CN116939859A

CN116939859A - Apparatus and method for processing multicellular schedules

Info

Publication number: CN116939859A
Application number: CN202310433235.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李建民; 罗立中; 陈仁贤
Original assignee: Acer Inc
Current assignee: Acer Inc
Priority date: 2022-04-22
Filing date: 2023-04-21
Publication date: 2023-10-24

Abstract

A communication device for processing a multicellular schedule includes at least one memory device; and at least one processing circuit coupled to the at least one memory device, wherein the at least one memory device stores instructions, and the at least one processing circuit is configured to execute the instructions, the instructions comprising: receiving a downlink control message (downlink control information) by a network; determining a plurality of first cells for at least one communication operation from a set of cells according to the downlink control information; and performing the at least one communication operation with the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells.

Description

Apparatus and method for processing multicellular schedules

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for processing multicellular schedules.

Background

The long term evolution advanced (LTE-a) system supports the third generation partnership project eighth release (3 GPP Rel-8) standard and/or the third generation partnership project ninth release (3 GPP Rel-9) standard. The long term evolution advanced system improves the performance of and is the successor to the mobile telecommunication system (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, UMTS) to meet the increasing user demands. The long term evolution system includes a new radio (new radio) interface and a new radio network architecture that provides high data transmission speeds, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capabilities and coverage.

LTE-advanced (LTE-a) systems evolved from LTE systems, including advanced technologies such as carrier integration (carrier aggregation), coordinated multi-point (coordinated multipoint, coMP) transmission/reception, uplink (UL MIMO), and licensed-assisted access (LAA) using LTE to extend bandwidth, provide fast transition power states, improve cell edge performance, and increase peak data rates and throughput.

Next generation radio access networks (next generation radio access network, NG-RAN) were developed to enhance the long term evolution advanced systems. The next generation wireless access network includes one or more next generation base stations (next generation Node-B, gNB), and features such as wider operating band, different parameter sets (numerology) for different frequency ranges, large-scale multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), advanced channel coding, etc.

The downlink control information (downlink control information) may be used to schedule an physical downlink shared channel (physical DL shared channel) or an physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel) in a cell, inform a user equipment (ue) of a slot format (slot format), inform a user equipment (ue) of an unknown physical resource block (physical resource block) and an unknown orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) symbol, and transmit power control (transmit power control) commands for transmission of an physical uplink control channel (physical UL control channel), physical uplink shared channel (ul) and/or a sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal). In the current communication system, one downlink control information schedules only one cell (e.g., an physical downlink shared channel in a cell or an physical uplink shared channel in a cell), which results in poor performance of the communication system (e.g., poor scheduling efficiency and high overhead of downlink control resources). Therefore, how to improve a cell schedule to improve the performance of a communication system is an important issue to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, the present invention provides a communication device and method for handling a multicellular schedule that ameliorates the above-described problems.

A network for processing a multicellular schedule includes at least one memory device; and at least one processing circuit coupled to the at least one memory device, wherein the at least one memory device stores instructions, and the at least one processing circuit is configured to execute the instructions, the instructions comprising: transmitting a downlink control message to a communication device; and performing at least one communication operation with the communication device through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells; wherein the plurality of first cells are determined for the at least one communication operation by a set of cells based on the downlink control information.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a process according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a process according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a scenario for determining a cell set according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an embodiment of a scenario for determining a plurality of programmed cells for at least one communication operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a scenario for determining whether to change an active bandwidth portion of a cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a scenario for determining multiple time domain resource allocations for multiple scheduled cells according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein reference numerals are as follows:

10: wireless communication system

12: network system

14, 20: communication device

200: at least one processing circuit

210: at least one memory device

214: program code

220: at least one communication interface device

30, 40: process flow

50-80: scene(s)

300-308, 400-406: step (a)

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system 10, which is schematically comprised of a network 12 and a plurality of communication devices 14, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wireless communication system 10 may support a time-division duplex (TDD) mode, a frequency-division duplex (FDD) mode, a combined time-division duplex and frequency-division duplex (TDD) mode of operation, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) mode, or an licensed-assisted access (LAA) mode. That is, the network 12 and the communication device 14 may communicate with each other via a fdd carrier, an licensed carrier (licensed service cell), and/or an unlicensed carrier (or licensed service cell). In addition, wireless communication system 10 may support carrier integration (carrier aggregation). That is, the network 12 and the communication device 14 may communicate with each other via a plurality of serving cells (e.g., a plurality of serving carriers) including a primary cell (e.g., a primary component carrier) and one or more secondary cells (e.g., a secondary component carrier).

In fig. 1, a network 12 and a communication device 14 are used to illustrate the architecture of a wireless communication system 10. In a universal mobile telecommunications system (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, UMTS), the network 12 may be a universal terrestrial global radio access network (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network, UTRAN) that includes at least one base station (Node-B, NB). In one embodiment, in a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, a long term evolution-advanced (LTE-a) system, an evolved version of the LTE-a system, and the like, the network 12 may be an evolved universal terrestrial global radio access network (evolved universal terrestrial radio access network, E-UTRAN) including at least one evolved NB (eNB) and/or at least one relay. In one embodiment, the network 12 may be a next generation radio access network (next generation radio access network, NG-RAN) including at least one next generation base station (next generation Node-B, gNB) and/or at least one fifth generation (5G) Base Station (BS). In one embodiment, the network 12 may be any base station that is compliant with a particular communication standard for communicating with the communication device 14.

New Radio (NR) is a standard defined for fifth generation systems (or fifth generation networks) to provide a unified air interface with better performance. The next generation base stations are deployed to implement fifth generation systems that support advanced features such as enhanced mobile broadband (enhanced Mobile Broadband, emmbb), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications, URLLC), large-scale machine type communications (massive Machine Type Communications, mctc), and the like. The enhanced mobile broadband provides broadband services with a larger broadband and low/medium delay. Ultra-reliable low-latency communications provide applications such as point-to-point (end-to-end) communications with higher reliability and low latency characteristics. Examples of applications include industrial internet, smart grid, infrastructure protection, tele-surgery, and intelligent transportation systems (intelligent transportation system, ITS). Large-scale machine type communications can support internet of things (IoT) for fifth generation systems, which include billions of connection devices and/or sensors.

In addition, the network 12 may further include at least one of a universal terrestrial global radio access network/evolved universal terrestrial global radio access network/next generation radio access network and a core network, wherein the core network includes network entities such as a mobility management entity (Mobility Management Entity, MME), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a packet data network (Packet Data network, PDN) Gateway (P-GW), a Self-organizing network (Self-Organizing Networks, SON) server and/or a radio network controller (Radio Network Controller, RNC). In one embodiment, after the network 12 receives the information transmitted by the communication device 14, the information can be processed only by the umts/next generation wlan and a determination corresponding to the information can be made in the umts/umts. In one embodiment, the umts/umts may forward information to the core network, and after the core network processes the information, a determination is made in the core network corresponding to the information. In one embodiment, the information may be processed by the universal terrestrial global radio access network/evolved universal terrestrial global radio access network/next generation radio access network and core network, and the decisions made after the universal terrestrial global radio access network/evolved universal terrestrial global radio access network/next generation radio access network and core network perform coordination and/or cooperation.

