WO2023014689A1 - Channel state information (csi) reporting for extended (signal to interference and noise ratio) sinr range for ultra reliable and low latency communication (urllc) - Google Patents

Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide techniques related to CWI for a wideband and one or more sub-bands of the wideband. In embodiments, a user equipment (UE) transmit a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the channel state information (CSI) of the wideband. The UE may further identify, from the set of 2, 3, 4, and 5, a number of bits to use for a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of the one or more sub-bands, and transmit a sub-band CQI report based on the identified number of bits. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Description

CHANNEL STATE INFORMATION (CSI) REPORTING FOR EXTENDED (SIGNAL TO INTERFERENCE AND NOISE RATIO) SINR RANGE FOR ULTRA RELIABLE AND LOW LATENCY COMMUNICATION (URLLC)

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/230,274, which was filed August 6, 2021; and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/251,524, which was filed October 1, 2021.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. For example, some embodiments may relate to channel state information (CSI) reporting.

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 an effective signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) range distribution covered by a channel quality indicator (CQI) table, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2 depicts an example technique to be performed by a user equipment (UE), in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 3 depicts an alternative example technique to be performed by a base station, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 4 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 5 schematically illustrates components of a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 6 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. 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).

Release 17 (Rel-17) of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) specifications may include or relate to enhancements to fifth generation (5G)/new radio (NR) technology to better support ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) in industrial internet of things scenarios (IIOT). This support for URLLC/IIOT may be related to enhancing channel state information (CSI) feedback for more accurate modulation and coding scheme (MCS) selection in the target scenarios. In some cases, link adaptation for URLLC use cases may have their own specific considerations such as:

In many scenarios, the URLLC data transmissions may be relatively small and transmitted using a single transport block. This creates a large variation in terms of interference statistics when a given transmission point changes allocation parameters and presence of data frequently, because in every time occasion, a new user could require a new transmission.

This situation is different from legacy enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) scenarios where the packets for transmission may be relatively large and need to be transmitted using multiple transport blocks and therefore slots. In legacy eMBB scenarios, the channel state measured in the beginning of the downlink (DL) session may be applied for upcoming transport blocks with possible outer-loop adjustment based on hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgements.

For the URLLC/IIOT scenarios with bursty interference, the legacy link adaptation may not work well for one or more of the following reasons: o There may not be adequate time to measure the channel after the packet is triggered; o The measurement performed in one slot may not be accurate if applied to another slot; and/or o There may be no chance to apply the outer-loop link adaptation mechanism, since a negative acknowledgement may contribute to the latency.

In these conditions, the knowledge of the channel information may need to be as accurate as possible so that a 5G base station (which may be referred to as a “gNB”) may anal6e separate CSI reports on different bands and slots and potentially re-predict the signal quality distribution in time and frequency domain. This may help a gNB to know the probability of having SINR less than a given target (which is referred to herein as “SINR_targef ’ and which may be, for example, predefined), or greater than SINR_target, for a given target packet error rate.

In some cases, it may be desirable to enhance sub-band CQI reporting signaling granularity from 2 bits to 3-4 bits, assuming it may provide more information about SINR in each sub-band comparing to the wideband CQI report. However, this may not help much the gNB to understand/estimate the tails of the SINR distribution which are important to predict the worstcase performance.

Under these assumptions, enhancements to the CSI framework may be considered. In some embodiments, the above-described issues associated with the link adaptation and CSI framework in URLLC may be resolved, removed, or mitigated by one or more of the following:

Enhanced sub-band CQI signaling for extended range CQI reporting

Multiple CQI table usage for extended range CQI reporting

Legacy 3GPP specifications related to NR may support CQI reporting using 4-bit wideband CQI. See, for example, tables 5.2.2.1-2 [regular 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) table], 5.2.2. 1-3 [256 QAM table], and 5.2.2. 1-4 [low spectral efficiency (SE) 64 QAM table] from the 3GPP technical specification (TS) 38.214. These example tables may relate to different ranges of SINR/SE, and are copied below for reference. Legacy 3GPP specifications may further support and differential sub-band CQI reporting using 2 bits indication, which are interpreted with respect to the wideband CQI value signaled using 4 bits. This is further illustrated in Table 5.2.2.1-1 in 3GPP TS 38.214, which is copied below for reference.

Table 5.2.2.1-2: 4-bit CQI Table

Table 5.2.2.1-3: 4-bit CQI Table 2

Table 5.2.2.1-4: 4-bit CQI Table 3

Table 5.2.2.1-1 from TS 38.214: Mapping sub-band differential CQI value to offset level

As may be seen in one or more of the tables above, and particularly Table 5.2.2.1-1 fromS 38.214, the sub-band information may be clipped at levels -1 and +2 from the wideband CQI. For URLLC use cases, such a clipping, especially in the negative domain, may be quite detrimental because the information about a strong interference or channel fade in a given subband is inaccurate. Furthermore, if a UE has a good quality in some sub-bands, the information may also be lost beyond 2 levels above.

To avoid the loss of the sub-band channel quality information, 3- or 4-bit sub-band CQI signaling may be used, and therefore provide either 8 or 16 levels of sub-band CQI with respect to or regardless of wideband (WB) CQI.

However, in some cases the extension of the signaling may not provide desirable system performance because the tails of the SINR distribution, e.g., very low or very high SINRs may be poorly represented by the signaling limited to legacy CQI tables, as illustrated in Figure 1. For example, as seen in Figure 1, there may be a portion of the SINR distribution above (e.g., to the right of) CQI=15 or below (e.g., to the left of) CQI=1 that is difficult to represent with legacy 2 to 4-bit CQI tables. As a result, the “clipping” effect described previously may occur.

In the next sections, techniques to extend the range of effective SINR reported by CQI are presented, which may solve the issue of inaccurate effective SINR distribution prediction at a gNB scheduler. Specifically, embodiments herein may expand the legacy CQI tables through a variety of options described below.

Extended range CQI reporting

In one example embodiment, a UE may be configured with an alternative sub-band CQI signaling mechanism wherein the sub-band CQI is signaled by an X-bit payload, with X being a value from 2,3,4, or 5. In some embodiments, the value of X may be signaled to the UE by a base station. Specifically, the base station may provide a value of X via dedicated Radio Resource Control (RRC) signalling and the actual sub-band CQI may be calculated from a wideband CQI and the X-bit pay load using one or the combination of the following novel procedures:

Example Technique 1: The X-bit sub-band CQI may be interpreted as an offset from the reported wideband CQI, with at least one or two codepoints of the X-bit range denoting one or both of: very low SINR (outage SINR) and very high SINR o Here, the “very high SINR” can be interpreted as the channel quality that may correspond to a spectral efficiency value (SE) greater than SE of the CQI = 15 by at least Y bit/sec/Hz, where Y may be for example 0.5, 1, 1.5 or any other positive value. Y may be pre-defined in specification or may be configurable by the network to the UE as part of CSI measurement and reporting framework. o Here, the “very low SINR” can be interpreted as the channel quality that may correspond to a SE value smaller than SE of CQI = 1 by at least Z bit/sec/Hz, where Z may be for example 0.5, 1, 1.5 or any other positive value. Z may be pre-defined in specification or may be configurable by the network to the UE as part of CSI measurement and reporting framework.

Example Technique 2: The “out of range” CQI value = 0 may be associated with a more precise meaning of the “out of range”. The UE may be configured to interpret CQI = 0 to be associated with at least Z bit/sec/Hz smaller SE value than the CQI value = 1 in the configured table.

