Patent Application
20240388349
This disclosure pertains to wireless communication technology, in particular for high frequencies.
For future wireless communication systems, use of higher frequencies is considered, which allows large bandwidths to be used for communication. However, use of such higher frequencies brings new problems, for example regarding physical properties and timing.
Ubiquitous or almost ubiquitous use of beamforming and/or the use of multiple TRPs having simultaneous communication links with one wireless device, with often comparatively small beams, may provide additional complications that need to be addressed.
It is an object of this disclosure to provide improved approaches of handling wireless communication, in particular regarding beam management and associated reference signalling. The approaches described are particularly suitable for millimeter wave communication, in particular for radio carrier frequencies around and/or above 52.6 GHz, which may be considered high radio frequencies (high frequency) and/or millimeter waves. The carrier frequency/ies may be between 52.6 and 140 GHz, e.g. with a lower border between 52.6, 55, 60, 71 GHz and/or a higher border between 71, 72, 90, 114, 140 GHz or higher, in particular between 55 and 90 GHz, or between 60 and 72 GHz; however, higher frequencies may be considered, in particular frequency of 71 GHz or 72 GHz or above, and/or 100 GHz or above, and/or 140 GHz or above. The carrier frequency may in particular refer to a center frequency or maximum frequency of the carrier. The radio nodes and/or network described herein may operate in wideband, e.g. with a carrier bandwidth of 1 GHz or more, or 2 GHz or more, or even larger, e.g. up to 8 GHz; the scheduled or allocated bandwidth may be the carrier bandwidth, or be smaller, e.g. depending on channel and/or procedure. In some cases, operation may be based on an OFDM waveform or a SC-FDM waveform (e.g., downlink and/or uplink), in particular a FDF-SC-FDM-based waveform. However, operation based on a single carrier waveform, e.g. SC-FDE (which may be pulse-shaped or Frequency Domain Filtered, e.g. based on modulation scheme and/or MCS), may be considered for downlink and/or uplink. In general, different waveforms may be used for different communication directions. Communicating using or utilising a carrier and/or beam may correspond to operating using or utilising the carrier and/or beam, and/or may comprise transmitting on the carrier and/or beam and/or receiving on the carrier and/or beam. Operation may be based on and/or associated to a numerology, which may indicate a subcarrier spacing and/or duration of an allocation unit and/or an equivalent thereof, e.g., in comparison to an OFDM based system. A subcarrier spacing or equivalent frequency interval may for example correspond to 960 kHz, or 1920 kHz, e.g. representing the bandwidth of a subcarrier or equivalent.
The approaches are particularly advantageously implemented in a future 6th Generation (6G) telecommunication network or 6G radio access technology or network (RAT/RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project, a standardisation organization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RAN according to NR, for example release 18 or later, or LTE Evolution. However, the approaches may also be used with other RAT, for example future 5.5G systems or IEEE based systems.
A DFT-s-OFDM based waveform may be a waveform constructed by performing a DFT-spreading operation on modulation symbols mapped to a frequency interval (e.g., subcarriers), e.g. to provide a time-variable signal. A DFT-s-OFDM based waveform may also be referred to a SC-FDM waveform. It may be considered to provide good PAPR characteristics, allowing optimised operation of power amplifiers, in particular for high frequencies. In general, the approaches described herein may also be applicable to Single-Carrier based waveforms, e.g. FDE-based waveforms. Communication, e.g. on data channel/s and/or control channel/s, may be based on, and/o utilise, a DFT-s-OFDM based waveform, or a Single-Carrier based waveform.
There is described a method of operating a wireless device in a wireless communication network. The method comprises communicating based on beam selection, the beam selection being based on monitoring for reference signalling in a first resource space. The first resource space is associated to a second resource space associated to reception or transmission of a random access message.
A wireless device for a wireless communication network is disclosed. The wireless device is adapted for communicating based on beam selection, the beam selection being based on monitoring for reference signalling in a first resource space. The first resource space is associated to a second resource space associated to reception or transmission of a random access message.
Approaches described herein facilitate early beam management, e.g. allowing fine tuning of reception and/or transmission beams already during random access. This may allow using beam forming gains even before a random access has been completed; it may be particularly useful not only in the context of initial access, but also for beam failure recovery based on random access. In some cases, a wireless device may benefit from beam selection (beam fine tuning) even if a random access message and the reference signalling are not intended for it, e.g. when it is in the range of another WD performing random access. In general, the random access message associated to the second search space may be in response to a previous random access message transmitted by a wireless device, e.g. the WD or a second WD.
It may be considered that the reference signalling is associated to a random access message, e.g. scheduled or indicated or referred to in the RA message and/or a control information message scheduling the RA message. Thus, monitoring and/or correctly identifying the reference signalling may be improved.
In some variants, the reference signalling may be associated to a random access message intended for a second wireless device, and/or the wireless device may perform beam selection based on the reference signalling even if the random access message (and/or associated control information message scheduling it) is not or wrongly decoded (e.g., based on a wrong scrambling code and/or wrong identity). The presence of the message in the second resource space may be indicative of signalling received in the first resource space indeed being reference signalling as described herein, e.g., not just some other kind of interfering signalling on the resources of the resource space. Thus, misdetection may be limited.
Communicating based on beam selection may in general comprises using a reception beam and/or transmission beam based on the beam selection. A transmission beam may be associated to a reception beam, e.g. as a complement (e.g. based on assuming that channel conditions are the same for transmission and reception).
It may be considered that communicating may comprise transmitting a random access message by the wireless device, e.g. using a transmission beam based on beam selection. The transmitted random access message may be a random access preamble, e.g. transmitted as a repetition of an earlier transmission, with better beam forming gain using a narrower transmission beam. This may for example be relevant if the random access message associated to the second resource space is not intended for the WD. Thus, signalling quality and/or power usage for random access may be improved.
In general, communicating may comprise receiving a random access message by the wireless device. Receiving may be based on a reception beam selected by the beam selection. The random access message may associated to the second resource space.
Communicating may comprise transmitting data signalling and/or control signalling by the wireless device, e.g. using a selected transmission beam. The data signalling and/or control signalling may be on a data channel, e.g. PUSCH or PSSCH, and/or a control channel, e.g. PUCCH or PSCCH. The transmitted signalling may be outside of a random access procedure and/or not represent or be associated to a random access message. Thus, measurements in the context of random access procedures may be used outside such a procedure; in particular, a WD that already has successfully performed RA may use signalling transmitted during RA (e.g., of another WD, and/or on periodically or regularly provided resource spaces) for beam selection; this may facilitate beam selection without having to trigger or initiate a separate, e.g. targeted, beam selection process.
In some variants, the wireless device may have a beam link to the wireless communication network when monitoring for the reference signalling. The beam link may correspond to one or more links, e.g. represented by associated beam pairs for communication. The beam link may have been established after and/or based on a random access procedure and/or support ongoing communication, e.g. data signalling between the WD and the network or a network node or another WD, e.g. in a sidelink scenario.
The wireless device may be connected to the wireless communication network when monitoring for the reference signalling, e.g. in a RRC connected status and/or camping on the network and/or with an established beam link. The connection may support paging and/or data signalling.
It may be considered that communicating may comprise receiving data signalling and/or control signalling by the wireless device using a reception beam based on the beam selection. The data signalling and/or control signalling may be on a data channel, e.g. PDSCH or PSSCH, and/or a control channel, e.g. PDCCH or PSCCH. The received signalling may be outside of a random access procedure and/or not represent or be associated to a random access message. Thus, measurements in the context of random access procedures may be used outside such a procedure; in particular, a WD that already has successfully performed RA may use signalling transmitted during RA (e.g., of another WD, and/or on periodically or regularly provided resource spaces) for beam selection; this may facilitate beam selection without having to trigger or initiate a separate, e.g. targeted, beam selection process. Communicating may generally comprise transmission and reception using transmission and reception beams based on the beam selection.
The method of operating a wireless device in a wireless communication network may alternatively, or additionally, comprise communicating based on received reference signalling, the received reference signalling being associated to a random access message transmitted by a network node of the wireless communication network.
Alternatively, or additionally, the wireless device for a wireless communication network may be adapted for communicating based on received reference signalling, the received reference signalling being associated to a random access message transmitted by a network node of the wireless communication network.
Further, a method of operating a network node in a wireless communication network is described. The method comprises transmitting reference signalling associated to a random access message. A network node for a wireless communication network is proposed. The network node is adapted for transmitting reference signalling associated to a random access message.
The random access message may represent and/or comprise and/or be associated to a message transmitted by the network node, in particular in the context of a random access procedure, e.g. in response to a random access preamble or msg1 or msgA, or in response to a msg3. It may be considered that the random access message is to be received and/or is received by the wireless device). The random access procedure may for example be a 2-step procedure, or 4-step procedure. The random access message in particular may represent and/or comprise and/or be associated to a random access response and/or msg2 or msgB, e.g. in response to a random access preamble, which may be transmitted by the WD. The random access (RA) message being associated to a random access response or msg2 or msg4 or msgB may correspond to the RA message being or representing such, or scheduling such (e.g., the RA message being a control information message like a DCI message scheduling a data channel transmission carrying a RAR or msg2 or msg4 or msgB).
A resource space may in general represent a resource structure, and/or extend in time and/or frequency domain. In general, a resource space may represent resources for reception, or transmission. A resource space may be configured or configurable, and/or predefined; a resource space may in particular be configured or configurable with higher layer signalling like RRC signalling and/or RLC layer signalling and/or broadcast signalling, e.g. on a broadcast channel and/or data channel, e.g. PBCH or PDSCH. A resource space may be associated to a specific type and/or format of signalling expected therein, e.g. reference signalling or control signalling or data signalling. A resource space associated to control signalling may be considered an example of a control region, e.g. CORESET. A resource space associated with signalling characteristic or parametrisation of signalling expected for the search space may be represent a search space, in particular if associated to control signalling. The second search space may for example be represented as a CORESET or control region or search space, e.g. a common search space and/or a CORESETo and/or associated to control signalling, e.g. representing a random access message or scheduling a random access message on a data channel. e.g. for reception or transmission, for example on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or PUSCH or PSSCH, respectively. The random access message may be represented by a random access response, RAR, or msg2 or msgB or msg4, or a RA preamble or msg1 or msgA, or msg3. A resource space may comprise and/or extend over and/or cover symbol time intervals and/or allocation units (e.g., one or more, and/or according to number of RS instances and/or repetitions), e.g. neighbouring or consecutive or continuous in time, e.g. representing a time interval without interruptions between a lower border in time (start or begin) and an upper border in time (end).
The first resource space may be considered associated to a second resource space by having a location, e.g. time domain location and/or frequency domain location, indicated and/or determined and/or configured relative to, and/or derivable from, the location of the second resource space, and/or having a determined or configured or fixed location relative to the second resource space. The first resource space may be associated to reference signalling, in particular CSI-RS signalling and/or synchornisation signalling. Monitoring may comprise receiving and/or demodulating and/or decoding and/or detecting and/or identifying signalling on the monitored resource space. In general, monitoring may comprise using, and/or tuning and/or configuring, radio circuitry and/or antenna circuitry and/or processing circuitry for receiving signalling at the monitored resource space. Beam selection may comprise selecting a transmission beam (for transmission by the WD) and/or reception beam (for reception by the WD), e.g. based on signal quality and/or signal strength of received reference signalling, e.g. associated to parts of the reference signalling received with different reception beams used for measuring the reference signalling. A transmission beam may be a signalling beam. A random access message may be associated to the second resource space if transmitted or transmittable or received or receivable therein. In general, the first resource space may be included in, and/or overlap completely or partly, with the second resource space. A guard interval as described herein may be between the first resource space and the second resource space, and/or the first resource space may precede the second resource space, or vice versa.
The reference signalling may comprise multiple parts, or instances (an instance may represent one sequence and/or one symbol, in some cases) e.g. multiple signals and/or cover multiple symbol time intervals and/or allocation units. Receiving the reference signalling may comprise monitoring time and/or frequency resources for the reference signalling (e.g., based on a reference signalling configuration). Receiving the reference signalling may comprise using different reception beams (e.g., represented by different precoders and/or weights and/or antenna configurations and/or antennas) for different parts of the reference signalling, e.g. for different symbol time intervals and/or allocation units. This allows early reception beam selection or optimisation. In particular, the reception beams may be narrower (e.g. in angular and/or spatial extension) than a reception beam used for receiving synchronisation signalling and/or a transmission beam used for transmitting a previous message associated to random access (the reception beam/s may essentially be included in such a beam, and/or the angular or spatial extension of the different reception beams taken together may essentially correspond to, and/or represent, the angular or spatial extension of such a beam, e.g. representing a fine tuning when one of them is selected). Receiving the reference signalling in general may be based on and/or comprise transmitting a previous message associated to random access by the wireless device. A previous message associated to random access transmitted by the WD may for example represent or comprise or be associated to a random access preamble or msgA or msg1 (or in some cases, msg3). Different parts of the reference signalling may be transmitted with different beams (e.g., represented by different QCL and/or TCI and/or beam class and/or precoders and/or weighs). Receiving the reference signalling may comprise measuring signal quality and/or signal strength (in particular, RSRP, Reference Signal Received Power) of the reference signalling, e.g. for different parts and/or using different reception beams. Communicating based on received reference signalling may comprise transmitting a measurement report or measurement feedback, e.g. to a network node, representing and/or based on measurement results. The report or feedback may be associated to, and/or include in a msg3 or a later message, and/or may be transmitted on resources scheduled for a transmission on a data channel, e.g. a PUSCH or PSSCH. The report may indicate a best transmission beam (transmission from the network) and/or reception beam (as used by the WD) and/or best beam pair. Alternatively, or additionally, communicating based on the received reference signalling may comprise determining or selecting a reception beam to use for receiving (e.g., best beam or best beam pair) and/or for transmission (e.g., associated to or corresponding to a selected or determined reception beam). Communicating based on the received reference signalling may comprise receiving the random access message and/or further transmissions with a selected or determined reception beam, and/or transmitting signalling, e.g. a msg3 and/or the measurement report and/or a later transmission using a corresponding transmission beam. Using such a transmission beam may comprise adapting transmission power according to the beam, e.g. using a lower power due to beam forming gains, which may help saving battery power.
