Patent Description:
In multi carrier (MC) systems, e.g. those based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), in communication systems like 3GPP long time evolution (LTE) and new radio (NR), transmission takes place symbol by symbol. As the symbols propagate one by one to the receiver, the radio path from the transmitter to receiver will introduce delay spread in the time domain. This means that the symbols will be spread out in the time domain and will thus interfere with consecutive symbols. This is referred as inter-symbol interference (ISI) or, in cases ISI exceeds the length of the guard interval, residual ISI, and leads to signal distortion and less reliable communication.

ISI can be mitigated by inserting a cyclic prefix (CP) at the beginning of each transmitted symbol, also called guard interval. However, the length of CP must be greater than the maximum delay spread of the dispersive channel. The introduction of CP however reduces the bandwidth efficiency and decreases the data rate because the CP conveys no information. It also disperses the transmitter energy where the signal-to-noise (SNR) lost due to the CP introduction indicates the loss of transmission energy. The amount of consumed power relies on the length of the CP. Although CP reduces the spectral efficiency, it is widely used in MC or even single-carrier (SC) systems due to the low-complex equalization procedure on frequency-domain. In case of EDS channel, the channel delay spread is larger than the CP length which also causes inter-carrier interference (ICI).

In LTE and NR systems, two kinds of CP configuration are supported, i.e. normal CP and extended CP. The spectral efficiency loss due to CP is valid for both configurations. The length of CP is predefined in a given communication system, e.g. LTE and NR, while the channel delay varies across scenarios depending on the environment of propagation. Theoretically, ICI and ISI exist as long as the maximum channel delay is larger than CP. Moreover, ICI and ISI increase with increased channel delay and power of paths larger than CP.

<CIT> relates to transmitter for extending guard interval for individual user equipment in OFDMA systems.

<CIT> relates to apparatus and method for transmitting data with conditional zero padding.

<NPL>, relates to reduced complexity interference cancellation for OFDM systems with insufficient cyclic prefix.

An objective of implementations of the disclosure is to provide a solution which mitigates or solves the drawbacks and problems of conventional solutions.

According to a first aspect of the disclosure, the above mentioned and other objectives are achieved with a first communication device for a communication system, the communication device being configured to.

At least one first symbol means one or more first symbols and at least one second symbol means one or more second symbols. Said symbols can e.g. be OFDM symbols in NR and LTE systems but are not limited thereto.

An advantage of the first communication device according to the first aspect is that PRB bundling is dynamically adapted for different delay spread conditions on the radio channel. Hence, bandwidth efficiency and data rate are improved.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, the size of the first physical resource block bundling is equal to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> physical resource blocks.

An advantage with this implementation form is that flexibility of using frequency diversity is provided.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, the size of the second physical resource block bundling is wideband.

An advantage with this implementation form is bandwidth efficiency and data rate improvement due to the use of wideband. In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, the first communication device is configured to
transmit a first control message to the second communication device, wherein the first control message includes the second physical resource block bundling.

An advantage with this implementation form is that the second communication device will be configured with the second physical resource block bundling by receiving the first control message.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, determining that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the cyclic prefix length of the first symbol comprises
receive a second control message from the second communication device, wherein the second control message indicates that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the cyclic prefix length of the first symbol.

An advantage with this implementation form is that the first communication device is informed that the radio channel has excessive delay spread. This is especially the case in frequency division duplex.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, the first communication device is configured to, upon determining that a third symbol has a higher priority than a fourth symbol preceding or succeeding the third symbol and that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the cyclic prefix length of the third symbol:.

An advantage with this implementation form is increased transmission reliability for high priority symbols by applying any of the above mentioned operations.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, the third symbol is any of: a downlink control information, DCI, uplink control information, UCI, channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, sounding reference signal, SRS, synchronization signal block, SSB, demodulation reference signal, DMRS, or ultra-reliable and low latency communication, URLLC, symbol.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the first aspect, the first communication device is configured to
receive code block group based acknowledge or code block group based negative acknowledge feedback in response to transmission of the fourth symbol to the second communication device.

An advantage with this implementation form is that the loss of data in low priority symbols is avoided or suppressed.

According to a second aspect of the disclosure, the above mentioned and other objectives are achieved with a second communication device for a communication system, the second communication device being configured to.

