WO2024007164A1

WO2024007164A1 - Methods, devices and computer storage media for communication

Info

Publication number: WO2024007164A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/103962
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yukai GAO; Peng Guan; Gang Wang
Original assignee: Nec Corporation
Priority date: 2022-07-05
Filing date: 2022-07-05
Publication date: 2024-01-11

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices and computer storage media for communication. A method comprises monitoring, at a terminal device, a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate and a second PDCCH candidate, wherein the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked for PDCCH repetition, and the second PDCCH candidate ends later in time than the first PDCCH candidate. The method further comprises determining a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command value based on TPC command field in at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate; determining a transmission power for an uplink transmission based on the TPC command value and a time domain location of the second PDCCH candidate, wherein the uplink transmission is at least one of: Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH); Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH); and Sounding Reference Signal (SRS); and transmitting, to a network device, the uplink transmission based on the transmission power.

Description

METHODS, DEVICES AND COMPUTER STORAGE MEDIA FOR COMMUNICATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and in particular, to methods, devices and computer storage media for communication.

BACKGROUND

Recently, enhancements on the support for multi-Transmission and Reception Point (multi-TRP) deployment have been discussed. For example, it has been proposed to identify and specify features to improve reliability and robustness for physical channels (such as, Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) , Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and/or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) ) other than Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) using multi-TRP and/or multi-panel with Release 16 reliability features as a baseline. It has also been proposed to identify and specify features to enable inter-cell multi-TRP operations. It has also been proposed to evaluate and specify enhancements for simultaneous multi-TRP transmission with multi-panel reception.

It has been proposed to support PDCCH repetitions to improve reliability and robustness for the PDCCH. That is, a PDCCH signal (such as, downlink control information) can be repeatedly transmitted from a network device to a terminal device more than once, so as to improve reliability and robustness for the PDCCH. And Downlink control information (DCI) can be transmitted from a network device to a terminal device (such as, UE) via a PDCCH reception, wherein the PDCCH reception may include a first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH candidate. A DCI format may include a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command field indicating a TPC command value. If PDCCH repetition is enabled, DCI can be transmitted from a network device to a terminal device via linked PDCCH candidates. If linked PDCCH candidates are used to carry DCI indicating a TPC command value, the UE behaviors need to be considered.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices and computer storage media for communication.

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises receiving, at a terminal device, from a network device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, and determining, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises receiving, at a terminal device, from a network device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, and in response to the third PDCCH candidate overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in a DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate is based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate; or in response to the third PDCCH candidate not overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in the DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate is based on a third PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises transmitting, at a network device, to a terminal device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, and determining, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises circuitry configured to perform the method according to the above first aspect of the present disclosure.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises circuitry configured to perform the method according to the above second aspect of the present disclosure.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer program product that is stored on a computer readable medium and includes machine-executable instructions. The machine-executable instructions, when being executed, cause a machine to perform the method according to the above first, second, third or fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon. The instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method according to the above first, second, third or fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGs. 4A and 4B illustrate examples of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the singular forms ‘a’ , ‘an’ and ‘the’ are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term ‘includes’ and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean ‘includes, but is not limited to. ’ The term ‘based on’ is to be read as ‘at least in part based on. ’ The term ‘some embodiments’ and ‘an embodiment’ are to be read as ‘at least some embodiments. ’ The term ‘another embodiment’ is to be read as ‘at least one other embodiment. ’ The terms ‘first, ’ ‘second, ’ and the like may refer to different or same objects. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as ‘best, ’ ‘lowest, ’ ‘highest, ’ ‘minimum, ’ ‘maximum, ’ or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

The term “circuitry” used herein may refer to hardware circuits and/or combinations of hardware circuits and software. For example, the circuitry may be a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuits with software/firmware. As a further example, the circuitry may be any portions of hardware processors with software including digital signal processor (s) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a terminal device or a network device, to perform various functions. In a still further example, the circuitry may be hardware circuits and or processors, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software/firmware for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. As used herein, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (s) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor (s) and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.

In some embodiments, a terminal device may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in one or more control resource sets (CORESETs) on an active bandwidth part (BWP) on an activated serving cell configured with PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets. In some embodiments, monitoring of a PDCCH candidate may imply at least one of receiving the PDCCH candidate and decoding according to the monitored downlink control information (DCI) format.

As described above, in order to improve reliability and robustness for PDCCH, Single or same DCI can be transmitted from a network device to a terminal device (such as, UE) via multiple PDCCH candidates (For example, two PDCCH candidates) which are linked for PDCCH repetition.

In the following, the terms “transmission occasion” , “transmission” , “repetition” , “reception” , “reception occasion” , “monitoring occasion” , “PDCCH monitoring occasion” , “PDCCH transmission occasion” , “PDCCH transmission” , “PDCCH candidate” , “PDCCH reception occasion” , “PDCCH reception” , “search space” , “search space set” , “set of search spaces” , “CORESET” , “multi-chance” and “PDCCH repetition” can be used interchangeably. In the following, the terms “PDCCH repetitions” , “repeated PDCCHs” and “repeated PDCCH signals” , “PDCCH candidates configured for same scheduling” can be used interchangeably. The terms “DCI” , “DCI format with information” and “DCI format” can be used interchangeably. The terms “TPC command value” , “TPC command” , “TPC” and “TPC command field” can be used interchangeably. The terms “uplink transmission” , “uplink transmission occasion” , “uplink” , “PUSCH transmission” , “PUSCH transmission occasion” , “PUCCH transmission” , “PUCCH transmission occasion” , “PUSCH” , “PUCCH” , “SRS transmission” , “SRS transmission occasion” , “SRS” can be used interchangeably. The terms “overlap” and “collide” can be used interchangeably.

In the following, the terms “transmission occasions” , “reception occasions” , “repetitions” , “transmission” , “reception” , “PDSCH transmission occasions” , “PDSCH repetitions” , “PUSCH transmission occasions” , “PUSCH repetitions” , “PUCCH occasions” , “PUCCH repetitions” , “repeated transmissions” , “repeated receptions” , “PDSCH transmissions” , “PDSCH receptions” , “PUSCH transmissions” , “PUSCH receptions” , “PUCCH transmissions” , “PUCCH receptions” , “RS transmission” , “RS reception” , “communication” , “transmissions” and “receptions” can be used interchangeably. The terms “transmission occasion” , “transmission” , “repetition” , “reception” , “reception occasion” , “monitoring occasion” , “PDCCH monitoring occasion” , “PDCCH transmission occasion” , “PDCCH transmission” , “PDCCH candidate” , “PDCCH reception occasion” , “PDCCH reception” , “search space” , “search space set” , “set of search spaces” , “CORESET” , “multi-chance” and “PDCCH repetition” can be used interchangeably. In the following, the terms “PDCCH repetitions” , “repeated PDCCHs” , “repeated PDCCH signals” , “PDCCH candidates configured for same scheduling” , “PDCCH” , “PDCCH candidates” and “linked PDCCH candidates” can be used interchangeably. The terms “DCI” and “DCI format” can be used interchangeably. In some embodiments, the embodiments in this disclosure can be applied to PDSCH and PUSCH scheduling, and in the following, PDSCH scheduling is described as examples. For example, the embodiments in this disclosure can be applied to PUSCH by replacing “transmit” to “receive” and/or “receive” to “transmit” . The terms “PDSCH” and “PUSCH” can be used interchangeably. The terms “transmit” and “receive” can be used interchangeably.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, the network 100 includes a network device 110. For example, the network device 110 may be configured with at least one of two TRPs/panels 120-1 and 120-2 (collectively referred to as TRPs 120 or individually referred to as TRP 120) . The network 100 also includes a terminal device 130 served by the network device 110. The serving area of the network device 110 is called as a cell 101 and/or a cell 102. It is to be understood that the number of network devices, terminal devices and TRPs as shown in FIG. 1 is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations to the present disclosure. The network 100 may include any suitable number of devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it would be appreciated that one or more terminal devices may be located in the cell 101 and/or cell 102 and served by the network device 110.

