Patent Description:
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to beam sweep based semi-persistent scheduling and/or configured grant activation.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems.

For example, a fifth generation (<NUM>) wireless communications technology (which can be referred to as <NUM> new radio (<NUM> NR)) is envisaged to expand and support diverse usage scenarios and applications with respect to current mobile network generations. In an aspect, <NUM> communications technology can include: enhanced mobile broadband addressing human-centric use cases for access to multimedia content, services and data; ultra-reliable-low latency communications (URLLC) with certain specifications for latency and reliability; and massive machine type communications, which can allow a very large number of connected devices and transmission of a relatively low volume of non-delay-sensitive information.

For example, for various communications technology such as, but not limited to NR, increases in bandwidth may result in implementation complexities with regard to transmission of data during certain modes. Thus, improvements in wireless communication operations may be desired. Document <CIT> discloses a method for beam measurement and reporting includes receiving configuration information for a channel state information (CSI) framework and identifying reporting settings and resource settings configured for the UE. The method further includes performing beam measurement, generating a CSI report, and transmitting the generated CSI report to the BS. Document 3GPP, R1-<NUM> relates to UL beam management. Document 3GPP, R1-<NUM> relates to beam management, measurement and reporting. Document <CIT> discloses methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media to decode a downlink control indicator (DCI) comprising a first redundancy version indicator. A first redundancy version is derived for a first beam based on the first redundancy version indicator. Data is encoded at a first location in a circular buffer based on the first redundancy version for a first beam. The data is encoded in the circular buffer at a second location different from the first location for a second beam. The first beam is generated for transmission by a first antenna array. The second beam is generated for transmission by a second antenna.

The invention is defined in independent claims. Dependent claims concern particular embodiments of the invention. Any subject matter presented in the description but not falling under the claims constitutes an aspect of the disclosure which may be useful for understanding the invention.

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method of wireless communication at a network entity is provided. The method includes determining a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic or a configured grant (CG) based uplink periodic transmission, wherein the beam sweep pattern corresponds to multiple beam pair links communicated in a time division multiplexing, TDM, based, frequency division multiplexing, FDM, based, spatial division multiplexing, SDM, based scheme, or any combination thereof, and wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state, and transmitting an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a user equipment, UE.

In an additional aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatus for wireless communication including means for determine a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic or a CG based uplink periodic transmission, wherein the beam sweep pattern corresponds to multiple beam pair links communicated in a time division multiplexing, TDM, based, frequency division multiplexing, FDM, based, spatial division multiplexing, SDM, based scheme, or any combination thereof, and wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state; and means for transmitting an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a user equipment, UE.

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method of wireless communication at a network entity is provided. The method includes receiving a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity wherein the beam sweep pattern corresponds to multiple beam pair links communicated in a time division multiplexing, TDM, based, frequency division multiplexing, FDM, based, spatial division multiplexing, SDM, based scheme, or any combination thereof, and wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state; and configuring communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or a downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern.

additional aspect, the present disclosure includes an apparatus for wireless communication including means for receiving a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity, wherein the beam sweep pattern corresponds to multiple beam pair links communicated in a time division multiplexing, TDM, based, frequency division multiplexing, FDM, based, spatial division multiplexing, SDM, based scheme, or any combination thereof, and wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state; and means for configuring communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern.

The described features generally relate to beam sweep based semi-persistent scheduling and/or configured grant activation in new radio (NR). Specifically, NR supports very high data rates with lower latency. As the NR band uses high frequencies for communication, propagation loss and other channel losses may be experienced. To compensate for the losses, directional communication may be useful at such frequencies. Antenna arrays with large number of antenna elements may enable such communication due to smaller wavelengths, providing beamforming gain to the radio frequency link budget which may help in compensation for propagation losses. To transmit on multiple directional beams, accurate alignment of transmitted and received beams may be implemented. In order to achieve alignment of beam pairs and to have end to end performance with desired delay, beam management operations may be performed in NR. For example, one such beam management operation may be beam sweeping, which refers to covering a spatial area with a set of beams transmitted and received according to pre-specified intervals and directions.

