WO2024009128A1 - Methods and systems for low overhead and power efficient subband precoding - Google Patents

Methods and systems for low overhead and power efficient subband precoding Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2024009128A1
WO2024009128A1 PCT/IB2022/056250 IB2022056250W WO2024009128A1 WO 2024009128 A1 WO2024009128 A1 WO 2024009128A1 IB 2022056250 W IB2022056250 W IB 2022056250W WO 2024009128 A1 WO2024009128 A1 WO 2024009128A1
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
frequency domain
domain resources
sets
antenna ports
pusch
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PCT/IB2022/056250
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French (fr)
Inventor
Robert Mark Harrison
Chandan PRADHAN
Andreas Nilsson
Sven JACOBSSON
Mattias Frenne
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Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
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Priority to PCT/IB2022/056250 priority Critical patent/WO2024009128A1/en
Publication of WO2024009128A1 publication Critical patent/WO2024009128A1/en

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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/003—Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
    • H04L5/0044—Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path allocation of payload
    • H04L5/0046—Determination of how many bits are transmitted on different sub-channels
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
    • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
    • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
    • H04B7/0413—MIMO systems
    • H04B7/0456—Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B7/00—Radio transmission systems, i.e. using radiation field
    • H04B7/02—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas
    • H04B7/04—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas
    • H04B7/06—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station
    • H04B7/0602—Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas using two or more spaced independent antennas at the transmitting station using antenna switching
    • H04B7/0608—Antenna selection according to transmission parameters
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/003—Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
    • H04L5/0053—Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals

Definitions

  • the present disclosure relates, in general, to wireless communications and, more particularly, systems and methods for low overhead and power efficient subband precoding.
  • a gNodeB configures a user equipment (UE) or other wireless device via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling with a transmission scheme. Specifically, this is done through the higher-layer parameter txConflg in the PUSCH-Conflg IE.
  • Codebook based (CB-based) transmission can be used for noncalibrated UEs and/or for Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) (i.e., uplink/downlink reciprocity does not need to hold).
  • FDD Frequency Division Duplex
  • NNB-based non-codebook based
  • transmission can rely on reciprocity and is, thus, well suited for Time Division Duplex (TDD) in that case.
  • CB-based Physical Uplink Shared Channel is enabled if the higher-layer parameter txConflg is set to ‘codebook’.
  • CB-based PUSCH transmission can be summarized in the following steps:
  • the UE transmits Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) configured in an SRS resource set with higher-layer parameter usage in SRS-Conflg IE set to ‘codebook’.
  • SRS Sounding Reference Signals
  • up to two SRS resources can be configured in the SRS resource set.
  • the gNB determines the parameters it would like the UE to use for a PUSCH transmission.
  • the parameters may include the modulation and coding state (MCS), the Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) in which to transmit the PUSCH, a number of layers (or rank), a preferred precoder (i.e., Transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI)) from a codebook subset, etc.
  • MCS modulation and coding state
  • PRBs Physical Resource Blocks
  • TPMI Transmit precoding matrix indicator
  • the codebook subset is configured via the higher-layer parameter codebookSubset based on reported UE capability and is one of : • fully coherent (‘fully AndPartialAndNonCoherent’), or
  • non-coherent ‘noncoherent’
  • the gNB then provides an uplink (‘UL’) grant to the UE in Downlink Control Information (DCI) carried on a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) with the determined parameters.
  • DCI Downlink Control Information
  • PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
  • An UL MIMO grant identifies PRBs in which all layers are to be transmitted. That is, each MIMO layer is always present in each PRB of the allocation. Details of some of the parameters in the grant are described in the next two steps.
  • the UL grant indicates the selected SRS resource via a 1-bit SRI field in the DCI scheduling the PUSCH transmission. If only one SRS resource is configured in the SRS resource set, the SRI field is not indicated in DCI.
  • the UL grant indicates the number of layers and the TP ML Demodulation- Reference Signal (DM-RS) port(s) associated with the layer(s) are also indicated in DCI.
  • DM-RS Demodulation- Reference Signal
  • the number of bits in DCI used for indicating the number of layers if transform precoding is enabled, the number of PUSCH layers is limited to 1) and the TPMI is determined as follows (unless UL full-power transmission is configured, for which the number of bits may vary):
  • the UE performs PUSCH transmission over the antenna ports corresponding to the SRS ports in the indicated SRS resource and using the parameters provided in the UL grant.
  • the TPMI field indicates a precoding matrix that UE should use for PUSCH.
  • the number of antenna ports is 4, the number of layers is 1, and transform precoding is disabled then the set of possible precoding matrices is shown in
  • Table 5 (which corresponds to Table 6.3.1.5-3 of 3GPP TS 38.211).
  • Table 6 (which corresponds to Table 6.3.1.5-7 of 3GPP TS 38.211).
  • Table IPrecoding matrix, W for single-layer transmission using four antenna ports when transform precoding is disabled (reproduced from Table 6,3, 1,5-3 of 3GPP TS 38,211),
  • Table 6 Precoding matrix, W, for four-layer transmission using four antenna ports when transform precoding is disabled (reproduced from Table 6.3.1.5-7 of 3GPP TS 38.211).
  • NCB-based UL transmission can be used for reciprocity-based UL transmission in which SRS precoding is derived at a UE based on Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) received in the DL.
  • CSI-RS Channel State Information-Reference Signal
  • the UE measures received CSI-RS and deduces suitable precoder weights for SRS transmission(s), resulting in one or more (virtual) SRS ports, each corresponding to a spatial layer.
  • a UE can be configured up to four SRS resources, each with a single (virtual) SRS port, in a SRS resource set with higher-layer parameter usage in SRS-Conflg IE set to ‘nonCodebook’.
  • a UE transmits up to four SRS resources, and the gNB measures the UL channel based on the received SRS and determines the preferred SRS resource(s).
  • the gNB indicates the selected SRS resources via the SRI field in DCI and the UE uses this information to precode PUSCH with a transmission rank that equals the number of indicated SRS resources (and, hence, the number of SRS ports).
  • PC power control
  • New Radio (NR) PC mechanisms can be categorized into the groups; (i) open-loop; (ii) closed-loop; and (iii) combined open- and closed loop. These differ in what input is used to determine the transmit power.
  • the transmitter measures some signal sent from the receiver and sets its output power based on this.
  • the receiver measures the signal from the transmitter and, based on this, sends a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command to the transmitter. The transmitter then sets its transmit power accordingly.
  • TPC Transmit Power Control
  • NR power control for UL MIMO can be thought of as having two components. First, a total transmission power PpuscH,&/,c( 0 is determined. Second, it is scaled and divided among antenna ports carrying the PUSCH. The power PpuscH,&/,c(b 0 i s calculated according to Section 7.1.1 of 3GPP TS 38.213 (V16.6.0) using the equation from the excerpt below:
  • a UE transmits a PUSCH on active UL BWP of carrier T of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with index J and PUSCH power control adjustment state with index , the UE determines the PUSCH transmission power ⁇ > uscH,4, ,c ’7’ l 7rf ⁇ ) in PUSCH transmission occasion z as
  • this total transmission power is converted from decibels to the linear power value PpuscH,&/,c(i, j> 0-
  • This power is then scaled by a factor s ⁇ 1 if a full power mode is configured, to account for the power available on each Transmitter (Tx) chain. If an uplink full power mode is not configured, but codebook-based operation is used, the power is scaled by the number of ports actively carrying the PUSCH divided by the maximum number of SRS ports in one SRS resource that is supported by the UE (i.e., the number of Tx chains in the UE on the carrier). If DCI format 0 0 or non-codebook-based precoding is used, the power is not scaled.
  • the power is split equally among the antenna ports that the UE transmits the PUSCH on.
  • NR power control as described above divides the power equally among PUSCH layers. Furthermore, there is a single number of occupied PRBs for a PUSCH transmission, that is used to scale the power up in the power control equation. Cases where a PUSCH layer is in a set of PRBs that are different from those in another layer is not supported in NR as of Rel-17 in general, and here specifically for power control and power scaling.
  • the NR downlink supports frequency- selective precoding using a DMRS which is precoded to match the PDSCH, where the precoding should be held constant by the gNB over specified PRBs within precoding resource block groups (PRGs). Details of PRGs can be found in 3GPP TS 38.211 and 38.214.
  • PRGs precoding resource block groups
  • the Rel-17 NR uplink does not support frequency selective precoding since at most one precoder (indicated by a TPMI) is used to schedule a PUSCH and because a PRG is not defined for the uplink.
  • a reason for frequency-selective precoding not being supported on the uplink, despite its being supported on the downlink, is that the control overhead can be much higher for the uplink than for the downlink. This can be better understood with the following example.
  • a second aspect of frequency selective precoding is its effect on UE Power Amplifier (PA) power efficiency.
  • Power efficient, low peak to average power (PAPR) operation is supported in NR using Direct Fourier Transform-spread-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM), or ‘transform precoding’ for OFDM.
  • DFT-S-OFDM imposes a variety of constraints on PUSCH transmission, including that the occupied PRBs are all contiguous (i.e., without gaps in PUSCH transmission between occupied PRBs) and that a single precoder is applied to the PUSCH transmitted on one TX chain. If these constraints are not met, the PAPR may increase, losing the benefit of DFT-S-OFDM transmission.
  • Previous solutions and techniques typically signal precoders to be applied to a subband in an independent way.
  • the same number of TPMIs is possible for each band. This results in a linear increase in DCI overhead as the number of subbands increases. Transmitting with different precoders in different subbands on a single Tx chain increases PAPR, as well as requiring additional signaling overhead.
  • Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges.
  • methods and systems are provided for frequency-selective UL MIMO transmission on one or more layers that is compatible with low-PAPR transmission schemes such as DFT-S-OFDM. More specifically, certain methods and systems reduce the signaling overhead to indicate the precoders to be used per subband, identify which subbands are occupied, and how antenna ports and MIMO layers map to subbands. Additionally, certain embodiments provide methods and systems to adapt NR power scaling for frequency selective UL MIMO transmission.
  • a method by a wireless device for subband precoding includes obtaining an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission and obtaining information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the wireless device determines a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device transmits the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • a wireless device for subband precoding is adapted to obtain an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission and obtaining information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the wireless device is adapted to determine a mapping of an antenna port within the number of A antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device is adapted to transmit the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • a method by a network node for subband precoding includes transmitting, to a wireless device, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The number of A antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device. Based on the mapping, the network node receives the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • a network node for subband precoding is adapted to transmit, to a wireless device, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The number of antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device. Based on the mapping, the network node is adapted to receive the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). For example, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of enabling CB-based UL subband precoding for NR in a DCI overhead-efficient way, which will result in coverage enhancement for the UL transmission in low-SINR regime. More specifically, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of reducing DCI overhead as compared to independent per-subband precoder indication.
  • certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of providing resource allocation and antenna port mapping to enable the use of power-efficient waveforms such as DFT-S-OFDM.
  • certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of providing a resource allocation scheme that allows for each Tx chain of the UE to be mapped to different, non-overlapping, subbands. This may allow the power of all the UE’s Tx chains to be combined while avoiding mutual interference. As such, coverage at low SINR may be enhanced.
  • certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of improving spectrally efficient operation by transmission on subsets of subbands, rather than mapping all layers to the same frequency -domain resources.
  • FIGURE 1 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping for rank 1, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 2 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping 200 for rank 2, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 3 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping for rank 3, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 4 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping for rank, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 5 illustrates an example subband allocation and port to layer mapping, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 6 illustrates an example non-overlapping subband allocation and port to layer mapping, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 7 illustrates an example communication system, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 8 illustrates an example UE, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 9 illustrates an example network node, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 10 illustrates a block diagram of a host, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 11 illustrates a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 12 illustrates a host communicating via a network node with a UE over a partially wireless connection, according to certain embodiments
  • FIGURE 13 illustrates an example method by a wireless device for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 14 illustrates an example method by a network node for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments.
  • node can be a network node or a UE.
  • network nodes are NodeB, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB (eNB), gNodeB (gNB), Master eNB (MeNB), Secondary eNB (SeNB), integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g.
  • MSR multi-standard radio
  • gNB Baseband Unit
  • C-RAN access point
  • AP access point
  • RRU Remote Radio Unit
  • RRH Remote Radio Head
  • DAS distributed antenna system
  • core network node e.g. Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), etc.
  • O&M Operations & Maintenance
  • OSS Operations Support System
  • SON Self Organizing Network
  • positioning node e.g. E-SMLC
  • UE user equipment
  • D2D device to device
  • V2V vehicular to vehicular
  • MTC UE machine type UE
  • M2M machine to machine
  • PDA Personal Digital Assistant
  • Tablet mobile terminals
  • smart phone laptop embedded equipment
  • LME laptop mounted equipment
  • USB Unified Serial Bus
  • radio network node or simply “network node (NW node)”, is used. It can be any kind of network node which may comprise base station, radio base station, base transceiver station, base station controller, network controller, evolved Node B (eNB), Node B, gNodeB (gNB), relay node, access point, radio access point, Remote Radio Unit (RRU) Remote Radio Head (RRH), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), etc.
  • eNB evolved Node B
  • gNodeB gNodeB
  • RRU Remote Radio Unit
  • RRH Remote Radio Head
  • Central Unit e.g. in a gNB
  • Distributed Unit e.g. in a gNB
  • Baseband Unit Centralized Baseband
  • C-RAN C-RAN
  • AP access point
  • radio access technology may refer to any RAT such as, for example, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRA), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRA), narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT, NR, 4G, 5G, etc.
  • UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
  • E-UTRA Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • WiFi next generation RAT
  • NR next generation RAT
  • 4G 4G
  • 5G 5G
  • Any of the equipment denoted by the terms node, network node or radio network node may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.
  • an antenna port transmits one or more PUSCH layers over the entire scheduled PRBs.
  • methods and systems are provided for splitting the scheduled PRBs in the BWP into multiple contiguous PRBs (or ‘subbands’), where each occupied PRB is contained within only one subband, and map each subband to distinct antenna port groups covering all the antenna ports. Since an antenna port transmits a contiguous subband, there is no PAPR increase, which makes it compatible with DFT-S-OFDM.
  • sets of frequency domain resources can be defined as one subband or multiple contiguous subbands according to the embodiment.
  • the network indicates subband precoding to the UE with the scalar parameter X, and the network grants a PUSCH transmission for the UE, wherein the scheduled PUSCH bandwidth is further divided into N subbands and X > N > 1.
  • the TX chains at the UE transmit on either only one of the N subbands or in a consecutive subset of the N subbands.
  • each antenna port is utilized only once for a PUSCH transmission to transmit an allocated subband or consecutive subbands, i.e., more than one subband can be mapped to the same antenna port only if the subbands are contiguous over the antenna port (for compatibility with DFT-S-OFDM).
  • this restriction is only used when the UE transmits with transform precoding.
  • a precoding matrix is used for only one set of consecutive subbands of a PUSCH transmission and is excluded for use on other subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the set of consecutive subbands comprises one or more of the subbands.
  • a UE receives an indication that maps one or more antenna ports to a first set of consecutive subbands of a PUSCH transmission, and the indication does not map the one or more antenna ports to a second set of consecutive subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the first and second sets of consecutive subbands comprise one or more of the subbands.
