WO2021097743A1

WO2021097743A1 - Secondary cell timer for fallback to dormant bandwidth part

Info

Publication number: WO2021097743A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/119873
Authority: WO
Inventors: Huilin Xu; Peter Pui Lok Ang; Peng Cheng
Original assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
Priority date: 2019-11-21
Filing date: 2019-11-21
Publication date: 2021-05-27

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure relate to wireless communications utilizing dormant and regular bandwidth parts (BWPs) for transmissions between a user equipment (UE) and one or more secondary cells (SCells). Switching between a regular BWP and dormant BWP is accomplished using a dormancy timer to reduce overhead and save power.

Description

SECONDARY CELL TIMER FOR FALLBACK TO DORMANT BANDWIDTH PART

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to provision of a secondary cell (SCell) dormancy timer for fallback to a dormant bandwidth part (BWP) .

INTRODUCTION

In wireless communication systems or networks that utilize carrier aggregation (CA) multiple serving cells may serve a particular user equipment (UE) or group of UEs. In some wireless systems, one of the multiple serving cells is designated as a primary cell (PCell) , while the other serving cells are designated as secondary cells (SCells) . For an activated SCell (i.e., an SCell capable of serving a UE) , a communication network may switch operation of an SCell between a dormancy behavior or a non-dormancy behavior, where the dormancy behavior affords power reduction such as through no physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, no physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception, or reduced channel status information (CSI) measurement and reporting frequency thereof to name just a few dormancy behaviors that achieve power reduction. The wireless network may further provide a dormancy indication in a PDCCH for the SCells to communicate to UEs whether the activated SCell is in dormancy operation (i.e., dormancy-like behavior) or non-dormancy operation (i.e., non-dormancy-like behavior) . Additionally, switching between a dormancy-like behavior and a non-dormancy-like behavior can be realized by bandwidth part (BWP) switching between a dormant BWP and a regular (or non-dormant) BWP that allows a UE full utilization of the SCell.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF SOME EXAMPLES

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects of the present disclosure, in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated features of the disclosure, and is intended neither to identify key or critical elements of all aspects of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of any or all aspects of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a method for wireless communication in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes determining whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) . The method further incudes implementing a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for wireless communication in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processor, a transceiver communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor. The processor is configured to determine whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) . The processor is also configured to implement a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.

According to yet another aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for wireless communication in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The apparatus includes means for determining whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) . The apparatus also includes means for implementing a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.

According to yet one more aspect of the disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code is disclosed. The medium includes code for causing a computer to determine whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in a wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) . The code further causes a computer to implement a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.

These and other aspects of the present disclosure will become more fully understood upon a review of the detailed description, which follows. Other aspects, features, and embodiments of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, upon reviewing the following description of specific, exemplary embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures. While features of the present invention may be discussed relative to certain embodiments and figures below, all embodiments of the present invention can include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, while one or more embodiments may be discussed as having certain advantageous features, one or more of such features may also be used in accordance with the various embodiments of the invention discussed herein. In similar fashion, while exemplary embodiments may be discussed below as device, system, or method embodiments it should be understood that such exemplary embodiments can be implemented in various devices, systems, and methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a wireless communication system.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual illustration of an example of a wireless communications network.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of an eNB or gNB in communication with a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network or system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an organization of wireless resources in an air interface utilizing orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexing (OFDM) .

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of bandwidth parts (BWPs) used in a wireless communication in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of timing for discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method for selecting between BWPs received by a UE from an SCell in a wireless communication system according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a time-frequency plot showing the use of bandwidth parts (BWPs) used for an SCell and switching between regular and dormant BWPs according to certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary device or apparatus for wireless communication in a wireless communication system in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram of method for applying a dormancy timer in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates a timeline diagram showing synchronous BWP switching for a group of SCells according to certain aspects.

FIG. 12 illustrates a timeline diagram showing asynchronous BWP switching for a group of SCells according to certain aspects.

FIG. 13 illustrates a timeline diagram illustrating various rules for asynchronous timers for BWP switching for a group of SCells according to certain aspects.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for implementing a dormancy BWP timer for a group of SCells according to certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a scheduling entity apparatus employing a processing system.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a scheduled entity apparatus employing a processing system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

While aspects and embodiments are described in this application by illustration to some examples, those skilled in the art will understand that additional implementations and use cases may come about in many different arrangements and scenarios. Innovations described herein may be implemented across many differing platform types, devices, systems, shapes, sizes, packaging arrangements. For example, embodiments and/or uses may come about via integrated chip embodiments and other non-module-component based devices (e.g., end-user devices, vehicles, communication devices, computing devices, industrial equipment, retail/purchasing devices, medical devices, AI-enabled devices, etc. ) . While some examples may or may not be specifically directed to use cases or applications, a wide assortment of applicability of described innovations may occur. Implementations may range a spectrum from chip-level or modular components to non-modular, non-chip-level implementations and further to aggregate, distributed, or OEM devices or systems incorporating one or more aspects of the described innovations. In some practical settings, devices incorporating described aspects and features may also necessarily include additional components and features for implementation and practice of claimed and described embodiments. For example, transmission and reception of wireless signals necessarily includes a number of components for analog and digital purposes (e.g., hardware components including antenna, RF-chains, power amplifiers, modulators, buffer, processor (s) , interleaver, adders/summers, etc. ) . It is intended that innovations described herein may be practiced in a wide variety of devices, chip-level components, systems, distributed arrangements, end-user devices, etc. of varying sizes, shapes and constitution.

The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a broad variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Referring now to FIG. 1, as an illustrative example without limitation, a schematic illustration of a radio access network 100 is provided.

The geographic region covered by the radio access network 100 may be divided into a number of cellular regions (cells) that can be uniquely identified by a user equipment (UE) based on an identification broadcasted over a geographical area from one access point or base station. FIG. 1 illustrates

macrocells

102, 104, and 106, and a small cell 108, each of which may include one or more sectors. A sector is a sub-area of a cell. All sectors within one cell are served by the same base station. A radio link within a sector can be identified by a single logical identification belonging to that sector. In a cell that is divided into sectors, the multiple sectors within a cell can be formed by groups of antennas with each antenna responsible for communication with UEs in a portion of the cell.

The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a broad variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. Referring now to FIG. 1, as an illustrative example without limitation, various aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated with reference to a wireless communication system 100. The wireless communication system 100 includes three interacting domains: a core network 102, a radio access network (RAN) 104, and a user equipment (UE) 106. By virtue of the wireless communication system 100, the UE 106 may be enabled to carry out data communication with an external data network 110, such as (but not limited to) the Internet.

The RAN 104 may implement any suitable wireless communication technology or technologies to provide radio access to the UE 106. As one example, the RAN 104 may operate according to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) specifications, often referred to as 5G. As another example, the RAN 104 may operate under a hybrid of 5G NR and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) standards, often referred to as LTE. The 3GPP refers to this hybrid RAN as a next-generation RAN, or NG-RAN. Of course, many other examples may be utilized within the scope of the present disclosure.

As illustrated, the RAN 104 includes a plurality of base stations 108. Broadly, a base station is a network element in a radio access network responsible for radio transmission and reception in one or more cells to or from a UE. In different technologies, standards, or contexts, a base station may variously be referred to by those skilled in the art as a base transceiver station (BTS) , a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS) , an extended service set (ESS) , an access point (AP) , a Node B (NB) , an eNode B (eNB) , a gNode B (gNB) , or some other suitable terminology.

The radio access network 104 is further illustrated supporting wireless communication for multiple mobile apparatuses. A mobile apparatus may be referred to as user equipment (UE) in 3GPP standards, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS) , a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal (AT) , a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. A UE may be an apparatus that provides a user with access to network services.

Within the present document, a “mobile” apparatus need not necessarily have a capability to move, and may be stationary. The term mobile apparatus or mobile device broadly refers to a diverse array of devices and technologies. UEs may include a number of hardware structural components sized, shaped, and arranged to help in communication; such components can include antennas, antenna arrays, RF chains, amplifiers, one or more processors, etc. electrically coupled to each other. For example, some non-limiting examples of a mobile apparatus include a mobile, a cellular (cell) phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal computer (PC) , a notebook, a netbook, a smartbook, a tablet, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , and a broad array of embedded systems, e.g., corresponding to an “Internet of things” (IoT) . A mobile apparatus may additionally be an automotive or other transportation vehicle, a remote sensor or actuator, a robot or robotics device, a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, an object tracking device, a drone, a multi-copter, a quad-copter, a remote control device, a consumer and/or wearable device, such as eyewear, a wearable camera, a virtual reality device, a smart watch, a health or fitness tracker, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player) , a camera, a game console, etc. A mobile apparatus may additionally be a digital home or smart home device such as a home audio, video, and/or multimedia device, an appliance, a vending machine, intelligent lighting, a home security system, a smart meter, etc. A mobile apparatus may additionally be a smart energy device, a security device, a solar panel or solar array, a municipal infrastructure device controlling electric power (e.g., a smart grid) , lighting, water, etc.; an industrial automation and enterprise device; a logistics controller; agricultural equipment; military defense equipment, vehicles, aircraft, ships, and weaponry, etc. Still further, a mobile apparatus may provide for connected medicine or telemedicine support, e.g., health care at a distance. Telehealth devices may include telehealth monitoring devices and telehealth administration devices, whose communication may be given preferential treatment or prioritized access over other types of information, e.g., in terms of prioritized access for transport of critical service data, and/or relevant QoS for transport of critical service data.

Wireless communication between a RAN 104 and a UE 106 may be described as utilizing an air interface. Transmissions over the air interface from a base station (e.g., base station 108) to one or more UEs (e.g., UE 106) may be referred to as downlink (DL) transmission. In accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure, the term downlink may refer to a point-to-multipoint transmission originating at a scheduling entity (described further below; e.g., base station 108) . Another way to describe this scheme may be to use the term broadcast channel multiplexing. Transmissions from a UE (e.g., UE 106) to a base station (e.g., base station 108) may be referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions. In accordance with further aspects of the present disclosure, the term uplink may refer to a point-to-point transmission originating at a scheduled entity (described further below; e.g., UE 106) .

