WO2023135009A1 - Methods, communications devices, and network infrastructure equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of operating a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network. The method comprises receiving a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network. The plurality of downlink transmissions may contain downlink control information, DCI carried by physical downlink control channel, PDCCH and/or downlink data, carried by Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH. The method comprises generating uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, identifying for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, and identifying that the uplink channel resources are in collisions, for example overlapping in time. The method further comprises transmitting one of the uplink information items identified as high priority in one of the uplink channel resources in collision. The transmitting comprises, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window either multiplexing the uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item. Example embodiments can provide an arrangement in which a communications device can select either 3GPP release 16 prioritisation for transmitting uplink information or 3GPP release 17 multiplexing of uplink information into an uplink channel resource which would otherwise overlap with an uplink channel resource, in which other uplink information has been multiplexed for transmission

Description

METHODS, COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES, AND NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE EQUIPMENT

BACKGROUND

Field of Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to a communications device, network infrastructure equipment and methods of operating a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network. The present disclosure claims the Paris convention priority of European patent application EP22151067.0 filed on 11 January 2022, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in entirety,

Description of Related Art

The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.

Latest generation mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, are able to support a wider range of services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy such networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to continue to increase rapidly.

Future wireless communications networks will be expected routinely and efficiently to support communications with an ever-increasing range of devices associated with a wider range of data traffic profiles and types than existing systems are optimised to support. For example, it is expected future wireless communications networks will be expected efficiently to support communications with devices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets and so on. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the “The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with the transmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example supporting high-definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterised by data that should be transmitted through the network with low latency and high reliability. A single device type might also be associated with different traffic profiles / characteristics depending on the application(s) it is running. For example, different consideration may apply for efficiently supporting data exchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streaming application (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or being used for voice communications by an emergency responder in an emergency scenario (data subject to stringent reliability and latency requirements).

In view of this there is expected to be a desire for future wireless communications networks, for example those which may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems / new radio access technology (RAT) systems, as well as future iterations / releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements.

One example of a new service is referred to as Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services which, as its name suggests, requires that a data unit or packet be communicated with a high reliability and with a low communications delay. Another example of a new service is enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services, which are characterised by a high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. URLLC and eMBB type services therefore represent challenging examples for both LTE type communications systems and 5G/NR communications systems.

The increasing use of different types of network infrastructure equipment and terminal devices associated with different traffic profiles give rise to new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless communications systems that need to be addressed.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above. Embodiments of the present technique can provide a method of operating a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the method comprising receiving a plurality of downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network. The method comprises generating uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, identifying for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, and identifying that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions are in collision, for example overlapping in time. The method comprises determining to transmit one or more of the uplink information items depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, or prioritising transmission of the uplink information item that is high priority in the uplink channel resource and dropping the uplink information item that is low priority.

Embodiments can provide an arrangement of providing more certainty for a communications device and a wireless communications network to transmit and to receive uplink data respectively which includes efficiencies provided by multiplexing uplink information items for transmission, whilst accommodating a possibility of an urgent scheduling to be received for transmitting high priority uplink information. According to the present technique a communications device is configured with one or more control windows control time windows with respect to which it either multiplexes uplink information into an overlapping uplink channel resource or prioritises transmission of high priority data depending on whether the downlink transmission associated with the uplink channel resource was received outside or within a control time window. Accordingly, for example a communications device can select either 3 GPP release 16 prioritisation for transmitting uplink information or release 17 multiplexing of uplink information into an uplink channel resource which would otherwise overlap with an uplink channel resource, in which other uplink information has been multiplexed for transmission.

Embodiments of the present technique, which, in addition to methods of operating communications devices, relate to methods of operating infrastructure equipment, communications devices and infrastructure equipment, circuitry for communications devices and infrastructure equipment, wireless communications systems, computer programs, and computer-readable storage mediums, can allow for more efficient use of communication resources by a communications device operating in a wireless communications network. Respective aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, but are not restrictive, of the present technology. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 schematically represents some aspects of an LTE-type wireless telecommunication system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 2 schematically represents some aspects of a new radio access technology (RAT) wireless telecommunications system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of an example infrastructure equipment and communications device which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 4 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface in which multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK) may be multiplexed onto a single Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH);

Figure 5 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface in which a PUCCH Resource Indicator is used to indicate onto which PUCCH HARQ-ACKs may be multiplexed;

Figure 6 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface in which an example of sub-slot based PUCCH is shown;

Figure 7 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface in which multiple HARQ-ACKs for Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) Physical Downlink Shared Channels (PDSCHs) are be multiplexed onto a single PUCCH per sub-slot;

Figure 8 is an illustrative representation of transmission and reception of uplink and downlink channels in which multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK) may be multiplexed onto a single Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH);

Figure 9 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface comprising OFMD symbols, in which HARQ-ACKs of different priorities may be multiplexed into a low priority and a high priority PUCCH respectively;

Figure 10 is an illustrative representation of transmission and reception of uplink and downlink channels in which a later received DCI provides a grant of uplink channel resource which at least partially overlaps with a low priority Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) carrying multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK) are dropped in favour of transmitting uplink information in the uplink channel resource granted by the late received DCI according to 3GPP Release- 16; Figure 11 is an illustrative representation of transmission and reception of uplink and downlink channels in which a later received DCI provides a grant of PUSCH resource for carrying high priority uplink control information (UCI), which at least partially overlaps with a low priority Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) carrying multiple Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgements (HARQ- ACK), which are multiplexed into the high priority PUSCH with the UCI for transmission according to 3GPP Release- 17;

Figure 12 is an illustrative representation of transmission and reception of uplink and downlink channels in which DCIs grant uplink and downlink resources, where the uplink information is multiplexed into a low priority PUSCH according Rel-16 according to a multiplex indicator (Mux Indicator) provided in the received DCIs, and in which a later received DCI provides a grant of PUSCH resource for carrying high priority UCI, which at least partially overlaps with the low priority PUSCH which would require the low priority PUSCH to be dropped illustrating a technical problem addressed by the disclosed embodiments; Figure 13 is an illustrative representation of transmission and reception of uplink and downlink channels in which DCIs grant uplink and downlink resources and in which a plurality of control windows can be used to determine whether or not multiplexing or prioritisation of uplink information is performed according for example to Release- 17 or Release- 16 depending on whether a DCI granting the uplink channel resource is received within or outside one of the control time windows;

Figure 14 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface comprising OFMD symbols, in which HARQ-ACKs of different priorities are multiplexed into a low priority and a high priority PUCCH respectively and because a later received DCI provides grant of PDSCH resource and PUCCH resource for transmitting high priority physical layer data is received within a time control window, the PUCCH which overlaps a low priority PUCCH is prioritised with the low priority PUCCH being dropped and the high priority PUCCH carrying multiplexed high priority physical layer data transmitted according to example embodiments;

Figure 15 is an illustrative representation of communications resources in time and frequency for uplink and downlink channels of a time divided wireless access interface comprising OFMD symbols, in which HARQ-ACKs of different priorities are multiplexed into a high priority PUSCH with low priority physical layer data, which would have been multiplexed into a PUCCH which overlaps the PUSCH, but is multiplexed and transmitted even though a later received DCI provides grant of the overlapping PUSCH resource according to example embodiments; and

Figure 16 is a flow diagram representing an operation of a communications device according to example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Long Term Evolution Advanced Radio Access Technology (4G)

Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basic functionality of a mobile telecommunications network / system 6 operating generally in accordance with LTE principles, but which may also support other radio access technologies, and which may be adapted to implement embodiments of the disclosure as described herein. Various elements of Figure 1 and certain aspects of their respective modes of operation are well-known and defined in the relevant standards administered by the 3GPP (RTM) body, and also described in many books on the subject, for example, Holma H. and Toskala A [6] . It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications networks discussed herein which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to the relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to the relevant standards. The network 6 includes a plurality of base stations 1 connected to a core network 2. Each base station provides a coverage area 3 (i.e. a cell) within which data can be communicated to and from communications devices 4. Although each base station 1 is shown in Figure 1 as a single entity, the skilled person will appreciate that some of the functions of the base station may be carried out by disparate, inter-connected elements, such as antennas (or antennae), remote radio heads, amplifiers, etc. Collectively, one or more base stations may form a radio access network.

Data is transmitted from base stations 1 to communications devices or mobile terminals (MT) 4 within their respective coverage areas 3 via a radio downlink. Data is transmitted from communications devices 4 to the base stations 1 via a radio uplink. The core network 2 routes data to and from the communications devices 4 via the respective base stations 1 and provides functions such as authentication, mobility management, charging and so on. The communications or terminal devices 4 may also be referred to as mobile stations, user equipment (UE), user terminal, mobile radio, communications device, and so forth. Services provided by the core network 2 may include connectivity to the internet or to external telephony services. The core network 2 may further track the location of the communications devices 4 so that it can efficiently contact (i.e. page) the communications devices 4 for transmitting downlink data towards the communications devices 4.

Base stations, which are an example of network infrastructure equipment, may also be referred to as transceiver stations, nodeBs, e-nodeBs, eNB, g-nodeBs, gNB and so forth. In this regard different terminology is often associated with different generations of wireless telecommunications systems for elements providing broadly comparable functionality. However, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be equally implemented in different generations of wireless telecommunications systems, and for simplicity certain terminology may be used regardless of the underlying network architecture. That is to say, the use of a specific term in relation to certain example implementations is not intended to indicate these implementations are limited to a certain generation of network that may be most associated with that particular terminology.

