WO2022027213A1

WO2022027213A1 - Network coding augmented radio link control (rlc) layer communication

Info

Publication number: WO2022027213A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/106718
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ruiming Zheng; Changlong Xu; Kangqi LIU; Jian Li; Liangming WU; Xipeng Zhu; Hao Xu
Original assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
Priority date: 2020-08-04
Filing date: 2020-08-04
Publication date: 2022-02-10

Abstract

Network coding is incorporated into the radio link control (RLC) layer to provide network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication. Network coding of NCA RLC layer communication according to aspects of the disclosure may implement various forms of erasure codes, including rateless fountain codes. NCA RLC layer communication may be implemented with respect to broadcast systems, multicast systems, point-to-multipoint (PTM) systems, single cell point to multi-point (SC-PTM) systems, and/or unicast systems. Network coding providing NCA RLC layer communication may be implemented with respect to RLC acknowledge mode (AM) and/or RLC unacknowledged mode (UM). NCA RLC layer communication may utilize NCA RLC status feedback from a RLC receiver entity to a RLC transmitter entity, such as using a form of RLC status reporting configured for NCA RLC status feedback, using reverse link reporting configured for NCA RLC status feedback, etc. Other aspects and features are also claimed and described.

Description

NETWORK CODING AUGMENTED RADIO LINK CONTROL (RLC) LAYER COMMUNICATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to communication of radio link control (RLC) layer payload. Certain embodiments of the technology discussed below can enable and provide network coding augmented communication of RLC layer payload.

INTRODUCTION

Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and the like. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources.

A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations or node Bs that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs) . A UE may communicate with a base station via downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station.

A base station may transmit data and control information on the downlink to a UE and/or may receive data and control information on the uplink from the UE. On the downlink, a transmission from the base station may encounter interference due to transmissions from neighbor base stations or from other wireless radio frequency (RF) transmitters. On the uplink, a transmission from the UE may encounter interference from uplink transmissions of other UEs communicating with the neighbor base stations or from other wireless RF transmitters. This interference may degrade performance on both the downlink and uplink.

As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, the possibilities of interference and congested networks grows with more UEs accessing the long-range wireless communication networks and more short-range wireless systems being deployed in communities. Research and development continue to advance wireless technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications.

SUMMARY

The following summarizes some aspects of the present disclosure to provide a basic understanding of the discussed technology. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated features of the disclosure and is intended neither to identify key or critical elements of all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of any or all aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in summary form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In one aspect of the disclosure, a method of wireless communication is provided. The method may include enabling, in a radio link control (RLC) transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities. The method may also include encoding, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer service data unit (SDU) payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs. The method may further include transmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs and receiving, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback. The method may still further include retransmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for wireless communication may be provided. The apparatus may include means for enabling, in a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities. The apparatus may also include means for encoding, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer SDU payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs. The apparatus may further include means for transmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs, and means for receiving, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback. The apparatus may still further include means for retransmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon for wireless communication may be provided. The program code may include code to enable, in a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities. The program code may also include code to encode, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer SDU payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs. The program code may further include code to transmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs, and code to receive, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback. The program code may still further include code to retransmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus configured for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes at least one processor, and a memory coupled to the processor. The processor may be configured to enable, in a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities. The processor may also be configured to encode, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer SDU payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs. The processor may further be configured to transmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs, and to receive, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback. The processor may still further be configured to retransmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.

In one aspect of the disclosure, a method of wireless communication is provided. The method may include enabling, in a RLC receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity. The method may also include receiving, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for a respective RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate. The method may further include transmitting, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus may include means for enabling, in a RLC receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity. The apparatus may also include means for receiving, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for a respective RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate. The apparatus may further include means for transmitting, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon for wireless communication is provided. The program code may include code to enable, in a RLC receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity. The program code may also include code to receive, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for a respective RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate. The program code may further include code to transmit, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.

In an additional aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus configured for wireless communication is provided. The apparatus includes at least one processor, and a memory coupled to the processor. The processor may be configured to enable, in a RLC receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity. The processor may also be configured to receive, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for a respective RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate. The process may further be configured to transmit, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.

Other aspects, features, and embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, upon reviewing the following description of specific, exemplary embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying figures. While features may be discussed relative to certain aspects and figures below, all embodiments can include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, while one or more aspects may be discussed as having certain advantageous features, one or more of such features may also be used in accordance with the various aspects. In similar fashion, while exemplary aspects may be discussed below as device, system, or method aspects, the exemplary aspects can be implemented in various devices, systems, and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized by reference to the following drawings. In the appended figures, similar components or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If just the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating details of a wireless communication system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of a base station and a UE configured according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a graphical representation of the generation of repair fragments from segmented source data and the recovery of the source data from received source data and repair data fragments according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of a radio link control (RLC) transmit entity configured to provide network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating operation of a RLC receive entity configured to provide NCA RLC layer communication according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a graphical representation of RLC layer service data unit (SDU) encoding providing encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7A shows an example of NCA RLC status feedback including RLC SDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG 7B shows an example of NCA RLC status feedback including RLC PDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8A shows an example of RLC SDU level retransmission where a RLC transmit entity retransmits missing RLC SDUs based on NCA RLC status feedback according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8B shows an example of RLC PDU level retransmission where a RLC transmit entity retransmits missing RLC PDUs based on NCA RLC status feedback according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of a user equipment (UE) configured for NCA RLC layer communication according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of a base station configured for NCA RLC layer communication according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below, in connection with the appended drawings, is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Rather, the detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of the inventive subject matter. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these specific details are not required in every case and that, in some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form for clarity of presentation.

This disclosure relates generally to providing or participating in authorized shared access between two or more wireless devices in one or more wireless communications systems, also referred to as wireless communications networks. In various implementations, the techniques and apparatus may be used for wireless communication networks such as code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) networks, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, LTE networks, GSM networks, 5 ^th Generation (5G) or new radio (NR) networks (sometimes referred to as “5G NR” networks/systems/devices) , as well as other communications networks. As described herein, the terms “networks” and “systems” may be used interchangeably.

A CDMA network, for example, may implement a radio technology such as universal terrestrial radio access (UTRA) , cdma2000, and the like. UTRA includes wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and low chip rate (LCR) . CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856 standards.

A TDMA network may, for example implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) . The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines standards for the GSM EDGE (enhanced data rates for GSM evolution) radio access network (RAN) , also denoted as GERAN. GERAN is the radio component of GSM/EDGE, together with the network that joins the base stations (for example, the Ater and Abis interfaces) and the base station controllers (A interfaces, etc. ) . The radio access network represents a component of a GSM network, through which phone calls and packet data are routed from and to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and Internet to and from subscriber handsets, also known as user terminals or user equipments (UEs) . A mobile phone operator's network may comprise one or more GERANs, which may be coupled with Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Networks (UTRANs) in the case of a UMTS/GSM network. Additionally, an operator network may also include one or more LTE networks, and/or one or more other networks. The various different network types may use different radio access technologies (RATs) and radio access networks (RANs) .

An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as evolved UTRA (E-UTRA) , IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM and the like. UTRA, E-UTRA, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) are part of universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) . In particular, long term evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS and LTE are described in documents provided from an organization named “3 ^rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP) , and cdma2000 is described in documents from an organization named “3 ^rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2) . These various radio technologies and standards are known or are being developed. For example, the 3GPP is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations that aims to define a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone specification. 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) is a 3GPP project which was aimed at improving the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) mobile phone standard. The 3GPP may define specifications for the next generation of mobile networks, mobile systems, and mobile devices. The present disclosure may describe certain aspects with reference to LTE, 4G, or 5G NR technologies; however, the description is not intended to be limited to a specific technology or application, and one or more aspects descried with reference to one technology may be understood to be applicable to another technology. Indeed, one or more aspects of the present disclosure are related to shared access to wireless spectrum between networks using different radio access technologies or radio air interfaces.