Receiving the reference signalling may comprise receiving the random access message associated thereto, e.g. decoding it, and/or receiving a control information message scheduling the random access message, e.g. in an associated search space and/or control region and/or CORESET. The receiving and/or transmitting of the reference signalling may be part of a random access procedure, e.g. by extending a msg2 or msg4 with the reference signalling. The random access message and/or a control information message scheduling it may be intended for the wireless device, e.g. it may be associated to a identity associated to the WD, e.g. utilising a PA-RNTI (which may be used to scramble the CRC associated to the message).
It may be considered that the reference signalling may be in accordance to a reference signalling configuration, which may be indicated by broadcast signalling and/or on a broadcast channel, and/or may be transmitted on a data channel and/or control channel, and/or represented by System Information, e.g. in a MIB and/or SIB. In particular, the reference signalling configuration may be indicated by signalling associated to synchronisation signalling like SS/PBCH signalling and/or on a PBCH and/or on a data channel like a PDSCH or PSSCH and/or a control channel like a PDCCH or PSCCH. The configuration may be transmitted by the network node. Different parts of the configuration may be provided in different signallings and/or on different channels. The reference signalling configuration may indicate on or more transmission parameters and/or signalling characteristics of the reference signalling, e.g. the presence and/or absence of the reference signalling (e.g., in a bit field or flag) and/or a time domain location of the reference signalling and/or frequency domain location of the reference signalling and/or signalling sequence (or set of multiple signalling sequences) and/or repetition number (or set of multiple numbers), and/or association of one or more parameters to different preambles or sets of preambles and/or different signalling characteristics or resources for transmission of preambles (or sets of characteristics or resources). For example it may indicate which number of a set of repetition numbers and/or which sequence of a set of sequences is associated (e.g., to be transmitted) in response to a preamble (of a set of different preambles, or from different sets of preambles). In this context, a wireless device may use a preamble and/or preamble resource indicating or based on its capability for reference signalling reception and/or handling, e.g. according to one of the transmission parameters, in particular the repetition number (e.g., different WDs may have different capabilities to buffer and/or evaluated reference signalling repetitions). In some cases, a wireless device may indicate one or more parameters of the reference signalling, e.g. with or in a msg1 or RA preamble, or msg3 or msgA, e.g. on a physical data channel like PUSCH or PSSCH.
The reference signalling may be transmitted on time and/or frequency resources, which may for example be in accordance with, and/or indicated with, a reference signalling configuration. The reference signalling being associated to a random access message may correspond to the reference signalling being indicated and/or scheduled and/or referred to in the random access message and/or a control information message scheduling the random access message. Alternatively, or additionally, it may correspond to the time domain location of the reference signalling (e.g., start and/or end and/or duration) being indicated and/or fixed and/or determined relative to a position of a search space or control region or CORESET associated to a control, information message, e.g. the RA message or message scheduling it; the search space or control region or CORESET may be configured or indicated with the reference signalling configuration and/or broadcast signalling, e.g. as system information like a Master Information Block (MIB) and/or System Information Block (SIB). The CORESET may in particular be a CORESETo, and/or be configured for reception of control information (e.g., in a DCI and/or on a PDCCH) scheduling data channel transmissions for system information (e.g., broadcast for System Information) and/or the random access message (e.g., msg2 or random access response, or msg4, or msgB).
The random access message may comprise a control information message and/or a data channel message, which may be scheduled by an associated control channel message. A control information message may be associated to and/or transmitted on a control channel, e.g. a PDCCH or PSSCH. A data channel message may correspond to signalling on a PDSCH or PSSCH.
In general, the reference signalling may be indicated and/or scheduled and/or referenced in the random access message or a control information message scheduling the random access message. The indication or scheduling or reference may be with a bit flag or bit field, e.g. indicating the presence or absence or location or number of repetition or operation mode (e.g., for reception beam selection and/or transmission beam selection). The message may point to or indicate or select from a reference signalling configuration, or may indicate or configure a part thereof. This allows the wireless device (WD) to identify the reference signalling as intended for itself.
It may be considered that the reference signalling may be based on a capability of the wireless device, and/or based on a signalling characteristic of a previous random access message, e.g. a random access preamble, transmitted by the wireless device. The network node may transmit (and/or the WD may expect) different types of reference signalling based on the signalling characteristic. For example, the reference signalling may differ regarding one or more of number of repetition, sequence, sequence root, sequence length and/or shift (e.g., cyclic shift or resource shift or comb shift) based on a signalling characteristic of the previous random access message.
A signalling characteristic of a message or signalling may represent and/or comprise one or more parameters or characteristics associated to the signalling and/or the message. Examples comprise message format, time domain resources and/or frequency domain resources and/or sequence and/or content and/or power level and/or duration and/or size (e.g., in bits or resources, e.g. resource elements) and/or coding and/or modulation and/or scrambling.
It may be considered that the reference signalling may represent one or a plurality of signalling sequences. A sequence may for example be spread out over one or more symbol time intervals and/or allocation units. Different sequences (e.g., based on the same sequence root but shifted, and/or based on different roots) may used, or one sequence may be repeated a number of times; different sequences may have the same or different lengths. Thus, flexible reference signalling with optimised orthogonalisation may be provided. Each part of the signalling may be associated to one instance or occurrence of a sequence.
The reference signalling may cover one or a plurality of symbol time intervals or allocation units. The time domain location may be before or after a random access message, e.g. before or after a scheduled data channel transmission, e.g. PDSCH, of a RAR or msg2 or msg4 or msgB, and/or a control information message scheduling such or representing the random access message. Transmission after the RA message may allow scheduling the reference signalling in the RA message or control information message, e.g. avoiding blind detection attempts. The control information message and/or RA message may indicate and/or refer to and/or scheduled the reference signalling, e.g. implicitly or explicitly.
In some variants, the reference signalling may precede in time domain the random access message and/or a control information message scheduling it. The reference signalling may be received based on blind detection; this may allow beam selection (in particular, for a reception beam) for reception of the control information message and/or RA message, e.g. improving coverage and/or signal quality due to optimised reception beam forming.
It may be considered that the reference signalling is separated in time domain from the random access message by a guard interval; the guard interval may in particular allow switching radio circuitry for reception beam forming and/or for transmission beam forming. There may be two or more guard intervals, e.g. one between the reference signalling and the control information message and one between the reference signalling and the data channel signalling scheduled by it (as RA message), if such is present, and/or the control information message and the data channel signalling. The guard intervals may be different. In general, a guard interval may represent or be based on a minimum time or threshold time, e.g. dependent on numerology and/or carrier frequency and/or WD capability (e.g., switching time) and/or interference conditions. Guard intervals may limit interference between different types of signalling, e.g. allowing separation of the reference signalling and the RA message or scheduling control information message. In general, a random access message implemented as data signalling (signalling on a data channel), which may for example carry information for random access like a timing advance and/or identity and/or other information. The duration and/or presence of a guard interval may be based on the number of instances or repetitions of the reference signalling. In some cases, the reference signalling (e.g., the end of the last symbol time interval or the allocation unit carrying the reference signalling) may be neighbouring to the control region or CORESET or search space or control information message in time domain, e.g. for optimised use of time resources.
In general, the reference signalling may be repetitive, and/or comprise multiple instances of the same or different reference signals or signalling sequences. The number of instances may be represented by the number of repetitions (o may indicate one instance or transmission only, N may represent N+1 total instances or transmissions; in some cases, different counting schemes may be used, e.g. with N indicating the total number of instances or transmissions). The number of instances may be 2, or 4, or 6, or 9, or 16, and/or may correspond to a number of parts of the reference signalling and/or a number of available reception beams (e.g., according to a capability of the WD) and/or a number of different transmission beams. In some cases, more than one instance may be associated to the same transmission beam and/or reception beam, e.g. for optimised reception.
The reference signalling may be target-specific signalling and/or beam-specific signalling (e.g. associated to a beam carrying synchronisation signalling). In particular, the reference signalling may represent and/or carry CSI-RS, or beam tracking RS, or synchronisation signalling, e.g. according to sequence or modulation symbols or waveform used.
In some variants, reference signalling for beam selection may be associated to two random access messages, e.g. message 2 (also referred to as RAR) and message 4; this may allow separate or combined fine tuning or training of beams for transmission and reception. The reference signallings may be different, e.g. in terms of signalling characteristics and/or repetitions.
In general, it may be considered adding training reference signalling to Msg2 or Msg4 of a RA procedure. A Msg2 PDCCH (control information message scheduling the Msg2 or RAR) may indicate some RS parameters, such as number of different RS and/or repetition of RS or instances. The WD may use a PRACH preamble to indicate the number of available reception beams for training, e.g. according to a mapping of preambles to number of beams and/or instances or repetitions. The mapping may be predefined and/or indicated by broadcast signalling or System Information and/or be configured with higher layer signalling. Alternatively, or additionally, a Msg4 PDCCH may indicate some RS parameters, such as number of different RS and/or repetition and/or instances of RS. The WD may indicate number of beams it would like to train in Msg3, and/or indicate a corresponding capability.
Parameters and/or signalling characteristics of the reference signalling may comprise instances (e.g., number of RS and/or repetitions or instances) and/or sequence. In general, a reference signalling configuration may indicate and/or represent one or more of such parameters or signalling characteristics. The configuration may be based on cell ID and/or (broadcast signalling, e.g. System Information of SIB1), and/or may be UE-specifically configured or indicated. A measurement report or feedback may be transmitted as UCI or SCI.
In general, the reference signalling may be scheduled and/or transmitted in a TDD DL period, e.g. at the end and/or after a CORESET or control region (e.g, CORESETo), or before it, and/or scheduled dynamically by the control information message, e.g. before or after the data channel signalling.
The reference signalling may have a bandwidth in frequency domain corresponding to the bandwidth of the CORESET or control region and/or of a PDCCH transmission, or in some cases of the bandwidth available for the data channel transmission (e.g., to be received or transmitted by the WD).
A wireless device and/or feedback radio node (a wireless device may be considered an example for a feedback radio node), may in general comprise, and/or be adapted to utilise, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/or transceiver and/o receiver, to process (e.g., trigger and/or schedule) and/or transmit and/or receive signalling like data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, and/or to perform beam switching. The feedback radio node may be adapted for monitoring, and/or be configured or configurable, with a plurality of search spaces. A wireless device or feedback radio node may be implemented as terminal or UE; in some cases, it may however be implemented as network node, in particular a base station or relay node or IAB node, in particular to provide MT (Mobile Termination) functionality for such. In general, a wireless device of feedback radio node may comprise and/or be adapted for transmission or reception diversity, and/or may be connected or connectable to, and/or comprise, antenna circuitry, and/or two or more independently operable or controllable antenna arrays or arrangements, and/or transmitter circuitries and/or antenna circuitries, and/or may be adapted to use (e.g., simultaneously) a plurality of antenna ports, e.g. controlling transmission or reception using the antenna array/s, and/or to utilise and/or operate and/or control two or more transmission sources, to which it may be connected or connectable, or which it may comprise. The feedback radio node may comprise multiple components and/or transmitters and/or transmission sources and/or TRPs (and/or be connected or connectable thereto) and/or be adapted to control transmission and/or reception from such. Any combination of units and/or devices able to control transmission on an air interface and/or in radio as described herein may be considered a transmitting radio node.
A signalling radio node and/or network node (a network node may be considered an example of a signalling radio node) may comprise, and/or be adapted to utilise, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a receiver and/or transmitter and/or transceiver, to transmit and/or to process and/or receive (e.g. receive and/or demodulate and/or decode and/or perform blind detection and/or schedule or trigger) data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, in particular first signalling and second signalling. In some cases, a signalling radio node may be a network node or base station or TRP, or may be an IAB node or relay node, e.g. providing control level functionality for such, e.g. DU and/or CU functionality. In some cases, e.g. sidelink scenarios, a signalling radio node may be implemented as a wireless device or terminal or UE. A signalling radio node or network node may comprise one or more independently operable or controllable receiving circuitries and/or antenna circuitries and/or may be adapted to utilise and/or operate to receive from one or more transmission source simultaneously and/or separately (in time domain), and/or to operate using (e.g., receiving) two or more antenna ports simultaneously, and/or may be connected and/or connectable and/or comprise multiple independently operable or controllable antennas or antenna arrays or subarrays.
Receiving may comprise scanning a frequency range (e.g., a carrier) for reference signalling and/or control signalling, e.g. at specific (e.g., predefined and/or configured) locations in time/frequency domain, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or system bandwidth. Such location/s may correspond to one or more locations or resource allocations configured or indicated or scheduled or allocated to a feedback radio node, e.g. scheduled dynamically or configured, e.g. with DCI and/or RRC signalling, e.g. for transmission or reception on resources allocated for data signalling or reference signalling or control signalling. Measuring may comprise sampling one or more reference signals and/or symbols thereof, and/or monitoring resources or resource elements associated to reference signalling, and/or determining a measurement result, e.g. based on the sampling and/or measurements. Measuring may pertain to, and/or comprise determining, one or more parameters (e.g., to be represented by a measurement result), e.g. a signalling strength (in particular RSRP or received energy) and/or signal quality. Measuring and/or measurement results of a set of measurement results may pertain to a (e.g., the same or equivalent) beam or beam pair or QCL identity; a measurement report may pertain to one or more beams or beam pairs or QCL identities, e.g. representing a selection of multiple (best) beams or combinations.
