CN111316738B - Improvements relating to rate dematching of resources used by control signalling or improvements thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for enabling a wireless communication device to access a service provided by a radio access network, wherein scheduled resources for data transmission overlap with resources for sporadically transmitted control signals, and wherein the data transmission is subsequently mapped to the scheduled resources.

Description

Improvements relating to rate dematching of resources used by control signalling or improvements thereof

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for enabling a wireless communication device, such as a User Equipment (UE) or mobile device, to access or access a radio access technology (Radio Access Technology, RAT) or radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN). The present invention relates to rate de-matching, particularly but not exclusively, of resources that may be used by control signalling.

Background

Wireless communication systems, such as third generation mobile phone standards and technologies, are well known, and the third generation partnership project (3 GPP) has developed such 3G standards and technologies, and in general, third generation wireless communications have been developed to the extent that macrocell mobile phone communications are supported, communication systems and networks have been developed toward broadband and mobile systems.

The third generation partnership project has evolved a so-called Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system regional radio access network (E-UTRAN), for a mobile access network of one or more macro cells supported by base stations called enodebs or enbs (evolved nodebs). Recently, LTE has evolved further towards so-called 5G or NR (new radio) systems, where one or more cells are supported by a base station called a gNB.

One area of interest is the support of "preemption" in NR technology. In 5G technology, ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) is defined as one of the key target schemes to be supported. The URLLC requires a low delay, the uplink UL delay should be about 0.5ms, and the downlink DL delay should be about 0.5ms. The URLLC requires high reliability, so preemption is required at least in DL in order to support URLLC services.

In a slot with 14 symbols, the control region is at the beginning of the slot, at most 3 symbols can be configured, while the data region is all the remaining symbols. The present invention assumes that a Reference Signal (RS) uses some of the resources in both the control region and the data region for channel estimation or measurement. The data region may be scheduled by a control region, and a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) may be multiplexed in the two regions. When a URLLC packet is received from an upper layer after a control region, the gNB may not be able to schedule transmissions from the control region. To support URLLC, the solution is to preempt an ongoing data transmission (typically a data transmission to an eMBB UE), and one or more symbols in the time domain and multiple Radio Bearers (RBs) in the frequency domain are punctured and replaced with one or more URLLC transmissions.

It should be noted that it may be indicated to the UE that the downlink control channel is mapped in the first 1, 2 or 3 symbols, but this does not mean that every Resource Element (RE), i.e. one subcarrier in one OFDM symbol, will be used by the control channel. If there are not enough control channels, the physical downlink shared channel (Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH) may use some REs in the control region in a rate matching (rate matching) manner.

The resources for the URLLC service may be preconfigured to the URLLC UEs in a slot or small slot (1 or 2 symbol) format, and may also use different subcarrier spacings (Subcarrier Spacing, SCS). One URLLC terminal will monitor the configured resources and control signaling headers in a similar way as downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) can be sent by the gNB simultaneously within the preemption zone so that the URLLC UE can recognize the transmission for URLLC.

As shown in fig. 1, some or all of the resources in the DL transmission of an eMBB UE may be punctured. If preemption is not indicated to the eMBB UE, the preempted portion is included in the reception process. Thus, in most cases, decoding will fail. To solve this problem, it has been agreed to introduce a preemption indicator (pre-emption indicator, PI) to indicate to the eMBB UE which parts of the original scheduled data area are punctured so that the eMBB UE can invalidate these parts during its reception and thus its DL decoding performance can be improved.

After preemption, the gNB should explicitly transmit PI using dedicated Group Common (GC) -DCI, there may be two potential locations: one position is within the last few symbols of the current slot (i.e., the same slot as the one where preemption occurred) and the other position is within the control region of the next slot (e.g., within the first few symbols of the control region). More specifically, some companies propose that multiple consecutive or non-consecutive RBs in the last or two symbols of the current slot may be used as a COntrol resource SET (CORESET) to carry PI.

