Patent Description:
Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines a fifth generation (<NUM>) of wireless communication that includes new radio (NR). As an emerging telecommunication standard, <NUM> NR is a set of enhancements to the <NUM> Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile standard.

At the initial stage of NR deployment, one of the most typical configurations for NR is to share or partially share spectrum resource with the <NUM> network. For example, according to a configuration suggested by CMCC for <NUM> NR rollout, there will be <NUM> spectrum (<NUM> ~ <NUM>) shared between LTE and NR. With more and more User Equipment (UE) phasing out from the <NUM> network and emerging in the <NUM> network, spectrum resource will also be gradually shifted from <NUM> to <NUM>, which can flexibly balance the near term and long term network requirements.

Multiple options are available on how to share spectrum resource between LTE and NR, one of which is a Physical Resource Block (PRB) level spectrum sharing scheme. Being the most flexible scheme, the PBR level spectrum sharing scheme is efficient only for continuous PRB allocation. For non-continuous PRB allocation, however, many guard bands have to be configured so as to overcome the inter-carrier interference between LTE and NR, which eventually results in a waste of spectrum resource.

Implementations of the technique presented herein are described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:.

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

The term "network device" or "network node" refers to a device in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. Examples of the network device may include a base station (BS), an access point (AP), or any other suitable device in the wireless communication network. The BS may be, for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a next generation NodeB (gNodeB or gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth. Yet further examples of the network device may include multi-standard radio (MSR) radio equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, positioning nodes or the like. More generally, however, the network device may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a terminal device access to the wireless communication network or to provide some service to a terminal device that has access to the wireless communication network.

The term "terminal device" refers to any end device that can access a wireless communication network and receive services therefrom. By way of example and not limitation, the terminal device may refer to a mobile terminal, a user equipment (UE), or other suitable devices. The UE may be, for example, a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, portable computers, desktop computers, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wearable devices, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, or the like.

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

As yet another example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a terminal device may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring, sensing and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring, sensing and/or measurements to another terminal device and/or network equipment. The terminal device may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as a machine-type communication (MTC) device.

As used herein, a downlink transmission refers to a transmission from a network device to a terminal device, and an uplink transmission refers to a transmission in an opposite direction.

<FIG> shows a scenario where LTE UE and NR UE co-exist in a wireless communication network. The LTE base station communicates with LTE UEs over time- and frequency-radio resources, which are different from those used for communications between the NR base station and the NR UEs. Spectrum resource has to be shared by these two different RATs. The PRB level spectrum sharing scheme is believed to be the most flexible and attractive one among the existing solutions.

According to PRB level spectrum sharing, the whole bandwidth of the spectrum resource for a specific Transmission Time Interval (TTI) will be shared by NR and LTE, but either NR or LTE can only occupy a certain part of the whole bandwidth according to real traffic requirement. However, LTE and NR may have different numerology (e.g., LTE <NUM> while NR <NUM>). In order to minimize mutual interference due to none orthogonality between different subcarrier spaces, a guard band may be placed in between the subbands for NR and the subbands for LTE.

Taking into account the number of guard bands, the PRB level spectrum sharing might be efficient only for continuous PRB allocation, shown in <FIG>, since only a few guard bands are required. For non-continuous PRB allocation shown in <FIG>, however, usage efficiency of the spectrum can seriously deteriorate because of the large number of necessary guard bands, which eventually introduce a high percentage of frequency resource being wasted. <FIG> further illustrates non-continuous PRB allocation with more details. As can be seen in <FIG>. the whole frequency spectrum is partitioned in a plurality of frequency bands with many guard bands. These frequency bands are then allocated by a scheduler to either NR or LTE, exclusively. The frequency resource allocated to LTE/NR may be spatial multiplexed between different UEs of the same RAT.

Despite the frequency waste, non-continuous PRB allocation can also bring about benefits in many cases. Take LTE for an example. Some physical channels may diverse within the whole bandwidth to get frequency diversity gain, such as frequency hopping configured for Voice over IP (VoIP) and Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) configured to periodically hop between edges of uplink frequency bands. A similar situation also applies to NR.

In order to avoid any inter-carrier interference between NR and LTE, the skilled person so far can either restrict LTE/NR scheduler to avoid frequency hopping, which sacrifices system performance that could have been obtained from diversity gain, or reserve more frequency resources for the necessary guard bands, which results in a waste of spectrum resource.