In some implementations, on the downlink, beam sweeping may correspond to an exhaustive search based on synchronization signal (SS) blocks received by UE. On the uplink, beam sweeping may be based on a sounding reference signal (SRS) transmitted by UE and received by the network entity (gNB). However, beam sweeping may not be performed during or for some types of signaling. In particular, beam sweeping may not be supported in semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) and/or configured grant (CG) activations. Instead, a single active beam may be used per grant for physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and/or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission after activation. Hence, it would be desirable to implement beam sweeping in SPS and/or CG activations or reconfigurations (e.g., via downlink control information (DCI)) to improve robustness of communication on one or both the uplink and downlink. Implementing beam sweeping during such signaling may be desirable when a retransmission cycle is not long enough for any retransmissions (e.g. <NUM>). Specifically, a beam sweep pattern may be dynamically indicated in an activation DCI and may be multiplexed in a time domain (e.g., slot based or mini-slot based), in a frequency domain, or spatial domain.

In one implementation, a network entity may determine a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission. The network entity may also transmit an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a UE. In another implementation, a UE may receive a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity. The UE may configure communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern. The UE may further communicate data according to the beam sweep pattern on at least one of the uplink channel or the downlink channel.

As used in this application, the terms "component," "module," "system" and the like are intended to include a computer-related entity, such as but not limited to hardware, software, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components can communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets, such as data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the Internet with other systems by way of the signal.

Techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" may often be used interchangeably. IS-<NUM> Releases <NUM> and A are commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1X, 1X, etc. IS-<NUM> (TIA-<NUM>) is commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. An OFDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE <NUM> (Wi-Fi), IEEE <NUM> (WiMAX), IEEE <NUM>, Flash-OFDM™, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). The techniques described herein may be used for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other systems and radio technologies, including cellular (e.g., LTE) communications over a shared radio frequency spectrum band. The description below, however, describes an LTE/LTE-A system for purposes of example, and LTE terminology is used in much of the description below, although the techniques are applicable beyond LTE/LTE-A applications (e.g., to fifth generation (<NUM>) new radio (NR) networks or other next generation communication systems).

The wireless communications system (also referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) can include base stations <NUM>, UEs <NUM>, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) <NUM>, and/or a <NUM> Core (5GC) <NUM>. The macro cells can include base stations. The small cells can include femtocells, picocells, and microcells. In an example, the base stations <NUM> may also include gNBs <NUM>, as described further herein. In one example, some nodes of the wireless communication system may have a modem <NUM> and communicating component <NUM> for determining configuring communication based on a beam sweep pattern received from the base station <NUM>/gNB <NUM>, as described herein. In addition, some nodes may have a modem <NUM> and configuring component <NUM> for determining a beam sweep pattern for SPS and/or CG activations, as described herein. Though a UE <NUM> is shown as having the modem <NUM> and communicating component <NUM> and a base station <NUM>/gNB <NUM> is shown as having the modem <NUM> and configuring component <NUM>, this is one illustrative example, and substantially any node or type of node may include a modem <NUM> and communicating component <NUM> and/or a modem <NUM> and configuring component <NUM> for providing corresponding functionalities described herein.

The base stations <NUM> configured for <NUM> LTE (which can collectively be 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., using an S1 interface). The base stations <NUM> configured for <NUM> NR (which can collectively be referred to as Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)) may interface with 5GC <NUM> through backhaul links <NUM>. The base stations <NUM> may communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC <NUM> or 5GC <NUM>) with each other over backhaul links <NUM> (e.g., using an X2 interface).

The base stations <NUM> may wirelessly communicate with one or more UEs <NUM>. A network that includes both small cell and macro cells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include Home Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) (HeNBs), which may provide service to a restricted group, which can be referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG). The base stations <NUM> / UEs <NUM> may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (e.g., for x component carriers) used for transmission in the DL and/or the UL direction. 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).

In another example, certain UEs <NUM> may communicate with each other using device-to-device (D2D) communication link <NUM>. The D2D communication link <NUM> may use one or more side link channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical side link control channel (PSCCH).

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. A base station <NUM> referred to herein can include a gNB <NUM>.

The 5GC <NUM> may include a 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> can be a control node that processes the signaling between the UEs <NUM> and the 5GC <NUM>. Generally, the AMF <NUM> can provide QoS flow and session management. User Internet protocol (IP) packets (e.g., from one or more UEs <NUM>) can be transferred through the UPF <NUM>. The UPF <NUM> can provide UE IP address allocation for one or more UEs, as well as other functions.

