CN108886805B

CN108886805B - System, method and device for optimizing uplink grant transmission for multi-subframe scheduling

Info

Publication number: CN108886805B
Application number: CN201680083918.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 阿比哈吉特·波尔卡尔; 叶悄扬; 牛华宁; 全晸鍸
Original assignee: Apple Inc
Current assignee: Apple Inc; Intel Corp
Priority date: 2016-04-15
Filing date: 2016-09-08
Publication date: 2022-09-16
Anticipated expiration: 2036-09-08
Also published as: CN108886805A; WO2017180179A1

Abstract

The design of an Uplink (UL) grant may include scheduling a multi-frame UL grant assisted access (LAA) transmission. These UL LAA transmissions may include a single UL grant in a subframe for the UE for scheduling multiple Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions and/or a single UL grant for scheduling interlace allocations. The design may include (1) multi-subframe scheduling, (2) uplink LBT indication, and/or (3) multi-cluster transmission using a block-interleaved frequency division multiple access (B-IFDMA) design.

Description

System, method and device for optimizing uplink grant transmission for multi-subframe scheduling

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No.62/323,102 filed 2016, 4, 15, 2016, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, according to 35u.s.c. § 119 (e).

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to uplink transmissions in cellular devices, and more particularly, to optimized uplink grant transmissions that enable multi-subframe scheduling in a shared wireless medium.

Background

Wireless mobile communication technologies use various standards and protocols to transmit data between base stations and wireless mobile devices. Wireless communication system standards and protocols may include: third generation partnership project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE); the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.16 standard, commonly referred to in the industry as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX); and the IEEE 802.11 standard for Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), commonly referred to in the industry as Wi-Fi. In a 3GPP Radio Access Network (RAN) in an LTE system, a base station may include a RAN node, such as an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) node B (also commonly denoted as evolved node B, enhanced node B, eNodeB, or eNB) and/or a Radio Network Controller (RNC) in the E-UTRAN, which communicates with wireless communication devices known as User Equipment (UE).

The RAN communicates between the RAN node and the UE using a Radio Access Technology (RAT). The RANs may include global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) RAN (geran), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and/or E-UTRAN, which provide access to communication services through a core network. Each RAN operates according to a specific 3GPP RAT. For example, GERAN 104 implements a GSM and/or EDGE RAT, UTRAN 106 implements a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, and E-UTRAN 108 implements an LTE RAT.

The core network may be connected to the UE through the RAN node. The core network may include a Serving Gateway (SGW), a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (PGW), an Access Network Detection and Selection Function (ANDSF) server, an enhanced packet data gateway (ePDG), and/or a Mobility Management Entity (MME).

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide techniques for communication. According to one aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) is provided. The device includes: a storage configured to store an uplink grant configuration. The apparatus also includes a processor configured to: processing an uplink grant from a radio access network node, the uplink grant comprising the uplink grant configuration and a schedule for a plurality of physical uplink transmissions using an unlicensed wireless spectrum according to an interlace assignment; sensing the unlicensed wireless spectrum for signal or noise to determine whether the unlicensed wireless spectrum is free or busy; generating a plurality of physical uplink transmissions allocated in accordance with the interleaving during the scheduling when the unlicensed radio spectrum is determined to be idle; and blocking the plurality of physical uplink transmissions allocated according to the interlace during the scheduling when the unlicensed radio spectrum is determined to be busy.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a Radio Access Network (RAN) system using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and licensed-assisted access (LAA) consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 2 is a table illustrating a downlink control format (DCI)0 field consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 3 is a table illustrating available interlace index assignments based on a starting interlace index consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 4 is a table illustrating fields for single subframe scheduling including interlace assignment consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 5 is a table illustrating fields for multi-subframe scheduling using scheme 1 consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 6 is a table illustrating schemes and bit lengths for multi-subframe scheduling consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 7 is a table illustrating fields for multi-subframe scheduling using scheme 8, consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating an indication of a cross transmission opportunity (TxOP) with an explicit timing relationship consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication frame consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating electronic device circuitry, which may be Radio Access Node (RAN) circuitry (e.g., eNB circuitry), UE circuitry, network node circuitry, or some other type of circuitry, consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 11 is a block diagram illustrating example components of a User Equipment (UE) or Mobile Station (MS) device consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a method consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium), according to some example embodiments, consistent with embodiments disclosed herein.

Detailed Description

A detailed description of systems and methods consistent with embodiments of the present disclosure is provided below. While several embodiments have been described, it should be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to any one embodiment, but encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications, and equivalents. Furthermore, while numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments disclosed herein, some embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these details. Moreover, for the purpose of clarity, certain technical material that is known in the related art has not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure.

Techniques, apparatuses, and methods are disclosed that enable designing an Uplink (UL) grant to schedule multi-frame UL grant assisted access (LAA) transmissions. These UL LAA transmissions may include a single UL grant in a subframe for the UE to schedule multiple Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions and/or a single UL grant for the scheduling interlace assignment. The design may include (1) multi-subframe scheduling, (2) uplink LBT indication, and/or (3) multi-cluster transmission using a block-interleaved frequency division multiple access (B-IFDMA) design.

Wireless mobile communication technologies use various standards and protocols to transmit data between base stations and wireless mobile devices. Wireless communication system standards and protocols may include: third generation partnership project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE); the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.16 standard, commonly referred to in the industry as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX); and the IEEE 802.11 standard, commonly referred to in the industry as Wi-Fi. In a 3GPP Radio Access Network (RAN) in an LTE system, a base station may include an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) node B (also commonly denoted as evolved node B, enhanced node B, eNodeB, or eNB) and/or a Radio Network Controller (RNC) in the E-UTRAN that communicates with wireless communication devices known as User Equipment (UE).

Explosive wireless traffic growth results in a need for rate escalation. With mature physical layer technology, further improvements in spectral efficiency are expected to be negligible. The scarcity of licensed spectrum in the low frequency band results in insufficient data rate increase. Accordingly, there is an interest in the operation of Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems in unlicensed spectrum. Thus, one major enhancement to LTE in 3GPP release 13 is to enable its operation in unlicensed spectrum through Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), which extends the system bandwidth by exploiting the flexible Carrier Aggregation (CA) framework introduced by LTE advanced systems. Enhanced operation of LTE systems in unlicensed spectrum is expected in future releases and fifth generation (5G) systems. Potential LTE operations in unlicensed spectrum include, but are not limited to: (1) LTE operation in unlicensed spectrum over Dual Connectivity (DC), referred to herein as DC-based LAA, and (2) standalone LTE systems in unlicensed spectrum (or shared spectrum, shared medium, or unlicensed medium), where LTE-based technologies operate only in unlicensed spectrum, without an "anchor point" in licensed spectrum, referred to as MuLTEfire. MuLTEfire combines the performance benefits of LTE technology with the simplicity of Wi-Fi like deployments, which is envisioned as a technology segment that helps meet the ever-increasing wireless traffic.

