Patent Description:
Cross-link interference (CLI) may occur when a first UE (referred to as an aggressor UE) transmits to a base station while a second UE (referred to as a victim UE) is receiving from the base station, especially if the transmit frequency of the first UE is too close to the reception frequency of the second UE. Thus, there exists a need for mechanisms capable of managing cross link interference. <CIT> discloses systems for interference measurement and reporting for UEs, which measurements may be used to determine guard bands between UL and DL signals. <CIT> discloses a system in which UEs can identify frequency bands for full-duplex communications and can signal their capability to support such communication to a base station. <CIT> discloses a system in which UEs receive configurations for full-duplex communications from a base station.

The invention is defined by the independent claim. A selection of optional features of the invention is set out in the dependent claims.

Insofar as the term invention or embodiment is used in the following, or features are presented as being optional, this should be interpreted in such a way that the only protection sought is that of the invention claimed (with due regard to Article <NUM> EPC and the protocol thereto). References to "embodiment(s)" throughout the description which are not under the scope of the appended claims merely represent possible exemplary executions and are not part of the present invention.

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtained when the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment is considered in conjunction with the following drawings.

While the features described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

The following acronyms are used in this disclosure.

<FIG> illustrate exemplary (and simplified) wireless communication systems. It is noted that the systems of <FIG> are merely examples of certain possible systems, and various embodiments may be implemented in any of various ways, as desired.

The wireless communication system of <FIG> includes a base station 102A which communicates over a transmission medium with one or more user equipment (UE) devices 106A, 106B, etc., through 106N. Each of the user equipment devices may be referred to herein as "user equipment" (UE). In the wireless communication system of <FIG>, in addition to the base station 102A, base station 102B also communicates (e.g., simultaneously or concurrently) over a transmission medium with the UE devices 106A, 106B, etc., through 106N.

The base stations 102A and 102B may be base transceiver stations (BTSs) or cell sites, and may include hardware that enables wireless communication with the user devices 106A through 106N. Each base station <NUM> may also be equipped to communicate with a core network <NUM> (e.g., base station 102A may be coupled to core network 100A, while base station 102B may be coupled to core network 100B), which may be a core network of a cellular service provider. Each core network <NUM> may be coupled to one or more external networks (such as external network <NUM>), which may include the Internet, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or any other network. Thus, the base station 102A may facilitate communication between the user devices and/or between the user devices and the network 100A; in the system of <FIG>, the base station 102B may facilitate communication between the user devices and/or between the user devices and the network 100B.

The base stations 102A and 102B and the user devices may be configured to communicate over the transmission medium using any of various radio access technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communication technologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), <NUM> New Radio (NR), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc..

For example, base station 102A and core network 100A may operate according to a first cellular communication standard (e.g., <NUM> NR) while base station 102B and core network 100B operate according to a second cellular communication standard. The second cellular communication standard (e.g., LTE, GSM, UMTS, and/or one or more CDMA2000 cellular communication standards) may be different from the first cellular communication standard or the same. The two networks may be controlled by the same network operator (e.g., cellular service provider or "carrier"), or by different network operators. In addition, the two networks may be operated independently of one another (e.g., if they operate according to different cellular communication standards), or may be operated in a somewhat coupled or tightly coupled manner.

Note also that while two different networks may be used to support two different cellular communication technologies, such as illustrated in the network configuration shown in <FIG>, other network configurations implementing multiple cellular communication technologies are also possible. As one example, base stations 102A and 102B might operate according to different cellular communication standards but couple to the same core network. As another example, multi-mode base stations capable of simultaneously supporting different cellular communication technologies (e.g., <NUM> NR and LTE, LTE and CDMA 1xRTT, GSM and UMTS, or any other combination of cellular communication technologies) might be coupled to a core network that also supports the different cellular communication technologies. Any of various other network deployment scenarios are also possible.

As a further possibility, it is also possible that base station 102A and base station 102B may operate according to the same wireless communication technology (or an overlapping set of wireless communication technologies). For example, base station 102A and core network 100A may be operated by one cellular service provider independently of base station 102B and core network 100B, which may be operated by a different (e.g., competing) cellular service provider. Thus, in this case, despite utilizing similar and possibly compatible cellular communication technologies, the UE devices 106A-106N might communicate with the base stations 102A-102B independently, possibly by utilizing separate subscriber identities to communicate with different carriers' networks.

