WO2024023072A1

WO2024023072A1 - Methods, communications devices, and infrastructure equipment

Info

Publication number: WO2024023072A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/070545
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shin Horng Wong; Yassin Aden Awad; Naoki Kusashima
Original assignee: Sony Group Corporation; Sony Europe B.V.
Priority date: 2022-07-27
Filing date: 2023-07-25
Publication date: 2024-02-01

Abstract

A method of operating a communications device is provided. The method comprises receiving, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, receiving, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and transmitting the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Description

METHODS, COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES, AND INFRASTRUCTURE EQUIPMENT

BACKGROUND Field of Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to communications devices, infrastructure equipment and methods for the more efficient operation of communications devices and infrastructure equipment in a wireless communications network.

The present application claims the Paris Convention priority from European patent application number EP22187188.2, filed on 27 July 2022, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Description of Related Art

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

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

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

In view of this there is expected to be a desire for current wireless communications networks, for example those which may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems / new radio access technology (RAT) systems, or indeed future 6G wireless communications, as well as future iterations / releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements.

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

5G NR has continuously evolved and the current work plan includes 5G-NR-advanced in which some further enhancements are expected, especially to support new use-cases/scenarios with higher requirements. The desire to support these new use-cases and scenarios gives rise to new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless communications systems that need to be addressed.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above.

Embodiments of the present technique can provide a method of operating a communications device. The method comprises receiving, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, receiving, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and transmitting the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Embodiments of the present technique, which, in addition to methods of operating communications devices, relate to methods of operating infrastructure equipment, communications devices and infrastructure equipment, circuitry for communications devices and infrastructure equipment, computer programs, and computer-readable storage mediums, can allow for the more efficient use of radio resources by a communications device operating in a wireless communications network.

Respective aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims.

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

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

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

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

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

Figure 4 schematically illustrates an example of inter-cell cross link interference;

Figure 5 illustrates an example approach for accounting for inter-cell cross link interference;

Figure 6 schematically illustrates an example of intra-cell cross link interference;

Figure 7 illustrates an example division of system bandwidth into dedicated uplink and downlink subbands;

Figure 8 illustrates an example of transmission power leakage;

Figure 9 illustrates an example of receiver power selectivity;

Figure 10 illustrates an example of inter sub-band interference;

Figure 11 illustrates an example of intra sub-band interference;

Figure 12 shows an example of interlaced Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) allocation for 30 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS);

Figure 13 shows an example of a first Sub-band Full Duplex (SBFD) configuration;

Figure 14 shows an example of a second SBFD configuration;

Figure 15 shows a part schematic, part message flow diagram representation of a wireless communications system comprising a communications device and an infrastructure equipment in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

Figure 16 shows a first example of resource blocks (RBs) being repeated between frequency sets in accordance with a defined period and a defined frequency offset in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

Figure 17 shows a second example of RBs being repeated within a frequency set in accordance with a defined period and a defined frequency offset in accordance with embodiments of the present technique Figure 18 shows a first example of reflecting an RB allocation of a first frequency set into another frequency set in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

Figure 19 shows a second example of reflecting an RB allocation of a frequency set within that frequency set in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

Figure 20 shows an example of RB mapping between two frequency sets in accordance with embodiments of the present technique; and

Figure 21 shows a flow diagram illustrating a process of communications in a communications system in accordance with embodiments of the present technique.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Long Term Evolution Advanced Radio Access Technology (4G)

Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basic functionality of a mobile telecommunications network / system 6 operating generally in accordance with LTE principles, but which may also support other radio access technologies, and which may be adapted to implement embodiments of the disclosure as described herein. Various elements of Figure 1 and certain aspects of their respective modes of operation are well-known and defined in the relevant standards administered by the 3GPP (RTM) body, and also described in many books on the subject, for example, Holma H. and Toskala A [1], It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications networks discussed herein which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to the relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to the relevant standards.

The network 6 includes a plurality of base stations 1 connected to a core network 2. Each base station provides a coverage area 3 (i.e. a cell) within which data can be communicated to and from communications devices 4. Although each base station 1 is shown in Figure 1 as a single entity, the skilled person will appreciate that some of the functions of the base station may be carried out by disparate, inter-connected elements, such as antennas (or antennae), remote radio heads, amplifiers, etc. Collectively, one or more base stations may form a radio access network.

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

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

New Radio Access Technology (5G)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The transmitters 30, 49 and the receivers 32, 48 (as well as other transmitters, receivers and transceivers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may include radio frequency filters and amplifiers as well as signal processing components and devices in order to transmit and receive radio signals in accordance for example with the 5G/NR standard. The controllers 34, 44 (as well as other controllers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc., configured to carry out instructions which are stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-volatile memory. The processing steps described herein may be carried out by, for example, a microprocessor in conjunction with a random access memory, operating according to instructions stored on a computer readable medium. The transmitters, the receivers and the controllers are schematically shown in Figure 3 as separate elements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciated that the functionality of these elements can be provided in various different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configured application-specific integrated circuit(s) / circuitry / chip(s) / chipset(s). As will be appreciated the infrastructure equipment / TRP / base station as well as the UE / communications device will in general comprise various other elements associated with its operating functionality. As shown in Figure 3, the TRP 10 also includes a network interface 50 which connects to the DU 42 via a physical interface 16. The network interface 50 therefore provides a communication link for data and signalling traffic from the TRP 10 via the DU 42 and the CU 40 to the core network 20.

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

Full Duplex Time Division Duplex (FD-TDD)

NR/5G networks can operate using Time Division Duplex (TDD), where an entire frequency band or carrier is switched to either downlink or uplink transmissions for a time period and can be switched to the other of downlink or uplink transmissions at a later time period. Currently, TDD operates in Half Duplex mode (HD-TDD) where the gNB or UE can, at a given time, either transmit or receive packets, but not both at the same time. As wireless networks transition from NR to 5G- Advanced networks, a proposed new feature of such networks is to enhance duplexing operation for Time Division Multiplexing (TDD) by enabling Full Duplex operation in TDD (FD-TDD) [3], [4],

In FD-TDD, a gNB can transmit and receive data to and from the UEs at the same time on the same frequency band. In addition, a UE can operate either in HD-TDD or FD-TDD mode, depending on its capability. For example, when UEs are only capable of supporting HD-TDD, FD-TDD is achieved at the gNB by scheduling a DL transmission to a first UE and scheduling an UL transmission from a second UE within the same orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol (i.e. at the same time). Conversely, when UEs are capable of supporting FD-TDD, FD-TDD is achieved both at the gNB and the UE, where the gNB can simultaneously schedule this UE with DL and UL transmissions within the same OFDM symbol by scheduling the DL and UL transmissions at different frequencies (e.g. physical resource blocks (PRBs)) of the system bandwidth. A UE supporting FD-TDD requires more complex hardware than a UE that only supports HD-TDD. Development of current 5G networks is focused primarily on enabling FD-TDD at the gNB with UEs operating in HD-TDD mode.