The unlicensed band of interest in 3GPP is the 5GHz band, which includes a broad spectrum with global universal availability. The 5GHz band in the united states is governed by the unlicensed national information infrastructure (U-NII) rules of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). An existing system in the 5GHz band is a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), particularly one based on IEEE 802.11a/n/ac technology. Since WLAN systems are widely deployed by individuals and operators for carrier-grade (carrier-grade) access services and data offloading, sufficient care must be taken prior to deployment. This existing use means that Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) is considered as a mandatory feature for Rel-13 LAA systems for fair coexistence with existing systems. LBT is the following process: the radio transmitter first senses the wireless medium for a signal (which may include an identified signal, an unidentified signal, or noise above a threshold) and transmits only when the wireless medium is sensed to be idle.

In Rel-14 LAA and Multefire, UL LAA design is considered. The nature of the UL LAA design differs from the conventional LTE design in that the UE is required to perform LBT before transmission. Furthermore, there are additional restrictions on UL LAA transmissions to comply with regulations (e.g., ETSI).

In this specification, we describe the design of a UL grant for scheduling UL LAA transmissions. Below we describe three configurations of UL grant design for UL scheduling. These configurations include (1) multi-subframe scheduling, (2) uplink LBT indication, and (3) multi-cluster transmission using block-interleaved frequency division multiple access (B-IFDMA) design.

With respect to (1) multi-subframe scheduling, (a) flexible timing and (B) cross TxOP scheduling may be supported. With respect to (a) flexible timing, in Rel-14eLAA WI/MF, flexible timing between UL grant and UL transmission may be supported. For example, in option (1), a single UL grant in a subframe for a UE may schedule N (N > ═ 1) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions for the UE in N subframes, with a single PUSCH per subframe. This is referred to herein as multi-subframe scheduling. In another example or option (2), a single UL grant in a subframe for the UE may schedule a single PUSCH transmission in a single subframe, while the UE may receive multiple UL grants in a subframe for PUSCH transmissions in different subframes. This is referred to herein as single subframe scheduling.

Regarding (B) cross-TxOP UL scheduling, Rel-14 LAA and MF support cross-TxOP UL scheduling. Cross TxOP UL scheduling aims to address poor LAA UL performance and increase UL transmission opportunities by allowing scheduling of UL subframes in one transmission burst (TxOP) in a previous transmission burst. In the examples provided herein for a crossover TxOP, two options may be considered (but are not limited to only these two examples). In type 1, the eNB schedules the UE with a fixed time relationship between grants and transmissions. In type 2, the eNB schedules the UE without a fixed time relationship between grants and transmissions, and the UE transmits after receiving a trigger sent by the eNB on the C-PDCCH.

The UL grant may also include relevant information to schedule multiple subframes that may exist inside the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT), or outside the MCOT, or a combination of both.

With respect to (2) uplink LBT, the Rel-13 LAA design is instructed to limit the MCOT or transmission opportunity (TxOP) after LBT is completed at the eNB to 8ms (case of LAA co-existing with Wi-Fi) or 10ms (other cases). A UE scheduled within a TxOP performs a single interval LBT or a short class (cat) 4LBT, e.g., by puncturing the first symbol of a PUSCH transmission. The UE may also not perform LBT (e.g., if the UE has completed UL LBT in a previous subframe within the MCOT). If UL transmission occurs outside the MCOT and the UL grant schedules transmission with an explicit timing relationship, the UE performs class 4 LBT. The UL grant may indicate the type of LBT to perform, including no LBT, single interval LBT, and class 4LBT, for which the UL grant may use a total of 2 bits.

With respect to (3) multi-cluster transmission using a block interleaved frequency division multiple access (B-IFDMA) design, MF and eLAA may use multi-cluster UL transmission and an interleaved design based on B-IFDMA waveforms. The design is believed to meet regulatory requirements, including the ETSI specification, which defines a maximum Power Spectral Density (PSD) of 10dBm/MHz for 5150-5350 MHz. Further, the rules may impose a band-specific total maximum transmit power that is transmitter constrained by an Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP).

In the B-IFDMA, UL assignment (assignment) is performed in units of interleaving. The interleaving consists of equidistant Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) spread across the system bandwidth (which may also satisfy rules such as the PSD described above). The number of interlaces depends on the inter-PRB distance and the system bandwidth. For example, a 20MHz bandwidth in MF supports 10 interlaces. The distance between PRBs may be randomized, keeping the number of interlaces fixed according to the fixed PRB distance, while satisfying the rules. Such randomization may be useful for inter-cell interference randomization and intermodulation distortion. A UE may be assigned multiple such interlaces. Resource Indication Value (RIV) UL grants may be optimized to indicate the assigned interlace instead of PRBs.

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a Radio Access Network (RAN) system using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and licensed-assisted access (LAA) consistent with embodiments disclosed herein. Turning to fig. 1, an example of a portion of the RAN system 100 includes a single cellular air interface (e.g., an LTE/LTE-advanced access link) provided between the LTE RAN node 104 and the UE 102 (i.e., on access link a), and an air interface (a supplemental network interface such as a radio authorization assisted access (LAA) -based interface) provided between the LAA RAN node 106 and the UE 102 (i.e., on access link B). The UE 102 is located in the macro cell coverage area 108. The UE 102 determines that a connection with the LAA RAN node 106 would be beneficial to a user of the UE 102. In some embodiments, the UE 102 will reserve access link a to the LTE RAN node 104. The UE 102 may offload some, or all of the wireless service onto access link B. In other embodiments, the UE 102 disconnects from access link a and moves all wireless services to access link B. In some embodiments, access link a uses a licensed medium (e.g., a licensed spectrum or frequency band) and access link B uses an unlicensed medium (e.g., an unlicensed spectrum or frequency band). In other embodiments, access link a and access link B use different frequencies (e.g., LTE licensed and unlicensed frequencies) and different link technologies (e.g., LTE and LAA). For example, the UE may use DC-based LAA by using access link a and access link B. In another example, the UE may use access link B with MuLTEfire as a standalone LTE system in unlicensed spectrum, where LTE-based technologies operate only in unlicensed spectrum without the need for an "anchor" point in the licensed spectrum.

