Patent Description:
In wireless systems, there is a requirement for supporting various services. For example, the fifth generation (<NUM>) wireless communication system being developed by the third generation partnership project (3GPP) is supposed to support, using a common radio access network (RAN), multiple types of services including, for example, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC) and ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC). These services require different quality of service (QoS) in terms of delay, data rate and/or packet loss rate. For instance, the URLLC service requires low delay and/or high reliability, while the mMTC service typically requires long battery lifetime without requiring low delay or high data rate and usually causes transmission of small infrequent packets.

To meet requirements of tight delay and extremely low media access control (MAC) block error rate (BLER) for URLLC, a URLLC packet is expected to be transmitted via a short slot with a high quality target (for example, high signal to interference and noise power (SINR) or high received power), and higher layer automatic retransmit request (ARQ) may not be allowed in URLLC. A cost of the short-slot transmission is the increased control channel overhead and possibly uplink (UL)-downlink (DL) switch overhead for a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) system. In contrast, the delay requirement for eMBB is much looser than that for URLLC, and as a result, both long slot duration and higher layer ARQ can be used for eMBB to enhance spectrum efficiency. As another difference, an eMBB service usually causes transmission of large data blocks while an URLLC service usually involves transmission of only small data block. Therefore, a base station (also referred to as a New Radio (NR) NB of gNB) in the <NUM> wireless communication system has to fulfill deviated QoS requirements for various services.

Document "<NPL>, discloses an evaluation on the UL URLLC multiplexing design. The following observations and proposal were made. Observation <NUM>: UL Resource efficiency can be improved by multiplexing eMBB with grant-free URLLC in UL: collision can be controlled by semi-static resource assignment, e.g., partial overlap in resources (time/frequency/power) assigned to eMBB and URLLC transmission such that performance of each will not be degraded much. Observation <NUM>: SF with configurable DL/UL split can be used to support bidirectional URLLC traffic, or UL URLLC coexisting with DL eMBB. Proposal <NUM>: NR should support UL coexistence of eMBB and URLLC with semi-static resource configuration: resources can be partially overlapped between eMBB transmission and grant-free URLLC transmission.

In order to provide different services in a wireless communication system in a resource efficient way, methods, apparatuses and computer programs are provided in the present disclosure. It will be appreciated that embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to a <NUM> system, but could be more widely applied to any wireless communication system where similar problems exist.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure mainly aim at providing methods, apparatuses and computer programs for data transmitting and receiving. Other features and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure will be understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to the present disclosure, methods, machine-readable storage media and apparatuses according to the independent claims are provided. Developments are set forth in the dependent claims.

According to various aspects and embodiments as mentioned above, data transmission for a service may be performed in an efficient way, and/or QoS requirement for the service may be satisfied.

The above and other aspects, features, and benefits of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals or letters are used to designate like or equivalent elements.

As used herein, the term "wireless communication network" refers to a network following any suitable wireless communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and so on. Furthermore, the communications between network devices in the wireless communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), LTE, and/or other suitable, and/or other suitable the first generation (<NUM>), the second generation (<NUM>), <NUM>, <NUM>, the third generation (<NUM>), the fourth generation (<NUM>), <NUM>, the fifth generation (<NUM>) communication protocols, wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE <NUM> standards; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, and/or ZigBee standards, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future.

As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a device in a wireless communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a gNB, a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology.

Yet further examples of network device include multi-standard radio (MSR) radio equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, Multi-cell/multicast Coordination Entities (MCEs), core network nodes (for example, MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (for example, E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. More generally, however, network device may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a terminal device access to the wireless communication network or to provide some service to a terminal device that has accessed the wireless communication network.

The term "terminal device" refers to any end device that can access a wireless communication network and receive services therefrom. By way of example and not limitation, a terminal device may be referred to as user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, wearable terminal devices, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) and the like. In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "terminal", "user equipment" and "UE" may be used interchangeably.

As one example, a terminal device may represent a UE configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3GPP, such as 3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or <NUM> standards. As used herein, a "user equipment" or "UE" may not necessarily have a "user" in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. In some embodiments, a terminal device may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a terminal device may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the wireless communication network. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but that may not initially be associated with a specific human user.

The terminal device may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, and may in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device.

As yet another example, in an Internet of Things (IOT) scenario, a terminal device may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another terminal device and/or network equipment. The terminal device may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as a machine-type communication (MTC) device. As one particular example, the terminal device may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances, for example refrigerators, televisions, personal wearables such as watches etc. In other scenarios, a terminal device may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

As used herein, a DL transmission refers to a transmission from the network device to a terminal device, and an UL transmission refers to a transmission in an opposite direction.