The base station <NUM> provides an access point to the EPC <NUM> or 5GC <NUM> for a UE <NUM>. Examples of UEs <NUM> include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a positioning system (e.g., satellite, terrestrial), a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, a tablet, a smart device, robots, drones, an industrial/manufacturing device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, virtual reality goggles, a smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, a smart bracelet)), a vehicle/a vehicular device, a meter (e.g., parking meter, electric meter, gas meter, water meter, flow meter), a gas pump, a large or small kitchen appliance, a medical/healthcare device, an implant, a sensor/actuator, a display, or any other similar functioning device. Some of the UEs <NUM> may be referred to as loT devices (e.g., meters, pumps, monitors, cameras, industrial/manufacturing devices, appliances, vehicles, robots, drones, etc.). IoT UEs may include MTC/enhanced MTC (eMTC, also referred to as CAT-M, Cat M1) UEs, NB-IoT (also referred to as CAT NB1) UEs, as well as other types of UEs. In the present disclosure, eMTC and NB-IoT may refer to future technologies that may evolve from or may be based on these technologies. For example, eMTC may include FeMTC (further eMTC), eFeMTC (enhanced further eMTC), mMTC (massive MTC), etc., and NB-IoT may include eNB-IoT (enhanced NB-IoT), FeNB-IoT (further enhanced NB-IoT), etc. The UE <NUM> may also be referred to as a station, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology.

Turning now to <FIG>, aspects are depicted with reference to one or more components and one or more methods that may perform the actions or operations described herein, where aspects in dashed line may be optional. Although the operations described below in <FIG> and <FIG> are presented in a particular order and/or as being performed by an example component, it should be understood that the ordering of the actions and the components performing the actions may be varied, depending on the implementation. Moreover, it should be understood that the following actions, functions, and/or described components may be performed by a specially-programmed processor, a processor executing specially-programmed software or computer-readable media, or by any other combination of a hardware component and/or a software component capable of performing the described actions or functions.

Referring to <FIG>, one example of an implementation of UE <NUM> may include a variety of components, some of which have already been described above and are described further herein, including components such as one or more processors <NUM> and memory <NUM> and transceiver <NUM> in communication via one or more buses <NUM>, which may operate in conjunction with modem <NUM> and/or communicating component <NUM> for transmitting random access messages.

In an aspect, the one or more processors <NUM> can include a modem <NUM> and/or can be part of the modem <NUM> that uses one or more modem processors. Thus, the various functions related to communicating component <NUM> may be included in modem <NUM> and/or processors <NUM> and, in an aspect, can be executed by a single processor, while in other aspects, different ones of the functions may be executed by a combination of two or more different processors. For example, in an aspect, the one or more processors <NUM> may include any one or any combination of a modem processor, or a baseband processor, or a digital signal processor, or a transmit processor, or a receiver processor, or a transceiver processor associated with transceiver <NUM>. In other aspects, some of the features of the one or more processors <NUM> and/or modem <NUM> associated with communicating component <NUM> may be performed by transceiver <NUM>.

Also, memory <NUM> may be configured to store data used herein and/or local versions of applications <NUM> or communicating component <NUM> and/or one or more of its subcomponents being executed by at least one processor <NUM>. Memory <NUM> can include any type of computer-readable medium usable by a computer or at least one processor <NUM>, such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), tapes, magnetic discs, optical discs, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and any combination thereof. In an aspect, for example, memory <NUM> may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores one or more computer-executable codes defining communicating component <NUM> and/or one or more of its subcomponents, and/or data associated therewith, when UE <NUM> is operating at least one processor <NUM> to execute communicating component <NUM> and/or one or more of its subcomponents.

The antennas <NUM> may include one or more antennas, antenna elements, and/or antenna arrays.

In an aspect, communicating component <NUM> can optionally include a beam sweep component <NUM> for configuring SPS and/or CG transmissions based on a beam sweep pattern received from a network entity (e.g., eNB) as further described herein with regard to <FIG>.

Referring to <FIG>, one example of an implementation of base station <NUM> (e.g., a base station <NUM> and/or gNB <NUM>, as described above) may include a variety of components, some of which have already been described above, but including components such as one or more processors <NUM> and memory <NUM> and transceiver <NUM> in communication via one or more buses <NUM>, which may operate in conjunction with modem <NUM> and configuring component <NUM> for scheduling or otherwise enabling usage of resources for transmitting random access messages, transmitting response messages to the random access messages, etc..

