Patent Description:
Wireless communication systems have developed through various generations, including a first-generation analog wireless phone service (<NUM>), a second-generation (<NUM>) digital wireless phone service (including interim <NUM> networks), a third-generation (<NUM>) high speed data, Internet-capable wireless service, and a fourth-generation (<NUM>) service (e.g., Long-Term Evolution (LTE), WiMax). There are presently many different types of wireless communication systems in use, including cellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular Analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), the Global System for Mobile access (GSM) variation of TDMA, etc..

A fifth generation (<NUM>) mobile standard calls for higher data transfer speeds, greater numbers of connections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The <NUM> standard (also referred to as "New Radio" or "NR"), according to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, is designed to provide data rates of several tens of megabits per second to each of tens of thousands of users, with <NUM> gigabit per second to tens of workers on an office floor. Several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported in order to support large sensor deployments. Consequently, the spectral efficiency of <NUM> mobile communications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current <NUM> / LTE standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiencies should be enhanced and latency should be substantially reduced compared to current standards.

<CIT> relates to facilitating an enhanced two-stage downlink control channel in a wireless communication system. <CIT> relates to downlink control information piggyback in physical downlink shared channel. 3GPP draft R1-<NUM> relates to <NUM>-stage DCI for NR. 3GPP draft R1-<NUM> relates to PDCCH procedure and DCI carried by PDSCH region.

In some systems, to reduce control overhead and improve the processing timeline, a downlink control information (DCI) may be split into two portions (or parts). A first DCI portion may be transmitted within a PDCCH, while a second DCI portion may be transmitted within a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), a procedure commonly referred to as a DCI piggyback. The PDCCH and associated PDSCH carrying the respective DCI portions may be transmitted in the same slot or in different slots. The first DCI portion may include initial control information regarding an assignment (or grant), such as the resource assignment, rank and modulation order of the assignment (e.g., UL grant or DL grant). In addition, the first DCI portion may also include control information about the second DCI portion in a control information field.

According to the present invention, a method of wireless communication is provided as set out in claims <NUM> and <NUM> and apparatuses for wireless communication as set out in claims <NUM> and <NUM>. Other aspects of the invention can be found in the dependent claims.

Aspects generally include a method, apparatus, system, computer program product, non-transitory computer-readable medium, user equipment, cIoT user equipment, base station, wireless communication device, and/or processing system as substantially described with reference to and as illustrated by the drawings, and specification.

It should be noted that while aspects may be described herein using terminology commonly associated with <NUM> and/or <NUM> wireless technologies, aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in other generation-based communication systems, such as <NUM> and later, including <NUM> technologies.

The wireless network <NUM> may be an LTE network or some other wireless network, such as a <NUM> network. A BS is an entity that communicates with user equipment (UEs) and may also be referred to as a base station, a <NUM> BS, a Node B, a gNB, a <NUM> NB, an access point, a transmit receive point (TRP), and/or the like.

A UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, a terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, a station, etc. A UE may be a cellular phone (e.g., a smart phone), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, an ultrabook, a medical device or equipment, biometric sensors/devices, wearable devices (smart watches, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wrist bands, smart jewelry (e.g., smart ring, smart bracelet)), an entertainment device (e.g., a music or video device, or a satellite radio), a vehicular component or sensor, smart meters/sensors, industrial manufacturing equipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitable device that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.

"MTC" may refer to MTC or eMTC. MTC UEs include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc., that may communicate with a base station, another device (e.g., remote device), or some other entity. IoT UEs, eMTC UEs, coverage enhancement (CE) mode UEs, bandwidth-limited (BL) UEs, and other types of UEs that operate using diminished power consumption relative to a baseline UE may be referred to herein as cellular IoT (cloT) UEs.

Access to the air interface may be controlled, for example, using a unified access control (UAC) system in which UEs are associated with an access identity (e.g., an access class and/or the like), which may aim to ensure that certain high-priority UEs (e.g., emergency response UEs, mission critical UEs, and/or the like) can access the air interface even in congested conditions. Updates to the UAC parameters (e.g., priority levels associated with access identities, which access identities are permitted to access the air interface, and/or the like) may be provided for cIoT UEs using a message, such as a paging message or a direct indication information, which may conserve battery power of cIoT UEs.