As shown in fig. 2, in the New Radio (NR) technology, a UE may be configured with one or more component carriers (Component Carrier, CCs), and a set of Bandwidth parts (BWP) may be configured for each CC. The motivation for BWP operation (i.e., having a plurality of configured BWP) includes the following:

enabling reduced UE bandwidth capability within a wideband carrier

Reduced power consumption of UE by bandwidth adaptation

Enabling a UE to use different numerology in FDM fashion within a wideband carrier

Although multiple BWP may be configured to the UE, a subset of all configured BPWs may be activated for each UE at any time. The UE reports detailed information of the capability to support multiple CC and BWP configurations, so the gNB knows how to configure accordingly. BWP may be dynamically activated/deactivated by DCI in all configured BWP.

PI is carried by group common DCI, and a group common physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH) is a corresponding channel. The PI will contain a bitmap that will indicate which parts of the data area are punctured. Two types of bitmaps have been defined. One is 14x1, which means that time is divided into 14 parts (e.g., 1 symbol per part), while BWP is divided into 1 part (equivalent to no division at all). The other is 7x2, which means that time is divided into 7 parts (e.g., 2 symbols per part), while BWP is divided into 2 parts of the same size. If CRC is not a consideration, then PI requires at least 14 bits.

Since the bitmap is based on a specific active BWP, it cannot be shared by UEs having different active BWP, but since the bitmap is carried by group common DCI, it is naturally desirable to be shared at least by UEs having the same active BWP. The decision as to which PI bitmap type to use is RRC configurable, with different users being configurable to use different bitmaps.

As clearly explained above, the data region is scheduled by the control region, and in each slot, the scheduled PDSCH must be in the active BWP of the UE. However, in the frequency domain, the resources that the UE actually has scheduled may occupy less bandwidth than its active BWP.

When there are a plurality of UEs having active BWP different from each other, the active BWP may overlap each other or not overlap each other, the above example may thus be updated as shown in fig. 3 below. The set of resources that can be used for control signaling is shown in fig. 3. CORESET candidates may be hard coded by a specification file or may be pre-configured to the UE and the UE monitors control signaling from the corresponding CORESET. For each PI there must be at least one corresponding CORESET. For multiple UEs and for UEs with a wide BWP (e.g., UE1 and other UEs that may have the same BWP as it), there may be multiple CORESETs in the last 1 or 2 symbols of the slot, and more than one PI CORESET may be located within its BWP.

Packets of the URLLC service may arrive occasionally, and if no preemption occurs in a certain time slot, PI transmission in the time slot is not needed, and the PDSCH may use the corresponding resources of PI to improve its reliability, throughput, and overall system efficiency. Referring to fig. 3, the remaining problem is how UE1 knows when the corresponding resources of PI2 and PI3 are not preempted as PI, but are actually used by PDSCH.

The present invention seeks to address at least some of the outstanding problems in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for enabling a wireless communication device to access a service provided by a radio access network, wherein scheduled resources for data transmissions overlap with resources for sporadically transmitted control signals, and wherein said data transmissions are subsequently mapped to said scheduled resources.

Preferably, the sporadically transmitted control signal is transmitted as a preemption indicator.

Preferably, the resource for the sporadically transmitted control signal is scheduled through downlink control information.

Preferably, the downlink control information also schedules a shared channel for the UE, and the scheduled shared channel is within an active bandwidth portion of the UE.

Preferably, the shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel.

Preferably, the resource for sporadically transmitted control signals overlapping a bandwidth part is configured to each device via higher layer signaling.

Preferably, a rate dematch indicator is included in the higher layer signaling to indicate whether one or more likelihood ratios should be cleared from one or more CORESETs associated with the sporadically transmitted control signals.

Preferably, the resources for the sporadically transmitted control signals are hard coded in a standard.

Preferably, if one or more preemptions occur, the sporadically transmitted control signals are transmitted in resources that are scheduled, configured, or should be decoded.

Preferably a rate de-match indicator is used which consists of an existing bit reused or redefined in said sporadically transmitted control signal.

Preferably, the UE monitors for sporadically transmitted control signals within its bandwidth portion.

Preferably, the sporadically transmitted control signal is transmitted as a preemption indicator.

