PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-10873962-B2
Application Number: US-201816480196-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Mechanisms for handling uplink grants indicating different physical uplink shared channel starting positions in a same subframe

Abstract:
Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media are provided for handling uplink grants indicating different physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) starting positions in a same subframe of enhanced Licensed Assisted Access (eLAA) systems. In embodiments, a user equipment (UE) may receive Downlink Control Information (DCI). The DCI may indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more LAA secondary cell. Each of the at least two uplink grants may indicate different starting positions for PUSCH transmissions within a same subframe. The UE may align the different starting positions such that the UE is to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Claims:
The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media (NTCRSM) including instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) is to cause the UE to:
 control receipt of Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and 
 align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
 
     
     
       2. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 1 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     
     
       3. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 1 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     
     
       4. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 1 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to control performance of a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     
     
       5. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 1 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to:
 identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions; 
 control performance of an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and 
 control non-performance of an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
 
     
     
       6. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 5 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to control performance of an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     
     
       7. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 1 , wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission. 
     
     
       8. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 7 , wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     
     
       9. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 1 , wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message. 
     
     
       10. The one or more NTCRSM of  claim 9 , wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include:
 a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; 
 a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (μs) in symbol  0 ; 
 a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or 
 a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
 
     
     
       11. A system on chip (SoC) to be implemented in a user equipment (UE) the SoC comprising:
 baseband circuitry and memory circuitry, the baseband circuitry to:
 control receipt of Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; 
 control storage of each of the at least two uplink grants in the memory circuitry; and 
 align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
 
 
     
     
       12. The SoC of  claim 11 , wherein, to align the different starting positions, the baseband circuitry is to:
 align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
 
     
     
       13. The SoC of  claim 11 , wherein, to align the different starting positions, the baseband circuitry is to:
 align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
 
     
     
       14. The SoC of  claim 11 , wherein the baseband circuitry is to:
 perform a listen-before-talk, “LBT”, operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
 
     
     
       15. The SoC of  claim 11 , wherein, to align the different starting positions, the baseband circuitry is to:
 identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions; 
 control performance of an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and 
 not perform an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
 
     
     
       16. The SoC of  claim 15 , wherein the baseband circuitry is to:
 control performance of LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
 
     
     
       17. The SoC of  claim 11 , wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission, and wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     
     
       18. The SoC of  claim 11 , wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message, and wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include:
 a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; 
 a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (μs) in symbol  0 ; 
 a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or 
 a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
 
     
     
       19. An apparatus to be employed as a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:
 communication circuitry to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and 
 processor circuitry communicatively coupled with the communication circuitry, the processor circuitry is to:
 perform a decode attempt on a set of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidates or a set of enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) candidates to obtain the DCI, and 
 align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
 
 
     
     
       20. The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the processor circuitry is to align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions or align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     
     
       21. The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the communication circuitry is to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     
     
       22. The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein:
 the processor circuitry is to identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions, and 
 the communication circuitry is to perform an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and for not performing an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
 
     
     
       23. The apparatus of  claim 22 , wherein the processor circuitry is to control the communication circuitry to perform an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     
     
       24. The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission, and wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     
     
       25. The apparatus of  claim 19 , wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message, and wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include:
 a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; 
 a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (μs) in symbol  0 ; 
 a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; and 
 a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 .