In an aspect, configuring component <NUM> can optionally include a beam sweep pattern component <NUM> for determining a beam sweep pattern for SPS and/or CG activations as further described herein with regard to <FIG>.

<FIG> illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method <NUM> for wireless communications at a UE. In one example, a UE <NUM> can perform the functions described in method <NUM> using one or more of the components described in <FIG> and <FIG>.

At block <NUM>, the method <NUM> receives a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity. In an aspect, beam sweep component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, communicating component <NUM>, etc., may be configured to receive a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity. Thus, the UE <NUM>, the processor(s) <NUM>, the communicating component <NUM> or one of its subcomponents may define the means for receiving a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity.

In some implementations, the uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission may carry at least a corresponding acknowledgement.

In some implementations, the uplink control transmission may be carried in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

In some implementations, the TDM based beam sweep pattern may configure the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links at different time allocations.

In some implementations, the different time allocations may correspond to different slots or different mini-slots.

In some implementations, the FDM based beam sweep pattern may configure the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links at different frequency allocations.

In some implementations, the SDM based beam sweep pattern may correspond configures the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links simultaneously at overlapped allocations in time and frequency.

In some implementations, each of the multiple beam pair links may be indicated by a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state or codepoint if the beam pair link carries downlink traffic.

In some implementations, each of the multiple beam pair links may be indicated by a spatial relation indication if the beam pair link carries uplink traffic.

At block <NUM>, the method <NUM> configures communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern. In an aspect, guard band allocation component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, communicating component <NUM>, etc., may be configured to configure communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern. Thus, the UE <NUM>, the processor(s) <NUM>, the communicating component <NUM> or one of its subcomponents may define the means for configuring communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern.

At block <NUM>, the method <NUM> may communicate data according to the beam sweep pattern on at least one of the uplink channel or downlink channel. In an aspect, guard band allocation component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, communicating component <NUM>, etc., may be configured to communicate data according to the beam sweep pattern on at least one of the uplink channel or the downlink channel. Thus, the UE <NUM>, the processor(s) <NUM>, the communicating component <NUM> or one of its subcomponents may define the means for communicating data according to the beam sweep pattern on at least one of the uplink channel or downlink channel.

<FIG> illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method <NUM> for wireless communication at a network entity <NUM>. In an example, a base station <NUM> can perform the functions described in method <NUM> using one or more of the components described in <FIG> and <FIG>.

At block <NUM>, the method <NUM> determines a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission. In an aspect, the beam sweep component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, configuring component <NUM>, etc., may be configured to a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission. Thus, the network entity <NUM>, the processor(s) <NUM>, the configuring component <NUM> or one of its subcomponents may define the means for determining a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission.

At block <NUM>, the method <NUM> transmits an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a UE. In an aspect, beam sweep component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, configuring component <NUM>, etc., may be configured to transmit an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a UE. Thus, the network entity <NUM>, the processor(s) <NUM>, the configuring component <NUM> or one of its subcomponents may define the means for transmitting an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a UE.

In some aspects, the uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission may carry at least a corresponding acknowledgement.

In some aspects, the uplink control transmission may be carried in a PUCCH.

In some aspects, the TDM based beam sweep pattern may configure the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links at different time allocations.

In some aspects, the different time allocations may correspond to different slots or different mini-slots.

In some aspects, the FDM based beam sweep pattern may configure the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links at different frequency allocations.

In some aspects, the SDM based beam sweep pattern may correspond configures the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links simultaneously at overlapped allocation in time and frequency.

In some aspects, each of the multiple beam pair links may be indicated by a TCI state or codepoint if the beam pair link carries downlink traffic.

In some aspects, each of the multiple beam pair links may be indicated by a spatial relation indication if the beam pair link carries uplink traffic.

In some aspects, the indication may correspond to DCI. In some aspects, sending the indication may include multiplexing the DCI according to at least one of a time based, frequency based, or spatial based scheme for transmission.

In some aspects, the indication may correspond to a MAC CE. In some aspects, although not shown, the method <NUM> may further transmit an activation DCI to the UE to indicate utilization of the beam sweep pattern indicated in the MAC CE.

