PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-12120690-B2
Application Number: US-202318469247-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum

Abstract:
Systems, apparatus, user equipment (UE), evolved node B (eNB), computer readable media, and methods are described for scheduling of multiple uplink transmissions in unlicensed spectrum. One embodiment involves receiving, at an eNB, a first uplink scheduling request from a UE, scheduling a plurality of uplink subframes on the unlicensed channel in response to the first uplink scheduling request, and initiating transmission of a first subframe to the first UE in response to the scheduling of the plurality of uplink subframes, wherein the first subframe comprises one or more downlink control indicators (DCIs) allocating the plurality of uplink subframes to the first UE.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An apparatus, comprising:
 a processor configured to cause a base station (BS) to:
 transmit a first downlink control information (DCI) message to a first UE scheduling a first plurality of uplink transmissions to the first UE, wherein the uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions are scheduled to be contiguous and non-overlapping in time, the first DCI message including:
 bits to carry respective configurations including respective new data indicators and respective redundancy versions for respective uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions; and 
 an indication of an offset from the first DCI to a first uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions. 
 
 
 
     
     
       2. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is preceded by a listen-before-talk procedure. 
     
     
       3. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first DCI is transmitted to the first UE using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), wherein a control channel region of the PDCCH is not limited to a first three orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. 
     
     
       4. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is associated with an adjustable delay between transmission of a first uplink transmission among the first plurality of uplink transmissions and the first DCI. 
     
     
       5. The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the adjustable delay is set using signaling from one or more signaling communications comprising L1/L2 signaling, radio resource control (RRC) signaling, or higher layer system signaling. 
     
     
       6. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the BS to:
 receive, at the BS, a plurality of uplink scheduling requests from a plurality of UEs, the plurality of UEs comprising the first UE; 
 schedule, by the BS, a second plurality of uplink transmissions in response to the plurality of uplink scheduling requests, the second plurality of uplink transmissions comprising the first plurality of uplink transmissions; and 
 initiate transmission of a plurality of downlink subframes in response to the scheduling of the second plurality of uplink transmissions, wherein each downlink subframe comprises one or more DCIs allocating at least a portion of the second plurality of uplink transmissions to a corresponding UE of the plurality of UEs, and wherein each downlink subframe is associated with a different corresponding UE of the plurality of UEs. 
 
     
     
       7. The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is scheduled on unlicensed spectrum. 
     
     
       8. A base station (BS), comprising:
 a radio; and 
 a processor operably coupled to the radio and configured to cause the BS to:
 transmit a first downlink control information (DCI) message to a first UE scheduling a first plurality of uplink transmissions to the first UE, wherein the uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions are scheduled to be contiguous and non-overlapping in time, the first DCI message including:
 bits to carry respective configurations including respective new data indicators and respective redundancy versions for respective uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions; and 
 an indication of an offset from the first DCI to a first uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions. 
 
 
 
     
     
       9. The BS of  claim 8 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is preceded by a listen-before-talk procedure. 
     
     
       10. The BS of  claim 8 , wherein the first DCI is transmitted to the first UE using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), wherein a control channel region of the PDCCH is not limited to a first three orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. 
     
     
       11. The BS of  claim 8 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is associated with an adjustable delay between transmission of a first uplink transmission among the first plurality of uplink transmissions and the first DCI. 
     
     
       12. The BS of  claim 11 , wherein the adjustable delay is set using signaling from one or more signaling communications comprising L1/L2 signaling, radio resource control (RRC) signaling, or higher layer system signaling. 
     
     
       13. The BS of  claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to cause the BS to:
 receive, at the BS, a plurality of uplink scheduling requests from a plurality of UEs, the plurality of UEs comprising the first UE; 
 schedule, by the BS, a second plurality of uplink transmissions in response to the plurality of uplink scheduling requests, the second plurality of uplink transmissions comprising the first plurality of uplink transmissions; and 
 initiate transmission of a plurality of downlink subframes in response to the scheduling of the second plurality of uplink transmissions, wherein each downlink subframe comprises one or more DCIs allocating at least a portion of the second plurality of uplink transmissions to a corresponding UE of the plurality of UEs, and wherein each downlink subframe is associated with a different corresponding UE of the plurality of UEs. 
 
     
     
       14. The BS of  claim 8 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is scheduled on unlicensed spectrum. 
     
     
       15. A method, comprising:
 at a base station (BS):
 transmitting a first downlink control information (DCI) message to a first UE scheduling a first plurality of uplink transmissions to the first UE, wherein the uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions are scheduled to be contiguous and non-overlapping in time, the first DCI message including:
 bits to carry respective configurations including respective new data indicators and respective redundancy versions for respective uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions; and 
 an indication of an offset from the first DCI to a first uplink transmissions of the first plurality of uplink transmissions. 
 
 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is preceded by a listen-before-talk procedure. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first DCI is transmitted to the first UE using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), wherein a control channel region of the PDCCH is not limited to a first three orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is associated with an adjustable delay between transmission of a first uplink transmission among the first plurality of uplink transmissions and the first DCI. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 18 , wherein the adjustable delay is set using signaling from one or more signaling communications comprising L1/L2 signaling, radio resource control (RRC) signaling, or higher layer system signaling. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions is scheduled on unlicensed spectrum.

Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM 
     This application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/515,166, filed on Oct. 29, 2021 and entitled “MULTI-SUBFRAME UPLINK SCHEDULING IN UNLICENSED SPECTRUM”, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/775,745, filed on May 11, 2018 and entitled “MULTI-SUBFRAME UPLINK SCHEDULING IN UNLICENSED SPECTRUM”, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,412,535, issued on Aug. 9, 2022, which is a U.S. National Stage Filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 from International Application No. PCT/US2016/024612, filed Mar. 29, 2016 and published in English as WO 2017/099832 on Jun. 15, 2017, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/264,226, filed on Dec. 7, 2015 and entitled “MULTI-SUBFRAME SCHEDULING FOR UL TRANSMISSION IN UNLICENSED SPECTRUM”, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     The claims in the instant application are different than those of the parent application and/or other related applications. The Applicant therefore rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope made in the parent application and/or any predecessor application in relation to the instant application. Any such previous disclaimer and the cited references that it was made to avoid, may need to be revisited. Further, any disclaimer made in the instant application should not be read into or against the parent application and/or other related applications. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Embodiments pertain to systems, methods, and component devices for wireless communications, and particularly to the integration of long term evolution (LTE), LTE-advanced, and other similar wireless communication systems with unlicensed frequencies. 
     BACKGROUND 
     LTE and LTE-advanced are standards for wireless communication of high-speed data for user equipment (UE) such as mobile telephones. In LTE-advanced and various wireless systems, carrier aggregation is a technology used by LTE-advanced systems where multiple carrier signals operating on different frequencies may be used to carry communications for a single UE, thus increasing the bandwidth available to a single device. In some systems, carrier aggregation may be used where one or more component carriers operate on unlicensed frequencies. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a block diagram of a system including an evolved node B (eNB) and user equipment (UE) that may operate, according to some embodiments described herein. 
         FIG.  2    illustrates aspects of multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  3    describes an example method for multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    illustrates aspects of multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  5    illustrates aspects of example downlink control information (DCI) that may be used for multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  6    illustrates aspects of multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  7    describes an example method for multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. 
         FIG.  8    is a block diagram of a system including eNB and multiple UEs that may be used with some embodiments described herein. 
         FIG.  9    illustrates aspects of a UE, in accordance with some example embodiments. 
         FIG.  10    is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system machine which may be used in association with various embodiments described herein. 
         FIG.  11    illustrates aspects of a system for multi-subframe uplink scheduling, according to some embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments relate to systems, devices, apparatus, assemblies, methods, and computer readable media to enhance wireless communications, and particularly to communication systems that operate using carriers in unlicensed frequencies. The following description and the drawings illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments can incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments can be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments, and are intended to cover all available equivalents of the elements described. 
       FIG.  1    illustrates a wireless network  100 , in accordance with some embodiments. The wireless network  100  includes a UE  101  and an eNB  150  connected via an air interface  190 . UE  101  and eNB  150  communicate using a system that supports carrier aggregation, such that air interface  190  supports multiple frequency carriers, shown as component carrier  180  and component carrier  185 . Although two component carriers  180 ,  185  are illustrated, various embodiments may include any number of one or more component carriers  180 ,  185 . 
     Additionally, in various embodiments described herein, at least one of the carriers of air interface  190  comprises a carrier operating in an unlicensed frequency, referred to herein as an unlicensed carrier. An unlicensed carrier or unlicensed frequency refers to system operation in a range of radio frequencies that are not exclusively set aside for the use of the system. Some frequency ranges, for example, may be used by communication systems operating under different communication standards, such as a frequency band that is used by both Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (e.g. “WiFi”) and third generation partnership (3GPP) standards. By contrast, a licensed channel or licensed spectrum operates under a particular system, with limited concern that other unexpected signals operating on different standard configurations will be present. Some embodiment systems described herein may operate using both unlicensed and licensed carriers, while other systems may operate using only unlicensed carriers. 
     As discussed below, when a system operates in an unlicensed spectrum, rules and operations for verifying that the unlicensed channels are available provide additional overhead and system operational elements that are not present in licensed channels. The sharing of a channel may be referred to as fair coexistence, where different systems operate to use an unlicensed or shared channel while limiting both interference and direct integration with the other systems operating on different standards. 
     Long term evolution (LTE) cellular communications, for example, historically operate with a centrally managed system designed to operate in a licensed spectrum for efficient resource usage. Operating with such centrally managed use within unlicensed channels, where systems which are not centrally controlled that use different channel access mechanisms than legacy LTE may be present, carries significant risk of direct interference. Coexistence mechanisms described herein enable LTE. LTE-advanced, and communications systems building on or similar to LTE systems to coexist with other technologies such as WiFi in shared unlicensed frequency bands (e.g. unlicensed channels.) Flexible carrier aggregation (CA) frameworks within systems such as LTE-Advanced may thus operate in various ways to use unlicensed spectrum. This may include uplink transmission in unlicensed spectrum. In some environment, a 5 Gigahertz band is particularly available as unlicensed spectrum governed by Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) rules. 
     Embodiments described herein for coexistence may operate within the wireless network  100 . In wireless network  100 , the UE  101  and any other UE in the system may be, for example, laptop computers, smartphones, tablet computers, printers, machine-type devices such as smart meters or specialized devices for healthcare monitoring, remote security surveillance, an intelligent transportation system, or any other wireless devices with or without a user interface. The eNB  150  provides the LIE  101  network connectivity to a broader network (not shown in  FIG.  1   ) such as network  960  of  FIG.  9   . This UE  101  connectivity is provided via the air interface  190  in an eNB service area provided by the eNB  150 . In some embodiments, such a broader network may be a wide area network operated by a cellular network provider, or may be the Internet. Each eNB service area associated with the eNB  150  is supported by antennas integrated with the eNB  150 . The service areas are divided into a number of sectors associated with certain antennas. Such sectors may be physically associated with fixed antennas or may be assigned to a physical area with tunable antennas or antenna settings adjustable in a beamforming process used to direct a signal to a particular sector. One embodiment of the eNB  150 , for example, includes three sectors each covering a 120 degree area with an array of antennas directed to each sector to provide 360 degree coverage around the eNB  150 . 
     The UE  101  includes control circuitry  105  coupled with transmit circuitry  110  and receive circuitry  115 . The transmit circuitry  110  and receive circuitry  115  may each be coupled with one or more antennas. The control circuitry  105  may be adapted to perform operations associated with wireless communications using carrier aggregation. The transmit circuitry  110  and receive circuitry  115  may be adapted to transmit and receive data, respectively. The control circuitry  105  may be adapted or configured to perform various operations such as those described elsewhere in this disclosure related to a UE  101 . The transmit circuitry  110  may transmit a plurality of multiplexed uplink physical channels. The plurality of uplink physical channels may be multiplexed according to time division multiplexing (TDM) or frequency division multiplexing (FDM) along with carrier aggregation. The transmit circuitry  110  may be configured to receive block data from the control circuitry  105  for transmission across the air interface  190 . Similarly, the receive circuitry  115  may receive a plurality of multiplexed downlink physical channels from the air interface  190  and relay the physical channels to the control circuitry  105 . The uplink and downlink physical channels may be multiplexed according to FDM. The transmit circuitry  110  and the receive circuitry  115  may transmit and receive both control data and content data (e.g. messages, images, video, et cetera) structured within data blocks that are carried by the physical channels. 