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application is a national phase entry under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/US2018/024748, filed Mar. 28, 2018, entitled “MECHANISMS FOR HANDLING UPLINK GRANTS INDICATING DIFFERENT PHYSICAL UPLINK SHARED CHANNEL STARTING POSITIONS IN A SAME SUBFRAME,” which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/478,448 filed Mar. 29, 2017, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     Various embodiments of the present application generally relate to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to conditional handovers and mobility state estimation. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Some Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems may operate in unlicensed spectrum, which are typically in the 5 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band. Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and further eLAA (feLAA) are Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards-based technology mechanisms that require an anchor in licensed spectrum to enable communications in the unlicensed spectrum. LAA, eLAA, and feLAA adhere to the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol, where LAA adheres requires an LBT mechanism only for downlink (DL) communications, while eLAA and feLAA require LBT mechanisms for both DL and uplink (UL) communications. In addition to various regulatory requirements, such as indoor-only use, maximum in-band output power, in-band power spectral density, and out-of-band and spurious emissions, LTE operation in some unlicensed spectrum also implement dynamic frequency selection (DFS) and transmit power control (TPC) depending on the operating band to avoid interfering with radars. 
     Furthermore, some LTE systems, such as LTE-Advanced systems, support carrier aggregation (CA), which distinguishes between primary cells (PCells) and secondary cell (SCells). A PCell is a main cell with which a user equipment (UE) communicates and maintains the UE&#39;s connection with the network. One or more SCells may be allocated and activated to the UEs supporting CA for bandwidth extension. In LAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), where the LAA SCells are assisted by a licensed PCell via CA. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting positions within a same subframe. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings. 
         FIG. 1A  illustrates an example system architecture of a network, in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG. 1B  shows an example scenario where a UE configured with more than one Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) Secondary Cells (SCells) and receives multiple UL grants indicating different Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting positions. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates another example system architecture of a network, in accordance with various embodiments 
         FIG. 3  depicts an example of infrastructure equipment in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG. 4  depicts example components of a computer platform in accordance with various embodiments 
         FIG. 5  depicts example components of baseband circuitry and radio frequency circuitry in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG. 6  depicts example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG. 7  depicts example components capable to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to various example embodiments. 
         FIG. 8  shows an example process for handling multiple uplink (UL) grants on configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG. 9  shows another example process for handling multiple UL grants on configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions in accordance with various embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments herein are related to situations in which a user equipment (UE) receives uplink (UL) grants on configured Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) indicating different PUSCH starting position within a same subframe. For example, Downlink Control Information (DCI) formats 0A, 0B, 4A and/or 4B may include a two-bit Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting position field that indicates a starting position for transmitting UL data in a subframe. The possible PUSCH starting positions may include symbol  0 , 25 us in symbol  0 , (25+TA) us in symbol  0 , and symbol  1 . The DCI may indicate one out of four possible starting positions and, according to the current standards, there is no limitation on the possible combinations of PUSCH starting positions on different LAA SCells within a same subframe. Therefore, the UE could be required to transmit multiple UL transmissions at different starting positions within a same subframe. This may cause issues in LAA systems, when the UE is not capable of performing listen-before-talk (LBT) operations while in a transmission mode. 
     According to various embodiments, the UE is not expected to receive UL grants on LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe. In embodiments, when a UE receives UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe, the UE may align the PUSCH starting position to the earliest position among the indicated positions. In embodiments, when a UE receives UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe, the UE may align the PUSCH starting position to the latest position among the indicated positions. In embodiments, when a UE receives UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe, and if the UE is in a transmission mode to transmit PUSCH transmission on one or more LAA SCells, the UE may not be required to process the UL grants indicating PUSCH starting positions later in time. In these embodiments, the UE may not be required to perform LBT while in the transmission mode. In embodiments, if the UE fails LBT for all PUSCH starting positions earlier in time, the UE may continue to perform LBT for PUSCH starting positions later in time according to the UL grants. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed. 
     The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of the claimed invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the invention claimed may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail. 
     Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may be practiced with only some of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments. 
     Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation. 
     The phrase “in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” and the like are used repeatedly. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiments; however, it may. The terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrase “A and/or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). The phrases “A/B” and “A or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B), similar to the phrase “A and/or B.” For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “at least one of A and B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” “in embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” and/or “in various embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous. 
     Example embodiments may be described as a process depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations may be performed in parallel, concurrently, or simultaneously. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process may be terminated when its operations are completed, but may also have additional steps not included in the figure(s). A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, and the like. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return of the function to the calling function and/or the main function. 
     Example embodiments may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes, being executed by one or more of the aforementioned circuitry. The program code, software modules, and/or functional processes may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular data types. The program code, software modules, and/or functional processes discussed herein may be implemented using existing hardware in existing communication networks. For example, program code, software modules, and/or functional processes discussed herein may be implemented using existing hardware at existing network elements or control nodes. 
     Referring now to the figures,  FIG. 1A  illustrates an architecture of a system  100 A of a network, in accordance with various embodiments. The following description is provided for an example system  100 A that operates in conjunction with the Fifth Generation (5G) or New Radio (NR) system standards as provided by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS). However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), future (for example, Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, and the like. 
     As shown by  FIG. 1A , the system  100 A may include user equipment (UE)  101  and UE  102 . As used herein, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may refer to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface. In this example, UEs  101  and  102  are illustrated as smartphones (for example, handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, machine-type communications (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and/or the like. 
     In some embodiments, any of the UEs  101  and  102  can comprise an IoT UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (for example, keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network. 
     The UEs  101  and  102  may be configured to connect, for example, communicatively couple, with a access network (AN) or radio access network (RAN)  110 . In embodiments, the RAN  110  may be a next generation (NG) RAN or a 5G RAN, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) or GERAN (GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications or Groupe Spécial Mobile) EDGE (GSM Evolution) Radio Access Network). As used herein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN  110  that operates in an NR or 5G system  100 A, and the term “E-UTRAN” or the like may refer to a RAN  110  that operates in an LTE or 4G system  100 A. The UEs  101  and  102  utilize connections (or channels)  103  and  104 , respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below). As used herein, the term “channel” may refer to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” may refer to a connection between two devices through a Radio Access Technology (RAT) for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information. 
     In this example, the connections  103  and  104  are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and/or any of the other communications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs  101  and  102  may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface  105 . The ProSe interface  105  may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface  105  and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH). 
     The UE  102  is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP)  106  (also referred to as also referred to as “WLAN node  106 ”, “WLAN  106 ”, “WLAN Termination  106 ” or “WT  106 ” or the like) via connection  107 . The connection  107  can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP  106  would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP  106  is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE  102 , RAN  110 , and AP  106  may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and/or WLAN LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel (LWIP) operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE  102  in RRC_CONNECTED being configured by a RAN node  111 ,  112  to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE  102  using WLAN radio resources (for example, connection  107 ) via Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (for example, internet protocol (IP) packets) sent over the connection  107 . IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets. 
     The RAN  110  can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes  111  and  112  that enable the connections  103  and  104 . As used herein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” or the like may describe equipment that provides the radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred to as base stations (BS), next Generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN nodes, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), NodeBs, Road Side Units (RSUs), Transmission Reception Points (TRxPs or TRPs), and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (for example, terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (for example, a cell). The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity implemented in or by an gNB/eNB/RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”, an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU.” As used herein, the term “NG RAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node  111 / 112  that operates in an NR or 5G system  100 A (for example a gNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node  111 / 112  that operates in an LTE or 4G system  100 A (for example, an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes  111  and/or  112  may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells. In other embodiments, the RAN nodes  111  and/or  112  may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a cloud radio access network (CRAN). In other embodiments, the RAN nodes  111  and  112  may represent individual gNB-distributed units (DUs) that are connected to a gNB-centralized unit (CU) via an F1 interface (not shown by  FIG. 1A ). 
     Any of the RAN nodes  111  and  112  can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs  101  and  102 . In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes  111  and  112  can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN  110  including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. 
     In embodiments, the UEs  101  and  102  can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes  111  and  112  over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique (for example, for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique (for example, for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers. 
     In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes  111  and  112  to the UEs  101  and  102 , while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks. 
     According to various embodiments, the UEs  101 ,  102  and the RAN nodes  111 ,  112  communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as the “licensed spectrum” and/or the “licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as the “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensed band”). The licensed spectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, whereas the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band. 
     To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs  101 ,  102  and the RAN nodes  111 ,  112  may operate using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and/or further eLAA (feLAA) mechanisms. In these implementations, the UEs  101 ,  102  and the RAN nodes  111 ,  112  may perform one or more known medium-sensing operations and/or carrier-sensing operations in order to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. 
     LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs  101 ,  102 , RAN nodes  111 ,  112 , etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include clear channel assessment (CCA), which utilizes at least energy detection (ED) to determine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determine if a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing radiofrequency (RF) energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold. 
     Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism, called carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE  101  or  102 , AP  106 , or the like) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomly within the contention window size (CWS), which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence of collision and reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmission bursts including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have an LAA contention window that is variable in length between X and Y extended CCA (ECCA) slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) (for example, a transmission burst) may be based on governmental regulatory requirements. 
     The LAA mechanisms are built upon carrier aggregation (CA) technologies of LTE-Advanced systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a component carrier (CC). A CC may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of five CCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In Time Division Duplexing (TDD) systems, the number of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the same for DL and UL. 
     CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, due to that CCs on different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. A primary service cell or primary cell (PCell) may provide a Primary CC (PCC) for both UL and DL, and may handle Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Non-Access Stratum (NAS) related activities. The other serving cells are referred to as secondary cells (SCells), and each SCell may provide an individual Secondary CC (SCC) for both UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, while changing the PCC may require the UE  101 ,  102  to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assisted by a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting positions within a same subframe. 
     The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs  101  and  102 . The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs  101  and  102  about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE  102  within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes  111  and  112  based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs  101  and  102 . The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (for example, assigned to) each of the UEs  101  and  102 . 
     The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (for example, aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8). 
     Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations. 
     As an example, a subframe may include multiple physical resource block (PRB) pairs of a PDCCH and/or an EPDCCH, where one or more of the PRB pairs may carrier control information intended for the UE  101 ,  102 . This subframe may be one of ten 1 millisecond (ms) subframes within a radio frame that is 10 millisecond (ms). The radio frame may be a frame structure 1 (FS1) radio frame, a frame structure 2 (FS2) radio frame, or a frame structure 3 (FS3) radio frame. An OFDMA sub-carrier spacing for the radio frame in the frequency domain may be 15 kilohertz (kHz). Twelve of these sub-carriers together allocated during a 0.5 ms timeslot are called a resource block, which may include a PRB pair. A UE  101 ,  102  may be allocated, in the downlink or uplink, a minimum of two resources blocks during one subframe. According to existing standards, the PDSCH may be used for user data transmissions and the PDCCH and/or EPDCCH may be used for control information. The control information may specify the format of the data, and the location and timing of the radio resources allocated to the UE  101 ,  102  for transmitting or receiving data. The control information may be in the form of a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message. The DCI message may be identified by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) encoded in the DCI message. 
     A DCI message may transport downlink, uplink, or sidelink scheduling information, requests for aperiodic Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reports, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) common information, notifications of Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) changes, or uplink power control commands for one cell and one Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI). The RNTI may be implicitly encoded in the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits of the DCI. 
     DCI may be conveyed using a plurality of DCI formats. In particular, DCI format 0A may be used for the scheduling of PUSCH transmissions in a LAA SCell; DCI format 0B may be used for the scheduling of PUSCH in each of multiple subframes in a LAA SCell; DCI format 4A may be used for the scheduling of PUSCH in a LAA SCell with multi-antenna port transmission mode; and DCI format 4B may be used for the scheduling of PUSCH with multi-antenna port transmission mode in each of multiple subframes in a LAA SCell. Each of DCI format 0A, 0B, 4A, and 4B may include, inter alia, a one bit channel access type field, a two bit channel access priority class field, and a PUSCH starting position comprising two bits with values as specified by table 1. 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 PUSCH starting position 
               
            
           
           
               
               
            
               
                 Value 
                 PUSCH starting position 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 00 
                 symbol 0 
               
               
                 01 
                 25 μs in symbol 0 
               
               
                 10 
                 (25 + TA) μs in symbol 0 
               
               
                 11 
                 symbol 1 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     As shown by  FIG. 1B , issues may arise when the UE  101 ,  102  receives multiple UL grants on configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions within a same subframe. 
       FIG. 1B  shows a scenario  100 B where a UE  101 ,  102  is configured with more than one LAA SCells and receives multiple UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions. In  FIG. 1B , the subframe n comprises a plurality of symbols  140  (labeled 1-11 in  FIG. 1B ). In this example, the UL grants received by the UE  101  may include a first UL grant (“UL grant  1 ” in  FIG. 1B ) to start from symbol  0  and a second UL grant (“UL grant  2 ” in  FIG. 1B ) to start from symbol  1 . Prior to transmitting on the indicated symbol, the UE  101 ,  102  may perform LBT at the starting position to determine whether the channel is unoccupied. As discussed previously, the UL grants could indicate one out of four possible starting positions and, according to the current LTE standards, there is no limitation on the possible combinations of PUSCH starting positions on different LAA SCells within a same subframe. 
     One problem of the UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions is that the UE  101 ,  102  may already be in a transmission mode at the indicated PUSCH starting position later in time within the same subframe. For example, the UE  101 ,  102  may be in the transmission mode at the starting position for symbol  1  based on the UL grant  1 . The UE  101 ,  102  performing LBT while in transmission mode may be considered equivalent to requiring the UE  101 ,  102  to be capable of simultaneous reception and transmission. However, most LTE-capable UEs are not required to be capable of simultaneous transmission and reception. 
     One example where such a problem may arise is when the subframe n is part of an FS2 radio frame, where multiple cells with different uplink-downlink configurations in the current radio frame are aggregated. This is because, when multiple cells with different uplink-downlink configurations in the current radio frame are aggregated and the UE  101 ,  102  is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission in the aggregated cells, the UE  101 ,  102  may be constrained as follows:
         if the subframe in the PCell is a DL subframe, the UE  101 ,  102  shall not transmit any signal or channel on an SCell in the same subframe;   if the subframe in the PCell is an UL subframe, the UE is not expected to receive any DL transmissions on an SCell in the same subframe; and/or   if the subframe in the PCell is a special subframe and the same subframe in an SCell is a DL subframe, the UE  101 ,  102  is not expected to receive PDSCH/EPDCCH/PMCH/PRS transmissions in the SCell in the same subframe, and the UE  101 ,  102  is not expected to receive any other signals on the SCell in OFDM symbols that overlap with a guard period or Uplink Pilot Timeslot (UpPTS) in the PCell.       