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, wherein a scheduling entity (e.g., a base station 108) allocates resources for communication among some or all devices and equipment within its service area or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below, the scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more scheduled entities. That is, for scheduled communication, UEs 106, which may be scheduled entities, may utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity 108.

Base stations 108 are not the only entities that may function as scheduling entities. That is, in some examples, a UE may function as a scheduling entity, scheduling resources for one or more scheduled entities (e.g., one or more other UEs) .

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a scheduling entity 108 may broadcast downlink traffic 112 to one or more scheduled entities 106. Broadly, the scheduling entity 108 is a node or device responsible for scheduling traffic in a wireless communication network, including the downlink traffic 112 and, in some examples, uplink traffic 116 from one or more scheduled entities 106 to the scheduling entity 108. On the other hand, the scheduled entity 106 is a node or device that receives downlink control information 114, including but not limited to scheduling information (e.g., a grant) , synchronization or timing information, or other control information from another entity in the wireless communication network such as the scheduling entity 108.

In general, base stations 108 may include a backhaul interface for communication with a backhaul portion 120 of the wireless communication system. The backhaul 120 may provide a link between a base station 108 and the core network 102. Further, in some examples, a backhaul network may provide interconnection between the respective base stations 108. Various types of backhaul interfaces may be employed, such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or the like using any suitable transport network.

The core network 102 may be a part of the wireless communication system 100, and may be independent of the radio access technology used in the RAN 104. In some examples, the core network 102 may be configured according to 5G standards (e.g., 5GC) . In other examples, the core network 102 may be configured according to a 4G evolved packet core (EPC) , or any other suitable standard or configuration.

Referring now to FIG. 2, by way of example and without limitation, a schematic illustration of a RAN 200 is provided. In some examples, the RAN 200 may be the same as the RAN 104 described above and illustrated in FIG. 1. The geographic area covered by the RAN 200 may be divided into cellular regions (cells) that can be uniquely identified by a user equipment (UE) based on an identification broadcasted from one access point or base station. FIG. 2 illustrates

macrocells

202, 204, and 206, and a small cell 208, each of which may include one or more sectors (not shown) . A sector is a sub-area of a cell. All sectors within one cell are served by the same base station. A radio link within a sector can be identified by a single logical identification belonging to that sector. In a cell that is divided into sectors, the multiple sectors within a cell can be formed by groups of antennas with each antenna responsible for communication with UEs in a portion of the cell.

In FIG. 2, two

base stations

210 and 212 are shown in

cells

202 and 204; and a third base station 214 is shown controlling a remote radio head (RRH) 216 in cell 206. That is, a base station can have an integrated antenna or can be connected to an antenna or RRH by feeder cables. In the illustrated example, the

cells

202, 204, and 126 may be referred to as macrocells, as the

base stations

210, 212, and 214 support cells having a large size. Further, a base station 218 is shown in the small cell 208 (e.g., a microcell, picocell, femtocell, home base station, home Node B, home eNode B, etc. ) which may overlap with one or more macrocells. In this example, the cell 208 may be referred to as a small cell, as the base station 218 supports a cell having a relatively small size. Cell sizing can be done according to system design as well as component constraints.

It is to be understood that the radio access network 200 may include any number of wireless base stations and cells. Further, a relay node may be deployed to extend the size or coverage area of a given cell. The

base stations

210, 212, 214, 218 provide wireless access points to a core network for any number of mobile apparatuses. In some examples, the

base stations

210, 212, 214, and/or 218 may be the same as the base station/scheduling entity 108 described above and illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 further includes a quadcopter or drone 220, which may be configured to function as a base station. That is, in some examples, a cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according to the location of a mobile base station such as the quadcopter 220.

Within the RAN 200, the cells may include UEs that may be in communication with one or more sectors of each cell. Further, each

base station

210, 212, 214, 218, and 220 may be configured to provide an access point to a core network 102 (see FIG. 1) for all the UEs in the respective cells. For example,

UEs

222 and 224 may be in communication with base station 210;

UEs

226 and 228 may be in communication with base station 212;

UEs

230 and 232 may be in communication with base station 214 by way of RRH 216; UE 234 may be in communication with base station 218; and UE 236 may be in communication with mobile base station 220. In some examples, the

UEs

222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, and/or 242 may be the same as the UE/scheduled entity 106 described above and illustrated in FIG. 1.

In some examples, a mobile network node (e.g., quadcopter 220) may be configured to function as a UE. For example, the quadcopter 220 may operate within cell 202 by communicating with base station 210.

In a further aspect of the RAN 200, sidelink signals may be used between UEs without necessarily relying on scheduling or control information from a base station. For example, two or more UEs (e.g., UEs 226 and 228) may communicate with each other using peer to peer (P2P) or sidelink signals 227 without relaying that communication through a base station (e.g., base station 212) . In a further example, UE 238 is illustrated communicating with

UEs

240 and 242. Here, the UE 238 may function as a scheduling entity or a primary sidelink device, and

UEs

240 and 242 may function as a scheduled entity or a non-primary (e.g., secondary) sidelink device. In still another example, a UE may function as a scheduling entity in a device-to-device (D2D) , peer-to-peer (P2P) , or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network, and/or in a mesh network. In a mesh network example,

UEs

240 and 242 may optionally communicate directly with one another in addition to communicating with the scheduling entity 238. Thus, in a wireless communication system with scheduled access to time–frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2P configuration, or a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one or more scheduled entities may communicate utilizing the scheduled resources.

In the radio access network 200, the ability for a UE to communicate while moving, independent of its location, is referred to as mobility. The various physical channels between the UE and the radio access network are generally set up, maintained, and released under the control of an access and mobility management function (AMF, not illustrated, part of the core network 102 in FIG. 1) , which may include a security context management function (SCMF) that manages the security context for both the control plane and the user plane functionality, and a security anchor function (SEAF) that performs authentication.

In various aspects of the disclosure, a radio access network 200 may utilize DL-based mobility or UL-based mobility to enable mobility and handovers (i.e., the transfer of a UE’s connection from one radio channel to another) . In a network configured for DL-based mobility, during a call with a scheduling entity, or at any other time, a UE may monitor various parameters of the signal from its serving cell as well as various parameters of neighboring cells. Depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE may maintain communication with one or more of the neighboring cells. During this time, if the UE moves from one cell to another, or if signal quality from a neighboring cell exceeds that from the serving cell for a given amount of time, the UE may undertake a handoff or handover from the serving cell to the neighboring (target) cell. For example, UE 224 (illustrated as a vehicle, although any suitable form of UE may be used) may move from the geographic area corresponding to its serving cell 202 to the geographic area corresponding to a neighbor cell 206. When the signal strength or quality from the neighbor cell 206 exceeds that of its serving cell 202 for a given amount of time, the UE 224 may transmit a reporting message to its serving base station 210 indicating this condition. In response, the UE 224 may receive a handover command, and the UE may undergo a handover to the cell 206.

In a network configured for UL-based mobility, UL reference signals from each UE may be utilized by the network to select a serving cell for each UE. In some examples, the

base stations

210, 212, and 214/216 may broadcast unified synchronization signals (e.g., unified Primary Synchronization Signals (PSSs) , unified Secondary Synchronization Signals (SSSs) and unified Physical Broadcast Channels (PBCH) ) . The

UEs

222, 224, 226, 228, 230, and 232 may receive the unified synchronization signals, derive the carrier frequency and slot timing from the synchronization signals, and in response to deriving timing, transmit an uplink pilot or reference signal. The uplink pilot signal transmitted by a UE (e.g., UE 224) may be concurrently received by two or more cells (e.g.,

base stations

210 and 214/216) within the radio access network 200. Each of the cells may measure a strength of the pilot signal, and the radio access network (e.g., one or more of the

base stations

210 and 214/216 and/or a central node within the core network) may determine a serving cell for the UE 224. As the UE 224 moves through the radio access network 200, the network may continue to monitor the uplink pilot signal transmitted by the UE 224. When the signal strength or quality of the pilot signal measured by a neighboring cell exceeds that of the signal strength or quality measured by the serving cell, the network 200 may handover the UE 224 from the serving cell to the neighboring cell, with or without informing the UE 224.

Although the synchronization signal transmitted by the

base stations

210, 212, and 214/216 may be unified, the synchronization signal may not identify a particular cell, but rather may identify a zone of multiple cells operating on the same frequency and/or with the same timing. The use of zones in 5G networks or other next generation communication networks enables the uplink-based mobility framework and improves the efficiency of both the UE and the network, since the number of mobility messages that need to be exchanged between the UE and the network may be reduced.

In various implementations, the air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or shared spectrum. Licensed spectrum provides for exclusive use of a portion of the spectrum, generally by virtue of a mobile network operator purchasing a license from a government regulatory body. Unlicensed spectrum provides for shared use of a portion of the spectrum without need for a government-granted license. While compliance with some technical rules is generally still required to access unlicensed spectrum, generally, any operator or device may gain access. Shared spectrum may fall between licensed and unlicensed spectrum, wherein technical rules or limitations may be required to access the spectrum, but the spectrum may still be shared by multiple operators and/or multiple RATs. For example, the holder of a license for a portion of licensed spectrum may provide licensed shared access (LSA) to share that spectrum with other parties, e.g., with suitable licensee-determined conditions to gain access.

The air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize one or more duplexing algorithms. Duplex refers to a point-to-point communication link where both endpoints can communicate with one another in both directions. Full duplex means both endpoints can simultaneously communicate with one another. Half duplex means only one endpoint can send information to the other at a time. In a wireless link, a full duplex channel generally relies on physical isolation of a transmitter and receiver, and suitable interference cancellation technologies. Full duplex emulation is frequently implemented for wireless links by utilizing frequency division duplex (FDD) or time division duplex (TDD) . In FDD, transmissions in different directions operate at different carrier frequencies. In TDD, transmissions in different directions on a given channel are separated from one another using time division multiplexing. That is, at some times the channel is dedicated for transmissions in one direction, while at other times the channel is dedicated for transmissions in the other direction, where the direction may change very rapidly, e.g., several times per slot.

