CN113572495A

CN113572495A - System and method for multiplexing UL control and UL data transmission

Info

Publication number: CN113572495A
Application number: CN202110396775.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 图菲古尔·***; 德伯迪普·查特吉; 郭勇俊; 萨尔瓦多·塔拉里科; 谢尔盖·潘泰列夫
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2020-04-13
Filing date: 2021-04-13
Publication date: 2021-10-29

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for multiplexing UL control and UL data transmissions. An apparatus comprising a processor circuit to: decoding the first message to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices, the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing UCI with PUSCH, wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to an amount of resources in PUSCH allocated for multiplexing UCI with PUSCH; decoding the second message to obtain a first priority of PUSCH and/or a second priority of UCI; and determining whether to use the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH based on the first priority and/or the second priority. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.

Description

System and method for multiplexing UL control and UL data transmission

Priority declaration

This application is based on and claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 63/009,287, filed on day 4, 13 of 2020 and U.S. provisional application No. 63/063,103, filed on day 8, 7 of 2020, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to systems and methods for multiplexing UL control and UL data transmissions for different services.

Background

Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early speech systems to today's highly sophisticated integrated communication platforms. Next generation wireless communication systems, fifth generation (5G) or New Radios (NR) will provide information access and data sharing through various terminals and applications anytime and anywhere. NR promises to be a unified network/system, aimed at satisfying distinct and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. This different multidimensional requirement is driven by different services and applications. In general, NRs can evolve based on third generation partnership project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) -advanced and other potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs), enriching people's lives with better, simple, and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. The NR can enable everything over the wireless connection and provide fast, rich content and services.

Disclosure of Invention

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus, comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to AN amount of resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing of the UCI with a PUSCH; decoding a second message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a first priority of the PUSCH and/or a second priority of the UCI; and determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on the first priority and/or the second priority.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus, comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more sets of beta offset indices, each set of beta offset indices corresponding to a different UCI type of the UCI; decoding a second message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a priority of the PUSCH; and determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on the priority of the PUSCH.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus, comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: determining that a Downlink Grant (DG) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) overlaps with a Configuration Grant (CG) PUSCH for a duration; encoding one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface; and discarding the other of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a low priority from at least a first overlapping symbol of the duration. .

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating beta offsets for different UCI types based on priority of PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overlap of PUSCH and UCI according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overlap of PUSCH and UCI according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for multiplexing UCI and PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for multiplexing UCI and PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for multiplexing UCI and PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates a network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments of the disclosure.

Fig. 12 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of the disclosure to others skilled in the art. However, it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that many alternative embodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrases "in an embodiment," "in one embodiment," and "in some embodiments" are used repeatedly herein. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may refer to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrases "A or B" and "A/B" mean "(A), (B) or (A and B)".

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system 100 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The communication system 100 is shown to include a User Equipment (UE) 101. The UE 101 may be a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks). However, it may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), a tablet, a pager, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a wireless handheld device, or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

In some embodiments, the UE 101 may include an internet of things (IoT) UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M), machine-type communication (MTC), enhanced MTC (emtc), and narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) to exchange data with IoT servers or devices via Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), proximity-based services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine initiated data exchange. An IoT network describes the interconnection of IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connection of the IoT network.

The UE 101 may be configured to connect with (e.g., communicatively couple with) a Radio Access Network (RAN)110, which RAN 110 may be, for example, an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), a next generation RAN (ng RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UE 101 may operate in accordance with a cellular communication protocol, which may be, for example, a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a push-to-talk (PTT) protocol, a cellular PTT (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, or the like.

RAN 110 may include one or more Access Nodes (ANs). These ANs may be referred to as Base Stations (BSs), nodebs, evolved nodebs (enbs), next generation nodebs (gnbs), etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As shown in fig. 1, RAN 110 includes AN 111 and AN 112, for example.

UE 101 may be communicatively coupled to RAN 110 by utilizing a connection 103 with AN 111, as shown in fig. 1. The connection 103 may be implemented with one or more beams (not shown). A beam may indicate a spatial domain transmit and/or receive filter or spatial relationship, and thus the terms "beam", "spatial domain transmit and/or receive filter" and "spatial relationship" may be interchangeable herein.

AN 111 and AN 112 may communicate with each other via AN X2 interface 113. AN 111 and AN 112 may be macro-ANs, which may provide greater coverage. Alternatively, they may be femto-cell ANs or pico-cell ANs, which may provide smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than macro-ANs. For example, one or both of AN 111 and AN 112 may be a Low Power (LP) AN. In one embodiment, AN 111 and AN 112 may be the same type of AN. In another embodiment, they are different types of ANs.

The AN 111 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be a first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments,

ANs

111 and 112 may implement various logical functions of RAN 110, including, but not limited to, Radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, UE 101 may be configured to communicate with AN 111 or with other UEs over a multicarrier communication channel using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and proximity-based services (ProSe) or sidelink) communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from AN 111 to UE 101, while uplink transmissions may use similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. The time-frequency plane representation method is common practice of OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation more intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements. In the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks.

The downlink channels may include a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 101. The PDCCH may carry information on a transmission format and resource allocation related to a PDSCH channel, etc. It may also inform the UE 101 of transport format, resource allocation and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 101 within a cell) can be performed at AN 111 based on channel quality information fed back from UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information for (e.g., allocated to) the UE 101 may be sent on the PDCCH.

The PDCCH may transmit control information using Control Channel Elements (CCEs). The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets before mapping to resource elements, and these quadruplets may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of physical resource elements (referred to as Resource Element Groups (REGs)), each set including four physical resource elements. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of Downlink Control Information (DCI) and channel conditions. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L ═ 1, 2, 4, or 8)

Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above-described concept. For example, some embodiments may use an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of physical resource elements (referred to as Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs)), each set including four physical resource elements. In some cases, an ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

The uplink channels may include a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). The PUSCH may carry user data and control information to the AN(s), and the PUCCH may carry control information to the AN(s).

RAN 110 is shown communicatively coupled to Core Network (CN)120 via S1 interface 114. In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or other type of CN. In one embodiment, the S1 interface 114 is divided into two parts: S1-Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between

ANs

111 and 112 and MME 121; S1-U interface 116, which carries traffic data between

ANs

111 and 112 and serving gateway (S-GW) 122.

In one embodiment, CN 120 may include MME 121, S-GW 122, Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW)123, and Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 124. MME 121 may be similar in function to the control plane of a conventional serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support node (SGSN). MME 121 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. HSS 124 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The CN 120 may include one or more HSS 124 depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capabilities of the devices, the organization of the network, etc. For example, HSS 124 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, admission, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, and the like.

S-GW 122 may terminate S1 interface 114 towards RAN 110 and route data packets between RAN 110 and CN 120. In addition, S-GW 122 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-AN handovers and may also provide AN anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW 123 may terminate the SGi interface towards the PDN. The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the CN 120 and an external network, such AS a network including an Application Server (AS)130 (alternatively referred to AS an Application Function (AF)), via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with a core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In one embodiment, P-GW 123 is communicatively coupled to application server 130 via an IP communication interface. The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) of the UE 101 via the CN 120.

P-GW 123 may also be responsible for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)126 is a policy and charging control element of CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) that is associated with an internet protocol connectivity access network (IP-CAN) session for a UE. In a roaming scenario with local traffic bursts, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of the UE: a home PCRF (H-PCRF) within the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF 126 may be communicatively coupled to application server 130 via P-GW 123. Application server 130 may signal PCRF 126 to indicate the new service flow and select the appropriate quality of service (QoS) and charging parameters. PCRF 126 may provide the rules to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) that initiates QoS and charging specified by application server 130 using appropriate Traffic Flow Templates (TFTs) and QoS Class Identifiers (QCIs).

The number of devices and/or networks shown in fig. 1 is provided for illustration purposes only. In practice, there may be additional devices and/or networks, fewer devices and/or networks, different devices and/or networks, or devices and/or networks that are configured differently than those shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively or additionally, one or more devices of system 100 may perform one or more functions described as being performed by another one or more devices of system 100. Further, although "direct" connections are shown in FIG. 1, these connections should be construed as logical communication paths. And in practice there may be one or more intermediate devices (e.g., routers, gateways, modems, switches, hubs, etc.).

Different services may be supported in an operator or serving cell. NR UEs may support one or more service types. If more than one service type of communication with different reliability and delay requirements is conducted in an operator/serving cell, the scheduled/configured resources for transmission of a first service type may overlap with the resources for transmission of a second service type for a given UE. To handle collisions and prioritize more urgent transmissions, the Rel-16 specification allows scheduling or configuring resources for high or low priority transmissions, where priority is indicated to the UE. In the event of overlap, a configured UE may send a "high" priority transmission in the Uplink (UL) and discard a "low" priority transmission. However, always dropping "low" priority transmissions, which may carry high payload control information for one or more carriers, may be detrimental to spectral efficiency and UE-perceived throughput for "low" priority transmissions. Therefore, there is a need for a solution that efficiently multiplexes "high" and "low" priority UL transmissions for a given UE, which can provide better flexibility in resource management without significantly reducing the QoS requirements of both service types.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to multiplexing UL control information such as HARQ acknowledgements (HARQ-ACKs) onto a UL data channel, e.g., PUSCH. Some embodiments of the present disclosure discuss a multiplexing solution for the following scenarios: resources of UL Control Information (UCI) such as HARQ-ACK and resources of UL data channel such as PUSCH overlap, where UCI and PUSCH have different priorities. Multiplexing rules and configurations are provided that may be obtained based on the priority of the multiplexed UCI and/or the priority of the associated PUSCH.

In some embodiments, the PUSCH may be a dynamic-grant-based (DG PUSCH) or a configured-grant-based (CG PUSCH) (type 1 or type 2). In some embodiments, the PUSCH may be of other types. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, the types of UCI that may be multiplexed onto the PUSCH may include HARQ-ACK, Channel State Information (CSI), Scheduling Request (SR), and the like. In some embodiments, UCI that may be multiplexed onto PUSCH may be of other types. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, periodic or semi-persistent CSI may be considered low priority. The HARQ-ACK information may correspond to a dynamic grant based PDSCH or a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH. In some embodiments, if the PUSCH is based on a configuration grant, the priority of the PUSCH may be obtained from the UL grant scheduling the PUSCH or a higher layer configuration. In some embodiments, the priority of the HARQ-ACK may be obtained from a Downlink (DL) grant scheduling the corresponding PDSCH or a higher layer configuration of the corresponding SPS-PDSCH.

In some embodiments, to multiplex UCI (e.g., HARQ-ACK) onto PUSCH, the timeline requirements as defined in section 9.2.5 in 3GPP TS 38.213 V15.9.0(2020-03) (third Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR Physical layer procedure for control) are met. In some embodiments, the UL and DL grants may include UL scheduling DCI and DL scheduling DCI, respectively.