Fig. 2 is a table illustrating a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format 0 field consistent with embodiments disclosed herein. Legacy LTE designs use DCI format 0 and DCI format 4 to schedule PUSCH transmissions. The bit assignment for DCI format 0 is described in table 200. The DCI format 0 may be further extended to support enhanced laa (elaa) and multi-subframe (MF) designs. The Uplink (UL) grant design is extended to support eLAA and multi-subframe designs. Examples of such extensions can be seen in fig. 3 and 6.

Additional fields may be used with DCI format 0 to support eLAA and multi-subframe design. For example, a Listen Before Talk (LBT) indication field may be used to indicate the behavior of the UE before transmitting on the UL (e.g., no LBT, single interval LBT, class 4LBT (also called cat 4 or cat 4 LBT)).

The transmission opportunity (TxOP) field may use one bit to indicate whether an UL transmission is to be inside or outside the TxOP. A transmission opportunity is a set of consecutive transmissions that may occur after the UE or LAA RAN node accesses the medium. For example, TxOP may be defined as 4ms (other durations may be used, e.g., values between 4ms and 20 ms) after the LAA RAN node sends the UL grant.

The outer TxOP indicator may use one bit (type 1 or type 2) to indicate the type of transmission outside of the TxOP (e.g., a fixed timing relationship with the UL grant or no fixed timing relationship with the UL grant).

A 4-bit timing relationship field may be added. If the UL subframe is within the TxOP, the UL grant indicates an offset between the UL grant scheduling the UL subframe and the first scheduled UL subframe. If the UL grant is scheduled by a cross TxOP, the UE indicates whether the UE is scheduled within or outside the TxOP. The UE infers a valid subframe with respect to the first scheduled UL subframe outside the TxOP.

The set of scheduled UL subframes may also be defined by a fieldAnd (4) indicating. For the continuous embodiment, the number of scheduled UL subframes, wherein

One bit may be for N _max (N _max Is the maximum number of subframes that can be scheduled continuously). A maximum of 4 bits may be used for this purpose. For distributed embodiments, a bitmap-based approach may be used. In a distributed embodiment, when the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) is 10ms, 10 bits may be used.

The number of UL hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes may be increased to 16 HARQ processes and a maximum of 4 bits may be used. Note that in DCI0, the HARQ ID is not explicitly indicated.

In addition to the additional indicators described above, the UL grant design for the eLAA MF design may include other modifications. The RIV field may be reused to indicate the assigned interlace (e.g., with 10 bits or optimized 6 bits). The format 0-1A-Flag is not used. The LAA UL grant is expected to use a different DCI format. If no hopping across slots is used within an interlace, a hopping flag (flag) is not used for eLAA. Since eLAA/MF supports asynchronous UL, an additional two bits may be used to indicate Redundancy Version (RV). The information bits of the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may be appended with 16 bits before channel coding/rate matching. Channel coding may be performed using a tail-biting convolutional code (TBCC) as in the conventional PDCCH.

Fig. 3 is a table 300 illustrating available interlace index assignments based on a starting interlace index consistent with embodiments disclosed herein. A UE may be assigned multiple logical interlaces. Two design options may include an interleaving ordering method and a bitmap method. For the interlace ordering method, the interlace assignment is indicated by a starting interlace index and a number of interlaces to be assigned to the UE. For example, in the case of 10 interlaces, the possible interlace assignments (up to 55 possible assignments in the case of single user resource allocation) are shown in table 300. For 20MHz with 10 interlaces, 6 bits may be used. As the starting interlace index increases, an interlace assignment to a lower interlace is not possible (because the starting interlace will be the lower interlace index).

For example, when the starting interlace index is 0, any one of 10 interlaces can be selected. When the starting interlace index is 1, only the 9 highest interlaces are available for selection. This continues until the starting interlace index is 9, where only the highest interlace can be selected.

For the bitmap approach, the indication of interlace assignment is performed by a bitmap. Note that the number of bits in the bitmap for each UE is equal to the number of interlaces, and each bit in the bitmap shows whether or not the interlace is assigned. For example, in the case of 10 interlaces, a 10-bit bitmap may be used, where each bit corresponds to one interlace. Each UE will be indicated by a specific 10-bit bitmap to indicate the interlace assigned to it. For example, "0110010001" indicates that interlaces {1,2,5,9} are assigned to the UE. For 20MHz with 10 interlaces, 10 bits are needed.

Fig. 4 is a table 400 illustrating fields for single subframe scheduling including interlace assignment consistent with embodiments disclosed herein. In this design, the UL grant indicates the fields needed for operation of the UL LBT. Further, the RIV is modified to indicate the interlace assignment. In one embodiment, 6 bits are used to indicate the interlace assignment. In another embodiment, 10 bits are used for the interlace assignment. In the design described above, the UL grant for scheduling a single subframe for eLAA/MF may use up to 36 bits (with a 6-bit interleaved mapping). In contrast, DCI0 uses 32 bits. Further description of these fields may be found in conjunction with fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a table illustrating fields for multi-subframe scheduling using scheme 1 (as shown in fig. 6) consistent with embodiments disclosed herein. Multi-subframe scheduling may schedule multiple UL subframes in a flexible manner, where different UL resources, MCS, HARQ ID, NDI, and RV are indicated separately via DCI for each scheduled subframe. This design may cause the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) overhead to increase linearly as the number of scheduled subframes increases. Furthermore, the UE may need to blindly detect the PDCCH based on the number of scheduled UL transmissions based on the scheduled UL subframes. This may increase the complexity of the UE. Accordingly, various design options to reduce PDCCH overhead and blind detection at the UE may be considered.

According to an embodiment, the maximum number of possible scheduled subframes (N) may be based _max ) The number of bits used for UL grants is pre-designed. Otherwise, the UE may need to pass N of the number of scheduled subframes _max Is selected to perform blind decoding.

In table 500, an embodiment of a scheme for a DCI field is shown. In this option, for each scheduled subframe, RIV, MCS, HARQ ID, NDI, RV, LBT information and cross TxOP information are indicated separately for each subframe. In this option, the number of bits is

For N _max The number of bits required may be as many as 195 bits. This option is the most flexible option for multi-subframe scheduling.

Fig. 6 is a table showing schemes and bit lengths for multi-subframe scheduling other than scheme 1 described in conjunction with fig. 5. These schemes show different embodiments of DCI fields that may be used in multi-subframe scheduling.

In scheme 2, for each scheduled subframe, MCS, HARQ ID, NDI, RV, LBT information, and cross TxOP information are indicated separately for each subframe. The RIV value is fixed for each scheduled subframe. In this option, the number of bits required is

For N _max The number of bits required can be as many as 153 bits, 8.