5G networks contemplate diverse deployments, diverse spectrum, and diverse services and devices that may be implemented using an OFDM-based unified, air interface. To achieve these goals, further enhancements to LTE and LTE-A are considered in addition to development of the new radio technology for 5G NR networks. The 5G NR will be capable of scaling to provide coverage (1) to a massive Internet of things (IoTs) with an ultra-high density (e.g., ～1M nodes/km ²) , ultra-low complexity (e.g., ～10s of bits/sec) , ultra-low energy (e.g., ～10+ years of battery life) , and deep coverage with the capability to reach challenging locations; (2) including mission-critical control with strong security to safeguard sensitive personal, financial, or classified information, ultra-high reliability (e.g., ～99.9999%reliability) , ultra-low latency (e.g., ～ 1 millisecond (ms) ) , and users with wide ranges of mobility or lack thereof; and (3) with enhanced mobile broadband including extreme high capacity (e.g., ～ 10 Tbps/km ²) , extreme data rates (e.g., multi-Gbps rate, 100+ Mbps user experienced rates) , and deep awareness with advanced discovery and optimizations.

5G NR devices, networks, and systems may be implemented to use optimized OFDM-based waveform features. These features may include scalable numerology and transmission time intervals (TTIs) ; a common, flexible framework to efficiently multiplex services and features with a dynamic, low-latency time division duplex (TDD) /frequency division duplex (FDD) design; and advanced wireless technologies, such as massive multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) , robust millimeter wave (mmWave) transmissions, advanced channel coding, and device-centric mobility. Scalability of the numerology in 5G NR, with scaling of subcarrier spacing, may efficiently address operating diverse services across diverse spectrum and diverse deployments. For example, in various outdoor and macro coverage deployments of less than 3GHz FDD/TDD implementations, subcarrier spacing may occur with 15 kHz, for example over 1, 5, 10, 20 MHz, and the like bandwidth. For other various outdoor and small cell coverage deployments of TDD greater than 3 GHz, subcarrier spacing may occur with 30 kHz over 80/100 MHz bandwidth. For other various indoor wideband implementations, using a TDD over the unlicensed portion of the 5 GHz band, the subcarrier spacing may occur with 60 kHz over a 160 MHz bandwidth. Finally, for various deployments transmitting with mmWave components at a TDD of 28 GHz, subcarrier spacing may occur with 120 kHz over a 500MHz bandwidth.

The scalable numerology of 5G NR facilitates scalable TTI for diverse latency and quality of service (QoS) requirements. For example, shorter TTI may be used for low latency and high reliability, while longer TTI may be used for higher spectral efficiency. The efficient multiplexing of long and short TTIs to allow transmissions to start on symbol boundaries. 5G NR also contemplates a self-contained integrated subframe design with uplink/downlink scheduling information, data, and acknowledgement in the same subframe. The self-contained integrated subframe supports communications in unlicensed or contention-based shared spectrum, adaptive uplink/downlink that may be flexibly configured on a per-cell basis to dynamically switch between uplink and downlink to meet the current traffic needs.

For clarity, certain aspects of the apparatus and techniques may be described below with reference to example 5G NR implementations or in a 5G-centric way, and 5G terminology may be used as illustrative examples in portions of the description below; however, the description is not intended to be limited to 5G applications.

Moreover, it should be understood that, in operation, wireless communication networks adapted according to the concepts herein may operate with any combination of licensed or unlicensed spectrum depending on loading and availability. Accordingly, it will be apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art that the systems, apparatus and methods described herein may be applied to other communications systems and applications than the particular examples provided.

While aspects and implementations are described in this application by illustration to some examples, those skilled in the art will understand that additional implementations and use cases may come about in many different arrangements and scenarios. Innovations described herein may be implemented across many differing platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, packaging arrangements. For example, embodiments and/or uses may come about via integrated chip embodiments and/or other non-module-component based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail/purchasing devices, medical devices, AI-enabled devices, etc. ) . While some examples may or may not be specifically directed to use cases or applications, a wide assortment of applicability of described innovations may occur. Implementations may range from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip-level implementations and further to aggregated, distributed, or OEM devices or systems incorporating one or more described aspects. In some practical settings, devices incorporating described aspects and features may also necessarily include additional components and features for implementation and practice of claimed and described embodiments. It is intended that innovations described herein may be practiced in a wide variety of implementations, including both large/small devices, chip-level components, multi-component systems (e.g. RF-chain, communication interface, processor) , distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc. of varying sizes, shapes, and constitution.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating details of an example wireless communication system. The wireless communication system may include wireless network 100. Wireless network 100 may, for example, include a 5G wireless network. As appreciated by those skilled in the art, components appearing in FIG. 1 are likely to have related counterparts in other network arrangements including, for example, cellular-style network arrangements and non-cellular-style-network arrangements (e.g., device to device or peer to peer or ad hoc network arrangements, etc. ) .

Wireless network 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a number of base stations 105 and other network entities. A base station may be a station that communicates with the UEs and may also be referred to as an evolved node B (eNB) , a next generation eNB (gNB) , an access point, and the like. Each base station 105 may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to this particular geographic coverage area of a base station and/or a base station subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In implementations of wireless network 100 herein, base stations 105 may be associated with a same operator or different operators (e.g., wireless network 100 may include a plurality of operator wireless networks) . Additionally, in implementations of wireless network 100 herein, base station 105 may provide wireless communications using one or more of the same frequencies (e.g., one or more frequency bands in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination thereof) as a neighboring cell. In some examples, an individual base station 105 or UE 115 may be operated by more than one network operating entity. In some other examples, each base station 105 and UE 115 may be operated by a single network operating entity.

A base station may provide communication coverage for a macro cell or a small cell, such as a pico cell or a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell generally covers a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions with the network provider. A small cell, such as a pico cell, would generally cover a relatively smaller geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscriptions with the network provider. A small cell, such as a femto cell, would also generally cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and, in addition to unrestricted access, may also provide restricted access by UEs having an association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG) , UEs for users in the home, and the like) . A base station for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro base station. A base station for a small cell may be referred to as a small cell base station, a pico base station, a femto base station or a home base station. In the example shown in FIG. 1,

base stations

105d and 105e are regular macro base stations, while base stations 105a-105c are macro base stations enabled with one of 3 dimension (3D) , full dimension (FD) , or massive MIMO. Base stations 105a-105c take advantage of their higher dimension MIMO capabilities to exploit 3D beamforming in both elevation and azimuth beamforming to increase coverage and capacity. Base station 105f is a small cell base station which may be a home node or portable access point. A base station may support one or multiple (e.g., two, three, four, and the like) cells.

Wireless network 100 may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the base stations may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different base stations may be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the base stations may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different base stations may not be aligned in time. In some scenarios, networks may be enabled or configured to handle dynamic switching between synchronous or asynchronous operations.

UEs 115 are dispersed throughout the wireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. It should be appreciated that, although a mobile apparatus is commonly referred to as user equipment (UE) in standards and specifications promulgated by the 3GPP, such apparatus may additionally or otherwise be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS) , a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal (AT) , a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, a gaming device, an augmented reality device, vehicular component device/module, or some other suitable terminology. Within the present document, a “mobile” apparatus or UE need not necessarily have a capability to move, and may be stationary. Some non-limiting examples of a mobile apparatus, such as may include implementations of one or more of UEs 115, include a mobile, a cellular (cell) phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a laptop, a personal computer (PC) , a notebook, a netbook, a smart book, a tablet, and a personal digital assistant (PDA) . A mobile apparatus may additionally be an “Internet of Things” (IoT) or “Internet of Everything” (IoE) device such as an automotive or other transportation vehicle, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a logistics controller, a drone, a multi-copter, a quad-copter, a smart energy or security device, a solar panel or solar array, municipal lighting, water, or other infrastructure; industrial automation and enterprise devices; consumer and wearable devices, such as eyewear, a wearable camera, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, a mammal implantable device, gesture tracking device, medical device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player) , a camera, a game console, etc.; and digital home or smart home devices such as a home audio, video, and multimedia device, an appliance, a sensor, a vending machine, intelligent lighting, a home security system, a smart meter, etc. In one aspect, a UE may be a device that includes a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) . In another aspect, a UE may be a device that does not include a UICC. In some aspects, UEs that do not include UICCs may also be referred to as IoE devices. UEs 115a-115d of the implementation illustrated in FIG. 1 are examples of mobile smart phone-type devices accessing wireless network 100 A UE may also be a machine specifically configured for connected communication, including machine type communication (MTC) , enhanced MTC (eMTC) , narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and the like. UEs 115e-115k illustrated in FIG. 1 are examples of various machines configured for communication that access wireless network 100.