     The embodiments discussed herein provide various mechanisms to remove considerations on simultaneous transmission and reception in eLAA UE implementations. In embodiments, the following relaxation may be applied: “A UE is not expected to receive UL grants on LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe.” 
     In order to remove considerations on simultaneous transmission and reception in eLAA UE implementations, the following relaxations can be considered.
         Embodiment 1: The UE  101 ,  102  is not expected to receive UL grants on LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe.   Embodiment 2: If UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe are received, the UE  101 ,  102  may align the PUSCH starting position to an earliest position among the indicated starting positions.   Embodiment 3: If UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe are received, the UE  101 ,  102  may aligns the PUSCH starting position to a latest position among the indicated starting positions.   Embodiment 4: If UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe are received and if the UE  101 ,  102  is in transmission of PUSCH on one LAA SCell, the UE  101 ,  102  is not required to process the UL grants indicating PUSCH starting positions later in time. In other words, the UE  101 ,  102  is not required to perform LBT while in the transmission mode. If the UE fails LBT for all PUSCH starting positions earlier in time, the UE will continue to perform LBT for PUSCH starting positions later in time according to the UL grants.       

     The above relaxations may only apply to the LAA SCells belonging to the same RF band, for example, intra-band CA. If a subset of aggregated LAA SCells belongs to different RF band(s), for example, inter-band CA, the UE  101 ,  102  may be able to simultaneously transmit and receive. For example, the UE  101 ,  102  may be able to process UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions. 
     According to various implementations of embodiments 1-4, the UE  101 ,  102  may operate as follows: 
     The UE  101 ,  102  may access a carrier on which LAA Scell(s) UL transmission(s) are performed according to one of type 1 or type 2 UL channel access procedures. The type 1 channel access procedure may be as follows: 
     The UE  101 ,  102  may perform a sensing operation and may transmit after sensing the channel to be idle during the slot durations of a defer duration T d ; and after the counter N is zero (see step 4). The counter N may be adjusted by sensing the channel for additional slot duration(s) according to the following steps: 
     1) set counter N to be N=N init , where N init  is a random number uniformly distributed between 0 and CW p , and go to step 4, where CW p  is a contention window adjustment that is based on a channel access priority class p on a carrier (see e.g., table 2); 
     2) if N&gt;0 and the UE  101 ,  102  chooses to decrement the counter, set N=N−1; 
     3) sense the channel for an additional slot duration, and if the additional slot duration is idle, go to step 4; else, go to step 5; 
     4) if N=0, stop; else, go to step 2. 
     5) sense the channel until either a busy slot is detected within an additional defer duration T d  or all the slots of the additional defer duration T d  are detected to be idle; and 
     6) if the channel is sensed to be idle during all the slot durations of the additional defer duration T d , go to step 4; else, go to step 5. 
     The type 2 channel access procedure may be as follows: If the UE  101 ,  102  uses the type 2 channel access procedure for a transmission including PUSCH, the UE  101 ,  102  may transmit the transmission including the PUSCH immediately after sensing the channel to be idle for at least a sensing interval T short_ul =25 μs. T short_ul  comprises a duration T f =16 μs immediately followed by one slot duration T sl =9 μs and T f  includes an idle slot duration T sl  at start of T f . The channel is considered to be idle for T short_ul  if it is sensed to be idle during the slot durations of T short_ul . 
     The UE  101 ,  102  may use the type 1 or type 2 channel access procedure for transmitting transmissions including the PUSCH transmission when a UL grant scheduling a PUSCH transmission indicates the type 1 channel access procedure or the type 2 channel access procedure. The UE  101 ,  102  may also use the type 1 channel access procedure for transmitting sounding reference signal (SRS) transmissions not including a PUSCH transmission. A channel access priority class of p=1 may be used for UL SRS transmissions that do not include a PUSCH transmission. 
     If the UE  101 ,  102  is scheduled to transmit transmissions including PUSCH in a set subframes n 0 , n 1 ,Λ, n w−1  using PDCCH DCI Format 0B/4B, and if the UE  101 ,  102  cannot access the channel for a transmission in subframe n k , the UE  101 ,  102  may attempt to make a transmission in subframe n k+ 1 according to the channel access type indicated in the DCI, where k∈{0,1,Λ w−2}, and w is the number of scheduled subframes indicated in the DCI. 
     If the UE  101 ,  102  is scheduled to transmit transmissions without gaps including PUSCH in a set of subframes n 0 , n 1 ,Λ, n w−1  using one or more PDCCH DCI Format 0A/0B/4A/4B and the UE  101 ,  102  performs a transmission in subframe n k  after accessing the carrier according to one of type 1 or type 2 UL channel access procedures, the UE  101 ,  102  may continue transmission in subframes after n k  where k∈{0,1,Λ w−1}. 
     If the beginning of the UE transmission in subframe n+1 immediately follows the end of the UE transmission in subframe n, the UE  101 ,  102  is not expected to be indicated with different channel access types for the transmissions in those subframes. 
     If the UE  101 ,  102  is scheduled to transmit without gaps in subframes n 0 , n 1 ,Λ, n w−1  using one or more PDCCH DCI Format 0A/0B/4A/4B, and if the UE  101 ,  102  has stopped transmitting during or before subframe n k1 , k1∈{0,1,Λ w−2}, and if the channel is sensed by the UE  101 ,  102  to be continuously idle after the UE  101 ,  102  has stopped transmitting, the UE  101 ,  102  may transmit in a later subframe n k2 , k2∈{1,Λ w−1} using type 2 channel access procedure. If the channel sensed by the UE is not continuously idle after the UE has stopped transmitting, the UE  101 ,  102  may transmit in a later subframe n k2 , k2∈{1,Λw−1} using type 1 channel access procedure with the UL channel access priority class indicated in the DCI corresponding to subframe n k2 . 
     If the UE  101 ,  102  receives an UL grant and the DCI indicates a PUSCH transmission starting in subframe n using type 1 channel access procedure, and if the UE  101 ,  102  has an ongoing type 1 channel access procedure before subframe n, and: 
     if the UL channel access priority class value p 1  used for the ongoing type 1 channel access procedure is same or larger than the UL channel access priority class value p 2  indicated in the DCI, the UE  101 ,  102  may transmit the PUSCH transmission in response to the UL grant by accessing the carrier by using the ongoing type 1 channel access procedure. 
     if the UL channel access priority class value p 1  used for the ongoing type 1 channel access procedure is smaller than the UL channel access priority class value p 2  indicated in the DCI, the UE  101 ,  102  may terminate the ongoing channel access procedure. 
     If the UE  101 ,  102  is scheduled to transmit on a set of carriers C in subframe n, and if the UL grants scheduling PUSCH transmissions on the set of carriers C indicate type 1 channel access procedure, and if the same ‘PUSCH starting position’ is indicated for all carriers in the set of carriers C, and if the carrier frequencies of set of carriers C is a subset of one of a defined sets of carrier frequencies, then: 
     the UE  101 ,  102  may transmit on carrier c i ∈C using type 2 channel access procedure, 
     if type 2 channel access procedure is performed on carrier c i  immediately before the UE transmission on carrier c i ∈C, i≠j, and: 
     if the UE  101 ,  102  has accessed carrier c j  using type 1 channel access procedure, 
     where carrier c j  is selected by the UE  101 ,  102  uniformly randomly from the set of carriers C before performing type 1 channel access procedure on any carrier in the set of carriers C. 
     As an implementation of embodiment 1, the UE  101 ,  102  may operate as follows: If the UE  101 ,  102  is scheduled to transmit on a set of carriers C in subframe n, where the carrier frequencies of set of carriers C is a subset of one of the defined sets of carrier frequencies, the UE  101 ,  102  is not expected to receive UL grants indicating different ‘PUSCH starting positions’ in the same subframe n. 
     A RAN node  111 ,  112  (e.g., an eNB) may indicate type 2 channel access procedure in the DCI of an UL grant scheduling transmission(s) including PUSCH on a carrier in subframe n when the eNB  111 ,  112  has transmitted on the carrier according to a channel access procedure discussed elsewhere, or the eNB  111 ,  112  may indicate using the ‘UL duration and offset’ field that the UE  101 ,  102  may perform a type 2 channel access procedure for transmissions(s) including PUSCH on a carrier in subframe n when the eNB  111 ,  112  has transmitted on the carrier according to the channel access procedure described elsewhere, or the eNB  111 ,  112  may schedule transmissions including PUSCH on a carrier in subframe n, that follows a transmission by the eNB  111 ,  112  on that carrier with a duration of T short_ul =25 μs, if subframe n occurs within the time interval starting at t 0  and ending at t 0 +T CO , where T CO =T mcot,p +T g , where t 0  is the time instant when the eNB has started transmission, T mcot,p  value is determined by the eNB  111 ,  112 , and T g  is the total duration of all gaps of duration greater than 25 μs that occur between the DL transmission of the eNB  111 ,  112  and UL transmissions scheduled by the eNB, and between any two UL transmissions scheduled by the eNB  111 ,  112  starting from t 0 . 
     The eNB  111 ,  112  may schedule UL transmissions between t 0  and t 0 +T CO  in contiguous subframes if they can be scheduled contiguously. For an UL transmission on a carrier that follows a transmission by the eNB on that carrier within a duration of T short_ul =25 μs, the UE  101 ,  102  may use type 2 channel access procedure for the UL transmission. If the eNB  111 ,  112  indicates type 2 channel access procedure for the UE  101 ,  102  in the DCI, the eNB  111 ,  112  may indicate the channel access priority class used to obtain access to the channel in the DCI. 
     Referring back to  FIG. 1A , the RAN nodes  111 ,  112  may be configured to communicate with one another via interface  113 X. In embodiments where the system  100 A is an LTE system, the interface  113 X may be an X2 interface  113 X. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes  111 ,  112  (for example, two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC  120 , and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC  120 . In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, and may be used to communicate information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB); information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a UE  101 / 102  from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to a UE  101 / 102 ; information about a current minimum desired buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and the like. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality, including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user plane transport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well as inter-cell interference coordination functionality. 
     In embodiments where the system  100 A is a 5G or NR system, the interface  113 X may be an Xn interface  113 X. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes  111 ,  112  (for example, two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC  120 , between a RAN node  111 ,  112  (for example, a gNB) connecting to 5GC  120  and an eNB, and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC  120 . In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE  101 / 102  in a connected mode (for example, CM-CONNECTED) including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes  211 . The mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node  111 ,  112  to new (target) serving RAN node  111 ,  112 ; and control of user plane tunnels between old (source) serving RAN node  111 ,  112  to new (target) serving RAN node  111 ,  112 . A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that is built on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may provide the guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein. 
     The RAN  110  is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, Core Network (CN)  120 . The CN  120  may comprise a plurality of network elements  122 , which are configured to offer various data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UEs  101 ,  102 ) who are connected to the CN  120  via the RAN  110 . The term “network element” may describe a physical or virtualized equipment used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, radio access network device, gateway, server, virtualized network function (VNF), network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI), and/or the like. The components of the CN  120  may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (for example, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN  120  may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN  120  may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions. 
     In embodiments, the CN  120  may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC  120 ” or the like), while in other embodiments, the CN  120  may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Where CN  120  is an EPC (referred to as “EPC  120 ” or the like), the RAN  110  may be connected with the CN  120  via an S1 interface  113 A. In embodiments, the S1 interface  113 A may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface  114 , which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes  111  and  112  and the serving gateway (S-GW), and the S1-mobility management entity (MME) interface  115 , which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes  111  and  112  and MMEs. 
