WO2020033936A1

WO2020033936A1 - Code block mapping in wideband transmissions for new radio (nr) systems operating in unlicensed spectrum

Info

Publication number: WO2020033936A1
Application number: PCT/US2019/046073
Authority: WO
Inventors: Salvatore TALARICO; Jeongho Jeon
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2018-08-10
Filing date: 2019-08-10
Publication date: 2020-02-13

Abstract

Embodiments described herein relate to mapping methodologies and mechanisms. More specifically, embodiments described herein provide multiple options for efficiently mapping resources for a code block when a NR system operates in NR-U. In one example, a code block (CB) may be mapped as in LTE by spanning over the time domain resources first and then the frequency domain resources. In this way, independently of the failure of one or more of the 20 MHz units over which the wideband transmission is performed, the part of the CB that is transmitted, corresponding to the frequency/time resources for which the LBT has succeeded, is decodable.

Description

CODE BLOCK MAPPING IN WIDEBAND TRANSMISSIONS FOR NEW RADIO (NR) SYSTEMS OPERATING IN UNLICENSED SPECTRUM

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application number

62/717,094, filed August 10, 2018, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments generally relate to the field of wireless communications. More particularly, embodiments described herein relate to code block mapping in wideband transmissions for new radio (NR) systems operating in unlicensed spectrum.

BACKGROUND

Each year, the number of mobile devices connected to wireless networks significantly increases. In order to keep up with the demand in mobile data traffic, necessary changes have to be made to system requirements to be able to meet these demands. Three critical areas that need to be enhanced in order to deliver this increase in traffic are larger bandwidth, lower latency, and higher data rates.

One of the major limiting factors in wireless innovation is the availability of spectrum. To mitigate this, the unlicensed spectrum has been an area of interest to expand the availability of long term evolution (LTE). In this context, one of the major enhancements for LTE in third generation partnership project (3GPP) Release 13 has been to enable its operation in the unlicensed spectrum via Licensed- Assisted Access (LAA), which expands the system bandwidth by utilizing the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced by the LTE- Advanced system.

Now that the main building blocks for the framework of new radio (NR) have been established, a natural enhancement is to allow this to also operate on unlicensed spectrum. The work to introduce shared/unlicensed spectrum in fifth generation (5G) NR has already kicked off, and a new work item (WI) on“NR-Based Access to Unlicensed Spectrum” was approved in technical specification group (TSG) radio access network (RAN) Meeting #77. The objective of this new study item (SI) is to study NR-based operation in unlicensed spectrum including:

• Physical channels inheriting the choices of duplex mode, waveform, carrier bandwidth, subcarrier spacing (SCS), frame structure, and physical layer design made as part of the NR study and avoiding unnecessary divergence with decisions made in the NR WI. This includes:

o considering unlicensed bands both below and above 6GHz, up to 52.6GHz; o consider unlicensed bands above 52.6GHz to the extent that waveform design principles remain unchanged with respect to below 52.6GHz bands; and

o consider similar forward compatibility principles made in the NR WI

• Initial access, channel access. Scheduling/HARQ, and mobility including

connected/inactive/idle mode operation and radio-link monitoring/failure.

• Coexistence methods within NR-based and between NR-based operation in unlicensed and LTE-based LAA and with other incumbent RATs in accordance with regulatory requirements in e.g., 5GHz , 37GHz, 60GHz bands. o Coexistence methods already defined for 5GHz band in LTE-based LAA context should be assumed as the baseline for 5GHz operation. Enhancements in 5 GHz over these methods should not be precluded. NR- based operation in unlicensed spectrum should not impact deployed Wi-Fi services (data, video and voice services) more than an additional Wi-Fi network on the same carrier.

While this SI is at an initial stage, it is important to identify aspects of the design that can be enhanced for NR when operating in unlicensed spectrum. One of the challenges in this case is that this system must maintain fair coexistence with other incumbent technologies, and in order to do so depending on the particular band in which it might operate, some restrictions might be taken into account while designing this system. For instance, if operating in the 5GHz band, a listen before talk (LBT) procedure needs to be performed to acquire the medium before a transmission can occur. To fulfill regulatory requirements and provide a global solution of unified framework, NR-based unlicensed access will also use LBT based channel access mechanisms. In 3GPP RAN1, the baseline study for NR-unlicensed operation has been agreed as follows:

• If absence of Wi-Fi cannot be guaranteed (e.g., by regulation) in the band (sub- 7 GHz), where NR-U is operating, the NR-U operating bandwidth is an integer multiple of 20 MHz.

