WO2022155108A1

WO2022155108A1 - Enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping for uplink coverage in 5g systems

Info

Publication number: WO2022155108A1
Application number: PCT/US2022/011908
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gang Xiong; Sergey Sosnin; Gregory ERMOLAEV; Jie Zhu
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2021-01-14
Filing date: 2022-01-11
Publication date: 2022-07-21

Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide a technique related to determining, by one or more processors of an electronic device, a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a plurality of repetitions of an uplink signal, wherein the uplink signal is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal. The technique may further include facilitating, by the one or more processors, transmission of a first repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern. The technique may further include facilitating, by the one or more processors, transmission of a second repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a second frequency resource that is different from the first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Description

ENHANCED INTER-SLOT FREQUENCY HOPPING FOR UPLINK COVERAGE IN 5G SYSTEMS

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/137,417, which was filed January 14, 2021; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/253,346, which was filed October 7, 2021.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. For example, some embodiments may relate to inter-slot frequency hopping.

BACKGROUND

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 depicts an example of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2 depicts an example of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling based on a transmission occasion index, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 3 depicts an example of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling based on actual repetition index, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 4 illustrates an example of inter-repetition frequency hopping with inter-repetition bundling for PUSCH repetition type B, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 5 illustrates an example of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling aligned with a time-domain window boundary, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 6 illustrates an example of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for PUCCH repetitions, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 7 illustrates an example technique for identification and use of an inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling pattern, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 8 illustrates elements of a network, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 9 schematically illustrates elements of a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments. Figure 10 schematically illustrates components of a wireless network,

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

Mobile communication has evolved significantly from early voice systems to current highly sophisticated integrated communication platforms. The next generation wireless communication system, fifth generation (5G), or new radio (NR) will provide access to information and sharing of data anywhere, anytime by various users and applications. NR is expected to be a unified network/system that may meet vastly different and sometime conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such diverse multi-dimensional requirements may be driven by factors such as different services and applications. In general, NR may evolve based on third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE)-Advanced ,with additional potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs) to enrich people lives with better, simple and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR may enable wireless connections between various devices and deliver fast, rich content and services.

For cellular systems, coverage may be considered an important factor for successful operation. Compared to LTE, NR may be deployed at relatively higher carrier frequency in frequency range 1 (FR1), e.g., at 3.5 gigahertz (GHz). In this case, coverage loss may be expected due to larger path-loss, which may make it more challenging to maintain an adequate quality of service. Typically, uplink coverage may be the bottleneck for system operation considering the low transmit power at the user equipment (UE).

In NR, a number of repetitions may be configured for the transmission of PUSCH and PUCCH to help improve the coverage performance. When repetition is employed for the transmission of PUCCH and PUSCH with repetition type A, the same time domain resource allocation (TDRA) may be used in each slot. In addition, inter-slot frequency hopping may be configured to improve the performance by exploiting frequency diversity. Further, for PUSCH with repetition type B, inter-repetition frequency hopping may be applied, where the frequency hopping is performed on the basis of nominal repetition. As used herein, “repetitions” of a PUSCH or PUCCH transmission may include the same data (e.g., as may be in the case of PUSCH) or control information (e.g., as may be in the case of PUCCH) as one another, respectively.

For PUSCH and PUCCH coverage enhancement, an advanced receiver capable of a joint channel estimation algorithm may help in improving the channel estimation performance, and hence increase overall link budget of uplink transmission. This improvement may be important, because coverage enhancement solutions may be mainly targeted for low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) situations where channel estimation may act as a performance bottleneck.

To facilitate the joint channel estimation, frequency resources for uplink transmission during the repetitions may remain the same for a certain number of slots/repetitions in order to allow inter-slot/repetition interpolation for channel estimation improvement.

Figure 1 illustrates one example 100 of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for repetition type A PUSCH or PUCCH. In the example, PUSCH or PUCCH transmission occupies the same frequency resource for two slots before it switches to other frequency resources. Specifically, the example 100 depicts four slots 105a, 105b, 105c, and 105d (collectively, “slots 105”). Each of the slots 105 is made up of 14 symbols 115. As can be seen, a PUSCH or PUCCH transmission in slots 105a and 105b may be transmitted at a first frequency resource, while the PUSCH or PUCCH transmission in slots 105c and 105d may be transmitted at a second frequency resource.