In some aspects, the indication may correspond to a radio resource control (RRC) message. In some aspects, the indication may include at least an index value associated with the beam sweep pattern and a beam sweep pattern list including one or more index values each associated with a distinct beam sweep beam, the beam sweep pattern including the index value associated with the beam sweep pattern.

In some aspects, although not shown, the method <NUM> may further transmit a redundancy version independently of or with the transmission of the beam sweep pattern.

In some aspects, determining the beam sweep pattern may include determining the beam sweep pattern for SPS activation on a PUSCH. In some aspects, the indication corresponds to DCI. In some aspects, the beam sweep pattern may configure both uplink and downlink communication.

<FIG> are conceptual diagrams of example communication flows between a network entity (e.g., gNB) such base station <NUM> and a UE such as a UE <NUM>. For example, the network entity may configure the UE such that rather than using a single active beam per grant for PDSCH or PUSCH transmission after activation, beam sweeping may be implemented using multiple beams as part of SPS and/or CG activation.

In one implementation as shown by <NUM>, a beam sweep pattern can be indicated in an activation DCI or MAC-CE. For instance, either an actual beam sweep pattern or an index associated with the beam sweep pattern can be indicated. Further, if the index is indicated, multiple patterns may be pre-configured by RRC message or MAC-CE with corresponding indices, and may be further down-selected for activation by MAC-CE. Additionally, the beam sweep pattern may be indicated in the MAC-CE for at least one SPS or CG configuration. In such case, an activation DCI may be used to dynamically indicate whether to use the beam sweep pattern for corresponding activated SPS or CG configuration(s). Further, in such case, SPS or CG configuration(s) indicated in a MAC-CE may always use the indicated pattern if activated.

In another implementation shown by <NUM>, a beam sweep pattern can be indicated in an RRC configuration message. For instance, either an actual beam sweep pattern or an index associated with the beam sweep pattern can be indicated. Further, if the index is indicated, multiple patterns may be pre-configured by RRC message with corresponding indices.

In both implementations, redundancy versions (RVs) can also be signaled per beam sweep pattern. The RVs may be signaled separately from beam sweep pattern, e.g. via actual RV pattern or the index. Alternatively, the RVs may be signaled jointly with beam sweep pattern, e.g. via joint beam sweep plus the RV pattern or corresponding joint index.

Referring to <NUM>, in the case of SPS activation only, a PUCCH beam sweep pattern can be indicated in activation DCI as well. The PUCCH beam sweep pattern or the index can be explicitly signaled in activation DCI, MAC-CE, or RRC message.

Alternatively, individual PUCCH resources can be configured with repetition transmissions having corresponding beam sweep patterns, with the particular PUCCH resource identifiers to use dynamically indicated by activation DCI. For a similar number of repetitions, the PUCCH beam sweep pattern can be unspecified such that the PDSCH beam sweep pattern can be reused.

Referring to <NUM>, to reduce overhead, the downlink and uplink beam sweep patterns can be indicated in a single DCI activating both SPS and CG. For a similar number of repetitions, the PUSCH beam sweep pattern can be unspecified and the PDSCH beam sweep pattern may be reused. To further reduce overhead, beam sweep pattern per SPS or CG configuration can be indicated in single DCI activating multiple SPS and/or CG configurations. For a similar number of repetitions, only a single SPS or CG beam sweep pattern can be specified, and other SPS or CG configurations beam sweep patterns may be reused. The forgoing can be applied to other parameters, i.e. a parameter specified for one SPS or CG configuration can be applied to other SPS or CG configurations if corresponding parameter is unspecified for those configurations, or a common parameter is indicated for all.

<FIG> is a block diagram of a MIMO communication system <NUM> including a base station <NUM> and a UE <NUM>. The MIMO communication system <NUM> may illustrate aspects of the wireless communication access network <NUM> described with reference to <FIG>. The base station <NUM> may be an example of aspects of the base station <NUM> described with reference to <FIG>. The base station <NUM> may be equipped with antennas <NUM> and <NUM>, and the UE <NUM> may be equipped with antennas <NUM> and <NUM>. In the MIMO communication system <NUM>, the base station <NUM> may be able to send data over multiple communication links at the same time. Each communication link may be called a "layer" and the "rank" of the communication link may indicate the number of layers used for communication. For example, in a 2x2 MIMO communication system where base station <NUM> transmits two "layers," the rank of the communication link between the base station <NUM> and the UE <NUM> is two.