  • the subband to DMRS port mapping can comprise of one of the following:
  • the UE maps DMRS ports to subbands layer by layer
  • M1 R ports per subband.
  • Ml & Ml 2 ports per subband.
  • M2 l if R ⁇ 2*M1
  • the UE transmits according to where the precoding matrix W (e.g., in section 6.4.1.1.3 of 3GPP TS 38.211) is a P-dimensional diagonal matrix, and P is a number of antenna ports, antenna port p is transmitted in a subband of the N subbands with index n, or
  • the UE maps DMRS ports to subbands according to a first and a second precoding matrix, comprising receiving an indication of the first and second precoding matrices, wherein the first precoding matrix is to be used for a first subband of the subbands, wherein
  • the second precoding matrix is to be used for a second subband of the subbands and has non-zero elements corresponding to a second set of DMRS ports, where the second set has M2 ports.
  • the TPMI bitfields or codepoints can be restricted to a subset of the Rel-15 TPMI bitfields corresponding to a rank R in according to an indicated transmission rank R that is used for all subbands.
  • the signaling overhead can be further reduced by constraining to a subset to TPMI codepoints corresponding to the partial-coherent or non-coherent precoders.
  • the UE receives an indication of the single number of layers, R, and an indication of a plurality of precoding matrices. Each matrix Wi of the plurality of precoding matrices corresponds to a number of layers Ri, and the plurality of precoding matrices is constrained such that the sum of the numbers of layers Ri is equal to the single number of layers, R.
  • the UE receives signaling from network informing the UE of the number of subbands N.
  • subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands, and different Tx chains transmit in the subband groups.
  • the UE receives signaling identifying a first subset and a second subset of the N subbands, where the first and second subsets occupy at least one different subband of the N subbands, and the UE transmits according to a mapping of a first SRS port in the first subset and a mapping of a second SRS port to the second subset.
  • the subband groups are non-overlapping.
  • the first and second subsets occupy completely different subbands such that each subband is occupied only by one of the first and second subsets.
  • Tx chains transmit only in one of the groups.
  • the first SRS port is mapped to only one of the first and second subset, and the second SRS port is mapped only to the subset that the first SRS port is not mapped to.
  • Tx power is kept the same across the PUSCH layers by scaling by the number of occupied subbands)
  • each of a first and a second PUSCH layer occupies the first and second subsets, respectively, and the UE transmits the first and second PUSCH layers at an equal power, wherein the power in each subband of the first and second layer, respectively, is equal to the total power in all subbands of the first and second layer, respectively, divided by the number of subbands in the first and second layer, respectively.
  • subband indication value (SIV) signaling is used.
  • the signaling identifies the first subset according to a first starting subband index and a first number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset and identifies the second subset according to a second starting subband index and a second number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset.
  • the UE may operate with maximum output power according to power scaling (all PAs are active) described in Section 7. 1 in TS 38.213 rev. 17.0.0. Additionally, since each antenna port may transmit only a subset of the scheduled PRBs, the PSD per PRB can be scaled up further improving the received SINR. Accordingly, given a scalar X configured by network and the transmission rank r, it is then necessary in some embodiments to identify N (where N ⁇ [X/r
  • network determines the number of subbands and signals it to the UE through DCI signaling.
  • the possible number of subbands can be N G ⁇ 1, 2, Accordingly, the network can signal the UE the number of subbands with additional [log 2 ( F ⁇ / r l)l DCI bits.
  • rank 1 or 2 the maximum N is 4 or 2, respectively. Accordingly, either 2 or 1 bit corresponding to rank 1 or 2 may be used to signal the number of subbands.
  • the rank adaptively varies between 1 and 2 then the maximum N can be 4, and 2 bits may be used to signal the number of subbands.
  • the number of subbands is less that ⁇ M/r]
  • the number of subbands can be equal to three which spread over 1 st , 2 nd and 4 th antenna ports given by TPMI codepoints 0, 1, and 3 given in Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in TS 38.212, where the 3 rd antenna port is switched off. Therefore, in some embodiments, the UE receives signaling from network informing the UE of the number of subbands N.
  • the frequency-domain resource allocation field in an UL DCI consist of a bitmap. Each bit indicates if a Resource Block Group (RBG) should be used for PUSCH transmission or not.
  • RBG Resource Block Group
  • the size of the RBG (in resource blocks) is based on BWP size and RRC configuration as specified in Table 6.1.2.2.1-1 in TS 38.214 (included below for convenience).
  • the PRBs in the BWP is assumed to be grouped into RBGs according to Table 7 (which corresponds to Table 6.1.2.2.1-1 in 3GPP TS 38.214).
  • the subband size for PUSCH subband precoding can be fixed such that all the subbands have equal length.
  • the first (N — 1) subbands are assigned equal length of
  • the first (N — 1) subbands are assigned a length of
  • the network can signal the mapping of the PUSCH layers to the subbands and the antenna ports through DCI signaling.
  • the mapping may identify TPMIs, in a particular embodiment.
  • a PUSCH is mapped to the subbands, where each subband occupy all the antenna ports as disclosed in 3GPP TS 38.211. Accordingly, the following embodiments describe the PUSCH layer to subband and antenna port mapping for the UEs with non-coherent antenna ports, where the subbands can occupy non-overlapping or partially overlapping antenna ports.
  • N groups of antenna ports can be firstly formed such that each antenna-port group corresponds to a subband, i.e., the n tfl subband occupies the n tfl antenna-port group. Subsequently, a one-to- one layer(s) to subband mapping can be done in increasing order of the antenna port group.
  • the methodology has the benefit that a gNB and a UE can determine the DMRS port to subband mapping without any signaling of the DMRS port to subband mapping from the network.
  • antenna port groups can be formed with the 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , and 4 th antenna port constituting the 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , and 4 th antenna port group, respectively.
  • a single layer is mapped to each of the subbands, where the antenna port in a subband carrying (part of) the layer.
  • two antenna port groups can be formed with the 1 st and 2 nd antenna ports constituting the first antenna port group, and the 3 rd and 4 th antenna ports constituting the second antenna port group.
  • two layers are mapped to each of the subbands, with each antenna port in an antenna port group (assigned to a subband) carrying one layer.
  • two antenna port groups can be formed with the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd antenna ports constituting the first antenna port group, and the 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th antenna ports constituting the second antenna port group.
  • three layers are mapped to each of the subbands, with each antenna port in an antenna port group (assigned to a subband) carrying one layer.
  • the above approach maps r ports to each subband for the 1, 2, and 4 layer PUSCH cases, but not for the 3 layer case.
  • the 3 layer case there are not two DMRS ports available for the second and third layers, since two DMRS ports are already used on the first subband. Therefore, this problem is solved for the 3 layer case in the approach above by reducing the number of DMRS ports, in this case to 1 for each of the second and third layers.
  • the approach above maps DMRS ports in a consecutive fashion to the subbands. This fixed ordering avoids the need to select which DMRS port maps to which layer, which has the benefit of saving the overhead of signaling the mapping. On the other hand, selecting the DMRS port to layer mapping may improve performance, so there is an overhead versus uplink performance tradeoff in certain embodiments.
  • M2 l if R ⁇ 2*M1.
  • This can be achieved by signaling the TPMIs corresponding to the non-coherent precoders for each subband depending upon the wideband rank, where the non-coherent precoders select an antenna-port group for each subband.
  • the number of antennaport groups (where each group corresponds to a non-coherent precoder) is equal to the number of subbands, and is further exemplified in the following for the case when the number of antenna ports equal to 4.
  • FIGURE 1 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping 100 for rank 1, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 2 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping 200 for rank 2, according to certain embodiments.
  • TPMI codepoint Nl 1 0 0 or/and TPMI codepoint
  • FIGURE 3 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping 300 for rank 3, according to certain embodiments.
  • FIGURE 4 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping 400 for rank, according to certain embodiments.
  • the UE maps DMRS ports to subbands according to a first and a second precoding matrix, comprising receiving an indication of the first and second precoding matrices, wherein the first precoding matrix is to be used for a first subband of the subbands.
  • the second precoding matrix is to be used for a second subband of the subbands, and has non-zero elements corresponding to a second set of DMRS ports, where the second set has M2 ports.
  • the signaling overhead for the methodology can follow one of the following two embodiments:
  • flog 2 (7 ⁇ . — i)l bits, where i are required to signal the subset of TPMIs for each of the rest subbands corresponding to wideband rank r.
  • the above constrains each TPMI codepoint to only one subband (assigns non-overlapping or partially overlapping antenna ports to the subbands in case a UE is equipped with noncoherent antenna ports).
  • the rank and TPMI can be signaled in separate bitfields, where a) one rank bitfield is valid for all subbands (wideband rank), and b) TP Mis of the subbands are jointly encoded based on the subset of TPMI codepoints corresponding to wideband rank r, such that each TPMI codepoint is assigned to only one subband. Accordingly, two bits is required to signal the rank if 2 ⁇ r ⁇ 4 or one bit if the rank is r ⁇ 2, and [log 2 ((T r ) x (Tr — 1) x ⁇ x (T r — N + 1))] bits to jointly signal the subset of TP Mis for all the subband corresponding to wideband rank r.
  • the antenna port can be assigned to the subband such that the subbands occupy non-overlapping antenna ports.
  • DCI signaling overhead is reduced through the use of a single number of layers that corresponds to multiple subbands of a PUSCH transmission.
  • the UE receives an indication of the single number of layers, R, and an indication of a plurality of precoding matrices.
  • Each matrix Wi of the plurality of precoding matrices corresponds to a number of layers Ri, and the plurality of precoding matrices is constrained such that the sum of the numbers of layers Ri is equal to the single number of layers, R.
  • precoding was evaluated for the wideband rank with wideband TPMI versus the wideband rank with subband TPMIs for a UE with non-coherent antenna ports.
  • An example for which the number of antenna ports M 4 was considered.
  • the rightmost column of Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in 3GPP TS 38.212 applies, which requires 4 bits.
  • the wideband rank is 1 (with max rank 2, i.e., r ⁇ 2), where the number of subbands is configured to be 4, and the subbands occupy nonoverlapping antenna ports. It may be noted that:
  • the wideband transmission rank can be either 1 or 2 (2 values, i.e., 1 bit).
  • the subband TPMI bitfield jointly encode the maximum 4 subbands.
  • a Tx chain can carry a contiguous set of PRBs, which is required for low PAPR operation such as through DFT-S-OFDM.
  • this restriction to map once is not necessarily needed, and more flexible or better performing operation can be enabled by receiving signaling that transform precoding is not used for the PUSCH transmission, and relaxing the restriction to map once.
  • a UE configured for subband precoding receives a scalar parameter X, to be used for a PUSCH transmission by the UE, wherein the bandwidth of the PUSCH transmission is further divided into N subbands, where X>N>1.
  • the UE transmits on each antenna port once for the PUSCH transmission in an allocated subband or consecutive subbands, wherein more than one subband can be mapped to the same antenna port only if the subbands are contiguous over the antenna port.
  • the UE receives an indication that transform precoding is not used for the PUSCH transmission, and the UE transmits on an antenna port in noncontiguous subbands.
  • Mapping an antenna port once to a subband or contiguous subbands can be controlled by using a precoding matrix that has a non-zero entry corresponding to the antenna port only once for a PUSCH transmission. If the matrix were used more than once on different subbands or different contiguous subbands, then the corresponding antenna port and Tx chain for the non-zero entry would be applied more than once, and the constraints supporting DFT-S-OFDM could be violated, increasing the PAPR.
  • the UE receives an indication of a precoding matrix to use for the PUSCH transmission, wherein the precoding matrix is only used for one set of consecutive subbands of the PUSCH transmission, and is excluded for use on other subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the set of consecutive subbands comprises one or more of the subbands.
  • antenna ports it is also possible to map antenna ports to subbands more directly rather than using a precoding matrix. Such mapping may be appealing when non-coherent transmission is used, since the relative phase between antenna ports is not needed for such transmissions, and since representing the PUSCH transmission through a precoding matrix can be driven by the need to control such relative phase. A direct indication of antenna port mapping may therefore be used in such embodiments.
  • the UE receives an indication that maps one or more antenna ports to a first set of consecutive subbands of a PUSCH transmission, and the indication does not map the one or more antenna ports to a second set of consecutive subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the first and second sets of consecutive subbands comprise one or more of the subbands.
  • Different MIMO layers corresponding to different antenna ports tend to have different SNRs, and so it can be beneficial to identify which antenna ports to transmit on. Simply identifying a number of Tx chains to transmit upon does not select the ones that will allow the best performance. Therefore, it can be beneficial to select a subset of Tx chains to transmit upon, and then further identify which PRBs should be occupied on these active Tx chains.
  • Transmitting on a subset of high-SNR PRBs in a Tx chain not only avoids losing power on PRBs that will not likely contribute to a successfully received transmission, but also allows the power from the unused PRBs to be shifted to the occupied PRBs. In NR and LTE, this effect is used in power control, where the total transmit power increases as the number of PRBs increases. This means that the energy per PRB is essentially constant, and so higher payload PUSCH transmissions can still have the same reliability.
  • the power control for UL MIMO does not need to allocate the power of a layer according to the number of occupied PRBs; the occupied PRBs are used to calculate the total transmit power, and then need not be consider thereafter.
  • Embodiments that select Tx chains and that allow for different occupied PRBs per Tx chain can be further understood by considering the example illustrated in FIGURE 5, which illustrates an example subband allocation and port to layer mapping 500, according to certain embodiments.
  • the UE is allocated a number of PRBs, for example using Rel-15/16 resource allocation Type 1.
  • the UE is further signaled to split the allocation equally into N subbands, resulting in subbands that are L pr b PRBs long.
  • the UE is also indicated which Tx chains to transmit on, where the number of the active Tx chains is X.
  • One way to indicate the Tx chains to transmit on is to identify each Tx chain with an SRS port, in which case the ports 0 to 3 are SRS ports in the figure. In that case, X can be the number of antenna ports that are carrying PUSCH.
  • subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands and different Tx chains, or equivalently antenna ports, transmit in the subband groups.
  • the UE receives signaling identifying a first subset and a second subset of the N subbands, where the first and second subsets occupy at least one different subband of the N subbands, and the UE transmits according to a mapping of a first SRS port in the first subset and a mapping of a second SRS port to the second subset.
  • Ptotai may be calculated according to Rel-15/16 power control specifications as PpuscH,&,/,c(fi given by 3GPP TS 38.213 subclause 7.1.
  • Ptotai may be calculated according to Rel-16 power control specifications as s ⁇ PpuscH,b,/,e(ij> Qd> , where s is also given by 3GPP TS 38.213 subclause 7.1.
  • Ptotai may be calculated according to a new (un-specified as of Rel-16) power control specifications, where for example the total output power might exceed the maximum allowed output power (at least for a certain period of time).
  • the maximum allowed output power could for example be determined during UE capability signaling where the UE indicates the power class (and corresponding maximum allowed output power) according to Table 6.2.1-1 in 3GPP TS 38.101-1 for FR1 and in Table 6.2.1.1-2, Table 6.2.1.2-2, Table 6.2.1.3-2 and Table 6.2.1.4-2 in 3GPP TS 38.101-2 for FR2.
