Patent Description:
Aspects of wireless communication may comprise direct communication between devices, such as in V2X, V2V, and/or D2D communication. There exists a need for further improvements in V2X, V2V, and/or D2D technology.

<NPL>" discloses approaches for vulnerable symbol handling. Among others, it expresses the desire to have codeblock concatenation and VRB mapping done in a way that ensures equal protection for all the codeblocks.

The present disclosure provides a method of wireless communications according to claim <NUM>, an apparatus for wireless communication according to claim <NUM>, and a computer-readable medium according to claim <NUM>. Preferred embodiments are subject of the dependent claims.

The present implementations generally relates to codeblock concatenation for improved vulnerable symbol handling. In some wireless communication systems, such as, but not limited to, device-to-device (D2D) and/or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) systems, transmissions of data by a user equipment (UE) may inevitably include vulnerable symbols that result in catastrophic errors. Vulnerable symbols may be defined as symbols that can potentially be lost at a receiver due to various factors. For example, such factors include automatic gain control (AGC) retraining, transmission/reception retuning, and/or half duplex constraints (e.g., receiver UE may transmit acknowledgment or negative acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) on a symbol). At the receiver, any vulnerable resource element that is punctured may be handled by setting the log likelihood ratios (LLRs) corresponding to that symbol equal to zero.

As previously noted, puncturing symbols at the receiver may lead to catastrophic errors (e.g., blind error rate (BLER) = <NUM> at all signal-to-noise (SNRs)) or significant performance degradation. The best case scenario, when puncturing occurs, may be performance loss proportional to a value equal to a number of punctured resource elements divided by a number of total resource elements. In some cases, however, catastrophic error or significant performance degradation may be possible (depending on coding, resource element mapping etc.). For instance, for some implementations of V2X, the first symbol may get punctured at the receiver for the purpose of AGC retraining. The forgoing may be indicative of transport block size (TBS) and/or modulation and coding scheme (MCS) combinations that may lead to catastrophic errors due to the same. As such, the aforementioned is a fundamental problem to be solved for D2D/V2V scenarios. Specifically, it may be desirable to implement a low-complexity retransmission scheme for improved handling of vulnerable symbols to provide robustness to potential symbol puncturing at the receiver.

As such, the present implementations provide techniques for codeblock concatenation for improved vulnerable symbol handling. Specifically, in an implication, a transmitter UE may determine, for each of a first codeblock and a second codeblock, a first number of resource elements satisfying a vulnerability condition and a second number of resource elements not satisfying the vulnerability condition. The UE may further determine, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a first number of coded bits to be mapped to the first number of resource elements and the second number of resource elements. The UE may further extract, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a subset of the first number of resource elements and a subset of the second number of resource elements. The UE may further concatenate the subset of the first number of resource elements from the first codeblock and the second codeblock. The UE may further concatenate the subset of the second number of resource elements from the first codeblock and the second codeblock. The UE may further generate a concatenated codeblock for transmission including the concatenated subset of the first number of resource elements and the concatenated subset of the second number of resource elements.

Additional features of the present aspects are described in more detail below with respect to <FIG>.

The wireless communications system (also referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) includes base stations <NUM>, UEs <NUM>, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) <NUM>, and a Core Network (e.g., 5GC) <NUM>.

In certain aspects, a UE 104a, e.g., a transmitting Vehicle User Equipment (VUE) or other UE, may be configured to transmit messages directly to another UE <NUM>, e.g., UE 104b. The communication may be based on V2V/V2X or other D2D communication, such as Proximity Services (ProSe). Communication based on V2V, V2X, and/or D2D may also be transmitted and received by other transmitting and receiving devices, such as Road Side Unit (RSU) <NUM>, etc. Aspects of the communication may be based on PC5 or sidelink communication.

In certain aspects, a UE 104a (e.g., a transmitting device) may comprise a codeblock concatenations component <NUM> configured to determine, for each of a first codeblock and a second codeblock, a first number of resource elements satisfying a vulnerability condition and a second number of resource elements not satisfying the vulnerability condition. The codeblock concatenations component <NUM> may determine, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a first number of coded bits to be mapped to the first number of resource elements and the second number of resource elements. The codeblock concatenations component <NUM> may extract, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a subset of the first number of resource elements and a subset of the second number of resource elements. The codeblock concatenations component <NUM> may concatenate the subset of the first number of resource elements from the first codeblock and the second codeblock. The apparatus may concatenate the subset of the second number of resource elements from the first codeblock and the second codeblock. The codeblock concatenations component <NUM> may generate a concatenated codeblock for transmission including the concatenated subset of the first number of resource elements and the concatenated subset of the second number of resource elements.