       FIG.  1    also illustrates the eNB  150 , in accordance with various embodiments. The eNB  150  circuitry may include control circuitry  155  coupled with transmit circuitry  160  and receive circuitry  165 . The transmit circuitry  160  and receive circuitry  165  may each be coupled with one or more antennas that may be used to enable communications via the air interface  190 . 
     The control circuitry  155  may be adapted to perform operations for managing channels and component carriers  180 ,  185  used with various UEs. The transmit circuitry  160  and receive circuitry  165  may be adapted to transmit and receive data, respectively, to any UE  101  connected to eNB  150 . The transmit circuitry  160  may transmit downlink physical channels comprised of a plurality of downlink subframes. The receive circuitry  165  may receive a plurality of uplink physical channels from various UEs including UE  101 . The plurality of uplink physical channels may be multiplexed according to FDM in addition to the use of carrier aggregation. 
     As mentioned above, the communications across air interface  190  may use carrier aggregation, where multiple different component carriers  180 ,  185  can be aggregated to carry information between UE  101  and eNB  150 . Such component carriers  180 ,  185  may have different bandwidths, and may be used for uplink communications from UE  101  to eNB  150 , downlink communications from eNB  150  to UE  101 , or both. Such component carriers  180 ,  185  may cover similar areas, or may cover different but overlapping sectors. The radio resource control (RRC) connection is handled by only one of the component carrier cells, which may be referred to as the primary component carrier, with the other component carriers referred to as secondary component carriers. In some embodiments, the primary component carrier may be operating in a licensed band to provide efficient and conflict-free communications. This primary channel may be used for scheduling other channels including unlicensed channels as described below. In other embodiments, the primary channel may operate in an unlicensed band. 
     In various communication systems, including some implementations of  FIG.  1   , resources in time and frequency domains are dynamically shared among multiple UEs, such as UE  101 , served by the same eNB, such as eNB  150 . The resource sharing method may be based on the orthogonal allocation of time-frequency resources to different UEs. Orthogonal resource allocation is beneficial in that it avoids interference between intra-cell transmissions. To achieve orthogonal resource allocation, a scheduler in circuitry of eNB  150  assigns appropriate time-frequency resources to different UEs. In some systems, one operation of such a scheduler is dynamic scheduling, wherein an eNB  150  transmits scheduling information every 1 millisecond (ms) and the scheduling information is valid only for the specific single subframe. Another possible scheduling operation is semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) where semi-static scheduling information is signaled in advance to reduce the control overhead and the scheduling configuration is valid for more than one subframe (e.g. more than one ms). Dynamic scheduling provides benefits for scheduling services with bursty traffic and dynamic size (e.g. transmission control protocol (TCP) traffic) while SPS is more efficient for scheduling services such as voice over internet protocol with periodic traffic and semi-static data sizes. 
     Uplink scheduling information, including which UEs are scheduled for communication, and the corresponding modulation and coding scheme as well as the resource assigned for a transmission, in some LTE systems is contained in Downlink Control Information (DCI) in formats 0 or 4. In other words, the uplink transmissions of UE  101  in various LTE systems may be controlled by the eNB  150  using DCI format 0/4 communications. Some such LTE systems operate where uplink scheduling information transmitted in one subframe (e.g. subframe n) indicates the scheduling of an allocation for an uplink transmission from UE  101  to eNB ISO in a subframe that is a fixed delay later (e.g. subframe n+4). In various other embodiments, other fixed delays or a dynamic adjustable delay may be used. 
     In some embodiments of LTE or similar systems, unlicensed spectrum may be used primarily for offloading from licensed carriers. In such systems, unlicensed spectrum may be used for transmission of large packets of data. In such embodiments, a UE such as UE  101  is expected to request uplink transmissions over multiple subframes of standard LTE operation. A fixed request and response, particularly in the context of shared bandwidth requiring coexistence operations, is inefficient, particularly when there is no associated downlink data that may be transmitted on the channel. Separate scheduling requests may thus result in excessive control overhead and negative impacts on other systems attempting to share the unlicensed spectrum. In various embodiments described herein, downlink control overhead is reduced and coexistence is improved by scheduling multiple subframes using one request (e.g. one DCI or one subframe including multiple DCIs) to schedule multiple uplink subframes. 
       FIG.  2    then describes one potential method for an eNB communicating with a UE to utilize an unlicensed channel.  FIG.  2    shows various communications between a UE  201  which may be similar to UE  101  and an eNB  250  which may be similar to eNB  150 . In various embodiments, different networks with different structures or additional devices may be used. In various implementations, different channels may be used for different communications (e.g.  202 ,  206 ,  210 , and  212 ), but any uplink transmissions scheduled are transmitted on an unlicensed carrier. 
     In the embodiment of  FIG.  2   , uplink scheduling request  202  is communicated from UE  201  to eNB  250 . As mentioned above, the uplink scheduling request  202  will be associated with multiple requested uplink subframes. ENB  250  receives the uplink scheduling request  202 , and processes this request in an operation to schedule multiple uplink subframes  204 . This processing in eNB  250  may be performed by various control circuitry  155  or other circuitry described with respect to  FIG.  1  or  10   . This results in the generation of a downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206 , which is communicated from eNB  250  to UE  201 . The UE  201  then processes the downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  using various circuitry similarly described in  FIG.  1  or  10    in an operation to process uplink allocation  208 . After this allocation is processed by UE  201 , the UE  201  initiates multiple uplink transmissions, shown as uplink transmission  210  and uplink transmission  212 . In various embodiments, various numbers of two or more uplink transmissions may be transmitted based on subframes allocated by a single downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206 . In various embodiments, coexistence operations (e.g. listen before talk) may be performed at various points in this process. For example, UE  201  may listen before taking control of the unlicensed channel for uplink scheduling request  202  with all subsequent communications occurring while the unlicensed channel is held for UE  201  and released following the final uplink transmission  212  (or any such additional uplink transmission.) In various embodiments, the DCI(s) for multiple uplink subframe scheduling can schedule different uplink subframes to different UEs. In other embodiments, uplink scheduling request  202  may occur on an unlicensed channel, with a listen before talk operation occurring during processing of uplink allocation  208  on the unlicensed channel and before uplink transmission  210 . In other embodiments, other such coexistence may be used within the structure described with respect to  FIG.  2   . 
     The downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  may be structured in different ways for different embodiments. In some embodiments, this communication includes a modified DCI designed for multi-subframe scheduling, which includes indication information of which subframes are to be jointly scheduled. In some embodiments, additional fields are added to existing DCI formats (e.g. DCI format 0 or 4) to carry indication information of which uplink subframes are to be scheduled. If the scheduling configuration for the multiple subframes to be scheduled by the DCI is different, additional fields are appended to the DCI in some embodiments to carry the different scheduling configuration information. 
     Some embodiments may also include a newly defined Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) to identify the new DCI. In other embodiments, existing cell RNTI (C-RNTI) structures are used to scramble Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) parity bits and to communicate information about a DCI format for scheduling multiple subframes to a UE. 
     In some embodiments, the downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  may include a single DCI, while in others, multiple DCIs, each of which may include the scheduling information for single or multiple subframes, can be multiplexed within the single DL subframe. 
     Further, the downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  uses different resource elements (REs) in different embodiments. The following REs may be used in various combinations in different embodiments for the transmission of DCI information containing multi-subframe scheduling information. In some embodiments, existing control channel regions for a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) is used. This includes the first three orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols in some embodiments. In other embodiments, control channel regions of the PDCCH can be extended to more than three OFDM symbols for the DCI or DCIs. 
     In some embodiments, a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) may assist with enabling the DCI transmission. In one embodiment, an existing PCFICH structure may be re-used if there are in-total at most four possible control regions associated with the DCI transmission. Other embodiments may include other numbers of control regions in different channel formats. In another embodiment, a PCFICH is modified if a region for carrying PDCCH is extended to more than four control region options. More bits may be needed in such embodiments to indicate Control Format Indicator (CFI) values. In one example embodiment, a codeword length for a PCFICH may use a standard number of bits (e.g. 32 bits) by modifying a code rate. In other embodiments, the PCFICH codeword length is extended and additional REs are used for PCFICH transmission. 