Therefore, it may be advantageous to allocate the frequency spectrum between LTE and NR in such a way that system performance and the usage efficiency of the frequency spectrum can be balanced.

<FIG> is a flowchart illustrating a method <NUM> for resource allocation according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

At block <NUM>, a first frequency band is allocated to at least one first terminal device utilizing a first RAT, e.g. LTE. At block <NUM>, a second frequency band is allocated to at least one second terminal device utilizing a second RAT, e.g. NR. The first frequency band is at least partly overlapped with the second frequency band, and the overlapped part of the first and second frequency bands is spatially multiplexed between the at least one first terminal device (e.g., LTE UE) and the at least one second terminal device (e.g., NR UE). As said, according to the method <NUM>, the same time- and frequency-radio resources can be shared between two different RATs by spatial multiplexing. Details will be described with reference to <FIG> hereinafter.

<FIG> illustrates an example of resource allocation between LTE and NR according to an aspect of the present disclosure.

The first frequency band (501a) may be allocated for one or more non-broadcasting channels of one or more LTE UEs. Examples of the non-broadcasting channel(s) of LTE (referred to as "Type C LTE" in <FIG>) may include PDSCH of LTE that is specific for an LTE UE, in other words, not for the purpose of broadcasting. Furthermore, uplink channels of LTE based on Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) may also be considered as non-broadcasting channels. Exceptions are Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) and Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), because the SRS/PRACH configuration is semi-static; and once configured, it is mandatory for UE to communicate at the configured time slot and the assigned frequency slot.

The two blocks representing "Type C LTE" are merely for the purpose of explanation and not limitation. The number of LTE UEs to which the first frequency band (501a) is allocated may vary depending on the real communication scenario, i.e., the capability of the network device, the number and/or spatial information of the LTE UEs that are dispersed throughout the wireless communication network and request frequency resource at a specific TTI. As an example, the network device may collect spatial information of the LTE UEs based on the uplink sounding, uplink DMRS and/or uplink PRACH received from the LTE UEs.

The position and width of the first frequency band (501a) within the frequency spectrum may be then decided by the network device. LTE may utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink, which partitions the bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be <NUM> and the minimum resource allocation (called a 'resource block') may be <NUM> subcarriers (or <NUM>). For example, a subband may cover <NUM> (i.e., <NUM> resource blocks), and there may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> subbands for system bandwidth of <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>, respectively.

Similar to the aspects described above with respect to LTE, the second frequency band (502a) may be allocated for one or more non-broadcasting channels of one or more NR UEs. Examples of the non-broadcasting channel(s) of NR (referred to as "Type C NR" in <FIG>) may include PDSCH of NR that is specific for an NR UE, in other words, not for the purpose of broadcasting. Furthermore, uplink channels of NR based on DMRS may also be considered as non-broadcasting channels. Exceptions are SRS and PRACH, because the SRS/PRACH configuration is semi-static; and once configured, it is mandatory for UE to communicate at the configured time slot and the assigned frequency slot.

The two blocks representing "Type C NR" are also merely for the purpose of explanation and not limitation. The number of NR UEs to which the second frequency band (502a) is allocated may vary depending on the real communication scenario, i.e., the capability of the network device, the number and/or spatial information of the NR UEs that are dispersed throughout the wireless communication network and request frequency resource at the specific TTI. Further, the network device may collect spatial information of the NR UEs based on the uplink sounding, uplink DMRS and/or uplink PRACH received from the NR UEs.

The position and width of the second frequency band (502a) within the frequency spectrum may be then decided by the network device. It is noted that NR may also utilize OFDM but with different numerology from LTE, such as <NUM>, <NUM>.

In terms of width and position within the frequency spectrum to be allocated by the network device, the first frequency band (501a) allocated to the LTE UEs may be the same as the second frequency band (502a) allocated to the NR UEs, which are spatially distinguishable from the LTE UEs in the view of the network device. Put differently, the same frequency band (501a, 502a) is spatially multiplexed by both LTE UEs and NR UEs.

Both NR and LTE may be deployed with massive MIMO. In MIMO, the more antennas the transmitter/receiver is equipped with, the more the possible signal paths (e.g., spatial streams) and the better the performance in terms of data rate and link reliability. Massive MIMO may involve the use of a very large number of service antennas that can be operated coherently and adaptively. The additional antennas may help focus the transmission and reception of signal energy into smaller regions of space. This can lead to huge improvements in throughput and energy efficiency, in particularly when combined with simultaneous scheduling of a large number of UEs. Massive MIMO can be applied in time division duplex (TDD) operation and also in frequency division duplex (FDD) operation. The use of massive MIMO technology enables the network device to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming and transmit diversity.