The base stations <NUM> configured for <NUM> LTE (collectively referred to as Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) may interface with the EPC <NUM> through backhaul links <NUM> (e.g., S1 interface). The base stations <NUM> configured for NR (collectively referred to as Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)) may interface with Core Network <NUM> through backhaul links <NUM>. The base stations <NUM> may communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC <NUM> or Core Network <NUM>) with each other over backhaul links <NUM> (e.g., X2 interface).

A network that includes both small cell and macro cells may be known as a heterogeneous network. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or less carriers may be allocated for DL than for UL).

A base station <NUM>, whether a small cell <NUM>' or a large cell (e.g., macro base station), may include an eNB, gNodeB (gNB), or other type of base station.

The Core Network <NUM> may include an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) <NUM>, other AMFs <NUM>, a Session Management Function (SMF) <NUM>, and a User Plane Function (UPF) <NUM>. The AMF <NUM> is the control node that processes the signaling between the UEs <NUM> and the Core Network <NUM>.

The base station <NUM> provides an access point to the EPC <NUM> or Core Network <NUM> for a UE <NUM>.

<FIG> is a diagram <NUM> illustrating an example of a slot structure that may be used within a <NUM>/NR frame structure, e.g., for sidelink communication. This is merely one example, and other wireless communication technologies may have a different frame structure and/or different channels.

Each time slot may include a resource block (RB) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) that extends <NUM> consecutive subcarriers. As illustrated in <FIG>, some of the REs may comprise control information, e.g., along with demodulation RS (DM-RS). The control information may comprise Sidelink Control Information (SCI). At least one symbol at the beginning of a slot may be used by a transmitting device to perform a Listen Before Talk (LBT) operation prior to transmitting. At least one symbol may be used for feedback, as described herein. Another symbol, e.g., at the end of the slot may be used as a gap. The gap enables a device to switch from operating as a transmitting device to prepare to operate as a receiving device, e.g., in the following slot. Data may be transmitted in the remaining REs, as illustrated. The data may comprise the data message described herein. The position of any of the SCI, feedback, and LBT symbols may be different than the example illustrated in <FIG>. Multiple slots may be aggregated together. <FIG> illustrates an example aggregation of two slot. The aggregated number of slots may also be larger than two. When slots are aggregated, the symbols used for feedback and/or a gap symbol may be different that for a single slot.

<FIG> is a block diagram <NUM> of a first wireless communication device <NUM> in communication with a second wireless communication device <NUM>, e.g., via V2V/V2X/D2D communication. The device <NUM> may comprise a transmitting device including, for example, codeblock concatenations component <NUM>, communicating with a receiving device, e.g., device <NUM>, via V2V/V2X/D2D communication. The communication may be based, e.g., on sidelink. The transmitting device <NUM> may comprise a UE, an RSU, etc. The receiving device may comprise a UE, an RSU, etc. Packets may be provided to a controller/processor <NUM> that implements layer <NUM> and layer <NUM> functionality.

<FIG> illustrates an example <NUM> of wireless communication between devices based on V2X/V2V/D2D communication. Transmitting device <NUM>, which may include codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, transmits a transmission <NUM>, e.g., comprising a control channel and/or a corresponding data channel, that may be received by receiving devices <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>. The devices <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> may each be capable of operating as a transmitting device in addition to operating as a receiving device. In particular, the receiving devices <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> may transmit positive acknowledgments of the transmission <NUM>. Thus, device <NUM> is illustrated as transmitting a transmission <NUM> and device <NUM> is illustrated as transmitting a transmission <NUM>. Device <NUM> is illustrated with no transmission, which may signify that the device <NUM> did not receive or correctly decode the transmission <NUM>. The transmissions <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> may be broadcast or multicast to nearby devices. In addition to receiving devices <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>, the transmitting device <NUM> may also transmit or receive communication from RSU <NUM> and other devices.

