Patent Description:
In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known as user equipment (LTEs). In LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more base stations may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in a next generation or <NUM> network), a wireless multiple access communication system may include a number of distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmission reception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with a number of central units (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs), etc.), where a set of one or more distributed units, in communication with a central unit, may define an access node (e.g., a new radio base station (NR BS), a new radio node-B (NR NB), a network node, <NUM> NB, eNB, Next Generation Node B (gNB), etc.). A base station or DU may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a base station or to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to a base station or distributed unit).

However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a desire for further improvements in NR technology. <NPL>discusses indication of Reserved Resources. <CIT> describes techniques that dynamically allocate communications resources in a wireless communications network.

Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a network entity. The method generally includes identifying resources previously reserved for forward compatibility (FC) that are available for reuse, and providing signaling, to one or more user equipments (UEs), indicating the identified resources are available for reuse.

Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a user equipment (UE). The method generally includes receiving signaling identifying resources previously reserved for forward compatibility (FC) that are available for reuse, and communicating using the identified resources.

Numerous other aspects are provided.

It is contemplated that elements described in one aspect may be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specific recitation.

NR may support various wireless communication services, such as Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g. <NUM> beyond), millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g. <NUM> or beyond), massive MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC techniques, and/or mission critical targeting ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC).

It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure described herein may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim.

New Radio (NR) (e.g., <NUM> radio access) is an example of an emerging telecommunication standard. "LTE" refers generally to LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LTE in an unlicensed spectrum (LTE-whitespace), etc. The techniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies.

<FIG> illustrates an example wireless network <NUM>, such as a new radio (NR) or <NUM> network, in which aspects of the present disclosure may be performed.

As illustrated in <FIG>, the wireless network <NUM> may include a number of BSs <NUM> and other network entities. A BS may be a station that communicates with UEs. Each BS <NUM> may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In <NUM> GPP, the term "cell" can refer to a coverage area of a Node B and/or a Node B subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the term "cell" and eNB, Node B, <NUM> NB, AP, NR BS, NR BS, gNB, or TRP may be interchangeable. In some examples, a cell may not necessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according to the location of a mobile base station. In some examples, the base stations may be interconnected to one another and/or to one or more other base stations or network nodes (not shown) in the wireless network <NUM> through various types of backhaul interfaces such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or the like using any suitable transport network.

A network controller <NUM> may be coupled to a set of BSs and provide coordination and control for these BSs. The BSs <NUM> may also communicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via wireless or wireline backhaul.

A UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), a cellular phone, a 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 camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or medical equipment, a healthcare device, a biometric sensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, virtual reality goggles, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., a music device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicular component or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, a robot, a drone, industrial manufacturing equipment, a positioning device (e.g., GPS, Beidou, terrestrial), or any other suitable device that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium. Some UEs may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) devices or evolved MTC (eMTC) devices, 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. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, cameras, location tags, etc., that may communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., remote device), or some other entity. MTC UEs, as well as other UEs, may be implemented as Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, e.g., narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices.

For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be <NUM> and the minimum resource allocation (called a 'resource block') may be <NUM> subcarriers (or <NUM>). Consequently, the nominal FFT size may be equal to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> for system bandwidth of <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> megahertz (MHz), respectively. For example, a subband may cover <NUM> (e.g., <NUM> resource blocks), and there may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> subbands for system bandwidth of <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>, respectively.

NR may utilize OFDM with a CP on the uplink and downlink and include support for half-duplex operation using time division duplex (TDD). A single component carrier bandwidth of <NUM> may be supported. NR resource blocks may span <NUM> sub-carriers with a sub-carrier bandwidth of <NUM> over a <NUM> duration. Each radio frame may consist of <NUM> half frames, each half frame consisting of <NUM> subframes, with a length of <NUM>. Consequently, each subframe may have a length of <NUM>. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (e.g., DL or UL) for data transmission and the link direction for each subframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may include DL/UL data as well as DL/UL control data. UL and DL subframes for NR may be as described in more detail below with respect to FIGs. <NUM> and <FIG>. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface, other than an OFDM-based. NR networks may include entities such CUs and/or DUs.