• At least for band where absence of Wi-Fi cannot be guaranteed, LBT can be performed in units of 20 MHz. In NR, the code block (CB) mapping into the allocated resource elements is done in such a manner that the code block spans in frequency first and then in time. When operating on an unlicensed band over a wideband, where the band is composed by multiple of 20 MHz units, for some of these 20 MHz units the LBT might fail, and in this case, even if the LBT successes for other units, the received message is not decodable due to the mapping.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Embodiments described herein are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar features. Furthermore, in the figures, some conventional details have been omitted so as not to obscure from the inventive concepts described herein.

Figure 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system of a network, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating a mapping of a code block (CB) to time domain and frequency domain resource elements (REs).

Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating what happens when a NR wideband transmission is performed and an LBT procedure performed on a unit of 20 MHz fails.

Figures 4A-4C are diagram illustrating a mapping of a CB that spans time domain REs and frequency domain REs, according to various embodiments.

Figure 5 illustrates a device in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 6 illustrates example components of a device in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 7 illustrates components of an electronic device in accordance with some embodiments

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments described herein relate to mapping methodologies and mechanisms. According to various embodiments, when a new radio (NR) system operates in unlicensed spectrum (NR-U), listen before talk (LBT) is performed. In absence of Wi-Fi or other incumbent technologies, NR-U operates on a bandwidth that is an integer multiple of 20 MHz, and LBT is performed in unit of 20 MHz. Legacy NR systems map a code block (CB) by utilizing the time resources for a given symbol before utilizing more time resources. If the same mapping is utilized for NR-U, each time at least one of the 20MHz units that form the entire bandwidth over which NR-U operates, the received signal is not decodable. In order to address this issue, embodiments described herein provide multiple options for efficiently mapping resources for a code block when a NR system operates in NR-U.

In one embodiment, a CB may be mapped as in LTE by spanning over the time domain resources first and then the frequency domain resources. In this way,

independently of the failure of one or more of the 20 MHz units over which the wideband transmission is performed, the part of the CB that is transmitted, corresponding to the frequency/time resources for which the LBT has succeeded, is decodable.

In what follows, various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions or operations, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in a different order than the described embodiment. Various additional operations may be performed or described operations may be omitted in additional embodiments.

For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases“A or B,”“A and/or B,” “A/B,”“at least one of A or B,”“at least one of A and B,”“one or more of A and B,”“one or more of A or B,” and mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

The description may use the phrases“in an embodiment,” or“in embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms“comprising,”“including,”“having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous.

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

Figure 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system 100 of a network, in accordance with various embodiments. The following description is provided for an example system 100 that operates in conjunction with the as Long Term Evolution (LTE) system standards and the Fifth Generation (5G) or New Radio (NR) system standards as provided by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS). However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 protocols (e.g., Wireless metropolitan area networks (MAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.), or the like.

As shown by Figure 1, the system 100 may include user equipment (UE) lOla and UE lOlb (collectively referred to as“UEs 101” or“UE 101”). As used herein, the term “user equipment” or“UE” may refer to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term“user equipment” or“UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term“user equipment” or“UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface. In this example, UEs 101 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or“smart” appliances, machine- type communications (MTC) devices, enhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC), Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), further enhanced narrowband intemet-of-things (feNB-IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M), Intemet-of-Things (IoT) devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 can comprise an intemet-of-things (IoT) UE, which may comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M, eMTC, NB-IoT or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M, eMTC, NB-IoT or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

Referring again to Figure 1, the UEs 101 may be configured to connect, for example, communicatively couple, with a access network (AN) or radio access network (RAN) 110. In embodiments, the RAN 110 may be a next generation (NG) RAN or a 5G RAN, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) or GERAN (GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications or Groupe Special Mobile) EDGE (GSM Evolution) Radio Access Network). As used herein, the term“NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 110 that operates in an NR or 5G system 100, and the term“E-UTRAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 110 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 100. The UEs 101 utilize connections (or channels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below). As used herein, the term“channel” may refer to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term“channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to“communications channel,”“data communications channel,”“transmission channel,”“data transmission channel,”“access channel,”“data access channel,”“link,” “data link,”“carrier,”“radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term“link” may refer to a connection between two devices through a Radio Access Technology (RAT) for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