A UE <NUM> may be capable of communicating using multiple wireless communication standards. For example, a UE <NUM> might be configured to communicate using either or both of a 3GPP cellular communication standard (such as LTE) or a 3GPP2 cellular communication standard (such as a cellular communication standard in the CDMA2000 family of cellular communication standards). As another example, a UE <NUM> might be configured to communicate using different 3GPP cellular communication standards (such as two or more of GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, or <NUM> NR). Thus, as noted above, a UE <NUM> might be configured to communicate with base station 102A (and/or other base stations) according to a first cellular communication standard (e.g., <NUM> NR) and might also be configured to communicate with base station 102B (and/or other base stations) according to a second cellular communication standard (e.g., LTE).

Base stations 102A and 102B and other base stations operating according to the same or different cellular communication standards may support one or more networks of cells, which may provide continuous or nearly continuous overlapping service to UEs 106A-106N and similar devices over a wide geographic area via one or more cellular communication standards.

A UE <NUM> might also or alternatively be configured to communicate using WLAN, Bluetooth, one or more global navigational satellite systems (GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one and/or more mobile television broadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H), etc. Other combinations of wireless communication standards (including more than two wireless communication standards) are also possible.

<FIG> illustrates user equipment <NUM> (e.g., one of the devices 106A through 106N) in communication with a base station <NUM> (e.g., one of the base stations 102A or 102B). The UE <NUM> may be a device with wireless network connectivity such as a mobile phone, a hand-held device, a satellite phone, a computer or a tablet, a wearable device or virtually any type of wireless device.

The UE may include a processor that is configured to execute program instructions stored in memory. The UE may perform any of the method embodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions. Alternatively, or in addition, the UE may include a programmable hardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that is configured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, or any portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

The UE <NUM> may be configured to communicate using any of multiple wireless communication protocols. For example, the UE <NUM> may be configured to communicate using two or more of GSM, UMTS (W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, etc.), CDMA2000 (1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD, etc.), LTE, LTE-A, <NUM> New Radio (NR), WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communication standards are also possible.

The UE <NUM> may include one or more antennas (or, one or more antenna arrays) for communicating using one or more wireless communication protocols. Within the UE <NUM>, one or more parts of a receive and/or transmit chain may be shared between multiple wireless communication standards; for example, the UE <NUM> might be configured to communicate using either (or both) of LTE or <NUM> NR using a single shared radio. The shared radio may include a single antenna, or may include a plurality of antennas (e.g., for MIMO and/or beamforming) for performing wireless communications. (MIMO is an acronym for Multi-Input Multiple-Output. ) The antennas may be organized in one or more arrays.

<FIG> illustrates an example of a block diagram of a UE <NUM>. As shown, the UE <NUM> may include a system on chip (SOC) <NUM>, which may include portions for various purposes. For example, as shown, the SOC <NUM> may include processor(s) <NUM> which may execute program instructions for the UE <NUM> and display circuitry <NUM> which may perform graphics processing and provide display signals to the display <NUM>. The processor(s) <NUM> may also be coupled to memory management unit (MMU) <NUM>, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) <NUM> and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory <NUM>, read only memory (ROM) <NUM>, NAND flash memory <NUM>) and/or to other circuits or devices, such as the display circuitry <NUM>, radio <NUM>, connector I/F <NUM>, and/or display <NUM>. The MMU <NUM> may be configured to perform memory protection and page table translation or set up. In some embodiments, the MMU <NUM> may be included as a portion of the processor(s) <NUM>.

As shown, the SOC <NUM> may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE <NUM>. For example, the UE <NUM> may include various types of memory (e.g., including Flash memory <NUM>), a connector interface <NUM> (e.g., for coupling to a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), the display <NUM>, and radio <NUM>.

The radio <NUM> may include one or more RF chains. Each RF chain may include a transmit chain, a receive chain, or both. For example, radio <NUM> may include two RF chains to support dual connectivity with two base stations (or two cells). The radio may be configured to support wireless communication according to one or more wireless communication standards, e.g., one or more of GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, <NUM> NR, WCDMA, CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc..

