Service type indicator in master information block (MIB)

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE). An exemplary method, performed by a UE, generally includes receiving a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), and determining, based on a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

BACKGROUND

I. Field of the Invention

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communications and, more particularly, to obtaining a master information block (MIB) for certain wireless devices, such as machine type communication(s) (MTC) devices with coverage enhancements.

II. Description of Related Art

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system can simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. This communication link may be established via a single-input single-output, multiple-input single-output or a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system.

A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of wireless devices. Wireless devices may include user equipments (UEs). Some UEs may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) UEs, which may include remote devices, that may communicate with a base station, another remote device, or some other entity. Machine type communications (MTC) may refer to communication involving at least one remote device on at least one end of the communication and may include forms of data communication which involve one or more entities that do not necessarily need human interaction. MTC UEs may include UEs that are capable of MTC communications with MTC servers and/or other MTC devices through Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN), for example.

SUMMARY

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for indicating support for one or more types of applications (within broadcast signaling) to certain devices, such as MTC devices and/or enhanced or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes receiving a physical broadcast channel (PBCH). The method also includes determining, based on a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for wireless communications by a base station (BS). The method generally includes transmitting a PBCH. The method also includes indicating, via a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means for receiving a PBCH. The apparatus also includes means for determining, based on a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications. The apparatus generally includes means for transmitting a PBCH. The apparatus also includes means for indicating, via a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a receiver configured to receive a PBCH. The apparatus also includes at least one processor configured to determine, based on a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications. The apparatus further includes a memory coupled with the at least one processor.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a transmitter configured to transmit a PBCH. The apparatus also includes at least one processor configured to indicate, via a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications. The apparatus further includes a memory coupled with the at least one processor.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon. The computer-executable code generally includes code for receiving a PBCH, and determining, based on a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable medium having computer executable code stored thereon. The computer-executable code generally includes code for transmitting a PBCH, and indicating, via a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications.

Numerous other aspects are provided including methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, computer-readable medium, and processing systems. To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques that may help enable efficient communication between a base station and machine type communication (MTC) based user equipments (UEs). For example, the techniques may allow for the indication of support for one or more types of applications (within broadcast signaling) to certain devices, such as MTC devices and/or eMTC devices. The one or more types of applications may include applications related to MTC/eMTC, applications that are not related to MTC/eMTC, and/or other types of applications. For simplicity, MTC may refer to MTC, eMTC, or other versions of MTC.

FIG. 1illustrates an example wireless communication network100, in which aspects of the present disclosure may be practiced. For example, the techniques presented herein may be used by UEs to determine based on a first one or bits in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) broadcasted by one or more BSs, control information for communications related to a first type of applications and/or a second type of applications.

The wireless communication network100may be an LTE network or some other wireless network. Wireless communication network100may include a number of evolved Node Bs (eNBs)110and other network entities. An eNB is an entity that communicates with user equipments (UEs) and may also be referred to as a base station, a Node B, an access point (AP), etc. Each eNB may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of an eNB and/or an eNB subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used.

An eNB may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs having association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a closed subscriber group (CSG)). An eNB for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro eNB. An eNB for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico eNB. An eNB for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto eNB or a home eNB (HeNB). In the example shown inFIG. 1, an eNB110amay be a macro eNB for a macro cell102a, an eNB110bmay be a pico eNB for a pico cell102b, and an eNB110cmay be a femto eNB for a femto cell102c. An eNB may support one or multiple (e.g., three) cells. The terms “eNB”, “base station,” and “cell” may be used interchangeably herein.

Wireless communication network100may also include relay stations. A relay station is an entity that can receive a transmission of data from an upstream station (e.g., an eNB or a UE) and send a transmission of the data to a downstream station (e.g., a UE or an eNB). A relay station may also be a UE that can relay transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown inFIG. 1, a relay (station) eNB110dmay communicate with macro eNB110aand a UE120din order to facilitate communication between eNB110aand UE120d. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay eNB, a relay base station, a relay, etc.