  • the power per layer is equal, even though the number of occupied PRBs is different and the energy per resource element is not the same across layers.
  • the total transmit power for the PUSCH, Ptotai is divided by the number of antenna ports on which PUSCH is transmitted in any PRB.
  • the constraint ‘in any PRB’ is important here, since different layers can occupy different PRBs, and so the number of active ports can vary across the allocation. If any PRB is occupied on a port, that port carries PUSCH according to the constraint.
  • the power for the i th layer, Pi Ptotai/X.
  • the power per subband should be scaled down by the number of occupied subbands on the layer.
  • the length can be in units of PRBs, resource elements, or in general any measure of the contiguous bandwidth occupied by the layer. In cases where the subbands have equal size and a layer occupies contiguous subbands such as depicted in FIGURE 5, the length can be the number of subbands.
  • the UE’s transmit power is kept the same across the PUSCH layers by scaling by the number of occupied subbands.
  • each of a first and a second PUSCH layer occupies the first and second subsets, respectively, and the UE transmits the first and second PUSCH layers at an equal power, wherein the power in each subband of the first and second layer, respectively, is equal to the total power in all subbands of the first and second layer, respectively, divided by the number of subbands in the first and second layer, respectively.
  • the indication of the active Tx chains can be determined according to a bitmap.
  • Each Tx chain in the UE can be associated with a bit, and if that bit is set, then the Tx chain is active.
  • Antenna ports 0, 1, and 3 are active, and can be identified with a 4-bit long bitmap ⁇ 1 1 0 1 ⁇ , where antenna port 0 is associated with the leftmost bit, port 1 is the next bit to the right, and so on. Because 3 bits are non-zero, the number of active Tx chains X is therefore 3 when this bitmap is signaled.
  • a port to layer mapping is needed so that the receiving device, for example a gNB, can identify the radio channel that the bits in the layer are carried upon. If a layer is transmitted on a single Tx chain, for example using non-coherent transmission, then the port to layer mapping can consist of a simple one to one mapping, where the nth active Tx chain is mapped to the nth layer.
  • FIGURE 5 illustrates this, where Tx chains and antenna ports 0, 1, and 3 map to layers 0, 1, and 2.
  • N subbands there are N*(N+l)/2 possible allocations of contiguous subbands, where the subbands have size from 1 up to N subbands. This is similar to Type 1 resource allocation, where N PRBs or N RBGs are allocated, and similar signaling can be used.
  • the starting subband SB star t and number of occupied subbands for a layer L su bband can be indicated with a resource indication value similar to the one used for Type 1, identified as a subband indication value, SIV, below:
  • a subband allocation field consists of a subband indication value (SIV) corresponding to a starting subband (SB star t) and a length in terms of contiguously allocated subbands, L su bband.
  • the resource indication value is defined by if Lsubband “ 1) L /2 J then else SIV — N N L su bband + 1) + (N 1 SB start ).
  • Lsubban 1 and shall not exceed N-5&/ art .
  • the signaling identifies the first subset according to a first starting subband index and a first number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset and identifies the second subset according to a second starting subband index and a second number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset.
  • the occupied PRBs and subbands can be indicated using an SIV for each layer.
  • each layer is provided independently, and layers may overlap in all, some, or none of the subbands. If the subband allocation is further constricted such that layers do not overlap, that is, a next layer must begin in a subband after the last subband of the layer preceding it, the amount of signaling needed to identify the subband locations can be reduced. For example, if there are 4 subband locations, and each is occupied by one of 4 layers, then there is only one possible allocation, where each subband carries one layer. If there are again 4 subband locations, but two layers, each layer can be on up to 3 consecutive subbands, and there are 15 possible combinations of starting subband and length for each layer, as shown in Table below.
  • Table 8 Occupied subbands with two layers (or subband groups).
  • each set of occupied subbands can be treated as a subband group on which one or multiple layers can be transmitted.
  • layers 0 and 1 could correspond to subband groups 0 and 1, and there are 15 combinations of the occupied subbands for the two subband groups.
  • the port to layer mapping must than map one or more than 1 port to each layer.
  • FIGURE 6 illustrates an example non-overlapping subband allocation and port to layer mapping 600 for the two subband group example discussed above.
  • Subband group 0 occupies the first two subband locations, while subband group 1 occupies the last subband. This can be indicated to the UE by signaling combination number 8 in Table above.
  • the hatched lines in subbands 3 for layers 0 & 1 and for subbands 0 & 1 for layer 2 show that these subbands are excluded by the constraint that the subband groups are not allowed to overlap in the frequency domain.
  • the port to layer mapping in the figure selects ports 0 and 2 for subband group 0 and port 3 for subband group 1.
  • the subband groups are non-overlapping.
  • the first and second subsets occupy completely different subbands such that each subband is occupied only by one of the first and second subsets.
  • FIGURE 7 shows an example of a communication system 700 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • the communication system 700 includes a telecommunication network 702 that includes an access network 704, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 706, which includes one or more core network nodes 708.
  • the access network 704 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 710a and 710b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 710), or any other similar 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point.
  • 3GPP 3 rd Generation Partnership Project
  • the network nodes 710 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 712a, 712b, 712c, and 712d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 712) to the core network 706 over one or more wireless connections.
  • UE user equipment
  • Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors.
  • the communication system 700 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.
  • the communication system 700 may include and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and/or other similar type of system.
  • the UEs 712 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 710 and other communication devices.
  • the network nodes 710 are arranged, capable, configured, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 712 and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 702 to enable and/or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and/or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 702.
  • the core network 706 connects the network nodes 710 to one or more hosts, such as host 716. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts.
  • the core network 706 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 708) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and/or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 708.
  • Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and/or a User Plane Function (UPF).
  • MSC Mobile Switching Center
  • MME Mobility Management Entity
  • HSS Home Subscriber Server
  • AMF Access and Mobility Management Function
  • SMF Session Management Function
  • AUSF Authentication Server Function
  • SIDF Subscription Identifier De-concealing function
  • UDM Unified Data Management
  • SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy
  • NEF Network Exposure Function
  • UPF User Plane Function
  • the host 716 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 704 and/or the telecommunication network 702, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.
  • the host 716 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio/video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.
  • the communication system 700 of FIGURE 7 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts.
  • the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and/or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • the telecommunication network 702 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 702 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 702. For example, the telecommunications network 702 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and/or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC)/Massive loT services to yet further UEs.
  • URLLC Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
  • eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband
  • mMTC Massive Machine Type Communication
  • the UEs 712 are configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction.
  • a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 704 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 704.
  • a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi-standard mode.
  • a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).
  • MR-DC multi-radio dual connectivity
  • the hub 714 communicates with the access network 704 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 712c and/or 712d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 710b).
  • the hub 714 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs.
  • the hub 714 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 706 for the UEs.
  • the hub 714 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs.
  • the hub 714 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data.
  • the hub 714 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 714 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 714 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and/or after adding additional local content.
  • the hub 714 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.
  • the hub 714 may have a constant/persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 710b.
  • the hub 714 may also allow for a different communication scheme and/or schedule between the hub 714 and UEs (e.g., UE 712c and/or 712d), and between the hub 714 and the core network 706.
  • the hub 714 is connected to the core network 706 and/or one or more UEs via a wired connection.
  • the hub 714 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 704 and/or to another UE over a direct connection.
  • UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 710 while still connected via the hub 714 via a wired or wireless connection.
  • the hub 714 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to/from the UEs from/to the network node 710b.
  • the hub 714 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 710b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and/or end point for certain data channels.
  • FIGURE 8 shows a UE 800 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other UEs.
  • Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded/integrated wireless device, etc.
  • VoIP voice over IP
  • LME laptop-embedded equipment
  • LME laptop-mounted equipment
  • CPE wireless customer-premise equipment
  • UEs identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.
  • 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • MTC machine type communication
  • eMTC enhanced MTC
  • a UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle- to-everything (V2X).
  • D2D device-to-device
  • DSRC Dedicated Short-Range Communication
  • V2V vehicle-to-vehicle
  • V2I vehicle-to-infrastructure
  • V2X vehicle- to-everything
  • a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device.
  • a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller).
  • a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale
  • the UE 800 includes processing circuitry 802 that is operatively coupled via a bus 804 to an input/ output interface 806, apower source 808, amemory 810, a communication interface 812, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof.
  • Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIGURE 8. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.
  • the processing circuitry 802 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 810.
  • the processing circuitry 802 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above.
  • the processing circuitry 802 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).
  • the input/output interface 806 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and/or output devices.
  • Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof.
  • An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 800.
  • Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like.
  • the presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user.
  • a sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof.
  • An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.
  • USB Universal Serial Bus
  • the power source 808 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used.
  • the power source 808 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 808 itself, and/or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 800 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 808.
  • Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 808 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 800 to which power is supplied.
  • the memory 810 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth.
  • the memory 810 includes one or more application programs 814, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 816.
  • the memory 810 may store, for use by the UE 800, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
  • the memory 810 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and/or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof.
  • RAID redundant array of independent disks
  • HD-DVD high-density digital versatile disc
  • HDDS holographic digital data storage
  • DIMM external mini-dual in-line memory module
  • SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
  • SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
  • the UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card. ’
  • the memory 810 may allow the UE 800 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data.
  • An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 810, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.
  • the processing circuitry 802 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 812.
  • the communication interface 812 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 822.
  • the communication interface 812 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network).
  • Each transceiver may include a transmitter 818 and/or a receiver 820 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth).
  • the transmitter 818 and receiver 820 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 822) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.
  • communication functions of the communication interface 812 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof.
  • GPS global positioning system
  • Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and/or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol/intemet protocol (TCP/IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.
  • CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access
  • WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • GSM Global System for Mobile communications
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • NR New Radio
  • UMTS Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
  • WiMax Ethernet
  • TCP/IP transmission control protocol/intemet protocol
  • SONET synchronous optical networking
  • ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
  • QUIC Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 812, via a wireless connection to a network node.
  • Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE.
  • the output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).
  • a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection.
  • the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change.
  • the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.
  • a UE when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare.
  • loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door/window sensor, a flood/moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-t
  • AR Augmented
  • a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another UE and/or a network node.
  • the UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device.
  • the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard.
  • a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.
  • any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case.
  • a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone.
  • the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed.
  • the first and/or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above.
  • a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.
  • FIGURE 9 shows a network node 900 in accordance with some embodiments.
  • network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and/or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network.
  • network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)).
  • APs access points
  • BSs base stations
  • Node Bs Node Bs
  • eNBs evolved Node Bs
  • gNBs NR NodeBs
  • Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations.
  • a base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay.
  • a network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • RRUs remote radio units
  • RRHs Remote Radio Heads
  • Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).
  • DAS distributed antenna system
  • network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi -standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).
  • MSR multi -standard radio
  • RNCs radio network controllers
  • BSCs base station controllers
  • BTSs base transceiver stations
  • OFDM Operation and Maintenance
  • OSS Operations Support System
  • SON Self-Organizing Network
  • positioning nodes e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)
  • the network node 900 includes a processing circuitry 902, a memory 904, a communication interface 906, and a power source 908.
  • the network node 900 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components.
  • the network node 900 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components)
  • one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes.
  • a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs.
  • each unique NodeB and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node.
  • the network node 900 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 904 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 910 may be shared by different RATs).
  • the network node 900 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 900, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 900.
  • RFID Radio Frequency Identification
  • the processing circuitry 902 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 900 components, such as the memory 904, to provide network node 900 functionality.
  • the processing circuitry 902 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and the baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.
  • SOC system on a chip
  • the processing circuitry 902 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914.
  • the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and the baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of
  • the memory 904 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 902.
  • volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-
  • the memory 904 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 902 and utilized by the network node 900.
  • the memory 904 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 902 and/or any data received via the communication interface 906.
  • the processing circuitry 902 and memory 904 is integrated.
  • the communication interface 906 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between a network node, access network, and/or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 906 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 916 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection.
  • the communication interface 906 also includes radio front-end circuitry 918 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 910. Radio front-end circuitry 918 comprises filters 920 and amplifiers 922.
  • the radio front-end circuitry 918 may be connected to an antenna 910 and processing circuitry 902.
  • the radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 910 and processing circuitry 902.
  • the radio front-end circuitry 918 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection.
  • the radio front-end circuitry 918 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 920 and/or amplifiers 922.
  • the radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 910.
  • the antenna 910 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 918.
  • the digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 902.
  • the communication interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
  • the network node 900 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 918, instead, the processing circuitry 902 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 910. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 912 is part of the communication interface 906. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 906 includes one or more ports or terminals 916, the radio front-end circuitry 918, and the RF transceiver circuitry 912, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 906 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 914, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).
  • the antenna 910 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals.
  • the antenna 910 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 918 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly.
  • the antenna 910 is separate from the network node 900 and connectable to the network node 900 through an interface or port.
  • the antenna 910, communication interface 906, and/or the processing circuitry 902 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 910, the communication interface 906, and/or the processing circuitry 902 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
  • the power source 908 provides power to the various components of network node 900 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component).
  • the power source 908 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 900 with power for performing the functionality described herein.
  • the network node 900 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 908.
  • the power source 908 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.
  • Embodiments of the network node 900 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIGURE 9 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein.
  • the network node 900 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 900 and to allow output of information from the network node 900. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 900.
  • FIGURE 10 is a block diagram of a host 1000, which may be an embodiment of the host 716 of FIGURE 7, in accordance with various aspects described herein.
  • the host 1000 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and/or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm.
  • the host 1000 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.
  • the host 1000 includes processing circuitry 1002 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1004 to an input/output interface 1006, a network interface 1008, a power source 1010, and a memory 1012.
  • processing circuitry 1002 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1004 to an input/output interface 1006, a network interface 1008, a power source 1010, and a memory 1012.
  • Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figures 8 and 9, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1000.
  • the memory 1012 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1014 and data 1016, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1000 or data generated by the host 1000 for a UE.
  • Embodiments of the host 1000 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown.
  • the host application programs 1014 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems).
  • the host application programs 1014 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network.
  • the host 1000 may select and/or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE.
  • the host application programs 1014 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.
  • HLS HTTP Live Streaming
  • RTMP Real-Time Messaging Protocol
  • RTSP Real-Time Streaming Protocol
  • MPEG-DASH Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP
  • FIGURE 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1100 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.
  • virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources.
  • virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components.
  • Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1100 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host.
  • VMs virtual machines
  • the node may be entirely virtualized.
  • Applications 1102 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.
  • Hardware 1104 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and/or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and/or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input/output interface, and so forth.
  • Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1106 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1108a and 1108b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1108), and/or perform any of the functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.
  • the virtualization layer 1106 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1108.
  • the VMs 1108 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1106.
  • a virtualization layer 1106 Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1102 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1108, and the implementations may be made in different ways.
  • Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
  • NFV network function virtualization
  • a VM 1108 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine.
  • Each of the VMs 1108, and that part of hardware 1104 that executes that VM be it hardware dedicated to that VM and/or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements.
  • a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1108 on top of the hardware 1104 and corresponds to the application 1102.
  • Hardware 1104 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1104 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1104 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1110, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1102.
  • hardware 1104 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.
  • some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1112 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.
  • FIGURE 12 shows a communication diagram of a host 1202 communicating via a network node 1204 with a UE 1206 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.