The air interface in the radio access network 200 may utilize one or more multiplexing and multiple access algorithms to enable simultaneous communication of the various devices. For example, 5G NR specifications provide multiple access for UL transmissions from

UEs

222 and 224 to base station 210, and for multiplexing for DL transmissions from base station 210 to one or

more UEs

222 and 224, utilizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) . In addition, for UL transmissions, 5G NR specifications provide support for discrete Fourier transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) with a CP (also referred to as single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) ) . However, within the scope of the present disclosure, multiplexing and multiple access are not limited to the above schemes, and may be provided utilizing time division multiple access (TDMA) , code division multiple access (CDMA) , frequency division multiple access (FDMA) , sparse code multiple access (SCMA) , resource spread multiple access (RSMA) , or other suitable multiple access schemes. Further, multiplexing DL transmissions from the base station 210 to UEs 222 and 224 may be provided utilizing time division multiplexing (TDM) , code division multiplexing (CDM) , frequency division multiplexing (FDM) , orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) , sparse code multiplexing (SCM) , or other suitable multiplexing schemes.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of an eNB or gNB in communication with a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communications network, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. In this example, the block diagram 300 shows a first wireless node 310, which may be a base station or gNB, and a second wireless node 320, such as a UE of the wireless communication system 300. The first wireless node 310 is a transmitting entity for the downlink and a receiving entity for the uplink, such as a scheduling entity according to some aspects. The second wireless node 320 is a transmitting entity for the uplink and a receiving entity for the downlink, such as a scheduled entity according to some aspects. According to further aspects, a "transmitting entity" may be an independently operated apparatus or wireless node capable of transmitting data via a wireless channel, and a "receiving entity" may be an independently operated apparatus or wireless node capable of receiving data via a wireless channel.

For transmitting data, the first wireless node 310 comprises a transmit data processor 318, a frame builder 322, a transmit processor 324, a plurality of transceivers 326-1 to 326-N, and a plurality of antennas 330-1 to 330-N. The first wireless node 310 also comprises a controller 334 configured to control operations of the first wireless node 310, as discussed further below.

In operation, the transmit data processor 318 receives data (e.g., data bits) from a data source 315, and processes the data for transmission. For example, the transmit data processor 318 may encode the data (e.g., data bits) into encoded data, and modulate the encoded data into data symbols. The transmit data processor 318 may support different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) . For example, the transmit data processor 318 may encode the data (e.g., using low-density parity check (LDPC) encoding) at any one of a plurality of different coding rates. Also, the transmit data processor 318 may modulate the encoded data using any one of a plurality of different modulation schemes, including, but not limited to, BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 64APSK, 128APSK, 256QAM, 1024QAM, and 256APSK.

In certain aspects, the controller 334 may send a command to the transmit data processor 318 specifying which modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to use (e.g., based on channel conditions of the downlink) , and the transmit data processor 318 may encode and modulate data from the data source 315 according to the specified MCS. It is to be appreciated that the transmit data processor 318 may perform additional processing on the data such as data scrambling, and/or other processing. The transmit data processor 318 outputs the data symbols to the frame builder 322.

The frame builder 322 constructs a frame (also referred to as a packet) , and inserts the data symbols into a data payload of the frame. Exemplary frame structures or formats will be discussed in more detail below. The frame builder 322 outputs the frame to the transmit processor 324. The transmit processor 324 processes the frame for transmission on the downlink. For example, the transmit processor 324 may support different transmission modes such as an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission mode and a single-carrier (SC) transmission mode. In this example, the controller 334 may send a command to the transmit processor 324 specifying which transmission mode to use, and the transmit processor 324 may process the frame for transmission according to the specified transmission mode.

In certain aspects, the transmit processor 324 may support multiple-output-multiple-input (MIMO) transmissions. In these aspects, the first wireless node 310 includes multiple antennas 330-1 to 330-N and multiple transceivers 326-1 to 326-N (e.g., one for each antenna) . The transmit processor 324 may perform spatial processing on the incoming frames and provide a plurality of transmit frame streams for the plurality of antennas. The transceivers 326-1 to 326-N receive and process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and frequency upconvert) the respective transmit frame streams to generate transmit signals for transmission via the antennas 330-1 to 330-N.

For transmitting data, the second wireless node or UE 320 comprises a transmit data processor 360, a frame builder 362, a transmit processor 364, a plurality of transceivers 366-1 to 366-N, and a plurality of antennas 370-1 to 370-N. The UE 320 may transmit data to the first wireless node 310 on the uplink, and/or transmit data to another access terminal (e.g., for peer-to-peer communication) . The UE 320 also comprises a controller 374 configured to control operations of the UE 320, as discussed further below.

In operation, the transmit data processor 360 receives data (e.g., data bits) from a data source 355, and processes (e.g., encodes and modulates) the data for transmission. The transmit data processor 360 may support different MCSs. For example, the transmit data processor 360 may encode the data (e.g., using LDPC encoding) at any one of a plurality of different coding rates, and modulate the encoded data using any one of a plurality of different modulation schemes, including, but not limited to, BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 64APSK, 128APSK, 256QAM, and 256APSK. In certain aspects, the controller 374 may send a command to the transmit data processor 360 specifying which MCS to use (e.g., based on channel conditions of the uplink) , and the transmit data processor 360 may encode and modulate data from the data source 355 according to the specified MCS. It is to be appreciated that the transmit data processor 360 may perform additional processing on the data. The transmit data processor 360 outputs the data symbols to the frame builder 362.

The frame builder 362 constructs a frame, and inserts the received data symbols into a data payload of the frame. Exemplary frame structures or formats are discussed further below. The frame builder 362 outputs the frame to the transmit processor 364. The transmit processor 364 processes the frame for transmission. For example, the transmit processor 364 may support different transmission modes such as an OFDM transmission mode and an SC transmission mode. In this example, the controller 374 may send a command to the transmit processor 364 specifying which transmission mode to use, and the transmit processor 364 may process the frame for transmission according to the specified transmission mode.

In certain aspects, the transmit processor 364 may support multiple-output-multiple-input (MIMO) transmission. In these aspects, the UE 320 includes multiple antennas 370-1 to 370-N and multiple transceivers 366-1 to 366-N (e.g., one for each antenna) . The transmit processor 364 may perform spatial processing on the incoming frame and provide a plurality of transmit frame streams for the plurality of antennas. The transceivers 366-1 to 366-N receive and process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and frequency upconvert) the respective transmit frame streams to generate transmit signals for transmission via the antennas 370-1 to 370-N. Additionally, the transmit processor 364 may include layer mapping, precoding, resource element mapping functionalities for mapping to various antenna ports, wherein an antenna port is logical concept where each antenna port represents a specific channel model, where each antenna port will have its own reference signal. Each antenna port will carry its own resource grid and a specific set of reference signals in the grid.

For receiving data, the access point 310 comprises a receive processor 342, and a receive data processor 344. In operation, the transceivers 326-1 to 326-N receive signals (e.g., from the UE 320) via the antennas 330-1 to 330-N, and process (e.g., frequency downconvert, amplify, filter and convert to digital) the received signals.

The receive processor 342 receives the outputs of the transceivers 326-1 to 326-N, and processes the outputs to recover data symbols. For example, the first wireless node 310 may receive data (e.g., from the UE 320) in a frame. In this example, the receive processor 342 may detect the start of the frame using the STF sequence in the preamble of the frame. The receive processor 342 may also use the STF for automatic gain control (AGC) adjustment. The receive processor 342 may also perform channel estimation (e.g., using the channel estimation (CE) sequence or field in the preamble of the frame) and perform channel equalization on the received signal based on the channel estimation.

The receive processor 342 may also recover information (e.g., MCS scheme) from the header of the frame, and send the information to the controller 334. After performing channel equalization, the receive processor 342 may recover data symbols from the frame, and output the recovered data symbols to the receive data processor 344 for further processing. It is to be appreciated that the receive processor 342 may perform other processing.

The receive data processor 344 receives the data symbols from the receive processor 342 and an indication of the corresponding MSC scheme from the controller 334. The receive data processor 344 demodulates and decodes the data symbols to recover the data according to the indicated MSC scheme, and outputs the recovered data (e.g., data bits) to a data sink 346 for storage and/or further processing.

As discussed above, the UE 320 may transmit data using an OFDM transmission mode or an SC transmission mode. In this case, the receive processor 342 may process the receive signal according to the selected transmission mode. Also, as discussed above, the transmit processor 364 may support multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) transmission. In this case, the first wireless node 310 includes multiple antennas 330-1 to 330-N and multiple transceivers 326-1 to 326-N (e.g., one for each antenna) . Each transceiver 326 receives and processes (e.g., frequency downconverts, amplifies, filters, and converts to digital) the signal from the respective antenna 330. The receive processor 342 may perform spatial processing on the outputs of the transceivers 326-1 to 226-N to recover the data symbols.

For receiving data, the UE 320 comprises a receive processor 382, and a receive data processor 384. In operation, the transceivers 366-1 to 366-N receive signals (e.g., from the first wireless node 310 or another access terminal) via the antennas 370-1 to 370-N, and process (e.g., frequency downconvert, amplify, filter and convert to digital) the received signals.

The receive processor 382 receives the outputs of the transceivers 366-1 to 366-N, and processes the outputs to recover data symbols. For example, the UE 320 may receive data (e.g., from the first wireless node 310 or another access terminal) in a frame, as discussed above. The receive processor 382 may also recover information (e.g., MCS scheme) from the header of the frame, and send the information to the controller 374. After performing channel equalization, the receive processor 382 may recover data symbols from the frame, and output the recovered data symbols to the receive data processor 384 for further processing. It is to be appreciated that the receive processor 382 may perform other processing.

The receive data processor 384 receives the data symbols from the receive processor 382 and an indication of the corresponding MSC scheme from the controller 374. The receive data processor 384 demodulates and decodes the data symbols to recover the data according to the indicated MSC scheme, and outputs the recovered data (e.g., data bits) to a data sink 386 for storage and/or further processing.

As discussed above, the first wireless terminal 310 or another access terminal may transmit data using an OFDM transmission mode or a SC transmission mode. In this case, the receive processor 382 may process the receive signal according to the selected transmission mode. Also, as discussed above, the transmit processor 324 may support multiple-output-multiple-input (MIMO) transmission. In this case, the UE 320 includes multiple antennas 370-1 to 370-N and multiple transceivers 366-1 to 366-N (e.g., one for each antenna) . Each transceiver 366 receives and processes (e.g., frequency downconverts, amplifies, filters, and converts to digital) the signal from the respective antenna. The receive processor 382 may perform spatial processing on the outputs of the transceivers to recover the data symbols.

