WO2023015469A1

WO2023015469A1 - Ue-grouping based cooperative transmission for 6g in-x cells

Info

Publication number: WO2023015469A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/111963
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dong Li; Saeed Reza KHOSRAVIRAD; Tao Tao; Yong Liu
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd.; Nokia Solutions And Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2021-08-11
Filing date: 2021-08-11
Publication date: 2023-02-16
Also published as: CN117859282A

Abstract

According to an embodiment, a method comprises receiving an information of a UE group comprising at least a UE and another UE; receiving, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version (RV) of a first data information of the UE and a first RV of a second data information of the another UE; decoding the first RV of the first data information and the first RV of the second data information. In response to an unsuccessful decode of the first RV of the first data information and a successful decode of the first RV of the second data information, the method comprises encoding the decoded first RV into a second RV of the second data information; transmitting the encoded second RV of the second data information in a second transmission phase to the another UE, and decoding a received second RV of the first data information of the UE.

Description

UE-GROUPING BASED COOPERATIVE TRANSMISSION FOR 6G IN-X CELLS

Field:

The example and non-limiting embodiments relate to communications, more specifically, to cooperative transmission and/or receiving among wireless network.

BACKGROUND:

Description of the Related Art:

The 6 ^th generation (6G) radio access technology is expected to support more advanced communication requirements in terms of latency, reliability, and throughput, for example, unleashing the Industry 4.0 vision of a wire-free factory, where wireless replaces cables for the most demanding services. To this end, cable-like reliability shall be provided within the stringent latency requirement, for example, reliability of 6 to 9 nines in latency of 0.1ms for some wireless isochronous real time use cases in industrial automation applications.

The 6G in-X cells are semi-autonomous highly specialized cells with limited coverage to be installed in locations where high performance requirements are demanded, such as production modules, vehicles, or human bodies for critical functions like heart beat control. Correspondingly, these in-X cells can be called in-factory cells, in-robot cells, in-vehicle cells, in-body cells, etc. The in-X cells have at least the following features.

● Support of extreme ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) requirements, for example, up to 9 nines of reliability in latency of 100us, thus providing cable-like communication quality

● Low transmit power and the resultant limited coverage, for example, lower than 10 meters and the devices may have small form factors

● Hierarchical in-X cell structure with one access point (AP) , also known as access device or access node, and the other user equipment (UE) devices. The AP controls the operations of the UEs in the in-X cell and it may be UE-type, for example, a special high-end UE which has the control functions of the AP, or base station (BS) -type, such as a special type of gNB which may be tailored in functionality to act as an AP.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

The foregoing aspects and features are explained in the following description. For proper understanding of this disclosure, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a flowchart of UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of downlink transmissions in two phases according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of uplink transmissions in two phases according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of periodic-based triggering of cooperative transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a method of receiving and/or transmitting UE-pairing or UE-grouping based cooperative DL transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a method of transmitting and/or receiving UE-pairing or UE-grouping based cooperative UL transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a method of performing UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative DL transmissions at AP according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a method of receiving UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative UL transmissions at AP according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of simulation result of UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates another example of simulation result of UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates another example of simulation result of UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates another example of simulation result of UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions according to certain embodiments.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a wireless communication network according to certain embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

One technical problem is that transmissions between AP and UE in the in-X cell lack diversity gains which, however, are essential for providing extreme URLLC performance. In particular, the extreme low latency requirement means that there will be almost no time diversity achievable to improve the robustness. It also prevents the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback based retransmissions to be utilized for reliability. The relatively low multi-path delay spread, for example, in indoor environment, and the usual small packet size, for example, tens of bytes in industrial motion control, imply limited frequency diversity achievable. The typical in-X cells have small form factor UEs and APs, which means limited spatial diversity from the multiple transmission and/or receiving antennas. A solution using UE-pairing or UE-grouping based cooperative transmission scheme is discussed in the following.

Solutions for ultra-reliable communication rely on over-provisioning of the physical and infrastructural resources to guarantee a certain packet decoding success rate. For instance, increasing number of spatial antennas, increasing bandwidth to gain in frequency diversity, deploying centralized/cloud-radio access network (C-RAN) based architectures with multiple APs to increase spatial diversity. Such solutions are limited in terms of scalability and provide inefficient performance.

In 3GPP, the layer 2 (L2) UE-to-Network relay has been studied in Release 15 to extend the network coverage. The UE-to-Network relay is a normal UE, which can use sidelink (SL) to communicate with a remote UE and relays/forwards the data packets between the base station (BS) and the remote UE. The remote UE is a UE that has the reference signal received power (RSRP) of its Uu link, the link between the UE and its BS, below a network-configured threshold value. Thus, if a UE has a bad cellular channel condition below the threshold, it searches for a UE-to-Network relay. In addition, network controls the relay selection area by setting the RSRP thresholds, for example, a lower bound and/or an upper bound, for the candidate relay UEs. Extreme URLLC with diversity transmissions among multiple paired UEs to improve reliability will be described in detail. As opposed to coverage extension relaying, in the URLLC context, relays and resources associated with relaying operation need to be (pre-) configured and triggered in real-time when needed.

A cooperative relay technique is proposed in WO2020013824 to achieve reliable communication. Multiple relay UEs cooperate to provide signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and diversity gains towards the decoding of messages of the remote UE. WO2020013824, however, doesn’t capture the scheduling, signaling aspects and the algorithmic approach to pair the UE relays, set up the device to device (D2D) links, and (pre-) configure transmission resources and redundancy versions (RVs) for different transmissions.

In one example embodiment, an AP configures multiple UEs to form UE groups, with each group consists of two or more UEs. Such operation may be called UE-paring or UE-grouping operation. The operation may be performed semi-statically based on long term average channel conditions, which are obtained from channel quality measurements for uplink channels or channel quality indication fed back by UEs. The AP informs the UEs of the UE-pairing information and parameters relevant to the cooperative transmissions. The information and parameters may include at least one of: identifiers (IDs) of the paired or grouped UEs, ID (s) of the UE group (s) , cooperative transmission scheme including cooperative transmission scheme ID, and transmission parameter.

The AP schedules cooperative transmissions for at least one UE group over time-frequency resources. At least four transmission resources are used for repetitive transmissions of the same transport block (TB) with different or same redundancy versions. The data TB may be or include user data information, also known as data information of a user or data information for a user. The transmission resources themselves may comprise different time-frequency resources, including different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time frames in time domain. Frequency hopping (FH) may be applied in resource allocation. In time domain, the transmission resources may be consecutive or non-consecutive to each other; and, may have same or different time durations. TX phases are not limited to DL transmission only. In other words, receiving DL transmission at the UEs may also be considered occurring during the DL TX phases; and receiving UL transmission at the AP may also be considered taking place during the UL TX phases. Some of the examples given in the following regard to two resources allocated to one UE in different frequencies at different time.

The scheduling can be a dynamic scheduling, for example, scheduling per TB, or semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) , for example scheduling for multiple TB over periodic resources, for either downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) transmissions. In case of dynamic scheduling, the cooperative transmission operations, as further described in the next few paragraphs, may be triggered dynamically, indicated by one bit in the scheduling message based on one or more TB decoding or receiving errors. On the other hand, in case of SPS scheduling, the cooperative transmission operations may be triggered periodically, for example, based on the survival time interval of the data traffic. Two transmission resources allocated to the same UE may be consecutive or non-consecutive in time domain and/or in frequency domain.

