WO2023050220A1

WO2023050220A1 - Method, device and computer readable medium for communication

Info

Publication number: WO2023050220A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/121935
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gang Wang; Fang Xu; Yukai GAO; Lin Liang
Original assignee: NEC Corp
Current assignee: NEC Corp
Priority date: 2021-09-29
Filing date: 2021-09-29
Publication date: 2023-04-06
Anticipated expiration: 2024-03-29

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices and computer readable media for communication. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a terminal device receives, from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration. The terminal device determines, based on the beam sweeping configuration, an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans within the slot. The slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group. The terminal device monitors the PDCCH in the spans within the slot. In this way, the terminal device can monitor the PDCCH more efficiently.

Description

METHOD, DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and in particular, to methods, devices and computer storage media for communication.

BACKGROUND

With development of communication technologies, several solutions have been proposed to provide efficient and reliable solutions for communication. It has been proposed to support new radio (NR) from 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz considering, both, licensed and unlicensed operations.

SUMMARY

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices and computer storage media for communications.

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration; determining, based on the beam sweeping configuration, an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans within the slot, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group; and monitoring, at the terminal device, the PDCCH in the spans within the slot.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration; and monitoring, based on the beam sweeping configuration, extra slots within a slot group, wherein at least one of the extra slots is out of a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: transmitting, at a network device and to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and transmitting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in spans within a slot in a slot group, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: transmitting, at a network device and to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and transmitting, to the terminal device, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a slot within a slot group, wherein the slot is in a set of candidate slots of PDCCH common search space (CSS) set.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration; determining, based on the beam sweeping configuration, an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans within the slot, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group; and monitoring, at the terminal device, the PDCCH in the spans within the slot.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform: receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration; and monitoring, based on the beam sweeping configuration, extra slots within a slot group, wherein at least one of the extra slots is out of a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the network to perform: transmitting, to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and transmitting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in spans within a slot in a slot group, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the network to perform: transmitting, to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and transmitting, to the terminal device, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a slot within a slot group, wherein the slot is in a set of candidate slots of PDCCH common search space (CSS) set.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon. The instructions, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to the first, second, third or fourth aspect of the present disclosure.

Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication environment in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

Fig. 2 illustrates a signaling flow for communications between devices in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 3A-3C illustrate schematic diagrams of slot structures in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 4A-4C illustrate schematic diagrams of slot structures in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of a slot structure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 6 illustrates a signaling flow for communications between devices in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 7A and 7B illustrate schematic diagrams of slot structures in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 8A and 8B illustrate schematic diagrams of slot structures in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 9A and 9B illustrate schematic diagrams of slot structures in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 10A and 10B illustrate schematic diagrams of slot structures in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 11 illustrates a signaling flow for communications between devices in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 12 illustrates a schematic diagram of a slot structure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 13 illustrates a schematic diagram of a slot structure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 14 illustrates a flow chart of an example method of communication implemented at a terminal device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 15 illustrates a flow chart of an example method of communication implemented at a terminal device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 16 illustrates a flow chart of an example method of communication implemented at a network device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 17 illustrates a flow chart of an example method of communication implemented at a network device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 18 is a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, device on vehicle for V2X communication where X means pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure/network, or image capture devices such as digital cameras, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like. The term “terminal device” can be used interchangeably with a UE, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile terminal, a user terminal or a wireless device. In addition, the term “network device” refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an Evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNB) , a Transmission Reception Point (TRP) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, and the like.

In one embodiment, the terminal device may be connected with a first network device and a second network device. One of the first network device and the second network device may be a master node and the other one may be a secondary node. The first network device and the second network device may use different radio access technologies (RATs) . In one embodiment, the first network device may be a first RAT device and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In one embodiment, the first RAT device is eNB and the second RAT device is gNB. Information related with different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device from at least one of the first network device and the second network device. In one embodiment, first information may be transmitted to the terminal device from the first network device and second information may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device. In one embodiment, information related with configuration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information related with reconfiguration for the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device.

As used herein, the singular forms ‘a’ , ‘an’ and ‘the’ are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term ‘includes’ and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean ‘includes, but is not limited to. ’ The term ‘based on’ is to be read as ‘at least in part based on. ’ The term ‘one embodiment’ and ‘an embodiment’ are to be read as ‘at least one embodiment. ’ The term ‘another embodiment’ is to be read as ‘at least one other embodiment. ’ The terms ‘first, ’ ‘second, ’ and the like may refer to different or same objects. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as ‘best, ’ ‘lowest, ’ ‘highest, ’ ‘minimum, ’ ‘maximum, ’ or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

The term “circuitry” used herein may refer to hardware circuits and/or combinations of hardware circuits and software. For example, the circuitry may be a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuits with software/firmware. As a further example, the circuitry may be any portions of hardware processors with software including digital signal processor (s) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a terminal device or a network device, to perform various functions. In a still further example, the circuitry may be hardware circuits and or processors, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software/firmware for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. As used herein, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (s) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor (s) and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.