Motivations for enhancing duplexing operation for TDD include an improvement in system capacity, reduced latency, and improved uplink coverage. For example, in current HD-TDD systems, OFDM symbols are allocated only for either an DL or UL direction in a semi-static manner. Hence, if one direction experiences less or no data, the spare resources cannot be used in the other direction, or are, at best, under-utilized. However, if resources can be used for DL data and UL data (as in FD-TDD) at the same time, the resource utilization in the system can be improved. Furthermore, in current HD-TDD systems, a UE can receive DL data, but cannot transmit UL data at the same time, which causes delays. If a gNB or UE is allowed to transmit and receive data at the same time (as with FD-TDD), the traffic latency will be improved. In addition, UEs are usually limited in the UL transmissions when located close to the edge of a cell. While the UE coverage at the cell-edge can be improved if more time domain resources are assigned to UL transmissions (e.g. repetitions), if the UL direction is assigned more time resources, fewer time resources can be assigned to the DL direction, which can lead to system imbalance. Enabling FD-TDD would help allow a UE to be assigned more UL time resources when required, without sacrificing DL time resources. Inter-Cell Cross Link Interference (CLI)

In NR systems, a slot format (i.e. the allocation of DL and UL OFDM symbols in a slot) can be semi- statically or dynamically configured, where each OFDM symbol (OS) in a slot can be configured as Downlink (DL), Uplink (UL) or Flexible (F). An OFDM symbol that is semi-statically configured to be Flexible can be indicated dynamically as DL, UL or remain as Flexible by a Dynamic Slot Format Indicator (SFI), which is transmitted in a Group Common (GC) DCI using DCI Format 2 0, where the CRC of the GC-DCI is masked with SFI-RNTI. Flexible OFDM Symbols that remain Flexible after instruction from the SFI can be changed to a DL symbol or an UL symbol by a DL Grant or a UL Grant respectively. That is, a DL Grant scheduling a PDSCH that overlaps Flexible OFDM Symbols would convert these Flexible OFDM Symbols to DL and similarly an UL Grant scheduling a PUSCH that overlaps Flexible OFDM Symbols would convert these Flexible OFDM Symbols to UL.

Since each gNB in a network can independently change the configuration of each OFDM symbol, either semi-statically or dynamically, it is possible that in a particular OFDM symbol, one gNB is configured for UL and a neighbour gNB is configured for DL. This causes inter-cell Cross Link Interference (CLI) among the conflicting gNBs (due to the UL/DL symbol clash for one or more symbols). Inter-cell CLI occurs when a UE’s UL transmission interferes with a DL reception by another UE in another cell, or when a gNB’s DL transmission interferes with an UL reception by another gNB. That is, inter-cell CLI is caused by non-aligned (conflicting) slot formats among neighbouring cells. An example is shown in Figure 4, where gNBl 411 and gNB2 412 have synchronised slots. At a given slot, gNBl’s 411 slot format = {D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, U, U, U, U} whilst gNB2’s 412 slot format = {D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, D, U, U, U}, where ‘D’ indicates DL and ‘U’ indicates UL. Inter-cell CLI occurs during the 11^th OFDM symbol of the slot, where gNBl 411 is performing UL whilst gNB2 412 is performing DL. Specifically, inter-cell CLI 441 occurs between gNBl 411 and gNB2 412, where gNB2’s 412 DL transmission 431 interferes with gNBl’s 411 UL reception 432. CLI 442 also occurs between UE1 421 and UE2 422, where UEl’s 421 UL transmission 432 interferes with UE2’s 422 DL reception 431.

Some legacy implementations attempt to reduce inter-cell CLI in TDD networks caused by flexible and dynamic slot format configurations. Two CLI measurement reports to manage and coordinate the scheduling among neighbouring gNBs include: sounding reference signal (SRS) reference signal received power (RSRP) and CLI received signal strength indicator (RSSI). In SRS-RSRP, a linear average of the power contribution of an SRS transmitted by a UE is measured by a UE in a neighbour cell. This is measured over the configured resource elements within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth, in the time resources in the configured measurement occasions. In CLI-RSSI, a linear average of the total received power observed is measured only at certain OFDM symbols of the measurement time resource(s), in the measurement bandwidth, over the configured resource elements for measurement by a UE.

Both SRS-RSRP and CLI-RSSI are RRC measurements and are performed by a UE, for use in mitigating against UE to UE inter-cell CLI. For SRS-RSRP, an aggressor UE (i.e. a UE whose UL transmissions cause interference at another UE in a neighbouring cell) would transmit an SRS in the uplink and a victim UE (i.e. a UE that experiences interference due to an UL transmission from the UE in the neighbouring cell) in a neighbour cell would be configured with a measurement configuration including the aggressor UE’s SRS parameters, in order to allow the interference from the aggressor UE to be measured. An example is shown in Figure 5 where, at a particular slot, the 11^th OS (OFDM symbol) of gNB 1 511 and gNB2 512 causes inter-cell CLI. Here, gNBl 511 has configured UE1 521, the aggressor UE, to transmit an SRS 540 and gNB2 512 has configured UE2 522, the victim UE, to measure that SRS 540. UE2 522 is provided with UEl’s 521 SRS configured parameters, e.g. RS sequence used, frequency resource, frequency transmission comb structure and time resources, so that UE2 522 can measure the SRS 540. In general, a UE can be configured to monitor 32 different SRSs, at a maximum rate of 8 SRSs per slot.

For CLI-RSSI measurements, the UE measures the total received power, i.e. signal and interference, following a configured periodicity, start and end OFDM symbols of a slot, and a set of frequency Resource Blocks (RBs). Since SRS-RSRP measures a transmission by a specific UE, the network can target a specific aggressor UE to reduce its transmission power and in some cases not schedule the aggressor UE at the same time as a victim UE that reports a high SRS-RSRP measurement. In contrast, CLI-RSSI cannot be used to identify a specific aggressor UE’s transmission, but CLI-RSSI does provide an overall estimate of the inter-cell CLI experienced by the victim UE.

Intra-Cell Cross Link Interference (CLI) and Sub-band Full Duplex (SBFD)

In addition to inter-cell CLI and remote interference, FD-TDD also suffers from intra-cell CLI at the gNB and at the UE. An example is shown in Figure 6, where a gNB 610 is capable of FD-TDD and is simultaneously receiving UL transmission 631 from UE1 621 and transmitting a DL transmission 642 to UE2 622. At the gNB 610, intra-cell CLI is caused by the DL transmission 642 at the gNB’s transmitter self-interfering 641 with its own receiver that is trying to decode UL signals 631. At UE2 622, intra-cell CLI 632 is caused by an aggressor UE, e.g. UE1 621, transmitting in the UL 631, whilst a victim UE, e.g. UE2 622, is receiving a DL signal 642.

The intra-cell CLI at the gNB due to self-interference can be significant, as the DL transmission can in some cases be over 100 dB more powerful than the UL reception. Accordingly, complex RF hardware and interference cancellation are required to isolate this self-interference. In order to reduce selfinterference at the gNB, one possibility being considered in [3], [4] is Sub-band Full Duplex (SBFD). In SBFD, the frequency resource of a TDD system bandwidth or Bandwidth Part (BWP) (i.e. at the UE/gNB) is divided into two or more non-overlapping sub-bands, where each sub-band can be DL or UL [5], An example is shown in Figure 7, where simultaneous DL and UL transmissions occur in different non-overlapping sub-bands 701 to 704, i.e. in different sets of frequency Resource Blocks (RB): Subband#! 701, Sub-band#2 702, Sub-band#3 703 and Sub-band#4 704 such that Sub-band#l 701 and Sub- band#3 703 are used for DL transmissions whilst Sub-band#2 702 and Sub-band#4 704 are used for UL transmissions.

While Figure 7 shows the system bandwidth as being divided into four sub-bands, substantially any number of sub-bands could be used. For example, the system bandwidth may be divided into three subbands, which may include two downlink sub-bands 701, 703 and one uplink sub-band 702, though other sub-band arrangements are envisioned. To reduce leakage from one sub-band 701 to 704 to another, a guard sub-band 710 may be configured between UL and DL sub-bands 701 to 704. Guard sub-bands 710 are configured between UL Sub-band#4 704 and DL Sub-band#3 703, between DL Sub-band#3 703 and UL Sub-band#2 702 and between UL Sub-band#2 702 and DL Sub-band# 1 701. The arrangement of sub-bands 701 to 704 shown in Figure 7 is just one possible arrangement of the sub-bands and other arrangements are possible, and guard bands may be used in substantially any sub-band arrangement.