For DL transmissions to one or each UE group, which is transmissions from AP to the paired or grouped UEs, the UE-pairing or UE-grouping based cooperative transmissions comprise operations at the AP as well as operations at the UEs. Operations at the AP include that, for each of the paired or grouped UEs, the AP encodes data TB to same or different RVs, for example, at least RV0 and RV2, corresponding to the at least two resources allocated or configured to each UE, and transmits data packets over the resources. Operations at the UE (s) are performed in two transmission phases. Each of the at least two transmission resources is associated with one of the two transmission phases. In one example, the first resource is associated with the first transmission phase while the second resource is associated with the second transmission phase. During the first transmission phase, the UE receives data transmission or an RV of data information for itself, and decodes it; Alternatively, instead of decoding it right after receiving it, the UE may buffer or save the received data or the received RV of data information, and decode it or use it for decoding at a later time. During the same transmission phase, the UE receives and decodes the data transmissions or an RV of data information of its paired or grouped UE (s) in the same UE group.

During the second transmission phase, AP transmits data packets to each UE of the UE group in a same or different RV compared to the RV used in the first transmission phase. The paired/grouped UE (s) may encode the UE’s data information, which was decoded successfully from the received/overheard UE’s data packets in the first transmission phase, in the same RV as the AP used for the same data information in the second transmission phase, and transmits it to the UE (s) in the same time-frequency resource as the AP used for the transmission of the same data information in the second transmission phase. Resources used for same data information transmitted from the AP and the grouped UE and/or RV used for each transmission may be coordinated by the AP, which is called cooperative transmissions previously. Regardless whether or not the UE has decoded its own data information in the first transmission phase or has decoded its own data information in the first transmission phase successfully, it may receive the data information in different or same RV for itself again from the AP and/or from its paired UE during the second transmission phase. The UE may decode the undecoded data packet (s) for itself received during the first transmission phase and/or data packet (s) for itself received during the second transmission phase for the data information for itself based on soft combinations of the repetition transmissions in the second transmission phase. The repetition transmissions refer to the same data information encoded in the different or same RVs that are received in the first and the second transmission phases.

If the UE succeeded in decoding the data packet (s) for itself received in the first transmission phase as well as data an RV packet (s) for its paired UE received in the first transmission phase, the UE may encode its paired UE’s data information decoded from the data packet (s) , in a same RV used by the AP for the second-time transmission of the data information of the paired UE, over the same resources for the data packet (s) ’ transmission as used by the AP, to its paired UE, in the second transmission phase. As for its own data information, it may determine whether to decode the data packet (s) for itself received in the second transmission phase. In some embodiment, the UE may stop receiving or decoding data packet (s) for itself received in the second transmission phase, for the UE successfully decoded data packet (s) for itself received in the first transmission phase. The transmission resources may be allocated by the AP and instructed to the UE through scheduling and/or configuration information. The AP may also cooperatively determine and/or configure the RV (s) used for transmissions in each transmission phase. The RV (s) may be same for UEs belonging to the same UE group in each transmission phase. Full duplex operation may be needed for the UE to transmit as well as receive data at different frequency resources during the second transmission phase.

In the UL transmissions from a UE group, operations by the UE may be performed in at least two transmission phases, which comprises at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase. Transmission resources are associated with the two transmission phases in time domain. In one example, two time-frequency transmission resources are allocated to one UE, with each of the transmission resources associated with one of the two transmission phases. During the first transmission phase, a UE of the UE group transmits data packet (s) including data information from itself. The data packet may be or include an RV of the data information. Meanwhile, the UE may overhear or receive data packet or an RV of data information from at least another UE, the UE’s paired UE from the same UE group. Furthermore, the UE decodes the overheard or received data packet (s) or the RV of the data packet (s) of the paired UE. In the first transmission phase, the UE may perform full duplex operation in order to transmit as well as receive data on different frequency resources during the same time.

During the second transmission phase of the UL transmissions, the UE transmits its own data information with a different or same RV, compared to the RV transmitted in the first transmission phase, to the AP. Its paired UE, also in the second transmission phase, may transmit data information of itself in an RV to the AP. The two UEs may apply the same RV in the first and/or the second transmission phase, while different RVs may be applied by one UE in the two transmission phases.

If the UE decoded the overheard or received data packet or the RV of the data packet of its paired UE successfully in the first transmission phase, then the UE transmits its paired UE’s data information over the corresponding resources in the second transmission phase cooperatively with the paired UE as instructed by AP configurations. In the second transmission phase, the data information of the paired UE may be encoded by the UE into a same RV as the RV used for the second-time transmission from the paired UE itself. In other words, the UE and its paired UE may be configured and/or coordinated to encode and/or transmit the data information of the paired UE in a same RV. This results the AP to receive the same RV of the data information of the paired UE in the second transmission phase from the UE and the paired UE. Similarly, the AP receives the same RV of the data information of the UE in the second phase, one from the UE itself, and another one from the UE’s paired UE. In case there’re more UE (s) in the UE group, the AP may receive the same data information from more than one paired UEs. For the received two RVs of data information of the same UE during the two phases, the AP decodes the corresponding data information based on soft combinations or other decoding scheme over the resources. As for the full duplex operations, the low transmit power for the local area communication scenario means that relatively low transmitting and/or receiving power difference at the transceiver will facilitate the implementation of the full duplex operations. The full duplex operation empowers the sidelink assisted cooperative transmissions with as few repetition numbers as possible.

FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of one possible and non-limiting example of UE-grouping/UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions. Block 110 shows UE-pairing, or UE-grouping operation may be performed semi-statically or statically based on long term channel conditions. The channel conditions may be reflected by measurements of channel quality. Scheduling of cooperative transmissions for at least one UE of the UE group, in block 120, may include at least two repetition transmission resources. The scheduling of the UE-grouping based cooperative transmissions may be based on dynamic triggering and/or periodic-based triggering. The repetition transmission resources refer to resources used for one data information or one data transport block (TB) repeatedly transmitted in either same or different RVs. Then, pairing-based or grouping-based cooperative transmission in DL and/or UL data transmission takes place as shown in block 130. This procedure may be performed in a wireless communication network according to certain embodiments.

The wireless communication network comprises at least one subnetwork wherein each subnetwork consists of one access point (AP) , or access device, or a UE comprising certain features of an AP, and at least two or more UEs. The AP and the UEs are proximate to each other in a local area. The AP configures or forms the UEs into UE groups with each group consisting of Np UEs. This is called the UE-pairing or UE-grouping operation. In one embodiment, Np is set to Np=2. In another embodiment, Np is set to a value larger than two, for example, Np=3. The UE-pairing operation can be performed statically or semi-statically based on long term average channel conditions that can be obtained, for example, from channel quality measurements of the uplink channels and/or signals or from the channel quality indication fed back from UEs. In one embodiment with Np=2, some or all the UEs in the subnetwork of the wireless communication network are paired or grouped in the following ways:

● the UE with best channel quality is paired with the UE with the worst channel quality

● the UE with the second best channel quality is paired with the UE with the second worst channel quality

……

● the UE with the n ^th best channel quality is paired with the UE with the n ^th worst channel quality.

In another embodiment, the AP may randomly divide some or all the UEs in the subnetwork into groups with each group consisting of at most Np UEs. Such grouping or pairing may be further based on location of the UEs, distance between the UEs, distance between each UE and the AP, and/or other elements in the subnetwork or the wireless communication network.

The AP informs each relevant UE of the UE-pairing or UE-grouping information and parameters related to the cooperative transmissions which include at least one of the following:

● IDs (for example, RNTIs) of the paired UEs

● ID of the group of the grouped/paired UEs

● cooperative manner that is to be applied, for example, space-time coding (STC) -based or cyclic delay diversity (CDD) -based

● parameters of the cooperative transmission, for example, virtual antenna index (for STC-based) or cyclic delay indication (for CDD-based)

Regarding the pairing based cooperative transmission scheduling, the AP schedules cooperative transmissions for a UE group over Mp number of repetition transmission resources for each UE, and these repetition transmission resources correspond to different time-frequency resources which may occupy different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The repetition transmission resources may be interpreted as the resources used for data information being transmitted more than once. The data information may be encoded in same or different RVs before transmission as data packets. Such transmission appears to be repetitive transmissions of the same data information with the same or different RVs. In one embodiment, Mp is set to Mp=2 irrespective of Np UEs of the UE group. In another embodiment, Mp is set to a value up to Np which represents UE number in the UE group. The Mp repetition transmission resources may be non-consecutive or consecutive in time domain.