     In embodiments, the EPC  120  comprises the MMEs, the S-GW, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW), and a home subscriber server (HSS). The MMEs  121  may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs may perform various mobility management (MM) procedures to manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as “EPS MM” or “EMM” in E-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. that are used to maintain knowledge about a present location of the UE  101 ,  102 , provide user identity confidentiality, and/or other like services to users/subscribers. Each UE  101 ,  102  and the MME  121  may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and an MM context may be established in the UE  101 ,  102  and the MME when an attach procedure is successfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE  101 ,  102 . 
     The HSS may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities&#39; handling of communication sessions. The EPC network  120  may comprise one or several HSSs  124 , depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. 
     The S-GW may terminate the S1 interface  113 A towards the RAN  110 , and routes data packets between the RAN  110  and the EPC  120 . In addition, the S-GW may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The P-GW may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW may route data packets between the EPC network  123  and e2ernal networks such as a network including the application server  130  (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface  125 . Generally, the application server  130  may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (for example, UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server  130  via an IP communications interface  125 . The application server  130  can also be configured to support one or more communication services (for example, Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs  101  and  102  via the EPC  120 . 
     The P-GW may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) is the policy and charging control element of the EPC  120 . In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with an RE&#39;s Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with an RE&#39;s IP-CAN session, a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF may be communicatively coupled to the application server  130  via the P-GW. The application server  130  may signal the PCRF to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF  126  may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server  130 . 
     Where CN  120  is a 5GC (referred to as “5GC  120 ” or the like), the RAN  110  may be connected with the CN  120  via an NG interface  113 A. In embodiments, the NG interface  113 A may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface  114 , which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes  111  and  112  and a user plane function (UPF), and the S1 control plane (NG-C) interface  115 , which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes  111  and  112  and Access and Mobility Functions (AMFs). Embodiments where the CN  120  is a 5GC  120  are discussed in more detail with regard to  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an architecture of a system  200  of a 5G network in accordance with some embodiments. The system  200  is shown to include a UEs  101  and  102  (collectively referred to as “UEs  101 / 102 ” or “UE  101 / 102 ”) discussed previously; a RAN  110  discussed previously, and which may include RAN nodes  111  and  112  discussed previously; and a Data network (DN)  203 , which may be, for example, operator services, Internet access or 3rd party services; and a 5G Core Network (5GC or CN)  120 . 
     The CN  120  may include an Authentication Server Function (AUSF)  222 ; an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)  221 ; a Session Management Function (SMF)  224 ; a Network Exposure Function (NEF)  223 ; a Policy Control function (PCF)  226 ; a Network Function (NF) Repository Function (NRF)  225 ; a Unified Data Management (UDM)  227 ; an Application Function (AF)  228 ; a User Plane Function (UPF)  202 ; and a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF)  229 . 
     The UPF  202  may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to DN  203 , and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF  202  may also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, enforce user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection); traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for user plane (e.g. packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform Uplink Traffic verification (for example, SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF  202  may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network. The DN  203  may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services. NY  203  may include, or be similar to application server  130  discussed previously. The UPF  202  may interact with the SMF  224  via an N4 reference point between the SMF  224  and the UPF  202 . 
     The AUSF  222  may store data for authentication of UE  101 / 102  and handle authentication related functionality. The AUSF  222  may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF  222  may communicate with the AMF  221  via an N12 reference point between the AMF  221  and the AUSF  222 ; and may communicate with the UDM  227  via an N13 reference point between the UDM  227  and the AUSF  222 . Additionally, the AUSF  222  may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface. 
     The AMF  221  may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE  101 / 102 , etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF  221  may be a termination point for the an N11 reference point between the AMF  221  and the SMF  224 . The AMF  221  may provide transport for Session Management (SM) messages between the UE  101 / 102  and the SMF  224 , and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF  221  may also provide transport for short message service (SMS) messages between UE  101 / 102  and an SMS function (SMSF) (not shown by  FIG. 2 ). AMF  221  may act as Security Anchor Function (SEA), which may include interaction with the AUSF  222  and the UE  101 / 102 , receipt of an intermediate key that was established as a result of the UE  101 / 102  authentication process. Where USIM based authentication is used, the AMF  221  may retrieve the security material from the AUSF  222 . AMF  221  may also include a Security Context Management (SCM) function, which receives a key from the SEA that it uses to derive access-network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF  221  may be a termination point of RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the (R)AN  211  and the AMF  221 ; and the AMF  221  may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signalling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. 
     AMF  221  may also support NAS signalling with a UE  101 / 102  over an N3 interworking-function (IWF) interface. The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. N3IWF may be a termination point for the N2 interface between the (R)AN  211  and the AMF  221  for the control plane, and may be a termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN  211  and the UPF  202  for the user plane. As such, the AMF  221  may handle N2 signalling from the SMF  224  and the AMF  221  for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate/de-encapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnelling, mark N3 user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS corresponding to N3 packet marking taking into account QoS requirements associated to such marking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control-plane NAS signalling between the UE  101 / 102  and AMF  221  via an N1 reference point between the UE  101 / 102  and the AMF  221 , and relay uplink and downlink user-plane packets between the UE  101 / 102  and UPF  202 . The N3IWF also provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE  101 / 102 . The AMF  221  may exhibit an Namf service-based interface, and may be a termination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs  221  and an N17 reference point between the AMF  221  and a 5G-Equipment Identity Register (5G-EIR) (not shown by  FIG. 2 ). 
     The UE  101 / 102  may need to register with the AMF  221  in order to receive network services. Registration Management (RM) is used to register or deregister the UE  221  with the network (for example, AMF  221 ), and establish a UE context in the network (for example, AMF  221 ). The UE  101 / 102  may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or an RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, the UE  101 / 102  is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF  221  holds no valid location or routing information for the UE  101 / 102  so the UE  101 / 102  is not reachable by the AMF  221 . In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE  101 / 102  is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF  221  may hold a valid location or routing information for the UE  101 / 102  so the UE  101 / 102  is reachable by the AMF  221 . In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE  101 / 102  may perform mobility Registration Update procedures, perform periodic Registration Update procedure triggered by expiration of the periodic update timer (for example, to notify the network that the UE  101 / 102  is still active), and perform a Registration Update procedure to update UE capability information or to re-negotiate protocol parameters with the network, among others. 
     The AMF  221  may store one or more RM contexts for the UE  101 / 102 , where each RM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context may be a data structure, database object, etc. that indicates or stores, inter alia, a registration state per access type and the periodic update timer. The AMF  221  may also store a 5GC MM context that may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In various embodiments, the AMF  221  may store a CE mode B Restriction parameter of the UE  101 / 102  in an associated MM context or RM context. The AMF  221  may also derive the value, when needed, from the UE&#39;s usage setting parameter {possible values: “Data Centric”, “Voice Centric”} already stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RM Context). 
     Connection Management (CM) may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE  101 / 102  and the AMF  221  over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE  101 / 102  and the CN  120 , and comprises both the AN signaling connection between the UE and the Access Network (AN) (for example, RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for Non-3GPP access) and the N2 connection for the UE  101 / 102  between the AN (for example, RAN  211 ) and the AMF  221 . The UE  101 / 102  may operate in one of two CM states, CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE  101 / 102  is operating in the CM-IDLE state/mode, the UE  101 / 102  may have no NAS signaling connection established with the AMF  221  over the N1 interface, and there may be (R)AN  211  signaling connection (for example, N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE  101 / 102 . When the UE  101 / 102  is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state/mode, the UE  101 / 102  may have an established NAS signaling connection with the AMF  221  over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN  211  signaling connection (for example, N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE  101 / 102 . Establishment of an N2 connection between the (R)AN  211  and the AMF  221  may cause the UE  101 / 102  to transition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and the UE  101 / 102  may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode when N2 signaling between the (R)AN  211  and the AMF  221  is released. 
     The SMF  224  may be responsible for session management (for example, session establishment, modify and release, including tunnel maintain between UPF and AN node); UE IP address allocation &amp; management (including optional Authorization); Selection and control of UP function; Configures traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces towards Policy control functions; control part of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI System); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink Data Notification; initiator of AN specific SM information, sent via AMF over N2 to AN; determine SSC mode of a session. The SMF  224  may include the following roaming functionality: handle local enforcement to apply QoS SLAB (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful intercept (in VPLMN for SM events and interface to LI System); support for interaction with external DN for transport of signalling for PDU session authorization/authentication by external DN. An N16 reference point between two SMFs  224  may be included in the system  200 , which may be between another SMF  224  in a visited network and the SMF  224  in the home network in roaming scenarios. Additionally, the SMF  224  may exhibit the Nsmf service-based interface. 
     The NEF  223  may provide means for securely exposing the services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, Application Functions (for example, AF  228 ), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF  223  may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle the AFs. NEF  223  may also translate information exchanged with the AF  228  and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF  223  may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF  223  may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of other network functions. This information may be stored at the NEF  223  as structured data, or at a data storage NF using a standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF  223  to other NFs and AFs, and/or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF  223  may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface. 
     The NRF  225  may support service discovery functions, receive NF Discovery Requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF  225  also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate”, “instantiation”, and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF  225  may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface. 
     The PCF  226  may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behaviour. The PCF  226  may also implement a front end (FE) to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM  227 . The PCF  226  may communicate with the AMF  221  via an N15 reference point between the PCF  226  and the AMF  221 , which may include a PCF  226  in a visited network and the AMF  221  in case of roaming scenarios. The PCF  226  may communicate with the AF  228  via an N5 reference point between the PCF  226  and the AF  228 ; and with the SMF  224  via an N7 reference point between the PCF  226  and the SMF  224 . The system  200  and/or CN  120  may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF  226  (in the home network) and a PCF  226  in a visited network. Additionally, the PCF  226  may exhibit an Npcf service-based interface. 
