REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Numbers 62/430,190 filed December 5, 2016, entitled "ADVANCED CONTROL CHANNEL FOR COVERAGE ENHANCEMENT", and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application

Numbers 62/457,028 filed February 9, 201 7, entitled "ADVANCED CONTROL

CHANNEL FOR COVERAGE ENHANCEMENT", the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to wireless technology, and more specifically to an advance control channel for coverage enhancement.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards and protocols to transmit data between a node (e.g., a transmission station) and a wireless device (e.g., a mobile device), or a user equipment (UE). Some wireless devices communicate using orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) in a downlink (DL) transmission and single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC- FDMA) in an uplink (UL) transmission, for example. Standards and protocols that use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) for signal transmission include the third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard (e.g., 802.16e, 802.16m), which is commonly known to industry groups as WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access), and the IEEE 802.1 1 standard, which is commonly known to industry groups as WiFi.

[0004] In 3GPP radio access network (RAN) LTE systems, the node can be an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also commonly denoted as evolved Node Bs, enhanced Node Bs, eNodeBs, or eNBs) as well as one or more Radio Network Controllers (RNCs), which communicate with the UE. The DL transmission can be a communication from the node (e.g., eNB) to the UE, and the UL transmission can be a communication from the wireless device to the node. In LTE, data can be transmitted from the eNodeB to the UE via a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). A physical UL control channel (PUCCH) can be used to acknowledge that data was received.

[0005] The explosive wireless traffic (data flow) growth across various network cells leads to an urgent need of rate improvement. With mature physical layer techniques, further improvement in the spectral efficiency will likely be marginal. On the other hand, the scarcity of licensed spectrum in low frequency band is resulting in a deficit in the data rate boost. Thus, interests are emerging in the operation of LTE systems in unlicensed spectrum. As a result, one major enhancement for LTE in 3GPP Release 13 has been to enable operation in the unlicensed spectrum via Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), which expands the system bandwidth by utilizing the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced by the LTE-Advanced system. Enhanced operation of LTE systems in unlicensed spectrum is expected in future releases and 5G systems.

Potential LTE operation in unlicensed spectrum includes, but is not limited to the LTE operation in the unlicensed spectrum via dual connectivity (DC) (referred to as DC based LAA) and the standalone LTE system in the unlicensed spectrum, in which LTE- based technology operates in unlicensed spectrum without utilizing an "anchor" in licensed spectrum, which can be referred to as MulteFire.

[0006] "MulteFire" can refer to a standalone network operating in the unlicensed spectrum, which requires no assistance from the licensed spectrum and combines the performance benefits of LTE technology with the simplicity of Wi-Fi-like deployments. Embodiments herein can be described with respect to the MulteFire system. However, this also does not preclude the applicable cases of future releases in 3GPP, e.g. New RAT (5G systems), (e)LAA, or DC / standalone based LAA as well.

[0007] The unlicensed frequency band of interest in 3GPP is the 5 GHz band, which has wide spectrum with global common availability. The 5 GHz band in the US is governed by Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) rules by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The main incumbent system in the 5 GHz band is the Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), especially those based on the IEEE 802.1 1 a/n/ac technologies, for example. Because WLAN systems are widely deployed for carrier-grade access service and data offloading, sufficient care should be taken before the deployment, and why Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) is considered as a useful feature of Rel-13 LAA system for fair coexistence with the incumbent WLAN system. LBT is a procedure whereby radio transmitters first sense the communication medium and transmit only if the medium is sensed to be idle.

[0008] Various enhancements can improve the link quality of the control channel communications between network devices (e.g., UE, eNB / Next Generation NodeB (gNB), or the like).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating example user equipments (UEs) useable in connection with various network components according to various aspects

(embodiments) described herein.

[0010] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating example components of a device that can be employed in accordance with various aspects discussed herein.

[0011] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating example interfaces of baseband circuitry that can be employed in accordance with various aspects discussed herein.

[0012] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a system employable at a UE that enables autonomous UL communications according to various aspects / embodiments described herein according to various aspects described herein.

[0013] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system employable at a base station

(BS) / evolved NodeB (eNB)/ new radio / next generation NodeB (gNB) that enables autonomous UL communications according to various aspects / embodiments described herein, according to various aspects described herein.

[0014] FIG. 6 illustrates an example distributed enhanced control channel element in accordance with various aspects / embodiments described herein.

[0015] FIG. 7 illustrates an example of at least two enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) sets for downlink control channel information (DCI) transmission with aggregation according to various aspects / embodiments described herein.

[0016] FIG. 8 illustrates further details of the example transmission opportunity for repeated DCI transmission exceeding a TxOP according to various aspects / embodiments described herein.

[0017] FIG. 9 illustrates further details of the example transmission opportunity for repeated DCI transmission exceeding a TxOP according to various aspects / embodiments described herein. [0018] FIG. 10 illustrates further details of the example transmission opportunity of ePDCCH with absolute subframe boundary according to various aspects / embodiments described herein.