An advantage of the second communication device according to the second aspect is that PRB bundling is dynamically adapted for different delay spread conditions on the radio channel. Hence, bandwidth efficiency and data rate are improved.

In an implementation form of a second communication device according to the second aspect, the size of the first physical resource block bundling is equal to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> physical resource blocks.

In an implementation form of a second communication device according to the second aspect, the size of the second physical resource block bundling is wideband.

An advantage with this implementation form is bandwidth efficiency and data rate improvement due to the use of wideband.

In an implementation form of a second communication device according to the second aspect, the second communication device is configured to
transmit a second control message to the first communication device upon determining that a delay spread of the radio channel exceeds a cyclic prefix length of the first symbol, wherein the second control message indicates that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the cyclic prefix length of the first symbol.

In an implementation form of a second communication device according to the second aspect, the second communication device is configured to.

In an implementation form of a second communication device according to the second aspect, the third symbol is any of: a DCI, UCI, CSI-RS, SRS, SSB, DMRS, or URLLC symbol.

An advantage with this implementation form is that the loss of data in the low priority symbols due to puncturing may be avoided.

According to a third aspect of the disclosure, the above mentioned and other objectives are achieved with a method for a first communication device, the method comprises.

The method according to the third aspect can be extended into implementation forms corresponding to the implementation forms of the first communication device according to the first aspect. Hence, an implementation form of the method comprises the feature(s) of the corresponding implementation form of the first communication device.

The advantages of the methods according to the third aspect are the same as those for the corresponding implementation forms of the first communication device according to the first aspect.

According to a fourth aspect of the disclosure, the above mentioned and other objectives are achieved with a method for a second communication device, the method comprises.

The method according to the fourth aspect can be extended into implementation forms corresponding to the implementation forms of the second communication device according to the second aspect. Hence, an implementation form of the method comprises the feature(s) of the corresponding implementation form of the second communication device.

The advantages of the methods according to the fourth aspect are the same as those for the corresponding implementation forms of the second communication device according to the second aspect.

According to a fifth aspect of the disclosure, a method for a first communication device is provided, wherein the method comprises: upon determining that a third symbol has a higher priority than a fourth symbol preceding or succeeding the third symbol and that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the cyclic prefix length of the third symbol:.

In an implementation form of a first communication device according to the fifth aspect, wherein the third symbol is any of: a DCI, UCI, CSI-RS, SRS, SSB, DMRS, or URLLC symbol.

A sixth aspect of this application provides a chip, and the chip may be used for a communication device. The chip includes at least one communications interface, at least one processor, and at least one memory, where the communications interface, the processor, and the memory are interconnected by using a circuit (or by using a bus in some cases), and the processor invokes an instruction stored in the memory to perform the method according to the second or fourth or fifth aspect.

A seventh aspect of this application provides a communication device, and the communication device includes a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store a program instruction, and the processor is configured to invoke the program instruction in the memory, to implement a function of the communication device in the second or fourth or fifth aspect.

A eighth aspect of this application provides a non-volatile storage medium, and the non-volatile storage medium stores one or more pieces of program code. When a communication device executes the program code, the communication device performs a related method step performed by the communication device in the second or fourth or fifth aspect.

The disclosure also relates to a computer program, characterized in program code, which when run by at least one processor causes said at least one processor to execute any method according to implementations of the disclosure. Further, the disclosure also relates to a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium and said mentioned computer program, wherein said computer program is included in the computer readable medium, and comprises of one or more from the group: ROM (Read-Only Memory), PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), Flash memory, EEPROM (Electrically EPROM) and hard disk drive.

Further applications and advantages of the implementations of the disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description.

The appended drawings are intended to clarify and explain different implementations of the disclosure, in which:.

In wireless communication, signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) is commonly used as a way to measure the quality of wireless connections. SINR has to be high enough in order to correctly decode transmitted packets at the receiver. For a given signal strength and noise level, one way to improve SINR is to reduce the effective interference, which is dominated by ISI and ICI in EDS channels.

In a conventional solution an iterative technique, called residual ISI cancellation (RISIC), is developed for OFDM systems to mitigate residual ISI. RISIC uses a combination of tail cancellation and cyclic restoration and is shown to offer performance improvements. The RISIC algorithm is applied to a typical terrestrial high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasting system that uses a concatenated coding scheme for error control. RISIC algorithm can effectively mitigate residual ISI on static or slowly fading ISI channels.