     The UDM  227  may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities&#39; handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE  101 / 102 . For example, subscription data may be communicated between the UDM  227  and the AMF  221  via an N8 reference point between the UDM  227  and the AMF  221  (not shown by  FIG. 2 ). The UDM  227  may include two parts, an application FE and a User Data Repository (UDR) (the FE and UDR are not shown by  FIG. 2 ). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM  227  and the PCF  226 , and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including Packet Flow Descriptions (PFDs) for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs  201 ) for the NEF  223 . The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR  221  to allow the UDM  227 , PCF  226 , and NEF  223  to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (for example, add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM FE, which is in charge of processing of credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing; user identification handling; access authorization; registration/mobility management; and subscription management. The UDR may interact with the SMF  224  via an N10 reference point between the UDM  227  and the SMF  224 . UDM  227  may also support SMS management, wherein an SMS-FE implements the similar application logic as discussed previously. Additionally, the UDM  227  may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface. 
     The AF  228  may provide application influence on traffic routing, access to the Network Capability Exposure (NCE), and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE may be a mechanism that allows the 5GC and AF  228  to provide information to each other via NEF  223 , which may be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, the network operator and third party services may be hosted close to the UE  101 / 102  access point of attachment to achieve an efficient service delivery through the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC may select a UPF  202  close to the UE  101 / 102  and execute traffic steering from the UPF  202  to DN  203  via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF  228 . In this way, the AF  228  may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF  228  is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF  228  to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF  228  may exhibit an Naf service-based interface. 
     The NSSF  229  may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE  101 / 102 . The NSSF  229  may also determine allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and the mapping to the Subscribed Single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs), if needed. The NSSF  229  may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE  101 / 102 , or a list of candidate AMF(s)  221  based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF  225 . The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE  101 / 102  may be triggered by the AMF  221  with which the UE  101 / 102  is registered by interacting with the NSSF  229 , which may lead to a change of AMF  221 . The NSSF  229  may interact with the AMF  221  via an N22 reference point between AMF  221  and NSSF  229 ; and may communicate with another NSSF  229  in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown by  FIG. 2 ). Additionally, the NSSF  229  may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface. 
     As discussed previously, the CN  120  may include an SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to/from the UE  101 / 102  to/from other entities, such as an SMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF  221  and UDM  227  for notification procedure that the UE  101 / 102  is available for SMS transfer (for example, set a UE not reachable flag, and notifying UDM  227  when UE  101 / 102  is available for SMS). 
     The CN  120  may also include other elements that are not shown by  FIG. 2 , such as a Data Storage system/architecture, a 5G-Equipment Identity Register (5G-EIR), a Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), and the like. The Data Storage system may include a Structured Data Storage network function (SDSF), an Unstructured Data Storage network function (UDSF), and/or the like. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured data into/from the UDSF (for example, UE contexts), via N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF (not shown by  FIG. 2 ). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data or individual NFs may each have their own UDSF located at or near the individual NFs. Additionally, the UDSF may exhibit an Nudsf service-based interface (not shown by  FIG. 2 ). The 5G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status of Permanent Equipment Identifiers (PEI) for determining whether particular equipment/entities are blacklisted from the network; and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on inter-PLMN control plane interfaces. 
     Additionally, there may be many more reference points and/or service-based interfaces between the NF services in the NFs; however, these interfaces and reference points have been omitted from  FIG. 2  for clarity. In one example, the CN  120  may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between the MME (for example, MME  121 ) and the AMF  221  in order to enable interworking between CN  120  and CN  120 . Other example interfaces/reference points may include an N5g-eir service-based interface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between NRF in the visited network and the NRF in the home network; and an N31 reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF in the home network. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment  300  in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment  300  (or “system  300 ”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node, etc., such as the RAN nodes  111  and  112 , and/or AP  106  shown and described previously. In other examples, the system  300  could be implemented in or by a UE or a core network node/entity, such as those shown and described with regard to  FIGS. 1A-2 . The system  300  may include one or more of application circuitry  305 , baseband circuitry  304 , one or more radio front end modules  315 , memory  320 , power management integrated circuitry (PMIC)  325 , power tee circuitry  330 , network controller  335 , network interface connector  340 , satellite positioning circuitry  345 , and user interface  350 . In some embodiments, the device  400  may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (for example, said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations). 
     As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD), (for example, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable System on Chip (SoC)), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. In addition, the term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry. 
     The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as “processor circuitry.” As used herein, the term “processor circuitry” may refer to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations; recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. 
     Application circuitry  305  may include one or more central processing unit (CPU) cores and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I 2 C or universal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD/)MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. As examples, the application circuitry  305  may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s), Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system  300  may not utilize application circuitry  305 , and instead may include a special-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC or 5GC, for example. 
     Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry  305  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  305  may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric including and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  305  may include memory cells (for example, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (for example, static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in lookup-tables (LUTs) and the like. 
     The baseband circuitry  304  may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Although not shown, baseband circuitry  304  may comprise one or more digital baseband systems, which may be coupled via an interconnect subsystem to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband sub-system via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio sub-system may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry  304  may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (for example, the radio front end modules  315 ). 
     User interface circuitry  350  may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system  300  or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system  300 . User interfaces may include, but are not limited to one or more physical or virtual buttons (for example, a reset button), one or more indicators (for example, light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc. 
     The radio front end modules (RFEMs)  315  may comprise a millimeter wave RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module  315 . The RFEMs  315  may incorporate both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter wave antennas. 
     The memory circuitry  320  may include one or more of volatile memory including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. Memory circuitry  320  may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memory cards. 
     The PMIC  325  may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detect one or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions. The power tee circuitry  330  may provide for electrical power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment  300  using a single cable. 
     The network controller circuitry  335  may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment  300  via network interface connector  340  using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuitry  335  may include one or more dedicated processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the aforementioned protocol. In some implementations, the network controller circuitry  335  may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols. 
     The positioning circuitry  345 , which may include circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more navigation satellite constellations of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include United States&#39; Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia&#39;s Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union&#39;s Galileo system, China&#39;s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (for example, Navigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan&#39;s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France&#39;s Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry  345  may comprise various hardware elements (for example, including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate the communications over-the-air (OTA) communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. 
     Nodes or satellites of the navigation satellite constellation(s) (“GNSS nodes”) may provide positioning services by continuously transmitting or broadcasting GNSS signals along a line of sight, which may be used by GNSS receivers (for example, positioning circuitry  345  and/or positioning circuitry implemented by UEs  101 ,  102 , or the like) to determine their GNSS position. The GNSS signals may include a pseudorandom code (for example, a sequence of ones and zeros) that is known to the GNSS receiver and a message that includes a time of transmission (ToT) of a code epoch (for example, a defined point in the pseudorandom code sequence) and the GNSS node position at the ToT. The GNSS receivers may monitor/measure the GNSS signals transmitted/broadcasted by a plurality of GNSS nodes (for example, four or more satellites) and solve various equations to determine a corresponding GNSS position (for example, a spatial coordinate). The GNSS receivers also implement clocks that are typically less stable and less precise than the atomic clocks of the GNSS nodes, and the GNSS receivers may use the measured GNSS signals to determine the GNSS receivers&#39; deviation from true time (for example, an offset of the GNSS receiver clock relative to the GNSS node time). In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry  345  may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. 
     The GNSS receivers may measure the time of arrivals (ToAs) of the GNSS signals from the plurality of GNSS nodes according to its own clock. The GNSS receivers may determine ToF values for each received GNSS signal from the ToAs and the ToTs, and then may determine, from the ToFs, a three-dimensional (3D) position and clock deviation. The 3D position may then be converted into a latitude, longitude and altitude. The positioning circuitry  345  may provide data to application circuitry  305  which may include one or more of position data or time data. Application circuitry  305  may use the time data to synchronize operations with other radio base stations (for example, RAN nodes  111 ,  112 ,  211  or the like). 
     The components shown by  FIG. 3  may communicate with one another using interface circuitry. As used herein, the term “interface circuitry” may refer to, is part of, or includes circuitry providing for the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, input/output (I/O) interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. Any suitable bus technology may be used in various implementations, which may include any number of technologies, including industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I 2 C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates an example of a platform  400  (or “device  400 ”) in accordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computer platform  400  may be suitable for use as UEs  101 ,  102 ,  201 , application servers  130 , and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The platform  400  may include any combinations of the components shown in the example. The components of platform  400  may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform  400 , or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of  FIG. 4  is intended to show a high level view of components of the computer platform  400 . However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations. 