  • UE such as a UE 712a of FIGURE 7 and/or UE 800 of FIGURE 8
  • network node such as network node 710a of FIGURE 7 and/or network node 900 of FIGURE 9
  • host such as host 716 of FIGURE 7 and/or host 1000 of FIGURE
  • host 1202 Like host 1000, embodiments of host 1202 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory.
  • the host 1202 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 1202 and executable by the processing circuitry.
  • the software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 1206 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1250 extending between the UE 1206 and host 1202.
  • OTT over-the-top
  • a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1250.
  • the network node 1204 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 1202 and UE 1206.
  • the connection 1260 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 706 of FIGURE 7) and/or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks.
  • a core network like core network 706 of FIGURE 7
  • an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.
  • the UE 1206 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1206 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry.
  • the software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1206 with the support of the host 1202.
  • a client application such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1206 with the support of the host 1202.
  • an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 1250 terminating at the UE 1206 and host 1202.
  • the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data.
  • the OTT connection 1250 may transfer both the request data and the user data.
  • the UE's client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT
  • the OTT connection 1250 may extend via a connection 1260 between the host 1202 and the network node 1204 and via a wireless connection 1270 between the network node 1204 and the UE 1206 to provide the connection between the host 1202 and the UE 1206.
  • the connection 1260 and wireless connection 1270, over which the OTT connection 1250 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 1202 and the UE 1206 via the network node 1204, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.
  • the host 1202 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application.
  • the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 1206.
  • the user data is associated with a UE 1206 that shares data with the host 1202 without explicit human interaction.
  • the host 1202 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 1206.
  • the host 1202 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 1206.
  • the request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 1206 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 1206.
  • the transmission may pass via the network node 1204, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 1212, the network node 1204 transmits to the UE 1206 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 1202 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1214, the UE 1206 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 1206 associated with the host application executed by the host 1202.
  • the UE 1206 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 1202.
  • the user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 1202.
  • the UE 1206 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application.
  • the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input/output interface of the UE 1206. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 1206 initiates, in step 1218, transmission of the user data towards the host 1202 via the network node 1204.
  • the network node 1204 receives user data from the UE 1206 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 1202.
  • the host 1202 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 1206.
  • One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 1206 using the OTT connection 1250, in which the wireless connection 1270 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve one or more of, for example, data rate, latency, and/or power consumption and, thereby, provide benefits such as, for example, reduced user waiting time, relaxed restriction on file size, improved content resolution, better responsiveness, and/or extended battery lifetime.
  • factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 1202.
  • the host 1202 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps.
  • the host 1202 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights).
  • the host 1202 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE.
  • the host 1202 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs.
  • the host 1202 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and/or transmitting data.
  • a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve.
  • the measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 1202 and/or UE 1206.
  • sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 1250 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities.
  • the reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1250 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 1204. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art.
  • measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 1202.
  • the measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 1250 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.
  • computing devices described herein may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • processing circuitry may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components.
  • a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and/or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface.
  • non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.
  • processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium.
  • some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner.
  • the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and/or by end users and a wireless network generally.
  • FIGURE 13 illustrates an example method 1300 by a wireless device 712A-B for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments.
  • the method begins at step 1302 when the wireless device 712A-B obtains an indication of a number of A antenna ports to be used for a transmission.
  • the wireless device 712A-B obtains information indicating a plurality of Asets of frequency domain resources.
  • the wireless device 712A- B determines a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device 712A-B transmits the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, at step 1308.
  • Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • the frequency domain resources within each set of frequency domain resources are contiguous.
  • each frequency domain resource occupied by the N sets of frequency domain resources is occupied by only one of the N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • obtaining the indication of the number of X antenna ports comprises receiving the indication of the number of X antenna ports from a network node 710A-D.
  • the indication from the network node further comprises a plurality of X antenna port identifiers.
  • obtaining the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises receiving the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources from a network node via DCI.
  • the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises: a first starting frequency domain resource and a number of contiguous frequency domain resources for the first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and a second starting frequency domain resource for a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • a bandwidth of the transmission is divided into the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and w herein > N > 1.
  • the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises a plurality of V sets of PRBs.
  • each set frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is of an equal length.
  • At least the first set and a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources are of unequal length, and the UE transmits multiple layers at a same power on the first and second set of frequency domain resources.
  • each set of frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports.
  • the frequency domain resources are contiguous across at least the first set and a second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources, and the frequency domain resources of the first set and the second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources are mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports.
  • the wireless device 712A-B transmits the transmission on the second set of frequency domain resources.
  • obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating a single PUSCH layer that maps to the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources In a particular embodiment, obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that each PUSCH layer of a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a corresponding one of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the PUSCH mapping comprises a precoding matrix that maps at least one PUSCH layer to at least the antenna port within the number of X antenna ports.
  • FIGURE 14 illustrates an example method 1400 by a network node 710A-D for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments.
  • the method begins at step 1402 when the network node 710A-D transmits, to a wireless device 712A-B, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device. Based on the mapping, the network node 710A-D receives the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, at step 1404. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
  • the frequency domain resources within each set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources are contiguous.
  • each frequency domain resource occupied by the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is occupied by only one of the N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the network node 710A-D transmits, to the wireless device 712A-B, an indication of the number of X antenna ports to be used for the uplink transmission by the wireless device.
  • the indication further comprises a plurality of X antenna port identifiers.
  • the network node 710A-D transmits, to the wireless device 712A-B, information indicating the plurality of Asets of frequency domain resources.
  • the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources is transmitted via DCI.
  • the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources comprises: a first starting frequency domain resource and a number of contiguous frequency domain resources for the first set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources, and a second starting frequency domain resource for a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • a bandwidth of the uplink transmission is divided into the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and w herein > N > 1.
  • the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises a plurality of V sets of PRBs.
  • each set frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is of an equal length.
  • At least the first set and a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources are of unequal length, and the UE transmits multiple layers at a same power on the first and second set of frequency domain resources.
  • each set of frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports.
  • the frequency domain resources are contiguous across at least the first set and a second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources, and the frequency domain resources of the first set and the second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources are mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports and wherein the transmission is received on the second set of frequency domain resources.
  • the network node transmits, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating a single PUSCH layer that maps to the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the network node transmits, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating that each PUSCH layer of a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a corresponding one of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the network node transmits, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
  • the PUSCH mapping comprises a precoding matrix that maps at least one PUSCH layer to at least the antenna port within the number of X antenna ports.

Abstract

A method (1300) by a wireless device (712A-B) for subband precoding includes obtaining (1302) an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission and obtaining (1304) information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The wireless device determines (1306) a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device transmits (1308) the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.

Description

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR LOW OVERHEAD AND POWER EFFICIENT
SUBBAND PRECODING
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure relates, in general, to wireless communications and, more particularly, systems and methods for low overhead and power efficient subband precoding.
BACKGROUND
For uplink Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), a gNodeB (gNB) configures a user equipment (UE) or other wireless device via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling with a transmission scheme. Specifically, this is done through the higher-layer parameter txConflg in the PUSCH-Conflg IE. Codebook based (CB-based) transmission can be used for noncalibrated UEs and/or for Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) (i.e., uplink/downlink reciprocity does not need to hold). Conversely, non-codebook based (NCB-based) transmission can rely on reciprocity and is, thus, well suited for Time Division Duplex (TDD) in that case.
CB-Based Precoding
CB-based Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) is enabled if the higher-layer parameter txConflg is set to ‘codebook’. For dynamically scheduled PUSCH, CB-based PUSCH transmission can be summarized in the following steps:
1. The UE transmits Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) configured in an SRS resource set with higher-layer parameter usage in SRS-Conflg IE set to ‘codebook’. For testing up to two virtualizations/beams/panels, up to two SRS resources (each with up to four ports) can be configured in the SRS resource set.
2. Based on the received SRS from one of the SRS resources, the gNB determines the parameters it would like the UE to use for a PUSCH transmission. The parameters may include the modulation and coding state (MCS), the Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) in which to transmit the PUSCH, a number of layers (or rank), a preferred precoder (i.e., Transmit precoding matrix indicator (TPMI)) from a codebook subset, etc. The codebook subset is configured via the higher-layer parameter codebookSubset based on reported UE capability and is one of : • fully coherent (‘fully AndPartialAndNonCoherent’), or
• partially coherent (‘partialAndNonCoherent’), or
• non-coherent (‘noncoherent’),
3. The gNB then provides an uplink (‘UL’) grant to the UE in Downlink Control Information (DCI) carried on a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) with the determined parameters. An UL MIMO grant identifies PRBs in which all layers are to be transmitted. That is, each MIMO layer is always present in each PRB of the allocation. Details of some of the parameters in the grant are described in the next two steps.
4. If two SRS resources are configured in the SRS resource set, the UL grant indicates the selected SRS resource via a 1-bit SRI field in the DCI scheduling the PUSCH transmission. If only one SRS resource is configured in the SRS resource set, the SRI field is not indicated in DCI.
5. The UL grant indicates the number of layers and the TP ML Demodulation- Reference Signal (DM-RS) port(s) associated with the layer(s) are also indicated in DCI. The number of bits in DCI used for indicating the number of layers (if transform precoding is enabled, the number of PUSCH layers is limited to 1) and the TPMI is determined as follows (unless UL full-power transmission is configured, for which the number of bits may vary):
• 4, 5, or 6 bits if the number of antenna ports is 4, if transform precoding is disabled, and if the higher-layer parameter maxRank in PUSCH- Conflg IE is set to 2, 3, or 4 (see Table 1 which corresponds to Table
7.3.1.1.2-2 of 3GPP TS 38.212).
• 2, 4, or 5 bits if the number of antenna ports is 4, if transform precoding is disabled or enabled, and if the higher-layer parameter maxRank in PUSCH-Conflg IE is set to 1 (see Table 2 which corresponds to Table
7.3.1.1.2-3 of 3GPP TS 38.212).
• 2 or 4 bits if the number of antenna ports is 2, if transform precoding is disabled, and if the higher-layer parameter maxRank in PUSCH-Conflg IE is set to 2 (see Table 3 which corresponds to Table 7.3.1.1.2-4 of 3GPP TS 38.212).
• 1 or 3 bits if the number of antenna ports is 2, if transform precoding is disabled or enabled, and if the higher-layer parameter maxRank in PUSCH-Conflg IE is set to 1 (see Table 4 which corresponds to Table 7.3.1.1.2-5 of 3GPP TS 38.212 ).
• 0 bits if 1 antenna port is used for PUSCH transmission.
6. The UE performs PUSCH transmission over the antenna ports corresponding to the SRS ports in the indicated SRS resource and using the parameters provided in the UL grant.
Table 1 : Precoding information and number of layers, for 4 antenna ports, if transform precoding is disabled and maxRank = 2, 3 or, 4
Figure imgf000005_0001
Table 2: Precoding information and number of layers, for 4 antenna ports, if transform precoding is disabled/enabled and maxRank = 1
Figure imgf000006_0001
Table 3: Precoding information and number of layers, for 2 antenna ports, if transform precoding is disabled and maxRank = 2
Figure imgf000006_0002
Table 4: Precoding information and number of layers, for 2 antenna ports, if transform precoding is disabled/enabled and maxRank = 1
Figure imgf000006_0003
For a given number of layers, the TPMI field indicates a precoding matrix that UE should use for PUSCH. In a first example, if the number of antenna ports is 4, the number of layers is 1, and transform precoding is disabled then the set of possible precoding matrices is shown in
Table 5 (which corresponds to Table 6.3.1.5-3 of 3GPP TS 38.211). In a second example, if the number of antenna ports is 4, the number of layers is 4, and transform precoding is disabled then the set of possible precoding matrices is shown in Table 6 (which corresponds to Table 6.3.1.5-7 of 3GPP TS 38.211).
Table IPrecoding matrix, W, for single-layer transmission using four antenna ports when transform precoding is disabled (reproduced from Table 6,3, 1,5-3 of 3GPP TS 38,211),
Figure imgf000007_0001
Table 6: Precoding matrix, W, for four-layer transmission using four antenna ports when transform precoding is disabled (reproduced from Table 6.3.1.5-7 of 3GPP TS 38.211).
Figure imgf000007_0002
NCB-based Precoding
NCB-based UL transmission can be used for reciprocity-based UL transmission in which SRS precoding is derived at a UE based on Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) received in the DL. In this case, the UE measures received CSI-RS and deduces suitable precoder weights for SRS transmission(s), resulting in one or more (virtual) SRS ports, each corresponding to a spatial layer.
A UE can be configured up to four SRS resources, each with a single (virtual) SRS port, in a SRS resource set with higher-layer parameter usage in SRS-Conflg IE set to ‘nonCodebook’. A UE transmits up to four SRS resources, and the gNB measures the UL channel based on the received SRS and determines the preferred SRS resource(s). Next, the gNB indicates the selected SRS resources via the SRI field in DCI and the UE uses this information to precode PUSCH with a transmission rank that equals the number of indicated SRS resources (and, hence, the number of SRS ports).
UL Power Control
Setting output power levels of transmitters (i.e., base stations in downlink and mobile stations in uplink) in mobile systems is commonly referred to as power control (PC). Objectives of PC include improved capacity, coverage, improved system robustness, and reduced power consumption.
New Radio (NR) PC mechanisms can be categorized into the groups; (i) open-loop; (ii) closed-loop; and (iii) combined open- and closed loop. These differ in what input is used to determine the transmit power. In the open-loop case, the transmitter measures some signal sent from the receiver and sets its output power based on this. In the closed-loop case, the receiver measures the signal from the transmitter and, based on this, sends a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command to the transmitter. The transmitter then sets its transmit power accordingly. In a combined open- and closed-loop scheme, both inputs are used to set the transmit power.
In systems with multiple channels between the terminals and the base stations, e.g., traffic and control channels, different power control principles may be applied to the different channels. Using different principles yields more freedom in adapting the power control principle to the needs of individual channels. The drawback is increased complexity of maintaining several principles.
PUSCH Power Control and Power Scaling in NR
NR power control for UL MIMO can be thought of as having two components. First, a total transmission power PpuscH,&/,c( 0 is determined. Second, it is scaled and divided among antenna ports carrying the PUSCH. The power PpuscH,&/,c(b
Figure imgf000008_0001
0 is calculated according to Section 7.1.1 of 3GPP TS 38.213 (V16.6.0) using the equation from the excerpt below:
If a UE transmits a PUSCH on active UL BWP of carrier T of serving cell c using parameter set configuration with index J and PUSCH power control adjustment state with index , the UE determines the PUSCH transmission power ^>uscH,4, ,c ’7’l7rf^) in PUSCH transmission occasion z as
Figure imgf000009_0001
Then in section 7.1 of TS 38.213, this total transmission power is converted from decibels to the linear power value PpuscH,&/,c(i, j>
Figure imgf000009_0002
0- This power is then scaled by a factor s < 1 if a full power mode is configured, to account for the power available on each Transmitter (Tx) chain. If an uplink full power mode is not configured, but codebook-based operation is used, the power is scaled by the number of ports actively carrying the PUSCH divided by the maximum number of SRS ports in one SRS resource that is supported by the UE (i.e., the number of Tx chains in the UE on the carrier). If DCI format 0 0 or non-codebook-based precoding is used, the power is not scaled.