When the transmission resources are non-consecutive in time domain, the interval between adjacent repetition transmission resources is either equivalent to or larger than the decoding and re-encoding processing time to enable the cooperative transmissions. The scheduling can be a DL transmission scheduling, which may be for example, dynamic or SPS scheduling; or, can be an UL transmission grant, which may be, for example, dynamic grant or type-1 and/or type-2 configured grant as defined in new radio (NR) systems. In case of dynamic scheduling, the cooperative transmission operations can be triggered dynamically, for example, with one bit in the scheduling message indicating whether the cooperative transmission operation is used or not. It may be determined based on one or more TB decoding errors. This allows the cooperative transmissions take place when there is an urgent need, for example, to avoid contiguous packet errors. In case of SPS scheduling, the cooperative transmission operations can be triggered periodically, for example, based on the survival time interval of the data traffic. This can enhance the survival time reliability performance while keeping the power consumption as low as possible.

In DL transmission from AP to the UE group, which includes a UE and its at least one paired or grouped UE, the proposed UE-pairing based cooperative communication includes the following operations. For each or one of the paired UEs in the UE group, the AP encodes the data TB or data information to different RVs, such as at least RV0 and RV2, corresponding to the Mp repetition resources allocated or configured to the UE, and transmits the encoded data TB or data information over the resources. The different RVs may be selected from RV0, RV1, RV2, RV3, or any RV specified in the 3GPP standards.

FIG. 2 illustrates one possible and non-limiting example of UE-pairing or grouping based DL transmission in two transmission phases. In this exemplary embodiment, the subnetwork includes one access device/AP and two UEs, namely UE1 and UE2. The DL transmission duration for the subnetwork, marked horizontally, is divided into two transmission phases “TX Phase-1” and TX Phase-2” . The carrier BW refers to frequency resources in frequency domain as marked vertically. In TX Phase-1, time-frequency resource 210 is allocated for DL data transmission in RV0 from the AP to UE1, and time-frequency resource 220 is allocated for another DL data transmission in RV0 from the AP to UE2. The data transmission in RV0 may also be called RV0 data transmission. In TX Phase-2, data packet (s) from the AP to UE1, comprising the same data information in TX Phase-1 encoded in RV0 but now encoded in RV1, may be transmitted over time-frequency resource 230; similarly, the AP may transmit data packet (s) to UE2 in RV1. In the meantime, if UE2 received or overheard RV0 data transmission from AP to UE1 during TX Phase-1, UE2 may decode the data information which is meant for UE1 successfully, encode the data information in RV1, and then transmit it to UE1 over resource 230 as well. The AP may schedule or configure resources for cooperative transmissions. UE1 may decode one or more of RV0 and RV1 of UE1’s data information received from AP and/or UE2. When UE1 decodes more than one of RV0 and RV1 of UE1’s data information, it may use at least one of varied decoding schemes. Similarly, during TX Phase-2, same data information, as the one encoded in RV0 and transmitted from AP to UE2 in TX Phase-1, is now encoded in RV1 by the AP and transmitted from the AP to UE2 on time-frequency resource 240. Meanwhile, in case that UE1 received or overheard RV0 data transmission from AP to UE2 during TX Phase-1, and decoded the data information which is meant for UE2 successfully, UE1 may encode the data information with RV1, and then transmit it to UE2 over resource 240 as well. UE2 may decode one or more of RV0 and RV1 of UE2’s data information received from AP and/or UE1. When UE2 decodes more than one of RV0 and RV1 of UE2’s data information, it may use at least one of varied decoding schemes. The data transmission in RV0 or RV1 may also be called RV0 or RV1 data transmission, respectively. Other RV, such as RV2 and/or RV3, may be used instead of RV0 and/or RV1 in either of the TX phases.

Four

transmission resources

210, 220, 230, and 240 are allocated for DL transmission from AP’s perspective, as well as for receiving the DL transmissions from UEs’ perspectives. The

transmission resources

210 and 220 are associated with or comprise the TX Phase-1 in time domain, while the

transmission resources

230 and 240 are associated with or comprise the TX Phase-2 in time domain. Comparing resource 210 to resource 230, both for DL data transmission to UE1, resource 210 is associated with TX Phase-1, while resource 230 is associated with TX Phase-2. Resource 210 and resource 230 occupy different frequency resources, which may be selected through FH, with same or different transmission bandwidths.

Resources

210 and 230 comprise different time resources, also called time frames, time periods, time durations, etc., in time domain, particularly referred as TX Phase-1 and TX Phase-2. Similarly, resource 220 and resource 240 are both for DL data transmission to UE2, while resource 220 is associated with or comprises TX Phase-1 and resource 240 is associated with or comprises TX Phase-2. Resource 220 and resource 240 are over different frequency resources, which may be selected through FH, with same or different transmission bandwidths.

Resources

220 and 240 comprise different time resources in time domain, referred as TX Phase-1 and TX Phase-2. Additionally, TX Phase-1 and TX Phase-2 may be next to each other in time domain, or be separated from each other by a time interval. This time interval may be counted at least for UE1 and UE2 decoding and encoding/re-encoding the overheard/received data information for UE2 and UE1 in previous TX phase respectively, and processing time to enable the cooperative transmissions from AP to UEs and between the UEs.

In one embodiment, the UE tries to decode the data information for itself received in TX Phase-1, which may be transmitted in RV, for example, RV0. This may result in either a successful decoding or an unsuccessful decoding. In another embodiment, the UE doesn’t decode the data packet (s) for itself received in TX Phase-1, but buffer or save it, and later decode it or later decode it together with the data packet in RV1 received during TX Phase-2. Such decoding is based on soft combinations of the data packets received over the Mp repetition transmission resources. Any of the UEs in the UE group may operate in this way. During the other Mp-1 repetition transmission resources, UE1 decodes its own data transmissions based on soft combinations of the repetition transmissions, if UE1 hasn’t decoded its own data or hasn’t decoded its own data successfully in the first TX phase. If UE1 succeeded in decoding the paired UE (UE2) ’s data received in TX Phase-1, UE1 transmits its paired UE’s data over the corresponding second repetition resource, cooperatively with the AP as instructed by AP configurations. If Mp-1=1, meaning the total repetition transmission number Mp equal to 2, UE1 decoding its own data and transmitting its paired UE’s data may occur in the same time frame, which may require UE1 to perform full duplex operation. UE1 represents one of the UEs within the UE group. Operations performed at UE1 provides an example of operations which may be performed at at least one other UE of the UE group.

An exemplary embodiment of grouping or pairing based cooperative transmission in DL is described in TABLE 1. AP transmits data packets, both in RV0, to UE1 and UE2, respectively, in TX Phase-1. The data packets include user data information. UE1 receives its own data packet -RV0 data for UE1, and either decode it or buffer/save it for decoding later. Meanwhile, UE1 receives or overhears the data transmitted to UE2, and UE1 decodes RV0 data for UE2. During TX Phase-2, AP transmits data packets, both in RV2, to UE1 and UE2, respectively, regardless whether there are UEs involved in cooperative transmissions. The cooperative transmission in DL may refer to same user data information transmitted by AP as well as a grouped/paired UE over the same time-frequency resource. In addition, same RV may be used when encoding the user data information for the cooperative transmissions. The data packet (s) in RV2 may comprise the same data information as that included in data packets in RV0. In Case-1, if the data packets of UE1 and UE2 received in TX Phase-1 are both decoded successfully by UE1, UE1 encodes UE2’s data information in RV2, and transmits it in TX Phase-2. Such transmission may be made cooperatively with AP, since AP transmits data packets in RV2 to UE2 as well, in STC or CDD manner. In Case-2, if only UE2’s data or data information is decoded successfully in TX Phase-1, in other words, UE1 didn’t decode or decoded its own data received in TX Phase-1 unsuccessfully, UE1 encodes UE2’s data information in RV2 and transmits it. Such transmission may be, again, made cooperatively with AP in STC or CDD manner. On the other hand, whether UE1 received its own data packet (s) in TX Phase-1 but didn’t decode it, instead buffered it, or UE1 decoded its own data in TX Phase-1 unsuccessfully, UE1 receives its RV2 of its data information and decodes for its own data information through combining RV0 and RV2 of the data packets for itself. In Case-2, full duplex operation may be needed at the UE1 as transmission and receiving may take place during TX Phase-2. In details, the full duplex operation is needed frequency resources overlap in time domain in TX Phase-2.