Preferably, the resources for the sporadically transmitted control signals monitored by the UE are scheduled by downlink control information, which also schedules a shared channel.

Preferably, a cyclic redundancy check is performed to determine whether the UE clears one or more likelihood ratios from a buffer of a device associated with one or more CORESET candidates.

Preferably, the buffer is cleared according to a rate dematch indicator.

Preferably, the rate dematch indicator is included in higher layer signaling.

Preferably, the rate dematch indicator is included in the monitored preemption indicator.

Preferably, the rate dematch indicator is included in the preemption indicator by reusing or redefining existing bits in the preemption indicator.

Preferably, the rate dematch indicator is hard decoded in the standard.

Preferably, the non-targeted preemption indicator is not a monitored preemption indicator and its resources overlap with the active bandwidth portion of the UE.

Preferably, the radio access network is a new radio/5G network.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a base station adapted to perform the method of another aspect of the present invention.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a UE adapted to perform the method of another aspect of the present invention.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for execution by a processor to perform the method according to another aspect of the present invention.

The non-transitory computer readable medium may include at least one of the group consisting of: hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, and flash memory.

Drawings

Further details, aspects and embodiments of the invention are described below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. For simplicity and clarity, elements in the figures have been shown and are not necessarily drawn to scale. The same reference numerals are included in the various figures to facilitate understanding.

Fig. 1 shows an example of preemption according to the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a bandwidth portion according to the prior art.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a bandwidth portion for a plurality of UEs according to the prior art.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a separate PI scheduling message to be included in UE-specific DCI according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a scheduled PDSCH2 that may not overlap with the preemptive resources (case a in fig. 5) or may overlap with the preemptive resources (case B in fig. 5) in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of two types of bitmaps according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

Those skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate that the specific details of the examples described are merely illustrative of some embodiments and that the teachings set forth herein are applicable in a variety of alternative configurations.

The present invention relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to rate de-matching (rate de-matching) of resources that may be used by control signaling.

Those skilled in the art may configure a plurality of PI CORESET candidates throughout the system bandwidth, this configuration may be accomplished via system information (system information), and broadcast the configuration to all UEs. Then, for each BWP, an index of configured PI CORESET candidates may be included in the specific radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) signaling of each UE so that the UE knows which PI CORESET candidates to monitor upon BWP activation. PDSCH mapping excludes resources of all configured PI core candidates.

In the present invention, it is assumed that PI is located in the last symbol of the current slot, but if PI is located in other locations, the use of the present invention is not affected.

Without the present invention, these resources cannot be used even if the corresponding PI is not sent, which also increases the overhead of control signaling. Each BWP needs at least one PI, there may be multiple BWPs in one cell, and resource waste may be serious. This is an estimate based on the following assumption:

pi payload size of about 30 bits (including CRC);

2. after 1/3 channel coding, the coded block is 90 bits;

3.45 QPSK symbols;

4. 4 PRBs are required;

5. considering that one cell must support at least 5 different BWP, 20 PRBs need to be reserved, which account for 20% of the last symbol.

Based on the assumption that PI core is semi-static and PDSCH is dynamically scheduled, there is no way to predict which of PDSCH and PI will use resources, and none of the existing mechanisms has a straightforward solution to this problem. The present invention introduces a new indicator to help the UE make a determination as to whether the PDSCH uses these resources.

The present invention introduces a set of options to support dynamic sharing of resources that have been configured for control signaling sent in a sporadic manner. The potential resources for control signaling are first pre-configured to each UE, and by default, the gNB will assume that the control signaling will not use these pre-configured resources and map PDSCH to these resources. Once preemption occurs during transmission, the gNB may insert control signaling by puncturing ongoing PDSCH transmissions, while also including introducing new indicators in the control signaling (including by reusing existing control signaling bits) to indicate whether these resources are used by PDSCH. At worst, the indicator may be included in RRC signaling, presented in a slowly changing scheme, or hard coded in a specification file, and presented in a fixed scheme, but both may result in reduced efficiency of use of preconfigured resources and/or retraining of the gNB scheduler.