However, iterative cancellation of ISI and ICI in data equalization in conventional solutions require wideband scheduling and precoding in order to get channel tail estimation in time domain. Currently, there is no such cooperation and coordination between gNB and UE in case of EDS thus ISI and ICI are hard to cancel at the receiver side.

A symmetric structure of time domain DMRS is proposed to improve channel estimation performance in case of ISI and ICI. It can be supported by current port and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) time configurations. However, OFDM signal in frequency domain is not orthogonal in case of multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO). The inventors have realized that a more general solution is desired to reduce or mitigate the problem of ICI and ISI so that the communication system can work efficiently in challenging cases of EDS. Therefore, the present disclosure present apparatuses and corresponding methods providing such solutions.

<FIG> shows a first communication device <NUM> according to an implementation of the disclosure. In the implementation shown in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> comprises a processor <NUM>, a transceiver <NUM> and a memory <NUM>. The processor <NUM> may be coupled to the transceiver <NUM> and the memory <NUM> by communication means <NUM> known in the art. The first communication device <NUM> may further comprise an antenna or antenna array <NUM> coupled to the transceiver <NUM>, which means that the first communication device <NUM> may be configured for wireless communications in a wireless communication system.

That the first communication device <NUM> may be configured to perform certain actions can in this disclosure be understood to mean that the first communication device <NUM> comprises suitable means, such as e.g. the processor <NUM> and the transceiver <NUM>, configured to perform said actions.

The processor <NUM> of the first communication device <NUM> may be referred to as one or more general-purpose central processing units (CPUs), one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), one or more programmable logic devices, one or more discrete gates, one or more transistor logic devices, one or more discrete hardware components, and one or more chipsets.

The memory <NUM> of the first communication device <NUM> may be a read-only memory, a random access memory, or a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM).

The transceiver <NUM> of the first communication device <NUM> may be a transceiver circuit, a power controller, an antenna, or an interface which communicates with other modules or devices.

In implementations, the transceiver <NUM> of the first communication device <NUM> may be a separate chipset or being integrated with the processor <NUM> in one chipset. While in some implementations, the processor <NUM>, the transceiver <NUM>, and the memory <NUM> of the first communication device <NUM> are integrated in one chipset.

According to implementations of the disclosure the first communication device <NUM> is configured to transmit at least one first symbol in a first PRB bundling in a radio channel to a second communication device <NUM>.

The first communication device <NUM> is further configured transmit at least one second symbol in a second PRB bundling to the second communication device <NUM> upon determining that a delay spread of the radio channel exceeds a CP length of the first symbol. The size of the second PRB bundling is larger than a size of the first PRB bundling.

In one implementation, a PRB bundling may be defined according to the following. A UE may assume that precoding granularity is consecutive resource blocks in the frequency domain, and the UE is not expected to be scheduled with non-contiguous PRBs and the UE may assume that the same precoding is applied to the allocated resource. In one implementation, A PRB bundling may be a set of PRB or a set of frequency/time resource or resource block.

A PRB can be defined in many different ways. In one case a PRB can be defined in number of subcarriers, such as e.g. <MAT> consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain in NR and LTE. A subcarrier can have a frequency value Δf as shown in Table <NUM> below.

<FIG> shows a flow chart of a corresponding method <NUM> which may be executed in a first communication device <NUM>, such as the one shown in <FIG>. The method <NUM> comprises transmitting <NUM> at least one first symbol in a first PRB bundling in a radio channel to a second communication device <NUM>. The method <NUM> further comprises transmitting <NUM> at least one second symbol in a second PRB bundling to the second communication device <NUM> upon determining that a delay spread of the radio channel exceeds a CP length of the first symbol, wherein a size of the second PRB bundling is larger than a size of the first PRB bundling.

<FIG> shows a second communication device <NUM> according to an implementation of the disclosure. In the implementation shown in <FIG>, the second communication device <NUM> comprises a processor <NUM>, a transceiver <NUM> and a memory <NUM>. The processor <NUM> may be coupled to the transceiver <NUM> and the memory <NUM> by communication means <NUM> known in the art. The second communication device <NUM> may further comprise an antenna or antenna array <NUM> coupled to the transceiver <NUM>, which means that the second communication device <NUM> may be configured for wireless communications in a wireless communication system.