It will be understood that it may be possible that one of the PUSCH or PUCCH transmissions during repetition is cancelled due to collision with a semi-static downlink (DL) symbols, a synchronization signal block (SSB) transmission, a transmission with higher priority, etc. In this case, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be required to be aligned between the 5G nodeB (gNB) and the UE to allow for proper decoding by the gNB. Therefore, certain mechanisms may need to be defined for enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern.

Various embodiments herein relate to systems and methods for enhancement of inter-slot frequency hopping for uplink coverage enhancement to resolve one or more of the abovedescribed concerns. For example, some embodiments may include:

• Enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern for PUSCH; and/or

• Enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern for PUCCH.

As a result, embodiments may improve coverage of NR PUSCH and/or PUCCH. Enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern for PUSCH

In one embodiment, for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on a physical slot index in a frame, regardless of whether a PUSCH repetition is cancelled.

In another option, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the relative slot index, wherein the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUSCH transmission has number 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUSCH repetition.

In one example, the following text for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling may be included in Sections 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specification (TS) 38.214 for both PUSCH repetition type A and B. It will be noted that, in the text, a reference to “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” or some other similar phrasing may indicate inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling:

In case of inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, the starting RB during slot

is given by: n_s mod 2/V_n(rac^_<? < N_bundie

mod ^BWP n_s mod 2/V^_ura^(_e > N_bundle where

is the current slot number within a radio frame, where a multi-slot PUSCH transmission can take place, N_bundle is the bundle size for inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, RB_start is the starting RB within the UL BWP, as calculated from the resource block assignment information of resource allocation type 1 (described in Clause 6.1.2.2.2) and RB_offset is the frequency offset in RBs between the two frequency hops.

In another example, the following text for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling may be included in Sections 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 of 3GPP TS 38.214 for both PUSCH repetition type A and B. Note that, in the text, reference to “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” or similar phrasing may indicate inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling:

In case of inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, the starting RB during slot

is given by: X I ^bundle j mod 2 — 0

mod N^^e _P X /N_bundte j mod 2 = 1’ where

In another embodiment, for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the index of transmission occasion, regardless of whether a PUSCH repetition is cancelled. This may indicate that the enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern is determined prior to any potential dropping or cancellation of PUSCH repetitions due to collision with semi-static DL symbols, SSB transmission, invalid uplink (UL) symbols, and/or other conditions.

Figure 2 illustrates one example 200 of enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern based on transmission occasion index. Specifically, the example 200 depicts four slots 205a, 205b, 205c, and 205d (collectively, “slots 205”). Each of the slots 205 is made up of 14 symbols 215. As can be seen, a PUSCH transmission in slots 205a and 205b may be transmitted at a first frequency, while the PUSCH transmission in slots 205c and 205d may be transmitted at a second frequency.

In this example, it will be recognized that four repetitions are configured for PUSCH transmission, one in each slot 205. Each of the slots 205 may be referred to as a “transmission occasion,” and may have a transmission occasion index. It may also be recognized that, in the second slots 205b, the PUSCH repetition is cancelled (for example due to collision with semistatic DL symbols 210). In this case, enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping boundary may be located after the second slot 205b.

More generally, the term “transmission occasion” may refer to the index of the repetition. For instance, in Figure 2, the first PUSCH repetition (e.g., the PUSCH transmission in slot 205a) is the first transmission occasion, the second PUSCH repetition (e g., in slot 205b) is the second transmission occasion, etc. This may be contrasted with, for example, the first embodiment described above which may be based on the physical slot index. For example, if a PUSCH repetition is transmitted in physical slot 2, then the pattern is determined based on the physical slot index 2.

Note that the following text for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling may be included in Section 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 in 3GPP TS 38.214 for both PUSCH repetition type A and B. In the text, reference to “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” or some other similar phrase may indicate inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling.

In case of inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, the starting RB during /-th transmission occasion is given by:

Restart \ -/ ^bundle J mod 2 0

start (R) I

(RBstart + RB_offset) mod N^^e _P n/N_bundle mod 2 = 1’ where N_bundie is the bundle size for inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, RB_start is the starting RB within the UL BWP, as calculated from the resource block assignment information of resource allocation type 1 (described in Clause 6.1.2.2.2) and RB_offset is the frequency offset in RBs between the two frequency hops. In another embodiment, for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the index of actual repetition. This may indicate that the enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern is determined after cancellation of PUSCH repetition.

