Patent Description:
<CIT> relates to buffer status indication in wireless communication. This document discloses a wireless communication method in which a station is capable of performing transmission via a plurality of antenna ports simultaneously on an uplink to a wireless communication network, a plurality of transmission possibilities for said transmission being defined by the available antenna ports and/or formats available for transmitting from an antenna port, the station signifying information to the network by selecting from the transmission possibilities.

The object of the present application is solved by the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments are described by the dependent claims.

Claimed subject matter is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. However, such subject matter may be understood by reference to the following detailed description when read with the accompanying drawings in which:.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and/or clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. Further, if considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding and/or analogous elements.

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and/or circuits have not been described in detail.

In the following description and/or claims, the terms coupled and/or connected, along with their derivatives, may be used. In particular embodiments, connected may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical and/or electrical contact with each other. Coupled may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical and/or electrical contact. However, coupled may also mean that two or more elements may not be in direct contact with each other, but yet may still cooperate and/or interact with each other. For example, "coupled" may mean that two or more elements do not contact each other but are indirectly joined together via another element or intermediate elements. Finally, the terms "on," "overlying," and "over" may be used in the following description and claims. "On," "overlying," and "over" may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical contact with each other. However, "over" may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other. For example, "over" may mean that one element is above another element but not contact each other and may have another element or elements in between the two elements. Furthermore, the term "and/or" may mean "and", it may mean "or", it may mean "exclusive-or", it may mean "one", it may mean "some, but not all", it may mean "neither", and/or it may mean "both", although the scope of claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. In the following description and/or claims, the terms "comprise" and "include," along with their derivatives, may be used and are intended as synonyms for each other.

Referring now to <FIG>, a diagram of a network illustrating reduction of latency in the scheduling request transmission in accordance with one or more embodiments will be discussed. As shown in <FIG>, in one or more embodiments network <NUM> may operate in accordance with a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard or a Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A), although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. UE <NUM> may send the SR and the BSR together within the same subframe, instead of in different subframes at operation <NUM> and operation <NUM> after UL grant operation <NUM>, by combining the SR and the BSR at procedure <NUM> so that the combined SR and BSR may be transmitted in a single operation in the same subframe. In one or more embodiments, the combined SR and BSR may be transmitted together based on an LTE non-contention based SR transmission framework, so that the latency of BSR transmission and the corresponding uplink grant procedure may be reduced. In such an arrangement, after receipt of a combined SR and BSR operation, combined at procedure <NUM>, eNB <NUM> may schedule UL resources at UL grant procedure <NUM> to allow for UE <NUM> to transmit UL data at procedure <NUM>. For example, the combined SR and BSR message may be transmitted based on PUCCH format <NUM> or PUCCH format <NUM>, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

In one or more embodiments, combining the SR and the BSR into a single message may reduce uplink data transmission latency for the UE <NUM>, especially if UE <NUM> has a short data buffer, by eliminating procedure <NUM> and procedure <NUM>. The transmission of a combined SR and BSR message may be based on the PUCCH in a non-contention manner wherein UE <NUM> may be configured with an SR transmission subframe period and an offset defining the subframe number for UE <NUM> to transmit its SR. The eNodeB <NUM> may detect this combined SR and BSR transmission at the same subframe to check whether an uplink resource is needed for the UE <NUM>. In one embodiment, the BSR may comprise an <NUM>-bit message which as defined in 3GPP Technical Standard (TS) <NUM>, and the SR may be a <NUM>-bit trigger, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects. A first approach to transmit the SR and the BSR within the same subframe is shown in and described with respect to <FIG>, below.

Referring now to <FIG>, a diagram of the network of <FIG> in which a scheduling request and a buffer status report are sent together within a subframe in accordance with one or more embodiments will be discussed. In one embodiment, a scheduling request (SR) for UE <NUM> may be configured to transmit in PUCCH format <NUM> way at the same PUCCH resource as the periodical Channel State Information (CSI) feedback. The buffer status report (BSR) bits may be transmitted based on PUCCH format <NUM>. The configured SR subframe may be different from the periodical CSI feedback subframe. The UE <NUM> may feedback its periodical CSI when SR transmission and periodical CSI feedback are transmitted in the same subframe.