A mobile apparatus, such as UEs 115, may be able to communicate with any type of the base stations, whether macro base stations, pico base stations, femto base stations, relays, and the like. In FIG. 1, a communication link (represented as a lightning bolt) indicates wireless transmissions between a UE and a serving base station, which is a base station designated to serve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink, or desired transmission between base stations, and backhaul transmissions between base stations. UEs may operate as base stations or other network nodes in some scenarios. Backhaul communication between base stations of wireless network 100 may occur using wired and/or wireless communication links.

In operation at wireless network 100, base stations 105a-105c serve

UEs

115a and 115b using 3D beamforming and coordinated spatial techniques, such as coordinated multipoint (CoMP) or multi-connectivity. Macro base station 105d performs backhaul communications with base stations 105a-105c, as well as small cell, base station 105f. Macro base station 105d also transmits multicast services which are subscribed to and received by

UEs

115c and 115d. Such multicast services may include mobile television or stream video, or may include other services for providing community information, such as weather emergencies or alerts, such as Amber alerts or gray alerts.

Wireless network 100 of implementations supports mission critical communications with ultra-reliable and redundant links for mission critical devices, such UE 115e, which is a drone. Redundant communication links with UE 115e include from

macro base stations

105d and 105e, as well as small cell base station 105f. Other machine type devices, such as UE 115f (thermometer) , UE 115g (smart meter) , and UE 115h (wearable device) may communicate through wireless network 100 either directly with base stations, such as small cell base station 105f, and macro base station 105e, or in multi-hop configurations by communicating with another user device which relays its information to the network, such as UE 115f communicating temperature measurement information to the smart meter, UE 115g, which is then reported to the network through small cell base station 105f. Wireless network 100 may also provide additional network efficiency through dynamic, low-latency TDD/FDD communications, such as in a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) mesh network between UEs 115i-115k communicating with macro base station 105e.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example design of a base station 105 and a UE 115, which may be any of the base stations and one of the UEs in FIG. 1. For a restricted association scenario (as mentioned above) , base station 105 may be small cell base station 105f in FIG. 1, and UE 115 may be

UE

115c or 115d operating in a service area of base station 105f, which in order to access small cell base station 105f, would be included in a list of accessible UEs for small cell base station 105f. Base station 105 may also be a base station of some other type. As shown in FIG. 2, base station 105 may be equipped with antennas 234a through 234t, and UE 115 may be equipped with antennas 252a through 252r for facilitating wireless communications.

At base station 105, transmit processor 220 may receive data from data source 212 and control information from controller/processor 240. The control information may be for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) , physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH) , physical hybrid-ARQ (automatic repeat request) indicator channel (PHICH) , physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) , MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH) , etc. The data may be for the PDSCH, etc. Additionally, transmit processor 220 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. Transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols, e.g., for the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS) , and cell-specific reference signal. Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streams to modulators (MODs) 232a through 232t. For example, spatial processing performed on the data symbols, the control symbols, or the reference symbols may include precoding. Each modulator 232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc. ) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 232 may additionally or alternatively process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. Downlink signals from modulators 232a through 232t may be transmitted via antennas 234a through 234t, respectively.

At UE 115, the antennas 252a through 252r may receive the downlink signals from base station 105 and may provide received signals to demodulators (DEMODs) 254a through 254r, respectively. Each demodulator 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc. ) to obtain received symbols. MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from demodulators 254a through 254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. Receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE 115 to data sink 260, and provide decoded control information to controller/processor 280.

On the uplink, at UE 115, transmit processor 264 may receive and process data (e.g., for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) ) from data source 262 and control information (e.g., for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) ) from controller/processor 280. Additionally, transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal. The symbols from transmit processor 264 may be precoded by TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by modulators 254a through 254r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc. ) , and transmitted to base station 105. At base station 105, the uplink signals from UE 115 may be received by antennas 234, processed by demodulators 232, detected by MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE 115. Processor 238 may provide the decoded data to data sink 239 and the decoded control information to controller/processor 240.

Controllers/

processors

240 and 280 may direct the operation at base station 105 and UE 115, respectively. Controller/processor 240 and/or other processors and modules at base station 105 and/or controller/processor 280 and/or other processors and modules at UE 115 may perform or direct the execution of various processes for the techniques described herein, such as to perform or direct the execution illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein.

Memories

242 and 282 may store data and program codes for base station 105 and UE 115, respectively. Scheduler 244 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

Communication between devices of wireless network 100 may implement various communication protocols, such as for providing robust data communication, facilitating high data rate communication, avoiding or mitigating interference, etc. Radio link control (RLC) , for example, is a layer 2 radio link protocol used in UMTS, LTE, and 5G NR on the air interface. When implemented, RLC is located on top of the 3GPP MAC-layer and below the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer and radio resource control (RRC) layer to perform various tasks, such as transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs) , error correction through ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service data units (SDUs) , re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, reordering of RLC data PDUs, duplicate detection, RLC SDU discard, RLC re-establishment, and/or protocol error detection and recovery, depending upon the RLC mode implemented. The RLC modes include acknowledge mode (AM) , unacknowledge mode (UM) , and transparent mode (TM) .

NR RLC AM provides layer 2 packet error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) . The ARQ within RLC AM provides RLC SDU or RLC SDU segmentation retransmission based on RLC status reports. The RLC status reports may be provided in response to polling for the RLC status report. Additionally, the RLC status reports may be provided when a RLC receive entity has detected missing RLC SDU or RLC SDU segmentation.

NR RLC UM provides basic functionality, such as a sliding window in the RLC transmit and receive entities, segment/re-segment in RLC transmission, and re-assemble segmented RLC SDU in RLC reception. However, in contrast to NR RLC AM, NR RLC UM does not provide layer 2 reliability functionality. For example, NR RLC UM does not provide for any reception response (e.g., acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgment (NACK) ) from a RLC receive entity.

NR RLC TM provides very little processing with respect to RLC data. For example, in NR RLC TM there is no RLC header, no reordering, no segmentation, and no reassembly. NR RLC TM does, however, provide buffering of transmit data.

Network coding is a technique that has been utilized to provide error correction supporting robust data communication. In communications in which network coding is implemented a fountain code (e.g., Luby transform code, Raptor code, etc. ) , generally referred to as a network code in 3GPP in light of being applied in the network layer, is used to protect source data against loss in transmission (e.g., resulting from poor channel conditions, signal fading, interference, blockage, etc. ) . When using a fountain code, encoding is applied to each source data fragment (i.e., k fragments into which a source data object is partitioned) to generate repair data, wherein the resulting repair data fragments are of equal size with the source data fragments. Fountain codes are rateless codes in sense that a coded packet is potentially limitless (e.g., may include the source fragments and an unlimited number of repair data fragments) .

Source data transmitted using network coding can be recovered in receiver as long as the number of received fragments is some number of fragments larger than that of the source fragments no matter which packets are received. For example, the fountain code may provide r repair fragments for each source data object segmented into k source data fragments, whereby the total number of fragments, p, for a source data object may be expressed as p = k + r. Thus, the fountain code may be parameterized as (p; k; r) where k is the number of source data fragments of a source data object, p is the total number of encoded symbols (e.g., potentially unlimited for a rateless code) , and r = p –k is the number of repair data fragments. A property of fountain codes is that all k source data fragments can be recovered from any n (e.g., k ≤ n ≤ p) of the p encoded fragments (i.e., the data of the source object may be reconstructed by receiving any combination (source data and/or repair data fragments) of n fragments) .

The foregoing property of fountain codes is illustrated in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, data of a source object may be segmented into k fragments, shown as S ₁ through S _k, and a generator matrix applied to provide the transmitted packets. In the illustrated example of a rateless fountain code, the generator matrix (G _nk) has unlimited columns. The transmitted packets may be provided as

Correspondingly, the recovered packets provided as

In the foregoing, a condition of recovering the packets is G _nk according to the received packets is invertible, or the rank of G _nk is k, and the generator matrix is invertible with a minimum n fragments.

Network coding is currently not implemented in the RLC layer, whether with respect to RLC AM, RLC UM, or RLC TM. For example, the conventional ARQ of RLC AM (i.e., the only RLC mode currently supporting layer 2 error correction) used to correct residual error from lower layers (e.g., hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) ) does not implement network coding. Typical RLC AM may be thought of as using a unit matrix rather than a network coding generator matrix described above.