Inter Sub-Band Interference

In addition to inter-cell Cross Link Interference, SBFD also suffers from inter (and intra) sub-band interferences, which are caused by transmission leakage and receiver’s selectivity. Although a transmission is typically scheduled within a specific frequency channel (or sub-band), i.e. a specific set of RBs, transmission power can leak out to other channels. This occurs because channel filters are not perfect, and as such the roll-off of the filter will cause power to leak into channels adjacent to the intended specific frequency channel. While the following discussion uses the term channel, the term subband, such as the sub-bands shown in Figure 7, may be used instead.

An example of transmission generating adjacent channel leakage is shown in Figure 8. Here, the wanted transmission (Tx) power is the transmission power in the selected frequency band (i.e. the assigned channel 810). Due to roll-off of the transmission filter and nonlinearities in components of the transmitter, some transmission power is leaked into adjacent channels (including an adjacent channel 820), as shown in Figure 8. The ratio of the power within the assigned frequency channel 810 to the power in the adjacent channel 820 is the Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR). The leakage power 850 will cause interference at a receiver that is receiving the signal in the adjacent channels 820.

Similarly, a receiver’s filter is also not perfect and will receive unwanted power from adjacent channels due to its own filter roll-off. An example of filter roll-off at a receiver is shown in Figure 9. Here, a receiver is configured to receive transmissions in an assigned channel 910. However, the imperfect nature of the receiver filter means that some transmission power 950 can be received in adjacent channels 920. Therefore, if a signal 930 is transmitted on an adjacent channel 920, the receiver will inadvertently receive the adjacent signal 930 in the adjacent channel 920, to an extent. The ratio of the received power in the assigned frequency channel 910 to the received power 950 in the adjacent channel 920 is the Adjacent Channel Selectivity (ACS).

The combination of the ACL from the transmitter and the ACS of a receiver will lead to adjacent channel interference (ACI), otherwise known as inter-sub-band interference, at the receiver. An example is shown in Figure 10, where an aggressor transmits a signal 1010 in an adjacent channel at a lower frequency than the victim’s receiving 1020 channel. The interference 1050 caused by the aggressor’s transmission includes the ACL 1051 of the aggressor’s transmitting filter and the ACS 1052 of the victim’s receiving filter. In other words, the receiver will experience interference 1050 in the ACI frequency range shown in Figure 10.

As such, due to adjacent channel interference (ACI), cross link interference (CLI) will still occur despite the use of different sub-bands 701 to 704 for DL and UL transmissions in a FD-TDD cell as shown in the example of Figure 7. The proposed SRS-RSRP and CLI-RSSI measurements specified for inter-cell CLI assume that an aggressor and a victim transmit and receive in the same frequency channel. That is, the measurements for SRS-RSRP and CLI-RSSI at a victim UE are performed in the same frequency channel as the aggressor’s frequency channel. These approaches therefore do not take into account ACI and the use of sub-bands 701 to 704 to provide information for the scheduler to mitigate against intra-cell CLI.

Intra Sub-band Interference

Intra sub-band interference can occur when the sub-band configurations among gNBs are not aligned in the frequency domain. Here, CLI may occur in the overlapping frequencies of inter-cell sub-bands. An example is shown in Figure 11, where gNB 1 ’s 1111 system bandwidth is divided into UL sub-band UL- SB#1 1152 occupying Jo to fi and DL sub-band DL-SB#1 1151 occupying Ji to f, whilst gNB2’s 1112 system bandwidth is divided into UL sub-band UL-SB#2 1154 occupying Jo to /i and DL sub-band DL- SB#2 1153 occupying Jj to fi. The non-aligned sub-band configurations 1150 cause UL-SB#1 1152 to overlap with DL-SB#2 1153, thereby causing intra sub-band CLI within the overlapping frequencies Ji to fi. In this example, intra sub-band CLI 1141 occurs at gNBl 1111 due to gNB2’s 1112 DL transmission 1132 within f to Ji in DL-SB#2 1153 interfering with gNBl’s 1111 UL reception 1131 from UE1 1121 within to Ji in UL-SB#1 1152. In addition, intra sub-band CLI 1142 occurs at UE2 1122 due to UEl’s 1121 UL transmission 1131 within to Ji in UL-SB#1 1152 interfering with UE2’s 1122 DL reception 1132 within f of in DL-SB#2 1153. Frequency Domain Resource Assignment (FDRA)

The PDSCH frequency resource is allocated in a DL Grant or an activation DCI for semi-persistent resources (SPS). Similarly, the PUSCH frequency resource is allocated in an UL Grant or an activation DCI for a configured grant (CG)-PUSCH. The frequency resource allocation is indicated in the Frequency Domain Resource Assignment (FDRA) field of the DCI for PDSCH and PUSCH. There are three types of FDRA, where Type 0 and Type 1 are used for PDSCH and PUSCH, and Type 2 is used for only PUSCH in Rel-17 (i.e. for NR unlicensed (NR-U)).

In Type 0 FDRA, the Resource Blocks (RBs) in the Bandwidth Part (BWP) are divided into NRBG Resource Block Groups (RBG), where the size of the RBG is configurable and dependent upon the size of the BWP NBWP in RBs. This is shown in Table I below, which is reproduced from [6], in which it is included as Table 5. 1.2.2.1-1. The FDRA consists of a bitmap with a size of NRBG bits, where the gNB has the flexibility to indicate which RBG a PDSCH or PUSCH occupies; i.e. the PDSCH and PUSCH frequency resources can be discontinuous.

Table I: RGB size (reproduced from [6])

In Type 1 FDRA, the PDSCH or PUSCH occupies a contiguous set of RBs. The FDRA indicates the starting RB of the PDSCH or PUSCH and the length of RBs the PDSCH or PUSCH occupies. The gNB has no flexibility in allocating discontinuous RBs for the PDSCH or PUSCH as in Type 0 FDRA, but has a finer granularity of the PDSCH/PUSCH size (i.e. a granularity of one or more RBs rather than RBGs) as compared to Type 0 FDRA. The number of bits used for Type 1 FDRA is log₂ \N_BWP (N_BWP + 1) /2] . Thus, while Type 1 FDRA may generally be considered more efficient in the amount of resources allocated (due to the lower granularity), it is less flexible than Type 0 FDRA in that allocations cannot be discontinuous.

The UE can be configured to dynamically switch between Type 0 and Type 1, where the Most Significant Bit (MSB) (1 bit) of the FDRA is used to indicate that either Type 0 or Type 1 FDRA is being used. The number of bits used for the dynamic switch FDRA is therefore max(log₂ \N_BWP(N_BWP + l)/2] , N_RBG) + 1.

In unlicensed operation, the frequency resource of a BWP is divided into RB Sets, where each RB Set has a bandwidth of 20 MHz. The gNB can allocate one or more RB Sets for a UE, e.g. for a PUSCH transmission. Regulations for unlicensed operation require that an RB Set is entirely occupied, so that its energy can be detected by another device for LBT purposes.

Type 2 FDRA is introduced for unlicensed operation to fulfil the unlicensed operation requirements, where in Type 2 FDRA, the RBs are allocated in an interlaced manner. Mi_nt_eriace = either 10 or 5 interlace patterns, for 15 kHz and 30 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) respectively, are defined, where each interlace pattern the allocated RBs start in a different RB offset followed by steps of Mi_nteriace RBs. An example of a 30 kHz SCS interlace allocation is shown in Figure 12, where there Mi_nteriace = 5 patterns, numbered {0, 1, 2, 3, 4} in a RB Set of 20 MHz. The gNB can allocate a PUSCH to occupy one or more interlace patterns. For example, in Figure 12, interlaced patterns numbered 1 and 3 are allocated for a PUSCH. Once the interlace patterns are allocated for an RB Set, the gNB can further allocate multiple RB Sets in the BWP, where the RB Sets are allocated by defining the starting RB Set and the number of contiguous RB Sets being allocated. In the example in Figure 12, the gNB indicates RB Set 1 and 3 RB Sets, thereby allocating the PUSCH to occupy RB Set 1, RB Set 2 and RB Set 3 where in each RB Set interlaced pattern 1 and 3 are used. is the

Two frequency configurations being considered for sub-bands are 2 DU + 1 UU and 1 DU + 1 UU as shown in Figure 13 and Figure 14 respectively. Those skilled in the art would appreciate however that such configurations as exemplified in Figures 13 and 14 are just two examples, and that any possible configuration could be used, with one or more DU sub-bands and one or more UU sub-bands arranged in any conceivable pattern.