As mentioned above, it has been proposed to support new radio (NR) from 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz considering, both, licensed and unlicensed operations. Moreover, according to recent discussion, there are some objectives: (1) in addition to 120 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) , specify new SCS, 480kHz and 960kHz, and define maximum bandwidth (s) , for operation in this frequency range for data and control channels and reference signals, only normal cyclic prefix (NCP) supported; (2) support enhancement to physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, including blind detection (BD) /control resource element (CCE) budget, and multi-slot span monitoring, potential limitation to UE PDCCH configuration and capability related to PDCCH monitoring.

When SCS is 480/960 kHz, there are maximum 32/64 slots in a subframe, and the symbol and slot duration is very short. Due to the short slot length, the maximum number of BD/CCE supported per slot may be too small, which can increase the burden of scheduling. Additionally, the UE PDCCH processing capabilities in the number of blind decodes and the number channel estimation CCEs per slot shrink exponentially with the numerologies. In RAN1 #106-e, how to define the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring capability was under discussion.

It has been agreed in 3GPP meeting that for reporting the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring capability, at least the following values are supported: 4 slots for SCS 480kHz and 8 slots for SCS 960kHz, and the location of monitoring window in the slot group is under discussion. In some situations, if a monitoring window always starts at the first slot within a slot group and with a length equal to or smaller than half of the size of a slot group, a type0-PDCCH common search space (CSS) may fall out of the monitoring window. For example, for the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block and control resource set (CORESET) multiplexing pattern 1, a UE monitors PDCCH in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set over two consecutive slots starting from slot n, where slot n can be any slot associated with different SSBs.

Moreover, if the monitoring window is flexible within a slot group and with a length equal to or smaller than half of the size of a slot group, although the location of the Y slots within the X slots is maintained across different slot groups, the start point of the monitoring window needs to be identified to ensure that type0-PDCCH CSSs fall within the monitoring window. Another issue is that for different UE with different start of monitoring window in a slot group, it will bring scheduling limit for Network.

In order to solve at least part of above problems, solutions on multi-slot PDCCH monitoring are needed. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a terminal device receives, from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration. The terminal device determines, based on the beam sweeping configuration, an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans within the slot. The slot is in a first window for monitoring a PDCCH within the slot group. The terminal device monitors the PDCCH in the span (s) within the slot. In this way, the terminal device can monitor the PDCCH with a simple fixed slot group pattern.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication system in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The communication system 100, which is a part of a communication network, comprises a terminal device 110-1, a terminal device 110-2, . . ., a terminal device 110-N, which can be collectively referred to as “terminal device (s) 110. ” The number N can be any suitable integer number.

The communication system 100 further comprises a network device 120. In the communication system 100, the network devices 120 and the terminal devices 110 can communicate data and control information to each other. The numbers of devices shown in Fig. 1 are given for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations.

Communications in the communication system 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) and the fifth generation (5G) and on the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Divided Multiple Address (CDMA) , Frequency Divided Multiple Address (FDMA) , Time Divided Multiple Address (TDMA) , Frequency Divided Duplexer (FDD) , Time Divided Duplexer (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Divided Multiple Access (OFDMA) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

Embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to any suitable scenarios. For example, embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented at reduced capability NR devices. Alternatively, embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented in one of the followings: NR multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) , NR sidelink enhancements, NR systems with frequency above 52.6GHz, an extending NR operation up to 71GHz, narrow band-Internet of Thing (NB-IOT) /enhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC) over non-terrestrial networks (NTN) , NTN, UE power saving enhancements, NR coverage enhancement, NB-IoT and LTE-MTC, Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) , NR Multicast and Broadcast Services, or enhancements on Multi-Radio Dual-Connectivity.

It should be noted that embodiments of the present application can be applied to any one of: Type-0 PDCCH CSS, Type-0A PDCCH CSS, Type-1 PDCCH CSS (without dedicated RRC configuration) , or Type-2 PDCCH CSS. Fig. 2 shows a signaling chart illustrating process 200 among devices according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of discussion, the process 200 will be described with reference to Fig. 1. The process 200 may involve the terminal device 110-1 and the network device 120 in Fig. 1. It should be noted that the process 200 is only an example not limitation.

The network device 120 transmits 2010 a beam sweeping configuration to the terminal device 110-1. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

The terminal device 110-1 determines 2020 an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans based on the beam sweeping configuration. The slot is in a first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group. The first window can also be named as “monitoring window. ” In this way, it improves probability of successfully monitoring the PDCCH with a simple fixed slot group pattern.

In some embodiments, the index of the slot can be determined by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group and

represents the number of slots in a frame. In other words, it can be seen in a frame with system frame number (SFN) SFN _C satisfying SFN _C mod 2=0 if

or in a frame with SFN satisfying SFN _C mod 2=1 if

Referring to Figs. 3A-3C, Figs. 3A-3C show schematic diagrams of slot structures, respectively. It should be noted that the slot structures shown in those figures are only examples not limitations.

As shown in Fig. 3A, the first parameter “M” is 2. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

311, 312, 313 and 314, which means the size of the slot group “X” is 4. There is a span 1 in the slot group 311, a span 2 in the slot group 312, a span 3 in the slot group 313 and a span 4 in the slot group 314. The length of the first window (for example, the window 310) is 1 slot. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 0 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 315. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 1 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 316. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3110 is in the window 310 for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 311. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3120 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 312. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3130 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 313. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3140 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 314.