<FIG> is an example diagram <NUM> of vulnerable symbol puncturing. For example, the symbol puncturing may be experienced at a receiver side. The symbol puncturing may be due to, at least in part, AGC retraining. At <NUM>, for instance, a second transmitter UE (e.g., which may be in proximity to the receiver UE), may begin transmission in slot <NUM>, resulting in low noise amplifier (LNA) saturation at the receiver UE. The receiver UE may lose a first symbol as a result of AGC retraining and/or LNA gain setting based on a newly received power level in the same slot. At <NUM>, the lost or punctured symbols are shown corresponding to the respective transmission at the receiver UE. At <NUM>, the second transmitter UE (e.g., which may be in close proximity to the receiver UE), may stop transmission in the slot <NUM>, resulting in a much lower receiver power in slot <NUM>. AGC may be implemented to reduce quantization noise when the receiver UE is receiving second transmitter UE's transmission.

In some implementations, opportunistic use of the vulnerable symbols may be avoided initially. That is, potentially vulnerable are rate matched at the transmitter. For example, in the case where the vulnerable symbol may be due to AGC, the AGC symbol can then be a special sequence for AGC purposes only. However, the above implementation may result in loss with respect to spectral efficiency and/or throughput and range. The loss may depend on a subcarrier spacing (SCS) and other transmission parameters (e.g., total number of resource elements for data bits).

In another implementation, a mapping of the coded bits with higher importance (e.g., systematic bits) to resource elements that are vulnerable to receiver puncturing may be avoided. To do so, changes to the bit interleaver, virtual resource block (VRB) mapping, and/or codeblock concatenation may be performed. An advantage of this implementation may be significant performance gains, while preserving certain implementation friendly aspects. However, the drawbacks may include hardware and firmware changes, that may be different from NR Uu baseline implementations.

In a further aspect, sub-optimal implementations of the mapping of coded bits with higher importance to resource elements that are vulnerable to receiver puncturing may be performed. That is, attempts to reuse NR Uu baseline coding and resource element mapping procedures may be made, with minimal modifications to achieve good performance/complexity tradeoffs. In this implementation, changes to codeblock concatenation may be made. Hence, this implementation provides a sub-optimal scheme that permutes the order of codeblocks over retransmission (e.g., for improved performance with retransmissions). The present implementations differ from the above examples, however, by providing alternate codeblock concatenation procedures that does not rely on retransmission for improved performance.

<FIG> is an example conceptual diagram <NUM> of slot transmission with two codeblocks. In some implementations, NR Uu baseline coding and VRB mapping may lead to unequal codeblock protection of vulnerable symbols. For instance, as shown in diagram <NUM>, a slot transmission with two codeblocks in a transport block demonstrates the unequal codeblock protection. Specifically, slot depiction <NUM> shows the vulnerable symbols and non-vulnerable symbols within a transmit time interval (TTI). The coded and mapped symbols of <NUM> demonstrates that all the puncturing occurs in a first codeblock, while the second codeblock is not punctured. As shown in <NUM>, only the first codeblock is mapped to vulnerable symbols. As a result, the first codeblock may have degraded performance compared to the second codeblock.

<FIG> is a graph diagram <NUM> of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) mapped to the blind error rate (BLER) for codeblock transmissions. Specifically, points <NUM> demonstrate that without improved concatenation of vulnerable symbols, the codeblocks may be disproportionally protected due to receiver side puncturing of the vulnerable symbols. The result may be an increased SNR and/or BLER for codeblock <NUM>, increasing the likelihood of performance degradation at a receiver UE.

<FIG> is a flow diagram of a coding scheme <NUM> according to one or more implementations of the present disclosure. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include receiving data information bits and performing low density parity check (LDPC) base graph selection. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include a TB cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of <NUM> or <NUM> bit. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include a CB segmentation. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may perform codeblock CRC. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include a filler bit insertion. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include LDPC channel coding. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include filler bit removal. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include rate matching. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include bit interleaving. At <NUM>, coding scheme <NUM> may include improved codeblock concatenation to achieve equal protection of all codeblocks for transmission. In some implementations, codeblocks are concatenated sequentially for transmissions (e.g., which may apply to retransmissions as well - codeblock concatenation order may remain unchanged over retransmissions).