In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, network coding is incorporated into the RLC layer to provide network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication. Network coding of NCA RLC layer communication according to aspects of the disclosure may implement various forms of erasure codes, such as fountain codes, tornado codes, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, Reed-Solomon coding, maximum distance separable (MDS) codes, etc. NCA RLC layer communication of some examples may implement a fountain code (e.g., a rateless fountain code) for generating repair data (e.g., parity data) with respect to source data for RLC data transfer. In another example, NCA RLC layer communication may implement a Raptor code for generating repair data (e.g., a combination of low density parity check (LDPC) and Luby transform data) with respect to source data for RLC data transfer.

NCA RLC layer communication may, for example, be implemented with respect to broadcast systems, multicast systems, point-to-multipoint (PTM) systems (e.g., V2X, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) ) , single cell point to multi-point (SC-PTM) systems, etc. to improve the layer 2 reliability. For example, NCA RLC layer communication may facilitate enhanced error correction functionality for broadcast, multicast, PTM, and SC-PTM scenarios. Further, NCA RLC layer communication may be implemented with respect to unicast systems, such as for providing enhanced layer 2 error correction, to reduce ARQ feedback overhead, etc. Network coding providing NCA RLC layer communication in accordance with some aspects of the disclosure may be implemented with respect to RLC AM and/or RLC UM. For example, network coding according to some aspects may be implemented to enhance the ARQ-based error correction of RLC AM. Additionally or alternatively, network coding according to some aspects may be implemented to enable error correction in RLC UM. NCA RLC layer communication may utilize NCA RLC status feedback from a RLC receiver entity to a RLC transmitter entity, such as using a form of RLC status reporting configured for NCA RLC status feedback (e.g., in a RLC AM scenario) , using reverse link reporting configured for NCA RLC status feedback (e.g., in RLC AM and/or RLC UM scenarios) , etc.

NCA RLC layer communication operation provides for various functionality at the RLC layer. The functionality supported may, for example, include transfer of upper layer PDUs, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfer, re-segmentation of RLC SDU segments for AM data transfer, encoding of RLC SDUs with network coding, decoding the encoded RLC PDUs to reassemble the RLC SDUs, error correction through ARQ in RLC AM, NCA RLC status feedback based on the encoded RLC PDUs, ARQ procedure using NCA RLC status feedback, duplicate detection for AM data transfer, RLC SDU discard for UM and AM data transfer, RLC re-establishment, and/or protocol error detection for AM data transfer.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show NCA RLC layer communication operation according to some aspects of the present disclosure. In particular, FIG. 4 shows an example of NCA RLC layer communication operation by a RLC transmit entity. Correspondingly, FIG. 5 shows an example of NCA RLC layer communication operation by a RLC receive entity. As described more fully below, NCA RLC layer communication operation according to some examples provides a RLC transmit entity RLC SDU encoding procedure, a RLC receive entity RLC SDU decoding and reassembly procedure, RLC NCA status feedback by a RLC receive entity to a RLC transmit entity, and an ARQ procedure for network coding based RLC.

The RLC transmit and RLC receive entities implementing network coding providing NCA RLC layer communication according to aspects of the present disclosure may comprise radio link protocol logic implemented by one or more devices (e.g., base stations 105, UEs 115, etc. ) of wireless network 100. For example, radio link protocol logic configured for NCA RLC layer communication implementing network coding may comprise code (e.g., instructions stored in memory 242 and executed by one or more processors of base station 105, such as controller/processor 240, transmit processor 220, and/or receive processor 238, and/or instructions stored in memory 282 and executed by one or more processors of UE 115, such as controller/processor 280, receive processor 258, and/or transmit processor 264) configured for implementing network coding in a layer 2 RLC radio link air interface. In accordance with some examples, a RLC transmit entity may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a modem of the wireless radios of base station 105 in communication with one or more UEs 115 via wireless network 100. Correspondingly, RLC receive entities may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a modem of the wireless radios of the one or more UEs 115. Additionally or alternatively, a RLC transmit entity may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a UE 115 and/or a RLC receive entity may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a base station 105.

FIG. 4 shows flow 400 providing example operation by a RLC transmit entity configured for network coding augmented communication of RLC layer payload. The functions of flow 400 may, for example, be implemented by radio link protocol logic executed by one or more processors of a device of wireless network 100. For example, the functions of the illustrated example may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a base station 105 in RLC layer communication with one or more other devices (e.g., base stations 105, UEs 115, etc. ) of wireless network 100. As another example, the functions of the illustrated example may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a UE 115 in RLC layer communication with one or more other devices (e.g., base stations 105, UEs 115, etc. ) of wireless network 100.

In operation according to the illustrated example of flow 400, NCA RLC layer communication between a RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities may be enabled at block 401. For example, a NCA RLC layer communication protocol may be selected, provisioned, and/or initiated, an available or supported form of network coding selected or designated for use, network coding parameters configured, NCA RLC status feedback parameters configured, etc. Various erasure codes (e.g., a selected erasure code, such as a fountain code, tornado code, LDPC code, Reed-Solomon coding, MDS code, etc. ) may be selected for use in network coding with respect to RLC layer communications of a NCA RLC layer communication protocol. In operation according to some aspects of the disclosure, a fountain code or a Raptor code may be selected for use with respect to communication of RLC layer payload for generating repair data with respect to source data for RLC data transfer. Various network coding parameters, such as a minimum code rate for encoding source data RLC PDUs, etc., may be selected and/or configured at the RLC transmit entity, such as using RRC signaling. Further various NCA RLC status feedback parameters, such as feedback path or type (e.g., RLC status reporting, reverse link reporting, etc. ) , NCA feedback configuration (e.g., a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU field, RLC SDU/RLC PDU feedback level, sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information fields, etc. ) , may be selected and/or configured at the RLC transmit entity.

Enabling NCA RLC layer communication according to block 401 may include providing signaling by the RLC transmit entity or otherwise causing signaling to be provided to one or more RLC receive entities for configuring NCA RLC layer communication operation in RLC layer communications between the RLC transmit entity and the one or more RLC receive entities. For example, the RLC transmit entity may provide information to the one or more RLC receive entities regarding the NCA RLC layer communication protocol selected, provisioned, and/or initiated at the RLC transmit entity, one or more of the various network coding parameters selected and/or configured at the RLC transmit entity, one or more of the various NCA RLC status feedback parameters selected and/or configured at the RLC transmit entity, etc. The RLC transmit entity may additionally or alternatively provide information for NCA RLC layer communication operation to the one or more RLC receive entities in addition to or in the alternative to the foregoing information used by the RLC transmit entity. For example, configuration parameters used by a RLC receive entity, such as a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for decoding a RLC SDU (e.g., a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs to be received before initiating decoding a respective RLC SDU) , may be provided to the one or more RLC receive entities.

At block 402 of flow 400 shown in FIG. 4, RLC layer SDU payload may be encoded by the RLC transmit entity using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs. The configured coding rate may, for example, comprise the configured minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs, such as may be dynamically adjusted from time to time (e.g., based on NCA RLC status feedback, such as information indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU) . The configured coding rate of some examples may parameterize one or more aspects of the network code, such as to designate a number of repair fragments, r, to be provided for each source data object (e.g., the network code may be parameterized as (p; k; r) where k is the number of source data fragments of a source data object, p is the total number of encoded symbols, and r = p –k is the number of repair data fragments) .

Encoding payload of each RLC layer SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs in accordance with some aspects of the disclosure may include segmenting the payload of a respective RLC SDU into a plurality of RLC PDUs. For example, source data objects may be provided as RLC SDUs from a layer (e.g., PDCP, RRC, etc. ) above the RLC layer. As shown in the encoding example of FIG. 6, radio link protocol logic of the RLC transmit entity may segment the RLC SDU payload (RLC SDU 601) into a plurality of source data RLC PDUs (un-coded RLC PDUs 610-1 through 610-k) . For example, each RLC SDU may be segmented into k source data fragments of equal size. Network coding (e.g., a selected erasure code, such as a fountain code, tornado code, LDPC code, Reed-Solomon coding, MDS code, etc. ) may be applied to the plurality of RLC PDUs to generate source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, network coding of un-coded RLC PDUs 610-1 through 610-k may provide coded source RLC PDUs 620-1 through 620-k and repair RLC PDUs 620- (p-r) through 620-p. The repair RLC PDUs comprise repair data (e.g., parity data in the case of examples of a fountain code) generated from the source data and which is configured for use in recovering the source data according to aspects of the disclosure.

