Patent Description:
With the rapid development of the information industry, especially the growing demand from the mobile internet and Internet of Things (IoTs), it brings unprecedented challenges to future mobile communication technologies. According to a report ITU-R M. BEYOND <NUM>. TRAFFIC] of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), it can be expected that by <NUM>, the growth of mobile traffic will increase by nearly <NUM> times compared with <NUM> (<NUM> era), and user equipment connections will also exceed <NUM> billion; with the massive penetration of IoT devices into mobile communication networks, the number of connected devices will be even more astonishing. In order to cope with this unprecedented challenge, the communication industry and academia have launched a wide range of fifth-generation (<NUM>) mobile communication technology research for the <NUM>. The framework and overall goals of the future <NUM> have been recently discussed in the ITU Report ITU-R M. VISION], which details <NUM> requirement expectations, application scenarios and key performance indicators. For the new requirements in <NUM>, the ITU report ITU-R M. FUTURE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS] provides information on <NUM> technology trends, aiming at resolving a significant increase in system throughput, user experience consistency, scalability to support IoTs, latency, energy efficiency, cost, network flexibility, emerging services, flexible spectrum utilization and so on.

Faced with <NUM>'s more diverse service scenarios, flexible multiple access technologies are needed to support different scenarios and service requirements. For example, in facing a massively connected service scenario, how to access more users on a limited resource becomes a core issue that needs to be solved by <NUM> multiple access technology. In the current <NUM> LTE network, the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based multiple access technology is mainly used. However, it is obviously difficult for the existing orthogonal-based access method to meet the requirements for <NUM> with spectrum efficiency increased by <NUM>~<NUM> times and the number of user access per square kilometer area reaching million levels. Non-orthogonal Multiple Access (NoMA) technology reuses the same resources by multiple users, which greatly increases the number of supported user connections. As the user has more opportunities to access, the overall network throughput and spectrum efficiency are improved. In addition, in facing massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) scenarios, it may be necessary to use a multiple access technology that is easier to handle, in consideration of the cost and implementation complexity of the terminal. Faced with low-latency or low-power service scenarios, the usage of non-orthogonal multiple access technology can better achieve grant free contention access, achieve low-latency communication, and reduce turn-on time and device power consumption.

The non-orthogonal multiple access technology currently under study is Multiple User Shared Access (MUSA), Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), Pattern Division Multiple Access (PDMA), Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) and Interleave Division Multiple Access (IDMA) and the like. Among them, MUSA relies on codewords to distinguish users. SCMA relies on codebooks to distinguish users. NOMA distinguishes users by power. PDMA distinguishes users by different feature patterns, and IDMA distinguishes users by interleaving sequences.

The following prior art is related to random access procedures:.

When a user (UE, User Equipment) is in the connected state, that is, the UE has accessed the network to obtain the cell-radio network temporary identity (C-RNTI) configured by the network device, the user can detect whether the received downlink control information is for itself or not based on the C-RNTI. However, when the UE is in the non-connected state, especially when the UE performs the grant free uplink transmission, how to determine the time-frequency resource of the grant free uplink transmission or using what kind of identifier to check whether the downlink control channel information belongs to itself is a problem that needs to be solved.

Any embodiment, implementation, example or aspect not claimed, in only presented as information.

According to the present disclosure, a grant free uplink transmission method performed at a user equipment side is provided,.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the below description of the embodiments of the present disclosure by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:.

In addition, descriptions of well-known structures and techniques are omitted in the following description in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the concept of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the singular forms such as "a", "an" and "the" as used herein are intended to include plural forms as well, unless specifically indicated. It should be further understood that the phrases such as "comprise", "comprising", "include" or "including" as used in the description specify the existence of the stated characteristics, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not exclude the existence or addition of one or more other characteristics, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element, or there may exist an intervening element therebetween. Further, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include either a wireless connection or a wireless coupling. The term "and/or" used herein includes all or any one of one or more of the associated listed items and all or any combination thereof.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention belongs, unless otherwise defined. It should also be understood that terms such as those defined in a general dictionary should be understood to have meanings consistent with those in the context of the prior art, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal form unless specifically defined as here.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the "terminal" and "terminal device" as used herein include both a wireless signal receiver device which has only a wireless signal receiver without transmission capability, and a device having receiving and transmitting hardware which is capable of performing two-way communication over a two-way communication link. Such devices may include cellular or other communication devices having a single line display or a multi-line display or a cellular or other communication device without a multi-line display; PCS (Personal Communications Service), which may combine voice, data processing, fax, and/or data communication capabilities; PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), which may include radio frequency receivers, pagers, Internet/Intranet access, web browsers, notepads, calendars, and/or GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers; conventional laptop and/or palmtop computers or other devices having and/or including a conventional laptop and/or palmtop computer or other device that includes a radio frequency receiver. As used herein, "terminal" and "terminal device" may be portable, transportable, installed in a means of transportation (aviation, sea and/or land), or adapted and/or configured to operate locally, and/or operate on the Earth and/or in any other position of space in a distributed form. The "terminal" and "terminal device" used herein may also be a communication terminal, an internet terminal, a music/video playing terminal, such as a PDA, a MID (Mobile Internet Device), and/or a mobile phone having a music/video playback function, or may also be smart TVs, set-top boxes and other devices.