The 2 DU + 1 UU configuration consists of 2 DU sub-bands 1301, 1303 where the UU sub-band 1302 is in the middle, i.e. between the two DU sub-bands as shown ion Figure 13. The 1 DU + 1 UU configuration consists of one DU sub-band 1401 and one UU sub-band 1402 as shown in Figure 14. For the 1 DU + 1 UU sub-band configuration, the UU sub-band 1402 can start at the lower end of frequency bandwidth (e.g. starts at Jo) and end in the middle of the bandwidth (i.e./i) as shown in the top configuration of Figure 14 followed by the DU sub-band 1401, or the UU sub-band 1402 can start in the middle of the bandwidth (i.e. at fi) and end at the higher edge of the frequency bandwidth (at fi) as shown in the lower configuration of Figure 14, after the DU sub-band 1401.

For Type 0 and Type 1 FDRA, the bit size of the FDRA field is proportional to the number of RBs in the BWP, NBWP. However, in SBFD operation, only a portion of the BWP is used for either PDSCH or PUSCH, which means some of the FDRA bits are redundant. Furthermore, for the 2 DU + 1 UU sub-band configuration as shown in Figure 13 (or indeed any SBFD configuration having more than one DU and/or UU sub-bands positioned non-contiguously), a discontinuous PDSCH allocation such as Type 0 is required if the two DU sub-bands need to be allocated for a UE. This is because Type 1 allocation would be limited to only one of the DE sub-bands, due to it not being possible for Type 1 allocations to be discontinuous. It should be noted here that for Configuration 1 of Type 0 (with reference to Table I above) which offers a finer RBG granularity, Type 0 FDRA uses more bits than Type 1 which makes it ineffective. If Type 2 FDRA were to be considered, the same issues of a large number of bits being used would be true, hence making it ineffective too. Furthermore, Type 0 is not available for fallback DCI, i.e. DCI Format 0 0 and 1 0 for UL Grant and DL Grant respectively, which is a DCI (which may be used for purposes such as initial access) with a relatively small number of bits and thus for which a Type 0 FDRA may be too coarse. Hence a new FDRA method is required that is suitable for SBFD operation.

Embodiments of the present technique therefore seek to provide solutions to address such issues, and propose new FDRA methods which are effective and suitable for SBFD operation.

Mirror Image FDRA for SBFD Operations

Figure 15 shows a part schematic, part message flow diagram representation of a wireless communications system comprising a communications device 1501 and an infrastructure equipment 1502 in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present technique. The communications device 1501 is configured to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from the wireless communications network, for example, to and from the infrastructure equipment 1502. Specifically, the communications device 1501 may be configured to transmit data to and/or receive data from the wireless communications network (e.g. to/from the infrastructure equipment 1502) via a wireless radio interface provided by the wireless communications network (e.g. a Uu interface between the communications device 1501 and the Radio Access Network (RAN), which includes the infrastructure equipment 1502). The communications device 1501 and the infrastructure equipment 1502 each comprise a transceiver (or transceiver circuitry) 1501.1, 1502.1, and a controller (or controller circuitry) 1501.2, 1502.2. Each of the controllers 1501.2, 1502.2 may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc.

As shown in the example of Figure 15, the transceiver circuitry 1501.1 and the controller circuitry 1501.2 of the communications device 1501 are configured in combination to receive 1510 from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment 1502), a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device 1501 either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network (e.g. to the infrastructure equipment 1502) or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment 1502) within a set of contiguous resource units (which may define a bandwidth part (BWP)) of a wireless radio interface (e.g. a Uu interface between the communications device 1501 and the infrastructure equipment 1502), wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to receive 1520, from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment 1502), a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to transmit 1530 the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network (e.g. to the infrastructure equipment 1502) or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment 1502) in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Here, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the first uplink frequency set and first downlink frequency set referred to in the paragraph above and elsewhere herein are not necessarily the first sets in frequency (although this could be the case in some implementations), but instead refer to any one of the uplink frequency sets and any one of the downlink frequency sets.

Essentially, embodiments of the present technique propose that a new type of FDRA (which may be referred to as a mirror image FDRA) is introduced, where the allocated RBs of a PDSCH or PUSCH/PUCCH in a frequency set are also being allocated in another one or more frequency sets. Here, in some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the frequency sets may be DL or UL subbands, though it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present technique may be applied similarly to arrangements where the frequency sets are not DL or UL subbands. While reference in the present disclosure is made to frequency sets and sub-bands, those skilled in the art would appreciate that such terms are interchangeable, and indeed even where DL or UL frequency sets are referred to as DL or UL sub-bands, such description is intended to extend to arrangements where the described frequency sets are not DL or UL sub-bands. In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, whether to use the mirror image FDRA scheme may be semi-statically configured. In other words, the replication indication may be received within radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, whether to use the mirror image FDRA may be dynamically indicated in the DCI. For example, a one-bit field can be defined in the DL Grant or UL Grant, or in an activation DCI for SPS/CG-PUSCH, to switch mirror image FDRA according to arrangements of embodiments of the present technique on or off. In other words, the replication indication may be received within downlink control information, DCI, where here, the DCI may be the control signal (i.e. the signal carrying the UL/DL grant). Furthermore, here, the control signal may be an activation DCI that indicates that at least one instance of a set of grant-free resources is either activated or deactivated, the set of grant-free resources being the resource allocation in which the communications device is either to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in a grant-free manner.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the DCI carrying the DL Grant or UL Grant (or activation DCI) using SBFD-based FDRA may use a separate radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to DCI carrying a DL Grant or UL Grant (or activation DCI) for non-SBFD (i.e. legacy TDD) based FDRA. In other words, the control signal may be associated with a first identifier, the first identifier implicitly indicating the replication indication and being different to at least a second identifier which may be associated with other DCI which do not comprise the replication indication.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the search space and/or the CORE SET on which the DCI carrying a DL Grant or UL Grant (or activation DCI) using SBFD-based FDRA is transmitted may be different from the search space and/or the CORESET on which DCI carrying a DL Gant or UL Grant (or activation DCI) for non-SBFD based FDRA (i.e. legacy TDD) is transmitted. In other words, the control signal may be received by the communications device within a specific set of resources (i.e. search space or CORESET) of the wireless radio interface, wherein the receipt of the control signal within the specific set of resources implicitly indicates the replication indication.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, it may be always configured that bandwidth of (at least) two of the frequency sets are the same, in the case that the mirror image FDRA is applied. For example, the number of RBs in two of the DL sub-bands may be the same. In other words, at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets may have the same bandwidth as each other, and/or at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets may have the same bandwidth as each other.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, common Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), New Data Indicator (NDI), and Redundancy version Indicator (RI) in the DCI may be applied to each PDSCH or PUSCH (or PUCCH) allocated in each frequency set. In other words, the DCI carries single MCS, NDI, and RI values for each PDSCH, PUSCH, or PUCCH. That is, the control signal may define a single value of each of one or more communications parameters for all of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal may define a single value of each of the one or more communications parameters for all of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

In some other arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, each MCS, NDI, and RI in the DCI may be individually applied to each PDSCH or PUSCH allocated in each frequency sets, respectively. In other words, the DCI carries multiple MCSs, NDIs, and RIs which correspond to each frequency sets, where here each MCS, NDI, or RI value may apply to one or more of the frequency sets on ether an individual or group basis, but are not common across all of the frequency sets. That is, the control signal may define a different value of each of one or more communications parameters for each of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal may define a different value of each of the one or more communications parameters for each of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique the DL and UL sub-bands (or frequency sets) may be semi-statically configured or dynamically allocated by the gNB. In other words, the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets may be configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network, and/or the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets may be dynamically allocated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

For dynamic allocation, the frequency sets configurations, i.e. locations, may or may not be transparent to the UE. That is, if the frequency sets are transparent to the UE, the DCI scheduling would implicitly configure the frequency sets at the UE without the need for the UE to know the configuration of these frequency sets. Instead, the UE would be aware only of the allocated resources within these frequency sets. Those skilled in the art would appreciate that the mirror image FDRA methods as defined by embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to both semi-statically configured and dynamically allocated sub-bands (or frequency sets).