In this example, the connections 103 and 104 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (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, and/or any of the other communications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs 101 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface 105 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE lOlb is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 106 (also referred to as also referred to as“WLAN node 106”,“WLAN 106”,“WLAN Termination 106” or“WT 106” or the like) via connection 107. The connection 107 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various

embodiments, the UE lOlb, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to utilize LTE- WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and/or WLAN LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel (LWIP) operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE lOlb in RRC_CONNECTED being configured by a RAN node 111 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE lOlb using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) via Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., internet protocol (IP) packets) sent over the connection 107. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets.

The RAN 110 can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 11 la and 11 lb (collectively referred to as“RAN nodes 111” or“RAN node 111”) that enable the connections 103 and 104. As used herein, the terms“access node,”“access point,” or the like may describe equipment that provides the radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred to as base stations (BS), next Generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN nodes, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), NodeBs, Road Side Units (RSUs), Transmission Reception Points (TRxPs or TRPs), and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The term“Road Side Unit” or“RSU” may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity implemented in or by an gNB/eNB/RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where 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.” As used herein, the term“NG RAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 that operates in an NR or 5G system 100 (for example a gNB), and the term“E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 100 (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells. In other embodiments, the RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a cloud radio access network (CRAN). In other embodiments, the RAN nodes 111 may represent individual gNB-distributed units (DUs) that are connected to a gNB-centralized unit (CU) via an Fl interface (not shown by Figure 1).

Any of the RAN nodes 111 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 101. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 111 can fulfill various logical functions for the 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 embodiments, the UEs 101 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 111 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency- Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 to the UEs 101, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. 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 slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher- layer signaling to the UEs 101. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 101 about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE lOlb within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 101.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which 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 four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=l, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize 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 the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN nodes 111 may be configured to communicate with one another via interface 112. In embodiments where the system 100 is an LTE system, the interface 112 may be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC 120, and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC 120. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, and may be used to communicate information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB);

information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a UE 101 from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to a UE 101; information about a current minimum desired buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and the like. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality, including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user plane transport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well as inter-cell interference coordination functionality.

In embodiments where the system 100 is a 5G or NR system, the interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC 120 and an eNB, and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC 120. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 101 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111. The mobility support may include contextcontext transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 111 to new (target) serving RAN node 111; and control of user plane tunnels between old (source) serving RAN node 111 to new (target) serving RAN node 111. A protocol stack of the Xn- U may include a transport network layer built on Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that is built on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may provide the guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The RAN 110 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network— in this embodiment, Core Network (CN) 120. The CN 120 may comprise a plurality of network elements 122, which are configured to offer various data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 101) who are connected to the CN 120 via the RAN 110. The term“network element” may describe a physical or virtualized equipment used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, radio access network device, gateway, server, virtualized network function (VNF), network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI), and/or the like.

The components of the CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine- readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry -standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions. Generally, the application server 130 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 130 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Intemet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 101 via the EPC 120.

In embodiments, the CN 120 may be a 5GC (referred to as“5GC 120” or the like), and the RAN 110 may be connected with the CN 120 via an NG interface 113. In embodiments, the NG interface 113 may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 111 and a user plane function (UPF), and the Sl control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and Access and Mobility Functions (AMFs).

In embodiments, the CN 120 may be a 5G CN (referred to as“5GC 120” or the like), while in other embodiments, the CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC)). Where CN 120 is an EPC (referred to as“EPC 120” or the like), the RAN 110 may be connected with the CN 120 via an Sl interface 113. In embodiments, the Sl interface 13 may be split into two parts, an Sl user plane (Sl-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 111 and the serving gateway (S-GW), and the S 1 -mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and MMEs. An example architecture wherein the CN 120 is an EPC 120 is shown by Figure 2.