Note that for PUSCH repetition type A based on available slots, a two-step procedure may be employed for the transmission of PUSCH: in the first step, available slots for PUSCH K repetitions are determined based on radio resource control (RRC) configuration(s) in addition to TDRA in the downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the PUSCH, configured grant (CG) configuration, or activation DCI. Further, in the second step, the UE may determine whether to drop a PUSCH repetition or not according to release-15 (Rel-15) and/or release-16 (rel-16) PUSCH dropping rules, but the PUSCH repetition is still counted in the K repetitions. Hence, this procedure may indicate that the enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern is determined after the cancellation of PUSCH repetition in the second step.

Note that this procedure may also apply for the case for PUSCH with transport block (TB) processing over multiple slots (TBoMS).

Figure 3 illustrates one example 300 of enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern based on transmission occasion index. Specifically, the example 300 depicts four slots 305a, 305b, 305c, and 305d (collectively, “slots 305”) which may also be referred to as “transmission occasions,” and may be associated with an actual transmission occasion for slots wherein the PUSCH is transmitted. Each of the slots 305 is made up of 14 symbols 315. As can be seen, a PUSCH transmission in slots 305a, 305b, and 305c may be transmitted at a first frequency, while the PUSCH transmission in slot 305d may be transmitted at a second frequency.

In this example 300, four repetitions are configured for PUSCH transmission. Further, in the 2^nd transmission occasion (e.g., the PUSCH transmission at slot 305b), the PUSCH repetition is cancelled due to collision with semi-static DL symbols 310. In this case, the enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping boundary is located after the third transmission occasion (e.g., after slot 305c).

The following text for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling may be included in Section 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 in 3GPP TS 38.214 for both PUSCH repetition type A and B. In the text, “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” or similar phrasing may refer to inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling.

In case of inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, the starting RB during //-th actual repetition is given by:

E/Bstart IV'/Nfrundlel Hiod 2 0

RBstartO) =

(RBstart + RBoffset) ^{mo d N}BWP \n/N_bundle mod 2 = 1’ where N_bundie is the bundle size for inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, RB_start is the starting RB within the UL BWP, as calculated from the resource block assignment information of resource allocation type 1 (described in Clause 6.1.2.2.2) and RB_off_set is the frequency offset in RBs between the two frequency hops.

In another embodiment, the above embodiments may be applied or combined for the use case wherein PUSCH is used to carry a TB that spans multiple slots (e.g., TBoMS as described above). In this case, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the physical slot index, index of transmission occasion, or actual transmission occasion in PUSCH transmission spanning multiple slots. Note that the slot index can be either the physical slot index in a frame or the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUSCH transmission has number 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUSCH repetition.

In another embodiment, for PUSCH repetition type B, the above embodiments may also be applied for the inter-repetition frequency hopping with inter-repetition bundling. More specifically, the inter-repetition frequency hopping pattern with inter-repetition bundling may be determined based on the slot index in a frame, index of transmission occasion or nominal repetition or actual repetition for PUSCH repetition type B

In one option, the inter-repetition frequency hopping pattern with inter-repetition bundling may be determined based on nominal repetition index. In this case, actual repetition within a nominal repetition may use the same frequency resource.

Figure 4 illustrates one example of inter-repetition frequency hopping with inter-repetition bundling for PUSCH repetition type B. Specifically, the example 400 depicts three slots 405a, 405b, and 405c (collectively, “slots 405”) Each of the slots 405 is made up of 14 symbols 415.

In the example, 4 repetitions are used for PUSCH repetition type B, the 1^st nominal repetition 420a, the second nominal repetition 420b, the third nominal repetition 420c, and the fourth nominal repetition 420d. The first and second nominal repetitions 420a and 420b are transmitted at a first frequency, and the third and fourth nominal repetitions 420c and 420d are transmitted at a second frequency.

As can be seen in the example 400, given that the second and fourth nominal repetitions 420b and 420d cross the slot boundary, they are divided into two actual repetitions, respectively. Specifically, the second nominal repetition 420b is divided into actual repetitions 1 and 2, 425a and 425b. The fourth nominal repetition 420d is divided into actual repetitions 1 and 2, 425c and 425d. In this example, enhanced inter-repetition frequency hopping boundary is located after 2^nd nominal repetition.

The following text for inter-repetition frequency hopping with inter-repetition bundling may be included in Section 6.3.2 of 3GPP TS 38.214 for PUSCH repetition type B. In the text, “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” may refer to inter-repetition frequency hopping with interrepetition bundling.