The radio <NUM> couples to antenna subsystem <NUM>, which includes one or more antennas. For example, the antenna subsystem <NUM> may include a plurality of antennas (e.g., organized in one or more arrays) to support applications such as dual connectivity or MIMO and/or beamforming. The antenna subsystem <NUM> transmits and receives radio signals to/from one or more base stations or devices through the radio propagation medium.

In some embodiments, the processor(s) <NUM> may include a baseband processor to generate uplink baseband signals and/or to process downlink baseband signals. The processor(s) <NUM> may be configured to perform data processing according to one or more wireless telecommunication standards, e.g., one or more of GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, <NUM> NR, WCDMA, CDMA2000, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc..

The UE <NUM> may also include one or more user interface elements. The user interface elements may include any of various elements, such as display <NUM> (which may be a touchscreen display), a keyboard (which may be a discrete keyboard or may be implemented as part of a touchscreen display), a mouse, a microphone and/or speakers, one or more cameras, one or more sensors, one or more buttons, sliders, and/or dials, and/or any of various other elements capable of providing information to a user and/or receiving / interpreting user input.

As shown, the UE <NUM> may also include one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs) <NUM>. Each of the one or more SIMs may be implemented as an embedded SIM (eSIM), in which case the SIM may be implemented in device hardware and/or software. For example, in some embodiments, the UE <NUM> may include an embedded UICC (eUICC), e.g., a device which is built into the UE <NUM> and is not removable. The eUICC may be programmable, such that one or more eSIMs may be implemented on the eUICC. In other embodiments, the eSIM may be installed in UE <NUM> software, e.g., as program instructions stored on a memory medium (such as memory <NUM> or Flash <NUM>) executing on a processor (such as processor <NUM>) in the UE <NUM>. As one example, a SIM <NUM> may be an application which executes on a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC). Alternatively, or in addition, one or more of the SIMs <NUM> may be implemented as removable SIM cards.

The processor <NUM> of the UE device <NUM> may be configured to implement part or all of the methods described herein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments, processor <NUM> may be configured as or include: a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array); or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit); or a combination thereof.

<FIG> illustrates a block diagram of a base station <NUM>. The processor(s) <NUM> may also be coupled to memory management unit (MMU) <NUM>, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s) <NUM> and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory <NUM> and read only memory ROM <NUM>) or to other circuits or devices.

The network port <NUM> may be configured to couple to a telephone network and provide access (for a plurality of devices, such as UE devices <NUM>) to the telephone network, as described above in <FIG>.

In some cases, the network port <NUM> may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and/or the core network may provide the telephone services (e.g., among UE devices served by the network provider).

The base station <NUM> may include a radio <NUM> having one or more RF chains. Each RF chain may include a transmit chain, a receive chain, or both. (For example, the base station <NUM> may include at least one RF chain per sector or cell. ) The radio <NUM> couples to antenna subsystem <NUM>, which includes one or more antennas, or one or more arrays of antennas. A plurality of antennas would be needed, e.g., to support applications such as MIMO and/or beamforming. The antenna subsystem <NUM> transmits and receives radio signals to/from UEs through the radio propagation medium.

In some embodiments, the processor(s) <NUM> may include a baseband processor to generate downlink baseband signals and/or to process uplink baseband signals. The baseband processor may be configured to operate according to one or more wireless telecommunication standards, including, but not limited to, GSM, LTE, <NUM> New Radio, WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc..

The processor(s) <NUM> of the base station <NUM> may be configured to implement any of the methods described herein, e.g., by executing program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some embodiments, the processor(s) <NUM> may include: a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array); or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit); or a combination thereof.

In some embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device <NUM> may be configured as shown in <FIG>. UE device <NUM> may include: a radio subsystem <NUM> for performing wireless communication; and a processing element <NUM> operatively coupled to the radio subsystem. (UE device <NUM> may also include any subset of the UE features described above, e.g., in connection with <FIG>.

The radio subsystem <NUM> may include one or more RF chains, e.g., as variously described above. Each RF chain may be configured to receive signals from the radio propagation channel and/or transmit signals onto the radio propagation channel. Thus, each RF chain may include a transmit chain and/or a receive chain. The radio subsystem <NUM> may be coupled to one or more antennas (or one or more arrays of antennas) to facilitate signal transmission and reception. Each transmit chain (or some of the transmit chains) may be tunable to a desired frequency, thus allowing the transmit chain to transmit at different frequencies at different times. Similarly, each receive chain (or some of the receive chains) may be tunable to a desired frequency, thus allowing the receive chain to receive at different frequencies at different times.