Example Technique 3: For X-bit differential sub-band CQI reporting, the UE may be configured how to use the 2^AX levels of the differential signaling with respect to WB CQI, e.g., where in the scale to place the WB CQI. For example, a UE may be configured/instructed to always report an X-bit difference to WB CQI with A levels above the WB CQI and (2^AX - A) levels equal to or below the WB CQI and may apply special handling when |WB CQI + SB diff CQI| is < 1 or > 15, e.g., how to handle the resulting value over the legacy range of 0...15. The value of A may either be predefined for example to 2^A(X-1) or to 2^A(X-1)-1; or may be calculated based on the actual WB CQI value, e.g. A = min(15-WB_CQI, 2^AX), meaning that the differential CQI could not report the value larger than 15 in this case, or smaller than 0. Alternative calculation for A may be considered as follows: o A = min(l 6-WB_CQI, 2^AX) o A = min(15-WB_CQI, 2^A(X-1)) o A = min(16-WB_CQI, 2^A(X-1)) o Etc.

When |WB_CQI - SB_CQI_difference| exceeds the range 0... 15, a specific handling may be applied. For example, it may be defined that every step down or up from the bound of the effective SINR range defined by CQI = 1 and CQI = 15 may be interpreted as B dB offset from the SINR corresponding to CQI = 1 or CQI = 15, wherein the B dB offset may be pre-defined in specification (e.g. to 1,1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 dB etc.) or may be configurable as part of CSI reporting and measurements configuration.

Alternatively, a UE may be configured/instructed to append additional CQI table values to the one associated with current CSI reporting and measurements configuration. For example, when a UE is configured with lowSE64QAM table (defined in Table 5.2.2.1-4), it may append higher values from regular 64QAM table (defined in Table 5.2.2.1-2) or 256QAM table (defined in Table 5.2.2.1-3) by taking entries 14 and 15 from 64QAM table or entries 11,12,13,14,15 from the 256QAM table . Example Technique 4: There may be special combinations of WB CQI and SB CQI introduced that provide additional information. For example, when 4-bit SB CQI reporting is employed, then the meaning of WB CQI may be changed, since the regular WB CQI can be derived directly from separate SB CQIs. For example, the WB CQI may be interpreted as an offset (in terms of SE or SINR) to SB CQI reports, that can provide additional information beyond the SINR range of a single CQI table.

Example Technique 5: In an embodiment, assuming that sub-band CQI is reported for all sub-bands, a UE may be indicated to use extended bit-field of X = 3 or 4 bits for reporting of differential sub-band CQI for the worst-M sub-bands or for the best-N subbands or for both, where the values of M and N may be specified (e.g., as a fixed value or as a function of the total number of sub-bands) or configured to the UE via dedicated higher layer signaling. Such an approach can enable a better trade-off between the higher range of sub-band CQI reporting and the incurred UL overhead (OH) in terms of increased UL control information (UCI) as against the option of using extended bitfields for sub-band CQI reporting for all sub-bands since it can be expected that in many scenarios, for a significant number of sub-bands, reporting the sub-band CQI with respect to WB CQI using the 2 -bit offset as per Rel-15 NR specifications may be sufficient.

Example Technique 6: In one embodiment, when all sub-bands are configured with 4-bit CQI reporting, the WB CQI may be re-interpreted so that SB CQI is calculated as the 4-bit SB CQI value plus CQI offset signaled in WB CQI taking range from [-8... +7], or other range [X... X+15], where X may be configured or predefined from -15 to 15. o When resulting SB CQI is < 1 or > 15, the corresponding SE is scaled. For example, for CQI = 0, the SE may be derived from CQI = 1 by scaling 2 times, or assuming 2 repetitions of the same TB associated with CQI = 1. For CQI = - 1, the scaling may be 3 times, or assuming 3 repetitions of the same TB, and so on. Moreover, the modulation, SE, code rate and number of repetitions corresponding to a given CQI value < 1 and > 15 may be configured by RRC.

Example Technique 7: In one embodiment, when all sub-bands are configured with 4-bit CQI reporting, the WB CQI may be re-interpreted as the minimum effective SINR among indicated sub-bands including values below the SINR corresponding to CQI = 1. A mapping table between effective SINR/SE for CQI < 1 and the value signaled in WB CQI may be configured by RRC or predefined in specification. Multiple CQI tables reporting

Similar to the mechanisms discussed in the previous sub-section, it may be possible to extend the value range for the reported effective SINR by configuring/enabling a UE to report WB CQI and SB CQI based on multiple CQI tables. As may be seen in the CQI that were previously discussed, different tables cover different ranges of SINR/SE: regular 64 QAM table covers SE from 0.1523 to 5.5547, 256 QAM tables covers SE from 0.1523 to 7.4063, and lowSE64QAM table cover SE from 0.0586 to 4.5234.

If the ranges of different tables are combined, e.g. lowSE64QAM + 64QAM or lowSE64QAM +256QAM then it covers larger distribution of effective SINR of the channel: 0.0586 to 7.4063 in the latter case.

In one example, a UE may be configured/instructed to report WB CQI using a first CQI table and first BLER target, and SB CQI with X-bit differential or absolute signaling using a second CQI table BLER target. The first and the second BLER target may be separately configurable from the CQI table.

In one example, a UE may be configured/instructed to report WB CQI and SB CQI for a first table for a first BLER target, and WB CQI and X-bit differential or absolute SB CQI for a second table for a second BLER target.

In one example, a UE may be configured/instructed to report absolute SB CQIs for a first table for a first BLER target, and a WB CQI which is interpreted as an offset to SINR or SE associated with the SB CQIs of the first table to obtain SB CQIs associated with the second table for a second BLER target. In particular, SB CQI l = SB CQI 0 + F(WB_CQI), where F() is a function of conversion of the WB CQI value to an offset for obtaining SB CQI l of another table from the first table SB CQI 0.

In one example, a UE may be configured with multiple CQI tables and a single BLER target per CSI report configuration, and the table the CQI is signaled for, may be selected by UE implementation and indicated in the CSI report together with the CQI values. In particular, one bit may be used to indicated one of the two tables. This may be done either by a separate field in CSI report, or by using e.g. MSB or LSB of the WB CQI or SB CQI, e.g. for 4-bit SB-CQI, 1 bit is used for table reporting, and 3 bits are used for SB-CQI.

EXAMPLE TECHNIQUES

Figure 2 depicts an example technique to be performed by a user equipment (UE), in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, the technique of Figure 2 may be performed by a UE, one or more elements of a UE, and/or one or more electrical devices that include or implement one or more elements of a UE. The technique may include identifying, at 205, CSI for a wideband and one or more sub-bands of the wideband. As noted above, the CSI may be related to an SINR or SINR measurement of the wideband. The CSI may further be related to respective SINRs or SINR measurements of the one or more sub-bands.

The technique may further include transmitting, at 210 to a base station, a wideband CQI report that is related to the CSI of the wideband.

The technique may further include identifying, at 215 from the set of 2, 3, 4, and 5, a number of bits to use for a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of the one or more subbands. More particularly, the identification at 215 may be of a 2-bit CQI table, a 3-bit CQI table, a 4-bit CQI table, or a 5-bit CQI table that is to be used for the sub-band CQI report, as described above.

The technique may further include transmitting, at 220, a sub-band CQI report based on the number of bits identified at 215. For example, a sub-band CQI report may be transmitted based on a 2-bit CQI table, a 3-bit CQI table, a 4-bit CQI table, or a 5-bit CQI table. The CQI report may be related to the CSI of the sub-band.

Figure 3 depicts an alternative example technique to be performed by a base station, in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, the technique of Figure 3 may be performed by a base station, one or more elements of a base station, and/or one or more electrical devices that include or implement one or more elements of a base station. The technique may include identifying, at 305 from a UE (e.g., in a transmission received from a UE), a wideband CQI report related to the wideband. The technique may further include processing, at 310, the wideband CQI to report CSI of the wideband. As previously noted, the CWI of the wideband may be related to an SINR and/or an SINR measurement of the wideband.

The technique may further include identifying, at 315 from the UE (e.g., in a transmission received from the UE), a sub-band CQi report related to a sub-band of one or more sub-bands. The sub-band CQI report may be transmitted using 5 bits. For example, in some embodiments, the sub-band CQI report may be transmitted based on a 5-bit CQI table. In other embodiments, the sub-band CQI report may be transmitted using 2-4 bits.