In case of inter-repetition frequency hopping type 2, the starting RB for an actual repetition within the //-th nominal repetition (as defined in Clause 6.1.2.1) is given by:

Restart ^bundle i mod 2 — 0

RBoffset) ^{mo d N}BWP n/N_bundle mod 2 = 1’ where N_bundie is the bundle size for inter-repetition frequency hopping type 2, RBstart is the starting RB within the UL BWP, as calculated from the resource block assignment information of resource allocation type 1 (described in Clause 6.1.2.2.2) and RBoffset is the frequency offset in RBs between the two frequency hops.

In another embodiment, for PUSCH repetition type A with counting based on available slots, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the index of available slot. Note that in the first element of PUSCH repetition type A based on available slot, available slots for PUSCH K repetitions may be determined based on RRC configuration(s) in addition to TDRA in the DCI scheduling the PUSCH, CG configuration, or activation DCI. Further, in the second element, the UE may determine whether to drop a PUSCH repetition or not according to Rel-15 and/or Rel-16 PUSCH dropping rules, but the PUSCH repetition may still be counted in the K repetitions.

Hence, this technique may indicate indicates that an enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern for PUSCH repetition type A based on available slots is determined based on the available slot index, which is before the cancellation of PUSCH repetition in the second element as mentioned above.

In one example, the following text for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling may be included in Section 6.3.1 of 3GPP TS 38.214 for both PUSCH repetition type A based on available slot In the text, “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” or some similar phrase may indicate inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling.

In case of inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, the starting RB during //-th available slot is given by:

EEstart \^-/ ^bundle Hiod 2 0

EB start (R) I

(RB_start + RB_offset) mod N^^e _P n/N_buncUe mod 2 = 1’ where N_bundie is the bundle size for inter-slot frequency hopping type 2, RB_start is the starting RB within the UL BWP, as calculated from the resource block assignment information of resource allocation type 1 (described in Clause 6.1.2.2.2) and RB_offset is the frequency offset in RBs between the two frequency hops. For PUSCH with TBoMS, the transmission may be based on the available slots. In this case, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the index of available slot.

In another embodiment, for PUSCH repetition type A and B, PUCCH repetition, and/or for PUSCH with TBoMS, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation. In particular, the boundary for the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be aligned with the boundary of a nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation.

As a further extension, the boundary for inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with interslot bundling may be aligned with the half of nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation.

Figure 5 illustrates one example 500 of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling with aligning with time domain window boundary. Specifically, the example 500 depicts four slots 505a, 505b, 505c, and 505d (collectively, “slots 505”). Each of the slots 505 is made up of 14 symbols 515. As can be seen, a PUSCH transmission in slots 505a and 505b may be transmitted at a first frequency, while the PUSCH transmission in slots 505c and 505d may be transmitted at a second frequency.

In the example 500, four repetitions are configured for PUSCH repetitions (e.g., PUSCH transmissions in each of the slots 505). Further, the time domain window duration is configured as two slots. Specifically, the first nominal or actual time domain window 530a may be configured as slots 505a and 505b, while the second nominal or actual time domain window 530b may be configured as slots 505c and 505d. In this case, the inter-slot frequency hopping boundary is aligned with the boundary for the nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation.

Enhanced inter-slot frequency hopping pattern for PUCCH

In one embodiment, the above embodiments for inter-slot frequency hopping with interslot bundling described with respect to PUSCH repetitions may also be applied for PUCCH repetitions. More specifically, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling for PUCCH repetitions may be determined based on the physical slot index, index of transmission occasion, or actual transmission occasion. Note that the slot index may be either the physical slot index in a frame or the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUCCH transmission that has number 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUCCH repetition. In one option, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the slot index, wherein the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUCCH transmission has number 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUCCH repetition.

Figure 6 illustrates one example 600 of inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for PUCCH repetition. Specifically, the example 600 depicts four slots 605a, 605b, 605c, and 605d (collectively, “slots 605”). Each of the slots 605 is made up of 14 symbols 615. As can be seen, a PUCCH transmission in slots 605a and 605b may be transmitted at a first frequency, while the PUSCH transmission in slots 605c and 605d may be transmitted at a second frequency.