New Radio Access Technology (5G)

An example configuration of a wireless communications network which uses some of the terminology proposed for and used in NR and 5G is shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2 a plurality of transmission and reception points (TRPs) 10 are connected to distributed control units (DUs) 41, 42 by a connection interface represented as a line 16. Each of the TRPs 10 is arranged to transmit and receive signals via a wireless access interface within a radio frequency bandwidth available to the wireless communications network. Thus, within a range for performing radio communications via the wireless access interface, each of the TRPs 10, forms a cell of the wireless communications network as represented by a circle 12. As such, wireless communications devices 14 which are within a radio communications range provided by the cells 12 can transmit and receive signals to and from the TRPs 10 via the wireless access interface. Each of the distributed units 41, 42 are connected to a central unit (CU) 40 (which may be referred to as a controlling node) via an interface 46. The central unit 40 is then connected to the core network 20 which may contain all other functions required to transmit data for communicating to and from the wireless communications devices and the core network 20 may be connected to other networks 30.

The elements of the wireless access network shown in Figure 2 may operate in a similar way to corresponding elements of an LTE network as described with regard to the example of Figure 1. It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications network represented in Figure 2, and of other networks discussed herein in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure, which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to currently used approaches for implementing such operational aspects of wireless telecommunications systems, e.g. in accordance with the relevant standards.

The TRPs 10 of Figure 2 may in part have a corresponding functionality to a base station or eNodeB of an LTE network. Similarly, the communications devices 14 may have a functionality corresponding to the UE devices 4 known for operation with an LTE network. It will be appreciated therefore that operational aspects of a new RAT network (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be different to those known from LTE or other known mobile telecommunications standards. However, it will also be appreciated that each of the core network component, base stations and communications devices of a new RAT network will be functionally similar to, respectively, the core network component, base stations and communications devices of an LTE wireless communications network.

In terms of broad top-level functionality, the core network 20 connected to the new RAT telecommunications system represented in Figure 2 may be broadly considered to correspond with the core network 2 represented in Figure 1, and the respective central units 40 and their associated distributed units / TRPs 10 may be broadly considered to provide functionality corresponding to the base stations 1 of Figure 1. The term network infrastructure equipment / access node may be used to encompass these elements and more conventional base station type elements of wireless telecommunications systems. Depending on the application at hand the responsibility for scheduling transmissions which are scheduled on the radio interface between the respective distributed units and the communications devices may lie with the controlling node / central unit and / or the distributed units / TRPs. A communications device 14 is represented in Figure 2 within the coverage area of the first communication cell 12. This communications device 14 may thus exchange signalling with the first central unit 40 in the first communication cell 12 via one of the distributed units / TRPs 10 associated with the first communication cell 12.

It will further be appreciated that Figure 2 represents merely one example of a proposed architecture for a new RAT based telecommunications system in which approaches in accordance with the principles described herein may be adopted, and the functionality disclosed herein may also be applied in respect of wireless telecommunications systems having different architectures.

Thus, certain embodiments of the disclosure as discussed herein may be implemented in wireless telecommunication systems / networks according to various different architectures, such as the example architectures shown in Figures 1 and 2. It will thus be appreciated the specific wireless telecommunications architecture in any given implementation is not of primary significance to the principles described herein. In this regard, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be described generally in the context of communications between network infrastructure equipment / access nodes and a communications device, wherein the specific nature of the network infrastructure equipment / access node and the communications device will depend on the network infrastructure for the implementation at hand. For example, in some scenarios the network infrastructure equipment / access node may comprise a base station, such as an LTE-type base station 1 as shown in Figure 1 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein, and in other examples the network infrastructure equipment may comprise a control unit / controlling node 40 and / or a TRP 10 of the kind shown in Figure 2 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein.

A more detailed diagram of some of the components of the network shown in Figure 2 is provided by Figure 3. In Figure 3, a TRP 10 as shown in Figure 2 comprises, as a simplified representation, a wireless transmiter 30, a wireless receiver 32 and a controller or controlling processor 34 which may operate to control the transmiter 30 and the wireless receiver 32 to transmit and receive radio signals to one or more UEs 14 within a cell 12 formed by the TRP 10. As shown in Figure 3, an example UE 14 is shown to include a corresponding transmiter circuit 49, a receiver circuit 48 and a controller circuit 44 which is configured to control the transmiter circuit 49 and the receiver circuit 48 to transmit signals representing uplink data to the wireless communications network via the wireless access interface formed by the TRP 10 and to receive downlink data as signals transmited by the transmiter circuit 30 and received by the receiver circuit 48 in accordance with the conventional operation.

The transmiter circuits 30, 49 and the receiver circuits 32, 48 (as well as other transmiters, receivers and transceivers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may include radio frequency filters and amplifiers as well as signal processing components and devices in order to transmit and receive radio signals in accordance for example with the 5G/NR standard. The controller circuits 34, 44 (as well as other controllers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc., configured to carry out instructions which are stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-volatile memory. The processing steps described herein may be carried out by, for example, a microprocessor in conjunction with a random access memory, operating according to instructions stored on a computer readable medium. The transmiters, the receivers and the controllers are schematically shown in Figure 3 as separate elements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciated that the functionality of these elements can be provided in various different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configured application-specific integrated circuit(s) / circuitry / chip(s) / chipset(s). As will be appreciated the infrastructure equipment / TRP / base station as well as the UE / communications device will in general comprise various other elements associated with its operating functionality.

As shown in Figure 3, the TRP 10 also includes a network interface 50 which connects to the DU 42 via a physical interface 16. The network interface 50 therefore provides a communication link for data and signalling traffic from the TRP 10 via the DU 42 and the CU 40 to the core network 20.

The interface 46 between the DU 42 and the CU 40 is known as the F 1 interface which can be a physical or a logical interface. The Fl interface 46 between CU and DU may operate in accordance with specifications 3GPP TS 38.470 and 3GPP TS 38.473, and may be formed from a fibre optic or other wired or wireless high bandwidth connection. In one example the connection 16 from the TRP 10 to the DU 42 is via fibre optic. The connection between a TRP 10 and the core network 20 can be generally referred to as a backhaul, which comprises the interface 16 from the network interface 50 of the TRP 10 to the DU 42 and the Fl interface 46 from the DU 42 to the CU 40. eURLLC and eMBB

Systems incorporating NR technology are expected to support different services (or types of services), which may be characterised by different requirements for latency, data rate and/or reliability. For example, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services are characterised by high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. The requirements for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services are for one transmission of a 32 byte packet to be transmited from the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDU ingress point to the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDU egress point of the radio interface within 1 ms with a reliability of 1 - 10"⁵ (99.999 %) or higher (99.9999%) [2],

Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) is another example of a service which may be supported by NR-based communications networks. In addition, systems may be expected to support further enhancements related to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in order to support services with new requirements of high availability, high reliability, low latency, and in some cases, high-accuracy positioning.

Enhanced URLLC (eURLLC) [3] specifies features that require high reliability and low latency, such as factory automation, transport industry, electrical power distribution, etc. in a 5G system. eURLLC is further enhanced as IIoT-URLLC [4], for which one of the objectives is to enhance UE feedback for Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgements (HARQ-ACK) signalling for downlink transmissions (for example, PDSCH).

PDSCH HARQ-ACK/NACK Signalling

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a communications device and methods of operating a communications device (UE) in a wireless communications network for handling HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) feedback in respect of downlink transmissions in physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network.

As will be appreciated, HARQ feedback is transmitted by a communications device (such as a UE) to an infrastructure equipment (such as a gNB) in respect of a scheduled PDSCH to inform the infrastructure equipment whether or not the communications device has successfully decoded the corresponding PDSCH. Each PDSCH may be transmitted according to a different HARQ process which may be assigned a particular HARQ Process Number (HPN) to identify the HARQ process for that PDSCH. The HPN number may be assigned by infrastructure equipment in the wireless communications network, such as a gNB. Each HARQ process involves transmitting a HARQ acknowledgment (i.e. an ACK) or a HARQ negative acknowledgment (i.e. a NACK) depending on whether the PDSCH transmitted according to that HARQ process was successfully received/decoded. For example, if the PDSCH was successfully received/decoded, the receiving communications device will send a HARQ acknowledgment (i.e. an ACK), and if the transmission was not successfully received the communications device will send a HARQ negative acknowledgment (i.e. a NACK).

It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that references to “HARQ-ACK” can represent either an “ACK” or a “NACK”, and is therefore used when it is not necessary to distinguish between an “ACK” and a “NACK”.

For scheduled transmission of downlink data from an infrastructure equipment to a communications device in a wireless communications network, it is common for the infrastructure equipment to first send control signalling, e.g. on a downlink control channel (such as a PDCCH - Physical Downlink Control Channel), comprising downlink control information (DCI) which indicates (grants) downlink resources that are to be used to transmit the data, e.g. on a downlink shared channel (such as a PDSCH).

From this DCI, the communications device can determine uplink resources to use to send uplink control information (UCI) comprising an ACK or NACK in respect of the data, e.g. on an uplink control channel (such as a PUCCH), although it may also be on an uplink shared channel (such as a PUSCH). The communications device then seeks to receive the data on the indicated resources on the PDSCH. If the communications device successfully decodes the data, then the communications device transmits UCI on the determined uplink resources comprising an ACK. If the communications device does not successfully decode the data, the communications device transmits UCI on the determined uplink resources comprising a NACK. This allows the infrastructure equipment to determine if it should schedule a retransmission of the data. So as to provide some particular examples, certain embodiments of the disclosure will be described herein in the context of HARQ-ACK transmissions in respect of downlink transmissions of URLLC data and using terminology, for example in respect of channel names such as PUCCH and PDSCH and signalling names, such as DCI and UCI, which are typically used in connection with current 3GPP wireless communications networks. However, it will be appreciated this is only for convenience, and in general the approaches discussed herein are applicable for other service types and in wireless communications networks which use different terminology. Thus, references herein to PUCCH should, unless the context demands otherwise, be read as referring to a physical uplink control channel generally, and not specifically to a particular format of physical uplink control channel, and so on for other channels and terminology that may be referred to herein.

As will be appreciated, resources of a wireless access interface comprise a grid of communications resources (i.e. a radio frame structure) spanning frequency and time. The frequency dimension is divided into sub-carriers and the time dimension is divided into OFDM symbols that are grouped into slots and sub-slots.