The amount of resources allocated to PUSCH of multiplexed UCI may be determined based on a beta (β) offset value that may be dynamically indicated in DCI (e.g., UL grant scheduling PUSCH) or obtained from higher layer configuration. In particular, for HARQ-ACK and CSI (e.g., Part 1CSI report (Part 1CSI re) of TS 38.213port) and Part 2CSI report (Part 2CSI report)), a separate β offset value is configured/indicated as { β^HARQ-ACK,β^CSI-1,β^CSI-2}. From the UCI payload, a further classification of the beta offset value may be determined. For example, according to the Rel-15 specification, beta^HARQ-ACKClassified into betaOffsetACKIndex1, betaOffsetACK-Index2, and betaOffsetACK-Index3, which are used for up to 2 bits, 2 to 11 bits, and HARQ-ACK bits greater than 11 bits. Similarly, betaOffsetCSI-Part1-Index1 and betaOffsetCSI-Part2-Index1 are used for payloads of up to 11 bits, and betaOffsetCSI-Part1-Index2 and betaOffsetCSI-Part2-Index2 are used for payloads of more than 11 bits. The lowest and highest beta offset values in the Rel-15 design are 1.0 and 126, respectively. The higher the value, the more resources are allocated from the PUSCH to the UCI. In other words, the β offset is associated with or reflects the amount of resources allocated to UCI for multiplexing in PUSCH.

The beta offset for HARQ-ACK is configured in table 1 (consistent with table 9.3-1 of TS 38.213). Also, the beta offsets for the part 1CSI report and the part 2CSI report (also referred to as CSI-part1 and CSI-part 2) are configured in table 2 (consistent with table 9.3-2 of TS 38.213). According to the Rel-15 specification, a 2-bit beta _ offset indicator field in the UL grant DCI may indicate the beta offset. For multiplexing HARQ-ACK information, Part 1CSI report, and Part 2CSI report in PUSCH transmission, respectively, according to table 1 and table 1, respectively, a UE may be provided with a set of four β offset indices by each of { beta offset ACK-Index1, beta offset ACK-Index2, beta offset ACK-Index3}, a set of four CSI-1 β offset indices by each of { beta offset CSI-Part1-Index1, beta offset CSI-Part1-Index2}, and a set of four CSI-2 β offset indices by each of { beta offset CSI-Part2-Index1, beta offset CSI-Part2-Index2 }. The beta _ offset indicator field may indicate an index value for HARQ-ACK, an index value for part 1CSI report, and an index value for part 2CSI report from the corresponding group using the mapping defined in table 3 (consistent with table 9.3-3 of TS 38.213). If the DCI format does not include this field, the β offset may be obtained by higher layer RRC signaling to multiplex UCI onto PUSCH.

TABLE 1 beta offset value for HARQ-ACK information

And index

Of (2) a mapping relation

Table 2 beta offset values for CSI

And index

Of (2) a mapping relation

TABLE 3 beta offset indicator (beta _ offset indicator) and index

Of (2) a mapping relation

When a given UE supports different services, communications of one service type may be more urgent than communications of another service type. For example, if the resources of the high priority PUSCH overlap with the resources of the low priority HARQ-ACK in a slot or sub-slot, the low priority transmission may be dropped to protect the reliability of the high priority transmission. On the other hand, it may not always be desirable to drop low priority HARQ-ACKs, such as in cases where HARQ-ACKs may carry many bits (e.g., if the UE is configured with carrier aggregation). Therefore, for flexibility, it is beneficial to multiplex the high (low) priority PUSCH with the low (high) priority HARQ-ACK by defining a wide range of β -offset values for multiplexing the HARQ-ACK onto the PUSCH (e.g. including zero, meaning dropping the HARQ-ACK), rather than always dropping the low priority transmission. The UE may report the UE's ability to support multiplexing UCI and data of different priorities on the PUSCH. Higher layer configurations may be provided to the UE to implement one or more of the multiplexing and/or dropping behaviors discussed in this disclosure.

In some embodiments, the set of beta offset indices used to indicate beta offset via UL grant DCI format or higher layer RRC signaling may be based on an indication of a related PUSCH transmission (e.g., for a dynamic grant based PUSCH) or a configured (e.g., for a configured grant) priority.

In some embodiments, the DCI format scheduling PUSCH may include: a K-bit β offset indicator field; and an M-bit field. In some embodiments, K ≧ 1, and it is an integer, e.g., K ≧ 1, 2, 3, 4, or the like. Each codepoint (codepoint) of the K-bit field maps to a beta offset index for HARQ-ACK and to a beta offset index for CSI part1 and part 2. In some embodiments, M ≧ 1 and it is an integer which indicates the priority of the PUSCH. For example, the M ═ 1 bit indicates a high priority or a low priority of the PUSCH. For HARQ-ACK and/or CSI1, CSI 2, corresponding to a priority indicated by an M-bit field, may be provided to the UE including up to 2^KOffset by an index value of (e.g., for K2 or3 is 4 or 8 values). Depending on the indication of the priority level of the PUSCH, the UE will determine the set of beta offset values for HARQ-ACK and/or CSI to which the K-bit beta offset indicator field corresponds.

In some embodiments, if M is 1, 2 for each of HARQ-ACK and/or CSI1 and/or CSI 2 is used if a "high" priority is indicated (e.g., if the bit value of M is 1)^KOffset a first set of index values, and if a "low" priority is indicated (e.g., if a bit value of M is 0), use 2 for each of HARQ-ACK and/or CSI1 and/or CSI 2^KA second set of beta offset index values.

In some embodiments, the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices are obtained from a common table. For example, Table 3, based on the Rel-15 specification, shows a set of four indices. The size of the table may be determined based on the value of K above. In some embodiments, the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices are obtained from different tables. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices may be signaled through DCI or higher layer signaling.

In some embodiments, a new beta offset value may be added to the table. In particular, in a table of β offset values (e.g., table 1) used to map HARQ-ACK information, one or more values less than 1, including zero, may be added, which may be beneficial when multiplexing low priority HARQ-ACKs to high priority PUSCH. In one example, 4 new values such as 0, 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 may be added to the new table, which may provide reasonable flexibility in handling multiplexing low priority HARQ-ACKs onto high priority PUSCH. In some cases, zero indicates that the HARQ-ACK is discarded. In another example, one or more values greater than 126 (e.g., including infinity) may be added to the currently specified table, which may be useful if the indicated priority of PUSCH is "low", particularly if there are HARQ-ACKs of "high" priority that may be scheduled in overlapping resources. In some cases, infinity or greater than a threshold (e.g., 126) may mean that PUSCH is dropped and HARQ-ACK is sent. Some reserved entries in the currently specified table (e.g., table 1, table 2, etc.) may be used to add new values that may be less than the minimum value available in the currently specified table or greater than the maximum value available in the currently specified table. The value 1 or 126 is described based on the HARQ-ACK in table 1. However, the above concepts may be applied to other types of UCI, such as CSI in table 2, to extend the range of β offsets. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the first set of beta offset values and the second set of beta offset values are obtained from different tables. In one example, the table corresponding to the first set may have a minimum β offset value less than 1 (e.g., zero) and/or a maximum β offset value less than 126; and the table corresponding to the second set may have a minimum beta offset value greater than 1 and/or a maximum beta offset value greater than 126 (e.g., infinity).

In some embodiments, the association of the set of beta offset indices with the priority may depend on the UCI payload. If the UCI payload is too low, e.g., 2 bits or less, a table with a currently specified minimum beta offset value of 1 may be used; and if the UCI payload exceeds 2 bits, a new table may be used, where the minimum beta offset value may be less than 1 or the maximum beta offset value may be greater than 126.

In some embodiments, a new table for mapping the beta offset value may be constructed. For example, for HARQ-ACK information, a first subset of entries of the table having a minimum value less than 1 may be valid for obtaining a first set of beta offset indices (e.g., when PUSCH has a high priority), while a second subset of entries of the table having a minimum value equal to or greater than 1 and/or a maximum value equal to or greater than 126 may be valid for obtaining a second set of beta offset indices (e.g., when PUSCH has a low priority). The first subset and the second subset may overlap. For example, the subset size may be 8 or 16. The subset size may be other values, and the disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, in case there is at least one symbol overlap between PUSCH and PUCCH carrying UCI (e.g. HARQ-ACK, CSI report), UCI is dropped if PUSCH has high priority unless the UCI payload is 2 bits or less, in which case it is desirable for the UE to multiplex the UCI payload on PUSCH according to the indicated beta _ offset value.

The embodiments described in the present disclosure that associate the set of beta offset indices with the priority of PUSCH are also applicable to the case where the set of beta offset indices to be used depends on the priority of both PUSCH and HARQ-ACK to be multiplexed. For example, the embodiments described for the β value when PUSCH priority is high may also be extended to the case when PUSCH priority is high and HARQ-ACK priority is low. Furthermore, the embodiments described for the β value when the PUSCH priority is low may also be extended to the case when the PUSCH priority is low and the HARQ-ACK priority is high.

The embodiments described above with respect to associating a set of beta offset indices with a priority of PUSCH are described in the context of obtaining a priority and a beta offset indication from DCI. Embodiments for obtaining priority and beta offset indications from higher layer configurations (e.g., higher layer RRC signaling) are described below.

In some embodiments, the PUSCH is based on a configuration grant. For example, PUSCH transmission is configured by a higher layer parameter ConfiguredGrantConfig, or PUSCH transmission is activated based on a configuration provided by a higher layer parameter semipersistent onpusch. The beta offset value of a set of values may be provided to the UE by a higher layer parameter, betaOffsetCG-UCI-r16 and using a mapping relationship defined by the higher layer. In one example, if the PUSCH has a high priority, a first set of values for indicating the β offset may be configured by higher layer RRC signaling, and if the PUSCH has a low priority, a second set of values for indicating the β offset may be configured by higher layer RRC signaling. In some embodiments, a UCI based on configuration permissions (CG-UCI) may be sent. The CG-UCI may carry information such as HARQ process number, redundancy version, new data indicator, and/or channel occupancy time sharing information. Whether the CG-UCI is included in the PUSCH may be indicated by higher layer signaling.

In some embodiments, the UE will multiplex the HARQ-ACK information in a PUSCH transmission configured by ConfiguredGrantConfig or in an activated PUSCH transmission configured by semipersistent onpusch. If the higher layer parameters CG-UCI-Multiplexing are provided to the UE, the UE may jointly encode the HARQ-ACK information and the CG-UCI and determine a corresponding β offset value based on the total payload (the total number of bits corresponding to the CG-UCI and HARQ-ACK). In some embodiments, the beta offset used to multiplex the jointly coded CG-UCI and HARQ-ACK information is the same as would have been used if only HARQ-ACK information was multiplexed, e.g., the beta offset value configured for multiplexing HARQ-ACK onto PUSCH is also applicable for multiplexing HARQ-ACK and CG-UCI onto PUSCH. Similar to the above, in some embodiments, a different set of values may be configured based on the payload to indicate the beta offset. For example, if the payload is less than or equal to 11 bits, a first set of values may be used to indicate beta offset, and if higher than 11 bits, a second set of values may be used to indicate beta offset. Further, for each category of payload range, e.g., ≦ 11 bits or >11 bits, different sets of values for obtaining the β offset may be configured based on the priority of the PUSCH transmission. For example, for each configured/designated payload range that multiplexes CG-UCI and HARQ-ACK onto PUSCH, a first group is used if PUSCH has a high priority and a second group is used if PUSCH has a low priority. Alternatively, for any configured/specified payload range used to multiplex CG-UCI and HARQ-ACK onto PUSCH, the same first set of β offsets is used if PUSCH has high priority and the same second set of β offsets is used if PUSCH has low priority. In some embodiments, a common or separate Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) attachment for HARQ-ACK information and CG-UCI may be considered prior to encoding and mapping resources.