Wireless communication network100may be a heterogeneous network that includes eNBs of different types, e.g., macro eNBs, pico eNBs, femto eNBs, relay eNBs, etc. These different types of eNBs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in wireless communication network100. For example, macro eNBs may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 5 to 40 W) whereas pico eNBs, femto eNBs, and relay eNBs may have lower transmit power levels (e.g., 0.1 to 2 W).

A network controller130may couple to a set of eNBs and may provide coordination and control for these eNBs. Network controller130may communicate with the eNBs via a backhaul. The eNBs may also communicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via a wireless or wireline backhaul.

UEs120(e.g.,120a,120b,120c) may be dispersed throughout wireless communication network100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, a terminal, a station, a mobile station (MS), a subscriber unit, a station (STA), etc. Examples of UEs may include a cellular phone (e.g., smart phone), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, gaming devices, navigation devices, virtual reality devices, wearable devices (e.g., smart glasses/goggles/heads-up displays, smart watch, smart wristband, smart clothing), drones, robots/robotic devices, vehicular devices, medical devices, etc. InFIG. 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desired transmissions between a UE and a serving eNB, which is an eNB designated to serve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink. A dashed line with double arrows indicates potentially interfering transmissions between a UE and an eNB.

One or more UEs120in the wireless communication network100(e.g., an LTE network) may also be low cost, low data rate devices, e.g., such as low cost MTC UEs, low cost eMTC UEs, low cost narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) UEs, etc. MTC/eMTC UEs, for example, include sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, drones, trackers, robots/robotic devices, etc. To enhance coverage of certain devices, such as MTC devices, “bundling” may be utilized in which certain transmissions are sent as a bundle of transmissions, for example, with the same information transmitted over multiple subframes. MTC/eMTC UEs, as well as other types of UEs, may be implemented as internet of things (IoT) or internet of everything (IoE) devices, such as NB-IoT devices. The low cost UEs may co-exist with legacy and/or advanced UEs in the LTE network and may have one or more capabilities that are limited when compared to the other UEs (e.g., non-low cost UEs) in the wireless network. For example, in LTE Rel-12, when compared to legacy and/or advanced UEs in the LTE network, the low cost UEs may operate with one or more of the following: a reduction in maximum bandwidth (relative to legacy UEs), a single receive radio frequency (RF) chain, reduction of peak rate (e.g., a maximum of 1000 bits for a transport block size (TBS) may be supported), reduction of transmit power, rank 1 transmission, half duplex operation, etc. In some cases, if half duplex operation is supported, the low cost UEs may have a relaxed switching timing from transmit to receive (or from receive to transmit) operations. For example, in one case, compared to a switching timing of 20 microseconds (μs) for legacy and/or advanced UEs, the low cost UEs may have a relaxed switching timing of 1 millisecond (ms).

In some cases, the low cost UEs (e.g., in LTE Rel-12) may also be able to monitor downlink (DL) control channels in the same (or similar) way that legacy and/or advanced UEs in the LTE network monitor DL control channels. For example, the low cost UEs may monitor for wideband control channels in the first few symbols of a subframe (e.g., such as in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)) as well as narrowband control channels occupying a relatively narrowband, but spanning a length of a subframe (e.g., such as in an enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH)).

The wireless communication network100, as an alternative or in addition to supporting MTC operation, may support additional MTC enhancements (e.g., eMTC operations). For example, low cost eMTC UEs may be able to support narrowband operation (e.g., limited to a particular narrowband assignment of 1.4 MHz or six resource blocks (RBs) partitioned out of the available system bandwidth) while co-existing within a wider system bandwidth (e.g., at 1.4/3/5/10/15/20 MHz). Low cost eMTC UEs may also be able to support one or more coverage modes of operation. For example, low cost eMTC UEs may be able to support coverage enhancements up to 15 dB.