     The application circuitry  405  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to single-core or multi-core processors and one or more of cache memory, low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as serial peripheral interface (SPI), inter-integrated circuit (I 2 C) or universal programmable serial interface circuit, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input-output (IO), memory card controllers such as secure digital/multi-media card (SD/MMC) or similar, universal serial bus (USB) interfaces, mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and/or dedicated processors (for example, graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors (or cores) may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the platform  400 . In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry  305 / 405  may process IP data packets received from an EPC or 5GC. 
     Application circuitry  405  be or include a microprocessor, a multi-core processor, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, or other known processing element. In one example, the application circuitry  405  may include an Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. The processors of the application circuitry  405  may also be one or more of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or Accelerated Processing Units (APUs); A5-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc., Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™ processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc; an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd.; or the like. In some implementations, the application circuitry  405  may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry  405  and other components are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a single package, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel® Corporation. 
     Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry  405  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  405  may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric including and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  405  may include memory cells (for example, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (for example, static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in lookup-tables (LUTs) and the like. 
     The baseband circuitry  404  may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Although not shown, baseband circuitry  404  may comprise one or more digital baseband systems, which may be coupled via an interconnect subsystem to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband sub-system via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio sub-system may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry  404  may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (for example, the radio front end modules  415 ). 
     The radio front end modules (RFEMs)  415  may comprise a millimeter wave RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module  415 . The RFEMs  415  may incorporate both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter wave antennas. 
     The memory circuitry  420  may include any number and type of memory devices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory circuitry  420  may include one or more of volatile memory including be random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry  420  may be developed in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry  320  may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memory circuitry  420  s storage  108  may be on-die memory or registers associated with the application circuitry  405 . To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth, memory circuitry  420  may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. For example, the computer platform  400  may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. 
     Removable memory circuitry  423  may include devices, circuitry, enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to coupled portable data storage devices with the platform  400 . These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (for example, Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, and the like. 
     The platform  400  may also include interface circuitry (not shown) that is used to connect external devices with the platform  400 . The external devices connected to the platform  400  via the interface circuitry may include sensors  421 , such as accelerometers, level sensors, flow sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors, and the like. The interface circuitry may be used to connect the platform  400  to electro-mechanical components (EMCs)  422 , which may allow platform  400  to change its state, position, and/or orientation, or move or control a mechanism or system. The EMCs  422  may include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (for example, valve actuators, etc.), an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, motors (for example, DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments, platform  400  may be configured to operate one or more EMCs  422  based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and/or various clients. 
     In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform  400  with positioning circuitry  445 , which may be the same or similar as the positioning circuitry  445  discussed with regard to  FIG. 3 . 
     In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform  400  with near-field communication (NFC) circuitry  440 , which may include an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processing device. The NFC circuitry  440  may be configured to read electronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device. 
     The driver circuitry  446  may include software and hardware elements that operate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform  400 , attached to the platform  400 , or otherwise communicatively coupled with the platform  400 . The driver circuitry  446  may include individual drivers allowing other components of the platform  400  to interact or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present within, or connected to, the platform  400 . For example, driver circuitry  446  may include a display driver to control and allow access to a display device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to a touchscreen interface of the platform  400 , sensor drivers to obtain sensor readings of sensors  421  and control and allow access to sensors  421 , EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of the EMCs  422  and/or control and allow access to the EMCs  422 , a camera driver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device, audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices. 
     The power management integrated circuitry (PMIC)  425  (also referred to as “power management circuitry  425 ” or the like) may manage power provided to various components of the platform  400 . In particular, with respect to the baseband circuitry  404 , the PMIC  425  may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMIC  425  may often be included when the platform  400  is capable of being powered by a battery  430 , for example, when the device is included in a UE  101 ,  102 ,  201 . 
     In some embodiments, the PMIC  425  may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the platform  400 . For example, if the platform  400  is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as 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 platform  400  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 platform  400  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, etc. The platform  400  goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The platform  400  may not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, it must transition back to 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. 
     A battery  430  may power the platform  400 , although in some examples the platform  400  may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery  430  may be a lithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery  430  may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery. 
     In some implementations, the battery  430  may be a “smart battery,” which includes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or battery monitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform  400  to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery  430 . The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery  430  to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery  430 . The BMS may communicate the information of the battery  430  to the application circuitry  405  or other components of the platform  400 . The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry  405  to directly monitor the voltage of the battery  430  or the current flow from the battery  430 . The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform  400  may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and the like. 
     A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid may be coupled with the BMS to charge the battery  430 . In some examples, the power block  128  may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform  400 . In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuits chosen may depend on the size of the battery  430 , and thus, the current required. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard, promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others. 
     Although not shown, the components of platform  400  may communicate with one another using a suitable bus technology, which may include any number of technologies, including industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, or a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I 2 C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates example components of baseband circuitry  304 / 404  and radio front end modules (RFEM)  315 / 415  in accordance with some embodiments. As shown, the RFEM  315 / 415  may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry  506 , front-end module (FEM) circuitry  508 , one or more antennas  510  coupled together at least as shown. 
     The baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry  506  and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  506 . Baseband processing circuity  304 / 404  may interface with the application circuitry  305 / 405  for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry  506 . For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor  504 A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor  504 B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor  504 C, or other baseband processor(s)  504 D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (for example, second generation (2G), si5h generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry  304 / 404  (for example, one or more of baseband processors  504 A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry  506 . In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors  504 A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory  504 G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU)  504 E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, 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  304 / 404  may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP)  504 F. The audio DSP(s)  504 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 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  304 / 404  and the application circuitry  305 / 405  may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC). 
     In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry. 
     RF circuitry  506  may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry  506  may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry  506  may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  508  and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry  304 / 404 . RF circuitry  506  may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry  508  for transmission. 
     In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry  506  may include mixer circuitry  506   a , amplifier circuitry  506   b  and filter circuitry  506   c . In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  506  may include filter circuitry  506   c  and mixer circuitry  506   a . RF circuitry  506  may also include synthesizer circuitry  506   d  for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  508  based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry  506   d . The amplifier circuitry  506   b  may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry  506   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  304 / 404  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  506   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  506   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  506   d  to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry  508 . The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  and may be filtered by filter circuitry  506   c.    
     In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (for example, Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  506   a  may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  506   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  506  may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry  506 . 
     In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry 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  506   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  506   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  506   d  may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  506   a  of the RF circuitry  506  based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  506   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  304 / 404  or the applications processor  305 / 405  depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (for example, N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor  305 / 405 . 
     Synthesizer circuitry  506   d  of the RF circuitry  506  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 (for example, 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  506   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 (for example, 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  506  may include an IQ/polar converter. 
     FEM circuitry  508  may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas  510 , amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry  506  for further processing. FEM circuitry  508  may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry  506  for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas  510 . In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry  506 , solely in the FEM  508 , or in both the RF circuitry  506  and the FEM  508 . 