In some scenarios, carrier aggregation (CA) can be supported in the network 100, in which two or more CCs are aggregated in order to support a broader bandwidth. For example, in FIG. 1, the network device 110 may provide to the terminal device 130 a plurality of serving cells including one primary cell (Pcell or Pscell or Spcell) 101 corresponding to a primary CC and at least one secondary cell (Scell) 102 corresponding to at least one secondary CC. It is to be understood that the number of network devices, terminal devices and/or serving cells is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations to the present disclosure. The network 100 may include any suitable number of network devices, terminal devices and/or serving cells adapted for implementing implementations of the present disclosure.

In some other scenarios, the terminal device 130 may establish connections with two different network devices (not shown in FIG. 1) and thus can utilize radio resources of the two network devices. The two network devices may be respectively defined as a master network device and a secondary network device. The master network device may provide a group of serving cells, which are also referred to as “Master Cell Group (MCG) ” . The secondary network device may also provide a group of serving cells, which are also referred to as “Secondary Cell Group (SCG) ” . For Dual Connectivity operation, a term “Special Cell (Spcell) ” may refer to the Pcell of the MCG or the primary Scell (Pscell) of the SCG depending on if the terminal device 130 is associated to the MCG or the SCG, respectively. In other cases than the Dual Connectivity operation, the term “SpCell” may also refer to the PCell.

In one embodiment, the terminal device 130 may be connected with a first network device and a second network device (not shown in FIG. 1) . One of the first network device and the second network device may be in a master node and the other one may be in a secondary node. The first network device and the second network device may use different radio access technologies (RATs) . In one embodiment, the first network device may be a first RAT device and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In one embodiment, the first RAT device may be an eNB and the second RAT device is a gNB. Information related to different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device 130 from at least one of the first network device and the second network device. In one embodiment, first information may be transmitted to the terminal device 130 from the first network device and second information may be transmitted to the terminal device 130 from the second network device directly or via the first network device. In one embodiment, information related to configuration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information related to reconfiguration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device. The information may be transmitted via any of the following: Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) or Downlink Control Information (DCI) .

As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, Ultra-Reliable Low latency Communication (URLLC) devices, device on vehicle for V2X communication where X means pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure/network, or image capture devices such as digital cameras, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like. For the purpose of discussion, in the following, some embodiments will be described with reference to UE as an example of the terminal device 130.

As used herein, the term ‘network device’ or ‘base station’ (BS) refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an Evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNB) , a Transmission Reception Point (TRP) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, and the like. The term “TRP” refers to an antenna array (with one or more antenna elements) available to the network device located at a specific geographical location. For example, a network device may be coupled with multiple TRPs in different geographical locations to achieve better coverage. It is to be understood that the TRP can also be referred to as a “panel” , which also refers to an antenna array (with one or more antenna elements) or a group of antennas.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may communicate with the terminal device 130 via a first TRP (for example, TRP 120-1) and a second TRP (for example, TRP 120-2) . For example, the first TRP and the second TRP may be included in a same serving cell or different serving cells provided by the network device 110. Although some embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to the first and the second TRP within same serving cell provided by the network device 110, these embodiments are only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the present disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the communication network 100, the network device 110 can communicate data and control information to the terminal device 130 and the terminal device 130 can also communication data and control information to the network device 110. A link from the network device 110 to the terminal device 130 is referred to as a downlink (DL) . For example, a downlink communication may include at least one of: a PDCCH, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) , a downlink reference signal (RS) , a channel state information RS (CSI-RS) , a demodulation RS (DMRS) , a phase tracking RS (PTRS) , a tracking RS (TRS) , a CSI-RS for tracking, a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) , a synchronization RS, a primary synchronization RS (PSS) and a secondary synchronization RS (SSS) . A link from the terminal device 130 to the network device 110 is referred to as an uplink (UL) . For example, an uplink communication may include at least one of: a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) , a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) , an uplink reference signal (RS) , a sounding RS (SRS) , a demodulation RS (DMRS) , a phase tracking RS (PTRS) and a physical random access channel (PRACH) .

The communications in the network 100 may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the like. Furthermore, the communications may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols.

In some embodiments, the first and second TRPs 120 may be explicitly associated with different higher-layer configured identities. For example, a higher-layer configured identity can be associated with a Control Resource Set (CORESET) , a reference signal (RS) , or a Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state, which is used to differentiate between transmissions between different TRPs 120 and the terminal device 130. When the terminal device 130 receives two DCIs in two CORESETs which are associated with different higher-layer configured identities, the two DCIs are indicated from different TRPs. Further, the first and second TRPs 120 may be implicitly identified by a dedicated configuration to the physical channels or signals. For example, a dedicated CORESET, a RS, and a TCI state, which are associated with a TRP, are used to identify a transmission from a different TRP to the terminal device 130. For example, when the terminal device 130 receives a DCI from a dedicated CORESET, the DCI is indicated from the associated TRP dedicated by the CORESET.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 200 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the method 200 can be implemented at the terminal device 130 as shown in FIG. 1.

At block 210, the terminal device 130 receives at least one first configuration for a first PDCCH candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate. For another example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be linked for PDCCH repetition. For another example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later or no earlier than the first PDCCH candidate.

At block 220, the terminal device 130 determines a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

At block 230, the terminal device 130 monitors the third PDCCH candidate for detection of a DCI based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may be configured with multiple control-resource sets (i.e. CORESETs) .

In some embodiments, a CORESET may consist of

resource blocks (RBs) in the frequency domain and

symbols in the time domain. In some embodiments, a control-channel element (CCE) consists of 6 resource-element groups (REGs) where a REG equals to one resource block during one orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. In some embodiments, REGs within a control-resource set are numbered in increasing order in a time-first manner, starting with 0 for the first OFDM symbol and the lowest-numbered resource block in the control resource set.

In some embodiments, one CORESET may be associated with one or more search space sets. One search space set may include or may be associated with one or more PDCCH candidates. In some embodiments, at least one of: PDCCH monitoring periodicity, PDCCH monitoring offset, PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot, slot offset, PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot and symbol index within a slot can be configured per search space set. In some embodiments, one PDCCH candidate may be associated with or may correspond to a search space in a search space set.