<FIG> illustrates an example wireless communication network <NUM> in which embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented. As shown in <FIG>, the wireless communication network <NUM> may include one or more network devices, for example network devices <NUM>, which may be in a form of a gNB. It will be appreciated that the network device <NUM> could also be in a form of a Node B, an eNB, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), and/or a Base Station Subsystem (BSS), an access point (AP) and the like. The network device <NUM> may provide radio connectivity to a set of terminal devices or UEs, for example, <NUM>-<NUM>, <NUM>-<NUM>, and <NUM>-<NUM> (collectively referred to as "terminal device(s) <NUM>) within its coverage. Although network device <NUM> illustrated in the example wireless communication network may represent a device that includes a particular combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network device may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein.

In the wireless communication network <NUM>, the network device <NUM> may need to provide various services to the terminal devices <NUM>. For example, it may provide an eMBB service to the terminal device <NUM>-<NUM>, and/or provides an URLLC service to the terminal device <NUM>-<NUM>, and/or provides both the eMBB service and the URLLC service to the terminal device <NUM>-<NUM>. One straight forward way for providing these different services with satisfying performance may be that the network device <NUM> reserves a specific radio resource pool for URLLC services requiring low latency and/or high reliability.

Further, due to signaling exchanges for scheduling request (SR) and scheduling grant prior to UL data transmission, there is a larger scheduling delay in UL than in DL which allows direct data transmission, and it has been proposed to use contention based UL data transmission for URLLC to avoid the large delay. However, to support contention based UL data transmission for URLLC traffic, a larger resource pool may need to be reserved in order to reduce collision probability compared to a scheduled URLLC UL data transmission.

<FIG> shows one example of resource pool allocation for URLLC traffic and eMBB traffic. In this example, DL resource pools <NUM> and <NUM> are reserved for URLLC and eMBB respectively, and UL resource pools <NUM> and <NUM> are reserved for URLLC and eMBB respectively. Note that the UL resource pool <NUM> reserved for URLLC traffic is much larger than the DL resource pool <NUM> reserved for URLLC traffic, since the URLLC data transmission may be fully scheduled in DL while contention based in UL.

In a system supporting grant free access (that is, contention based access) of URLLC traffic, radio resource utilization ratio usually is kept low in order to meet a low collision probability. Even for scheduled data transmission of URLLC, a resource pool may need to be reserved as well, since the system always has to be prepared for transmitting instantaneously generated data for URLLC services within a short slot, in order to satisfy the low latency requirement for the URLLC traffic. Hence, the issue of radio resource efficiency for providing mixed eMBB and URLLC services should be addressed.

Currently, an alternative solution being discussed for providing URLLC service is to allow preemption of radio resource used by an ongoing eMBB data transmission for URLLC data transmission. An example for the preemption of radio resource is illustrated in <FIG>. As shown in <FIG>, URLLC data symbols may be transmitted in a resource <NUM> overlapping with a resource <NUM> for eMBB data transmission. However, if a UE is served by a TDD system, it cannot receive downlink control information (DCI) to stop an ongoing UL transmission when it is in a transmitting (TX) state. That is, an UE cannot stop its eMBB transmission to leave resource for use by URLLC traffic, for example from another UE. In practice, for both TDD and Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems, a gNB cannot stop UL transmission from a UE if the DCI search space occurrence periodicity is large and the delay for DCI transmission and decoding delay is also considerable.

In order to solve at least part of the above problems, methods, apparatuses and computer programs have been proposed herein. Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a pseudo multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission scheme for transmitting data blocks of different services (for example, URLLC and eMBB) using overlapped radio resources where each transmission (i.e. input) in the overlapped radio resource is scheduled via independent pseudo process and the multiplexing occurs randomly via predefined service specific channel coding configurations. Though some embodiments may be described with reference to URLLC service and eMBB service for simplicity, it should be appreciated that embodiments are not limited thereto, and could be applied more widely to other scenarios where similar problems exist.

In some embodiments, URLLC data transmission and eMBB data transmission may be preconfigured to use different codes (for example, Orthogonal Covering Codes (OCC) and/or scrambling code) or different Cyclic Shifts (CS) in the overlapped radio resource.

In some embodiments, in order to satisfy a high reliability requirement for URLLC data transmission, the eMBB data transmission may be scheduled by taking interference control into consideration, for example by setting a low or median SINR target or received power for it. Alternatively or in addition, in some embodiments, the URLLC data transmission is preconfigured to use power boost (or a high SINR target, or a high received power target) to improve transmission performance.

In some further embodiments, at a receiving side, URLLC data may be decoded first, and then eMBB data may be decoded with assistance of decoding results of the URLLC data to improve detection reliability.

With some embodiments, radio resource utilization may be enhanced for providing multiple services using one carrier.

In some embodiments, radio resource may be shared for URLLC traffic and eMBB traffic such that a terminal device may be configured with a large resource pool for performing contention based UL transmission for URLLC, hence the collision ratio can be decreased without obvious resource utilization degradation.

Reference is now made to <FIG> which shows a flowchart of a method <NUM> in a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, and the terminal device may be, for example, a terminal device <NUM> shown in <FIG>. For ease of discussions, the method <NUM> will be described below with reference to a terminal device <NUM> and the environment as described with reference to <FIG>; however, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto and may be applied more widely in other scenarios where similar problem exists.