Scheme 3: in this option, for each scheduled subframe, the HARQ ID, NDI, LBT information, and type of cross TxOP are indicated separately for each subframe. The MCS, RV, and RIV are fixed for each scheduled subframe. Therein, theIn the option, the required number of bits is

For N _max The number of bits required can be as many as 104 bits, 8.

Scheme 4: in this option, for each scheduled subframe, HARQ ID, NDI and LBT information is indicated separately for each subframe. The MCS/RV, RIV and cross-TxOP information is fixed for each scheduled subframe. This option limits the scheduled subframes to be either inside or outside the TxOP. If scheduled outside of the TxOP, then the type 1 or type 2 cross TxOP scheduling is also fixed for all scheduled subframes. In this option, the number of bits required is

For N _max The number of bits required can be as many as 89 bits.

Scheme 5: scheme 5 is a slight variation of scheme 3. In this option, UL LBT is not separately indicated for each subframe. The first subframe of the UL burst may perform a single interval LBT or cat 4LBT, depending on the information specified in the cross TxOP. This information is implicitly obtained based on the cross TxOP information. Thus, the two bits required for the LBT type indication are not required. All subframes after the first subframe perform a single interval LBT. In this option, the number of bits required is

For N _max The number of bits required can be as many as 74 bits, 8.

Scheme 6: in this option, for each scheduled subframe, N is indicated for each subframe separatelyThe DI information. The MCS/RV, RIV and cross-TxOP information is fixed for each scheduled subframe. The HARQ ID for the first subframe is indicated. The HARQ IDs of the remaining subframes are obtained by sequentially incrementing the HARQ IDs (and starting from 0 if the incremented HARQ ID is greater than the maximum number of supported HARQ processes). In this option, the number of bits required is

For N _max The required number of bits can be as many as 47 bits, 8.

Scheme 7: in this option, for each scheduled subframe, RV and NDI information is indicated separately for each subframe. The MCS, RIV and cross TxOP information is fixed for each scheduled subframe. The HARQ ID is implicitly indicated. In DCI0, MCS + RV uses 5 bits. If the RV information is coded, the MCS still requires 5 bits, while the RV requires an additional 2 bits. In this option, the number of bits required is

For N _max The required number of bits can be as many as 59 bits, 8.

Scheme 8: in this option, all variables (e.g., types of MCS/RV, RIV, DI, and cross TxOP) are fixed for each scheduled subframe. The HARQ ID is implicitly indicated based on the first scheduled subframe. In this option, the number of bits required is

For N _max The number of bits required can be as many as 38 bits, 8. Examples of DCI fields used with this scheme may be found in fig. 7, and descriptions of these fields may be found in conjunction with the description of fig. 2.

Fig. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating an indication of a cross transmission opportunity (TxOP) with an explicit timing relationship consistent with embodiments disclosed herein. For example, the presence of a potential PUSCH transmission outside of a TxOP is indicated by UL grant 806 in the previous TxOP in an explicit timing relationship. The UL grant 806 sent in subframe n explicitly indicates subframes n + α to n + β that may be used for UL transmission by the UE, where α, β > 0 (shown here as α ═ 6, β ═ 13). Before the start of UL burst 802 from a scheduled UE, the scheduled UE performs cat 4LBT 804 if the scheduled UE is scheduled outside of TxOP. The parameters of cat 4LBT 804 to be used may be based on the priority associated with the traffic scheduled for the UE. The UE is indicated whether the subframe scheduled by the UL grant 806 is within or outside of the TxOP. The indication is used to determine an LBT to be performed by the UE. The scheduled UE in the next TxOP performs cat 4LBT 804 in a self-delayed manner. The scheduled UE may start PUSCH transmission at a subframe boundary, or after the second symbol of the subframe containing PUSCH transmission, depending on when cat 4LBT 804 is completed. The eNB performs blind detection to determine the start of PUSCH transmission.

If the scheduled UE cannot complete LBT before the scheduled subframe, the UE may continue to perform LBT until it can successfully complete LBT before any scheduled UL subframe. The behavior of the UE may include two options if the UE cannot complete LBT within a scheduled subframe outside of TxOP. For option 1, if the UE cannot complete LBT before all scheduled UL subframes within the next TxOP, the UE restarts LBT scheduled for any future cross-TxOP. For option 2, the UE may resume LBT for any future cross TxOP unless otherwise indicated by the eNB. The UE may restart the LBT procedure if the eNB does not indicate a scheduled UL subframe within the cross TxOP within the configured duration. In some embodiments, option 2 is preferred due to its similarity to WLAN operation. After LBT is complete, the UE may transmit on the scheduled UL subframe as indicated by the UL grant and if the scheduled subframe occurs after LBT is complete.

Fig. 9 is a diagram 900 illustrating the structure of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication frame 905. Frame 905 has a duration of 10 milliseconds (ms). The frame 905 includes ten subframes 910, each having a duration of 1 ms. Each subframe 910 includes two slots 915, each having a duration of 0.5 ms. Thus, frame 905 includes 20 time slots 915.

Each slot 915 includes six or seven Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols 920. The number of OFDM symbols 920 in each slot 915 is based on the size of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) 925. For example, the number of OFDM symbols 920 in the slot 915 is 7 in the normal mode CP and 6 in the extended mode CP.

The smallest allocable unit for transmission is a resource block 930 (i.e., a Physical Resource Block (PRB) 930). The transmission is scheduled by PRB 930. The PRB 930 consists of 12 consecutive subcarriers 935 or 180kHz for the duration of one slot 915 (0.5 ms). The resource element 940, which is a minimum definition unit, is composed of one OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval. In case of the normal mode CP, each PRB 930 is composed of 84 resource elements 940 by 12 × 7. In the case of extended mode CP, each PRB 930 consists of 72 resource elements 940.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating electronic device circuitry 1000 in accordance with various embodiments, the electronic device circuitry 1000 may be Radio Access Node (RAN) circuitry (e.g., eNB circuitry), UE circuitry, network node circuitry, or some other type of circuitry. In embodiments, the electronic device circuitry 1000 may be, or may be incorporated into or otherwise be part of: a RAN node (e.g., eNB), a UE, a Mobile Station (MS), a BTS, a network node, or some other type of electronic device. In an embodiment, the electronic device circuitry 1000 may include radio transmit circuitry 1010 and receive circuitry 1012 coupled to control circuitry 1014 (e.g., baseband processor(s), etc.). In an embodiment, the transmit circuitry 1010 and/or the receive circuitry 1012 may be elements or modules of transceiver circuitry, as shown. In some embodiments, some or all of the control circuitry 1015 may be in a device separate from or external to the transmit circuitry 1010 and the receive circuitry 1012 (e.g., a baseband processor shared by multiple antenna devices as in a cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation).