TABLE 1

As for UL transmission of the UE group, the UE transmits its own data packets over the Mp repetition transmission resources. The data packets may comprise data information from the UE encoded in same or different RVs. In the meantime, the UE may receive/overhear the data packet (s) of its paired UE (s) and decode it. The data packet (s) of its paired UE (s) may be in one of the RVs or same RV of the data packet from the UE, and comprises data information from its paired UE (s) . If Mp-1=1, for example, the total repetition transmission number Mp equals to 2, the UE transmitting its own data and decoding its paired UE’s data may occur simultaneously, which may require, for example, full duplex operation. During the Mp-th repetition transmission resource, the UE transmits its own data packet with corresponding RV, and transmits its paired UE’s data, cooperatively with its paired UE as instructed by AP configurations. The cooperative transmission in UL may refer to same user data information transmitted by more than one UEs within a UE group, such as UE and its grouped/paired UE, over the same time-frequency resource. Furthermore, same RV may be used when encoding the user data information for the cooperative transmissions. For each of the paired/grouped UEs, the AP decodes the corresponding data based on soft combinations over the resources.

FIG. 3 illustrates one possible and non-limiting example of UE-pairing or UE-grouping based UL data information transmission in two transmission phases. In this exemplary embodiment, the subnetwork includes one access device or AP and two UEs, namely UE1 and UE2. The UL duration for the subnetwork marked horizontally is divided into two transmission phases, labeled as “TX Phase-1” and TX Phase-2” . TX phases may refer to the time durations used for UL transmissions and receiving performed by UEs and AP, respectively. The carrier BW refers to resources in frequency domain as marked vertically. In TX Phase-1, time-frequency resource 310 is allocated for UE1’s UL data transmission in RV0 from UE1 to AP, and time-frequency resource 320 is allocated for UE2 to perform its UL data transmission in RV0 to AP. The data transmission in RV0 may also be called RV0 data transmission. At the same time of its UL transmission, UE1 receives or overhears UE2’s UL RV0 data transmission. Similarly, UE2 receives or overhears UE1’s UL RV0 data transmission. UE1 decodes the received or overheard UE2’s UL RV0 data transmission. UE2 may take the same action, decoding the received or overheard UE1’s UL RV0 data transmission. During TX Phase-2, UE1 transmits its own UL data or data information in RV1 over time-frequency resource 330. If UE1 decoded UE2’s UL RV0 data transmission successfully, UE1 encodes the decoded data in RV1, and transmits UE2’s UL RV1 data in time-frequency resource 340. Similarly, if UE2 decoded UE1’s UL RV0 data transmission successfully, UE2 encodes the decoded data in RV1, and transmits UE1’s UL RV1 data in resource 330. Other RV, such as RV2, RV3, or any RV specified in the 3GPP standards, may be used instead of RV0 and/or RV1 in either TX phase.

During TX Phase-1 of the UL transmission, full duplex operation at the UEs may be required for the UEs performing transmission as well as receiving during the same time period.

Resources

310 and 330, both used for carrying data information of UE1, may comprise/occupy different frequency resources in frequency domain, and different time or time frame resources in time domain.

Resource

320 and 340, both allocated or configured for carrying data information of UE2, comprise/occupy different frequency resources in frequency domain, and different time or time frame resources in time domain. On the other hand,

resources

310 and 320 may be allocated with the same time duration or time frame; and same for

resources

330 and 340. The time durations, time frames, or time resources may also be referred as or comprise TX phases. In particular, the time resources of time-

frequency resource

310 and 320 are associated with or comprise TX Phase-1, meanwhile the time-

frequency resources

330 and 340 are associated with or comprise TX Phase-2.

Another exemplary embodiment of grouping or pairing based cooperative transmission in UL is described in TABLE 2. During TX Phase-1, UE1 transmits its own data packet (s) , which includes data information, in RV0. Meanwhile, UE1 receives and decodes UE2’s data packet (s) , which is transmitted from UE1’s paired UE (UE2) to AP. AP receives data packets of UE1 and UE2, both in RV0. AP may or may not decode the RV0 data packets right after receiving them. If it does not decode the RV0 data packets right after receiving them, it may buffer them. During TX Phase-2, UE1 transmits its own data packet (s) in RV2. If UE1 decoded UE2’s RV0 data packet (s) received in TX Phase-1 successfully, UE1 encodes the data information in RV2, and transmits the RV2 data packet (s) of UE2 to AP. During this TX phase, UE1 performs UL transmission cooperatively with UE2 and/or AP in STC or CDD manner. UE2 performs UL transmission in both TX phases similarly as UE1 does. AP decodes received data packets from UE1 and UE2, respectively. If AP didn’t decode the data packet (s) from UE1 received during TX Phase-1, AP decodes data packets received during the two TX phases, by combining RV0 and RV2 data packets from UE1 and/or RV2 data packet (s) of UE1 from UE2; and, handles UE2’s data in a similar way.

TABLE 2

The grouping-based or pairing-based cooperative transmissions can be triggered in one of the following manners. In one embodiment, the grouping-based cooperative transmission is always active after configured by the network. No explicit triggering is needed in this case. In another embodiment, the grouping-based cooperative transmission is event-triggered based on HARQ feedback. An example of the HARQ feedback may be one or more HARQ-NACK that are transmitted by at least one UE of the UE group. This is relevant to the dynamic scheduling where an indication, for example one bit, in the scheduling message is used to indicate whether the cooperative transmission operation is used or not, based on one or more TB decoding errors. This allows for the cooperative transmissions when there is an urgent need, for example, to avoid contiguous packet errors. In a third embodiment, the pairing-based or grouping-based cooperative transmission is periodically triggered taking into account the survival time metric of the service. If the survival time metric of the service is 4 transmission cycles, isochronous service assumed, the pairing-based cooperative transmission may be configured to occur in at least one out of every four transmission cycles. This is to avoid consecutive packet errors during the entire survival time, leading to the service unavailability and outage. This is relevant to the semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) -like scheduling where the periodicity and/or offset of the cooperative transmissions is indicated in the SPS scheduling message.

FIG. 4 shows an example of periodic triggering of the cooperative transmissions. The survival time duration comprises 4 data transmission cycles, cooperative transmission being either on (active) or off (inactive) during each cycle. In this exemplary embodiment, the cooperative transmission is on periodically during the second cycle block 420 out of the survival time duration, and off during cycle blocks 410, 430 and 440.

FIG. 5 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of receiving and/or transmitting procedures for the UE-pairing or UE-grouping based cooperative DL transmissions at a UE such as UE1. UE1 may be any UE within the paired or grouped UE group. AP may configure two or more UEs as paired UEs in one UE group. AP may inform the UEs whoever belongs to the same group of the formed UE groups. UE1 receives information of the UE group it belongs to, in which the information includes group identifier (ID) , information of other group member (s) or paired UE (s) within the group, time-frequency resources allocated for transmission and receiving in the cooperative DL transmissions, etc. The information of other group member (s) or paired UE (s) may include ID or indication of each of the UEs within the group.