The network 12 may further include a service provider and at least one transceiver base station (base transceiver station). A service provider may be an organization that provides services (e.g., consultation, law, real estate, communications, storage, or processing services). The at least one transceiver station may be at least one base station, an evolved base station, at least one next generation base station, and/or at least one 5G base station. The service provider may transmit the service data to the transceiver base station, which may forward the service data to a communication device 14. In one embodiment, the service data may be service information such as network security, ring tone music, electronic reading, daily applications, bill collection, and the like. In one embodiment, the service data may be movie and/or audio source data (e.g., in the format h.265, h.266, AV1, or MPEG-4 compliant (Moving Picture Experts Group 4)). In one embodiment, the service data may be an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), a Virtual Reality (VR), a Mixed Reality (MR), and/or an extended reality (XR). The service provider may generate corresponding data based on information associated with a communication device 14 (e.g., a geographic location of the communication device 14, bluetooth information of the communication device 14, information stored at the communication device 14 of the service provider).

The communication device 14 may be a User Equipment (UE), a low cost device (e.g., a machine type communication (machine type communication, MTC) device), a device-to-device (D2D) communication device, a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT), a mobile phone, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, an electronic book, a portable computer system, or a combination thereof. In addition, the network 12 and the communication device 14 can be considered as a transmitting end or a receiving end, respectively, according to the transmission direction. For example, for an Uplink (UL), the communication device 14 is the transmitting end and the network 12 is the receiving end; for Downlink (DL), the network 12 is the transmitting end and the communication device 14 is the receiving end.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication device 20 according to an embodiment of the invention. The communication device 20 may be the communication device 14 or the network 12 in fig. 1, but is not limited thereto. The communication device 20 may include at least one processing circuit 200, at least one memory device 210, and at least one communication interface device 220. The at least one processing circuit 200 may be a microprocessor or an Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The at least one memory device 210 may be any data storage device configured to store the program code 214, and the at least one processing circuit 200 may read and execute the program code 214 via the at least one memory device 210. For example, the at least one Memory device 210 may be a subscriber identity module (Subscriber Identity Module, SIM), a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a flash Memory (flash Memory), a Random-Access Memory (RAM), a Compact Disc ROM (CD-ROM), a digital versatile Disc ROM (digital versatile Disc-ROM), a Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM), a magnetic tape (magnetic tape), a hard disk (hard disk), an optical data storage device (optical data storage device), a non-volatile storage device (non-volatile storage device), a non-transitory computer readable medium (non-transitory computer-readable medium) (such as a specific medium (tan gimedia)), or the like, without being limited thereto. The at least one communication interface 220 may include at least one wireless transceiver for transmitting and receiving signals (e.g., data, information, and/or packets) based on processing results of the at least one processing circuit 200.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a process 30 according to an embodiment of the invention. The process 30 may be used in a communication device (e.g., a communication device 14 of fig. 1 or a communication device 20 of fig. 2) to process a multi-cell scheduling (multi-cell scheduling). The process 30 may be compiled into the program code 214 and includes the following steps:

step 300: starting.

Step 302: a downlink control information is received (downlink control information) by a network.

Step 304: a plurality of first cells for at least one communication operation is determined from a set of cells based on the downlink control information.

Step 306: at least one communication operation is performed with the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells.

Step 308: and (5) ending.

According to the process 30, the communication device receives (e.g., monitors) a downlink control message from a network and determines (e.g., schedules) a plurality of first cells (e.g., a plurality of scheduled cells) for at least one communication operation from a set of cells according to the downlink control message. The cell collection comprises a plurality of candidate cells for scheduling at least one communication operation. Then, the communication device performs at least one communication operation with the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells. That is, the downlink control information is used to schedule a plurality of first cells to improve performance of the communication device (e.g., reduce overhead of an physical downlink control channel (physical DL control channel) used for downlink control information transmission).

The implementation of flow 30 is not limited to the above description. The following embodiments may be used to implement the process 30.

In one embodiment, step 306 includes the communication device transmitting at least one physical uplink shared channel (physical UL shared channel) to the network via at least one cell of the plurality of first cells according to the downlink control information (e.g., but not limited to, downlink control information format 0_1). For example, the communication device transmits an physical uplink shared channel through a cell of the first plurality of cells. For example, the communication device transmits at least two physical uplink shared channels through at least two cells of the plurality of first cells, respectively. In one embodiment, step 306 includes the communication device receiving at least one physical downlink shared channel (physical DL shared channel) from the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells according to the downlink control information (e.g., but not limited to, downlink control information format 1_1). For example, the communication device receives an physical downlink shared channel through a cell of the plurality of first cells. For example, the communication device receives at least two physical downlink shared channels through at least two cells of the plurality of first cells, respectively.

In one embodiment, the communication device communicates to the network a capability of a maximum number of communication devices with respect to a plurality of first cells for a multi-cell schedule (e.g., physical downlink shared channel and/or physical uplink shared channel). In one embodiment, the capability includes at least one of a maximum number of the plurality of first cells scheduled by the downlink control information to receive the at least one physical downlink shared channel or a maximum number of the plurality of first cells scheduled by the downlink control information to transmit the at least one physical uplink shared channel. In one embodiment, the communication device transmits a capability corresponding to a frequency range (e.g., FR1 or FR 2).

In one embodiment, a number of the plurality of first cells is determined according to a format of the downlink control information (e.g., but not limited to downlink control information formats 1_1 and/or 0_1). In one embodiment, the number of first cells is determined according to a higher layer configuration, and the higher layer configuration is a search space (search space) configuration or a physical downlink control channel (pdcch) configuration. In one embodiment, the number of the plurality of first cells is a fixed value. In one embodiment, the number of the plurality of first cells is determined according to the capabilities of the communication device. In one embodiment, the number of the plurality of first cells is the same as a number of the plurality of candidate cells in the cell collection. That is, all of the plurality of candidate cells in the cell collection are scheduled to the communication device for at least one communication operation.

In one embodiment, a maximum number of the first cells is determined according to downlink control information (e.g., downlink control information format 1_1 and/or 0_1, but not limited thereto). In one embodiment, the maximum number of first cells is determined according to a higher layer configuration, and the higher layer configuration is a search space configuration or an physical downlink control channel configuration. In one embodiment, the maximum number of the first cells is a fixed value. In one embodiment, the maximum number of the first cells is determined according to the capabilities of the communication device.