PDSCH HARQ-ACK Feedback

In a Dynamic Grant PDSCH (DG-PDSCH), the PDSCH resource is dynamically indicated by the gNB using a DL Grant carried by Downlink Control Information (DCI) in a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

A PDSCH is transmitted using HARQ transmission, where for a PDSCH ending in slot n, the corresponding Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) carrying the HARQ-ACK is transmitted in slot n+Ki. Here, in Dynamic Grant PDSCH, the value of K is indicated in the field “PDSCH-to- HARQ feedback timing indicator” of the DU Grant (carried by DCI Format 1 0, DCI Format 1 1 or DCI Format 1 2). Multiple (different) PDSCHs can point to the same slot for transmission of their respective HARQ-ACKs, and these HARQ-ACKs (in the same slot) are multiplexed into a single PUCCH. Hence, a PUCCH can contain multiple HARQ-ACKs for multiple PDSCHs.

An example of this is shown in Figure 4, where three DU Grants are transmitted to the UE via DCI#1, DCI#2 and DCI#3 in slot n, n+1 and w+2 respectively on a DE of a wireless access interface 102. DCI#1, DCI#2 and DCI#3 schedule PDSCH# 1, PDSCH#2 and PDSCH#3 respectively as represented by arrow 112, 114, 116. DCI#1, DCI#2 and DCI#3 further indicate Ki = 3, Ki = 2 and Ki = 1 respectively, which determine the uplink channel resource of the UL channel 101, as represented by arrows 120, 122, 124. Since the Ki values indicate that the HARQ-ACK feedback for PDSCH# 1, PDSCH#2 and PDSCH#3 are all to be transmitted in slot w+4. the UE multiplexes all of these HARQ-ACKs into a single PUCCH, i.e. PUCCH# 1. The PUCCH Multiplexing Window is a time window where PDSCHs can be multiplexed into that single PUCCH, and the size of the PUCCH multiplexing window depends on the range of Ki values. In the example in Figure 4, the PUCCH Multiplexing Window is from Slot n to Slot w+3 (i.e. between time to and time U), which means the max Ki value is 4 slots.

In Rel-15, only one PUCCH per slot is allowed to carry HARQ-ACKs for the same UE, even if the different PUCCHs do not overlap in time they are considered to be in collision. The PUCCH resource is indicated in the "PUCCH Resource Indicator” (PRI) field in the DL Grant. Each DL Grant may indicate a different PUCCH resource, but the UE will follow the PRI indicated in the last PDSCH in the PUCCH Multiplexing Window since the UE only knows the total number of HARQ-ACK bits after the last PDSCH is received. An example of this is shown in Figure 5, which corresponds to the example of Figure 4, where DCI#1 and DCI#2 indicate PUCCH# 1 for the HARQ-ACKs corresponding to PDSCH# 1 and PDSCH#2, but DCI#3 indicates PUCCH#2 for the HARQ-ACK corresponding to PDSCH#3,as represented by arrows 208, 210, 212, 216, 218. Here, PUCCH# 1 and PUCCH#2 do not overlap in time. Since DCI#3 schedules the last PDSCH, i.e. PDSCH#3, in the Multiplexing Window, the UE will use PUCCH#2 to carry the HARQ-ACKs for PDSCH#1, PDSCH#2 and PDSCH#3. It should be noted here that a PUCCH carrying other UCI such as SR (Scheduling Request) can be transmitted separately to a PUCCH carrying HARQ- ACKs within the same slot if they do not overlap in time.

In Rel-16 eURLLC, sub-slot PUCCH is introduced for carrying HARQ-ACKs for URLEC PDSCHs. Sub-slot based PUCCHs allow more than one PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACKs to be transmitted within a slot. This gives more opportunity for PUCCHs carrying HARQ-ACKs for PDSCHs to be transmitted within a slot, thereby reducing latency for HARQ-ACK feedback. In a sub-slot based PUCCH, the granularity of the Ki parameter (i.e. the time difference between the end of a PDSCH and the start of its corresponding PUCCH) is in units of sub-slots instead of units of slots, where the sub-slot size can be either two symbols or seven symbols.

An example of this is shown in Figure 6, which corresponds to Figures 4 and 5, where the sub-slot size equals seven symbols (i.e. half a slot) and the sub-slots are labelled as m, m+1, m+2, etc. PDSCH#1 is transmitted in slot n+1 but for sub-slot based HARQ-ACK PUCCH, it is considered to be transmitted in sub-slot m+2 and here Ki = 6 which means that the corresponding HARQ-ACK is in sub-slot m+2+K/ = m+8. PDSCH#2 is transmitted in slot w+2 but occupies sub-slots m+4 and m+5. The reference for Ki is relative to the sub-slot where the PDSCH ends, and in this case PDSCH#2 ends in sub-slot m+5. The DL Grant in DCI#2 that schedules PDSCH#2 indicates Ki = 4, which schedules a PUCCH for its HARQ- ACK at sub-slot m+5+Ki = sub-slot m+9.

Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS)

As is well understood by those skilled in the art, a gNB uses a PDSCH for downlink data transmission to a UE. The PDSCH resources used for the transmission of the PDSCH can be scheduled by a gNB either dynamically, or through the allocation of Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) resources.

Similarly, to the use of Configured Grants (CGs) in the uplink, the use of SPS in the downlink reduces latency, particularly for regular and periodic traffic. The gNB is required to explicitly activate and deactivate SPS resources when it determines they may be required. These SPS resources are typically configured via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signalling, and occur periodically where each SPS PDSCH occasion has a pre-configured and fixed duration. This allows the gNB to schedule traffic that has a known periodicity and packet size. The gNB may or may not transmit any PDSCH in any given SPS PDSCH occasion, and so the UE is required to monitor each SPS PDSCH occasion for a potential PDSCH transmission.

In Rel-15 the UE can only be configured with one SPS PDSCH and this SPS PDSCH is activated using an activation DCI (Format 1 0 or 1 1) with the Cyclic Redundancy Code (CRC) scrambled with a Configured Scheduling Radio Network Temporary Identifier (CS-RNTI). Once an SPS PDSCH is activated, the UE will monitor for a potential PDSCH in each SPS PDSCH occasion of the SPS PDSCH configuration without the need for any DL Grant until the SPS PDSCH is deactivated. Deactivation of the SPS PDSCH is indicated via a deactivation DCI scrambled with CS-RNTI. The UE provides a HARQ-ACK feedback for the deactivation DCI, but no HARQ-ACK feedback is provided for an activation DCI. Similar to DG-PDSCH, the slot containing the PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK corresponding to SPS PDSCH is indicated using the K value in the field “PDSCH-to-HARQ^feedback timing indicator” of the activation DCI. Since a dynamic grant is not used for SPS PDSCH, this Ki value is applied for every SPS PDSCH occasion, and can only be updated after it has been deactivated and re-activated using another activation DCI with a different K\ value.

Since there is only one SPS PDSCH, PUCCH Format 0 or 1 is used to carry the HARQ-ACK feedback. If the PUCCH collides with a PUCCH carrying HARQ-ACK feedback for a DG-PDSCH, the HARQ- ACK for SPS PDSCH is multiplexed into the PUCCH corresponding to the DG-PDSCH.

In Rel-16 the UE can be configured with up to eight SPS PDSCHs, where each SPS PDSCH has an SPS Configuration Index that is RRC configured. Each SPS PDSCH is individually activated using a DCI (Format 1 0, 1 1, and 1 2) with the CRC scrambled with CS-RNTI, where the DCI indicates the SPS Configuration Index of the SPS PDSCH to be activated. However, multiple SPS PDSCHs can be deactivated using a single deactivation DCI. Similar to Rel-15, the UE provides a HARQ-ACK feedback for the deactivation DCI, but does not provide one for the activation DCI.

The slot or sub-slot containing the PUCCH resource for HARQ-ACK feedback corresponding to an SPS PDSCH occasion is determined using the K\ value indicated in the activation DCI. Since each SPS PDSCH configuration is individually activated, different SPS PDSCH can be indicated with different K\ values.

Since different K\ values can be used for different SPS PDSCH configurations, it is possible that the HARQ-ACK for multiple SPS PDSCHs point to the same slot or sub-slot, and in such a scenario, these HARQ-ACKs are multiplexed into a single PUCCH. For multiple SPS PDSCH configurations, PUCCH Format 2, 3, and 4 (in addition to PUCCH Format 0 and 1) can be used to carry multiple HARQ-ACKs for SPS PDSCH. Here, the HARQ-ACKs in the PUCCH are sorted in ascending order according to the DL slot for each of the SPS PDSCH Configuration Indices, and then sorted in ascending order of SPS PDSCH Configuration Index. It should be noted here that since typically the K\ value is fixed per SPS PDSCH then it is unlikely to have two or more SPS PDSCH with the same index being multiplexed into a PUCCH.

An example of this is shown in Figure 7, where a UE is configured with three SPS PDSCHs labelled as SPS#1, SPS#2 and SPS#3 with different periodicities that are RRC configured with SPS Configuration Index 1, 2 and 3 respectively. SPS#1, SPS#2 and SPS#3 are activated with Ki = 3, Ki = 4 and K = 1 respectively. These K\ values result in the PUCCH for HARQ-ACK feedback corresponding to SPS#2 in Slot n, SPS#1 in Slot «+l and SPS#3 in Slot w+3 being in the same slot, i.e. carried by PUCCH#2 in Slot w+4. as represented by arrows 262, 264, 266, 268. PUCCH#2 therefore provides 3 HARQ-ACKs labelled as {ACK#1, ACK#2, ACK#3} for SPS#1, SPS#2 and SPS#3 respectively according to their SPS PDSCH Configuration Indices (it can be seen that, in this example, there is only one unique SPS PDSCH per DL slot that has HARQ-ACK multiplexed into PUCCH#2).