As illustrated in <FIG>, at block <NUM>, the terminal device <NUM> receives a first indication of a first resource pool to be shared by a first service and a second service. In some embodiments, the first service and the second service have different QoS requirements. For example rather than limitation, the first service may require lower delay and/or higher reliability than the second service. The first service may be, for example but not limited to, URLLC service. As another example, the second service may be eMBB service. For ease of discussions, the method <NUM> may be described below using URLLC service and eMBB service as an example for the first service and the second service respectively; however, it should be appreciated that embodiments are not limited to the specific services explicitly listed herein.

The first resource pool allows simultaneous transmission of a URLLC data block and eMBB data block transmission in the first resource pool. For example, a URLLC data block may be transmitted in a radio resource (partly) overlapping with a resource for an ongoing eMBB data block transmission. Therefore, radio resource utilization may be enhanced for providing multiple services in one resource pool.

Inventors of the present disclosure have realized that the network may not know whether there will be URLLC packet to be transmitted when the eMBB packet is scheduled, and the transmission of a URLLC packet may occur if there is URLLC packet generated, for example after the eMBB data transmission being scheduled. Therefore, to reduce or avoid performance degradation due to transmission of URLLC and eMBB in an overlapped resource, it is proposed herein that certain pre-configuration may be applied in order to seek satisfying performance of an ongoing eMBB packet transmission as well as the potential URLLC packet transmission. One example is to preconfigure a first set of parameters for URLLC and a second set of parameters for eMBB.

Accordingly, as shown in <FIG>, at block <NUM>, the terminal device <NUM> receives configuration information. The configuration information may include one or both of: a first configuration for transmitting data of the first service using a resource in the first resource pool, and a second configuration for transmitting data of the second service using a resource in the first resource pool. In some embodiments, the configuration information may be higher layer configuration information, for example, the configuration information may include one or more parameters semi-statically configured by higher layer.

In some embodiments, the second configuration is different from the first configuration. For example, the first configuration may indicate a first parameter for power control, the second configuration may indicate a second parameter for power control, and the first parameter for power control may result in a transmission power boost compared to the second parameter for power control. In this example, power boost for the URLLC is enabled to meet the high reliability requirement.

However, embodiments are not limited to any specific transmitting or receiving parameter to be included in the first or second configuration. Just for illustration rather than limitation, the first configuration or the second configuration or both of them may include at least one of: a parameter for RS configuration, a parameter for CDM of URLLC and eMBB, a parameter for power control, a parameter for control channel configuration (for example, number of control channel for URLLC and/or eMBB), and a parameter for resource allocation.

In some embodiments, the parameter for CDM indicated by the first or the second configuration may include at least one of: a group of orthogonal covering codes (OCC) and a group of scrambling codes for RS and/or data encoding. For example, URLLC traffic may be configured to use a first OCC for RS masking and a first scrambling code for data masking, and eMBB traffic may be configured to use a second OCC for RS masking and a second scrambling code for data masking. That is, it enables a URLLC data/RS transmission to use a different OCC from an ongoing eMBB data/R transmission according to a pre-configuration.

In an embodiment, the first or the second configuration or both may include the parameter for RS configuration, which may include, for example but not limited to, at least one of: a group of cyclic shifts (CSs) for the RS, a code sequence for the RS, a transmission pattern for the RS, and an indication of antenna ports for the RS. The RS may include, for example but not limited to, one or more of demodulation RS (DMRS), channel state information RS (CSI-RS), and phase tracking RS (PTS). As an example, the parameter for RS configuration may include DMRS sequence and/or CS, and/or DMRS pattern to be used for URLLC or eMBB. A RS pattern indicates resources to be used for carrying RS, and a RS pattern indicating more resource occupied by the RS is also referred to as a denser RS pattern herein. In an embodiment, at block <NUM>, the terminal device <NUM> may receive a first configuration indicating a RS pattern for URLLC which is denser than that for eMBB, in order to improve channel estimation and demodulation performance for URLLC.

Alternatively or in addition, in an embodiment, the parameter for RS configuration may indicate antenna ports for the RS, for example, which or how many antenna ports are to be used for transmitting the RS.

In 3GPP LTE, power control for physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is specified, for example, in TS <NUM> v12. <NUM> as equation (<NUM>) below: <MAT> wherein PCMAX,c(i) is the configured UE transmit power defined in TS <NUM> v11. <NUM> in subframe i for serving cell c ; MPUSCH,c(i) is the bandwidth of the PUSCH resource assignment expressed in number of resource blocks valid for subframe i and serving cell c ; PLc is the downlink path loss estimate calculated in the UE for serving cell c in dB; αc(j) is the scaling parameters for the path loss; ΔTF,c(i) and fc(i) are the other parameters related to modulation and coding schemes (MCS) and previous power control parameters.

In some embodiments, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may indicate parameter for power control which may include one or more of: a target received signal power, a compensation factor for path loss, and an indication of transmission power difference between the URLLC and the eMBB.

