Patent Description:
The present disclosure relates to wireless technology, and more specifically to techniques for implementing listen before talk (LBT) in unlicensed band operation of a wireless system.

The scarcity of licensed spectrum for cellular communications below <NUM> has driven interest in unlicensed bands for LTE (Long Term Evolution) operation. In particular, the less crowded <NUM> bands (currently used mostly for WiFi) have been proposed for LTE deployment, offering the potential for a substantial increase in LTE throughput. Overall, the design principles for LTE-U (LTE in Unlicensed spectrum) include integration with the licensed spectrum, minimal change to the existing LTE air-interface, and guaranteed co-existence with other systems using unlicensed spectrum, such as WiFi. Recently, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) is a new technology considered in LTE Release <NUM> to meet the ever increasing demand for high data rate in wireless cellular networks by utilizing the carrier aggregation feature supported in LTE-A (LTE Advanced) to combine the data transmission over licensed primary carrier and unlicensed secondary component carriers. The <NUM> band is of current interest in 3GPP (the Third Generation Partnership Project). For fair coexistence with the incumbent systems at the <NUM> band, such as IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) <NUM> based wireless local area networks (WLAN), Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) is considered as a mandatory feature of Release <NUM> LAA system.

Listen before talk (LBT) is an important feature for co-existence in the unlicensed band, wherein a transmitter listens to detect potential interference on the channel, only transmitting in the absence of interfering signals above a given threshold. Furthermore, different regions such as Europe have regulations concerning LBT for operation in unlicensed bands. WiFi devices use Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) as an LBT scheme.

In "<NPL> )", an eNB is disclosed that transmits uplink scheduling grant to a UE for PUSCH transmission at the same or different timing. Further, control or triggering signals are sent to the UE. When a channel is assessed as idle, a UE performs UL transmissions of PUSCH.

The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustrated structures and devices are not necessarily drawn to scale. As utilized herein, terms "component," "system," "interface," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, hardware, software (e.g., in execution), and/or firmware. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller, or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC and/or a user equipment (e.g., mobile phone, etc.) with a processing device. By way of illustration, an application running on a server and the server can also be a component. One or more components can reside within a process, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. A set of elements or a set of other components can be described herein, in which the term "set" can be interpreted as "one or more.

Use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. In addition, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms "including", "includes", "having", "has", "with", or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description and the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term "comprising.

Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. <FIG> illustrates, for one embodiment, example components of a User Equipment (UE) device <NUM>. In some embodiments, the UE device <NUM> may include application circuitry <NUM>, baseband circuitry <NUM>, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry <NUM>, front-end module (FEM) circuitry <NUM> and one or more antennas <NUM>, coupled together at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry <NUM> may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM> and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM>. Baseband processing circuity <NUM> may interface with the application circuitry <NUM> for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry <NUM>. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include a second generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 104a, third generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 104b, fourth generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 104c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 104d for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (<NUM>), <NUM>, etc.). The baseband circuitry <NUM> (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 104a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry <NUM>. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 104e of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 104f. The audio DSP(s) 104f may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry <NUM> and the application circuitry <NUM> may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the RF circuitry <NUM> may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM> may include mixer circuitry 106a, amplifier circuitry 106b and filter circuitry 106c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM> may include filter circuitry 106c and mixer circuitry 106a. RF circuitry <NUM> may also include synthesizer circuitry 106d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry <NUM> based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 106d. The amplifier circuitry 106b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 106c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry <NUM> for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 106d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry <NUM>. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry <NUM> and may be filtered by filter circuitry 106c. The filter circuitry 106c may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 106a may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 106a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 106d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+<NUM> synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 106d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 106d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 106a of the RF circuitry <NUM> based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 106d may be a fractional N/N+<NUM> synthesizer.

Synthesizer circuitry 106d of the RF circuitry <NUM> may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+<NUM> (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 106d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry <NUM> may include an IQ/polar converter.

In some embodiments, the UE device <NUM> may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface.

In accordance with various embodiments described herein, techniques can be employed to facilitate uplink licensed assisted access (LAA) for unlicensed band operation. In accordance with various aspects discussed herein, multiple detailed design options for LAA uplink are provided to address scheduling of UEs for uplink transmission. In accordance with techniques disclosed herein, each UE can perform LBT (listen before talk), and multiple UEs can be scheduled in a given subframe, for example, by frequency division multiplexing, code division multiplexing, etc. In various aspects, techniques associated with LBT and uplink reception are provided. These aspects include techniques that facilitate: uplink access TDD (time division duplexing) and FDD (frequency division duplexing) with frequency multiplexing; uplink access TDD and FDD with uplink LBT; detection of uplink frame presence at an eNB; etc..