In Rel-16, when the PUCCH for an SPS PDSCH collides with the PUCCH for a DG-PDSCH, their HARQ-ACKs are multiplexed, where the SPS PDSCH HARQ-ACKs are appended after those for DG- PDSCH, if they have the same priority. Otherwise, one of the PUCCHs is prioritised. Intra-UE UCI Multiplexing Timeline

Intra-UE UCI multiplexing is a technique used with 3GPP Release-15 (Rel-15) when two PUCCHs (e.g. carrying different UCIs) or a PUCCH and a PUSCH transmissions conflict for transmission by a UE (collide within a UE), so that the UCIs are multiplexed and transmitted in a PUCCH or the PUSCH. Since the UE requires time to process the UCI multiplexing and construct an UL channel to carry the multiplexed UCI bits (i.e. a single PUCCH) or UCI and data bits (i.e. a single PUSCH), there is a timeline for UCI multiplexing, which accommodate these processing times. A reference point So, is a reference for a multiplexing timeline, which is the start of the earliest overlapping channels, where So is the reference point for the deadlines for scheduling transmissions that overlaps with one or more UL channels. An example is shown in Figure 8.

In the description of example embodiments presented in the following paragraph, collision of two or more uplink channels (e.g. PUCCH and/or PUSCH) refers to the case where the uplink channel transmissions overlap in time and also for case involving two PUCCHs carrying HARQ-ACK, these PUCCHs are said to be in collision if they share a slot (14 OFDM symbol) or sub-slot (2 OFDM symbol or 7 OFDM symbol) even if these PUCCHs do not overlap in time.

According to a previously proposed arrangement, in Figure 8, a UE 4, 14 is configured to transmit and receive signals to and from a gNB 10,42 as represented by blocks 410, 412 etc. with respect to the time axis 401. As shown in Figure 8, a PDCCH 410 provides a DL Grant #1 indicating resources of the PDSCH# 1 412 and resources of PUCCH 414 for transmitting corresponding HARQ-ACKs in response to the received downlink transmissions in the PDSCH#1 412, as represented by arrows 416, 418. Also shown is a transmission by the gNB of a second DL Grant#2 420 providing resources of the downlink shared channel PDSCH#2 422 and indicating that the corresponding HARQ-ACKs can be transmitted in PUCCH resource 414 as represented by arrows 424, 426. Also shown in Figure 8 for this example, the gNodeB transmits an UL Grant 430 in resources of the PDCCH 430 which indicates by an arrow 432 separate resources of the PUSCH 434.

For the example shown in Figure 8, which corresponds to an arrangement established for Rel-15, the resources of the PUCCH 414 and PUSCH 434 overlap in time and therefore the uplink control information (UCI) conveying the HARQ-ACKs in the PUCCH 414 are multiplexed into the PUSCH 434 as represented by an arrow 440. Since the PUCCH 414 has an earliest starting point among the overlapping channels 414, 434, the start of this PUCCH 414 is defined as the reference point So. The DL Grant# 1 410 and the DL Grant#2 420 schedule the PDSCH#1 412 and the PDSCH#2 420 as represented by the arrows 416, 424 respectively and their corresponding HARQ-ACKs, A/N#l and A/N#2 are originally scheduled for transmission in the PUCCH 414. According to the Rel-15, the processing time required to multiplex a HARQ-ACK into a PUCCH is

that is the last PDSCH with a HARQ-ACK multiplexed into a PUCCH needs to end at least

before the start of the PUCCH. For overlapping

UL channels, the last HARQ-ACK multiplexed into one of the overlapping UL channels needs to end at least An UL Grant scheduling a PUSCH that overlaps with the PUCCH needs to end at least Hence there are deadlines for the last PDSCH and the last UL Grant with corresponding P

SCH respectively that overlaps each other and with other UL channels in which the gNB scheduler has to follow due to UE processing time. Deadlines for the last PDSCH 422 and last UL Grant 430 are labelled as THARQ-MUX 450 and TRUSCH-MUX 452 respectively in Figure 8, to enable the UCI carrying the A/N#l and A/N#2 to multiplex into the PUSCH 434. If the gNB transmits an UL Grant or PDSCH beyond these respective deadlines, the UE would not be able to process the UCI multiplexing and would cause an error in the transmission.

Uplink LI Priority In 3GPP Rel-15, no priority levels were defined at the Physical Layer (LI) for when two uplink transmissions collide. Instead, the information contained in the uplink transmissions is multiplexed and transmitted using a single channel. As will be appreciated, possible uplink transmission collisions include collisions between PUCCH and PUCCH or between PUCCH with PUSCH. However, physical layer priority levels are not to be confused with Logical Channel Priority levels which have been defined for the MAC layer in Release 15, where there are 16 priority levels.

A UE can be configured to provide eMBB and URLLC services. Since eMBB and URLLC have different latency requirements, their uplink transmissions may collide. For example, after an eMBB uplink transmission has been scheduled, an urgent URLLC packet arrives which would need to be scheduled immediately and transmission may collide with the eMBB transmission. In order to handle such intra-UE collisions with different latency and reliability requirements, two priority levels at the Physical Layer were introduced in Release 16 of the 3GPP standards for uplink transmissions . These priority levels apply for the PUCCH and PUSCH. For example, a high priority PUCCH could take precedence over a low priority PUSCH; or a high priority PUSCH could take precedence over a low priority PUCCH; or a high priority PUCCH could take precedence over a low priority PUCCH etc). Therefore, according to Release 16, when two uplink transmissions with different Physical Layer priority levels (LI priority) collide, the UE will drop the lower priority transmission. If both uplink transmissions have the same LI priority, then the UE reuses Release 15 procedures, for example, by multiplexing the uplink transmissions which have the same LI priority in an UL channel. The gNB indicates the LI priority to the UE in al bit “Priority indicator” DCI field, where “0” indicates low LI priority (LP) and “1” indicates high LI priority (HP) and:

• For PUSCH, the LI priority is indicated in the UL Grant carried by DCI Format 0 1 and 0 2

• For PUCCH carrying a HARQ-ACK for PDSCH, the LI priority is indicated in the DL Grant scheduling a PDSCH, carried by DCI Format 1 1 and 1 2

Since the PUCCH can have two LI priorities, two HARQ-ACK codebooks of different priorities can be configured for a UE. This allows high LI priority HARQ-ACKs to be multiplexed into a high LI priority HARQ-ACK codebook and low LI priority HARQ-ACKs to be multiplexed into a low LI priority HARQ-ACK codebook. An example of multiplexing high LI priority HARQ-ACKs in a high LI priority HARQ-ACK codebook and multiplexing low priority HARQ-ACKs in a low LI priority HARQ-ACK codebook is illustrated in Figure 9.

As shown in Figure 9 and uplink channel 480 and a downlink channel 490 are shown with respect to timeslots Slot n providing resource elements representing OFDM symbols. In Figure 9, the communications device 4, 14 receives first DCI labelled “DCI#1” which, as represented by arrow 502, indicates an allocation of communications resources for transmitting a first physical downlink shared channel labelled “PDSCH#1”. As represented by arrow 510, DCI#1 indicates a first physical uplink control channel labelled “PUCCH# 1” in sub-slot m+8 for transmitting a HARQ-ACK in respect of PDSCH#1. As shown in Figure 9, an indicator LP represents that the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#1 is a low LI priority HARQ-ACK. The communications device 4, 14 receives a second DCI labelled “DCI#2” which, as represented by arrow 504, indicates an allocation of communications resources for transmitting a second physical downlink shared channel labelled “PDSCH#2”. As represented by arrow 512, DCI#2 indicates PUCCH# 1 in sub-slot m+8 for transmitting a HARQ-ACK in respect of PDSCH#2. As shown in Figure 9, an indicator LP represents that the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#2 is a low LI priority HARQ- ACK. The communications device (UE) 4, 14 receives third DCI labelled “DCI#3” which, as represented by arrow 506, indicates an allocation of communications resources for transmitting a third physical downlink shared channel labelled “PDSCH#3”. As represented by arrow 514, DCI#3 indicates a second physical uplink control channel labelled “PUCCH#2” in sub-slot m+9 for transmitting a HARQ-ACK in respect of PDSCH#3. As shown in Figure 9, an indicator HP represents that the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#3 is a high LI priority HARQ-ACK. The communications device 4, 14 receives fourth DCI labelled “DCI#4” which, as represented by arrow 508, indicates an allocation of communications resources for transmitting a fourth physical downlink shared channel labelled “PDSCH#4”. As represented by arrow 516, DCI#4 indicates PUCCH#2 in sub-slot m+9 for transmitting a HARQ-ACK in respect of PDSCH#4. As shown in Figure 9, an indicator HP represents that the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#4 is a high LI priority HARQ-ACK.

The PUCCH# 1 in sub-slot m+8 carries a low LI priority HARQ-ACK codebook to multiplex the HARQ- ACKs for PDSCH#1 and PDSCH#2. The PUCCH#2 in sub-slot m+9 carries a high LI priority HARQ- ACK codebook to multiplex the HARQ-ACKs for PDSCH#3 and PDSCH#4. Therefore, different PUCCH transmissions that have different reliabilities can be configured to carry HARQ-ACKs with different LI priorities.

In order to provide different reliability for different LI priority PUCCH, the PUCCH Resources can be separately configured for different LI priority. That is the PRI field in a DL Grant scheduling a LP PUCCH refers to a PUCCH Resource Set containing different PUCCH Resources to those of a HP PUCCH.