In one embodiment, step 306 includes: according to at least one downlink control information field corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information, the communication device does not transmit an physical uplink shared channel to the network through the one of the plurality of first cells; or according to at least one downlink control information field corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information, the communication device does not receive the downlink shared channel by an entity of the network through the one of the plurality of first cells. That is, one of the first cells does not schedule with any physical uplink shared channel or any physical downlink shared channel, or with any transport block (transport block) for the physical uplink shared channel or the physical downlink shared channel.

In one embodiment, step 306 includes: the communication device issues a (e.g., configuration grant) physical uplink shared channel transmission over one of the plurality of first cells based on at least one downlink control information field corresponding to the one of the plurality of first cells; or the communication device issues a (e.g., semi-persistent scheduling (semi persistent scheduling) physical downlink shared channel) reception via one of the plurality of first cells based on at least one downlink control information field corresponding to the one of the plurality of first cells. That is, in addition to the physical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel for dynamically scheduling one of the plurality of first cells, transmission or reception by one of the plurality of first cells (configuration admission physical uplink shared channel) or one of the plurality of first cells (semi-persistently scheduling physical downlink shared channel) may be indicated or issued (or stopped) by the downlink control information.

In one embodiment, step 306 includes: enabling (or triggering) a (e.g., configuring an acknowledgement physical uplink shared channel) transmission by the communication device via one of the plurality of first cells based on at least one downlink control information field corresponding to the one of the plurality of first cells; or enabling (or triggering) a (e.g., semi-persistent scheduling physical downlink shared channel) reception by one of the plurality of first cells based on at least one downlink control information field corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information. That is, in addition to an physical uplink shared channel or a physical downlink shared channel for dynamically scheduling one of the plurality of first cells, transmission or reception by one of the plurality of first cells (configuration admission physical uplink shared channel) or one of the plurality of first cells (semi-persistent scheduling physical downlink shared channel) may be enabled (or triggered) by the downlink control information.

In one embodiment, the at least one downlink control information field comprises at least one of a frequency domain resource allocation (frequency domain resource assignment, FDRA) field, a time domain resource allocation (time domain resource assignment, TDRA) field, a modulation and coding scheme (modulation coding scheme, MCS) field, or a redundancy version (redundancy version, RV) field.

In one embodiment, the cell collection comprises a plurality of second cells determined according to a higher layer configuration. In one embodiment, the higher layer configuration is a search space configuration or a physical downlink control channel configuration. In one embodiment, a number of the plurality of second cells is determined according to a format of the downlink control information (e.g., but not limited to, downlink control information formats 1_1 and/or 0_1). In one embodiment, a number of the plurality of second cells is determined based on the capabilities of the communication device. In one embodiment, a number of the plurality of second cells is determined based on the higher layer configuration. In one embodiment, the plurality of second cells is identical to the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, the plurality of first cells are respectively configured with a plurality of search space configurations associated with a same search space index. In one embodiment, multiple search space configurations associated with the same search space index are configured separately. In one embodiment, each of a plurality of search space configurations associated with the same search space index corresponds to at least one format and an aggregation level of downlink control information (aggregation level). In one embodiment, the plurality of search space configurations associated with the same search space index correspond to a same format of downlink control information (e.g., but not limited to downlink control information format 1_1 or 0_1). In one embodiment, the communication device receives (e.g., monitors) downlink control information according to a search space configuration associated with a search space index. The search space configuration may be one of a plurality of search space configurations associated with the same search space index, and the search space index may be the same search space index associated with the plurality of search space configurations.

In one embodiment, the set of cells is selected from a plurality of sets of cells based on the downlink control information. The number of the plurality of cell aggregates may be 2, but is not limited thereto. That is, a plurality of cells may be configured by a same scheduling cell and respectively scheduled by downlink control information (e.g., downlink control information format 1_1 or 0_1, but is not limited thereto). In one embodiment, the plurality of first cells are configured with a same cell set index. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of first cells is configured with at least one active bandwidth portion (bandwidth portion). In one embodiment, the plurality of first cells are configured with an index of the same population (e.g., set of cells). The same group index may be allocated in a cell of the plurality of first cells, a bandwidth portion of a cell of the plurality of first cells, and/or a search space of a cell of the plurality of first cells. The group index may be configured in a bandwidth portion configuration or a search space configuration, but is not limited thereto. In one embodiment, a cell in one (e.g., a first) set of cells may not be included in the other (e.g., a second) set of cells. In one embodiment, the plurality of first cells are respectively configured with a plurality of bandwidth portions corresponding to a same subcarrier spacing (SCS) (e.g., 15kHZ, 30kHZ, or 60 kHZ).

In one embodiment, the communication device determines the first cells according to a value of a field (e.g., a carrier indicator Fu Lanwei (carrier indicator field, CIF)) in the downlink control information. In one embodiment, the value is a cell index corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the communication device receives the downlink control information according to a cell index of one of the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of first cells according to a bit map in the downlink control information. In one embodiment, a bit length of the bitmap is a number of candidate cells in the cell set, and the plurality of bits in the bitmap correspond to the candidate cells, respectively. In one embodiment, a bit "1" in the bitmap indicates that a corresponding cell of the plurality of candidate cells has been determined as one of the plurality of first cells, and a bit "0" in the bitmap indicates that a corresponding cell of the plurality of candidate cells has not been determined as one of the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of first cells according to a first indicator and a second indicator in the downlink control information. The first indicator indicates a collection of cells. The second indicator indicates a plurality of first cells. The second indicator may be a bitmap, but is not limited thereto. In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of first cells based on the downlink control information and a higher layer configuration (e.g., a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) configuration). In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a value corresponding to a field (e.g., a cell index in a carrier indicator field) of one of the plurality of first cells, and the one of the plurality of first cells is configured to receive (e.g., monitor) the downlink control information. In one embodiment, the higher layer configuration includes a relationship between values of fields in the downlink control information and the plurality of first cells. For example, there are five cells C0-C4, which are respectively configured with cell indexes 000, 001, 010, 011 and 110, and the higher layer configuration contains a relationship between the cell indexes and the plurality of first cells shown in Table 1. In the case where the communication device receives (e.g., monitors) the downlink control information via the cell C0, the downlink control information includes one field of 000, and the communication device determines the cells C0 to C2 as the plurality of first cells according to the higher layer configuration. In the case where the communication device receives (e.g., monitors) the downlink control information via cell C2, the downlink control information includes a field with a value of 010, and the communication device determines cells C1 and C2 to be the first cells according to the higher layer configuration. Table 1 is an example for explaining how to determine a plurality of first cells according to a higher layer configuration, but is not limited thereto.