As shown in FIG. 3, the first wireless terminal 310 also comprises a memory 336 coupled to the controller 334. The memory 336 may store instructions that, when executed by the controller 334, cause the controller 334 to perform one or more of the operations described herein. Similarly, the UE 320 also comprises a memory 376 coupled to the controller 374. The memory 376 may store instructions that, when executed by the controller 374, cause the controller 374 to perform the one or more of the operations described herein.

Various aspects of the present disclosure will be described with reference to an OFDM waveform, schematically illustrated in FIG. 4. It should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the various aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to a DFT-s-OFDMA waveform in substantially the same way as described herein below. That is, while some examples of the present disclosure may focus on an OFDM link for clarity, it should be understood that the same principles may be applied as well to DFT-s-OFDMA waveforms.

As referred to within the present disclosure, a frame refers to a duration of 10 ms for wireless transmissions, with each frame consisting of 10 subframes of 1 ms each. On a given carrier, there may be one set of frames in the UL, and another set of frames in the DL. Referring now to FIG. 4, an expanded view of an exemplary DL subframe 402 is illustrated, showing an OFDM resource grid 404. However, as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the PHY transmission structure for any particular application may vary from the example described here, depending on any number of factors. Here, time is in the horizontal direction with units of OFDM symbols; and frequency is in the vertical direction with units of subcarriers or tones.

The resource grid 404 may be used to schematically represent time–frequency resources for a given antenna port. That is, in a MIMO implementation with multiple antenna ports available, a corresponding multiple number of resource grids 404 may be available for communication. The resource grid 404 is divided into multiple resource elements (REs) 406. An RE, which is 1 subcarrier × 1 symbol, is the smallest discrete part of the time–frequency grid, and contains a single complex value representing data from a physical channel or signal. Depending on the modulation utilized in a particular implementation, each RE may represent one or more bits of information. In some examples, a block of REs may be referred to as a physical resource block (PRB) or more simply a resource block (RB) 408, which contains any suitable number of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. In one example, an RB may include 12 subcarriers, a number independent of the numerology used. In some examples, depending on the numerology, an RB may include any suitable number of consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. Within the present disclosure, it is assumed that a single RB such as the RB 408 entirely corresponds to a single direction of communication (either transmission or reception for a given device) .

A UE generally utilizes only a subset of the resource grid 404. An RB may be the smallest unit of resources that can be allocated to a UE. Thus, the more RBs scheduled for a UE, and the higher the modulation scheme chosen for the air interface, the higher the data rate for the UE. In this illustration, the RB 408 is shown as occupying less than the entire bandwidth of the subframe 402, with some subcarriers illustrated above and below the RB 408. In a given implementation, the subframe 402 may have a bandwidth corresponding to any number of one or more RBs 408. Further, in this illustration, the RB 408 is shown as occupying less than the entire duration of the subframe 402, although this is merely one possible example.

Each 1 ms subframe 402 may consist of one or multiple adjacent slots. In the example shown in FIG. 4, one subframe 402 includes four slots 410, as an illustrative example. In some examples, a slot may be defined according to a specified number of OFDM symbols with a given cyclic prefix (CP) length. For example, a slot may include 7 or 14 OFDM symbols with a nominal CP. Additional examples may include mini-slots having a shorter duration (e.g., one or two OFDM symbols) . These mini-slots may in some cases be transmitted occupying resources scheduled for ongoing slot transmissions for the same or for different UEs.

An expanded view of one of the slots 410 illustrates the slot 410 including a control region 412 and a data region 414. In general, the control region 412 may carry control channels (e.g., the PDCCH) , and the data region 414 may carry data channels (e.g., PDSCH or PUSCH) . Of course, a slot may contain all DL, all UL, or at least one DL portion and at least one UL portion. The structure illustrated in FIG. 4 is merely exemplary in nature, and different slot structures may be utilized, and may include one or more of each of the control region (s) and data region (s) .

Although not illustrated in FIG. 4, the various REs 406 within a RB 408 may be scheduled to carry one or more physical channels, including control channels, shared channels, data channels, etc. Other REs 406 within the RB 408 may also carry pilots or reference signals, including but not limited to a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) a control reference signal (CRS) , or a sounding reference signal (SRS) . These pilots or reference signals may provide for a receiving device to perform channel estimation of the corresponding channel, which may enable coherent demodulation/detection of the control and/or data channels within the RB 408.

In a DL transmission, the transmitting device (e.g., the scheduling entity 108) may allocate one or more REs 406 (e.g., within a control region 412) to carry DL control information 114 including one or more DL control channels, such as a PBCH; a PSS; a SSS; a physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH) ; a physical hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indicator channel (PHICH) ; and/or a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , etc., to one or more scheduled entities 106. The PCFICH provides information to assist a receiving device in receiving and decoding the PDCCH. The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI) including but not limited to power control commands, scheduling information, a grant, and/or an assignment of REs for DL and UL transmissions. The PHICH carries HARQ feedback transmissions such as an acknowledgment (ACK) or negative-acknowledgment (NACK) . HARQ is a technique well-known to those of ordinary skill in the art, wherein the integrity of packet transmissions may be checked at the receiving side for accuracy, e.g., utilizing any suitable integrity checking mechanism, such as a checksum or a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) . If the integrity of the transmission confirmed, an ACK may be transmitted, whereas if not confirmed, a NACK may be transmitted. In response to a NACK, the transmitting device may send a HARQ retransmission, which may implement chase combining, incremental redundancy, etc.

In an UL transmission, the transmitting device (e.g., the scheduled entity 106) may utilize one or more REs 406 to carry UL control information 118 including one or more UL control channels, such as a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) , to the scheduling entity 108. UL control information may include a variety of packet types and categories, including pilots, reference signals, and information configured to enable or assist in decoding uplink data transmissions. In some examples, the control information 118 may include a scheduling request (SR) , e.g., a request for the scheduling entity 108 to schedule uplink transmissions. Here, in response to the SR transmitted on the control channel 118, the scheduling entity 108 may transmit downlink control information 114 that may schedule resources for uplink packet transmissions. UL control information may also include HARQ feedback, channel state feedback (CSF) , or any other suitable UL control information.

In addition to control information, one or more REs 406 (e.g., within the data region 414) may be allocated for user data or traffic data. Such traffic may be carried on one or more traffic channels, such as, for a DL transmission, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) ; or for an UL transmission, a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) . In some examples, one or more REs 406 within the data region 414 may be configured to carry system information blocks (SIBs) , carrying information that may enable access to a given cell.

The channels or carriers described above in connection with and illustrated in FIGs. 1–4 are not necessarily all the channels or carriers that may be utilized between a scheduling entity 108 and scheduled entities 106, and those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other channels or carriers may be utilized in addition to those illustrated, such as other traffic, control, and feedback channels. These physical channels described above are generally multiplexed and mapped to transport channels for handling at the medium access control (MAC) layer. Transport channels carry blocks of information called transport blocks (TB) . The transport block size (TBS) , which may correspond to a number of bits of information, may be a controlled parameter, based on the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and the number of RBs in a given transmission.

It is noted that in 5G NR, for example, the four main reference signals used in transmissions are the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) , the phase-tracking reference signal (PTRS) , the sounding reference signal (SRS) , and the channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS) . DMRSs are used in 5G NR to estimate the radio channel for demodulation, such as estimation at a gNB or at a UE. Furthermore, DMRSs may be UE-specific, are capable of being beamformed, may be confined in a scheduled resource, and may be transmitted only when necessary, both in DL and in UL transmissions. To support multiple-layer MIMO transmission, multiple orthogonal DMRS ports can be scheduled, one for each layer. Typically, the basic DMRS pattern is front loaded, as the DMRS design takes into account the early decoding requirement to support low-latency applications. For low-speed scenarios, DMRS may use low density in the time domain.

It is also noted that 5G NR has introduced the use of a bandwidth part (BWP) , which may consist of a subset of physical resource blocks (PRBs) or resource blocks (RBs) , such as contiguous set of two or more RBs 408 as illustrated in FIG. 4. The use of BWPs helps to reduce power consumption of 5G NR devices through bandwidth adaptation, which allows a UE to only be active on a wide bandwidth in bursty traffic situations, for example, for a short time period, while subsequently being allowed to be active on a narrow bandwidth for rest of the time duration of a transmission. BWPs engender power savings by allowing a UE to be able to receive transmissions using a narrow portion of bandwidth, but then adapt to switch to a greater bandwidth portion when required by the network, which may inform the UE to switch between BWPs such as narrower to greater bandwidth BWPs or vice versa. Also, the traffic patterns within one active data session can change frequently as the data rate may increase or decrease based on the type of service or the user behavior (e.g., accessing internet data and answering a phone call) . Accordingly, being able to switch quickly between different BWPs becomes important for managing different power consumption for different data rates.

As an illustration of BWPs, FIG. 5 shows an exemplary representation of numerous BWPs across a carrier bandwidth, wherein each BWP is a subset of contiguous RBs for a respective given numerology (μ) on a given carrier or within the carrier bandwidth. In current developments, 5G NR allows up to four bandwidth parts to be configured in a UE for each of the UL and DL transmission directions, but the present disclosure is not necessarily limited to such. Also, 5G NR provides that only one BWP will be active for each transmission direction (i.e., UL and DL) . In the example of FIG. 5, three BWPs are illustrated only for simplicity of illustration. As may be seen there are three bandwidth parts BWP 1, BWP 2, and BWP 3, which are shown generally at 502, 504, and 506, respectively. Each BWP may include an “N” number of resource blocks (RBs) , where N may be determinable for a particular BWP, or some fixed amount. Additionally, while not shown in any particular time scale, each BWP occurs over some time period, which may be some predetermined number of slots, a subframe, a portion of subframe, multiple subframes, or any other suitable time period or structure. Additionally, it is noted that configuration parameters for each BWP may include numerology, bandwidth size, frequency location, and a control resource set (CORESET) . In yet other implementations, it is noted that BWPs in different time periods may utilize at least portions of the same subcarrier frequencies, and BWPs are not limited to exclusive ranges of subcarriers over all time periods.