The technique may further include processing, at 320, the sub-band CQI report to identify CSI of the sub-band. As previously noted, the CWI of the sub-band may be related to an SINR and/or an SINR measurement of the sub-band.

It will be noted that the above-described technique are intended as example techniques of specific embodiments, and other embodiments may include more or fewer elements, elements arranged in a different order, elements occurring concurrently with one another, etc. SYSTEMS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Figures 4-5 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

Figure 4 illustrates a network 400 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 400 may operate in a manner consistent with 3 GPP 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 3GPP systems, or the like.

The network 400 may include a UE 402, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 404 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 402 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 404 by a Uu interface. The UE 402 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, electron! c/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 400 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 402 may additionally communicate with an AP 406 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 406 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 404. The connection between the UE 402 and the AP 406 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 406 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 402, RAN 404, and AP 406 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 402 being configured by the RAN 404 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

The RAN 404 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 408. AN 408 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 402 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 408 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 420 and the UE 402. In some embodiments, the AN 408 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 408 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 408 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 404 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 404 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 404 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 404 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 402 with an air interface for network access. The UE 402 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 404. For example, the UE 402 and RAN 404 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 402 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 404 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 402 or AN 408 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 404 may be an LTE RAN 410 with eNBs, for example, eNB 412. The LTE RAN 410 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 CSI-RS 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 404 may be an NG-RAN 414 with gNBs, for example, gNB 416, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 418. The gNB 416 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5GNR interface. The gNB 416 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 418 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 416 and the ng-eNB 418 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 414 and a UPF 448 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN414 and an AMF 444 (e.g., N2 interface).

The NG-RAN 414 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 402 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 402, 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 402 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 402 and in some cases at the gNB 416. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

The RAN 404 is communicatively coupled to CN 420 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 402). The components of the CN 420 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 420 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 420 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 420 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

In some embodiments, the CN 420 may be an LTE CN 422, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 422 may include MME 424, SGW 426, SGSN 428, HSS 430, PGW 432, and PCRF 434 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 422 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 424 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 402 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 426 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 422. The SGW 426 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 428 may track a location of the UE 402 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 428 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 424; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 424 and the SGSN 428 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

The HSS 430 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 430 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 430 and the MME 424 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/ authorizing user access to the LTE CN 420.

The PGW 432 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 436 that may include an application/ content server 438. The PGW 432 may route data packets between the LTE CN 422 and the data network 436. The PGW 432 may be coupled with the SGW 426 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 432 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 432 and the data network 436 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 432 may be coupled with a PCRF 434 via a Gx reference point.

The PCRF 434 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 422. The PCRF 434 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 438 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 432 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, the CN 420 may be a 5GC 440. The 5GC 440 may include an AUSF 442, AMF 444, SMF 446, UPF 448, NSSF 450, NEF 452, NRF 454, PCF 456, UDM 458, and AF 460 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 440 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The AUSF 442 may store data for authentication of UE 402 and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 442 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 440 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 442 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 444 may allow other functions of the 5GC 440 to communicate with the UE 402 and the RAN 404 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 402. The AMF 444 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 402), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 444 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 402 and the SMF 446, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 444 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 402 and an SMSF. AMF 444 may interact with the AUSF 442 and the UE 402 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 444 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 404 and the AMF 444; and the AMF 444 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 444 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 402 over an N3 IWF interface. The SMF 446 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 448 and AN 408); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 448 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 444 over N2 to AN 408; 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 402 and the data network 436.

The UPF 448 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 436, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 448 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 448 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

The NSSF 450 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 402. The NSSF 450 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 450 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 402, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 454. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 402 may be triggered by the AMF 444 with which the UE 402 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 450, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 450 may interact with the AMF 444 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 450 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

The NEF 452 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 460), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 452 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 452 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 460 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 452 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 452 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 452 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 452 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 452 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

The NRF 454 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 454 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 454 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 456 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 456 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 458. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 456 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 458 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 402. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 458 and the AMF 444. The UDM 458 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 458 and the PCF 456, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 402) for the NEF 452. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 458, PCF 456, and NEF 452 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 458 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 460 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 440 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3^rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 402 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 440 may select a UPF 448 close to the UE 402 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 448 to data network 436 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 460. In this way, the AF 460 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 460 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 460 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 460 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

The data network 436 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 438.

Figure 5 schematically illustrates a wireless network 500 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 500 may include a UE 502 in wireless communication with an AN 504. The UE 502 and AN 504 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 502 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 504 via connection 506. The connection 506 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 5GNR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.

The UE 502 may include a host platform 508 coupled with a modem platform 510. The host platform 508 may include application processing circuitry 512, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 514 of the modem platform 510. The application processing circuitry 512 may run various applications for the UE 502 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 512 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/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 514 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 506. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 514 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.

The modem platform 510 may further include digital baseband circuitry 516 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 514 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 510 may further include transmit circuitry 518, receive circuitry 520, RF circuitry 522, and RF front end (RFFE) 524, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 526. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 518 may include a digital -to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 520 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 522 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 524 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 518, receive circuitry 520, RF circuitry 522, RFFE 524, and antenna panels 526 (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 transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 514 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 526, RFFE 524, RF circuitry 522, receive circuitry 520, digital baseband circuitry 516, and protocol processing circuitry 514. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 526 may receive a transmission from the AN 504 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 526.

A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 514, digital baseband circuitry 516, transmit circuitry 518, RF circuitry 522, RFFE 524, and antenna panels 526. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 504 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 526.

Similar to the UE 502, the AN 504 may include a host platform 528 coupled with a modem platform 530. The host platform 528 may include application processing circuitry 532 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 534 of the modem platform 530. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 536, transmit circuitry 538, receive circuitry 540, RF circuitry 542, RFFE circuitry 544, and antenna panels 546. The components of the AN 504 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 502. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 508 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 6 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 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 610, one or more memory /storage devices 620, and one or more communication resources 630, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 640 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 602 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 600.

The processors 610 may include, for example, a processor 612 and a processor 614. The processors 610 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 radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

The memory /storage devices 620 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory /storage devices 620 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 630 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 604 or one or more databases 606 or other network elements via a network 608. For example, the communication resources 630 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 650 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 610 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 650 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 610 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 620, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 650 may be transferred to the hardware resources 600 from any combination of the peripheral devices 604 or the databases 606. Accordingly, the memory of processors 610, the memory /storage devices 620, the peripheral devices 604, and the databases 606 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 system and/or method of transmitting a channel state information (CSI) report for enhanced ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) comprising receiving, by a UE, of a CSI reporting configuration from a gNB, receiving, by a UE, of a CSI report request from a gNB, measuring, by a UE, of one or multiple CSI with wideband and sub-band CQI, and reporting, by a UE, of one or multiple CSI reports on PUCCH or PUSCH.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein a UE may be configured with an alternative sub-band CQI signaling mechanism wherein the sub-band CQI is signaled by an X-bit payload, with X being a value from 2, 3, 4, 5, and the actual sub-band CQI may be calculated from a wideband CQI and the X-bit payload.

Example 3 may include the method of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein the X-bit sub-band CQI may be interpreted as an offset from the reported wideband CQI, with at least one or two codepoints of the X-bit range denoting one or both of: very low SINR (outage SINR) and very high SINR.

Example 4 may include the method of example 3 or some other example herein, wherein the “very high SINR” can be interpreted as the channel quality that may correspond to a spectral efficiency value (SE) greater than SE of the CQI = 15 by at least Y bit/sec/Hz, where Y may be for example 0.5, 1, 1.5 or any other positive value. Y may be pre-defined in specification or may be configurable by the network to the UE as part of CSI measurement and reporting framework.

Example 5 may include the method of example 3 or some other example herein, wherein the “very low SINR” can be interpreted as the channel quality that may correspond to a SE value smaller than SE of CQI = 1 by at least Z bit/sec/Hz, where Z may be for example 0.5, 1, 1.5 or any other positive value. Z may be pre-defined in specification or may be configurable by the network to the UE as part of CSI measurement and reporting framework.