TABLE 1

Columns in downlink control information	A plurality of first cells
		000	C0, C1 and C2
001	C1 and C3
		010	C1 and C2
011	C1 and C3
		100	C3 and C4

In one embodiment, the communication device transmits a hybrid automatic repeat request (hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ) feedback corresponding to downlink control information to the network based on a hybrid automatic repeat request timing indicator in the downlink control information and a slot index associated with a slot used to receive an physical downlink shared channel. In one embodiment, the communication device performs at least one communication operation with the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells according to a subcarrier spacing configuration.

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields. In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of frequency domain resource allocations for a plurality of first cells according to the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields, respectively. In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of active bandwidth portions for a plurality of first cells according to a plurality of frequency domain resource allocations, respectively. That is, the communication device decides whether to change the plurality of active bandwidth parts for the plurality of first cells according to the plurality of frequency domain resources indicated by the plurality of frequency domain resource allocations. In one embodiment, the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields respectively correspond to the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields have a same bit length. In one embodiment, the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined according to a reference cell or a reference bandwidth portion of the reference cell. For example, the reference cell is a cell having a maximum cell size (e.g., a maximum number of resource block groups (resource block group, RBG) or physical resource blocks (physical resource block, PRB)) among a plurality of candidate cells in the cell set. And the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined according to the maximum cell size of the reference cell. For example, the reference cell is a cell for the communication device to receive the downlink control information, and the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined according to a size of the reference cell. For example, the reference bandwidth part is a bandwidth part having a maximum bandwidth part size (e.g., having a maximum number of resource block groups or physical resource blocks) among a plurality of bandwidth parts of a plurality of candidate cells in the cell set, and the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined according to the maximum bandwidth part size of the reference bandwidth part. For example, the reference bandwidth portion is a (e.g., active) bandwidth portion of a cell for the communication device to receive the downlink control information, and the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined according to a size of the reference bandwidth portion. In one embodiment, the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is configured by the network (e.g., via at least one of a higher layer signal, a radio resource control, and/or a medium access control (medium access control, MAC)).

In one embodiment, the bit lengths of the frequency domain resource allocation fields are different. In one embodiment, the bit lengths of the frequency domain resource allocation fields are determined according to the first cells (e.g., the bandwidth sizes of the first cells and/or the cell sizes of the first cells), respectively. In one embodiment, the plurality of bit lengths of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields are configured by the network (e.g., via at least one of a higher layer signal, a radio resource control, and/or a medium access control).

In an embodiment, the plurality of frequency domain resource allocations respectively indicate a plurality of frequency domain resources in the plurality of active bandwidth portions. In one embodiment, the plurality of base units of the plurality of frequency domain resources are different resource block groups or different physical resource blocks (e.g., 2, 4, 8, or 16 physical resource blocks). That is, each of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields corresponds to a resource block group granularity or a physical resource block granularity. In one embodiment, a plurality of resource block group granularities or a plurality of physical resource block granularities (e.g., corresponding to frequency domain resource allocation fields) are allocated by the network to a plurality of first cells, respectively. In one embodiment, an ordering of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields in the downlink control information is determined based on a plurality of cell indexes of the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a time domain resource allocation field. In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of time domain resource allocations for a plurality of first cells according to the time domain resource allocation field and the plurality of time domain resource allocation configurations. In one embodiment, the communication device determines a plurality of time domain resource allocations for a plurality of first cells according to at least one numerology (e.g., at least one subcarrier spacing). In one embodiment, the time domain resource allocation field corresponds to a plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the plurality of time domain resource allocation configurations respectively correspond to the plurality of first cells, and each of the plurality of time domain resource allocation configurations includes at least one of a cell index, a start length index value (start and length indicator value, SLIV), a slot offset, or a mapping type.

In one embodiment, the plurality of candidate cells in the cell set are configured (e.g., support) an identical maximum number of at least one codeword (e.g., maxnrofcodewordsschedule bydci=1 or 2). In one embodiment, the plurality of candidate cells are configured (e.g., support) an identical maximum number of at least one TB. That is, the bit length of an MCS field and a new data indicator (new data indicator, NDI) field in the downlink control information may be fixed. In one embodiment, the plurality of candidate cells are configured (e.g., support) for a same demodulation reference signal type (e.g., demodulation reference signal type 1 or type 2). In one embodiment, the plurality of candidate cells are configured (e.g., support) an identical number of at least one demodulation reference signal symbol. That is, one bit length of an antenna port field in the downlink control information may be fixed.

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a plurality of sets of downlink control information fields, and the plurality of sets of downlink control information fields respectively correspond to a plurality of first cells. In an embodiment, each of the plurality of sets of downlink control information fields includes at least one of a frequency domain resource allocation field, an antenna port field, a modulation and coding scheme (modulation coding scheme) field, a sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, SRS) resource indicator field, a precoding information and layer number (precoding information and number of layers) field, a hybrid automatic repeat request (hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ) process number field, a transmit power control (transmission power control) command field for at least one scheduled physical uplink shared channel (e.g., if at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical uplink shared channel transmission), a new data indicator field, a redundancy version (Redundancy version) field, or a phase tracking reference signal-demodulation reference signal (phase-tracking reference signal-demodulation reference signal, PTRS-DMRS) association field (e.g., if at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical uplink shared channel transmission). In one embodiment, each field of the plurality of sets of downlink control information fields is configured independently (or individually). In one embodiment, a bit length of each field is determined based on a reference bandwidth portion of a reference cell (e.g., at least one configuration of the reference bandwidth portion, at least one information and/or at least one parameter). In one embodiment, the bit length of each field is determined based on a reference cell (e.g., at least one configuration of the reference cell, at least one information, and/or at least one parameter). In one embodiment, an ordering of the plurality of downlink control information field sets in the downlink control information is determined based on a plurality of cell indexes of the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes at least one single downlink control information field, and the at least one single downlink control information field corresponds to at least one cell of the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the at least one single downlink control information field comprises an identification field for a downlink control information format of the downlink control information, a time domain resource allocation field, a virtual resource block (virtual resource block, VRB) to physical resource block mapping field, a sounding reference signal request field, a sounding reference signal indicator field, a channel state information (channel state information) request field, a beta offset indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information comprises at least one physical uplink shared channel transmission), an uplink shared channel (UL shared channel) indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information comprises at least one physical uplink shared channel transmission), a priority indicator field, a demodulation reference signal sequence initialization field, a rate match indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information comprises at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), a zero power (zero) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) trigger field (e.g., if at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information comprises at least one physical shared channel reception (e.g., if at least one physical shared channel reception) is indicated by the downlink control information comprises at least one physical shared channel reception parameter (e.g., at least one downlink control channel reception indicator) configuration (e.g., at least one physical channel reception) set (e.g., at least one physical channel reception), if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical uplink shared channel transmission), an uplink/supplemental uplink (uplink/supplementary uplink) indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical uplink shared channel transmission), a transmit power control command field for the at least one physical downlink control channel (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), a downlink allocation index field (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), an physical uplink control channel resource indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), a hybrid automatic repeat request timing indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), a one-time-one hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-acknowledgement) field (e.g., if the at least one physical link shared channel reception) indicates an adaptive channel, a minimum indicator (e.g., a cell-channel reception), a cell indication, an physical downlink shared channel group index field (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), a new feedback indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), an physical uplink control channel cell indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), an enhanced type 3 codebook indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement retransmission indication Fu Lanwei (e.g., if the at least one communication operation indicated by the downlink control information includes at least one physical downlink shared channel reception), an antenna port field, a sounding reference signal resource indicator field, or at least one of precoding information and layer number. In one embodiment, the uplink/supplemental uplink indicator field may be a one-bit map having a length of N. For example, N is the number of cells in a collection of cells. For example, N may be the number of the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, at least one message carried in at least one single downlink control information field is determined based on a reference bandwidth portion of a reference cell (e.g., at least one configuration of the reference bandwidth portion, at least one message, and/or at least one parameter). In one embodiment, at least one information carried by at least one single downlink control information field is determined based on a reference cell (e.g., at least one configuration, at least one information of the reference cell, and/or at least one parameter). For example, the reference cell is a cell of the plurality of candidate cells in the cell set that has a maximum cell size (e.g., has a maximum number of resource block groups or physical resource blocks). For example, the reference cell is a cell used in the communication device to receive downlink control information. For example, the reference bandwidth portion is a bandwidth portion having a maximum bandwidth portion size (e.g., having a maximum number of resource block groups or physical resource blocks) among a plurality of bandwidth portions of a plurality of candidate cells in the cell set. For example, the reference bandwidth portion is a one (e.g., active) bandwidth portion of a cell used by the communication device to receive downlink control information. In one embodiment, at least one message carried by at least one single downlink control information field is determined based on at least one subcarrier spacing configuration.