The processing element <NUM> may be coupled to the radio subsystem, and may be configured as variously described above. (For example, processing element may be realized by processor(s) <NUM>. ) The processing element may be configured to control the state of each RF chain in the radio subsystem. The processing element may be configured to perform any of the UE-based method embodiments described herein.

In some embodiments, the processing element may include one or more baseband processors to (a) generate baseband signals to be transmitted by the radio subsystem and/or (b) process baseband signals provided by the radio subsystem.

In a dual connectivity mode of operation, the processing element may direct a first RF chain to communicate with a first base station using a first radio access technology and direct a second RF chain to communicate with a second base station using a second radio access technology. For example, the first RF chain may communicate with an LTE eNB, and the second RF chain may communicate with a gNB of <NUM> New Radio (NR). The link with the LTE eNB may be referred to as the LTE branch. The link with the gNB may be referred to as the NR branch. In some embodiments, the processing element may include a first subcircuit for baseband processing with respect to the LTE branch and a second subcircuit for baseband processing with respect to the NR branch.

The processing element <NUM> may be further configured as variously described in the sections below.

The UE device <NUM> may include memory (e.g., any of the memories described above in connection with user equipment <NUM> of <FIG>, or any combination of those memories) that stores program instructions to implement any of the UE method embodiments described herein, e.g., program instructions to be executed by the processing element <NUM>.

In some embodiments, a wireless base station <NUM> of a wireless network (not shown) may be configured as shown in <FIG>. The wireless base station may include: a radio subsystem <NUM> for performing wireless communication over a radio propagation channel; and a processing element <NUM> operatively coupled to the radio subsystem. (The wireless base station may also include any subset of the base station features described above, e.g., the features described above in connection with <FIG>. ) The wireless base station may host one or more cells.

The radio subsystem <NUM> may include one or more RF chains. Each transmit/receive chain may be tunable to a desired frequency, thus allowing the transmit/receive chain to transmit/receive at different frequencies at different times. The radio subsystem <NUM> may be coupled to an antenna subsystem, including one or more antennas, e.g., an array of antennas, or a plurality of antenna arrays. The radio subsystem may employ the antenna subsystem to transmit and receive radio signals to/from the radio wave propagation medium.

The processing element <NUM> may be realized as variously described above. For example, in one embodiment, processing element <NUM> may be realized by processor(s) <NUM>. In some embodiments, the processing element may include one or more baseband processors to: (a) generate baseband signals to be transmitted by the radio subsystem, and/or, (b) process baseband signals provided by the radio subsystem.

The processing element <NUM> may be configured to perform any of the base station method embodiments described herein.

The base station <NUM> may include memory (e.g., memory <NUM> of base station <NUM> of <FIG>, or some other memory) that stores program instructions to implement any of the base station method embodiments described herein, e.g., program instructions to be executed by the processing element <NUM>.

Full-duplex (FD) operation within a TDD band is a topic worthy of consideration. <FIG> illustrates an example of the contrast between a Frequency Domain Duplex (FDD) slot and a Time Domain Duplex (TDD) slot, according to traditional distinctions. Sub-band full-duplex (SB-FD) within a TDD band may aim to mimic FDD for which uplink (UL) latency is reduced, by allowing a first UE to transmit to the base station within a first frequency sub-band and a second UE to receive from the base station within a second frequency sub-band. Both the first and second frequency sub-bands may be within a frequency band reserved (e.g., allocated, defined by applicable standards, etc.) for TDD communications, such as FR2, as defined by 3GPP. By FD, we may refer to the case where (at least) the base station (e.g., gNB) is operating in full-duplex, i.e., simultaneously transmitting and receiving.

When considering full-duplex operation, it may be valuable in some contexts to assume that the UE operates in half-duplex mode, such that the UE may not transmit to the base station and receive from the base station simultaneously, and that the base station (or only the base station) operates in full-duplex mode on non-overlapping sub-bands. In such contexts, each UE may continue to implement TDD communications within one or more sub-bands of the TDD frequency band. However, uplink (UL) transmissions from a first UE may overlap in time with downlink (DL) reception by a second UE.