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the mirror image FDRA may be a repetition of the RBs of a PDSCH/PUSCH/PUCCH every OMtrror and repeated NMtrror times. It should be noted here that the RBs of the PDSCH are repeated NMtrror times across the frequency domain (i.e. as may be defined by the set of contiguous resource units which may themselves define a BWP) and not the PDSCH/PUSCH/PUCCH itself. That is, only a single PDSCH/PUSCH/PUCCH is allocated across these repeated RBs. The gNB indicates the RBs allocation for one frequency set and the RB allocation is then repeated NMtrror times with an offset of O trror RBs. In other words, either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set may be repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a first parameter (i.e. NMtrror) defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter (i.e. OMtrror) defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set may be repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the first parameter (i.e. NMtrror) and the second parameter (i.e. OMtrror).

An example is shown in Figure 16, where a PDSCH may be scheduled to occupy RBs that are discontinuous over three frequency sets 1602, 1603, 1604. The gNB indicates an FDRA 1601 occupying /i to f , where this allocation is to be repeated NMtrror = 3 times with an offset of OMtrror 1605, resulting in the PDSCH RBs occupying frequencies f -fi,fi -f& and fi -fw. It should also be appreciated that although the example in Figure 16 is for DL transmission, the example arrangements shown by Figure 16 is also applicable also for UL transmissions in a similar and corresponding manner. In accordance with such an arrangement, the gNB is able to use a smaller FDRA bit size, as it only needs to indicate an FDRA within a frequency set rather than within the entire bandwidth part. The gNB can further use Type 1 FDRA to achieve discontinuous allocation across the BWP, thereby allowing DCI Format 0 0 and 0 1 to indicate discontinuous RBs while benefitting from the granularity advantages of Type 1 FDRA.

The offset OMtrror and RB repetition factor NMtrror, like the frequency sets themselves as described above, can be semi-statically configured, dynamically indicated in a DCI, and/or fixed in the specifications. In other words, the first parameter and/or the second parameter may be configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network. Alternatively, or in addition, the first parameter and/or the second parameter may be dynamically indicated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network. Alternatively, or in addition, the first parameter and/or the second parameter may be predefined and known to the communications device (and indeed to the wireless communications network/infrastructure equipment). Some of the parameters can be semi-statically configured and some dynamically indicated; for example, the

can be semi-statically configured whilst

is dynamically indicated in the DCI.

It should be noted that, in some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the RB repetition method may also be applicable

a single sub-band, by configuring to be smaller than the subband size. In other words, either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set may be repeated in the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a first parameter (i.e.

defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter (i.e. defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set may be repeated in the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the first parameter (i.e.

and the second parameter

An example is shown in Figure 17, where the sub-band configuration consists of 1 DL + 1 UL, and here 1705 is less than the DL sub-band width. The DL grant needs only to indicate a PDSCH 1701 to occupy /i to (i.e. within the DL sub-band 1702) and the RB repetition would then assign to i.e. 1705 offset, for the PDSCH. In this example,

is assumed to be 2. It should be appreciated that this arrangement can also be applied for cases where there are no sub-bands being configured, in which case the RB repetition will occur within the BWP itself.

Furthermore, in some other arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the RB repetition method may be applicable both within a single sub-band and across one or more other sub-bands. For example, in a DL-UL-DL arrangement as shown in Figure 13, a PDSCH may be repeated within a single DL sub-band in the manner described above with respect to Figure 17, but also repeated within the other DL sub-band (and here in the other sub-band the PDSCH may be repeated, for example, either once, or twice). In some implementations, this may be achieved through two different

parameters (i.e. one which is smaller than the DL sub-band width and one which is larger).

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the offset

may be the frequency separation between two DL sub-bands or between two UL sub-bands. In other words, the offset defined by the second parameter may be the same as a frequency separation between either at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets. That is, the second parameter defines that either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set may be repeated in at least one of the uplink resource units of the one or more other uplink frequency sets corresponding to the at least one of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set indicated by the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set may be repeated in at least one of the downlink resource units of the one or more other downlink frequency sets corresponding to the at least one of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set indicated by the resource allocation.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the RB repetition factor

may be equal to the number of DL sub-bands or number of UL sub-bands in the BWP. In other words, the number of times the resource allocation is repeated as defined by the first parameter may be the same as either the total number of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or the total number of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the mirror image FDRA may be a reflection of the RBs allocation in a first frequency set to a second frequency set over a reflection line. In other words, either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set may be reflected into the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set may be reflected into the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the reflection parameter.

An example is shown in Figure 18, where the gNB schedules a PDSCH to occupy discontinuous RBs. Here, the gNB indicates a FDRA 1801 to allocate RBs in the first frequency set 1802 to occupy

and, as per such arrangements, a reflection line 1804 is defined, which, in the example of Figure 18, is in the middle of the first frequency set 1802 and the second frequency set 1803. The RBs allocated in the first frequency set 1802 are therefore reflected onto the second frequency set 1803, resulting in RBs occupying

One way to implement such arrangements is simply for the reflection parameter to explicitly define this line of reflection 1804 (i.e. a frequency value or RB across which the resource allocation is reflected). In other words, the reflection parameter may explicitly define the line of reflection. Alternatively, another way to implement such arrangements is to calculate an offset

1805, between the edge of the first frequency set 1802 at Jo and the allocated RB e.g. i, and then apply the offset

1806 from the opposite edge of the second frequency set 1803 at fi to allocate the reflected RB, e.g. at Je, as shown in the example in Figure 18. In other words, the reflection parameter may define either, for each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set, an offset between that uplink resource unit and a start of the first uplink frequency set, or, for each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set, an offset between that downlink resource unit and a start of the first downlink frequency set. Either of such techniques (or indeed techniques in accordance with any other envisaged implementation) are performed for each allocated RB in the first frequency set so that the reflected RBs are also allocated in the second frequency set. As mentioned above, those skilled in the art would appreciate that other implementations to determine the reflected RBs can of course be used.

The reflection parameter - e.g. the offset

or the line of reflection - (and similarly to the offset

and the frequency sets themselves as described above) can be semi- statically configured, dynamically indicated in a DCI, and/or fixed in the specifications. In other words, the reflection parameter may be configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network. Alternatively, or in addition, the reflection parameter may be dynamically indicated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network. Alternatively, or in addition, the reflection parameter may be predefined and known to the communications device (and indeed to the wireless communications network/infrastructure equipment).

It should be noted that the RB reflection method may also be applicable within a single sub-band or within a BWP (either with or without any sub-band-level configuration) by placing the reflection line within a sub-band (or within a BWP). In other words, either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set may be reflected within the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set may be reflected within the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the reflection parameter.

An example is shown in Figure 19, where the BWP is configured with a 1 DL + 1 UL sub-band configuration, and the reflection line 1904 is placed in the middle of the DL sub-band 1902. The DL Grant uses a Type 1 FDRA 1901 to allocate RBs occupying /i to fi and, using the RB reflection method, RBs in fi, to /I are also allocated thereby providing a discontinuous RBs for the scheduled PDSCH.