The electronics circuitry 1010 may be coupled with one or more antenna elements 1016 of one or more antennas. The electronic device circuitry 1000 and/or components of the electronic device circuitry 1000 may be configured to perform operations similar to those described elsewhere in this disclosure.

In embodiments where the electronic device circuitry 1000 is, or is incorporated into or otherwise part of, a UE, the transmit circuitry 1010 may transmit UL data, as shown in fig. 1 and 8. The receive circuitry 1012 may receive Downlink (DL) data, DCI data, and/or an uplink grant, as shown in fig. 1 and 8.

In embodiments where the electronic device circuitry 1000 is, or is incorporated as or otherwise part of, an eNB, BTS, and/or network node, the transmit circuitry 1010 may transmit Downlink (DL) data, DCI data, and/or an uplink grant, as shown in fig. 1 and 8. The receive circuitry 1012 may receive UL data as shown in fig. 1 and 8

In certain embodiments, the electronic device circuitry 1000 shown in FIG. 10 is operable to perform one or more methods, such as the method shown in FIG. 12.

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, may be a part of, or may include: an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules, or the functionality associated with the circuitry may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuitry may comprise logic operable, at least in part, in hardware.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented in a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. Fig. 11 is a block diagram illustrating example components of a User Equipment (UE) or Mobile Station (MS) device 1100 for one embodiment. In some embodiments, the UE device 1100 may include application circuitry 1102, baseband circuitry 1104, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1106, Front End Module (FEM) circuitry 1108, and one or more antennas 1110 coupled together at least as shown in fig. 11.

The application circuitry 1102 may include one or more application processors. By way of non-limiting example, the application circuitry 1102 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor(s) may be operably coupled to and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to cause various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

As a non-limiting example, the baseband circuitry 1104 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 1104 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic. Baseband circuitry 1104 may be configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 1106. The baseband circuitry 1104 may also be configured to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1106. Baseband circuitry 1104 may interact with application circuitry 1102 for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of RF circuitry 1106.

As non-limiting examples, the baseband circuitry 1104 may include at least one of a second generation (2G) baseband processor 1104A, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1104B, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1104C, and other baseband processor(s) 1104D for other existing, developing, or future developed generations (e.g., fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 1104 (e.g., at least one of the baseband processors 1104A-1104D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks through the RF circuitry 1106. By way of non-limiting example, the radio control functions may include signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, other functions, and combinations thereof. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 1104 may be programmed to perform Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and constellation mapping/demapping functions, other functions, and combinations thereof. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 1104 may be programmed to perform convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, viterbi, and Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions, other functions, and combinations thereof. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions.

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1104 may include elements of a protocol stack. As non-limiting examples, elements of the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) protocol include, for example, Physical (PHY), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and/or Radio Resource Control (RRC) elements. The Central Processing Unit (CPU)1104E of the baseband circuit 1104 may be programmed to run elements of a protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1104 may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 1104F. The audio DSP(s) 1104F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation. The audio DSP 1104F(s) may also include other suitable processing elements.

The baseband circuitry 1104 may also include memory/storage 1104G. Memory/storage 1104G may include data and/or instructions stored thereon for operations performed by the processor of baseband circuitry 1104. In some embodiments, memory/storage 1104G may include any combination of suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory. The memory/storage 1104G may also include any combination of various levels of memory/storage including, but not limited to, Read Only Memory (ROM) with embedded software instructions (e.g., firmware), random access memory (e.g., Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)), cache, buffers, and the like. In some embodiments, memory/storage 1104G may be shared among various processors or dedicated to a particular processor.

In some embodiments, the components of baseband circuitry 1104 may be suitably combined in a single chip or single chipset, or suitably arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1104 and the application circuitry 1102 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1104 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1104 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) and/or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), or Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1104 is configured to support radio communication of more than one wireless protocol, which embodiments may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1106 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuitry 1106 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry 1108 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry 1104. RF circuitry 1108 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to upconvert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 1104 and provide an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 1108 for transmission.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 1106 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1106 may include mixer circuitry 1106A, amplifier circuitry 1106B, and filter circuitry 1106C. The transmit signal path of RF circuitry 1106 may include filter circuitry 1106C and mixer circuitry 1106A. The RF circuitry 1106 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1106D configured to synthesize frequencies for use by the mixer circuitry 1106A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106A of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 1108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1106D. The amplifier circuit 1106B may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal.

The filter circuit 1106C may include a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signals to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1104 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may comprise a zero-frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1106A of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1106A of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1106D to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuitry 1108. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 1104 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1106C. Filter circuit 1106C may include a Low Pass Filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1106A of the receive signal path and mixer circuitry 1106A of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106A of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1106A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1106A of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In such embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 1104 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuitry 1106.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1106D may comprise one or more of a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 1106D may include a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider, other synthesizers, and combinations thereof.

The synthesizer circuit 1106D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 1106A of the RF circuit 1106. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1106D may be a fractional N/N +1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 1104 or application processor 1102 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 1102.

Synthesizer circuit 1106D of RF circuit 1106 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may comprise a Dual Mode Divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may comprise a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry bit) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In such embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into at most Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL can provide negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1106D may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency, etc.) and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals having multiple phases different from each other at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1106 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

FEM circuitry 1108 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1110, amplify the received signals, and provide amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 1106 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1108 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by RF circuitry 1106 for transmission by at least one of the one or more antennas 1110.

In some embodiments, FEM circuit 1108 may include a TX/RX switch configured to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. FEM circuit 1108 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of FEM circuitry 1108 may include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuitry 1106). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 1108 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) configured to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1106), and may include one or more filters configured to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of one or more antennas 1110).

In some embodiments, the MS apparatus 1100 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, one or more sensors, an input/output (I/O) interface, other elements, or a combination thereof.

In some embodiments, MS device 1100 may be configured to perform one or more of the processes, techniques, and/or methods described herein, or portions thereof.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a method for multiple physical uplink transmissions using an unlicensed wireless medium. The method may be accomplished using a system such as the system shown in fig. 1 including the LTE RAN node 104, the LAA RAN node 106, and the UE 102. In block 1202, the UE processes an uplink grant from an eNB, the uplink grant including an interleaved allocation assignment schedule for PUSCH transmission using an unlicensed wireless medium. In block 1204, the UE senses the unlicensed medium to determine whether the unlicensed medium is free at the physical resource blocks at the interlace allocation assignment. In block 1206, the system uses sensing to determine whether the unlicensed medium is idle. In block 1208, when the unlicensed media is determined to be idle, the UE generates a PUSCH transmission based at least in part on the scheduling. In block 1210, the UE blocks PUSCH transmission during scheduling when it is determined that the unlicensed medium is busy.

Fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, fig. 13 shows a graphical representation of a hardware resource 1300, the hardware resource 1300 comprising one or more processors (or processor cores) 1310, one or more memory/storage devices 1320, and one or more communication resources 1330, the aforementioned components communicatively coupled via a bus 1340.

Processor 1310 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) (e.g., a baseband processor), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 1312 and processor 1314. Memory/storage 1320 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof.

Communication resources 1330 may include interconnections and/or network interface components or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripherals 1304 and/or one or more databases 1306 over a network 1308. For example, communication resources 1330 can include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling over a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), a cellular communication component, a Near Field Communication (NFC) component, a wireless communication component, and/wireless communication component,

The components (e.g.,

low power consumption),

Components, and other communication components.

The instructions 1350 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing the at least one processor 1310 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 1350 may reside, completely or partially, within the at least one processor 1310 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory/storage 1320, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 1350 may be transferred to hardware resource 1300 from any combination of peripherals 1304 and/or database 1306. Thus, the memory of processor 1310, memory/storage 1320, peripherals 1304, and database 1306 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Examples of the invention

The following examples relate to other embodiments.

Example 1 is an apparatus of a User Equipment (UE). The apparatus comprises a storage means designed to store an uplink grant configuration. The apparatus includes a processor designed to process an uplink grant from a radio access network node (RAN node), the uplink grant including an uplink grant configuration and scheduling for a plurality of physical uplink transmissions using an unlicensed wireless medium. The apparatus also includes a processor designed to sense an unlicensed medium for signals or noise to determine whether the unlicensed medium is idle, generate a plurality of physical uplink transmissions during scheduling when the unlicensed medium is determined to be idle, and block the plurality of physical uplink transmissions during scheduling when the unlicensed medium is determined to be busy.

Example 2 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the plurality of physical uplink transmissions comprise Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmissions.

Example 3 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein each of the plurality of physical uplink transmissions comprises a subframe.

Example 4 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant schedules one or more uplink subframes.

Example 5 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant includes an indicator that the uplink grant is within a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT), allowing the UE to use a shorter Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

Example 6 is the apparatus of example 5, wherein the shorter Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is a single interval LBT.

Example 7 is the apparatus of example 5, wherein the shorter Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is short class 4LBT, comprising puncturing a first symbol of a physical uplink transmission shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 8 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant includes an indicator that the uplink grant is outside of a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT).

Example 9 is the apparatus of example 8, wherein the uplink grant outside of the MCOT causes the UE to use a class 4 Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

Example 10 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein after performing the LBT protocol prior to the first transmission, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol is not performed for in-sequence uplink transmissions.

Example 11 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates a type of an uplink Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

Example 12 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates that the scheduled transmission scheduled via a cross transmission opportunity (TxOP) includes an explicit timing relationship between the uplink grant and a physical uplink transmission shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 13 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates Resource Indication Value (RIV), Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), New Data Indicator (NDI), Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) information separately for each subframe.

Example 14 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates, separately for each scheduled subframe via a single uplink grant, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP); and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV) is fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

Example 15 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates the hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), the New Data Indicator (NDI), the Redundancy Version (RV), the listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and the cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) separately for each subframe via a single UL grant; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and the Redundancy Version (RV) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

Example 16 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates the hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) and the New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe via a single UL grant; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), the Redundancy Version (RV), the Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and the cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

Example 17 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe, and wherein the Resource Indicator Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), the Redundancy Version (RV), the listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and the cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframes, and wherein the uplink grant indicates that a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

Example 18 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indicates Redundancy Version (RV) and New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe, and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframes, and wherein the uplink grant indicates that a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

Example 19 is the apparatus of example 18, wherein the subsequent HARQ IDs for the remaining subframes are implicitly calculated by sequentially incrementing the subframe offset with respect to the first HARQ ID.

Example 20 is the apparatus of example 1, wherein the uplink grant indication New Data Indicator (NDI) information, Resource Indication Value (RIV), Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Redundancy Version (RV), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframes, and wherein the uplink grant indication a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

Example 21 is an apparatus of an enhanced node b (enb). The apparatus comprises a storage means designed to store an uplink grant configuration. The apparatus also includes a processor designed to generate an uplink grant including scheduling for a plurality of PUSCH transmissions using an unlicensed wireless medium and an indication of a type of Listen Before Talk (LBT) sensing for use with the unlicensed medium to determine whether the unlicensed medium is idle, the plurality of PUSCH transmissions being processed during the scheduling when the unlicensed medium is determined to be idle.

Example 22 is the apparatus of example 21, wherein the uplink grant for the plurality of physical uplink transmissions is for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission or a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission.

Example 23 is the apparatus of example 21, wherein the uplink grant indicates whether the scheduled subframe transmission is within a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) or outside of MCOT.

Example 24 is a computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by a processor to perform operations of a User Equipment (UE). The operations, when executed by a processor, perform a method. The method includes processing an uplink grant from an eNB, the uplink grant including an interleaved allocation assignment schedule for PUSCH transmission using an unlicensed wireless medium. The method also includes sensing an unlicensed medium to determine whether the unlicensed medium is idle at physical resource blocks at the interlace allocation assignment, and generating a PUSCH transmission based at least in part on the scheduling when the unlicensed medium is determined to be idle. The method also includes sensing the unlicensed medium to determine whether the unlicensed medium is free at physical resource blocks at the interlace allocation assignment, and blocking PUSCH transmissions during scheduling when the unlicensed medium is determined to be busy.

Example 25 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates the interlace assignment using a Resource Indication Value (RIV).

Example 26 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant for a physical uplink transmission comprises a grant for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission or a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission.

Example 27 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein each PUSCH transmission comprises a subframe.

Example 28 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant includes an indicator that the uplink grant is within a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT), the UE being allowed to use a shorter Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

Example 29 is the computer program product of example 28, wherein the shorter Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is a single interval LBT.

Example 30 is the computer program product of example 28, wherein the shorter Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is short class 4LBT comprising puncturing a first symbol of a physical uplink transmission shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 31 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant includes an indicator that the uplink grant is outside of a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT).

Example 32 is the computer program product of example 31, wherein the uplink grant is outside of the MCOT to cause the UE to use a class 4 Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

Example 33 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is not performed for sequential uplink transmissions after the LBT protocol is performed prior to the first transmission.

Example 34 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates a type of an uplink Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

Example 35 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indication scheduled transmission via cross transmission opportunity (TxOP) scheduling includes an explicit timing relationship between the uplink grant and a physical uplink transmission shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 36 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant uses fields present in a DCI0 format.

Example 37 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates a Resource Indication Value (RIV), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and cross-transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) information separately for each subframe.