That the second communication device <NUM> may be configured to perform certain actions can in this disclosure be understood to mean that the second communication device <NUM> comprises suitable means, such as e.g. the processor <NUM> and the transceiver <NUM>, configured to perform said actions.

The processor <NUM> of the second communication device <NUM> may be referred to as one or more general-purpose CPUs, one or more DSPs, one or more ASICs, one or more FPGAs, one or more programmable logic devices, one or more discrete gates, one or more transistor logic devices, one or more discrete hardware components, and one or more chipsets.

The memory <NUM> of the second communication device <NUM> may be a read-only memory, a random access memory, or a NVRAM.

The transceiver <NUM> of the second communication device <NUM> may be a transceiver circuit, a power controller, an antenna, or an interface which communicates with other modules or devices.

In implementations, the transceiver <NUM> of the second communication device <NUM> may be a separate chipset or being integrated with the processor <NUM> in one chipset. While in some implementations, the processor <NUM>, the transceiver <NUM>, and the memory <NUM> of the second communication device <NUM> are integrated in one chipset.

According to implementations of the disclosure the second communication device <NUM> is configured to receive at least one first symbol in a first PRB bundling in a radio channel from a first communication device <NUM>. The second communication device <NUM> is further configured to receive a first control message <NUM> from the first communication device <NUM>. The first control message <NUM> includes a second PRB bundling, wherein a size of the second PRB bundling is larger than a size of the first PRB bundling. The second communication device <NUM> is further configured to receive at least one second symbol in the second PRB bundling from the first communication device <NUM> based on the first control message <NUM>.

<FIG> shows a flow chart of a corresponding method <NUM> which may be executed in a second communication device <NUM>, such as the one shown in <FIG>. The method <NUM> comprises receiving <NUM> at least one first symbol in a first PRB bundling in a radio channel from a first communication device <NUM>. The method <NUM> further comprises receiving <NUM> a first control message <NUM> from the first communication device <NUM>. The first control message <NUM> includes a second PRB bundling. The size of the second PRB bundling is larger than a size of the first PRB bundling. The method <NUM> further comprises receiving <NUM> at least one second symbol in the second PRB bundling from the first communication device <NUM> based on the first control message <NUM>.

It is noted that the order of step <NUM> and <NUM> can be reversed without deviating from the scope of the disclosure. Hence, in implementations the first control message <NUM> can be received before reception of the first symbol.

Further, that the first control message <NUM> includes a second PRB bundling can mean that information about the second PRB bundling is comprised in the first control message <NUM>. It can also mean that said information is indicated by the first control message <NUM>. Thereby, the second communication device <NUM> is configured with the second PRB bundling.

The first communication device <NUM> and/or the second communication device <NUM> in this disclosure may be a client device including but is not limited to: a UE such as a smart phone, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device having a wireless communication function, a computing device or another processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, an integrated access and backhaul node (IAB) such as mobile car or equipment installed in a car, a drone, a device-to-device (D2D) device, a wireless camera, a mobile station, an access terminal, an user unit, a wireless communication device, a station of wireless local access network (WLAN), a wireless enabled tablet computer, a laptop-embedded equipment, an universal serial bus (USB) dongle, a wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), and/or a chipset. In an Internet of things (lOT) scenario, the client device may represent a machine or another device or chipset which performs communication with another wireless device and/or a network equipment.

The UE may further be referred to as a mobile telephone, a cellular telephone, a computer tablet or laptop with wireless capability. The UE in this context may e.g. be portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and/or data, via the radio access network, with another entity, such as another receiver or a server. The UE can be a station (STA), which is any device that contains an IEEE <NUM>-conformant media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) interface to the wireless medium (WM). The UE may also be configured for communication in 3GPP related LTE and LTE-Advanced, in WiMAX and its evolution, and in fifth generation wireless technologies, such as NR.

However, the first communication device <NUM> and/or the second communication device <NUM> in this disclosure may also be a network access node including but is not limited to: a NodeB in wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, an evolutional Node B (eNB) or an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) in LTE systems, or a relay node or an access point, or an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, or a gNB in the fifth generation (<NUM>) networks.