In some embodiments, a separate beta offset may be configured or indicated for the CG UCI through higher layer signaling, which may be different from the beta offset used to multiplex the HARQ-ACK information. In this case, the CG UCI and HARQ-ACK may be separately encoded and mapped to resources.

In some embodiments, the CG-UCI may be discarded in whole or in part if "high" priority HARQ-ACK information is multiplexed. In some embodiments, if CG-UCI is multiplexed onto PUSCH, the "low" priority HARQ-ACK information is discarded. In some embodiments, the CG-UCI is also considered "high" priority and is never dropped. In this case, the CG-UCI may be jointly encoded with the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK discarded.

In some embodiments, the configured first beta offset is used to multiplex HARQ-ACK and CG-UCI, and the configured second beta offset is used only to multiplex HARQ-ACK information. The tables used to obtain the first and second beta offsets may be the same or different.

In some embodiments, the beta offset configured for HARQ-ACK and CG-UCI to be jointly coded and multiplexed may depend on the priority of HARQ-ACK and/or PUSCH. For example, if HARQ-ACK has low priority and/or PUSCH has high priority, a first β offset is indicated; and indicating a second beta offset if the HARQ-ACK has a high priority and/or the PUSCH has a low priority. As described in the previous embodiments for multiplexing HARQ-ACK onto PUSCH, the tables or subsets from which the values of the first and second β offsets are obtained may be the same or may be different. Embodiments that include adding new values to the existing legacy/Rel-15 table described above are also suitable for this. For example, if PUSCH has a high priority, a value less than 1 may be added.

In some embodiments, the DCI format scheduling PUSCH includes a priority indicator field but does not include a beta offset indicator field. In this case, the first β offset index and the second β offset index are configured by higher layer signaling, and the first β offset is used if "high" priority is notified, and the second β offset is used if "low" priority is notified.

The above embodiments describe determining the set of beta offset indices based on the priority of the associated PUSCH. However, in some embodiments, the set of beta offset indices used to indicate beta offset values for multiplexing UCI in PUSCH may be based on the priority of overlapping UCI. For example, the set of beta offset indices may be based on an indication of overlapping UCI (e.g., HARQ-ACK or CSI report) transmissions (e.g., for a dynamic grant based PDSCH, where the DL grant includes priority information for HARQ-ACK) or configured (e.g., configured HARQ-ACK for Downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS)). In some embodiments, for the case where it is possible to multiplex HARQ-ACK Codebooks (CBs) in the PUSCH, if the HARQ-ACK CBs are associated with priority index 0 (low priority), then a first set of beta offset values is used; and if the HARQ-ACK CB is associated with priority index1 (high priority), a second set of beta offset values is used.

In some embodiments, the set of beta offset indices used to indicate beta offset values for multiplexing UCI in PUSCH (where PUSCH is triggered by UL grant DCI format or higher layer RRC signaling) may be based on a combination of: an indicated (e.g., for a PUSCH based on dynamic grants) or configured (e.g., for a configured grant) priority of an associated PUSCH transmission; and an indication of overlapping UCI (e.g., HARQ-ACK, CSI) transmission (e.g., HARQ-ACK for dynamically scheduled unicast PDSCH) or configured (e.g., HARQ-ACK configured for Downlink (DL) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS)).

In some embodiments, for the case where it is possible to multiplex the HARQ-ACK codebook in the PUSCH, if the PUSCH has a priority index of 0 (low priority) and the HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a priority index of 0 (low priority), a first set of β offset values may be used; if the PUSCH has a priority index of 0 (low priority) and the HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with a priority index of 1 (high priority), a second set of beta offset values may be used; and if PUSCH has priority index1 (high priority), UCI transmission is dropped (e.g., not multiplexed). Alternatively, if the PUSCH has priority index1 (high priority) and the HARQ-ACK codebook is associated with priority index 0 (low priority) or priority index1 (high priority), the UE may use a third set of β -offset values. As an extension of this example, if both PUSCH and HARQ-ACK codebooks are associated with priority index1 (high priority), the UE may use either the first set of beta offset values or the fourth set of beta offset values. All of these sets of values/indices may be configured to the UE through higher layer signaling such as UE-specific RRC signaling or via DCI.

Some of the embodiments described above are described based on HARQ-ACK. However, the principles of these embodiments may also be applied to other types of UCI. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Groups of beta offset indices/entry sets will be discussed below.

In some embodiments, the PUSCH 100 of fig. 2 may be a dynamic grant based PUSCH or a configuration grant based PUSCH. In some embodiments, if the PUSCH is based on dynamic grants and the grants include a beta offset indicator field and/or a priority indicator field, the UE may be configured with two sets of beta offset entries/index sets. If the PUSCH has a high priority (HP PUSCH), the first group 101 is used; the second group 102 is used if PUSCH has low priority (LP PUSCH). Each group may include one or more of: a set of beta offset indices for multiplexing HARQ-ACK (block 103 if HP PUSCH; block 104 if LP PUSCH); the beta offset index set for multiplexing CSI part1 (block 105 if HP PUSCH; block 107 if LP PUSCH); and a set of beta offset indices for multiplexing CSI part2 (block 106 if HP PUSCH; block 108 if LP PUSCH).

In some embodiments, the Index set may be configured for each of the beta OffsetACK-Index1, beta OffsetACK-Index2, beta OffsetACK-Index3, beta OffsetCSI-Part1-Index1, beta OffsetCSI-Part1-Index2, beta OffsetCSI-Part2-Index1, beta OffsetCSI-Part2-Index2 depending on the payload of the HARQ-ACK as described above. In some embodiments, one code point in the beta offset indicator field maps to one entry in each set in the group (e.g., 101 or 102). The size of the set depends on the number of bits in the beta offset indicator field, e.g., a 1 or 2 bit field indicates that the size of the set is 2 and 4, respectively. The UE determines a group to use according to the priority indicated in the DCI.

As shown in fig. 2, the set of beta offset indices used for CSI multiplexing depends on the priority of PUSCH. However, it is also possible to have no relation to the priority of the PUSCH, e.g. 105 and 107 are the same (106 and 108 are the same).

In some embodiments, the UE may also be configured with two β offset values for each entry/index in the set (103 or 104) for HARQ-ACK multiplexing. If the multiplexed HARQ-ACK has a high priority (109 or 111), using a first value; the second value is used if the multiplexed HARQ-ACK has a low priority (110 or 112). When the UE prepares the PUSCH, the UE applies an appropriate β offset value according to the priority of the HARQ-ACK. For example, with reference to table 3, for each or at least one of beta offset ack-Index1, beta offset ack-Index2, and beta offset ack-Index3, each code point (e.g., each row) of the beta offset indicator field may map to two beta offset values, rather than one value as shown in table 3. Alternatively, the same beta offset is used for multiplexing HARQ-ACKs, regardless of the priority of the HARQ-ACKs. For example, block 109 and 112 are not required.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, if PUSCH is based on a configured grant type 2 activated by DCI format 0_0 (CG-UCI will or will not be transmitted), and if DCI format 0_0 includes a β -offset indicator field, the above mechanism applies to the case where PUSCH priority may be obtained from a higher layer configuration of CG PUSCH or by a bit field in DCI. The CG-UCI may use the same beta offset as the multiplexed HARQ-ACK (block 103 or 104). This is used when multiplexing one HARQ-ACK to PUSCH. When there is more than one HARQ-ACK to be multiplexed onto the PUSCH, the related procedure is described below.

On the other hand, in some embodiments, when the PUSCH is based on the configured grant type 1 or the configured grant type 2 activated by DCI format 0_0 not including the β -offset indicator field, and the PUSCH may or may not include CG-UCI, the β -offset value for multiplexing HARQ-ACK/CG-UCI, CSI-part1, and CSI-part2 is provided by a higher layer configuration. Similar to the above, two β offset values may be provided in a higher layer configuration for HARQ-ACK multiplexing: one for when the HARQ-ACK is high priority and another for when the HARQ-ACK is low priority. CG-UCI multiplexing uses the same beta offset as HARQ-ACK. When there is more than one HARQ-ACK to be multiplexed onto the PUSCH, the related procedure is described below.

Resource allocation for multiplexing different UCI types onto PUSCH will be discussed below.

In some embodiments, if the UE reports capabilities and/or if higher layer signaling configures the functionality to the UE, the UE may multiplex UCI of different priority onto PUCCH or UCI of at least one UCI having a different priority than PUSCH onto PUSCH. When the UE determines that HP HARQ and/or LP HARQ and/or CG-UCI and/or CSI are to be multiplexed onto PUSCH, exemplary steps for identifying the number of coded modulation symbols for each UCI type are as follows. This example assumes that if resources are available and a timeline condition is met (e.g., the latest time when the UE starts to prepare PUSCH, UCI information is available at the UE), then these channels are allowed to be multiplexed.

1. If HP-HARQ is to be multiplexed, for a given/configured number of resource elements available for UCI transmission (scaled) in OFDM symbols of PUSCH, a per-layer based number of coded modulation symbols Q 'for HP HARQ-ACK transmission is determined from a beta offset applicable for HP HARQ-ACK multiplexing'_HP,ACK。

a) If CG-UCI is to be multiplexed, CG-UCI may optionally be jointly encoded with HP HARQ-ACK in step 1, and in this case Q'_HP,ACKIndicating the number of coded modulation symbols per layer basis for both HP HARQ-ACK and CG-UCI.

2. If LP-HARQ is to be multiplexed, the number of per-layer-based coded modulation symbols Q' for LP HARQ-ACK transmission is determined from the beta offset applicable for multiplexing LP HARQ-ACK, taking into account the number of resource elements remaining after allocation of HP-HARQ in step 1 (e.g., updating the available resources by subtracting the number of per-layer-based coded modulation symbols obtained in step 1)._LP,ACK。

a) If the CG-UCI is to be multiplexed, it may be optionally jointly encoded with the LP HARQ-ACK in step 2 if it is not included in a) of step 1. In this case Q'_LP,ACKIndicating the number of coded modulation symbols per layer basis for both LP HARQ-ACK and CG-UCI.

b) If there is no LP-HARQ present,then Q'_LP,ACKOnly CG-UCI is shown.

c) Optionally, LP-HARQ may be divided into two parts: first, Q 'is obtained as described in step 2'_LP,ACK,part ₁And is available to obtain Q 'after subtracting the number of coded modulation symbols per layer obtained in step 1 and the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for the LP-HARQ part 1'_LP,ACK,part ₂。

3. If CSI-part1 is to be multiplexed, the number Q 'of coded modulation symbols per layer based for CSI-part1 transmission is determined from the beta offset applicable to CSI-1, taking into account the number of resource elements remaining after allocation of the above steps'_CSI-1。

4. If CSI-part2 is to be multiplexed, then next, the per-layer-based number of coded modulation symbols Q 'for CSI-part2 transmission is determined from the beta offset applicable to CSI-2, taking into account the number of resource elements remaining after the allocation of the above steps'_CSI-2。

In the above process, UCI types for multiplexing onto PUSCH are prioritized in the order of HP-HARQ-ACK > LP HARQ-ACK > CSI part 1> CSI part 2. In case the CG PUSCH includes CG-UCI, the CG-UCI may have the same priority as HP HARQ-ACK or LP HARQ-ACK. However, the above procedure is only an example. In some embodiments, the resource allocation procedure of multiplexing different UCI types onto PUSCH may be performed based on different priorities than above. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, in each of the above 4 steps, a CRC is added to the UCI payload bits to determine the number of coded modulation symbols on a per layer basis. In some embodiments, CRC bits are added separately for LP HARQ and HP HARQ payload bits. In some embodiments, for small block lengths, no CRC bits are added.