Thus, in the presence of FD communications, intra- and inter-cell UE-to-UE cross link interference (CLI) may occur. <FIG> illustrates an example of UE-to-UE CLI, where an aggressor UE (UEA) is transmitting to the base station, while a victim UE (UEV) is receiving from the base station, according to some embodiments. CLI may include out-of-band noise, harmonics, or any other energy transmitted by UEA at frequencies within the frequency range at which the UEV is receiving.

In some embodiments, a full-duplex base station (e.g., gNB) should be able to manage this CLI, at least for intra-cell UE-to-UE interference. For example, in some embodiments, UE-to-UE CLI may be managed using scheduler-based techniques. Scheduler-based techniques for CLI management may include techniques based on spatial separation and/or techniques based on separation in frequency.

In spatial separation, the aggressor UE and victim UEs are spatially separated. For example, the scheduler may require a pair of UEs that offer the potential of CLI to be sufficiently separated in distance.

In frequency separation, a guard band may be placed between the transmission allocation for aggressor UE and the reception allocation for the victim UE, e.g., as illustrated in <FIG>. Some signaling between UEs and/or between the UE(s) and the serving base station may be utilized to better achieve this purpose.

As a first example of signaling for management of frequency separation within a TDD band, at least one of the victim UE or the aggressor UE may determine a minimum required (or requested) guard band between the DL resources of the victim UE and the UL resources associated with an aggressor UE, e.g., as shown in <FIG>. Such a guard band (GB) can be in units of frequency, number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) for each tone spacing, etc. In some embodiments, such a GB can be defined between an edge tone of the aggressor UE's UL bandwidth part (BWP) and an edge tone of the victim UE's DL BWP. In some embodiments, such a GB can instead be defined between an edge tone of the resource allocation for UEA and an edge tone of the resource allocation for UEV. For example, a determined GB that is defined between an edge tone of the resource allocation for UEA and an edge tone of the resource allocation for UEV may be greater than the frequency range between the edge tone of the aggressor UL BWP and the edge tone of the victim DL BWP, e.g., if the resource allocation for one or both of the UEs avoids resources near the edge of the respective BWP. In some embodiments, a combination of the two approaches may be used.

In some embodiments, a UE may determine multiple minimum GB values, e.g., depending on various criteria. For example, the UE may determine multiple minimum GB values based on possible priority values of the downlink channel. , the UE may determine a first minimum GB value for ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) communications and a second (e.g., smaller) minimum GB value for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communications, because URLLC communications may be more susceptible to disruption by CLI. As another example, the UE may determine multiple minimum GB values based on types of downlink signal/channel that is being (or may be) received. , the UE may determine a first minimum GB value for use when receiving dynamic physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) communications and a second GB value for use when receiving semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) communications. Or the UE may determine a first GB value for use when receiving data and a second GB value for use when receiving channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) communications. Other options are also envisioned, and the preceding examples are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting.

The one or more minimum GB values may therefore be determined based on any of a number of factors relevant to managing CLI. For example, a GB value may be determined based at least in part on expected levels of out-of-band noise, expected harmonic values, susceptibility of expected DL signals to CLI, priority levels of expected DL signals, signal type and/or channel of expected DL signals, etc. As a specific example, a UE may estimate a minimum GB value that will prevent out-of-band noise within the DL BWP beyond some threshold level. In some scenarios, the threshold level may be adjusted based on priority levels of expected DL signals, signal type and/or channel of expected DL signals, etc..

In some embodiments, at least one of the victim UE or the aggressor UE (e.g., the UE that determined the minimum required guard band) may indicate the determined minimum required GB(s) to the base station. For example, the UE may indicate the minimum required guard band(s) as part of the UE capability signaling. Alternatively, at least one of the UEs may indicate the determined minimum required GB(s) at other times, e.g., dynamically, based on which of multiple determined minimum GBs is currently applicable.

In some embodiments, the base station (e.g., the gNB) may receive the indication of the determined guard band and may ensure the guard band requirement is satisfied, to prevent interference leakage from UEA to UEV. For example, when allocating BWPs and/or transmission/reception resources to UEA and/or UEV, the base station may ensure that the BWPs and/or the allocated resources are separated by at least the indicated minimum guard band.

