Patent Description:
This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

<NUM> New Radio (NR) supports the ability to multiplex MBB (Mobile Broadband) and URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications) on the same air interface, enabling expansion of IMT that go beyond those of IMT-<NUM> and IMT-Advanced mobile broadband (MBB) service, and also envisioning to address new services and use cases. One of the main use case scenarios identified for IMT-<NUM> is ultra-reliable low-latency communications, which has been seen as one of the key enablers for vertical use cases such as factory automation, Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR), Smart Grids protection and so on.

URLLC traffic typically has very tight delay constraints and hence should be served with higher priority. Moreover, to satisfy its low-latency constraints, the most stringent requirement on URLLC currently being studied in 3GPP RAN WG is <NUM> % reliability under the radio latency bound of I ms [3GPP TR38. The maximum packet error rate must not be higher than <NUM>-<NUM>, where maximum allowable radio latency, including retransmissions is down to <NUM>. With the new numerology consideration for <NUM>, for example <NUM> TTI size or even shorter mini-slot concept and each TTI contains both control and data information, there is a possibility to support Uplink (UL) transmissions (contention-based or scheduling based) with <NUM> latency.

To allow the URLLC traffic to meet its latency targets, 3GPP NR supports the URLLC traffic to puncture resource elements (REs) of an ongoing MBB transmission. 3GPP has agreed that there should be a method by which the MBB UEs whose traffic has been punctured by the URLLC transmissions are informed of the REs that have been punctured to help the MBB UE with the decoding (facilitated with the so-called pre-emption indication signaling via PDCCH). Note that in 3GPP, the tenn pre-emption is now used for puncturing. With the knowledge of REs that are punctured, MBB UE is able to ignore those symbols and try to decode using the rest of the un-punctured REs.

A previous writing that may be useful as background to the current invention may include the following: <NPL>. Patent publication <CIT> discloses a mechanism of communicating with MBB UE to avoid the collision.

The current invention moves beyond these techniques.

Acronyms or abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined within the context of this disclosure or as follows below:.

The following documents provide a background in the art of multiplexing low latency services on bulk traffic, such as URLLC and eMMB.

<NPL>, discloses Punctured Scheduling for Critical Low Latency Data on a Shared Channel with Mobile Broadband. <CIT> discloses a method of operation of a scheduler implemented in a network node of a cellular communications system. <NPL>, discloses A Weighted Proportional Fair Scheduling to Maximize Best-Effort Service Utility in Multicell Network. Intel Corporation, "<NPL>), discloses Downlink Multiplexing of eMBB and URLLC Transmissions. Sequans Communications, "<NPL>, discloses Dynamic Resource Sharing between URLLC and eMBB in DL.

Specific embodiments of the invention are defined in the appended dependent claims.

The problem addressed by embodiments of the present invention is the question of which ongoing MBB UE's transmission should be punctured by a new URLLC UE that needs to be scheduled. There are several issues to consider while determining which MBB UE's transmission should be punctured. Some of the factors to consider are:.

The only prior art that the inventors are aware of are the works discussed above, where the authors considered three different methods to determine the MBB UE whose transmission will be punctured. In the non-patent literature cited above, in one method, the authors schedule the URLLC traffic in the best resources for the URLLC traffic; in a second method, they consider puncturing the UE with the smallest MCS; and, in a third method, the UE with the largest MCS is punctured.

Nonetheless, the prior art method does not fully consider all the factors while determining the MBB UE to puncture. For instance, we expect that we can get significant performance improvement by taking into account the number of allocated PRBs while determining the MBB UE to puncture.

Before addressing the current invention directly, it might be appropriate to discuss some aspects of using different TTI sizes and factors influencing TTI selection. For a URLLC use case short TTI size is needed to meet latency requirements such that TTI size is adapted according to latency constraints. At a low offered load, using short TTI sizes reduces latency. For traffic adaptation there are clear benefits of short TTI sizes during the slow start TCP phase; adapt the TTI size depending on the transport protocol state. For UE radio conditions, these are much higher control channel overheads for cell-edge users (i. e low SINR conditions), so there is a need to switch such users from short TTI to longer TTI sizes earlier as the load increases. While operating with long TTI sizes on narrow bandwidth is attractive from coverage perspective and device cost, when using URLLC and mMTC, the cost of using short TTI sizes for MMC / URLLC must be accepted.