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of a process 40 according to an embodiment of the invention. The process 40 may be used in a network (e.g., the network 12 of fig. 1 or the communication device 20 of fig. 2) to process a multicellular schedule.

The process 40 may be compiled into the program code 214 and includes the following steps:

step 400: starting.

Step 402: transmitting a downlink control message to a communication device.

Step 404: at least one communication operation is performed by at least one cell of the plurality of first cells and the communication device.

Step 406: and (5) ending.

According to flow 40, the network transmits a downlink control message to a communication device and performs at least one communication operation with the communication device via at least one cell of a plurality of first cells (e.g., a plurality of programmed cells). The first cells for at least one communication operation are determined from a set of cells (e.g., by the communication device) based on the downlink control information. That is, the downlink control information is used to schedule a plurality of first cells to enhance the performance of the network (e.g., reduce an overhead of an physical downlink control channel used for downlink control information transmission).

The implementation of flow 40 is not limited to the above description. The following embodiments may be used to implement flow 40.

In one embodiment, step 404 includes the network receiving at least one physical uplink shared channel from the communication device via at least one cell of the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, step 404 includes the network transmitting at least one physical downlink shared channel to the communication device through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the network receives, by the communication device, a capability of the communication device for a maximum number of the plurality of first cells for a multi-cell scheduling. The capability includes at least one of a maximum number of the plurality of first cells scheduled by the downlink control information to receive the at least one physical downlink shared channel or a maximum number of the plurality of first cells scheduled by the downlink control information to transmit the at least one physical uplink shared channel.

In one embodiment, step 404 comprises: the network does not receive an physical downlink shared channel through one of the plurality of first cells by the communication device according to at least one downlink control information field corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information; or the network does not transmit an physical uplink shared channel to the communication device via one of the plurality of first cells based on at least one downlink control information field corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information. In one embodiment, the at least one downlink control information field comprises at least one of a frequency domain resource allocation field, a time domain resource allocation field, an MCS field, or an RV field.

In one embodiment, the cell collection comprises a plurality of second cells determined according to a higher layer configuration. In one embodiment, the higher layer configuration is a search space configuration or a physical downlink control channel configuration. In one embodiment, the plurality of second cells is identical to the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the plurality of first cell configurations are a plurality of search space configurations associated with a same search space index, respectively. In one embodiment, the network transmits downlink control information according to a search space configuration associated with a search space index. In one embodiment, the plurality of first cells are configured as a same cell set index. In one embodiment, the network performs at least one communication operation with the communication device through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells according to a subcarrier spacing configuration.

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields, and the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields respectively correspond to the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields have a same bit length. The same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined according to a reference cell or a reference bandwidth portion of the reference cell. In one embodiment, the bit lengths of the frequency domain resource allocation fields are different. The bit lengths of the frequency domain resource allocation fields are determined according to the first cells. In one embodiment, the frequency domain resource allocations for the first cells are determined based on the frequency domain resource allocation fields, respectively. In one embodiment, the active bandwidths for the first cells are determined according to the frequency domain resource allocations, respectively. In one embodiment, the plurality of frequency domain resource allocations respectively indicate a plurality of frequency domain resources in the plurality of active bandwidth portions. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields corresponds to a resource block group granularity or a physical resource block granularity. In one embodiment, a plurality of resource block group granularities or a plurality of physical resource block granularities (e.g., associated with frequency domain resource allocation fields) are allocated by the network to a plurality of first cells, respectively. In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a time domain resource allocation field, and the time domain resource allocation field corresponds to the plurality of first cells.

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes a plurality of sets of downlink control information fields, and the plurality of sets of downlink control information fields respectively correspond to a plurality of first cells. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of downlink control information field sets includes at least one of a frequency domain resource allocation field, an antenna port field, a modulation coding scheme field, a sounding reference signal resource indicator field, a precoding information and layer number field, a hybrid automatic repeat request procedure number field, a transmit power control command field for at least one of the scheduled physical uplink shared channels, a new data indicator field, a redundancy version field, or a phase tracking reference signal-demodulation reference signal association field. In one embodiment, the sounding reference signal request field may correspond to a code book (codebook) or a non-code book (non-codebook) indicated by a higher layer signal (e.g., txConfig).

In one embodiment, the downlink control information includes at least one single downlink control information field, and the at least one single downlink control information field corresponds to at least one cell of the plurality of first cells. In one embodiment of the present invention, in one embodiment, at least one single downlink control information field comprises an identification field for a downlink control information format of downlink control information, a time domain resource allocation field, a virtual resource block to physical resource block mapping field, a sounding reference signal request field, a sounding reference signal offset indicator field, a channel state information request field, a beta offset indicator field, an uplink shared channel indicator field, a priority indicator field, a demodulation reference signal sequence initialization field, a rate match indicator field, a zero power channel state information reference signal trigger field, a transmission configuration indication field, an open loop power control parameter set indicator field, an uplink/supplemental uplink indicator field, a transmission power control command field a downlink assignment index field, a physical uplink control channel resource indicator field, a hybrid automatic repeat request timing indicator field, a single use hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement request field, a secondary cell dormancy indication field, a minimum applicable scheduling offset indicator field, a physical downlink control channel monitor adaptation indication field, a physical downlink shared channel group index field, a new feedback indicator field, a physical uplink control channel cell indicator field, an enhanced type 3 codebook indicator field, a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement retransmission indication Fu Lanwei, an antenna port field, a sounding reference signal resource indicator field, or at least one of precoding information and layer number fields. In one embodiment, the uplink/supplemental uplink indicator field may be a one-bit map having a length of N. For example, N may be the number of cells in a collection of cells. For example, N may be the number of the plurality of first cells.