[0019] FIG. 11 illustrates an example process flow for communications according to various aspects / embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] The present disclosure will now be described with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustrated structures and devices are not necessarily drawn to scale. As utilized herein, terms "component," "system," "interface," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, hardware, software (e.g., in execution), and/or firmware. For example, a component can be a processor (e.g., a microprocessor, a controller, or other processing device), a process running on a processor, a controller, an object, an executable, a program, a storage device, a computer, a tablet PC and/or a user equipment (UE) (e.g., mobile / wireless phone, etc.) with a processing device. By way of illustration, an application running on a server and the server can also be a component. One or more components can reside within a process, and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. A set of elements or a set of other components can be described herein, in which the term "set" can be interpreted as "one or more."

[0021] Further, these components can execute from various computer readable storage media having various data structures stored thereon such as with a module, for example. The components can communicate via local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network, such as, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or similar network with other systems via the signal).

[0022] As another example, a component can be an apparatus with specific functionality provided by mechanical parts operated by electric or electronic circuitry, in which the electric or electronic circuitry can be operated by a software application or a firmware application executed by one or more processors. The one or more processors can be internal or external to the apparatus and can execute at least a part of the software or firmware application. As yet another example, a component can be an apparatus that provides specific functionality through electronic components without mechanical parts; the electronic components can include one or more processors therein to execute software and/or firmware that confer(s), at least in part, the functionality of the electronic components.

[0023] Use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As used in this application, the term "or" is intended to mean an inclusive "or" rather than an exclusive "or". That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from context, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B, then "X employs A or B" is satisfied under any of the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles "a" and "an" as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean "one or more" unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms "including", "includes", "having", "has", "with", or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description and the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term

"comprising."

OVERVIEW

[0024] In consideration of the above described deficiencies, various components and techniques are disclosed that enable network devices (e.g., eNBs, gNBs, UEs, Internet of Things (loT) devices, or the like) to have enhanced coverage in MulteFire systems. For the loT application, the target UE or loT device could be located in a deeper corner of a building or geography, farther from normal coverage range. Additionally, extending the coverage of one cell can reduce the required number of eNBs, which can further decrease the deployment cost. In the MulteFire system, a UE can detect the essential parameter configuration in the control channel, abstract the corresponding resource blocks (RBs) for physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) / physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and demodulate the data. Therefore, decoding the control channel can be the first step for data demodulation.

[0025] In embodiments, various mechanisms can improve the control channel reception, so as to enlarge the coverage area for loT application. Enhancement of the coverage, for example, can be based on power boosting and set aggregation.

Alternatively, or additionally, repetitions can be implemented in the time domain, including repetition times, and particular subframe configurations / designs. Channel selection can also provide further enhancements together or independently of the above aspects. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) (e.g., an enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH)) can adopted for DCI transmission with these mechanisms to improve the link quality of control channel.

[0026] For example, an apparatus in an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation NodeB (gNB), or an loT device can include one or more processors that configure, generate, or process a physical channel (e.g., a PDCCH) with enhanced coverage to enable an loT communication by generating a distributed ePDCCH with one or more ePDCCH sets including a downlink control information (DCI). The one or more processors can operate to increase a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH based on one or more mechanisms of generating the one or more ePDCCH sets. A radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for ePDCCH transmission. These mechanisms can include leveraging the power of non-used resource elements of physical resource blocks (PRBs) to be used for valid REs for transmitting the DCI of the ePDCCH. The number of PRBs used for this, can be extended, for example, to 10 or more RBs for a power boosting gain. In another example, different ePDCCH sets can be aggregated with same or different aggregation levels to extend coverage.

[0027] In other examples, repetitions of the ePDCCH / PDCCH can be generated over a plurality of subframes in an unlicensed band (e.g., with a frame structure type 3). The repetition times of each repetition can be generated in relation to a corresponding PDSCH, or a PUSCH. These mechanisms can be used for unicast or broadcast transmission, for example. Additional aspects and details of the disclosure are further described below with reference to figures.

[0028] Embodiments described herein can be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture of a system 1 00 of a network in accordance with some embodiments for generating autonomous UL communications according to various aspects / embodiments described herein. The system 100 is shown to include a user equipment (UE) 101 and a UE 102. The UEs 101 and 102 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but can also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

[0029] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can comprise an Internet of Things (loT) UE (or loT device), which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power loT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections, and can be distinguished from cellular UEs or wireless cell devices alone as low power network devices as eMTC or NB-loT UEs utilizing a low power network, for example, or

MulteFire standards for communication. An loT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (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 loT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data can be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An loT network describes interconnecting loT UEs, which can include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with shortlived connections. The loT UEs can execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the loT network.

[0030] The UEs 101 and 102 can be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 1 10— the RAN 1 10 can be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs 101 and 102 utilize connections 103 and 104, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); 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 the like.

[0031] In this embodiment, the UEs 101 and 1 02 can further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 can

alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising 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).

[0032] The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 106 via connection 107. The connection 107 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.1 1 protocol, wherein the AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 1 06 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below).