After the scaling, if any, is applied, the power is split equally among the antenna ports that the UE transmits the PUSCH on.
It can be observed that NR power control as described above divides the power equally among PUSCH layers. Furthermore, there is a single number of occupied PRBs for a PUSCH transmission,
Figure imgf000009_0003
that is used to scale the power up in the power control equation. Cases where a PUSCH layer is in a set of PRBs that are different from those in another layer is not supported in NR as of Rel-17 in general, and here specifically for power control and power scaling.
Frequency selective precoding
Because the magnitude of a multipath radio channel varies with frequency, varying the precoder to be used for transmission on the channel can better adapt to the channel, and therefore improve the performance of a radio link. The NR downlink supports frequency- selective precoding using a DMRS which is precoded to match the PDSCH, where the precoding should be held constant by the gNB over specified PRBs within precoding resource block groups (PRGs). Details of PRGs can be found in 3GPP TS 38.211 and 38.214. By contrast, the Rel-17 NR uplink does not support frequency selective precoding since at most one precoder (indicated by a TPMI) is used to schedule a PUSCH and because a PRG is not defined for the uplink. A reason for frequency-selective precoding not being supported on the uplink, despite its being supported on the downlink, is that the control overhead can be much higher for the uplink than for the downlink. This can be better understood with the following example.
One well known approach proposed for NR included providing a TPMI for each subband. If 6 bits is used to indicate the precoder for each subband, and if a 100 MHz resource allocation is used with 273 PRBs and 4 PRB per subband, the total number of bits to indicate the TPMIs would be [273 * 6/41 = 410 bits. This is much too large for a PDCCH to carry. Therefore, a primary problem with prior art frequency-selective precoding approaches is that they can require excessive downlink control signaling.
A second aspect of frequency selective precoding is its effect on UE Power Amplifier (PA) power efficiency. Power efficient, low peak to average power (PAPR) operation is supported in NR using Direct Fourier Transform-spread-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM), or ‘transform precoding’ for OFDM. DFT-S-OFDM imposes a variety of constraints on PUSCH transmission, including that the occupied PRBs are all contiguous (i.e., without gaps in PUSCH transmission between occupied PRBs) and that a single precoder is applied to the PUSCH transmitted on one TX chain. If these constraints are not met, the PAPR may increase, losing the benefit of DFT-S-OFDM transmission.
There currently exist certain challenge(s). For example, in current NR, only wideband UL precoding is supported. However, in future releases of NR, it is expected that the specification will be extended to support also subband UL precoding. How to enable this in an overhead efficient way, and that is compatible with efficient operation of UE power amplifiers, is still an open issue.
Previous solutions and techniques typically signal precoders to be applied to a subband in an independent way. The same number of TPMIs is possible for each band. This results in a linear increase in DCI overhead as the number of subbands increases. Transmitting with different precoders in different subbands on a single Tx chain increases PAPR, as well as requiring additional signaling overhead.
SUMMARY Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. For example, methods and systems are provided for frequency-selective UL MIMO transmission on one or more layers that is compatible with low-PAPR transmission schemes such as DFT-S-OFDM. More specifically, certain methods and systems reduce the signaling overhead to indicate the precoders to be used per subband, identify which subbands are occupied, and how antenna ports and MIMO layers map to subbands. Additionally, certain embodiments provide methods and systems to adapt NR power scaling for frequency selective UL MIMO transmission.
According to certain embodiments, a method by a wireless device for subband precoding includes obtaining an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission and obtaining information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The wireless device determines a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device transmits the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
According to certain embodiments, a wireless device for subband precoding is adapted to obtain an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission and obtaining information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The wireless device is adapted to determine a mapping of an antenna port within the number of A antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device is adapted to transmit the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
According to certain embodiments, a method by a network node for subband precoding includes transmitting, to a wireless device, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The number of A antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device. Based on the mapping, the network node receives the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
According to certain embodiments, a network node for subband precoding is adapted to transmit, to a wireless device, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The number of antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device. Based on the mapping, the network node is adapted to receive the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). For example, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of enabling CB-based UL subband precoding for NR in a DCI overhead-efficient way, which will result in coverage enhancement for the UL transmission in low-SINR regime. More specifically, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of reducing DCI overhead as compared to independent per-subband precoder indication.
As still another example, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of providing resource allocation and antenna port mapping to enable the use of power-efficient waveforms such as DFT-S-OFDM.
As yet another example, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of providing a resource allocation scheme that allows for each Tx chain of the UE to be mapped to different, non-overlapping, subbands. This may allow the power of all the UE’s Tx chains to be combined while avoiding mutual interference. As such, coverage at low SINR may be enhanced.
As still another example, certain embodiments may provide a technical advantage of improving spectrally efficient operation by transmission on subsets of subbands, rather than mapping all layers to the same frequency -domain resources.
Other advantages may be readily apparent to one having skill in the art. Certain embodiments may have none, some, or all of the recited advantages.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the disclosed embodiments and their features and advantages, reference is now made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIGURE 1 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping for rank 1, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 2 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping 200 for rank 2, according to certain embodiments; FIGURE 3 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping for rank 3, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 4 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping for rank, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 5 illustrates an example subband allocation and port to layer mapping, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 6 illustrates an example non-overlapping subband allocation and port to layer mapping, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 7 illustrates an example communication system, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 8 illustrates an example UE, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 9 illustrates an example network node, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 10 illustrates a block diagram of a host, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 11 illustrates a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 12 illustrates a host communicating via a network node with a UE over a partially wireless connection, according to certain embodiments;
FIGURE 13 illustrates an example method by a wireless device for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments; and
FIGURE 14 illustrates an example method by a network node for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.
As used herein, ‘node’ can be a network node or a UE. Examples of network nodes are NodeB, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB (eNB), gNodeB (gNB), Master eNB (MeNB), Secondary eNB (SeNB), integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, Remote Radio Unit (RRU), Remote Radio Head (RRH), nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), etc.), Operations & Maintenance (O&M), Operations Support System (OSS), Self Organizing Network (SON), positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC), etc.
Another example of a node is user equipment (UE), which is a non-limiting term and refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another UE in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, vehicular to vehicular (V2V), machine type UE, MTC UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), Unified Serial Bus (USB) dongles, etc.
In some embodiments, generic terminology, “radio network node” or simply “network node (NW node)”, is used. It can be any kind of network node which may comprise base station, radio base station, base transceiver station, base station controller, network controller, evolved Node B (eNB), Node B, gNodeB (gNB), relay node, access point, radio access point, Remote Radio Unit (RRU) Remote Radio Head (RRH), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), etc.
The term radio access technology (RAT), may refer to any RAT such as, for example, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRA), Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRA), narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT, NR, 4G, 5G, etc. Any of the equipment denoted by the terms node, network node or radio network node may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.
In the current NR, an antenna port transmits one or more PUSCH layers over the entire scheduled PRBs. However, according to certain embodiments described herein, methods and systems are provided for splitting the scheduled PRBs in the BWP into multiple contiguous PRBs (or ‘subbands’), where each occupied PRB is contained within only one subband, and map each subband to distinct antenna port groups covering all the antenna ports. Since an antenna port transmits a contiguous subband, there is no PAPR increase, which makes it compatible with DFT-S-OFDM. In some embodiments, it is desirable to transmit a PUSCH layer in multiple contiguous subbands. As such, sets of frequency domain resources can be defined as one subband or multiple contiguous subbands according to the embodiment.
For example, According to certain embodiments, the network indicates subband precoding to the UE with the scalar parameter X, and the network grants a PUSCH transmission for the UE, wherein the scheduled PUSCH bandwidth is further divided into N subbands and X > N > 1. The TX chains at the UE transmit on either only one of the N subbands or in a consecutive subset of the N subbands.
In a particular embodiment, each antenna port is utilized only once for a PUSCH transmission to transmit an allocated subband or consecutive subbands, i.e., more than one subband can be mapped to the same antenna port only if the subbands are contiguous over the antenna port (for compatibility with DFT-S-OFDM). In a further particular embodiment, this restriction is only used when the UE transmits with transform precoding.
In yet another further particular embodiment, a precoding matrix is used for only one set of consecutive subbands of a PUSCH transmission and is excluded for use on other subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the set of consecutive subbands comprises one or more of the subbands.
In a particular embodiment, a UE receives an indication that maps one or more antenna ports to a first set of consecutive subbands of a PUSCH transmission, and the indication does not map the one or more antenna ports to a second set of consecutive subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the first and second sets of consecutive subbands comprise one or more of the subbands.
As another example, in a particular embodiment, the subband to DMRS port mapping can comprise of one of the following:
• The UE maps DMRS ports to subbands layer by layer,
1. mapping a first set of DMRS ports with consecutive indices to a first subband, wherein
2. the first set of DMRS ports has Ml ports and M1<=R, and R is a number of layers of the PUSCH. For example, for rank 4, M1=R ports per subband. For rank 2, Ml & Ml = 2 ports per subband. For rank 3, Ml=2, M2=l ports per subband. For rank 1, M1=M2=1 ports per subband
3. mapping a second set of DMRS ports with consecutive indices to a second subband, wherein
• the second set of DMRS ports has M2 ports and M2=R if R=2*M1, while M2<R if R<2*M1.
4. In some such embodiments, M2=l if R<2*M1
• The UE transmits according to where the precoding matrix W (e.g., in section 6.4.1.1.3 of 3GPP TS 38.211) is a P-dimensional diagonal matrix, and P is a number of antenna ports, antenna port p is transmitted in a subband of the N subbands with index n, or
• The UE receiving an indication to send subbands and signaling from the network on how to map subbands to DMRS ports through DCI signaling of the TPMIs.
• In some such embodiments, the UE maps DMRS ports to subbands according to a first and a second precoding matrix, comprising receiving an indication of the first and second precoding matrices, wherein the first precoding matrix is to be used for a first subband of the subbands, wherein
1. The first precoding matrix has non-zero elements corresponding to a first set of DMRS ports, where the first set has Ml ports, M1<=R, and R is a number of layers of the PUSCH, and
2. The second precoding matrix is to be used for a second subband of the subbands and has non-zero elements corresponding to a second set of DMRS ports, where the second set has M2 ports. The precoding matrices are constrained such that M2=R if R=2*M1, while M2<R if R<2*M1. In some such embodiments, the precoding matrices are constrained such that M2=l if R<2*M1.
As another example, in a particular embodiment, and to reduce DCI signaling overhead when different TPMIs are signaled for different subbands, the TPMI bitfields or codepoints can be restricted to a subset of the Rel-15 TPMI bitfields corresponding to a rank R in according to an indicated transmission rank R that is used for all subbands. In a further particular embodiment, the signaling overhead can be further reduced by constraining to a subset to TPMI codepoints corresponding to the partial-coherent or non-coherent precoders. In some embodiments, the UE receives an indication of the single number of layers, R, and an indication of a plurality of precoding matrices. Each matrix Wi of the plurality of precoding matrices corresponds to a number of layers Ri, and the plurality of precoding matrices is constrained such that the sum of the numbers of layers Ri is equal to the single number of layers, R.
As another example, in a particular embodiment, the PUSCH bandwidth is divided into the subbands according to at least one of: • the UE determines a number of subbands, i.e., N = [X/r , where r is the wideband rank and X is set to number of antenna ports, or
• the UE receives signaling from network informing the UE of the number of subbands N.
As still another example, in a particular embodiment, subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands, and different Tx chains transmit in the subband groups. For example, the UE receives signaling identifying a first subset and a second subset of the N subbands, where the first and second subsets occupy at least one different subband of the N subbands, and the UE transmits according to a mapping of a first SRS port in the first subset and a mapping of a second SRS port to the second subset.
In a further particular embodiment, the subband groups are non-overlapping. In some embodiments, the first and second subsets occupy completely different subbands such that each subband is occupied only by one of the first and second subsets.
In a further particular embodiment, Tx chains transmit only in one of the groups. In some embodiments, the first SRS port is mapped to only one of the first and second subset, and the second SRS port is mapped only to the subset that the first SRS port is not mapped to.
In a further particular embodiment, Tx power is kept the same across the PUSCH layers by scaling by the number of occupied subbands) In some embodiments, each of a first and a second PUSCH layer occupies the first and second subsets, respectively, and the UE transmits the first and second PUSCH layers at an equal power, wherein the power in each subband of the first and second layer, respectively, is equal to the total power in all subbands of the first and second layer, respectively, divided by the number of subbands in the first and second layer, respectively.
In a further particular embodiment, subband indication value (SIV) signaling is used. For example, in some embodiments, the signaling identifies the first subset according to a first starting subband index and a first number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset and identifies the second subset according to a second starting subband index and a second number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset.
Since the subbands are spread across all the antenna ports, the UE may operate with maximum output power according to power scaling (all PAs are active) described in Section 7. 1 in TS 38.213 rev. 17.0.0. Additionally, since each antenna port may transmit only a subset of the scheduled PRBs, the PSD per PRB can be scaled up further improving the received SINR. Accordingly, given a scalar X configured by network and the transmission rank r, it is then necessary in some embodiments to identify N (where N < [X/r|) subbands. However, since an NR BWP can contain hundreds of PRBs, and so identifying the starting PRB and length (bandwidth) of each subband can take up most of an uplink grant for the transmission, consuming a large amount of UL DCI overhead. Consequently, methods that limit the amount of DCI signaling to allocate a UE the subbands for its transmission are explored in the following embodiments, where the X is assumed to be equal to the number of antenna ports at a UE, given by M. i.e . X = M.
Embodiments Related to Number of Subbands
According to certain embodiments, the number of subbands for PUSCH subband precoding can be fixed depending on the number of antenna ports and the transmission rank. Specifically, with X = M antenna ports and rank r, the number of subbands N can be fixed to N = \M/r\. which require no additional signaling from the network to the UE. A single value of the rank r may be used, where the number of layers is the same in all subbands and equal to r, which may be termed a wideband rank.
Therefore, in some embodiments, the UE determines a number of subbands, N, according to N=[X/r], where r is the wideband rank and X is set to a number of antenna ports, and [Y] is smallest nearest integer to Y.
In another particular embodiment, network determines the number of subbands and signals it to the UE through DCI signaling. For rank r and the number of antenna ports M , the possible number of subbands can be N G {1, 2,
Figure imgf000018_0001
Accordingly, the network can signal the UE the number of subbands with additional [log2 ( F^/rl)l DCI bits.
The following examples exemplify the above:
• If the rank is fixed to either 1 or 2, then the maximum N is 4 or 2, respectively. Accordingly, either 2 or 1 bit corresponding to rank 1 or 2 may be used to signal the number of subbands.
• If the rank adaptively varies between 1 and 2, then the maximum N can be 4, and 2 bits may be used to signal the number of subbands.
When the number of subbands is less that \M/r], it can refer to the scenario where the network decides to switch off the weaker antenna ports, for example, for rank 1, the number of subbands can be equal to three which spread over 1st, 2nd and 4th antenna ports given by TPMI codepoints 0, 1, and 3 given in Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in TS 38.212, where the 3rd antenna port is switched off. Therefore, in some embodiments, the UE receives signaling from network informing the UE of the number of subbands N.