An allocation unit may be considered to be associated to a type of signalling like reference signalling or control signalling or data signalling if it carries at least a component of the associated signalling, e.g. reference signalling or control signalling or data signalling (e.g., if a component of control signalling is transmitted on the allocation unit). In particular, an allocation unit may be considered to be associated to a control channel or data channel if it carries one or more bits of the channel and/or associated error coding, and/or such is transmitted in the allocation unit. An allocation unit may in particular represent a time interval, e.g. a block symbol or the duration of a SC-FDM symbol, or OFDM symbol or equivalent, and/or may be based on the numerology used for the synchronisation signalling, and/or may represent a predefined time interval. The duration (in time domain) of an allocation unit may be associated to a bandwidth in frequency domain, e.g. a subcarrier spacing or equivalent, e.g. a minimum usable bandwidth and/or a bandwidth allocation unit. It may be considered that signalling spanning an allocation unit corresponds to the allocation unit (time interval) carrying the signalling and/or signalling being transmitted (or received) in the allocation unit. Transmission of signalling and reception of signalling may be related in time by a path travel delay the signalling requires to travel from the transmitter to receiver (it may be assumed that the general arrangement in time is constant, with path delay/multi path effects having limited effect on the general arrangement of signalling in time domain). Allocation units associated to different control signallings, e.g. first control signalling and second control signalling, may be considered to be associated to each other and/or correspond to each other if they correspond to the same number of allocation unit within a control transmission time interval, and/or if they are synchronised to each other and/or are simultaneous, e.g. in two simultaneous transmissions. Similar reasoning may pertain to a control transmission time interval; the same interval for two signallings may be the intervals having the same number and/or relative location in the frame or timing structure associated to each signalling.
There is also described a program product comprising instructions causing processing circuitry to control and/or perform a method as described herein. Moreover, a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product as described herein is considered. An information system comprising, and/or connected or connectable, to a radio node is also disclosed.
The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approaches described herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. The drawings comprise:
Random access (RA) may be performed by a wireless device to access a cell and/or to start communication and/or to synchronise to a network, in particular for uplink synchronisation, and/or for handover or other purposes. A wireless device may be considered to be adapted to perform random access, e.g. to perform one or more actions like transmissions and/or reception associated to a random access procedure on the device side; a network node may be considered to be adapted to perform random access, e.g. to perform one or more actions like transmissions and/or reception associated to a random access procedure on the network side.
In general, a wireless device may receive synchronisation signalling transmitted from the network (e.g., a signalling radio node), e.g. a transmitted SS/PBCH beam SSB0, SSB1, . . . . Reception of the SS/PBCH beam SSB0, . . . may be with a reception beam, which may for example be associated to a random access transmission beam PRACH beam 0, 1, . . . for the wireless device, and/or to the SS/PBCH transmission beam (associated in this context may indicate the inverse/reverse beam, and/or a beam in a specific reception direction). A reception beam may be associated to a SS/PBCH transmission beam, or to a group of such, e.g. comprising two or more SS/PBCH transmission beams, e.g. corresponding to a reception beam like a PRACH Rx beam having twice the width of a SSB beam. The wireless device may determine the best received SS/PBCH transmission, e.g. based on reception within a FFT window to sample the signalling, and transmit a random access preamble in response to indicate it wants to perform random access. A random access preamble may also be referred to as message 1 or msg1; it may be represented by a sequence of symbols to be transmitted, e.g. selected from a set (or two sets or more sets) of preambles available (e.g., according to configuration and/or indicated by the SS/PBCH received); the selection may be randomised, or in some cases, indicated by the network node, for example configuring a specific set and/or preamble to the wireless device. The msg1 or preamble may be transmitted in a random access resource (also referred to as random access occasion), which may be indicated by and/or dependent on the SS/PBCH received, and/or be associated to the specific set of preambles the preamble is selected from. It may be considered that the RA preamble is transmitted using a subcarrier spacing or numerology different from the one used for communication; in the example of
In general, a block symbol may represent and/or correspond to an extension in time domain, e.g. a time interval. A block symbol duration (the length of the time interval) may correspond to the duration of an OFDM symbol or a corresponding duration, and/or may be based and/or defined by a subcarrier spacing used (e.g., based on the numerology) or equivalent, and/or may correspond to the duration of a modulation symbol (e.g., for OFDM or similar frequency domain multiplexed types of signalling). It may be considered that a block symbol comprises a plurality of modulation symbols, e.g. based on a subcarrier spacing and/or numerology or equivalent, in particular for time domain multiplexed types (on the symbol level for a single transmitter) of signalling like single-carrier based signalling, e.g. SC-FDE or SC-FDMA (in particular, FDF-SC-FDMA or pulse-shaped SC-FDMA). The number of symbols may be based on and/or defined by the number of subcarrier to be DFTS-spread (for SC-FDMA) and/or be based on a number of FFT samples, e.g. for spreading and/or mapping, and/or equivalent, and/or may be predefined and/or configured or configurable. A block symbol in this context may comprise and/or contain a plurality of individual modulation symbols, which may be for example 1000 or more, or 3000 or more, or 3300 or more. The number of modulation symbols in a block symbol may be based and/or be dependent on a bandwidth scheduled for transmission of signalling in the block symbol. A block symbol and/or a number of block symbols (an integer smaller than 20, e.g. equal to or smaller than 14 or 7 or 4 or 2 or a flexible number) may be a unit (e.g., allocation unit) used for scheduling and/or allocation of resources, in particular in time domain. To a block symbol (e.g., scheduled or allocated) and/or block symbol group and/or allocation unit, there may be associated a frequency range and/or frequency domain allocation and/or bandwidth allocated for transmission.
An allocation unit, and/or a block symbol, may be associated to a specific (e.g., physical) channel and/or specific type of signalling, for example reference signalling. In some cases, there may be a block symbol associated to a channel that also is associated to a form of reference signalling and/or pilot signalling and/or tracking signalling associated to the channel, for example for timing purposes and/or decoding purposes (such signalling may comprise a low number of modulation symbols and/or resource elements of a block symbol, e.g. less than 10% or less than 5% or less than 1% of the modulation symbols and/or resource elements in a block symbol). To a block symbol, there may be associated resource elements; a resource element may be represented in time/frequency domain, e.g. by the smallest frequency unit carrying or mapped to (e.g., a subcarrier) in frequency domain and the duration of a modulation symbol in time domain. A block symbol may comprise, and/or to a block symbol may be associated, a structure allowing and/or comprising a number of modulation symbols, and/or association to one or more channels (and/or the structure may dependent on the channel the block symbol is associated to and/or is allocated or used for), and/or reference signalling (e.g., as discussed above), and/or one or more guard periods and/or transient periods, and/or one or more affixes (e.g., a prefix and/or suffix and/or one or more infixes (entered inside the block symbol)), in particular a cyclic prefix and/or suffix and/or infix. A cyclic affix may represent a repetition of signalling and/or modulation symbol/s used in the block symbol, with possible slight amendments to the signalling structure of the affix to provide a smooth and/or continuous and/or differentiable connection between affix signalling and signalling of modulation symbols associated to the content of the block symbol (e.g., channel and/or reference signalling structure). In some cases, in particular some OFDM-based waveforms, an affix may be included into a modulation symbol. In other cases, e.g. some single carrier-based waveforms, an affix may be represented by a sequence of modulation symbols within the block symbol. It may be considered that in some cases a block symbol is defined and/or used in the context of the associated structure.
Communicating may comprise transmitting or receiving. It may be considered that communicating like transmitting signalling is based on a SC-FDM based waveform, and/or corresponds to a Frequency Domain Filtered (FDF) DFTS-OFDM waveform. However, the approaches may be applied to a Single Carrier based waveform, e.g. a SC-FDM or SC-FDE-waveform, which may be pulse-shaped/FDF-based. It should be noted that SCFDM may be considered DFT-spread OFDM, such that SC-FDM and DFTS-OFDM may be used interchangeably. Alternatively, or additionally, the signalling (e.g., first signalling and/or second signalling) and/or beam/s (in particular, the first received beam and/or second received beam) may be based on a waveform with CP or comparable guard time. The received beam and the transmission beam of the first beam pair may have the same (or similar) or different angular and/or spatial extensions; the received beam and the transmission beam of the second beam pair may have the same (or similar) or different angular and/or spatial extensions. It may be considered that the received beam and/or transmission beam of the first and/or second beam pair have angular extension of 20 degrees or less, or 15 degrees or less, or 10 or 5 degrees or less, at least in one of horizontal or vertical direction, or both; different beams may have different angular extensions. An extended guard interval or switching protection interval may have a duration corresponding to essentially or at least N CP (cyclic prefix) durations or equivalent duration, wherein N may be 2, or 3 or 4. An equivalent to a CP duration may represent the CP duration associated to signalling with CP (e.g., SC-FDM-based or OFDM-based) for a waveform without CP with the same or similar symbol time duration as the signalling with CP. Pulse-shaping (and/or performing FDF for) a modulation symbol and/or signalling, e.g. associated to a first subcarrier or bandwidth, may comprise mapping the modulation symbol (and/or the sample associated to it after FFT) to an associated second subcarrier or part of the bandwidth, and/or applying a shaping operation regarding the power and/or amplitude and/or phase of the modulation symbol on the first subcarrier and the second subcarrier, wherein the shaping operation may be according to a shaping function. Pulse-shaping signalling may comprise pulse-shaping one or more symbols; pulse-shaped signalling may in general comprise at least one pulse-shaped symbol. Pulse-shaping may be performed based on a Nyquist-filter. It may be considered that pulse-shaping is performed based on periodically extending a frequency distribution of modulation symbols (and/or associated samples after FFT) over a first number of subcarrier to a larger, second number of subcarriers, wherein a subset of the first number of subcarriers from one end of the frequency distribution is appended at the other end of the first number of subcarriers.
In some variants, communicating may be based on a numerology (which may, e.g., be represented by and/or correspond to and/or indicate a subcarrier spacing and/or symbol time length) and/or an SC-FDM based waveform (including a FDF-DFTS-FDM based waveform) or a single-carrier based waveform. Whether to use pulse-shaping or FDF on a SC-FDM or SC-based waveform may depend on the modulation scheme (e.g., MCS) used. Such waveforms may utilise a cyclic prefix and/or benefit particularly from the described approaches. Communicating may comprise and/or be based on beamforming, e.g. transmission beamforming and/or reception beamforming, respectively. It may be considered that a beam is produced by performing analog beamforming to provide the beam, e.g. a beam corresponding to a reference beam. Thus, signalling may be adapted, e.g. based on movement of the communication partner. A beam may for example be produced by performing analog beamforming to provide a beam corresponding to a reference beam. This allows efficient postprocessing of a digitally formed beam, without requiring changes to a digital beamforming chain and/or without requiring changes to a standard defining beam forming precoders. In general, a beam may be produced by hybrid beamforming, and/or by digital beamforming, e.g. based on a precoder. This facilitates easy processing of beams, and/or limits the number of power amplifiers/ADC/DCA required for antenna arrangements. It may be considered that a beam is produced by hybrid beamforming, e.g. by analog beamforming performed on a beam representation or beam formed based on digital beamforming. Monitoring and/or performing cell search may be based on reception beamforming, e.g. analog or digital or hybrid reception beamforming. The numerology may determine the length of a symbol time interval and/or the duration of a cyclic prefix. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable to SC-FDM, to ensure orthogonality, in particular subcarrier orthogonality, in corresponding systems, but may be used for other waveforms. Communicating may comprise utilising a waveform with cyclic prefix. The cyclic prefix may be based on a numerology, and may help keeping signalling orthogonal. Communicating may comprise, and/or be based on performing cell search, e.g. for a wireless device or terminal, or may comprise transmitting cell identifying signalling and/or a selection indication, based on which a radio node receiving the selection indication may select a signalling bandwidth from a set of signalling bandwidths for performing cell search.
A beam or beam pair may in general be targeted at one radio node, or a group of radio nodes and/or an area including one or more radio nodes. In many cases, a beam or beam pair may be receiver-specific (e.g., UE-specific), such that only one radio node is served per beam/beam pair. A beam pair switch or switch of received beam (e.g., by using a different reception beam) and/or transmission beam may be performed at a border of a transmission timing structure, e.g. a slot border, or within a slot, for example between symbols. Some tuning of radio circuitry, e.g. for receiving and/or transmitting, may be performed. Beam pair switching may comprise switching from a second received beam to a first received beam, and/or from a second transmission beam to a first transmission beam. Switching may comprise inserting a guard period to cover retuning time; however, circuitry may be adapted to switch sufficiently quickly to essentially be instantaneous; this may in particular be the case when digital reception beamforming is used to switch reception beams for switching received beams.
A reference beam (or reference signalling beam) may be a beam comprising reference signalling, based on which for example a of beam signalling characteristics may be determined, e.g. measured and/or estimated. A signalling beam may comprise signalling like control signalling and/or data signalling and/or reference signalling. A reference beam may be transmitted by a source or transmitting radio node, in which case one or more beam signalling characteristics may be reported to it from a receiver, e.g. a wireless device. However, in some cases it may be received by the radio node from another radio node or wireless device. In this case, one or more beam signalling characteristics may be determined by the radio node. A signalling beam may be a transmission beam, or a reception beam. A set of signalling characteristics may comprise a plurality of subsets of beam signalling characteristics, each subset pertaining to a different reference beam. Thus, a reference beam may be associated to different beam signalling characteristics.
A beam signalling characteristic, respectively a set of such characteristics, may represent and/or indicate a signal strength and/or signal quality of a beam and/or a delay characteristic and/or be associated with received and/or measured signalling carried on a beam. Beam signalling characteristics and/or delay characteristics may in particular pertain to, and/or indicate, a number and/or list and/or order of beams with best (e.g., lowest mean delay and/or lowest spread/range) timing or delay spread, and/or of strongest and/or best quality beams, e.g. with associated delay spread. A beam signalling characteristic may be based on measurement/s performed on reference signalling carried on the reference beam it pertains to. The measurement/s may be performed by the radio node, or another node or wireless device. The use of reference signalling allows improved accuracy and/or gauging of the measurements. In some cases, a beam and/or beam pair may be represented by a beam identity indication, e.g. a beam or beam pair number. Such an indication may be represented by one or more signalling sequences (e.g., a specific reference signalling sequences or sequences), which may be transmitted on the beam and/or beam pair, and/or a signalling characteristic and/or a resource/s used (e.g., time/frequency and/or code) and/or a specific RNTI (e.g., used for scrambling a CRC for some messages or transmissions) and/or by information provided in signalling, e.g. control signalling and/or system signalling, on the beam and/or beam pair, e.g. encoded and/or provided in an information field or as information element in some form of message of signalling, e.g. DCI and/or MAC and/or RRC signalling.