     In some embodiments, the DCI or DCIs in the downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  use an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH). 
     Additionally, as mentioned above, various embodiments may operate with a delay during the UE  201  operation to process uplink allocations  208  that occur between receipt of the downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  and UE  201  initiating the first uplink transmission  210  of the multiple allocated uplink subframes associated with uplink transmission  210 , uplink transmission  212 , and any other such allocated uplink subframes for transmission to eNB  250  as part of a single allocation. 
     In some embodiments, a standard LTE system delay of 4 ms may be used. In other systems, depending on the circuitry of UE  201  or other system configurations, the delay between transmission of the DCI or DCIs allocating multiple subframes from eNB and uplink transmission  210  can be shortened to values less than 4 ms (e.g. 1 ms or 2 ms). In various embodiments, this delay between transmission of the DCI or DCIs in the downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes  206  and uplink transmission  210  is configurable. The configuration may be performed in various ways in different embodiments. In some embodiments, L1 or L2 signaling may be used. In other embodiments, radio resource control (RRC) signaling may be used to configure this delay. In further embodiments, other higher layer signaling may be used. In some embodiments, multiple different types of signaling may be used to configure this delay. 
       FIG.  3    then describes a method  300  for multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, the method  300  may be performed by an eNB such as eNB  150  or  250 . In other embodiments, method  300  may be implemented as instructions in a computer readable media that configure an eNB such as eNB  250  to perform method  300  when the instructions are executed by one or more processors of the eNB  250 . In other embodiments, other such implementations may be used for method  300 . For the purposes of illustration, method  300  is described in the context of  FIG.  1   . Any implementations discussed herein may be used for method  300  in various embodiments. 
     Method  300  begins with operation  305  and eNB  150  receiving a first uplink scheduling request  202  from a first UE  101 . This may, for example, be a data packed transmitted from UE  101  to cNB  150  using a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or using any other such system resource (e.g., PRACH). In some embodiments, this uplink scheduling request is similar to uplink scheduling request  202 . 
     In operation  310 , the eNB  150  schedules a plurality of uplink subframes on the unlicensed channel in response to the first uplink scheduling request  202  from operation  305 . In various implementations, this processing may be performed by baseband circuitry of eNB  150  or any other control circuitry  155  of eNB  150 . This operation may manage competing resource requests from multiple UEs including UE  101  to allocate a portion of the resources available to eNB  150  to UE  101 . In various embodiments, the eNB  150  may schedule multiple uplink subframes, with different subframes for different UEs. 
     After the circuitry of eNB  150  has identified the resources to allocate to UE  101 , eNB  150  initiates transmission of a first subframe to the first UE  101  as part of operation  315  in response to the scheduling of the plurality of uplink subframes in operation  310 . The first subframe comprises one or more DCIs allocating the plurality of uplink subframes to the first UE  101  or set of different UEs including UE  101 . In other embodiments, multiple subframes are scheduled for different UEs. 
       FIG.  4    then illustrates aspects of multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, according to some embodiments. As mentioned above, in different embodiments, the subframe initiated to the UE  101  by an BNB  150  may allocate a plurality of uplink subframes using a single DCI or multiple DCIs.  FIG.  4    illustrates the use of a single DCI  410  in subframe  403  to allocate a plurality of subframes out of a timeline of subframes  403 - 409  to a UE  101 . In the embodiment of  FIG.  4   , data of uplink transmissions  414 ,  416 , and  418  is scheduled in corresponding subframes  407 ,  408 , and  409  by DCI  410 . 
       FIG.  5    illustrates one example embodiment of a new DCI format  500  that may be used for a DCI transmission to allocate multiple subframes such as DCI  410 . DCI format  500  includes a base DCI size  510  that includes downlink DCI data  504  and CRC  506  which is scrambled by a C-RNTI. DCI format  500  then further includes an additional fields  503  including uplink subframe identifiers  502 . These additional fields  503  are, in some embodiments, added to existing DCI format structures of a base DCI size  510  matching a standard DCI format 0 or format 4 structure. The additional fields  503  carry the indication information of which uplink subframes are to be scheduled for a UE  101 . In some embodiments, a subframe index that is scheduled by the DCI  410  can be indicated as an offset with respect to the subframe containing the DCI  410 . For example, in some embodiments, uplink subframe identifiers  502  for transmissions similar to the embodiment of  FIG.  4    may include an indication that the allocated subframes are the three subframes which begin four subframes after transmission of the DCI  410 . In the example embodiment of  FIG.  4   , a four subframe delay is present between subframe  403  containing DCI  410  and subframe  7  containing the initial uplink transmission  414 , and uplink transmissions  414 ,  416 , and  418  take the three subframes following this four subframe delay. As mentioned above, this delay is structured differently in other embodiments. Other example embodiments may include a delay of one subframe, two subframes, three subframes, five subframes, or any other such delay. Additionally, in other embodiments, the allocated uplink subframes may be identified directly using subframe identifiers rather than by the offset described above. 
     Additionally, DCI format  500  includes CRC  506 . In DCI format  500 , CRC  506  is scrambled by an existing C-RNTI that is re-used to scramble the CRC  506 . In such embodiments, the identification of the new DCI format  500  from existing other DCI formats can be based on the number of bits contained in the DCI message if this number is different from the number of bits in other DCI formats. In some embodiments, the search space of the new DCI  410  can be a UE-specific search space or UE group search space (for the UEs that are to be scheduled). In other embodiments, rather than CRC  506  being scrambled by a pre-existing C-RNTI, a new RNTI specifically associated with multi-subframe scheduling may be used. In such embodiments, this new MS-RNTI may be used to identify the new DCI format which is used to allocate the subframes for uplink transmissions  414 - 418 . 
     In a DCI format such as DCI format  500 , where multiple subframes are scheduled using a single DCI  410 , multiple subframes with the same configuration can be scheduled via one DCI. In some embodiments, subframes with different configurations use different DCIs. This is because in embodiments similar to the embodiment of DCI format  500 , the downlink DCI data  504  field in the DCI format  500  which carries information such as hybrid automatic repeat request process numbers, new data indication information, redundancy version indication information, power control information, and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information is the same as existing DCI format 0 or 4 that schedules only one subframe. Thus, in such embodiments, the configurations are the same for subframes scheduled by the same DCI  410 . In other embodiments, a DCI format  500  may have additional fields  503  with added numbers of bits to carry different configurations for different subframes within a single DCI  410 . Such embodiments will not have a base DCI size  510  which includes downlink DCI data  504  fields with CRC  506  but will instead have a larger DCI size in addition to any added fields identifying the allocated subframes. 
       FIG.  6    then describes another embodiment where a plurality of DCIs are used to schedule a plurality of uplink subframes.  FIG.  6    shows a timeline of available subframes  603 - 609  for a system including an eNB  150  communicating with a UE  101 . In the embodiment of  FIG.  6   , separate DCIs  610 A,  610 B, and  610 C within subframe  603  are communicated from the eNB to the UE to schedule subframes  607 - 609  for uplink transmissions  614 ,  616 , and  618 . Each DCI schedules a single uplink transmission for a different subframe, so that DCI  610 A schedules uplink transmission  614  for subframe  607 , DCI  610 B schedules uplink transmission  616  for subframe  608 , and DCI  610 C schedules uplink transmission  618  for subframe  609 . As shown, DCIs  610 A-C are multiplexed within single subframe  603 . DCIs  610 A-C are, in some embodiments, in a standard DCI format 0 or 4. In other embodiments, custom DCI formats structured to be multiplexed into a single subframe may be used. In various embodiments, such multiple DCIs may be multiplexed within a subframe using any combination of time and/or frequency division multiplexing. 
     Additionally, while  FIG.  4    shows a single DCI scheduling all of the uplink subframes, and  FIG.  6    illustrates each uplink subframe scheduled by a single DCI, in other embodiments, multiple DCIs may be included in a single downlink subframe from an eNB, and each of these DCIs may schedule multiple uplink subframes. For example, in one embodiment, four uplink subframes may be scheduled by two DCIs within a single subframe from an eNB to a UE. In such an embodiment, each DCI may schedule two of the four uplink subframes. In such an embodiment, both of the DCIs may have the same format. In other embodiments, a single downlink subframe allocating multiple uplink subframes to a UE from an eNB may include DCIs with different formats. Such an embodiment may, for example, include a single subframe that includes a first DCI having DCI format  500 , and a second DCI having a standard DCI format 0 or 4. In other embodiments, additional numbers of DCIs may be present in a single subframe having any combination of DCIs with shared or different formats. For example, two DCIs may have DCI format  500 , and one DCI may have a standard DCI format or any other such format, as long as space is available within the subframe. 