Further, the network access node herein may be denoted as a radio network access node, an access network access node, an access point, or a base station, e.g. a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may be referred to as transmitter, "gNB", "gNodeB", "eNB", "eNodeB", "NodeB" or "B node", depending on the technology and terminology used. The radio network access nodes may be of different classes such as e.g. macro eNodeB, home eNodeB or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. The radio network access node can be a STA, which is any device that contains an IEEE <NUM>-conformant MAC and PHY interface to the wireless medium. The radio network access node may also be a base station corresponding to the <NUM> wireless systems.

<FIG> illustrates a wireless communication system <NUM> according to an implementation of the disclosure. The wireless communication system <NUM> comprises a first communication device <NUM> and a second communication device <NUM> communicating with each other over a radio channel, e.g. using a radio interface. For simplicity, the wireless communication system <NUM> shown in <FIG> only comprises one first communication device <NUM> and one second communication device <NUM>. However, the wireless communication system <NUM> may comprise any number of first communication devices <NUM> and any number of first communication devices <NUM> without deviating from the scope of the disclosure. The wireless communication system in this disclosure includes but is not limited to LTE, <NUM> or future wireless communication system.

In the non-limiting example in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> act as a network access node, such as a base station (BS) whilst the second communication device <NUM> act as a client device, such as a UE. However, the revers case is also possible, i.e. the first communication device <NUM> act as a client device whilst the second communication device <NUM> act as a network access node.

In the wireless communication system <NUM>, the first communication device <NUM> may transmit at least one first symbol S1 to the second communication device <NUM> over a radio channel. The first symbol may be but is not limited to an OFDM symbol in NR and LTE. The first communication device <NUM> may obtain a second control message <NUM> from the second communication device <NUM>, the second control message comprising information <NUM> that the delay spread of the radio channel is larger than CP length. Based on the first control signal, the first communication device <NUM> may apply a second PRB bundling to transmit at least one second symbol S2. Previous to transmitting the second symbol S2 according to the second PRB bundling the first communication device <NUM> transmits a first control message <NUM> to the second communication device <NUM> comprising information that second PRB bundling is used for transmission of the second symbol S2.

Furthermore, <FIG> shows a signaling diagram illustrating the interaction between a first communication device <NUM> and a second communication device <NUM> in a communication system <NUM> according to implementations of the disclosure.

In step I in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> performs transmission of at least a first symbol S1 in a first PRB bundling to the second communication device <NUM> over a scheduled first bandwidth (BW) using a first PRB bundling size parameter set to a first value. According to implementations the size of the first PRB bundling may be equal to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> PRBs. Thus, the precoding granularity <MAT> applied by the first communication device <NUM> may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>. The second communication device <NUM> may assume that precoding granularity is <MAT> consecutive resource blocks in the frequency domain.

In step II in <FIG>, the second communication device <NUM> receives the at least one symbol S1 in a first PRB bundling over a radio channel from the first communication device <NUM>. In implementations, as previously described, the size of the first PRB bundling may be equal to <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> PRBs.

In step III in <FIG>, the second communication device <NUM> determines that the propagation channel between the first communication device <NUM> and the second communication device <NUM> is an EDS channel i.e. that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds a CP length of the first symbol. The determining may be done either by the second communication device <NUM> measuring the forward link channel or based on information signaled by the first communication device <NUM> using downlink control channel. Generally, the time duration of the delay spread is compared to the time duration of the CP to determine if the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the CP length of the first symbol.

According to implementations, upon determining that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the CP length of the first symbol, the second communication device <NUM> transmits a second control message <NUM> to the first communication device <NUM>. The second control message <NUM> indicates or comprise information that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the CP length of the first symbol.

In step IV in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> determines that the propagation channel to the second communication device <NUM> is an EDS channel based on the content of the second control message <NUM> received from the second communication device <NUM>. The determining can be based on information that the propagation channel to the first communication device <NUM> is an EDS channel. The information can be obtained by the first communication device <NUM> using a reverse link from the second communication device <NUM>. More specifically, in case of frequency division duplex (FDD), the information can be obtained based on an indication from the second communication device <NUM> via forward-link channel measurement and reporting e.g. in the second control message <NUM>. In case of time division duplex (TDD), the information can be obtained based on reverse-link channel measurement by the first communication device <NUM> or from an indication from the second communication device <NUM>. In one implementation, the forward-link is an uplink, the reverse-link is a downlink. Or, the forward-link is a downlink, the reverse-link is an uplink, the forward-link is a sidelink, the reverse-link is a sidelink.