Figure 2 is diagram illustrating a mapping of a code block (CB) across frequency domain resource elements (REs) 201 and time domain REs 203. In legacy NR systems, code blocks (CBs) are mapped across REs by utilizing the available frequency domain resources before the time domain resources are used, with the aim of allowing a more efficient and rapid decoding of information. This concept is illustrated by Figure 2, which depicts an example of how a CB is mapped when n frequency domain REs, and m time- domain REs are used. One or more embodiments described herein assist with overcoming one or more of the shortcomings of currently available techniques. The baseline study for NR operating on unlicensed spectrum has been agreed as follows: In absence of any incumbent technology that cannot be guaranteed in the band (sub-7 GHz), where NR-U is operating, the NR-U operating bandwidth is an integer multiple of 20 MHz. At least for a band where an absence of Wi-Fi cannot be guaranteed, LBT can be performed in units of 20 MHz. According to the agreement provided above, when NR operates on an unlicensed band, LBT is performed in units of 20MHz. Due to the nature of the channel contention, the LBT might succeed in some units of 20 MHz and fail in others. When a NR wideband transmission is performed, multiple units of 20 MHz are used at once, and if the mapping described in Figure 2 is used, when one of the LBT procedures fails, the CB is completely lost. This is because the information is mapped in frequency first and then in time.

Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating what happens when a NR wideband transmission is performed and an LBT procedure performed on a unit 301 A of 20 MHz fails. As explained above, when a NR wideband transmission is performed, multiple units 301 A- 301C of 20 MHz are used at once, and if the mapping described in Figure 2 is used, and one of the LBT procedures performed on unit 301A fails, the CB is completely lost, since the information is mapped in the frequency domain first and then in the time domain. An illustration of this concept is provided in Figure 3, where it is depicted a case for which the NR bandwidth is 60 MHZ, and three independent LBT procedures are performed for each of the 20 MHz units 301A-301C. In Figure 3, the LBT procedure performed for the 20 MHz unit 301A fails and the corresponding resource 303 cannot be used, and since the CB mapping follows that of legacy -NR (which is illustrated through the black arrows in Figure 3), the CB or any part of the CB is not decodable. The CB cannot be decoded even though the LBT procedures performed for the units 301B-301C are successful and the corresponding resources 305 can be used. In Figure 3, the vertical black arrows in Figure 3 illustrate the CB mapping in the frequency domain and the horizontal black arrows in Figure 3 illustrate the CB mapping in the time domain. As shown, the frequency domain mapping occurs prior to the time domain mapping.

Figure 4A is a diagram illustrating a mapping of a CB that spans time domain REs and frequency domain REs, according to one embodiment. As described above in connection with Figure 3, if the legacy-NR CB mapping is used for an NR system operating on unlicensed band, and the CB is transmitted over a wideband, which spans over multiple 20 MHz units, and if the LBT of at least one of the 20 MHz units fails the whole CB becomes un-decodable. In order to mitigate this issue, a different CB mapping may be adopted in NR-U, as described below in connection with one or more of Figures 4A-4C.

In one embodiment, and as shown in Figure 4A, a CB may be mapped as in LTE by spanning over the time domain resources first and then the frequency domain resources, as illustrated by Figure 4A. The vertical black arrows in Figure 4A illustrate the CB mapping in the frequency domain and the horizontal black arrows in Figure 4 A illustrate the CB mapping in the time domain. As shown, the frequency domain mapping occurs after the time domain mapping. In this way, independently of the failure of one or more of the 20 MHz units over which the wideband transmission is performed, the part of the CB that is transmitted, corresponding to the frequency/time resources for which the LBT has succeeded, is decodable.

With regard now to Figure 4B, a diagram illustrating a mapping of a CB that spans time domain REs and frequency domain REs, according to another embodiment, is shown. In one embodiment, a CB may be mapped as legacy -NR over 20 MHz unit, as illustrated by Figure 4B. In other words, a CB is mapped across multiple 20 MHz unit, by filling one 20 MHz unit at the time spanning the CB first by using the frequency domain resources and then the time domain-resources for that 20 MHz unit before the CB is spanned over the next 20 MHz unit. The vertical black arrows in Figure 4B illustrate the CB mapping in the frequency domain and the horizontal black arrows in Figure 4B illustrate the CB mapping in the time domain.