In some embodiments, the signal generation may be the same as described in section <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM>, where the input bits b(<NUM>),b(<NUM>),. ,b(N-<NUM>) may be the BSR message, and N is the message bits number, which may be <NUM>, as an example. In such embodiments, a procedure to transmit a combined SR and BSR could be as shown in <FIG>. The combined SR and BSR message may be transmitted from UE <NUM> to eNB <NUM> at procedure <NUM>. If eNB <NUM> decodes the combined SR and BSR message correctly, eNB <NUM> may allocate a reasonable resource in uplink grant at procedure <NUM> for the next uplink data transmission from UE <NUM> at procedure <NUM>. An alternative approach to transmit the SR and the BSR within the same subframe is shown in and described with respect to <FIG>, below.

Referring now to <FIG>, a diagram of the network in <FIG> in which a scheduling request and buffer status report group indicator are sent together within a subframe in accordance with one or more embodiments will be discussed. In another embodiment, if UE <NUM> has a long buffer or multiple Logical Channel Groups (LCGs), the BSR may be sent together with SR, but the uplink packages transmission may not complete within a single subframe. For such users, and exact BSR value associated with the SR does not have to be transmitted. If UE <NUM> has a short buffer wherein the uplink packages transmission is able to be completed within a single subframe, enough Resource Blocks (RBs) may be scheduled so that the data may be transmitted in a single roundtrip, and the transmission latency could be reduced. As a result. Therefore, instead of transmitting an exact BSR, a BSR Group Indicator (BSRGI) may be sufficient to indicate whether a long BSR or a short BSR is at the UE <NUM>.

In such an arrangement, the BSR may be divided into M number of groups, wherein M may be, for example, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>, and so on. The BSRGI may be used to indicate which BSR groups to which the current BSR belongs, and the value of the BSRGI may be decided by a BSR group threshold. The BSR group threshold may depends on a power control factor of the UE <NUM>, uplink CSI, and so on. The BSR group threshold may be configured by eNB <NUM> via high layer messages, and the BSR group threshold may be cell-specific or UE-specific. For example, the BSR may be divided into two groups, and the group threshold may be set to be T. If the value of BSRGI is zero (<NUM>), the value of the BSRGI indicates current buffer length of UE <NUM> is below K, where K is the maximum buffer size for BSR whose value is equals to T. Otherwise, the buffer length of the UE <NUM> is above K.

In one or more embodiments, the BSRGI may be transmitted based on PUCCH format <NUM> or PUCCH format <NUM>. For PUCCH format <NUM>, the PUCCH signal generation may be based on <NUM>. <NUM> in 3GPP TS <NUM>, and its Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) generation may be based on section <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM>. In some embodiments, format 1b may be utilized for SR transmission associated with acknowledgement or negative acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) transmission. One of the input bits b(<NUM>) or b(<NUM>) may indicate the ACK/NACK state, and the other one of the input bits may indicate the BSRGI. If UE <NUM> has two codeword ACK/NACK feedback, an ACK/NACK bundling may be utilized to compress the two ACK/NACK bits into a single bit if there is collision with SR transmission. Table <NUM>, below, shows an example of the symbol generation method.

In an alternative embodiment, a PUCCH format 1c may be utilized which to support four bits of transmission. Two of the input bits may indicate the ACK/NACK state, and the other two bits may indicate the BSRGI. In such an embodiment, an example of symbol generation method may be <NUM> Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) may be utilized for symbol generation, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.

In embodiments where PUCCH format <NUM> is utilized, the PUCCH signal generation may be the same as described in section <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM>, while the BSRGI may be transmitted together with feedback CSI. For example BSRGI bits may be added at the tail of CSI bits. In such an example, two tailed bits may be utilized, with an allocation as shown in Table <NUM>, below.

An example for this procedure is shown in <FIG> wherein the combined SR and BSRGI is transmitted in procedure <NUM>, the uplink resources may be scheduled in procedure <NUM>, and the uplink data may be transmitted in procedure <NUM>. In procedure <NUM>, the UE <NUM> does not transmit the BSR if padding is needed. Then after decoding message of procedure <NUM>, eNB <NUM> may recognize the UE <NUM> as having no additional data in its uplink transmission buffer if a BSR is not received. Otherwise, eNB <NUM> may consider the UE <NUM> as having uplink data pending transmission, and at the next schedule time, the UE <NUM> may transmit its exact BSR.