Furthermore, in some other arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the RB reflection method may be applicable both within a single sub-band and across one or more other sub-bands. For example, in a DL-UL-DL arrangement as shown in Figure 13, a PDSCH may be reflected within a single DL sub-band in the manner described above with respect to Figure 19, but also reflected into the other DL sub-band (and here in the other sub-band the PDSCH may be included, for example, either once, or twice). In some implementations, this may be achieved through two different OR_efl_ect values and/or multiple lines of reflection (for example, one of which is placed within the first DL sub-band for reflecting within that DL sub-band and one of which is placed within, for example, the UL sub-band for reflecting into the other DL sub-band).

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, a mapping of RBs of a first frequency set into RBs in one or more other frequency sets may be defined. In other words, the communications device (and indeed, correspondingly, the wireless communications network/infrastructure equipment) may be configured to determine a mapping between each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set and a corresponding uplink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other uplink frequency sets and/or each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set and a corresponding downlink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other downlink frequency sets, and to determine either that the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping, or that the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping. Here, this mapping can be defined by a lookup table or based on an equation into which an RB of a first frequency set can be used as an input and from which the corresponding RB of a second frequency set can be determined as the output.

An example mapping using a lookup table is shown in Table II below, where in this example the frequency set consists of 10 RBs, labelled as the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc. RBs, and the mapping is between a first frequency set 2001 and a second frequency set 2002 of Figure 20. A gNB may indicate in the FDRA field of an UL Grant (or similarly a DL grant or an activation DCI or the like) that the 4^th, 5^th, 6^th and 7^th RBs in the first frequency set 2001 are allocated, which indirectly also indicates, through the mapping as shown in Table II, that the 9^th, 10^th, 1^st and 2^nd RBs of the second frequency set 2002 are allocated as shown in Figure 20. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the mapping shown in Table II is just one example of RB mapping and other mappings are of course possible. It should also be appreciated that such arrangements of embodiments of the present technique are also applicable to DL transmissions in addition to UL transmissions (PUSCH and PUCCH), with respect to the example of Figure 20. Such a mapping can be extended to further frequency sets, i.e. a mapping between the first frequency set 2001, the second frequency set 2002, and a third frequency set, as well as mappings between later frequency sets in a BWP or between the first frequency set 2001 and only some of the other frequency sets of the BWP. Table 11: Example RB mapping

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the mapping of RBs between a frequency set and RBs in one or more other frequency sets may semi-statically configured. In other words, the mapping may be configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the mapping of RBs between a frequency set and RBs in one or more other frequency sets may be fixed in the specifications. In other words, the mapping is predefined and known to the communications device (and indeed to the wireless communications network/infrastructure equipment).

Figure 21 shows a flow diagram illustrating an example process of communications in a communications system in accordance with embodiments of the present technique. The process shown by Figure 21 is a method of operating a communications device.

The method begins in step S 1. The method comprises, in step S2, receiving, from a wireless communications network (e.g. from an infrastructure equipment of the wireless communications network), a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network (e.g. to the infrastructure equipment) or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment) within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission. In step S3, the method comprises receiving, from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment), a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set. Then, in step S5, the process comprises transmitting the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network (e.g. to the infrastructure equipment) or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network (e.g. from the infrastructure equipment) in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication. The process ends in step S5.

Those skilled in the art would appreciate that the method shown by Figure 21 may be adapted in accordance with embodiments of the present technique. For example, other intermediate steps may be included in this method, or the steps may be performed in any logical order. Though embodiments of the present technique have been described largely by way of the example communications system shown in Figure 15 (and further discussed with respect to the examples of Figures 16 to 20), it would be clear to those skilled in the art that they could be equally applied to other systems to those described herein.

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

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

Paragraph 1. A method of operating a communications device, the method comprising receiving, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, receiving, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and transmitting the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Paragraph 2. A method according to Paragraph 1, wherein the resource allocation is a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation, FDRA.

Paragraph 3. A method according to Paragraph 1 or Paragraph 2, wherein the replication indication is received within radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

Paragraph 4. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 3, wherein the replication indication is received within downlink control information, DCI.

Paragraph 5. A method according to Paragraph 4, wherein the DCI is the control signal.

Paragraph 6. A method according to Paragraph 5, wherein the control signal is an activation DCI that indicates that at least one instance of a set of grant-free resources is either activated or deactivated, the set of grant-free resources being the resource allocation in which the communications device is either to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in a grant-free manner.

Paragraph 7. A method according to Paragraph 5 or Paragraph 6, wherein the control signal is associated with a first identifier, the first identifier implicitly indicating the replication indication and being different to at least a second identifier associated with other DCI which do not comprise the replication indication.

Paragraph 8. A method according to any of Paragraphs 5 to 7, wherein the control signal is received by the communications device within a specific set of resources of the wireless radio interface, wherein the receipt of the control signal within the specific set of resources implicitly indicates the replication indication.

Paragraph 9. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 8, wherein at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other, and/or at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other.

Paragraph 10. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 9, wherein the control signal defines a single value of each of one or more communications parameters for all of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a single value of each of the one or more communications parameters for all of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

Paragraph 11. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 10, wherein the control signal defines a different value of each of one or more communications parameters for each of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a different value of each of the one or more communications parameters for each of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

Paragraph 12. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 11, wherein the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets are configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 13. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 12, wherein the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets are dynamically allocated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 14. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 13, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

Paragraph 15. A method according to Paragraph 14, wherein the number of times the resource allocation is repeated as defined by the first parameter is the same as either the total number of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or the total number of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

Paragraph 16. A method according to Paragraph 14 or Paragraph 15, wherein the offset defined by the second parameter is the same as a frequency separation between either at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

Paragraph 17. A method according to any of Paragraphs 14 to 16, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 18. A method according to any of Paragraphs 14 to 17, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are dynamically indicated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 19. A method according to any of Paragraphs 14 to 18, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are predefined and known to the communications device.

Paragraph 20. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 19, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

Paragraph 21. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 20, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the reflection parameter. Paragraph 22. A method according to Paragraph 21, wherein the reflection parameter explicitly defines the line of reflection. Paragraph 23. A method according to Paragraph 21 or Paragraph 22, wherein the reflection parameter defines either, for each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set, an offset between that uplink resource unit and a start of the first uplink frequency set, or, for each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set, an offset between that downlink resource unit and a start of the first downlink frequency set.

Paragraph 24. A method according to any of Paragraphs 21 to 23, wherein the reflection parameter is configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 25. A method according to any of Paragraphs 21 to 24, wherein the reflection parameter is dynamically indicated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 26. A method according to any of Paragraphs 21 to 25, wherein the reflection parameter is predefined and known to the communications device.

Paragraph 27. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 26, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected within the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected within the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the reflection parameter.

Paragraph 28. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 27, comprising determining a mapping between each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set and a corresponding uplink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other uplink frequency sets and/or each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set and a corresponding downlink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other downlink frequency sets, and determining either that the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping, or that the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping.

Paragraph 29. A method according to Paragraph 28, wherein the mapping is determined by the communications device from a look-up table.

Paragraph 30. A method according to Paragraph 28 or Paragraph 29, wherein the mapping is determined by the communications device based on an equation.

Paragraph 31. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 30, wherein the mapping is configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 32. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 31, wherein the mapping is predefined and known to the communications device.

Paragraph 33. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 32, wherein the set of contiguous resource units forms a bandwidth part, BWP.