In an example embodiment, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may set, for eMBB data transmission on the first resource pool, a low or medium SINR/received power target for power control. Alternatively or in addition, in another embodiment, the configuration information received may indicate, for the URLLC transmission on the first resource pool, a high SINR/received power target for power control.

As an example, the configuration information may indicate a small/ low PO_PUSCH,c(j) value for eMBB and/or set a large/ high PO_PUSCH,c(j) value for URLLC for use in the above equation (<NUM>).

As another example, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may indicate a small αc(j) value for eMBB data transmission on the first resource pool, and/or, a large αc(j) value for URLLC data transmission on the first resource pool.

In still another embodiment, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may indicate a set of parameters for eMBB data transmission, and a delta value or scaling factor relative to the set of parameters for URLLC data transmission, so that transmission power used for URLLC is larger than that for eMBB.

In this way, the interference from eMBB data transmission to the URLLC data transmission may be controlled, and thus, there is high probability to decode the URLLC data block correctly even when the URLLC packet transmission collides with the eMBB data transmission. Therefore, with the proposed embodiments, robustness of the URLLC packet transmission may be guaranteed.

Note that the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may be UE-specific or cell-specific. For example, the first configuration and/or second configuration included in the configuration information may be applied to same UE or different UEs.

Still referring to <FIG> now. As shown, at block <NUM>, the terminal device <NUM> transmits the data of the first service (for example, URLLC), or the data of the second service (for example, eMBB), or both, based on the first indication received at block <NUM> and the configuration information received at block <NUM>. Since the configuration information received at block <NUM> may include URLLC specific or eMBB specific transmission parameter(s), data transmission for URLLC and/or eMBB can be well controlled, in order to satisfy corresponding QoS requirements.

Compared with the preemption method as shown in <FIG> (that is to stop ongoing eMBB data transmission if colliding with an URLLC data transmission), in some embodiments, the proposed method can avoid interrupting an ongoing eMBB data transmission. <FIG> illustrates one example where eMBB data block is being transmitted using a large resource block <NUM>, and during the eMBB data transmission, URLLC data transmission occurs using parts <NUM> and <NUM> of the large resource block <NUM>. The eMBB data transmission and/or the URLLC data transmission in this example may be performed in a similar way to that of block <NUM> of <FIG>. That is, the transmission of the eMBB data and/or the URLLC data may be done based on service specific configuration (that is, the second configuration and/or the first configuration included in the configuration information received at block <NUM>). For example, the URLLC transmissions on resource <NUM> and <NUM> may use CS and/or OCCs/power control parameters different from that of the ongoing eMBB data transmission using resource <NUM> according to received configuration information.

In some embodiments, the terminal device <NUM> may optionally receive, at block <NUM>, a second indication of a second resource pool dedicated for eMBB. That is, only eMBB data transmission can use the second resource pool.

Alternatively, or in addition, in another embodiment, the terminal device <NUM> may optionally receive, at block <NUM>, a third indication of a third resource pool dedicated for URLLC. That is, only URLLC data transmission can use the third resource pool.

<FIG> illustrates an example for allocation of resource pools with which pseudo MIMO transmission is allowed between URLLC and eMBB data transmissions. In this example, three resource pools are configured. Pool <NUM> is shared by both eMBB and URLLC data transmissions; pool <NUM> is dedicated for eMBB use, while pool <NUM> is dedicated for URLLC. The URLLC data transmission in the resource pool <NUM> and <NUM> may be either scheduled by the gNB (that is scheduled URLLC data transmission) or proactively initiated by the UE (that is contention based URLLC data transmission).

In some embodiments, there is lower interference level and higher transmission reliability in the second resource pool <NUM> than in the first resource pool <NUM>, since no collision between eMBB transmission and URLLC transmission occurs in the resource pool <NUM>.

In some embodiments where the second resource pool <NUM> is configured for the terminal device <NUM>, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may further include a third configuration for transmitting data of the eMBB service using a resource in the second resource pool. In an embodiment, the third configuration (for example for the resource pool <NUM> in <FIG>) may be different from the second configuration (for example for the resource pool <NUM> in <FIG>).

Likewise, in another embodiment where the third resource pool <NUM> is configured for the terminal device <NUM>, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may further include a fourth configuration for transmitting data of the URLLC service using a resource in the third resource pool. The fourth configuration (for example for the resource pool <NUM> in <FIG>) may be different from the first configuration (for example for the resource pool <NUM> in <FIG>).

The third/fourth configuration enables adapting one or more transmission parameters of the terminal device <NUM> to different interference level and/or channel status in the dedicated resource pool (that is, pool <NUM>, <NUM>) from that in the share resource pool (that is, <NUM>). That is, the terminal device <NUM> may receive configuration information for a resource pool depending on sharing status (for example, shared or dedicated) and/or traffic status of the resource pool. As one example, when a resource pool is allocated for the eMBB only, a first set of power control parameters may be configured, while when the resource pool is allocated for sharing between eMBB and URLLC, a second set of power control parameters and a third set of power control parameters may be configured for eMBB traffic and URLLC traffic respectively. When the resource pool is allocated for URLLC only, a fourth set of power control parameters may be configured. Examples of power control parameters described above also apply here. For example one or more parameters shown in Equation (<NUM>) may be configured for the terminal device on a per resource pool basis. That is, the first configuration, second configuration, third configuration and the fourth configuration received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may differ from each other.