In some scenarios, a BWP assigned to a UE may be changed, e.g., in response to changing resource needs or requests of the UE. The base station may indicate a new BWP assignment to a UE. In traditional embodiments, UEs may be individually indicated to switch BWP. For example, in paired spectrum, an active UL BWP of a UE and an active DL BWP of the UE can switch independently, per UE. In unpaired spectrum, the active UL BWP of the UE and the active DL BWP of the UE may switch together, per UE.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a single message, such as a group common downlink control information (GC-DCI) message may be defined (or used) to indicate UEs that may switch active BWPs together (i.e., jointly). This indication may enable better management of UE-to-UE CLI. An example according to some embodiments is illustrated in <FIG>.

In the scenario of <FIG>, the base station may allocate to an aggressor UE (UEA) a first UL BWP <NUM> in time for UEA to transmit within the first UL BWP <NUM> at a first time (T<NUM>). Similarly, the base station may allocate to a victim UE (UEV) a first DL BWP <NUM> in time for UEV to receive within the first DL BWP <NUM> at T<NUM>. The base station may allocate a first guard band <NUM> between the first UL BWP <NUM> and the first DL BWP <NUM>, to prevent (or reduce) CLI between the two UEs. The first guard band <NUM> may be allocated with a frequency width of at least a minimum guard band previously indicated by one or more of the UEs, e.g., as outlined above.

In response to an indication of increased UL traffic from UEA, or some other trigger, the base station may subsequently allocate to UEA a larger, second UL BWP <NUM> to UEA. The base station may allocate a second guard band <NUM> with a frequency width of at least the minimum guard band previously indicated by one or more of the UEs, e.g., as outlined above. To maintain this minimum guard band, the base station may allocate a correspondingly smaller second DL BWP <NUM> to UEV. For example, the total frequency band used by the second UL BWP <NUM>, the second guard band <NUM>, and the second DL BWP <NUM> may be the same (or substantially the same) as the total frequency band used by the first UL BWP <NUM>, the first guard band <NUM>, and the first DL BWP <NUM>. Thus, the DL BWP may be decreased by approximately the same amount by which the UL BWP was increased.

In this example, the base station may signal the change in UL BWP allocated to UEA and the change in DL BWP allocated to UEV within a single message, such as a single GC-DCI, transmitted to both UEA and UEV. In response to receiving the single message, each of UEA and UEV may utilize the respective newly allocated BWP to transmit or receive at a second time (T<NUM>).

In some scenarios, the first DL BWP <NUM> and the second DL BWP <NUM> may be usable by a plurality of victim UEs. In such scenarios, the base station may signal the change in UL BWP and the change in DL BWP within a single message transmitted to both UEA and each UE of the plurality of victim UEs.

In another example, the base station may transmit a single message, such as a GC-DCI, to UEA and UEV (and to other victim UEs, as appliable), similarly indicating an increase in a DL BWP and a corresponding decrease in an UL BWP, while maintaining a previously indicated minimum guard band between them.

As yet another example, the base station may transmit a single message to at least UEA and UEV, indicating a change in allocation of at least one of the DL BWP and/or the UL BWP, wherein the change in allocation reflects a change in the size of the guard band. For example, in response to an indication that expected DL traffic will include traffic of a different signal type, channel, priority, etc., the base station may determine that a different minimum guard band is appropriate, e.g., based on a plurality of minimum guard bands previously provided by a UE, as discussed above. The base station may therefore change the allocation of at least one of the DL BWP and/or the UL BWP to accommodate the change in size of the guard band.

When switching between two BWP allocations, a certain minimum amount of time may be reserved to allow the UE to reconfigure applicable hardware and/or software to accommodate the new BWP allocation. Knowledge of this minimum switching delay is important for subsequent communication timing. In current 3GPP specifications, the minimum switching delay is based on subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the UE's current/next active BWP.

For joint BWP switching, a single reference may be employed for all UEs affected by the single BWP switching message (UEs for which a new BWP is allocated), such that all the affected UEs will know how to follow the timeline. For example, in some embodiments, a reference SCS is supported. The minimum switching delay may be defined based on the reference SCS for all affected UEs. Because the affected UEs may not all have the same SCS, the reference SCS may be different from the SCS of one or more of the affected UEs. The reference SCS may be transmitted to the UEs by higher layer signaling. Alternatively, the reference SCS can be indicated as part of group common downlink control information (GC-DCI), e.g., the GC-DCI used to communicate the changes in BWPs, or another GC-DCI.