Example 6 may include the method of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein the “out of range” CQI value = 0 may be associated with a more precise meaning of the “out of range”. The UE may be configured to interpret CQI = 0 to be associated with at least Z bit/sec/Hz smaller SE value than the CQI value = 1 in the configured table.

Example 7 may include the method of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein for X-bit differential sub-band CQI reporting, the UE may be configured how to use the 2^AX levels of the differential signaling with respect to WB CQI, e.g., where in the scale to place the WB CQI

Example 8 may include the method of example 7 or some other example herein, wherein a UE may be configured/instructed to always report an X-bit difference to WB CQI with A levels above the WB CQI and (2^AX - A) levels equal to or below the WB CQI and may apply special handling when |WB CQI + SB diff CQI| is < 1 or > 15, e.g., how to handle the resulting value over the legacy range of 0...15

Example 9 may include the method of example 7 or some other example herein, wherein if |WB_CQI - SB_CQI_difference| exceeds the range 0... 15, a specific handling may be applied. For example, it may be defined that every step down or up from the bound of the effective SINR range defined by CQI = 1 and CQI = 15 may be interpreted as B dB offset from the SINR corresponding to CQI = 1 or CQI = 15, wherein the B dB offset may be pre-defined in specification (e.g. to 1,1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 dB etc.) or may be configurable as part of CSI reporting and measurements configuration

Example 10 may include the method of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein if 4-bit SB CQI reporting is employed, then the meaning of WB CQI may be changed, since the regular WB CQI can be derived directly from separate SB CQIs. For example, the WB CQI may be interpreted as an offset (in terms of SE or SINR) to SB CQI reports, that can provide additional information beyond the SINR range of a single CQI table

Example 11 may include the method of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein assuming that sub-band CQI is reported for all sub-bands, a UE may be indicated to use extended bit-field of X = 3 or 4 bits for reporting of differential sub-band CQI for the worst-M sub-bands or for the best-N sub-bands or for both, where the values of M and N may be specified (e.g., as a fixed value or as a function of the total number of sub-bands) or configured to the UE via dedicated higher layer signaling

Example 12 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein a UE may be configured/instructed to report WB CQI using a first CQI table and first BLER target, and SB CQI with X-bit differential or absolute signaling using a second CQI table BLER target

Example 13 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein a UE may be configured/instructed to report WB CQI and SB CQI for a first table for a first BLER target, and WB CQI and X-bit differential or absolute SB CQI for a second table for a second BLER target.

Example 14 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein a UE may be configured/instructed to report absolute SB CQIs for a first table for a first BLER target, and a WB CQI which is interpreted as an offset to SINR or SE associated with the SB CQIs of the first table to obtain SB CQIs associated with the second table for a second BLER target.

Example 15 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein a UE may be configured with multiple CQI tables and a single BLER target per CSI report configuration, and the table the CQI is signaled for, may be selected by UE implementation and indicated in the CSI report together with the CQI values.

Example 16 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein when all sub-bands are configured with 4-bit CQI reporting, the WB CQI may be reinterpreted so that SB CQI is calculated as the 4-bit SB CQI value plus CQI offset signaled in WB CQI taking range from [-8... +7], or other range [X... X+15], where X may be configured or predefined from -15 to 15.

Example 17 may include the method of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein when resulting SB CQI is < 1 or > 15, the corresponding SE is scaled. For example, for CQI = 0, the SE may be derived from CQI = 1 by scaling 2 times, or assuming 2 repetitions of the same TB associated with CQI = 1. For CQI = -1, the scaling may be 3 times, or assuming 3 repetitions of the same TB, and so on. Moreover, the modulation, SE, code rate and number of repetitions corresponding to a given CQI value < 1 and > 15 may be configured by RRC.

Example 18 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein when all sub-bands are configured with 4-bit CQI reporting, the WB CQI may be reinterpreted as the minimum effective SINR among indicated sub-bands including values below the SINR corresponding to CQI = 1. A mapping table between effective SINR/SE for CQI < 1 and the value signaled in WB CQI may be configured by RRC or predefined in specification.

Example 19 may include a method of a UE, the method comprising: receiving configuration information for CSI reporting; receiving a request for a CSI report; obtaining, based on the configuration information and the request, one or more CSI with wideband and sub-band CQI; and reporting the one or more CSI with wideband and sub-band CQI.

Example 20 may include the method of example 19 or some other example herein, wherein the one or more CSI are reported in a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

Example 21 may include the method of example 19-20 or some other example herein, wherein the request includes a payload to indicate the sub-band CQI.

Example 22 may include the method of example 21 or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI is indicated by the payload and the wideband CQI.

Example 23 may include the method of example 21-22 or some other example herein, wherein the payload is 2 to 5 bits.

Example 24 may include the method of example 19-23 or some other example herein, wherein the report is for enhanced ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC).

Example 25 may include a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), wherein the method comprises: identifying channel state information (CSI) for a wideband and one or more sub-bands of the wideband, wherein the CSI is related to a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the wideband and respective SINRs of the one or more sub-bands; transmitting a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the CSI of the wideband; identifying, from the set of 2, 3, 4, and 5, a number of bits to use for a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of the one or more sub-bands; and transmitting a sub-band CQI report based on the identified number of bits, wherein the sub-band CQI report is related to the CSI of the sub-band. Example 26 may include the method of example 25, and/or some other example herein, wherein the identified number of bits is based on an indication received from a base station.

Example 27 may include the method of any of examples 25-26, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is greater than the SE of a highest possible value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

Example 28 may include the method of example 27, and/or some other example herein, wherein the CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is greater than the SE of the highest possible value that can be indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Y bits/second/Hertz (Hz), where Y is pre-defined or provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

Example 29 may include the method of any of examples 25-26, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is smaller than the SE of a lowest possible valid CQI value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

Example 30 may include the method of example 29, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is smaller than the SE of the smallest possible valid CQI value that can be indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Z bits/second/hertz (Hz), where Z is pre-defined or is provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

Example 31 may include the method of any of examples 25-26, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates a measured CQI of 0 that corresponds to a spectral efficiency (SE) value of at least Z bits/second/Hertz (Hz) smaller than the CQI value = 1.

Example 32 may include the method of any of examples 25-26, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report includes 2^A(identified number of bits) levels with respect to the wideband CQI report, and wherein the UE is further configured with A levels above a reported wideband CQI value and (2^A(identified number of bits) - A) levels below the reported wideband CQI value.

Example 33 may include the method of example 32, and/or some other example herein, wherein the value of A is specified as a function of the identified number of bits for the subband CQI report.

Example 34 may include the method of example 32, and/or some other example herein, wherein the value of A is a function of the identified number of bits of the sub-band CQI report and the reported wideband CQI value. Example 35 may include the method of any of examples 25-26, and/or some other example herein, wherein all sub-bands are configured with 4-bit CQI reporting and a sub-band CQI value is determined as a sum of the value reported by the UE in the sub-band CQI report and a value reported by the UE in the wideband CQI report that is interpreted as an offset with a range of [-8 ... +7] or [X ... X + 15] , where the value of X is provided to the UE by higher layers from the integers {-15, ... , 15}.

Example 36 may include the method of example 35, and/or some other example herein, wherein, if the sub-band CQI value is less than 1 or greater than 15, a corresponding spectral efficiency (SE) is scaled.

Example 37 may include a method to be performed by a base station, wherein the method comprises: identifying, from a user equipment (UE), a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the wideband; processing the wideband CQI report to identify channel state information (CSI) of the wideband, wherein the CSI of the wideband is related to a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the wideband; identifying, from the UE, a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of one or more sub-bands, wherein the sub-band CQI report is transmitted using 5 bits; and processing the sub-band CQI report to identify CSI of the sub-band, wherein the CSI of the sub-band is related to a SINR of the sub-band.