In block 510, during the first TX phase, UE1 receives a DL transmission including RV0 of UE1’s data information from AP. UE1 also receives or overhears a DL transmission from AP to UE2, which includes RV0 of UE2’s data information. UE1’s data information refers to the data information sent from AP to UE1, and UE2’s data information refers to the data information from AP to UE2. Following block 510, two scenarios may occur, namely Case 1 and Case 2. In Case 1, UE1 decodes both RV0 of UE1’s data information and RV0 of UE2’s data information as in block 512. In block 514, it is determined whether RV0 of UE1’s data information and RV0 of UE2’s data information are both decoded successfully. In response to successful decode of both, UE1 has the correct data information for itself, and UE1 encodes the decoded UE2’s data information in RV2, and transmits it during the second TX phase as shown in block 516. On the other hand, if the result of block 514 is negative, meaning UE1 failed to decode at least one of RV0 of UE1’s data information or RV0 of UE2’s data information, it needs to be further determined whether RV0 of UE1’s data information is decoded successfully in block 520. If the determination result of block 520 is positive, in response to the situation that UE1 decoded its own data information successfully but failed to decode UE2’s data information, UE1 doesn’t need to act further as shown in block 522. However, if the determination result from block 520 is negative, which means UE1 didn’t decode RV0 of UE1’s data information successfully, then the next action of UE1 depends on whether RV0 of UE2’s data information is decoded successfully as shown in block 524. If UE1 successfully decoded RV0 of UE2’s data information, as illustrated in block 526, UE1 encodes the decoded UE2’s data information into RV2, and transmits it during the second TX phase. UE1 receives RV2 of UE1’s data information during the second TX phase and decodes it. Such decoding may include UE1 decoding the received RV2 of UE1’s data information, together with RV0 of UE1’s data information received in the first TX phase. If, however, UE1 didn’t decode RV0 of UE2’s data information successfully, which mean UE1 doesn’t have correct data information for UE2, UE1 receives RV2 of UE1’s data information in the second TX phase as shown in block 528 and decodes it. The decoding may include that UE1 decodes the received RV2 of UE1’s data information, together with RV0 of UE1’s data information that was received in the first TX phase. The two TX phases refer to the two DL transmission duration, which may be considered as part of the time-frequency resources used for DL transmission.

Turning to Case 2 of FIG. 5, after block 510, UE1 decodes RV0 of UE2’s data information, but not RV0 of UE1’s data information, as in block 530. Instead of decoding the received RV0 of the data information for UE1 itself, UE1 saves or buffers RV0 of UE1’s data information for decoding later. In response to RV0 of UE2’s data information decoded successfully by UE1 in block 532, UE1 encodes the decoded UE2’s data information into RV2, and transmits it to UE2 during the second TX phase as in block 534. UE1 also receives RV2 of UE1’s data information in the second TX phase, which may be from at least one of AP or UE2, and decodes for data information through combining at least RV0 and RV2 of UE1’s data information as in block 534. One of the decoding scheme may be soft combining. On the other hand, in case of an unsuccessful decoding of RV0 of UE2’s data information from block 532, UE1, as in block 536, receives RV2 of UE1’s data information in the second TX phase, which may be from at least one of AP or UE2, and decodes for UE1’s own data information by combining at least the buffered RV0 of UE1’s data information and the received RV2 of UE1’s data information. UE1 may choose from various decoding schemes to use.

Instead of RV0 used in the first TX phase, one of RV1, RV2, RV3, or other RV may be used. Same for the RV used in the second TX phase. Different RVs are used in different TX phases in the examples above, but same RV may be used for different TX phases. Within the same TX phases, same RV is used for transmissions to different UEs within the UE group in the examples above, while different RV may be used for transmissions to each of different UEs. Furthermore, number of TX phases may be 2 or more, though 2 TX phases are given in the exemplary embodiments previously. RV0 of UE1’s data information, RV0 of UE2’s data information, RV2 of UE1’s data information, and RV2 of UE2’s data information may be received in a first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resource, respectively. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain; and, the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first and the second time-frequency resources comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources are associated with the second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in time domain.

FIG. 6 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of transmitting and/or receiving procedure for the UE-pairing or UE-grouping based cooperative UL transmissions at a UE, particularly from the perspective of UE1. The UE group (s) is configured and informed to the UEs by the AP. Informed of its paired UE (s) and its UE group, as shown in block 610, UE1 transmits RV0 of UE1’s data information to AP in UL during the first TX phase. Since UE2 or other UE (s) performs the same as UE1, UE1 receives or overhears RV0 of UE2’s data information transmitted from UE2 to AP in the first TX phase. In response to a positive result from determining whether RV0 of UE2’s data information is decoded successfully by UE1 as in block 612, UE1 encodes the decoded UE2’s data information in RV2, and transmits it to AP in UL during the second TX phase. In the same TX phase, UE1 transmits RV2 of UE1’s data information to AP. However, in response to a negative outcome of block 612, meaning UE1 failed to decode RV0 of UE2’s data information, UE1 transmits RV2 of UE1’s data information to AP in the second TX phase as in block 616. UE1 encoded and transmitted the same data information of itself twice in different RVs during different transmission phases.

AP determines the UEs that may be paired up or grouped together as a UE group for cooperative transmissions in at least one of DL, UL, or sidelink (SL) . AP may also allocate resources in time and frequency domains, also known as time-frequency resources, for the cooperative transmissions. The “cooperative transmissions” is a general term, which may refer to both cooperative transmissions and receiving. AP may further transmit information of the UE group, including group identifier (s) of the UE group and/or identifier of each UE of the UE group, as well as radio resources to the UE group so that AP and the UE group may operate cooperative transmissions as described above.

The allocated resources may be used for communication between AP and the UE group and/or among the UE group. The communication among the UE group may refer to, for example, SL communications, relay communications, D2D communications, UE coordinated communications, etc. The allocated time-frequency resources in time domain comprises at least two transmission phases. RV0 of UE1’s data information, RV0 of UE2’s data information, RV2 of UE1’s data information, and RV2 of UE2’s data information may be received in a first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resource, respectively. The first and the third time-frequency resources, both used for carrying UE1’s data information, may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain; and, the second and the fourth time-frequency resources, both used for carrying UE2’s data information, may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first and the second time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with the second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in time domain.

FIG. 7 shows another exemplary embodiment of performing UE- grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative DL transmissions at AP. The procedure involves UEs, while is described from access device or AP’s point of view. AP transmits RV0 of UE1’s data information and RV0 of UE2’s data information in DL during the first TX phase as in block 710. In the second TX phase, as illustrated in block 720, regardless of whether each of the data information is received and/or decoded successfully, AP transmits RV2 of UE1’s data information and RV2 of UE2’s data information in DL, respectively. The AP may transmit RV0 of UE1’s data information, RV0 of UE2’s data information, RV2 of UE1’s data information, and RV2 of UE2’s data information in a first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resource, respectively. The AP may allocate resources in such a way that the first and the third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resource in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain; and, the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first and the second time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with the second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in time domain.