In the example 600, four repetitions are configured for PUCCH transmission (e.g., one PUCCH transmission in each of slots 605). Note that first slot 605a is indicated the first PUCCH repetition. Further, in the second slot 605b for PUCCH repetition, the PUCCH repetition is cancelled due to collision with semi-static DL symbols 610. In this case, inter-slot frequency hopping boundary with inter-slot bundling is located after the slot 605b.

The following text for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling may be included in Section 9.2.6 in 3GPP TS 38.213 for PUCCH repetition. In the text, “inter-slot frequency hopping type 2” or similar phrasing may indicate inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling.

If the UE is configured to perform frequency hopping type 2 for PUCCH transmissions across different slots the UE transmits the PUCCH starting from a first PRB, provided by startingPRB in slots with [n/N_bunMe mod 2 = 0 and starting from the second PRB, provided by secondHopPRB, in slots with [n/N_bundie mod 2 = 1, where n is the slot index and N_bundie is the bundle size for inter-repetition frequency hopping type 2. The slot indicated to the UE for the first PUCCH transmission has number 0 and each subsequent slot until the UE transmits the

^s'^ots i^s counted regardless of whether or not the UE transmits the PUCCH in the slot. the UE does not expect to be configured to perform frequency hopping for a PUCCH transmission within a slot bundle.

Figure 7 illustrates an example technique 700 for identification and use of an inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling pattern, in accordance with various embodiments. The technique 700 may be performed by one or more processors of an electronic device such as a user equipment (UE).

The technique 700 may include determining, at 705, a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a plurality of repetitions of an uplink signal. The uplink signal may be, for example, a PUSCH signal or a PUCCH signal as described above, and the pattern may be similar to any of the patterns described above with respect to any of Figures 1-6, or some other embodiment described herein.

The technique 700 may further include facilitating, at 710, transmission of a first repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern. The technique 700 may further include facilitating, at 715, transmission of a second repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a second frequency resource that is different from the first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern. It will be understood that, as used herein, the phrases “first repetition” and “second repetition” are intended to act as distinguishing identifiers, rather indicators of a sequential order. In other words, the first repetition and second repetition may or may not occur sequentially, and another repetition may or may not occur on the first or second frequency resources in between the first and second repetitions.

It will be understood that this technique is intended as one example technique in accordance with embodiments herein, and other embodiments may vary. For example, other embodiments may have more or fewer elements, elements performed in another order than depicted, elements performed concurrently, etc.

SYSTEMS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Figures 8-10 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

Figure 8 illustrates a network 800 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 800 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3 GPP systems, or the like.

The network 800 may include a UE 802, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 804 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 802 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 804 by a Uu interface. The UE 802 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc. In some embodiments, the network 800 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

In some embodiments, the UE 802 may additionally communicate with an AP 806 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 806 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 804. The connection between the UE 802 and the AP 806 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 806 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 802, RAN 804, and AP 806 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 802 being configured by the RAN 804 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

The RAN 804 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 808. AN 808 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 802 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, REC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 808 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 820 and the UE 802. In some embodiments, the AN 808 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 808 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 808 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In embodiments in which the RAN 804 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 804 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 804 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The ANs of the RAN 804 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 802 with an air interface for network access. The UE 802 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 804. For example, the UE 802 and RAN 804 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 802 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc. The RAN 804 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

In V2X scenarios the UE 802 or AN 808 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

In some embodiments, the RAN 804 may be an LTE RAN 810 with eNBs, for example, eNB 812. The LTE RAN 810 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSLRS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands.

In some embodiments, the RAN 804 may be an NG-RAN 814 with gNBs, for example, gNB 816, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 818. The gNB 816 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5 G NR interface. The gNB 816 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 818 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 816 and the ng-eNB 818 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 814 and a UPF 848 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN814 and an AMF 844 (e.g., N2 interface).

The NG-RAN 814 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 802 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 802, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 802 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 802 and in some cases at the gNB 816. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

The RAN 804 is communicatively coupled to CN 820 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 802). The components of the CN 820 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 820 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 820 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 820 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

In some embodiments, the CN 820 may be an LTE CN 822, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 822 may include MME 824, SGW 826, SGSN 828, HSS 830, PGW 832, and PCRF 834 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 822 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 824 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 802 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 826 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 822. The SGW 826 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The SGSN 828 may track a location of the UE 802 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 828 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 824; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 824 and the SGSN 828 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

The HSS 830 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 830 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 830 and the MME 824 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 820.