Paragraph 34. A communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to receive, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Paragraph 35. Circuitry for a communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to receive, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Paragraph 36. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a first wireless communications network, the method comprising determining that the infrastructure equipment is either to receive an uplink transmission from a communications device or to transmit a downlink transmission is to the communications device within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the contiguous set of resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, transmitting, to the communications device, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission, wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, transmitting, to the communications device, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and receiving the uplink transmission from the communications device or transmitting the downlink transmission to the communications device in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Paragraph 37. A method according to Paragraph 36, wherein the resource allocation is a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation, FDRA.

Paragraph 38. A method according to Paragraph 36 or Paragraph 37, comprising transmitting the replication indication to the communications device within radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

Paragraph 39. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 38, comprising transmitting the replication indication to the communications device within downlink control information, DCI.

Paragraph 40. A method according to Paragraph 39, wherein the DCI is the control signal.

Paragraph 41. A method according to Paragraph 40, wherein the control signal is an activation DCI that indicates that at least one instance of a set of grant-free resources is either activated or deactivated, the set of grant-free resources being the resource allocation in which the infrastructure equipment is either to receive the uplink transmission from the communications device or to transmit the downlink transmission to the communications device in a grant-free manner.

Paragraph 42. A method according to Paragraph 40 or Paragraph 41, wherein the control signal is associated with a first identifier, the first identifier implicitly indicating the replication indication and being different to at least a second identifier associated with other DCI which do not comprise the replication indication.

Paragraph 43. A method according to any of Paragraphs 40 to 42, wherein the control signal is transmitted to the communications device by the infrastructure equipment within a specific set of resources of the wireless radio interface, wherein the transmission of the control signal within the specific set of resources implicitly indicates the replication indication.

Paragraph 44. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 43, wherein at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other, and/or at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other.

Paragraph 45. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 44, wherein the control signal defines a single value of each of one or more communications parameters for all of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a single value of each of the one or more communications parameters for all of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

Paragraph 46. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 45, wherein the control signal defines a different value of each of one or more communications parameters for each of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a different value of each of the one or more communications parameters for each of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

Paragraph 47. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 46, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets.

Paragraph 48. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 47, comprising transmitting DCI to the communications device comprising a dynamic allocation of the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets.

Paragraph 49. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 48, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

Paragraph 50. A method according to Paragraph 49, wherein the number of times the resource allocation is repeated as defined by the first parameter is the same as either the total number of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or the total number of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

Paragraph 51. A method according to Paragraph 49 or Paragraph 50, wherein the offset defined by the second parameter is the same as a frequency separation between either at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

Paragraph 52. A method according to any of Paragraphs 49 to 51, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the first parameter and/or the second parameter.

Paragraph 53. A method according to any of Paragraphs 49 to 52, comprising transmitting DCI to the communications device comprising a dynamic indication of the first parameter and/or the second parameter.

Paragraph 54. A method according to any of Paragraphs 49 to 53, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are predefined and known to the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 55. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 54, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

Paragraph 56. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 55, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the reflection parameter. Paragraph 57. A method according to Paragraph 56, wherein the reflection parameter explicitly defines the line of reflection.

Paragraph 58. A method according to Paragraph 56 or Paragraph 57, wherein the reflection parameter defines either, for each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set, an offset between that uplink resource unit and a start of the first uplink frequency set, or, for each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set, an offset between that downlink resource unit and a start of the first downlink frequency set.

Paragraph 59. A method according to any of Paragraphs 56 to 58, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the reflection parameter.

Paragraph 60. A method according to any of Paragraphs 56 to 59, comprising transmitting DCI to the communications device comprising a dynamic indication of the reflection parameter.

Paragraph 61. A method according to any of Paragraphs 56 to 60, wherein the reflection parameter is predefined and known to the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 62. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 61, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected within the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected within the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the reflection parameter. Paragraph 63. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 62, comprising determining a mapping between each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set and a corresponding uplink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other uplink frequency sets and/or each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set and a corresponding downlink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other downlink frequency sets, and determining either that the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping, or that the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping.

Paragraph 64. A method according to Paragraph 63, wherein the mapping is determined by the infrastructure equipment from a look-up table.

Paragraph 65. A method according to Paragraph 63 or Paragraph 64, wherein the mapping is determined by the infrastructure equipment based on an equation.

Paragraph 66. A method according to any of Paragraphs 63 to 65, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the mapping.

Paragraph 67. A method according to any of Paragraphs 63 to 66, wherein the mapping is predefined and known to the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 68. A method according to any of Paragraphs 36 to 67, wherein the set of contiguous resource units forms a bandwidth part, BWP.

Paragraph 69. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a first wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to determine that the infrastructure equipment is either to receive an uplink transmission from a communications device or to transmit a downlink transmission is to the communications device within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the contiguous set of resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, to transmit, to the communications device, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission, wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to transmit, to the communications device, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to receive the uplink transmission from the communications device or transmitting the downlink transmission to the communications device in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Paragraph 70. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a first wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to determine that the infrastructure equipment is either to receive an uplink transmission from a communications device or to transmit a downlink transmission is to the communications device within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the contiguous set of resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, to transmit, to the communications device, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission, wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to transmit, to the communications device, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to receive the uplink transmission from the communications device or transmitting the downlink transmission to the communications device in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

Paragraph 71. A wireless communications system comprising a communications device according to Paragraph 34 and an infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 69.

Paragraph 72. A computer program comprising instructions which, when loaded onto a computer, cause the computer to perform a method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 33 or Paragraphs 36 to 68.

Paragraph 73. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program according to Paragraph 72.

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

Described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. Described embodiments may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any embodiment may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuitry and/or processors.

Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognise that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner suitable to implement the technique. References

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

[2] TR 38.913, “Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies (Release 14)”, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, vl4.3.0, August 2017.

[3] RP -213591, “New SI: Study on evolution of NR duplex operation,” CMCC, RAN#94e, December 2021.

[4] RP -220633, “Revised SID: Study on evolution of NR duplex operation,” CMCC, RAN#95e, March 2022. [5] European Patent No. 3545716.

[6] TS 38.214, “Physical layer procedures for data (Release- 17),” 3rd Generation Partnership Project, vl7.1.0, April 2022.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a communications device, the method comprising receiving, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, receiving, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and transmitting the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

2. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the resource allocation is a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation, FDRA.

3. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the replication indication is received within radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

4. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the replication indication is received within downlink control information, DCI.

5. A method according to Claim 4, wherein the DCI is the control signal.

6. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the control signal is an activation DCI that indicates that at least one instance of a set of grant-free resources is either activated or deactivated, the set of grant-free resources being the resource allocation in which the communications device is either to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in a grant-free manner.

7. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the control signal is associated with a first identifier, the first identifier implicitly indicating the replication indication and being different to at least a second identifier associated with other DCI which do not comprise the replication indication.

8. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the control signal is received by the communications device within a specific set of resources of the wireless radio interface, wherein the receipt of the control signal within the specific set of resources implicitly indicates the replication indication.

9. A method according to Claim 1, wherein at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other, and/or at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other.

10. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the control signal defines a single value of each of one or more communications parameters for all of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a single value of each of the one or more communications parameters for all of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

11. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the control signal defines a different value of each of one or more communications parameters for each of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a different value of each of the one or more communications parameters for each of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

12. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets are configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

13. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets are dynamically allocated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

14. A method according to Claim 1, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

15. A method according to Claim 14, wherein the number of times the resource allocation is repeated as defined by the first parameter is the same as either the total number of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or the total number of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

16. A method according to Claim 14, wherein the offset defined by the second parameter is the same as a frequency separation between either at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

17. A method according to Claim 14, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

18. A method according to Claim 14, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are dynamically indicated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

19. A method according to Claim 14, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are predefined and known to the communications device.

20. A method according to Claim 1, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

21. A method according to Claim 1 , wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the reflection parameter.

22. A method according to Claim 21, wherein the reflection parameter explicitly defines the line of reflection.

23. A method according to Claim 21, wherein the reflection parameter defines either, for each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set, an offset between that uplink resource unit and a start of the first uplink frequency set, or, for each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set, an offset between that downlink resource unit and a start of the first downlink frequency set.