In one implementation, as part of block <NUM>, a transmitter UE may determine the encoded bits for each codeblock to be transmitted according to an encoding procedure as illustrated in <FIG>. The transmitter UE may further determine Er(nv) and Er(v) as the number of the coded bits for each codeword that will be mapped to non-vulnerable and vulnerable REs, respectively. In some implementations, Er, which may correspond to a size of the codeblock, may be determined based on: <MAT>.

Further, Er(v) may be determined based on<MAT>.

In one case, the number of vulnerable REs is equal to the number of REs for the first symbols in a slot. The transmitter UE may, for each codeword, extract a subset (set A) of Er(v) coded bits and a subset (set B) of Er(nv) coded bits. In one case, set A is the first Er(v) coded bits of the codeblock and set B is the last Er(nv) coded bits of the codeblock. In another case, set A is the last Er(v) coded bits of the codeblock and set B is the first Er(nv) coded bits of the codeblock. The transmitter UE may further concatenate the set-A subset of coded bits from all the codewords (equal to set X). The transmitter UE may further concatenate the set-B subset of coded bits from all the codewords (equal to set Y). The transmitter UE may further generate the concatenated codeblock by concatenating set X and set Y and mapping to the REs. In one case, the concatenated codeblock may be generated by concatenating the bits from set X first, and set Y next. In one case, the coded bits in set X may be mapped the vulnerable REs and the coded bits in set Y are mapped to the non-vulnerable REs. In one case, the coded bits in set X may be mapped to the REs on the first symbol and coded bits in set Y are mapped on the other symbols in the slot.

<FIG> is a conceptual diagram of a codeblock concatenation scheme <NUM>. For example, the codeblock concatenation scheme <NUM> may be a graphical representation of the coding scheme <NUM> in <FIG>, and notably block <NUM>. Specifically, ensuring equal protection and/or performance of all codeblocks may be of particular importance if relying on TB level ACK / NACK. At <NUM>, at least one codeblock may be rate matched (similar to block <NUM>, <FIG>). At <NUM>, bit interleaving may be performed. At <NUM>, the codeblock concatenation procedure may be implemented as described herein with respect to block <NUM>, <FIG>. Specifically, the vulnerable bits and non-vulnerable bits from at least two codeblocks are identified and grouped / concatenated into a vulnerable set X and non-vulnerable set Y. The codeblock may then be concatenated and sent to VRB and PRB mapping.

<FIG> is a flow diagram of a coding, symbol modulation, and resource element mapping scheme <NUM>. Blocks <NUM> through <NUM> may correspond to blocks <NUM> through <NUM> in <FIG>. As the coded data bits are fed to block <NUM>, the bits may be scrambled according to at least one scrambling sequence. At block <NUM>, the codeblock may be modulated, and at block <NUM>, the modulated codeblock may be layer mapped. At block <NUM>, the resource element mapping scheme <NUM> may map to one or more antenna ports. Further, at block <NUM>, the resource element mapping scheme <NUM> may perform VRB mapping. At block <NUM>, the resource element mapping scheme <NUM> may perform VRB to physical resource block (RB) mapping.

In some implementations, blocks <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>, indicate the blocks for which improvements at the transmitter UE may be implemented for improved handling of vulnerable symbols. Generally, the improved handling of vulnerable symbols avoids mapping coded bits with higher importance to the vulnerable symbols. That is, the present implementations avoid mapping systematic bits to vulnerable symbols. In one implementation, for instance, at block <NUM>, LDPC base graph selection provides for target code rate calculation (e.g., base graph selection) to account for the pessimistic case when the vulnerable symbols are punctured at the receiver UE. In another implementation, at block <NUM>, bit interleaving may avoid systematic bits being present in every modulated symbol (e.g., for code rate > <NUM>/Qm) and avoid their mapping to vulnerable resource elements. In a further implementation, code block concatenation ensures equal protection across codeblocks by mapping equally to vulnerable vs. non-vulnerable symbols (REs) for each CB. In an additional implementation, at block <NUM>, VRB mapping avoids mapping systematic bits to vulnerable resource elements.