Moreover, the LTE node (e.g., LTE base station) and the NR node (e.g., NR base station) of the network device may share information with each other so as to perform a joint channel processing between LTE and NR. It is further recommended that LTE and NR share the same radio to ensure the same channel observation. Due to the MU-MIMO (or spatial multiplexing), LTE and NR base stations may transmit to UEs and receive from UEs over the same time- and frequency-radio resources.

Compared to <FIG>, spatially multiplexing the frequency band (501a, 502a) between LTE and NR, as shown in <FIG>, enables a more flexible allocation of frequency resource which leads to a more sufficient usage thereof. This may be the case when a frequency band is exclusively allocated to UEs utilizing one RAT for the whole spatial domain within the coverage of the network device, yet some UEs of the same RAT at certain spatial areas do not necessarily need the allocated frequency band at the specific TTI, due to their limited and/or not time-sensitive demands. In this case, it may be advantageous to allocate the frequency band to UEs utilizing another RAT located at the same certain spatial areas, especially when UEs utilizing the latter RAT have more demands on spectrum resources at this specific TTI.

<FIG> illustrates another example of resource allocation between LTE and NR according to one aspect of the present disclosure, in which, the overlapped portion of the first frequency band (501b) and the second frequency band (502b) is spatially multiplexed between LTE UEs and NR UEs.

The aspects described above with reference to <FIG> also apply to the example of <FIG> at least to the extent that the first/second frequency bands (501b, 502b) may be decided by the network device for non-broadcasting channels ("Type C") and at least partly spatially multiplexed between LTE and UE.

Compared to <FIG>, the first frequency band (501b) allocated to LTE in <FIG> may be only partly overlapped with the second frequency band (502b) allocated to NR. To be more specific, the first frequency band (501b) occupies the guard band arranged between the second frequency band (502b) and the fifth frequency band (505b) also allocated to LTE. It should be noted that, in the prior art, guard bands cover the whole spatial domain of the network device, because each of the frequency bands is also exclusively allocated to only one RAT for the whole spatial domain at a specific TTI (see <FIG>). Such a guard band is therefore necessary to minimize mutual interference between two different RATs.

On the other hand, as a result of spatial multiplexing, the first frequency band (501b) may be arranged directly adjacent to the fifth frequency band (505b), because both the frequency bands (501b, 505b) are allocated to the same RAT (i.e. LTE). It is therefore advantageous that the frequency resource of the guard band can be used at some spatial areas, thereby increasing the usage efficiency of the frequency spectrum.

Moreover, for both of the examples of <FIG>, frequency bands may be allocated depending on the nature of physical channels. To explain further, physical channels may be categorized into non-broadcasting channels ("Type C") and broadcasting channels. As the name suggests, broadcasting channels should be broadcasted to the whole coverage area of the network device and, thus, frequency bands allocated to these channels cannot be spatially multiplexed between different RATs, different from the non-broadcasting channels.

The broadcasting channels may further be divided in two types. The broadcasting channels of the first type (referred to as "Type A" in <FIG>) have a fixed position within the frequency spectrum, while the broadcasting channels of the second type (referred to as "Type B" in <FIG>) have a changeable position within the frequency spectrum. Put differently, the network device (e.g., scheduler) can change the position of the frequency band allocated to the second-type broadcasting channels. Accordingly, the network device may first allocate frequency bands for at least a broadcasting channel of the first type. Note that, whether to first allocate frequency bands to LTE or NR is not limited by the present disclosure.

Examples of the first-type broadcasting channels for LTE ("Type A LTE") may include Cell Reference Signal (CRS), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCIFICH), Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), Total Radiated Sensitivity (TRS), and Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS). The spectrum position of LTE CRS /PDCCH/PCIFICH may be fully based on UE Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) and transmission subframe. The spectrum position of SSB, TRS/CSI-RS may be determined at cell setup.

Additionally, Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) of LTE may also be viewed as a first-type broadcasting channel, because SRS, used for spatial characteristic detection for Downlink MU-MIMO, normally hops inside the whole spectrum and its PRB allocation is determined by Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration.