In one embodiment, the CB may be mapped starting from the 20 MHz band unit with the higher frequency to the 20 MHz unit with the lower frequency, or vice versa. In one embodiment, the CB mapping over multiple 20 MHz unit follows a given pattern in terms of 20 MHz units which may be higher layer configurable or may be fixed.

Figure 4C is a diagram illustrating a mapping of a CB that spans time domain REs and frequency domain REs, according to one embodiment. In one embodiment, the total bandwidth used for CB transmission can be divided into units of X MHz, and the CB is mapped in a frequency first and then time second within each bandwidth units before the CB spans over different bandwidth units. In one embodiment, the CB is spanned starting from the bandwidth unit with the higher frequency to the bandwidth unit with lower frequency, or vice versa. In one embodiment, the CB is mapped using a predefined or higher layer configurable pattern across bandwidth units. In one embodiment, the value of X might vary between one bandwidth unit and another, as illustrated in Figure 4C. The vertical black arrows in Figure 4C illustrate the CB mapping in the frequency domain and the horizontal black arrows in Figure 4C illustrate the CB mapping in the time domain.

In one embodiment, if multi-layer transmission is supported, the bandwidth can be divided such that two or more bandwidth units are generated (i.e. 20 MHz unit), and each of them is used to map a single transport block. In one embodiment, these bandwidth units are a multiple of 20 MHz. In one embodiment, the bandwidth units are the same for different TBs. As an alternative, different TBs have a different bandwidth unit associated to it, which can be configurable or predefined. In one embodiment, the TBs are mapped using one of the mapping strategy described along this invention within the bandwidth unit associated to it.

In one embodiment, the new CB mapping is inherently used based on the carrier frequency adopted, and in unlicensed spectrum operation, the newly CB mapping is always used. In one embodiment, the new mapping might be configured through higher layer signaling.

In one embodiment, when wideband transmission is performed, the energy detection threshold (EDT) is adjusted proportionally to the total bandwidth. In one embodiment, while the LBT is performed in units of 20 MHz, the ED threshold is evaluated as min(X,Y) where Y is the maximum ED threshold defined by the regulatory requirements, while X = -75 dBm + l0*logl0( Bw) + 10 dB + 20dB, and Bw is the total bandwidth in MHz. By using one or more of these formulae:

• ED = -72 dB for Bw = 20 MHz.

• ED = -69 dB for Bw = 40 MHz.

• ED = -67 dB for Bw = 60 MHz.

• ED = -66 dB for Bw = 80 MHz.

• ED = -65 dB for Bw = 100 MHz.

In embodiments where no LBT is allowed for control information transmission, such as HARQ ACK feedback. In one embodiment, the no LBT option is allowed for a transmission which does not exceed X number of symbols, or Y us duration. In one embodiment, both of the conditions can apply separately or jointly.

In embodiments where no LBT is allowed a device that acquired the channel occupancy time (COT) by performing CAT-4 LBT can perform more than one transmissions within the COT if the gaps between transmissions are less than 16 us.

Similarly, if a responding device initiates transmission within 16 us of the last

transmission by the initiating device that issued the grant, the responding device may proceed with such transmissions without performing LBT. As it is permitted by regulation, in the previous RAN1 meeting, it was agreed that no-LBT option is beneficial for unlicensed operation such as for supporting fast HARQ ACK feedback. It is noted however that no LBT option has potentially high coexistence impact, if it is allowed without restrictions (while satisfying the 16 us gap condition). Such restrictions could be in the direction to minimize the use of no LBT option and, thereby, minimizing the impact on the coexistence.

Several options could be considered, including no LBT option is allowed only for HARQ ACK feedback and/or UCI transmission, and/or no LBT option is allowed for transmission, whose duration does not exceed N number of symbols or similarly X us.

The above options can be applied separately or jointly

Figure 5 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 500 in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 500 (or“system 500”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node, etc., such as the RAN nodes 111 and/or AP 106 shown and described previously. In other examples, the system 500 could be implemented in or by a UE, application server(s) 130, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The system 500 may include one or more of application circuitry 505, baseband circuitry 510, one or more radio front end modules 515, memory circuitry 520, power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 525, power tee circuitry 530, network controller circuitry 535, network interface connector 540, satellite positioning circuitry 545, and user interface 550. In some embodiments, the device 500 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory /storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations).