<FIG> is a conceptual diagram <NUM> of LDPC base graph selection and target rate calculation. For instance, two LDPC base-graphs may be used for data channels. Specifically, base graph <NUM> may include a maximum information block length Kmax = <NUM>, Zmax = <NUM>, kb = <NUM>, Rmin = <NUM>/<NUM>. Further, base graph <NUM> may include a maximum information block length Kmax =<NUM>, Zmax = <NUM>, kb = <NUM>, Rmin = <NUM>/<NUM>. Base graph <NUM> may be used for combinations of block lengths K><NUM> and code rates R><NUM>/<NUM>. Base graph <NUM> may be used for block lengths K≤<NUM> for all code rates. In some implementations, transmitter UE may determine the number of vulnerable symbols that can be potentially punctured at the receiver UE. Additionally, the transmitter UE may determine the target code rate (R) considering the pessimistic assumption that vulnerable symbols may be lost at the receiver UE, and determines the base graph to use accordingly. In some implementations, the transmitter UE determines a target code rate (R1) assuming all symbols (vulnerable and non-vulnerable) are received at receiver UE (optimistic assumption). Further, the transmitter UE may determine a target code rate (R2) assuming vulnerable symbols may be punctured at Rx UE (pessimistic assumption). Also, the transmitter UE may determine a target code rate as function of R1 and R2 for determining the base graph. In one example, the determination may be based on a traffic type (e.g., unicast vs multicast, where unicast may correspond to the pessimistic case, and multicast may correspond to the optimistic case). In another example, the function of (R1, R2) may be adapted over time based on ACK/NACK feedback.

<FIG> is a conceptual diagram <NUM> of an example of coding bit interleaving. A bit interleaver may be applied to each codeblock after rate-matching to ensure that (e.g., for RV0) systematic bits get mapped to the most significant bit (MSB) (e.g., for higher reliability) in the QAM modulated symbols. In some implementations, the interleaving may achieve systematic bit priority ordering for RV0. For example, codeblock <NUM> may correspond to a codeblock after rate matching of size Er bits. As shown, a first bit interleaving <NUM> may not handle vulnerable resource elements in a manner to avoid receiver error. That is, for code rate greater than <NUM>/Qm, all or nearly all of the modulated symbols (i.e., every resource element) may have at least one (MSB) systematic bits. As such, as shown in the interleaving of <NUM>, modulated symbols may be formed to correspond to non-vulnerable resource elements first, and then corresponding to vulnerable resource elements. As shown at <NUM>, all modulated symbols in the first bit interleaving <NUM> have systematic bits. However, at <NUM>, the second bit interleaving <NUM> includes systematic bits that are preferentially mapped to first Er(nv)/Qm modulated symbols (e.g., that are non-vulnerable) over the last Er(v)/Qm modulated symbols that may be vulnerable.

In the example shown at <NUM>, the code rate may be greater than <NUM>/Qm, but less than <NUM>/Qm. The transmitter UE may determine Er(nv) and Er(v) as the ratio of the coded bits that are non-vulnerable and vulnerable, respectively. Further, as an example, Er(nv) + Er(v) = Er (size of code block). Additionally, Er(v) = # vulnerable resource elements * bits per modulated symbol * #layers / #CBs. Further, bit interleaving may be performed such that the first Er(nv)/Qm columns are filled first (row-wise) and remaining Er(v)/Qm columns are filled later. Moreover, output bits may be read column-wise mapper starting from the first column to Er/Qm column.

<FIG> is a diagram <NUM> of an example code block concatenation. For example, the resource elements of at least two codeblocks <NUM> may be concatenated according to a vulnerability condition. For more than one code block, concatenation is performed by sequentially concatenating the codeblock. Depending on the VRB mapping, the first codeword may be mapped to non-vulnerable symbols, and the second codeword may be mapped to non-vulnerable symbols in addition to the vulnerable symbols. In other words, the second codeblock may be mapped to vulnerable symbols leading to unequal protection and/or code rate of the first codeword as compared to the second codeword. For example, as shown, one slot, two codeblocks transmissions, with one vulnerable symbol may be included as part of the transmission. If mapping VRB without vulnerability protection, then only the first codeblock will get mapped to vulnerable symbols. Alternatively, the present implementations provide a VRB mapping to map to non-vulnerable symbols first, then the second codeblock may be mapped to vulnerable symbols.