Regarding multiplexing of eMBB and URLLC using Preemptive Scheduling, a preemptive indication is used to make the eMBB UE aware of preemption. A full TB retransmissions can be assumed in case of NACK. But for the case where eMBB is scheduled with long TTI sizes, while URLLC is scheduled with short TTIs to fulfil the latency requirements, in order to avoid pre-reservation for transmission of sporadic arriving URLLC data bursts, punctured scheduling (in other words: preemptive scheduling) should be considered.

Regarding preemptive scheduling of URLLC traffic, when URLLC data arrives at the gNB, such data are immediately scheduled by partly overwriting (i.e. puncturing) ongoing eMBB transmissions. When using weighted proportional fair scheduling with eMBB-aware puncturing scheduling would follow one of the three aspects below:.

System-level performance results of preemptive scheduling are as follows: URLLC requirements are fulfilled, but naturally the latency increases with the offered load; achieved without any pre-reservation of resources for URLLC; the eMBB performance naturally decreases as more resources are "hijacked" for urgent URLLC retransmissions; and the LeU scheme seems most attractive, although fairly close to the performance of BR and HeU.

Before turning to how an exemplary embodiment would function, <FIG> is presented showing a block diagram of one possible and non-limiting exemplary system in which the exemplary embodiments may be practiced. In <FIG>, a user equipment (UE) <NUM> is in wireless communication with a wireless network <NUM>. A UE is a wireless, typically mobile device that can access a wireless network. The UE <NUM> includes one or more processors <NUM>, one or more memories <NUM>, and one or more transceivers <NUM> interconnected through one or more buses <NUM>. The one or more buses <NUM> may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, fiber optics or other optical communication equipment, and the like. The UE <NUM> includes a YYY module <NUM>, comprising one of or both parts <NUM>-<NUM> and/or <NUM>-<NUM>, which may be implemented in a number of ways. The YYY module <NUM> may be implemented in hardware as YYY module <NUM>-<NUM>, such as being implemented as part of the one or more processors <NUM>. The YYY module <NUM>-<NUM> may be implemented also as an integrated circuit or through other hardware such as a programmable gate array. In another example, the YYY module <NUM> may be implemented as YYY module <NUM>-<NUM>, which is implemented as computer program code <NUM> and is executed by the one or more processors <NUM>. For instance, the one or more memories <NUM> and the computer program code <NUM> may be configured to, with the one or more processors <NUM>, cause the user equipment <NUM> to perform one or more of the operations as described herein. The UE <NUM> communicates with gNB <NUM> via a wireless link <NUM>.

The base station <NUM> (which in the shown embodiment is a gNB or NR/<NUM> Node B but possibly an evolved NodeB for LTE, long term evolution, but could be any similar access point to a wireless network) that provides access by wireless devices such as the UE <NUM> to the wireless network <NUM>. The gNB <NUM> includes one or more processors <NUM>, one or more memories <NUM>, one or more network interfaces (N/W I/F(s)) <NUM>, and one or more transceivers <NUM> interconnected through one or more buses <NUM>. The gNB <NUM> includes a ZZZ module <NUM>, comprising one of or both parts <NUM>-<NUM> and/or <NUM>-<NUM>, which may be implemented in a number of ways. The ZZZ module <NUM> may be implemented in hardware as ZZZ module <NUM>-<NUM>, such as being implemented as part of the one or more processors <NUM>. The ZZZ module <NUM>-<NUM> may be implemented also as an integrated circuit or through other hardware such as a programmable gate array. In another example, the ZZZ module <NUM> may be implemented as ZZZ module <NUM>-<NUM>, which is implemented as computer program code <NUM> and is executed by the one or more processors <NUM>. For instance, the one or more memories <NUM> and the computer program code <NUM> are configured to, with the one or more processors <NUM>, cause the gNB <NUM> to perform one or more of the operations as described herein. Two or more gNBs <NUM> communicate using, e.g., link <NUM>. The link <NUM> may be wired or wireless or both and may implement, e.g., an X2 interface.

The one or more buses <NUM> may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, fiber optics or other optical communication equipment, wireless channels, and the like. For example, the one or more transceivers <NUM> may be implemented as a remote radio head (RRH) <NUM>, with the other elements of the gNB <NUM> being physically in a different location from the RRH, and the one or more buses <NUM> could be implemented in part as fiber optic cable to connect the other elements of the gNB <NUM> to the RRH <NUM>.