A reference beam may in general be one of a set of reference beams, the second set of reference beams being associated to the set of signalling beams. The sets being associated may refer to at least one beam of the first set being associated and/or corresponding to the second set (or vice versa), e.g. being based on it, for example by having the same analog or digital beamforming parameters and/or precoder and/or the same shape before analog beamforming, and/or being a modified form thereof, e.g. by performing additional analog beamforming. The set of signalling beams may be referred to as a first set of beams, a set of corresponding reference beams may be referred to as second set of beams.
In some variants, a reference beam and/or reference beams and/or reference signalling may correspond to and/or carry random access signalling, e.g. a random access preamble. Such a reference beam or signalling may be transmitted by another radio node. The signalling may indicate which beam is used for transmitting. Alternatively, the reference beams may be beams receiving the random access signalling. Random access signalling may be used for initial connection to the radio node and/or a cell provided by the radio node, and/or for reconnection. Utilising random access signalling facilitates quick and early beam selection. The random access signalling may be on a random access channel, e.g. based on broadcast information provided by the radio node (the radio node performing the beam selection), e.g. with synchronisation signalling (e.g., SSB block and/or associated thereto). The reference signalling may correspond to synchronisation signalling, e.g. transmitted by the radio node in a plurality of beams. The characteristics may be reported on by a node receiving the synchronisation signalling, e.g. in a random access process, e.g. a msg3 for contention resolution, which may be transmitted on a physical uplink shared channel based on a resource allocation provided by the radio node.
A delay characteristic (which may correspond to delay spread information) and/or a measurement report may represent and/or indicate at least one of mean delay, and/or delay spread, and/or delay distribution, and/or delay spread distribution, and/or delay spread range, and/or relative delay spread, and/or energy (or power) distribution, and/or impulse response to received signalling, and/or the power delay profile of the received signals, and/or power delay profile related parameters of the received signal. A mean delay may represent the mean value and/or an averaged value of the delay spread, which may be weighted or unweighted. A distribution may be distribution over time/delay, e.g. of received power and/or energy of a signal. A range may indicate an interval of the delay spread distribution over time/delay, which may cover a predetermined percentage of the delay spread respective received energy or power, e.g. 50% or more, 75% or more, 90% or more, or 100%. A relative delay spread may indicate a relation to a threshold delay, e.g. of the mean delay, and/or a shift relative to an expected and/or configured timing, e.g. a timing at which the signalling would have been expected based on the scheduling, and/or a relation to a cyclic prefix duration (which may be considered on form of a threshold). Energy distribution or power distribution may pertain to the energy or power received over the time interval of the delay spread. A power delay profile may pertain to representations of the received signals, or the received signals energy/power, across time/delay. Power delay profile related parameters may pertain to metrics computed from the power delay profile. Different values and forms of delay spread information and/or report may be used, allowing a wide range of capabilities. The kind of information represented by a measurement report may be predefined, or be configured or configurable, e.g. with a measurement configuration and/or reference signalling configuration, in particular with higher layer signalling like RRC or MAC signalling and/or physical layer signalling like DCI signalling.
In general, different beam pair may differ in at least one beam; for example, a beam pair using a first received beam and a first transmission beam may be considered to be different from a second beam pair using the first received beam and a second transmission beam. A transmission beam using no precoding and/or beamforming, for example using the natural antenna profile, may be considered as a special form of transmission beam of a transmission beam pair. A beam may be indicated to a radio node by a transmitter with a beam indication and/or a configuration, which for example may indicate beam parameters and/or time/frequency resources associated to the beam and/or a transmission mode and/or antenna profile and/or antenna port and/or precoder associated to the beam. Different beams may be provided with different content, for example different received beams may carry different signalling; however, there may be considered cases in which different beams carry the same signalling, for example the same data signalling and/or reference signalling. The beams may be transmitted by the same node and/or transmission point and/or antenna arrangement, or by different nodes and/or transmission points and/or antenna arrangements.
Communicating utilising a beam pair or a beam may comprise receiving signalling on a received beam (which may be a beam of a beam pair), and/or transmitting signalling on a beam, e.g. a beam of a beam pair. The following terms are to be interpreted from the point of view of the referred radio node: a received beam may be a beam carrying signalling received by the radio node (for reception, the radio node may use a reception beam, e.g. directed to the received beam, or be non-beamformed). A transmission beam may be a beam used by the radio node to transmit signalling. A beam pair may consist of a received beam and a transmission beam. The transmission beam and the received beam of a beam pair may be associated to each and/or correspond to each other, e.g. such that signalling on the received beam and signalling on a transmission beam travel essentially the same path (but in opposite directions), e.g. at least in a stationary or almost stationary condition. It should be noted that the terms “first” and “second” do not necessarily denote an order in time; a second signalling may be received and/or transmitted before, or in some cases simultaneous to, first signalling, or vice versa. The received beam and transmission beam of a beam pair may be on the same carrier or frequency range or bandwidth part, e.g. in a TDD operation; however, variants with FDD may be considered as well. Different beam pairs may operate on the same frequency ranges or carriers or bandwidth parts (e.g., such that transmission beams operate on the same frequency range or carriers or bandwidth part, and received beams on the same frequency range or carriers or bandwidth part (the transmission beam and received beams may be on the same or different ranges or carriers or BWPs). Communicating utilizing a first beam pair and/or first beam may be based on, and/or comprise, switching from the second beam pair or second beam to the first beam pair or first beam for communicating. The switching may be controlled by the network, for example a network node (which may be the source or transmitter of the received beam of the first beam pair and/or second beam pair, or be associated thereto, for example associated transmission points or nodes in dual connectivity). Such controlling may comprise transmitting control signalling, e.g. physical layer signalling and/or higher layer signalling. In some cases, the switching may be performed by the radio node without additional control signalling, for example based on measurements on signal quality and/or signal strength of beam pairs (e.g., of first and second received beams), in particular the first beam pair and/or the second beam pair. For example, it may be switched to the first beam pair (or first beam) if the signal quality or signal strength measured on the second beam pair (or second beam) is considered to be insufficient, and/or worse than corresponding measurements on the first beam pair indicate. Measurements performed on a beam pair (or beam) may in particular comprise measurements performed on a received beam of the beam pair. It may be considered that the timing indication may be determined before switching from the second beam pair to the first beam pair for communicating. Thus, the synchronization may be in place and/or the timing indication may be available for synchronising) when starting communication utilizing the first beam pair or first beam. However, in some cases the timing indication may be determined after switching to the first beam pair or first beam. This may be in particular useful if first signalling is expected to be received after the switching only, for example based on a periodicity or scheduled timing of suitable reference signalling on the first beam pair, e.g. first received beam. In general, a reception beam of a node may be associated to and/or correspond to a transmission beam of the node, e.g. such that the (spatial) angle of reception of the reception beam and the (spatial) angle of transmission of the transmission beam at least partially, or essentially or fully, overlap and/or coincide, in particular for TDD operation and/or independent of frequency. Spatial correspondence between beams may be considered in some cases, e.g. such that a beam pair (e.g., transmission beam of a transmitting node and reception beam of a receiving node) may be considered to comprise corresponding beams (e.g., the reception beam is suitable and/or the best beam to receive transmissions on the transmission beam, e.g. based on a threshold signal quality and/or signal strength and/or measurements); to each of such beams, there may be an associated or corresponding complementary beam of the respective node (e.g., to a transmission beam of a beam pair, there may be associated a reception beam of the transmitting node, and/or to the reception beam of a beam pair, there may be associated a transmitting beam of the receiving node; if the beams (e.g., at least essentially or substantially) overlap (e.g., in spatial angle), in some cases a beam pair may be considered to indicate four beams (or actually, two beam pairs).
In some variants, reference signalling may be and/or comprise CSI-RS, e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the reference signalling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or other UE, in which case it may comprise and/or be Sounding Reference signalling. Other, e.g. new, forms of reference signalling may be considered and/or used. In general, a modulation symbol of reference signalling respectively a resource element carrying it may be associated to a cyclic prefix.
Data signalling may be on a data channel, for example on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or on a dedicated data channel, e.g. for low latency and/or high reliability, e.g. a URLLC channel. Control signalling may be on a control channel, for example on a common control channel or a PDCCH or PSCCH, and/or comprise one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. Reference signalling may be associated to control signalling and/or data signalling, e.g. DM-RS and/or PT-RS.
Reference signalling, for example, may comprise DM-RS and/or pilot signalling and/or discovery signalling and/or synchronisation signalling and/or sounding signalling and/or phase tracking signalling and/or cell-specific reference signalling and/or user-specific signalling, in particular CSI-RS. Reference signalling in general may be signalling with one or more signalling characteristics, in particular transmission power and/or sequence of modulation symbols and/or resource distribution and/or phase distribution known to the receiver. Thus, the receiver can use the reference signalling as a reference and/or for training and/or for compensation. The receiver can be informed about the reference signalling by the transmitter, e.g. being configured and/or signalling with control signalling, in particular physical layer signalling and/or higher layer signalling (e.g., DCI and/or RRC signalling), and/or may determine the corresponding information itself, e.g. a network node configuring a UE to transmit reference signalling. Reference signalling may be signalling comprising one or more reference symbols and/or structures. Reference signalling may be adapted for gauging and/or estimating and/or representing transmission conditions, e.g. channel conditions and/or transmission path conditions and/or channel (or signal or transmission) quality. It may be considered that the transmission characteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or form and/or modulation and/or timing) of reference signalling are available for both transmitter and receiver of the signalling (e.g., due to being predefined and/or configured or configurable and/or being communicated). Different types of reference signalling may be considered, e.g. pertaining to uplink, downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (in particular, cell-wide, e.g., CRS) or device or user specific (addressed to a specific target or user equipment, e.g., CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and/or signal strength related, e.g. power-related or energy-related or amplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilot signalling) and/or phase-related, etc.
References to specific resource structures like an allocation unit and/or block symbol and/or block symbol group and/or transmission timing structure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrier and/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may be predefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timing structure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or more symbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure are transmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slot may comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and/or configured or configurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slot may comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular be configurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of a slot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4, or more symbols, e.g. less symbols than symbols in a slot. A transmission timing structure may cover a time interval of a specific length, which may be dependent on symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix used. A transmission timing structure may pertain to, and/or cover, a specific time interval in a time stream, e.g. synchronized for communication. Timing structures used and/or scheduled for transmission, e.g. slot and/or mini-slots, may be scheduled in relation to, and/or synchronized to, a timing structure provided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures. Such transmission timing structures may define a timing grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within individual structures representing the smallest timing units. Such a timing grid may for example be defined by slots or subframes (wherein in some cases, subframes may be considered specific variants of slots). A transmission timing structure may have a duration (length in time) determined based on the durations of its symbols, possibly in addition to cyclic prefix/es used. The symbols of a transmission timing structure may have the same duration, or may in some variants have different duration. The number of symbols in a transmission timing structure may be predefined and/or configured or configurable, and/or be dependent on numerology. The timing of a mini-slot may generally be configured or configurable, in particular by the network and/or a network node. The timing may be configurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure, in particular one or more slots.
A transmission quality parameter may in general correspond to the number R of retransmissions and/or number T of total transmissions, and/or coding (e.g., number of coding bits, e.g. for error detection coding and/or error correction coding like FEC coding) and/or code rate and/or BLER and/or BER requirements and/or transmission power level (e.g., minimum level and/or target level and/or base power level Po and/or transmission power control command, TPC, step size) and/or signal quality, e.g. SNR and/or SIR and/or SINR and/or power density and/or energy density.
A buffer state report (or buffer status report, BSR) may comprise information representing the presence and/or size of data to be transmitted (e.g., available in one or more buffers, for example provided by higher layers). The size may be indicated explicitly, and/or indexed to range/s of sizes, and/or may pertain to one or more different channel/s and/or acknowledgement processes and/or higher layers and/or channel groups/s, e.g, one or more logical channel/s and/or transport channel/s and/or groups thereof: The structure of a BSR may be predefined and/or configurable of configured, e.g. to override and/or amend a predefined structure, for example with higher layer signalling, e.g. RRC signalling. There may be different forms of BSR with different levels of resolution and/or information, e.g. a more detailed long BSR and a less detailed short BSR. A short BSR may concatenate and/or combine information of a long BSR, e.g. providing sums for data available for one or more channels and/or or channels groups and/or buffers, which might be represented individually in a long BSR; and/or may index a less-detailed range scheme for data available or buffered. A BSR may be used in lieu of a scheduling request, e.g. by a network node scheduling or allocating (uplink) resources for the transmitting radio node like a wireless device or UE or IAB node.
There is generally considered a program product comprising instructions adapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry out and/or control any method described herein, in particular when executed on the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product as described herein.
A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media. Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/or receivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or a program product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/or a program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise a guiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. A guiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/or store signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electrical signals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carrier medium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted to guide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field, e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material, e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at least one of a memory, which may be volatile or nonvolatile, a buffer, a cache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.
A system comprising one or more radio nodes as described herein, in particular a network node and a user equipment, is described. The system may be a wireless communication system, and/or provide and/or represent a radio access network.