Example 38 may include the method of example 37, and/or some other example herein, further comprising transmitting, to the UE, an indication that the sub-band CQI report is to be transmitted using a 5-bit CQI table.

Example 39 may include the method of any of example 37-38, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is greater than the SE of a highest possible value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

Example 40 may include the method of example 39, wherein the CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is greater than the SE of the highest possible value that can be indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Y bits/second/Hertz (Hz), where Y is pre-defined or provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

Example 41 may include the method of any of example 37-38, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is smaller than the SE of a lowest possible valid CQI value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table. Example 42 may include the method of example 41, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is smaller than the SE of the smallest possible valid CQI value that can be indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Z bits/second/hertz (Hz), where Z is pre-defined or is provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

Example 43 may include the method of any of examples 37-38, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates a measured CQI of 0 that corresponds to a spectral efficiency (SE) value of at least Z bits/second/Hertz (Hz) smaller than the CQI value = 1.

Example 44 may include the method of any of examples 37-38, and/or some other example herein, wherein the sub-band CQI report includes 2^A(number of bits used to transmit the sub-band CQI report) levels with respect to the wideband CQI report, and wherein the UE is further configured with A levels above a reported wideband CQI value and (2^A(number of bits used to transmit the sub-band CQI report) - A) levels below the reported wideband CQI value.

Example 45 may include the method of example 44, and/or some other example herein, wherein the value of A is specified as a function of the identified number of bits for the subband CQI report.

Example 46 may include the method of example 44, and/or some other example herein, wherein the value of A is a function of a number of bits used to transmit the sub-band CQI report and the reported wideband CQI value.

Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-46, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z02 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 1-46, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z03 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 1-46, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z04 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-46, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z05 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 1-46, or portions thereof.

Example Z06 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-46, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-46, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-46, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z09 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 1-46, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z10 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 1-46, or portions thereof.

Example Zll 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 1-46, or portions thereof.

Example Z12 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example Z15 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.

Abbreviations Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 V16.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

3GPP Third AOA Angle of 70 BPSK Binary Phase Generation Arrival Shift Keying

Partnership AP Application BRAS Broadband

Project Protocol, Antenna Remote Access

4G Fourth 40 Port, Access Point Server

Generation API Application 75 BSS Business

5G Fifth Programming Interface Support System

Generation APN Access Point BS Base Station

5GC 5G Core Name BSR Buffer Status network 45 ARP Allocation and Report

AC Retention Priority 80 BW Bandwidth

Application ARQ Automatic BWP Bandwidth Part

Client Repeat Request C-RNTI Cell

ACR Application AS Access Stratum Radio Network Context Relocation 50 ASP Temporary

ACK Application Service 85 Identity

Acknowledgem Provider CA Carrier ent Aggregation,

ACID ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Certification

Application 55 Notation One Authority Client Identification AUSF Authentication 90 CAPEX CAPital AF Application Server Function Expenditure Function AWGN Additive CBRA Contention

AM Acknowledged White Gaussian Based Random Mode 60 Noise Access

AMBRAggregate BAP Backhaul 95 CC Component Maximum Bit Rate Adaptation Protocol Carrier, Country AMF Access and BCH Broadcast Code, Cryptographic Mobility Channel Checksum

Management 65 BER Bit Error Ratio CCA Clear Channel

Function BFD Beam 100 Assessment

AN Access Failure Detection CCE Control

Network BLER Block Error Channel Element

ANR Automatic Rate CCCH Common

Neighbour Relation Control Channel CE Coverage CO Conditional CRI Channel-State Enhancement Optional Information CDM Content CoMP Coordinated Resource Delivery Network Multi-Point Indicator, CSI-RS CDMA Code- 40 CORESET Control 75 Resource Division Multiple Resource Set Indicator Access COTS Commercial C-RNTI Cell

CDR Charging Data Off-The-Shelf RNTI Request CP Control Plane, CS Circuit

CDR Charging Data 45 Cyclic Prefix, 80 Switched Response Connection CSCF call

CFRA Contention Free Point session control function Random Access CPD Connection CSAR Cloud Service CG Cell Group Point Descriptor Archive CGF Charging 50 CPE Customer 85 CSI Channel-State

Gateway Function Premise Information CHF Charging Equipment CSI-IM CSI

Function CPICHCommon Pilot Interference CI Cell Identity Channel Measurement CID Cell-ID (e g., 55 CQI Channel 90 CSI-RS CSI positioning method) Quality Indicator Reference Signal CIM Common CPU CSI processing CSI-RSRP CSI Information Model unit, Central reference signal CIR Carrier to Processing Unit received power Interference Ratio 60 C/R 95 CSI-RSRQ CSI CK Cipher Key Command/Resp reference signal CM Connection onse field bit received quality Management, CRAN Cloud Radio CSI-SINR CSI Conditional Access signal-to-noise and Mandatory 65 Network, Cloud 100 interference CM AS Commercial RAN ratio Mobile Alert Service CRB Common CSMA Carrier Sense CMD Command Resource Block Multiple Access CMS Cloud CRC Cyclic Management System 70 Redundancy Check CSMA/CA CSMA DNAI Data Network Evolution with collision Access Identifier (GSM Evolution) avoidance EAS Edge

CSS Common DRB Data Radio Application Server

Search Space, Cell40 Bearer 75 EASID Edge specific Search DRS Discovery Application Server

Space Reference Signal Identification

CTF Charging DRX Discontinuous ECS Edge

Trigger Function Reception Configuration Server

CTS Clear-to-Send 45 DSL Domain 80 ECSP Edge

CW Codeword Specific Language. Computing Service

CWS Contention Digital Provider

Window Size Subscriber Line EDN Edge

D2D Device-to- DSLAM DSL Data Network

Device 50 Access Multiplexer 85 EEC Edge

DC Dual DwPTS Enabler Client

Connectivity, Direct Downlink Pilot EECID Edge Current Time Slot Enabler Client

DCI Downlink E-LAN Ethernet Identification

Control 55 Local Area Network 90 EES Edge

Information E2E End-to-End Enabler Server

DF Deployment EAS Edge EESID Edge

Flavour Application Server Enabler Server

DL Downlink ECCA extended clear Identification

DMTF Distributed 60 channel 95 EHE Edge

Management Task assessment, Hosting Environment Force extended CCA EGMF Exposure

DPDK Data Plane ECCE Enhanced Governance

Development Kit Control Channel Management

DM-RS, DMRS 65 Element, 100 Function

Demodulation Enhanced CCE EGPRS

Reference Signal ED Energy Enhanced DN Data network Detection GPRS DNN Data Network EDGE Enhanced EIR Equipment Name 70 Datarates for GSM 105 Identity Register eLAA enhanced ETWS Earthquake and FB Functional

Licensed Assisted Tsunami Warning Block

Access, System FBI Feedback enhanced LAA eUICC embedded Information EM Element 40 UICC, embedded 75 FCC Federal Manager Universal Communications eMBB Enhanced Integrated Circuit Commission

Mobile Card FCCH Frequency

Broadband E-UTRA Evolved Correction CHannel

EMS Element 45 UTRA 80 FDD Frequency

Management System E-UTRAN Evolved Division Duplex eNB evolved NodeB, UTRAN FDM Frequency E-UTRAN Node B EV2X Enhanced V2X Division

EN-DC E- F1AP Fl Application Multiplex

UTRA-NR Dual 50 Protocol 85 FDMAFrequency

Connectivity Fl-C Fl Control Division Multiple

EPC Evolved Packet plane interface Access

Core Fl-U Fl User plane FE Front End

EPDCCH interface FEC Forward Error enhanced 55 FACCH Fast 90 Correction

PDCCH, enhanced Associated Control FFS For Further

Physical CHannel Study

Downlink Control FACCH/F Fast FFT Fast Fourier

Cannel Associated Control Transformation

EPRE Energy per 60 Channel/Full 95 feLAA further resource element rate enhanced Licensed