     In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry  508  may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (for example, to the RF circuitry  506 ). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry  508  may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (for example, provided by RF circuitry  506 ), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (for example, by one or more of the one or more antennas  510 ). 
     Processors of the application circuitry  305 / 405  and processors of the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry  304 / 404 , alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may utilize data (for example, packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (for example, transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry  304 / 404  of  FIGS. 3-4  may comprise processors  504 A- 504 E and a memory  504 G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors  504 A- 504 E may include a memory interface,  604 A- 604 E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory  504 G. 
     The baseband circuitry  304 / 404  may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface  612  (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry  304 / 404 ), an application circuitry interface  614  (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry  305 / 405  of  FIGS. 3-4 ), an RF circuitry interface  616  (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry  506  of  FIG. 5 ), a wireless hardware connectivity interface  618  (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface  620  (for example, an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMIC  425 . 
       FIG. 7  is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (for example, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically,  FIG. 7  shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources  700  including one or more processors (or processor cores)  710 , one or more memory/storage devices  720 , and one or more communication resources  730 , each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus  740 . As used herein, the term “computing resource”, “hardware resource”, etc., may refer to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time and/or processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, and/or the like. For embodiments where node virtualization (for example, NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor  702  may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources  700 . A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. 
     The processors  710  (for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor  712  and a processor  714 . 
     The memory/storage devices  720  may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices  720  may include, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc. 
     The communication resources  730  may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices  704  or one or more databases  706  via a network  708 . For example, the communication resources  730  may include wired communication components (for example, for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components. As used herein, the term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to computing resources that are accessible by computer devices via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable. 
     Instructions  750  may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors  710  to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions  750  may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors  710  (for example, within the processor&#39;s cache memory), the memory/storage devices  720 , or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions  750  may be transferred to the hardware resources  700  from any combination of the peripheral devices  704  or the databases  706 . Accordingly, the memory of processors  710 , the memory/storage devices  720 , the peripheral devices  704 , and the databases  706  are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. 
       FIGS. 8-9  illustrate processes  800 - 900 , respectively, for handling multiple UL grants on configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions, according to various embodiments. For illustrative purposes, the operations of processes  800 - 900  are described as being performed by a UE  101  with a RAN node  111 , and/or various components discussed with regard to  FIGS. 4-6 . However, process  800 - 900  may be performed by various other devices discussed with regard to  FIGS. 1A-7 . Moreover, while particular examples and orders of operations are illustrated in  FIGS. 8-9 , the depicted orders of operations should not be construed to limit the scope of the embodiments in any way. Rather, the depicted operations may be re-ordered, broken into additional operations, combined, and/or omitted altogether while remaining within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. 
       FIG. 8  shows an example procedure  800  for handling multiple UL grants on configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions. Procedure  800  may begin at operation  805  where communications circuitry of UE  101  (for example, RFEM  415  of  FIGS. 4-5 , RF circuitry  506  of  FIG. 5 , or the like) may receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) of one or more Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) Secondary Cells (SCells). In embodiments, processor circuitry of the UE  101  (for example, baseband circuitry  404  of  FIGS. 4-5 ) may monitor a control region of a primary serving cell (PCell), where the control region comprises a set of Control Channel Elements (CCEs) or enhanced CCEs (ECCEs) of a PDCCH or EPDCCH, respectively. In embodiment, the CCEs/ECCEs may be referred to as PDCCH candidate or EPDCCH candidates, and the processor circuitry may monitor a set of (E)PDCCH candidates for the DCI on a PCell operating in a licensed spectrum as configured by higher layer signaling. The term “monitoring,” as used herein, may imply attempting by the processor circuitry of the UE  101  to decode each of the (E)PDCCH candidates according to various DCI formats. In embodiments, the DCI may be transmitted by the RAN node  111  according to a selected one of DCI format 0A, 0B, 4A, or 4B. 
     At operation  810 , the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may identify uplink (UL) grants and starting positions for transmitting over the LAA SCells. In embodiments, the processor circuitry may identify the starting positions based on a value of the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting position field in the DCI, which is discussed previously with regard to table 1. The possible PUSCH starting positions may include symbol  0 , 25 μs in symbol  0 , (25+a timing advance (TA))μs in symbol  0 , and symbol  1 . 
     At operation  815 , the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may determine whether more than one UL grant is indicated within a same subframe. If at operation  815  the processor circuitry determines that more than one UL grant are not indicated within a same subframe, then the processor circuitry may proceed to operation  818  to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the indicated starting position and may then proceed to operation  830  to control the communication circuitry of the UE  101  to transmit the UL transmission when the channel is detected to be idle. 
     If at operation  815  the processor circuitry determines that more than one UL grant are indicated within a same subframe, then the processor circuitry may proceed to operation  820  align the multiple indicated starting positions. According to various embodiments, the UE  101  is not expected to receive UL grants on LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe. However, handling of UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe may be up to UE  101  implementation since full duplex capability is not mandated. 
     According to first embodiments, the processor circuitry may align the PUSCH starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated PUSCH starting positions for handling UL grants indicating different PUSCH starting positions in the same subframe. According to second embodiments, the processor circuitry may align the PUSCH starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated PUSCH starting positions. In the first and second embodiments, the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may align the starting positions by adjusting the UL transmission timing for the PUSCH using a timing advance (TA). The TA may be a fixed timing offset or a timing offset between UL and DL radio frames, subframes, or symbols at the UE  101 . In some first embodiments, the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may align each UL transmission to be spaced apart by the TA starting from the earliest starting position among the indicated PUSCH starting positions. In some second embodiments, the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may align each UL transmission to be spaced apart by the TA starting from the latest starting position among the indicated PUSCH starting positions. For example, if the TA is 25 μs, the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may align each UL transmission to be 25 μs apart from one another beginning at the earliest indicated starting position or the latest indicated starting position. In various embodiments, the TA may be predefined or preconfigured at the UE  101 , and in other embodiments, the TA may be signaled to the UE  101  using higher layer signaling (for example, using a suitable RRC message). Other mechanisms for aligning the starting positions may be used in other embodiments. 
     After aligning the starting positions at operation  820 , the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may proceed to operation  825  to perform an LBT operation at the aligned starting position, and may then proceed to operation  830  to control the communication circuitry of the UE  101  to transmit the UL transmission when the channel is detected to be idle. After performance of operation  818  or operation  830 , process  800  may end or repeat as necessary. 
       FIG. 9  shows another example procedure  900  for handling multiple UL grants on configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions. Procedure  900  may begin at operation  905  where communications circuitry of UE  101  (for example, RFEM  415  of  FIGS. 4-5 , RF circuitry  506  of  FIG. 5 , or the like) may receive DCI of one or more LAA SCells. At operation  910 , the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may identify UL grants and starting positions for transmitting over the LAA SCells. At operation  915 , the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may determine whether more than one UL grant is indicated within a same subframe. If at operation  915  the processor circuitry determines that more than one UL grant are not indicated within a same subframe, then the processor circuitry may proceed to operation  918  to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the indicated starting position and may then proceed to operation  930  to control the communication circuitry of the UE  101  to transmit the UL transmission when the channel is detected to be idle. Operations  905 ,  910 ,  915 , and  918  may be performed in a same or similar manner as discussed previously with regard to operations  805 ,  810 ,  815 , and  818  of  FIG. 8 . 
     If at operation  915  the processor circuitry determines that more than one UL grant are indicated within a same subframe, then the processor circuitry may proceed to operation  920  identify an earliest indicated starting position. At operation  925 , the processor circuitry of the UE  101  may control the communication circuitry to perform an LBT operation at the earliest identified starting position. 
     At operation  930 , the processor circuitry may determine whether the LBT operation failed, or whether the sensed channel was determined not to be idle or unoccupied. If at operation  930  the processor circuitry determines that the LBT operation has not failed, the processor circuitry may proceed to operation  940  to control the communication circuitry to transmit the UL transmission on the unoccupied channel at the earliest starting position. 
     If at operation  930  the processor circuitry determines that the LBT operation has failed or determines that the channel is occupied, the processor circuitry may proceed to operation  935  to perform an LBT at a next earliest identified starting position of the indicated starting positions. After performance of operation  935 , the processor circuitry may proceed back to operation  930  to determine whether the LBT operation at the next earliest identified starting position has failed or not, and may then operate as discussed previously. After performance of operation  918  and/or operation  940 , process  900  may end or repeat as necessary. 
     Some non-limiting examples are provided infra. The following examples pertain to further embodiments. Specifics in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments discussed previously. All optional features of devices described herein may also be implemented with respect to one or more methods or processes, and vice versa. 
     Example 1 may include one or more computer-readable storage media (CRSM) including instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) is to cause the UE to: control receipt of Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
     Example 2 may include the one or more CRSM of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 3 may include the one or more CRSM of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 4 may include the one or more CRSM of examples 1-3 and/or some other examples herein, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to control performance of a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     Example 5 may include the one or more CRSM of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to: identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions; control performance of an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and control non-performance of an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 6 may include the one or more CRSM of example 5 and/or some other examples herein, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to control performance of an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     Example 7 may include the one or more CRSM of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission. 
     Example 8 may include the one or more CRSM of example 7 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     Example 9 may include the one or more CRSM of examples 1-8 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message. 