       FIG.  7    then illustrates a method  700  that may be performed by a UE. Method  700  is a method for multi-subframe uplink scheduling in unlicensed spectrum, in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, the method  700  may be performed by a UE such as UE  101 ,  201 ,  802 ,  804 ,  806  or any other such device. In other embodiments, method  700  is implemented as instructions in a computer readable media that configure a UE to perform method  700  when the instructions are executed by one or more processors of the eNB. In other embodiments, other such implementations may be used for method  700 . For the purposes of illustration, method  700  is described in the context of  FIG.  1   . Any implementations discussed herein may be used for method  700  in various embodiments. 
     Method  700  begins with UE  101  initiating transmission in operation  705  of a first uplink scheduling request to cNB  150 . The scheduling request may be initiated in response to a request for network resources or data by application circuitry or any other control circuitry  105  of UE  101 . After transmit circuitry  110  successfully transmits the scheduling request to eNB  150 , then a response is received by receive circuitry  115 . In operation  710 , circuitry of UE  101  processes a subframe from the eNB  150  comprising one or more DCIs to identify a plurality of uplink subframes allocated in response to the request for network access from operation  705 . In some embodiments, signaling may be used to configure circuitry of UE  101  to identify various DCI formats and subframe transmissions used to schedule multiple uplink subframes in a single downlink subframe transmission. Such signaling may, for example, be L1/L2 signaling, RRC signaling, or any other such signaling used to set scheduling delays or communicate DCI format information to UE  101 . This information may then be used by UE  101  in operation  710  to process the received subframe including the one or more DCIs. In processing the received subframe, the UE  101  may identify the DCI information from a variety of resource elements. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, existing control channel regions of a PDCCH (e.g. the first three OFDM symbols) include the one or more DCI transmissions, in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the UE  101  receives the one or more DCIs from an extended control channel region of the PDCCH that includes more than three OFDM symbols. In some such embodiments, an associated PCFICH is adjusted as described above if needed. For example, in one embodiment, if the region for carrying PDCCH is extended from three options (e.g. one, two or three OFDM symbols) to four options (e.g. one, two, three, or four OFDM symbols) the existing PCFICH can be re-used, with the reserved value for a CFI used to indicate the additional option for the control channel region (e.g. four OFDM symbols). In another embodiment, if the region for carrying PDCCH is extended to more than four options (e.g. one, two, three, four, or five OFDM symbols), the PCFICH is modified to enable the indication for the different control regions (e.g. more bits are used to indicate CFI values). In some embodiments, the code rate is modified, while in others the codeword length is modified. 
     In different embodiments, the delay time allocated for processing the allocation by UE  101  in operation  710  may vary. In some embodiments, the delay between the DCI received in the allocation subframe from eNB and the first allocated uplink subframe may set as a time (e.g. 4 ms, 3 ms, 2 ms, 0.5 ms, etcetera) or a frame schedule (e.g. 5 subframes, 3 subframes, one subframe, etcetera). In other embodiments, this delay may be configurable rather than set, and the delay may be set by any acceptable signaling, such as L1/L2 signaling, RRC signaling, or any other higher layer signaling. 
     When the one or more DCIs are successfully processed, the UE  101  identifies the subframes allocated, and transmits data to eNB  150  in operation  715  using the allocated subframes. The scheduled UEs first perform LBT prior to the scheduled uplink subframes and if the channel is sensed to be idle, the UEs would start transmitting. 
       FIG.  8    is a block diagram of a system  800  including eNB and multiple UEs that may be used with some embodiments described herein.  FIG.  8    describes eNB  850  coupled to UEs  802 ,  804 , and  806  via air interface  890 . eNB  850  provides the UEs  802 - 806  with access to network  860 , which may be a wide area network or the Internet. Any of these elements may be similar to corresponding elements described above. In some embodiments, eNB  850  sends an uplink grant for a specific set of subframes on the unlicensed channel to a particular UE. In some embodiments, different UEs may simultaneously receive uplink grants for a plurality of different subframes via any method described herein. In order to access the unlicensed channel, UEs  802 ,  804 , and  806  perform coexistence operations, and use the subframes allocated by eNB  850  to upload data to network  860  using the allocated subframes. In some embodiments, eNB  850  comprises a single device. In other embodiments, eNB  850  or any other eNB described herein may be implemented in a cloud radio area network (C-RAN) structure, with one or more baseband processors in a first component device of the eNB and one or more antennas in one or more other devices coupled to the first component device. For example, in some such embodiments, a first component device having baseband processors is coupled to one or more second component devices each having one or more antennas, and each being connected to the first component device via a fiber optic connection or some other wired or wireless connection. 
     Examples 
     In various embodiments, methods, apparatus, non-transitory media, computer program products, or other implementations may be presented as example embodiments in accordance with the descriptions provided above. Certain embodiments may include UE such as phones, tablets, mobile computers, or other such devices. Some embodiments may be integrated circuit components of such devices, such as circuits implementing media access control (MAC) and/or L1 processing on an integrated circuitry. In some embodiments, functionality may be on a single chip or multiple chips in an apparatus. Some such embodiments may further include transmit and receive circuitry on integrated or separate circuits, with antennas that are similarly integrated or separate structures of a device. Any such components or circuit elements may similarly apply to evolved node B embodiments described herein. 
     Example 1 is an apparatus of an evolved node B (eNB) comprising: memory, and control circuitry coupled to the memory and configured to: manage reception of a first uplink scheduling request from a first user equipment (UE); schedule, by the eNB, a plurality of uplink subframes on the unlicensed channel in response to the first uplink scheduling request; and initiate transmission of a first downlink subframe in response to the scheduling of the plurality of uplink subframes, wherein the first downlink subframe comprises one or more downlink control indicators (DCIs) allocating the plurality of uplink subframes to the first UE. 
     In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 optionally includes, wherein the first downlink subframe and the one or more DCIs comprises a plurality of DCIs. 
     In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2 optionally includes, wherein a first DCI of the plurality of DCIs includes two or more uplink grants, wherein each uplink grant schedules a different uplink subframe of the plurality of uplink subframes. 
     In Example 4, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-3 optionally include-3, wherein the first DCI is carried in an extended Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) with the two or more UL grants transmitted to the first UE in a data region of the EPDCCH. 
     In Example 5, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-4 optionally include-3, wherein each DCI of the plurality of DCIs comprises an identifier associated with a single corresponding uplink subframe of the plurality of uplink subframes. 
     In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 5 optionally includes, wherein scheduling information included in plurality of DCIs is transmitted to the first UE using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). 
     In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 6 optionally includes, wherein a control channel region of the PDCCH is extended to more than three orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. 
     In Example 8, the subject matter of Example 7 optionally includes, wherein a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) is modified to allow for the control channel region of the PDCCH as extended to more than three OFDM symbols. 
     In Example 9, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-8 optionally include, wherein the one or more DCIs consists of a first DCI. 
     In Example 10, the subject matter of Example 9 optionally includes, wherein the first DCI is modified to have a larger size, with an additional field carrying information for multi-subframe scheduling with uplink grants for the plurality of uplink subframes. 
     In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 10 optionally includes, wherein the first DCI comprises a DCI format 0/4 modified to have the larger size, wherein the DCI format 0/4 comprises a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled with a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI). 
     In Example 12, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-11 optionally include-3 or 9-11, wherein the CRC of the one or more DCIs are scrambled by a multi-subframe scheduling RNTI (MS-RNTI), which indicates a DCI type. 
     In Example 13, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-12 optionally include-3 or 9-11, wherein the plurality of uplink subframes are associated with an adjustable delay between transmission of a first uplink subframe among the plurality of uplink subframes and a corresponding uplink grant for the uplink scheduling. 