Various embodiments disclosed herein can provide better compliance to regulations regarding LBT (e.g., ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) regulations, etc.), and also improves the efficiency for small packet transmission, allowing multiple UEs to be scheduled in a given subframe.

Referring to <FIG>, illustrated is a block diagram of a system <NUM> that facilitates uplink LAA unlicensed band operation of one or more UEs according to various aspects described herein. System <NUM> can include a processor <NUM>, transmitter circuitry <NUM>, receiver circuitry <NUM>, and memory <NUM>. In various aspects, system <NUM> can be included within an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (Evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) or other base station in a wireless communications network. As described in greater detail below, system <NUM> can facilitate LBT and multiplexing of one or more UEs for uplink LAA operation in an unlicensed frequency band.

Processor <NUM> can determine LBT parameters for the one or more UEs to operate in the unlicensed frequency band. These LBT parameters can include one or more of a carrier sensing duration, a backoff duration, a backoff window size, etc. In aspects, the LBT parameters can include a time to begin channel sensing in accordance with an LBT procedure, such as specifying one or more specific symbols during which a UE should begin channel sensing (e.g., the last N symbols before/after a scheduled PUSCH transmission via uplink grant, an uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) of a special subframe in TDD embodiments, etc.). To increase the likelihood of a successful LBT procedure by the one or more UEs, the eNB can ensure that it is not transmitting during the specified symbols. Some or all of the LBT parameters can be common parameters to be employed by all of the one or more UEs (e.g., a common carrier sensing duration, a common backoff duration, a common backoff window size, a common time to begin channel sensing, etc.), which can facilitate multiplexing of the UEs. Processor <NUM> can also one or more schedule uplink grants in the unlicensed frequency band for at least a subset of the one or more UEs. The subset of the one or more UEs can be scheduled to a set of resources (e.g., one or more resource blocks, etc.) in the unlicensed frequency band. In aspects, at most one of the scheduled UEs (e.g., no UEs or one UE) can be scheduled to each resource block of the set of resources.

Transmitter circuitry <NUM> can transmit the LBT parameters and the one or more uplink grants to the one or more UEs. In various aspects, the LBT parameters can be transmitted via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc. The uplink grants can be transmitted via PDCCH or enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH). In some aspects, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can send the LBT parameters and/or notifications of the uplink grants to the one or more UEs via a licensed frequency band (e.g., in some FDD embodiments, in some TDD embodiments, etc.), while in other aspects, the unlicensed frequency band employed for uplink signals can be used (e.g., in some TDD embodiments), or another distinct unlicensed frequency band can be employed or a distinct carrier in the unlicensed frequency band employed for uplink signals (e,g, in some FDD embodiments or some TDD embodiments, etc.).

Receiver circuitry <NUM> can receive signals transmitted over the unlicensed frequency band during the resources associated with the scheduled uplink grants. Because the one or more UEs may not have been able to transmit over the scheduled resources (e.g., an LBT procedure indicated the channel was occupied, etc.), the signals received by receiver circuitry <NUM> over those resources may not be from the one or more UEs. Thus, in some aspects, for a given UE, receiver circuitry <NUM> can perform blind detection on the received signals to determine whether a frame was sent by the UE, and if the frame was not detected, the signal can be ignored, while if the frame was detected, the signal can be decoded as the received signal from the UE. In the same or other aspects, the UE can be configured to transmit an indication via a licensed frequency band in response to successful transmission during the scheduled resources, and the signal can be decoded or disregarded based on whether such a notification was received or not.

Memory <NUM> can include instructions that can be implemented by processor <NUM>, transmitter circuitry <NUM>, and/or receiver circuitry <NUM> to implement various aspects described herein.

In some aspects, processor <NUM> can implement an LBT procedure on the unlicensed frequency band to be employed for uplink signals. In accordance with this procedure, receiver circuitry <NUM> can monitor the unlicensed frequency band to determine whether the unlicensed frequency band is clear. In response to the unlicensed frequency band being clear, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can transmit the scheduled uplink grants (e.g., via downlink control information (DCI), etc.) to the scheduled UEs. Optionally, this can be preceded by transmitter circuitry <NUM> transmitting a signal (e.g., a RTS/CTS (request to send/clear to send) signal, etc.) reserving the channel for long enough (e.g., <NUM>, etc.) to transmit the scheduled uplink grants (e.g., via downlink control information (DCI), etc.) and for the one or more UEs to transmit during the scheduled resources.