As noted above, a RAN may include a CU and DUs. A NR BS (e.g., eNB, <NUM> Node B, Node B, transmission reception point (TRP), access point (AP)) may correspond to one or multiple BSs. NR cells can be configured as access cell (ACells) or data only cells (DCells). For example, the RAN (e.g., a central unit or distributed unit) can configure the cells. DCells may be cells used for carrier aggregation or dual connectivity, but not used for initial access, cell selection/reselection, or handover. In some cases DCells may not transmit synchronization signals-in some case cases DCells may transmit SS. NR BSs may transmit downlink signals to UEs indicating the cell type. Based on the cell type indication, the UE may communicate with the NR BS. For example, the UE may determine NR BSs to consider for cell selection, access, handover, and/or measurement based on the indicated cell type.

The ANC may include one or more TRPs <NUM> (which may also be referred to as BSs, NR BSs, Node Bs, <NUM> NBs, APs, gNBs, or some other term).

<FIG> illustrates example components of the BS <NUM> and UE <NUM> illustrated in <FIG>, which may be used to implement aspects of the present disclosure. As described above, the BS may include a TRP. One or more components of the BS <NUM> and UE <NUM> may be used to practice aspects of the present disclosure. For example, antennas <NUM>, MOD/DEMOD <NUM>, processors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and/or controller/processor <NUM> of the UE <NUM> and/or antennas <NUM>, MOD/DEMOD <NUM>, processors <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and/or controller/processor <NUM> of the BS <NUM> may be used to perform the operations described herein and illustrated with reference to <FIG> and <FIG>.

At the base station <NUM>, a transmit processor <NUM> may receive data from a data source <NUM> and control information from a controller/processor <NUM>. The control information may be for the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), etc. The data may be for the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), etc. The processor <NUM> may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. The processor <NUM> may also generate reference symbols, e.g., for the PSS, SSS, and cell-specific reference signal. A transmit (Tx) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor <NUM> may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) 432a through 432t. For example, the Tx MIMO processor <NUM> may perform certain aspects described herein for RS multiplexing.

For example, MIMO detector <NUM> may provide detected RS transmitted using techniques described herein. According to one or more cases, CoMP aspects can include providing the antennas, as well as some Tx/Rx functionalities, such that they reside in distributed units. For example, some Tx/Rx processings can be done in the central unit, while other processing can be done at the distributed units. For example, in accordance with one or more aspects as shown in the diagram, the BS mod/demod <NUM> may be in the distributed units.

The processor <NUM> and/or other processors and modules at the base station <NUM> may perform or direct the processes for the techniques described herein. The processor <NUM> and/or other processors and modules at the UE <NUM> may also perform or direct processes for the techniques described herein. The memories <NUM> and <NUM> may store data and program codes for the BS <NUM> and the UE <NUM>, respectively.

<NUM> is a diagram showing an example of a frame format <NUM> for NR.

The SS block can be transmitted in a fixed slot location, such as the symbols <NUM>-<NUM> as shown in FIG.

A forward compatible design for NR may be provided that can ensure a smooth introduction of future services, features, spectrum, and new types of devices. Further, a forward compatible design for NR may be provided that can ensure and maintain access to earlier services and UEs in the same spectrum.

A forward compatible design for NR may include some resources that are referred to as forward compatible resources that may need to be reserved for forward compatible operations. For example, some control or data resources can be reserved as forward compatible resources. A specific case of control data resources that can be reserved may include some symbols or sub-bands of a control and/or data region. Another example may include a control or data payload such as some bit fields in the payload. In another example, sounding and sensing resources may be reserved as forward compatible resources, for example, RS (e.g. CSI-RS), IMR, etc..

In one or more examples, forward compatible (FC) resources may be configured and indicated to UEs by using broadcast messages such as system information. In other examples, forward compatible (FC) resources may be configured and indicated to UEs by using unicast messages such as RRC signaling for connected mode UEs.

Currently, FC resources are statically or semi-statically assigned, and therefore, cannot be used by legacy services and/or legacy devices such as cells, TRPs, and/or UEs. Accordingly, legacy control/data transmissions are rate matched around the FC resources. Although the impact of this may be minimized by design, (semi-)static assignment of FC resources may diminish the flexibility and efficiency of the entire system. This may be especially true when the system is mostly populated with legacy devices (cells/TRPs/UES).

In accordance with one or more aspects of embodiments described herein, dynamic reclamation and/or reconfiguration of resources reserved for forward compatibility is provided. Further, one or more cases may allow any services or cells/TRPs/UEs to reuse the reserved FC resources in a dynamic manner. Therefore, in accordance with one or more cases, with some specific conditions, the FC resources may be dynamically reconfigured to be used by any services or cells/TRPs/UEs (including legacy services/devices) for different purposes.