Turning to another user equipment, as depicted in <FIG> there is a UE 110X also in wireless communication with a wireless network <NUM>. The user equipment 110X includes one or more processors 120X, one or more memories 125X, and one or more transceivers 130X interconnected through one or more buses 127X. Each of the one or more transceivers 130X includes a receiver, Rx, 132X and a transmitter, Tx, 133X. The one or more buses 127X may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of lines on a motherboard or integrated circuit, fiber optics or other optical communication equipment, and the like. The one or more transceivers <NUM> are connected to one or more antennas 128X. The one or more memories 125X include computer program code 123X.

The UE 110X includes an XXX module 140X, comprising one of or both parts 140X-<NUM> and/or 140X-<NUM>, which may be implemented in a number of ways. The XXX module 140X may be implemented in hardware as XXX module 140X-<NUM>, such as being implemented as part of the one or more processors 120X. The XXX module 140X-<NUM> may be implemented also as an integrated circuit or through other hardware such as a programmable gate array. In another example, the XXX module 140X may be implemented as XXX module 140X-<NUM>, which is implemented as computer program code 123X and is executed by the one or more processors 120X. For instance, the one or more memories 125X and the computer program code 123X may be configured to, with the one or more processors 120X, cause the user equipment 110X to perform one or more of the operations as described herein. The UE 110X communicates with eNB <NUM> via a wireless link 111X-<NUM>. The remote UE <NUM> communicates with the relay UEs 110X via a wireless link 111X-<NUM>.

Here UE <NUM> could represent URLLC UE in need of resources being that its transmission would have priority over an MBB UE that will be punctured and demoted as 110X in this diagram.

It is noted that description herein indicates that "cells" perform functions, but it should be clear that the eNB that forms the cell would perform the functions. The cell makes up part of an eNB. That is, there can be multiple cells per eNB. For instance, there could be three cells for a single eNB carrier frequency and associated bandwidth, each cell covering one-third of a <NUM>-degree area so that the single eNB's coverage area covers an approximate oval or circle. Furthermore, each cell can correspond to a single carrier and an eNB may use multiple carriers. So if there are three <NUM>-degree cells per carrier and two carriers, then the eNB has a total of <NUM> cells.

The wireless network <NUM> may include a network control element (NCE) <NUM> that may include MME (Mobility Management Entity)/SGW (Serving Gateway) functionality, and which provides connectivity with a further network, such as a telephone network and/or a data communications network (e.g., the Internet). The gNB <NUM> is coupled via a link <NUM> to the NCE <NUM>. The link <NUM> may be implemented as, e.g., an S1 interface. The NCE <NUM> includes one or more processors <NUM>, one or more memories <NUM>, and one or more network interfaces (N/W I/F(s)) <NUM>, interconnected through one or more buses <NUM>. The one or more memories <NUM> and the computer program code <NUM> are configured to, with the one or more processors <NUM>, cause the NCE <NUM> to perform one or more operations.

The computer readable memories <NUM>, 125X, <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 devices, flash memory, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory. The processors <NUM>, 120X, <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 a multi-core processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.

In general, the various embodiments of the user equipment <NUM> and user equipment 110X can include, but are not limited to, cellular telephones such as smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) having wireless communication capabilities, portable computers having wireless communication capabilities, image capture devices such as digital cameras having wireless communication capabilities, gaming devices having wireless communication capabilities, music storage and playback appliances having wireless communication capabilities, Internet appliances permitting wireless Internet access and browsing, tablets with wireless communication capabilities, as well as portable units or terminals that incorporate combinations of such functions.

Embodiments herein may be implemented in software (executed by one or more processors), hardware (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit), or a combination of software and hardware. For example, in an embodiment, the software (e.g., application logic, an instruction set) is maintained on any one of various conventional computer-readable media. In the context of this document, a "computer-readable medium" may be any media or means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer, with one example of a computer described and depicted, as in <FIG> for example. A computer-readable medium may comprise a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., memories <NUM>, 125X, <NUM>, <NUM> or other device) that may be any media or means that can contain or store the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer.

The low latency requires bringing the content close to the radio which leads to local break out and multi-access edge computing (MEC). <NUM> may use edge cloud and local cloud architecture. Edge computing covers a wide range of technologies such as wireless sensor networks, mobile data acquisition, mobile signature analysis, cooperative distributed peer-to-peer ad hoc networking and processing also classifiable as local cloud/fog computing and grid/mesh computing, dew computing, mobile edge computing, cloudlet, distributed data storage and retrieval, autonomic self-healing networks, remote cloud services and augmented reality. In radio communications, using edge cloud may mean node operations to be carried out, at least partly, in a server, host or node operationally coupled to a remote radio head or base station comprising radio parts. It should also be understood that the distribution of labor between core network operations and base station operations may differ from that of the LTE or even be non-existent. Some other technology advancements probably to be used are Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Big Data, and all-IP, which may change the way networks are being constructed and managed.