Referring now to <FIG>, a block diagram of an information handling system capable of latency reduction in the scheduling request transmission in accordance with one or more embodiments will be discussed. Information handling system <NUM> of <FIG> may tangibly embody any one or more of the network elements described herein, above, including for example the elements of network <NUM> with greater or fewer components depending on the hardware specifications of the particular device. In one embodiment, information handling system <NUM> may tangibly embody an apparatus of a user equipment (UE) comprising circuitry to configure a scheduling request (SR) transmission based on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), combine the scheduling request with a buffer status report (BSR), transmit the combined SR and BSR in a single subframe to a network entity, receive uplink resource scheduling from the network entity in reply to the combined SR and BSR, and transmit uplink data to the network entity according to the uplink resource scheduling. In another embodiment, information handling system <NUM> may tangibly embody an apparatus of a user equipment (UE) comprising circuitry to configure a scheduling request (SR) transmission based on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), combine the scheduling request with a buffer status report group indicator (BSRGI), transmit the combined SR and BSRGI in a single subframe to a network entity, receive uplink resource scheduling from the network entity in reply to the combined SR and BSRGI, and transmit uplink data to the network entity according to the uplink resource scheduling. Although information handling system <NUM> represents one example of several types of computing platforms, information handling system <NUM> may include more or fewer elements and/or different arrangements of elements than shown in FIG. <NUM>, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

In one or more embodiments, information handling system <NUM> may include an application processor <NUM> and a baseband processor <NUM>. Application processor <NUM> may be utilized as a general-purpose processor to run applications and the various subsystems for information handling system <NUM>. Application processor <NUM> may include a single core or alternatively may include multiple processing cores. One or more of the cores may comprise a digital signal processor or digital signal processing (DSP) core. Furthermore, application processor <NUM> may include a graphics processor or coprocessor disposed on the same chip, or alternatively a graphics processor coupled to application processor <NUM> may comprise a separate, discrete graphics chip. Application processor <NUM> may include on board memory such as cache memory, and further may be coupled to external memory devices such as synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) <NUM> for storing and/or executing applications during operation, and NAND flash <NUM> for storing applications and/or data even when information handling system <NUM> is powered off. In one or more embodiments, instructions to operate or configure the information handling system <NUM> and/or any of its components or subsystems to operate in a manner as described herein may be stored on an article of manufacture comprising a nontransitory storage medium. In one or more embodiments, the storage medium may comprise any of the memory devices shown in and described herein, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. Baseband processor <NUM> may control the broadband radio functions for information handling system <NUM>. Baseband processor <NUM> may store code for controlling such broadband radio functions in a NOR flash <NUM>. Baseband processor <NUM> controls a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver <NUM> which is used for modulating and/or demodulating broadband network signals, for example for communicating via a 3GPP LTE or LTE-Advanced network or the like.

In general, WWAN transceiver <NUM> may operate according to any one or more of the following radio communication technologies and/or standards including but not limited to: a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio communication technology, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication technology, an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio communication technology, and/or a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communication technology, for example Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Freedom of Multimedia Access (FOMA), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), 3GPP Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE Advanced), Code division multiple access <NUM> (CDMA2000), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, Third Generation (<NUM>), Circuit Switched Data (CSD), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (Third Generation) (UMTS (<NUM>)), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) (W-CDMA (UMTS)), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System-Time-Division Duplex (UMTS-TDD), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), 3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM> (Pre-4th Generation) (3GPP Rel. <NUM> (Pre-<NUM>)), 3GPP Rel. <NUM> (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM>), 3GPP Rel. <NUM> (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM>) , 3GPP Rel. <NUM> (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM>), 3GPP Rel. <NUM> (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM>), 3GPP Rel. <NUM> (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM>), 3GPP Rel. <NUM> (3rd Generation Partnership Project Release <NUM>), 3GPP LTE Extra, LTE Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), Long Term Evolution Advanced (4th Generation) (LTE Advanced (<NUM>)), cdmaOne (<NUM>), Code division multiple access <NUM> (Third generation) (CDMA2000 (<NUM>)), Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only (EV-DO), Advanced Mobile Phone System (1st Generation) (AMPS (<NUM>)), Total Access Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System (TACS/ETACS), Digital AMPS (2nd Generation) (D-AMPS (<NUM>)), Push-to-talk (PTT), Mobile Telephone System (MTS), Improved Mobile Telephone System (IMTS), Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS), OLT (Norwegian for Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni, Public Land Mobile Telephony), MTD (Swedish abbreviation for Mobiltelefonisystem D, or Mobile telephony system D), Public Automated Land Mobile (Autotel/PALM), ARP (Finnish for Autoradiopuhelin, "car radio phone"), NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony), High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) (Hicap), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, DataTAC, Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Circuit Switched Data (CSD), Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (WiDEN), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), also referred to as also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard), Zigbee, Bluetooth®, Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) standard, millimeter wave (mmWave) standards in general for wireless systems operating at <NUM>-<NUM> and above such as WiGig, IEEE <NUM>. 11ad, IEEE <NUM>. 11ay, and so on, and/or general telemetry transceivers, and in general any type of RF circuit or RFI sensitive circuit. It should be noted that such standards may evolve over time, and/or new standards may be promulgated, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.