The UE <NUM> may be an example of aspects of the UEs <NUM> described with reference to <FIG>. At the UE <NUM>, the UE antennas <NUM> and <NUM> may receive the DL signals from the base station <NUM> and may provide the received signals to the modulator/demodulators <NUM> and <NUM>, respectively. Each modulator/demodulator <NUM> through <NUM> may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each modulator/demodulator <NUM> through <NUM> may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector <NUM> may obtain received symbols from the modulator/demodulators <NUM> and <NUM>, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols, if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive (Rx) processor <NUM> may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, providing decoded data for the UE <NUM> to a data output, and provide decoded control information to a processor <NUM>, or memory <NUM>.

The processor <NUM> may in some cases execute stored instructions to instantiate a communicating component <NUM> (see e.g., <FIG> and <FIG>).

The processor <NUM> may in some cases execute stored instructions to instantiate a configuring component <NUM> (see e.g., <FIG> and <FIG>).

In one example, a method for wireless communication at a network entity includes determining a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a SPS based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a CG based uplink periodic transmission activation, and transmitting an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a user equipment.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission carries at least a corresponding acknowledgement.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the uplink control transmission is carried in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the beam sweep pattern corresponds to multiple beam pair links communicated in a time division multiplexing (TDM) based, frequency division multiplexing (FDM) based, spatial division multiplexing (SDM) based scheme, or any combination thereof.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the TDM based beam sweep pattern configures the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links at different time allocations.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the different time allocations correspond to different slots or different mini-slots.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the FDM based beam sweep pattern configures the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links at different frequency allocations.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the SDM based beam sweep pattern corresponds configures the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission via different beam pair links simultaneously at overlapped allocations in time and frequency.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state or codepoint.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a spatial relation indication.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the indication corresponds to or signaled in a DCI.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the indication is transmitted to a MAC CE.

One or more of the above examples can further include transmitting an activation DCI to the UE to indicate utilization of the beam sweep pattern indicated in the MAC CE.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the indication corresponds to a radio resource control (RRC) message.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the indication includes at least an index value associated with the beam sweep pattern and a beam sweep pattern list including one or more index values each associated with a distinct beam sweep beam.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the association of each index value with the beam sweep pattern is configured by an RRC message or a MAC-CE.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein each configured index value associated with a beam sweep pattern index is down-selected for activation by the MAC-CE.

One or more of the above examples can further include further comprising transmitting a redundancy version pattern independently of or jointly with the transmission of the beam sweep pattern.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein a single common beam sweep pattern is transmitted for at least two of the SPS based downlink transmission, the uplink control transmission for SPS, or the CG transmission.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein a single common beam sweep pattern is transmitted for at least two different SPS based downlink configurations.

One or more of the above examples can further include wherein a single common beam sweep pattern is transmitted for at least two different CG configurations.

In another example, a method for wireless communication at a user equipment includes receiving a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a configured grant (CG) based uplink periodic transmission from a network entity, configuring communication using two or more beams on at least one of an uplink channel or downlink channel based on the beam sweep pattern, and communicating data according to the beam sweep pattern on at least one of the uplink channel or the downlink channel. One or more of the above examples can further include wherein the uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission carries at least a corresponding acknowledgement.

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, or any combination thereof. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described above can be implemented using software executed by a specially programmed processor, hardware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. " 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. Also, as used herein, including in the claims, "or" as used in a list of items prefaced by "at least one of" indicates a disjunctive list such that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (A and B and C).

Claim 1:
A method for wireless communication at a network entity, comprising:
determining (<NUM>) a beam sweep pattern for at least one of a semi-persistent scheduling, SPS, based downlink periodic transmission, an uplink control transmission for the SPS based downlink periodic transmission, or a configured grant, CG, based uplink periodic transmission, wherein the beam sweep pattern corresponds to multiple beam pair links communicated in a time division multiplexing, TDM, based, frequency division multiplexing, FDM, based, spatial division multiplexing, SDM, based scheme, or any combination thereof, and wherein each of the multiple beam pair links is indicated by a transmission configuration indicator, TCI, state; and
transmitting (<NUM>) an indication including the beam sweep pattern to a user equipment, UE.