FIG. 8 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of reception of UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative UL transmissions at AP. The procedure involves UEs, while is described particularly from the access device or AP’s perspective. In UL transmissions, as in block 810, AP receives RV0 of UE1’s data information from UE1 and RV0 of UE2’s data information from UE2 in UL, respectively, during the first UL TX phase. As shown in block 820, AP receives RV2 of UE1’s data information from at least one of UE1 or UE2, and RV2 of UE2’s data information from at least one of UE2 or UE1 in UL during the second UL TX phase. In case that AP receives RV2 of UE1’s data information from UE2, it is resulted from successful decode of RV0 of UE1’s data information at UE2. UE2 encodes the decoded UE1’s data information into RV2 and transmits it to AP during the second UL TX phase. Similarly, in case that AP receives RV2 of UE2’s data information from UE1, it is resulted from successful decode of RV0 of UE2’s data information at UE1, and UE1 encodes the decoded UE2’s data information into RV2 and transmits it to AP during the second UL TX phase. AP decodes UE1’s data information from at least one of RV0 or RV2 of UE1’s data information received during the two TX phases. AP may apply soft combining RV0 and RV2 of UE1’s data information, if it determines to decode based on both. Similarly, AP decodes UE2’s data information based on at least one of the received RV0 or RV2 of UE2’s data information. AP may allocate UL transmission resources for RV0 of UE1’s data information, RV0 of UE2’s data information, RV2 of UE1’s data information, and RV2 of UE2’s data information transmitted in a first, second, third, and fourth time-frequency resource, respectively. The resources may be further allocated in the way that the first and the third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resource in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain; and, the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first and the second time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise or are associated with the second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in time domain

Simulations are conducted for evaluating the pairing-based cooperative transmission as described above. The simulation parameters are listed in TABLE 3. The simulation results of UE-grouping or UE-pairing based cooperative transmissions are shown in FIGs 9 to 12. Based on the simulation results, it may be concluded that UE-pairing based cooperative transmission achieves performance gains over ordinary single-link transmission, especially under non-line of sight (NLOS) and/or non-frequency hopping (FH) transmissions. For example, UE-pairing based cooperative transmission achieves performance gains of at least 20 dB and about 5dB at block error rate (BLER) 10 ^-5, without FH and with FH, respectively. The BLER, as at least part of the performance metric, is computed based on the theoretical result on channel coding rate for finite block length referring to “Channel Coding Rate in Finite Blocklength Regime” by Yury Polyanskiy et. al., published in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 56, Issue 5, pages 2307-2359. The results validated the proposed pairing-based cooperative transmission as an effective enhancement scheme to achieve extreme URLLC performances, for example, for in-X subnetwork scenarios in 6G.

TABLE 3

Reference is made to FIG. 13, which illustrates an example of a wireless communication network according to certain embodiment. Access device 1302 is adapted for communication over a wireless link 1304 with apparatus, such as a mobile device, a mobile terminal, UE 1305, or UE 1345. The access device 1302 may be an access point, an access node, a base station, gNB or an eNB similar to the AP described in FIGs 7 and 8, and the AP discussed in the other figures. Access device 1302 may comprise a frequency selective repeater, of any wireless network such as 5G NR, LTE, LTE-A, GSM, GERAN, WCDMA, CDMA, Wireless LAN, and the like. Access device 1302 may be a UE, which may perform operations like an access device/AP. It is commonly found that one or more than one UE such as UE 1305 and UE 1345 are under the control of AP such as access device 1302; or, a UE is under the control of more than one network node. For simplicity, two

UEs

1305 and 1345, and one AP 1302 are shown in FIG. 13. UE 1305 and UE 1345 may be two user devices with the same features and functions, comprising same components to support communications. In some embodiments such as SL communications, these two UEs may communicate directly. The number of UEs in those embodiments may be more than two, and some of the UEs are formed as a UE group or different UE groups through UE-pairing or UE-grouping operation as introduced.

UEs

1305 and 1345 may be user devices similar to the UEs in FIGs 5 and 6, and the UEs in the other figures. The reason that two UEs and an access device are illustrated here is that this is one convenient mechanism for carrying out examples of embodiments of UE paring or grouping based cooperative transmission and/or receiving in wireless network.

UE 1305 includes processing means such as at least one data processor, DP 1306, storing means such as at least one computer-readable memory, MEM 1308, for storing data 1310, at least one computer program, PROG 1311, or other set of executable instructions, communication means such as a transmitter, TX 1312, and a receiver, RX 1314, for bidirectional wireless communications with AP 1302 and/or UE 1345 via at least antenna 1316. Like UE 1305, UE 1345 consists of DP 1346, MEM 1348, Data storage entity 1350, PROG 1351, TX 1342, RX 1344, and at least antenna 1356 to transmit and/or receive signals with AP 1302 and/or UE 1305.

AP 1302 also includes processing means such as at least one data processor, DP 1320, storing means such as at least one computer-readable memory, MEM 1322, for storing data 1324 and at least one computer program, PROG 1326, or other set of executable instructions. AP 1302 may also include communication means such as a transmitter, TX 1328, and a receiver, RX 1330, for bidirectional wireless communications with the at least one UE group, which may comprise at least UE 1305 and UE 1345 via at least antenna 1332. Both the UEs and the AP may have many antennas, such as an array of antennas configured for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications, or multiple antennas for multiple radio access technologies. Other configurations of these devices, for example, may be provided.

The at least one of PROG 1326 in AP 1302 includes a set of program instructions which, when executed by the associated DP 1320, enable the device to operate in accordance with the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, as detailed above.

UEs

1305 and 1345 also

store software

1311 and 1351 in their

MEMs

1308 and 1348 respectively to implement certain exemplary embodiments of this invention. Thus, the exemplary embodiments of this invention may be implemented at least in part by computer software stored on

MEMs

1308, 1348 and 1322, which is executed by the DP 1306 of the UE 1305, DP 1346 of UE 1345, and/or by the DP 1320 of AP 1302, or by hardware, or by a combination of stored software and hardware and/or firmware. Electronic devices implementing these embodiments of the invention may be one or more components of same such as the above described stored software, hardware, firmware and DP, or a system on a chip, SoC, or an application specific integrated circuit, ASCI.

Data processors

1320, 1306, and 1346 may comprise, for example, at least one of a microprocessor, application-specific integrated chip, ASIC, field-programmable gate array, FPGA, and a microcontroller.

Data processors

1320, 1306, and 1346 may comprise at least one, and in some embodiments more than one, processing core.

Memory

1322, 1308, and 1348 may comprise, for example, at least one of magnetic, optical and holographic or other kind or kinds of memory. At least part of

memory

1322, 1308, and 1348 may be comprised in

data processor

1320, 1306, and 1346, respectively. At least part of

memory

1322, 1308, and 1348 may be comprised externally to

data processor

1320, 1306, and/or 1346. The various embodiments of

UEs

1305 and 1345 can include, but are not limited to personal portable digital devices having wireless communication capabilities, including but not limited to smart devices, mobile devices, wireless handsets, cellular telephones, navigation devices, sensor devices, actuator devices, laptop/palmtop/tablet computers, digital cameras and music devices, and Internet appliances. The various embodiments of AP or access device 1302 can include but are not limited to communication devices having wireless communication and control capabilities, including but not limited to gNB-type devices that are tailored to control the devices within the subnetwork, UE-type devices that have the control functionalities to manage the devices within the subnetwork.

Various embodiments of the computer

readable MEMs

1308, 1348 and 1322 include any data storage technology type which is suitable to the local technical environment, which includes but not limited to semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory, removable memory, disc memory, flash memory, DRAM, SRAM, EEPROM and the like. Various embodiments of the

DPs

1320, 1306, and 1346 include but are not limited to general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors, DSPs, and multi-core processors.

The memory and the computer program instructions may be configured, with the processor for the particular device, to cause a hardware apparatus such as user equipment to perform any of the processes described as in FIGs 1 to 13. Therefore, in certain embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may be encoded with computer instructions that, when executed in hardware, perform a process such as one of the processes described herein. Alternatively, certain embodiments may be performed entirely in hardware.

In certain embodiments, an apparatus may include circuitry configured to perform any of the processes or functions illustrated in FIGs 1 through 12. For example, circuitry may be hardware-only circuit implementations, such as analog and/or digital circuitry. In another example, circuitry may be a combination of hardware circuits and software, and at least one memory that work together to cause an apparatus to perform various processes or functions. In yet another example, circuitry may be hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that include software, such as firmware for operation. Software in circuitry may not be present when it is not needed for the operation of the hardware.