     In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 13 optionally includes, wherein the adjustable delay is set using signaling from one or more signaling communications comprising L1/L2 signaling, RRC signaling, or higher layer system signaling. 
     In Example 15, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-14 optionally include-3 or 9-11, wherein the instructions further cause the eNB to perform a listen before talk operation on the unlicensed channel prior to initiating transmission of the first downlink subframe containing the one or more DCIs for multi-subframe scheduling on the unlicensed channel. 
     In Example 16, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-15 optionally include-3 or 9-11, wherein the one or more DCIs and the plurality of uplink subframes use different component carriers for cross-carrier scheduling. 
     In Example 17, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-16 optionally include-3 or 9-11 wherein the DCIs are multiplexed in the time domain within the first subframe. 
     In Example 18, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-17 optionally include-3 or 9-11 wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: receive, at the eNB, a plurality of uplink scheduling request from a plurality of UEs, the plurality of UEs comprising the first UE; schedule, by the eNB, a second plurality of uplink subframes on the unlicensed channel in response to the plurality of uplink scheduling request, the second plurality of uplink subframes comprising the plurality of uplink subframes; and initiate transmission of a plurality of downlink subframes in response to the scheduling of the second plurality of uplink subframes, wherein each downlink subframe comprises one or more DCIs allocating at least a portion of the second plurality of uplink subframes to a corresponding UE of the plurality of UEs. 
     In Example 19, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-18 optionally include-3 or 9-11, further comprising: an antenna; receive circuitry coupled to the antenna and configured to receive the first scheduling request from the first UE via the antenna and communicate the first scheduling request to the control circuitry; and transmit circuitry configured to transmit the first subframe to the first UE via the antenna. 
     In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 optionally includes, wherein the receive circuitry receives the first scheduling request via the antenna on the unlicensed channel. 
     In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 20 optionally includes, wherein the receive circuitry receives the first scheduling request via the antenna on a licensed channel that is different than the unlicensed channel. 
     Example 22 is a computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure an evolved node B (cNB) for communications using an unlicensed channel, the instructions to configure the eNB to: process one or more uplink scheduling requests from one or more user equipment (UE); schedule a plurality of uplink subframes on the unlicensed channel in response to the one or more uplink scheduling request; and initiate transmission of a first downlink subframe to at least a first UE of the one or more UE on a first unlicensed channel in response to the scheduling of the plurality of uplink subframes, wherein the first downlink subframe comprises one or more downlink control indicators (DCIs) allocating the plurality of uplink subframes to the one or more UE. 
     In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 22 optionally includes, wherein the plurality of uplink subframes are associated with a fixed delay between transmission of a first uplink subframe among the plurality of uplink subframes and a corresponding uplink grant from the first downlink subframe. 
     In Example 24, the subject matter of Example 23 optionally includes, wherein the fixed delay is at least 4 milliseconds. 
     In Example 25, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 23-24 optionally include, wherein the fixed delay is less than 4 milliseconds. 
     In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25 optionally includes, further comprising: an antenna; broadband circuitry coupled to the antenna and configured to receive the downlink subframe from the eNB via the antenna and communicate the downlink subframe to the circuitry and to transmit the first uplink scheduling request to the via the antenna. 
     Example 27 is an apparatus of an evolved node B (cNB) comprising: memory; means for processing uplink scheduling requests from one or more user equipment (UE); means for scheduling a plurality of uplink subframes on the unlicensed channel in response to the one or more uplink scheduling request; and means for transmitting the first downlink subframe to at least the one or more UE on at least a first unlicensed channel in response to the scheduling of the plurality of uplink subframes, wherein the first downlink subframe comprises one or more downlink control indicators (DCIs) allocating the plurality of uplink subframes to the one or more UE. 
     In Example 28, the subject matter of Example 27 optionally includes, wherein the first downlink subframe and the one or more DCIs comprises a plurality of DCIs; wherein a first DCI of the plurality of DCIs includes two or more uplink grants, wherein each uplink grant schedules a different uplink subframe of the plurality of uplink subframes; and wherein the first DCI is carried in an extended Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) with the two or more UL grants transmitted to the first UE in a data region of the EPDCCH. 
     In Example 29, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27-28 optionally include, wherein each DCI of the plurality of DCIs comprises an identifier associated with a single corresponding uplink subframe of the plurality of uplink subframes. 
     In Example 30, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27-29 optionally include wherein scheduling information included in plurality of DCIs is transmitted to the first UE using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). 
     In Example 31, the subject matter of Example 30 optionally includes further comprising: means for adjusting delay between transmission of a first uplink subframe among the plurality of uplink subframes and a corresponding uplink grant for the uplink scheduling. 
     In Example 32, the subject matter of Example 31 optionally includes, wherein the adjustable delay is set using signaling from one or more signaling communications comprising L1/L2 signaling, RRC signaling, or higher layer system signaling. 
     In Example 33, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 27-32 optionally include further comprising means for performing a listen before talk operation on the unlicensed channel prior to initiating transmission of the first downlink subframe containing the one or more DCIs for multi-subframe scheduling on the unlicensed channel. 
     Example 34 is an apparatus of a user equipment (UE) comprising: means for requesting network access; means for initiating initiate transmission of a first uplink scheduling request to an evolved node B (eNB); means for processing a subframe from the eNB comprising one or more DCIs to identify a plurality of uplink subframes allocated in response to the request for network access; and means for initiating transmission of a set of uplink data using the plurality of uplink subframes. 
     In Example 35, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 25-34 optionally include, further comprising: means for transmitting and receiving data across an air gap. 
     Example 36 is a method of signaling uplink (UL) scheduling information in unlicensed spectrum. 
     Example 37 is The method of any claim above wherein multiple UL subframes can be scheduled jointly via DCIs within a single DL subframe. 
     Example 38 is The method of any claim above wherein multiple UL subframes for any number of UE can be scheduled jointly via DCIs within a single downlink (DL) subframe. 
     Example 39 is The method of any claim above wherein a new DCI can be designed for the multi-subframe scheduling. 
     Example 40 is The method of any claim above wherein additional fields to carry the indication of which UL subframes to be scheduled by the DCI can be added. 
     Example 41 is The method of any claim above wherein a new RNTI, called an MS-RNTI, is used to indicated a new DCI format. 
     Example 42 is The method of any claim above wherein an existing C-RNTI is re-used for scrambling the CRC, and the DCI differentiation can be based on a number of bits contained in the DCI. 
     In Example 43, the subject matter of Example undefined optionally includes/4 to indicate the possible different configurations for different subframes within the set of subframes that are scheduled jointly via the same DCI. 
     Example 44 is The method of any claim above wherein multiple DCIs, each of which may either include the scheduling information for a single or multiple UL subframes, are multiplexed within a single DL subframe  45 . A method or apparatus of any claim above wherein the one or more DCIs and the plurality of uplink subframes use different component carriers for cross-carrier scheduling. 
     Example 45 is a method or apparatus of any claim above wherein the DCIs are multiplexed in the time domain within the first subframe. 
     Example 46 is a method of any claim above wherein the existing control channel region for PDCCH (i.e., the first three OFDM symbols) can be used for the DCI transmission. 
     Example 47 is The method of any claim above wherein the existing control channel region for PDCCH is extended. 
     In Example 48, the subject matter of Example 47 optionally includes wherein the control channel region is extended to four options, and existing PCFICH is re-used for the control channel region indication by exploiting the reserved CFI value to indicate the additional control region option. 
     In Example 49, the subject matter of Example undefined optionally includes bits) by modifying the code rate if needed, or the codeword length of PCFICH can be extended and more REs need to be allocated for PCFICH transmission. 
     Example 50 is The method of any claims above wherein the DCI can be carried in EPDCCH which is transmitted in the data region. 
     Example 51 is The method of any claims above wherein the delay between the DCI transmission and the scheduled subframes can be modified. 