A signalling sequence may correspond to a sequence of modulation symbols (e.g., in time domain, or in frequency domain for an OFDM system). The signalling sequence may be predefined, or configured or configurable, e.g. to a wireless device. For OFDM or SCFDM, each element of a signalling sequence may be mapped to a subcarrier; in general, for SC-based signalling, a corresponding mapping in time domain may be utilised (for example, such that each element may use essentially the full synchronisation bandwidth). A signalling sequence may comprise (ordered) modulation symbols, each modulation symbol representing a value of the sequence it is based on, e.g. based on the modulation scheme used and/or in a phase or constellation diagram; for some sequences like Zadoff-Chu sequences, there may be a mapping between non-integer sequence elements and transmitted waveform, which may not be represented in the context of a modulation scheme like BPSK or QPSK or higher. A signalling sequence may be a physical layer signalling or signal, which may be devoid of higher layer information. A signalling sequence may be based on a sequence, e.g. a bit sequence or symbol sequence and/or a modulation, e.g. performed on the sequence. Elements of a signalling sequence may be mapped to frequency domain (e.g., to subcarriers, in particular in a pattern like a comb structure or in interlaces) and/or in time domain, e.g. to one or more allocation units or symbol time intervals. A DFT-s-OFDM based waveform may be a waveform constructed by performing a DFT-spreading operation on modulation symbols mapped to a frequency interval (e.g., subcarriers), e.g. to provide a time-variable signal. A DFT-s-OFDM based waveform may also be referred to a SC-FDM waveform. It may be considered to provide good PAPR characteristics, allowing optimised operation of power amplifiers, in particular for high frequencies. In general, the approaches described herein may also be applicable to Single-Carrier based waveforms, e.g. FDE-based waveforms. Communication, e.g. on data channel/s and/or control channel/s, may be based on, and/o utilise, a DFT-s-OFDM based waveform, or a Single-Carrier based waveform.
A sequence may generally be considered to be based on a root sequence if it can be constructed from the root sequence (or represents it directly), e.g. by shifting in phase and/or frequency and/or time domain, and/or performing a cyclic shift and/or a cyclic extension, and/or copying/repeating and/or processing or operating on with a code, and/or interleaving or re-ordering of elements of the sequence, and/or extending or shortening the root sequence. A cyclic extension of a sequence may comprise taking a part of the sequence (in particular a border part like a tail or beginning) and appending it to the sequence, e.g. at the beginning or end, for example in time domain or frequency domain. Thus, a cyclic extended sequence may represent a (root) sequence and at least a part repetition of the (root) sequence. Operations described may be combined, in any order, in particular a shift and a cyclic extension. A cyclic shift in a domain may comprise shifting the sequence in the domain within an interval, such that the total number of sequence elements is constant, and the sequence is shifted as if the interval represented a ring (e.g., such that starting from the same sequence element, which may appear at different location in the interval), the order of elements is the same if the borders of the intervals are considered to be continuous, such that leaving one end of the interval leads to entering the interval at the other end). Processing and/or operating on with a code may correspond to constructing a sequence out of copies of a root sequence, wherein each copy is multiplied and/or operated on with an element of the code. Multiplying with an element of a code may represent and/or correspond to a shift (e.g., constant or linear or cyclic) in phase and/or frequency and/or time domain, depending on representation. In the context of this disclosure, a sequence being based on and/or being constructed and/or processed may be any sequence that would result from such construction or processing, even if the sequence is just read from memory. Any isomorphic or equivalent or corresponding way to arrive at the sequence is considered to be included by such terminology; the construction thus may be considered to define the characteristics of the sequence and/or the sequence, not necessarily a specific way to construct them, as there may be multiple equivalent ways that are mathematically equivalent. Thus, a sequence “based on” or “constructed” or similar terminology may be considered to correspond to the sequence being “represented by” or “may be represented by” or “representable as”.
A root sequence for a signalling sequence associated to one allocation unit may be basis for construction of a larger sequence. In this case, the larger sequence and/or the root sequence basis for its construction may be considered root sequence for signalling sequences associated to other allocation units.
For OFDM or SC-FDM, each element of a signalling sequence may be mapped to a subcarrier; in general, for SC-based signalling, a corresponding mapping in time domain may be utilised (such that each element may use essentially the full synchronisation bandwidth). A signalling sequence may comprise (ordered) modulation symbols, each modulation symbol representing a value of the sequence it is based on, e.g. based on the modulation scheme used and/or in a phase or constellation diagram; for some sequences like Zadoff-Chu sequences, there may be a mapping between non-integer sequence elements and transmitted waveform, which may not be represented in the context of a modulation scheme like BPSK or QPSK or higher.
A signalling sequence of an allocation unit may be based on a sequence root, e.g. a root sequence. A sequence root in general may represent or indicate a base for deriving or determining a signalling sequence; the root may be associated to, and/or represent a sequence directly, and/or indicate or represent a base sequence and/or seed. Examples of sequence roots may comprise a Zadoff Chu root sequence, a sequence seed, e.g. a seed for a Gold sequence, or a Golay complimentary sequence. A signalling sequence may be derived or derivable from, and/or be based on, a sequency root, e.g. based on a code, which may represent a shift or operation or processing on the root sequence or a sequence indicated by the sequence root, e.g. to provide the signalling sequence; the signalling sequence may be based on such shifted or processed or operated on root sequence. The code may in particular represent a cyclic shift and/or phase shift and/or phase ramp (e.g., an amount for such). The code may assign one operation or shift for each allocation unit.
In general, a signalling sequence associated to an allocation unit (and/or the allocation units) associated to control signalling (and/or reference signalling) may be based on a root sequence which may be a M-sequence or Zadoff-Chu sequence, or a Gold or Golay sequence, or another sequence with suitable characteristics regarding correlation and/or interference (e.g., self-interference and/or interference with other or neighboring transmitters). Different sequences may be used as root sequences for different signalling sequences, or the same sequence may be used. If different sequences are used, they may be of the same type (Gold, Golay, M- or Zadoff-Chu, for example). The (signalling and/or root) sequences may correspond to or be time-domain sequences, e.g. time domain Zadoff-Chu and/or time-domain M sequences.
In some cases, a shifted object like a signalling or signals or sequences or information may be shifted, e.g. relative to a predecessor (e.g., one is subject to a shift, and the shifted version is used), or relative to another (e.g., one associated to one signalling or allocation unit may be shifted to another associated to a second signalling or allocation unit, both may be used). One possible way of shifting is operating a code on it, e.g. to multiply each element of a shifting object with a factor. A ramping (e.g. multiplying with a monotonously increasing or periodic factor) may be considered an example of shifting. Another is a cyclic shift in a domain or interval. A cyclic shift (or circular shift) may correspond to a rearrangement of the elements in the shifting object, corresponding to moving the final element or elements to the first position, while shifting all other entries to the next position, or by performing the inverse operation (such that the shifted object as the result will have the same elements as the shifting object, in a shifted but similar order). Shifting in general may be specific to an interval in a domain, e.g. an allocation unit in time domain, or a bandwidth in frequency domain. For example, it may be considered that signals or modulation symbols in an allocation unit are shifted, such that the order of the modulation symbols or signals is shifted in the allocation unit. In another example, allocation units may be shifted, e.g. in a larger time interval—this may leave signals in the allocation units unshifted with reference to the individual allocation unit, but may change the order of the allocation units. Domains for shifting may for example be time domain and/or phase domain and/or frequency domain. Multiple shifts in the same domain or different domains, and/or the same interval or different intervals (differently sized intervals, for example) may be performed.
Reference signalling may have a type. Types of reference signalling may include synchronisation signalling, and/or DM-RS (used to facilitate demodulation of associated data signalling and/or control signalling), and/or PT-RS (used to facilitate phase tracking of associated data signalling and/or control signalling, e.g. within a time interval or symbol or allocation unit carrying such signalling), and/or CSI-RS (e.g., used for channel estimation and/or reporting). It may be considered that PT-RS are inserted into a bit sequence, or a modulation symbol sequence, which may represent data. For example, PT-RS may be mapped onto subcarriers of a symbol also carrying data symbols. Accordingly, PT-RS insertion may be optimised for hardware implementations. In some cases, PT-RS may be modulated differently and/or independently of the modulation symbols representing data (or data bits).
A comb structure, or short comb, may indicate a distribution, or periodic arrangement of reference signalling, in particular in frequency space, e.g. between an upper and lower frequency. A comb may pertain to one OFDMA symbol and/or SC-FDMA symbol and/or one (the same) symbol time interval and/or one allocation unit. A comb may have width or size N and/or may pertain to, and/or be associated to, specific signalling and/or a type of signalling, e.g. a type of reference signalling. The width N may indicate how many empty subcarriers are between (e.g., non-neighbouring) subcarriers carrying an element or signal or symbol of the signalling (e.g., this number may be N−1), or how many empty subcarriers and non-empty subcarriers form a pattern that is repeated in frequency domain. In general, each comb may indicate that at least one empty subcarrier is to be between non-empty subcarriers. In this context, empty may refer to empty regarding the pattern or distribution of the signalling associated to the comb (and non-empty may refer to a subcarrier carrying an element or symbol of the associated signalling); in some cases, other signallings (which may have a comb structure as well) may be carried on empty subcarriers, e.g. transmitted using other transmission sources and/or other devices, and/or mapped into the comb (e.g., for a DMRS comb, data signalling may be mapped on subcarriers not carrying DMRS). A comb structure may generally describe a structure in which for every N-th (N may be an integer) resource element and/or subcarrier a reference signal or an element of a sequence of the reference signalling, and/or representing the reference signalling, and/or on which the reference signalling is based, is mapped to, and/or represented by signalling the resource element and/or subcarrier, in particular an element (symbol) of a modulation symbol sequence, or an element of a sequence. N may be called the width of the comb. Generally, the comb may indicate the periodicity of the pattern inside the frequency range of the reference signalling. The pattern may in particular pertain to one reference signal and/or resource element or subcarrier for transmitting a reference signal, such that the comb may be considered to indicate that on every N-th resource element (in particular, only there) and/or subcarrier there is to be a reference signal or element of an associated sequence, and/or how many resource elements and/or subcarriers are between resource elements and/or subcarriers with reference signals. However, there may be considered variants, in which the pattern represents more than one reference signals. The pattern may also generally represent and/or indicate one or more empty signals and/or one or more data signals (respectively associated resource elements and/or subcarriers). For each comb or comb structure with a width or size of N, there may be N or f(N) different available individual combs. For example, for N=2, there may be two combs shifted in frequency space by one, or an odd number, of subcarriers or PRBs (e.g., based on a frequency domain offset, or a subcarrier offset). A comb structure or comb of width or size of N may be indicated as N-comb. Specific combs of this width may be numbered within N. For example, for a 2-comb, there may be a comb 1 (or C1) and a comb 2 (or C2), which may be shifted relative to each other, e.g. to dovetail such that all subcarrier covered by both combs carry signalling (associated to C1 and C2 alternatingly in frequency domain).
A comb may comprise two or more, for example at least three or at least four, repetitions of the pattern. The comb may indicate a reference and/or indication, e.g. a resource element and/or subcarrier, which may be related to the upper and/or lower boundary in frequency, regarding the arrangement and/or location in frequency of a first pattern, and/or the relative shift of the pattern and/or comb in frequency. Generally, a comb structure may cover at least part, and/or at least the majority, and/or essentially all or all resource elements and/or subcarriers of the plurality of resource elements and/or subcarriers, and/or the symbol.
A comb structure may result from combining two comb structures, which may in particular comb structures with pattern comprising only one reference signal. A comb structure may be determined and/or amended before transmission, e.g. based on other reference signalling to be transmitted, e.g. on a different antenna port. In this context, reference signals may be replaced by empty signals to avoid overlap and/or interference. Generally, if the other reference signalling utilises a comb structure as well, a different/new comb (as a combination of combs) may be considered to be determined, e.g. with less dense reference signal distribution and/or a different/wider pattern. Alternatively, or additionally, combs may be combined to increase the reference signal density, e.g. by combining combs with different widths, and/or with shifted offsets.
Generally, a comb structure may represent and/or comprise and/or be comprised of any of the combs/comb structures described herein.