In some embodiments, a procedure may be defined for determining physical downlink control channel candidates for the terminal device 130. That is, determining the CCE index (es) for each of a plurality of PDCCH candidates that is potentially to be used for PDCCH transmission between the network device 110 and the terminal device 130. With the CCE index for PDCCH candidates determined, the terminal device 130 can perform blind detection on these PDCCH candidates. Once PDCCH transmission is detected or received on a PDCCH candidate, the terminal device 130 may decode it to obtain information such as DCI.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may assume that a Demodulation Reference Signal (DM-RS) antenna port associated with PDCCH reception (s) in the CORESET is quasi co-located (QCLed) with the one or more reference signal (RS) configured by a transmission control indicator (TCI) state, where the TCI state is indicated for the CORESET, if any.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may assume that a DM-RS antenna port associated with PDCCH reception (s) in the CORESET is quasi co-located (QCLed) with a Synchronization Signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH) block the UE identified during a most recent random access procedure not initiated by a PDCCH order that triggers a contention-free random access procedure, if no Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) activation command indicating a TCI state for the CORESET is received after the most recent random access procedure the one or more reference signal (RS) configured by a TCI state, where the TCI state is indicated for the CORESET, if any.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit, to the terminal device 130, at least one configuration of N PDCCH candidates, where N is a positive integer. For example, 1 ≤ N ≤ 32. For another example, N=2. For example, the configuration may be transmitted via any of Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) and DCI.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit, to the terminal device 130, at least one first configuration for a first PDCCH candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate may be comprised in or associated with a first search space or a first search space set. In some embodiments, the first search space or the first search space set may be associated with a first CORESET. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may be comprised in or associated with a second search space or a second search space set. In some embodiments, the second search space or the second search space set may be associated with a second CORESET. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be comprised in or associated with a third search space or a third search space set. In some embodiments, the third search space or the third search space set may be associated with the first CORESET or the second CORESET.

In some embodiments, the first search space set may be configured with a first search space set index (For example, a first value of searchSpaceId) . In some embodiments, the second search space set may be configured with a second search space set index (For example, a second value of searchSpaceId) . In some embodiments, the third search space set may be configured with a third search space set index (For example, a third value of searchSpaceId) . In some embodiments, the value of searchSpaceId may be a non-negative integer. For example, 0 <= searchSpaceId <= 39. For another example, 0 < searchSpaceId <40.In some embodiments, the first value of searchSpaceId may be different from the second value of searchSpaceId. In some embodiments, the third value of searchSpaceId may be different from the first value of searchSpaceId and/or the second value of searchSpaceId.

In some embodiments, the first CORESET may be configured with a first CORESET index (For example, a first value of controlResourceSetId) . In some embodiments, the second CORESET may be configured with a second CORESET index (For example, a second value of controlResourceSetId) . In some embodiments, the value of controlResourceSetId may be a non-negative integer. For example, 0 <=controlResourceSetId <= 11. For another example, 0 < controlResourceSetId < 12. For another example, 0 <= controlResourceSetId <= 15. For another example, 0 <controlResourceSetId < 16. In some embodiments, the first value of controlResourceSetId may be different from the second value of controlResourceSetId. In some embodiments, the first value of controlResourceSetId may be same as the second value of controlResourceSetId.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be explicitly linked/associated together. For example, the terminal device 130 is able to know the linking/association before decoding. In some embodiments, there may be a first PDCCH/DCI transmitted/received in the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, there may be a second PDCCH/DCI transmitted/received in the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the DCI payload and/or the coded bits and/or the number of CCEs in the first PDCCH/DCI are same with the second PDCCH/DCI. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH/DCI and the second PDCCH/DCI schedule a same communication between the network device 110 and the terminal device 130. For example, the communication may be at least one of PUSCH, PUCCH, SRS, PDSCH, Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) , transport block, an active UL BWP change, and an active DL BWP change.

In some embodiment, the network device 110 may transmit, to the terminal device 130, a configuration indicating the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. For example, the configuration can be transmitted from the network device 110 to the terminal device 130 via any of the following: Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) or DCI. For example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate can be used to carry a single or a same DCI format (or DCI payload) .

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate may end or start no later or earlier than the second PDCCH candidate in time domain. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may end or start no earlier than or later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit at least one second configuration for the first CORESET and the second CORESET to the terminal device 130. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may receive at least one second configuration for the first CORESET and the second CORESET to the network device 110.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit at least one third configuration for the first search space set, the second search space set and the third search space set. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may receive at least one third configuration for the first search space set, the second search space set and the third search space set. In some embodiments, the at least one third configuration may comprise at least one of: PDCCH monitoring periodicity, PDCCH monitoring offset, monitoring symbols within a slot, monitoring slots within a slot group and PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot.

In some embodiments, the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration may configure at least one search space set (For example, the first search space set) which is associated with the first CORESET. For example, the first search space set is associated with the first CORESET. In some embodiments, the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration may configure at least one search space set (For example, the second search space set) which is associated with the second CORESET. For example, the second search space set is associated with the second CORESET. In some embodiments, the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration may configure at least one PDCCH candidate (For example, the first PDCCH candidate) in the first search space set. In some embodiments, the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration may configure at least one PDCCH candidate (For example, the second PDCCH candidate) in the second search space set. In some embodiments, the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration may configure that the first PDCCH candidate in the first search space set associated with the first CORESET is linked or associated or related to the second PDCCH candidate in the second search space set associated with the second CORESET. For example, the terminal device knows the linking or association or relationship before decoding the PDCCH or DCI in the first and second PDCCH candidates. In some embodiments, the first and second PDCCH candidates may be used for PDCCH repetitions. For example, encoding and/or rate matching of the PDCCH or DCI in the PDCCH in the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate is based on one repetition (for example, PDCCH or DCI in the PDCCH in one of the first and second PDCCH candidates) . For example, the same coded bits are repeated for the other repetition. For another example, each repetition has the same number of control channel elements (CCEs) and coded bits, and corresponds to the same DCI payload. In some embodiments, the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration may be transmitted/received via at least one of RRC signaling, MAC CE and DCI. In some embodiments, there may be a configuration (For example, RRC parameter searchSpaceLinking) in the at least one first configuration and/or the at least one second configuration and/or the at least one third configuration, wherein the configuration may configure that the first search space set is linked with the second search space set.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor or receive or detect a first PDCCH reception, and the first PDCCH reception may include the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor both of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may not be required to monitor one of the two PDCCH candidates. For example, the terminal device 130 may not be required to monitor the first PDCCH candidate. For another example, the terminal device 130 may not be required to monitor the second PDCCH candidate. For another example, the terminal device 130 may monitor the first PDCCH candidate and not monitor the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor the second PDCCH candidate and not monitor the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor at least one of: the combination of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may decode or detect at least one of DCI in the first PDCCH candidate, DCI in the second PDCCH candidate, DCI based on combination of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate and DCI in the PDCCH reception.

In some embodiments, the first search space set may be configured with a first index (For example, a first value of SearchSpaceLinkingId) . In some embodiments, the second search space set may be configured with a second index (For example, a second value of SearchSpaceLinkingId) . In some embodiments, the value of SearchSpaceLinkingId may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21} . In some embodiments, if the first value of SearchSpaceLinkingId is same as the second value of SearchSpaceLinkingId, the first search space set is linked with the second search space set. In some embodiments, the third search space set may not be configured with the parameter SearchSpaceLinkingId or SearchSpaceLinking.