As shown in Fig. 3B, the first parameter “M” is 1. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

321, 322, 323 and 324, which means the size of the slot group “X” is 4. There is a span 5 in the slot group 321, a span 6 in the slot group 322, a span 7 in the slot group 323 and a span 8 in the slot group 324. The length of the first window (for example, the window 320) is 1 slot. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 0 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 325. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 1 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 326. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 2 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 327. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3210 is in the window 320 for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 321. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3220 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 322. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3230 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 323. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3240 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 324.

As shown in Fig. 3C, the first parameter “M” is 1/2. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

331, 332, 333 and 334, which means the size of the slot group “X” is 4. There are two spans (for example, spans 9) in the slot group 331, two spans in the slot group 332, two spans in the slot group 333 and two spans in the slot group 334. The length of the first window (for example, the window 330) is 1 slot. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB0 and SSB 1 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 335. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB2 and SSB3 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 336. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB4 and SSB5 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 337. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3310 is in the window 330 for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 331. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3320 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 332. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3330 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 333. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 3340 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 334.

Alternatively, the index of the slot can be determined by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a SCS configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents the first parameter, O represents the second parameter, X represents the size of the slot group, Y represents a window size of the slot group, k represents a restriction factor and

or in a frame with SFN satisfying SFN _C mod 2=1 if

In some embodiments, the restriction factor can be determined by:

k=0; (3)

In some embodiments, if the window size is a predetermined size (for example, 1 slot) , the number of spans can be a first value. If the window size is longer than the predetermined size, the number of spans can be a second value. In this case, the second value is larger than the first value. In this way, it shortens the detection time for the slot group based PDCCH monitoring and splits different CSS monitoring occasions in each monitoring slot of the monitoring window. Figs. 4A-4C shows the slot structures with increased number of spans. It should be noted that the slot structures shown in those figures are only examples not limitations.

As shown in Fig. 4A, the first parameter “M” is 2. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

411, 412, 413 and 414, which means that the size of the slot group “X” is 4. There is a span 1’ in the slot group 411, a span 2’ in the slot group 412, a span 3’ in the slot group 413 and a span 4’ in the slot group 414. The length of the first window (for example, the window 310) is 2 slots. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 0 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 415. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 1 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 416. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 2 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 417. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4110 is in the window 410 for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 411. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4120 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 412. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4130 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 413. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4140 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 414.

As shown in Fig. 4B, the first parameter “M” is 1. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

421, 422, 423 and 424, which means the size of the slot group “X” is 4. There is two spans 5’ in the slot group 421, two spans 6’ in the slot group 422, two spans 7’ in the slot group 423 and two spans 8’ in the slot group 424. The length of the first window (for example, the window 420) is 2 slots. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 0 and SSB 1 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 425. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 2 and SSB 3 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 426. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 4 and SSB 5 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 427. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4210 is in the window 420 for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 421. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4220 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 422. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4230 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 423. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the slot 4240 is in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 424.

As shown in Fig. 4C, the first parameter “M” is 1/2. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

431, 432, 433 and 434, which means that the size of the slot group “X” is 4. There are four (for example, spans 9’ ) in the slot group 431, four spans in the slot group 432, four spans in the slot group 433 and four spans in the slot group 434. The length of the first window (for example, the window 430) is 2 slots. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB0 to SSB3 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 435. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 4 to SSB7 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 436. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 8 to SSB11 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 437. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the 2 slots in the window 430 for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 431. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the 2 slots in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 432. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the 2 slots in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 433. The terminal device 110-1 can determine that the 2 slots in the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group 434.

In some other embodiments, a value of the first parameter may be same as a value of the size of the slot group. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor Type0-PDCCH CSS in different slot group by setting proper M and O in searchSpaceZero configuration table. For example, M is 4 for 480KHz SCS and M is 8 for 960KHz SCS, and proper parameter O makes the starting slot of monitoring occasion align with the integer times of the slots group size X in a subframe. If the slot group has 4 slots, the value of the first parameter may be 4. Alternatively, if the slot group has 8 slots, the value of the first parameter may be 8. As shown in Fig. 5, the first parameter “M” can be 4 for 480KHz SCS and 8 for 960KHz SCS. There are 4 slots in each of the

slot groups

511, 512, 513 and 514, which means the size of the slot group “X” is 4. The length of the first window (for example, the

windows

5110, 5120, 5130 and 5140) are 2 slots. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB0 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 515. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB1 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 516. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 2 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 517. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor PDCCH corresponding to SSB 3 in the Type0-PDCCH CSS set 518.

Referring back to Fig. 2, the network device 120 determines 2030 an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans based on the beam sweeping configuration. The slot is in a first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group. In this way, it improves probability of successfully monitoring the PDCCH with a simple fixed slot group pattern. The network device 120 can determine the index in a similar manner as the terminal device which has been described above.

The network device 120 transmits 2040, to the terminal device 110-1, the PDCCH on the spans within the slot. The terminal device 110-1 monitors 2050 the PDCCH on the spans within the slot. In this way, the terminal device is able to monitor the PDCCH in a quicker way.

Fig. 6 shows a signaling chart illustrating process 600 among devices according to some other example embodiments of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of discussion, the process 600 will be described with reference to Fig. 1. The process 600 may involve the terminal device 110-1 and the network device 120 in Fig. 1. It should be noted that the process 600 is only an example not limitation.