Examples of the first-type broadcasting channels for NR ("Type A NR") may include Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), Total Radiated Sensitivity (TRS), and Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS). Additionally, SRS of NR may also be viewed as a first-type broadcasting channel for the same reason as the SRS of LTE.

After the frequency bands for the first-type broadcasting channels of LTE/NR are allocated, frequency bands may be arranged for the second-type broadcasting channels of LTE/NR. It is advantageous that a frequency band allocated to the second-type broadcasting channels of one RAT is directly adjacent to a frequency band allocated to the first-type broadcasting channels of the same RAT. In doing so, no guard bands will be needed therebetween. Frequency bands for Type C LTE/NR may be arranged after the second-type broadcasting channels of LTE / NR, which also enables a more flexible scheduling of the frequency resources.

Examples of the second-type broadcasting channels for LTE ("Type B LTE") may include Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) of LTE for the purpose of broadcasting. To explain further, when base stations page UEs, they do not have channel information of UEs and thus have to broadcast the messages.

Similarly, examples of the second-type broadcasting channels for NR ("Type B NR") may include Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH, of NR for the purpose of broadcasting.

Referring back to <FIG>, there exist guard bands only between the second frequency band (502b) and the fifth frequency band (505b), and between the sixth frequency band (506b) and another frequency band (507b), both guard bands only covering a part of the whole spatial domain. Compared to the allocation pattern of <FIG>, many guards bands have been eliminated, which increases the usage efficiency of the whole spectrum frequency.

The following example is provided to have a better understanding of how many frequency resources can be occupied by guard bands. In case there are <NUM> subbands (i.e., the blocks or islands (an island refers to a group of consecutive PRBs assigned to a terminal device) shown in <FIG> and <FIG>) allocated to LTE, normally <NUM> guard bands need to be arranged. With each guard band consumes <NUM> PRBs or <NUM> PRBs (depending on isolation requirements for guard band), it amounts to <NUM>% (or even <NUM>%) frequency resource being wasted (2PRB/guard band *<NUM> guard band/<NUM> PRB LTE cell = <NUM>%).

<FIG> is a block diagram of a network device <NUM> according to an aspect of the present disclosure, which can be, e.g., the network device as described in connection with <FIG>.

The network device <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> and a memory <NUM>. Optionally, the network device <NUM> may further include a transceiver <NUM> coupled to the processor <NUM>. The memory <NUM> contains instructions <NUM> executable by the processor <NUM> to cause the network device <NUM> to perform the actions of the method <NUM>. Particularly, the memory <NUM> may contain instructions that, when executed by the processor <NUM>, cause the network device <NUM> to allocate a first frequency band to at least one first terminal device utilizing a first RAT, and allocate a second frequency band to at least one second terminal device utilizing a second RAT. The first frequency band may be at least partly overlapped with the second frequency band, and the overlapped part of the first and second frequency bands may be spatially multiplexed between the at least one first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.

According to an embodiment, the first RAT may comprise LTE and the second RAT may comprise NR.

According to an embodiment, the first frequency band may be allocated for at least one non-broadcasting channel of the at least one first terminal device. The second frequency band may be allocated for at least one non-broadcasting channel of the at least one second terminal device.

According to an embodiment, the at least one non-broadcasting channel of the at least one first terminal device may include Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) of LTE.

According to an embodiment, the at least one non-broadcasting channel of the at least one second terminal device may include PDSCH of NR.

According to an embodiment, the method further comprise allocating a third frequency band for Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) of LTE and/or at least one broadcasting channel of a first type of the at least one first terminal device. The third frequency band may be located in a fixed position within the frequency spectrum to be allocated by the network device. The at least one broadcasting channel of the first type of the at least one first terminal device may include at least one of Cell Reference Signal (CRS), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCIFICH), Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), Total Radiated Sensitivity (TRS) and Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS).

According to an embodiment, the method further comprises allocating a fourth frequency band for Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) of NR and/or at least one broadcasting channel of a first type of the at least one second terminal device. The fourth frequency band may be located in another fixed position within the frequency spectrum to be allocated by the network device. The at least one broadcasting channel of the first type of the at least one second terminal device may include at least one of Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), Total Radiated Sensitivity (TRS) and Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS).

According to an embodiment, the method further comprises allocating a fifth frequency band for at least one broadcasting channel of a second type of the at least one first terminal device. The position of the fifth frequency band may be changeable within the frequency spectrum to be allocated by the network device. The fifth frequency band may be directly adjacent to the third frequency band.