In some embodiments, the parameter SearchSpaceLinkingId may be used to link two search space sets of same type. In some embodiments, if two search spaces (For example, a first search space and a second search space) have the same SearchSpaceLinkingId, the terminal device may assume the two search spaces are linked for PDCCH repetition. In some embodiments, when PDCCH repetition is monitored in two linked search space (SS) sets (for example, the first search space set and the second search space set) , the terminal device may not expect a third monitored search space set (For example, a third search space set) to be linked with any of the two linked search space sets. In some embodiments, the two linked search space sets (for example, the first search space set and the second search space set) have the same search space set type (UE-specific search space (USS) or common search space (CSS) ) . In some embodiments, the two linked search space sets (for example, the first search space set and the second search space set) have the same DCI formats to monitor. In some embodiments, in case of intra-slot PDCCH repetition, the two search space sets (for example, the first search space set and the second search space set) may have the same periodicity and offset (monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset) , and the same duration. In some embodiments, for linking monitoring occasions across the two search space sets (for example, the first search space set and the second search space set) that exist in the same slot: the two search space sets (for example, the first search space set and the second search space set) have the same number of monitoring occasions within a slot and n-th monitoring occasion of one search space set is linked to n-th monitoring occasion of the other search space set. In some embodiments, the following search space sets cannot be linked with another search space set for PDCCH repetition: search space set 0, searchSpaceSIB1, searchSpaceOtherSystemInformation, pagingSearchSpace, ra-SearchSpace, searchSpaceBroadcast, peiSearchSpace, and sdt-SearchSpace. search space set configured by recoverySearchSpaceId cannot be linked to another search space set for PDCCH repetition. In some embodiments, when a scheduled serving cell is configured to be cross-carrier scheduled by a scheduling serving cell, two PDCCH candidates (with the same AL and candidate index associated with the scheduled serving cell) are linked only if the corresponding two search space sets in the scheduling serving cell are linked and two search space sets in the scheduled serving cell with the same search space set identities (IDs) are also linked.

In some embodiments, the first search space set may be configured with a first number of aggregation levels (for example, the first number of aggregation levels may be at least one of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ) , and according to a first value of aggregation level, there may be a first number of candidates (for example, the first number of candidates may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} ) . In some embodiments, according to different values of aggregation level, the number of candidates may be same or different. For example, the number of candidates according to a value of aggregation level may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} . In some embodiments, the second search space set may be configured with a second number of aggregation levels (for example, the second number of aggregation levels may be at least one of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ) , and according to a first value of aggregation level, there may be a second number of candidates (for example, the second number of candidates may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} ) . In some embodiments, the value of aggregation level may be at least one of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16} . In some embodiments, according to a same value of aggregation level, the number of candidates according to the value of aggregation level configured in the first search space set and the number of candidates according to the value of aggregation level configured in the second search space set are same. For example, the first number of candidates is same with the second number of candidates.

In some embodiments, the third search space set may be configured with a third number of aggregation levels (for example, the third number of aggregation levels may be at least one of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ) , and according to a third value of aggregation level, there may be a third number of candidates (for example, the third number of candidates may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} ) . In some embodiments, according to different values of aggregation level, the number of candidates may be same or different. For example, the number of candidates according to a value of aggregation level may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8} .

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate may be associated with a first index according to a value of aggregation level. For example, the value of the first index may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} . In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may be associated with a second index according to the value of aggregation level. For example, the value of the second index may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} . In some embodiments, the value of the first index is same as the value of the second index. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be associated with a third index according to the value of aggregation level. For example, the value of the third index may be at least one of {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} .

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor in monitoring occasions the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidates with same index according to each of the first search space set and the second search space set in a slot, for detection of a DCI format with same information.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may transmit the uplink transmission to the network device. In some embodiments, the uplink transmission may be at least one of PUSCH, PUCCH and SRS. In some embodiments, the uplink transmission may be scheduled by a DCI or the PDCCH reception or at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the uplink transmission may be scheduled by another PDCCH or DCI or not scheduled by at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine a transmission power for the uplink transmission in a transmission occasion. In some embodiments, the terminal device may be configured with a mode or a type of power control. In some embodiments, if the terminal device is configured with a first mode or a first type of power control, the terminal device may apply TPC commands (or TPC command values) via accumulation. For example, the terminal device is not provided with a parameter tpc-Accumulation in RRC. For another example, the field of parameter tpc-Accumulation is absent in RRC. In some embodiments, if the terminal device is configured with a second mode or a second type of power control, the terminal device may apply TPC commands (or TPC command values) without accumulation. For example, the terminal device is provided with a parameter tpc-Accumulation in RRC. For another example, the field of parameter tpc-Accumulation is present in RRC.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate in the first search space set is linked with the second PDCCH candidate in the second search space set based on the two PDCCH candidates having the same aggregation level and same candidate index. For example, the aggregation level of the first PDCCH candidate and the aggregation level of the second PDCCH candidate are same. For another example, the candidate index of the first PDCCH candidate and the candidate index of the second PDCCH candidate are same.

In some embodiments, if a first PDCCH reception includes two PDCCH candidates (for example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) , and the two PDCCH candidates are from two linked search space sets (For example, the first search space set and the second search space set) , the last symbol of the PDCCH reception may be the last symbol for the PDCCH candidate that ends later (For example, the second PDCCH candidate) .

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH reception may include the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate also when the terminal device is not required to monitor one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor at least one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the combination of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be linked for PDCCH repetition. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may end later or no earlier in time than the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the first symbol of the second PDCCH candidate may be later or no earlier than the first symbol of the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the last symbol of the second PDCCH candidate may be later or no earlier than the last symbol of the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command value based on at least one TPC command field in at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine a transmission power for an uplink transmission based on a TPC command value and a time domain location or position or occasion of the second PDCCH candidate, wherein the TPC command value may be determined based on at least one TPC command field in at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device may transmit the uplink transmission based on the transmission power to the network device. In some embodiments, the TPC command value may be indicated in at least one of: TPC command field in the first PDCCH candidate and TPC command field in the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the uplink transmission may be scheduled by another PDCCH or DCI or not scheduled by at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the uplink transmission may be scheduled by the DCI or scheduled by at least one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, a first payload of a first DCI in the first PDCCH candidate may be same with a second payload of a second DCI in the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the first DCI may be same with the second DCI. In some embodiments, information in the first PDCCH candidate may be same with the information in the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may receive the first PDCCH reception, wherein the first PDCCH reception comprises the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the start of the first PDCCH reception may be the start of an earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate (For example, the first PDCCH candidate) . In some embodiments, the end of the first PDCCH reception may be the end of the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the first symbol of the first PDCCH reception may be the first symbol of an earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate (For example, the first PDCCH candidate) . In some embodiments, the last symbol of the first PDCCH reception may be the last symbol of the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate to detect a DCI with same information. In some embodiments, the terminal device may determine the TPC command value based on the DCI.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may detect the DCI in the first PDCCH reception, and determine the TPC command value based on the DCI.

In some embodiments, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH reception may be the union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the network device may transmit the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate to the terminal device, wherein the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be linked for PDCCH repetition and the second PDCCH candidate may end later or no earlier in time than the first PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the network device may receive from the terminal device, an uplink transmission.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be within a same slot. In some embodiments, the first monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate may be within a same slot.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be within different slots. In some embodiments, the first monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate may be within different slots.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may receive, from the network device 110, at least one first configuration for the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may determine a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, at least one of a value of counter Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) and a value of total DAI in a second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may be based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be comprised in the first PDCCH reception. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be comprised in a second PDCCH reception.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate for detection of a first DCI. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor the third PDCCH candidate for detection of the second DCI.