Referring to <FIG>, illustrated is a block diagram of a system <NUM> that facilitates uplink LAA unlicensed band operation of a UE according to various aspects described herein. System <NUM> can include receiver circuitry <NUM>, a processor <NUM>, transmitter circuitry <NUM>, and memory <NUM>. In various aspects, system <NUM> can be included within a user equipment (UE). As described in greater detail below, system <NUM> can facilitate LBT and uplink LAA operation of the UE in an unlicensed frequency band.

Receiver circuitry <NUM> can receive from an eNB a set of LBT parameters associated with an unlicensed frequency band. The set of LBT parameters can include parameters such as a carrier sensing duration, a backoff duration, a backoff window size, indication of when to begin an LBT procedure, etc. The set of LBT parameters can be received over any of a variety of physical channels (e.g., PDCCH, PBCH, PDSCH, etc.), and can be transmitted over a licensed frequency band, the unlicensed frequency band, or a second distinct unlicensed frequency band. Additionally, receiver circuitry <NUM> can receive one or more uplink grants, indicating resources over which the UE is scheduled to transmit via the unlicensed frequency band.

Processor <NUM> can also implement an LBT procedure based on the LBT parameters. In accordance with the LBT procedure, receiver circuitry <NUM> can perform channel sensing to determine if the unlicensed frequency band (or, in some aspects, a subset thereof associated with the scheduled resources) is clear, which can comprise monitoring the unlicensed frequency band for potentially interfering signals above a threshold power. Because, as discussed elsewhere herein, other UEs also can receive common LBT parameters, the likelihood of a potentially interfering signal being received from other UEs in communication with the eNB is substantially reduced, although receiver circuitry <NUM> may receive potentially interfering signals from other sources (e.g., WiFi, etc.). Additionally, processor <NUM> can generate an uplink data signal for transmission to the eNB via a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

In response to receiver circuitry <NUM> detecting no potentially interfering signals above the threshold power, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can transmit the uplink data signal in the unlicensed frequency band via the scheduled resources, which can be preceded by an uplink reservation signal (e.g., RTS/CTS). In some aspects, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can additionally transmit a successful transmission signal via a licensed frequency band that indicates that transmitter circuitry <NUM> was able to transmit during the scheduled uplink grant.

However, if, in accordance with the LBT procedure, receiver circuitry <NUM> detects at least one signal above the threshold power, processor <NUM> can implement a backoff procedure. In accordance with the backoff procedure, receiver circuitry <NUM> monitors the channel until it is clear, and after an additional period of time based on the LBT parameters, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can transmit during some or all of the scheduled resources if possible. If the scheduled resources have already elapsed, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can wait until a next scheduled uplink grant.

In some aspects, in accordance with the implemented LBT procedure, receiver circuitry <NUM> can monitor only a subset of the channel associated with the scheduled resources, such as frequency domain resources or code domain resources. When the monitored resources (e.g., code domain resources, frequency domain resources, etc.) are clear, transmitter circuitry <NUM> can transmit the uplink data signal via the scheduled resources, assuming that the scheduled uplink grant(s) have not elapsed (e.g., because processor <NUM> implemented a backoff procedure due to a potentially interfering signal above the threshold power).

In various aspects, the set of LBT parameters can specify when processor <NUM> implements the LBT procedure, such as by specifying one or more symbols (e.g., the last N symbols) of a subframe preceding the uplink grant(s). As another example, in a TDD embodiment wherein a special subframe can be included as a transition between downlink and uplink transmissions, the LBT procedure can be implemented by processor <NUM> during a portion of the special subframe (e.g., during an uplink pilot timeslot, etc.).

Memory <NUM> can include instructions that can be implemented by receiver circuitry <NUM>, processor <NUM>, and/or transmitter circuitry <NUM> to implement various aspects described herein.

Referring to <FIG>, illustrated is a flow diagram of a method <NUM> that facilitates uplink LAA unlicensed band operation of one or more UEs according to various aspects described herein. In various aspects, method <NUM> can be implemented by an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (Evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) or other base station in a wireless communications network.