As another example, the second configuration and the third configuration received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may indicate different SINR/receiver power target settings for the same eMBB service in different resource pools. For example, for an eMBB service to be served with both resource pools <NUM> and <NUM> shown in <FIG>, a first high SINR/received power target value may be configured for eMBB data transmission in the dedicated resource pool <NUM>, and a second low SINR/received power target value may be configured for eMBB data transmission in the share resource pool <NUM> to seek satisfying performance of potential URLLC data transmissions in the same pool <NUM>. While the SINR/received power target for URLLC data in the share resource pool <NUM> can be set to a higher value to increase the robustness of URLLC data transmissions.

In some embodiments, the second configuration and the third configuration received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may indicate different RS patterns for eMBB transmission in the first resource pool and the second resource pool respectively.

Likewise, in another example, the first configuration and the fourth configuration may indicate different RS patterns for URLLC transmission in the first resource pool and the third resource pool respectively.

In some embodiments, the first configuration indicates a first RS pattern, the second configuration indicates a second RS pattern, the third configuration indicates a third RS pattern and the fourth configuration indicates a fourth RS pattern, and the first RS pattern or the second RS pattern includes one or more of: RS included in the third RS pattern, and RS included in the fourth RS pattern. As an example rather than limitation, in the share resource pool <NUM> for URLLC and eMBB, the RS pattern to be used may be derived based on a RS pattern for eMBB (data and/or control) in the dedicated resource pool <NUM> and a RS pattern for URLLC (data and/or control) in the dedicated resource pool <NUM>. As one example, the RS for any transmission in the share resource pool <NUM> may be a union or combination of RS for eMBB transmission in the dedicated pool <NUM> and RS for URLLC transmission in the dedicated pool <NUM>.

In another embodiment, at an optional block not shown in <FIG>, the terminal device <NUM> may determine a RS pattern for data transmission in the first resource pool based on a RS pattern indicated by the third configuration and a RS pattern indicated by the fourth configuration. In this example, it is unnecessary for the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> to indicate explicitly a RS pattern to be used in the first resource pool.

Some examples of RS patterns for different resource pools are shown in <FIG>. <FIG> illustrates a RS pattern <NUM> for eMBB transmission in the dedicated resource pool <NUM>, and the RS pattern <NUM> indicates resources for: DMRS <NUM> for control <NUM>, DMRS <NUM> for data, and PTS <NUM>. It should be understood that in another embodiment, the RS pattern may indicate resource for more or less or different RS. Likewise, a RS pattern <NUM> for URLLC transmission in the dedicated resource pool <NUM> is shown in <FIG> and the RS pattern indicates resources for: DMRS <NUM> for control <NUM> and DMRS <NUM> for data. A RS pattern <NUM> for URLLC/eMBB transmission in the share resource pool <NUM> is shown in <FIG>. In this example, when eMBB is transmitted in the share resource pool <NUM>, besides the RS designed for eMBB (that is, RS shown in <NUM> of <FIG>), the RS designed for URLLC (that is, RS shown in <NUM> of <FIG>) is also transmitted for improving eMBB demodulation. Likewise, when URLLC is transmitted in the share resource pool <NUM>, besides the RS designed for URLLC (that is, RS in <NUM> of <FIG>), the RS designed for eMBB demodulation shown in <NUM> of <FIG> is also transmitted and used for URLLC decoding. As shown in <FIG>, in this example, when RS <NUM> for URLLC data and RS <NUM> for eMBB data collide in same resource, some mechanism, such as CDM via OCC or CSs, may be used to keep the orthogonality between URLLC RS and eMBB RS. That is, if a resource element (RE) for RS of one service collides with RE for RS of another service, some mechanism, such as CDM via OCC, may be used to keep the orthogonality between RSs.

As another example, if a RE for data transmission of a service (for example, eMBB) collides with RE for RS transmission of another service (for example, URLLC), the colliding RE shall not be used for the data transmission to avoid interference to the RS transmission. That is, at block <NUM> of <FIG>, when transmitting the data of the first service and/or the data of the second service, the terminal device <NUM> may blank data transmission in a RE occupied by a RS for the first service or the second service in the first resource pool. In the example shown in <FIG>, the REs <NUM> may not be used for eMBB data transmission, since it overlaps with URLLC RS transmission. The REs <NUM> may not be used for URLLC data transmission, since the PTS of eMBB are transmitted in these REs.

As another example, in addition to the RS designed for eMBB transmission and the RS designed for URLLC transmission, more RS may be added to the share resource pool to guarantee robust performance of the transmission on the share resource pool.