The network device 120 transmits 6010 a beam sweeping configuration to the terminal device 110-1. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

The terminal device 110-1 monitors 6030 the PDCCH in extra slots within a slot group. The extra slots may be not completely within a first window. The first window is for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group. Embodiments are further described with the reference to Figs. 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 10A and 10B. It should be noted that the slot structures shown in those figures are only examples not limitations.

In some embodiments, a set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set may partially overlap with the first window. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may extend the first window to fully overlap with the set of candidate slots. In other words, the terminal device 110-1 can also monitor the slot which is out of the original first window. For example, as shown in Fig. 7A, the slot group 711 comprises

slots

7110, 7111, 7112 and 7113. The slot group 712 comprises

slots

7120, 7121, 7122 and 7123. The monitoring window 710 in the slot group 711 comprises slots 7110 and 7111. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises slots 7111 and 7112. There is an overlapping slot 7111 between the monitoring window 710 and the set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set. The slot 7112 is out of the monitoring window 710. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may extend the monitoring window 710 to fully overlap with the set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set. As shown in Fig. 7A, the extended monitoring window 710’ comprises the

slots

7110, 7111 and 7112. The capability can indicate the BD/CCE budget within the extended monitoring window 710’ in the slot group 711. The extended monitoring window does not apply to other slots. The terminal device 110-1 may also determine monitoring capability within a second window which starts at the start slot of the PDCCH CSS and comprises the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set, and the terminal device 110-1 may determine monitoring capability in the second window.

Alternatively, as shown in Fig. 7B, the slot group 721 comprises

slots

7210, 7211, 7212, 7213, 7214, 7215, 7216 and 7217. The slot group 722 comprises

slots

7220, 7221, 7222, 7223, 7224, 7225, 7226 and 7227. The monitoring window 720 in the slot group 722 comprises

slots

7220, 7221, 7222 and 7223. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises

slots

7217 and 7220. There is an overlapping slot 7220 between the monitoring window 720 and the set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set. The slot 7217 is out of the monitoring window 720. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may extend the monitoring window 720 to fully overlap with the set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set. As shown in Fig. 7B, the extended monitoring window 720’ comprises the

slots

7217, 7220, 7221, 7222 and 7223. The capability can indicate the BD/CCE budget within the extended monitoring window 720’ in the slot group 722. The extended monitoring window does not apply to other slots. The terminal device 110-1 may also determine monitoring capability within a second window which starts at the start slot of the PDCCH CSS and comprises the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set, and the terminal device 110-1 may determine monitoring capability in the second window.

In some other embodiments, if the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set partially overlap with the first window, the network device may only transmit 6020 the PDCCH in the overlapped slot. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 does not need to extend the first window.

For example, referring to Fig. 8A, the slot group 811 comprises

slots

8110, 8111, 8112 and 8113. The slot group 812 comprises

slots

8120, 8121, 8122 and 8123. The monitoring window 810 in the slot group 811 comprises

slots

8110 and 8111. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises

slots

8111 and 8112. There is an overlapping slot 8111 between the monitoring window 810 and the set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set. The slot 8112 is out of the monitoring window 810. In this case, the network device 120 may only transmit the PDCCH in the slot 8111 and the terminal device 110-1 may not extend the monitoring window 810.

In some embodiments, referring to Fig. 8B, the slot group 821 comprises

slots

8210, 8211, 8212, 8213, 8214, 8215, 8216 and 8217. The slot group 822 comprises

slots

8220, 8221, 8222, 8223, 8224, 8225, 8226 and 8227. The monitoring window 820 in the slot group 822 comprises

slots

8220, 8221, 8222 and 8223. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises

slots

8217 and 8220. There is an overlapping slot 8220 between the monitoring window 820 and the set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set. The slot 8217 is out of the monitoring window 820. In this case, the network device 120 may only transmit the PDCCH in the slot 8220 and the terminal device 110-1 may not extend the monitoring window 820.

In some embodiments, a set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set may not overlap with the first window. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may add extra slots beyond the first window to monitor the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set.

In some embodiments, referring to Fig. 9A, the slot group 911 comprises

slots

9110, 9111, 9112 and 9113. The slot group 912 comprises

slots

9120, 9121, 9122 and 9123. The monitoring window 910 in the slot group 911 comprises slot 9110. The monitoring window 910’ in the slot group 912 comprises slot 9120. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises

slots

9112 and 9113. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may also monitor the PDCCH in the

slots

9112 and 9113. The terminal device 110-1 may determine monitoring capability in a second window 901. The second window 901 comprises

slots

9112 and 9113 and the monitoring window 910’ . The length of the second window 901 comprises 4 slots, which is the same as the size of the slot group. The second window 901 may starts at the start slot of the PDCCH CSS 9112, it may also start at the slot 9111, which means from next slot or monitor window. The terminal device 110-1 may also determine monitoring capability indicating the BD/CCE budget in the

slot groups

911 and 912 based on actual monitoring slots.