The features, structures, or characteristics of certain embodiments described throughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more than one embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases “certain embodiments, ” “some embodiments, ” “other embodiments, ” or similar language, throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearance of the phrases “in certain embodiments, ” “in some embodiments, ” “in other embodiments, ” or similar language, throughout this specification does not necessarily limit to the same group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

One with ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that certain embodiments discussed above may be practiced with steps in a different order, and/or with hardware elements in configurations which are different than those which are disclosed. Therefore, it would be apparent to those of skill in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. Reference should be made to the appended claims in order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention.

Partial Glossary

3GPP 3 ^rd Generation Partnership Project

6G 6 ^th generation

AP access point

BS base station

BLER block error rate

C-RAN centralized/cloud-radio access network

CDD cyclic delay diversity

D2D device to device

DL downlink

DP data processor

FH frequency hopping

eNB Evolved Node B

gNB Next Generation eNB

HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request

ID identifier

in-X cell in-X subnetwork like in-robot, in-vehicle, in-body, in-

house etc.

L2 layer 2

MIMO multiple input multiple output

NACK non-acknowledgement

NR new radio

NLOS non-line of sight

RSRP reference signal received power

RV redundancy version

SL sidelink

SPS semi-persistent scheduling

SNR signal-to-noise ratio

STC space-time coding

TB transport block

UE user equipment

UL uplink

URLLC ultra-reliable low-latency communications

According to a first embodiment, a method may comprise receiving, at a user equipment from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the user equipment and at least another user equipment; receiving, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the user equipment and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases; decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment. In response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information: encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.

The method may further comprise performing full duplex operation during the second transmission phase. In a variant, the method may comprise in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information: decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in a second transmission phase. In another variant, the method may further comprise, in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information for the user equipment and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information for the at least another user equipment, in a second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases: encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information, and transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.

The first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource may comprise the second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in time domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment-pairing operation or a user equipment-grouping operation. The user equipment group is formed based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, channel quality indication from the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, location of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, or distance between the user equipment and the at least another user equipment. The received information of a user equipment group comprises at least one of: an identifier of the user equipment group, or an identifier of each user equipment of the user equipment group. The first redundancy version of the first data information and the first redundancy version of the second data information may apply the same redundancy version. Similarly, The second redundancy version of the first data information and the second redundancy version of the second data information may use the same redundancy version.

The method may further comprise receiving information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the user equipment group and communication among the user equipment group. The allocated resources comprises at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the second time-frequency resources may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise the second transmission phase in time domain. The allocated resource may be scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistent scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or receiving errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on survival time interval of data traffic.

According to a second embodiment, a method may comprise receiving, at a user equipment from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the user equipment and at least another user equipment; receiving, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the user equipment and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases; decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment; in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment: encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.

In a variant, the method may further comprise, in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase. The method may further comprise performing full duplex operation during the second transmission phase.

The first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is received on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource may comprise the second transmission phase in time domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment-pairing operation or a user equipment-grouping operation. The user equipment group is formed based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, channel quality indication from the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, location of the user equipment and the at least another user equipment, or distance between the user equipment and the at least another user equipment. The received information of a user equipment group comprises at least one of: an identifier of the user equipment group, or an identifier of each user equipment of the user equipment group.

The method may further comprise receiving information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the user equipment group and communication among the user equipment group. The allocated resources may comprise at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource, wherein the first and the second time-frequency resource comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise the second transmission phase in time domain. The allocated resource may be scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistency scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or receiving errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on survival time interval of data traffic. The decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the user equipment may comprise soft combining the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the user equipment.

According to a third embodiment, a method may comprise grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmitting, from an access device to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping; scheduling transmissions to the user equipment group in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase; encoding a first data information for the first user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions, and a second data information for the second user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions; transmitting, to the user equipment group, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the first transmission phase; and transmitting, to the user equipment group, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the second transmission phase.

The scheduling may comprise allocating resources for communication between the access device and the user equipment group, and communication among the user equipment group. The allocated resource comprises at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource. The first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment is transmitted on the first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment is transmitted on the second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment is transmitted on the third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment is transmitted on the fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource may comprise the second transmission phase in time domain.

The grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group is based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, channel quality indication from the first user equipment and the second user equipment, location of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, or distance between the first user equipment and the second user equipment. The information of grouping comprises at least one of: an identifier of the user equipment group, or an identifier of each user equipment of the user equipment group. The scheduling may comprise at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistency scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transmission block decoding or receiving errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on survival time interval of data traffic.

According to a fourth embodiment, a method may comprise receiving, at a user equipment from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the user equipment and at least another user equipment; transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the user equipment; receiving, in the first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment; decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment; in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment: encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, and transmitting, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment. The method may further comprise, in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, transmitting, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment. The method may further comprise performing full duplex operation during the first transmission phase.

The first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is transmitted on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment is transmitted on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is transmitted on a fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource may comprise the second transmission phase in time domain.

The method may further comprise receiving information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the user equipment group, and communication among the user equipment group. The allocated resources comprise at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the second time-frequency resources may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise the second transmission phase in time domain. The allocated resource may be scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistency scheduling. The dynamic scheduling may be triggered based on one or more transmission block decoding or receiving errors. The semi-persistent scheduling may be triggered based on survival time interval of data traffic.

According to a fifth embodiment, a method may comprise grouping, at an access device, at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmitting, from the access device to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping; scheduling uplink transmission from the user equipment group; receiving, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment, and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and receiving, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment, and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment. The received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment. And, the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.

The second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment received from the second user equipment is as a response to successful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment received at the second user equipment. The second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment received from the first user equipment is as a response to successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment received at the first user equipment. The scheduling comprises allocating resource for communication between the access device and the user equipment group, and communication among the user equipment group.

The allocated resource comprises at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource. The first redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is received on the first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is received on the second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is received on the third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is received on the fourth time-frequency resource. The first and the third time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources may comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain. The first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource may comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource may comprise the second transmission phase in time domain.

The user equipment group is formed via a user equipment-pairing operation or a user equipment-grouping operation. The grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group is based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, channel quality indication from the first user equipment and the second user equipment, location of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, or distance between the first user equipment and the second user equipment. The information of the grouping comprises at least one of: an identifier of the user equipment group, or an identifier of each user equipment of the user equipment group.

The method may further comprise decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the first user equipment, and decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information of the second user equipment. The decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information may comprise soft combining the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information, and wherein the decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information comprises soft combining the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information.

According to a sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor and at least one memory and computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code may be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform the method according to any of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiment, and any of their variants.

According to an eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth embodiment, an apparatus may comprise means for performing the method according to any of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiment, and any of their variants.

According to a sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions stored thereon for performing the method according to any of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiment, and any of their variants.

According to a twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth embodiment, a computer readable medium of wireless communication storing a program of instructions, execution of which by a processor configuring an apparatus to at least perform according to any of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiment, and any of their variants.

According to a twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, twenty-eightth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth embodiment, a computer program comprising instructions stored thereon for performing a method according to any of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth embodiment, and any of their variants.

According to a thirty-first embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform: receive, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment; receive, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases; decode the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment; in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information: encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmit, to the at least another user equipment, the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decode a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.

According to a thirty-second embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform: receive, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment; receive, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases; decode the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment; in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment: encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information; transmit, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decode the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.

According to a thirty-third embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform: group at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmit, to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping; schedule transmissions to the user equipment group in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase; encode a first data information for the first user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions, and a second data information for the second user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions; transmit, to the user equipment group, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the first transmission phase; and transmit, to the user equipment group, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the second transmission phase.

According to a thirty-fourth embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform: receive, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment; transmit, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus; receive, in the first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment; decode the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment; in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment: encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, and transmit, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment.

According to a thirty-fifth embodiment, an apparatus may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform: group at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group; transmit, to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping; receive, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment, and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and receive, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment, and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment. The received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment. And, the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.