Now referring back to <FIG>. In another embodiment, the configuration information received by the terminal device at block <NUM> may indicate a common RS pattern for data transmission of the first service and the second service. That is, eMBB and URLLC may adopt same DMRS pattern in the share resource pool. For instance, the URLLC DMRS pattern for URLLC may be used for both eMBB data transmission and URLLC data transmission. In this case, different OCC and or CSs are applied for the DMRS of eMBB and the DMRS of URLLC respectively to provide the orthogonality for channel estimation.

As described above, in some embodiments, the configuration information received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> may include service specific configuration for the share resource pool, and/or, resource pool specific configuration. With the configuration information, the terminal device <NUM> may transmit in a share resource pool or a dedicated resource pool. In an embodiment, the terminal device <NUM> may transmit eMBB data in the eMBB dedicated resource pool based on the second indication received at block <NUM> and the third configuration included in the configuration information received at block <NUM>.

Since a dedicated resource pool may provide better performance than a share resource pool, in some embodiments, important control signaling may optionally be received by the terminal device in the dedicated resource pool. As an example, at block <NUM>, the terminal device <NUM> may receive/transmit, in a resource in the second resource pool (for example, the eMBB dedicated resource pool <NUM> in <FIG>), a scheduling grant for data transmission of the first service or the second service in the first share resource pool (for example, pool <NUM> in <FIG>); and in this example, the terminal device <NUM> may transmit, at block <NUM>, data of the first service and/or data of the second service further based on the scheduling grant.

Reference is now made to <FIG> which shows a flowchart of a method <NUM> in a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, for example, the network device <NUM> shown in <FIG>. For ease of discussions, the method <NUM> will be described below with reference to the network device <NUM> and the environment as described with reference to <FIG>; however, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto and may be applied more widely in other scenarios where similar problem exists.

As illustrated in <FIG>, at block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> transmits a first indication of a first resource pool to be shared by a first service and a second service. Descriptions related to the first service and the second service provided with reference to method <NUM> also apply here, and details will not be repeated. For example, as described with reference to method <NUM>, the first service may require lower delay and/or higher reliability than the second service. For ease of discussion, in the following description, URLLC and eMBB will be used as an example for the first service and the second service respectively; however, embodiments are not limited thereto.

At block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> transmits configuration information, for example, to the terminal device <NUM> in <FIG>. The configuration may include service specific configuration for data transmission in the first resource pool. For example, the configuration information may include a first configuration for transmitting URLLC data using a resource in the first resource pool, or a second configuration for transmitting eMBB data using a resource in the first resource pool, or both. In an embodiment, the second configuration may be different from the first configuration. In another embodiment, the configuration information may be transmitted by the network device at block <NUM> via a higher layer signaling. In an embodiment, the configuration information may be same as that received by the terminal device <NUM> at block <NUM> using method <NUM>, and therefore, descriptions with respect to the configuration information provided with reference to method <NUM> also apply here and details will not be repeated. Just as an example, the first configuration and/or the second configuration included in the configuration information may indicate at least one of: a parameter for RS configuration, a parameter for CDM of the URLLC and the eMBB data transmission, a parameter for power control, a parameter for control channel configuration and a parameter for resource allocation. Descriptions provided with reference to method <NUM> with respect to service specific configuration on power control, RS pattern, CDM and resource allocation also apply here.

At block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> receives the URLLC data and/or the eMBB data based on the first indication and the configuration information. In an embodiment, at block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> may decode the data of URLLC firstly and decode the data of eMBB based on decoding result of the URLLC data.

An example of the decoding procedure adopted at block <NUM> is shown in <FIG>. Since the URLLC data transmission may be provided with more protection/redundancy than eMBB data in possible collisions, there is higher probability for decoding the URLLC data correctly. In this example, at block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> decodes URLLC data block based on the configuration information transmitted at block <NUM>. After the URLLC data block decoding, if there is overlapping eMBB transmission, the URLLC data may cause interference to the eMBB transmission, and the network device <NUM> regenerates the received signal for the URLLC data at block <NUM>, and cancels interference caused by the regenerated signal for the URLLC data to the eMBB data transmission at block <NUM>. At block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> further decodes the eMBB data block transmission based on the configuration information transmitted at block <NUM>.

Now referring back to <FIG>. In an embodiment, besides the first share resource pool, the network device <NUM> may configure one or more dedicated resource pool for a specific service. For example, at block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> may transmit, to the terminal device <NUM>, a second indication of a second resource pool dedicated for eMBB, or a third indication of a third resource pool dedicated for URLLC, or both.

Considering that channel/interference/status may be different in the share resource pool and the dedicated resource pool(s), in some embodiments, the network device <NUM> may configure resource pool specific transmission/receiving parameters for the terminal device <NUM>. As an example, the configuration information transmitted by the network device at block <NUM> may further include one or more of: a third configuration for transmitting data of the second service using a resource in the second resource pool, and a fourth configuration for transmitting data of the first service using a resource in the third resource pool. In an embodiment, the fourth configuration may be different from the first configuration, and/or, the third configuration may be different from the second configuration. This embodiment enables the network device <NUM> to control some transmission parameters for the terminal device <NUM> on a per resource pool basis. Embodiments are not limited to any specific parameters to be controlled by the network device <NUM> via the configuration information transmitted at block <NUM>, and an example for the transmission parameter may be RS pattern.