[0033] The RAN 1 1 0 can include one or more access nodes (or RAN nodes) that enable the connections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next Generation NodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 1 10 can include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells (e.g., macro RAN node 1 1 1 ), and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells, picocells, or network cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells (e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 1 12).

[0034] Any of the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 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 1 1 1 and 1 12 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 1 1 0 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.

[0035] In accordance with some 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 1 1 1 and 1 1 2 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 (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique (e.g., 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. [0036] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 to the UEs 101 and 1 02, 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 can 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.

[0037] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 101 and 102. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) can carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It can 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) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101 and 102. The downlink resource assignment information can be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 101 and 1 02.

[0038] The PDCCH can use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols can 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 (e.g., aggregation level, L=1 , 2, 4, or 8).

[0039] Some embodiments can use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments can utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH can be transmitted using one or more enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE can have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

[0040] The RAN 1 1 0 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 1 20— via an S1 interface 1 1 3. In embodiments, the CN 120 can be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment the S1 interface 1 13 can be split into two parts: the S1 -U interface 1 14, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122, and the S1 -mobility management entity (MME) interface 1 1 5, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 and MMEs 121 .

[0041] In this embodiment, the CN 1 20 comprises the MMEs 1 21 , the S-GW 122, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 can be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 can manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 can comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of

communication sessions. The CN 120 can 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 124 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. [0042] The S-GW 122 can terminate the S1 interface 1 13 towards the RAN 1 1 0, and routes data packets between the RAN 1 10 and the CN 120. In addition, the S-GW 122 can be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also can provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities can include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0043] The P-GW 123 can terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 123 can route data packets between the EPC network 123 and external 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 can be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW 123 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 (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 1 01 and 102 via the CN 120.

[0044] The P-GW 123 can further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 126 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, there can be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there can be two PCRFs associated with a UE'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 126 can be communicatively coupled to the application server 130 via the P-GW 123. The application server 130 can signal the PCRF 1 26 to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 126 can provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 130.

[0045] FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 200 can include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, one or more antennas 21 0, and power management circuitry (PMC) 21 2 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 200 can be included in a gNB, eNB, UE (e.g., 101 or 102), a RAN node or other network device (e.g., 1 1 1 or 1 1 2) incorporating one or more various aspects / embodiments herein. In some embodiments, the device 200 can include less elements (e.g., a RAN node could not utilize application circuitry 202, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 200 can 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 can be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries can be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

[0046] The application circuitry 202 can include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 can include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) can include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors can be coupled with or can include memory/storage and can be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 202 can process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[0047] The baseband circuitry 204 can include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 can include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband processing circuity 204 can interface with the application circuitry 202 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s) 204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 204A-D) can handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 204A-D can be included in modules stored in the memory 204G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 204E. The radio control functions can 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 204 can include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functionality. In some embodiments,

encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 can 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 can include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0048] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F can be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and can include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry can 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 204 and the application circuitry 202 can be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0049] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 can 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 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol can be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0050] RF circuitry 206 can enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 can include a receive signal path which can include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 can also include a transmit signal path which can include circuitry to up- convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

[0051] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 can include mixer circuitry 206a, amplifier circuitry 206b and filter circuitry 206c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206 can include filter circuitry 206c and mixer circuitry 206a. RF circuitry 206 can also include synthesizer circuitry 206d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path can be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206d. The amplifier circuitry 206b can be configured to amplify the down- converted signals and the filter circuitry 206c can be a low-pass filter (LPF) or bandpass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals can be provided to the baseband circuitry 204 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals can be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path can comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0052] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 208. The baseband signals can be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and can be filtered by filter circuitry 206c.

[0053] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path can include two or more mixers and can be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path can include two or more mixers and can be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a can be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path can be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0054] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals can 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 can be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 204 can include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 206.

[0055] In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry can be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the

embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0056] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206d can 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 can be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 206d can be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0057] The synthesizer circuitry 206d can be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206a of the RF circuitry 206 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206d can be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

[0058] In some embodiments, frequency input can be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input can be provided by either the baseband circuitry 204 or the applications processor 202 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) can be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 202.

[0059] Synthesizer circuitry 206d of the RF circuitry 206 can include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider can be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator can be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD can be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL can 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 can 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.

[0060] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 206d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 can include an IQ/polar converter.

[0061] FEM circuitry 208 can include a receive signal path which can include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. FEM circuitry 208 can also include a transmit signal path which can include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 21 0. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths can be done solely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the FEM 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the FEM 208.

[0062] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 can include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry can include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry can include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 can include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 21 0).

[0063] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 204. In particular, the PMC 212 can control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 212 can often be included when the device 200 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC 21 2 can increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation

characteristics.

[0064] Although the PMC 212 is illustrated as coupled only with the baseband circuitry 204; however, in other embodiments, the PMC 2 12 can be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 202, RF circuitry 206, or FEM 208.

[0065] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 can control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 200. For example, if the device 200 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it can enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 200 can power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

[0066] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device 200 can transition off to an RRCJdle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 200 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 device 200 could not receive data in this state, and in order to receive data, it must transition back to RRC_Connected state.