     Example 10 may include the one or more CRSM of example 9 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include: a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (us) in symbol  0 ; a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
     Example 11 may include a system on chip (SoC) to be implemented in a user equipment (UE) the SoC comprising: baseband circuitry and memory circuitry, the baseband circuitry to: control receipt of Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; control storage of each of the at least two uplink grants in the memory circuitry; and align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
     Example 12 may include the SoC of example 11 and/or some other examples herein, wherein, to align the different starting positions, the baseband circuitry is to: align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions. Example 13 may include the SoC of example 11 and/or some other examples herein, wherein, to align the different starting positions, the baseband circuitry is to: align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 14 may include the SoC of examples 11-13 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the baseband circuitry is to: perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     Example 15 may include the SoC of example 11 and/or some other examples herein, wherein, to align the different starting positions, the baseband circuitry is to: identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions; control performance of an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and not perform an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 16 may include the SoC of example 15 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the baseband circuitry is to: control performance of LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     Example 17 may include the SoC of example 11 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission, and wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     Example 18 may include the SoC of examples 11-17 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message, and wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include: a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (μs) in symbol  0 ; a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
     Example 19 may include an apparatus to be employed as a user equipment (UE) the apparatus comprising: communication means for receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and processing means for: performing a decode attempt on a set of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidates or a set of enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) candidates to obtain the DCI, and aligning the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
     Example 20 may include the apparatus of example 19 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the processing means is for aligning the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions or align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 21 may include the apparatus of examples 19-20 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the communication means is for performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     Example 22 may include the apparatus of example 19 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the processing means is for identifying an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions, and the communication means is for performing an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and for not performing an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 23 may include the apparatus of example 22 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the communication means is for performing an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     Example 24 may include the apparatus of example 19 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission, and wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     Example 25 may include the apparatus of examples 19-24 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message, and wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include: a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (us) in symbol  0 ; a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
     Example 26 may include an apparatus to be employed as a user equipment (UE) the apparatus comprising: communication circuitry to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and processor circuitry communicatively coupled with the communication circuitry, the processor circuitry is to: perform a decode attempt on a set of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidates or a set of enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) candidates to obtain the DCI, and align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
     Example 27 may include the apparatus of example 26 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the processor circuitry is to align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions or align the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 28 may include the apparatus of examples 26-27 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the communication circuitry is to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 26 and/or some other examples herein, wherein: the processor circuitry is to identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions, and the communication circuitry is to perform an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and for not performing an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 29 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the processor circuitry is to control the communication circuitry to perform an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     Example 31 may include the apparatus of example 26 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission, and wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     Example 32 may include the apparatus of examples 26-31 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message, and wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include: a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (μs) in symbol  0 ; a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
     Example 33 may include an apparatus to be employed as a user equipment (UE) the apparatus comprising: communication means for receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and alignment means for aligning the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
     Example 34 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the alignment means is for aligning the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 35 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the alignment means is for aligning the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 36 may include the apparatus of examples 33-35 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the communication means is for performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     Example 37 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: identification means for identifying an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions, and wherein the communication means is for: performing an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and not performing an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 38 may include the apparatus of example 37 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the communication means is for performing an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     Example 39 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission, and wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     Example 40 may include the apparatus of examples 33-39 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message, wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include: a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (us) in symbol  0 ; a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
     Example 41 may include a method comprising: receiving or causing to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) wherein the DCI is to indicate at least two uplink grants for one or more licensed assisted access (LAA) secondary cells (SCells) wherein each of the at least two uplink grants indicate different starting positions for Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmissions within a same subframe; and aligning or causing to align the different starting positions to provide for the UE to transmit uplink transmissions according to the at least two uplink grants while the UE is in a transmission mode. 
     Example 42 may include the method of example 41 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: aligning or causing to align the different starting positions to an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 43 may include the method of example 41 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: aligning or causing to the different starting positions to a latest starting position among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 44 may include the method of examples 41-43 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: performing or causing to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation at the aligned starting positions prior to transmission of the PUSCH transmissions. 
     Example 45 may include the method of example 41 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: identifying or causing to identify an earliest starting position among the indicated starting positions; performing or causing to perform an LBT operation at the earliest starting position; and not performing or causing to not perform an LBT operation at other starting positions among the indicated starting positions. 
     Example 46 may include the method of example 45 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: performing or causing to perform an LBT operation at each indicated starting position, in turn, when the LBT operated performed at the earliest starting position is determined to have failed. 
     Example 47 may include the method of example 41 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE is not capable of simultaneous reception and transmission. 
     Example 48 may include the method of example 47 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the subframe is part of a Frame Structure type 2 (FS2) radio frame or part of a Frame Structure type 3 (FS3) radio frame. 
     Example 49 may include the method of examples 41-48 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI is a DCI format 0A message, a DCI format 0B message, a DCI format 4A message, or a DCI format 4B message. 
     Example 50 may include the method of example 49 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the DCI comprises individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields for each indicated starting position, wherein the individual two bit PUSCH starting position fields are to include: a value of “00” to indicate a starting position of symbol  0 ; a value of “01” to indicate a starting position of 25 microseconds (μs) in symbol  0 ; a value of “10” to indicate a starting position of 25 μs plus a timing advance (TA) in symbol  0 ; or a value of “11” to indicate a starting position of symbol  1 . 
     Example 51 may include may include the method of examples 41-50 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: storing or causing to store each of the at least two uplink grants in the memory circuitry. 
     Example 52 may include may include the method of examples 41-51 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising: performing or causing to perform a decode attempt on a set of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) candidates or a set of enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) candidates to obtain the DCI. 
     Example 53 may include may include the method of examples 44-52 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the LBT operation comprises: sensing or causing to sense a radiofrequency energy of a transmission band for a period of time; and determining whether the radiofrequency energy is greater than or equal to a threshold value. 
     Example 54 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-53, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example 55 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-53, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example 56 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-53, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example 57 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-53, or portions or parts thereof. 
     Example 58 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-53, or portions thereof. 
     Example 59 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-53, or portions or parts thereof. 
     Example 60 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein. Example 61 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein. Example 62 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Example 63 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. 
     The foregoing description of the above examples provides illustration and description for the example embodiments disclosed herein, but the above examples are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings and/or may be acquired from practice of various implementations of the embodiments discussed herein.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20180328
Publication Date: 20201222
Grant Date: 20201222
Priority Date: 20170329
Inventors: JEON, JEONGHO
HAN, SEUNGHEE
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04W72/23", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/23", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W74/0808", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W88/06", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0044", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/001", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/1268", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/1215", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W16/14", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0092", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W74/0808", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W16/14", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W74/0808", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/14", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W16/14", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/1289", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/1268", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W88/06", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/1215", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 62002719