The time unit in the present disclosure may be one OFDM symbol, one OFDM symbol group (consisting of multiple OFDM symbols), one time slot, one time slot group (consisting of multiple time slots), one subframe, one subframe group (consisting of multiple subframes), one system frame, one system frame group (consisting of multiple system frames); or may be absolute time units, such as <NUM> millisecond, <NUM> second, etc.; or time units may also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as N1 time slots plus N2 OFDM symbols.

The frequency domain unit in the present disclosure may be one subcarrier, one subcarrier group (consisting of multiple subcarriers), and one resource block (RB), which may also be called a physical resource block (PRB), one resource block group (consisting of multiple RBs), one bandwidth part (BWP), one bandwidth part group (consisting of multiple BWPs), one band/carrier, one band group/carrier group; or may be absolute frequency domain units, such as <NUM>, <NUM>, etc.; or the frequency domain unit may also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as M1 PRBs plus M2 subcarriers.

In order to make the objects, technical means and advantages of the present disclosure more clear, the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a method <NUM> for grant free uplink transmission performed at a user equipment side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The method <NUM> includes a step S101 of determining, according to configuration information for grant free uplink transmission received from a base station, a grant free radio network temporary identity (GF-RNTI) for grant free uplink transmission, and transmitting an uplink signal.

In this embodiment, the configuration information for grant free uplink transmission may include at least one of a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource set; a mapping relationship between a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and a downlink beam; and a mapping relationship between at least one of a grant free preamble, a de-modulation reference signal (DMRS) or a multiple access signature (MAS) resource and a downlink beam; a resource pool of GF-RNTI; a mapping relationship between GF-RNTI and at least one of a time-frequency resource, a preamble, a DMRS, or a multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission; a control resource set for UE to monitor a grant free uplink transmission feedback and/or configuration of search space; the maximum number of transmissions of the grant free uplink transmission; and the maximum transmission time of the grant free uplink transmission.

In this embodiment, according to the configuration information for grant free uplink transmission received from the base station, other configurations for the grant free uplink transmission may also be determined, including determining at least one of the time-frequency resource, the preamble, the de-modulation reference signal DMRS and a multiple access signature MAS for grant free uplink transmission.

The method further includes a step S102 of monitoring feedback from the base station in the downlink control channel by using the determined GF-RNTI, and performing a further operation according to the content of the feedback.

This embodiment provides a method for determining a GF-RNTI, which facilitates an idle user to monitor downlink feedback, and also provides a method for determining a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource, a grant free preamble, and the like.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a method <NUM> for grant free uplink transmission performed at a base station device side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The method <NUM> includes a step S201 of transmitting configuration information to a user equipment side, wherein a radio network temporary identifier (GF-RNTI) for grant free uplink transmission may be determined according to the configuration information; and other configuration for grant free uplink transmission may also be determined, including: determining at least one of a time-frequency resource, a preamble, a de-modulation reference signal DMRS, and a multiple access signature MAS for grant free uplink transmission.

The configuration information includes at least one of a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource set; a mapping relationship between a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and a downlink beam; a mapping relationship between a downlink beam and at least one of a grant free preamble, a DMRS or a multiple access signature resource; a resource pool of GF-RNTI; a mapping relationship between GF-RNTI and at least one of a time-frequency resource, a preamble, a DMRS, or a multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission; a control resource set for UE to monitor a grant free uplink transmission feedback and/or configuration of search space; the maximum number of transmissions of the grant free uplink transmission; and the maximum transmission time of the grant free uplink transmission.