Moreover, there may be generally considered a method of operating an information system, the method comprising providing information. Alternatively, or additionally, an information system adapted for providing information may be considered. Providing information may comprise providing information for, and/or to, a target system, which may comprise and/or be implemented as radio access network and/or a radio node, in particular a network node or user equipment or terminal. Providing information may comprise transferring and/or streaming and/or sending and/or passing on the information, and/or offering the information for such and/or for download, and/or triggering such providing, e.g. by triggering a different system or node to stream and/or transfer and/or send and/or pass on the information. The information system may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to, a target, for example via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a core network and/or internet and/or private or local network. Information may be provided utilising and/or via such intermediate system/s. Providing information may be for radio transmission and/or for transmission via an air interface and/or utilising a RAN or radio node as described herein. Connecting the information system to a target, and/or providing information, may be based on a target indication, and/or adaptive to a target indication. A target indication may indicate the target, and/or one or more parameters of transmission pertaining to the target and/or the paths or connections over which the information is provided to the target. Such parameter/s may in particular pertain to the air interface and/or radio access network and/or radio node and/or network node. Example parameters may indicate for example type and/or nature of the target, and/or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and/or latency and/or reliability and/or cost, respectively one or more estimates thereof. The target indication may be provided by the target, or determined by the information system, e.g. based on information received from the target and/or historical information, and/or be provided by a user, for example a user operating the target or a device in communication with the target, e.g. via the RAN and/or air interface. For example, a user may indicate on a user equipment communicating with the information system that information is to be provided via a RAN, e.g. by selecting from a selection provided by the information system, for example on a user application or user interface, which may be a web interface. An information system may comprise one or more information nodes. An information node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or communication circuitry. In particular, an information system and/or an information node may be implemented as a computer and/or a computer arrangement, e.g. a host computer or host computer arrangement and/or server or server arrangement. In some variants, an interaction server (e.g., web server) of the information system may provide a user interface, and based on user input may trigger transmitting and/or streaming information provision to the user (and/or the target) from another server, which may be connected or connectable to the interaction server and/or be part of the information system or be connected or connectable thereto. The information may be any kind of data, in particular data intended for a user of for use at a terminal, e.g. video data and/or audio data and/or location data and/or interactive data and/or game-related data and/or environmental data and/or technical data and/or traffic data and/or vehicular data and/or circumstantial data and/or operational data. The information provided by the information system may be mapped to, and/or mappable to, and/or be intended for mapping to, communication or data signalling and/or one or more data channels as described herein (which may be signalling or channel/s of an air interface and/or used within a RAN and/or for radio transmission). It may be considered that the information is formatted based on the target indication and/or target, e.g. regarding data amount and/or data rate and/or data structure and/or timing, which in particular may be pertaining to a mapping to communication or data signalling and/or a data channel. Mapping information to data signalling and/or data channel/s may be considered to refer to using the signalling/channel/s to carry the data, e.g. on higher layers of communication, with the signalling/channel/s underlying the transmission. A target indication generally may comprise different components, which may have different sources, and/or which may indicate different characteristics of the target and/or communication path/s thereto. A format of information may be specifically selected, e.g. from a set of different formats, for information to be transmitted on an air interface and/or by a RAN as described herein. This may be particularly pertinent since an air interface may be limited in terms of capacity and/or of predictability, and/or potentially be cost sensitive. The format may be selected to be adapted to the transmission indication, which may in particular indicate that a RAN or radio node as described herein is in the path (which may be the indicated and/or planned and/or expected path) of information between the target and the information system. A (communication) path of information may represent the interface/s (e.g., air and/or cable interfaces) and/or the intermediate system/s (if any), between the information system and/or the node providing or transferring the information, and the target, over which the information is, or is to be, passed on. A path may be (at least partly) undetermined when a target indication is provided, and/or the information is provided/transferred by the information system, e.g. if an internet is involved, which may comprise multiple, dynamically chosen paths. Information and/or a format used for information may be packet-based, and/or be mapped, and/or be mappable and/or be intended for mapping, to packets. Alternatively, or additionally, there may be considered a method for operating a target device comprising providing a target indicating to an information system. More alternatively, or additionally, a target device may be considered, the target device being adapted for providing a target indication to an information system. In another approach, there may be considered a target indication tool adapted for, and/or comprising an indication module for, providing a target indication to an information system. The target device may generally be a target as described above. A target indication tool may comprise, and/or be implemented as, software and/or application or app, and/or web interface or user interface, and/or may comprise one or more modules for implementing actions performed and/or controlled by the tool. The tool and/or target device may be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receiving a user input, based on which a target indicating may be determined and/or provided. Alternatively, or additionally, the tool and/or target device may be adapted for, and/or the method may comprise, receiving information and/or communication signalling carrying information, and/or operating on, and/or presenting (e.g., on a screen and/or as audio or as other form of indication), information. The information may be based on received information and/or communication signalling carrying information. Presenting information may comprise processing received information, e.g. decoding and/or transforming, in particular between different formats, and/or for hardware used for presenting. Operating on information may be independent of or without presenting, and/or proceed or succeed presenting, and/or may be without user interaction or even user reception, for example for automatic processes, or target devices without (e.g., regular) user interaction like MTC devices, of for automotive or transport or industrial use. The information or communication signalling may be expected and/or received based on the target indication. Presenting and/or operating on information may generally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decoding and/or executing and/or interpreting and/or transforming information. Operating on information may generally comprise relaying and/or transmitting the information, e.g. on an air interface, which may include mapping the information onto signalling (such mapping may generally pertain to one or more layers, e.g. one or more layers of an air interface, e.g. RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and/or MAC layer and/or physical layer/s). The information may be imprinted (or mapped) on communication signalling based on the target indication, which may make it particularly suitable for use in a RAN (e.g., for a target device like a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The tool may generally be adapted for use on a target device, like a UE or terminal. Generally, the tool may provide multiple functionalities, e.g. for providing and/or selecting the target indication, and/or presenting, e.g. video and/or audio, and/or operating on and/or storing received information. Providing a target indication may comprise transmitting or transferring the indication as signalling, and/or carried on signalling, in a RAN, for example if the target device is a UE, or the tool for a UE. It should be noted that such provided information may be transferred to the information system via one or more additionally communication interfaces and/or paths and/or connections. The target indication may be a higher-layer indication and/or the information provided by the information system may be higher-layer information, e.g. application layer or user-layer, in particular above radio layers like transport layer and physical layer. The target indication may be mapped on physical layer radio signalling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane, and/or the information may be mapped on physical layer radio communication signalling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane (in particular, in reverse communication directions). The described approaches allow a target indication to be provided, facilitating information to be provided in a specific format particularly suitable and/or adapted to efficiently use an air interface. A user input may for example represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmission modes or formats, and/or paths, e.g. in terms of data rate and/or packaging and/or size of information to be provided by the information system.
In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate the bandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or the number of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of the subcarriers in a carrier, and/or the symbol time length. Different numerologies may in particular be different in the bandwidth of a subcarrier.
In some variants, all the subcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. The numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may be different between carriers in particular regarding the subcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length, and/or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier may be dependent on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacing and/or the numerology. In particular, different numerologies may have different symbol time lengths, even on the same carrier.
signalling may generally comprise one or more (e.g., modulation) symbols and/or signals and/or messages. A signal may comprise or represent one or more bits. An indication may represent signalling, and/or be implemented as a signal, or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. signalling, in particular control signalling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to different signalling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes and/or corresponding information. An indication may comprise signalling, and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgement signalling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes. signalling associated to a channel may be transmitted such that represents signalling and/or information for that channel, and/or that the signalling is interpreted by the transmitter and/or receiver to belong to that channel. Such signalling may generally comply with transmission parameters and/or format/s for the channel.
An antenna arrangement may comprise one or more antenna elements (radiating elements), which may be combined in antenna arrays. An antenna array or subarray may comprise one antenna element, or a plurality of antenna elements, which may be arranged e.g. two dimensionally (for example, a panel) or three dimensionally. It may be considered that each antenna array or subarray or element is separately controllable, respectively that different antenna arrays are controllable separately from each other. A single antenna element/radiator may be considered the smallest example of a subarray. Examples of antenna arrays comprise one or more multi-antenna panels or one or more individually controllable antenna elements. An antenna arrangement may comprise a plurality of antenna arrays. It may be considered that an antenna arrangement is associated to a (specific and/or single) radio node, e.g. a configuring or informing or scheduling radio node, e.g. to be controlled or controllable by the radio node. An antenna arrangement associated to a UE or terminal may be smaller (e.g., in size and/or number of antenna elements or arrays) than the antenna arrangement associated to a network node. Antenna elements of an antenna arrangement may be configurable for different arrays, e.g. to change the beamforming characteristics. In particular, antenna arrays may be formed by combining one or more independently or separately controllable antenna elements or subarrays. The beams may be provided by analog beamforming, or in some variants by digital beamforming, or by hybrid beamforming combing analog and digital beamforming. The informing radio nodes may be configured with the manner of beam transmission, e.g. by transmitting a corresponding indicator or indication, for example as beam identify indication. However, there may be considered cases in which the informing radio node/s are not configured with such information, and/or operate transparently, not knowing the way of beamforming used. An antenna arrangement may be considered separately controllable in regard to the phase and/or amplitude/power and/or gain of a signal feed to it for transmission, and/or separately controllable antenna arrangements may comprise an independent or separate transmit and/or receive unit and/or ADC (Analog-Digital-Converter, alternatively an ADC chain) or DCA (Digital-to-Analog Converter, alternatively a DCA chain) to convert digital control information into an analog antenna feed for the whole antenna arrangement (the ADC/DCA may be considered part of, and/or connected or connectable to, antenna circuitry) or vice versa. A scenario in which an ADC or DCA is controlled directly for beamforming may be considered an analog beamforming scenario; such controlling may be performed after encoding/decoding and 7 or after modulation symbols have been mapped to resource elements. This may be on the level of antenna arrangements using the same ADC/DCA, e.g. one antenna element or a group of antenna elements associated to the same ADC/DCA. Digital beamforming may correspond to a scenario in which processing for beamforming is provided before feeding signalling to the ADC/DCA, e.g. by using one or more precoder/s and/or by precoding information, for example before and/or when mapping modulation symbols to resource elements. Such a precoder for beamforming may provide weights, e.g. for amplitude and/or phase, and/or may be based on a (precoder) codebook, e.g. selected from a codebook. A precoder may pertain to one beam or more beams, e.g. defining the beam or beams. The codebook may be configured or configurable, and/or be predefined. DFT beamforming may be considered a form of digital beamforming, wherein a DFT procedure is used to form one or more beams. Hybrid forms of beamforming may be considered.
A beam may be defined by a spatial and/or angular and/or spatial angular distribution of radiation and/or a spatial angle (also referred to as solid angle) or spatial (solid) angle distribution into which radiation is transmitted (for transmission beamforming) or from which it is received (for reception beamforming). Reception beamforming may comprise only accepting signals coming in from a reception beam (e.g., using analog beamforming to not receive outside reception beam/s), and/or sorting out signals that do not come in in a reception beam, e.g. in digital postprocessing, e.g. digital beamforming. A beam may have a solid angle equal to or smaller than 4*pi sr (4*pi correspond to a beam covering all directions), in particular smaller than 2*pi, or pi, or pi/2, or pi/4 or pi/8 or pi/16. In particular for high frequencies, smaller beams may be used. Different beams may have different directions and/or sizes (e.g., solid angle and/or reach). A beam may have a main direction, which may be defined by a main lobe (e.g., center of the main lobe, e.g. pertaining to signal strength and/or solid angle, which may be averaged and/or weighted to determine the direction), and may have one or more sidelobes. A lobe may generally be defined to have a continuous or contiguous distribution of energy and/or power transmitted and/or received, e.g. bounded by one or more contiguous or contiguous regions of zero energy (or practically zero energy). A main lobe may comprise the lobe with the largest signal strength and/or energy and/or power content. However, sidelobes usually appear due to limitations of beamforming, some of which may carry signals with significant strength, and may cause multi-path effects. A sidelobe may generally have a different direction than a main lobe and/or other side lobes, however, due to reflections a sidelobe still may contribute to transmitted and/or received energy or power. A beam may be swept and/or switched over time, e.g., such that its (main) direction is changed, but its shape (angular/solid angle distribution) around the main direction is not changed, e.g. from the transmitter's views for a transmission beam, or the receiver's view for a reception beam, respectively. Sweeping may correspond to continuous or near continuous change of main direction (e.g., such that after each change, the main lobe from before the change covers at least partly the main lobe after the change, e.g. at least to 50 or 75 or 90 percent). Switching may correspond to switching direction non-continuously, e.g. such that after each change, the main lobe from before the change does not cover the main lobe after the change, e.g. at most to 50 or 25 or 10 percent.
Signal strength may be a representation of signal power and/or signal energy, e.g. as seen from a transmitting node or a receiving node. A beam with larger strength at transmission (e.g., according to the beamforming used) than another beam does may not necessarily have larger strength at the receiver, and vice versa, for example due to interference and/or obstruction and/or dispersion and/or absorption and/or reflection and/or attrition or other effects influencing a beam or the signalling it carries. Signal quality may in general be a representation of how well a signal may be received over noise and/or interference. A beam with better signal quality than another beam does not necessarily have a larger beam strength than the other beam. Signal quality may be represented for example by SIR, SNR, SINR, BER, BLER, Energy per resource element over noise/interference or another corresponding quality measure. Signal quality and/or signal strength may pertain to, and/or may be measured with respect to, a beam, and/or specific signalling carried by the beam, e.g. reference signalling and/or a specific channel, e.g. a data channel or control channel. Signal strength may be represented by received signal strength, and/or relative signal strength, e.g. in comparison to a reference signal (strength).
Uplink or sidelink signalling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) signalling. Downlink signalling may in particular be OFDMA signalling. However, signalling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank based signalling and/or Single-Carrier based signalling, e.g. SC-FDE signalling, may be considered alternatives).
A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted for wireless and/or radio (and/or millimeter wave) frequency communication, and/or for communication utilising an air interface, e.g. according to a communication standard.
A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. A network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relay node and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP) and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN or other wireless communication network as described herein.
The terms user equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered to be interchangeable in the context of this disclosure. A wireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent an end device for communication utilising the wireless communication network, and/or be implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personal communication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, in particular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and/or adapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC (Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M, Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. A user equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary. A wireless device generally may comprise, and/or be implemented as, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, which may comprise one or more chips or sets of chips. The circuitry and/or circuitries may be packaged, e.g. in a chip housing, and/or may have one or more physical interfaces to interact with other circuitry and/or for power supply. Such a wireless device may be intended for use in a user equipment or terminal.
A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some cases comprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry, with which it may be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a core network.
Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry may comprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g., microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. It may be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is (operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memory arrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. A memory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples for memories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random Access Memory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/or optical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/or EPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM).
Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable as transmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint or separated circuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package or housing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillators and/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays. An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may be arranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and/or antenna panels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of an antenna array. However, in some variants, an RRH may be also be implemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/or functionality implemented therein.
Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and/or cable circuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or more interfaces, which may be air interface/s and/or cable interface/s and/or optical interface/s, e.g. laser-based. Interface/s may be in particular packet-based. Cable circuitry and/or a cable interfaces may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., optical fiber-based and/or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) be connected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by communication circuitry and/or processing circuitry.
Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented in software and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may be associated to different components of a radio node, e.g. different circuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered that a module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. A program product as described herein may comprise the modules related to a device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a user equipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may be performed on, and/or controlled by the associated circuitry). A wireless communication network may be or comprise a radio access network and/or a backhaul network (e.g. a relay or backhaul network or an IAB network), and/or a Radio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communication standard. A communication standard may in particular a standard according to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particular LTE Evolution.
A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio Access Network (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/or wireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a core network. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a 5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectively successors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/or one or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. A network node may in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal may be any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobile phone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communication device or device for machine-type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminal may be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wireless communication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE, or at least two radio nodes. There may be generally considered a wireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system, comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node and at least one terminal.
Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network or network node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain to transmission from the terminal to the network or network node. Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from one terminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelink transmission and reception) may be considered communication directions. In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to described wireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhaul and/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication for example between base stations or similar network nodes, in particular communication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhaul and/or relay communication and/or network communication is implemented as a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto.
Control information or a control information message or corresponding signalling (control signalling) may be transmitted on a control channel, e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (or a sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE). For example, control information/allocation information may be signaled by a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel. Acknowledgement signalling, e.g. as a form of control information or signalling like uplink control information/signalling, may be transmitted by a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel. Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indication or signalling.