In certain wireless systems and UEs, in particular, discontinuous reception (DRX) allows a UE to go to sleep to save power, with the UE only waking up periodically to monitor a PDCCH for potential DL reception and UL transmission. The DRX cycle then consists of sleep or inactive portions, which may also be referred to herein as “outside the active time” or “outside the on duration time, ” and the wakeup portion, which may be referred to as an “on duration” time or a part of an “active time” when the UE monitors the PDCCH that schedules data. If the PDCCH is monitored, the on duration time will be extended by some extended portion time, which, in total, may be termed the “active time” that includes the on duration time and the extended portion time. Additionally, it is noted that the present methods and apparatus may have particular applicability to UEs in a connected mode DRX (CDRX) which differs from an idle mode DRX where a UE is not in the connected mode.

As an illustration of a DRX cycle, FIG. 6 shows a timeline 600 of events occurring during a DRX cycle according to aspects of the present disclosure. Timeline 600 shows one DRX cycle 602 including an on-duration time 604 and an inactive time 606 (or alternatively outside of an on duration time or outside of an active time) . Since no PDCCH is received during the on duration time 604, this time 604 is not extended beyond the configured on duration time period. For this particular example timeline 600, it is noted that in 5G NR Release 16, a wake up signal (WUS) is defined, where the occurrence of the WUS is monitored by the UE outside of the on duration time or active time; e.g., during the “outside on duration” , inactive, or sleep time 606. An example of an WUS is shown at 608 in FIG. 6. The WUS 608 is used to indicate whether the UE should wake up for PDCCH monitoring after some WUS offset time period 609. One way to implement a WUS design is to define a special PDCCH as the WUS, which is termed the “PDCCH WUS” in this disclosure. According to some further aspects, the PDCCH WUS may be a UE group common PDCCH that carries wake up information for a group of UEs. Moreover, because the PDCCH WUS 608 is transmitted during a time outside of the on duration or inactive time 606, the UE may be configured to wake up at some predetermined time during the inactive time 606 to monitor for the PDCCH WUS 608.

When a next DRX cycle 610 begins, the on duration time starts, which is shown within active time 612. The UE then receives a PDCCH 614, which provides, among other things, scheduling information for data to be received in a PDSCH and illustrated at 616. Of note, since a PDCCH 614 is received along with data, the active time 612 will be longer than or extends the normal on duration time. The use of a WUS such as 608 allows a UE to detect the PDCCH with lower complexity than a regular PDCCH that is be monitored within an on duration time period. Therefore, further power savings can be achieved by using a WUS in addition to the conventional DRX mechanisms.

As mentioned earlier, in wireless communication systems employing carrier aggregation (CA) , a UE is configured with multiple serving cells. One of the serving cell is a special cell that is called the primary cell (PCell) . The other serving cells are called secondary cells (SCells) . In particular operations, a UE may be configured to monitor the WUS, such as PDCCH WUS 608, transmitted on the PCell. As discussed above, the WUS indicates to a UE whether the UE should wake up and monitor the PDCCH in a next on duration time period in a next DRX cycle (e.g., cycle 610 shown in FIG. 6) . Additionally, according to some aspects, the WUS will serve to wake up the PCell and all SCells, and may be further configured as a type of PDCCH (i.e., the PDCCH WUS) .

Additionally, for purposes of the present disclosure, it is noted that 5G NR Release 16 has defined a new UE behavior for an activated SCell, called the SCell dormancy-like behavior, which is different from the previously known LTE SCell dormant state. When an activated SCell is operating in the dormancy-like behavior, UE activity is reduced on the SCell for power savings. The dormancy-like behavior may include operations such as no PDCCH monitoring, no PDSCH reception, and reduced channel state information (CSI) measurement and reporting frequency, as some notable examples. A network or communication system can switch an SCell between non- dormancy-like behavior and dormancy-like behavior. When the SCell is in a non-dormancy-like behavior, the UE will have full utilization of the SCell as per normal operation.

As mentioned before, a wireless network may further provide a dormancy indication field (or simply “dormancy indication” ) in a PDCCH in order to communicate to UEs whether an activated SCell is in a dormancy-like operation or a non-dormancy-like operation. When multiple SCells are configured to a UE, the dormancy indication can be applied to individual SCells or to groups of SCells. Of still further note, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has decided that a PDCCH that contains the SCell dormancy indication field can be monitored inside or during the active time of a DRX cycle or outside the active time of the DRX cycle. When a UE is outside the active time, the PDCCH may be the PDCCH WUS that is monitored outside the active time. In this case, the PDCCH (i.e., PDCCH WUS) does not schedule any data unlike a normal PDCCH during active times.

Correlatively, when the UE is inside the active time, the PDCCH is not a PDCCH WUS as the WUS is monitored only outside active time. Here, the PDCCH may operate according to at least two different cases. In the first case (Case 1) , the PDCCH indicates only the SCell dormancy. In the other case (Case 2) , the PDCCH may indicate SCell dormancy and also schedule a serving cell (and associated data) . In certain aspects, these two cases may be dynamically selected based on the PDCCH content (e.g., a field or combination of some fields in the PDCCH indicates which case applies for the PDCCH) .

In further aspects, the SCell dormancy indication field may be configured as a bit string (i.e., a bitmap) that contains an “X” number of bits. It is noted that when multiple SCells are configured to a UE, the dormancy indication field can be applied to individual SCells or SCell groups. As examples, the bit string in the dormancy indication field can support at least one of the following functions: (1) each bit indicates the dormancy (i.e., dormancy-like behavior or non-dormancy-like behavior) for one SCell, (2) each bit indicates the dormancy for a group of SCells, or (3) the bit string may indicate that an SCell group contains a single SCell as a special case. Of note here, it will be appreciated that the indication of the dormancy per each SCell, in general requires more bits (and thus overhead) than a single indication covering a group of SCells.

It is further noted that according to 3GPP’s specification TS 38.321, BWP selection and switching can be performed with different mechanisms such as RRC-Based Adaptation, MAC CE (Control element) , DCI-Based Adaptation, and a Timer-Based implicit fallback to a default BWP. In the case of a timer, a “bwp-InactivityTimer” may be provided to switch to a default BWP where, if the UE is not explicitly scheduled with a BWP after the timer expires, the UE automatically switches to the default BWP. In other aspects, it is noted that in the particular case of SCells, switching between dormancy-like behavior and non-dormancy-like behavior in a UE accessing an SCell can be realized by BWP switching between a dormant BWP and a regular (or non-dormant) BWP that allows full utilization of the SCell. While switching between BWPs for an SCell could be accomplished by a PDCCH that contains a dormancy indication field setting the SCell to dormancy-like behavior by triggering a BWP switch to a dormant BWP for the SCell when using DCI adaptation, there would be an attendant higher signaling overhead associated with this switching. Accordingly, a timer for a UE configured for one or more SCells in order to switch between BWPs (e.g., between dormant and non-dormant BWPs) may be utilized to provide additional benefits for a wireless communication system with reduced overhead.

Accordingly, the present methods and apparatus include the provision of a dormancy timer associated with a UE that may be used to switch from a regular BWP to a dormant BWP for an SCell. The use of the dormancy timer can help reduce signaling overhead for a PDCCH, for example.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example method 700 for switching between a regular BWP and a dormant BWP if SCell dormancy is configured to a UE device in a wireless communications system for an activated SCell in a non-dormancy-like behavior. In particular, method 700 includes determining whether a secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant (or regular) bandwidth part (BWP) as shown at block 702. Method 700 further includes implementing a timer (e.g., a “dormancy timer” ) when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE is returned or switched to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer as shown in block 704. In further aspects, once the timer is implemented and then expires, when there is no data activity for the UE over a predetermined idle or inactive period, the UE switches to a dormant SCell BWP as illustrated in block 706.

FIG. 8 illustrates a time verses frequency plot illustrating one example of how the switching process for a UE (e.g., 106 or 320) served by an active SCell may occur when using method 700. As shown, there may be a number of BWP configurations including bandwidths BWP 1, BWP 2, and BWP 3 designated by

reference numbers

802, 804, and 806, respectively. It is assumed for purposes of the illustration that a UE is presently configured for an active or regular SCell BWP 808, which may be in the bandwidth BWP 2 804 as an example, and the past processes of switching to this behavior are not relevant for the discussion. After a particular time (or alternatively a subframe, number of slots, etc. ) of no data activity from the SCell, the dormancy timer will expire after the predetermined time and BWP switching to dormant BWP 810 occurs. After a certain time when switched to the dormant BWP 810, the UE may be configured to switch again to an active, non-dormant BWP, illustrated at 812. For BWP 812, the illustration shows that the active BWP does not need to be the same BWP each time the SCell is non-dormant. Here, BWP 812 could be operable in the bandwidth BWP 3 806, but it is to be understood that it is not necessarily limited to such and would be dynamically determinable by the network to any of a number of bandwidth parts. Again, after some time of inactivity of the active non-dormancy-like behavior SCell as determined by the dormancy timer, the UE is switched back to an SCell dormant BWP 814. In further aspects, if the dormancy BWP timer expires, the UE may be configured to set the activated SCell to a dormancy-like behavior.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary device or apparatus 900 for wireless communication in a wireless communication system (e.g., see FIGs. 1, 2, or 3) in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The device 900 includes at least one processor or processing system 902, at least one memory 904 communicatively coupled to the at least one processor 902, and a transceiver 906 communicatively coupled to the at least one processor 902. In aspects, device 900 may be configured to operate in a UE (e.g., scheduled entity 106 or wireless node 320 as merely two examples) to perform one or more of the operations described above in connection with FIG. 7. In particular, the at least one processor 902 may be configured to decode a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) including a secondary cell (SCell) dormancy indication that is configured to a user equipment (UE) to indicate whether at least one SCell in the wireless communication system is in dormancy-like behavior or non-dormancy-like behavior. Additionally, the at least one processor 902 may be configured to implement BWP switching through the use of timers, such as a dormancy timer as discussed above., or a BWP inactivity timer. For illustration purposes, device 900 is shown including a dormancy timer 910 or similar device that implements the timer for switching to an SCell dormant BWP (e.g., 810 in FIG. 8) . Alternatively, the dormancy timer is implemented within or by the at least one processor 902.