The embodiment of flow 30 may be applied to flow 40 and, for brevity, will not be described herein.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a scenario 50 for determining a cell set (e.g., the cell set in flow 30) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In fig. 5, cells C0-C2 may be used for a communication device (not shown) (e.g., communication device in flow 30) to receive (e.g., monitor) an physical downlink control channel. Cell C0 is implemented in an active bandwidth portion BWP0 of the three search space configurations with search space indexes SS0, SS1 and SS 2. Cell C1 is implemented in an active bandwidth portion BWP1 of two search space configurations with search space indices SS1 and SS 2. Cell C2 is implemented in an active bandwidth portion BWP2 of two search space configurations with search space indices SS0 and SS 2. The configuration of the search space with the search space index SS2 for the cell C0 corresponds to the downlink control information Format dci_format_1 (e.g., but not limited to, the downlink control information Format 1_1). The downlink control information Format dci_format_1 is used for a multi-cell scheduling. The configuration of the search space with the search space index SS2 for cell C1 corresponds to the downlink control information Format dci_format_1. The configuration of the search space with the search space index SS2 for the cell C2 corresponds to a downlink control information Format dci_format_2 (e.g., but not limited to, a downlink control information Format 1_2). The downlink control information Format dci_format_2 is used for a single cell scheduling. In one embodiment, the communication device determines that the cell set includes cells C0-C2 because the cells C0-C2 are configured to have the same search space configuration of search space index SS 2. That is, the cells C0 to C2 may be simultaneously scheduled by the downlink control information Format dci_format_1. In one embodiment, the communication device determines that the cell set includes cells C0, C1, because the cells C0, C1 are configured to have the same search space configuration of the search space index SS2, and the search space configuration corresponds to the same downlink control information Format dci_format_1. That is, cell C2 cannot schedule cells C0, C1 for multi-cell scheduling simultaneously with the downlink control information format.

Fig. 6 is a diagram of a scenario 60 for determining a plurality of programmed cells (e.g., a plurality of first cells in the process 30) for at least one communication operation (e.g., at least one communication operation in the process 30) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In fig. 6, each of the cells C0 to C3 is configured with a bandwidth portion BWP0 to BWP2. The bandwidth BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C0 corresponds to subcarrier spacings of 15kHZ, 30kHZ and 60kHZ, respectively. The bandwidth BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C1 correspond to subcarrier spacings of 15kHZ, 15kHZ and 30kHZ, respectively. The bandwidth BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C2 corresponds to subcarrier spacings of 30kHZ, 30kHZ and 60kHZ, respectively. The bandwidth BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C3 corresponds to subcarrier spacings of 15kHZ, 30kHZ and 60kHZ, respectively. A communication device (not shown), such as the communication device in process 30, is configured with cells C0-C3 and receives a downlink control message (not shown) from a network (not shown), such as the network in process 30, via cell C0.

In one embodiment, the subcarrier spacing for the scheduled cells is the same and the subcarrier spacing for the scheduled cells is the same as the subcarrier spacing of cell C0 for receiving downlink control information. That is, cell C0 may be one of the programmed cells. For example, in the case where an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is bandwidth portion BWP0 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 15kHZ, cells C0, C1 and C3 may be included in a cell set (e.g., may be programmed cells) because bandwidth portions BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C2 do not correspond to a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHZ. In other examples, if an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is BWP0 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 15kHZ, cells C0, C1 and C3 may be included in a cell set if the active bandwidth portions of cells C0, C1 and C3 are configured with the same subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHZ). For example, in the case where an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is bandwidth portion BWP1 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 30kHZ, cells C0-C3 may be included in a cell set (e.g., may be programmed cells). In other examples, if an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is BWP1 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 30kHZ, cells C0-C3 may be included in a cell set if the active bandwidth portions of cells C0-C3 are configured to be the same subcarrier spacing (e.g., 30 kHz). For example, in the case where an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is bandwidth portion BWP2 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 60kHZ, cells C0, C2 and C3 may be included in a cell set (e.g., may be programmed cells) because bandwidth portions BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C1 do not correspond to a subcarrier spacing of 60 kHZ. In other examples, if the active bandwidth portions of cells C0, C2, and C3 are configured to be the same subcarrier spacing (e.g., 60 kHz), cells C0, C2, and C3 may be included in a cell set.

In an embodiment, the subcarrier spacing for cells in a set of cells (e.g., programmed cells) is the same, and the subcarrier spacing for cells in the set of cells is different (e.g., not less) than the subcarrier spacing for cell C0 to receive downlink control information. That is, cell C0 may not be in the collection of cells (e.g., not one of the programmed cells). For example, in the case where an active bandwidth portion of the cell C0 is the bandwidth portion BWP1 corresponding to the subcarrier spacing of 15kHZ, the subcarrier spacing of 30kHz for the cells C1-C3 is not less than the subcarrier spacing of 15kHZ for the cell C0 in a cell set of the cells C1-C3. For example, in the case where an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is bandwidth portion BWP1 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 30kHZ, cells C2, C3 may be included in a cell set because the subcarrier spacing of 60kHz for cells C2, C3 is not less than the subcarrier spacing of 30kHZ for cell C0, and bandwidth portions BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C1 do not correspond to the subcarrier spacing of 60 kHZ. For example, in the case where an active bandwidth portion of cell C0 is bandwidth portion BWP2 corresponding to a subcarrier spacing of 60kHZ, cells C2, C3 may be included in a cell set because the subcarrier spacing of 60kHz for cells C2, C3 is not less than the subcarrier spacing of 60kHZ for cell C0, and bandwidth portions BWP 0-BWP 2 of cell C1 do not correspond to the subcarrier spacing of 60 kHZ.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a scenario 70 for determining whether to change an active bandwidth portion of a cell (e.g., one of the first cells in the process 30) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In fig. 7, a cell CL is configured with bandwidth portions BWP0 and BWP1. Bandwidth portion BWP0 comprises resource block groups RBG 0-RBG 3 and bandwidth portion BWP1 comprises resource block groups RBG 4-RBG 7. A communication device (not shown), such as the communication device in flow 30, receives downlink control information (not shown) representing cell CL, and the downlink control information includes a frequency domain resource allocation field representing (e.g., corresponding to) resource block groups RBG1, RBG2 (represented by diagonal lines) of cell CL. In one embodiment, in the case that the current active bandwidth part of the cell CL is the bandwidth part BWP0, the communication device decides to change the active bandwidth part BWP0 to the bandwidth part BWP1, because the resource block groups RBG1, RBG2 indicated by the frequency domain resource allocation field are in the bandwidth part BWP1 different from the current active bandwidth part. In one embodiment, in the case that the current active bandwidth portion of the cell CL is the bandwidth portion BWP1, the communication device decides not to change the active bandwidth portion because the resource block groups RBG1, RBG2 indicated by the frequency domain resource allocation field are not in the same bandwidth portion BWP1 as the current active bandwidth portion.