As used herein, devices with limited communication resources, such as MTC devices, eMTC devices, IoT devices, etc. are referred to generally as low cost UEs. Similarly, legacy devices, such as legacy and/or advanced UEs (e.g., in LTE) are referred to generally as non-low cost UEs.

FIG. 2is a block diagram of a design of BS/eNB110and UE120, which may be one of the BSs/eNBs110and one of the UEs120, respectively, inFIG. 1. BS110may be equipped with T antennas234athrough234t, and UE120may be equipped with R antennas252athrough252r, where in general T≤1 and R≤1.

Controllers/processors240and280may direct the operation at BS110and UE120, respectively. For example, controller/processor240and/or other processors and modules at BS110may perform or direct operations600illustrated inFIG. 6and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. Similarly, controller/processor280and/or other processors and modules at UE120may perform or direct operations500illustrated inFIG. 5and/or processes for the techniques described herein. Memories242and282may store data and program codes for BS110and UE120, respectively. A scheduler246may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 3shows an exemplary frame structure300for FDD in LTE. The transmission timeline for each of the downlink and uplink may be partitioned into units of radio frames. Each radio frame may have a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 ms)) and may be partitioned into 10 subframes with indices of 0 through 9. Each subframe may include two slots. Each radio frame may thus include 20 slots with indices of 0 through 19. Each slot may include L symbol periods, e.g., seven symbol periods for a normal cyclic prefix (as shown inFIG. 3) or six symbol periods for an extended cyclic prefix. The 2 L symbol periods in each subframe may be assigned indices of 0 through 2L−1.

In LTE, an eNB may transmit a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) on the downlink in the center 1.08 MHz of the system bandwidth for each cell supported by the eNB. The PSS and SSS may be transmitted in symbol periods 6 and 5, respectively, in subframes 0 and 5 of each radio frame with the normal cyclic prefix, as shown inFIG. 3. The PSS and SSS may be used by UEs for cell search and acquisition. The eNB may transmit a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) across the system bandwidth for each cell supported by the eNB. The CRS may be transmitted in certain symbol periods of each subframe and may be used by the UEs to perform channel estimation, channel quality measurement, and/or other functions. The eNB may also transmit a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) in symbol periods 0 to 3 in slot 1 of certain radio frames.

The PBCH may carry system information (e.g., the master information block (MIB)) that can be used by UEs for initial access to the cell, and the like. The MIB, carried within the PBCH, may have a payload size of twenty-four bits (e.g., before a sixteen bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC)). Eight bits of the twenty-four bits may be used for a system frame number (SFN), four bits of the twenty-four bits may be used as a system bandwidth indicator (e.g., to indicate the total bandwidth supported in the network), two bits of the twenty-four bits may be used as a physical hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) indicator channel (PHICH) resource indicator, one bit of the twenty four bits may be used as a PHICH time-span indicator, and nine bits of the twenty four bits may be reserved.

The eNB may also transmit other system information such as system information blocks (SIBs) on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in certain subframes. The eNB may transmit control information/data on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in the first B symbol periods of a subframe, where B may be configurable for each subframe. The eNB may transmit traffic data and/or other data on the PDSCH in the remaining symbol periods of each subframe.

The PSS, SSS, CRS, and PBCH in LTE are described in 3GPP TS 36.211, entitled “Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation,” which is publicly available.

FIG. 4shows two example subframe formats410and420for the downlink with a normal cyclic prefix. The available time frequency resources for the downlink may be partitioned into resource blocks. Each resource block may cover 12 subcarriers in one slot and may include a number of resource elements. Each resource element may cover one subcarrier in one symbol period and may be used to send one modulation symbol, which may be a real or complex value.