As used herein, the term“circuitry” may refer to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable System on Chip (SoC)), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. In addition, the term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that 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 to, and may be referred to as,“processor circuitry.” As used herein, the term “processor circuitry” may refer to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term“processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.

Furthermore, the various components of the core network 120 may be referred to as“network elements.” The term“network element” may describe a physical or virtualized equipment used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term“network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

Application circuitry 505 may include one or more central processing unit (CPU) cores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. As examples, the application circuitry 505 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s), Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system 500 may not utilize application circuitry 505, and instead may include a special-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC or 5GC, for example.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 505 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; 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 SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 505 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 505 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 510 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down 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 510 may comprise one or more digital baseband systems, which may be coupled via an interconnect subsystem to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 510 may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front end modules 515).

User interface circuitry 550 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 500 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system 500. User interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 515 may comprise 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 separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections 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 515. The RFEMs 515 may incorporate both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter wave antennas.

The memory circuitry 520 may include one or more of 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 (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. Memory circuitry 520 may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 525 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detect one or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions. The power tee circuitry 530 may provide for electrical power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment 500 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 535 may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment 500 via network interface connector 540 using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a“copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuitry 535 may include one or more dedicated processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuitry 535 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 545 may include circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more navigation satellite constellations of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union’s Galileo system, China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France’s Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 545 may comprise various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as 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 GNSS receivers (e.g., positioning circuitry 545 and/or positioning circuitry implemented by UEs 101, 102, or the like) to determine their GNSS position. The GNSS signals may include a pseudorandom code (e.g., a sequence of ones and zeros) that is known to the GNSS receiver and a message that includes a time of transmission (ToT) of a code epoch (e.g., a defined point in the pseudorandom code sequence) and the GNSS node position at the ToT. The GNSS receivers may monitor/measure the GNSS signals transmitted/broadcasted by a plurality of GNSS nodes (e.g., four or more satellites) and solve various equations to determine a corresponding GNSS position (e.g., a spatial coordinate). The GNSS receivers also implement clocks that are typically less stable and less precise than the atomic clocks of the GNSS nodes, and the GNSS receivers may use the measured GNSS signals to determine the GNSS receivers’ deviation from true time (e.g., an offset of the GNSS receiver clock relative to the GNSS node time). In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 545 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) integrated circuit (IC) that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance.

The GNSS receivers may measure the time of arrivals (ToAs) of the GNSS signals from the plurality of GNSS nodes according to its own clock. The GNSS receivers may determine time of flight (ToF) values for each received GNSS signal from the ToAs and the ToTs, and then may determine, from the ToFs, a three-dimensional (3D) position and clock deviation. The 3D position may then be converted into a latitude, longitude and altitude. The positioning circuitry 545 may provide data to application circuitry 505 that may include one or more of position data or time data. Application circuitry 505 may use the time data to synchronize operations with other radio base stations (e.g., RAN nodes 111 or the like).

The components shown by Figure 5 may communicate with one another using interface circuitry. As used herein, the term“interface circuitry” may refer to, is part of, or includes circuitry providing for the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term“interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, input/output (I/O) interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. 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), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others.

Figure 6 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry 510 and radio front end modules (RFEM) 515 in accordance with various embodiments. As shown, the RFEMs 515 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 606, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 608, one or more antennas 611 coupled together at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 510 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 510 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 606 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 606. Baseband processing circuitry 510 may interface with the application circuitry 505 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 606. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 510 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 604A, a 4G baseband processor 604B, a 5G baseband processor 604C, or other baseband processor(s) 604D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 510 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 604A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 606. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 604 A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 604G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 604E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 510 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 510 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality.

Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 510 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 604F. The audio DSP(s) 604F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 510 and the application circuitry 505 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 510 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 510 may support communication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 510 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 606 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various

embodiments, the RF circuitry 606 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 608 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 510. RF circuitry 606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to up- convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 510 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 608 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 606 may include mixer circuitry 606a, amplifier circuitry 606b and filter circuitry 606c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 606 may include filter circuitry 606c and mixer circuitry 606a. RF circuitry 606 may also include synthesizer circuitry 606d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 606d. The amplifier circuitry 606b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 606c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 510 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 606d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 608. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 510 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 606c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 510 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 606.