Encoding operation implemented to provide encoded RLC PDUs may include one or more functions in addition to the aforementioned segmentation and network coding. For example, in accordance with some aspects of the disclosure a RLC header (e.g., headers 631-1 through 631-p shown in FIG. 6) may be added or appended to each source data RLC PDU (e.g., coded source RLC PDUs 620-1 through 620-k) and repair data RLC PDU (repair RLC PDUs 620- (p-r) through 620-p) of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs (e.g., encoded RLC PDUs 630-1 through 630-p) for the respective RLC SDU (e.g., RLC SDU 601) .

RLC headers of some examples may include information useful in the reconstruction of the source data. In accordance with some aspects of the disclosure, each RLC SDU provided to the RLC layer may have a sequence number (SN) , such as for identifying the particular RLC SDU payload to a layer above the RLC layer. A sub-SN may be provided (e.g., generated by the radio link protocol logic, such as based upon the RLC SDU SN) for each of the source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of a respective RLC SDU. Sub-SNs may, for example, indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN, such as may be utilized by a RLC receive entity in reconstructing the respective RLC SDU. The RLC header of some examples may include the SN of the respective RLC SDU and the sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU. Additionally or alternatively, the RLC header of some examples may include a flag to indicate whether the encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.

The plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs may be transmitted by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities at block 403 of the illustrated example of flow 400. NCA RLC layer communication according to aspects of the disclosure may be implemented with respect to broadcast systems, multicast systems, PTM systems, SC-PTM systems, unicast systems, etc. Accordingly, the RLC transmit entity may transmit encoded RLC PDUs for each of a plurality of RLC SDUs to a plurality of RLC receive entities of broadcast, multicast, PTM, and SC-PTM scenarios. Alternatively, the RLC transmit entity may transmit RLC PDUs for each of a plurality of RLC SDUs to a single RLC receiver entity of a unicast scenario.

NCA RLC layer communication may be implemented with respect to RLC AM and/or RLC UM in accordance with some aspects of the disclosure. For example, RLC AM may be used for the transmission of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs with respect to NCA RLC layer communication of some examples. Additionally or alternatively, RLC UM may be used for the transmission of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs with respect to NCA RLC layer communication of some examples.

At block 404 of flow 400 shown in FIG. 4, NCA RLC status feedback may be received by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities. NCA RLC status feedback may, for example, be provided to the RLC transmit entity in response to status report polling (e.g., polling of a RLC receive entity by the RLC transmit entity) , in response to one or more status report trigger (e.g., detection of reception failure by a RLC receive entity, expiration of a reporting timer, and/or other events) , etc.

NCA RLC layer communication may utilize RLC status reporting (e.g., RLC STATUS PDU based RLC ARQ mechanism of RLC AM) configured for NCA RLC status feedback (e.g., configuring the RLC STATUS PDU reports to include one or more fields of information for NCA RLC layer communication operation in RLC AM scenarios) . Additionally or alternatively, NCA RLC layer communication may utilize reverse link reporting (e.g., a new NCA RLC feedback channel established for NCA RLC status feedback including one or more fields of information for NCA RLC layer communication operation in RLC AM and/or RLC UM scenarios) .

The NRC RLC status feedback provided according to some aspects of the disclosure may include information configured for facilitating efficient coding/re-encoding of RLC SDUs, information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity, etc. For example, the NCA RLC status feedback may include a field (e.g., a new field, such as NumPDU, added to RLC STATUS PDU reports of RLC AM operation or included in a reverse link initiated for NCA RLC status reporting) indicating a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs by a RLC receive entity providing the NCA RLC status feedback. Information regarding the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble RLC SDUs (e.g., averaged over time, averaged with respect to a plurality of RLC receive entities reporting the information, etc. ) may be utilized in facilitating efficient coding/re-encoding of RLC SDUs (e.g., the configured coding rate may be dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the RLC SDU) . In accordance with some examples, a network device configures a minimum coding rate parameter for the source data (e.g., in RLC-Config) , and the coding rate used in encoding RLC PDUs may be dynamically adjusted based on the NCA RLC status feedback. Additionally or alternatively, the NCA RLC status feedback may include RLC SDU level information or RLC PDU level information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity.

FIG. 7A shows an example of NCA RLC status feedback including RLC SDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs. The example of NCA RLC status feedback illustrated in FIG. 7A provides feedback of information of RLC SDU level (e.g., SN based) status in RLC STATUS PDU to indicate the RLC SDU level status. The RLC SDU level information of the example may, for example, include SN and SO (e.g., the segment of RLC SDU by SOstart/SOend) information for the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing.

FIG. 7B shows an example of NCA RLC status feedback including RLC PDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs. The example of NCA RLC status feedback illustrated in FIG. 7B provides feedback of information of coded RLC PDU level (e.g., SN and sub-SN based) status in RLC STATUS PDU to indicate the encoded RLC PDU level status. The RLC PDU level information of the example may, for example, include SN, sub-SN, and SO (e.g., the segment of RLC PDU by SOstart/SOend) information for one or more encoded RLC PDU (e.g., encoded RLC PDUs missing or otherwise not received by the RLC receive entity) for the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing.

A portion of the RLC layer SDU payload may be retransmitted by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities based upon the NCA RLC status feedback at block 405 of flow 400 of FIG. 4. For example, in the case of RLC SDU level NCA RLC status feedback, the RLC transmit entity may use the NCA RLC status feedback to identify RLC SDU (s) determined to be missing by one or more RLC receive entities for retransmission. In the case of RLC PDU level NCA RLC status feedback, the RLC transmit entity may use the NCA RLC status feedback to identify RLC PDU (s) determined to be missing by one or more RLC receive entities for retransmission.

FIG. 8A shows an example of RLC SDU level retransmission where a RLC transmit entity retransmits missing RLC SDUs based on NCA RLC status feedback. In the example illustrated in FIG. 8A, the ACKed/NACKed RLC SDU level information of the NCA RLC status feedback (e.g., provided in RLC STATUS PDU) assists the RLC transmit entity to retransmit/re-encode missing RLC SDUs. For example, the RLC transmit entity may retransmit the corresponding RLC SDU (s) by re-encoding the corresponding RLC SDU (s) to provide a plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU (s) determined to be missing and retransmitting the corresponding RLC SDU (s) as the respective plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs. In this example, the re-encoding and retransmission is applied at the RLC SDU level by the RLC transmit entity.

FIG. 8B shows an example of RLC PDU level retransmission where a RLC transmit entity retransmits missing RLC PDUs based on NCA RLC status feedback. In the example illustrated in FIG. 8B, the RLC PDU level information of the NCA RLC status feedback (e.g., provided in RLC STATUS PDU) assists the RLC transmit entity to retransmit/re-encode missing RLC PDUs for corresponding missing RLC SDUs, without retransmitting/re-encoding the complete missing RLC SDUs. For example, the RLC transmit entity may retransmit the missing RLC PDUs by re-encoding one or more RLC PDUs of corresponding RLC SDU (s) determined to be missing and retransmitting the re-encoded one or more RLC PDUs. In this example, the re-encoding and retransmission I s applied at the RLC PDU level by the RLC transmit entity.

Having described operation by a RLC transmit entity configured for network coding augmented communication of RLC layer payload according to the example of FIG. 4, reference is now made to FIG. 5 for example operation by a RLC receive entity configured for network coding augmented communication of RLC layer payload. FIG. 5 shows flow 500 providing example operation by a RLC receive entity configured for network coding augmented communication of RLC layer payload. The functions of flow 500 may, for example, be implemented by radio link protocol logic executed by one or more processors of a device of wireless network 100. For example, the functions of the illustrated example may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a UE 115 in communication with one or more devices (e.g., base stations 105, UEs 115, etc. ) of wireless network 100. As another example, the functions of the illustrated example may be implemented by radio link protocol logic of a base station 105 in RLC layer communication with one or more other devices (e.g., base stations 105, UEs 115, etc. ) of wireless network 100.