Example 38 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates, separately for each subframe, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP); and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV) is fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

Example 39 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) separately for each subframe; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and the Redundancy Version (RV) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

Example 40 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), New Data Indicator (NDI) information, separately for each subframe; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), the Redundancy Version (RV), the Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and the cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

Example 41 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe, wherein a Resource Indicator Value (RIV), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Redundancy Version (RV), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframes, and wherein the uplink grant indicates that a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

Example 42 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indicates Redundancy Version (RV) and New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe, wherein a Resource Indication Value (RIV), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframes, and wherein the uplink grant indicates that a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

Example 43 is the computer program product of example 24, wherein the uplink grant indication New Data Indicator (NDI) information, Resource Indication Value (RIV), Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Redundancy Version (RV), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and cross transmission opportunity (cross-TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe, and wherein the uplink grant indication a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

Example 44 is a method for providing an uplink grant with an interlace allocation assignment. The method includes generating an uplink grant from a RAN node, the uplink grant including an interleaved allocation assignment schedule for physical uplink transmission shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions using an unlicensed wireless medium and an indication of a type of listen-before-talk (LBT) sensing for use with the unlicensed medium to determine whether the unlicensed medium is idle, processing the PUSCH transmissions during the allocation assignment schedule when the unlicensed medium is determined to be idle.

Example 45 is the method of example 44, wherein the uplink grant comprises a grant for a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission.

Example 46 is the method of example 44, wherein the uplink grant indicates the interlace allocation assignment using a Resource Indication Value (RIV).

Example 47 is the method of example 46, wherein the RIV indicates the assigned interlace.

Example 48 is the method of example 46, wherein the RIV indicates the assigned physical resource block.

Example 49 is the method of example 46, wherein the RIV indicates a randomized distance between physical resource blocks while keeping a number of interlaces fixed using a fixed physical resource distance.

Example 50 is the method of example 44, wherein the interleaved allocation assignment is based on a physical resource block distance and a system bandwidth.

Example 51 is the method of example 50, wherein the interlace allocation assignment supports 10 interlaces when the system bandwidth is 20 MHz.

Example 52 is the method of example 44, wherein the uplink grant indicates the interlace allocation assignment using a starting interlace index and a number of interlaces to allocate to the UE.

Example 53 is the method of example 44, wherein the uplink grant uses a bitmap to indicate the interlace allocation assignment.

Embodiment 54 is an apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any of examples 44-53.

Example 55 is a machine-readable storage device comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed, implement a method or apparatus as in any of examples 44-53.

Example 56 is a machine-readable medium comprising code, which when executed, causes a machine to perform the method of any of examples 44-53.

Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods described herein may include various operations that may be embodied in machine-executable instructions executed by a computer system. The computer system may include one or more general purpose or special purpose computers (or other electronic devices). The computer system may include hardware components that include specific logic for performing operations, or may include a combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware.

The computer system and the computers in the computer system may be connected via a network. Suitable networks for configuration and/or use as described herein include one or more local area networks, wide area networks, metropolitan area networks, and/or the internet or IP networks, e.g., the world wide web, private internet, secure internet, value added network, virtual private network, extranet, intranet, or even a standalone machine that communicates with other machines through physical transmission of a medium. In particular, a suitable network may be formed of part or all of two or more other networks, including networks using different hardware and network communication technologies.

One suitable network includes a server and one or more clients; other suitable networks may include other combinations of servers, clients, and/or peer nodes, and a given computer system may act as both a client and a server. Each network includes at least two computers or computer systems, such as servers and/or clients. The computer system may include a workstation, laptop, disconnectable mobile computer, server, mainframe, cluster, so-called "network computer" or "thin client", tablet, smartphone, personal digital assistant or other handheld computing device, an "intelligent" consumer electronics device or application, a medical device, or a combination thereof.

Suitable networks may include communications or networking software, e.g. available from

And software available from other vendors and may operate using TCP/IP, SPX, IPX, and other protocols over twisted pair, coaxial or fiber optic cables, telephone lines, radio waves, satellite, microwave relays, modulated AC power lines, physical media transmission, and/or other data transmission "lines" known to those skilled in the art. The network may comprise a smaller network and/or may be connected to other networks through a gateway or similar mechanism.

The various techniques, or certain aspects or portions thereof, may take the form of program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, or any other machine-readable storage medium, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the various techniques. In the case of program code execution on programmable computers, the computing device can include a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device, and at least one output device. The volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements can be a RAM, an EPROM, a flash drive, an optical drive, a magnetic hard drive, or another medium for storing electronic data. The eNB (or other base station) and the UE (or other mobile station) may also include transceiver components, counter components, processing components, and/or clock components or timer components. One or more programs that may implement or utilize the various techniques described herein may use an Application Programming Interface (API), reusable controls, and the like. Such programs may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language to communicate with a computer system. However, the program(s) can be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language, and combined with hardware implementations.

Each computer system includes one or more processors and/or memories; the computer system may also include various input devices and/or output devices. The processor may comprise a general-purpose device such as, for example,

or other "off-the-shelf" microprocessor. The processor may comprise a dedicated processing device such as an ASIC, SoC, SiP, FPGA, PAL, PLA, FPLA, PLD, or other custom or programmable device. The memory may include static RAM, dynamic RAM, flash memory, one or more flip-flops, ROM, CD-ROM, DVD, magnetic disk, magnetic tape, or magnetic, optical, or other computer storage media. The input device(s) may include a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, light pen, tablet computer, microphone, sensor, or other hardware with accompanying firmware and/or software. The output device(s) may include a monitor or other display, a printer, a voice or text synthesizer, a switch, a signal line, or other hardware with accompanying firmware and/or software.

It should be understood that many of the functional units described in this specification can be implemented as one or more components, which are terms used to more emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a component may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A component may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like.

Components may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. For example, an identified component of executable code may comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified component need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the component and achieve the stated purpose for the component.

Indeed, a component of executable code may be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within components, and may be embodied in any suitable form or organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network. The components may be passive or active, including agents operable to perform desired functions.

Aspects of the described embodiments will be illustrated as software modules or components. As used herein, a software module or component may include any type of computer instruction or computer executable code located within a memory device. For example, a software module may include one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which may be organized as a routine, program, object, component, data structure, etc., that performs one or more tasks or implements particular data types. It should be understood that software modules may be implemented in hardware and/or firmware instead of or in addition to software. One or more of the functional modules described herein may be divided into sub-modules and/or combined into a single or fewer number of modules.