     In Example 52, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 4-51 optionally include ms to values less than 4 ms. 
     In Example 53, the subject matter of Example undefined optionally includes/L2 signaling, RRC signaling, or any other higher layer signaling. 
     Example 54 is an apparatus of a user equipment (UE) comprising: circuitry configured to: identify a request for network access; initiate transmission of a first uplink scheduling request to an evolved node B (eNB); process a subframe from the eNB comprising one or more DCIs to identify a plurality of uplink subframes allocated in response to the request for network access; and initiate transmission of a set of uplink data using the plurality of uplink subframes. 
     Further, in addition to the specific combinations of examples described above, any of the examples detailing further implementations of an element of an apparatus or medium may be applied to any other corresponding apparatus or medium, or may be implemented in conjunction with another apparatus or medium. Thus, each example above may be combined with each other example in various ways both as implementations in a system and as combinations of elements to generate an embodiment from the combination of each example or group of examples. For example, any embodiment above describing a transmitting device will have an embodiment that receives the transmission, even if such an embodiment is not specifically detailed. Similarly, methods, apparatus examples, and computer readable medium examples may each have a corresponding example of the other type even if such examples for every embodiment are not specifically detailed. 
     Example Systems and Devices 
       FIG.  9    shows an example UE, illustrated as a UE  900 . The UE  900  may be an implementation of the UE  101 , the eNB  150 , or any device described herein. The UE  900  can include one or more antennas  908  configured to communicate with a transmission station, such as a base station (BS), an eNB  150 , or another type of wireless wide area network (WWAN) access point. The UE  900  can be configured to communicate using at least one wireless communication standard including 3GPP LTE, WiMAX, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). Bluetooth, and WiFi. The UE  900  can communicate using separate antennas  908  for each wireless communication standard or shared antennas  908  for multiple wireless communication standards. The UE  900  can communicate in a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN), and/or a wireless wide area network (WWAN). 
       FIG.  9    also shows a microphone  920  and one or more speakers  912  that can be used for audio input and output to and from the UE  900 . A display screen  904  can be a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, or another type of display screen such as an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. The display screen  904  can be configured as a touch screen. The touch screen can use capacitive, resistive, or another type of touch screen technology. An application processor  914  and a graphics processor  918  can be coupled to an internal memory  916  to provide processing and display capabilities. A non-volatile memory port  910  can also be used to provide data I/O options to a user. The non-volatile memory port  910  can also be used to expand the memory capabilities of the UE  900 . A keyboard  906  can be integrated with the UE  900  or wirelessly connected to the UE  900  to provide additional user input. A virtual keyboard can also be provided using the touch screen. A camera  922  located on the front (display screen  904 ) side or the rear side of the UE  900  can also be integrated into the housing  902  of the UE  900 . 
       FIG.  10    is a block diagram illustrating an example computer system machine  1000  upon which any one or more of the methodologies herein discussed can be run, and which may be used to implement the eNB  150 , the UE  101 , or any other device described herein. In various alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or can be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine  1000  can operate in the capacity of either a server or a client machine in server-client network environments, or it can act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environments. The machine  1000  can be a personal computer (PC) that may or may not be portable (e.g., a notebook or a netbook), a tablet, a set-top box (STB), a gaming console, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone or smartphone, a web appliance, a network muter, switch, or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine  1000  is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
     The example computer system machine  1000  includes a processor  1002  (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), or both), a main memory  1004 , and a static memory  1006 , which communicate with each other via an interconnect  1008  (e.g., a link, a bus, etc.). The computer system machine  1000  can further include a video display unit  1010 , an alphanumeric input device  1012  (e.g., a keyboard  906 ), and a user interface (UI) navigation device  1014  (e.g., a mouse). In one embodiment, the video display device  1010 , input device  1012 , and UI navigation device  1014  are a touch screen display. The computer system machine  1000  can additionally include a mass storage device  1016  (e.g., a drive unit), a signal generation device  1018  (e.g., a speaker), an output controller  1032 , a power management controller  1034 , a network interface device  1020  (which can include or operably communicate with one or more antennas  1030 , transceivers, or other wireless communications hardware), and one or more sensors  1028 , such as a GPS sensor, compass, location sensor, accelerometer, or other sensor. 
     The storage device  1016  includes a machine-readable medium  1022  on which is stored one or more sets of data structures and instructions  1024  (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions  1024  can also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory  1004 , static memory  1006 , and/or processor  1002  during execution thereof by the computer system machine  1000 , with the main memory  1004 , the static memory  1006 , and the processor  1002  also constituting machine-readable media  1022 . 
     While the machine-readable medium  1022  is illustrated, in an example embodiment, to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” can include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more instructions  1024 . The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any tangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions  1024  for execution by the machine  1000  and that cause the machine  1000  to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with such instructions  1024 . 
     The instructions  1024  can further be transmitted or received over a communications network  1026  using a transmission medium via the network interface device  1020  utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)). The term “transmission medium” shall be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions  1024  for execution by the machine  1000 , and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. 
     Various techniques, or certain aspects or portions thereof, may take the form of program code (i.e., instructions  1024 ) embodied in tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, non-transitory computer readable storage media, or any other machine-readable storage medium  1022  wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine  1000 , such as a computer, the machine  1000  becomes an apparatus for practicing the various techniques. In the case of program code execution on programmable computers, the computing device may include a processor  1002 , a storage medium readable by the processor  1002  (including volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), at least one input device  1012 , and at least one output device. The volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements may be a random access memory (RAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash drive, optical drive, magnetic hard drive, or other medium for storing electronic data. The base station and mobile station may also include a transceiver module, a counter module, a processing module, and/or a clock module or timer module. One or more programs that may implement or utilize the various techniques described herein may use an application program interface (API), reusable controls and the like. Such programs may be implemented in a high level procedural or object-oriented programming language to communicate with a computer system. However, the program(s) may be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language, and combined with hardware implementations. 
     Various embodiments may use 3GPP LTE/LTE-A, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 1002.11, and Bluetooth communication standards. Various alternative embodiments may use a variety of other WWAN, WLAN, and WPAN protocols and standards in connection with the techniques described herein. These standards include, but are not limited to, other standards from 3GPP (e.g., HSPA+, UMTS), IEEE 1002.16 (e.g.,  1002 . 16   p ), or Bluetooth (e.g., Bluetooth 9.0, or like standards defined by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group) standards families. Other applicable network configurations can be included within the scope of the presently described communication networks  1026 . It will be understood that communications on such communication networks  1026  can be facilitated using any number of networks, using any combination of wired or wireless transmission mediums. 
       FIG.  11    illustrates, for one embodiment, example components of a UE device  1100 , in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the UE device  1100  may include application circuitry.  1102 , baseband circuitry  1104 , RF circuitry  1106 , front end module (FEM) circuitry  1108 , and one or more antennas  1110 , coupled together at least as shown. In some embodiments, the UE device  1100  may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or I/O interface. 
     The application circuitry  1102  may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry  1102  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system. 