At base station <NUM>, a transmit processor <NUM> may receive data from a data source <NUM> for one or more UEs, may select a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for each UE based at least in part on channel quality indicators (CQIs) received from the UE, process (e.g., encode and modulate) the data for each UE based at least in part on the MCS selected for the UE, and provide data symbols for all UEs. Transmit processor <NUM> may also process system information (e.g., for semi-static resource partitioning information (SRPI), and/or the like) and control information (e.g., CQI requests, grants, upper layer signaling, and/or the like) and provide overhead symbols and control symbols. Transmit processor <NUM> may also generate reference symbols for reference signals (e.g., the cell-specific reference signal) and synchronization signals (e.g., the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS)). Each modulator <NUM> may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexing (OFDM) and/or the like) to obtain an output sample stream.

A receive (RX) processor <NUM> may process (e.g., demodulate and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for UE <NUM> to a data sink <NUM>, and provide decoded control information and system information to a controller/processor <NUM>. A channel processor may determine reference signal received power (RSRP), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a channel quality indicator (CQI), and/or the like.

Controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>, and/or any other component(s) of <FIG> may perform one or more techniques associated with UAC parameter updating, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>, and/or any other component(s) of <FIG> may perform or direct operations of various processes as described herein. Memories <NUM> and <NUM> may store data and program codes for BS <NUM> and UE <NUM>, respectively.

As noted above, various device types may be characterized as UEs. Starting in 3GPP Rel. <NUM>, a number of these UE types are being allocated a new UE classification denoted as Reduced Capability ('RedCap') or 'NR-Light'. Examples of UE types that fall under the RedCap classification include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, etc.), industrial sensors, video cameras (e.g., surveillance cameras, etc.), and so on. Generally, the UE types grouped under the RedCap classification are associated with lower communicative capacity. For example, relative to 'normal' UEs (e.g., UEs not classified as RedCap), RedCap UEs may be limited in terms of maximum bandwidth (e.g., <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc.), maximum transmission power (e.g., <NUM> dBm, <NUM> dBm, etc.), number of receive antennas (e.g., <NUM> receive antenna, <NUM> receive antennas, etc.), and so on. Some RedCap UEs may also be sensitive in terms of power consumption (e.g., requiring a long battery life, such as several years) and may be highly mobile. Moreover, in some designs, it is generally desirable for RedCap UEs to co-exist with UEs implementing protocols such as eMBB, URLLC, LTE NB-IoT/MTC, and so on.

A Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may be used to carry a Downlink Control Information (DCI) communication. The DCI within the PDCCH provides downlink resource assignments and/or uplink resource grants for one or more UEs. Multiple PDCCHs may be transmitted each slot and each PDCCH may carry user-specific DCI or common DCI (e.g., control information broadcast to a group of UEs). Each DCI may further include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bit that is scrambled with a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI), which may be a specific user RNTI or a group RNTI, to allow the UE to determine the type of control information sent in the PDCCH.

In some systems, to reduce control overhead and improve the processing timeline, the DCI may be split into two portions. A first DCI portion may be transmitted within a PDCCH, while a second DCI portion, referred to as a DCI 'piggyback' may be transmitted within a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). The PDCCH and associated PDSCH carrying the respective DCI portions may be transmitted in the same slot or in different slots.

The first DCI portion may include initial control information regarding an assignment (or grant), such as the resource assignment, rank and modulation order of the assignment (e.g., UL grant or DL grant). In addition, the first DCI portion may also include control information about the second DCI portion in a control information field. In some examples, the control information may indicate the number of resource elements (size) and code rate of the second DCI portion. The second DCI portion may include remaining control information regarding the grant (and/or other grant(s)). For example, the remaining control information may include non-time critical control information, such as the HARQ process ID, redundancy version ID, a new data indicator, transmit power control indicator, channel quality indicator request, sounding reference signal request, or downlink assignment index. Thus, the UE may utilize the first DCI portion to identify user data traffic within the PDSCH to be decoded and may buffer the user data traffic while the second DCI portion is decoded.

As noted above, the second DCI portion may include multiple grants (e.g., one or more UL grants, one or more DL grants, or a combination thereof). The second DCI portion may be either single-user or multi-user (e.g., using a group RNTI for the first DCI portion in conjunction with an addressing scheme in the second DCI portion for respective UEs to extract their respective parts). In some designs, the first DCI portion can be scheduled in accordance with a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) protocol, whereas the second DCI portion can be dynamically scheduled via higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling).