Fig. 8 is a diagram of a scenario 80 for determining time domain resource allocations for a plurality of programmed cells (e.g., first cells in the process 30) according to an embodiment of the invention. In fig. 8, the time domain resource allocation configurations tdra_config0 to tdra_config4 correspond to the cells C0 to C4, respectively. The time domain resource allocation configuration tdra_config0 includes a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 _C0,0 ～K0 _C0,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C0,0 ～SLIV _C0,3 . The time domain resource allocation configuration tdra_config1 includes a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 _C1,0 ～K0 _C1,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C1,0 ～SLIV _C1,3 . The time domain resource allocation configuration tdra_config2 includes a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 _C2,0 ～K0 _C2,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C2,0 ～SLIV _C2,3 . The time domain resource allocation configuration tdra_config3 includes a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 _C3,0 ～K0 _C3,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C3,0 ～SLIV _C3,3 . The time domain resource allocation configuration tdra_config4 includes a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 _C4,0 ～K0 _C4,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C4,0 ～SLIV _C4,3 . Cells C0-C4 are candidate cells (e.g., a collection of cells in flow 30) for a communication device (not shown) to perform (e.g., schedule) at least one communication operation (e.g., at least one communication operation in flow 30). The communication device receives a downlink including a time domain resource allocation (not shown) from a network (not shown) such as the network in process 30 via cell C0 Road control information.

Details of the time domain resource allocation may be referred to table 2. Table 2 is an example illustrating the time domain resource allocation in fig. 8, but is not limited thereto. The time domain resource allocation indication "0" may correspond to a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C0 _C0,0 And a start length index value SLIV _C0,0 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C1 _C1,0 And a start length index value SLIV _C1,0 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C2 _C2,0 And a start length index value SLIV _C2,0 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C3 _C3,0 And a start length index value SLIV _C3,0 And a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C4 _C4,0 And a start length index value SLIV _C4,0 . The time domain resource allocation indication "1" key corresponds to a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C0 _C0,1 And a start length index value SLIV _C0,1 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C1 _C1,1 And a start length index value SLIV _C1,1 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C2 _C2,1 And a start length index value SLIV _C2,1 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C3 _C3,1 And a start length index value SLIV _C3,1 And a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C4 _C4,1 And a start length index value SLIV _C4,1 。

The time domain resource allocation indication "2" may correspond to a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C0 _C0,2 And a start length index value SLIV _C0,2 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C1 _C1,2 And a start length index value SLIV _C1,2 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C2 _C2,2 And a start length index value SLIV _C2,2 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C3 _C3,2 And a start length index value SLIV _C3,2 And a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C4 _C4,2 And a start length index value SLIV _C4,2 . The time domain resource allocation indication "3" may correspond to for fineScheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C0 _C0,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C0,3 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C1 _C1,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C1,3 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C2 _C2,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C2,3 Scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C3 _C3,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C3,3 And a scheduling (e.g., slot) offset K0 for cell C4 _C4,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C4,3 . The time domain resource allocation may further correspond to a mapping type (not shown in table 2), but is not limited thereto.

TABLE 2

In one embodiment, in the case where the communication device determines that cells C1 and C2 (shown as diagonal lines) are scheduled cells among cells C0-C4 and the time domain resource allocation indicates 3, the communication device allocates a scheduling (e.g., time slot) offset K0 in TDRA_Config1 according to the time domain resource allocation _C1,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C1,3 Determining time domain resource allocation for cell C1 (shown as diagonal lines), and configuring cell index K0 in TDRA_Config2 according to the time domain resource allocation _C2,3 And a start length index value SLIV _C2,3 The time domain resource allocation is determined for cell C2 (shown as diagonal lines). Thus, the communication device performs at least one communication operation with the network according to the time domain resource allocation for at least one of the cells C1, C2. The method for determining the programmed cells from among the cells C0 to C4 can be referred to the above-described examples, and will not be described here for the sake of brevity.

The "decision" described in the above operations may be replaced with operations of "judge", "calculate", "get", "generate", "output", "use", "select", "decide" or "configure to" and the like. The "detect" described in the above operations may be replaced by "monitor", "receive", "sense" or "get" operations. The "in response to" in the above operations may be replaced with "in response to". As used in the above description, "associated with" may be replaced with "of" or "corresponding to". The "pass (via)" described in the above operations may be replaced with "over … (on)", in … (in) or "in … (at)". The "when (w hen)" described in the above operations may be replaced with "above (upon)" at …, "after (after) …" and "in response to". The "cell" described in the above operations may be replaced with a "serving cell".

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments described above may be combined, modified or varied in light of the teachings of the present disclosure, and are not limited thereto. The foregoing statements, steps, and/or flows (including the suggested steps) may be implemented by means of modules, which may be hardware, software, firmware (which is a combination of hardware means and computer instructions and data, which may be read-only software on hardware means), electronic systems, or a combination of the above. An example of such a device may be the communication device 20.

The hardware may be analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or hybrid circuitry. For example, the hardware may be an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), a programmable logic element (programmable logic device), a coupled hardware element, or a combination thereof. In other embodiments, the hardware may be a general-purpose processor (general-purpose processor), a microprocessor, a controller, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, a DSP), or a combination of the above.

The software may be a combination of program code, a combination of instructions and/or a combination of functions stored in a memory unit, such as a computer-readable medium. For example, the computer readable medium can be a subscriber identity module, a read-only memory, a flash memory, a random access memory, a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/BD-ROM), a magnetic tape, a hard disk, an optical data storage device, a non-volatile memory unit (non-volatile storage unit), or a combination thereof. The computer readable medium (e.g., a memory unit) may be coupled to at least one processor (e.g., a processor integrated with the computer readable medium) in a built-in manner or coupled to at least one processor (e.g., a processor separate from the computer readable medium) in an external manner. The at least one processor may include one or more modules to execute software stored on a computer readable medium. Combinations of program code, combinations of instructions and/or functions (functions) may cause at least one processor, one or more modules, hardware and/or electronic system to perform the associated steps.