In addition, the configuration information may further include the number of times N that the user may repeatedly transmit data when performing one grant free uplink transmission, that is, each time the UE performs the grant free uplink transmission, the UE will repeatedly transmit data N times, for example, upon each transmission, the UE repeatedly transmits data N=<NUM> times; in some embodiments, the data may be a data part in the grant free transmission, or an entirety including a preamble and a data part; in some embodiments, the number of times N of repeated data transmission may be related to the size of the data to be transmitted by the UE or the size of the resource configured by the base station device, for example, if the transmit block size (TBS) has four types of TBS1, TBS2, TBS3, and TBS4, and TBS1<TBS2<TBS3<TBS4, the corresponding number of times of repeated data transmission may also be different, for example, there may be N1<N2<N3<N4 in one-to-one correspondence; in some embodiments, multiple TBSs may correspond to one same N value; the configuration information may include one or more thresholds, when the TBS exceeds the threshold, and/or the resource size configured by the base station device is greater than the threshold, the UE determines the corresponding N value, such as a larger N value.

The method includes a step S202 of detecting user's signal transmission on the configured grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource, and performing downlink feedback on the successfully detected and decoded signal transmission, wherein the GF-RNTI corresponding to the successfully detected and decoded signal transmission is used in the downlink feedback.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of interaction between a user equipment and a base station device when performing grant free uplink transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Specifically, the base station transmits the configuration information for grant free uplink transmission to the user equipment by using the downlink channel (such as the physical downlink control channel PDCCH, the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH, and the physical downlink broadcast channel PBCH). The configuration information for grant free uplink transmission includes at least one of the following (<NUM>)-(<NUM>):.

The time-frequency resource set may be determined by at least one of the following methods:.

Indicating the relative position with respect to the configured random access time-frequency resource includes indicating relative position information in the frequency domain of the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource with respect to the configured random access time-frequency resource, relative position information in the time domain, or relative position information in the code domain; that is, performing frequency-division, time-division or code-division on the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and the configured random access time-frequency resource as follows:.

A frequency domain interval between the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and the random access resource is indicated in the configuration information, such as indicating that an interval between the frequency domain start position of the grant free uplink transmission resource and the lowest subcarrier in the lowest PRB of the random access resource is W frequency domain units; the number of GFOs in the frequency domain may also be indicated in the configuration information, such as Z GFOs consecutive in the frequency domain.

<FIG> shows the following three frequency division cases (a)-(c) for a random access opportunity (RACH occasion, RO) with a grant free uplink transmission opportunity.

A time interval between the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and the random access resource may be indicated in the configuration information, such as indicating that the time interval between the time start position of the grant free uplink transmission resource and the random access resource is: the interval of the last OFDM symbol in the last RO in one time slot is W time units; and/or time interval between the time slot where the RO is located and the time slot where the GFO is located, and the start OFDM symbol position of the GFO in the time slot; and the number of GFOs in the time domain may also be indicated in the configuration information, such as Z GFOs consecutive in the time domain.

<FIG> shows the following three time division cases (a)-(c) for a random access opportunity and a grant free uplink transmission opportunity.

The configuration information may indicate that some or all of the random access resources may be used as the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource, for example, indicating that the corresponding RO index is an available grant free uplink transmission resource. However, the configuration information may also indicate a preamble index or an index range used in the grant free uplink transmission. For example, regarding the preambles used for random access, the 0th to the (M_ra-<NUM>)th preambles generated by the root sequence index being X and the cyclic shift being Y are used for random access, and the (M_ra)th to (M_ra+M_gf-<NUM>)th preambles generated by the root sequence index being X, and the cyclic shift being Y are used for the grant free uplink transmission.

The downlink beam may be an index of a synchronization signal/PBCH block (SSB) or an index of a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS). Here, the SSB is mainly described as an example, and the mapping relationship includes at least one of the following ways:.

When the network base station does not configure a separate mapping relationship between the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and the downlink beam, the UE uses the mapping relationship between the random access time-frequency resource and the downlink beam to obtain the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource corresponding to the determined SSB. When the network base station configures the separate mapping relationship between the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and the downlink beam, the UE uses the configured mapping relationship between the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and the downlink beam to obtain the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource corresponding to the determined SSB.

In this embodiment, M_code is used to indicate the maximum number of preambles for grant free uplink transmission available on one GFO, and/or the maximum number of de-modulation reference signals (DMRS), and/or the maximum number of multiple access signatures (MAS). The maximum number may be the available maximum number configured by system, or the physically available maximum number.