In some embodiments, for a terminal device <NUM> with eMBB service, the network device <NUM> may apply separate link control loops for the eMBB data transmissions in the first resource pool and the second resource pool, including respective MCS selection, respective close loop power control, and/or, respective out loop power control and the like.

Alternatively, or in addition, in an embodiment, cross-pool scheduling can be applied for eMBB data transmission (and/or URLLC data transmission). That is, at block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> may transmit, in a resource from the second resource pool, a scheduling grant (for example, in a form of downlink control information (DCI)) for eMBB/URLLC data transmission using a resource from the first resource pool. The scheduling grant, for example DCI, transmitted in the second resource pool for eMBB data transmissions in the first resource pool and the second resource pool may help to avoid possible quality degradation of the DCI due to the possible interference from the URLLC data transmission. Accordingly, at block <NUM>, the network device <NUM> receives the eMBB and/or URLLC data transmission further based on the scheduling grant.

In another embodiment, when the network device <NUM> configures both the first resource pool and the second resource pool for the terminal device <NUM>, it may allocate a radio resource from the non-shared (dedicated) resource pool firstly before allocating a radio resource from the share radio resource pool for data transmission from the terminal device <NUM>. For example, it may schedule eMBB data transmission in the first resource pool only when there is no resource available in the second resource pool. This example may reduce collision and improve performance of data transmission.

With some of the embodiments described above, pseudo MIMO transmission is enabled. It should be understood that both multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) transmission (for example, eMBB data transmission from UE <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG> and URLLC data transmission from UE <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG>) and single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) transmission (for example, eMBB data transmission and URLLC data transmission from same UE <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG>) is allowed.

<FIG> illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus <NUM> in a wireless communication network (for example, the wireless communication network <NUM> shown in <FIG>). The apparatus may be implemented as/in a terminal device (for example, the terminal device <NUM>) shown in <FIG>. The apparatus <NUM> is operable to carry out the example method <NUM> described with reference to <FIG> and possibly any other processes or methods. It is also to be understood that the method <NUM> is not necessarily carried out by the apparatus <NUM>. At least some operations of the method <NUM> can be performed by one or more other entities.

As illustrated in <FIG>, the apparatus <NUM> includes a first receiving unit <NUM>, a second receiving unit <NUM>, and a transmitting unit <NUM>. The first receiving unit <NUM> is configured to receive a first indication of a first resource pool to be shared by a first service and a second service; the second receiving unit <NUM> is configured to receive configuration information, the configuration information including a first configuration for transmitting data of the first service using a resource in the first resource pool, or a second configuration for transmitting data of the second service using a resource in the first resource pool, or both. In an embodiment, the second configuration may be different from the first configuration. The transmitting unit <NUM> is configured to transmit the data of the first service, or the data of the second service, or both based on the first indication and the higher layer configuration information.

In an embodiment, the apparatus <NUM> may further include a third receiving unit <NUM>, and/or a fourth receiving unit <NUM>. The third resource unit <NUM> is configured to receive one or more of: a second indication of a second resource pool dedicated for the second service and a third indication of a third resource pool dedicated for the first service. The fourth receiving unit <NUM> is configured to receive, in a resource in the second resource pool, a scheduling grant for data transmission of the first service or the second service using a resource in the first resource pool, or a scheduling grant for data transmission of the first service using a resource in the third resource pool. The transmitting unit <NUM> may be configured to transmit one of the data of the first service and the data of the second service further based on the scheduling grant.

In an embodiment, the first receiving unit <NUM>, the second receiving unit <NUM>, the transmitting unit <NUM>, the third receiving unit <NUM>, and the fourth receiving unit <NUM> may be configured to perform the operations of blocks <NUM>-<NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> of <FIG> respectively, and therefore relevant descriptions provided with reference to method <NUM> and <FIG> also apply here and details will not be repeated.

<FIG> illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus <NUM> in a wireless communication network (for example, the wireless communication network <NUM> shown in <FIG>). The apparatus may be implemented as/in a network device (for example, the network device <NUM>) shown in <FIG>. The apparatus <NUM> is operable to carry out the example method <NUM> described with reference to <FIG> and possibly any other processes or methods. It is also to be understood that the method <NUM> is not necessarily carried out by the apparatus <NUM>. At least some operations of the method <NUM> can be performed by one or more other entities.

As illustrated in <FIG>, the apparatus <NUM> includes a first transmitting unit <NUM>, a second transmitting unit <NUM>, and a receiving unit <NUM>. The first transmitting unit <NUM> is configured to transmit a first indication of a first resource pool to be shared by a first service and a second service. The second transmitting unit <NUM> is configured to transmit configuration information, the configuration information including a first configuration for transmitting data of the first service using a resource in the first resource pool, or a second configuration for transmitting data of the second service using a resource in the first resource pool, or both. The second configuration may be different from the first configuration. The receiving unit <NUM> is configured to receive the data of the first service, or the data of the second service, or both based on the first indication and the higher layer configuration information.