At <NUM>, method <NUM> can include determining a set of LBT parameters to be employed by one or more UEs for operation in an unlicensed frequency band. The set of LBT parameters can include a carrier sense duration, a backoff duration, a backoff window size, when to implement an LBT procedure, etc. In aspects, some or all of the LBT parameters can be common parameters employed by each of the one or more UEs, which can minimize conflicts between the one or more UEs, and facilitate multiplexing of uplink data signals from the one or more UEs.

At <NUM>, the set of LBT parameters can be transmitted to the one or more UEs, which can be via the unlicensed frequency band, via a distinct second unlicensed frequency band, via a licensed frequency band, etc. As discussed herein, any of a variety of physical channels can be employed to transmit the LBT parameters in a variety of ways. For example, for PDCCH (or ePDCCH) transmission of LBT parameters, a new DCI (downlink control information) format can be defined and employed to specify the LBT parameters. As an alternative example, the set of LBT parameters can be configured via RRC (radio resource control) and can be semi-statically configured.

At <NUM>, uplink resources can be scheduled for the one or more UEs to transmit uplink signals via the unlicensed frequency band. The one or more UEs can be multiplexed in a variety of ways, such as code division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, etc. Additionally, code and/or frequency domain resources can be reused, with a first UE scheduled to transmit in the resources during a first time period (assuming a successful LBT procedure at the first UE), a second UE scheduled to transmit in the resources during a second time period (assuming a successful LBT procedure at the second UE, wherein the LBT procedure of the second UE can be scheduled to be implemented after the scheduled uplink grant for the first UE), etc. In aspects, at least a threshold amount of frequency resources can be scheduled, to comply with a set of regulations (e.g., ETSI regulations provide for occupying at least <NUM>% of the channel, etc.).

At <NUM>, one or more uplink grants can be transmitted to the one or more UEs, indicating the scheduled uplink resources.

At <NUM>, one or more transmissions can be received over the scheduled uplink resources.

At <NUM>, optionally, a determination can be made as to whether the one or more transmissions received at <NUM> include uplink transmissions from the one or more UEs. For example, a successful transmission signal can be received over a licensed frequency band that indicates that an associated UE successfully transmitted during the scheduled uplink resources. As an alternative example, blind decoding can be performed on the received transmission to determine if they comprise a transmission from a scheduled UE.

Various embodiments disclosed herein can take into account and comply with various LBT regulations for unlicensed band operation, such as proposed ETSI EN (Harmonized European Standard) <NUM><NUM>, which specifies that:.

Any transmitter in the system can adhere to the LBT regulations before any data transmission in order to comply with these conditions.

There are two possible scenarios for the uplink, TDD and FDD. In the TDD scenario, the unlicensed carrier is used for both downlink and uplink transmissions. In the FDD scenario, the unlicensed band can use one carrier for downlink and a separate carrier (e.g., of <NUM>) for uplink.

In accordance with aspects discussed herein, there are multiple design choices of different embodiments for each of these scenarios.

In the TDD frame structure, a special sub-frame is present for the downlink to uplink transition. The special subframe consists of three fields: DwPTS (Downlink Pilot Time Slot), GP (Guard Period), and UpPTS (Uplink Pilot Time Slot). This special subframe mainly consists of downlink transmission and small durations of GP and UpPTS. As used herein, this special subframe is regarded as a downlink sub-frame.

Referring to <FIG>, illustrated is a flow diagram of a method <NUM> uplink access in a licensed assisted access (LAA) wireless system. The eNB can act as a coordinator for the UEs for the uplink listen before talk. Specifically, LBT involves each UE (or transmitter) following a carrier sensing and a backoff process before any transmission. At <NUM>, the eNB can broadcast LBT parameters including carrier sensing duration, backoff duration and/or backoff window size in PDCCH, PBCH, PDSCH, or other channels. When PDCCH is used, a new DCI format can be defined to carry the LBT related parameters. At <NUM>, the eNB can schedule UEs (e.g., using existing PDCCH (or ePDCCH) mechanisms) and allocate resources for the uplink sub-frame. The allocated resources can be one subframe or a set of subframes.

At <NUM>, each UE can independently perform LBT, wherein each can UE perform carrier sensing and extended CCA using the parameters provided by the eNB. If the channel is sensed idle, the UE can send a reservation signal (e.g., RTS/CRS) for the remaining sub-frame duration. At <NUM>, the UE can start transmitting data on the PUSCH in the next sub-frame. If no resources are available in the next sub-frame, for example, because CCA/extended CCA are not complete, the UE does not transmit.