The PGW 832 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 836 that may include an application/ content server 838. The PGW 832 may route data packets between the LTE CN 822 and the data network 836. The PGW 832 may be coupled with the SGW 826 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 832 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 832 and the data network 8 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 832 may be coupled with a PCRF 834 via a Gx reference point.

The PCRF 834 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 822. The PCRF 834 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 838 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 832 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, the CN 820 may be a 5GC 840. The 5GC 840 may include an AUSF 842, AMF 844, SMF 846, UPF 848, NSSF 850, NEF 852, NRF 854, PCF 856, UDM 858, and AF 860 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 840 may be briefly introduced as follows. The AUSF 842 may store data for authentication of UE 802 and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 842 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 840 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 842 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 844 may allow other functions of the 5GC 840 to communicate with the UE 802 and the RAN 804 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 802. The AMF 844 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 802), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 844 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 802 and the SMF 846, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 844 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 802 and an SMSF. AMF 844 may interact with the AUSF 842 and the UE 802 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 844 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 804 and the AMF 844; and the AMF 844 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 844 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 802 over an N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 846 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 848 and AN 808); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 848 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 844 over N2 to AN 808; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 802 and the data network 836.

The UPF 848 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 836, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 848 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF- to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 848 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

The NSSF 850 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 802. The NSSF 850 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 850 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 802, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 854. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 802 may be triggered by the AMF 844 with which the UE 802 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 850, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 850 may interact with the AMF 844 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 850 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

The NEF 852 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3 GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 860), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 852 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 852 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 860 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 852 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 852 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 852 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 852 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 852 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

The NRF 854 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 854 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 854 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 856 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 856 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 858. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 856 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 858 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 802. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 858 and the AMF 844. The UDM 858 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 858 and the PCF 856, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 802) for the NEF 852. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 858, PCF 856, and NEF 852 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM- FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 858 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 860 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5GC 840 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3^rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 802 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 840 may select a UPF 848 close to the UE 802 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 848 to data network 836 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 860. In this way, the AF 860 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 860 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 860 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 860 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

The data network 836 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 838.

Figure 9 schematically illustrates a wireless network 900 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 900 may include a UE 902 in wireless communication with an AN 904. The UE 902 and AN 904 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 902 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 904 via connection 906. The connection 906 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.

The UE 902 may include a host platform 908 coupled with a modem platform 910. The host platform 908 may include application processing circuitry 912, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 914 of the modem platform 910. The application processing circuitry 912 may run various applications for the UE 902 that source/ sink application data. The application processing circuitry 912 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmi t/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations

The protocol processing circuitry 914 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 906. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 914 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.

The modem platform 910 may further include digital baseband circuitry 916 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 914 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

The modem platform 910 may further include transmit circuitry 918, receive circuitry 920, RF circuitry 922, and RF front end (RFFE) 924, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 926. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 918 may include a digital -to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 920 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 922 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 924 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 918, receive circuitry 920, RF circuitry 922, RFFE 924, and antenna panels 926 (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmi t/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 914 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 926, RFFE 924, RF circuitry 922, receive circuitry 920, digital baseband circuitry 916, and protocol processing circuitry 914. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 926 may receive a transmission from the AN 904 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 926.

A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 914, digital baseband circuitry 916, transmit circuitry 918, RF circuitry 922, RFFE 924, and antenna panels 926. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 904 may apply a spatial fdter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 926.

Similar to the UE 902, the AN 904 may include a host platform 928 coupled with a modem platform 930. The host platform 928 may include application processing circuitry 932 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 934 of the modem platform 930. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 936, transmit circuitry 938, receive circuitry 940, RF circuitry 942, RFFE circuitry 944, and antenna panels 946. The components of the AN 904 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 902. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 908 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1000 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1010, one or more memory/storage devices 1020, and one or more communication resources 1030, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1040 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1002 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/ sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1000. The processors 1010 may include, for example, a processor 1012 and a processor 1014. The processors 1010 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radiofrequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 1020 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1020 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1030 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1004 or one or more databases 1006 or other network elements via a network 1008. For example, the communication resources 1030 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 1050 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1010 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1050 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1010 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1020, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1050 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1000 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1004 or the databases 1006. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1010, the memory/storage devices 1020, the peripheral devices 1004, and the databases 1006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 may include a method of wireless communication for a fifth generation (5G) or new radio (NR) system: determining, by a UE, an index for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH); and transmitting, by the UE, the PUSCH or the PUCCH based on the determined index.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bunding may be determined based on the slot index in a frame, regardless of whether one of PUSCH repetitions is cancelled.