In some NR systems, PDCCH is delivered in the Control Resource Set (coreset). A UE may perform blind decoding (BD) of multiple BD candidates in the coreset to identify a particular DCI targeting that UE. In an example, the PDDCH may be sent with a wider beam than the PDSCH, or alternatively via the same beam as the PDSCH. The BD candidates may be organized in search space sets, and one or more search space sets may be associated with one coreset. The NR PDCCH BD design is carried over from the LTE PDCCH BD design, and is generally optimized for the scenario where multiple UEs are served with PDCCH at the same time (e.g., optimized so as to reduce blocking between UEs to randomly hash locations of PDDCH from different UEs differently in the coreset). In a millimeter wave (mmW) use case, due to the analog beam transmission restriction and very short slots in time domain (due to SCS scaling up) in some NR systems, the chance of sending multiple DCIs to different UEs is greatly reduced (compared to FR1). Instead, it is more likely in such NR systems for multiple DL/UL grants to be transmitted to the same UE (e.g., multiple DL/UL grants to handle relatively long DL/UL bursty traffic).

The above-noted piggybacked DCI design may be particularly useful for mmW implementations. For example, the piggybacked DCI design can help to reduce PDDCH BD so the UE PDCCH processing is made faster. In another example, the piggyback DCI (or second DCI portion) may share the same beam as the PDSCH (e.g., same QCL) and thus can be more efficiently delivered (e.g., the beam used for PDSCH can be narrower than the PDSCH beam).

In some designs, as more DCIs are made part of a PDSCH, fewer PDSCH resource elements (REs) remain for transporting non-DCI traffic. This may impact (i.e., reduce) the coding rate (e.g., transport block size (TBS)) for the traffic part of the PDSCH, which in turn makes it more difficult for the UE to decode the PDSCH.

<FIG> illustrates an exemplary process <NUM> of wireless communications according to an aspect of the disclosure. The process <NUM> of <FIG> is performed by BS <NUM>.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., scheduler <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, etc.) schedules, during at least one slot, transmission of a PDCCH and a PDSCH, the PDCCH including a first part of a DCI, the PDSCH including a DCI portion that includes a second part of the DCI, wherein the scheduling includes determining a transport block size (TBS) associated with the PDSCH. In an example, the first and second parts of the DCI may comprise a two-part DCI as described above. In some designs, the first DCI part may include a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH. The second part of the DCI may comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 234a. 234t, modulators(s) 232a. 232a, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, TX processor <NUM>) transmits the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot. The PDSCH is transmitted at <NUM> in accordance with the determined TBS from <NUM>. In an example, the at least one slot may comprise a single slot or multiple slots.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 234a. 234t, modulators(s) 232a. 232a, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, TX processor <NUM>) optionally re-transmits the PDSCH in accordance with the determined TBS (e.g., irrespective of whether the re-transmitted PDSCH includes the second part of the DCI). In an example, the optional re-transmission that re-uses the determined TBS may be implemented for a scenario where the TBS determination is based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data (i.e., traffic) and excludes a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI.

<FIG> illustrates an exemplary process <NUM> of wireless communications according to an aspect of the disclosure. The process <NUM> of <FIG> is performed by UE <NUM>.

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 252a. 252r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, etc.) receives, during at least one slot, transmission from a base station of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI. In an example, the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH may be a second DCI portion associated with the first DCI part (or initial part of the DCI) in the PDCCH that includes a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH. In some designs, the second part of the DCI may comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs. In an example, the at least one slot may comprise a single slot or multiple slots.

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., controller/processor <NUM>) determines a transport block size (TBS) associated with the PDSCH. The TBS determination <NUM> may be performed in a variety of ways, as will be described below in more detail. For example, the TBS determination at <NUM> may be performed (i) before an allocation of resource elements among a set of PDSCH resource elements for transport of the second part of the DCI (e.g., without consideration of which resource elements among a set of PDSCH resource elements are allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI), (ii) according to the claimed invention, based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data and excludes a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI, (iii) in accordance with a TBS adjustment that is explicitly indicated to the UE (e.g., via the control information field in the first DCI portion of the PDCCH), or (iv) in accordance with a TBS adjustment that is implicitly indicated by the control information field (e.g., via the control information field in the first DCI portion of the PDCCH).