Embodiments Related to Length of Each Subband
According to certain embodiments, for PUSCH frequency allocation Type 0, the frequency-domain resource allocation field in an UL DCI consist of a bitmap. Each bit indicates if a Resource Block Group (RBG) should be used for PUSCH transmission or not. The size of the RBG (in resource blocks) is based on BWP size and RRC configuration as specified in Table 6.1.2.2.1-1 in TS 38.214 (included below for convenience). In the following embodiments, the PRBs in the BWP is assumed to be grouped into RBGs according to Table 7 (which corresponds to Table 6.1.2.2.1-1 in 3GPP TS 38.214).
Table 7 : Nominal RBG size P
Figure imgf000019_0001
In one embodiment, the subband size for PUSCH subband precoding can be fixed such that all the subbands have equal length. One way to do it is to fix the length, measured in RBGs, of nth subband to K = T/ N, where the T is the total number of scheduled RBGs in the UL BWP and is an integer multiple of the number of subbands N.
In one alternate embodiment, where T is not an integer multiple of the number of subbands N, the first (N — 1) subbands are assigned equal length of |T /IV J RBGs and the last (T - LT/1VJ x N) RBGs can be switched off. In a similar embodiment, when T is not an integer multiple of the number of subbands N, the first (N — 1) subbands are assigned a length of |T /N and the final subband is assigned a length of (T — |T /N x (IV — 1)). Comparing the former and later embodiments, the former embodiment losses some spectral efficiency by switching off some PRBs, however the occupied PRBs can have higher PSD compared to the occupied PRBs of the later embodiment. In another embodiment, when T is not an integer multiple of the number of subbands N, the length of N subbands are denoted by { Ki, K2, ... Kn, , KN}, wherein Kn is the length of the 111 subband. Accordingly, the length of the «th subband is given by Kn =
Figure imgf000020_0001
Note that the above rules to determine the length of the subbands can be predefined at the UEs requiring no additional signaling from the network.
Embodiments for PUSCH Layer(s) to Subband and Antenna Port Mapping
According to certain embodiments, the network can signal the mapping of the PUSCH layers to the subbands and the antenna ports through DCI signaling. For example, the mapping may identify TPMIs, in a particular embodiment.
For UEs with fully coherent or partially coherent antenna ports, a PUSCH is mapped to the subbands, where each subband occupy all the antenna ports as disclosed in 3GPP TS 38.211. Accordingly, the following embodiments describe the PUSCH layer to subband and antenna port mapping for the UEs with non-coherent antenna ports, where the subbands can occupy non-overlapping or partially overlapping antenna ports.
In a particular embodiment where the number of subbands is fixed to N = \M/r\. N groups of antenna ports can be firstly formed such that each antenna-port group corresponds to a subband, i.e., the ntfl subband occupies the ntfl antenna-port group. Subsequently, a one-to- one layer(s) to subband mapping can be done in increasing order of the antenna port group. The methodology has the benefit that a gNB and a UE can determine the DMRS port to subband mapping without any signaling of the DMRS port to subband mapping from the network. The following examples are provided:
• For number of antenna ports M = 4, r = 1, four antenna port groups can be formed with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th antenna port constituting the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th antenna port group, respectively. There are four subbands (N = [M/r = 4), where the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th subbands are assigned to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th antenna port groups, respectively. Subsequently, a single layer is mapped to each of the subbands, where the antenna port in a subband carrying (part of) the layer.
• For number of antenna ports M = 4, r = 2, two antenna port groups can be formed with the 1st and 2 nd antenna ports constituting the first antenna port group, and the 3rd and 4th antenna ports constituting the second antenna port group. There are two subbands (N = [M/r] = 2), where the 1st and 2nd subbands are assigned to the 1st and 2nd antenna port groups, respectively. Subsequently, two layers are mapped to each of the subbands, with each antenna port in an antenna port group (assigned to a subband) carrying one layer.
• For number of antenna ports M = 4, r = 3, two antenna port groups can be formed with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd antenna ports constituting the first antenna port group, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th antenna ports constituting the second antenna port group. There are two subbands (N = [M/r = 2), where the 1st and 2nd subbands are assigned to the 1st and 2nd antenna port groups, respectively. Subsequently, three layers are mapped to each of the subbands, with each antenna port in an antenna port group (assigned to a subband) carrying one layer.
• For number of antenna ports M = 4, r = 4, since there is only one subband (N = [M/r] = 1), equivalent to wideband scenario, the subband is assigned to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th antenna ports constituting the only antenna port group. Subsequently, four layers are mapped to the single subband, with each antenna port in an antenna port group carrying one layer.
It may be noted that the above approach maps r ports to each subband for the 1, 2, and 4 layer PUSCH cases, but not for the 3 layer case. In the 3 layer case, there are not two DMRS ports available for the second and third layers, since two DMRS ports are already used on the first subband. Therefore, this problem is solved for the 3 layer case in the approach above by reducing the number of DMRS ports, in this case to 1 for each of the second and third layers.
It may also be noted that the approach above maps DMRS ports in a consecutive fashion to the subbands. This fixed ordering avoids the need to select which DMRS port maps to which layer, which has the benefit of saving the overhead of signaling the mapping. On the other hand, selecting the DMRS port to layer mapping may improve performance, so there is an overhead versus uplink performance tradeoff in certain embodiments.
Therefore, according to certain embodiments, the UE maps DMRS ports to subbands layer by layer, mapping a first set of DMRS ports with consecutive indices are to a first subband, wherein the first set of DMRS ports has Ml ports and M1<=R, and R is a number of layers of the PUSCH. The UE also maps a second set of DMRS ports with consecutive indices to a second subband, wherein the second set of DMRS ports has M2 ports and M2=R if R=2*M1, while M2<R if R<2*M1. In some such embodiments M2=l if R<2*M1. In an alternate embodiment, the number of subbands is fixed to N = [M/r] and the layer(s) to subband and antenna-port mapping can be signaled by the network to the UE through DCI. This can be achieved by signaling the TPMIs corresponding to the non-coherent precoders for each subband depending upon the wideband rank, where the non-coherent precoders select an antenna-port group for each subband. Accordingly, the number of antennaport groups (where each group corresponds to a non-coherent precoder) is equal to the number of subbands, and is further exemplified in the following for the case when the number of antenna ports equal to 4.
• For r = 1, such that the number of subbands is equal to N = [M/r] = 4, each subband is assigned to an antenna port through signaling of non-coherent TPMI codepoints, i.e., 0 — 3 in the rightmost column of Table 7.3.1. 1.2-2 ofTS 38.212. Subsequently, a single layer is mapped to each of the subbands, where the antenna port in a subband carry the layer. In Section 0, we discuss DCI overhead for this scenario. FIGURE 1 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping 100 for rank 1, according to certain embodiments.
• For r = 2, such that the number of subbands is equal to N = [M/r] = 2, each subband is mapped to an antenna port pair (forming an antenna port group) through signaling of non-coherent TPMI codepoints, i.e., 4 — 9 in the rightmost column of Table 7.3. 1.1.2-2 ofTS 38.212. Subsequently, two layers are mapped to each of the subbands, with each antenna port in an antenna port group (assigned to a subband) carrying one layer. In Section 0, we discuss DCI overhead for this scenario. FIGURE 2 illustrates an example layer to subband and antenna port mapping 200 for rank 2, according to certain embodiments.
• For r = 3, the number of subbands is equal to N = [M/r] = 2, however there is only one non-coherent TPMI codepoint, i.e., 10. Accordingly, new noncoherent precoder(s) for r = 3 can be included, which can utilize different sets of three antenna ports (forming an antenna port group) to transmit 3 PUCSH
0 0 o- layer, for example, TPMI codepoint Nl: 1 0 0 or/and TPMI codepoint
0 1 0
Lo 0 1J
■1 0 0- or/and TPMI codepoint N3: 0 1 0 , such that the two 0 0 0
Figure imgf000022_0001
Lo 0 1J subbands are transmitted on partially-overlapping antennas port groups. Once the TPMIs are allocated for each subband, the three layers are mapped to each of the subbands, with each antenna port in an antenna port group (assigned to a subband) carrying one layer. FIGURE 3 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping 300 for rank 3, according to certain embodiments.
• For r = 4, such that the number of subbands is equal to N = [M/r = 1 (wideband), the subband is assigned to all the antenna ports (one antenna port group) through non-coherent TPMI codepoint 11 in the rightmost column of Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 of TS 38.212. Subsequently, four layers are mapped to the single subband, with each antenna port in the antenna port group carrying one layer. FIGURE 4 illustrates an example layers to subband and antenna port mapping 400 for rank, according to certain embodiments.
Therefore, in some embodiments, the UE maps DMRS ports to subbands according to a first and a second precoding matrix, comprising receiving an indication of the first and second precoding matrices, wherein the first precoding matrix is to be used for a first subband of the subbands. The first precoding matrix has non-zero elements corresponding to a first set of DMRS ports, where the first set has Ml ports, M1<=R, and R is a number of layers of the PUSCH. The second precoding matrix is to be used for a second subband of the subbands, and has non-zero elements corresponding to a second set of DMRS ports, where the second set has M2 ports. The precoding matrices are constrained such that M2=R if R=2*M1, while M2<R if R<2*M1. In some such embodiments, the precoding matrices are constrained such that M2=l ifR<2*Ml.
Signaling Overhead for the PUSCH layer(s) to Subband and Antenna Port Mapping
Denoting the number of TPMI codepoints for rank r as Tr , which depends on the coherence capability of a UE, the signaling overhead for the methodology can follow one of the following two embodiments:
• In a particular embodiment, [log2(^ _17’i) DCI bits are required to signal a TPMI codepoint (given Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in TS 38.212 for M = 4), which can be used to deduce the rank r of the entire scheduled bandwidth (wideband rank) and TPMI for the first subband. Next, flog2 (7^. — i)l bits, where i =
Figure imgf000023_0001
are required to signal the subset of TPMIs for each of the rest subbands corresponding to wideband rank r. The above constrains each TPMI codepoint to only one subband (assigns non-overlapping or partially overlapping antenna ports to the subbands in case a UE is equipped with noncoherent antenna ports).
• In another particular embodiment, the rank and TPMI can be signaled in separate bitfields, where a) one rank bitfield is valid for all subbands (wideband rank), and b) TP Mis of the subbands are jointly encoded based on the subset of TPMI codepoints corresponding to wideband rank r, such that each TPMI codepoint is assigned to only one subband. Accordingly, two bits is required to signal the rank if 2 < r < 4 or one bit if the rank is r < 2, and [log2((Tr) x (Tr — 1) x ■■■ x (Tr — N + 1))] bits to jointly signal the subset of TP Mis for all the subband corresponding to wideband rank r. o To further reduce the signaling overhead when a UE has non-coherent antenna ports and the wideband rank r < 2, the antenna port can be assigned to the subband such that the subbands occupy non-overlapping antenna ports. The antenna port(s) are assigned to a subband following the subset of TPMIs corresponding to non-coherent precoders given in Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in TS 38.212 for M = 4. Accordingly, when r = 1 and N = 4, the number of bits required to jointly signal the subband TPMIs is [log2(4 x 3 x 2 x 1)] = 5 bits. While forr = 2 and N = 2, the bits required to jointly signal the subband TPMIs is [log2(6 x 1)] = 3 bits. With one bit required to signal r, the total bits for layer(s) to subband and antenna port mapping is 6 and 4 bits for r = 1 and 2, respectively
• Furthermore, for M = 4, in another embodiment, where the network signals the number of subbands, i.e., I , to the UE, two more DCI bits are consumed since for r = 1, there can be maximum 4 subbands.
Therefore, in some embodiments, DCI signaling overhead is reduced through the use of a single number of layers that corresponds to multiple subbands of a PUSCH transmission. The UE receives an indication of the single number of layers, R, and an indication of a plurality of precoding matrices. Each matrix Wi of the plurality of precoding matrices corresponds to a number of layers Ri, and the plurality of precoding matrices is constrained such that the sum of the numbers of layers Ri is equal to the single number of layers, R. To exemplify the additional overhead for the subband precoding methodology compared to wideband precoding (which is used in current NR specifications), precoding was evaluated for the wideband rank with wideband TPMI versus the wideband rank with subband TPMIs for a UE with non-coherent antenna ports. An example for which the number of antenna ports M = 4 was considered. In this case, the rightmost column of Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in 3GPP TS 38.212 applies, which requires 4 bits. It is assumed that the wideband rank is 1 (with max rank 2, i.e., r < 2), where the number of subbands is configured to be 4, and the subbands occupy nonoverlapping antenna ports. It may be noted that:
1. The DCI overhead for wideband rank and TPMI signaling is 4 bits (see rightmost column of Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in 3GPP TS 38.212 and note that log2(16) = 4)
2. In an embodiment where the wideband rank and the subband TPMIs are signaled in separate bitfields, with the TPMIs for the subbands encoded jointly, the DCI overhead for wideband rank and subband TPMI signaling is 1 bit for wideband rank and [log2(4 x 3 x 2 x 1)] = [log2 (24)] = 5 bits for subband TPMIs. In the above, it is assumed that o The wideband transmission rank can be either 1 or 2 (2 values, i.e., 1 bit). o The subband TPMI bitfield jointly encode the maximum 4 subbands. There are 4 codepoints (i.e., 0 — 3) for rank 1 in the rightmost column of Table 7.3.1.1.2-2 in 3GPP TS 38.212. Accordingly, the TPMIs for the subbands with non-overlapping antenna ports can be jointly encoded in 24 (4 x 3 x 2 x 1) ways requiring [log2 (24)] = 5 bits.
As discussed above, it is beneficial to map an antenna port once, to either a subband or to contiguous subbands. In this way a Tx chain can carry a contiguous set of PRBs, which is required for low PAPR operation such as through DFT-S-OFDM. However, if low PAPR operation is not required for a given transmission, this restriction to map once is not necessarily needed, and more flexible or better performing operation can be enabled by receiving signaling that transform precoding is not used for the PUSCH transmission, and relaxing the restriction to map once.
Therefore, in a particular embodiment, a UE configured for subband precoding receives a scalar parameter X, to be used for a PUSCH transmission by the UE, wherein the bandwidth of the PUSCH transmission is further divided into N subbands, where X>N>1. The UE transmits on each antenna port once for the PUSCH transmission in an allocated subband or consecutive subbands, wherein more than one subband can be mapped to the same antenna port only if the subbands are contiguous over the antenna port.
In some such embodiments, the UE receives an indication that transform precoding is not used for the PUSCH transmission, and the UE transmits on an antenna port in noncontiguous subbands.
Mapping an antenna port once to a subband or contiguous subbands can be controlled by using a precoding matrix that has a non-zero entry corresponding to the antenna port only once for a PUSCH transmission. If the matrix were used more than once on different subbands or different contiguous subbands, then the corresponding antenna port and Tx chain for the non-zero entry would be applied more than once, and the constraints supporting DFT-S-OFDM could be violated, increasing the PAPR.
Therefore, in some such embodiments, the UE receives an indication of a precoding matrix to use for the PUSCH transmission, wherein the precoding matrix is only used for one set of consecutive subbands of the PUSCH transmission, and is excluded for use on other subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the set of consecutive subbands comprises one or more of the subbands.