In an embodiment, the apparatus <NUM> may further include a third transmitting unit <NUM>, and/or a fourth transmitting unit <NUM>. The third transmitting <NUM> is configured to transmit one or more of: a second indication of a second resource pool dedicated for the second service, and a third indication of a third resource pool dedicated for the first service. The fourth transmitting unit <NUM> is configured to transmit, in a resource in the second resource pool, a scheduling grant for data transmission of the first service or the second service using a resource in the first resource pool, or a scheduling grant for data transmission of the first service using a resource in the third resource pool. The receiving unit <NUM> may be configured to receive the data of the first service and/or the data of the second service further based on the scheduling grant.

In an embodiment, the first transmitting unit <NUM>, the second transmitting unit <NUM>, the receiving unit <NUM>, the third transmitting unit <NUM>, and the fourth transmitting unit <NUM> may be configured to perform the operations of blocks <NUM>-<NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> of <FIG> respectively, and therefore relevant descriptions provided with reference to method <NUM> and <FIG> also apply here and details will not be repeated.

<FIG> illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus <NUM> that may be embodied in/as a terminal device, for example, the terminal device <NUM> shown in <FIG>, and an apparatus <NUM> that may be embodied in/as a network device, for example, the network devices <NUM> shown in <FIG>.

Network device <NUM> comprises processing circuitry, device readable medium, interface, user interface equipment, auxiliary equipment, power source, power delivery circuitry, and antenna. These components are depicted as single boxes located within a single larger box, and in some cases contain additional boxes therein. In practice however, a network device may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., interface comprises ports/terminals for coupling wires for a wired connection and radio front end circuitry for a wireless connection). As another example, network device may be a virtual network node. Similarly, network node may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which network device comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. In some embodiments, network node may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium for the different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna may be shared by the RATs).

The apparatus <NUM> may include one or more processors <NUM>, such as a data processor (DP) and one or more memories (MEM) <NUM> coupled to the processor <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> may further include a transmitter TX and receiver RX <NUM> coupled to the processor <NUM>. The MEM <NUM> may be non-transitory machine readable storage medium and it may store a program (PROG) <NUM>. The PROG <NUM> may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor <NUM>, enable the apparatus <NUM> to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, for example to perform the method <NUM>. A combination of the one or more processors <NUM> and the one or more MEMs <NUM> may form processing means <NUM> adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The apparatus <NUM> includes one or more processors <NUM>, such as a DP, and one or more MEMs <NUM> coupled to the processor <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> may further include a suitable TX/ RX <NUM> coupled to the processor <NUM>. The MEM <NUM> may be non-transitory machine readable storage medium and it may store a PROG <NUM>. The PROG <NUM> may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor <NUM>, enable the apparatus <NUM> to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, for example to perform the method <NUM>. A combination of the one or more processors <NUM> and the one or more MEMs <NUM> may form processing means <NUM> adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by computer program executable by one or more of the processors <NUM> and <NUM>, software, firmware, hardware or in a combination thereof.

The MEMs <NUM> and <NUM> may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory terminal devices, magnetic memory terminal devices and systems, optical memory terminal devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples.

The processors <NUM> and <NUM> may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors DSPs and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.

In addition, the present disclosure may also provide a memory containing the computer program as mentioned above, which includes machine-readable media and machine-readable transmission media. The machine-readable media may also be called computer-readable media, and may include machine-readable storage media, for example, magnetic disks, magnetic tape, optical disks, phase change memory, or an electronic memory terminal device like a random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory devices, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like. The machine-readable transmission media may also be called a carrier, and may include, for example, electrical, optical, radio, acoustical or other form of propagated signals - such as carrier waves, infrared signals, and the like.

The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means so that an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment includes not only prior art means, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of the corresponding apparatus described with the embodiment and it may include separate means for each separate function, or means that may be configured to perform two or more functions. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses), firmware (one or more apparatuses), software (one or more modules), or combinations thereof. For a firmware or software, implementation may be made through modules (for example, procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein.

Claim 1:
A method (<NUM>) in a terminal device (<NUM>), comprising:
receiving (<NUM>) configuration information for transmitting data of URLLC and/or transmitting data of eMBB,
wherein a URLLC data block is transmitted in a radio resource partly overlapping with a resource for an ongoing eMBB data block transmission,
wherein the configuration information comprises (i) a parameter for power control on the transmitting data of URLLC and/or the transmitting data of eMBB and (ii) a parameter for code division multiplexing, CDM, wherein the parameter for the CDM includes one or more of a group of orthogonal covering codes, and a group of scrambling codes; and
transmitting (<NUM>) the data of URLLC and/or the data of eMBB based on the configuration information.