In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate may be at least one of: the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate may have identical scrambling; the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate may use a same set of CCEs over same symbols in a slot in a CORESET; a number of symbols for the third PDCCH candidate and a number of symbols for either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate may be same; the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate may be associated with a same CORESET (For example, the first CORESET or the second CORESET) ; the first DCI and the second DCI may have a same size; and the time/frequency resource for the third PDCCH candidate may fully overlap with the time/frequency resource for either one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, a start of the first PDCCH reception may be the start of the earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, an end of the first PDCCH reception may be the end of the one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later. In some embodiments, a start of the second PDCCH reception may be the start of the earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, an end of the second PDCCH reception may be the end of the one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH reception may comprise the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH reception may comprise the third PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may end later in time than the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may start later in time than the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, a starting symbol of the second PDCCH candidate may be later than or no earlier than a starting symbol of the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, an ending symbol of the second PDCCH candidate may be later than or no earlier than an ending symbol of the first PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may receive at least one second configuration for the first CORESET and the second CORESET. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate may be associated with the first CORESET. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may be associated with the second CORESET. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be associated with either one of the first CORESET or the second CORESET. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may receive at least one third configuration for the first search space set, the second search space set and the third search space set. In some embodiments, the at least one third configuration may comprise at least one of: PDCCH monitoring periodicity, PDCCH monitoring offset, monitoring symbols within a slot, monitoring slots within a slot group and PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot for each one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the first search space set and the second search space set may be configured with a same value of a first parameter, and the first parameter may indicate the first search space set and the second search space set are linked. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate may be associated with the first search space set. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may be associated with the second search space set. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be associated with the third search space set. In some embodiments, the third search space set may not be configured with the first parameter.

In some embodiments, the first search space set may be associated with the first CORESET. In some embodiments, the second search space set may be associated with the second CORESET. In some embodiments, the third search space set may be associated with either one of the first CORESET or the second CORESET.

In some embodiments, the third search space set may not be configured with the first parameter.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one third configuration for the first search space set. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one third configuration for the second search space set.

In some embodiments, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in the first DCI may be based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In some embodiments, a third PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one third configuration for the third search space set, wherein the third PDCCH monitoring occasion may be different from the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion. In some embodiments, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may not be based on the third PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit, to the terminal device 130, at least one first configuration for the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate may be determined based on a union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate for transmission of the first DCI. In some embodiments, the network device 110 may transmit the third PDCCH candidate for transmission of the second DCI. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be comprised in a first PDCCH transmission for transmission of the first DCI. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be comprised in a second PDCCH transmission for transmission of the second DCI.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may receive, from the network device 110, at least one first configuration for the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, in response to the third PDCCH candidate overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in a DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may be based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, in response to the third PDCCH candidate not overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in the DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may be based on a third PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on at least one configuration for a first search space set associated with the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one configuration for a second search space set associated with the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one configuration for a third search space set associated with the third PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may be configured with the first search space set (For example, represented as s _i) , the second search space set (For example, represented as s _j) , and the third search space set (For example, represented as s _k) . In some embodiments, the first search space set and the second search space set may include or may be configured with the first parameter (e.g. searchSpaceLinking ) , wherein the first parameter may indicate the two search space sets are linked (e.g. for PDCCH repetition) . In some embodiments, the third search space set may not include or not be configured with the first parameter. In some embodiments, the first search space set and the second search space set may be applied for PDCCH repetition. In some embodiments, the third search space set may not be applied for PDCCH repetition (For example, may be applied as individual PDCCH transmission/reception) .

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may be configured with the first PDCCH candidate (For example, represented as

) , the second PDCCH candidate (For example, represented as

) and the third PDCCH candidate (For example, represented as

) . In some embodiments, L may be a CCE aggregation level. For example, the CCE aggregation level may be applied for the PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate may be associated or included in the first search space set. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may be associated or included in the second search space set. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may be associated or included in the third search space set. In some embodiments, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate may be applied for PDCCH repetition. For example, the two PDCCH candidates with

in or associated with the first search space set and the second search may be applied for detection of one DCI or for one PDCCH reception or for PDCCH repetition.

In some embodiments, the first PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined for the first PDCCH candidate based on the at least one third configuration for the first search space set. In some embodiments, the second PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined for the second PDCCH candidate based on the at least one third configuration for the second search space set. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined for the third PDCCH candidate based on the at least one third configuration for the third search space set. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may determine a PDCCH monitoring occasion on an active DL BWP from the PDCCH monitoring periodicity, the PDCCH monitoring offset, and the PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot. For example, for the corresponding or associated search space set.

In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first and second PDCCH candidates may have/associate to identical scrambling, use a same set of CCEs over same symbols in a slot in a CORESET. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first and second PDCCH candidates may be associated with same DCI size. In some embodiments, the time and/or frequency resource for the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the time and/or frequency resource for either one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor the first and second PDCCH candidates for detection of the first DCI format. In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor the third PDCCH candidate for detection of the second DCI format. In some embodiments, the terminal device may monitor the third PDCCH candidate depending on a corresponding capability. In some embodiments, the third PDCCH candidate may not be counted for monitoring. In some embodiments, the terminal device may assume a detected DCI format (based on at least one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate) is the first DCI format. In some embodiments, the one or two DCI format detected based on the at least one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate may be interpreted based on a rule for PDCCH repetition (For example, Rel-17 repetition rule) . In some embodiments, the one or two DCI format detected based on the at least one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate may be interpreted based on a reference PDCCH candidate, wherein the reference PDCCH candidate may be either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, there may be a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion determined for the first and second PDCCH candidates. For example, the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion may be a union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may be counted based on Rel-17 repetition rule. In some embodiments, counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may be counted based on the reference PDCCH candidate, wherein the reference PDCCH candidate may be the first PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may be counted based on the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the reference PDCCH candidate, wherein the reference PDCCH candidate may be the first PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate may be determined/changed to be the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion. In some embodiments, the PDCCH monitoring occasion of the third PDCCH candidate may be determined based on a union of PDCCH monitoring occasions (For example, the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate) . For example, if the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may be based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion. In some embodiments, the counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may not be based on the third PDCCH monitoring occasion, wherein the third PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one third configuration for the third search space set.

In some embodiments, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate may be determined/changed to be the first PDCCH monitoring occasion. For example, if the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may be based on the first PDCCH monitoring occasion. In some embodiments, the counter DAI and/or total DAI in the second DCI associated to the third PDCCH candidate may not be based on the third PDCCH monitoring occasion, wherein the third PDCCH monitoring occasion may be determined based on the at least one third configuration for the third search space set.

In some embodiments, when a PDCCH reception by the terminal device includes two PDCCH candidates (For example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) from corresponding search space sets (For example, the first search space set and the second search space set) , or when the PDCCH reception is for detection of a first DCI format, and when there is a second PDCCH reception by the terminal device for detection of a second DCI format having a same size as the first DCI format includes a PDCCH candidate (For example, the third PDCCH candidate) , and the PDCCH candidate and either one of the two PDCCH candidates included in the PDCCH reception have identical scrambling and use a same set of CCEs over same symbols in a slot in a CORESET, there may be at least one of the following: a PDCCH monitoring occasion for the PDCCH reception or for the second PDCCH reception may be the union of the PDCCH monitoring occasions for the two PDCCH candidates (For example, the union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate) ; a PDCCH monitoring occasion for the PDCCH reception or for the second PDCCH reception may be the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate; the start of the PDCCH reception or the start of the second PDCCH reception may be the start of the earlier PDCCH candidate (For example, the start of the first PDCCH candidate) ; and the end of the PDCCH reception or the end of the second PDCCH reception may be the end of the PDCCH candidate that ends later (For example, the end of the second PDCCH candidate) .

In some embodiments, the PDCCH reception may include the two PDCCH candidates also when or even when the terminal device is not required to monitor one of the two PDCCH candidates.

In some embodiments, when a PDCCH reception by a UE includes two PDCCH candidates (For example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) from corresponding search space sets (For example, the first search space set and the second search space set) , there may be at least one of the following: a PDCCH monitoring occasion may be the union of the PDCCH monitoring occasions for the two PDCCH candidates (For example, the union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate) ; the start of the PDCCH reception may be the start of the earlier PDCCH candidate (For example, the start of the first PDCCH candidate) ; and the end of the PDCCH reception may be the end of the PDCCH candidate that ends later (For example, the end of the second PDCCH candidate) .