Subframe format410may be used for an eNB equipped with two antennas. A CRS may be transmitted from antennas 0 and 1 in symbol periods 0, 4, 7, and 11. A reference signal is a signal that is known a priori by a transmitter and a receiver and may also be referred to as pilot. A CRS is a reference signal that is specific for a cell, e.g., generated based on a cell identity (ID). InFIG. 4, for a given resource element with label Ra, a modulation symbol may be transmitted on that resource element from antenna a, and no modulation symbols may be transmitted on that resource element from other antennas. Subframe format420may be used for an eNB equipped with four antennas. A CRS may be transmitted from antennas 0 and 1 in symbol periods 0, 4, 7, and 11 and from antennas 2 and 3 in symbol periods 1 and 8. For both subframe formats410and420, a CRS may be transmitted on evenly spaced subcarriers, which may be determined based on cell ID. Different eNBs may transmit their CRSs on the same or different subcarriers, depending on their cell IDs. For both subframe formats410and420, resource elements not used for the CRS may be used to transmit data (e.g., traffic data, control data, and/or other data).

The wireless network may support hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) for data transmission on the downlink and uplink. For HARQ, a transmitter (e.g., an eNB) may send one or more transmissions of a packet until the packet is decoded correctly by a receiver (e.g., a UE) or some other termination condition is encountered. For synchronous HARQ, all transmissions of the packet may be sent in subframes of a single interlace. For asynchronous HARQ, each transmission of the packet may be sent in any subframe.

A UE may be located within the coverage of multiple eNBs. One of these eNBs may be selected to serve the UE. The serving eNB may be selected based on various criteria such as received signal strength, received signal quality, pathloss, etc. Received signal quality may be quantified by a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio (SINR), or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or some other metric. The UE may operate in a dominant interference scenario in which the UE may observe high interference from one or more interfering eNBs.

As mentioned above, one or more UEs in the wireless communication network (e.g., wireless communication network100) may be devices that have limited communication resources, such as low cost UEs, as compared to other (non-low cost) devices in the wireless communication network. For example, as noted above, The low cost UE may be a link budget limited device and may operate in different modes of operation (e.g. using different numbers of repetitions for messages transmitted to or from the low cost UE) based on its link budget limitation. For example, in some cases, the low cost UE may operate in a normal coverage mode in which there is little to no repetition (e.g., the amount of repetition needed for the UE to successfully receive and/or transmit a message may be low or repetition may not even be needed). Alternatively, in some cases, the low cost UE may operate in a coverage enhancement (CE) mode in which there may be high amounts of repetition. Further, as will be described in more detail below, in some cases, non-low cost UEs may also be able to support the CE mode.

As one example of coexistence within the LTE system, low cost UEs and/or non-low cost UEs, operating under the CE mode, may be able to receive (with repetition) the PBCH. For example, the low cost UEs and/or non-low cost UEs may be able to receive the PBCH with one or more additional repetitions of the PBCH across multiple subframes (e.g., such that UEs in bad radio channel conditions are able to successfully receive and/or decode the PBCH transmitted in the cell). The repetition of PBCH may be within subframe 0 and additionally in other subframes (e.g., subframe 5, etc.).

As mentioned above, nine bits of the PBCH may be reserved. In some cases, in order to facilitate MTC and/or eMTC operation, the nine reserved bits in PBCH may be re-used for MTC and/or eMTC purposes. For example, in one implementation, possible usage of the reserved bits may include using one bit to indicate support of the CE mode, one bit to indicate support for eMTC operation (e.g., LTE Rel-13 MTC UEs), two to three bits to indicate time frequency position of broadcasting signaling for MTC and/or eMTC devices (e.g., MTC-SIB1, which may be separate from broadcasting signaling used for non-low cost UEs), two bits to indicate TBS of MTC-SIB1 and two bits to indicate a control format indicator (CFI). However, it should be noted that, for the reserved bits, other combination of bits may be supported and/or other information (or applications) indicated by the bits may be included as well.

In some cases, a sufficient number of spare bits (e.g., four to five bits) may be reserved for future use. For example, the above implementation of the reserved bits may be limited to four to five bits, such that the remaining four to five bits can be used for other types of applications (e.g., future applications).