One possible manner to carry out embodiments described herein is with an edge cloud using a distributed computing system. An exemplary embodiment comprises a radio node connected to a server. Exemplary embodiments implementing the system allow the edge cloud server and the radio node as stand-alone apparatuses communicating with each other via a radio path or via a wired connection or they may be located in a same entity communicating via a wired connection.

In this invention, we provide an optimal method and methods using some approximations to give less complex ways to determine the MBB UE whose transmission should be punctured such that the overall system performance is maximized. A philosophy of the inventors is to determine the UE to puncture such that we maximize the sum-PF metric of the MBB UEs, so as to minimize the impact on the MBB performance from puncturing.

It is known that the URLLC UE would be scheduled in this TTI and the number of REs that the URLLC transmission would need. Therefore, we do not need to consider the impact on the URLLC UE. It is sufficient to consider the impact on the scheduler metrics of the scheduled MBB UEs to determine the one or more MBB UE(s) whose transmission should be punctured.

In addition, when the UE to be punctured shares its resources with other UEs that are using the same resources in an MU-MIMO fashion, we take into account the interference impact due to the scheduling of the URLLC on other UEs that are using the same resource, not just the single UE whose transmission is being punctured. It is also possible that the puncturing punctures all the MBB UEs (or a subset of the MBB UEs) whose transmission overlaps with the URLLC transmission to achieve the desired reliability targets. Even in this case, our maximization of the sum multi-user PF approach is flexible enough to determine which MBB UEs transmissions should be punctured, once we know the desired number of UEs that share the same resource in an MU-MIMO fashion whose transmission should be punctured.

The exemplary embodiments herein describe determining the MBB UE to puncture so as to accommodate URLLC traffic.

In detail below a general optimization problem formulation is described followed by an incremental determination of the next single UE to puncture, simpler heuristic methods generally, and simpler heuristic methods for UEs sharing their resources in an MU-MIMO fashion.

As URLLC puncturing into eMBB transmission has been proposed in prior art, this invention moves beyond that art at least by reaching the maximization of the sum - PF metric of the MBB UEs, and sets it as the balance of URLLC efficiency with proper eMBB UE traffic disturbed.

Regarding the literature "Punctured scheduling for critical low latency data on a shared channel with mobile broadband" proposes that "the basic PF metric is weighted with a function of the MCS employed for eMBB data transmission on a given PRB. " Since the prior art only uses MCS to determine the MBB UE to puncture, the performance of the current invention that looks at maximizing the PF metric or scheduler metric in general is thus not disclosed in that art and the current invention will have superior performance. Taking into account the number of allocated PRBs and the change in the probability of errors are also important aspects of this invention that distinguish it from prior art.

Regarding <CIT>, it does not disclose any method to determine which MBB UE's transmission should be impacted by the transmission of the URLLC traffic and so the present invention also moves beyond it.

The expression of maximization of sum multi-user PF approach is as given in Equation (<NUM>) below. It would be a search over the discrete set of scheduled UEs in that TTI. Under such basis of maximization of sum multi-user PF approach, it quickly fixes the MBB UE group to puncture with certain performance balance which is shown in the provided various simplified algorithms as outlined in the three sections following the general optimization problem formulation below.

Those simplified algorithms, disclosed below, quickly identify the MBB UE(s) to puncture such that the negative performance impact on the MBB UEs is minimized. Note that if a fixed MBB UE puncture scheme would be chosen, such as an arbitrary MBB UE, then the negative performance impact might be large. Also note that the URLLC UE being punctured would not have any allocation before. So the URLLC UE gets to benefit from this puncturing. URLLC UE gets priority over MBB UE. So we first allow the URLLC UE to get as many resources as needed, but we make an optimal decision of exactly which MBB UE's traffic should be punctured.

As discussed below, a common feature between the scenarios is that they determine the MBB UE to puncture such that the sum PF of the MBB UEs is maximized.

This section describes the core of which the three subsequent variants below are simplifications or approximations of. To determine which MBB UE(s) to puncture, such that the overall performance/utility is maximized, we pick that set of already scheduled MBB UE(s) to puncture such that we can accommodate the needs of the URLLC traffic while maximizing the sum proportional fairness metric of the MBB UEs.