Intra-UE Prioritisation Timeline

In the same way as a UE’s processing timeline restrictions to multiplex LI HARQ-ACKs in a UCI for Rel- 15, a UE operating in accordance with Rel-16 requires a processing time to drop a LP (Low LI priority) UL channel due to prioritisation. The time required to drop a channel T_prOc,2, is shorter than the processing time to multiplex UCI and construct an UL channel for transmission. Furthermore, the UE needs to drop only the OFDM symbols of the LP channel that overlaps with a HP channel, and hence the reference point Si, for the prioritization timeline is at the start of the HP channel rather than the start of the earliest overlapping channel in multiplexing. That is Si can be later than So, which allows a HP transmission to be scheduled with low latency thereby meeting the latency requirement for URLLC. An example is shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10 provides a schematic representation of a UE arranged to operate in accordance with Rel-16 prioritisation illustrated with respect to the example shown in Figure 8. Since Figure 10 corresponds to the example of Figure 8, only the differences will be described. As can be seen in Figure 10, the HARQ-ACKs, A/N#l & A/N#2 for PDSCH#1 412 and PDSCH#2 422 respectively are scheduled in a LP -PUCCH 514 (Low LI priority PUCCH), which meets the Rel-15 timeline for UCI multiplexing. For the example of Figure 10, an UL Grant 530 scheduling a HP-PUSCH 534 that overlaps with the LP -PUCCH 514, arrives after the THARQ-MUX deadline but is T_prOc,2 prior to the start of the HP-PUSCH 534 transmission making the deadline to schedule a HP channel for prioritisation 552 after the deadline 450 for multiplexing the HARQ- ACKs. In this example, the LP -PUCCH symbols 550 overlapping with the HP-PUSCH 534 are dropped so that the HP-PUSCH 534 can be transmitted. It can be observed that comparing the example of Figure 10 with the multiplexing timeline in Figure 8, the UL Grant 530 for the HP-PUSCH 534 can arrive later in Rel-16 timeline in Figure 10, thereby providing a lower latency, which can more easily meet the requirement for URLLC.

Intra-UE UCI multiplexing of different LI priorities

As described above, in Rel-16, prioritization is used to handle intra-UE UL collisions where the Low LI Priority (LP) PUCCH is dropped when it collides with a High LI Priority (HP) PUCCH. A PUCCH typically carries HARQ-ACKs for multiple PDSCHs and hence when a PUCCH is dropped due to prioritization, the corresponding PDSCHs may be retransmitted which would consume a lot of downlink resources. Recognising this, in Rel-17, multiplexing of UCIs with different LI priorities is introduced to avoid dropping of LP HARQ-ACKs.

In this feature, when LP PUCCH and HP PUCCH collide, the HARQ-ACKs from the LP PUCCH can be multiplexed into a HP PUCCH resource. The LP HARQ-ACKs and HP HARQ-ACKs are separately encoded where different coding rates are applied. The multiplexed UCIs are carried by a PUCCH resource selected from a PUCCH Resource Set configured for HP PUCCH. This is to ensure that the selected PUCCH meets the URLLC reliability requirement.

For PUCCH collision with a PUSCH, the HARQ-ACKs in the PUCCH is multiplexed into the PUSCH, in this scenario, the PUSCH can be HP or LP, that is:

• A LP HARQ-ACK from a LP PUCCH multiplexes into a HP PUSCH

• A HP HARQ-ACK from a HP PUCCH multiplexes into a LP PUSCH

In Rel-17, a UE is RRC configured to perform either intra-UE UCI multiplexing of different LI priority (Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing) or Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization. The timeline for Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing follows those used for Rel-15 intra-UE multiplexing. That is, the gNB needs to ensure that the UE has at least

between the end of the last PDSCH and the reference point So and

between the end of an UL Grant and the reference point So. An example is shown in Figure 11, which provides a corresponding example to that illustrated with respect to the example shown in Figure 8 and so only the differences will be described. As shown in Figure 11, the PUCCH is Low LI priority, i.e. LP- PUCCH 614 and the PUSCH is High LI priority, i.e. HP -PUSCH 634. As shown in Figure 11, because the LP -PUCCH 614 overlaps with the HP -PUSCH 464, the LP HARQ-ACKs are multiplexed into the HP- PUSCH 634 as represented by an arrow 640. As can be observed the timelines to allow sufficient time for the UE to process UCI multiplexing of different LI priorities are the same as those used for same LI priority (i.e. Rel-15 timeline).

Technical Problem

Since Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing is semi-statically configured, the gNB cannot dynamically indicate to the UE to switch the UE to perform Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization and vice-versa. As explained above, one of the benefits of Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization is that it allows the gNB to schedule a “last minute” High LI priority UL transmissions with low latency. However, with the semi-static switch between Rel-17 intra- UE multiplexing and Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization, the gNB is not able to schedule “last minute” UL transmissions if Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing is semi-statically configured. This is because the UL Grant or PDSCH with a HP HARQ-ACK cannot be transmitted after the multiplexing deadlines TRUSCH-MUX and HARQ-MUX respectively. This semi-static switch therefore effects the gNB scheduling flexibility and the latency requirement for URLLC. What would therefore be desirable would be to allow a late scheduled UL transmission of a PUSCH, whilst still allowing low priority HARQ-ACKs and high priority HARQ- ACKs to be multiplexed together.

A dynamic Multiplexing Indicator has been proposed, where a new 1 bit indicator is introduced to the DCI, such as the DL Grant and UL Grant, to indicate whether the UE should perform Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing or Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization [4], [5], However, a consequence of this indicator is that it may be required to demultiplex already multiplexed HARQ-ACK’s into a PUCCH if there is a later received UL grant for a high priority PUSCH according to Rel-16. This is undesirable and so it would be desirable to avoid having to demultiplex UCI that has already been multiplexed, which would be highly complex for the UE to perform. An example in support of this technical problem is shown in Figure 12. For the example shown in Figure 12, which corresponds generally to the scenarios in Figures 4, 6 and 7, a first UL Grant# 1 810 is received by the UE, which indicates a low priority LP-PUSCH#1 812 for transmitting a UCI, as represented by an arrow 814. Later in time, a DL Grant#l 820 indicates resources of a PDSCH#1 822 for receiving data according to a HARQ process as represented by an arrow 824. This downlink grant (DL Grant# 1 820) provides a high priority downlink data transmission in the PDSCH#1 822 and the corresponding HARQ-ACK is configured for transmission in resources of a high priority HP- PUCCH#1 826 as represented by arrow 828. Also as shown in Figure 12, the DL Grant#l 820 includes a 1 -bit indicator (Mux Indicator=l), which indicates that the UE should use Rel-17 processing and multiplex any conflicting PUCCH/PUSCH HARQ-ACK together into a low priority PUSCH, LP-PUSCH#1 for transmission. Since the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#1 is for high priority transmission, and the HP- PUCCH#1 826 overlaps with the LP -PUSCH# 1 812, then the high priority HARQ-ACK from HP- PUCCH#1 826 is multiplexed into the LP-PUSCH#1 according to the Rel-17 rules explained above as indicated by arrow 840. The deadline for PDSCH with HARQ-ACK multiplexing 450 corresponds to the Rel-17 example and the deadline to schedule high priority channel for prioritisation 552 is correspondingly the same as that shown in Figure 11.

According to the example shown in Figure 12, after the transmission of the downlink data in the PDSCH# 1 822, but before the deadline for a high priority channel prioritisation 552, a second UL Grant#2 842 is received, which indicates a PUSCH resource for transmitting a high priority UCI HP-PUSCH#2 844 as indicated by an arrow 846. The second uplink grant UL Grant#2 842 includes a 1-bit indicator (Mux lndicator=0) which indicates that the UE should use Rel-16 processing and so should prioritise the transmission of the HP-PUSCH#2 844 over other transmissions and not perform any multiplexing.

For this example, since the PDSCH# 1 822 ends at least

prior to reference point So, the UE is able to multiplex the HARQ-ACK A/N#l for the PDSCH# 1 822 into the LP -PUSCH# 1 812 as per the Mux Indicator of DL Grant# 1 820. The UL Grant#2 842 is transmitted after the multiplexing deadline THARQ- MUX, scheduling an urgent HP-PUSCH#2 844 and with the Mux Indicator = 0 performs prioritization according to Rel-16. Since HP-PUSCH#2 844 overlaps with LP-PUSCH#1 812 and Mux Indicator = 0, the UE is instructed to drop LP -PUSCH# 1 812 so that HP-PUSCH#2 844 can be transmitted. In this example therefore the LP -PUSCH# 1 812 has already been configured to carry a High LI priority A/N#l multiplexed with the low priority UCI from UL Grant#l 810 and so dropping LP-PUSCH#1 812 would also drop the HP A/N#l unless demultiplexing is performed to demultiplex the HP from PDSCH# 1 822 (A/N#l) from LP -PUSCH# 1 812, which is deemed too complex especially in a short time available for processing.

Some proposals in [5] suggested that any DL transmissions, such as UL Grant or PDSCH, with corresponding UL transmissions, e.g. PUSCH or PUCCH that lead to overlapping and meet the multiplexing timeline, i.e. the DL transmissions ends prior to deadlines TPUSCH-MUX or THARQ-MUX, the UE performs Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing. Otherwise, if the DL transmissions ends after the deadlines TPUSCH- MUX or THARQ-MUX, i.e. not meeting the multiplexing timelines, the UE performs Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization. Some proposals have argued that this is even more complex than introducing dynamic Multiplexing Indicator because the UE needs to keep track of the timeline instead of the gNB, where the timeline is the gNB’s responsibility in Rel-15. The processing times

Tproc,2 and T_prOc,2 are minimum processing requirement for the UE, which the gNB assumes a 3GPP complaint UE would meet. When the UE dynamically processes an uplink transmission, it does not consider or factor in such processing times, as the UE would just perform what the gNB instructed it to do and since the UE is 3GPP complaint, it would automatically meet these timelines. That is these timelines were defined based on UE processing capability rather than defined as UL scheduling instruction for the UE. The timeline may also need to be continuously determined since the reference So may move as it depends on what is being scheduled. Furthermore, there are multiple multiplexing timelines that the UE needs to consider, that is, in addition to T^.^,1 ^aiqd ^“^,2 , the UE also has to consider multiplexing timelines T _reiease and T^oc.csb which are for SPS deactivation DCI and DCI triggering CSI respectively.

As will be appreciated from the above discussion, a technical problem to be addressed can be seen as adapting a UE so that it can perform intra-UE prioritization whilst reducing UE complexity when intra- UE multiplexing is enabled.