Transmitting acknowledgement signalling may in general be based on and/or in response to subject transmission, and/or to control signalling scheduling subject transmission. Such control signalling and/or subject signalling may be transmitted by a signalling radio node (which may be a network node, and/or a node associated to it, e.g. in a dual connectivity scenario. Subject transmission and/or subject signalling may be transmission or signalling to which ACK/NACK or acknowledgement information pertains, e.g. indicating correct or incorrect reception and/or decoding of the subject transmission or signalling. Subject signalling or transmission may in particular comprise and/or be represented by data signalling, e.g. on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or some forms of control signalling, e.g. on a PDCCH or PSSCH, for example for specific formats.
A signalling characteristic, r.g., associated to control signalling, may be based on a type or format of a scheduling grant and/or scheduling assignment, and/or type of allocation, and/or timing of acknowledgement signalling and/or the scheduling grant and/or scheduling assignment, and/or resources associated to acknowledgement signalling and/or the scheduling grant and/or scheduling assignment. For example, if a specific format for a scheduling grant (scheduling or allocating the allocated resources) or scheduling assignment (scheduling the subject transmission for acknowledgement signalling) is used or detected, the first or second communication resource may be used. Type of allocation may pertain to dynamic allocation (e.g., using DCI/PDCCH) or semi-static allocation (e.g., for a configured grant). Timing of acknowledgement signalling may pertain to a slot and/or symbol/s the signalling is to be transmitted. Resources used for acknowledgement signalling may pertain to the allocated resources. Timing and/or resources associated to a scheduling grant or assignment may represent a search space or CORESET (a set of resources configured for reception of PDCCH transmissions) in which the grant or assignment is received. Thus, which transmission resource to be used may be based on implicit conditions, requiring low signalling overhead.
Scheduling may comprise indicating, e.g. with control signalling like DCI or SCI signalling and/or signalling on a control channel like PDCCH or PSCCH, one or more scheduling opportunities of a configuration intended to carry data signalling or subject signalling.
The configuration may be represented or representable by, and/or correspond to, a table. A scheduling assignment may for example point to an opportunity of the reception allocation configuration, e.g. indexing a table of scheduling opportunities. In some cases, a reception allocation configuration may comprise 15 or 16 scheduling opportunities. The configuration may in particular represent allocation in time. It may be considered that the reception allocation configuration pertains to data signalling, in particular on a physical data channel like PDSCH or PSSCH. In general, the reception allocation configuration may pertain to downlink signalling, or in some scenarios to sidelink signalling. Control signalling scheduling subject transmission like data signalling may point and/or index and/or refer to and/or indicate a scheduling opportunity of the reception allocation configuration. It may be considered that the reception allocation configuration is configured or configurable with higher-layer signalling, e.g. RRC or MAC layer signalling. The reception allocation configuration may be applied and/or applicable and/or valid for a plurality of transmission timing intervals, e.g. such that for each interval, one or more opportunities may be indicated or allocated for data signalling. These approaches allow efficient and flexible scheduling, which may be semi-static, but may updated or reconfigured on useful timescales in response to changes of operation conditions.
Control information, e.g., in a control information message, in this context may in particular be implemented as and/or represented by a scheduling assignment, which may indicate subject transmission for feedback (transmission of acknowledgement signalling), and/or reporting timing and/or frequency resources and/or code resources. Reporting timing may indicate a timing for scheduled acknowledgement signalling, e.g. slot and/or symbol and/or resource set. Control information may be carried by control signalling.
Subject transmissions may comprise one or more individual transmissions. Scheduling assignments may comprise one or more scheduling assignments. It should generally be noted that in a distributed system, subject transmissions, configuration and/or scheduling may be provided by different nodes or devices or transmission points. Different subject transmissions may be on the same carrier or different carriers (e.g., in a carrier aggregation), and/or same or different bandwidth parts, and/or on the same or different layers or beams, e.g. in a MIMO scenario, and/or to same or different ports. Generally, subject transmissions may pertain to different HARQ or ARQ processes (or different sub-processes, e.g. in MIMO with different beams/layers associated to the same process identifier, but different sub-process-identifiers like swap bits). A scheduling assignment and/or a HARQ codebook may indicate a target HARQ structure. A target HARQ structure may for example indicate an intended HARQ response to a subject transmission, e.g. the number of bits and/or whether to provide code block group level response or not. However, it should be noted that the actual structure used may differ from the target structure, e.g. due to the total size of target structures for a subpattern being larger than the predetermined size.
Transmitting acknowledgement signalling, also referred to as transmitting acknowledgement information or feedback information or simply as ARQ or HARQ feedback or feedback or reporting feedback, may comprise, and/or be based on determining correct or incorrect reception of subject transmission/s, e.g. based on error coding and/or based on scheduling assignment/s scheduling the subject transmissions. Transmitting acknowledgement information may be based on, and/or comprise, a structure for acknowledgement information to transmit, e.g. the structure of one or more subpatterns, e.g. based on which subject transmission is scheduled for an associated subdivision. Transmitting acknowledgement information may comprise transmitting corresponding signalling, e.g. at one instance and/or in one message and/or one channel, in particular a physical channel, which may be a control channel. In some cases, the channel may be a shared channel or data channel, e.g. utilising rate-matching of the acknowledgment information. The acknowledgement information may generally pertain to a plurality of subject transmissions, which may be on different channels and/or carriers, and/or may comprise data signalling and/or control signalling. The acknowledgment information may be based on a codebook, which may be based on one or more size indications and/or assignment indications (representing HARQ structures), which may be received with a plurality of control signallings and/or control messages, e.g. in the same or different transmission timing structures, and/or in the same or different (target) sets of resources. Transmitting acknowledgement information may comprise determining the codebook, e.g. based on control information in one or more control information messages and/or a configuration. A codebook may pertain to transmitting acknowledgement information at a single and/or specific instant, e.g. a single PUCCH or PUSCH transmission, and/or in one message or with jointly encoded and/or modulated acknowledgement information. Generally, acknowledgment information may be transmitted together with other control information, e.g. a scheduling request and/or measurement information.
Acknowledgement signalling may in some cases comprise, next to acknowledgement information, other information, e.g. control information, in particular, uplink or sidelink control information, like a scheduling request and/or measurement information, or similar, and/or error detection and/or correction information, respectively associated bits. The payload size of acknowledgement signalling may represent the number of bits of acknowledgement information, and/or in some cases the total number of bits carried by the acknowledgement signalling, and/or the number of resource elements needed. Acknowledgement signalling and/or information may pertain to ARQ and/or HARQ processes; an ARQ process may provide ACK/NACK (and perhaps additional feedback) feedback, and decoding may be performed on each (re-)transmission separately, without soft-buffering/soft-combining intermediate data, whereas HARQ may comprise soft-buffering/soft-combining of intermediate data of decoding for one or more (re-)transmissions.
Subject transmission may be data signalling or control signalling. The transmission may be on a shared or dedicated channel. Data signalling may be on a data channel, for example on a PDSCH or PSSCH, or on a dedicated data channel, e.g. for low latency and/or high reliability, e.g. a URLLC channel. Control signalling may be on a control channel, for example on a common control channel or a PDCCH or PSCCH, and/or comprise one or more DCI messages or SCI messages. In some cases, the subject transmission may comprise, or represent, reference signalling. For example, it may comprise DM-RS and/or pilot signalling and/or discovery signalling and/or sounding signalling and/or phase tracking signalling and/or cell-specific reference signalling and/or user-specific signalling, in particular CSI-RS. A subject transmission may pertain to one scheduling assignment and/or one acknowledgement signalling process (e.g., according to identifier or subidentifier), and/or one subdivision. In some cases, a subject transmission may cross the borders of subdivisions in time, e.g. due to being scheduled to start in one subdivision and extending into another, or even crossing over more than one subdivision. In this case, it may be considered that the subject transmission is associated to the subdivision it ends in.
It may be considered that transmitting acknowledgement information, in particular of acknowledgement information, is based on determining whether the subject transmission/s has or have been received correctly, e.g. based on error coding and/or reception quality. Reception quality may for example be based on a determined signal quality. Acknowledgement information may generally be transmitted to a signalling radio node and/or node arrangement and/or to a network and/or network node.
Acknowledgement information, or bit/s of a subpattern structure of such information (e.g., an acknowledgement information structure, may represent and/or comprise one or more bits, in particular a pattern of bits. Multiple bits pertaining to a data structure or substructure or message like a control message may be considered a subpattern. The structure or arrangement of acknowledgement information may indicate the order, and/or meaning, and/or mapping, and/or pattern of bits (or subpatterns of bits) of the information. The structure or mapping may in particular indicate one or more data block structures, e.g. code blocks and/or code block groups and/or transport blocks and/or messages, e.g. command messages, the acknowledgement information pertains to, and/or which bits or subpattern of bits are associated to which data block structure. In some cases, the mapping may pertain to one or more acknowledgement signalling processes, e.g. processes with different identifiers, and/or one or more different data streams. The configuration or structure or codebook may indicate to which process/es and/or data stream/s the information pertains. Generally, the acknowledgement information may comprise one or more subpatterns, each of which may pertain to a data block structure, e.g. a code block or code block group or transport block. A subpattern may be arranged to indicate acknowledgement or non-acknowledgement, or another retransmission state like non-scheduling or non-reception, of the associated data block structure. It may be considered that a subpattern comprises one bit, or in some cases more than one bit. It should be noted that acknowledgement information may be subjected to significant processing before being transmitted with acknowledgement signalling. Different configurations may indicate different sizes and/or mapping and/or structures and/or pattern.
An acknowledgment signalling process (providing acknowledgment information) may be a HARQ process, and/or be identified by a process identifier, e.g. a HARQ process identifier or subidentifier. Acknowledgement signalling and/or associated acknowledgement information may be referred to as feedback or acknowledgement feedback. It should be noted that data blocks or structures to which subpatterns may pertain may be intended to carry data (e.g., information and/or systemic and/or coding bits). However, depending on transmission conditions, such data may be received or not received (or not received correctly), which may be indicated correspondingly in the feedback. In some cases, a subpattern of acknowledgement signalling may comprise padding bits, e.g. if the acknowledgement information for a data block requires fewer bits than indicated as size of the subpattern. Such may for example happen if the size is indicated by a unit size larger than required for the feedback.
Acknowledgment information may generally indicate at least ACK or NACK, e.g. pertaining to an acknowledgment signalling process, or an element of a data block structure like a data block, subblock group or subblock, or a message, in particular a control message. Generally, to an acknowledgment signalling process there may be associated one specific subpattern and/or a data block structure, for which acknowledgment information may be provided. Acknowledgement information may comprise a plurality of pieces of information, represented in a plurality of ARQ and/or HARQ structures.
An acknowledgment signalling process may determine correct or incorrect reception, and/or corresponding acknowledgement information, of a data block like a transport block, and/or substructures thereof, based on coding bits associated to the data block, and/or based on coding bits associated to one or more data block and/or subblocks and/or subblock group/s. Acknowledgement information (determined by an acknowledgement signalling process) may pertain to the data block as a whole, and/or to one or more subblocks or subblock groups. A code block may be considered an example of a subblock, whereas a code block group may be considered an example of a subblock group. Accordingly, the associated subpattern may comprise one or more bits indicating reception status or feedback of the data block, and/or one or more bits indicating reception status or feedback of one or more subblocks or subblock groups. Each subpattern or bit of the subpattern may be associated and/or mapped to a specific data block or subblock or subblock group. In some variants, correct reception for a data block may be indicated if all subblocks or subblock groups are correctly identified. In such a case, the subpattern may represent acknowledgement information for the data block as a whole, reducing overhead in comparison to provide acknowledgement information for the subblocks or subblock groups. The smallest structure (e.g. subblock/subblock group/data block) the subpattern provides acknowledgement information for and/or is associated to may be considered its (highest) resolution. In some variants, a subpattern may provide acknowledgment information regarding several elements of a data block structure and/or at different resolution, e.g. to allow more specific error detection. For example, even if a subpattern indicates acknowledgment signalling pertaining to a data block as a whole, in some variants higher resolution (e.g., subblock or subblock group resolution) may be provided by the subpattern. A subpattern may generally comprise one or more bits indicating ACK/NACK for a data block, and/or one or more bits for indicating ACK/NACK for a subblock or subblock group, or for more than one subblock or subblock group.
A subblock and/or subblock group may comprise information bits (representing the data to be transmitted, e.g. user data and/or downlink/sidelink data or uplink data). It may be considered that a data block and/or subblock and/or subblock group also comprises error one or more error detection bits, which may pertain to, and/or be determined based on, the information bits (for a subblock group, the error detection bit/s may be determined based on the information bits and/or error detection bits and/or error correction bits of the subblock/s of the subblock group). A data block or substructure like subblock or subblock group may comprise error correction bits, which may in particular be determined based on the information bits and error detection bits of the block or substructure, e.g. utilising an error correction coding scheme, in particular for forward error correction (FEC), e.g. LDPC or polar coding and/or turbo coding. Generally, the error correction coding of a data block structure (and/or associated bits) may cover and/or pertain to information bits and error detection bits of the structure. A subblock group may represent a combination of one or more code blocks, respectively the corresponding bits. A data block may represent a code block or code block group, or a combination of more than one code block groups. A transport block may be split up in code blocks and/or code block groups, for example based on the bit size of the information bits of a higher layer data structure provided for error coding and/or size requirements or preferences for error coding, in particular error correction coding. Such a higher layer data structure is sometimes also referred to as transport block, which in this context represents information bits without the error coding bits described herein, although higher layer error handling information may be included, e.g. for an internet protocol like TCP. However, such error handling information represents information bits in the context of this disclosure, as the acknowledgement signalling procedures described treat it accordingly.