The electronic system may be a system on chip (SoC), a system in package (system in package, siP), an embedded computer (computer on module, coM), a computer programmable product, a device, a mobile phone, a notebook, a tablet, an electronic book, a portable computer system, and the communication device 20.

In summary, embodiments of the present invention provide a communication device and method for processing a multicellular schedule. The multicell may be determined (e.g., programmed) based on a search space index, a value of a field in a downlink control message, a bit map in a downlink control message, an indicator in a downlink control message, a frequency domain resource allocation field in a downlink control message, a time domain resource allocation field in a downlink control message, and/or a higher layer configuration. Therefore, the problem of improving a cell schedule to enhance the performance of the communication system can be solved.

The foregoing description is only of the preferred embodiments of the invention, and all changes and modifications that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

1. A communication device for processing a multicellular schedule, comprising:

at least one storage device; and

At least one processing circuit coupled to the at least one memory device, wherein the at least one memory device stores instructions, and the at least one processing circuit is configured to execute the instructions, the instructions comprising:

receiving downlink control information by a network;

determining a plurality of first cells for at least one communication operation from a set of cells according to the downlink control information; and

the at least one communication operation is performed with the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for performing the at least one communication operation with the network via the at least one cell of the plurality of first cells comprise:

at least one physical uplink shared channel is transmitted to the network by the at least one cell of the plurality of first cells.

3. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for performing the at least one communication operation with the network via the at least one cell of the plurality of first cells comprise:

the at least one cell passing through the plurality of first cells receives at least one physical downlink shared channel from the network.

4. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprise:

Transmitting a capability of the communication device to the network;

wherein the capability includes at least one of a maximum number of the plurality of first cells scheduled by the downlink control information to receive at least one physical downlink shared channel or a maximum number of the plurality of first cells scheduled by the downlink control information to transmit at least one physical uplink shared channel.

5. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the instructions for performing the at least one communication operation with the network via the at least one cell of the plurality of first cells comprise:

transmitting an physical uplink shared channel to the network without passing through one of the plurality of first cells according to at least one downlink control information field corresponding to the one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information; or (b)

According to the at least one downlink control information field corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells in the downlink control information, an physical downlink shared channel is not received by the network through the one of the plurality of first cells.

6. The communication device of claim 5, wherein the at least one downlink control information field comprises at least one of a frequency domain resource allocation field, a time domain resource allocation field, a modulation and coding scheme field, or a redundancy version field.

7. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the set of cells comprises a plurality of second cells determined according to a higher layer configuration.

8. The communication device of claim 7 wherein the higher layer configuration is a search space configuration or a physical downlink control channel configuration.

9. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the second plurality of cells is identical to the first plurality of cells.

10. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first cells are respectively configured with a plurality of search space configurations associated with a same search space index.

11. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device receives the downlink control information according to a search space configuration associated with a search space index.

12. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the set of cells is selected from a plurality of sets of cells based on the downlink control information.

13. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of first cells are configured with a same cell set index.

14. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device determines the plurality of first cells based on a value of a field in the downlink control information.

15. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the value is a cell index corresponding to one of the plurality of first cells.

16. The communication device of claim 15, wherein the communication device receives the downlink control information according to one of the plurality of first cells having the cell index.

17. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device determines the plurality of first cells based on a bitmap of bits in the downlink control information.

18. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device determines the plurality of first cells based on the downlink control information and a higher layer configuration.

19. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device performs the at least one communication operation with the network through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells according to a subcarrier spacing configuration.

20. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the downlink control information comprises a plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields, and the instructions further comprise:

and respectively determining a plurality of frequency domain resource allocations for the plurality of first cells according to the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields.

21. The communication device of claim 20, wherein the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields correspond to the plurality of first cells, respectively.

22. The communication device of claim 20, wherein the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields have a same bit length.

23. The communication device of claim 22, wherein the same bit length of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields is determined based on a reference cell or a reference bandwidth portion of the reference cell.

24. The communication device of claim 20, wherein the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields are different in bit length.

25. The communication device of claim 24, wherein the bit lengths of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields are determined based on the plurality of first cells, respectively.

26. The communication device of claim 20, wherein the plurality of frequency domain resource allocations respectively indicate the plurality of frequency domain resources in a plurality of active bandwidth portions.

27. The communication device of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of frequency domain resource allocation fields corresponds to a resource block group granularity or a physical resource block granularity.

28. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the downlink control information comprises a time domain resource allocation field, and the instructions further comprise:

determining a plurality of time domain resource allocations for the plurality of first cells according to the time domain resource allocation field and the plurality of time domain resource allocation configurations.

29. The communication device of claim 28, wherein the time domain resource allocation field corresponds to the plurality of first cells.

30. The communication device of claim 28, wherein the plurality of time domain resource allocation configurations respectively correspond to the plurality of first cells, and each of the plurality of time domain resource allocation configurations comprises at least one of a cell index, a start length index value, a time slot offset, or a mapping type.

31. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the downlink control information comprises a plurality of sets of downlink control information fields, and the plurality of sets of downlink control information fields correspond to the plurality of first cells, respectively.

32. The communication device of claim 31, wherein each of the plurality of sets of downlink control information fields includes at least one of a frequency domain resource allocation field, an antenna port field, a modulation and coding scheme field, a sounding reference signal resource indicator field, a precoding information and layer number field, a hybrid automatic repeat request process number field, a transmit power control command field, a new data indicator field, a redundancy version field, or a phase tracking reference signal-demodulation reference signal association field.

33. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the downlink control information comprises at least one single downlink control information field, and the at least one single downlink control information field corresponds to at least one cell of the plurality of first cells.

34. The communication device of claim 33, wherein the at least one single downlink control information field comprises an identification field for a downlink control information format of the downlink control information, a time domain resource allocation field, a virtual resource block to physical resource block mapping field, a sounding reference signal request field, a sounding reference signal offset indicator field, a channel state information request field, a beta offset indicator field, an uplink shared channel indicator field, a priority indicator field, a demodulation reference signal sequence initialization field, a rate matching indicator field, a zero power channel state information reference signal trigger field, a transmission configuration indicator field, an open loop power control parameter set indicator field, an uplink/supplemental uplink indicator field, a transmission power control command field, a downlink allocation index field, an physical uplink control channel resource indicator field, a hybrid automatic repeat request timing indicator field, a single hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement request field, a secondary cell dormancy indicator field, a minimum applicable offset indicator field, a physical channel control channel self-monitoring physical channel indicator field, a new indicator field, a channel indicator field, a 3-shared channel indicator field, a 3.

35. A network for processing a multicellular schedule, comprising:

at least one storage device; and

transmitting a downlink control message to a communication device; and

performing at least one communication operation with the communication device through at least one cell of the plurality of first cells;

wherein the plurality of first cells are determined for the at least one communication operation by a set of cells based on the downlink control information.