The WWAN transceiver <NUM> couples to one or more power amps <NUM> respectively coupled to one or more antennas <NUM> for sending and receiving radio-frequency signals via the WWAN broadband network. The baseband processor <NUM> also may control a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver <NUM> coupled to one or more suitable antennas <NUM> and which may be capable of communicating via a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, and/or an amplitude modulation (AM) or frequency modulation (FM) radio standard including an IEEE <NUM> a/b/g/n standard or the like. It should be noted that these are merely example implementations for application processor <NUM> and baseband processor <NUM>, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects. For example, any one or more of SDRAM <NUM>, NAND flash <NUM> and/or NOR flash <NUM> may comprise other types of memory technology such as magnetic memory, chalcogenide memory, phase change memory, or ovonic memory, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.

In one or more embodiments, application processor <NUM> may drive a display <NUM> for displaying various information or data, and may further receive touch input from a user via a touch screen <NUM> for example via a finger or a stylus. An ambient light sensor <NUM> may be utilized to detect an amount of ambient light in which information handling system <NUM> is operating, for example to control a brightness or contrast value for display <NUM> as a function of the intensity of ambient light detected by ambient light sensor <NUM>. One or more cameras <NUM> may be utilized to capture images that are processed by application processor <NUM> and/or at least temporarily stored in NAND flash <NUM>. Furthermore, application processor may couple to a gyroscope <NUM>, accelerometer <NUM>, magnetometer <NUM>, audio coder/decoder (CODEC) <NUM>, and/or global positioning system (GPS) controller <NUM> coupled to an appropriate GPS antenna <NUM>, for detection of various environmental properties including location, movement, and/or orientation of information handling system <NUM>. Alternatively, controller <NUM> may comprise a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) controller. Audio CODEC <NUM> may be coupled to one or more audio ports <NUM> to provide microphone input and speaker outputs either via internal devices and/or via external devices coupled to information handling system via the audio ports <NUM>, for example via a headphone and microphone jack. In addition, application processor <NUM> may couple to one or more input/output (I/O) transceivers <NUM> to couple to one or more I/O ports <NUM> such as a universal serial bus (USB) port, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, a serial port, and so on. Furthermore, one or more of the I/O transceivers <NUM> may couple to one or more memory slots <NUM> for optional removable memory such as secure digital (SD) card or a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

Referring now to <FIG>, an isometric view of an information handling system of FIG. <NUM> that optionally may include a touch screen in accordance with one or more embodiments will be discussed. <FIG> shows an example implementation of information handling system <NUM> of <FIG> tangibly embodied as a cellular telephone, smartphone, or tablet type device or the like. The information handling system <NUM> may comprise a housing <NUM> having a display <NUM> which may include a touch screen <NUM> for receiving tactile input control and commands via a finger <NUM> of a user and/or a via stylus <NUM> to control one or more application processors <NUM>. The housing <NUM> may house one or more components of information handling system <NUM>, for example one or more application processors <NUM>, one or more of SDRAM <NUM>, NAND flash <NUM>, NOR flash <NUM>, baseband processor <NUM>, and/or WWAN transceiver <NUM>. The information handling system <NUM> further may optionally include a physical actuator area <NUM> which may comprise a keyboard or buttons for controlling information handling system via one or more buttons or switches. The information handling system <NUM> may also include a memory port or slot <NUM> for receiving nonvolatile memory such as flash memory, for example in the form of a secure digital (SD) card or a subscriber identity module (SIM) card. Optionally, the information handling system <NUM> may further include one or more speakers and/or microphones <NUM> and a connection port <NUM> for connecting the information handling system <NUM> to another electronic device, dock, display, battery charger, and so on. In addition, information handling system <NUM> may include a headphone or speaker jack <NUM> and one or more cameras <NUM> on one or more sides of the housing <NUM>. It should be noted that the information handling system <NUM> of <FIG> may include more or fewer elements than shown, in various arrangements, and the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.