In this embodiment, the multiple access signature may be a combination of one or more of: a bit-level spreading spectrum sequence, a bit-level interleaving sequence, a bit-level scrambling sequence, a bit-level to symbol-level codeword or codebook, a symbol-level spreading spectrum sequence, a symbol-level scrambling sequence, a symbol-level interleaving sequence, a symbol to resource element (RE) mapping codebook or pattern; power factor, phase factor, etc. In some embodiments, the spreading spectrum sequence may be a complex spreading spectrum sequence or a sparse spreading spectrum sequence, i.e., a spreading spectrum sequence containing zero values. In some embodiments, the bit-level to symbol-level codeword or codebook may be a sparse bit-level to symbol-level codeword or codebook, i.e., a bit-level to symbol-level codeword or codebook containing zero values. In some embodiments, the symbol to RE mapping codebook or pattern may be a sparse symbol to RE mapping codebook or pattern, i.e., some REs are not mapped with symbols.

In this embodiment, the mapping relationship includes at least one of the following ways:.

For example, if the network is configured with a separate mapping relationship between the preamble and/or DMRS and/or multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission and the downlink beam, the available preamble and/or DMRS and/or multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission corresponding to the determined SSB is obtained according to the mapping relationship. If the network is not configured with a separate mapping relationship between the preamble and/or DMRS and/or multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission and the downlink beam, the UE obtains the available preamble and/or DMRS and/or multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission corresponding to the determined SSB, according to the mapping relationship between the random access preamble and the downlink beam, with the methods of mapping relationship between the preamble and DMRS and/or MAS as described above.

The resource pool includes a set of M available RNTI values, and the UE may select, in equal probability, one RNTI from the M RNTIs as the GF-RNTI for the grant free uplink transmission.

Taking the time-frequency resource for the grant free uplink transmission as an example, the mapping relationship between the time-frequency resource for the grant free uplink transmission and the GF-RNTI is established. For example, if one GFO is mapped with one GF-RNTI value or one GF-RNTI set, the UE obtains the available GF-RNTI value or the set (the UE may randomly select one GF-RNTI from the set in equal probability), by the determined time-frequency resource for the grant free uplink transmission. Other methods using the mapping relationship between the grant free preamble/DMRS/multiple access signature resource and the GF-RNTI are similar.

From the configuration information, the UE may obtain at least one of the following control resource information for monitoring the grant free uplink transmission feedback:.

Referring back to <FIG>, the user receives, from the downlink channel, a system broadcast message (including a primary broadcast message, RMSI and/or other system information OSI) of the base station or downlink control channel information or higher layer control signaling information; the user obtains configuration information for performing the grant free uplink transmission; the UE determines GF-RNTI for the grant free uplink transmission according to a certain rule, wherein the certain rule may include at least one of the following:.

In addition, the UE may also determine the grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and/or preamble and/or DMRS and/or multiple access signatures according to at least one of the following ways.

The GF-RNTI determined by the above several methods may also be used for the user to generate a scrambling sequence c when the grant free uplink transmission is to be performed.

For example, the user channel-encodes the prepared information bit sequence to a single-stream or multi-stream encoded bit sequence b(<NUM>),. , b(M-<NUM>), wherein M is the length of the encoded bit sequence, and in particular, when the user performs multi-stream transmission, M may be the total length before the shunt, or the length of the single stream after the shunt. The encoded bit sequence needs to be scrambled before modulation to obtain the scrambled encoded sequence s(<NUM>),. ,s(M-<NUM>), with s(i)=[b(i)+c(i)] mod <NUM>, and mod2 represents modulo <NUM> operation; wherein the initialization value c_init of the scrambling sequence c(<NUM>),. , c(M-<NUM>) is obtained by one of the following formulas:.

Wherein, n_id may be a data scrambling identity configured by the higher layer signaling, or a network identifier (cell id, NID cell) of the cell; ns is a time unit index, for example, representing a slot number in a system frame (slot index in a radio frame); q may be a codeword index, such as when there is only one single codeword for transmission, q=<NUM>; in the present disclosure, for the grant free uplink transmission, n_rnti may be GF-RNTI; and the method for determining GF-RNTI has been described in the above several methods, and will not be described again.

The scrambling sequence c(<NUM>),. ,c(M-<NUM>) may be generated by a Gold sequence of length <NUM>, such as <MAT> and <MAT> and <MAT>.