[0067] An additional power saving mode can 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 can power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable. [0068] Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of the baseband circuitry 204 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 204, alone or in combination, can be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 204 can utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 can comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 can 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 can comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

[0069] FIG. 3 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 204 of FIG. 2 can comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory 204G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 204A-204E can include a memory interface, 304A-304E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 204G.

[0070] In addition, the memory 204G (as well as other memory components discussed herein, such as memory 430, memory 530 or the like) can comprise one or more machine-readable medium / media including instructions that, when performed by a machine or component herein cause the machine to perform acts of the method or of an apparatus or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to embodiments and examples described herein. It is to be understood that aspects described herein can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, functions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer- readable medium (e.g., the memory described herein or other storage device).

Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media or a computer readable storage device can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory medium, that can be used to carry or store desired information or executable

instructions. Also, any connection can also be termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.

[0071] The baseband circuitry 204 can further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 312 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitry interface 314 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 202 of FIG. 2), an RF circuitry interface 316 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206 of FIG. 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 31 8 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 320 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 212).

[0072] Referring to FIG. 4, illustrated is a block diagram of a system or apparatus 400 employable at a user equipment (UE) or loT device (e.g., UE 101 or 102) that can enable autonomous UL transmissions according to various aspects / embodiments described herein. System 400 can include one or more processors 41 0 (e.g., one or more baseband processors such as one or more of the baseband processors discussed in connection with FIG. 2 and/or FIG. 3) comprising processing circuitry and associated memory interface(s) (e.g., memory interface(s) discussed in connection with FIG. 3), transceiver circuitry 420 (e.g., comprising one or more of transmitter circuitry or receiver circuitry, which can employ common circuit elements, distinct circuit elements, or a combination thereof), and a memory 430 (which can comprise any of a variety of storage mediums and can store instructions and/or data associated with one or more of processor(s) 410 or transceiver circuitry 420). In various aspects, system 400 can be included within a user equipment (UE) or loT device, for example, a MTC / loT UE. As described in greater detail below, system 400 can process / receive DRS communications in one or more DRS subframe configurations according to various aspects / embodiments described herein.

[0073] As referred to herein, a category (Cat) 4 LBT protocol / procedure can be longer than a single interval LBT or a clear channel assessment, and further include a backoff operation or procedure. For example, the category 4 LBT protocol can further include a random backoff procedure (e.g., an exponential random backoff procedure) as opposed to a clear channel assessment alone that can comprise a single interval LBT (or short Cat 4 LBT) operation or single shot LBT; whereby a puncturing of a symbol of PUSCH transmission (e.g., a first symbol or other symbol of the UL transmission) occurs as part of the channel assessment to determine a busy channel or an idle / available channel / band.

[0074] Referring to FIG. 5, illustrated is a block diagram of a system or apparatus 500 employable at a BS (Base Station), gNB, eNB or other network device / component (e.g., 1 1 1 or 1 12) that facilitates / enables autonomous UL transmission. System 500 can include one or more processors 510 (e.g., one or more baseband processors such as one or more of the baseband processors discussed in connection with FIG. 2 and/or FIG. 3) comprising processing circuitry and associated memory interface(s) (e.g., memory interface(s) discussed in connection with FIG. 3), communication circuitry 520 (e.g., which can comprise circuitry for one or more wired (e.g., X2, etc.) connections and/or transceiver circuitry that can comprise one or more of transmitter circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more transmit chains) or receiver circuitry (e.g., associated with one or more receive chains), wherein the transmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry can employ common circuit elements, distinct circuit elements, or a combination thereof), and memory 530 (which can comprise any of a variety of storage mediums and can store instructions and/or data associated with one or more of processor(s) 510 or communication circuitry 520). In various aspects, system 500 can be included within an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (Evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB), next generation Node B (gNodeB or gNB) or other base station in a wireless communications network. In some aspects, the processor(s) 510, communication circuitry 520, and the memory 530 can be included in a single device, while in other aspects, they can be included in different devices, such as part of a distributed architecture. [0075] The system 500 of an eNB / gNB, for example, can perform a listen-before- talk (LBT) procedure on one or more channels where one or more loT devices can be scheduled to transmit on. The eNB 500 can then reserve the one or more channels for the one or more loT devices based on the LBT procedure. Then the eNB can provide a TxOP trigger to the one or more UEs to notify the devices of details pertaining to the one or more channels such as one or more unlicensed channels in enhanced licensed assisted access (eLAA) or MulteFire communications / protocols, for example.

[0076] In LTE Rel-8/9/10, physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) is located in the first several symbols in a subframe. PDCCH can be fully distributed in the entire system bandwidth. PDCCH are time-division multiplexed (TDM) with PDSCH; effectively dividing a subframe into a control region and a data region.

[0077] In Rel-1 1 , enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) is introduced. Unlike legacy PDCCH, which occupies the first several control symbols in a subframe, ePDCCH occupies the data region, similar to PDSCH.