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

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 606a of the RF circuitry 606 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 510 or the application circuitry 505 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the application circuitry 505.

Synthesizer circuitry 606d of the RF circuitry 606 may include a divider, a delay- locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the 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 break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 606d 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 in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 606 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 611, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 608 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 606 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 611. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 606, solely in the FEM circuitry 608, or in both the RF circuitry 606 and the FEM circuitry 608.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 608 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 608 may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 608 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 606), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 611).

Processors of the application circuitry 505 and processors of the baseband circuitry 510 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 510, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 505 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHY layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 7 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 700 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 710, one or more memory /storage devices 720, and one or more communication resources 730, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 740. As used herein, the term“computing resource,”“hardware resource,” etc., may refer to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time and/or processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, and/or the like. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 702 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 700. A“virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc.

The processors 710 (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, a processor 712 and a processor 714.

The memory /storage devices 720 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory /storage devices 720 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatile 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, etc. The communication resources 730 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 704 or one or more databases 706 via a network 708. For example, the communication resources 730 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. As used herein, the term“network resource” or“communication resource” may refer to computing resources that are accessible by computer devices via a communications network. The term“system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

Instructions 750 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 710 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 750 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 710 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 720, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 750 may be transferred to the hardware resources 700 from any combination of the peripheral devices 704 or the databases 706. Accordingly, the memory of processors 710, the memory /storage devices 720, the peripheral devices 704, and the databases 706 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section. EXAMPLES

The examples set forth herein are illustrative not exhaustive.

Example 1 may include one or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause an electronic device to: perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on a band having a bandwidth that is a multiple of 20 megahertz (MHz), wherein the bandwidth comprises a plurality of bandwidth units; and map, for one or more of the plurality of bandwidth units, a code block (CB) into a plurality of resource elements, the mapping comprising utilizing time resources prior to frequency resources for a symbol associated with the CB.

Example 2 may include the one or more computer-readable storage media of example 1, wherein the mapping of the CB starts from a first unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth to a second unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth, wherein a frequency of the first unit differs from a frequency of the second unit.

Example 3 may include the one or more computer-readable storage media of example 2, wherein the frequency of the first unit is higher than the frequency of the second unit.

Example 4 may include the one or more computer-readable storage media of example 2, wherein the frequency of the first unit is lower than the frequency of the second unit.

Example 5 may include the one or more computer-readable storage media of any one of examples 1-4, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is pre defined.

Example 6 may include the one or more computer-readable storage media of any one of examples 1-4, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

Example 7 may include the one or more computer-readable storage media of any one of examples 1-6, wherein the bandwidth is divisible into bandwidth units of X MHz, wherein X is an integer, and wherein the CB is mapped in a frequency domain and then in a time domain within each bandwidth unit before the CB spans over the plurality of bandwidth units.

Example 8 may include an apparatus to implement a new radio (NR) system, the apparatus comprising: a memory having instructions; processing circuitry, coupled to the memory, to: perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on a band having a bandwidth that is a multiple of 20 megahertz (MHz), wherein the bandwidth comprises a plurality of bandwidth units; and map, for one or more of the plurality of bandwidth units, a code block (CB) into a plurality of resource elements, the mapping to utilize time resources prior to frequency resources for a symbol associated with the CB.

Example 9 may include the apparatus of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein the mapping of the CB starts from a first unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth to a second unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth, wherein a frequency of the first unit differs from a frequency of the second unit.

Example 10 may include the apparatus of example 9 or some other example herein, wherein the frequency of the first unit is higher than the frequency of the second unit.

Example 11 may include the apparatus of example 9 or some other example herein, wherein the frequency of the first unit is lower than the frequency of the second unit.

Example 12 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 8-11 or some other example herein, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is pre determined.

Example 13 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 8-11 or some other example herein, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

Example 14 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 8-13, wherein the bandwidth is divisible into bandwidth units of X MHz, wherein X is an integer, and wherein the CB is mapped in a frequency domain and then in a time domain within each bandwidth unit before the CB spans over the plurality of bandwidth units.