Wherein Nc is a fixed value, such as Nc=<NUM>; x1and x2 represent two M sequences of length <NUM>, respectively; and x1(n) is initialized to x1(<NUM>)=<NUM>, x1(n)=<NUM>, n=<NUM>, <NUM>,. , <NUM>; and x2(n) is initialized to c_init generated above, such as <MAT>, which means that c_init is converted to a binary number, and then the data corresponding to the i-th bit is the value of x2(i).

The above is an example of generating a scrambling sequence, not limited to the only way;.

When the UE starts the initialization setting of the grant free uplink transmission, if the configuration information received by the UE includes the maximum number of transmissions N_max of the grant free uplink transmission and/or the maximum transmission time T_time of the grant free uplink transmission, and if this is the first transmission of the data by the UE, that is, the initial transmission, the UE sets a transmission counter GF_transmission_counter to <NUM>, and/or starts a transmission timer GF_transmission_timer after the first transmission.

The UE performs the grant free uplink transmission. The uploaded data may include a user identifier (ID) for conflict resolution. The user ID may be one or more of the following:.

Referring to <FIG>, the base station detects uplink signal transmission from the user on the time-frequency resource configured for grant free uplink transmission. Downlink feedback is performed on the successfully detected and decoded uplink signal, and GF-RNTI corresponding to the successfully detected and decoded signal is used in the downlink feedback. If the downlink control channel is used to feed back to the user, the GF-RNTI scrambling is used in the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the downlink control channel; the downlink feedback may include one or more of the following:.

With continued reference to <FIG>, the UE detects possible feedback from the base station on the time-frequency resource obtained from the determined control resource set and/or the search space configuration for monitoring the grant free uplink transmission feedback through the previously determined GF-RNTI for the grant free uplink transmission. When the CRC of the detected PDCCH is descrambled by using the GF-RNTI, if the CRC after the descrambling is successful, the UE obtains the correct PDCCH. The feedback to the UE from the base station may be directly in the PDCCH or in PDSCH specified by the downlink scheduling in the PDCCH.

In some embodiments, when the UE does not detect the correct feedback (e.g., the correct PDCCH is not detected) or the detected feedback does not match the user identifier for conflict resolution previously included in the grant free uplink transmission, the UE may perform the following operations:.

In particular, in another embodiment of the present disclosure, a two-step random access transmission using the grant free uplink transmission method proposed by the present disclosure will be described. In the present embodiment, the grant free uplink transmission can be regarded as including two cases:.

In particular, the time interval (i.e., relative relationship in time domain) in the above description may also be replaced by combining the time domain relative positional relationship and/or the frequency domain relative relationship; the method is similar and will not be described again.

In this embodiment, the base station transmits configuration information for transmitting and receiving (referred to as a 2step RACH procedure in the present embodiment) of the uplink signal of the present disclosure to the user in system information, downlink control information, upper layer control information (such as RRC configuration message), and handover command message through the downlink channel (such as the downlink control channel PDCCH, the downlink shared channel PDSCH, and the downlink broadcast channel PBCH); the UE receives the configuration information, where the configuration information used for the two-step random access includes at least one of the following:.

After the UE acquires the configuration information of the two-step random access resource, the UE may perform operations including at least one of the following:.

After the resource is determined, the UE is ready for the preamble and the message content included in the PUSCH to be sent, the coding method, etc.; after determining the transmission power after the power control, the message A (preamble and/or PUSCH) is sent out;.

The UE monitors possible feedback information on the determined control resource set and/or search space for monitoring feedback, and performs subsequent operations;
If the UE does not detect the correct feedback (or no feedback), the UE increases a preamble transmission counter by one to perform the next transmission; or when the preamble transmission counter exceeds the maximum value, the UE reports the random access problem, or falls back to the four-step random access transmission.

The embodiment further provides a user equipment <NUM> for grant free uplink transmission. The user equipment includes a memory <NUM> and a processor <NUM>, the memory having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform at least one of the methods corresponding to the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Specifically, for example, the processor may be configured to determine, according to configuration information for the grant free uplink transmission received from a base station, a radio network temporary identifier GF-RNTI for the grant free uplink transmission and other configurations to transmit an uplink signal; and monitor feedback from the base station in a downlink control channel by using the determined GF-RNTI, and perform further operations according to the content of the feedback.