In other aspects, it is noted that method 700 discussed before may further include a process where, if a UE is provided a dormancy BWP timer value for the serving cell (e.g., an SCell) and the timer is running, the UE may be configured to decrement the timer at the end of a particular frame structure dependent upon one of a multiple number of frequency bands, such as frequency bands in frequency range 1 (FR1) or frequency range 2 (FR2) as specified in 5G NR. The particular frame structure may include a subframe for FR1 bands, which are less than 6 GHz, or a half subframe for FR2 bands, which are greater than 6 MHz, if predefined timer restarting conditions are not met during the interval of the subframe for FR1 or of the half subframe for FR2. It is noted that restarting conditions are those conditions for which the dormancy timer is reset to some initial value (or other value) as the UE is receiving and decoding data and the use of the non-dormancy BWP is preferable in such situations.

Concerning particular restarting conditions where a dormancy timer may reset, examples of such conditions may include: (1) if or when a PDCCH is scrambled by Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) or Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) indicates a downlink assignment or an uplink grant is received on the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; (2) if or when a PDCCH scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI indicating downlink assignment or uplink grant is received for the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; (3) if or when a medium access control layer protocol data unit (MAC PDU) is transmitted in a configured uplink grant or received in a configured downlink assignment on the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; or (4) if or when a BWP switching signaling is received by the UE to switch an active BWP to the regular BWP to set the SCell to non-dormancy-like behavior.

In certain aspects, other conditions termed herein as “stopping conditions” may arise where the dormancy timer becomes irrelevant or is no longer necessary. Thus, either the timer can be stopped or not provisioned any longer. FIG. 10 illustrates a flow diagram for a general method 1000 where stopping conditions are applied to stop the dormancy timer when the timer is not needed. As shown, method 1000 includes the start of a dormancy timer for an SCell as shown at block 1002. It is noted that, according to certain aspects, the dormancy timer can be started whenever a UE enters the non-dormancy-like behavior in a similar way to the known inactivity timer. Once the dormancy timer is started, flow proceeds to decision block 1004 where a determination is made whether a stopping condition is met. If so, then the dormancy timer is stopped (or eliminated) as shown in block 1006.

On the other hand, if a stopping condition is not present as determined at block 1004, flow proceeds to block 1008 where a determination is made whether the dormancy timer has expired yet. If not, flow may loop back to block 1004 to continue checking whether a stopping condition has arisen. When the dormancy timer expires, flow may proceed from block 1008 to then switch to a dormant SCell BWP as shown in block 1010.

Additionally, in an alternative, a check for the restart conditions discussed above may also be included in method 1000 as shown by alternative decision block 1012. Here, during the pendency of the dormancy timer, method 1000 may check whether one of the restart conditions discussed above has arisen. If so, the dormancy timer is restarted as indicated by looping back to the initial timer start up indicated in block 1002. According to another aspect, it is noted that the checks for restart conditions in block 1012, stopping conditions in block 1004, and expiry of the dormancy timer in block 1008 may be performed concurrently and do not necessarily need to be performed in the linear order illustrated in FIG. 10.

Examples of the stopping conditions being determined in block 1004 may include the instance where the active SCell is deactivated, which then subsequently eliminates the need for the dormancy timer altogether when an SCell is inactive. Another stopping condition may include the instance where the activated SCell has been switched from a non-dormancy-like behavior to a dormancy-like behavior, such as through PDCCH signaling in one example.

As mentioned earlier, 5G NR specifications do make provision for a UE of a BWP inactivity timer bwp-InactivityTimer, although this timer does not necessarily relate to SCells. In an aspect, it is noted that the disclosed dormancy timer may, in certain instances, be implemented through the use of the bwp-InactivityTimer to effect fallback to the dormant BWP during a period of active or non-dormant BWP inactivity. Of course in other instances for an SCell, the dormant BWP timer for a UE to fallback to a dormant BWP is a timer separate from the bwp-InactivityTimer. In some aspects, it is noted that if the BWP inactivity timer bwp-InactivityTimer and the presently provided dormancy BWP timer expire at the same time, a UE may be configured to fallback to the dormant BWP (i.e., the dormant BWP timer is the priority timer) . In other aspects, if the BWP inactivity timer bwp-InactivityTimer and the presently provided dormancy BWP timer expire at the same time, a UE may be configured to fallback to a default BWP, which may not necessarily be a dormant BWP (i.e., BWP inactivity timer bwp-InactivityTimer is the priority timer) .

According to other aspects, it is noted that if one timer is used for each SCell (i.e., a separate timer for each SCell) , the different timers for the SCells may misalign and their BWP switching may not occur together (i.e., non-synchronously) . Such misalignment may induce a lot of BWP switching overhead for the SCells if these SCells are in the same band, for example. To avoid this overhead, a single dormancy BWP timer may be defined for a group of two or more SCells. Additionally, the single dormancy timer for the group of SCells may be configured to be restarted if any of restarting conditions as discussed earlier are met for any activated SCell within the group of SCells. Furthermore, the single dormancy timer for the group of SCells may be configured to be stopped if any of the stopping conditions as discussed earlier are met for each of all activated SCells in the group of SCells, respectively. It is noted that in this case, if the stopping conditions were met for less than all of the activated SCells, stopping the timer would then preclude application of the timer for those cells that are still active and prevent receiving beneficial power savings that may be realized by application of the timer for an active SCell to switch to a dormant BWP.

According to further aspects, if the single dormancy timer is used for the group of SCells and the timer expires, the UE may be configured to then set all activated SCells in the group to a dormancy-like behavior, and to use a dormant BWP as well. In still further aspects, it is noted that for an SCell group configured for PDCCH dormancy indication such as shown in the example of FIG. 6, this SCell group may be reused by the SCell group dormancy timer. In still further aspects if a PDCCH based dormancy indication is configured for some SCells in an SCell group, one dormancy BWP timer may be defined for all SCells in each SCell group that are controlled by the PDCCH based dormancy indication.

In still further aspects, a UE may be configured to use a BWP inactivity timer (i.e., bwp_InactivityTimer) of an SCell in the SCell group as the dormancy BWP timer for the SCell group. In one alternative for this case, the bwp_InactivityTimer for the lowest ID SCell could be chosen as the dormancy BWP timer. In another alternative for this case, the bwp_InactivityTimer for the lowest ID activated SCell could be chosen as the SCell dormancy BWP timer. In yet another alternative, the bwp_InactivityTimer for the lowest ID activated SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior could be chosen as the dormancy BWP timer.

In yet further aspects of the present disclosure, it is noted that a BWP switch in one SCell may introduce an interruption time to other cells in an SCell group. In order to minimize the overall interruption time in such a case, BWP switching may be synchronized across at least those SCells within an SCell group. This synchronization can be achieved by SCells within the group sharing a single timer. As an illustration, FIG. 11 shows a timing diagram showing synchronization of a group of three SCells (SCell 1, SCell 2, and SCell 3) where a BWP switching in one SCell is carried to all of the other SCells through introduction of an interruption to those other cells. As may be seen, at the time of an SCell timer expiration 1102, which could be introduced through a shared single dormancy timer, this causes BWP switching to synchronously occur for the group of SCells (i.e.,

SCells

1, 2, and 3) as shown by the stopping of the active BWPs 1104 at the timer expiration 1102. After the introduced interruption time plus a switch delay as shown at 1105, the SCells are synchronously switched to dormant BWPs as illustrated by BWPs 1106. In an alternate aspect, a synchronously switched system could include per SCell timers and determine the actual BWP switch start time based on the status of all of the timers.

In some systems, however, not all systems may have BWP switching that is operable according to the ideal synchronous switching illustrated in FIG. 11, but rather is asynchronous with asynchronous expiration of the BWP dormancy timers. For example, known 3GPP specifications discuss rules to delay the start of a BWP-timer-triggered switch when another BWP switch is currently on-going, such as across cells in a carrier aggregation (CA) scenario (See e.g., 3GPP technical specification TS 38.213) . Here, when a UE's BWP inactivity timer for a particular cell expires within a time duration where the UE is not required to receive or transmit for an active UL/DL BWP change in the cell or in a different cell, the UE delays the active UL/DL BWP change triggered by the BWP inactivity timer expiration until a subframe for frequency range FR1 or a half of a subframe for frequency range FR2 immediately after the UE completes the active UL/DL BWP change in the cell or in a different cell. Similarly, assuming the 3 SCell example of FIG. 11, the BWP switch for SCell 3, for example, would be delayed until the start of the BWP switch for SCell 1 when the BWP switch for SCell 2 ends. Overall, the span of the BWP switching delay is therefore increased, which reduces the potential active time and increases the implementation complexity. The BWP switch for SCell 3 is delayed until the start of the BWP switch for SCell 1 in order to align the BWP switching time when their timer expiration is not aligned. Aligning the BWP switching can help reduce the interruption overhead. Further, it is noted that the timers may share the same RF circuit. Accordingly, if an SCell’s BWP is changed, the RF circuit will need to be re-tuned, which then will interrupt all SCells that share the same RF circuit.

An example of this asynchronous scenario is illustrated in FIG. 12. As may be seen, the various SCell dormancy timers for each of

SCells

1, 2, and 3 are not synchronous and the expirations of the timers occur at different times as illustrated by

expiration times

1202a, 1202b, and 1202c for

SCells

1, 2, and 3, respectively. In one aspect, the BWP switching to the dormant BWP here is not schedulable for synchronization due to factors such as the interruption time and switch delay (e.g., SCell 1 at 1208) or a delayed start for the BWP switch if a BWP timer is used (e.g., SCell 3) . The BWP switch for SCell 3 would be delayed, until the start of BWP switch for SCell 1, when the BWP switch for SCell 2 ends.