<FIG> is a diagram <NUM> of a further example code block concatenation. In some implementations, the codeblock can be concatenated. Each codeblock can be split into a non-vulnerable part and vulnerable part. The sizes of the Er(nv) and Er(v) can be the same as in bit-interleaving. The non-vulnerable part can be concatenated first across, and then codeblocks and then concatenate vulnerable part across codeblocks. Inherently this type of codeblocks concatenated with VRB mapping providing a mapping non-vulnerable symbols first, and to vulnerable symbols last.

Similar to codeblock concatenation, the resources may be mapped to non-vulnerable symbols first, and vulnerable symbols last. Further, frequency first mapping within those symbols may be performed. Together with the codeblock concatenation changes, such implementation may ensure multiple codeblocks are protected equally. For multi-slot transmission, at least two options may be implemented. The first option may correspond to: [slot <NUM> non-vulnerable. slot <NUM> vulnerable. slot <NUM> non-vulnerable. slot2 vulnerable]. The first option maps slot-by-slot, starting with non-vulnerable symbols in a given slot followed by vulnerable symbols in that slot. The second option may correspond to: [slot <NUM> non-vulnerable. slot <NUM> non-vulnerable. slot <NUM> vulnerable. slot2 vulnerable]. The second option maps to non-vulnerable symbols across aggregated slots first, and vulnerable slots across the aggregated slots last.

<FIG> is a flowchart of a method <NUM> of wireless communication. The method may <NUM> be performed by a transmitting device (e.g., the UE 104a including a codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, transmitting device <NUM>, <NUM>, the apparatus <NUM>/<NUM>'). The method may provide equal codeblock protection of vulnerable symbols.

At block <NUM>, the transmitting device 104a, via the codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, determines, for each of a first codeblock and a second codeblock, a first number of resource elements satisfying a vulnerability condition and a second number of resource elements not satisfying the vulnerability condition.

In some implementations, the satisfaction of the vulnerability condition indicates a potential puncturing of one or more resource elements at a receiver, the vulnerability condition corresponding to at least one of an automatic gain control retraining, a transmission/reception retuning, or a half duplex constraint.

At block <NUM>, via the codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, the transmitting device 104a determines, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a first number of coded bits to be mapped to the first number of resource elements and a second number of coded bits to be mapped to the second number of resource elements.

At block <NUM>, via the codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, the transmitting device 104a extracts, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a subset of the first number of coded bits and a subset of the second number of coded bits.

At block <NUM>, via the codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, the transmitting device 104a concatenates the subsets of the first number of coded bits from the first codeblock and the second codeblock.

At block <NUM>, via the codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, the transmitting device 104a concatenates the subsets of the second number of coded bits from the first codeblock and the second codeblock.

At block <NUM>, via the codeblock concatenation component <NUM>, the transmitting device 104a generates a concatenated codeblock for transmission including the concatenated subsets of the first number of coded bits and the concatenated subsets of the second number of coded bits.

In some implementations, although not shown, the method <NUM> may include determining a target code rate based at least on one of the first number of resource elements satisfying the vulnerability condition or the second number of resource elements not satisfying the vulnerability condition, and selecting a base graph from a set of base graphs each having a distinct maximum information block length based on the target code rate.

In some implementations, the base graph corresponds to a low density parity check (LDPC) base graph.

In some implementations, although not shown, the method <NUM> may include applying a bit interleaver to the first codeblock and the second codeblock to initially map bits to the second number of resource elements prior to the first number of resource elements.

In some implementations, the bits include systematic bits and parity bits, and the systematic bits are mapped to the second number of resource elements prior to the first number of resource elements.

The concatenated codeblock includes the concatenated subsets of the second number of resource elements prior to the concatenated subsets of the first number of resource elements.

In some implementations, the concatenated codeblock sequentially includes the second number of coded bits of the first codeblock, the second number of coded bits of the second codeblock, the first number of coded bits of the first codeblock, and the first number of coded bits of the second codeblock.

In some implementations, although not shown, the method <NUM> may include performing virtual resource block (VRB) mapping based on the first number of resource elements and the second number of resource elements for the first codeblock and the second codeblock.

In some implementations, performing VRB mapping includes mapping, slot-by-slot from the first codeblock and the second codeblock, the second number of resource elements prior to the first number of resource elements.

In some implementations, performing VRB mapping includes mapping, for the first codeblock and the second codeblock, to the second number of resource elements across aggregated slots prior to mapping, for the first codeblock and the second codeblock, to the first number of resource elements across the aggregated slots.