In some embodiments, the HP HARQ-ACK and LP HARQ-ACK bits are jointly encoded. In one example, joint encoding may be performed when the payload of one or both of the HARQ-ACKs is below a threshold, such as 2 or 11 bits.

In some embodiments, when the resource of HARQ-ACK with priority index of 1 overlaps with CG-PUSCH including CG-UCI (with or without CSI), CG-PUSCH with CG-UCI is dropped and CSI is not multiplexed.

In some embodiments, if the HP HARQ-ACK and LP HARQ-ACK bits are to be multiplexed with the CG-PUSCH carrying CG-UCI, CSI part1 and part2 are discarded if CSI part1 and part2 are also multiplexed, such that the number of UCI multiplexed at a given time does not exceed 3.

Although the above examples primarily consider HARQ-ACK multiplexing on PUSCH, it is understood that similar examples may also be applied to other UCI (e.g., CSI, SR, etc.). For example, "high" priority SR information may be multiplexed to PUSCH (e.g., if based on configured permissions), but "low" priority SR information may not.

In some cases, one or more PUCCHs containing UCI and one or more PUSCHs may overlap for a given duration that includes a group of symbols, such as a slot or sub-slot. Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overlap of PUSCH and UCI according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 3, one or more PUSCHs may overlap with UCI of one or more types of PUCCH for a duration. The CG PUSCH may or may not contain CG-UCI.

In some embodiments, when the UE determines that there is an overlap between the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH (the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH have different priorities), the UE may determine to transmit one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority and drop the other of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a low priority at least before or starting from the first overlapping symbol.

In some embodiments where DG PUSCH has high priority and CG PUSCH has low priority, the UE will send DG PUSCH and drop CG-PUSCH. If the UE is to send UCI (e.g., HARQ-ACK and/or CSI) in one or more PUCCHs overlapping with the DG PUSCH and timing conditions are met (e.g., UCI information is available at the UE when the UE starts to prepare the PUSCH) (detailed information on timing conditions for reporting UCI, see section 9.2.5 of TS 38.213), the multiplexing of UCI may be as follows.

In one example, if the HARQ-ACK has a high priority, the HARQ-ACK may be multiplexed onto the DG-PUSCH; and discards other overlapping low priority HARQ-ACKs and/or CSIs if they exist.

In another example, HARQ-ACK and CSI may be multiplexed onto DG-PUSCH in the following order: HP-HARQ ACK > LP HARQ-ACK > CSI part 1> CSI part 2. In this example, HP HARQ-ACK is first selected for transmission in available resources for UCI transmission in PUSCH, followed by other UCI types (if applicable/present). However, this order is merely an example, and different types of UCI may be multiplexed based on other orders. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In yet another example, only HARQ-ACKs are multiplexed and CSI is discarded. In the HARQ-ACK, the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK are separately encoded and mapped, or they may be jointly encoded.

In some embodiments where CG PUSCH has a high priority and DG PUSCH has a low priority, the UE will send the CG PUSCH and drop the DG-PUSCH. If the UE is to send UCI (e.g., HARQ-ACK and/or CSI) in one or more PUCCHs overlapping the CG PUSCH and timing conditions are met (e.g., UCI information is available at the UE when the UE starts to prepare the PUSCH) (detailed information on timing conditions for reporting UCI, see section 9.2.5 of TS 38.213), the multiplexing of UCI may be as follows.

In one example, if the HARQ-ACK has a high priority, the HARQ-ACK may be multiplexed onto the CG-PUSCH; and discards other overlapping low priority HARQ-ACKs and/or CSIs if they exist. If the CG-PUSCH is to contain CG-UCI, it is jointly encoded with HP-HARQ-ACK.

HARQ-ACK and CSI may be multiplexed onto CG-PUSCH in the following order: HP-HARQ ACK > LP HARQ-ACK > CSI part 1> CSI part 2. In this example, HP HARQ-ACK is first selected for transmission in available resources for UCI transmission in PUSCH, followed by other UCI types (if applicable/present). However, this order is merely an example, and different types of UCI may be multiplexed based on other orders. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect. The CG-UCI (if present) may be jointly coded with HP HARQ or LP HARQ.

In yet another example, only HARQ-ACKs are multiplexed and CSI is discarded. In the HARQ-ACK, the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK are separately encoded and mapped, or they may be jointly encoded. CG-UCI (if present) may be jointly coded with HP HARQ or LP HARQ; or if both HARQ-ACKs are jointly coded, the CG-UCI is also included in the joint coding.

The above embodiments discuss the case where the PUSCH and the UCI are multiplexed without multiplexing different types of PUSCHs having different priorities. However, in some cases, PUSCH and PUCCH may not be multiplexed.

In some embodiments, when the UE determines that there is overlap between a first PUCCH or PUSCH and a second PUCCH or PUSCH transmission (where the first PUCCH or PUSCH has a high priority and the second PUCCH or PUSCH has a low priority), the UE may transmit the first PUCCH or PUSCH and may drop the second PUCCH or PUSCH at least before the first overlapping symbol. If the second PUCCH or PUSCH overlaps with a third PUCCH or PUSCH of low priority, and if the third PUCCH or PUSCH will not start earlier than the last symbol of the first PUCCH or PUSCH, the UE will transmit the third PUCCH or PUSCH.

In some embodiments, the UE may not start multiplexing UCI onto PUSCH before the UE will start preparing for PUSCH, so that the UE may still determine to cancel the second PUCCH or PUSCH when there is no multiplexing between the second and third transmissions (when either is PUCCH). The third transmission will also be discarded if multiplexing of the second and third transmissions has already started. Information of the third PUCCH or PUSCH may or may not be available before the cancellation time of the second PUSCH or PUCCH starts.

These embodiments assume that the UE performs intra-UE prioritization and does not perform multiplexing across different priorities. In one example, the second transmission is a PUSCH and the third transmission is a PUCC, e.g., HARQ-ACK or CSI. In another example, the second transmission is a PUCCH, e.g., HARQ-ACK or CSI, and the third transmission is a PUSCH. In yet another example, the second and third transmissions are PUCCHs, which may both be HARQ-ACKs or both be CSI; or one may be HARQ-ACK and the other CSI.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overlap of PUSCH and UCI according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, HP HARQ overlaps with LP PUSCH, but does not overlap with LP HARQ. The UE discards the LP PUSCH because it overlaps with the HP HARQ-ACK. However, although LP HARQ-ACK overlaps with LP PUSCH, it does not overlap with HP HARQ, and LP HARQ-ACK starts later. LP HARQ transmission may still occur when the UE has not started to prepare LP PUSCH using multiplexed HARQ-ACK. In this example, the UE has UCI information for LP HARQ-ACK and HP HARQ-ACK before the UE will start to prepare LP PUSCH. Thus, when the UE determines that LP PUSCH overlaps with HP HARQ, the UE does not choose to multiplex HP HARQ-ACK onto LP PUSCH.

The above embodiments may be extended to more transmissions. For example, the fourth PUCCH may overlap at least with the third transmission, and if the fourth transmission does not overlap with the second transmission, UCI in the fourth PUCCH may be multiplexed onto/with the third transmission. For example, the third transmission may be an LP HARQ-ACK and the fourth transmission may be an LP SR or CSI.

In some embodiments, the UE is configured with this feature or reporting capability to multiplex across different priorities, and the UE identifies an overlap of more than two channels with different priorities, where at least two channels are PUCCH and one is PUSCH.

In this case, in one example or option a), if the timeline condition is satisfied, the UE may multiplex all UCI in PUCCH to PUSCH according to a configured/indicated β offset value associated with PUSCH, which may have low or high priority. UCI such as HARQ-ACK or CSI may have a low priority or a high priority. UCI multiplexing on PUSCH is performed according to the priority order outlined in the previous examples/embodiments.

In another example or option b), when at least one of the UCIs is HP HARQ-ACK and/or HP SR and PUSCH has low priority, the UE may multiplex the UCI onto PUCCH and the UE may drop PUSCH. In some cases, CSI may be discarded when multiplexed with at least HP HARQ-ACK and/or HP SR onto PUCCH. This behavior may be used when the LP PUSCH end time is much later than the original PUCCH resources for HP HARQ-ACK, and multiplexing it will delay the transmission of HP HARQ-ACK.

In some embodiments, a rule may be identified to select between the above two options. For example, option a) may be used when HP UCI, such as HP HARQ-ACK, is not delayed due to multiplexing to PUSCH. For example, the last symbol of the PUSCH is not later than the last symbol of the original PUCCH resource for HP HARQ-ACK or not later than the sub-slot of the original PUCCH resource containing HP HARQ-ACK.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 500 for multiplexing UCI and PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 may be performed by a UE and includes

steps

510, 520, and 530.

At 510, a first message received from AN may be decoded to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices, the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing UCI with PUSCH. Each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices may include one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to an amount of resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing UCI with the PUSCH.

At 520, the second message received from the AN may be decoded to obtain the first priority of PUSCH and/or the second priority of UCI.

At 530, based on the first priority and/or the second priority, it may be determined whether to multiplex UCI with PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices.

In some embodiments, the third message received from the AN may be decoded. The third message is used to indicate a beta offset index used for multiplexing the UCI with the PUSCH in the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices.

In some embodiments, the first message may be carried via DCI or higher layer signaling. In some embodiments, the second message may be carried via DCI or higher layer signaling. In some embodiments, the third message may be carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

In some embodiments, the first priority may be indicated by an uplink scheduling DCI, and the second priority may be indicated by a downlink scheduling DCI.

In some embodiments, the UCI may include at least one of: HARQ-ACK, part 1CSI report, part 2CSI report, and SR.

In some embodiments, a capability message for reporting support of multiplexing of UCI with PUSCH may be encoded for transmission to the AN.

In some embodiments, the beta offset index in the first or second set of beta offset indices may correspond to a value less than 1 or greater than 126.

In some embodiments, the first set of beta offset indices may be determined to be used when i) the first priority is high, ii) the second priority is low, iii) both the first priority and the second priority are low, or iv) both the first priority and the second priority are high; and may determine to use a second set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is low and/or ii) the second priority is high.