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 252a. 252r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, etc.) optionally receives a re-transmission of the PDSCH in accordance with the determined TBS (e.g., irrespective of whether the re-transmitted PDSCH includes the second part of the DCI). In an example, the optional re-transmission that re-uses the determined TBS may be implemented for a scenario where the TBS determination is based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data (i.e., traffic) and excludes a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI.

Referring to <FIG>, in a first example helpful for understanding the invention, the TBS determination at <NUM> of <FIG> or <NUM> of <FIG> may be performed before an allocation of resource elements among a set of PDSCH resource elements for transport of the second part of the DCI (e.g., without consideration of which resource elements among a set of PDSCH resource elements are allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI (a procedure commonly referred to as a DCI piggyback). In this case, the TBS is not impacted by the piggybacked DCI (or second DCI portion in the PDSCH), and the PDSCH resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI may be determined after the TBS determination. For example, the TBS can be determined with an allocation size (e.g., number of symbols, number of resource blocks, DMRS overhead, and configurable fixed overhead) and modulation and coding scheme (MCS), after which the resource elements for the piggybacked DCI may be calculated with the higher layer configure beta values. As a result, the coding rate may be higher than indicated by the MCS. This may be problematic in a scenario where the piggybacked DCI size represents a substantial portion of the TBS. In this case, the MCS of the PDSCH may be as a tuning parameter to adjust the determined TBS to offset a coding rate associated with the resource elements allocated for transport of the piggybacked DCI (e.g., to adjust the TBS to a suitable level). For example, if the data and piggyback DCI are transmitted together in PDSCH, and the piggyback DCI has substantially large payload size (e.g., above some threshold), gNB could schedule a smaller MCS rather than the one decided by the rate control. In this way, the true coding rate after discounting the piggy backed DCI will not be too large to fail the decoding. In some designs, the MCS jointly controls the modulation order and coding rate (e.g., in which case dropping the MCS intentionally will drop both aspects, thus the modulation order will also be impacted).

Referring to <FIG>, according to the claimed invention, the TBS determination at <NUM> of <FIG> or <NUM> of <FIG> is performed based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data (e.g., traffic) while excluding (from the TBS determination or calculation) a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI. For example, the control information field may indicate a number of resource elements in the subset, and the TBS determination may subtract the number of resource elements in the subset from a total number of the set of resource elements occupied by the PDSCH data. In one example, the number of DCI resource elements in the PDSCH may be calculated as follows: <MAT> whereby:.

The number of REs occupied by PDSCH traffic data can then be calculated by subtracting the REs occupied by DCI in accordance with Expression <NUM>, after which the TBS can be calculated accordingly. In such a design, the base station may maintain the same TBS size for an (optional) re-transmission of the PDSCH. Referring to <FIG>, in an example helpful in understanding the invention, the TBS determination at <NUM> of <FIG> or <NUM> of <FIG> may be performed in accordance with a TBS adjustment (e.g., relative to a 'normal' TBS calculation per standard) that is explicitly or implicitly indicated by the base station to the UE. In an example, the TBS adjustment may be explicitly indicated to the UE as a percentage of TBS size reduction in the determined TBS. In another example, the TBS adjustment may be explicitly indicated the UE as an absolute TBS size reduction in the determined TBS. In some cases, no TBS may be transmitted at all (e.g., effectively <NUM>% TBS size reduction, e.g., which may occur if the DCI part of the PDSCH is extremely high). In some designs, the TBS adjustment can be binary (e.g., either <NUM>% TBS reduction or no change from normal TBS calculation procedure, or <NUM>% TBS reduction to indicate that the PDSCH contains no traffic part). In some designs, the TBS adjustment may be explicitly indicated to the UE via the control information field of the initial part (or first part) of the DCI in the PDCCH. In other designs, the TBS adjustment may be explicitly indicated to the UE via the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH. In other designs, the TBS adjustment is implicitly indicated to the UE as a size of the piggybacked DCI within the PDSCH conveyed via the control information field in the first DCI portion of the PDCCH (e.g., the UE <NUM> can factor the piggybacked DCI size into its own TBS adjustment calculation).