It is also possible to map antenna ports to subbands more directly rather than using a precoding matrix. Such mapping may be appealing when non-coherent transmission is used, since the relative phase between antenna ports is not needed for such transmissions, and since representing the PUSCH transmission through a precoding matrix can be driven by the need to control such relative phase. A direct indication of antenna port mapping may therefore be used in such embodiments.
Therefore, in some such embodiments, the UE receives an indication that maps one or more antenna ports to a first set of consecutive subbands of a PUSCH transmission, and the indication does not map the one or more antenna ports to a second set of consecutive subbands of the PUSCH transmission, wherein the first and second sets of consecutive subbands comprise one or more of the subbands.
When some PRBs of a layer have substantially lower SNR than other PRBs in the layer, it is advantageous to transmit the layer only on the PRBs with good SNR. This can be done for all layers in a PUSCH transmission. As discussed above, transmitting in contiguous subcarriers on a single Tx chain is needed to maintain the low PAPR (and low cubic metric) characteristics of DFT-S-OFDM. Therefore, when the subset of PRBs transmitted on a layer is further constrained to occupy contiguous subcarriers, the benefit of DFT-S-OFDM can be retained. Accounting for these constraints in the signaling can reduce the signaling overhead for frequency-selective precoding.
Different MIMO layers corresponding to different antenna ports tend to have different SNRs, and so it can be beneficial to identify which antenna ports to transmit on. Simply identifying a number of Tx chains to transmit upon does not select the ones that will allow the best performance. Therefore, it can be beneficial to select a subset of Tx chains to transmit upon, and then further identify which PRBs should be occupied on these active Tx chains.
Transmitting on a subset of high-SNR PRBs in a Tx chain not only avoids losing power on PRBs that will not likely contribute to a successfully received transmission, but also allows the power from the unused PRBs to be shifted to the occupied PRBs. In NR and LTE, this effect is used in power control, where the total transmit power increases as the number of PRBs increases. This means that the energy per PRB is essentially constant, and so higher payload PUSCH transmissions can still have the same reliability. Because NR and LTE assume that all layers occupy the same number of PRBs, and since power is split equally in all layers, the power control for UL MIMO does not need to allocate the power of a layer according to the number of occupied PRBs; the occupied PRBs are used to calculate the total transmit power, and then need not be consider thereafter. Embodiments herein, however, allow for different numbers of PRBs per layer, and so new methods are needed for power control in this case.
Embodiments that select Tx chains and that allow for different occupied PRBs per Tx chain can be further understood by considering the example illustrated in FIGURE 5, which illustrates an example subband allocation and port to layer mapping 500, according to certain embodiments.
As depicted in FIGURE 5, the UE is allocated a number of PRBs, for example using Rel-15/16 resource allocation Type 1. The UE is further signaled to split the allocation equally into N subbands, resulting in subbands that are Lprb PRBs long. The UE is also indicated which Tx chains to transmit on, where the number of the active Tx chains is X. One way to indicate the Tx chains to transmit on is to identify each Tx chain with an SRS port, in which case the ports 0 to 3 are SRS ports in the figure. In that case, X can be the number of antenna ports that are carrying PUSCH.
Therefore, in some embodiments where a uses a scalar parameter X for a PUSCH transmission divided into N subbands, subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands and different Tx chains, or equivalently antenna ports, transmit in the subband groups. In these embodiments, the UE receives signaling identifying a first subset and a second subset of the N subbands, where the first and second subsets occupy at least one different subband of the N subbands, and the UE transmits according to a mapping of a first SRS port in the first subset and a mapping of a second SRS port to the second subset.
The total power transmitted by the UE on all Tx chains in all active PRBs, Ptotai may be calculated according to Rel-15/16 power control specifications as PpuscH,&,/,c(fi
Figure imgf000028_0001
given by 3GPP TS 38.213 subclause 7.1. In similar embodiments, Ptotai may be calculated according to Rel-16 power control specifications as s ■ PpuscH,b,/,e(ij> Qd> , where s is also given by 3GPP TS 38.213 subclause 7.1. In similar embodiments, Ptotai may be calculated according to a new (un-specified as of Rel-16) power control specifications, where for example the total output power might exceed the maximum allowed output power (at least for a certain period of time). The maximum allowed output power could for example be determined during UE capability signaling where the UE indicates the power class (and corresponding maximum allowed output power) according to Table 6.2.1-1 in 3GPP TS 38.101-1 for FR1 and in Table 6.2.1.1-2, Table 6.2.1.2-2, Table 6.2.1.3-2 and Table 6.2.1.4-2 in 3GPP TS 38.101-2 for FR2.
In some embodiments, the power per layer is equal, even though the number of occupied PRBs is different and the energy per resource element is not the same across layers. The total transmit power for the PUSCH, Ptotai is divided by the number of antenna ports on which PUSCH is transmitted in any PRB. The constraint ‘in any PRB’ is important here, since different layers can occupy different PRBs, and so the number of active ports can vary across the allocation. If any PRB is occupied on a port, that port carries PUSCH according to the constraint.
Therefore, in such embodiments, the power for the ith layer, Pi = Ptotai/X. In order for Pi to remain constant when the number of occupied subbands varies on the layer, the power per subband should be scaled down by the number of occupied subbands on the layer. In other words, the power per subband, P, for layer i, is P=Ptotai/(X*Li), where Li is the length of the occupied subbands for the ith layer. The length can be in units of PRBs, resource elements, or in general any measure of the contiguous bandwidth occupied by the layer. In cases where the subbands have equal size and a layer occupies contiguous subbands such as depicted in FIGURE 5, the length can be the number of subbands.
Therefore, in some embodiments where subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands and different Tx chains transmit in the subband groups, the UE’s transmit power is kept the same across the PUSCH layers by scaling by the number of occupied subbands. In these embodiments, each of a first and a second PUSCH layer occupies the first and second subsets, respectively, and the UE transmits the first and second PUSCH layers at an equal power, wherein the power in each subband of the first and second layer, respectively, is equal to the total power in all subbands of the first and second layer, respectively, divided by the number of subbands in the first and second layer, respectively.
The indication of the active Tx chains can be determined according to a bitmap. Each Tx chain in the UE can be associated with a bit, and if that bit is set, then the Tx chain is active. In the example, there are 4 Tx chains identified by antenna ports 0 through 3. Antenna ports 0, 1, and 3 are active, and can be identified with a 4-bit long bitmap {1 1 0 1}, where antenna port 0 is associated with the leftmost bit, port 1 is the next bit to the right, and so on. Because 3 bits are non-zero, the number of active Tx chains X is therefore 3 when this bitmap is signaled.
A port to layer mapping is needed so that the receiving device, for example a gNB, can identify the radio channel that the bits in the layer are carried upon. If a layer is transmitted on a single Tx chain, for example using non-coherent transmission, then the port to layer mapping can consist of a simple one to one mapping, where the nth active Tx chain is mapped to the nth layer. FIGURE 5 illustrates this, where Tx chains and antenna ports 0, 1, and 3 map to layers 0, 1, and 2.
With N subbands, there are N*(N+l)/2 possible allocations of contiguous subbands, where the subbands have size from 1 up to N subbands. This is similar to Type 1 resource allocation, where N PRBs or N RBGs are allocated, and similar signaling can be used. The starting subband SBstart and number of occupied subbands for a layer Lsubband can be indicated with a resource indication value similar to the one used for Type 1, identified as a subband indication value, SIV, below:
A subband allocation field consists of a subband indication value (SIV) corresponding to a starting subband (SBstart) and a length in terms of contiguously allocated subbands, Lsubband. The resource indication value is defined by if Lsubband “ 1) L /2 J then
Figure imgf000029_0001
else SIV — N N Lsubband + 1) + (N 1 SBstart). Here, Lsubban 1 and shall not exceed N-5&/art.
Therefore, in some embodiments where subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands and different Tx chains transmit in the subband groups, the signaling identifies the first subset according to a first starting subband index and a first number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset and identifies the second subset according to a second starting subband index and a second number of consecutive occupied subbands in the subset.
In some embodiments, such as those illustrated by FIGURE 5, the occupied PRBs and subbands can be indicated using an SIV for each layer. In some embodiments, the number of subbands is at least the number of Tx chains supported by the UE, as this allows each Tx chain to transmit in a separate subband, which avoids interfering with the other Tx chains, thereby improving performance. Since the number of Tx chains in FIGURE 5 is 4, then there are N=4 subbands, and therefore 4*(4+l)/2=10 possible allocations of contiguous subbands. Since the subband allocation can be independent per layer, if there are 1, 2, 3, or 4 layers, there are 10Al=l 0, 10A2=100, 10A3=1000, and 10A4=10000 total states, which can be represented by 4- , 7-, 10-, and 14-bit SIVs.
The port to layer mapping can be signaled independently of the SIV. Then continuing with the example of N=4 subbands, with 1, 2, 3, or 4 layers, the port to layer mapping and the SIV can be indicated by 4 + {4, 7, 10, or 14} bits = 8, 11, 14, or 18 bits. If Type 1 resource allocation is used with 273 PRBs, then the complete resource allocation in the frequency domain for subband uplink MIMO can be [log2(273 * 274/2)] = 16 bits + {8, 11, 14, or 18} = {24, 27, 30, or 34} bits. The 16 bits of the Type 1 resource allocation identify the total allocation, which is broken into the N=4 subbands, and where the SIV for each of the layers indicates which subbands of the resource allocated by the Type 1 resource allocation are occupied, and the 4 bits port to layer mapping indicates both the rank and the active antenna ports and Tx chains.
In the embodiment above, the start and length of each layer is provided independently, and layers may overlap in all, some, or none of the subbands. If the subband allocation is further constricted such that layers do not overlap, that is, a next layer must begin in a subband after the last subband of the layer preceding it, the amount of signaling needed to identify the subband locations can be reduced. For example, if there are 4 subband locations, and each is occupied by one of 4 layers, then there is only one possible allocation, where each subband carries one layer. If there are again 4 subband locations, but two layers, each layer can be on up to 3 consecutive subbands, and there are 15 possible combinations of starting subband and length for each layer, as shown in Table below.
Table 8: Occupied subbands with two layers (or subband groups).
Figure imgf000031_0001
If the start of each subband is instead indicated independently for each of two layers, there are 10*10=100 combinations, as compared to the 15 shown above. Therefore, constraining to non-overlapping subband allocations can significantly reduce signaling overhead (in this case reducing from ~7 bits to ~4 bits overhead).
Similarly, if there are 1 or 3 layers, there are 10 or 7 possible combinations of occupied subbands for the layers, respectively.
To signal the occupied subbands for 1 up to 4 layers, then there are 1+7+15+10=33 states needed to identify the number of layers and the subbands they occupy, which can be conveyed with 6 bits (or less if combined with other signaling). The embodiment above can be generalized to where more than one layer occupies the same set of PRBs. In this case, we can treat each set of occupied subbands as a subband group on which one or multiple layers can be transmitted. For example, in the table above, layers 0 and 1 could correspond to subband groups 0 and 1, and there are 15 combinations of the occupied subbands for the two subband groups. The port to layer mapping must than map one or more than 1 port to each layer. For example, if two ports map to subband group 0, there are 6 combinations of 2 antenna ports (from 4 total ports) that can map to layer 0: {(0,1), (0,2), (0,3), (1,2), (1,3), and (2,3)}. Then subband group 1 would have the remaining two antenna ports if it also has two layers mapped to it, or one of the two remaining ports if it only has one layer mapped to it. Therefore, there are 6*(l+2) = 18 states needed to map the 4 antenna ports to the case where subband 0 has two layers and there are two subband groups. The total number of states for this case is then 18*15=270.
FIGURE 6 illustrates an example non-overlapping subband allocation and port to layer mapping 600 for the two subband group example discussed above. Subband group 0 occupies the first two subband locations, while subband group 1 occupies the last subband. This can be indicated to the UE by signaling combination number 8 in Table above. The hatched lines in subbands 3 for layers 0 & 1 and for subbands 0 & 1 for layer 2 show that these subbands are excluded by the constraint that the subband groups are not allowed to overlap in the frequency domain. The figure shows that the power for layers in a same subband group is the same, that is layers 0 and 1 have equal power per subband of P=Po/2=Pi/2, since there are two occupied subbands for these two layers. The port to layer mapping in the figure selects ports 0 and 2 for subband group 0 and port 3 for subband group 1.
Therefore, in some embodiments where subband groups occupy different subsets of the subbands and different Tx chains transmit in the subband groups, the subband groups are non-overlapping. In such embodiments, the first and second subsets occupy completely different subbands such that each subband is occupied only by one of the first and second subsets.
FIGURE 7 shows an example of a communication system 700 in accordance with some embodiments.
In the example, the communication system 700 includes a telecommunication network 702 that includes an access network 704, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 706, which includes one or more core network nodes 708. The access network 704 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 710a and 710b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 710), or any other similar 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. The network nodes 710 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 712a, 712b, 712c, and 712d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 712) to the core network 706 over one or more wireless connections.
Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 700 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 700 may include and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and/or other similar type of system.
The UEs 712 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 710 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 710 are arranged, capable, configured, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 712 and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 702 to enable and/or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and/or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 702.
In the depicted example, the core network 706 connects the network nodes 710 to one or more hosts, such as host 716. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 706 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 708) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and/or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 708. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and/or a User Plane Function (UPF).
The host 716 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 704 and/or the telecommunication network 702, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 716 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio/video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.
As a whole, the communication system 700 of FIGURE 7 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and/or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.
In some examples, the telecommunication network 702 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 702 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 702. For example, the telecommunications network 702 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and/or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC)/Massive loT services to yet further UEs.
In some examples, the UEs 712 are configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 704 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 704. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).
In the example, the hub 714 communicates with the access network 704 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 712c and/or 712d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 710b). In some examples, the hub 714 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 714 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 706 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 714 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 710, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 714. As another example, the hub 714 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 714 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 714 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 714 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and/or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 714 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.
The hub 714 may have a constant/persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 710b. The hub 714 may also allow for a different communication scheme and/or schedule between the hub 714 and UEs (e.g., UE 712c and/or 712d), and between the hub 714 and the core network 706. In other examples, the hub 714 is connected to the core network 706 and/or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 714 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 704 and/or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 710 while still connected via the hub 714 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 714 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to/from the UEs from/to the network node 710b. In other embodiments, the hub 714 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 710b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and/or end point for certain data channels.
FIGURE 8 shows a UE 800 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded/integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.
A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle- to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).
The UE 800 includes processing circuitry 802 that is operatively coupled via a bus 804 to an input/ output interface 806, apower source 808, amemory 810, a communication interface 812, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIGURE 8. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.
The processing circuitry 802 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 810. The processing circuitry 802 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 802 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).
In the example, the input/output interface 806 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and/or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 800. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.
In some embodiments, the power source 808 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 808 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 808 itself, and/or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 800 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 808. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 808 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 800 to which power is supplied.
The memory 810 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 810 includes one or more application programs 814, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 816. The memory 810 may store, for use by the UE 800, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
The memory 810 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and/or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card. ’ The memory 810 may allow the UE 800 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 810, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.