In some embodiments, the beta offset indices in the first set of beta offset indices may correspond to values less than 1.

In some embodiments, the beta offset indices in the second set of beta offset indices may correspond to values greater than 126.

In some embodiments, the CG-UCI is to be sent to the AN, and the UCI includes HARQ-ACK, which may be jointly encoded to be multiplexed with PUSCH.

In some embodiments, the CG-UCI is to be transmitted to the AN, a fourth message received from the AN may be decoded to obtain a third set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing the CG-UCI with the PUSCH; and based on the third set of beta offset indices, the CG-UCI is separately encoded to be multiplexed with the PUSCH.

In some embodiments, method 500 may include more or fewer steps. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 600 for multiplexing UCI and PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 600 may be performed by a UE and includes

steps

610, 620, and 630.

At 610, a first message received from AN may be decoded to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices, the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices configured to multiplex UCI with PUSCH. Each of the first and second sets of beta offset index sets includes one or more beta offset index sets, each beta offset index set corresponding to a different UCI type of UCI.

At 620, the second message received from the AN may be decoded to obtain a priority of the PUSCH.

At 630, based on the priority of the PUSCH, it may be determined whether to multiplex UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices.

In some embodiments, the first message may be carried via DCI or higher layer signaling. In some embodiments, the second message may be carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

In some embodiments, the UCI may include at least one of: HARQ-ACK, part 1CSI reporting, and part 2CSI reporting.

In some embodiments, the HARQ-ACK includes HP HARQ-ACK and LP HARQ-ACK. The resources allocated for multiplexing the UCI in the PUSCH are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

In some embodiments, the UCI includes HARQ-ACKs, and the beta offset indices in the beta offset index sets corresponding to HARQ-ACKs in the first set of beta offset indices and/or the second set of beta offset indices sets are associated with two beta offset values for HP HARQ-ACKs and LP HARQ-ACKs, respectively.

In some embodiments, method 600 may include more or fewer steps. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 700 for multiplexing UCI and PUSCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 700 may be performed by a UE and includes

steps

710, 720, and 730.

At 710, it may be determined that a DG PUSCH overlaps with a CG PUSCH within a duration.

At 720, one of the DG PUSCH and CG PUSCH having a high priority may be encoded for transmission to the AN.

At 730, the other of the DG PUSCH and CG PUSCH having low priority is dropped at least from the first overlapping symbol of the duration.

In some embodiments, the one or more UCI may be multiplexed with the one of DG PUSCH and CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN.

In some embodiments, the UCI includes at least one of: HP HARQ-ACK, LP HARQ-ACK, part 1CSI report, and part 2CSI report.

In some embodiments, the resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing UCI are allocated to HP HARQ-ACK, LP HARQ-ACK, part 1CSI report, and part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

In some embodiments, the HP HARQ-ACK may be multiplexed with the one of DG PUSCH and CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN; and the LP HARQ-ACK, part 1CSI report, and part 2CSI report may be discarded.

In some embodiments, the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK may be multiplexed with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN; and the part 1CSI report and the part 2CSI report may be discarded.

In some embodiments, the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK may be jointly coded or separately coded.

In some embodiments, method 700 may include more or fewer steps. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

With the multiplexing mechanism of UL control transmission and UL data transmission described in the present disclosure, different types of UCI can be multiplexed with PUSCH to better utilize resources, so that spectrum efficiency and UE throughput can be improved, and resource management flexibility can be enhanced.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device 800 according to various embodiments. Infrastructure equipment 800 (or "system 800") may be implemented as base stations, radio heads, RAN nodes, and so on, such as

RAN nodes

111 and 112 shown and described previously. In other examples, system 800 may be implemented in or by a UE, application server(s) 130, and/or any other elements/devices discussed herein. The system 800 may include one or more of the following: an application circuit 805, a baseband circuit 810, one or more radio front end modules 815, a memory 820, a Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC) 825, a power tee circuit 830, a network controller 835, a network interface connector 840, a satellite positioning circuit 845, and a user interface 850. In some embodiments, device 800 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interface elements. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a cloud RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include hardware components such as the following configured to provide the described functionality: electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memories (shared, dedicated, or group), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field-programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (complex PLDs, CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or System on Chip (socs)), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and so forth. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. Furthermore, the term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or circuitry used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code for performing the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The terms "application circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuitry" and may be referred to as "processor circuitry". As used herein, the term "processor circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include circuitry that: the circuit is capable of sequentially and automatically performing a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations; and recording, storing and/or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical Central Processing Units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, tri-core processors, quad-core processors, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise manipulating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.

The application circuitry 805 may include one or more Central Processing Unit (CPU) cores and one or more of the following: cache memory, Low Dropout (LDO) regulator, interrupt controller, Serial Interface such as SPI, I2C, or Universal programmable Serial Interface module, Real Time Clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, Universal input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controller such as Secure Digital (SD)/multimedia card (MMC), Universal Serial Bus (USB) Interface, Mobile Industrial Processor Interface (MIPI) Interface, and joint test accessA Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) Test Access port. By way of example, the application circuit 805 may include one or more Intels

Or

A processor; ultramicron semiconductor (Advanced Micro Devices, AMD)

A processor, an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), or

A processor; and so on. In some embodiments, system 800 may not utilize application circuitry 805, but may include, for example, a dedicated processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC or 5 GC.

Additionally or alternatively, the application circuitry 805 may include circuitry such as (but not limited to) the following: one or more Field Programmable Devices (FPDs), such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (cplds), high capacity PLDs (hcplds), and the like; ASICs, such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable soc (psoc); and so on. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuitry 805 may comprise a logic block or logic architecture, including other interconnected resources, that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 805 may include a storage unit (e.g., an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a static memory (e.g., Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), an antifuse, etc.) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a lookup table (LUT), and so forth.

Baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Although not shown, baseband circuitry 810 may include one or more digital baseband systems, which may be coupled to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem via an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via additional interconnect subsystems. Each interconnection subsystem may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a Network On Chip (NOC) fabric, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, voice processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more amplifiers and filters, and/or other similar components. In an aspect of the disclosure, the baseband circuitry 810 may include protocol processing circuitry having one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionality for digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., radio front end module 815).

The user interface circuitry 850 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable interaction with a user of the system 800 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the system 800. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., a Light Emitting Diode (LED)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, and so forth. The peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, and the like.

The Radio Front End Module (RFEM)815 may include a millimeter wave RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separate from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include a connection to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module 815. RFEM 815 may include both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave antennas.

Memory circuit 820 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory including Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and/or Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM); and nonvolatile memory (NVM), including high speed electrically erasable memory (often referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), and the like, and may include data from one or more of the above-mentioned sources

And

a three-dimensional (3D) cross point (XPOINT) memory. Memory circuit 820 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

PMIC 825 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or a capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of power down (under voltage) and surge (over voltage) conditions. Power tee circuit 830 may provide power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to infrastructure device 800 using a single cable.

The network controller circuit 835 may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol such as ethernet, GRE tunnel based ethernet, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) based ethernet, or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from infrastructure device 800 via network interface connector 840 using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuit 835 may include one or more special purpose processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the above-described protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 835 can include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 845 may include circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more constellations of navigation satellites of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of a Navigation Satellite Constellation (or GNSS) may include the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the united states, the Global Navigation System (GLONASS) in russia, the galileo System in the european union, the beidou Navigation Satellite System in china, the regional Navigation System or the GNSS augmentation System (e.g., Indian Constellation Navigation with Indian Navigation, NAVIC), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) in japan, the Satellite Integrated Doppler orbit imaging and Radio Positioning in france (dongler and Radio-Positioning Integrated by Satellite System, DORIS), and so forth. The positioning circuitry 845 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices, such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and so forth, to facilitate communication over-the-air (OTA) communication) to communicate with components of a positioning network (e.g., navigation satellite constellation nodes).

Nodes or satellites of the navigation satellite constellation(s) ("GNSS nodes") may provide positioning services by continuously transmitting or broadcasting GNSS signals along a line of sight, which may be used by a GNSS receiver (e.g., positioning circuitry 845 and/or positioning circuitry implemented by the

UEs

101, 102, etc.) to determine its GNSS position. The GNSS signals may include a pseudorandom code known to the GNSS receiver (e.g., a sequence of ones and zeros) and a message including a time of transmission ToT (e.g., a defined point in the pseudorandom code sequence) of code epochs and a GNSS node position at ToT. A GNSS receiver may monitor/measure GNSS signals transmitted/broadcast by multiple GNSS nodes (e.g., four or more satellites) and solve various equations to determine a corresponding GNSS location (e.g., spatial coordinates). The GNSS receiver also implements a clock that is generally less stable and accurate than the atomic clock of the GNSS node, and the GNSS receiver may use the measured GNSS signals to determine a deviation of the GNSS receiver from real time (e.g., a deviation of the GNSS receiver clock from the GNSS node time). In some embodiments, the Positioning circuit 845 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a master Timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance.

The GNSS receiver may measure the time of arrival (ToA) of GNSS signals from multiple GNSS nodes according to its own clock. The GNSS receiver may determine a time of flight (ToF) value for each received GNSS signal based on ToA and ToT, and may then determine a three-dimensional (3D) position and clock bias based on the ToF. The 3D location may then be converted to latitude, longitude, and altitude. The positioning circuitry 845 may provide data to the application circuitry 805, which may include one or more of location data or time data. The application circuit 805 may use the time data to operate synchronously with other radio base stations (e.g., of the

RAN nodes

111, 112, etc.).

The components shown in fig. 8 may communicate with each other using interface circuitry. As used herein, the term "interface circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include a circuit that supports the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an input/output (I/O) interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and so forth. Any suitable bus technology may be used in various implementations, which may include any number of technologies, including Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended ISA (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI express, or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a dedicated bus, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, among others.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, fig. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 900, which includes one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory/storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940. Hardware resources 900 may be part of a UE, AN, or LMF. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., NFV), hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/subslices to utilize hardware resources 900.

Processor 910 (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) such as 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 912 and processor 914.

Memory/storage 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state storage, and the like.

The communication resources 930 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 via the network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, bluetooth components (e.g., bluetooth low energy), Wi-Fi components, and other communication components.

The instructions 950 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processor 910 (e.g., within a processor's cache memory), the memory/storage 920, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 950 may be communicated to hardware resource 900 from any combination of peripherals 904 or database 906. Thus, the processor 910, memory/storage 920, peripherals 904, and memory of database 906 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Fig. 10 shows a diagram of a network 1000 in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Network 1000 may operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks, such as future 3GPP systems and the like, that benefit from the principles described herein.

Network 1000 may include a UE1002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with RAN 1004 via an over-the-air connection. The UE1002 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet, a wearable computer device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a heads-up display device, an in-vehicle diagnostic device, a dashboard mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic/engine control unit, an electronic/engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a networked appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an internet of things device, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the network 1000 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other through edge link interfaces. The UE may be an M2M/D2D device that communicates using a physical side link channel (e.g., without limitation, a physical side link broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical side link discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical side link control channel (PSCCH), a physical side link fundamental channel (PSFCH), etc.).