[0078] ePDCCH is frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) based, and can have two modes: localized and distributed. For localized ePDCCH, a single precoder (e.g., one or more processors of the transmitter chain such as any processor of the baseband circuitry 204 or the like) can be applied for each PRB pair. The precoder can be transparent to the UE and different precoders can be applied for different PRB pairs of the same ePDCCH candidate. For distributed ePDCCH, two precoders cycle through the allocated resources within each PRB pair.

[0079] ePDCCH can be based on enhanced resource element group (EREG) and enhanced control channel element (ECCE). In various aspects / embodiments, an ePDCCH can be configured for downlink control information (DCI) transmission based on various mechanisms that improve the link quality of control channel. For example, enhancements can be based on power boosting, and set aggregation. In LTE

specifications, distributed or localized ePDCCH can be defined or specified. The ePDCCH set of resources can be configured to either be localized or distributed, with a maximum of about 8 physical resource blocks (PRBs), for example, which can be configured via a higher layer signaling into each set. By and large, ePDCCH can be transmitted on resource blocks (RBs) / PRBs in regions of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) that are configured by the eNB / gNB 500 for ePDCCH. Although any one example illustrated or described herein can related specifically to a localized or a distributed transmission, both can be envisioned accordingly for the described aspects / embodiments, unless stated otherwise.

[0080] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of four RBs for ePDCCH with a distributed allocation according to various aspects / embodiments herein. Here, one distributed ECCE 600 can comprise four EREGs (e.g., ECCE index i = 0), and each EREG can comprise 9 REs located at different RBs, or at each box, of the distributed ECCE 600. Here, if the aggregation level is equal to one, then one out of four REs within one RB can be valid REs, and can be utilized to transmit the DCI. The remaining REs are vacant REs. According to an aspect related to these vacant REs, their power can thus be leveraged to the valid REs to improve link quality.

[0081] EREGs can map on to a PRB pair so that first, numbering all resource elements, excluding REs for DMRS, in one PRB pair, from 0 to 15 is in an increasing order of frequency domain first, then time domain. Further, all resource elements (REs) with number y in that physical resource block pair (or PRB pair) 604 constitutes EREG number j 602.

[0082] As seen in FIG. 6, each box may represent an EREG. The number in each such box can be the ECCE index i. As mentioned above, each EREG can occupy 9 REs. An ECCE can consist of N = 4 or 8 EREGs. For example, N = 4 can be generated with normal CP and normal subframe configuration, or special subframe configurations (e.g., 3, 4, or 8) when the number of REs/PRB pair is large, corresponding to 4 ECCEs per PRB pair. Otherwise, N=8 can corresponding to 2 ECCEs per PRB pair. As mentioned above, each PRB can be evenly divided into 16 EREGs (0 to 15).

[0083] The distributed ECCE 600 gives an example ECCE indexing, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. Distributed ECCE forming the distributed ePDCCH based on the aggregation level of each ePDDCH set (or number of PRB pairs corresponding to the ePDDCH, such as 2, 4 or 8) and EREGs forming an ECCE can have basic units similar to localized transmission. With distributed types, EREGs in an EREG group form an ECCE are from different PRB pairs. For example, the EREG group 0 can include 0, 4, 8, and 2 from different (e.g., four different) PRB pairs.

Distributed transmission can be less dependent on channel feedback, and thus, can be used where reliable channel state information (CSI) may not always be available. It can use frequency diversity by transmitting control signals over multiple PRB pairs across a full system bandwidth, and similar principle(s) can be used in conventional PDCCH also.

[0084] In one embodiment, one distributed ePDCCH set can be used to transmit the DCI with range extension. The number of PRBs configured by a higher layer via the eNB / gNB (e.g., by radio resource control (RRC) signaling, or the like) can be extended to 10 RBs or 16 RBs to fully explore the power boosting gain. Different PRBs can be allocated by the eNB 500, for example, through high layer signaling in a UE specific way, where the frequency gap between two PRB pairs can be larger than x MHz, e.g. 1 MHz, so that the power can be focused onto the valid subcarriers under a power spectral density (PSD) limitation.

[0085] Referring to FIG. 7, illustrated is an example of aggregated among at least two distributed ePDCCH sets 702 and 704 for DCI information transmission. The ePDCCH can use PDSCH resources for control information transmission. It can be UE- specific, meaning that different UEs can have different ePDCCH configurations. The ePDCCH can be configured via higher layer signaling or RRC signaling. Each UE can be configured with at least two sets of ePDCCHs, in which the configuration can also be different or the same between the two sets. For resource utilization efficiency, the resource blocks which have been configured for ePDCCHs in a subframe can still be used for PDSCH transmission if they are not actually used for the ePDCCH

transmissions during a given subframe.