In step V in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> transmits a first control message <NUM> to the second communication device <NUM>, wherein the first control message <NUM> may include a second PRB bundling. The first control message <NUM> may comprise information about the configuration of the transmission of the at least one second symbol in the second PRB bundling from the first communication device <NUM>. The information may indicate if wideband precoding is used for data and reference signal transmission.

By setting the second PRB bundling size parameter to wideband, the first communication device <NUM> is employing wideband precoding granularity. This means that the second communication device <NUM> is not expected to be scheduled with non-contiguous PRBs and the second communication device <NUM> may assume that the same precoding is applied to the allocated resource.

In step VI in <FIG>, the second communication device <NUM> receives the first control message <NUM> including the second PRB bundling.

In step VII in <FIG>, after determining that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the CP length, the first communication device <NUM> performs transmission of at least one second symbol S2 in a second PRB bundling size to the second communication device <NUM>. The size of the second PRB bundling is larger than the size of the first PRB bundling. In implementations, the size of the second PRB bundling may be wideband which means that PRB bundling size is equal to a scheduled second BWsize.

In step VIII in <FIG>, the second communication device <NUM>, receives the second symbol S2 in the second PRB bundling from the first communication device <NUM>. Based on the first control message <NUM>, comprising information about the configuration of the transmission of the at least one second symbol in the second PRB bundling, the second communication device <NUM> may process the received second symbol to mitigate ISI from previous symbol and ICI from current symbol. The reason for this is that when the network access node uses wideband precoding for transmission, the propagation channel in the frequency domain can have phase continuity. In this scenario, the second communication device <NUM> can use time-domain channel estimation algorithm and perform ISI and ICI cancellation. Such iterative ISI and ICI cancellation will now be described in more detail with reference to <FIG>.

<FIG> shows principles of iterative ISI and ICI cancellation performed in the second communication device <NUM> according to implementations of the disclosure. Three consecutive symbols, denoted k-<NUM>, k and k+<NUM>, received by the second communication device <NUM> are shown in <FIG>. Each symbol comprises a CP part, i.e. SCP, and a non-CP part, i.e. SNON-CP. To detect the data in symbol k in <FIG>, the second client device <NUM> uses symbol k-<NUM> and/or symbol k to cancel the impact of ISI and ICI. Similarly, to cancel the impact of ISI and ICI in the data received in symbol k+<NUM>, the second communication device <NUM> uses data in symbols k and k+<NUM>.

To cancel the impact of ISI and ICI in symbol k, the second communication device <NUM> estimates the channel tails of symbol k-<NUM> and/or symbol k. After obtaining the channel tails of symbol k-<NUM> and/or symbol k, the second communication device <NUM> uses the detected data from symbol k-<NUM> to reconstruct the ISI part and detected data from symbol k to reconstruct the ICI part and remove it from the received signal. The second communication device <NUM> then uses the ISI and ICI removed signal to re-detect the data on symbol k. This operation can be performed in an iterative way to improve the data detection performance on symbol k. It is noted that in NR and LTE systems, if symbol k is a DMRS symbol, the above described iterative procedure can be used to improve the channel estimation on OFDM symbol k.

Even though communication performance can be improved significantly by the implementation previously described, higher SINR may be required by high-priority symbols such as symbols carrying control information, reference signal symbols and symbols associated with URLLC.

Therefore, <FIG> illustrates a solution for increasing transmission reliability for high-priority symbols by performing puncturing of the symbol preceding and/or succeeding the high priority symbol. The signaling diagram in <FIG> thus illustrates the interaction between the first communication device <NUM> and the second communication device <NUM> in a communication system <NUM> according to implementations of the disclosure. One or more of these steps in <FIG> are optional.

In step I in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> determines that a third symbol has a higher priority than a fourth symbol preceding or succeeding the third symbol and that the delay spread of the radio channel exceeds the CP length of the third symbol. In implementations, the third symbol having the higher priority may be any of a DCI, UCI, CSI-RS, SRS, SSB, DMRS, or URLLC symbol.