In some embodiments, the UE1002 may also communicate with the AP 1006 over an over-the-air connection. The AP 1006 may manage WLAN connections that may be used to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 1004. The connection between the UE1002 and the AP 1006 may be in accordance with any IEEE 802.13 protocol, wherein the AP 1006 may be wireless fidelity (WiFi)

A router. In some embodiments, the UE1002, RAN 1004, and AP 1006 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA)/lightweight ip (lwip)). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve a UE1002 configured by a RAN 1004 utilizing both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

RAN 1004 may include one or more access nodes, e.g., AN 1008. The AN 1008 may terminate the air interface protocols of the UE1002 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), Radio Link Control (RLC), Medium Access Control (MAC), and L1 protocols. In this manner, AN 1008 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 1020 and UE 1002. In some embodiments, AN 1008 may be implemented in a separate device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network, for example, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. AN 1008 may be referred to as a Base Station (BS), a gNB, a RAN node, AN evolved node b (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a node b (nodeb), a roadside unit (RSU), a TRxP, a TRP, and so on. The AN 1008 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station that provides a microcell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

In embodiments where the RAN 1004 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other over AN X2 interface (in the case where the RAN 1004 is AN LTE RAN) or AN Xn interface (in the case where the RAN 1004 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interface, which may be separated into a control plane interface/user plane interface in some embodiments, may allow the AN to communicate information related to handover, data/context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The ANs of RAN 1004 may each manage one or more cells, groups of cells, component carriers, etc., to provide UE1002 with AN air interface for network access. The UE1002 may be simultaneously connected with multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1004. For example, UE1002 and RAN 1004 may use carrier aggregation to allow UE1002 to connect with multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a primary cell (Pcell) or a secondary cell (Scell). In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a primary node providing a Master Cell Group (MCG) and the second AN may be a secondary node providing a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The first/second AN can be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

The RAN 1004 may provide an air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may use a Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (elaa), and/or further enhanced LAA (felaa) mechanism based on Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology with PCell/Scell. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a media/carrier sensing operation based on, for example, a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, the UE1002 or AN 1008 may be or act as a roadside unit (RSU), which may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by AN appropriate AN or stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; RSUs implemented in the next generation nodeb (gNB) or by the gNB may be referred to as "gNB-type RSUs"; and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located at the curb side that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, e.g., collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be enclosed in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or backhaul network.

In some embodiments, the RAN 1004 may be an LTE RAN 1010 including an evolved node b (eNB), e.g., eNB 1012. The LTE RAN 1010 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS at 15 kHz; a CP-OFDM waveform for DL and an SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; relying on a PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and relying on CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate over the sub-6 GHz band.

In some embodiments, RAN 1004 may be a Next Generation (NG) -RAN1014 with a gNB (e.g., gNB 1016) or a gn-eNB (e.g., NG-eNB 1018). The gNB 1016 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 1016 may be connected with the 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. Ng-eNB 1018 may also connect with the 5G core over the Ng interface, but may connect with the UE over the LTE air interface. The gNB 1016 and ng-eNB 1018 may be connected to each other over an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between nodes of the NG-RAN1014 and the UPF 1048, and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface (e.g., an N2 interface) between the NG-RAN1014 and a node of the access and mobility management function (AMF) 1044.

The NG-RAN1014 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM for UL, and DFT-s-OFDM; polarity, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller (Reed-Muller) codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; performing phase tracking of the PDSCH using the PTRS; and time tracking using the tracking reference signal. The 5G-NR air interface may operate over the FR1 frequency band, which includes the sub-6 GHz band, or the FR2 frequency band, which includes the 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz band. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSBs, which are regions of a downlink resource grid including PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may use BWP for various purposes. For example, BWP may be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For example, the UE1002 may be configured with multiple BWPs, where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When the BWP change is indicated to the UE1002, the SCS of the transmission also changes. Another use case for BWP is related to power saving. In particular, the UE1002 may be configured with multiple BWPs with different numbers of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission in different traffic load scenarios. BWPs containing a smaller number of PRBs may be used for data transmission with smaller traffic load while allowing power savings at the UE1002 and, in some cases, at the gNB 1016. BWPs containing a large number of PRBs may be used in scenarios with higher traffic loads.

The RAN 1004 is communicatively coupled to a CN 1020, which includes network elements, to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of the UE 1002). The components of CN 1020 may be implemented in one physical node or in different physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all functions provided by the network elements of CN 1020 onto physical computing/storage resources in servers, switches, and the like. A logical instance of CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of CN 1020 may be referred to as a network subslice.

In some embodiments, CN 1020 may be LTE CN 1022, which may also be referred to as Evolved Packet Core (EPC). LTE CN 1022 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME)1024, a Serving Gateway (SGW)1026, a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN)1028, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS)1030, a Proxy Gateway (PGW)1032, and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF)1034, which are coupled to each other by an interface (or "reference point") as shown. The functions of the elements of LTE CN 1022 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 1024 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE1002 to facilitate patrol, bearer activation/deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 1026 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1022. SGW 1026 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, billing, and some policy enforcement.

The SGSN 1028 can track the location of the UE1002 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 1028 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection designated by MME 1024; MME selection for handover, etc. An S3 reference point between the MME 1024 and SGSN 1028 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active state.

The HSS 1030 may comprise a database for network users that includes subscription related information that supports network entities handling communication sessions. The HSS 1030 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, admission, naming/addressing resolution, location dependency, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 1030 and the MME 1024 may enable the transmission of subscription and authentication data to authenticate/grant a user access to the LTE CN 1020.

PGW 1032 may terminate the SGi interface towards a Data Network (DN)1036 that may include an application/content server 1038. PGW 1032 may route data packets between LTE CN 1022 and data network 1036. PGW 1032 may be coupled with SGW 1026 via an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. PGW 1032 may also include a node (e.g., PCEF) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Additionally, the SGi reference point between PGW 1032 and data network 1036 may be, for example, an operator external public, private PDN, or operator internal packet data network for providing IMS services. PGW 1032 may be coupled with PCRF 1034 via the Gx reference point.

The PCRF 1034 is a policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1022. The PCRF 1034 can be communicatively coupled to the application/content server 1038 to determine the appropriate QoS and charging parameters for the service flow. The PCRF 1032 may provide the associated rules to the PCEF (via the Gx reference point) with the appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, CN 1020 may be a 5G core network (5GC) 1040. The 5GC 1040 may include an authentication server function (AUSF)1042, an access and mobility management function (AMF)1044, a Session Management Function (SMF)1046, a User Plane Function (UPF)1048, a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF)1050, a network open function (NEF)1052, an NF storage function (NRF)1054, a Policy Control Function (PCF)1056, a Unified Data Management (UDM)1058, and an Application Function (AF)1060, which are coupled to one another by interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functions of the elements of the 5GC 1040 may be briefly described as follows.

The AUSF 1042 may store data for authentication of the UE1002 and process authentication related functions. AUSF 1042 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 1042 may also exhibit a Nausf service based interface in addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 1040 through reference points as shown.

The AMF 1044 may allow other functions of the 5GC 1040 to communicate with the UE1002 and the RAN 1004 and subscribe to notifications regarding mobility events of the UE 1002. The AMF 1044 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., registering the UE 1002), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF related events, and access authentication and permissions. AMF 1044 may provide for the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between UE1002 and SMF 1046 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 1044 may also provide for the transmission of SMS messages between the UE1002 and the SMSF. The AMF 1044 may interact with the AUSF 1042 and the UE1002 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. Further, the AMF 1044 may be a termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 1004 and the AMF 1044; the AMF 1044 may act as a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 1044 may also support NAS signaling with the UE1002 over the N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 1046 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 1048 and AN 1008); UE IP address assignment and management (including optional permissions); selection and control of the UP function; configuring flow control at UPF 1048 to route the flow to the appropriate destination; termination of the interface to the policy control function; controlling a portion of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface to the LI system); terminate the SM portion of the NAS message; a downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM message (sent to AN 1008 on N2 through AMF 1044); and determining an SSC pattern for the session. SM may refer to the management of PDU sessions, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE1002 and the data network 1036.

The UPF 1048 may serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with the data network 1036, and a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 1048 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform user plane part of policy rules, lawful intercepted packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 1048 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network.

The NSSF 1050 may select a set of network slice instances that serve the UE 1002. NSSF 1050 may also determine allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and mapping to a single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) of the subscription, if desired. The NSSF 1050 may also determine a set of AMFs to be used to serve the UE1002, or determine a list of candidate AMFs, based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 1054. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE1002 may be triggered by the AMF 1044 (with which the UE1002 registers by interacting with the NSSF 1050), which may result in a change in the AMF. NSSF 1050 may interact with AMF 1044 via the N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Further, NSSF 1050 may expose an interface based on NSSF services.

NEF 1052 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal disclosure/re-disclosure, AF (e.g., AF 1060), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In these embodiments, the NEF 1052 may authenticate, license, or throttle AFs. NEF 1052 can also translate information exchanged with AF 1060 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1052 may translate between the AF service identifier and the internal 5GC information. NEF 1052 may also receive information from other NFs based on their public capabilities. This information may be stored as structured data at the NEF 1052 or at the data storage NF using a standardized interface. The NEF 1052 may then re-disclose the stored information to other NFs and AFs, or for other purposes such as analysis. Additionally, NEF 1052 may expose an interface based on the Nnef service.

NRF 1054 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 1054 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instance," and the like may refer to creating an instance, "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Further, NRF 1054 may expose an interface based on an nrrf service.

The PCF 1056 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them and may also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. PCF 1056 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of UDM 1058. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, PCF 1056 also exhibits an Npcf service-based interface.

UDM 1058 may process subscription-related information to support network entities handling communication sessions and may store subscription data for UE 1002. For example, subscription data may be communicated via the N8 reference point between UDM 1058 and AMF 1044. UDM 1058 may include two parts: front end and UDR are applied. The UDR may store policy data and subscription data for UDM 1058 and PCF 1056, and/or structured data and application data for disclosure (including PFD for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1002) for NEF 1052. UDR 221 may expose an Nudr service-based interface to allow UDMs 1058, PCFs 1056, and NEFs 1052 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE that is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, and the like. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access permission, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown, UDM 1058 may also expose a numm service based interface.

AF 1060 can provide application impact on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with a policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5GC 1040 may enable edge computing by selecting an operator/third party service that is geographically close to the point at which the UE1002 attaches to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide an edge computing implementation, the 5GC 1040 may select a UPF 1048 near the UE1002 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 1048 to the data network 1036 through an N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF 1060. In this way, AF 1060 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, the network operator may allow AF 1060 to interact directly with the relevant NFs when AF 1060 is considered a trusted entity. In addition, AF 1060 can expose interfaces based on Naf services.

Data network 1036 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 1038.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network 1100 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 1100 may include a UE 1102 in wireless communication with AN 1104. The UE 1102 and AN 1104 can be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the co-located components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 1102 can be communicatively coupled with AN 1104 via a connection 1106. Connection 1106 is shown as an air interface to enable communication coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol operating at millimeter wave (mmWave) or sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as the LTE protocol or the 5G NR protocol.