In operation according to the illustrated example of flow 500, NCA RLC layer communication between a RLC receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity may be enabled at block 501. For example, a NCA RLC layer communication protocol may be selected, provisioned, and/or initiated, an available or supported form of network coding selected or designated for use, network coding parameters configured, NCA RLC status feedback parameters configured, etc. Enabling NCA RLC layer communication according to block 501 may include receiving signaling by the RLC receive entity (e.g., from the RLC transmit entity or other device of wireless network 100) for configuring NCA RLC layer communication operation in RLC layer communications between the RLC transmit entity and the one or more RLC receive entities. For example, the RLC receive entity may receive information regarding the NCA RLC layer communication protocol selected, provisioned, and/or initiated at the RLC transmit entity, one or more of network coding parameters, one or more NCA RLC status feedback parameters, one or more RLC receive entity configuration parameters, etc., such as using RRC signaling. For example, the RLC receive entity may receive information regarding a particular form of network coding of various erasure codes (e.g., a selected erasure code, such as a fountain code, tornado code, LDPC code, Reed-Solomon coding, MDS code, etc. ) for use with respect to RLC layer communications of a NCA RLC layer communication protocol. In accordance with some aspects of the disclosure, the RLC receive entity may receive information regarding NCA RLC status feedback to be provided, such as a feedback channel to be used (e.g., NCA RLC status feedback channel, reverse link reporting channel, etc. ) , information to be included in the NCA RLC status feedback (e.g., SN, sub-SN, number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a respective RLC SDU, RLC SDU level/RLC PDU level feedback, etc. ) , NCA RLC status feedback trigger information (e.g., polling, trigger events, etc. ) , and/or the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RLC receive entity may receive information regarding one or more configuration parameters used by a RLC receive entity, such as a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for decoding a RLC SDU (e.g., a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs to be received before initiating decoding a respective RLC SDU) .

At block 502 of example flow 500, a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for a respective RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs may be received by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity. The plurality of encoded RLC PDUs may, for example, comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate. The plurality of encoded RLC PDUs may be configured to facilitate reassembly of a corresponding RLC SDU by the RLC receive entity. For example, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs may include source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated by applying the network coding to payload of the respective RLC SDU segmented into a plurality of RLC PDUs. The source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs may each include a header. For example, each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs may include a RLC header carrying the SN of the respective RLC SDU and a sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN. Additionally or alternatively, the RLC header of one or more encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs may include a flag to indicate whether the one or more encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.

In accordance with some aspects of the disclosure, the RLC receive entity may start to reassemble a RLC SDU after a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for decoding a RLC SDU (e.g., the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs to be received before initiating decoding a respective RLC SDU received by the RLC receive entity) corresponding to one RLC SDU are received. For example, the RLC receive entity may initiate reassembly of a respective RLC SDU by decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon receiving a predefined minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU. In operation according to some aspects of the disclosure any combination of source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs totaling to a number equal to or greater than the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for decoding may be used for recovering the source data of the corresponding RLC SDU. In some examples, a fountain code or a Raptor code may be selected for use with respect to communication of RLC layer payload, whereby the parity data or LDPC and Luby transform data of the repair data RLC PDUs is invertible with a minimum number (e.g., n) of received encoded RLC PDUs to reconstruct the RLC SDU. The total number (e.g., p) of encoded RLC PDUs transmitted with respect to a corresponding RLC SDU may be larger than the minimum number (e.g., n) of received encoded RLC PDUs to reconstruct the RLC SDU (e.g., p = k + r, where k ≤ n ≤ p) . The RLC receive entity may thus reassemble a RLC SDU without having received all encoded RLC PDUs for that RLC SDU (e.g., avoiding waiting to receive each encoded RLC PDU for a RLC SDU before reassembling the RLC SDU) . In accordance with some aspects of the disclosure, a RLC receive entity may cease decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU, and may discard received encoded RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs unused in the successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU.

Although implementing NCA RLC layer communication, a RLC PDU receive procedure implemented by a RLC receive entity may nevertheless implement functions of existing NR RLC receive operation. For example, a RLC PDU receive entity may implement a receive sliding window, reassembly timer, prohibit timer, and/or RLC STATUS PDU based RLC ARQ mechanism in association with NCA RLC layer communication.

NCA RLC status feedback may be transmitting by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity at block 503 of flow 500 shown in FIG. 5. The NCA RLC status feedback may, for example, be configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload. NCA RLC status feedback information of some aspects of the disclosure may include information in addition to or in the alternative to information of a RLC ARQ mechanism fed back to assist a RLC transmit entity to retransmit/re-encode RLC SDUs and/or RLC PDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity. In accordance with some aspects of the disclosure, a RLC SDU may be determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity if the RLC receive entity is unable to reconstruct the RLC SDU after the last one of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs has been received, the RLC receive entity is unable to reconstruct the RLC SDU after at least a threshold number of encoded RLC PDUs (e.g., a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for decoding, possibly plus some additional number of encoded RLC PDUs) has been received, the RLC receive entity is unable to reconstruct the RLC SDU after receiving all the encoded RLC PDUs (e.g., including the source data RLC PDUs and the repair data PDUS) associate with a RLC SDU, etc. NCA RLC status feedback information provided by a RLC receive entity configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU may include RLC SDU level information, such as SN and SO information for the respective RLC SDU. Alternatively, NCA RLC status feedback information provided by a RLC receive entity configured for facilitating re-encoding an retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU may include RLC PDU level information, such as SN, sub-SN, and SO information for an encoded RLC PDU for the respective RLC SDU determined to be missing. NCA RLC status feedback provided by a RLC receive entity may additionally or alternatively include information regarding a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU. For example, radio link protocol logic of the RLC receive entity may determine the number (e.g., NumPDU) of encoded RLC PDUs used to successfully reassemble the respective RLC SDU and provide that information in a field of the NCA RLC status feedback.

The RLC receive entity may receive re-encoded RLC SDU payload in response to the NCA RLC status feedback. For example, a RLC receive entity providing RLC SDU level NCA RLC status feedback may receive a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs retransmitting the RLC layer SDU payload of a RLC SDU determined by the RLC receive entity to be missing in response to the NCA RLC status feedback. A RLC receive entity providing RLC PDU level NCA RLC status feedback may receive one or more encoded RLC PDUs retransmitted for a RLC SDU determined by the RLC receive entity to be missing in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating UE 115 configured according to one aspect of the present disclosure. UE 115 includes the structure, hardware, and components as illustrated for UE 115 of FIG. 2. For example, UE 115 includes controller/processor 280, which operates to execute logic or computer instructions stored in memory 282, as well as controlling the components of UE 115 that provide the features and functionality of UE 115. UE 115, under control of controller/processor 280, transmits and receives signals via wireless radios 901a-r and antennas 252a-r. Wireless radios 901a-r include various components and hardware, as illustrated in FIG. 2 for UE 115, including modulator/demodulators 254a-r, MIMO detector 256, receive processor 258, transmit processor 264, and TX MIMO processor 266.

UE 115 of the example shown in FIG. 9 includes radio link protocol logic 902 and NCA RLC layer communication configuration information database 903 configured for performing functions as described herein with respect to NCA RLC layer communication operation according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Where, for example, UE 115 operates as a RLC transmit entity, radio link protocol logic 902 may include code for performing functions of flow 400 of FIG. 4. Where UE 115 operates as a RLC receive entity, radio link protocol logic 902 may include code for performing functions of flow 500 of FIG. 5. NCA RLC layer communication configuration information database 903 may include various parameters and/or other information utilized in providing NCA RLC layer communication by radio link protocol logic 902. For example, NCA RLC layer communication configuration information database 903 may store information regarding a form of network coding selected or designated for use, network coding parameters, NCA RLC status feedback parameters, NCA feedback configuration, configuration parameters used by a RLC receive entity, configuration parameters used by a RLC transmit entity, etc.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating base station 105 configured according to one aspect of the present disclosure. Base station 105 includes the structure, hardware, and components as illustrated for base station 105 of FIG. 2. For example, base station 105 includes controller/processor 240, which operates to execute logic or computer instructions stored in memory 242, as well as controlling the components of base station 105 that provide the features and functionality of base station 105. Base station 105, under control of controller/processor 240, transmits and receives signals via wireless radios 1000a-t and antennas 234a-t. Wireless radios 1000a-t include various components and hardware, as illustrated in FIG. 2 for base station 105, including modulator/demodulators 232a-t, MIMO detector 236, receive processor 238, transmit processor 220, and TX MIMO processor 230.