24. A method according to Claim 21, wherein the reflection parameter is configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

25. A method according to Claim 21, wherein the reflection parameter is dynamically indicated by DCI received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

26. A method according to Claim 21, wherein the reflection parameter is predefined and known to the communications device.

27. A method according to Claim 1, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected within the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected within the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the reflection parameter.

28. A method according to Claim 1, comprising determining a mapping between each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set and a corresponding uplink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other uplink frequency sets and/or each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set and a corresponding downlink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other downlink frequency sets, and determining either that the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping, or that the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping.

29. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the mapping is determined by the communications device from a look-up table.

30. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the mapping is determined by the communications device based on an equation.

31. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the mapping is configured within RRC signalling received by the communications device from the wireless communications network.

32. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the mapping is predefined and known to the communications device.

33. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the set of contiguous resource units forms a bandwidth part, BWP.

34. A communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to receive, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

35. Circuitry for a communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the communications device either to transmit an uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or to receive a downlink transmission from the wireless communications network within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the set of contiguous resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, and wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to receive, from the wireless communications network, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to transmit the uplink transmission to the wireless communications network or receiving the downlink transmission from the wireless communications network in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

36. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a first wireless communications network, the method comprising determining that the infrastructure equipment is either to receive an uplink transmission from a communications device or to transmit a downlink transmission is to the communications device within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the contiguous set of resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, transmitting, to the communications device, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission, wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, transmitting, to the communications device, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and receiving the uplink transmission from the communications device or transmitting the downlink transmission to the communications device in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

37. A method according to Claim 36, wherein the resource allocation is a Frequency Domain Resource Allocation, FDRA.

38. A method according to Claim 36, comprising transmitting the replication indication to the communications device within radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

39. A method according to Claim 36, comprising transmitting the replication indication to the communications device within downlink control information, DCI.

40. A method according to Claim 39, wherein the DCI is the control signal.

41. A method according to Claim 40, wherein the control signal is an activation DCI that indicates that at least one instance of a set of grant-free resources is either activated or deactivated, the set of grant- free resources being the resource allocation in which the infrastructure equipment is either to receive the uplink transmission from the communications device or to transmit the downlink transmission to the communications device in a grant-free manner.

42. A method according to Claim 40, wherein the control signal is associated with a first identifier, the first identifier implicitly indicating the replication indication and being different to at least a second identifier associated with other DCI which do not comprise the replication indication.

43. A method according to Claim 40, wherein the control signal is transmitted to the communications device by the infrastructure equipment within a specific set of resources of the wireless radio interface, wherein the transmission of the control signal within the specific set of resources implicitly indicates the replication indication.

44. A method according to Claim 36, wherein at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other, and/or at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets have the same bandwidth as each other.

45. A method according to Claim 36, wherein the control signal defines a single value of each of one or more communications parameters for all of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a single value of each of the one or more communications parameters for all of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

46. A method according to Claim 36, wherein the control signal defines a different value of each of one or more communications parameters for each of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets, and/or the control signal defines a different value of each of the one or more communications parameters for each of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets.

47. A method according to Claim 36, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets.

48. A method according to Claim 36, comprising transmitting DCI to the communications device comprising a dynamic allocation of the one or more uplink frequency sets and the one or more downlink frequency sets.

49. A method according to Claim 36, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

50. A method according to Claim 49, wherein the number of times the resource allocation is repeated as defined by the first parameter is the same as either the total number of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or the total number of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

51. A method according to Claim 49, wherein the offset defined by the second parameter is the same as a frequency separation between either at least two of the first downlink frequency set and the one or more other downlink frequency sets, or at least two of the first uplink frequency set and the one or more other uplink frequency sets.

52. A method according to Claim 49, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the first parameter and/or the second parameter.

53. A method according to Claim 49, comprising transmitting DCI to the communications device comprising a dynamic indication of the first parameter and/or the second parameter.

54. A method according to Claim 49, wherein the first parameter and/or the second parameter are predefined and known to the infrastructure equipment.

55. A method according to Claim 36, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a first parameter defining a number of times the resource allocation is repeated and a second parameter defining an offset between each repetition of the resource allocation, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the first parameter and the second parameter.

56. A method according to Claim 36, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected into the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the reflection parameter.

57. A method according to Claim 56, wherein the reflection parameter explicitly defines the line of reflection.

58. A method according to Claim 56, wherein the reflection parameter defines either, for each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set, an offset between that uplink resource unit and a start of the first uplink frequency set, or, for each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set, an offset between that downlink resource unit and a start of the first downlink frequency set.

59. A method according to Claim 56, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the reflection parameter.

60. A method according to Claim 56, comprising transmitting DCI to the communications device comprising a dynamic indication of the reflection parameter.

61. A method according to Claim 56, wherein the reflection parameter is predefined and known to the infrastructure equipment.

62. A method according to Claim 36, wherein either the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is reflected within the first uplink frequency set in accordance with a reflection parameter defining a line of reflection within the set of contiguous resource units across which the resource allocation is reflected, or the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is reflected within the first downlink frequency set in accordance with the reflection parameter.

63. A method according to Claim 36, comprising determining a mapping between each of the uplink resource units of the first uplink frequency set and a corresponding uplink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other uplink frequency sets and/or each of the downlink resource units of the first downlink frequency set and a corresponding downlink resource unit of at least one of the one or more other downlink frequency sets, and determining either that the resource allocation in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other uplink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping, or that the resource allocation in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in the one or more other downlink frequency sets in accordance with the determined mapping.

64. A method according to Claim 63, wherein the mapping is determined by the infrastructure equipment from a look-up table.

65. A method according to Claim 63, wherein the mapping is determined by the infrastructure equipment based on an equation.

66. A method according to Claim 63, comprising transmitting RRC signalling to the communications device comprising a configuration of the mapping.

67. A method according to Claim 63, wherein the mapping is predefined and known to the infrastructure equipment.

68. A method according to Claim 36, wherein the set of contiguous resource units forms a bandwidth part, BWP.

69. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a first wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to determine that the infrastructure equipment is either to receive an uplink transmission from a communications device or to transmit a downlink transmission is to the communications device within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the contiguous set of resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, to transmit, to the communications device, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission, wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to transmit, to the communications device, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to receive the uplink transmission from the communications device or transmitting the downlink transmission to the communications device in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

70. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a first wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to determine that the infrastructure equipment is either to receive an uplink transmission from a communications device or to transmit a downlink transmission is to the communications device within a set of contiguous resource units of a wireless radio interface, wherein the contiguous set of resource units comprises one or more uplink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of uplink resource units and one or more downlink frequency sets each comprising a plurality of downlink resource units, to transmit, to the communications device, a control signal indicating a resource allocation for the uplink transmission or the downlink transmission, wherein the resource allocation indicates either at least one of the uplink resource units of a first of the uplink frequency sets for the uplink transmission or at least one of the downlink resource units of a first of the downlink frequency sets for the downlink transmission, to transmit, to the communications device, a replication indication, the replication indication indicating either that the resource allocation for the uplink transmission in the first uplink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the uplink frequency sets and/or in the first uplink frequency set, or that the resource allocation for the downlink transmission in the first downlink frequency set is repeated in one or more others of the downlink frequency sets and/or in the first downlink frequency set, and to receive the uplink transmission from the communications device or transmitting the downlink transmission to the communications device in accordance with the resource allocation and the replication indication.

71. A wireless communications system comprising a communications device according to Claim 34 and an infrastructure equipment according to Claim 69.

72. A computer program comprising instructions which, when loaded onto a computer, cause the computer to perform a method according to Claim 1 or Claim 36.

73. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program according to Claim 72.