The foregoing description is illustrative, which means various alternatives and modifications may be performed by one skilled in the art. Features from various embodiments described above may be selectively combined into a new embodiment. The description is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variances which fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

receive, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment;

receive, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases;

decode the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information;

transmit, to the at least another user equipment, the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decode a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform full duplex operation during the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

decode a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in a second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information for the apparatus and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information for the at least another user equipment, in a second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases,

encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information, and

transmit, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is received on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is received on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a fourth time-frequency resource.
The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the first and the third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain.
The apparatus according to claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource comprise the second transmission phase of the at least two transmission phases in time domain.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the user equipment group is formed via a user equipment-pairing operation or a user equipment-grouping operation.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the user equipment group is formed based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, channel quality indication from the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, location of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, or distance between the apparatus and the at least another user equipment.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 9, wherein the received information of a user equipment group comprises at least one of: an identifier of the user equipment group, or an identifier of each user equipment of the user equipment group.
The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to receive information of allocated resources for communication between the access device and the user equipment group and communication among the user equipment group.
The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the allocated resources comprises at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource, wherein the first and the second time-frequency resources comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise the second transmission phase in time domain.
The apparatus according to claim 11 or claim 12, wherein the allocated resource is scheduled via at least one of dynamic scheduling or semi-persistent scheduling.
The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the dynamic scheduling is triggered based on one or more transport block decoding or receiving errors.
The apparatus according to claim 13 or claim 14, wherein the semi-persistent scheduling is triggered based on survival time interval of data traffic.
An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

receive, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment;

receive, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases;

decode the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information;

transmit, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decode the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

decode the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform full duplex operation during the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to any of claims 16 to 18, wherein the decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the apparatus comprising soft combining the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the apparatus.
An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

group at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmit, to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping;

schedule transmissions to the user equipment group in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase;

encode a first data information for the first user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions, and a second data information for the second user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions;

transmit, to the user equipment group, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the first transmission phase; and

transmit, to the user equipment group, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the second transmission phase.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the scheduling transmissions comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to allocate resources for communication between the apparatus and the user equipment group, and communication among the user equipment group.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the allocated resource comprises at least one of a first time-frequency resource, a second time-frequency resource, a third time-frequency resource, or a fourth time-frequency resource, and wherein the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment is transmitted on the first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment is transmitted on the second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment is transmitted on the third time- frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment is transmitted on the fourth time-frequency resource.
An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

receive, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment;

transmit, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus;

receive, in the first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment;

decode the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

encode the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, and

transmit, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment.
The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

transmit, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus.
The apparatus according to claim 23 or claim 24, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to perform full duplex operation during the first transmission phase.
The apparatus according to any of claims 23 to 25, wherein the first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is transmitted on a first time-frequency resource, the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is received on a second time-frequency resource, the second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus is transmitted on a third time-frequency resource, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment is transmitted on a fourth time-frequency resource.
The apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the first and the third time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain, and the second and the fourth time-frequency resources comprise different frequency resources in frequency domain and different time resources in time domain.
The apparatus according to claim 26 or claim 27, wherein the first time-frequency resource and the second time-frequency resource comprise the first transmission phase in time domain, and the third time-frequency resource and the fourth time-frequency resource comprise the second transmission phase in time domain.
The apparatus according to any of claims 23 to 28, wherein the user equipment group is formed via a user equipment-pairing operation or a user equipment-grouping operation.
The apparatus according to any of claims 23 to 29, wherein the user equipment group is formed based on at least one of: uplink channel quality measurements of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, channel quality indication from the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, location of the apparatus and the at least another user equipment, or distance between the apparatus and the at least another user equipment.
The apparatus according to any of claims 23 to 30, wherein the received information of a user equipment group comprises at least one of: an identifier of the user equipment group, or an identifier of each user equipment of the user equipment group.
An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

group at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmit, to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping;

schedule uplink transmission from the user equipment group;

receive, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment, and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and

receive, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment, and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment,

wherein the received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment, and

wherein the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.
The apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment received from the second user equipment is as a result of successful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment at the second user equipment.
The apparatus according to claim 32 or claim 33, wherein the second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment received from the first user equipment is as a result of successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment at the first user equipment .
The apparatus according to any of claims 32 to 34, wherein the scheduling comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to allocate resource for communication between the apparatus and the user equipment group, and communication among the user equipment group.
The apparatus according to any of claims 32 to 35, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to:

decode the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information of the first user equipment, and

decode the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information of the second user equipment.
The apparatus according to claim 36, wherein the decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to soft combine the received first and second redundancy versions of the first data information, and wherein the decoding the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information comprises the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, caused the apparatus at least to soft combine the received first and second redundancy versions of the second data information.
A method comprising:

receiving, at a user equipment from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the user equipment and at least another user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the user equipment and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information;

transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
A method comprising:

receiving, at a user equipment from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the user equipment and at least another user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the user equipment and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information;

transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment and second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
A method comprising:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting, from an access device to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping;

scheduling transmissions to the user equipment group in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase;

encoding a first data information for the first user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions, and a second data information for the second user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions;

transmitting, to the user equipment group, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the first transmission phase; and

transmitting, to the user equipment group, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the second transmission phase.
A method comprising:

receiving, at a user equipment from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the user equipment and at least another user equipment;

transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the user equipment;

receiving, in the first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, and

transmitting, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment.
A method comprising:

grouping, at an access device, at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting, from the access device to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping;

scheduling uplink transmission from the user equipment group;

receiving, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment, and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and

receiving, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment, and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment,

wherein the received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment, and

wherein the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.
An apparatus comprising means for performing:

receiving, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to an unsuccessful decode of the first redundancy version of the first data information and a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information;

transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the encoded second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decoding a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.

.
An apparatus comprising means for performing:

receiving, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment;

receiving, from the access device, in a first transmission phase of at least two transmission phases, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least the first and a second transmission phases;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information;

transmitting, to the at least another user equipment, the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase, and decoding the received first redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus and second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, wherein the second redundancy version of the first data information is received from at least one of the access device or the at least another user equipment in the second transmission phase.
An apparatus comprising means for performing:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting, to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping;

scheduling transmissions to the user equipment group in at least two transmission phases, wherein the at least two transmission phases comprise at least a first transmission phase and a second transmission phase;

encoding a first data information for the first user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions, and a second data information for the second user equipment into a first and a second redundancy versions,

transmitting, to the user equipment group, the first redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the first redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the first transmission phase; and

transmitting, to the user equipment group, the second redundancy version of the first data information for the first user equipment, and the second redundancy version of the second data information for the second user equipment in the second transmission phase.
An apparatus comprising means for performing:

receiving, from an access device, an information of a user equipment group, wherein the user equipment group comprises the apparatus and at least another user equipment;

transmitting, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the apparatus;

receiving, in the first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a second data information of the at least another user equipment;

decoding the received first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment;

in response to a successful decode of the first redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment,

encoding the decoded second data information of the at least another

user equipment into a second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment, and

transmitting, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the apparatus, and the second redundancy version of the second data information of the at least another user equipment.
An apparatus comprising means for performing:

grouping at least a first user equipment and a second user equipment into a user equipment group;

transmitting, to the user equipment group, an information of the grouping;

scheduling uplink transmission from the user equipment group;

receiving, in a first transmission phase, a first redundancy version of a first data information of the first user equipment from the first user equipment, and a first redundancy version of a second data information of the second user equipment from the second user equipment, and

receiving, in a second transmission phase, a second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment, and a second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment,

wherein the received second redundancy version of the first data information of the first user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment, and

wherein the received second redundancy version of the second data information of the second user equipment is from at least one of: the first user equipment or the second user equipment.