[0086] In one embodiment, at least two distributed sets 702 or at least two distributed sets 704 can be configured to transmit the DCI information, while the frequency gap of any two PRBs of any set can be larger than x MHz, in which x can be at or larger than x 1 MHz. One DCI can be jointly encoded in the two distributed sets to extend the coverage. A higher layer constraint on the aggregation level of each set can also be utilized to limit the UE blind decoding search space, and thus the complexity of UE blind decoding. For example, after performing deinterleaving, deprecoding, symbol combining, symbol demodulation or descrambling at the loT device, the UE or loT device can perform blind decoding of the PDCCH payload as it is not necessarily aware of the detailed control channel structure, including the number of control channels and the number of control channel elements (CCEs) or REs to which each control channel is mapped. Multiple PDCCHs or ePDCCH sets can be transmitted in a single subframe, which may and may not be all relevant to a particular UE or loT device 400. The loT device 400 can find the PDCCH specific to it by monitoring a set of PDCCH candidates (a set of consecutive CCEs on which a PDCCH could be mapped) in every subframe. The UE or loT device can then use its Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) to try and decode candidates. The RNTI can be used to demask a PDCCH candidate's CRC.

[0087] In one embodiment, in the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets 702, the DCI information can be generated based on the aggregation levels L ₁ + L ₂ , where L _1r L ₂ are the aggregation level of different distributed ePDCCH sets (set #1 , set #2), respectively. Note that U and L ₂ may be different or can be the same. For example, the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets 702 provide an example, where /. _/ = L ₂ = L, in which the aggregation levels of each set can be the same, but the two can also be different so that the aggregation levels are Li + L ₂ . After generating the control data symbols, and determining the available physical REs, the symbols of each set can be mapped to the available REs with the rule that frequency first, and then time domain.

[0088] In another embodiment, in the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets 704, the DCI information can be generated based on the aggregation level L, where L are the aggregation level of set #1 , #2. After generation of the control data symbols, and determining the available physical REs of set #1 , the mapping can be performed firstly in the frequency domain, and then in the time domain. This same procedure can also be performed for set #2 (e.g., RBs with the hashed boxes).

[0089] In another embodiment, the search space of two sets are associated with each other, so as to reduce the complexity for blind detection. For instance, when aggregation level of two sets are the same, their candidate search space can be one-to- one mapped, i. e., m ₁ = m ₂ , where m m ₂ (m ₁ = 0, 1 ... M ^L) ; m ₂ = 0, 1 ... M ₂ ^(L) ) can be ePDCCH candidate index of set 1 and set 2, respectively. Alternatively, the mapping rule between m _? and m ₂ can be configured by high layer signaling, or RRC signaling, and can be one-to-one among the candidates or a different configuration / ratio so that the search space of the two distributed ePDCCH sets are associated with teach other for reducing blind detection complexity. Additionally, the distributed ePDCCH with power boosting can be applied to either the unicast or the broadcasting control information.

[0090] In another embodiment, the PRB pair index, and aggregation level of broadcasting control channel, for example, the control channel scrambling with one or more of a CC-RNTI, a P-RNTI, or a SI-RNTI, can be pre-defined or configured by the eNB 500 through high layer signaling. Here, one or more different broadcasting control channels, PRB pair indices, and/or aggregation levels can be configured by eNB separately.

[0091] In another embodiment, two common / conventional PDCCHs (cPDCCHs) / (or cPDDCH) can be transmitted, while a legacy UE still detects the cPDCCH / in the conventional way, the new loT devices / users can detect the cPDCCH in the techniques / mechanisms herein in particular. The UE (e.g., 400) can further monitor the cPDCCH and use the DCI for / within ePDCCH using ePDCCH (e.g., CePDCCH).

[0092] Referring to FIG. 8, illustrated is an example of communications 800 and 830 with a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) or a transmission opportunity (TxOP) that repeats DCI transmission to increase coverage and link quality. The TxOP 802 can provide one or more UL grant(s) with subframes 804 and 806. As such, repetitions (Rep #0, Rep #1 , Rep #2, Rep #3) of the ePDCCH 810, 814 with DCI at subframes 808 and 81 2, for example, can be generated by the eNB 500 and processed by the loT device 400.

[0093] Repeating PDCCH over different subframes can be generated for coverage extension. Embodiments herein may extend designs into unlicensed band with frame structure type 3 (e.g., frame structure type 3 of 3GPP release 13). In one embodiment, the DCI within one subframe can be transmitted on multiple subframes, e.g. N ₂ , where the repetition times can be configured by eNB through high layer signaling, or be carried in the corresponding DCI. The repeated transmission of ePDCCH can be applied to either the unicast or the broadcasting DCI information. The repetition times of different broadcasting control channel, e.g. the channel scrambling with CC-RNTI, P-RNTI, Sl- RNTI can be pre-defined or configured by eNB through high layer signaling separately.

[0094] In one embodiment, some repeated entries could exceed the given TxOP period 802, as illustrated in the following figure. The repeated entries could be transmitted across multiple TxOPs 802 and 840, while the entries (e.g., subframes 816 / 820 with ePDCCH 818, 822) which could extend beyond any available TxOP 802 can be either dropped (as indicated by the X' across subframes 816 and 820) as shown transmission 800, or be continued to transmit until the next TxOP 840 as shown transmission 830.