Example 15 may include an apparatus comprising one or more baseband processors coupled to a central processing unit (CPU), the apparatus comprising: means for performing a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on a band having a bandwidth that is a multiple of 20 megahertz (MHz), wherein the bandwidth comprises a plurality of bandwidth units; and means for mapping, for one or more of the plurality of bandwidth units, a code block (CB) into a plurality of resource elements, the mapping comprising utilizing time resources prior to frequency resources for a symbol associated with the CB.

Example 16 may include the apparatus of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein the mapping of the CB starts from a first unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth to a second unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth, wherein a frequency of the first unit differs from a frequency of the second unit. Example 17 may include the apparatus of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein the frequency of the first unit is higher than the frequency of the second unit.

Example 18 may include the apparatus of example 16 or some other example herein, wherein the frequency of the first unit is lower than the frequency of the second unit.

Example 19 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 15-18 or some other example herein, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is pre determined.

Example 20 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 15-18 or some other example herein, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

Example 21 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 15-20 or some other example herein, wherein the bandwidth is divisible into bandwidth units of X MHz, wherein X is an integer, and wherein the CB is mapped in a frequency domain and then in a time domain within each bandwidth unit before the CB spans over the plurality of bandwidth units.

Example 22 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 23 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 24 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1- 21, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 25 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or portions thereof. Example 27 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1- 21, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 28 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 29 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 30 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example 31 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Any of the above described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause an electronic device to:

perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on a band having a bandwidth that is a multiple of 20 megahertz (MHz), wherein the bandwidth comprises a plurality of bandwidth units; and

map, for one or more of the plurality of bandwidth units, a code block (CB) into a plurality of resource elements, the mapping comprising utilizing time resources prior to frequency resources for a symbol associated with the CB.

2. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the mapping of the CB starts from a first unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth to a second unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth, wherein a frequency of the first unit differs from a frequency of the second unit.

3. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 2, wherein the frequency of the first unit is higher than the frequency of the second unit.

4. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 2, wherein the frequency of the first unit is lower than the frequency of the second unit.

5. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is pre-defined.

6. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

7. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth is divisible into bandwidth units of X MHz, wherein X is an integer, and wherein the CB is mapped in a frequency domain and then in a time domain within each bandwidth unit before the CB spans over the plurality of bandwidth units.

8. An apparatus to implement a new radio (NR) system, the apparatus comprising: a memory having instructions;

processing circuitry, coupled to the memory, to:

map, for one or more of the plurality of bandwidth units, a code block (CB) into a plurality of resource elements, the mapping to utilize time resources prior to frequency resources for a symbol associated with the CB.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the mapping of the CB starts from a first unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth to a second unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth, wherein a frequency of the first unit differs from a frequency of the second unit.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the frequency of the first unit is higher than the frequency of the second unit.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the frequency of the first unit is lower than the frequency of the second unit.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is pre-determined.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the bandwidth is divisible into bandwidth units of X MHz, wherein X is an integer, and wherein the CB is mapped in a frequency domain and then in a time domain within each bandwidth unit before the CB spans over the plurality of bandwidth units.

15. An apparatus comprising one or more baseband processors coupled to a central processing unit (CPU), the apparatus comprising: means for performing a listen before talk (LBT) procedure on a band having a bandwidth that is a multiple of 20 megahertz (MHz), wherein the bandwidth comprises a plurality of bandwidth units; and

means for mapping, for one or more of the plurality of bandwidth units, a code block (CB) into a plurality of resource elements, the mapping comprising utilizing time resources prior to frequency resources for a symbol associated with the CB.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the mapping of the CB starts from a first unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth to a second unit of 20 MHz selected from the bandwidth, wherein a frequency of the first unit differs from a frequency of the second unit.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the frequency of the first unit is higher than the frequency of the second unit.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the frequency of the first unit is lower than the frequency of the second unit.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is pre-determined.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the mapping of the CB is performed in a pattern that is configured by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the bandwidth is divisible into bandwidth units of X MHz, wherein X is an integer, and wherein the CB is mapped in a frequency domain and then in a time domain within each bandwidth unit before the CB spans over the plurality of bandwidth units.