Example 3 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bunding may be determined based on the slot index, wherein the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUSCH transmission has number 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUSCH repetition.

Example 4 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bunding may be determined based on the index of transmission occasion, regardless of whether one of PUSCH repetitions is cancelled.

Example 5 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bunding may be determined based on the index of actual repetition.

Example 6 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bunding may be determined based on the slot index, index of transmission occasion or actual transmission occasion in PUSCH transmission which carries a transport block (TB) spanning multiple slots.

Example 7 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the inter-repetition frequency hopping pattern with inter-repetition bunding for PUSCH repetition type B may be determined based on the slot index in a frame, index of transmission occasion or nominal repetition or actual repetition in PUSCH transmission spanning multiple slots. Example 8 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the inter-repetition frequency hopping pattern with inter-repetition bunding may be determined based on nominal repetition index

Example 9 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bunding may be determined based on the slot index, index of transmission occasion or actual transmission occasion in PUSCH transmission spanning multiple slots

Example 10 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the slot index can be either the slot index in a frame or the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUCCH transmission has number 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUCCH repetition.

Example 11 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A with counting based on available slot, inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the index of available slot.

Example 12 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH with TB processing over multiple slots (TBoMS), inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the index of available slot.

Example 13 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and B, PUCCH repetition, and/or for PUSCH with TB processing over multiple slots (TBoMS), inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be determined based on the nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation

Example 14 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the boundary for inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling may be aligned with the boundary of nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation.

Example 15 may include a method comprising: determining, a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of an uplink signal; and encoding the uplink signal for transmission based on the determined pattern.

Example 16 may include the method of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein the pattern is determined based on an index.

Example 17 may include the method of example 15-16 or some other example herein, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH or a PUCCH. Example 18 may include the method of example 15-17 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and type B, the pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bunding is determined based on a slot index in a frame, regardless of whether one or more PUSCH repetitions is cancelled.

Example 19 may include the method of example 15-18 or some other example herein, wherein the pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bunding is determined based on a slot index, wherein the slot indicated to the UE for the first PUSCH transmission has an index of 0 and each subsequent slot is counted in the PUSCH repetition.

Example 20 may include the method of example 15-18 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and/or type B, the pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bunding is determined based on an index of a transmission occasion, regardless of whether one or more PUSCH repetitions is cancelled.

Example 21 may include the method of example 15-18 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and/or type B, the pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bunding is determined based on an index of actual repetition.

Example 22 may include the method of example 15-18 or some other example herein, wherein the pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling is determined based on a slot index, an index of transmission occasion, or an index of actual transmission occasion in PUSCH transmission which carries a transport block (TB) spanning multiple slots.

Example 23 may include the method of example 15-22 or some other example herein, wherein the method is performed by a UE or a portion thereof.

Example 24 includes the method of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A with counting based on an available slot, the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling is determined based on an index of the available slot.

Example 25 includes the method of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH with TB processing over multiple slots (TBoMS), the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling is determined based on an index of an available slot.

Example 26 includes the method of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein for PUSCH repetition type A and B, PUCCH repetition, or for PUSCH with TB processing over multiple slots (TBoMS), the inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling is determined based on a configured or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation.

Example 27 includes the method of example 26 or some other example herein, wherein a boundary for inter-slot frequency hopping pattern with inter-slot bundling is aligned with a boundary of a nominal or actual time domain window for joint channel estimation. Example 28 includes a method comprising: determining, by one or more processors of an electronic device, a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a plurality of repetitions of an uplink signal, wherein the uplink signal is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal; and facilitating, by the one or more processors, transmission of a first repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern; and facilitating, by the one or more processors, transmission of a second repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a second frequency resource that is different from the first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern.

Example 29 includes the method of example 28, or some other example herein, wherein the pattern is determined based on an index.

Example 30 includes the method of example 28, or some other example herein, wherein the first repetition of the plurality of repetitions includes data or control information that is the same as data or control information of the second repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

Example 31 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A or type B, and the pattern is based on a physical slot index of slots in a frame in which the plurality of repetitions are to be transmitted, and the pattern is independent of cancellation of a repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

Example 32 includes the method of example 31, or some other example herein, wherein a slot in which the first repetition is to be transmitted has a slot index value of 0, and subsequent slots have an increasing slot index value.