The processing circuitry 802 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 812. The communication interface 812 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 822. The communication interface 812 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 818 and/or a receiver 820 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 818 and receiver 820 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 822) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.
In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 812 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and/or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol/intemet protocol (TCP/IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.
Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 812, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).
As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.
A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door/window sensor, a flood/moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and/or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 800 shown in FIGURE 8.
As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another UE and/or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation. In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and/or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.
FIGURE 9 shows a network node 900 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and/or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)).
Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).
Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi -standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).
The network node 900 includes a processing circuitry 902, a memory 904, a communication interface 906, and a power source 908. The network node 900 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 900 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 900 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 904 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 910 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 900 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 900, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 900.
The processing circuitry 902 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 900 components, such as the memory 904, to provide network node 900 functionality.
In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 912 and the baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 912 and baseband processing circuitry 914 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.
The memory 904 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 902. The memory 904 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 902 and utilized by the network node 900. The memory 904 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 902 and/or any data received via the communication interface 906. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 902 and memory 904 is integrated.
The communication interface 906 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between a network node, access network, and/or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 906 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 916 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 906 also includes radio front-end circuitry 918 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 910. Radio front-end circuitry 918 comprises filters 920 and amplifiers 922. The radio front-end circuitry 918 may be connected to an antenna 910 and processing circuitry 902. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 910 and processing circuitry 902. The radio front-end circuitry 918 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 918 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 920 and/or amplifiers 922. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 910. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 910 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 918. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 902. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 900 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 918, instead, the processing circuitry 902 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 910. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 912 is part of the communication interface 906. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 906 includes one or more ports or terminals 916, the radio front-end circuitry 918, and the RF transceiver circuitry 912, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 906 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 914, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).
The antenna 910 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. The antenna 910 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 918 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 910 is separate from the network node 900 and connectable to the network node 900 through an interface or port.
The antenna 910, communication interface 906, and/or the processing circuitry 902 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 910, the communication interface 906, and/or the processing circuitry 902 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
The power source 908 provides power to the various components of network node 900 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 908 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 900 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 900 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 908. As a further example, the power source 908 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.
Embodiments of the network node 900 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIGURE 9 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 900 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 900 and to allow output of information from the network node 900. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 900. FIGURE 10 is a block diagram of a host 1000, which may be an embodiment of the host 716 of FIGURE 7, in accordance with various aspects described herein.
As used herein, the host 1000 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and/or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 1000 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.
The host 1000 includes processing circuitry 1002 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1004 to an input/output interface 1006, a network interface 1008, a power source 1010, and a memory 1012. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figures 8 and 9, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1000.
The memory 1012 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1014 and data 1016, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1000 or data generated by the host 1000 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 1000 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1014 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 1014 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 1000 may select and/or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 1014 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.
FIGURE 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1100 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1100 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized.
Applications 1102 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.
Hardware 1104 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and/or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and/or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input/output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1106 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1108a and 1108b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1108), and/or perform any of the functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1106 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1108.
The VMs 1108 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1106. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1102 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1108, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
In the context of NFV, a VM 1108 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1108, and that part of hardware 1104 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and/or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1108 on top of the hardware 1104 and corresponds to the application 1102.
Hardware 1104 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1104 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1104 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1110, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1102. In some embodiments, hardware 1104 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1112 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.
FIGURE 12 shows a communication diagram of a host 1202 communicating via a network node 1204 with a UE 1206 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.
Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 712a of FIGURE 7 and/or UE 800 of FIGURE 8), network node (such as network node 710a of FIGURE 7 and/or network node 900 of FIGURE 9), and host (such as host 716 of FIGURE 7 and/or host 1000 of FIGURE 10) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to FIGURE 12.
Like host 1000, embodiments of host 1202 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 1202 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 1202 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 1206 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1250 extending between the UE 1206 and host 1202. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1250.
The network node 1204 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 1202 and UE 1206. The connection 1260 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 706 of FIGURE 7) and/or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.
The UE 1206 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1206 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1206 with the support of the host 1202. In the host 1202, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 1250 terminating at the UE 1206 and host 1202. In providing the service to the user, the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1250 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE's client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 1250.
The OTT connection 1250 may extend via a connection 1260 between the host 1202 and the network node 1204 and via a wireless connection 1270 between the network node 1204 and the UE 1206 to provide the connection between the host 1202 and the UE 1206. The connection 1260 and wireless connection 1270, over which the OTT connection 1250 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 1202 and the UE 1206 via the network node 1204, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.
As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 1250, in step 1208, the host 1202 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 1206. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 1206 that shares data with the host 1202 without explicit human interaction. In step 1210, the host 1202 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 1206. The host 1202 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 1206. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 1206 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 1206. The transmission may pass via the network node 1204, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 1212, the network node 1204 transmits to the UE 1206 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 1202 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1214, the UE 1206 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 1206 associated with the host application executed by the host 1202.
In some examples, the UE 1206 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 1202. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 1202. Accordingly, in step 1216, the UE 1206 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input/output interface of the UE 1206. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 1206 initiates, in step 1218, transmission of the user data towards the host 1202 via the network node 1204. In step 1220, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 1204 receives user data from the UE 1206 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 1202. In step 1222, the host 1202 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 1206.
One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 1206 using the OTT connection 1250, in which the wireless connection 1270 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve one or more of, for example, data rate, latency, and/or power consumption and, thereby, provide benefits such as, for example, reduced user waiting time, relaxed restriction on file size, improved content resolution, better responsiveness, and/or extended battery lifetime.
In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 1202. As another example, the host 1202 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 1202 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 1202 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 1202 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 1202 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and/or transmitting data.
In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1250 between the host 1202 and UE 1206, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 1202 and/or UE 1206. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 1250 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1250 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 1204. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 1202. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 1250 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.
Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and/or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.
In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and/or by end users and a wireless network generally.
FIGURE 13 illustrates an example method 1300 by a wireless device 712A-B for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments. The method begins at step 1302 when the wireless device 712A-B obtains an indication of a number of A antenna ports to be used for a transmission. At step 1304, the wireless device 712A-B obtains information indicating a plurality of Asets of frequency domain resources. At step 1306, the wireless device 712A- B determines a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. Based on the mapping, the wireless device 712A-B transmits the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, at step 1308. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the frequency domain resources within each set of frequency domain resources are contiguous.
In a particular embodiment, each frequency domain resource occupied by the N sets of frequency domain resources is occupied by only one of the N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, obtaining the indication of the number of X antenna ports comprises receiving the indication of the number of X antenna ports from a network node 710A-D.
In a particular embodiment, the indication from the network node further comprises a plurality of X antenna port identifiers. In a particular embodiment, obtaining the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises receiving the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources from a network node via DCI.
In a particular embodiment, the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises: a first starting frequency domain resource and a number of contiguous frequency domain resources for the first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and a second starting frequency domain resource for a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, obtaining the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises calculating a value of the N sets of frequency domain resources, wherein V=[X/ |, where r is a number of layers within each set within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, a bandwidth of the transmission is divided into the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and w herein > N > 1.
In a particular embodiment, the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises a plurality of V sets of PRBs.
In a particular embodiment, each set frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is of an equal length.
In a particular embodiment, at least the first set and a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources are of unequal length, and the UE transmits multiple layers at a same power on the first and second set of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, each set of frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports.
In a particular embodiment, the frequency domain resources are contiguous across at least the first set and a second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources, and the frequency domain resources of the first set and the second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources are mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports. The wireless device 712A-B transmits the transmission on the second set of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating a single PUSCH layer that maps to the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. In a particular embodiment, obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that each PUSCH layer of a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a corresponding one of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the PUSCH mapping comprises a precoding matrix that maps at least one PUSCH layer to at least the antenna port within the number of X antenna ports.
FIGURE 14 illustrates an example method 1400 by a network node 710A-D for subband precoding, according to certain embodiments. The method begins at step 1402 when the network node 710A-D transmits, to a wireless device 712A-B, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources. The number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device. Based on the mapping, the network node 710A-D receives the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, at step 1404. Each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the frequency domain resources within each set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources are contiguous.
In a particular embodiment, each frequency domain resource occupied by the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is occupied by only one of the N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the network node 710A-D transmits, to the wireless device 712A-B, an indication of the number of X antenna ports to be used for the uplink transmission by the wireless device.
In a particular embodiment, the indication further comprises a plurality of X antenna port identifiers.
In a particular embodiment, the network node 710A-D transmits, to the wireless device 712A-B, information indicating the plurality of Asets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources is transmitted via DCI.
In a particular embodiment, the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources comprises: a first starting frequency domain resource and a number of contiguous frequency domain resources for the first set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources, and a second starting frequency domain resource for a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, a bandwidth of the uplink transmission is divided into the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and w herein > N > 1.
In a particular embodiment, the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises a plurality of V sets of PRBs.
In a particular embodiment, each set frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is of an equal length.
In a particular embodiment, at least the first set and a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources are of unequal length, and the UE transmits multiple layers at a same power on the first and second set of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, each set of frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports.
In a particular embodiment, the frequency domain resources are contiguous across at least the first set and a second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources, and the frequency domain resources of the first set and the second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources are mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports and wherein the transmission is received on the second set of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the network node transmits, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating a single PUSCH layer that maps to the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the network node transmits, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating that each PUSCH layer of a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a corresponding one of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the network node transmits, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
In a particular embodiment, the PUSCH mapping comprises a precoding matrix that maps at least one PUSCH layer to at least the antenna port within the number of X antenna ports.

Claims

CLAIMS:
1. A method (1300) by a wireless device (712A-B) for subband precoding, the method comprising: obtaining (1302) an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for a transmission; obtaining (1304) information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources; determining (1306) a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources; and based on the mapping, transmitting (1308) the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, wherein each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
2. The method of Claim 1, wherein the frequency domain resources within each set of frequency domain resources are contiguous.
3. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 2, wherein each frequency domain resource occupied by the N sets of frequency domain resources is occupied by only one of the N sets of frequency domain resources.
4. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein obtaining the indication of the number of X antenna ports comprises receiving the indication of the number of X antenna ports from a network node (710A-D).
5. The method of Claim 4, wherein the indication from the network node further comprises a plurality ofX antenna port identifiers.
6. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 5, wherein obtaining the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises receiving the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources from a network node via Downlink Control Information, DCI.
7. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 6, wherein the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources comprises: a first starting frequency domain resource and a number of contiguous frequency domain resources for the first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and a second starting frequency domain resource for a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
8. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 7, wherein obtaining the information indicating the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises calculating a value of the N sets of frequency domain resources, wherein V=[X/r], where r is a number of layers within each set within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
9. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 8, wherein a bandwidth of the transmission is divided into the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and wherein X > N > 1.
10. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 9, wherein the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises a plurality of N sets of Physical Resource Blocks, PRBs.
11. The method of any of Claims 1 to 10, wherein each set frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is of an equal length.
12. The method of any of Claims 1 to 10, wherein at least the first set and a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources are of unequal length, and where the UE transmits multiple layers at a same power on the first and second set of frequency domain resources.
13. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 12, wherein each set of frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports.
14. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 12, wherein the frequency domain resources are contiguous across at least the first set and a second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources, and wherein the frequency domain resources of the first set and the second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources are mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports, and further comprising transmitting the transmission on the second set of frequency domain resources.
15. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 14, further comprising obtaining a Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, mapping indicating a single PUSCH layer that maps to the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
16. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 14, further comprising obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that each PUSCH layer of a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a corresponding one of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
17. The method of any one of Claims 1 to 14, further comprising obtaining a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
18. The method of any one of Claims 14 to 16, wherein the PUSCH mapping comprises a precoding matrix that maps at least one PUSCH layer to at least the antenna port within the number of X antenna ports.
19. A method (1400) by a network node (710A-D) for subband precoding, the method comprising: transmitting (1402), to a wireless device (712A-B), a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, the number of A antenna ports to be used for a transmission by the wireless device; and based on the mapping, receiving (1404) the transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, wherein each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
20. The method of Claim 19, wherein the frequency domain resources within each set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources are contiguous.
21. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 20, wherein each frequency domain resource occupied by the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is occupied by only one of the N sets of frequency domain resources.
22. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 21, further comprising transmitting, to the wireless device, an indication of the number of X antenna ports to be used for the uplink transmission by the wireless device.
23. The method of Claim 22, wherein the indication further comprises a plurality of X antenna port identifiers.
24. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 23, further comprising transmitting, to the wireless device, information indicating the plurality of Asets of frequency domain resources.
25. The method of Claim 24, wherein the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources is transmitted via Downlink Control Information, DCI.
26. The method of any one of Claims 24 to 25, wherein the information indicating the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources comprises: a first starting frequency domain resource and a number of contiguous frequency domain resources for the first set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources, and a second starting frequency domain resource for a second set of the plurality of A sets of frequency domain resources.
27. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 26, wherein a bandwidth of the uplink transmission is divided into the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, and wherein X > N > 1.
28. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 27, wherein the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources comprises a plurality of N sets of Physical Resource Blocks, PRBs.
29. The method of any of Claims 19 to 28, wherein each set frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is of an equal length.
30. The method of any of Claims 19 to 28, wherein at least the first set and a second set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources are of unequal length, and where the UE transmits multiple layers at a same power on the first and second set of frequency domain resources.
31. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 30, wherein each set of frequency domain resources within the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources is mapped to a single one of the antenna ports.
32. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 31, wherein the frequency domain resources are contiguous across at least the first set and a second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources, and wherein the frequency domain resources of the first set and the second set of the N sets of frequency domain resources are mapped to a single one of the X antenna ports and wherein the transmission is received on the second set of frequency domain resources.
33. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 32, further comprising transmitting, to the wireless device, a Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, mapping indicating a single PUSCH layer that maps to the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
34. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 32, further comprising transmitting, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating that each PUSCH layer of a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a corresponding one of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
35. The method of any one of Claims 19 to 32, further comprising transmitting, to the wireless device, a PUSCH mapping indicating that a plurality of PUSCH layers maps to a set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources.
36. The method of any one of Claims 33 to 35, wherein the PUSCH mapping comprises a precoding matrix that maps at least one PUSCH layer to at least the antenna port within the number of X antenna ports.
37. A wireless device for subband precoding, the wireless device adapted to: obtain an indication of a number of X antenna ports to be used for an uplink transmission; obtain information indicating a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources; determine a mapping of an antenna port within the number of X antenna ports to a first set of the plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources; and based on the mapping, transmit the uplink transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, wherein each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
38. The wireless device of Claim 37, further adapted to perform any of the methods of Claims 2 to 18.
39. A network node for subband precoding, the network node adapted to: transmit, to a wireless device, a mapping of an antenna port within a number of X antenna ports to a first set of a plurality of N sets of frequency domain resources, the number of A antenna ports to be used for an uplink transmission by the wireless device; and based on the mapping, receive the uplink transmission on the first set of frequency domain resources, wherein each of the X antenna ports is only used once in the first set of frequency domain resources.
40. The network node of Claim 39, further adapted to perform any of the methods of Claims 20 to 36.
PCT/IB2022/056250 2022-07-06 2022-07-06 Methods and systems for low overhead and power efficient subband precoding WO2024009128A1 (en)

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