Example embodiments can provide a method of operating a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network. The method comprises receiving a plurality of downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions is associated with an uplink channel resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network. The plurality of downlink transmissions may contain downlink control information, DCI carried by physical downlink control channel, PDCCH and/or downlink data, carried by Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH. The method comprises generating uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, identifying for each of the uplink information items, a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, identifying that the uplink channel resources overlap in time. The information items carried in the uplink channel resource may be for example HARQ-ACKs, SR, CSI or uplink data units. The uplink channel resource may be a PUSCH carrying the uplink data units. The method further comprises transmitting the uplink information item in an uplink channel resource. The transmitting comprises, depending on whether one or more downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window either multiplexing the uplink information items, which have been generated for transmission in response to the plurality of downlink transmissions, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

According to example embodiments, a UE, which is configured to perform intra-UE multiplexing is also configured with one or more control time windows T window, which are used by the UE to determine that for any DL transmission received within this control time window T window that has a corresponding UL transmission that overlaps with one or more other UL transmissions then the UE performs either intra-UE prioritisation (i.e. drop low LI priority channels and transmit high LI priority channel) or intra-UE multiplexing (i.e. multiplex UCIs of different LI priorities). In one example, a downlink transmission received within this window is used to apply intra-UE prioritization instead of intra-UE multiplexing. The occurrences of these control time windows are known to the UE prior to any multiplexing deadlines and would provide the gNB opportunities to perform Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization. Unlike the prior art, the UE does not need continuously to determine multiplexing deadlines since these deadlines are relative to So which can vary according to example embodiments, so that the UE only needs to consider a single control time window rather than multiple deadlines based on UE processing requirements such as 7^“^ i, Tproc,₂,

In description of example embodiments presented in the following paragraphsintra-UE prioritization may be referred to as the Rel-16 prioritization process used to resolve multiple overlapping uplink channels of different LI priorities, where the low LI priority channels are dropped, and the high LI priority channel is transmitted. Intra-UE multiplexing refers to the Rel-17 intra-UE UCI multiplexing of different LI priorities to resolve multiple overlapping uplink channels of different LI priorities. However, it will be appreciated that these are just examples and other multiplexing and prioritization schemes may be applied. In [5], it was proposed that the UE determines multiple multiplexing deadlines, relative to reference point So (the start of the earliest overlapping UL channel) based on at least four UE processing time requirements. Here, the UE performs Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing unless there is an UL scheduling with an overlapping UL transmission, being transmitted after one of the multiplexing deadlines. Since the reference point So is dependent upon the scheduling of the UL channel, it can change and the UE has to continuously determine these deadlines. This, however, requires greater complexity for the UE. In contrast embodiments configure a UE with a known control time window to determine whether to perform Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing or Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization and this control time window does not change once determined or configured.

In an example embodiment, only DL transmissions received within this window T window, with a corresponding High LI priority (HP) UL transmission that overlaps with other UL transmissions of different LI priorities would indicate Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization. That is to say on the contrary if a DL transmission that is received within this window but with a corresponding Low LI priority (LP) UL transmission that overlaps with other UL transmissions of different LI priorities then prioritisation is not performed and the uplink UCI of different LI priorities transmissions are multiplexed. This recognizes that typically the transmission of a HP UL channel requires Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization rather than the transmission of LP UL channels, since LP UL channels are latency tolerant, the gNB can usually avoid scheduling LP UL channels to avoid overlapping with HP UL channels. An example is shown in figure 13.

In Figure 13, where there are three control time windows labelled as first TWMOW 910, second TWMOW 912 and third TWMOW 914. A UE is configured for Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing. The first TWMOW 910 contains DL Grant#l 920 indicating a downlink data transmission PDSCH#1 922 as represented by an arrow 924. The DL Grant# 1 920 also determines a PUCCH resource with reference to PDSCH#1 922, as represented by an arrow 928, which is a low priority LP -PUCCH 926. As per this example embodiment, since LP- PUCCH is Low LI priority, the UE continues with Rel-17 intra-UE multiplexing even though the DL Grant# 1 920 was received within the first window 910. As such, if there are high priority UL channels overlapping with LP-PUCCH 926 then the UCI in LP-PUCCH 926 would be multiplexed into a high priority UL channel. A second downlink grant DL Grant#2 930 is received (after the first window 910 but before the second window 912), which indicates a downlink resource PDSCH#2 932 for receiving a downlink data transmission, as represented by an arrow 934, and the uplink resource for transmitting a corresponding HARQ-ACK A/N#2 as represented by an arrow 936 is also the LP-PUCCH 926 and consequently HARQ-ACK A/N#l and HARQ-ACK A/N#2 are multiplexed into LP-PUCCH.. However, in the second T window 912, an UL Grant 940 scheduling a HP-PUSCH 942 is received by the UE represented by an arrow 944 and since HP-PUSCH 942 is High LI priority and HP-PUSCH 942 overlaps with LP- PUCCH 926, the UE will perform Rel-16 intra-UE prioritisation and therefore drops LP-PUCCH 926. The third T window 914 does not overlap with any DL transmissions and so it is ignored.

In another example embodiment, the control time window T window, occurs periodically where the periodicity and duration of the control time window are RRC configured or indicated in an activation DCI.

In another embodiment, a UE is configured with a control time window T window, which overlaps with a slot or sub-slot of a Low LI priority UL channel or a group of overlapping UL channels of different LI priorities. This example recognizes that typically High LI priority UL channels, e.g. a DCI corresponding to a High LI priority channel is scheduled for transmission close to one or more Low LI priority UL channels in a slot or sub-slot. An example is shown in Figure 14, which corresponds to the example illustrated in Figure 9 and so corresponding reference numerals are used for the same features. As for the example of Figure 9, in Figure 14 a DCI#1 1001 and a DCI#2 1002 schedule PDSCH#1 1004 and PDSCH#2 1006 respectively, as represented by arrows 1008, 1010 with their corresponding HARQ- ACK scheduled in Low LI priority PUCCH#1 1012 as represented by respective arrows 1014, 1016. Here a T window 1020 is two slots wide and as per this embodiment, the T window 1020 is determined after DCI#1 1001 is received at the UE. That is the UE is aware of the Twindow 1020 when it has decoded DCI#1 1001. DCI#3 1030 schedules PDSCH#3 1032, as represented by an arrow 1034 with a corresponding High LI priority PUCCH#2 1036, as represented by an arrow 1038. However, since DCI#3 1030 and PDSCH#3 1032 are outside of T window 1020 at this point in time the UE continues to apply Rel- 17 intra-UE multiplexing, and depending on UE implementation may prepare to multiplex the high priority HARQ-ACK and low priority HARQ-ACKs into the PUCCH#2 1036. However, in contrast to previously proposed arrangements, the UE does not perform Rel- 17 intra-UE multiplexing prior to the start of T window 1020. Then, within the configured window Twindow 1020 DCI#4 1040 schedules PDSCH#4 1042, as represented by an arrow 1044, with a corresponding High LI priority HARQ-ACK in PUCCH#2 1036 as represented by an arrow 1046. Since PDSCH#4 1042 is within Twindow 1020 the UE performs Rel- 16 intra-UE prioritization to resolve the collision between PUCCH#1 1012 and PUCCH#2 1046 and in this case, it drops the LP PUCCH#1 1012 and multiplexes the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#3 1032 with the HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#4 1042 into PUCCH#2 1036.

In another example embodiment, a UE is configured only to perform Rel- 16 intra-UE prioritization, if there are no overlapping High LI priority UL channels being scheduled prior to the control time window Twindow. In other words, the UE only performs Rel- 16 intra-UE prioritization if the first downlink transmissions with a corresponding High LI priority UL channel falls within the time window, otherwise, if the downlink transmission with a corresponding High LI priority UL channel is not the first to fall within the time window or the downlink transmission with a corresponding Low LI priority UL channel, the UE performs Rel- 17 intra-UE multiplexing. This embodiment avoids any potential demultiplexing of multiplexed UCI. That is, the UE can only drop a LP UL channel if there was no prior HP UCI being multiplexed. An example is shown in Figure 15, which corresponds to the example of Figure 14.

For the example shown in Figure 15, and as for the example of Figure 14, the Twindow 1120 overlaps the slot of LP PUCCH#l 1112 and here the UE is aware of Twindow 1120 after decoding DCI#1 1101. The DCI#3 1130 schedules PDSCH#3 1132 where its HARQ-ACK is to be transmitted in HP PUCCH#2 1136. Since PDSCH#3 1132 is received before Twindow 1120, the UE is configured to apply Rel- 17 intra-UE multiplexing, although since the UE is aware of the control time window Twindow 1120 the UE may not have started multiplexing in some implementation. Then, at time tio the DCI#4 1140 is transmitted within T window 1120 which schedules a HP PUSCH#1 1142. For this example embodiment, since there was an overlapping HP PUCCH#2 1136 being scheduled prior to Twindow 1120, the UE ignores the Twindow and continue to perform Rel- 17 intra-UE multiplexing in which case the LP HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#1 1104 and PDSCH#2 1106 and the HP HARQ-ACK for PDSCH#3 1132 are multiplexed into HP PUSCH#1 1142. As illustratively represented in Figure 15 as processing performed by the UE 1160, the low priority HARQ-ACKs and high priority HARQ-ACK originally scheduled for the PUCCH#1 and the PUCCH#2 respectively are multiplexed into the HP-PUSCH#1 1142. Therefore, in contrast to Figure 14, all of the HARQ-ACK’s are multiplexed into the PUSCH#1 1142 because the UE has already been scheduled a transmission of the high priority HARQ-ACK in the PUCCH#2 prior to the time window Twindow 1120, and so arranged for both the low priority HARQ-ACKs and the high priority HARQ-ACKs to be multiplexed into the PUSCH#1 1142.