<FIG> illustrates an example implementation <NUM> of the processes <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG> in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> schedules transmission of the PDCCH and PDSCH (e.g., with the PDSCH being associated with a TBS determined in accordance with any of the methodologies noted above). In an example, <NUM> may correspond to <NUM> of <FIG> (e.g., the scheduled PDCCH may comprise an initial or first DCI part with the PDSCH comprising a piggybacked DCI that includes the second DCI part, etc.). The respective DCI parts may be associated with one or more grants, such as UL grant(s), DL grant(s) or a combination thereof, which in turn may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> transmits the PDCCH and PDSCH to UE <NUM> (e.g., and possibly other UEs associated with the grant(s) in one or more DCIs of the PDSCH), and the UE <NUM> receives the PDCCH and PDSCH at <NUM>. For example, similar to <NUM> of <FIG> or 402of <FIG>, the PDSCH is transmitted at <NUM> in accordance with the determined TBS from <NUM>. In an example, the at least one slot may comprise a single slot or multiple slots. Further, the grant(s) may comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs.

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> determines (e.g., based on a control information field in the first DCI portion of the PDCCH) the TBS associated with the PDSCH (e.g., which facilitates a decoding operation at UE <NUM> with respect to the PDSCH). According to the claimed invention, <NUM> corresponds to <NUM> of <FIG>, whereby the TBS determination is performed based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data and excludes a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI. In an example, <NUM> may correspond to <NUM> of <FIG>, whereby the TBS determination at may be performed (i) before an allocation of resource elements among a set of PDSCH resource elements for transport of the second part of the DCI (e.g., without consideration of which resource elements among a set of PDSCH resource elements are allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI), (iii) in accordance with a TBS adjustment that is explicitly indicated to the UE (e.g., via the control information field in the first DCI portion of the PDCCH), or (iv) in accordance with a TBS adjustment that is implicitly indicated by the control information field (e.g., via the control information field in the first DCI portion of the PDCCH).

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> optionally re-transmits the PDSCH, which is received by UE <NUM> at <NUM>. In an example, as in <NUM> of <FIG> or <NUM> of <FIG>, the optional re-transmission that re-uses the determined TBS may be implemented for a scenario where the TBS determination is based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data (i.e., traffic) and excludes a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., scheduler <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, etc.) schedules, during at least one slot, transmission of a PDCCH and a PDSCH, the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI. In an example, the first and second parts of the DCI may comprise a two-part DCI as described above. In some designs, the first DCI portion (or initial part of the DCI) in the PDCCH includes a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH. In some designs, the second part of the DCI comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 234a. 234t, modulators(s) 232a. 232a, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, TX processor <NUM>) transmits the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot. In particular, the PDSCH is transmitted via a modulation scheme associated with a constellation having a plurality of constellation points, and the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH is restricted to a subset of the plurality of constellation points. For example, the modulation scheme may be Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). In a further example, the restricted subset of constellation points may correspond to the four outermost constellation points among the plurality of constellation points. In this manner, the piggybacked DCI REs are effectively power boosted (e.g., in some cases, for suppressed carrier (SC) waveforms at frequencies in excess of <NUM>).

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 252a. 252r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, etc.) receives, during at least one slot, transmission from a base station of a PDCCH including a first part of a DCI. For example, the first DCI portion (or part) may comprise a control information field associated with a second DCI portion (or piggybacked DCI) in an associated PDSCH.

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 252a. 252r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, etc.) receives, during the at least one slot, transmission from the base station of a PDSCH including a second part of the DCI. In an example, the first and second parts of the DCI may comprise a two-part DCI as described above. In some designs, the first part of the DCI may comprise a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH. In some designs, the second part of the DCI may comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs. In an example, the at least one slot may comprise a single slot or multiple slots. In particular, the PDSCH is received via a modulation scheme associated with a constellation having a plurality of constellation points, and the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH is restricted to a subset of the plurality of constellation points. For example, the modulation scheme may be QPSK. In a further example, the restricted subset of constellation points may correspond to the four outermost constellation points among the plurality of constellation points. In this manner, the piggybacked DCI REs are effectively power boosted (e.g., in some cases, for SC waveforms at frequencies in excess of <NUM>).