A number of options will now be discussed in more detail. The first option (option 1) is to dynamically schedule PI CORESET, rather than pre-configure it through higher layer signaling. For this option, both PI resources and PDSCH resources are dynamic, which can relatively easily avoid overlapping the UE's PDSCH with PIs that the UE cannot receive for the gNB scheduler. This, therefore, further avoids the occurrence of the aforementioned problems. One possible disadvantage of this option is that the control signaling overhead of the DCI is increased.

The basic idea is to use the scheduled PI resources for PDSCH if PI is not actually transmitted, otherwise the UE excludes PI resources when processing PDSCH. This step is implemented in the terminal when performing rate de-matching. Typically, the received transmission is stored in a buffer in the form of likelihood ratios (LLRs) input to a channel decoder. If this LLR is contaminated (preempted by URLLC or PI), the performance of the channel decoder will drop dramatically, which is why the contaminated LLR should be cleared from the buffer.

For this, the terminal needs to know the resources of PI. PI resources are scheduled to each UE. A separate PI scheduling message needs to be included in the UE-specific DCI. An example can be found in fig. 4 below. The UE 1-specific DCI schedules PDSCH1 to UE1, while the included PI1 scheduling message schedules resources to PI1. The resources of PI1 may be a subset of the scheduled PDSCH1 resources or a subset of the scheduled PDSCH resources of another UE that also needs to receive PI1. The resources of PI1 should not overlap with PDSCH resources of another UE that does not receive this PI, e.g., PI1 should not overlap with PDSCH 2. Likewise, the UE 2-specific DCI schedules PDSCH2 to UE2, and at the same time, the included PI2 scheduling message schedules resources to PI2.

Since PI is scheduled by DCI, its location is dynamic. When two or more UEs have the same BWP, the gNB may schedule the same PI resources to all of them for sharing. The gNB maps PDSCH to all of the scheduling resources included for PI. When preemption occurs during transmission, the gNB transmits the PI by puncturing the corresponding resources to be scheduled to the PI. If a PI is scheduled, the UE attempts to decode the PI, and if it is detected (CRC check passed), the terminal clears the LLRs from the resources scheduled for this PI, otherwise (CRC check failed), the terminal does not clear the LLRs from these PI resources. If no preemption occurs in this slot, the gNB will not insert the PI and the resources to be scheduled to the PI will be used for PDSCH transmissions. In that case, the UE will certainly not detect PI nor will it clear the LLR from the scheduled PI resources.

The benefit of this option is that the gNB scheduler can avoid overlapping PI resources with the PDSCH of another UE that should not receive this PI. The terminal only needs to perform rate dematching according to the CRC result. A possible disadvantage is that a separate PI scheduling message needs to be included in the UE-specific DCI and increases the overhead of Downlink (DL) control signaling.

The second option has multiple choices, namely option 2/2a/2b. PI resources are semi-statically configured to all UEs or hard coded by specification files. The second option introduces a separate indicator to indicate whether the PDSCH uses pre-configured resources for control signaling. Since the pre-configured resources are only used occasionally, and when there is no URLLC transmission, this second option may enable the gNB to increase the redundancy of the PDSCH by using the pre-configured resources, so as to improve the reliability of the DL transmission, and thus may achieve better reliability for the corresponding PDSCH transmission. This option reduces the overhead of control signaling. A possible disadvantage of this option is that when all overlapping PI CORESETs require different indications, these overlapping PI CORESETs may not be indicated, but this may be manageable for the gNB with reasonable scheduler constraints. PI resources in option 2 are semi-statically configured by RRC signaling, e.g., CORESET for PI1/PI2/PI3 in fig. 3 are all indicated to UE1 because they are both in the BWP of UE1, while CORESET for PI1/PI2 is indicated to UE2, and PI3 is not in the BWP of UE2, as is PI1/PI3 in UE 3. As described above, a plurality of BWP may be configured to the UE via RRC, but a subset of BWP may be activated in each slot. Each BWP is identified by a starting position and a width in the frequency domain. There are two possible ways of indicating PI resources. The first method is to explicitly indicate all PI resources of each BWP, for example, a starting position and a width of each PI resource in the frequency domain. The second approach is to indicate the resources of all PIs independently (without considering any specific BWP) and let the UE determine which PI is in which BWP based on the relative position and width of each BWP with respect to each PI. For the second approach, if configuration flexibility is not required, the resources of all PIs may be hard coded in the specification file.