In some embodiments, a BWP switch delay is defined from the beginning of DL slot in which the affected UEs are expected to receive GC-DCI indicating joint BWP switch.

In some embodiments, one or more of the affected UEs may acknowledge the joint BWP switch indication. For example, in some embodiments, both the victim and the aggressor UEs may acknowledge the joint BWP switch indication, e.g., by transmitting to the base station a message including an acknowledgment.

Alternatively, only the aggressor UE may be required to acknowledge the joint BWP switch indication. In such embodiments, victim UEs may forgo providing any acknowledgement to the base station. The base station may be able to operate without such an explicit acknowledgement, at least in some scenarios. For example, if the joint BWP switch message indicates that the DL BWP has been reduced, then the base station may avoid scheduling any DL resources within the region that is no longer included in the updated DL BWP. Thus, even if a victim UE fails to receive the joint BWP switch indication (which failure is unknown to the base station because the base station does not expect any acknowledgement indication from the victim UE), DL communications to the victim UE are not compromised, as the victim UE will merely monitor a DL region that is larger than necessary. In such cases, the only drawback will likely be a relatively small waste of power by the victim UE, by reason of monitoring the extra region.

As another alternative, only the UE whose BWP (DL BWP for victim, or UL BWP for aggressor) is increased acknowledges the joint BWP switch indication. In the example of <FIG>, it is aggressor UEA that should acknowledge detection of the joint BWP switch indication. As in the previous example, a UE having a BWP that was reduced in size by the joint BWP switch indication may continue to operate effectively (if less efficiently), even if the joint BWP switch indication is not received thereby, because the base station will not schedule transmission or reception for that UE within the region removed from the BWP applicable to that UE.

In some embodiment, the acknowledgement may be sent on a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE), e.g., on the new BWP or current BWP, or it can be sent on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH). In the latter case, the resource for the PUCCH transmission can be indicated to the UE as part of GC-DCI, e.g., the GC-DCI used to communicate the changes in BWPs, or another GC-DCI.

In some embodiments, an acknowledge message may be sent by a UE to the base station in response to completion of the switch to the new bandwidth part.

In some embodiments, due to a joint BWP switch, e.g., indicated by the GC-DCI, transmission or reception of one of the UEs (aggressor or victim) may lie within the BWP switch delay. In particular, where a transmission has a plurality of repetition occasions, one or more repetition occasions may fall within the BWP switch delay. In such scenarios, accommodation should be made regarding how to handle these repetition occasions. <FIG> illustrates an example of such a situation, in which a first repetition occasion (Occasion <NUM>) occurs prior to BWP switching, a second repetition occasion (Occasion <NUM>) occurs within the BWP switch delay period, and a third repetition occasion (Occasion <NUM>) occurs after BWP switching.

In a first embodiment, any repetition occasion scheduled to occur within the BWP switch delay may be dropped (e.g., the UE may forgo transmitting or receiving the repetition). If any repetition occasions are scheduled to occur after the BWP switch delay, such occasions may be used within the new active BWP. For example, within the context illustrated in <FIG>, a first repetition may be transmitted within Occasion <NUM>, according to the original BWP allocation, but Occasion <NUM> may be dropped. At Occasion <NUM>, another repetition may be transmitted, according to the new BWP allocation.

In a second embodiment, behavior may be the same as in the first embodiment, except that the number of repetitions may be extended in the new active BWP, e.g., to compensate for the dropped repetitions during the BWP switch delay. Thus, the total number of available repetitions may be the same as (or similar to) the number of repetitions that would have occurred if there was no switch. For example, the total number of available repetitions may be the same as (or similar to) the number of repetitions configured by a network or specified by a wireless communication standard. Within the context of <FIG>, a first repetition may be transmitted within Occasion <NUM>, according to the original BWP allocation, but no transmission may occur within the BWP switch delay period in which Occasion <NUM> was originally scheduled. Occasion <NUM> and Occasion <NUM> may both occur following the BWP switch delay, according to the new BWP allocation.

Note that, in both the first and second embodiments, the rest of the occasions are used if the Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) matches in the new active BWP.

In a third embodiment, all remaining repetitions following the start of the BWP switch delay are dropped. For example, in the context of <FIG>, a first repetition may be transmitted within Occasion <NUM>, according to the original BWP allocation, but all subsequent occasions may be dropped.