In some embodiments, when a first PDCCH reception by the terminal device includes a first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH candidate from corresponding search space sets (For example, the first search space set and the second search space set) , and a second PDCCH reception by the terminal device includes a third PDCCH candidate from corresponding search space set (For example, the third search space set) , wherein the first PDCCH reception may be for detection of a first DCI format, and if the second PDCCH reception by the terminal device for detection of a second DCI format having a same size as the first DCI format, and the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first and second PDCCH candidates have identical scrambling and use a same set of CCEs over same symbols in a slot in a CORESET, there may be at least one of the following: a PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH reception (For example, associated with the third PDCCH candidate) may be the union of the PDCCH monitoring occasions for the first and second PDCCH candidates; the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH reception may be the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate; the start of the second PDCCH reception may be the start of the earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate (For example, the start of the first PDCCH candidate) ; and the end of the second PDCCH reception may be the end of one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later (For example, the end of the second PDCCH candidate) .

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may expect or may be expected or may assume or may be assumed the third PDCCH candidate does not overlap with the one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later or that starts later. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may expect or may be expected or may assume or may be assumed the third PDCCH candidate does not overlap with the second PDCCH candidate. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may not expect or may be not expected or may not assume or may be not assumed the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with the one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later or that starts later. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may not expect or may be not expected or may not assume or may be not assumed the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, if the terminal device 130 is provided monitoringCapabilityConfig = r16monitoringcapability for a cell (For example, a downlink cell) and/or the terminal device 130 is provided, by searchSpaceLinking, for the first search space set s _i and the second search space set s _j on the cell (For example, respective values s _j and s _i) , and/or the terminal device 130 indicates three-BDforSSsetLinking, the terminal device 130 may count each PDCCH candidate for the one of the search space sets s _i and s _j that the terminal device 130 monitors PDCCH in the later span, as two PDCCH candidates. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may not expect or does not expect a fourth PDCCH candidate from search space set s _i or s _j and a fifth PDCCH candidate from a search space set s _k that does not include searchSpaceLinking to use a same set of CCEs and same scrambling in a same CORESET, and provide respective first and second DCI formats with same size, in any span other than the first span in a slot. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may not expect or does not expect a fourth PDCCH candidate from search space set s _i or s _j which ends later (For example, the second PDCCH candidate) and a fifth PDCCH candidate (For example, the third PDCCH candidate) from a search space set s _k that does not include searchSpaceLinking overlap in same time and/or frequency resource. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may not expect or does not expect a fourth PDCCH candidate from search space set s _i or s _j which ends later (For example, the second PDCCH candidate) and a fifth PDCCH candidate (For example, the third PDCCH candidate) from a search space set s _k that does not include searchSpaceLinking to use a same set of CCEs and same scrambling in a same CORESET, and provide respective first and second DCI formats with same size.

In some embodiments, if a second value of a counter DAI and/or a second value of a total DAI detected in the second DCI (For example, associated with the third PDCCH candidate) conflicts with or is different from a first value of a counter DAI and/or a first value of a total DAI in the first DCI (For example, associated with the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate) , the terminal device may assume the DCI as a second DCI format or the terminal device may interpret the second DCI based on an individual DCI or the terminal device may not interpret the second DCI based on the reference PDCCH candidate or the terminal device may not interpret the second DCI based on Rel-17 repetition rule.

In some embodiments, if two PDCCH candidates (For example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) that are linked for repetition do not belong to the same PDCCH monitoring occasion, the earlier PDCCH monitoring occasion (For example, the first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate) may be used as the reference for at least one of the following: definition of counter DAI and/or total DAI, Type-2 Hybrid Automatic Repeat request -acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook construction, and determining the last DCI for PUCCH resource determination based on the PUCCH resource indicator or PUCCH resource indication (PRI) field of the last DCI.

In some embodiments, when one of the linked PDCCH candidates (For example, the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) uses the same set of CCEs as an individual (unlinked) PDCCH candidate (For example, the third PDCCH candidate) , and they both are associated with the same DCI size, scrambling, and CORESET, the interpretation of the detected DCI in at least one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate may be based on Release 17 PDCCH repetition rules (For example, based on the reference PDCCH candidate) . In some embodiments, whether the individual candidate (For example, the third PDCCH candidate) is monitored or not is determined by a terminal device capability (or UE capability) .

In some embodiments, a last DCI format may be the DCI format that the terminal device 130 detects in a last PDCCH monitoring occasion from the PDCCH monitoring occasions for which the terminal device would provide HARQ-ACK information in a PUCCH in a same slot.

In some embodiments, for the first search space set (For example, represented as s _i) and the second search space set (For example, represented as s _j) that include searchSpaceLinking with same value of the first parameter (For example, same value of searchSpaceLinkingId) , and for the third search space set (For example, represented as s _k) that does not include searchSpaceLinking, when the terminal device 130 monitors PDCCH candidates

(For example, the first PDCCH candidate

and the second PDCCH candidate

) for detection of a first DCI format, the terminal device 130 may monitor PDCCH candidate

(For example, the third PDCCH candidate) for detection of a second DCI format having a same size as the first DCI format. For example, the PDCCH candidate

or the PDCCH candidate

and the PDCCH candidate

may have identical scrambling and/or may use a same set of CCEs over same symbols in a slot in a CORESET p. In some embodiments, the PDCCH candidate

may not be counted for monitoring. In some embodiments, the terminal device may assume that a detected DCI format (For example, associated with at least one of the first PDCCH candidate, the second PDCCH candidate and the third PDCCH candidate) is the first DCI format. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor PDCCH candidate

depending on a corresponding capability.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may determine a PDCCH monitoring occasion (for example, on an active BWP) from at least one of the PDCCH monitoring periodicity, the PDCCH monitoring offset and the PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot. In some embodiments, if monitoringWithinSlotsWithinSlotGroup is provided, the slot may be the first slot in a group of slots and PDCCH monitoring occasions exist in the group of slots. In some embodiments, the terminal device 130 may monitor PDCCH candidates for a search space set for a number of consecutive slots, and does not monitoring PDCCH candidates for the search space set for the next second number of consecutive slots.

In some embodiments, a value of the counter downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field in a DCI may denote the accumulative number of {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} -pairs is present up to the current serving cell and current PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In some embodiments, a value of the counter downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field in a DCI may denote the accumulative number of {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} -pairs in which PDSCH receptions, excluding PDSCH receptions that provide only transport blocks for HARQ processes associated with disabled HARQ-ACK information if donwlinkHARQ-FeedbackDisabled is provided, or HARQ-ACK information bits that are not in response for PDSCH receptions, associated with the DCI formats, excluding the semi-persistent (SPS) activation DCI, is present up to the current serving cell and current PDCCH monitoring occasion, first, if the terminal device indicates by type2-HARQ-ACK-Codebook support for more than one PDSCH reception on a serving cell that are scheduled from a same PDCCH monitoring occasion, in increasing order of the PDSCH reception starting time for the same {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} pair, second in ascending order of serving cell index, and third in ascending order of PDCCH monitoring occasion index m. For example, 0≤m<M. In some embodiments, M may be the total number of PDCCH monitoring occasions.