<FIG> illustrates a constellation point allocation <NUM> associated with a QPSK-based PDSCH transmission of a piggybacked (second part) DCI in accordance with the processes <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG> in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. In <FIG>, sixteen constellation points [<NUM>, <NUM>,. <NUM>] are associated with the QPSK for the PDSCH. However, the piggybacked DCI is restricted to four outermost constellation points, denoted as constellation points <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> schedules transmission of the PDCCH and PDSCH. In an example, <NUM> may correspond to <NUM> of <FIG> (e.g., the scheduled PDCCH may comprise an initial (or first) DCI part with the PDSCH comprising a piggybacked DCI that includes the second DCI part, etc.). The respective DCI parts may be associated with one or more grants, such as UL grant(s), DL grant(s) or a combination thereof, which in turn may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> transmits the PDCCH and PDSCH to UE <NUM> (e.g., and possibly other UEs associated with the grant(s) in one or more DCIs of the PDSCH), and the UE <NUM> receives the PDCCH and PDSCH at <NUM>. In this case, the piggybacked DCI in the PDSCH is effectively power-boosted via its restriction to a subset of the available PDSCH constellation points as described above with respect to <FIG>. In an example, <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG> may correspond to <NUM> of <FIG> and <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG>, respectively. In an example, the transmission of the PDCCH and the PDSCH at <NUM>-<NUM> may occur within a single slot or across multiple slots. In an example,.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., scheduler <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, etc.) schedules, during at least one slot, transmission of a PDCCH and a PDSCH, the PDCCH including a first part of a DCI, the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI. In an example, the first and second parts of the DCI may comprise a two-part DCI as described above. In some designs, the first DCI part (or initial part of the DCI) in the PDCCH may comprise a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH. In some designs, the second part of the DCI may comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 234a. 234t, modulators(s) 232a. 232a, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, TX processor <NUM>) transmits the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot. In particular, one or more resource elements associated with the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH are rate-matched either sequentially, starting with a beginning of the one or more resource elements, or only if the PDSCH occurs within a threshold period of time following a DMRS (e.g., within a single symbol from the DMRS, within two symbols from a DMRS, etc.).

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 252a. 252r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, etc.) receives, during at least one slot, transmission from a base station of a PDCCH. For example, the PDCCH portion may comprise a first DCI portion with a control information field associated with a second DCI portion (or piggybacked DCI) in an associated PDSCH.

At <NUM>, UE <NUM> (e.g., antenna(s) 252a. 252r, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, etc.) receives, during the at least one slot, a PDSCH, the PDCCH including a first part of a DCI, the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI. In an example, the first and second parts of the DCI may comprise a two-part DCI as described above. In some designs, the first DCI part (or initial part of the DCI) in the PDCCH may comprise a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH. In some designs, the second part of the DCI may comprise UL grant(s) and/or DL grant(s), and may be associated with a single UE or multiple UEs. In an example, the at least one slot may comprise a single slot or multiple slots. In particular, one or more resource elements associated with the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH are rate-matched either sequentially, starting with a beginning of the one or more resource elements, or only if the PDSCH occurs within a threshold period of time following a DMRS (e.g., within a single symbol from the DMRS, within two symbols from a DMRS, etc.).

Referring to <FIG>, the PDSCH may further comprise another part of another DCI (i.e., another piggybacked DCI) targeted to (at least) the same UE. In some cases, one of the piggybacked DCIs may have a higher priority than the other. For example, a first piggybacked DCI in the PDSCH may be associated with an Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC), while a second piggybacked DCI in the PDSCH may be associated with an enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) communication. In some designs, the resource element(s) of the higher-priority piggybacked DCI may be rate-matched only if the PDSCH occurs within the threshold period of time following the DMRS, while the resource element(s) associated with the lower-priority piggybacked DCI may be rate-matched sequentially, starting with a beginning of its respective resource element(s).

<FIG> illustrates an example resource allocation for a slot <NUM> in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. In <FIG>, DMRS REs are denoted as DM, Acknowledgment (ACK) REs are denoted as A, first part CSI REs (or CSI-<NUM>) are denoted as C1, second part CSI REs (or CSI-<NUM>) are denoted as C2, and PUSCH REs are denoted as PU. The slot <NUM> depicted in <FIG> may be used for the transmission scheme described above with respect to <FIG>.