Since the resources of PI are RRC configurable, the change frequency of its location is much less than PDSCH, which is dynamically scheduled by DCI. It may happen that the scheduled PDSCH2 may not overlap with the preempted resources (case a in fig. 5) or may overlap with the preempted resources (case B in fig. 5). For case a, UE1 may ignore PI2 because it is not being sent, while rate dematching is based only on PI1, PI1 being also the target PI for this terminal. For case B, UE1 should rate-dematch around the resources of both PI1 and PI2. Determining the presence of PI2 by checking the CRC of PI2 may increase the complexity of the terminal.

One possible solution is to indicate whether PI2 (or other) is transmitted. Thus, the gNB has an overview of whether PI is transmitted or not. A 1-bit indicator may be introduced in the PI to indicate that all configured PIs in BWP are to be ignored (case a) or all LLRs in other PI resources in BWP are to be cleared (case B).

The procedure of UE1 can be summarized as follows:

1) Receiving PDSCH from all scheduling resources (including those also configured for PI) and saving LLR for PDSCH in the buffer;

2) Receiving PI1 from the configured CORESET candidates, checking CRC of LLR of the received PDSCH,

a. if the CRC check fails, all PI in its BWP is ignored (no clear of anything = assumption PI resource is used by PDSCH);

b. if the CRC check is passed, all LLRs from the PI1 CORESET candidate are cleared from the PDSCH buffer, and

i. if the indicator indicates to do so, all received LLRs from CORESET candidates for all other PIs are cleared;

if the indicator indicates to do so, all other PIs are ignored

3) PDSCH is processed with the obtained LLR.

Alternatively, the 1-bit indicator may be introduced into RRC signaling instead of DCI. This may limit the scheduler of the gNB, e.g., if RRC indicates "ignore all other PIs", the gNB should avoid PDSCH1 overlapping with PI2 or the preempted resources in all slots overlapping with PDSCH2 (thus no PI2 need to be transmitted) until another RRC indicates "clear all LLRs from all other PIs".

One variation of option 2 above is option 2a. In option 2, indicator bits are introduced in the DCI or RRC. Alternatively, the indicator may be represented by reusing an existing bit in the PI.

As previously described, a bitmap is sent in the PI, with each bit in the bitmap indicating whether the frequency according to the time block is preempted. If preempted, all LLRs received from the block should be purged from the buffer, otherwise this is not required. The meaning of the last 1 or 2 bits of this bitmap can be redefined so that preemption or PI transmission can be indicated in the corresponding frequency in terms of time blocks. Thus, the presence of a non-target PI in the BWP of the UE, i.e. PI2 of UE1 in the above example, may also be indicated by the received PI bitmap. The presence of non-targeted PI is equivalent to preemption in URLLC services.

Clearly this option can save 1 signaling bit in RRC or DCI, but the granularity of the bitmap indication is typically much larger than the CORESET candidate size of PI, so when there is a non-target PI, more necessary LLRs may be cleared from the buffer, which may result in poorer downlink performance than option 2.

Furthermore, both bitmaps may have 1 or 2 bits unused, e.g., when the control region is configured with 2 symbols, the 2 top bits of both bitmaps (highlighted in gray in fig. 6) will not be used because preemption is not allowed in the control region, as possible. In this case, these bits may be redefined as a rate de-match indication for PI CORESET candidates. This additional design does not suffer from the drawbacks of over-purging as indicated above in option 2.

In another variation, option 2b, a default operation, e.g., when the target PI is detected or not detected, "clear all received LLRs from CORESET candidates for all other PIs," may also be hard coded with the specification file. There is still a need to indicate CORESET of all PI to each UE through higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC).