In an example embodiment the control time windows Twindow, can be RRC configured, dynamically indicated in a DCI or fixed the specifications. In another embodiment, for the case where the Control time window is indicated in a DCI, the DCI can be an activation/deactivation DCI, i.e. the Control time window is semi-persistent, which will start after an activation DCI and stops after a deactivation DCI.

Specific UL Channels

In other embodiments, only specific overlapping UL channels that are scheduled, for example by DCI or triggered by SPS PDSCH, within the Control time window T window, are considered for Rel-16 intra-UE prioritisation. For example, only HP PUSCH that overlaps with LP UL Channels, where the UL Grant for the HP PUSCH is transmitted within TWMOW would lead to Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization. In other examples, only HP PUCCH that overlaps with LP UL channels are considered for Rel-16 intra-UE prioritisation.

In another embodiment, only specific UCI are considered for Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization. For example, only HP HARQ-ACK would lead to dropping of LP UL Channels if the DL channel associated with the HP HARQ-ACK is transmitted within T window., whereas other UCIs such as Scheduling Request (SR) and CSI would not lead to Rel-16 intra-UE prioritization.

The specific overlapping UL channel and/or specific UCI can be RRC configured, indicated in a DCI (e.g. activation DCI) or fixed in the specifications.

Operation of a Communications Device

Figure 16 provides an example flow diagram illustrating an operation of a UE when implementing the embodiments described above. The flow diagram is summarized as follows:

SI: A UE receives from a gNB a plurality of downlink transmissions, which may be DCIs or PDSCH transmissions, each of which is associated with an uplink channel resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, such as a PUCCH or a PUSCH.

S2: In response to receiving the downlink transmissions, the UE generates uplink information items, such as HARQ-ACKs or uplink data units for transmission in the uplink channel resources depending on the nature of the downlink transmission.

S4: For each of the uplink information items, a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is identified as being either high priority or low priority.

S6: The UE then identifies that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions are in collision.

S8: The UE determines whether the downlink transmission for the uplink channel resource which overlap in time and which is for transmitting a high priority uplink information item falls within or outside a time control window.

S10: If the downlink transmission for the uplink channel resource falls within the time control window, then the UE prioritises transmission of the high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource and drops the low priority uplink information item. This may be 3GPP Rel-16 prioritisation.

S 12: If the downlink transmission for the uplink channel resource falls outside the time control window, then the UE multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions in the uplink channel resource. This may be 3GPP Rel-17 multiplexing. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that references to “OFDM” apply to any type of OFDM-based modulation, including Cyclic Prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform Spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing (SC-FDM). It will be appreciated that references to “time resource unit” may be any unit of communications resources in the time domain. For example, a time resource unit may be a slot or sub-slot as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

Those skilled in the art would further appreciate that such infrastructure equipment and/or communications devices as herein defined may be further defined in accordance with the various arrangements and embodiments discussed in the preceding paragraphs. It would be further appreciated by those skilled in the art that such infrastructure equipment and communications devices as herein defined and described may form part of communications systems other than those defined by the present disclosure.

The following numbered paragraphs provide further example aspects and features of the present technique:

Paragraph 1. A method of operating a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the method comprising receiving a plurality of downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, generating uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, identifying, for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, identifying that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, are in collision, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, transmitting the uplink information items in an uplink channel resource by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmission in an uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in an uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

Paragraph 2. A method according to paragraph 1, wherein the receiving the plurality of downlink transmissions comprises one or more of receiving one or more downlink channel information, DCI, transmissions each granting a physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network to receive downlink data units and each granting the uplink channel resource as a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH resource associated with the PDSCH resource for transmitting one or more of the uplink information items as an uplink control information UCI, receiving one or more downlink transmissions in semi persistent scheduling, SPS, PDSCH, downlink resource of a wireless access interface provided periodically by the wireless communications network and the associated uplink channel resource as a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH resource for transmitting one or more of the uplink information items as an uplink control information UCI, or receiving one or more first DCI transmissions each granting an uplink channel resource as a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resource for transmitting one of the uplink information items as one or more uplink data and uplink control information, UCI.

Paragraph 3. A method according to paragraph 2, the method comprising receiving one or more downlink transmissions in the one or more PDSCH resources granted by the first one or more DCIs, each of the one or more downlink transmissions being a transmission of a data unit according to a different Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, process, and the generating the uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources includes determining a HARQ acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement, HARQ-ACK, for each of the one or more received downlink PDSCH transmissions in accordance with whether the data unit for the HARQ process was correctly received or not, the uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources for the one or more first DCI transmissions including the HARQ-ACK for each of the one or more received downlink PDSCH transmissions for transmission in the PUCCH resource associated with the PDSCH resource.

Paragraph 4. A method according to paragraph 1, wherein the low priority and high priority uplink information items are transmitted by prioritisation where the high priority uplink information items are transmitted in an uplink channel resource and the low priority uplink information items are dropped if one or more downlink transmissions is within the control time window otherwise, the uplink information items are multiplexed into an uplink channel resource.

Paragraph 5. A method according to paragraph 4, wherein the one or more downlink transmissions, within the control time window, is associated with a high priority uplink information items in one of the uplink channel resources.

Paragraph 6. A method according to paragraphs 1 to 5, wherein the control time window occurs periodically.

Paragraph 7. A method according to paragraphs 1 to 5, wherein the control time window overlaps the colliding uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions.

Paragraph 8. A method according to paragraph 7, wherein the control time window overlaps with one of the uplink resources with low priority uplink information items.

Paragraph 9. A method according to paragraphs 1 to 8, wherein the downlink transmission within the control time window is the first downlink transmission with an associated high priority uplink information items in an uplink resource that overlaps with low priority uplink information items in one or more other uplink resources.

Paragraph 10. A method according to paragraphs 1 to 9, wherein the control time window is indicated by the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 11. A method according to paragraphs 1 to 10, wherein the downlink transmission within the control time window, is associated with one of the uplink channel resources type that is one or both of PUCCH and PUSCH.

Paragraph 12. A method according to paragraphs 1 to 10, wherein the downlink transmission within the control time window, is associated with uplink information items type that is one or more of HARQ- ACK, Scheduling Request and channel state information, CSI.

Paragraph 13. A method according to paragraphs 11 or 12, wherein the type of uplink channel resources and uplink information items are configurable by the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 14. A method according to paragraph 2, wherein the identifying that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions are in collision comprises identifying that one or more of the uplink channel resources granted by one or more DCIs overlap in time with an uplink channel resource granted by a DCI received later in time, or identifying one or more of the PUCCH resources associated with the one or more PDSCH resources granted by the one or more DCIs for receiving the one or more data units, in which the one or more HARQ-ACKs can be transmitted, and determining that the identified one or more of the PUCCH resources associated with the one or more PDSCH resources granted by the one or more DCIs at least partially overlap in time with either a PUSCH resource for transmitting the UCI or share the same slot or sub-slot with the PUCCH resource granted by a later DCI transmission. Paragraph 15. A method according to any of paragraphs 2 to 14, wherein a first of the DCIs grants a PUCCH resource associated with a PDSCH resource for carrying high priority uplink control information, which PUCCH resource at least partially overlaps in time with a PUSCH resource granted by a second of the DCIs for carrying low priority physical layer data within the control time window, wherein the first DCI is received before the control time window, and the transmitting the uplink information item in the uplink channel resource granted by the second DCI received later comprises multiplexing the high priority physical layer control information generated for the first DCI and the low priority physical layer data granted by the second DCI into the uplink channel resource granted by the second DCI.

Paragraph 16. A method according to paragraph 15, wherein the second DCI grants uplink channel resource of a PUSCH and the information item generated for transmission in the PUSCH is an uplink data unit.

Paragraph 17. A method according to paragraph 15 or 16, wherein the multiplexing is determined in accordance with the 3GPP Release 17 standard.

Paragraph 18. A method according to any of paragraphs 15 to 17, wherein the first DCI is received after the second DCI.

Paragraph 19. A method according to any of paragraphs 2 to 18, wherein a first of the DCIs grants a PUCCH resource associated with a PDSCH resource for carrying high priority uplink control information, which PUCCH resource at least partially overlaps in time with a PUSCH resource granted by a second DCI for carrying low priority physical layer data within the control time window, wherein the first DCI is received within the control time window, and the transmitting the uplink information item in the uplink channel resource granted by the first DCI comprises prioritising the transmission of the uplink information item in the uplink channel resource granted by the first DCI and dropping the transmission of the low priority physical layer data in the PUSCH resource overlapping the uplink channel resource granted by the second DCI.

Paragraph 20. A method according to paragraph 19, wherein the second DCI grants uplink channel resource of a PUSCH and the information item generated for transmission in the PUSCH is an uplink data unit.

Paragraph 21. A method according to paragraph 19 or 20, wherein the prioritising is determined in accordance with the 3GPP Release 16 standard.

Paragraph 22. A method according to any of paragraphs 19 to 21, wherein the first DCI is received after the second DCI.

Paragraph 23. A communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the wireless communications network, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive the data, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, to generate uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, to identify, for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, to identify that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, are in collision, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, to transmit the uplink information item in an uplink channel resource by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmission in an uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in an uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

Paragraph 24. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising transmitting a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window known by the infrastructure equipment and determined by the communications device, receiving an uplink information item in an uplink channel resource, which was generated by the communications device in response to one of the downlink transmissions associated with a high physical layer priority uplink channel, the uplink channel resource colliding with an uplink channel resource associated with one or more of the other downlink transmissions, the receiving being by either decoding the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, the information item having been multiplexed by the communications device into the uplink channel resource with other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions, or receiving the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, which has been prioritised for transmission as a high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource, with the other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions having a low priority uplink information item being dropped from transmission.

Paragraph 25. An infrastructure equipment for forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the communications devices, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit data to a communications device, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window known to the infrastructure equipment and determined by the communications device, to receive an uplink information item in an uplink channel resource, which was generated by the communications device in response to one of the downlink transmissions associated with a high physical layer priority uplink channel, the uplink channel resource colliding with an uplink channel resource for one or more of the other downlink transmissions, by either decoding the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, the information item having been multiplexed by the communications device into the uplink channel resource with other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions, or receiving the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, which has been prioritised for transmission as a high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource, with the other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions having a low priority uplink information item being dropped from transmission.