Technique for Indicating Service Type in MIB for MTC

As mentioned above, in some cases, the use of reserved bits within MIB may be subject to a static split, such that some of the bits may be used only for MTC and some of the bits may be reserved for other future applications. In some cases, however, this static split between MTC and future applications may not be efficient.

However, in some cases, this static split between MTC and future applications may not be efficient. For example, among the reserved bits, the static split may require the following:
NMTC+NFuture=9
where NMTCcorresponds to the number of reserved bits used for MTC and NFuturecorresponds to the number of reserved bits used for future applications. In some cases, regardless of how the split is done between NMTCand NFuture, the number of reserved bits used for MTC and/or future applications may be limited.

Therefore, it may be desirable to provide an efficient way for using the reserved bits within the MIB of PBCH for both low cost UEs and non-low cost UEs.

Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for indicating, with one or more bits among the reserved bits, whether one or more applications are supported.

FIG. 5illustrates example operations500for wireless communications, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The operations500can be performed by a UE, such as an low cost UE, non-low cost UE, etc., which may be one of the UEs120illustrated inFIGS. 1 and 2.

The operations500may begin, at502, where the UE receives a PBCH (e.g., from a BS). At504, the UE determines, based on a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications. For example, the first type of applications may include MTC or IoT applications and the second type of applications may include non-MTC or non-IoT applications.

FIG. 6illustrates example operations600for wireless communications, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. The operations600can be performed by a BS, such as one of the BSs/eNBs110illustrated inFIGS. 1 and 2.

The operations600may begin, at602, where the BS transmits a PBCH (e.g., to one or more UEs, such as low cost UEs and/or non-low cost UEs). At604, the BS indicates, via a first one or more bits in the PBCH, whether a second one or more bits in the PBCH are used to indicate control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications. The first type of applications may include MTC or IoT applications and the second type of applications may include non-MTC or non-IoT applications.

According to certain aspects, the first one or more bits of the PBCH may include one bit. For example, among the reserved bits, the BS may use one-bit to indicate whether the remaining bits (e.g., second one or more bits) of the PBCH are for a first type of applications (e.g., which may be related to MTC/eMTC/IoT operation) or second type of applications (e.g., which may be related to non-MTC/eMTC/IoT operation).

According to certain aspects, the first one or more bits of the PBCH may include more than one bit to indicate additional types of applications. In one implementation, the first one or more bits may include at least two bits, with different combinations of bit values indicating control information for a first type of applications and/or second type of applications. For example, the different combinations of bit values may indicate MTC without coverage enhancement, MTC with coverage enhancement, non-MTC without coverage enhancement, or non-MTC with coverage enhancement. In one implementation, the BS may use two bits (e.g., as shown in Table 1) to indicate the type of services or applications supported.

TABLE 1Example Two-Bit Service Type IndicationBitsApplications Supported00MTC without coverage enhancement01MTC with coverage enhancement10non-MTC without coverage enhancement11non-MTC with coverage enhancement

According to certain aspects, the one or more bits of the first bits may include a service indicator that indicates a purpose of one or more of the second one or more bits. For example, in certain aspects, depending on the “service indicator” (e.g., the one or more bits of the first bits), the remaining bits (e.g., the second one or more bits) may be interpreted according to the indicated service. For example, in one case, if the first two bits of the reserved bits are designated as “service indicators,” the first bit of the first two bits may be a MTC or IoT indicator, and the second bit of the first two bits may be a coverage enhancement (CE) indicator.

Accordingly, in certain aspects, in the above case, based on the two bits used as service indicators, the purpose of the remaining seven bits of the reserved bits may be determined according to the following table:

As shown in Table 2, a first combination of values of the MTC and CE indicators (e.g., “00”) may indicate the second one or more bits are reserved. As also shown, a second combination of values of the MTC and CE indicators (e.g., “01” or “10” or “11”) may indicate the second one or more bits are used to indicate at least one of a time frequency position of a SIB, a transport size of the SIB, control format indicator, reserved bits, etc. However, note that Table 2 illustrates merely one reference example of bits of the reserved bits that may be used as service indicators. In general, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that other combination of bits and other bits (as opposed to the first two bits) of the reserved bits may be used to indicate the type of services supported.