EPS Evolved Packet FACCH/H Fast Assisted

System Associated Control Access, further

EREG enhanced REG, Channel/Half enhanced LAA enhanced resource 65 rate 100 FN Frame Number element groups FACH Forward Access FPGA Field- ETSI European Channel Programmable Gate

Telecommunica FAUSCH Fast Array tions Standards Uplink Signalling FR Frequency Institute 70 Channel 105 Range FQDN Fully 35 GNSS Global 70 HLR Home Location Qualified Domain Navigation Satellite Register Name System HN Home Network

G-RNTI GERAN GPRS General Packet HO Handover

Radio Network Radio Service HPLMN Home

Temporary 40 GPSI Generic 75 Public Land Mobile Identity Public Subscription Network GERAN Identifier HSDPA High

GSM EDGE GSM Global System Speed Downlink RAN, GSM EDGE for Mobile Packet Access

Radio Access 45 Communication 80 HSN Hopping

Network s, Groupe Special Sequence Number

GGSN Gateway GPRS Mobile HSPA High Speed Support Node GTP GPRS Packet Access GLONASS Tunneling Protocol HSS Home

GLObal'naya 50 GTP-UGPRS 85 Subscriber Server

NAvigatsionnay Tunnelling Protocol HSUPA High a Sputnikovaya for User Plane Speed Uplink Packet

Sistema (Engl.: GTS Go To Sleep Access Global Navigation Signal (related HTTP Hyper Text

Satellite 55 to WUS) 90 Transfer Protocol

System) GUMMEI Globally HTTPS Hyper gNB Next Unique MME Text Transfer Protocol

Generation NodeB Identifier Secure (https is gNB-CU gNB- GUTI Globally http/ 1.1 over centralized unit, Next 60 Unique Temporary 95 SSL, i.e. port 443)

Generation UE Identity I-Block

NodeB HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Information centralized unit Hybrid Block gNB-DU gNB- Automatic ICCID Integrated distributed unit, Next 65 Repeat Request 100 Circuit Card

Generation HANDO Handover Identification NodeB HFN HyperFrame IAB Integrated distributed unit Number Access and

HHO Hard Handover Backhaul ICIC Inter-Cell IMEI International ISDN Integrated Interference Mobile Services Digital

Coordination Equipment Network

ID Identity, Identity ISIM IM Services identifier 40 IMGI International 75 Identity Module IDFT Inverse Discrete mobile group identity ISO International Fourier IMPI IP Multimedia Organisation for

Transform Private Identity Standardisation IE Information IMPU IP Multimedia ISP Internet Service element 45 PUblic identity 80 Provider IBE In-Band IMS IP Multimedia IWF Interworking- Emission Subsystem Function IEEE Institute of IMSI International I-WLAN Electrical and Mobile Interworking

Electronics 50 Subscriber 85 WLAN Engineers Identity Constraint IEI Information loT Internet of length of the Element Things convolutional

Identifier IP Internet code, USIM IEIDL Information 55 Protocol 90 Individual key Element Ipsec IP Security, kB Kilobyte (1000

Identifier Data Internet Protocol bytes) Length Security kbps kilo-bits per IETF Internet IP-CAN IP- second Engineering Task 60 Connectivity Access 95 Kc Ciphering key

Force Network Ki Individual

IF Infrastructure IP-M IP Multicast subscriber

IIOT Industrial IPv4 Internet authentication Internet of Things Protocol Version 4 key IM Interference 65 IPv6 Internet 100 KPI Key Measurement, Protocol Version 6 Performance Indicator

Intermodulation IR Infrared KQI Key Quality , IP Multimedia IS In Sync Indicator IMC IMS IRP Integration KSI Key Set Credentials 70 Reference Point 105 Identifier ksps kilo-symbols 35 LOS Line of MAC-IMAC used for per second Sight 70 data integrity of KVM Kernel Virtual LPLMN Local signalling messages Machine PLMN (TSG T WG3 context) LI Layer 1 LPP LTE MANO

(physical layer) 40 Positioning Protocol Management

Ll-RSRP Layer 1 LSB Least 75 and Orchestration reference signal Significant Bit MBMS received power LTE Long Term Multimedia

L2 Layer 2 (data Evolution Broadcast and link layer) 45 LWA LTE-WLAN Multicast

L3 Layer 3 aggregation 80 Service (network layer) LWIP LTE/WLAN MBSFN LAA Licensed Radio Level Multimedia Assisted Access Integration with Broadcast

LAN Local Area 50 IPsec Tunnel multicast

Network LTE Long Term 85 service Single

LADN Local Evolution Frequency

Area Data Network M2M Machine-to- Network

LBT Listen Before Machine MCC Mobile Country

Talk 55 MAC Medium Access Code

LCM LifeCycle Control 90 MCG Master Cell Management (protocol Group LCR Low Chip Rate layering context) MCOT Maximum LCS Location MAC Message Channel

Services 60 authentication code Occupancy

LCID Logical (security/encry ption 95 Time

Channel ID context) MCS Modulation and LI Layer Indicator MAC-A MAC coding scheme LLC Logical Link used for MD AF Management

Control, Low Layer 65 authentication Data Analytics

Compatibility and key 100 Function LMF Location agreement MDAS Management

Management Function (TSG T WG3 context) Data Analytics

Service MDT Minimization of Control MT Mobile Drive Tests CHannel 70 Terminated, Mobile ME Mobile MPDSCH MTC Termination Equipment Physical Downlink MTC Machine-Type MeNB master eNB 40 Shared Communication MER Message Error CHannel s Ratio MPRACH MTC 75 mMTCmassive MTC, MGL Measurement Physical Random massive Gap Length Access Machine-Type

MGRP Measurement 45 CHannel Communication Gap Repetition MPUSCH MTC s Period Physical Uplink Shared 80 MU-MIMO Multi

MIB Master Channel User MIMO Information Block, MPLS MultiProtocol MWUS MTC Management 50 Label Switching wake-up signal, MTC

Information Base MS Mobile Station wus MIMO Multiple Input MSB Most 85 NACKNegative Multiple Output Significant Bit Acknowledgement MLC Mobile MSC Mobile NAI Network Location Centre 55 Switching Centre Access Identifier MM Mobility MSI Minimum NAS Non-Access Management System 90 Stratum, Non- Access MME Mobility Information, Stratum layer Management Entity MCH Scheduling NCT Network MN Master Node 60 Information Connectivity MNO Mobile MSID Mobile Station Topology Network Operator Identifier 95 NC-JT NonMO Measurement MSIN Mobile Station coherent Joint Object, Mobile Identification Transmission

Originated 65 Number NEC Network

MPBCH MTC MSISDN Mobile Capability

Physical Broadcast Subscriber ISDN 100 Exposure

CHannel Number NE-DC NR-E- MPDCCH MTC UTRA Dual Physical Downlink Connectivity NEF Network 35 NPDCCH NSA Non-Standalone

Exposure Function Narrowband 70 operation mode

NF Network Physical NSD Network

Function Downlink Service Descriptor

NFP Network Control CHannel NSR Network

Forwarding Path 40 NPDSCH Service Record

NFPD Network Narrowband 75 NSSAINetwork Slice

Forwarding Path Physical Selection

Descriptor Downlink Assistance

NFV Network Shared CHannel Information

Functions 45 NPRACH S-NNSAI Single-

Virtualization Narrowband 80 NS SAI

NFVI NFV Physical Random NSSF Network Slice

Infrastructure Access CHannel Selection Function

NFVO NFV NPUSCH NW Network

Orchestrator 50 Narrowband NWUSNarrowband

NG Next Physical Uplink 85 wake-up signal,

Generation, Next Gen Shared CHannel Narrowband WUS

NGEN-DC NG- NPSS Narrowband NZP Non-Zero

RAN E-UTRA-NR Primary Power

Dual Connectivity 55 Synchronization O&M Operation and

NM Network Signal 90 Maintenance

Manager NSSS Narrowband ODU2 Optical channel

NMS Network Secondary Data Unit - type 2

Management System Synchronization OFDM Orthogonal

N-PoP Network Point 60 Signal Frequency Division of Presence NR New Radio, 95 Multiplexing