As used herein, the terms "circuit" or "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software.

Referring now to <FIG>, example components of a wireless device such as User Equipment (UE) device <NUM> in accordance with one or more embodiments will be discussed. User equipment (UE) may correspond, for example, to UE <NUM> of network <NUM>, or alternatively to eNB <NUM> of network <NUM>, although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, UE device <NUM> may include application circuitry <NUM>, baseband circuitry <NUM>, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry <NUM>, front-end module (FEM) circuitry <NUM> and one or more antennas <NUM>, coupled together at least as shown.

Application circuitry <NUM> may include one or more application processors. For example, application circuitry <NUM> may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The one or more processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors, for example graphics processors, application processors, and so on. The processors may be coupled with and/or may include memory and/or storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory and/or storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

Baseband circuitry <NUM> may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry <NUM> may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of RF circuitry <NUM> and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM>. Baseband processing circuity <NUM> may interface with the application circuitry <NUM> for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry <NUM>. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include a second generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 604a, third generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 604b, fourth generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 604c, and/or one or more other baseband processors 604d for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future, for example fifth generation (<NUM>), sixth generation (<NUM>), and so on. Baseband circuitry <NUM>, for example one or more of baseband processors 604a through 604d, may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via RF circuitry <NUM>. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation and/or demodulation, encoding and/or decoding, radio frequency shifting, and so on. In some embodiments, modulation and/or demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry <NUM> may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping and/or demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding and/or decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry <NUM> may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder and/or decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation and/or demodulation and encoder and/or decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry <NUM> may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. Processor 604e of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSP) 604f. The one or more audio DSPs 604f may include elements for compression and/or decompression and/or echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry <NUM> and application circuitry <NUM> may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, baseband circuitry <NUM> may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry <NUM> may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which baseband circuitry <NUM> is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

In various embodiments, RF circuitry <NUM> may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and so on, to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry <NUM> may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry <NUM> and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry <NUM>. RF circuitry <NUM> may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry <NUM> and provide RF output signals to FEM circuitry <NUM> for transmission.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry <NUM> may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of RF circuitry <NUM> may include mixer circuitry 606a, amplifier circuitry 606b and filter circuitry 606c. The transmit signal path of RF circuitry <NUM> may include filter circuitry 606c and mixer circuitry 606a. RF circuitry <NUM> may also include synthesizer circuitry 606d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry <NUM> based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 606d. Amplifier circuitry 606b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 606c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to baseband circuitry <NUM> for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 606d to generate RF output signals for FEM circuitry <NUM>. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry <NUM> and may be filtered by filter circuitry 606c. Filter circuitry 606c may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down conversion and/or up conversion respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection, for example Hartley image rejection. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a may be arranged for direct down conversion and/or direct up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In these alternate embodiments, RF circuitry <NUM> may include analogto-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry <NUM> may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuitry <NUM>. In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio integrated circuit (IC) circuitry may be provided for processing signals for one or more spectra, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+<NUM> synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

Synthesizer circuitry 606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by mixer circuitry 606a of RF circuitry <NUM> based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a fractional N/N+<NUM> synthesizer.

Divider control input may be provided by either baseband circuitry <NUM> or applications processor <NUM> depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by applications processor <NUM>.

Synthesizer circuitry 606d of RF circuitry <NUM> may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+<NUM>, for example based on a carry out, to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency, for example twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency, and so on, and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a local oscillator (LO) frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, RF circuitry <NUM> may include an in-phase and quadrature (IQ) and/or polar converter.

FEM circuitry <NUM> may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by RF circuitry <NUM> for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas <NUM>.

Claim 1:
An apparatus of a network entity, the apparatus comprising circuitry adapted to:
receive, from a user equipment, UE, a combined scheduling request, SR, and a buffer status report group indicator, BSRGI, in a single subframe, wherein a buffer status report, BSR, is divided into two or more groups and the BSRGI is used to indicate to which BSR group the BSR belongs, wherein a value of the BSRGI is based on a BSR group threshold indicating a maximum buffer size for the value of the BSRGI, wherein the BSR group threshold is based on a power control factor of the UE or uplink Channel State Information, CSI, for the UE, wherein the BSRGI is added to an end of the CSI;
configure uplink resource scheduling in reply to the combined SR and BSRGI; and
transmit, to the UE, the uplink resource scheduling.