<FIG> illustrates operations <NUM> for wireless communications that may be performed by a network entity, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Operations <NUM> begin, at <NUM>, with the network entity identifying resources previously reserved for forward compatibility (FC) that are available for reuse. At <NUM>, the operation <NUM> may further include the network entity providing signaling, to one or more user equipments (UEs), indicating the identified resources are available for reuse.

In some cases, the resources are identified as available based on one or more triggering events. In some cases, the one or more triggering events comprise a triggering event based on at least one of location of one or more UEs, non-overlapping spatial sectors, application-specific requirements, orcapabilities of one or more UEs. In some cases, the one or more triggering events comprise a triggering event based on actual usage of the FC resources. The operations <NUM> may further include the network entity determining actual usage of the FC resources based on at least one of sensing of loading of the FC resources, sensing of traffic on the FC resources, or backhaul signaling of at least one of loading or traffic on the FC resources.

<FIG> illustrates operations <NUM> for wireless communications that may be performed by a user equipment (UE), in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Operations <NUM> begin, at <NUM>, with the UE receiving signaling identifying resources previously reserved for forward compatibility (FC) that are available for reuse. At <NUM>, the operations <NUM> may further include the UE communicating using the identified resources. Steps <NUM> and <NUM> are claimed.

According to one or more cases, dynamic reconfiguration of FC resources may be provided that allow any services or cells/TRPs/UEs to reuse the reserved FC resources in a dynamic manner. Particularly, in accordance with one or more cases, the static reservation of FC resources may be maintained. However, when some specific conditions are provided, the FC resources can be dynamically reclaimed to be used by any services or cells/TRPs/UEs including legacy services and/or devices for different purposes.

Dynamically reclaiming the FC resources may be provided on a per-slot basis. In other cases, the FC resources may be reclaimed for symbol-wise reuse and/or sub-band reuse. Further, dynamically reclaiming the FC resources may be provided for some time duration. In one or more cases, dynamically reclaiming the FC resources may be provided based on some pattern, for example, a periodicity of reuse, a hopping pattern, etc. Further, another example of dynamically reclaiming the FC resources may be based on spatial beamforming.

According to the claimed invention, signaling indicating to one or more UEs that resources previously reserved for forward compatibility are available for reuse, indicates that the identified resources are available based on a periodicity of reuse pattern.

Indication of reclaimed resources may be a cell-specific, UE-specific, or UE-group-specific indication of resource allocation, and may be based on MAC-CE and/or downlink control information (DCI) or (group-common) DCI-alone signaling. The indication, by MAC-CE and/or DCI or DCI-alone signaling, has higher priority over RRC-signaling and/or broadcasting-based assignment of FC resources. Accordingly, in one or more cases, for example, the time duration may be triggered by a DCI.

In one or more cases, maintaining multiple FC resource configurations may be provided. Multiple FC resource configurations may be established by RRC signaling or broadcast messages. In some cases, an index of configuration in use may be signaled by MAC-CE and/or group common DCI. A set of FC resource configuration may comprise one or more of a full FC resource configuration, a reduced FC resource configuration, and/or an empty FC resource configuration. In some cases, for example, the time duration may be a part of a FC resource configuration.

One of these full, reduced, and/or empty FC resource configurations may be dynamically selected depending on the load condition of FC resources. For example, selection of 'Full FC resources' may indicate the inclusion of operations including, for example, disabling any reclamation of FC resources because the FC resources are fully utilized and therefore none can be used. Selection of 'Empty FC resources' may indicate that all FC resources can be reused for other purpose because no one is using the resources so anyone can use the resources for another purpose.

According to some cases, one or more conditions for activating dynamic reclamation may be provided. In one or more cases, UE locations (e.g. cell edge or center) and/or interference characteristics can be considered conditions for activating dynamic reclamation. In one or more cases, an interference characteristic may usually depend on a UE location.

In some cases, FC resources for neighboring cells may be reused by cell-center UEs, because the FC resources produce less inter-cell interference. In another example, FC resources may be reused between UEs in neighboring cells in non-overlapping (or minimally overlapping) spatial sectors.