UE 1102 can include a host platform 1108 coupled to a modem platform 1110. Host platform 1108 may include application processing circuitry 1112, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1114 of modem platform 1110. The application processing circuitry 1112 may run various applications of source/receiver application data for the UE 1102. The application processing circuitry 1112 may also implement one or more layers of operations to send/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and internet (e.g., IP) operations.

The protocol processing circuitry 1114 may implement one or more layers of operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data over the connection 1106. Layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuit 1114 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

The modem platform 1110 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1116, which may implement one or more layer operations of "lower" layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 in the network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, wherein these functions may include one or more of: space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

Modem platform 1110 may further include transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, and RF front end (RFFE) circuitry 1124, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 1126. Briefly, the transmit circuit 1118 may include a digital-to-analog converter, a mixer, an Intermediate Frequency (IF) component, and the like; the receive circuit 1120 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, and the like; RF circuitry 1122 may include low noise amplifiers, power tracking components, and the like; RFFE circuitry 1124 can include filters (e.g., surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beam forming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), and so forth. The selection and arrangement of components of transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, RFFE circuitry 1124, and antenna panel 1126 (collectively, "transmit/receive components") may be specific to the details of a particular implementation, e.g., whether the communication is TDM or FDM, at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, and may be arranged in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 1114 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionality for the transmit/receive components.

UE reception may be established by and via antenna panel 1126, RFFE circuitry 1124, RF circuitry 1122, receive circuitry 1120, digital baseband circuitry 1116, and protocol processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the antenna panel 1126 may receive transmissions from the AN 1104 by receiving beamformed signals received by multiple antennas/antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 1126.

UE transmissions may be established via and through protocol processing circuitry 1114, digital baseband circuitry 1116, transmit circuitry 1118, RF circuitry 1122, RFFE circuitry 1124, and antenna panel 1126. In some embodiments, the transmit component of UE 1104 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam transmitted by the antenna elements of antenna panel 1126.

Similar to UE 1102, AN 1104 may include a host platform 1128 coupled to a modem platform 1130. Host platform 1128 may include application processing circuitry 1132 coupled to protocol processing circuitry 1134 of modem platform 1130. The modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 1136, transmit circuitry 1138, receive circuitry 1140, RF circuitry 1142, RFFE circuitry 1144, and antenna panel 1146. The components of AN 1104 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, the synonymous components of UE 1102. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of AN 1108 may also perform various logical functions including, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Fig. 12 illustrates example components of a device 1200 according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 1200 may include application circuitry 1202, baseband circuitry 1204, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1206, Front End Module (FEM) circuitry 1208, one or more antennas 1210, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC)1212 coupled together at least as shown. The illustrated components of the apparatus 1200 may be included in a UE or AN. In some embodiments, the apparatus 1200 may include fewer elements (e.g., the AN may not use the application circuitry 1202 but include a processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 1200 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

The application circuitry 1202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 1202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: 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 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the device 1200. In some embodiments, the processor of the application circuitry 1202 may process IP packets received from the EPC.

Baseband circuitry 1204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 1204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 1206 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 1206. Baseband processing circuitry 1204 may interface with application circuitry 1202 to generate and process baseband signals and to control operation of RF circuitry 1206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1204B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 1204C, or other baseband processor(s) 1204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). Baseband circuitry 1204 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 1204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that support communication with one or more radio networks via RF circuitry 1206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1204A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 1204G and these functions may be performed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1204E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to: signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 1204 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 1204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi (Viterbi), and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and other suitable functions may be included in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1204 may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 1204F. The audio DSP(s) 1204F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, components of the baseband circuitry may be combined as appropriate in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1204 and the application circuitry 1202 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1204 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1204 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 1206 may support communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 1206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuitry 1206 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1204. The RF circuitry 1206 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1204 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1206 may include mixer circuitry 1206a, amplifier circuitry 1206b, and filter circuitry 1206 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1206 may include a filter circuit 1206c and a mixer circuit 1206 a. The RF circuitry 1206 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1206d to synthesize frequencies for use by the mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 1208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1206 d. The amplifier circuit 1206b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 1206c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1206a 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, the mixer circuitry 1206a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert the input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1206d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuitry 1208. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 1204 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1206 c.

In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1206a 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, mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 1206a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1206a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 1206a 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 these alternative embodiments, the RF circuitry 1206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 1204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1206.

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

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1206d may be a fractional-N or fractional-N/N +1 type 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 1206d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 1206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 1206a of the RF circuit 1206 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1206d may be a fractional-N/N +1 type 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 the baseband circuitry 1204 or the application processor 1202 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 1202.

Synthesizer circuit 1206d of RF circuit 1206 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual-mode divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry out) 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 these 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 manner, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1206d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate a plurality of signals having a plurality of different phases from one another at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1206 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

The FEM circuitry 1208 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the one or more antennas 1210, amplify the received signals, and provide amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1206 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 1208 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by the RF circuitry 1206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1210. In various embodiments, amplification across the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be done only in the RF circuitry 1206, only in the FEM 1208, or in both the RF circuitry 1206 and the FEM 1208.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 1208 may include TX/RX switches to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 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 the RF circuitry 1206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1208 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 1206) and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 1210).

In some embodiments, PMC 1212 may manage power provided to baseband circuitry 1204. Specifically, PMC 1212 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. PMC 1212 may typically be included when device 1200 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. PMC 1212 may improve power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

Although figure 12 shows the PMC 1212 coupled only to the baseband circuitry 1204. However, in other embodiments, PMC 1212 may additionally or alternatively be coupled with and perform similar power management operations on other components, such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 1202, RF circuitry 1206, or FEM 1208.

In some embodiments, PMC 1212 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of device 1200. For example, if the device 1200 is in an RRC _ Connected state where the device 1200 is still Connected to the RAN node when it expects to receive traffic soon, and then may enter a state referred to as discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 1200 may be powered down for a brief interval of time, thereby saving power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, device 1200 may transition to an RRC _ Idle state in which device 1200 is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. are performed. The device 1200 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device 1200 again periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. Device 1200 may not receive data in this state and it may transition back to the RRC Connected state in order to receive data.

The additional power-save mode may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for a period longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to access the network and may be completely powered down. Any data transmitted during this period will incur a significant delay and the delay is assumed to be acceptable.

The processor of the application circuitry 1202 and the processor of the baseband circuitry 1204 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuitry 1204, alone or in combination, may be configured to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuitry 1204 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., Transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer. As referred to herein, layer 2 may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. As referred to herein, layer 1 may comprise the Physical (PHY) layer of the UE/RAN node.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to AN amount of resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing of the UCI with a PUSCH; decoding a second message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a first priority of the PUSCH and/or a second priority of the UCI; and determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on the first priority and/or the second priority.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to: decoding a third message received from the AN via the RF interface, wherein the third message is to indicate a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices for multiplexing the UCI with the PUSCH.

Example 3 includes the apparatus of example 2, wherein the third message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the first message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 6 includes the apparatus of example 5, wherein the first priority is indicated by an uplink scheduling DCI, and the second priority is indicated by a downlink scheduling DCI.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, part 2CSI report, and Scheduling Request (SR).

Example 8 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to: encode a capability message for transmission to the AN via the RF interface, the capability message for reporting support of multiplexing of the UCI with the PUSCH.

Example 9 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein a beta offset index in the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1 or greater than 126.

Example 10 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to: determine to use the first set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is high, ii) the second priority is low, iii) both the first priority and the second priority are low, or iv) both the first priority and the second priority are high; and determining to use the second set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is low and/or ii) the second priority is high.

Example 11 includes the apparatus of example 10, wherein a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1.

Example 12 includes the apparatus of example 10, wherein a beta offset index of the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value greater than 126.

Example 13 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein a configuration grant based UCI (CG-UCI) is to be sent to the AN, and the UCI includes HARQ-ACK, and wherein the processor circuit is further to: jointly encode the CG-UCI and the HARQ-ACK for multiplexing with the PUSCH.

Example 14 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein CG-UCI is to be transmitted to the AN, and wherein the processor circuit is further to: decoding a fourth message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a third set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing of the CG-UCI with the PUSCH; and separately encoding the CG-UCI for multiplexing with the PUSCH based on the third set of beta offset indices.

Example 15 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 14, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 16 includes an apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more sets of beta offset indices, each set of beta offset indices corresponding to a different UCI type of the UCI; decoding a second message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a priority of the PUSCH; and determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on a priority of the PUSCH.

Example 17 includes the apparatus of example 16, wherein the first message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

Example 18 includes the apparatus of example 16, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 19 includes the apparatus of example 16, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

Example 20 includes the apparatus of example 19, wherein the HARQ-ACKs comprise a High Priority (HP) HARQ-ACK and a Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, wherein resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

Example 21 includes the apparatus of example 16, wherein the UCI includes HARQ-ACKs, and beta offset indices in beta offset index sets of the first and/or second sets of beta offset index sets corresponding to the HARQ-ACKs are associated with two beta offset values for HP and LP HARQ-ACKs, respectively.

Example 22 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 16 to 21, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 23 includes an apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: determining that a Downlink Grant (DG) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) overlaps with a Configuration Grant (CG) PUSCH for a duration; encoding one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface; and discarding the other of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a low priority from at least a first overlapping symbol of the duration.

Example 24 includes the apparatus of example 23, wherein the processor circuit is further to: multiplexing one or more Uplink Control Information (UCI) with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN via the RF interface.

Example 25 includes the apparatus of example 24, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: high Priority (HP) hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

Example 26 includes the apparatus of example 25, wherein the resources of the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

Example 27 includes the apparatus of example 25, wherein the processor circuit is further to: multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN via the RF interface; and discarding the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report.

Example 28 includes the apparatus of example 25, wherein the processor circuit is further to: multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN via the RF interface; and discarding the part 1CSI report and the part 2CSI report.

Example 29 includes the apparatus of example 28, wherein the processor circuit is further to: jointly or separately encoding the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK.

Example 30 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 23 to 29, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 31 includes a method comprising: decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to AN amount of resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing of the UCI with PUSCH; decoding a second message received from the AN to obtain a first priority of the PUSCH and/or a second priority of the UCI; and determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on the first priority and/or the second priority.

Example 32 includes the method of example 31, further comprising: decoding a third message received from the AN, wherein the third message is to indicate a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices for multiplexing the UCI with the PUSCH.

Example 33 includes the method of example 32, wherein the third message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

Example 34 includes the method of example 31, wherein the first message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 35 includes the method of example 31, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 36 includes the method of example 35, wherein the first priority is indicated by an uplink scheduling DCI, and the second priority is indicated by a downlink scheduling DCI.

Example 37 includes the method of example 31, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, part 2CSI report, and Scheduling Request (SR).

Example 38 includes the method of example 31, further comprising: encoding a capability message for transmission to the AN, the capability message for reporting support of multiplexing of the UCI with the PUSCH.

Example 39 includes the method of example 31, wherein a beta offset index in the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1 or greater than 126.