Alternatively, as shown in Fig. 9B, the slot group 921 comprises

slots

9210, 9211, 9212, 9213, 9214, 9215, 9216 and 9217. The slot group 922 comprises

slots

9220, 9221, 9222, 9223, 9224, 9225, 9226 and 9227. The monitoring window 920 in the slot group 922 comprises

slots

9220 and 9221. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises slots 9215 and 9216. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may also monitor the PDCCH in the slots 9215 and 9216. The terminal device 110-1 may determine monitoring capability in a second window 902. The second window 902 comprises slots 9215 and 9216 and the monitoring window 920. The length of the second window 902 comprises 8 slots, which is the same as the size of the slot group. The second window 902 may start at the start slot of the PDCCH CSS 9215, it may also start at the slot 9214, which means from next slot or monitor window. The terminal device 110-1 may also determine monitoring capability indicating the BD/CCE budget in the

slot groups

921 and 922 based on actual monitoring slots.

In some other embodiments, if the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set may not overlap with the first window, the terminal device 110-1 may monitor the PDCCH in the set of candidate slots. The terminal device 110-1 may skip to monitor the PDCCH in the subsequent slot group.

In some embodiments, referring to Fig. 10A, the slot group 1011 comprises

slots

10110, 10111, 10112 and 10113. The slot group 1012 comprises

slots

10120, 10121, 10122 and 10123. The monitoring window 1010 in the slot group 1011 comprises slot 10110. The monitoring window 1010’ in the slot group 1012 comprises slot 10120. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises slots 10112 and 10113. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may also monitor the PDCCH in the slots 10112 and 10113. The terminal device 110-1 may not monitor the PDCCH in the monitoring window 1010’ .

Alternatively, as shown in Fig. 10B, the slot group 1021 comprises

slots

10210, 10211, 10212, 10213, 10214, 10215, 10216 and 10217. The slot group 1022 comprises

slots

10220, 10221, 10222, 10223, 10224, 10225, 10226 and 10227. The monitoring window 1020 in the slot group 1022 comprises

slots

10220 and 10221. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises slots 10215 and 10216. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may also monitor the PDCCH in the slots 10215 and 10216. The terminal device 110-1 may not monitor the PDCCH in the monitoring window 1020.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may monitor the PDCCH per slot before a random access procedure. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor the PDCCH per slot group after the random access procedure. For example, the default PDCCH monitoring capability in the initial access is slot based, and after RACH and the terminal device 110-1 enters connected mode, the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring capability is used, and it’s a fixed pattern where the monitoring window always start at the first slot within a slot group.

Fig. 11 shows a signaling chart illustrating process 1100 among devices according to some other example embodiments of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of discussion, the process 1100 will be described with reference to Fig. 1. The process 1100 may involve the terminal device 110-1 and the network device 120 in Fig. 1. It should be noted that the process 1100 is only an example not limitation.

The network device 120 transmits 11010 a beam sweeping configuration to the terminal device 110-1. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

The terminal device 110-1 determines 11020 a position of the first window in the slot groups which need to monitor the Type0-PDCCH CSS set, for other slot groups, the first window are still in a predetermined location. The terminal device 110-1 determines 11030 monitoring capability within a second window. The first window may start from the slot over which the terminal device 110-1 monitors Type0-PDCCH CSS, and the first window may last at least two consecutive slots in this slot group. For the BD/CCE budget, there are two options: (1) if there is a gap from the monitoring window to next slot gap, the terminal device can separately calculate BD/CCE budget for each slot group; (2) the terminal device 110-1 may also use the second window to calculate BD/CCE budget which starts from the slot over which the terminal device 110-1 monitors Type0-PDCCH CSS, and the size is the slot group size.

Referring to Fig. 12, the slot group 1211 comprises

slots

12110, 12111, 12112 and 12113. The slot group 1212 comprises

slots

12120, 12121, 12122 and 12123. The slot group 1213 comprises

slots

12130, 12131, 12132 and 12133. The monitoring window 1210 in the slot group 1211 comprises slot 12110. The monitoring window 1210’ in the slot group 1212 comprises slot 12121 and 12122. The set of candidate slots of the PDCCH CSS set comprises slots 12121 and 12122. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor the slots 12121 and 12122 within the slot group 1212. The terminal device 110-1 may also determine monitoring capability in the second window 1220 which comprises the slots 12121, 12122 12123 and 12131.

In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a time instant. The position of the first window may be flexible before the time instant. Before the time instant, the position of the first window may be from the slot over which the terminal device 110-1 monitors Type0-PDCCH CSS. After the time instant, the position of the first window may be fixed at a predetermined value. For example, the terminal device 110-1 may determine that the position of the first window starts at a first slot within the slot group after the time instant. In other embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may monitor the PDCCH per slot group within a fixed window after the random access procedure. In this way, the network device may schedule multiple terminal devices at same time.

In some embodiments, considering the scheduling flexibility and power consumption, and the requirement of monitoring Type0-PDCCH CSS, the first window may last at most two consecutive slots in this slot group if the slot group size is 4 or 8, and there are at most 4 spans in the first window, each span is at most 3 symbols. The position of span can choose symbol [0, 2] and symbol [7, 9] for each slot in the first window. For example, as shown in Fig. 13, the slot group 1311 comprises

slots

13110, 13111, 13112 and 13113. The first window 1310 comprises the

slots

13110 and 13111.