The embodiment further provides a base station device <NUM> for grant free uplink transmission. The base station device includes a memory <NUM> and a processor <NUM>. The memory stores computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform at least one of the methods corresponding to the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Specifically, for example, the processor may be configured to transmit, to a user equipment side, configuration information for determining a radio network temporary identifier GF-RNTI for grant free uplink transmission; and detect user's signal transmission on the configured grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource, and perform downlink feedback on the successfully detected and decoded signal transmission, wherein the downlink feedback uses the GF-RNTI corresponding to the successfully detected and decoded signal transmission.

The configuration information may include at least one of: a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource set; a mapping relationship between a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource and a downlink beam; a mapping relationship between at least one of a grant free preamble, a DMRS or a multiple access signature resource and a downlink beam; a resource pool of GF-RNTI; a mapping relationship between GF-RNTI and at least one of a time-frequency resource, a preamble, a DMRS, or a multiple access signature resource for grant free uplink transmission; a control resource set for UE to monitor a grant free uplink transmission feedback and/or a configuration of search space; the maximum number of transmissions of the grant free uplink transmission; and the maximum transmission time of the grant free uplink transmission.

The configuration information may also be used to determine at least one of a grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource, a grant free preamble, a de-modulation reference signal DMRS, and a multiple access signature MAS.

The present disclosure also provides a computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed, perform any of the methods described in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

Specifically, for example, the processor may be configured to transmit, to a user equipment side, configuration information (the configuration information is the same as described above, and details are not described herein); and detect user's signal transmission on the configured grant free uplink transmission time-frequency resource, and perform downlink feedback on the successfully detected and decoded signal transmission, wherein the downlink feedback uses the GF-RNTI corresponding to the successfully detected and decoded signal transmission.

"User Equipment" or "UE" herein may refer to any terminal having wireless communication capabilities, including but not limited to mobile phones, cellular telephones, smart phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, image capture devices such as digital cameras, gaming devices, music storage and playback devices, and any portable unit or terminal with wireless communication capabilities, or Internet facilities that allow wireless Internet access and browsing, etc..

The term "base station" (BS) as used herein may refer to an eNB, an eNodeB, a NodeB, or a base station transceiver (BTS) or gNB, etc., depending on the technology and terminology used.

The "memory" herein may be of any type suitable for the technical environment herein, and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, including but not limited to semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memories and removable memories.

The processor herein may be of any type suitable for the technical environment herein, including but not limited to one or more of a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor DSP, and a multi-core processor architecture based processor.

The above description is only the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and is not intended to limit the present disclosure. The scope of the invention is only limited by the appended claims.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure includes apparatuses that are directed to performing one or more of the operations described herein. These apparatuses may be specially designed and manufactured for the required purposes, or may also include known devices in a general purpose computer. These apparatuses have computer programs stored therein that are selectively activated or reconfigured. Such computer programs may be stored in a device (e.g., computer) readable medium or in any type of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions and respectively coupled to a bus, including but not limited to any type of disks (including floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks), ROM (Read-Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) , EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), flash memory, magnetic card or light card. That is, the readable medium includes any medium that stores or transmits information in a form capable of being readable by a device (e.g., a computer).

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that each block of the structure diagrams and/or block diagrams and/or flow diagrams and combinations of blocks in the structure diagrams and/or block diagrams and/or flow diagrams can be implemented by computer program instructions. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that these computer program instructions can be implemented by a general purpose computer, a professional computer, or a processor of other programmable data processing methods, such that the scheme specified in one or more blocks of the structure diagrams and/or block diagrams and/or flow diagrams disclosed in the present disclosure is executed by a computer or a processor of other programmable data processing methods.

Claim 1:
A method performed by a terminal (<NUM>) for a <NUM>-step random access procedure in a wireless communication, comprising:
identifying whether physical random access channel, PRACH, occasions for a <NUM>-step random access type is shared with a <NUM>-step random access type; and
in case that the PRACH occasions for the <NUM>-step random access type is shared with the <NUM>-step random access type, transmitting, to a base station (<NUM>), a message A including a preamble based on a configuration of PRACH occasions, wherein the configuration of the PRACH occasions is common for the <NUM>-step random access type and the <NUM>-step random access type,
wherein a preamble index of the preamble associated with a synchronization signal block, SSB, starts from an index which is determined based on a starting preamble index of preambles allocated for the <NUM>-step random access type associated with the SSB and a total number of preambles for the <NUM>-step random access type.