Accordingly, the present methods and apparatus propose additional rules are that serve to align BWP switching to a dormant BWP if a per-SCell timer implementation is adopted. In one aspect, the start of a BWP switch to a dormant BWP can be determined jointly across all of the per-cell dormancy timers based on some predetermined or a priori rules. For example, one rule could be that the BWP switch to a dormant BWP is started only when all of the timers have expired. In another example, a rule could be that the BWP switch to a dormant BWP is started after some predetermined threshold number of timers have expired, rather than mandating all timers be expired. In still a further example, the BWP switch to a dormant BWP may be performed at the end of a predetermined or preconfigured holding period, where the holding period is started when at least one of the SCell timers has expired. The system is configured such that those SCells whose timers expire within or during the predetermined holding period would implement a BWP switch to a dormant BWP starting at the end of the holding period. As an illustration of the implementation of the rules discussed above, it may be seen that although the expiration times of the

respective SCells

1, 2, and 3 are different as indicated by

arrows

1302a, 1302b, and 1302c, the BWP switching from the active BWPs 1304 to the dormant BWPs 1306 are synchronously implemented only after the all timers have expired (e.g., time 1302a) and will have the same switch delay and interruption time shown at 1308. In another example, which is not shown explicitly in FIG. 13, if at least two timers have expired (e.g., 1302b and 1302c times) , the system could be configured to then implement switching at that time rather than wait for the timer for SCell 1 to expire. In still a further example with a holding period, if a first timer expiry occurs for SCell 2 as shown at expiration 1302b, a holding period of some time shown as 1310 could be implemented where those other SCells having timers expiring during this time 1310 will be BWP switched to the dormant BWP 1306, which is illustrated also in this example by

timer expirations

1302a and 1302c occurring during this holding period 1310.

It is noted that the timer alignment methods discussed above are particularly beneficial because activated SCells are usually scheduled together with data until the data in a gNB queue is depleted. Accordingly, transition to dormant BWPs is expected to happen at approximately the same time across all SCells (at least those SCells within a group) , but it is difficult to perfectly align the timers due to factors such as scheduling resource availability in a cell, retransmissions, missed DCI detection, etc. Thus, the disclosed timer alignment helps to minimize interruption time, lower the complexity, and reduce transmission overhead.

FIG. 14 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1400 for implementing a dormancy BWP timer for a group of SCells according to aspects of the present disclosure. Specifically, method 1400 includes implementing multiple timers when the UE is utilizing a group of two or more SCells, wherein a respective timer is implemented for each SCell in the group of two or more SCells as shown at block 1402. Next, method 1400 includes providing at least one rule in the UE configured to align all of multiple timers to cause synchronized switching of at least two or more SCells to a respective dormant BWP at a same time as shown at block 1404. After provision and implementation of the rule, switching to the dormant SCell BWPs is accomplished for the at least two SCells in the group at the same time, as indicated by block 1406.

According to further aspects, method 1400 may include providing at least one other rule in the UE that is configured to jointly cause the start of switching of the at least two or more SCells in the group of two or more SCells to the dormant BWP at a same time. According to further aspects, the alignment rules may include at least one of (a) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP when all of the multiple timers have expired; (b) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP when a predetermined number of timers of the multiple timers have expired; or (c) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP at the end of a predetermined holding period, wherein the predetermined holding period is started when at least one of the multiple timers has expired.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for a scheduling entity 1500 employing a processing system 1514. For example, the scheduling entity 1500 may be a base station as illustrated in any one or more of FIGs. 1–3, but also could be a user equipment (UE) as also illustrated in any one or more of FIGs. 1–3. The scheduling entity 1500 may be implemented with a processing system 1514 that includes one or more processors 1504. Examples of processors 1504 include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs) , field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) , programmable logic devices (PLDs) , state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and oth4er suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionality described throughout this disclosure. In various examples, the scheduling entity 1500 may be configured to perform any one or more of the functions described herein. That is, the processor 1504, as utilized in a scheduling entity 1500, may be used to implement any one or more of the processes and procedures described before as illustrated in FIGs. 1–14.

In this example, the processing system 1514 may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus 1502. The bus 1502 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system 1514 and the overall design constraints. The bus 1502 communicatively couples together various circuits including one or more processors (represented generally by the processor 1504) , and computer-readable media (represented generally by the computer-readable medium 1506) . The bus 1502 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further. A bus interface 1508 provides an interface between the bus 1502 and a transceiver 1510. The transceiver 1510 provides a communication interface or means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. Depending upon the nature of the apparatus, a user interface 1512 (e.g., keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided.

In some aspects of the disclosure, the processor 1504 may include BWP dormancy timer and switching control circuitry 1540 configured for effecting various functions, including, for example, any of the methods described above in connection with FIGs. 1–14. The processor 1504 is responsible for managing the bus 1502 and general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium 1506. The software, when executed by the processor 1504, causes the processing system 1514 to perform the various functions described below for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium 1506 may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor 1504 when executing software.

One or more processors 1504 in the processing system may execute software. Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium 1506. The computer-readable medium 1506 may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium. A non-transitory computer-readable medium includes, by way of example, a magnetic storage device (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strip) , an optical disk (e.g., a compact disc (CD) or a digital versatile disc (DVD) ) , a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., a card, a stick, or a key drive) , a random access memory (RAM) , a read only memory (ROM) , a programmable ROM (PROM) , an erasable PROM (EPROM) , an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM) , a register, a removable disk, and any other suitable medium for storing software and/or instructions that may be accessed and read by a computer. The computer-readable medium 1506 may reside in the processing system 1514, external to the processing system 1514, or distributed across multiple entities including the processing system 1514. The computer-readable medium 1506 may be embodied in a computer program product. By way of example, a computer program product may include a computer-readable medium in packaging materials. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the described functionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on the particular application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

In one or more examples, the computer-readable storage medium 1506 may include BWP dormancy timer and switching control software or instructions 1552 configured for various functions, including any of the methods described above in connection with FIGs. 1–14.

Of course, in the above examples, the circuitry included in the processor 1504 is merely provided as an example, and other means for carrying out the described functions may be included within various aspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium 1506, or any other suitable apparatus or means described in any one of the FIGs. 1, 2, or 3, and utilizing, for example, the processes and/or algorithms described herein in relation to FIGs. 1–14.

FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an exemplary scheduled entity 1600 employing a processing system 1614. In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented with a processing system 1614 that includes one or more processors 1604. For example, the scheduled entity 1600 may be a user equipment (UE) as illustrated in any one or more of FIGs. 1–3.

The processing system 1614 may be substantially the same as the processing system 1514 illustrated in FIG. 15, including a bus interface 1608, a bus 1602, a processor 1604, and a computer-readable medium 1606. Furthermore, the scheduled entity 1600 may include a user interface 1612 and a transceiver 1610 substantially similar to those described above in FIG. 15. That is, the processor 1604, as utilized in a scheduled entity 1600, may be used to implement any one or more of the processes described above and illustrated in FIGs. 1–14.

In some aspects of the disclosure, the processor 1604 may include a BWP dormancy timer and BWP switching circuit or circuitry 1440 configured for various functions, including, for example, the method and functions described above in connection with FIGs. 1–14. Of course, in the above examples, the circuitry included in the processor 1604 is merely provided as an example, and other means for carrying out the described functions may be included within various aspects of the present disclosure, including but not limited to the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium 1606, or any other suitable apparatus or means described in any one of the FIGs. 1, 2, or 3, and utilizing, for example, the processes and/or algorithms described herein in relation to FIGs. 1–14. Instructions or software corresponding to the circuits or circuitry 1640 includes BWP dormancy timer and BWP switching instructions 1654, which are configured to cause the processor 1604 to effectuate any of the methods and processes disclosed herein with respect to FIGs. 1–14.

Several aspects of a wireless communication network have been presented with reference to an exemplary implementation. As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures and communication standards.

By way of example, various aspects may be implemented within other systems defined by 3GPP, such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) , the Evolved Packet System (EPS) , the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) , and/or the Global System for Mobile (GSM) . Various aspects may also be extended to systems defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) , such as CDMA2000 and/or Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) . Other examples may be implemented within systems employing IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) , IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) , IEEE 802.20, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) , Bluetooth, and/or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and/or communication standard employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system.

Within the present disclosure, the word “exemplary” is used to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration. ” Any implementation or aspect described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects of the disclosure. Likewise, the term “aspects” does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation. The term “coupled” is used herein to refer to the direct or indirect coupling between two objects. For example, if object A physically touches object B, and object B touches object C, then objects A and C may still be considered coupled to one another-even if they do not directly physically touch each other. For instance, a first object may be coupled to a second object even though the first object is never directly physically in contact with the second object. The terms “circuit” and “circuitry” are used broadly, and intended to include both hardware implementations of electrical devices and conductors that, when connected and configured, enable the performance of the functions described in the present disclosure, without limitation as to the type of electronic circuits, as well as software implementations of information and instructions that, when executed by a processor, enable the performance of the functions described in the present disclosure.

One or more of the components, steps, features and/or functions illustrated in FIGs. 1–16 may be rearranged and/or combined into a single component, step, feature or function or embodied in several components, steps, or functions. Additional elements, components, steps, and/or functions may also be added without departing from novel features disclosed herein. The apparatus, devices, and/or components illustrated in FIGs. 1–16 may be configured to perform one or more of the methods, features, or steps described herein. The novel algorithms described herein may also be efficiently implemented in software and/or embedded in hardware.

It is to be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods may be rearranged. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically recited therein.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but are to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more. ” Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. A phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims.