Application-specific requirements may serve to provide conditions for activating dynamic reclamation. In some cases, some urgent service may override the FC resources of its serving cell. Further, prevention of using FC resources to reduce cochannel interference can also be supported. UE capabilities may also serve as conditions for activating dynamic reclamation. In some cases, some advanced receivers with interference mitigation capabilities may reuse the FC resources.

Actual usage of FC resources may indicate conditions for activating dynamic reclamation. Accordingly, the load/traffic of FC resources can be monitored by gNBs/TRPs/UEs and reused in a cognitive manner. The load/traffic of FC resources can be sensed at gNBs/TRPs/UEs, similar to a listen-before-talk framework for shared spectrum systems. Further, backhaul or network signaling can also deliver the load/traffic information.

<FIG> illustrates a communications device <NUM> that may include various components (e.g., corresponding to means-plus-function components) configured to perform operations for the techniques described herein, such as the operations <NUM> illustrated in <FIG>. The transceiver <NUM> is configured to transmit and receive signals for the communications device <NUM> via an antenna <NUM>, such as the various signal described herein.

The processing system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory <NUM> via a bus <NUM>. In certain aspects, the computer-readable medium/memory <NUM> is configured to store instructions that when executed by processor <NUM>, cause the processor <NUM> to perform the operations illustrated in <FIG>, or other operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein. In certain aspects, the processing system <NUM> further includes an identifying component <NUM> for performing the operations illustrated at <NUM> in <FIG>. The processing system <NUM> also includes a providing component <NUM> for performing the operations illustrated at <NUM> in <FIG>.

The identifying component <NUM> and providing component <NUM> may be coupled to the processor <NUM> via bus <NUM>. In certain aspects, the identifying component <NUM> and providing component <NUM> may be hardware circuits. In certain aspects, the identifying component <NUM> and providing component <NUM> may be software components that are executed and run on processor <NUM>.

The processing system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory <NUM> via a bus <NUM>. In certain aspects, the computer-readable medium/memory <NUM> is configured to store instructions that when executed by processor <NUM>, cause the processor <NUM> to perform the operations illustrated in <FIG>, or other operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein. In certain aspects, the processing system <NUM> further includes an identifying component <NUM> for performing the operations illustrated at <NUM> in <FIG>. The processing system <NUM> also includes an identified resource reuse component <NUM> for performing the operations illustrated at <NUM> in <FIG>.

The identifying component <NUM> and identified resource reuse component <NUM> may be coupled to the processor <NUM> via bus <NUM>. In certain aspects, the identifying component <NUM> and identified resource reuse component <NUM> may be hardware circuits. In certain aspects, the identifying component <NUM> and identified resource reuse component <NUM> may be software components that are executed and run on processor <NUM>.

The methods described herein comprise one or more steps or actions for achieving the described method.

The claims should be accorded the full scope consistent with the language claims. Reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one" unless specifically so stated, but rather "one or more. " For example, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this application should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from the context to be directed to a singular form. Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some" refers to one or more. " That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from the context, the phrase, for example, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, for example the phrase "X employs A or B" is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B. Moreover, nothing described herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims.

For example, operations <NUM> illustrated in <FIG>, and operations <NUM> illustrated in <FIG>, correspond to means 700A illustrated in <FIG>, means 800A illustrated in <FIG>, respectively.

For example, means for transmitting and/or means for receiving may comprise one or more of a transmit processor <NUM>, a TX MIMO processor <NUM>, a receive processor <NUM>, or antenna(s) <NUM> of the base station <NUM> and/or the transmit processor <NUM>, a TX MIMO processor <NUM>, a receive processor <NUM>, or antenna(s) <NUM> of the user equipment <NUM>. Additionally, means for identifying, means for providing, means for signaling, means for indicating, means for sensing, means for backhaul signaling, and/ or means for communicating may comprise one or more processors, such as the controller/processor <NUM> of the base station <NUM> and/or the controller/processor <NUM> of the user equipment <NUM>.

Examples of machine-readable storage media may include, by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, phase change memory, ROM (Read Only Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, optical disks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or any combination thereof.

For example, instructions for performing the operations described herein and illustrated in the appended figures.

Claim 1:
A method (<NUM>) for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising:
identifying (<NUM>) resources previously reserved for forward compatibility that are now available for reuse by one or more user equipments, UEs; and
providing (<NUM>) signaling, to the one or more UEs, indicating the identified resources are available for reuse by the one or more UEs, characterized in that the signaling indicates the identified resources are available based on a periodicity of reuse pattern.