At <NUM>, BS <NUM> transmits the PDCCH and PDSCH to UE <NUM> (e.g., and possibly other UEs associated with the grant(s) in one or more DCIs of the PDSCH), and the UE <NUM> receives the PDCCH and PDSCH at <NUM>. In this case, the piggybacked DCI in the PDSCH is rate-matched in a selective manner as described above with respect to <FIG>. In an example, <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG> may correspond to <NUM> of <FIG> and <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG>, respectively.

<FIG> is a conceptual data flow diagram <NUM> illustrating the data flow between different means/components in exemplary apparatuses <NUM> and <NUM> in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. The apparatus <NUM> may be a UE (e.g., UE <NUM>) in communication with an apparatus <NUM>, which may be a base station (e.g., base station <NUM>).

The apparatus <NUM> includes a transmission component <NUM>, which may correspond to transmitter circuitry in UE <NUM> as depicted in <FIG>, including controller/processor <NUM>, antenna(s) 252a. 252r, modulators(s) 254a. 254r, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, TX processor <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> further includes PDCCH / PDSCH component <NUM>, which may correspond to processor circuitry in UE <NUM> as depicted in <FIG>, including controller/processor <NUM>, etc. The apparatus <NUM> further includes a reception component <NUM>, which may correspond to receiver circuitry in UE <NUM> as depicted in <FIG>, including controller/processor <NUM>, antenna(s) 252a. 252r, demodulators(s) 254a. 254r, MIMO detector <NUM>, RX processor <NUM>.

The apparatus <NUM> includes a reception component <NUM>, which may correspond to receiver circuitry in BS <NUM> as depicted in <FIG>, including controller/processor <NUM>, antenna(s) 234a. 234r, demodulators(s) 232a. 232r, MIMO detector <NUM>, RX processor <NUM>, communication unit <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> further optionally includes a PDSCH / PDSCH scheduler <NUM>, which may correspond to processor circuitry in BS <NUM> as depicted in <FIG>, including controller/processor <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> further includes a transmission component <NUM>, which may correspond to transmission circuitry in BS <NUM> as depicted in <FIG>, including e.g., controller/processor <NUM>, antenna(s) 234a. 234r, modulators(s) 232a. 232r, Tx MIMO processor <NUM>, TX processor <NUM>, communication unit <NUM>.

Referring to <FIG>, the PDSCH / PDSCH scheduler <NUM> schedules transmission of a PDCCH, a PDSCH, and (optionally) a re-transmission of the PDSCH in accordance with aspects of the disclosure. The transmission component <NUM> transmits the PDCCH, the PDSCH, and (optionally) the re-transmission of the PDSCH to the reception component <NUM>. The PDCCH / PDSCH component <NUM> processes (e.g., decodes, etc.) the PDCCH and PDSCH (e.g., determine TBS for PDSCH, rate-matching, demodulation, etc.). Uplink data may also be transmitted from the transmission component <NUM> to the reception component <NUM>.

One or more components of the apparatus <NUM> and apparatus <NUM> may perform each of the blocks of the algorithm in the aforementioned flowcharts of <FIG>, <FIG> and <FIG> As such, each block in the aforementioned flowcharts of <FIG>, <FIG> and <FIG> may be performed by a component and the apparatus <NUM> and apparatus <NUM> may include one or more of those components.

<FIG> is a diagram <NUM> illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus <NUM> employing a processing system <NUM>. The processing system <NUM> may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus <NUM>. The bus <NUM> may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system <NUM> and the overall design constraints. The bus <NUM> links together various circuits including one or more processors and/or hardware components, represented by the processor <NUM>, the components <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, and the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The bus <NUM> may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.

The processing system <NUM> may be coupled to a transceiver <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is coupled to one or more antennas <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> provides a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The transceiver <NUM> receives a signal from the one or more antennas <NUM>, extracts information from the received signal, and provides the extracted information to the processing system <NUM>, specifically the reception component <NUM>. In addition, the transceiver <NUM> receives information from the processing system <NUM>, specifically the transmission component <NUM>, and based on the received information, generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas <NUM>. The processing system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The processor <NUM> is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The software, when executed by the processor <NUM>, causes the processing system <NUM> to perform the various functions described supra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium / memory <NUM> may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor <NUM> when executing software. The processing system <NUM> further includes at least one of the components <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>. The components may be software components running in the processor <NUM>, resident/stored in the computer readable medium / memory <NUM>, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor <NUM>, or some combination thereof. The processing system <NUM> may be a component of the UE <NUM> of <FIG> and may include the memory <NUM>, and/or at least one of the TX processor <NUM>, the RX processor <NUM>, and the controller/processor <NUM>.