The procedure for this option can be summarized as follows:

1) The UE knows how many PI CORESETs there are in its BWP by:

RRC configuration, or

b. Hard code in specification file

2) The UE knows from the hard code in the specification file that once the target PI is detected, all LLRs from CORESET for all PI need to be cleared from its buffer

3) The UE monitors its configured PI of BWP and checks CRC

a. If so, then all LLRs from CORESET for all PIs are cleared

b. If it fails, then no clean up is required

Option 2b has minimal impact on the specification file compared to option 2 or option 2a, but it performs relatively poorly, with more scheduling constraints than the other two options.

The invention has been described above with reference to the examples and scenarios mentioned above. However, the invention can also be applied to other situations and scenarios, such as a gaming service or a remote control service indicating the presence of very small data packets, such as being transmitted in a similar manner as preempting an ongoing transmission.

Although not shown in detail, any device or means forming part of the network may comprise at least a processor, a storage unit and a communication interface, wherein the processor unit, the storage unit and the communication interface are configured to perform the method of any aspect of the invention. Further options and choices are described below.

The signal processing functions of embodiments of the present invention, particularly the gNB and the UE, may be implemented using computing systems or architectures known to those skilled in the relevant art. Computing systems such as desktop, laptop or notebook computers, hand-held computing devices (PDAs, cell phones, palmtops, etc.), mainframes, servers, clients, or any other type of special or general purpose computing device as may be desired or appropriate for a given application or environment may be used. The computing system may include one or more processors, which may be implemented using a general-purpose or special-purpose processing engine, such as, for example, a microprocessor, microcontroller, or other control module.

The computing system may also include a main memory, such as Random Access Memory (RAM) or other dynamic memory, for storing instructions and information to be executed by the processor. Such main memory may also be used for storing temporary variables and other intermediate information to be executed by the processor during execution of instructions. The computing system may also include a Read Only Memory (ROM) or other static storage device for storing static information and instructions for the processor.

The computing system may also include an information storage system, which may include, for example, a media drive and a removable storage interface. The media drive may include a drive or other mechanism to support fixed or removable storage media, such as a hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, tape drive, optical disk drive, compact Disk (CD) or Digital Video Drive (DVD), read or write drive (R or RW), or other removable or fixed media drive. Storage media may include, for example, hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, CD or DVD, or other fixed or removable medium that is read by and written to by media drives. The storage medium may include a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein specific computer software or data.

In alternative embodiments, the information storage system may include other similar components for allowing computer programs or other instructions or data to be loaded into the computing system. Such components may include, for example, removable storage units and interfaces such as program cartridges and cartridge interfaces, removable memory (e.g., flash memory or other removable memory modules) and memory slots, and other removable storage units and interfaces that allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit to the computing system.

The computing system may also include a communication interface. Such a communication interface may be used to allow software and data to be transferred between the computing system and external devices. Examples of communication interfaces may include modems, network interfaces (such as ethernet or other NIC cards), communication ports (such as, for example, universal Serial Bus (USB) ports), PCMCIA slots and cards, and so forth. Software and data transferred via the communications interface are in the form of signals which may be electronic, electromagnetic and optical or other signals capable of being received by the communications interface medium.

In this document, the terms "computer program product," "computer-readable medium," "non-transitory computer-readable medium," and the like may be used generally to refer to tangible media, such as memory, storage devices, or storage units. These and other forms of computer-readable media may store one or more instructions for use by a processor, including a computer system, to cause the processor to perform specified operations. Such instructions, generally referred to as "computer program code" (which may be grouped in the form of computer programs or other groupings), when executed, enable the computing system to perform functions of embodiments of the present invention. Note that the code may directly cause the processor to perform specified operations, be compiled to do so, and/or be combined with other software, hardware, and/or firmware elements (e.g., libraries for performing standard functions) to do so

The non-transitory computer readable medium may include at least one of the group consisting of: hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, EPROM, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, and flash memory.