     The baseband circuitry  1104  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry  1104  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  1106  and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  1106 . Baseband circuitry  1104  may interface with the application circuitry  1102  for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry  1106 . For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  1104  may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor  1104   a , third generation (3G) baseband processor  1104   b , fourth generation (4G) baseband processor  1104   c , and/or other baseband processor(s)  1104   d  for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry  1104  (e.g., one or more of baseband processors  1104   a - d ) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry  1106 . The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry  1104  may include fast-fourier transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry  1104  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  1104  may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an EUTRAN protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or RRC elements. A central processing unit (CPU)  1104   e  of the baseband circuitry  1104  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  1104  may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP)  1104   f . The audio DSP(s)  1104   f  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  1104  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  1104  and the application circuitry  1102  may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on chip (SOC) device. 
     In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  1104  may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  1104  may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other WMAN, WLAN, or WPAN. Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry  1104  is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry. 
     RF circuitry  1106  may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry  1106  may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry  1106  may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  1108  and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry  1104 . RF circuitry  1106  may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry  1104  and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry  1108  for transmission. 
     In some embodiments, the RF circuitry  1106  may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry  1106  may include mixer circuitry  1106   a , amplifier circuitry  1106   b , and filter circuitry  1106   c . The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  1106  may include filter circuitry  1106   c  and mixer circuitry  1106   a . RF circuitry  1106  may also include synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  1108  based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry  1106   d . The amplifier circuitry  1106   b  may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals, and the filter circuitry  1106   c  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  1104  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  1106   a  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  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry  1108 . The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry  1104  and may be filtered by filter circuitry  1106   c . The filter circuitry  1106   c  may include a LPF, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. 
     In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down conversion and/or up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  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  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  may be arranged for direct down conversion and/or direct up conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation. 
     In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry  1106  may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry  1104  may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry  1106 . 
     In some dual-mode embodiments, separate circuitry including one or more integrated circuits may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. 
     In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 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  1106   d  may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. 
     The synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the RF circuitry  1106  based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer. 
     In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry  1104  or the applications processor  1102  depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor  1102 . 
     Synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  of the RF circuitry  1106  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+1 (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  1106   d  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  1106  may include a polar converter. 
     FEM circuitry  1108  may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas  1110 , amplify the received signals, and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry  1106  for further processing. FEM circuitry  1108  may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry  1106  for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas  1110 . 
     In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry  1108  may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry  1108  may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry  1108  may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry  1106 ). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry  1108  may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry  1106 ), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas  1110 ). 
     In some embodiments, the UE  1100  comprises a plurality of power saving mechanisms. If the UE  1100  is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the eNB because it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power. 
     If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the UE  1100  may transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, and the like. The UE  1100  goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device cannot receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the device transitions back to an RRC_Connected state. 
     An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable. 
     The embodiments described above can be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Various methods or techniques, or certain aspects or portions thereof, can take the form of program code (i.e., instructions) embodied in tangible media, such as flash memory, hard drives, portable storage devices, read-only memory (ROM), RAM, semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, and any other machine-readable storage medium or storage device wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer or networking device, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the various techniques. 
     It should be understood that the functional units or capabilities described in this specification may have been referred to or labeled as components or modules in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a component or module can be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom very-large-scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A component or module can also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable army logic, programmable logic devices, or the like. Components or modules can also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified component or module of executable code can, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which can, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified component or module need not be physically located together, but can comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the component or module and achieve the stated purpose for the component or module. 
     Indeed, a component or module of executable code can be a single instruction, or many instructions, and can even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data can be identified and illustrated herein within components or modules, and can be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data can be collected as a single data set, or can be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and can exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network. The components or modules can be passive or active, including agents operable to perform desired functions.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20230918
Publication Date: 20241015
Grant Date: 20241015
Priority Date: 20151207
Inventors: YE, QIAOYANG
KWON, HWAN-JOON
JEON, JEONGHO
BHORKAR, ABHIJEET
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04L5/0053", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/23", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0094", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0042", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0037", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0082", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0044", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/001", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W16/14", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/23", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0053", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0094", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0044", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0042", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0037", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W16/14", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/001", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/21", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0082", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W16/14", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0094", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/001", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/23", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0082", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0053", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0044", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0042", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0037", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/21", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 59012913