI) associated with the ACK/NACK of the first type, and

wherein the ACK/NACK of the first type and the A-CSI are configured with a higher priority to be transmitted on the first and second uplink control channels than the ACK/NACK of the second type.
The device of claim 12, wherein the first and second uplink control channels are of a first type, and the actions further comprise:

in response to determining, within the slot, the presence of a third uplink control channel of a second type, determining whether a part of a resource for the third uplink control channel overlaps with resources for the first and second uplink control channels; and

in response to determining that the part of the resource for the third uplink control channel overlaps with at least one of resources for the first and second uplink control channels, dropping uplink control information to be transmitted on the third uplink control channel.
The device of any of claims 15-21, wherein the first type includes ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) .
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of claims 1-11.