Claims

A method for wireless communication in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

determining whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) ; and

implementing a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

starting the timer when there is no data activity for the UE when utilizing the non-dormant BWP.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting the activated SCell to dormancy-like behavior when the timer expires after the predetermined time.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decrementing the dormancy timer at the end of a frame structure time for one of multiple frequency bands if the UE is provided with a dormant BWP timer value for the serving cell and the timer is running.
The method of claim 4, wherein the multiple frequency bands include frequency range 1 (FR1) and frequency range 2 (FR2) frequency bands and the frame structure time comprises a time of a subframe for FR1 frequency bands and a time of a half subframe for FR2 frequency bands.
The method of claim 4, wherein the UE decrements the timer at the end of a subframe for FR1 or at the end of a half subframe for FR2 if predetermined restarting conditions for restarting the timer are not met during the interval of the subframe for FR1 or of the half subframe for FR2.
The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined restarting conditions for restarting the timer include at least one of the following:

(a) if or when a PDCCH is scrambled by Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) or Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) indicates a downlink assignment or an uplink grant is received on the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(b) if or when a PDCCH scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI indicating downlink assignment or uplink grant is received for the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(c) if or when a medium access control layer protocol data unit (MAC PDU) is transmitted in a configured uplink grant or received in a configured downlink assignment on the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; or

(d) if or when a BWP switching signaling is received by the UE to switch an active BWP to the regular BWP to set the SCell to non-dormancy-like behavior.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

stopping the operation of the dormancy timer whenever the activated SCell is deactivated.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

stopping the operation of the dormancy timer whenever the activated SCell is switched from the non-dormancy-like behavior to the dormancy-like behavior.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing at least a portion of a functionality of the timer, which is used for the UE to fallback to a dormant BWP in an SCell, through the use of a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE that has a fallback different from the dormant BWP timer;

wherein when the BWP inactivity timer and the timer expire at the same time, the UE switch fallback to the dormant BWP is implemented triggered by the timer, wherein the timer has priority over the BWP inactivity timer.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE that has a fallback different from the dormant BWP timer;

wherein when the BWP inactivity timer and the timer expire at the same time, the UE fallback switch to the dormant default BWP is triggered implemented by the BWP inactivity timer, wherein the BWP inactivity timer has priority over the timer.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing the timer for a group of two or more SCells.
The method of claim 13, wherein the timer is restarted for the group of two or more SCells if any of a plurality of restarting conditions for restarting the timer are met for any activated SCell in the group of two or more SCells.
The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality restarting conditions for restarting the timer include at least one of the following:

(a) if or when a PDCCH is scrambled by Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) or Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) indicates a downlink assignment or an uplink grant is received on an active BWP of at least one SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(b) if or when a PDCCH scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI indicating downlink assignment or uplink grant is received for the active BWP of at least one SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(c) if or when a medium access control layer protocol data unit (MAC PDU) is transmitted in a configured uplink grant or received in a configured downlink assignment on the active BWP of at least one SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; or

(d) if or when a BWP switching signaling is received by the UE to switch an active BWP to the regular BWP to set the at least one SCell to non-dormancy-like behavior.
The method of claim 13, wherein the timer for the group of two or more SCells is stopped if stopping conditions are met for all activated SCells in the group of two or more SCells, the stopping conditions for an activated SCell comprising at least one of:

whenever an activated SCell of the group of one is deactivated; or

whenever an activated SCell of the group of two or more SCells is switched from a non-dormancy-like behavior to a dormancy-like behavior.
The method of claim 13, further comprising:

when the timer for the group of two or more SCells expires, setting all activated SCells in the group to dormancy-like behavior with the UE.
The method of claim 13, wherein one or more SCells in the group of two or more SCells that are configured for PDCCH dormancy indication can be reused by the timer.
The method of claim 13, wherein when a PDCCH based dormancy indication is configured for at least one SCell in group of two or more SCells, providing the timer for switching to a dormant BWP for the two or more SCells in the group.
The method of claim 13, further comprising:

implementing at least a portion of a functionality of the timer, which is used for the UE to fallback to a dormant BWP as a dormant BWP timer, through the use of a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE for at least one SCell in the SCell group of two or more SCells.
The method of claim 20, further comprising:

selecting the BWP inactivity timer from one SCell from the SCell group as the dormant BWP timer based on one of:

the SCell corresponding to a lowest ID SCell;

the SCell corresponding to the lowest ID activated SCell; or

the SCell corresponding to the lowest ID activated SCell that is in a non-dormancy-like behavior.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing multiple timers when the UE is utilizing a group of two or more SCells, wherein a respective timer is implemented for each SCell in the group of two or more SCells; and

providing at least one rule in the UE configured to align all of multiple timers to cause synchronized switching of at least two or more SCells to a respective dormant BWP at a same time.
The method of claim 22, further comprising:

providing at least one other rule in the UE that is configured to jointly cause the start of switching of the at least two or more SCells in the group of two or more SCells to the dormant BWP at a same time.
The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one rule includes one of the following rules:

(a) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP when all of the multiple timers have expired;

(b) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP when a predetermined number of timers of the multiple timers have expired;

(c) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP at the end of a predetermined holding period, wherein the predetermined holding period is started when at least one of the multiple timers has expired.
An apparatus for wireless communication in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a transceiver communicatively coupled to the at least one processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor;

wherein the processor is configured to:

determine whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) ; and

implement a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to start the timer when there is no data activity for the UE when utilizing the non-dormant BWP.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to set the activated SCell to dormancy-like behavior when the timer expires after the predetermined time.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to decrement the dormancy timer at the end of a frame structure time for one of multiple frequency bands if the UE is provided with a dormant BWP timer value for the serving cell and the timer is running.
The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the multiple frequency bands include frequency range 1 (FR1) and frequency range 2 (FR2) frequency bands and the frame structure time comprises a time of a subframe for FR1 frequency bands and a time of a half subframe for FR2 frequency bands.
The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the UE to decrement the timer at the end of a subframe for FR1 or at the end of a half subframe for FR2 if predetermined restarting conditions for restarting the timer are not met during the interval of the subframe for FR1 or of the half subframe for FR2.
The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the predetermined restarting conditions for restarting the timer include at least one of the following:

(a) if or when a PDCCH is scrambled by Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) or Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) indicates a downlink assignment or an uplink grant is received on the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(b) if or when a PDCCH scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI indicating downlink assignment or uplink grant is received for the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(c) if or when a medium access control layer protocol data unit (MAC PDU) is transmitted in a configured uplink grant or received in a configured downlink assignment on the active BWP of the SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; or

(d) if or when a BWP switching signaling is received by the UE to switch an active BWP to the regular BWP to set the SCell to non-dormancy-like behavior.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to stop the operation of the dormancy timer whenever the activated SCell is deactivated.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to stop the operation of the dormancy timer whenever the activated SCell is switched from the non-dormancy-like behavior to the dormancy-like behavior.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to implement at least a portion of a functionality of the timer, which is used for the UE to fallback to a dormant BWP in an SCell, through the use of a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE.
The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:

a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE that has a fallback different from the dormant BWP timer;

wherein when the BWP inactivity timer and the timer expire at the same time, the UE switch fallback to the dormant BWP is implemented triggered by the timer, wherein the timer has priority over the BWP inactivity timer.
The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising:

a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE that has a fallback different from the dormant BWP timer;

wherein when the BWP inactivity timer and the timer expire at the same time, the UE fallback switch to the dormant default BWP is triggered implemented by the BWP inactivity timer, wherein the BWP inactivity timer has priority over the timer.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to utilize the timer for a group of two or more SCells.
The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the timer is restarted for the group of two or more SCells if any of a plurality of restarting conditions for restarting the timer are met for any activated SCell in the group of two or more SCells.
The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the plurality restarting conditions for restarting the timer include at least one of the following:

(a) if or when a PDCCH is scrambled by Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) or Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) indicates a downlink assignment or an uplink grant is received on an active BWP of at least one SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(b) if or when a PDCCH scrambled by C-RNTI or CS-RNTI indicating downlink assignment or uplink grant is received for the active BWP of at least one SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior;

(c) if or when a medium access control layer protocol data unit (MAC PDU) is transmitted in a configured uplink grant or received in a configured downlink assignment on the active BWP of at least one SCell that is in non-dormancy-like behavior; or

(d) if or when a BWP switching signaling is received by the UE to switch an active BWP to the regular BWP to set the at least one SCell to non-dormancy-like behavior.
The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the timer for the group of two or more SCells is stopped if stopping conditions are met for all activated SCells in the group of two or more SCells, the stopping conditions for an activated SCell comprising at least one of:

whenever an activated SCell of the group of one is deactivated; or

whenever an activated SCell of the group of two or more SCells is switched from a non-dormancy-like behavior to a dormancy-like behavior.
The apparatus of claim 37, further comprising:

when the timer for the group of two or more SCells expires, setting all activated SCells in the group to dormancy-like behavior with the UE.
The apparatus of claim 37, wherein one or more SCells in the group of two or more SCells that are configured for PDCCH dormancy indication can be reused by the timer.
The apparatus of claim 37, wherein when a PDCCH based dormancy indication is configured for at least one SCell in group of two or more SCells, providing the timer for switching to a dormant BWP for the two or more SCells in the group.
The apparatus of claim 37, the processor further configured to:

implement at least a portion of a functionality of the timer, which is used for the UE to fallback to a dormant BWP as a dormant BWP timer, through the use of a BWP inactivity timer (bwp-InactivityTimer) in the UE for at least one SCell in the SCell group of two or more SCells.
The apparatus of claim 44, the processor further configured to:

select the BWP inactivity timer from one SCell from the SCell group as the dormant BWP timer based on one of:

the SCell corresponding to a lowest ID SCell;

the SCell corresponding to the lowest ID activated SCell; or

the SCell corresponding to the lowest ID activated SCell that is in a non-dormancy-like behavior.
The apparatus of claim 25, the processor further configured to:

implement multiple timers when the UE is utilizing a group of two or more SCells, wherein a respective timer is implemented for each SCell in the group of two or more SCells; and

provide at least one rule in the UE configured to align all of multiple timers to cause synchronized switching of at least two or more SCells to a respective dormant BWP at a same time.
The apparatus of claim 46, the processor further configured to provide at least one other rule in the UE that is configured to jointly cause the start of switching of the at least two or more SCells in the group of two or more SCells to the dormant BWP at a same time.
The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the at least one rule includes one of the following rules:

(a) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP when all of the multiple timers have expired;

(b) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP when a predetermined number of timers of the multiple timers have expired;

(c) initiating a switch of the group of two or more SCells to a dormant BWP at the end of a predetermined holding period, wherein the predetermined holding period is started when at least one of the multiple timers has expired.
An apparatus for wireless communication in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:

means for determining whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in the wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) ; and

means for implementing a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code, comprising code for causing a computer to:

determine whether an activated secondary cell (SCell) is configured to a UE in a wireless communication system and the UE is utilizing a non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP) ; and

implement a timer when the UE is utilizing the non-dormant BWP, wherein the UE switches to using a dormant BWP after a predetermined time of the timer.