In some embodiments, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions for DCI formats scheduling PDSCH receptions, or having associated HARQ-ACK information without scheduling PDSCH reception, may be defined as the union of PDCCH monitoring occasions across active DL BWPs of configured serving cells. In some embodiments, PDCCH monitoring occasions may be indexed in an ascending order of their start times. In some embodiments, the cardinality of the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions may define a total number M of PDCCH monitoring occasions.

In some embodiments, the value of the total DAI, when present in a DCI format (For example, a DCI format 1_1 or a DCI format 1_2) , may denote the total number of {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} -pair (s) is present, up to the current PDCCH monitoring occasion m and may be updated from PDCCH monitoring occasion to PDCCH monitoring occasion.

In some embodiments, the value of the total DAI, when present in a DCI format (For example, a DCI format 1_1 or a DCI format 1_2) , may denote the total number of {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} -pair (s) in which PDSCH reception (s) , excluding PDSCH receptions that provide only transport blocks for HARQ processes associated with disabled HARQ-ACK information if donwlinkHARQ-FeedbackDisabled is provided, or HARQ-ACK information that does not correspond to PDSCH receptions, associated with DCI formats, excluding the SPS activation DCI, is present, up to the current PDCCH monitoring occasion m and may be updated from PDCCH monitoring occasion to PDCCH monitoring occasion. In some embodiments, if, for an active DL BWP of a serving cell, the terminal device is not provided coresetPoolIndex or is provided coresetPoolIndex with value 0 for one or more first CORESETs and is provided coresetPoolIndex with value 1 for one or more second CORESETs, and is provided ackNackFeedbackMode = joint, the total DAI value may count the {serving cell, PDCCH monitoring occasion} -pair (s) for both the first CORESETs and the second CORESETs.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may denote by

the number of bits for the counter DAI and set

In some embodiments, the terminal device may denote by

the value of the counter DAI in a DCI format scheduling PDSCH reception, or having associated HARQ-ACK information without scheduling PDSCH reception, on serving cell c in PDCCH monitoring occasion m. In some embodiments, the terminal device may denote by

the value of the total DAI in a DCI format in PDCCH monitoring occasion m. In some embodiments, the terminal device may assume a same value of total DAI in all DCI formats that include a total DAI field in PDCCH monitoring occasion m. In some embodiments, the terminal device may not expect to multiplex, in a same Type-2 HARQ-ACK codebook, HARQ-ACK information that is in response to detection of DCI formats with different number of bits for the counter DAI field.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of some embodiments. FIG. 3 illustrates

PDCCH candidates

310 and 320, which are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The PDCCH candidate 320 ends later than the PDCCH candidate 310.

In some embodiments, the second PDCCH candidate may be applied as a reference PDCCH candidate among the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate for determining the transmission power based on the TPC command value.

FIGs. 4A and 4B illustrate examples of embodiments in this disclosure. FIG. 4A shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the DCI or PDSCH scheduled by the DCI.

FIG. 4B shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a first DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. And the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the second PDCCH candidate in time and/or frequency resource. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be linked with another PDCCH candidate for PDCCH repetition. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be configured with the first parameter. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may be an individual PDCCH candidate. The third PDCCH candidate may carry a second DCI format. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI and/or the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of embodiments in this disclosure. FIG. 5 shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a first DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. And the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the second PDCCH candidate in time and/or frequency resource. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be linked with another PDCCH candidate for PDCCH repetition. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be configured with the first parameter. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may be an individual PDCCH candidate. The third PDCCH candidate may carry a second DCI format. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI and/or the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI. For example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in the first DCI (For example, associated with the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) may be (1, 2) . For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a sixth PDCCH candidate may be (2, 2) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the sixth PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate. For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a seventh PDCCH candidate may be (4, 4) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the seventh PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate or same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate. For example, if the counter DAI and/or total DAI for the third PDCCH candidate is based on the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate, the value of the counter DAI and the total DAI may be (3, 4) .

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of embodiments in this disclosure. FIG. 6 shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a first DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. And the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the second PDCCH candidate in time and/or frequency resource. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be linked with another PDCCH candidate for PDCCH repetition. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be configured with the first parameter. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may be an individual PDCCH candidate. The third PDCCH candidate may carry a second DCI format. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI and/or the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI. For example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in the first DCI (For example, associated with the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) may be (1, 2) . For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a sixth PDCCH candidate may be (2, 2) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the sixth PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate. For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a seventh PDCCH candidate may be (4, 4) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the seventh PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate or same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate. For example, if the counter DAI and/or total DAI for the third PDCCH candidate is based on the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate, the value of the counter DAI and the total DAI may be (3, 4) . For example, the first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate. As shown in FIG. 6, the counter DAI and total DAI values (For example, (3, 4) ) for the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate are interpreted based on the reference PDCCH candidate (e.g. the first PDCCH candidate) in the first PDCCH monitoring occasion. Then the counter DAI and the total DAI values in the first PDCCH monitoring occasions (e.g. (1, 2) , (3, 4) and (2, 2) ) may make the terminal device confused on HARQ codebook generation. For example, the counter DAI and the total DAI values for the second DCI (associated with the third PDCCH candidate) (e.g. (3.4) in the first PDCCH monitoring occasion as shown in FIG. 6) may conflict with the values of counter DAI and total DAI for the first DCI (associated with the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate) and the DCI (associated with the sixth PDCCH candidate) in the first PDCCH monitoring occasions (e.g. (1, 2) and (2, 2) in the first PDCCH monitoring occasion as shown in FIG. 6) .

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of embodiments in this disclosure. FIG. 7 shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a first DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. And the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the second PDCCH candidate in time and/or frequency resource. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be linked with another PDCCH candidate for PDCCH repetition. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be configured with the first parameter. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may be an individual PDCCH candidate. The third PDCCH candidate may carry a second DCI format. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI and/or the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI. The counter DAI and/or the total DAI for the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may be based on the first PDCCH monitoring occasion or based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion (For example, a union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion) . For example, the counter DAI and/or total DAI for the third PDCCH candidate is (2, 3) . For example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in the first DCI (For example, associated with the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) may be (1, 3) . For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a sixth PDCCH candidate may be (3, 3) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the sixth PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate. For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a seventh PDCCH candidate may be (4, 4) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the seventh PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate or same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate. For example, the first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate. As shown in FIG. 7, the counter DAI and total DAI values (For example, (2, 3) ) for the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate are interpreted based on the reference PDCCH candidate (e.g. the first PDCCH candidate) in the first PDCCH monitoring occasion. The confusion on HARQ codebook generation issue shown in FIG. 6 can be solved.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of embodiments in this disclosure. FIG. 8 shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a first DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. And the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the second PDCCH candidate in time and/or frequency resource. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be linked with another PDCCH candidate for PDCCH repetition. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be configured with the first parameter. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may be an individual PDCCH candidate. The third PDCCH candidate may carry a second DCI format. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI and/or the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI. The counter DAI and/or the total DAI for the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may be based on the first PDCCH monitoring occasion or based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion (For example, a union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion) . For example, the counter DAI and/or total DAI for the third PDCCH candidate is (2, 3) . For example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in the first DCI (For example, associated with the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate) may be (1, 3) . For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a sixth PDCCH candidate may be (3, 3) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the sixth PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate. For another example, the value of counter DAI and total DAI in a DCI associated with a seventh PDCCH candidate may be (4, 4) . For example, the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the seventh PDCCH candidate may be same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate or same with the PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate. For example, the first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate. As shown in FIG. 7, the counter DAI and total DAI values (For example, (2, 3) ) for the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate are interpreted based on the reference PDCCH candidate (e.g. the first PDCCH candidate) in the first PDCCH monitoring occasion. The confusion on HARQ codebook generation issue shown in FIG. 6 can be solved.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of embodiments in this disclosure. FIG. 9 shows the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are linked together for PDCCH repetition. The first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate carry a first DCI format with same information. For example, the second PDCCH candidate may start or end later than the first PDCCH candidate in time domain. And the third PDCCH candidate may overlap with the second PDCCH candidate in time and/or frequency resource. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be linked with another PDCCH candidate for PDCCH repetition. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may not be configured with the first parameter. For example, the third PDCCH candidate may be an individual PDCCH candidate. The third PDCCH candidate may carry a second DCI format. The first PDCCH candidate may be applied as the reference PDCCH candidate for HARQ feedback corresponding to the first DCI and/or the second DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the first DCI and/or PDSCH scheduled by the second DCI. The counter DAI and/or the total DAI for the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate may be based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion (For example, a union of the first PDCCH monitoring occasion and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion) . For example, the third PDCCH monitoring occasion which is determined based on the configuration for the third search space set is not applied for the third PDCCH candidate. Based on this, the confusion on HARQ codebook generation issue shown in FIG. 6 can be solved.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 1000 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the method 1000 can be implemented at the network device 110 as shown in FIG. 1.