For this general case, let's denote by S the set of MBB UEs that have been scheduled for transmission in the slot that will be punctured by the URLLC UE. Let's denote UE i's average throughput so far by Ti and the TBS corresponding to the MCS and the number of PRBs allocated to UE i by TBSi. We denote by BLERi' the BLER that the UE i would be expected to get if it was the UE that was punctured. We denote by BLERi the BLER the user i would achieve if the UE's transmission was not punctured. We use the "prime" notation to refer to the quantities achieved by the UE if it was the chosen UE for puncturing.

We want to determine that set of UEs <MAT> whose data transmission would be punctured such that the sum-PF of the MBB UEs is maximized, subject to the constraint that the reliability requirement of the URLLC traffic is met. <MAT> where the set Sp is the set of MBB UEs whose traffic is directly punctured, <MAT> is the set of UEs whose traffic is not directly punctured, but whose traffic is indirectly affected by the puncturing of the MBB UE's transmission with URLLC traffic. Typically, these UEs are those that share the resource allocation, typically in an MU-MIMO fashion, with that of the punctured UE on at least a subset of the punctured resource elements. For example, the MBB UE which was punctured might have been using a different beam when compared to the URLLC traffic's beam. This will cause a difference in BLER to those UEs in the set <MAT>. More than one MBB UE's data transmission may need to be punctured due to either the need to use more PRBs than what is assigned to one UE, or the need to puncture multiple UEs transmissions that are sharing the same resource in an MU-MIMO fashion.

The sum proportional fairness metric is known to maximize the sum utility across all UEs for the log-utility function, where the logarithm of the user's throughput is taken as the utility function. We also explicitly take into account the user's block error rate in the computation of the user's proportional fairness metric, unlike what is typically used in prior art. This makes the determination of the MBB UE(s) to puncture more accurate. For other utility functions, Equation (<NUM>) would be appropriately modified (where the <NUM>/Ti in the equation would be replaced by U', which is the derivative of the utility function with respect to the throughput) to use U'R, where U' is the derivative of the user's utility function with respect to the user's throughput, and R is the instantaneous rate achievable by the UE.

Note that the need for puncturing only occurs when new URLLC traffic needs to be scheduled in the midst of an ongoing MBB transmission(s). Otherwise, if both URLLC traffic and MBB traffic need to be scheduled at the start of a slot boundary, then the URLLC traffic can already be provided a higher priority so that there is no need for puncturing. Therefore, we also recommend enforcing a strict priority for URLLC traffic for idle/unoccupied resources.

<FIG> is a logic flow diagram illustrating the operation of an exemplary method or methods, resulting from an execution of computer program instructions embodied on a computer readable memory, and/or functions performed by logic implemented in hardware or other means, in accordance with exemplary embodiments, which would be possible.

Because of the combinatorial search involved in the optimization Equation (<NUM>), in this invention, we progressively develop simpler techniques/heuristics that come close to the solution in Equation (<NUM>) but with much lower complexity. To avoid the combinatorial search in Equation (<NUM>), we may perform a sequential greedy approach of determining the UE to be punctured. In particular, we propose that the MBB UE(s) to be punctured are picked one at a time. We thus propose that we pick for puncturing that UE i* such that the sum-PF metric as shown below is maximized, again subject to Reliability constraint of the URLLC traffic being met. <MAT> where we have used the notation <MAT> to refer to the set of UEs whose traffic is not directly punctured, but whose traffic is indirectly affected by the puncturing of the MBB UE i's transmission.

Once a certain set of PRBs have been determined for the URLLC traffic and some MBB UEs have already been decided for puncturing, then only other MBB UEs on the same set of PRBs multiplexed in MU-MIMO fashion may be further punctured. So Equation (<NUM>) can be incrementally solved by identifying one UE at a time until the reliability constraint of the URLLC traffic is finally met. To meet the reliability constraint of the URLLC traffic, sufficient number of UEs multiplexed in MU-MIMO fashion should be punctured, or the URLLC traffic needs to be allocated sufficient number of PRBs that may span the MBB allocation of more than one UE. In both these cases, multiple UEs' transmissions may be punctured for the URLLC traffic to meet its reliability target.

To simplify the description, in what follows, we assume the set of users <MAT> is empty, such that there are no UEs that are not punctured but are nevertheless affected by puncturing. By simplifying Equation (<NUM>), we can see that user i* is the MBB UE picked for puncturing if the following condition holds for every j ∈ S, j ≠ i*: <MAT>.