[0095] For instance, 8 times repeated ePDCCH could be transmitted with the starting subframe #8, #9, #0 ... #5. While the period of the first TxOP 802 could range from [(n-1 ) ^* 10+4, (n-1 ) ^* 10+5 ... (n-1 ) ^* 10+9, n ^* 10, n ^* 10+1 ], and the period of the second TxOP 840 ranges from [n ^* 10+3, n ^* 10+4 ... n ^* 10+9, (n+1 ) ^* 10], where n can be the radio frame / subframe number, the 8 times repeated ePDCCH can be transmitted across two TxOPs, that is [(n-1 ) ^* 10+8, (n-1 ) ^* 10+9, n ^* 10, n ^* 10+1 ] of the first TxOP 802, plus [n ^* 10+3, n ^* 1 0+4, n ^* 10+5] of the second TxOP 840, while one entry / ePDCCH at n ^* 1 0+2 could be dropped, for example.

[0096] In another embodiment, a single slot or single shot LBT can be performed by eNB 500 following the given TxOP 802. The period of TxOP could also be configured to be equal to the remaining subframes to finish the whole repeated ePDCCH

transmission. As such, the TxOP 802 could be extended as the entirety of TxOP 840 or a partial part to enable subframes 816 and 820 to be within the TxOP 802, for example.

[0097] Alternatively or additionally, when the repeated PDSCH transmissions being generated or processed exceeds the TxOP 802, the remaining PDSCH subframes exceeding the TxOP can also either be dropped or continued to be transmitted until the next TxOP 840, which can be in conjunction with / corresponding to same operation when the ePDCCH exceeds or different therefrom with respect to transmissions 800 and 830, for example.

[0098] Referring to FIG. 9, illustrated are examples of repetitions and subframe assignments for ePDCCH and corresponding PDSCH. Here, the repetitions (Rep #0, Rep #1 , Rep #2, Rep #3) can be generated / processed across a plurality of subframes 804-820 and various TxOPs 802 and 840. The different aspects to controlling / treating repetitions exceeding a given TxOP 802 are further illustrated by each transmission 800 and 830, respectively, as illustrated in FIG. 8 as well.

[0099] In particular embodiments, to enhance coverage and increase link quality, subframes can be assigned for ePDCCH / ePDCCH sets with one or more ePDCCH configurations (e.g., two sets of distributed ePDCCH 810, 814, 818, 822 or other number) in each repetition subframe corresponding with PDSCH 902 of each subframe. The PDSCH 902 can comprise a same number of sets based on a distributed ECCE as with ePDCCH sets, a different number or different configuration. The ePDCCH can have more than one set in each subframe, such as more than one distributed ePDCCH set, and be different or the same across subframes. Further, the PDSCH can be the same or different in sets as the ePDCCH in each subframe.

[00100] In other aspects, the ePDCCH can correspond by start / end time, duration, number, or length, for example, with the PDSCH. [00101 ] In one embodiment, the repetition times of the PDSCH can be either same or different as ePDCCH or the ePDCCH sets. As such, the PDSCH can be repeated at different times than the ePDCCH or at same times of one or more different subframes, for example.

[00102] In another embodiment, the first subframe of PDSCH during the repetition can be the same or different as the first subframe of ePDCCH. This similarity or difference can be in the parameters of the configuration of each set of REs / RBs, for example, such as in timing, size, duration, location / indices indication, number within each subframe, or the like. In one example, the repetition times of PDSCH is the same as the repetition times of ePDCCH, where the ePDCCH and PDSCH are transmitted at the same multiple subframes. In another example, the repetition times of PDSCH can be larger than the ePDCCH, where the starting subframe of PDSCH and ePDCCH are the same. As such, for example, the starting subframe of each of the PDSCH can be aligned with that of the ePDCCH.

[00103] In another embodiment, cross scheduling can be enabled, in which the ePDCCH and the corresponding data can be allocated at different subframes to reduce the required data buffer at a receiver, UE or the loT device 400. For example, the loT / UE first receives the ePDCCH, and obtains the assigned resource blocks for data, then can buffer in a data buffer the assigned resource blocks of multiple subframes for data demodulation.

[00104] In another embodiment, the loT device 400 or UE receiving the transmissions 800 or 830 can receive or process repetition times of the ePDCCH from indication in the DCI. The loT device 400 can then use the repetition times in the DCI to calculate or derive a boundary of the ePDCCH. As such, the repetition times of ePDCCH can be indicated in the DCI, which can be used to calculate the boundary of ePDCCH. In one example, the starting subframe of ePDDCH is pre-defined as the units of absolute subframes. When UE detects the ePDCCH within one window or frame, together with the indicated repetition times, the start/end subframe of ePDCCH can be calculated, and then the subframes for PDSCH combination can also be derived.

[00105] These embodiments / aspects, can also correspond and add further detail to other embodiments. For example, in cases of the repetitions exceeding any one TxOP 802, for example, the embodiments discussed above in relation to FIG. 8 can also be applicable. The TxOP 802 can be extended to the accommodate all the repetitions, dropped, or continued, with one or more drops and others being continued in the next TxOP as well, or halted and all continued in the next TxOP, for example. A single shot LBT can be performed by eNB following the given TxOP. The period of the next TxOP can be equal to the remaining subframes to finish the whole or partial remaining repeated ePDCCH transmission or the entirety of the repetitions, for example.