In step III in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> upon determining that the third symbol has a higher priority than the fourth symbol may perform different operations or processing to mitigate or eliminate ICI and ISI. In an implementation a portion of the fourth symbol is punctured. In an implementation a CP of the third symbol is extended into a tail of the fourth symbol. In an implementation a cyclic postfix of the third symbol is added into a head of the fourth symbol. A cyclic postfix is a copy of the head of a symbol and attached after the tail of the symbol. These implementations can be combined such that one two or all of the operations are performed. <FIG> and <FIG> in the following disclosure illustrates such non-limiting examples.

In step IV in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> transmits <NUM> the third and the fourth symbol to the second communication device <NUM>. Optionally, to facilitate advanced receiver, information related to the puncturing can be signaled to the second communication device <NUM>, such as at least one of the number of samples punctured adjacent to the high priority symbol and the number of CP samples extended for the high priority symbol.

Optionally, the first communication device <NUM> may perform rate matching before performing the puncturing to minimize the impact due to puncturing of low priority symbols. This is performed in the optional step II in <FIG>. After performing puncturing of symbols preceding and/or succeeding the high priority symbols, to further improve SINR of the next symbol, the high priority symbol can be extended into the gap due to puncturing of the low priority symbol(s).

In step V in <FIG>, the second communication device <NUM> receives the third symbol and the fourth symbol preceding or succeeding the third symbol, where the third symbol has a higher priority than the fourth symbol.

In step VI in <FIG>, the second communication service <NUM> determines an acknowledge (ACK) or negative acknowledge (NACK) outcome at the reception of the fourth symbol and transmits <NUM> a CBG-based ACK or a CBG-based NACK feedback to the first communication device <NUM> according to the determined ACK/NACK outcome. This is to overcome the loss of data in low priority symbols due to puncturing.

In step VII in <FIG>, the first communication device <NUM> receives the CBG-based ACK or NACK feedback <NUM> in response to transmission of the fourth symbol to the second communication device <NUM>. If an ACK is received the first communication device <NUM> can continue with transmission of succeeding symbols. However, if a NACK is received one or more retransmissions of the fourth symbol can be performed.

<FIG> illustrate an approach to perform symbol puncturing and CP extension for transmission of high-priority symbols to mitigate ISI and ICI according to an implementation of the disclosure.

<FIG> shows three consecutive symbols denoted k-<NUM>, k and k+<NUM> which are to be transmitted by the first communication device <NUM> to the second communication device <NUM>. Symbols k-<NUM>, k and k+<NUM> each has a CP part SCP and a non-CP part SNON-CP. Symbol k corresponds to the previously mentioned third symbol, i.e. the symbol with high priority. Symbol k-<NUM> and symbol k+<NUM> correspond to the previously mentioned fourth symbol, i.e. the symbol preceding or succeeding the third symbol.

When the first communication device <NUM> determines that the channel delay spread is larger than CP length and symbol k has higher priority than symbol k-<NUM>, the first communication device <NUM> can puncture samples of symbol k-<NUM> preceding the CP part of symbol k, i.e. SPUNCT. During the puncturing time the first communication device <NUM> does not transmit anything. After puncturing, the first communication device <NUM> transmits symbol k as shown in <FIG>.

Further, instead of non-transmission during puncturing the first communication device <NUM> may extend its CP part SCP into the punctured part of symbol k-<NUM> as shown in <FIG>. Thereby, the guard interval of symbol k will be extended and hence improved protection against ICI and ISI.

<FIG> show other approach to perform symbol puncturing for transmission of high-priority symbols to mitigate ISI and ICI according to implementations of the disclosure. As illustrated in <FIG>, three consecutive symbols k-<NUM>, k and k+<NUM> are considered. As in <FIG> symbols k-<NUM>, k and k+<NUM> each has a CP part SCP and a non-CP part SNON-CP. Further, Symbol k corresponds to the previously mentioned third symbol, i.e. the symbol with high priority. Symbol k-<NUM> and symbol k+<NUM> correspond to the previously mentioned fourth symbol, i.e. the symbol preceding or succeeding the third symbol.

If the first communication device <NUM> obtains information that the channel delay spread is larger than CP length and the symbol k has higher priority than symbol k+<NUM>, the first communication device <NUM> can puncture samples of the symbol k+<NUM> succeeding the symbol k and append a postfix SPOSTFIX of symbol k into the punctured part of symbol k+<NUM> as shown in <FIG>. If the second communication device <NUM> is aware of such a postfix of the high priority symbol k, it can shift its fast Fourier transform (FFT) window to minimize the impact of ISI and ICI.