Paragraph 26. Circuitry for a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the wireless communications network, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive the data, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, to generate uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, to identify, for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, to identify that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, are in collision, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, to transmit the uplink information item in an uplink channel resource by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmission in an uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in an uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

Paragraph 27. Circuitry forming part of a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the communications devices, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit data to a communications device, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window known to the infrastructure equipment and determined by the communications device, to receive an uplink information item in an uplink channel resource, which was generated by the communications device in response to one of the downlink transmissions associated with a high physical layer priority uplink channel, the uplink channel resource colliding with an uplink channel resource for one or more of the other downlink transmissions, by either decoding the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, the information item having been multiplexed by the communications device into the uplink channel resource with other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions, or receiving the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, which has been prioritised for transmission as a high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource, with the other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions having a low priority uplink information item being dropped from transmission.

It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity has described embodiments with reference to different functional units, circuitry and/or processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, circuitry and/or processors may be used without detracting from the embodiments.

Described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. Described embodiments may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any embodiment may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuitry and/or processors. Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognise that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner suitable to implement the technique.

References

[1] TR 38.913, “Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies (Release 14)”, third Generation Partnership Project, vl4.3.0.

[2] RP- 190726, “Physical layer enhancements for NR ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC)”, Huawei, HiSilicon, RAN#83.

[3] RP -201310, “Revised WID: Enhanced Industrial Internet of Things (loT) and ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) support for NR,” Nokia, Nokia Shanghai Bell, RAN#88e.

[4] European patent application number 20155210.6, “Intra-UE Multiplexing Indicator”.

[5] Rl-2112712, “Summary #2 of email thread [107-e-NR-R17-IIoT-URLLC-03],” Moderator (CATT), RANl#107e

[6] Holma H. and Toskala A, “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radio access”, John Wiley and Sons, 2009.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the method comprising receiving a plurality of downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network, generating uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, identifying, for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, identifying that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, are in collision, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, transmitting the uplink information items in an uplink channel resource by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmission in an uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in an uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving the plurality of downlink transmissions comprises one or more of receiving one or more downlink channel information, DCI, transmissions each granting a physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, resource of a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network to receive downlink data units and each granting the uplink channel resource as a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH resource associated with the PDSCH resource for transmitting one or more of the uplink information items as an uplink control information UCI, receiving one or more downlink transmissions in semi persistent scheduling, SPS, PDSCH, downlink resource of a wireless access interface provided periodically by the wireless communications network and the associated uplink channel resource as a physical uplink control channel, PUCCH resource for transmitting one or more of the uplink information items as an uplink control information UCI, or receiving one or more first DCI transmissions each granting an uplink channel resource as a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resource for transmitting one of the uplink information items as one or more uplink data and uplink control information, UCI.

3. A method according to claim 2, the method comprising receiving one or more downlink transmissions in the one or more PDSCH resources granted by the first one or more DCIs, each of the one or more downlink transmissions being a transmission of a data unit according to a different Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, process, and the generating the uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources includes determining a HARQ acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement, HARQ-ACK, for each of the one or more received downlink PDSCH transmissions in accordance with whether the data unit for the HARQ process was correctly received or not, the uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources for the one or more first DCI transmissions including the HARQ-ACK for each of the one or more received downlink PDSCH transmissions for transmission in the PUCCH resource associated with the PDSCH resource.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the low priority and high priority uplink information items are transmitted by prioritisation where the high priority uplink information items are transmitted in an uplink channel resource and the low priority uplink information items are dropped if one or more downlink transmissions is within the control time window otherwise, the uplink information items are multiplexed into an uplink channel resource.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the one or more downlink transmissions, within the control time window, is associated with a high priority uplink information items in one of the uplink channel resources.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the control time window occurs periodically.

7. A method according to claims 1, wherein the control time window overlaps the colliding uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the control time window overlaps with one of the uplink resources with low priority uplink information items.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the downlink transmission within the control time window is the first downlink transmission with an associated high priority uplink information items in an uplink resource that overlaps with low priority uplink information items in one or more other uplink resources.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the control time window is indicated by the wireless communications network.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the downlink transmission within the control time window, is associated with one of the uplink channel resources type that is one or both of PUCCH and PUSCH.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the downlink transmission within the control time window, is associated with uplink information items type that is one or more of HARQ-ACK, Scheduling Request and channel state information, CSI.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the type of uplink channel resources and uplink information items are configurable by the wireless communications network.

14. A method according to claim 2, wherein the identifying that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions are in collision comprises identifying that one or more of the uplink channel resources granted by one or more DCIs overlap in time with an uplink channel resource granted by a DCI received later in time, or identifying one or more of the PUCCH resources associated with the one or more PDSCH resources granted by the one or more DCIs for receiving the one or more data units, in which the one or more HARQ-ACKs can be transmitted, and determining that the identified one or more of the PUCCH resources associated with the one or more PDSCH resources granted by the one or more DCIs at least partially overlap in time with either a PUSCH resource for transmitting the UCI or share the same slot or sub-slot with the PUCCH resource granted by a later DCI transmission.

15. A method according to claim 2, wherein a first of the DCIs grants a PUCCH resource associated with a PDSCH resource for carrying high priority uplink control information, which PUCCH resource at least partially overlaps in time with a PUSCH resource granted by a second of the DCIs for carrying low priority physical layer data within the control time window, wherein the first DCI is received before the control time window, and the transmitting the uplink information item in the uplink channel resource granted by the second DCI received later comprises multiplexing the high priority physical layer control information generated for the first DCI and the low priority physical layer data granted by the second DCI into the uplink channel resource granted by the second DCI.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the second DCI grants uplink channel resource of a

PUSCH and the information item generated for transmission in the PUSCH is an uplink data unit.

17. A method according to claim 15, wherein the multiplexing is determined in accordance with the

3GPP Release 17 standard.

18. A method according to claim 15, wherein the first DCI is received after the second DCI.

19. A method according to claim 2, wherein a first of the DCIs grants a PUCCH resource associated with a PDSCH resource for carrying high priority uplink control information, which PUCCH resource at least partially overlaps in time with a PUSCH resource granted by a second DCI for carrying low priority physical layer data within the control time window, wherein the first DCI is received within the control time window, and the transmitting the uplink information item in the uplink channel resource granted by the first DCI comprises prioritising the transmission of the uplink information item in the uplink channel resource granted by the first DCI and dropping the transmission of the low priority physical layer data in the PUSCH resource overlapping the uplink channel resource granted by the second DCI.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the second DCI grants uplink channel resource of a PUSCH and the information item generated for transmission in the PUSCH is an uplink data unit.

21. A method according to claim 19, wherein the prioritising is determined in accordance with the 3 GPP Release 16 standard.

22. A method according to claim 19, wherein the first DCI is received after the second DCI.

23. A communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the communications device comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the wireless communications network, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive the data, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, to generate uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, to identify, for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, to identify that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, are in collision, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, to transmit the uplink information item in an uplink channel resource by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmission in an uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in an uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

24. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising transmitting a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window known by the infrastructure equipment and determined by the communications device, receiving an uplink information item in an uplink channel resource, which was generated by the communications device in response to one of the downlink transmissions associated with a high physical layer priority uplink channel, the uplink channel resource colliding with an uplink channel resource associated with one or more of the other downlink transmissions, the receiving being by either decoding the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, the information item having been multiplexed by the communications device into the uplink channel resource with other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions, or receiving the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, which has been prioritised for transmission as a high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource, with the other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions having a low priority uplink information item being dropped from transmission.

25. An infrastructure equipment for forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the communications devices, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit data to a communications device, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window known to the infrastructure equipment and determined by the communications device, to receive an uplink information item in an uplink channel resource, which was generated by the communications device in response to one of the downlink transmissions associated with a high physical layer priority uplink channel, the uplink channel resource colliding with an uplink channel resource for one or more of the other downlink transmissions, by either decoding the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, the information item having been multiplexed by the communications device into the uplink channel resource with other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions, or receiving the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, which has been prioritised for transmission as a high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource, with the other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions having a low priority uplink information item being dropped from transmission.

26. Circuitry for a communications device to receive data from a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to the wireless communications network via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the wireless communications network, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive the data, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to receive a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, to generate uplink information items for transmission in the uplink channel resources, to identify, for each of the uplink information items, that a physical layer priority for transmitting the uplink information item is either high priority or low priority, to identify that the uplink channel resources associated with the plurality of downlink transmissions, are in collision, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window, to transmit the uplink information item in an uplink channel resource by either multiplexing the uplink information items associated with the plurality of downlink transmission in an uplink channel resource, or prioritising transmission of the high priority uplink information item in an uplink channel resource and dropping the low priority uplink information item.

27. Circuitry forming part of a wireless communications network, the circuitry comprising transceiver circuitry configured to transmit signals to communications devices via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network and to receive signals from the communications devices, and control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit data to a communications device, the control circuitry configured to control the transceiver circuitry to transmit a plurality downlink transmissions, each of the plurality of downlink transmissions being associated with an uplink channel resource, depending on whether one or more of the downlink transmissions was received outside or within a control time window known to the infrastructure equipment and determined by the communications device, to receive an uplink information item in an uplink channel resource, which was generated by the communications device in response to one of the downlink transmissions associated with a high physical layer priority uplink channel, the uplink channel resource colliding with an uplink channel resource for one or more of the other downlink transmissions, by either decoding the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, the information item having been multiplexed by the communications device into the uplink channel resource with other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions, or receiving the uplink information item transmitted in the uplink channel resource, which has been prioritised for transmission as a high priority uplink information item in the uplink channel resource, with the other information items generated for the one or more other downlink transmissions having a low priority uplink information item being dropped from transmission.