In embodiments where the elements are implemented using software, the software may be stored in a computer readable medium and loaded into a computing system using, for example, a removable storage drive. The control modules (in this example, software instructions or executable computer program code) when executed by a processor in a computer system cause the processor to perform the functions of the invention as described herein.

Furthermore, the inventive concept may be applied to any circuit for performing signal processing functions within a network element. It is further envisioned that a semiconductor manufacturer may utilize the inventive concepts in designing stand-alone devices such as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) or microcontrollers of Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and/or any other subsystem elements, for example.

It will be appreciated that the above description has described embodiments of the invention with reference to a single processing logic for clarity. However, the inventive concept may equally be implemented by a number of different functional units and processors to provide signal processing functionality. Thus, references to specific functional units are only to be seen as references to suitable means for providing the described functionality rather than indicative of a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

Aspects of the invention may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. The invention may alternatively be implemented at least in part as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors or as a configurable module component such as an FPGA device. Thus, the elements and components of an embodiment of the invention may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Rather, the scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims. Furthermore, although features may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in accordance with the invention. In the claims, the term "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps.

Furthermore, although individually listed, a plurality of means, elements or method steps may be implemented by e.g. a single unit or processor. Furthermore, although individual features may be included in different claims, these may possibly be advantageously combined, and the inclusion in different claims does not imply that a combination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous. Moreover, the inclusion of a feature in one category of claims does not imply a limitation to this category but rather indicates that the feature is equally applicable to other claim categories as appropriate.

Furthermore, the order of features in the claims does not imply any specific order in which the features must be performed and in particular the order of individual steps in a method claim does not imply that the steps must be performed in that order. Rather, the steps may be performed in any suitable order. Furthermore, singular references do not exclude a plurality. Thus, references to "a," "an," "the first," "the second," etc. do not exclude a plurality.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Rather, the scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims. Furthermore, while certain features have been described in connection with specific embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that different features of the described embodiments may be combined in accordance with the invention. In the claims, the term "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements.

Claims (19)

1. A method for enabling wireless communication devices to access services provided by a radio access network, wherein scheduling resources for data transmissions overlap resources for sporadically transmitted control signals, and wherein the data transmissions are subsequently mapped to the scheduling resources, wherein the resources for sporadically transmitted control signals that overlap a bandwidth portion are configured to each device via higher layer signaling, the method comprising:

a rate dematch indicator is included in the higher layer signaling to indicate whether one or more likelihood ratios should be cleared from one or more CORESETs associated with the sporadically transmitted control signals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sporadically transmitted control signals are transmitted as preemption indicators.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the resources for the sporadically transmitted control signals are scheduled by downlink control information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the downlink control information also schedules a shared channel for the UE, and the scheduled shared channel is within an active bandwidth portion of the UE.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the shared channel is a physical downlink shared channel.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the resources for the sporadically transmitted control signals are hard coded in a standard.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sporadically transmitted control signal is transmitted in scheduled, configured, or hard decoded resources if one or more preemptions occur.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the rate dematch indicator is comprised of a reused or redefined existing bit in the sporadically transmitted control signal.

9. A method of operating a UE in the method of any preceding claim, wherein the UE monitors sporadically transmitted control signals within its bandwidth part.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the resources for the sporadically transmitted control signals monitored by the UE are scheduled by downlink control information that also schedules a shared channel.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising performing a cyclic redundancy check to determine whether the UE clears one or more likelihood ratios from a buffer of a device associated with one or more CORESET candidates.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the buffer is cleared according to a rate dematch indicator.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the rate dematch indicator is included in a monitored preemption indicator.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the rate dematch indicator is hard decoded in a standard.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-targeted preemption indicator is not a monitored preemption indicator and its resources overlap with the active bandwidth portion of the UE.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the radio access network is a new radio/5G network.

17. A user equipment comprising a processor unit, a storage unit and a communication interface, wherein the processor unit, storage unit and communication interface are configured to perform the method according to any of claims 1 to 16.

18. A base station comprising a processor unit, a memory unit and a communication interface, wherein the processor unit, memory unit and communication interface are configured to perform the method according to any of claims 1 to 16.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for execution by a processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 16.