The first communication device <NUM> can also combine the two approaches illustrated in <FIG> and 10a - 10b if symbol k has higher priority than symbol k-<NUM> and k+<NUM>. The first communication device <NUM> in this case may puncture both lower priority symbols on each side of the symbol k (not shown in the Figs.

Channel estimation and demodulation performance of implementations are shown in Table <NUM> and Table <NUM>, respectively.

Channel power delay profile (PDP) has a few paths with delay larger than CP. At receiver side, the strongest path in channel estimation is cancelled as well as equalization. PDP and corresponding mean square error (MSE) of channel estimates is shown in Table <NUM> for different SNR values in dB, i.e. <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> dB. Row <NUM> shows the performance for a conventional solution while rows <NUM>-<NUM> show the performance for different implementations of the disclosure with ICI, ISI and ISCI. It is noted significant performance improvement and gain with solutions according to implementations of the disclosure.

Block error rate (BER) performance in Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) is shown in Table <NUM> for different SNR values in dB, i.e. <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> dB. Rows <NUM> - <NUM> show the performance for implementations of the disclosure. Row <NUM> shows the performance for a conventional solution without cancellation. Row <NUM> shows the performance the BER gain from channel estimation according to implementations of the disclosure without cancellation on data symbol. With ICI cancellation and ISI cancellation on data symbol according to implementations of the disclosure is also shown in row <NUM> and <NUM>, respectively. Further, the performance with ISCI cancellation on data symbol is shown in row <NUM>. Moreover, improvement in gain with solutions according to implementations of the disclosure is also noted from Table <NUM>.

In one implementation of this application provides a chip, and the chip may be used for a communication device. The chip includes at least one communications interface, at least one processor, and at least one memory, where the communications interface, the processor, and the memory are interconnected by using a circuit (or by using a bus in some cases), and the processor invokes an instruction stored in the memory to perform the above method(s).

In one implementation of this application provides a communication device, and the communication device includes a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store a program instruction, and the processor is configured to invoke the program instruction in the memory, to implement a function of the above communication device(s).

In one implementation of this application provides a non-volatile storage medium, and the non-volatile storage medium stores one or more pieces of program code. When a communication device executes the program code, the communication device performs a related method step performed by the above communication device(s).

Furthermore, any method according to implementations of the disclosure may be implemented in a computer program, having code means, which when run by processing means causes the processing means to execute the steps of the method.

Moreover, it is realized by the skilled person that implementations of the first communication device <NUM> and the second communication device <NUM> comprise the necessary communication capabilities in the form of e.g., functions, means, units, elements, etc., for performing the solution. Examples of other such means, units, elements and functions are: processors, memory, buffers, control logic, encoders, decoders, rate matchers, de-rate matchers, mapping units, multipliers, decision units, selecting units, switches, interleavers, de-interleavers, modulators, demodulators, inputs, outputs, antennas, amplifiers, receiver units, transmitter units, DSPs, MSDs, TCM encoder, TCM decoder, power supply units, power feeders, communication interfaces, communication protocols, etc. which are suitably arranged together for performing the solution.

Especially, the processor(s) of the first communication device <NUM> and the second communication deice <NUM> may comprise, e.g., one or more instances of a CPU, a processing unit, a processing circuit, a processor, an ASIC, a microprocessor, or other processing logic that may interpret and execute instructions. The expression "processor" may thus represent a processing circuitry comprising a plurality of processing circuits, such as, e.g., any, some or all of the ones mentioned above. The processing circuitry may further perform data processing functions for inputting, outputting, and processing of data comprising data buffering and device control functions, such as call processing control, user interface control, or the like.

Claim 1:
A first communication device (<NUM>) for a communication system (<NUM>), the first communication device (<NUM>) being configured to
transmit at least one first symbol in a first physical resource block bundling in a radio channel to a second communication device (<NUM>); and
transmit at least one second symbol in a second physical resource block bundling to the second communication device (<NUM>) upon determining that a delay spread of the radio channel exceeds a cyclic prefix length of the first symbol, wherein a size of the second physical resource block bundling is larger in the frequency domain than a size of the first physical resource block bundling.