Fig. 14 shows a flowchart of an example method 1400 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the method 1400 can be implemented at a terminal device 110-1 as shown in Fig. 1.

At block 1410, the terminal device 110-1 receives a beam sweeping configuration from the network device 120. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

At block 1420, the terminal device 110-1 determines an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans based on the beam sweeping configuration. The slot is in a first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group. The first window can also be named as “monitoring window. ” In this way, it improves probability of successfully monitoring the PDCCH with a simple fixed slot group pattern.

In some embodiments, the index of the slot can be determined by:

or in a frame with SFN satisfying SFN _C mod 2=1 if

Alternatively, the index of the slot can be determined by:

or in a frame with SFN satisfying SFN _C mod 2=1 if

In some embodiments, the restriction factor can be determined by:

k=0; (3)

In some embodiments, if the window size is a predetermined size (for example, 1 slot) , the number of spans can be a first value. If the window size is longer than the predetermined size, the number of spans can be a second value. In this case, the second value is larger than the second value. In this way, it shortens the detection time for the slot group based PDCCH monitoring and splits different CSS monitoring occasions in each monitoring slot of the monitoring window.

In some other embodiments, a value of the first parameter may be same as a value of the size of the slot group. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor Type0-PDCCH CSS in different slot group by setting proper M and O in searchSpaceZero configuration table. For example, M is 4 for 480KHz SCS and M is 8 for 960KHz SCS, and proper parameter O makes the starting slot of monitoring occasion align with the integer times of the slots group size X in a subframe. If the slot group has 4 slots, the value of the first parameter may be 4. Alternatively, if the slot group has 8 slots, the value of the first parameter may be 8.

At block 1430, the terminal device 110-1 monitors 2050 the PDCCH on the spans within the slot. In this way, the terminal device is able to monitor the PDCCH in a quicker way.

Fig. 15 shows a flowchart of an example method 1500 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the method 1500 can be implemented at a device 110-1 as shown in Fig. 1.

At block 1510, the terminal device 110-1 receives a beam sweeping configuration from the network device 120. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

At block 1520, the terminal device 110-1 monitors the PDCCH in extra slots within a slot group. The extra slots may be not completed within a first window. The first window is for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group.

In some embodiments, a set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set may partially overlap with the first window. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may extend the first window to fully overlap with the set of candidate slots. In other words, the terminal device 110-1 can also monitor the slot which is out of the original first window.

In some embodiments, a set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set may not overlap with the first window. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 may add extra slots to monitor the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110-1 may monitor the PDCCH per slot before a random access procedure. The terminal device 110-1 may monitor the PDCCH per slot group after the random access procedure. For example, the default PDCCH monitoring capability in the initial access is slot based, and after RACH and the terminal d device 110-1 enters connected mode, the multi-slot PDCCH monitoring capability is used, and it’s a fixed pattern where the monitoring window always start at the first slot within a slot group.

Fig. 16 shows a flowchart of an example method 1600 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the method 1600 can be implemented at a device 110-1 as shown in Fig. 1.

At block 1610, the terminal device 110-1 receives a beam sweeping configuration from the network device 120. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

At block 1620, the terminal device 110-1 determines a position of the first window in the slot groups which need to monitor the Type0-PDCCH CSS set, for other slot groups, the first window are still in a predetermined location. At block 1630, the terminal device 110-1 determines monitoring capability within a second window. The first window may start from the slot over which the terminal device 110-1 monitors Type0-PDCCH CSS, and the first window may last at least two consecutive slots in this slot group. For the BD/CCE budget, there are two options: (1) if there is a gap from the monitoring window to next slot gap, the terminal device can separately calculate BD/CCE budget for each slot group; (2) the terminal device 110-1 may also use the second window to calculate BD/CCE budget which starts from the slot over which the terminal device 110-1 monitors Type0-PDCCH CSS, and the size is the slot group size.

In some embodiments, considering the scheduling flexibility and power consumption, and the requirement of monitoring Type0-PDCCH CSS, the first window may last at most two consecutive slots in this slot group if the slot group size is 4 or 8, and there are at most 4 spans in the first window, each span is at most 3 symbols. The position of span can choose symbol [0, 2] and symbol [7, 9] for each slot in the first window.

Fig. 17 shows a flowchart of an example method 1700 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Only for the purpose of illustrations, the method 1700 can be implemented at a network device 120 as shown in Fig. 1.

At block 1710, the network device 120 transmits a beam sweeping configuration to the terminal device 110-1. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may indicate a SS/PBCH block (SSB) index. Alternatively or in addition, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval. In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise an index of a SS/PBCH block. In some other embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration may comprise a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the SS/PBCH block.

In some embodiments, at block 1720, the network device 120 may determine 2030 an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans based on the beam sweeping configuration. The slot is in a first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group. In this way, it improves probability of successfully monitoring the PDCCH. The network device 120 can determine the index in a similar manner as the terminal device which has been described above.

At block 1730, the network device 120 transmits, to the terminal device 110-1, the PDCCH. In some embodiments, the network device may transmit the PDCCH on the spans within the slot. In some other embodiments, the network device 120 may transmit the PDCCH on a slot in the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set. For example, if the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set partially overlap with the first window, the network device may only transmit the PDCCH in the overlapped slot. Alternatively, the network device may transmit the PDCCH in the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set regardless of the first window. In this case, the terminal device 110-1 does not need to extend the first window.