<FIG> is a conceptual data flow diagram <NUM> illustrating the data flow between different means/components in an example apparatus <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> may be a transmitting device, e.g., UE 104a. The apparatus <NUM> includes a reception component <NUM> that receives transmissions from the UE <NUM>, a vulnerability determination component <NUM> that determines, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a first number of coded bits to be mapped to the first number of resource elements and a second number of coded bits to be mapped to the second number of resource elements, extracts, for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a subset of the first number of coded bits and a subset of the second number of coded bits, concatenates the subsets of the first number of coded bits from the first codeblock and the second codeblock, concatenates the subsets of the second number of coded bits from the first codeblock and the second codeblock, and generates a concatenated codeblock for transmission including the concatenated subsets of the first number of coded bits and the concatenated subsets of the second number of coded bits.

The apparatus <NUM> may include additional components that perform each of the blocks of the algorithm in the aforementioned flowchart of <FIG>, and/or aspects described in connection with <FIG>. As such, each block in the aforementioned flowchart of <FIG> and/or aspects described in connection with <FIG> may be performed by a component and the apparatus may include one or more of those components.

<FIG> is a diagram <NUM> illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus <NUM>' employing a processing system <NUM>. The processing system <NUM> may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus <NUM>. The bus <NUM> may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system <NUM> and the overall design constraints. The bus <NUM> links together various circuits including one or more processors and/or hardware components, represented by the processor <NUM>, the components <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The bus <NUM> may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.

The processing system <NUM> may be coupled to a transceiver <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is coupled to one or more antennas <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> provides a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The transceiver <NUM> receives a signal from the one or more antennas <NUM>, extracts information from the received signal, and provides the extracted information to the processing system <NUM>, specifically the reception component <NUM>. In addition, the transceiver <NUM> receives information from the processing system <NUM>, specifically the transmission component <NUM>, and based on the received information, generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas <NUM>. The processing system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The processor <NUM> is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The software, when executed by the processor <NUM>, causes the processing system <NUM> to perform the various functions described supra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium / memory <NUM> may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor <NUM> when executing software. The processing system <NUM> further includes at least one of the components <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>. The components may be software components running in the processor <NUM>, resident/stored in the computer readable medium / memory <NUM>, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor <NUM>, or some combination thereof. The processing system <NUM> may be a component of the first transmitting device <NUM> or the second transmitting device <NUM> and may include the memory <NUM>, <NUM> and/or at least one of the TX processor <NUM>, <NUM>, the RX processor <NUM>, <NUM>, and the controller/processor <NUM>, <NUM>.

In one configuration, the apparatus <NUM>/<NUM>' for wireless communication includes means for configuring, via a control channel, acknowledgment resources for member receiving devices of a group; means for transmitting a group cast message to the member receiving devices of the group; and means for repeating the transmission of the group cast message until an acknowledgment is received from each member of the group or a number of transmissions of the group cast message reaches a maximum number of transmissions. The apparatus <NUM>/<NUM>' may also include means for counting a number of received acknowledgments. As described supra, the processing system <NUM> may include the TX processor <NUM>, <NUM>, the RX processor <NUM>, <NUM>, and the controller/processor <NUM>, <NUM>. As such, in one configuration, the aforementioned means may be the TX processor <NUM>, <NUM>, the RX processor <NUM>, <NUM>, and the controller/processor <NUM>, <NUM> configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

Claim 1:
A method of wireless communications, comprising:
determining (<NUM>), for each of a first codeblock and a second codeblock, a first number of resource elements satisfying a vulnerability condition and a second number of resource elements not satisfying the vulnerability condition;
determining (<NUM>), for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a first number of coded bits to be mapped to the first number of resource elements and a second number of coded bits to be mapped to the second number of resource elements;
extracting (<NUM>), for each of the first codeblock and the second codeblock, a subset of the first number of coded bits and a subset of the second number of coded bits;
concatenating (<NUM>) the subsets of the first number of coded bits from the first codeblock and the second codeblock;
concatenating (<NUM>) the subsets of the second number of coded bits from the first codeblock and the second codeblock; and
generating (<NUM>) a concatenated codeblock for transmission including the concatenated subsets of the first number of coded bits and the concatenated subsets of the second number of coded bits.