Possible frame configurations for TDD and FDD frame structures are discussed herein. Uplink grants can be transmitted over either the licensed carrier (cross-carrier scheduling) or over the unlicensed carrier (self-scheduling).

The gap between the end of the subframe carrying a UL scheduling grant and the beginning of the subframe carrying the corresponding PUSCH is assumed to be <NUM> in the examples provided herein; however, embodiments disclosed herein can be employed with other values, as well. Accordingly, any PDCCH (or ePDCCH) transmission can be decoded and its corresponding action (such as data preparation for uplink, etc.) can be completed within <NUM>. This implies that DL (e)PDCCH and corresponding UL should be separated by at least <NUM> sub-frames. Furthermore, in TDD embodiments, frequent switching between DL and UL frames is undesirable due to LBT overhead resulting from shorter transmission times.

<FIG> illustrates an example operation of an uplink design in a FDD system in accordance with various aspects disclosed herein, and <FIG> illustrates an example operation of an uplink design in a TDD system in accordance with various aspects disclosed herein. Optionally, in the downlink, the eNB can reserve the unlicensed band channel for a duration at least long enough to cover the total downlink and uplink transmission in the unlicensed band. The eNB can transmit LBT parameters to be used by the UEs. The UEs can perform LBT using the parameters provided by the eNB, and can perform channel reservation to prepare for the transmission in the remaining subframes. While the overall TDD and FDD structure have similar architectures, in TDD there is an additional constraint of maintaining the TDD configurations. The TDD configurations for the unlicensed band and the licensed band can be different. In the TDD configuration, if the UEs are scheduled by cross-carrier scheduling, the UL grant on the unlicensed carrier can be indicated by the previous DL frames, closest to the UL frames and separated by at-least <NUM>. Referring to <FIG>, illustrated is a proxy figure showing the general techniques of uplink LAA for either FDD or TDD embodiments according to various aspects disclosed herein.

In general, for uplink access in unlicensed band operation, it is not conventionally possible to multiplex UEs in the frequency domain for multiple reasons. First, UEs can start transmission at different times due to different backoffs used in LBT procedures. Second, if any of the UEs start transmitting, it is unlikely that any other UE will sense that the channel is clear, thus, the transmission of any other UE will be unlikely. Third, ETSI regulations set a minimum allowed percentage of the bandwidth that is to be occupied by any transmitter of <NUM>% of the nominal bandwidth (although <NUM>% is allowed for established connections).

In order to address the first two factors, various embodiments discussed herein can implement multiple techniques to facilitate multiplexing UEs for uplink access.

First, the eNB can transmit a single backoff number to be followed by the UEs expected to be scheduled in the current transmission opportunity. In other words, a single common backoff number can be applied to a group of UEs. This technique can facilitate UEs in the same collision domain to have a clear channel signal at the same time, resulting in simultaneous channel access. Note that, contrary to conventional LBT implementations, wherein a random backoff is chosen by the UE to avoid collisions, embodiments described herein can have all UEs employ the same backoff deterministically to ensure that a collision occurs, since they can be separated in the frequency domain (or code domain, etc.).

Second, the eNB grants can be selected to ensure that the UEs can be scheduled to different resource blocks to avoid collision of the transmissions from the scheduled UEs. It is also likely that the carrier sensing of UEs (which is not, in general, closely co-located) can have different ending times for extended CCA (or backoff). Thus, in various embodiments disclosed herein, the eNB can be responsible for minimizing underutilization of resources.

To address the third factor, the resource blocks for all of the UEs can be spread across the bandwidth (e.g., of <NUM>) to adhere to the ETSI standard regulations. There are multiple options for ensuring that the bandwidth is occupied.

In a first option, illustrated in <FIG>, UEs can be multiplexed in the frequency domain by assigning them to different resource blocks (RBs). With an <NUM>% nominal bandwidth minimum (e.g., per ETSI, etc.), UEs can be scheduled near the edges of the allocated <NUM>. Allowing for a <NUM>% guard band, about <NUM> (<NUM>% of <NUM>) bandwidth at the edges can be occupied by UEs. This restricts the number of UEs with this scheme to <NUM> (=<NUM>/<NUM>/<NUM>).

In this first option, if any of the UEs (e.g., a first UE) completes its transmission before other UEs in the UL burst, it is possible to reuse the resources of the first UE and allocate them to other UEs. Other UEs can include existing UEs for which transmission is ongoing, a new set of UEs, or a combination thereof. The eNB can indicate to the UEs whether to perform LBT. In this first option, LBT can be performed only on the frequency resources indicated by the eNB so that, for the purposes of the sensing, the newly scheduled UE can eliminate the frequencies for which ongoing transmission is happening.