Example 33 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A or type B, and the pattern is based on an index of a transmission occasion related to transmission of a repetition of the uplink signal, and wherein the pattern is independent of cancellation of a repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

Example 34 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A or type B, and the pattern is based on an index of actual repetition related to transmission of the uplink signal.

Example 35 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH transmission which carries a transport block (TB) over multiple slots (TBoMS).

Example 36 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the electronic device is a user equipment (UE) or a portion thereof. Example 37 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A with counting based on an available slot, and wherein the pattern is based on an index of one or more available slots for transmission of the plurality of repetitions.

Example 38 includes the method of example 37, or some other example herein, wherein the PUSCH signal is a PUSCH with transport block (TB) over multiple slots (TBoMS).

Example 39 includes the method of any of examples 28-30, or some other example herein, wherein the pattern is based on a nominal or actual time domain window related to joint channel estimation.

Example 40 includes the method of example 41, or some other example herein, wherein respective repetitions of the plurality of repetitions are aligned with the nominal or actual time domain window.

Example 41 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 42 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 43 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 44 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 45 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions thereof.

Example 46 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 47 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example 48 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. Example 49 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example 50 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions thereof.

Example 51 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-40, or portions thereof.

Example 52 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 53 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 54 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example 55 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Terminology

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computerexecutable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block.

The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/. The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE) for use in a wireless network, wherein the UE comprises: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, are to cause the one or more processors to: determine a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a plurality of repetitions of an uplink signal, wherein the uplink signal is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal; and facilitate transmission of a first repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern; and facilitate transmission of a second repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a second frequency resource that is different from the first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the pattern is determined based on an index.

3. The UE of claim 1, wherein the first repetition of the plurality of repetitions includes data or control information that is the same as data or control information of the second repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

4. The UE of any of claims 1-3, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A or type B, and the pattern is based on a physical slot index of slots in a frame in which the plurality of repetitions are to be transmitted, and the pattern is independent of cancellation of a repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

5. The UE of claim 4, wherein a slot in which the first repetition is to be transmitted has a slot index value of 0, and subsequent slots have an increasing slot index value.

6. The UE of any of claims 1-3, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A or type B, and the pattern is based on an index of a transmission occasion related to transmission of a repetition of the uplink signal, and wherein the pattern is independent of cancellation of a repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

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7. The UE of any of claims 1-3, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A or type B, and the pattern is based on an index of actual repetition related to transmission of the uplink signal.

8. The UE of any of claims 1-3, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH transmission which carries a transport block (TB) over multiple slots (TBoMS).

9. The UE of any of claims 1-3, wherein the uplink signal is a PUSCH signal with repetition type A with counting based on an available slot, and wherein the pattern is based on an index of one or more available slots for transmission of the plurality of repetitions.

10. The UE of claim 9, wherein the PUSCH signal is a PUSCH with transport block (TB) over multiple slots (TBoMS).

11. The UE of any of claims 1-3, wherein the pattern is based on a nominal or actual time domain window related to joint channel estimation.

12. The UE of claim 11, wherein respective repetitions of the plurality of repetitions are aligned with the nominal or actual time domain window.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of an electronic device in a cellular network, are to cause the one or more processors to: determine a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a plurality of repetitions of an uplink signal, wherein the uplink signal is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal; and facilitate transmission of a first repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern; and facilitate transmission of a second repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a second frequency resource that is different from the first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern.

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14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the pattern is determined based on an index.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the first repetition of the plurality of repetitions includes data or control information that is the same as data or control information of the second repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of any of claims 13-15, wherein the electronic device is a user equipment (UE).

17. A method comprising: determining, by one or more processors of an electronic device, a pattern for inter-slot frequency hopping with inter-slot bundling for transmission of a plurality of repetitions of an uplink signal, wherein the uplink signal is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) signal or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) signal; and facilitating, by the one or more processors, transmission of a first repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern; and facilitating, by the one or more processors, transmission of a second repetition of the plurality of repetitions of the uplink signal on a second frequency resource that is different from the first frequency resource, in accordance with the pattern.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the pattern is determined based on an index.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first repetition of the plurality of repetitions includes data or control information that is the same as data or control information of the second repetition of the plurality of repetitions.

20. The method of any of claims 17-19, wherein the electronic device is a user equipment (UE).