In some variants, a subblock like a code block may comprise error correction bits, which may be determined based on the information bit/s and/or error detection bit/s of the subblock. An error correction coding scheme may be used for determining the error correction bits, e.g. based on LDPC or polar coding or Reed-Mueller coding. In some cases, a subblock or code block may be considered to be defined as a block or pattern of bits comprising information bits, error detection bit/s determined based on the information bits, and error correction bit/s determined based on the information bits and/or error detection bit/s. It may be considered that in a subblock, e.g. code block, the information bits (and possibly the error correction bit/s) are protected and/or covered by the error correction scheme or corresponding error correction bit/s. A code block group may comprise one or more code blocks. In some variants, no additional error detection bits and/or error correction bits are applied, however, it may be considered to apply either or both. A transport block may comprise one or more code block groups. It may be considered that no additional error detection bits and/or error correction bits are applied to a transport block, however, it may be considered to apply either or both. In some specific variants, the code block group/s comprise no additional layers of error detection or correction coding, and the transport block may comprise only additional error detection coding bits, but no additional error correction coding. This may particularly be true if the transport block size is larger than the code block size and/or the maximum size for error correction coding. A subpattern of acknowledgement signalling (in particular indicating ACK or NACK) may pertain to a code block, e.g. indicating whether the code block has been correctly received. It may be considered that a subpattern pertains to a subgroup like a code block group or a data block like a transport block. In such cases, it may indicate ACK, if all subblocks or code blocks of the group or data/transport block are received correctly (e.g. based on a logical AND operation), and NACK or another state of non-correct reception if at least one subblock or code block has not been correctly received. It should be noted that a code block may be considered to be correctly received not only if it actually has been correctly received, but also if it can be correctly reconstructed based on soft-combining and/or the error correction coding.
A subpattern/HARQ structure may pertain to one acknowledgement signalling process and/or one carrier like a component carrier and/or data block structure or data block. It may in particular be considered that one (e.g. specific and/or single) subpattern pertains, e.g. is mapped by the codebook, to one (e.g., specific and/or single) acknowledgement signalling process, e.g. a specific and/or single HARQ process. It may be considered that in the bit pattern, subpatterns are mapped to acknowledgement signalling processes and/or data blocks or data block structures on a one-to-one basis. In some variants, there may be multiple subpatterns (and/or associated acknowledgment signalling processes) associated to the same component carrier, e.g. if multiple data streams transmitted on the carrier are subject to acknowledgement signalling processes. A subpattern may comprise one or more bits, the number of which may be considered to represent its size or bit size. Different bit n-tupels (n being 1 or larger) of a subpattern may be associated to different elements of a data block structure (e.g., data block or subblock or subblock group), and/or represent different resolutions. There may be considered variants in which only one resolution is represented by a bit pattern, e.g. a data block. A bit n-tupel may represent acknowledgement information (also referred to a feedback), in particular ACK or NACK, and optionally, (if n1), may represent DTX/DRX or other reception states. ACK/NACK may be represented by one bit, or by more than one bit, e.g. to improve disambiguity of bit sequences representing ACK or NACK, and/or to improve transmission reliability.
The acknowledgement information or feedback information may pertain to a plurality of different transmissions, which may be associated to and/or represented by data block structures, respectively the associated data blocks or data signalling. The data block structures, and/or the corresponding blocks and/or signalling, may be scheduled for simultaneous transmission, e.g. for the same transmission timing structure, in particular within the same slot or subframe, and/or on the same symbol/s. However, alternatives with scheduling for non-simultaneous transmission may be considered. For example, the acknowledgment information may pertain to data blocks scheduled for different transmission timing structures, e.g. different slots (or mini-slots, or slots and mini-slots) or similar, which may correspondingly be received (or not or wrongly received). Scheduling signalling may generally comprise indicating resources, e.g. time and/or frequency resources, for example for receiving or transmitting the scheduled signalling.
signalling may generally be considered to represent an electromagnetic wave structure (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval), which is intended to convey information to at least one specific or generic (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signalling) target. A process of signalling may comprise transmitting the signalling. Transmitting signalling, in particular control signalling or communication signalling, e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signalling and/or resource requesting information, may comprise encoding and/or modulating. Encoding and/or modulating may comprise error detection coding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling. Receiving control signalling may comprise corresponding decoding and/or demodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and/or be based on, parity or checksum approaches, e.g. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check). Forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on for example turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar coding and/or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding used may be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal is associated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number of information bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits after encoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detection coding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to information bits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.
Communication signalling may comprise, and/or represent, and/or be implemented as, data signalling, and/or user plane signalling. Communication signalling may be associated to a data channel, e.g. a physical downlink channel or physical uplink channel or physical sidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) or PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel). Generally, a data channel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signalling may be signalling associated to and/or on a data channel.
An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate the information it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may for example be based on position and/or resource used for transmission. Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrisation with one or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or one or more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particular be considered that control signalling as described herein, based on the utilised resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signalling type.
A resource element may generally describe the smallest individually usable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/or demodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe a time-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and a subcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated to a resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. as defined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequency band for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal (jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. A resource element may generally be as defined by a corresponding standard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrier spacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbols and/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have different extension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particular resource elements pertaining to different carriers. A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or code resource, on which signalling, e.g. according to a specific format, may be communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or be intended for transmission and/or reception.
A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol or an ending symbol for transmitting and/or receiving. A starting symbol may in particular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signalling, for example control signalling or data signalling. Such signalling may be on a data channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data or shared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or a sidelink control channel. If the starting symbol is associated to control signalling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signalling may be in response to received signalling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g. representing acknowledgement signalling associated thereto, which may be HARQ or ARQ signalling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol (in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signalling, which may be intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Such downlink signalling may in particular be data signalling, e.g. on a physical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on, and/or in relation to, such an ending symbol.
Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment, may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and/or instructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may be done by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio node of the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which case it may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration to be configured and/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to a configuration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving on allocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s
Generally, configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor.
A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequency domain by another resource structure, if they share a common border frequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as a lower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented by the upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which also represents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1. A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domain by another resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g. one as an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower (or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example be represented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symbol n, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time interval assigned to a symbol n+1.
Generally, a resource structure being neighbored by another resource structure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/or bordering the other resource structure in the domain.
A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/or frequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and a frequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or be comprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resource structure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s, and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may comprise and/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may be considered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or a Physical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others. A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. a PUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot or PRB.
Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise a bandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a part of a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due to circuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or a standard. A bandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio node. In some variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used for communicating, e.g. transmitting and/or receiving, by a radio node. The bandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a device bandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of a device, and/or a system bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN). It may be considered that a bandwidth part comprises one or more resource blocks or resource block groups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth part may pertain to, and/or comprise, one or more carriers.
A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/or pertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. It may be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. A carrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequency interval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to each subcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth or interval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may be neighboring in frequency domain.
It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may be considered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may also include wireless communication utilising millimeter waves, in particular above one of the thresholds 10 GHz or 20 GHz or 50 GHz or 52 GHz or 52.6 GHz or 60 GHz or 72 GHz or 100 GHz or 114 GHz. Such communication may utilise one or more carriers, e.g. in FDD and/or carrier aggregation. Upper frequency boundaries may correspond to 300 GHz or 200 GHz or 120 GHz or any of the thresholds larger than the one representing the lower frequency boundary.
A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generally be any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/or wireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, in particular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier may comprise a carrier accessed based on an LBT procedure (which may be called LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be considered that the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.
Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving or transmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to the cell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by or for one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrier for DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may be considered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DL carriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission and DL communication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.
A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. A channel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, in particular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or for carrying control signalling/control information may be considered a control channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carrying and/or for carrying data signalling/user information may be considered a data channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for a specific communication direction, or for two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in which case it may be considered to have two component channels, one for each direction. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latency and/or high reliability transmission, in particular a channel for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be for control and/or data.
In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol time length, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacing and/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol may be considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length in relation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on a carrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrier spacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbols may have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies with different subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time length. Generally, a symbol time length may be based on, and/or include, a guard time interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.
A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channel structure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data is transmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via the communication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via a network node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via air interface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via the sidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communication may be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedly defined resources and/or on resources negotiated between the participants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered that a network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelink communication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.
Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services) communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implemented in the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P (Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication may be considered a user equipment or terminal.
A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more (e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical Sidelink Control CHannel, which may for example carry control information like an acknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgement signalling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel (or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/or frequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellular communication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard. Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, in particular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resource like a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participants transmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or there may be associated specific channels and/or resources to specific participants, so that for example only one participant transmits on a specific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g., in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers or subcarriers.
A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, a specific standard, e.g. an LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink may utilise TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/or preconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A user equipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication if it, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adapted for utilising a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/or carriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to a specific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio Access Network is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication. Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may be represented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network node and/or communication with such a node.
Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmitting and/or receiving signalling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelink signalling) may comprise utilising the sidelink for communication (respectively, for signalling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmitting on a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilising the sidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receiving on a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilising the sidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g., SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control information transmitted utilising a sidelink.
Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radio connection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellular communication network and/or network node and a terminal or on a sidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one direction of transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate of carriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to as carrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriers in a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). In such a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriers and/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate of carriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicated control carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred to as primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information may be transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primary carrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondary carriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in some approaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrier of an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.
A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/or specific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and ending symbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduled transmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or for which resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, not every scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, a scheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduled uplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, or other influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier being occupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timing substructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of a transmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structure like a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in the transmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.
Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the related information being defined for example in a standard, and/or being available without specific configuration from a network or network node, e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured. Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to the corresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or a network node.
A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and/or structure configuration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for the time/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled by separate signalling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRC signalling and/or downlink control information signalling. The transmission/s scheduled may represent signalling to be transmitted by the device for which it is scheduled, or signalling to be received by the device for which it is scheduled, depending on which side of a communication the device is. It should be noted that downlink control information or specifically DCI signalling may be considered physical layer signalling, in contrast to higher layer signalling like MAC (Medium Access Control) signalling or RRC layer signalling. The higher the layer of signalling is, the less frequent/the more time/resource consuming it may be considered, at least partially due to the information contained in such signalling having to be passed on through several layers, each layer requiring processing and handling.
A scheduled transmission, and/or transmission timing structure like a mini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or a physical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or may pertain to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. A corresponding configuration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration may pertain to such channel, cell and/or carrier aggregation. It may be considered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on a physical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example a physical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel. For such channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.
Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing, and/or be represented or configured with corresponding configuration data. A configuration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a message or configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/or schedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/or semi-statically.
A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an interval in time and/or frequency domain for intended or scheduled or reserved for control signalling, in particular downlink control signalling, and/or for a specific control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. The interval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number of symbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicated signalling (which may be single-cast, for example addressed to or intended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRC signalling, or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timing structure may comprise a control region covering a configurable number of symbols. It may be considered that in general the border symbol is configured to be after the control region in time. A control region may be associated, e.g. via configuration and/or determination, to one or more specific UEs and/or formats of PDCCH and/or DCI and/or identifiers, e.g. UE identifiers and/or RNTIs or carrier/cell identifiers, and/or be represented and/or associated to a CORESET and/or a search space.
The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of the transmission timing structure may generally be dependent on a numerology and/or carrier, wherein the numerology and/or carrier may be configurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for the scheduled transmission.
A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols, and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively their associated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it should be noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may be interpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval or time component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it is clear from the context that the frequency domain component also has to be considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot, subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of a slot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and may be considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their time domain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprise a plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g., interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure, and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timing structure (which may also be considered or implemented as synchronisation structure) may be defined by a succession of such transmission timing structures, which may for example define a timing grid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. A transmission timing structure, and/or a border symbol or a scheduled transmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timing grid. A transmission timing structure of reception may be the transmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signalling is received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timing structure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, a mini-slot.
Feedback signalling may be considered a form or control signalling, e.g. uplink or sidelink control signalling, like UCI (Uplink Control Information) signalling or SCI (Sidelink Control Information) signalling. Feedback signalling may in particular comprise and/or represent acknowledgement signalling and/or acknowledgement information and/or measurement reporting.
signalling utilising, and/or on and/or associated to, resources or a resource structure may be signalling covering the resources or structure, signalling on the associated frequency/ies and/or in the associated time interval/s. It may be considered that a signalling resource structure comprises and/or encompasses one or more substructures, which may be associated to one or more different channels and/or types of signalling and/or comprise one or more holes (resource element/s not scheduled for transmissions or reception of transmissions). A resource substructure, e.g. a feedback resource structure, may generally be continuous in time and/or frequency, within the associated intervals. It may be considered that a substructure, in particular a feedback resource structure, represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements in time/frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure or substructure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent a non-continuous pattern of resources in one or more domains, e.g. time and/or frequency. The resource elements of a substructure may be scheduled for associated signalling.
Example types of signalling comprise signalling of a specific communication direction, in particular, uplink signalling, downlink signalling, sidelink signalling, as well as reference signalling (e.g., SRS or CRS or CSI-RS), communication signalling, control signalling, and/or signalling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).
In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished between dynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and/or configuration, and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and/or configuration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may generally pertain to configuration/transmission valid and/or scheduled and/or configured for (relatively) short timescales and/or a (e.g., predefined and/or configured and/or limited and/or definite) number of occurrences and/or transmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timing structures like slots or slot aggregations, and/or for one or more (e.g., specific number) of transmission/occurrences. Dynamic configuration may be based on low-level signalling, e.g. control signalling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in the form of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longer timescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or a non-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configuration contradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodic or semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with, higher-layer signalling, in particular RCL layer signalling and/or RRC signalling and/or MAC signalling.
In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions, processes and signalling steps) in order to provide a thorough understanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may be practiced in other variants and variants that depart from these specific details.
For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or New Radio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this does not rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connection with additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or IEEE standards as IEEE 802.11ad or IEEE 802.11 ay. While described variants may pertain to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated that the present approaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized in connection with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.
Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services, functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using software functioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or general purpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variants described herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices, the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in a program product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry, e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products that execute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.
It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presented herein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof without departing from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein or without sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspects presented herein can be varied in many ways.
Some useful abbreviations comprise
Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/SE2022/050578 | 6/12/2022 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63210720 | Jun 2021 | US |