Example 40 includes the method of example 31, further comprising: determine to use the first set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is high, ii) the second priority is low, iii) both the first priority and the second priority are low, or iv) both the first priority and the second priority are high; and determining to use the second set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is low and/or ii) the second priority is high.

Example 41 includes the method of example 40, wherein a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1.

Example 42 includes the method of example 40, wherein a beta offset index of the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value greater than 126.

Example 43 includes the method of example 31, wherein a configuration grant based UCI (CG-UCI) is to be sent to the AN, and the UCI includes HARQ-ACK, and wherein the method further comprises: jointly encode the CG-UCI and the HARQ-ACK for multiplexing with the PUSCH.

Example 44 includes the method of example 31, wherein CG-UCI is to be sent to the AN, and wherein the method further comprises: decoding a fourth message received from the AN to obtain a third set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing of the CG-UCI with the PUSCH; and separately encoding the CG-UCI for multiplexing with the PUSCH based on the third set of beta offset indices.

Example 45 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 44, wherein the AN includes a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 46 includes a method comprising: decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more sets of beta offset indices, each set of beta offset indices corresponding to a different UCI type of the UCI; decoding a second message received from the AN to obtain a priority of the PUSCH; and determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on a priority of the PUSCH.

Example 47 includes the method of example 46, wherein the first message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

Example 48 includes the method of example 46, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 49 includes the method of example 46, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

Example 50 includes the method of example 49, wherein the HARQ-ACKs comprise a High Priority (HP) HARQ-ACK and a Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, wherein resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

Example 51 includes the method of example 46, wherein the UCI includes HARQ-ACKs, and beta offset indices in beta offset index sets of the first and/or second sets of beta offset index sets corresponding to the HARQ-ACKs are associated with two beta offset values for HP and LP HARQ-ACKs, respectively.

Example 52 includes the method of any one of examples 46 to 51, wherein the AN includes a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 53 includes a method comprising: determining that a Downlink Grant (DG) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) overlaps with a Configuration Grant (CG) PUSCH for a duration; encoding one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to AN Access Node (AN); and discarding the other of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a low priority from at least a first overlapping symbol of the duration.

Example 54 includes the method of example 53, further comprising: multiplexing one or more Uplink Control Information (UCI) with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN.

Example 55 includes the method of example 54, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: high Priority (HP) hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

Example 56 includes the method of example 55, wherein the resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

Example 57 includes the method of example 55, further comprising: multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN; and discarding the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report.

Example 58 includes the method of example 55, further comprising: multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN; and discarding the part 1CSI report and the part 2CSI report.

Example 59 includes the method of example 58, further comprising: jointly or separately encoding the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK.

Example 60 includes the method of any one of examples 53 to 59, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 61 includes an apparatus comprising: means for decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to AN amount of resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing of the UCI with a PUSCH; means for decoding a second message received from the AN to obtain a first priority of the PUSCH and/or a second priority of the UCI; and means for determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on the first priority and/or the second priority.

Example 62 includes the apparatus of example 61, further comprising: means for decoding a third message received from the AN, wherein the third message is to indicate a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices for multiplexing the UCI with the PUSCH.

Example 63 includes the apparatus of example 62, wherein the third message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

Example 64 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein the first message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 65 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 66 includes the apparatus of example 65, wherein the first priority is indicated by an uplink scheduling DCI, and the second priority is indicated by a downlink scheduling DCI.

Example 67 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, part 2CSI report, and Scheduling Request (SR).

Example 68 includes the apparatus of example 61, further comprising: means for encoding a capability message for transmission to the AN, the capability message for reporting support of multiplexing of the UCI with the PUSCH.

Example 69 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein a beta offset index in the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1 or greater than 126.

Example 70 includes the apparatus of example 61, further comprising means for: determine to use the first set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is high, ii) the second priority is low, iii) both the first priority and the second priority are low, or iv) both the first priority and the second priority are high; and determining to use the second set of beta offset indices when i) the first priority is low and/or ii) the second priority is high.

Example 71 includes the apparatus of example 70, wherein a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1.

Example 72 includes the apparatus of example 70, wherein a beta offset index of the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value greater than 126.

Example 73 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein a UCI based on a configuration grant (CG-UCI) is to be transmitted to the AN, and the UCI includes a HARQ-ACK, and wherein the apparatus further comprises: means for jointly encoding the CG-UCI and the HARQ-ACK for multiplexing with the PUSCH.

Example 74 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein a CG-UCI is to be transmitted to the AN, and wherein the apparatus further comprises: means for decoding a fourth message received from the AN to obtain a third set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing of the CG-UCI with the PUSCH; and means for separately encoding the CG-UCI for multiplexing with the PUSCH based on the third set of beta offset indices.

Example 75 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 61 to 74, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 76 includes an apparatus comprising: means for decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured to multiplex Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more sets of beta offset indices, each set of beta offset indices corresponding to a different UCI type of the UCI; means for decoding a second message received from the AN to obtain a priority of the PUSCH; and means for determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on a priority of the PUSCH.

Example 77 includes the apparatus of example 76, wherein the first message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

Example 78 includes the apparatus of example 76, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

Example 79 includes the apparatus of example 76, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

Example 80 includes the apparatus of example 79, wherein the HARQ-ACKs comprise a High Priority (HP) HARQ-ACK and a Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, wherein resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

Example 81 includes the apparatus of example 76, wherein the UCI includes HARQ-ACKs, and beta offset indices in beta offset index sets of the first set of beta offset indices and/or the second set of beta offset indices corresponding to the HARQ-ACKs are associated with two beta offset values for HP HARQ-ACKs and LP HARQ-ACKs, respectively.

Example 82 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 76-81, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 83 includes an apparatus comprising: means for determining that a Downlink Grant (DG) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) overlaps with a Configuration Grant (CG) PUSCH within a duration; means for encoding one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to AN Access Node (AN); and means for dropping the other of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a low priority from at least a first overlapping symbol of the duration.

Example 84 includes the apparatus of example 83, further comprising: means for multiplexing one or more Uplink Control Information (UCI) with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN.

Example 85 includes the apparatus of example 84, wherein the UCI includes at least one of: high Priority (HP) hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

Example 86 includes the apparatus of example 85, wherein the resources of the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

Example 87 includes the apparatus of example 85, further comprising: means for multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN; and means for discarding the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report.

Example 88 includes the apparatus of example 85, further comprising: means for multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN; and means for discarding the part 1CSI report and the part 2CSI report.

Example 89 includes the apparatus of example 88, further comprising: means for jointly or separately encoding the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK.

Example 90 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 83-89, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 91 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor circuit, causes the processor circuit to perform the method of any of examples 31-60.

Example 92 includes a User Equipment (UE) as shown and described in the specification.

Example 93 includes the method shown and described in the specification as performed at a User Equipment (UE).

Example 94 includes AN Access Node (AN) as shown and described in the specification.

Example 95 includes the method shown and described in the specification as performed at AN Access Node (AN).

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, various alternative and/or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that the embodiments described herein be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more beta offset indices, each beta offset index corresponding to AN amount of resources in the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing of the UCI with a PUSCH;

decoding a second message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a first priority of the PUSCH and/or a second priority of the UCI; and

determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on the first priority and/or the second priority.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to:

decoding a third message received from the AN via the RF interface, wherein the third message is to indicate a beta offset index of the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices for multiplexing the UCI with the PUSCH.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the third message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second message is carried via DCI or higher layer signaling.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first priority is indicated by an uplink scheduling DCI and the second priority is indicated by a downlink scheduling DCI.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UCI comprises at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, part 2CSI report, and Scheduling Request (SR).

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to: encode a capability message for transmission to the AN via the RF interface, the capability message for reporting support of multiplexing of the UCI with the PUSCH.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a beta offset index in the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices corresponds to a value less than 1 or greater than 126.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to:

determining to use the first set of beta offset indices when the first priority and the second priority are both low;

determining to use the second set of beta offset indices when the first priority is low and the second priority is high;

discarding the UCI or determining to use a third set of beta offset indices when the first priority is high; and

determining to use the first set of beta offset indices or a fourth set of beta offset indices when the first priority and the second priority are both high.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first, second, third, and/or fourth set of beta offset indices are configured via DCI or higher layer signaling.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further to:

obtaining, via higher layer signaling, an indication to enable multiplexing the UCI with the PUSCH.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a configuration grant based UCI (CG-UCI) is to be transmitted to the AN and the UCI comprises a HARQ-ACK, and wherein the processor circuit is further configured to:

jointly encode the CG-UCI and the HARQ-ACK for multiplexing with the PUSCH.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a CG-UCI is to be transmitted to the AN, and wherein the processor circuit is further to:

decoding a fourth message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a fifth set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing of the CG-UCI with the PUSCH; and

separately encoding the CG-UCI for multiplexing with the PUSCH based on the fifth set of beta offset indices.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

decoding a first message received from AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface to obtain a first set of beta offset indices and a second set of beta offset indices configured for multiplexing Uplink Control Information (UCI) with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), wherein each of the first set of beta offset indices and the second set of beta offset indices includes one or more sets of beta offset indices, each set of beta offset indices corresponding to a different UCI type of the UCI;

decoding a second message received from the AN via the RF interface to obtain a priority of the PUSCH; and

determining whether to multiplex the UCI with the PUSCH using the first set of beta offset indices or the second set of beta offset indices based on a priority of the PUSCH.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first message and/or the second message is carried via Downlink Control Information (DCI) or higher layer signaling.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the UCI comprises at least one of: hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the HARQ-ACKs comprise High Priority (HP) HARQ-ACKs and/or Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACKs, wherein resources of the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the UCI comprises a HARQ-ACK, and a beta offset index of a beta offset set of the first set of beta offset indices and/or the second set of beta offset indices corresponding to the HARQ-ACK is associated with two beta offset values for a HP HARQ-ACK and a LP HARQ-ACK, respectively.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the processor circuit is to: encoding the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK with Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) bits to be multiplexed with the PUSCH, respectively, based on respective beta offset values for the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK.

21. An apparatus, comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

determining that a Downlink Grant (DG) Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) overlaps with a Configuration Grant (CG) PUSCH for a duration;

encoding one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface; and

discarding the other of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a low priority from at least a first overlapping symbol of the duration.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to:

multiplexing one or more Uplink Control Information (UCI) with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN via the RF interface.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the UCI comprises at least one of: high Priority (HP) hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK), Low Priority (LP) HARQ-ACK, part1 Channel State Information (CSI) report, and part 2CSI report.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein resources of the PUSCH allocated for multiplexing the UCI are allocated to the HP HARQ-ACK, the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report in order of priority from high to low.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to:

multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN via the RF interface; and

discarding the LP HARQ-ACK, the part 1CSI report, and the part 2CSI report.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to:

multiplexing the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK with the one of the DG PUSCH and the CG PUSCH having a high priority for transmission to the AN via the RF interface; and

discarding the part 1CSI report and the part 2CSI report.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to:

jointly or separately encoding the HP HARQ-ACK and the LP HARQ-ACK.

28. The apparatus of any of claims 21-27, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).