In a fourth embodiment, the UE does not expect such a BWP switch indication. For example, the base station may be constrained to delay any BWP switch (or any joint BWP switch) until all scheduled repetition occasions have occurred. However, in the context of joint BWP switching, there may be higher priority requirements for one or more other UE, so it may be difficult to enforce this constraint.

In some embodiments, if there is no overlapping between the UL BWP of aggressor UEA and the DL BWP of victim UEV, a virtual common DL BWP may be defined which overlaps with the actual DL BWPs and UL BWPs of victim UEs and aggressor UEs, respectively. This large virtual DL-BWP may have the same center frequency as the UL BWP. The UL BWP(s) of one or more aggressor UEs may be grouped in around the center of the virtual common DL BWP, and the DL BWPs of the victim UEs may be placed at the ends of the virtual common DL-BWP, e.g., as shown in <FIG>, according to some embodiments. A first guard band may be placed between the UL BWP(s) and the DL BWP(s) at the upper end, and a second guard band may be placed between the UL BWP(s) and the DL BWP(s) at the lower end. The guard bands may be of sufficient size to allow an increase in size of the UL BWP(s) without necessitating a decrease in the size of the DL BWPs. Thus, the UE(s) in DL do not necessarily need to switch to smaller actual DL BWP(s), e.g., even when the UL BWP of an aggressor UE is increased to a larger size. It is sufficient for a UE to know what is the actual DL-BWP (or actual DL-BWP size) for the UE, and how Frequency-Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA) for the UE is derived. The smaller size of the actual DL-BWPs can save DCI bit size for FDRA indication in DL grants.

In some embodiments, if there is no overlapping between the DL BWP of UEA and the UL BWP of UEB, a virtual common DL BWP may be defined which overlaps with the actual DL BWPs of victim UE(s) and the UL BWPs of aggressor UE(s).

In some embodiments, a non-transitory memory medium may store program instructions. The program instructions, when executed by processing circuitry, may cause the processing circuitry to perform any of the method embodiments described above, and any combination of those embodiments. The memory medium may be incorporated as part of a base station.

In some embodiments, a computer system may be configured to include a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, where the memory medium stores program instructions, where the processor is configured to read and execute the program instructions from the memory medium, where the program instructions are executable to implement any of the various method embodiments described herein (or, any combination of the method embodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the method embodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets). The computer system may be realized in any of various forms. For example, the computer system may be a personal computer (in any of its various realizations), a workstation, a computer on a card, an application-specific computer in a box, a server computer, a client computer, a hand-held device, a user equipment (UE) device, a tablet computer, a wearable computer, etc..

Any of the methods described herein for operating a user equipment (UE) in communication with a base station (or transmission-reception point) may be the basis of a corresponding method for operating a base station (or transmission-reception point), by interpreting each message/signal X received by the UE in the downlink as a message/signal X transmitted by the base station (or transmission-reception point), and each message/signal Y transmitted in the uplink by the UE as a message/signal Y received by the base station (or transmission-reception point).

Claim 1:
A method performed by a first user equipment, UE, the method comprising:
determining a first minimum frequency guard band value for use between frequency resources associated with downlink communications between the first UE and a base station, and frequency resources associated with uplink communications between a second UE and the base station;
determining a second minimum frequency guard band value for use between frequency resources associated with downlink communications between the first UE and a base station, and frequency resources associated with uplink communications between a second UE and the base station, wherein the first minimum frequency guard band value is for use when downlink communications for the first UE have a first set of characteristics, and wherein the second minimum frequency guard band value is for use when downlink communications for the first UE have a second set of characteristics;
transmitting to the base station an indication of the first minimum frequency guard band value; and
receiving from the base station a downlink bandwidth part, BWP, allocation for the first UE accommodating the first minimum frequency guard band value;
wherein the first set of characteristics and the second set of characteristics are defined as at least one of:
the first set of characteristics defines ultra-reliable low latency communications, URLLC, and the second set of characteristics defines enhanced mobile broadband, eMBB, communications;
the first set of characteristics defines dynamic physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, communications and the second set of characteristics defines semi-persistent scheduling, SPS, communications; or
the first set of characteristics defines data communications and the second set of characteristics defines channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, communications.