NMIB, N-MIB Neighbour Relation OFDMA

Narrowband MIB NRF NF Repository Orthogonal

NPBCH Function Frequency Division

Narrowband 65 NRS Narrowband Multiple Access

Physical Reference Signal 100 OOB Out-of-band

Broadcast NS Network OO S Out of

CHannel Service Sync OPEX OPerating PDCP Packet Data 70 PMI Precoding

EXpense Convergence Matrix Indicator

OSI Other System Protocol, Packet PNF Physical Information Data Convergence Network Function

OSS Operations 40 Protocol layer PNFD Physical

Support System PDCCH Physical 75 Network Function OTA over-the-air Downlink Control Descriptor

PAPR Peak-to- Channel PNFR Physical

Average Power PDCP Packet Data Network Function Ratio 45 Convergence Protocol Record

PAR Peak to PDN Packet Data 80 POC PTT over

Average Ratio Network, Public Cellular

PBCH Physical Data Network PP, PTP Point-to- Broadcast Channel PDSCH Physical Point

PC Power Control, 50 Downlink Shared PPP Point-to-Point

Personal Channel 85 Protocol

Computer PDU Protocol Data PRACH Physical

PCC Primary Unit RACH Component Carrier, PEI Permanent PRB Physical Primary CC 55 Equipment resource block

P-CSCF Proxy Identifiers 90 PRG Physical

CSCF PFD Packet Flow resource block

PCell Primary Cell Description group

PCI Physical Cell P-GW PDN Gateway ProSe Proximity

ID, Physical Cell 60 PHICH Physical Services, Identity hybrid-ARQ indicator 95 Proximity-

PCEF Policy and channel Based Service

Charging PHY Physical layer PRS Positioning

Enforcement PLMN Public Land Reference Signal

Function 65 Mobile Network PRR Packet

PCF Policy Control PIN Personal 100 Reception Radio Function Identification Number PS Packet Services

PCRF Policy Control PM Performance PSBCH Physical and Charging Rules Measurement Sidelink Broadcast Function Channel PSDCH Physical 35 QoS Quality of 70 REQ REQuest Sidelink Downlink Service RF Radio

Channel QPSK Quadrature Frequency

PSCCH Physical (Quaternary) Phase RI Rank Indicator

Sidelink Control Shift Keying RIV Resource

Channel 40 QZSS Quasi-Zenith 75 indicator value

PSSCH Physical Satellite System RL Radio Link

Sidelink Shared RA-RNTI Random RLC Radio Link

Channel Access RNTI Control, Radio

PSCell Primary SCell RAB Radio Access Link Control PSS Primary 45 Bearer, Random 80 layer Synchronization Access Burst RLC AM RLC

Signal RACH Random Access Acknowledged Mode

PSTN Public Switched Channel RLC UM RLC

Telephone Network RADIUS Remote Unacknowledged PT-RS Phase-tracking 50 Authentication Dial 85 Mode reference signal In User Service RLF Radio Link

PTT Push-to-Talk RAN Radio Access Failure PUCCH Physical Network RLM Radio Link

Uplink Control RANDRANDom Monitoring

Channel 55 number (used for 90 RLM-RS

PUSCH Physical authentication) Reference

Uplink Shared RAR Random Access Signal for RLM

Channel Response RM Registration

QAM Quadrature RAT Radio Access Management Amplitude 60 Technology 95 RMC Reference

Modulation RAU Routing Area Measurement Channel

QCI QoS class of Update RMSI Remaining identifier RB Resource block, MSI, Remaining

QCL Quasi coRadio Bearer Minimum location 65 RBG Resource block 100 System

QFI QoS Flow ID, group Information QoS Flow REG Resource RN Relay Node

Identifier Element Group RNC Radio Network

Rel Release Controller RNL Radio Network S1AP SI Application SCEF Service

Layer Protocol 70 Capability Exposure

RNTI Radio Network SI -MME SI for Function

Temporary the control plane SC-FDMA Single

Identifier 40 Sl-U SI for the user Carrier Frequency

ROHC RObust Header plane Division

Compression S-CSCF serving 75 Multiple Access

RRC Radio Resource CSCF SCG Secondary Cell

Control, Radio S-GW Serving Group

Resource Control 45 Gateway SCM Security layer S-RNTI SRNC Context

RRM Radio Resource Radio Network 80 Management

Management Temporary SCS Subcarrier

RS Reference Identity Spacing

Signal 50 S-TMSI SAE SCTP Stream Control

RSRP Reference Temporary Mobile Transmission

Signal Received Station 85 Protocol

Power Identifier SDAP Service Data

RSRQ Reference SA Standalone Adaptation

Signal Received 55 operation mode Protocol,

Quality SAE System Service Data

RS SI Received Signal Architecture 90 Adaptation

Strength Evolution Protocol layer

Indicator SAP Service Access SDL Supplementary

RSU Road Side Unit 60 Point Downlink

RSTD Reference SAPD Service Access SDNF Structured Data

Signal Time Point Descriptor 95 Storage Network difference SAPI Service Access Function

RTP Real Time Point Identifier SDP Session

Protocol 65 SCC Secondary Description Protocol

RTS Ready-To-Send Component Carrier, SDSF Structured Data

RTT Round Trip Secondary CC 100 Storage Function

Time SCell Secondary Cell SDT Small Data

Rx Reception, Transmission

Receiving, Receiver SDU Service Data 35 SLA Service Level 70 SSID Service Set

Unit Agreement Identifier

SEAF Security SM Session SS/PBCH Block

Anchor Function Management SSBRI SS/PBCH

SeNB secondary eNB SMF Session Block Resource

SEPP Security Edge 40 Management Function 75 Indicator,

Protection Proxy SMS Short Message Synchronization SFI Slot format Service Signal Block indication SMSF SMS Function Resource

SFTD Space- SMTC SSB-based Indicator

Frequency Time 45 Measurement Timing 80 SSC Session and

Diversity, SFN Configuration Service and frame timing SN Secondary Continuity difference Node, Sequence SS-RSRP

SFN System Frame Number Synchronization

Number 50 SoC System on Chip 85 Signal based

SgNB Secondary gNB SON Self-Organizing Reference

SGSN Serving GPRS Network Signal Received Support Node SpCell Special Cell Power

S-GW Serving SP-CSI-RNTISemi- SS-RSRQ

Gateway 55 Persistent CSI RNTI 90 Synchronization

SI System SPS Semi-Persistent Signal based

Information Scheduling Reference

SI-RNTI System SQN Sequence Signal Received

Information RNTI number Quality

SIB System 60 SR Scheduling 95 SS-SINR

Information Block Request Synchronization

SIM Subscriber SRB Signalling Signal based Signal

Identity Module Radio Bearer to Noise and SIP Session SRS Sounding Interference Ratio