At block 1010, the network device 110 transmits, to a terminal device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, a terminal device comprises circuitry configured to: receive at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, a terminal device comprises circuitry configured to: determine, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, a network device comprises circuitry configured to: transmit, to a terminal device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate.

In some embodiments, a network device comprises circuitry configured to: determine, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1100 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1100 can be considered as a further example implementation of the network device 110 and/or the terminal device 130 as shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the device 1100 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the network device 110 and/or the terminal device 130 as shown in FIG. 1.

As shown, the device 1100 includes a processor 1110, a memory 1120 coupled to the processor 1110, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 1140 coupled to the processor 1110, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 1140. The memory 1110 stores at least a part of a program 1130. The TX/RX 1140 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 1140 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2 interface for bidirectional communications between eNBs, S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the eNB, Un interface for communication between the eNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the eNB and a terminal device.

The program 1130 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 1110, enable the device 1100 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to FIGs 1 to 10. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 1110 of the device 1100, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 1110 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 1110 and memory 1120 may form processing means 1150 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 1120 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 1120 is shown in the device 1100, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 1100. The processor 1110 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1100 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to FIGs 2, 8-10. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the machine readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device, from a network device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, and

determining, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.
The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of a value of counter Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) and a value of total DAI in a second downlink control information (DCI) associated with the third PDCCH candidate is based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

monitoring the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate for detection of a first DCI; and

monitoring the third PDCCH candidate for detection of the second DCI.
The method of claim 1, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate comprising at least one of:

the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate have identical scrambling;

the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate use a same set of control channel elements (CCE) s over same symbols in a slot in a control resource set (CORESET) ;

a number of symbols for the third PDCCH candidate and a number of symbols for either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate are same;

the third PDCCH candidate and either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate are associated with a same CORESET;

the first DCI and the second DCI have a same size; and

the time/frequency resource for the third PDCCH candidate fully overlaps with the time/frequency resource for either one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

a start of a first PDCCH reception is the start of the earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate;

an end of the first PDCCH reception is the end of the one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later;

a start of a second PDCCH reception is the start of the earlier one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate; and

an end of the second PDCCH reception is the end of the one of the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate that ends later.
The method of claim 5, wherein the first PDCCH reception comprises the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate; and

wherein the second PDCCH reception comprises the third PDCCH candidate a.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

the second PDCCH candidate ends later in time than the first PDCCH candidate;

the second PDCCH candidate starts later in time than the first PDCCH candidate;

a starting symbol of the second PDCCH candidate is later than or no earlier than a starting symbol of the first PDCCH candidate; and

an ending symbol of the second PDCCH candidate is later than or no earlier than an ending symbol of the first PDCCH candidate.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

receiving at least one second configuration for a first CORESET and a second CORESET, wherein the first PDCCH candidate is associated with the first CORESET, the second PDCCH candidate is associated with the second CORESET, and the third PDCCH candidate is associated with either one of the first CORESET or the second CORESET; and

receiving at least one third configuration for a first search space set, a second search space set and a third search space set, wherein the at least one third configuration comprises at least one of: PDCCH monitoring periodicity, PDCCH monitoring offset, monitoring symbols within a slot, monitoring slots within a slot group and PDCCH monitoring pattern within a slot.
The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the first search space set and the second search space set are configured with a same value of a first parameter, and the first parameter indicates the first search space set and the second search space set are linked; and

the first PDCCH candidate is associated with the first search space set, the second PDCCH candidate is associated with the second search space set and the third PDCCH candidate is associated with the third search space set, wherein the third search space set is not configured with the first parameter.
The method of claim 8, wherein

the first search space set is associated with the first CORESET;

the second search space set is associated with the second CORESET; and

the third search space set is associated with either one of the first CORESET or the second CORESET.
The method of claim 8, wherein the first PDCCH monitoring occasion is determined based on the at least one third configuration for the first search space set; and the second PDCCH monitoring occasion is determined based on the at least one third configuration for the second search space set.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one of a value of counter Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) and a value of total DAI in the first DCI is based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a third PDCCH monitoring occasion is determined based on the at least one third configuration for the third search space set, wherein the third PDCCH monitoring occasion is different from the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion, and at least one of a value of counter Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) and a value of total DAI in the second DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate is not based on the third PDCCH monitoring occasion.
A method of communication, comprising:

transmitting, at a network device, to a terminal device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, wherein the third PDCCH candidate overlaps with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, and

determining, a fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate.
The method of claim 14, further comprising:

at least one of a value of counter Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) and a value of total DAI in a second downlink control information (DCI) associated with the third PDCCH candidate is based on the fourth PDCCH monitoring occasion.
The method of claim 14, further comprising at least one of:

transmitting the first PDCCH candidate and/or the second PDCCH candidate for transmission of a first DCI; and

transmitting the third PDCCH candidate for transmission of the second DCI, wherein the first PDCCH candidate and the second PDCCH candidate are comprised in a first PDCCH transmission for transmission of the first DCI; and

wherein the third PDCCH candidate is comprised in a second PDCCH transmission for transmission of the second DCI.
A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device, from a network device, at least one first configuration for a first Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidate, a second PDCCH candidate and a third PDCCH candidate, and

in response to the third PDCCH candidate overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in a DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate is based on a union of a first PDCCH monitoring occasion for the first PDCCH candidate and a second PDCCH monitoring occasion for the second PDCCH candidate; or

in response to the third PDCCH candidate not overlapping with either one of the first PDCCH candidate or the second PDCCH candidate, at least one of a value of counter DAI and a value of total DAI in the DCI associated with the third PDCCH candidate is based on a third PDCCH monitoring occasion for the third PDCCH candidate.
The method of claim 17, wherein

the first PDCCH monitoring occasion is determined based on at least one configuration for a first search space set associated with the first PDCCH candidate;

the second PDCCH monitoring occasion is determined based on the at least one configuration for a second search space set associated with the second PDCCH candidate; and

the third PDCCH monitoring occasion is determined based on the at least one configuration for a third search space set associated with the third PDCCH candidate.
A terminal device comprising circuitry configured to perform the method according to any of claims 1-13, 17-18.
A network device comprising circuitry configured to perform the method according to any of claims 14-16.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method according to any of claims 1-13, 17-18.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method according to any of claims 14-16.