In some embodiments, a terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to receive a beam sweeping configuration from a network device; determine, based on the beam sweeping configuration, an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans within the slot, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group; and monitor the PDCCH in the spans within the slot. In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises the circuitry configured to determine the index of the slot by:

where n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group and

represents the number of slots in a frame.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises the circuitry configured to determine the index of the slot by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group, Y represents a window size of the slot group, k represents a restriction factor and

represents the number of slots in a frame.

In some embodiments, the restriction factor is determined by:

else k=0.

In some embodiments, a value of a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval is same as a value of a size of the slot group.

In some embodiments, in accordance with a determination that the window size is a predetermined size, the number of spans is a first value, in accordance with a determination that the window size is longer than the predetermined size, the number of spans is a second value, and the second value is larger than the first value.

In some embodiments, a terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to receive, from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration; and monitor, based on the beam sweeping configuration, extra slots within a slot group, wherein at least one of the extra slots is out of a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to monitor the extra slots by: in accordance with a determination that a set of candidate slots of PDCCH common search space (CSS) set partially overlaps with the first window, monitoring the first window and a candidate slot in the set of candidate slots which is non-overlapped with the first window.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to determine monitoring capability within a second window, wherein the second window comprises the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set which are not completely in the first window, and the second window has a window size same as a size of the slot group.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to in accordance with a determination that a set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set does not overlap with the first window, determine monitoring capability within a second window, wherein the second window comprises the first window and the set of slots, and the second window has a window size same as a size of the slot group.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to in accordance with a determination that a set of slots of PDCCH CSS set does not overlap with the first window, monitor the PDCCH in the set of slots; and cause the monitoring of the PDCCH to be skipped in a subsequent slot group.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to monitor the PDCCH per slot before a random access procedure; and monitor the PDCCH per slot group after the random access procedure.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to after a time instant monitoring the PDCCH per slot group with a fixed window.

In some embodiments, the terminal device comprises a circuitry configured to in accordance with a determination that the first window is flexible, determine, at the terminal device, a position of the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group; and determine monitoring capability within a second window, wherein the second window comprises the flexible first window, and the second window has a window size same as a size of the slot group.

In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration further indicates a time instant, and wherein the first window is flexible before the time instant, and the first window is fixed after the time instant.

In some embodiments, a network device comprises a circuitry configured to transmit, to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and transmit a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in spans within a slot in a slot group, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.

In some embodiments, the network device comprises a circuitry configured to determine the index of the slot by:

represents the number of slots in a frame.

In some embodiments, the restriction factor is determined by:

else k=0.

In some embodiments, a network device comprises a circuitry configured to transmit, to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and transmit , to the terminal device, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a slot within a slot group, wherein the slot is in a set of candidate slots of PDCCH common search space (CSS) set.

In some embodiments, a network device comprises a circuitry configured to transmit the PDCCH by: in accordance with a determination that a set of slots of PDCCH CSS set partially overlaps with the first window, transmitting the PDCCH in an overlapped slot between the set of slots and the first window.

In some embodiments, the beam sweeping configuration further indicates a time instant after which the position of the first window starts at a first slot within the slot group.

Fig. 18 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1800 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1800 can be considered as a further example implementation of the network device 120, or the terminal device 110 as shown in Fig. 1. Accordingly, the device 1800 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the terminal device 110, or the network device 120.

As shown, the device 1800 includes a processor 1810, a memory 1820 coupled to the processor 1810, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 1840 coupled to the processor 1810, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 1840. The memory 1810stores at least a part of a program 1830. The TX/RX 1840 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 1840 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2 interface for bidirectional communications between eNBs, S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the eNB, Un interface for communication between the eNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the eNB and a terminal device.

The program 1830 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 1810, enable the device 1800 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to Figs. 2 to 17. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 1810 of the device 1800, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 1810 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 810 and memory 1820 may form processing means adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 1820 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 1820 is shown in the device 1800, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 1800. The processor 810 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 1800 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to Figs. 2 to 17. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the machine readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

As used herein, the term ‘terminal device’ refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, device on vehicle for V2X communication where X means pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure/network, devices for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) , Space borne vehicles or Air borne vehicles in Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) including Satellites and High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) encompassing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) , eXtended Reality (XR) devices including different types of realities such as Augmented Reality (AR) , Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) , the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly known as a drone which is an aircraft without any human pilot, devices on high speed train (HST) , or image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like. The ‘terminal device’ can further has ‘multicast/broadcast’ feature, to support public safety and mission critical, V2X applications, transparent IPv4/IPv6 multicast delivery, IPTV, smart TV, radio services, software delivery over wireless, group communications and IoT applications. It may also incorporated one or multiple Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) as known as Multi-SIM. The term “terminal device” can be used interchangeably with a UE, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile terminal, a user terminal or a wireless device.

The term “network device” refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNB) , a transmission reception point (TRP) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , an IAB node, a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) , and the like.

The terminal device or the network device may have Artificial intelligence (AI) or Machine learning capability. It generally includes a model which has been trained from numerous collected data for a specific function, and can be used to predict some information.