In one configuration, the apparatus <NUM> (e.g., a UE) for wireless communication includes means for receiving, receiving, during at least one slot, transmission from a base station of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI, and means for determining a transport block size (TBS) associated with the PDSCH.

In another configuration, the apparatus <NUM> (e.g., a UE) for wireless communication includes means for receiving, during at least one slot, transmission from a base station of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), and means for receiving, during the at least one slot, transmission from the base station of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) including a second part of the DCI, wherein the PDSCH is received via a modulation scheme associated with a constellation having a plurality of constellation points, and wherein the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH is restricted to a subset of the plurality of constellation points.

In another configuration, the apparatus <NUM> (e.g., a UE) for wireless communication includes means for receiving, during at least one slot, transmission from a base station of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI, and means for rate-matching one or more resource elements associated with the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH: sequentially, starting with a beginning of the one or more resource elements, or only if the PDSCH occurs within a threshold period of time following a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS).

The aforementioned means may be one or more of the aforementioned components of the apparatus <NUM> and/or the processing system <NUM> of the apparatus <NUM> configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As described supra, the processing system <NUM> may include the TX processor <NUM>, the RX processor <NUM>, and the controller/processor <NUM>.

The processing system <NUM> may be coupled to a transceiver <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is coupled to one or more antennas <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> provides a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The transceiver <NUM> receives a signal from the one or more antennas <NUM>, extracts information from the received signal, and provides the extracted information to the processing system <NUM>, specifically the reception component <NUM>. In addition, the transceiver <NUM> receives information from the processing system <NUM>, specifically the transmission component <NUM>, and based on the received information, generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas <NUM>. The processing system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The processor <NUM> is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The software, when executed by the processor <NUM>, causes the processing system <NUM> to perform the various functions described supra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium / memory <NUM> may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor <NUM> when executing software. The processing system <NUM> further includes at least one of the components <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>. The components may be software components running in the processor <NUM>, resident/stored in the computer readable medium / memory <NUM>, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor <NUM>, or some combination thereof. The processing system <NUM> may be a component of the BS <NUM> of <FIG> and may include the memory <NUM>, and/or at least one of the TX processor <NUM>, the RX processor <NUM>, and the controller/processor <NUM>.

In one configuration, the apparatus <NUM> (e.g., a BS) for wireless communication includes means for scheduling, during at least one slot, transmission of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI, wherein the scheduling includes determining a transport block size (TBS) associated with the PDSCH, and means for transmitting the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot, wherein the PDSCH is transmitted in accordance with the determined TBS.

In another configuration, the apparatus <NUM> (e.g., a BS) for wireless communication includes means for scheduling, during at least one slot, transmission of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI, and means for transmitting the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot, wherein the PDSCH is transmitted via a modulation scheme associated with a constellation having a plurality of constellation points, and wherein the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH is restricted to a subset of the plurality of constellation points.

In another configuration, the apparatus <NUM> (e.g., a BS) for wireless communication includes means for scheduling, during at least one slot, transmission of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information (DCI), the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI, wherein the scheduling includes a determination of a transport block size (TBS) associated with the PDSCH, and means for transmitting the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot, wherein one or more resource elements associated with the second part of the DCI in the PDSCH are rate-matched: sequentially, starting with a beginning of the one or more resource elements, or only if the PDSCH occurs within a threshold period of time following a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS).

Claim 1:
A method of operating a base station (<NUM>), comprising:
scheduling (<NUM>), during at least one slot, transmission of a Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, and a Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH, the PDCCH including a first part of a Downlink Control Information, DCI, the PDSCH including a second part of the DCI, wherein the scheduling includes determining a transport block size, TBS, associated with the PDSCH, wherein the first part of the DCI includes a control information field associated with the second part of the DCI within the PDSCH, and wherein the TBS is determined based on a set of resources occupied by PDSCH data wherein the TBS determination excludes a subset of the set of resource elements allocated for transport of the second part of the DCI; and
transmitting (<NUM>) the PDCCH and the PDSCH during the at least one slot,
wherein the PDSCH is transmitted in accordance with the determined TBS.