In some embodiments, particular software modules may include different instructions stored in different locations of a memory device, in different memory devices, or in different computers, which together implement the described functionality of the module. Indeed, a module may comprise a single instruction, or many instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Some embodiments may be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, software modules may be located in local and/or remote memory storage devices. Further, data bundled or bound together in a database record may reside in the same memory device, or across several memory devices, and may be linked together across a network in fields of records in the database.

Reference throughout this specification to "an example" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrase "in an example" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Various items, structural elements, compositional elements, and/or materials used herein may be presented in a common list for convenience. However, these lists should be construed as though each member of the list is individually identified as a separate and unique member. Thus, no individual member of such list should be construed as a de facto equivalent of any other member of the same list solely based on their presentation in a common group without indications to the contrary. Moreover, various embodiments and examples of the invention may relate to various embodiments and examples and substitutions of their various components. It should be understood that such embodiments, examples, and alternatives are not to be considered as actual equivalents of each other, but rather as separate and independent representations of the embodiments.

Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of materials, frequencies, dimensions, lengths, widths, shapes, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

It should be appreciated that the system described herein includes descriptions of specific embodiments. The embodiments may be combined into a single system, partially into other systems, divided into multiple systems, or otherwise divided or combined. Further, it is contemplated that parameters/properties/aspects/etc. of one embodiment may be used with another embodiment. For clarity, these parameters/properties/aspects/etc. are described in one or more embodiments only, and it is recognized that the parameters/properties/aspects/etc. can be combined with, or substituted for, parameters/properties/etc. of another embodiment, unless expressly stated otherwise herein.

Although the foregoing has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications may be made without departing from the principles thereof. It should be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the processes and apparatuses described herein. Accordingly, the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many changes could be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the invention. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined only by the following claims.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a storage configured to store an uplink grant configuration;

a processor configured to:

processing an uplink grant from a radio access network node, the uplink grant comprising the uplink grant configuration and a schedule for a plurality of physical uplink transmissions using an unlicensed wireless spectrum according to an interlace assignment;

sensing the unlicensed wireless spectrum for signals or noise to determine whether the unlicensed wireless spectrum is free or busy;

generating a plurality of physical uplink transmissions during the scheduling according to the interlace assignment when the unlicensed radio spectrum is determined to be idle; and

block the plurality of physical uplink transmissions allocated according to the interlace during the scheduling when the unlicensed radio spectrum is determined to be busy.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of physical uplink transmissions comprise Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions or Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmissions.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of physical uplink transmissions comprises a subframe.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uplink grant schedules one or more uplink subframes.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the uplink grant includes an indicator that the uplink grant is within a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) to allow the UE to use a short Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

6. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates a Resource Indication Value (RIV), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) information separately for each subframe.

7. The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), a Redundancy Version (RV), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) separately for each scheduled subframe via a single uplink grant; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV) is fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

8. The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates a hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID), a New Data Indicator (NDI), listen-before-talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) separately for each subframe via a single UL grant; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and the Redundancy Version (RV) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

9. The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) and New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe via a single UL grant; and wherein the Resource Indication Value (RIV), the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), the Redundancy Version (RV), the Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and the cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe.

10. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe; and is

Wherein a Resource Indication Value (RIV), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a Redundancy Version (RV), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe; and is

Wherein the uplink grant indicates that a first hybrid automatic repeat request identifier (HARQ ID) for a first uplink subframe and subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated.

11. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates Redundancy Version (RV) and New Data Indicator (NDI) information separately for each subframe; and is

Wherein a Resource Indication Value (RIV), a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and a cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for the scheduled uplink subframe; and is

12. The apparatus of claim 11, in which the subsequent HARQ IDs for remaining subframes are implicitly calculated by sequentially incrementing a subframe offset relative to the first HARQ ID.

13. The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the uplink grant indicates that New Data Indicator (NDI) information, Resource Indicator Value (RIV), Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), Redundancy Version (RV), Listen Before Talk (LBT) information, and cross transmission opportunity (cross TxOP) are fixed for a scheduled uplink subframe; and is

14. An apparatus of an enhanced node b (enb), comprising:

a storage configured to store an uplink grant configuration;

a processor configured to:

generating an uplink grant including scheduling of a plurality of physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, transmissions allocated according to an interlace for use with an unlicensed wireless medium and an indication of a type of Listen Before Talk (LBT) sensing for use with the unlicensed wireless medium to determine whether the unlicensed wireless medium is idle;

processing the plurality of PUSCH transmissions allocated according to the interleaving during the scheduling when the unlicensed wireless medium is determined to be idle.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the uplink grant for a plurality of physical uplink transmissions is for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission or a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the uplink grant indicates whether the scheduled subframe transmission is within a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) or outside of the MCOT.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by a processor to perform operations of a user equipment, UE, which when executed by the processor perform a method comprising:

processing an uplink grant from an enhanced node B (eNB), the uplink grant including a schedule for a plurality of physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, transmissions allocated according to an interlace using an unlicensed wireless medium;

sensing the unlicensed wireless medium for signal or noise to determine whether the unlicensed wireless medium is free at a physical resource block at an interlace allocation assignment;

generating a PUSCH transmission based at least in part on the scheduling when the unlicensed wireless medium is determined to be idle; and is provided with

Block the PUSCH transmission during the scheduling when the unlicensed wireless medium is determined to be busy.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the uplink grant indicates an interlace allocation using a Resource Indication Value (RIV).

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the uplink grant includes an indicator that the uplink grant is within a Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) allowing the UE to use a shorter listen-before-talk LBT protocol.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the short Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is a single interval (LBT).

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the shorter listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol is short class 4LBT comprising puncturing a first symbol of a physical uplink transmission shared channel (PUSCH) transmission.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol is not performed for sequential uplink transmissions after the LBT protocol is performed prior to the first transmission.

23. A method for providing an uplink grant with an interlace allocation assignment, the method comprising:

generating an uplink grant from a radio access network node, the uplink grant comprising scheduling of a plurality of physical uplink transmission shared channel, PUSCH, transmissions allocated according to an interlace for use with a shared spectrum and an indication of a type of listen-before-talk (LBT) sensing to use with the shared spectrum to determine whether the shared spectrum is idle; and is

Processing a PUSCH transmission during the scheduling when the shared spectrum is determined to be idle.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the uplink grant indicates the interlace allocation assignment using a Resource Indication Value (RIV).

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the interlace allocation assignment is based on inter-physical resource block distance and system bandwidth.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the uplink grant indicates the interlace allocation assignment using a starting interlace index and a number of interlaces to be allocated.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the uplink grant indicates the interlace allocation assignment using a bitmap.

28. An apparatus for communication, comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 23-27.

29. A machine-readable medium comprising code, which when executed, causes a machine to perform the method of any of claims 23-27.