The terminal or the network device may work on several frequency ranges, e.g. FR1 (410 MHz –7125 MHz) , FR2 (24.25GHz to 71GHz) , frequency band larger than 100GHz as well as Tera Hertz (THz) . It can further work on licensed/unlicensed/shared spectrum. The terminal device may have more than one connections with the network devices under Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) application scenario. The terminal device or the network device can work on full duplex, flexible duplex and cross division duplex modes.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed in test equipment, e.g. signal generator, signal analyzer, spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, test terminal device, test network device, channel emulator

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5.5G, 5G-Advanced networks, or the sixth generation (6G) networks.

Claims

A communication method, comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration;

determining, based on the beam sweeping configuration, an index of a slot within a slot group and a number of spans within the slot, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group; and

monitoring, at the terminal device, the PDCCH in the spans within the slot.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the index of the slot comprises:

determining the index of the slot by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group and
represents the number of slots in a frame.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the index of the slot comprises:

determining the index of the slot by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group, Y represents a window size of the slot group, k represents a restriction factor and
represents the number of slots in a frame.
The method of claim 3, wherein the restriction factor is determined by:

if
else

k=0.
The method of claim 3, wherein a value of a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval is same as a value of a size of the slot group.
The method of claim 1, wherein in accordance with a determination that the window size is a predetermined size, the number of spans is a first value,

in accordance with a determination that the window size is longer than the predetermined size, the number of spans is a second value, and

the second value is larger than the first value.
A communication method, comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device and from a network device, a beam sweeping configuration; and

monitoring, based on the beam sweeping configuration, extra slots within a slot group, wherein at least one of the extra slots is out of a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.
The method of claim 7, wherein monitoring the extra slots comprises:

in accordance with a determination that a set of candidate slots of PDCCH common search space (CSS) set partially overlaps with the first window, monitoring the first window and a candidate slot in the set of candidate slots which is non-overlapped with the first window.
The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining monitoring capability within a second window, wherein the second window comprises the set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set which are not completely in the first window, and the second window has a window size same as a size of the slot group.
The method of claim 7, further comprising:

in accordance with a determination that a set of candidate slots of PDCCH CSS set does not overlap with the first window, determining monitoring capability within a second window, wherein the second window comprises the first window and the set of slots, and the second window has a window size same as a size of the slot group.
The method of claim 7, further comprising:

in accordance with a determination that a set of slots of PDCCH CSS set does not overlap with the first window, monitoring the PDCCH in the set of slots; and

causing the monitoring of the PDCCH to be skipped in a subsequent slot group.
The method of claim 7, further comprising:

monitoring the PDCCH per slot before a random access procedure; and

monitoring the PDCCH per slot group after the random access procedure.
The method of claim 7, wherein the first window is flexible, and the method further comprises:

determining, at the terminal device, a position of the first window for monitoring the PDCCH within the slot group; and

determining monitoring capability within a second window, wherein the second window comprises the flexible first window, and the second window has a window size same as a size of the slot group.
The method of claim 13, wherein the beam sweeping configuration further indicates a time instant, and the method further comprises:

after the time instant, monitoring the PDCCH per slot group with a fixed window.
The method of claim 13, wherein the beam sweeping configuration further indicates a time instant, and wherein

the first window is flexible before the time instant, and

the first window is fixed after the time instant.
A communication method, comprising:

transmitting, at a network device and to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and

transmitting a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in spans within a slot in a slot group, wherein the slot is in a first window for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) within the slot group.
The method of claim 16, wherein determining the index of the slot comprises:

determining the index of the slot by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group and
represents the number of slots in a frame.
The method of claim 16, wherein determining the index of the slot comprises:

determining the index of the slot by:

wherein n ₀ represents the index of the slot, μ represents a third parameter associated with a subcarrier spacing (SCS) configuration, i represents an index of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, M represents a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval, O represents a second parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring offset relative to the synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block, X represents the size of the slot group, Y represents a window size of the slot group, k represents a restriction factor and
represents the number of slots in a frame.
The method of claim 18, wherein the restriction factor is determined by:

if
else

k=0.
The method of claim 18, wherein a value of a first parameter associated with a PDCCH monitoring interval is same as a value of a size of the slot group.
The method of claim 16,

wherein in accordance with a determination that the window size is a predetermined size, the number of spans is a first value,

in accordance with a determination that the window size is longer than the predetermined size, the number of spans is a second value, and

the second value is larger than the first value.
A communication method, comprising:

transmitting, at a network device and to a terminal device, a beam sweeping configuration; and

transmitting, to the terminal device, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a slot within a slot group, wherein the slot is in a set of candidate slots of PDCCH common search space (CSS) set.
The method of claim 22, wherein transmitting the PDCCH comprises:

in accordance with a determination that a set of slots of PDCCH CSS set partially overlaps with the first window, transmitting the PDCCH in an overlapped slot between the set of slots and the first window.
The method of claim 22, wherein the beam sweeping configuration further indicates a time instant after which the position of the first window starts at a first slot within the slot group.
A terminal device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the terminal device to perform the method according to any of claims 1-6 or any of claims 7-15.
A network device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions thereon, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the network device to perform the method according to any of claims 16-21 or any of claims 22-24.
A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method according to any of claims 1-6 or any of claims 7-15 or any of claims 16-21 or any of claims 22-24.