According to an embodiment, the at least one broadcasting channel of the second type of the at least one first terminal device may include at least PDSCH of LTE.

According to an embodiment, the method further comprises allocating a sixth frequency band for at least one broadcasting channel of a second type of the at least one second terminal device. The position of the sixth frequency band may be changeable within the frequency spectrum to be allocated by the network device. The sixth frequency band may be directly adjacent to the fourth frequency band.

According to an embodiment, the at least one broadcasting channel of the second type of the at least one second terminal device may include at least PDSCH of NR.

According to an embodiment, the first frequency band may be directly adjacent to the third or fifth frequency band.

According to an embodiment, the second frequency band may be directly adjacent to the fourth or sixth frequency band. NR may utilize different numerology from LTE.

According to an embodiment, NR may utilize different numerology from LTE.

It should be noted that, more details described with reference to <FIG> also apply here and may be omitted.

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

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

<FIG> is a block diagram of an apparatus <NUM> according to embodiments of the present disclosure, which can be configured to perform the method <NUM> as described in connection with <FIG>.

The apparatus <NUM> may include a first allocating unit <NUM> and a second allocating unit <NUM>. The first allocating unit <NUM> may be configured to allocate a first frequency band to at least one first terminal device utilizing a first radio access technology, and the second allocating unit <NUM> may be configured to allocate a second frequency band to at least one second terminal device utilizing a second, wherein the first frequency band is at least partly overlapped with the second frequency band, and the overlapped part of the first and second frequency bands is spatially multiplexed between the at least one first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.

The apparatus <NUM> can be implemented as the network device <NUM> or as a software and/or a physical device within the network device <NUM> or communicatively coupled to the network device <NUM>.

Further details about the apparatus <NUM> are similar to those described with respect to <FIG> and are omitted here.

The units as described in <FIG> may be implemented as software and/or hardware, or a device comprising the software and/or the hardware, which is not limited. For example, they can be implemented as computer readable programs that can be executed by a processor. Alternatively, they can be implemented as processing circuitry such as ASICs and/or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

The present disclosure may also provide computer readable media having instructions thereon. The instructions, when executed by a processor of a network device or a terminal device, cause the network device or terminal device to perform the method according to the embodiments as described above. The computer readable media may include computer-readable storage media, for example, magnetic disks, magnetic tape, optical disks, phase change memory, or an electronic memory terminal device like a random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory devices, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like. The computer readable media may also include computer readable transmission media (also called a carrier), for example, electrical, optical, radio, acoustical or other form of propagated signals-such as carrier waves, infrared signals, and the like.

The present disclosure may also provide computer program products including instructions. The instructions, when executed by a processor of a network device or a terminal device, cause the network device or terminal device to perform the method according to the embodiments as described above.

While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, units, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

With reference to <FIG>, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes a telecommunication network <NUM>, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises an access network <NUM>, such as a radio access network, and a core network <NUM>. The access network <NUM> comprises a plurality of base stations 812a, 812b, 812c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area 813a, 813b, 813c. Each base station 812a, 812b, 812c is connectable to the core network <NUM> over a wired or wireless connection <NUM>. A first user equipment (UE) <NUM> located in coverage area 813c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 812c. A second UE <NUM> in coverage area 813a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 812a.

It is noted that the host computer <NUM>, base station <NUM> and UE <NUM> illustrated in <FIG> may be identical to the host computer <NUM>, one of the base stations 812a, 812b, 812c and one of the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> of <FIG>, respectively.

The wireless connection <NUM> between the UE <NUM> and the base station <NUM> is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE <NUM> using the OTT connection <NUM>, in which the wireless connection <NUM> forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the efficiency of resource usage and thereby provide benefits such as better save network resources.

Claim 1:
A method (<NUM>) for resource allocation at a network device, comprising:
allocating (<NUM>) a first frequency band (501a, 501b) to at least one first terminal device utilizing a first radio access technology, RAT; and
allocating (<NUM>) a second frequency band (502a, 502b) to at least one second terminal device utilizing a second RAT;
wherein the first frequency band (501a, 501b) is at least partly overlapped with the second frequency band (502a, 502b), and
characterized in that
the overlapped part of the first and second frequency bands is spatially multiplexed between the at least one first terminal device and the at least one second terminal device.