In a second option, illustrated in <FIG>, all of the scheduled UEs can occupy the entire bandwidth by spreading the data for the scheduled UEs using orthogonal codes. The number of users that can be supported in this scheme depend on the channel and the properties of the orthogonal codes. As a specific example, <NUM> UEs can be assigned in a subframe, wherein each UE can occupy the entire BW, e.g., all the PRBs (physical RBs) available for PUSCH transmissions. Then, different orthogonal codes (e.g., Hadamard codes or DFT (discrete Fourier transform)-precoding) can be used for the PDSCHs of each UE. For instance, when orthogonal codes of length <NUM> are used, each symbol of one UE can be spread using the code assigned to the UE and then the spreaded data symbols can be mapped to each frequency subcarrier, wherein each symbol can be one DFT output symbol following the conventional LTE uplink transmitter chain.

In this second option, if any of the UEs (e.g., a first UE) completes its transmission before other UEs in the UL burst, it is possible to reuse the resources of the first UE and allocate them to one or more other UEs. These other UEs can include existing UEs for which transmission is ongoing, a new set of UEs, or a combination thereof. The eNB can indicate to the UEs whether to perform LBT. In this second option, LBT can be performed only on the code domain resources indicated by the eNB so that, for the purposes of the sensing, the newly scheduled UE can eliminate the resources for which ongoing transmission is happening. In this option, the newly scheduled UE can perform sensing by correlating the received signal with the code indicated by the eNB.

In various aspects, for uplink transmission using synchronous LBT, if any UE completes extended CCA before the start of the next sub-frame, that UE does not transmit until the start of the next sub-frame. Further, in some embodiments, the UE can retransmit reservation signals, increasing network overhead. Thus, in aspects, one or more optimizations can be employed so that the sub-frame alignment can be performed using the channel sensing conducted in a previous sub-frame. This technique can significantly improve performance, particularly in lightly loaded systems. In order to implement this, the trailing symbols of the preceding subframe can be be punctured. During the punctured symbols, LBT can be performed, and if the LBT is complete before the next subframe starts, the next subframe can be used for the PUSCH transmission.

In any predefined set of sub-frames, the transmitter (e.g., UE) can perform channel sensing and backoff in the last or first K symbols.

In an FDD example, all scheduled UEs can be informed about the exact locations of the symbols over which the UEs should start sensing. For example, as illustrated in <FIG>, LBT optimization in a FDD system can utilize K symbols of a preceding subframe to perform LBT according to various aspects disclosed herein. A new DCI can be defined to determine the symbols. In another embodiment, the symbols for sensing can be carried through PBCH or PDSCH in a cell-specific manner or manner specific to a group of UEs. If a new DCI is used, possible DCI design can include a bit-map of B (wherein B is up to <NUM>) bits, indicating the positions of the punctured symbols. For uplink, the UEs can start sensing before the start of the expected uplink frame, in the expectation that the UE might be scheduled in the following subframe.

In the TDD case, illustrated in <FIG>, showing LBT optimization for a TDD system according to aspects disclosed herein, the uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) symbols can be used for channel sensing.

Claim 1:
An apparatus configured to be employed with a base station (<NUM>), comprising:
a radio frequency, RF, circuitry; and
one or more processors communicatively coupled to the RF circuitry and configured to:
determine, for one or more user equipments, UEs,: one or more punctured symbols in a first subframe associated with an unlicensed frequency band;
schedule, for the one or more UEs, an uplink grant including uplink resources comprising one or more resource blocks in the unlicensed frequency band, wherein the uplink grant schedules at most one of the one or more UEs to each of the one or more resource blocks; and
transmit:
a set of listen before talk, LBT, parameters for an unlicensed frequency band, the LBT parameters including a common carrier sensing duration and a common backoff duration for the one or more UEs;
a downlink control information, DCI, indicating positions of symbols in the first subframe that are to be punctured in accordance with the determined one or more punctured symbols; and
the uplink grant, wherein the first subframe precedes a second subframe having the uplink grant, and wherein the base station does not transmit during a duration of the subframe comprising the one or more punctured symbols; and
receive transmissions over the uplink resources according to a LBT procedure associated with the common carrier sensing duration and the common backoff duration performed by at least one of the one or more UEs during the one or more punctured symbols.