Thus we want to pick that UE that results in a smaller PF difference due to puncturing when compared to the PF difference of other UEs. From Equation (<NUM>), we would like to pick that UE for whom the difference between the PF metrics with and without puncturing to be the smallest among all UEs. Thus, ideally, the BLER difference between the BLER with and without puncturing should be small, and the PF metric of the UE selected for puncturing should be small.

As an approximation, the weights <NUM>/Ti may be dropped and the sum-rate may be maximized. As another approximation, the difference in BLER may be ignored, and the UE with the smallest PF metric value <MAT> may be the UE selected for puncturing.

As yet another approximation, the PF metrics of the scheduled UEs may be assumed to be approximately the same, and we may wish to pick that UE that minimizes the BLER difference with and without puncturing. As an alternative approximation, because the BLER is a monotonic function of the code rate, we may pick that UE that has the lowest code rate difference due to puncturing. This would imply that we pick that UE for which the following condition holds for every j ∈ S, j ≠ i*: <MAT> Where in the above equation, mi* represents the modulation order of UE i*, which takes a value of <NUM> bits/symbol for QPSK, <NUM> bits/symbol for <NUM>-QAM and <NUM> bits/symbol for <NUM> QAM. Oi* is the number of OFDM symbols in the UE's PRB allocation before puncturing and <MAT> is the number of OFDM symbols in the UE's PRB allocation after puncturing. This would roughly imply that we pick that UE for puncturing with the largest number of PRBs allocated so as to minimize the BLER difference with and without puncturing.

This method may be generalized to pick more than one UE if, in so doing, the sum PF metric as shown in Equation (<NUM>) is maximized, with appropriate modifications to allow two or more UEs to have a modified BLER. Moreover, in some cases, given the number of PRBs needed for the URLLC UE and the MBB UEs, more than one UE may have to be punctured. In such cases as well, the above-mentioned methods would work, where two or more UEs are jointly picked to be punctured. Alternatively, to avoid having to do a joint optimization, MBB UEs may be incrementally picked as per Equation (<NUM>), if it turns out that more than one MBB UE needs to be punctured because the number of PRBs to be allocated to the URLLC UE exceeds the PRB allocation of the first chosen UE.

In addition to the above methods, there may be an additional prioritization of retransmission UEs, such that retransmission UEs may not be punctured, unless there are no other fresh transmission UEs whose transmission can be punctured.

To reduce the impact on other UEs whose transmissions are not directly punctured, namely, those UEs that are in the set <MAT>, we pick that UE that is already using the same beam as that of the URLLC UE, assuming that the punctured UE is sharing its resources with other UEs in an MU-MIMO fashion. As a heuristic, we first puncture from among those UEs that do not share their resources with other UEs in an MU-MIMO fashion. If such a UE is not available, then we pick another MBB UE that is using the same beam as the URLLC UE's best beam. If such a UE is not available, then we pick a UE such that the URLLC UE's orthogonality with other UEs using the same resource is maximized, i.e., the URLLC UE is as orthogonal as possible to the remaining MBB UEs whose transmissions are not punctured, but are sharing the same resource as the URLLC UE's resource elements.

Without in any way limiting the scope, interpretation, or application of the invention or of the claims appearing below, an advantage, benefit, or technical effect of one or more of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein is improving the determination of which UE to puncture at varying levels of complexity over prior art methods based on MCS or randomly deciding the PRBs to puncture. As the amount of URLLC traffic increases, it becomes more important to pick the right MBB UE(s) to puncture, thus increasing the gains from the methods disclosed in this invention.

Without in any way limiting the scope, interpretation, or application of the invention or of the claims appearing below, another advantage, benefit, or technical effect of one or more of the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein is the invention provides variants based on varying degrees of complexity so they can fit various situations.

Although various aspects are set out above, other aspects comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments, and not solely the combinations described above.

Claim 1:
A method comprising: in response to an indication that an ultra-reliable low latency communications, URLLC, traffic needs to be scheduled in the midst of ongoing mobile broadband, MBB, transmissions in a wireless communications network (<NUM>), determining, from a plurality of MBB UEs with the ongoing MBB transmissions, a set of the plurality scheduled for transmission in a slot required by the URLLC traffic;
choosing, from the set of MBB UEs, a subset of MBB UEs for puncturing, wherein the choosing of the subset comprises:
accommodating a reliability constraint of the URLLC traffic, maximizing a sum proportional fairness metric of the plurality of MBB UEs, and characterised by minimizing a block error rate in a computation of a proportional fairness metric for each UE of the subset.