Base station 105 of the example shown in FIG. 10 includes radio link protocol logic 1002 and NCA RLC layer communication configuration information database 1003 configured for performing functions as described herein with respect to NCA RLC layer communication operation according to some aspects of the present disclosure. Where, for example, base station 105 operates as a RLC transmit entity, radio link protocol logic 1002 may include code for performing functions of flow 400 of FIG. 4. Where base station 105 operates as a RLC receive entity, radio link protocol logic 1002 may include code for performing functions of flow 500 of FIG. 5. NCA RLC layer communication configuration information database 1003 may include various parameters and/or other information utilized in providing NCA RLC layer communication by radio link protocol logic 1002. For example, NCA RLC layer communication configuration information database 1003 may store information regarding a form of network coding selected or designated for use, network coding parameters, NCA RLC status feedback parameters, NCA feedback configuration, configuration parameters used by a RLC receive entity, configuration parameters used by a RLC transmit entity, etc.

Those of skill in the art would understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Components, the functional blocks, and modules described herein (e.g., the components, functional blocks, and modules in FIG. 2) may comprise processors, electronics devices, hardware devices, electronics components, logical circuits, memories, software codes, firmware codes, etc., or any combination thereof. In addition, features discussed herein relating to NCA RLC layer communication may be implemented via specialized processor circuitry, via executable instructions, and/or combinations thereof.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps (e.g., the logical blocks in FIGS. 4 and 5) described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure. Skilled artisans will also readily recognize that the order or combination of components, methods, or interactions that are described herein are merely examples and that the components, methods, or interactions of the various aspects of the present disclosure may be combined or performed in ways other than those illustrated and described herein.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP) , an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Computer-readable storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, a connection may be properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, or digital subscriber line (DSL) , then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, or DSL, are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD) , laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD) , hard disk, solid state disk, and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

As used herein, including in the claims, the term “and/or, ” when used in a list of two or more items, means that any one of the listed items can be employed by itself, or any combination of two or more of the listed items can be employed. For example, if a composition is described as containing components A, B, and/or C, the composition can contain A alone; B alone; C alone; A and B in combination; A and C in combination; B and C in combination; or A, B, and C in combination. Also, as used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list of items prefaced by “at least one of” indicates a disjunctive list such that, for example, a list of “at least one of A, B, or C” means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C) or any of these in any combination thereof.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

A method of wireless communication, comprising:

enabling, in a radio link control (RLC) transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities;

encoding, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer service data unit (SDU) payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs;

transmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs;

receiving, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback; and

retransmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.
The method of claim 1, wherein encoding payload of each RLC layer SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises:

segmenting the payload of a respective RLC SDU into a plurality of RLC PDUs; and

applying the network coding to the plurality of RLC PDUs to generate source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 1 and 2, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) , the method further comprising:

providing a sub-SN for each of the source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein encoding RLC layer SDU payload comprises:

adding a RLC header to each source data RLC PDU and repair data RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the RLC header at least includes the SN of the respective RLC SDU and the sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU.
The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the RLC header includes a flag to indicate whether the encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 1-6, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a network configured minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs.
The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC transmit entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The method of any of claims 1-8, further comprising:

dynamically adjusting the configured coding rate based on the NCA RLC status feedback.
The method of any of claims 1-9, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback, and wherein the configured coding rate is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 1-10, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback.
The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC SDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The method of any of claims 1-12, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The method of any of claims 1-13, wherein retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback comprises:

retransmitting the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The method of any of claims 1-14, wherein the retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback further comprises:

re-encoding the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide a plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU, wherein the corresponding RLC SDU is retransmitted as the plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs.
The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC PDU level information for a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The method of any of claims 1-11 and 16, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The method of any of claims 1-11, 16, and 17, wherein retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback comprises:

retransmitting one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The method of any of claims 1-11 and 16-18, wherein the retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback further comprises:

re-encoding the one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide one or more re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU.
An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising:

means for enabling, in a radio link control (RLC) transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities;

means for encoding, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer service data unit (SDU) payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs;

means for transmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs;

means for receiving, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback; and

means for retransmitting, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the means for encoding RLC layer SDU payload comprises:

means for segmenting the payload of a respective RLC SDU into a plurality of RLC PDUs; and

means for applying the network coding to the plurality of RLC PDUs to generate source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-21, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-22, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) , the apparatus further comprising:

means for providing a sub-SN for each of the source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-23, wherein the means for encoding RLC layer SDU payload comprises:

means for adding a RLC header to each source data RLC PDU and repair data RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the RLC header at least includes the SN of the respective RLC SDU and the sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-24, wherein the RLC header includes a flag to indicate whether the encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-25, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a network configured minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-26, wherein the minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC transmit entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-27, further comprising:

means for dynamically adjusting the configured coding rate based on the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-28, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback, and wherein the configured coding rate is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-29, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-30, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC SDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-31, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-32, wherein the means for retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback comprises:

means for retransmitting the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-33, wherein the means for retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback further comprises:

means for re-encoding the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide a plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU, wherein the corresponding RLC SDU is retransmitted as the plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-30, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC PDU level information for a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-30 and 35, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-30, 35, and 36, wherein the means for retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback comprises:

means for retransmitting one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The apparatus of any of claims 20-30 and 35-37, wherein the means for retransmitting the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback further comprises:

means for re-encoding the one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide one or more re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon for wireless communication, the program code comprising:

program code executable by a computer for causing the computer to:

enable, in a radio link control (RLC) transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities;

encode, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer service data unit (SDU) payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs;

transmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs;

receive, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback; and

retransmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 39, wherein the program code for causing the computer to encode RLC layer SDU payload comprises code to:

segment the payload of a respective RLC SDU into a plurality of RLC PDUs; and

apply the network coding to the plurality of RLC PDUs to generate source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39 and 40, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-41, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) , the program code further for causing the computer to:

provide a sub-SN for each of the source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-42, wherein the program code for causing the computer to encode RLC layer SDU payload comprises code to:

add a RLC header to each source data RLC PDU and repair data RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the RLC header at least includes the SN of the respective RLC SDU and the sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-43, wherein the RLC header includes a flag to indicate whether the encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-44, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a network configured minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-45, wherein the minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC transmit entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-46, the program code further for causing the computer to:

dynamically adjust the configured coding rate based on the NCA RLC status feedback.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-47, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback, and wherein the configured coding rate is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-48, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-49, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC SDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-50 wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-51, wherein the program code causing the computer to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback comprises code to:

retransmit the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-52, wherein the program code causing the computer to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback further comprises code to:

re-encode the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide a plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU, wherein the corresponding RLC SDU is retransmitted as the plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-49, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC PDU level information for a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-49 and 54, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-49, 54, and 55, wherein the program code for causing the computer to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback comprises code to:

retransmit one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 39-49 and 54-56, wherein the program code for causing the computer to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback further comprises code to:

re-encode the one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide one or more re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU.
An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

enable, in a radio link control (RLC) transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC transmit entity and one or more RLC receive entities;

encode, by the RLC transmit entity, RLC layer service data unit (SDU) payload using the network coding based on a configured coding rate to provide a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for each RLC SDU of a plurality of RLC SDUs;

transmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for each respective RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs;

receive, by the RLC transmit entity from RLC entities of the one or more RLC entities, NCA RLC status feedback; and

retransmit, by the RLC transmit entity to the one or more RLC receive entities, a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of claim 58, wherein the at least one processor configured to encode RLC layer SDU payload is configured to:

segment the payload of a respective RLC SDU into a plurality of RLC PDUs; and

apply the network coding to the plurality of RLC PDUs to generate source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 58 and 59, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-60, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) , wherein the at least one processor further configured to:

provide a sub-SN for each of the source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-61, wherein at least one processor configured to encode RLC layer SDU payload is configured to:

add a RLC header to each source data RLC PDU and repair data RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU, wherein the RLC header at least includes the SN of the respective RLC SDU and the sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-62, wherein the RLC header includes a flag to indicate whether the encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-63, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a network configured minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-64, wherein the minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC transmit entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-65, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

dynamically adjust the configured coding rate based on the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-66, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble a RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback, and wherein the configured coding rate is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-67, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by a RLC receive entity of the one or more RLC receive entities providing the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-68, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC SDU level information for corresponding RLC SDUs of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-69, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-70, wherein the at least one processor configured to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to:

retransmit the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-71, wherein the at least one processor configured to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to:

re-encode the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide a plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU, wherein the corresponding RLC SDU is retransmitted as the plurality of re-encoded RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-68, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs comprises RLC PDU level information for a corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-68 and 73, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the corresponding RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs determined to be missing.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-68, 73, and 74, wherein the at least one processor configured to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to:

retransmit one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The apparatus of any of claims 58-68 and 73-75, wherein the at least one processor configured to retransmit the portion of the RLC layer SDU payload based upon the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to:

re-encode the one or more RLC PDUs of the corresponding RLC SDU determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity to provide one or more re-encoded RLC PDUs for the corresponding RLC SDU.
A method of wireless communication, comprising:

enabling, in a radio link control (RLC) receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity;

receiving, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for a respective RLC service data unit (SDU) of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate; and

transmitting, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.
The method of claim 77, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated by applying the network coding to payload of the respective RLC SDU segmented into a plurality of RLC PDUs.
The method of any of claims 77 and 78, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The method of any of claims 77-79, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) and each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a RLC header including the SN of the respective RLC SDU and a sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The method of any of claims 77-80, wherein the RLC header of one or more encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a flag to indicate whether the one or more encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-81, further comprising:

initiating reassembly of the respective RLC SDU by decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon receiving a predefined minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-82, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is predefined using a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs parameter of a RLC configuration provided to the one or more RLC receive entities.
The method of any of claims 77-83, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC receive entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The method of any of claims 77-84, further comprising:

ceasing decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU; and

discarding received encoded RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs unused in the successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-85, further comprising:

determining the respective RLC SDU to be missing if the respective RLC SDU is not successfully reassembled after receiving all of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs including source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated the network coding for the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-86, further comprising:

determining a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to successfully reassemble the respective RLC SDU, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-87, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs which is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-88, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU when determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The method of any of claims 77-89, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC SDU level information.
The method of any of claims 77-90, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the respective RLC SDU.
The method of any of claims 77-91, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs retransmitting the RLC layer SDU payload of the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
The method of any of claims 77-89, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC PDU level information.
The method of any of claims 77-89 and 93, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the respective RLC SDU determined to be missing.
The method of any of claims 77-89 93, and 94, further comprising:

receiving an encoded RLC PDU retransmitted for the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising:

means for enabling, in a radio link control (RLC) receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity;

means for receiving, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for a respective RLC service data unit (SDU) of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate; and

means for transmitting, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.
The apparatus of claim 96, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated by applying the network coding to payload of the respective RLC SDU segmented into a plurality of RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 96 and 97, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-98, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) and each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a RLC header including the SN of the respective RLC SDU and a sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-99, wherein the RLC header of one or more encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a flag to indicate whether the one or more encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-100, further comprising:

means for initiating reassembly of the respective RLC SDU by decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon receiving a predefined minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-101, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is predefined using a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs parameter of a RLC configuration provided to the one or more RLC receive entities.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-102, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC receive entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-103, further comprising:

means for ceasing decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU; and

means for discarding received encoded RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs unused in the successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-104, further comprising:

means for determining the respective RLC SDU to be missing if the respective RLC SDU is not successfully reassembled after receiving all of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs including source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated the network coding for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-105, further comprising:

means for determining a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to successfully reassemble the respective RLC SDU, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-106, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs which is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-107, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU when determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-108, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC SDU level information.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-109, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-110, further comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs retransmitting the RLC layer SDU payload of the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-108, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC PDU level information.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-108 and 112, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the respective RLC SDU determined to be missing.
The apparatus of any of claims 96-108 112, and 113, further comprising:

means for receiving an encoded RLC PDU retransmitted for the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon for wireless communication, the program code comprising:

program code executable by a computer for causing the computer to:

enable, in a radio link control (RLC) receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity;

receive, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for a respective RLC service data unit (SDU) of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate; and

transmit, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 115, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated by applying the network coding to payload of the respective RLC SDU segmented into a plurality of RLC PDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115 and 116, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-117, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) and each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a RLC header including the SN of the respective RLC SDU and a sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-118, wherein the RLC header of one or more encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a flag to indicate whether the one or more encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-119, the program code further for causing the computer to:

initiate reassembly of the respective RLC SDU by decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon receiving a predefined minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-120, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is predefined using a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs parameter of a RLC configuration provided to the one or more RLC receive entities.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-121, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC receive entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-122, the program code further for causing the computer to:

cease decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU; and

discard received encoded RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs unused in the successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-123, the program code further for causing the computer to:

determine the respective RLC SDU to be missing if the respective RLC SDU is not successfully reassembled after receiving all of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs including source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated the network coding for the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-124, the program code further for causing the computer to:

determine a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to successfully reassemble the respective RLC SDU, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-125, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs which is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-126, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU when determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-127, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC SDU level information.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-128, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the respective RLC SDU.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-129, the program code further for causing the computer to:

receive a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs retransmitting the RLC layer SDU payload of the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-127, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC PDU level information.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-127 and 131, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the respective RLC SDU determined to be missing.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of claims 115-127, 131 and 132, the program code further for causing the computer to:

receive an encoded RLC PDU retransmitted for the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
An apparatus configured for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

enable, in a radio link control (RLC) receive entity of one or more RLC receive entities in communication with a RLC transmit entity, network coding augmented (NCA) RLC layer communication between the RLC receive entity and the RLC transmit entity;

receive, by the RLC receive entity from the RLC transmit entity, a plurality of encoded RLC protocol data units (PDUs) for a respective RLC service data unit (SDU) of a plurality of RLC SDUs, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise RLC layer SDU payload encoded using the network coding based on a configured coding rate; and

transmit, by the RLC receive entity to the RLC transmit entity, NCA RLC status feedback, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback is configured to facilitate retransmitting a portion of the RLC layer SDU payload.
The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs comprise source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated by applying the network coding to payload of the respective RLC SDU segmented into a plurality of RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 134 and 135, wherein the repair data RLC PDUs comprises parity check data derived from source data of the source data RLC PDUs.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-136, wherein each RLC SDU of the plurality of RLC SDUs has a sequence number (SN) and each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a RLC header including the SN of the respective RLC SDU and a sub-SN of the encoded RLC PDU, wherein the sub-SNs indicate an index for each encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of RLC PDUs associated with the respective RLC SDU SN.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-137, wherein the RLC header of one or more encoded RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs includes a flag to indicate whether the one or more encoded RLC PDU is a last RLC PDU of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-138, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

initiate reassembly of the respective RLC SDU by decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon receiving a predefined minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-139, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is predefined using a minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs parameter of a RLC configuration provided to the one or more RLC receive entities.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-140, wherein the minimum number of encoded RLC PDUs is configured at the RLC receive entity using radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-141, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

cease decoding received encoded RLC PDUs upon successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU; and

discard received encoded RLC PDUs of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs unused in the successful reassembly of the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-142, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine the respective RLC SDU to be missing if the respective RLC SDU is not successfully reassembled after receiving all of the plurality of encoded RLC PDUs including source data RLC PDUs and repair data RLC PDUs generated the network coding for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-143, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

determine a number of encoded RLC PDUs used to successfully reassemble the respective RLC SDU, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback includes a field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-144, wherein the configured coding rate for the network coding comprises a minimum code rate for the source data RLC PDUs which is dynamically adjusted based on information in the field indicating the number of encoded RLC PDUs used to reassemble the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-145, wherein the NCA RLC status feedback comprises information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU when determined to be missing by the RLC receive entity.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-146, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC SDU level information.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-147, wherein the RLC SDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) and segment offset (SO) information for the respective RLC SDU.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-148, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

receive a plurality of encoded RLC PDUs retransmitting the RLC layer SDU payload of the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-146, wherein the information configured for facilitating re-encoding and retransmitting payload of the respective RLC SDU comprises RLC PDU level information.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-146 and 150, wherein the RLC PDU level information includes a sequence number (SN) , a sub-SN, and segment offset (SO) information for an encoded RLC PDU for the respective RLC SDU determined to be missing.
The apparatus of any of claims 134-146, 150, and 151, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

receive an encoded RLC PDU retransmitted for the respective RLC SDU in response to the NCA RLC status feedback.