According to certain aspects, each of the one or more BS/eNBs (e.g., illustrated inFIGS. 1 and 2) may determine the one or more bits used as the “service indicator” based on the respective BS's particular need. For example, a BS may be able to turn on supporting MTC services during night-time hours and turn off supporting MTC/IoT services during daytime hours. Other designation of services and/or other time periods may be supported as well.

According to certain aspects, one or more bits of the reserved bits may also be reserved for future applications. For example, if two bits are used as “service indicators” (e.g., one for MTC and one for CE mode), for the remaining seven bits, five bits may be used for service-dependent information field(s) and two bits may be reserved. In certain aspects, the five bits may be interpreted based on the “service indicators” (e.g., in a manner similar to that described above). In certain aspects, for the two reserved bits, one bit (which may be separate or combined with the two-bit service indicator) may be used to indicate at least a new service type. In certain aspects, the five bits used for the service dependent information field may also be interpreted based on the new service type.

According to certain aspects, the BS/eNB may broadcast the “service indicators” to the one or more UEs (e.g., low cost UEs and/or non-low cost UEs) in the wireless communication network. In certain aspects, the “service indicators” may be broadcasted such that a number of information bits of the reserved bits of the PBCH may be interpreted depending on the serving type indicator. In some cases, the number of information bits subject to interpretation based on the “service indicators” may be fixed for all service types. In some cases, the number of information bits subject to interpretation based on the “service indicators” may be different for different service types. In this case, the number of reserved bits may also be different for different services types. For example, there may be five reserved bits for service type1and4reserved bits for service type2. Further, in some cases, there may be a certain set of reserved bits that may be common to a group of services types or to all service types. For example, there may be a two bit indicator for common search space related information. In addition, according to certain aspects, there may be one or more reserved bits that may be used for expanding the type of services indicated by the “service indicators.”

According to certain aspects, it may be possible for MTC-SIB to indicate the starting symbol for broadcast channels and/or unicast channels. Accordingly, in this case, for control traffic, the starting symbol for PCFICH may follow the MTC-SIB indicated starting symbol. In some cases, for unicast control traffic, the starting symbol may be configured based on RRC signalling. For data traffic, if there is no associated control channel, the starting symbol for PCFICH may follow the MTC-SIB indicated starting symbol or a RRC configured starting symbol. Alternatively, the starting symbol may follow the starting symbol indicated in the associated control channel.

As noted above, aspects of the present disclosure provide various techniques for signalling control information for communications related to a first type of applications or a second type of applications for machine type communication devices.

In some cases, rather than actually communicating a frame, a device may have an interface to communicate a frame for transmission or reception. For example, a processor may output a frame, via a bus interface, to a radio frequency (RF) front end for transmission. Similarly, rather than actually receiving a frame, a device may have an interface to obtain a frame received from another device. For example, a processor may obtain (or receive) a frame, via a bus interface, from an RF front end for transmission.

The various operations of methods described above may be performed by any suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions. The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s) and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, code, or any combination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, code, microcode, hardware description language, machine language, or otherwise. Generally, where there are operations illustrated in Figures, those operations may be performed by any suitable corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components.

For example, means for determining may include one or more processors, such as the receive processor258, the controller/processor280, transmit processor264and/or other processors and modules of the user terminal120illustrated inFIG. 2. Means for receiving may include a receive processor (e.g., the receive processor258) and/or an antenna(s)252of the user terminal120illustrated inFIG. 2. Means for transmitting may comprise a transmit processor (e.g., the transmit processor220) and/or an antenna(s)234of the eNB110illustrated inFIG. 2. Means for indicating may include one or more processors, such as the transmit processor220, the controller/processor240and/or other processors and modules of the eNB110illustrated inFIG. 2.