Initiated Protocol 65 Reference Signal 100 SSS Secondary

SiP System in SS Synchronization Synchronization Package Signal Signal

SL Sidelink SSB Synchronization SSSG Search Space

Signal Block Set Group SSSIF Search Space 35 TDMATime Division Tx Transmission,

Set Indicator Multiple Access Transmitting,

SST Slice/Service TE Terminal 70 Transmitter

Types Equipment U-RNTI UTRAN

SU-MIMO Single TEID Tunnel End Radio Network

User MIMO 40 Point Identifier Temporary

SUL Supplementary TFT Traffic Flow Identity

Uplink Template 75 UART Universal

TA Timing TMSI Temporary Asynchronous

Advance, Tracking Mobile Receiver and

Area 45 Subscriber Transmitter

TAC Tracking Area Identity UCI Uplink Control

Code TNL Transport 80 Information

TAG Timing Network Layer UE User Equipment

Advance Group TPC Transmit Power UDM Unified Data

TAI 50 Control Management

Tracking Area TPMI Transmitted UDP User Datagram

Identity Precoding Matrix 85 Protocol

TAU Tracking Area Indicator UDSF Unstructured

Update TR Technical Data Storage Network

TB Transport Block 55 Report Function

TBS Transport Block TRP, TRxP UICC Universal

Size Transmission 90 Integrated Circuit

TBD To Be Defined Reception Point Card

TCI Transmission TRS Tracking UL Uplink

Configuration 60 Reference Signal UM

Indicator TRx Transceiver Unacknowledge

TCP Transmission TS Technical 95 d Mode

Communication Specifications, UML Unified

Protocol Technical Modelling Language

TDD Time Division 65 Standard UMTS Universal

Duplex TTI Transmission Mobile

TDM Time Division Time Interval 100 Telecommunica

Multiplexing tions System UP User Plane UPF User Plane 35 VIM Virtualized WMAN Wireless Function Infrastructure Manager Metropolitan Area

URI Uniform VL Virtual Link, 70 Network Resource Identifier VLAN Virtual LAN, WPANWireless URL Uniform Virtual Local Area Personal Area Network Resource Locator 40 Network X2-C X2-Control

URLLC UltraVM Virtual plane

Reliable and Low Machine 75 X2-U X2-User plane

Latency VNF Virtualized XML extensible

USB Universal Serial Network Function Markup Bus 45 VNFFG VNF Language

USIM Universal Forwarding Graph XRES EXpected user Subscriber Identity VNFFGD VNF 80 RESponse Module Forwarding Graph XOR exclusive OR

USS UE-specific Descriptor ZC Zadoff-Chu search space 50 VNFM VNF Manager ZP Zero Power

UTRA UMTS VoIP Voice-over-IP,

Terrestrial Radio Voice-over- Internet

Access Protocol

UTRAN VPLMN Visited

Universal 55 Public Land Mobile

Terrestrial Radio Network Access VPN Virtual Private

Network Network

UwPTS Uplink VRB Virtual

Pilot Time Slot 60 Resource Block

V2I Vehicle-to- WiMAX

Infras traction Worldwide

V2P Vehicle-to- Interoperability

Pedestrian for Microwave

V2V Vehicle-to- 65 Access

Vehicle WLANWireless Local

V2X Vehicle-to- Area Network every thing 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-MeasurementTimingConflguration.

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) comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, are to cause the UE to: identify channel state information (CSI) for a wideband and one or more subbands of the wideband, wherein the CSI is related to a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the wideband and respective SINRs of the one or more sub-bands; transmit a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the CSI of the wideband; identify, from the set of 2, 3, 4, and 5, a number of bits to use for a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of the one or more sub-bands; and transmit a sub-band CQI report based on the identified number of bits, wherein the sub-band CQI report is related to the CSI of the sub-band.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the identified number of bits is based on an indication received from a base station.

3. The UE of any of claims 1-2, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the subband has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is greater than the SE of a highest possible value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

4. The UE of claim 3, wherein the CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is greater than the SE of the highest possible value that can be indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Y bits/second/Hertz (Hz), where Y is pre-defined or provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

5. The UE of any of claims 1-2, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the subband has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is smaller than the SE of a lowest possible valid CQI value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

6. The UE of claim 5, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is smaller than the SE of the smallest possible valid CQI value that can be

49 indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Z bits/second/hertz (Hz), where Z is pre-defined or is provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

7. The UE of any of claims 1-2, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates a measured CQI of 0 that corresponds to a spectral efficiency (SE) value of at least Z bits/second/Hertz (Hz) smaller than the CQI value = 1.

8. The UE of any of claims 1-2, wherein the sub-band CQI report includes 2^A(identified number of bits) levels with respect to the wideband CQI report, and wherein the UE is further configured with A levels above a reported wideband CQI value and (2^A(identified number of bits) - A) levels below the reported wideband CQI value.

9. The UE of claim 8, wherein the value of A is specified as a function of the identified number of bits for the sub-band CQI report.

10. The UE of claim 8, wherein the value of A is a function of the identified number of bits of the sub-band CQI report and the reported wideband CQI value.

11. The UE of any of claims 1-2, wherein all sub-bands are configured with 4-bit CQI reporting and a sub-band CQI value is determined as a sum of the value reported by the UE in the sub-band CQI report and a value reported by the UE in the wideband CQI report that is interpreted as an offset with a range of [-8 ... +7] or [X ... X + 15], where the value of X is provided to the UE by higher layers from the integers {-15, ... , 15}.

12. The UE of claim 11, wherein, if the sub-band CQI value is less than 1 or greater than 15, a corresponding spectral efficiency (SE) is scaled.

13. A base station comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, are to cause the base station to: identify, from a user equipment (UE), a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the wideband;

50 process the wideband CQI report to identify channel state information (CSI) of the wideband, wherein the CSI of the wideband is related to a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the wideband; identify, from the UE, a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of one or more sub-bands, wherein the sub-band CQI report is transmitted using 5 bits; and process the sub-band CQI report to identify CSI of the sub-band, wherein the CSI of the sub-band is related to a SINR of the sub-band.

14. The base station of claim 13, wherein the instructions are further to transmit, to the UE, an indication that the sub-band CQI report is to be transmitted using a 5-bit CQI table.

15. The base station of any of claims 13-14, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is greater than the SE of a highest possible value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

16. The base station of claim 15, wherein the CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a SE value that is greater than the SE of the highest possible value that can be indicated by a 4- bit CQI table by at least Y bits/second/Hertz (Hz), where Y is pre-defined or provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

17. The base station of any of claims 13-14, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the sub-band has a spectral efficiency (SE) value that is smaller than the SE of a lowest possible valid CQI value that can be signaled by a 4-bit CQI table.

18. The base station of claim 17, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates that the subband has a SE value that is smaller than the SE of the smallest possible valid CQI value that can be indicated by a 4-bit CQI table by at least Z bits/second/hertz (Hz), where Z is pre-defined or is provided to the UE via higher layer signalling.

19. The base station of any of claims 13-14, wherein the sub-band CQI report indicates a measured CQI of 0 that corresponds to a spectral efficiency (SE) value of at least Z bits/second/Hertz (Hz) smaller than the CQI value = 1.

20. The base station of any of claims 13-14, wherein the sub-band CQI report includes 2^A(number of bits used to transmit the sub-band CQI report) levels with respect to the wideband

51 CQI report, and wherein the UE is further configured with A levels above a reported wideband CQI value and (2^A(number of bits used to transmit the sub-band CQI report) - A) levels below the reported wideband CQI value.

21. The base station of claim 20, wherein the value of A is specified as a function of the identified number of bits for the sub-band CQI report.

22. The base station of claim 20, wherein the value of A is a function of a number of bits used to transmit the sub-band CQI report and the reported wideband CQI value.

23. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, are to cause a user equipment (UE) to: identify channel state information (CSI) for a wideband and one or more sub-bands of the wideband, wherein the CSI is related to a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the wideband and respective SINRs of the one or more sub-bands; transmit a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the CSI of the wideband; identify, from the set of 2, 3, 4, and 5, a number of bits to use for a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of the one or more sub-bands; and transmit a sub-band CQI report based on the identified number of bits, wherein the subband CQI report is related to the CQI of the sub-band.

24. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, are to cause a base station to: identify, from a user equipment (UE), a wideband channel quality index (CQI) report related to the wideband; process the wideband CQI report to identify channel state information (CSI) of the wideband, wherein the CSI of the wideband is related to a signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) of the wideband; identify, from the UE, a sub-band CQI report related to a sub-band of one or more subbands, wherein the sub-band CQI report is transmitted using 5 bits; and process the sub-band CQI report to identify CSI of the sub-band, wherein the CSI of the sub-band is related to a SINR of the sub-band.

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