[00106] Referring to FIG. 10, illustrated is an example of repetitions to enhance coverage and link quality corresponding to uplink. Here, a TxOP 1 002 can include a plurality of subframes 1006, 1008, 1012, 101 6, 1020, 1024, 1026. In particular, the repetition times of the repetition frames (e.g., ePDCCH Rep #0, Rep #1 , or others) or subframe assignments that correspond to the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions, as shown at least partially by uplink U repetitions # 0 and #1 1030, 1032, for example.

[00107] In one embodiment, the repetition times of PUSCH can be either same or different as the ePDCCH.

[00108] In another embodiment, the repetition times of ePDCCH can be indicated in the DCI, which can then be used to calculate the boundary of ePDCCH.

[00109] In another embodiment, a starting subframe of the ePDCCH can be predefined as the units of absolute subframes, and the last subframe for ePDCCH transmission can be viewed as the reference subframe. The UE / loT device 400 can calculate the offset or other parameter so that UE / loT device 400 can calculate the ending of ePDCCH, and derive the starting subframe for PUSCH transmission.

[00110] For example, as illustrated in FIG. 10, while the ePDCCH transmission 1010 starts from subframe #0 1008, and has four times repetitions 1014, 1018, 1022 along with ePDCCH 1 01 0, the loT device 400 can then utilize the last subframe #3 1022 as the reference subframe, and add the subframe offset (e.g., 1028), which can be indicated in the DCI to get the starting subframe for PUSCH transmission 1030 and 1032. Here, UE / loT device 400 can operate to blindly combine the ePDCCH 1010 from the starting absolute subframe, and if it successfully detects the ePDCCH within a window [n ₀ n ₀ + N _rep - 1 ], where n ₀ , N _rep = 4 in the example, the last subframe of ePDCCH 1022 can be derived, and finally the starting subframe of PUSCH 1030 can be calculated.

[00111 ] In one embodiment, the starting subframe of unicast ePDCCH can be configured by eNB 500 in either a UE specific or cell specific way with UE specific search space or specific to a particular UE. For example, the locations of starting subframe k are given by k = kt> where /¾ is the b ^th consecutive DL subframe from subframe k ₀ , and b = u - rj, and u = 0, 1, ... - 1, and j E {1,2,3,4}, where subframe k ₀ \s a subframe satisfying the condition 10n _r + ^s / ₂ J ^m °d ^{T =} 0, where T = r _max ^■ G; r _max is the maximum repetition times of ePDCCH, and can be configured by higher layer parameter G, which is the high layer configured parameters, and ΤΊ r ₂ r ₃ r _{4 >} are given in Table 9.1 .5-3 of TS 36.213.

[00112] In an aspect, the repetition times and subframe assigned for the ePDCCH 1010, 1014, 1018, 1022 can be derived with the CC-RNTI. In one embodiment, the repetition times of ePDCCH with CC-RNTI can be pre-defined or configured by eNB through broadcasting channel, (e.g., physical broadcast channel (PBCH)). The starting subframe of ePDCCH with CC-RNTI can be pre-defined or be configured by eNB 500 through broadcasting channel, e.g. PBCH, or system information (SI). Further, the last subframe of ePDCCH with CC-RNTI can be utilized as the reference subframe to calculate the starting subframe of PUSCH 1030, 1032 if the ePUCCH trigger or PUSCH type B trigger is set to 1 , and then the loT 400 can derive the starting subframe of UL period.

[00113] As another mechanism by which to increase coverage and link quality, in one embodiment, the eNB 500 could also select a less interfered channel such that signal- to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) can be maintained higher than other channels form a plurality of channels. In another embodiment, the eNB may measure a noise figure of the channels and select a channel with a low noise figure such that SINR can be maintained higher than the other channels of the group. In another embodiment, the eNB may choose a channel with lower carrier frequency among available channels such that the path loss can be lowered and thereby SINR can be maintained higher than other channels.

[00114] While the methods described within this disclosure are illustrated in and described herein as a series of acts or events, it will be appreciated that the illustrated ordering of such acts or events are not to be interpreted in a limiting sense. For example, some acts can occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts or events apart from those illustrated and/or described herein. In addition, not all illustrated acts can be required to implement one or more aspects or embodiments of the description herein. Further, one or more of the acts depicted herein can be carried out in one or more separate acts and/or phases.

[00115] Referring to FIG. 11 , illustrated is an example process flow 1 100 for an eNB / gNB, or UE for example, to perform / process / generate ePDCCH transmission to increase coverage area and increase link quality.

[00116] The method 1 100 initiates at 1 102 with configuring a PDCCH with enhanced coverage to enable an loT communication by generating a distributed ePDCCH with one or more ePDCCH sets including a DCI. At the loT device for an unlicensed band over MulteFire this can comprise processing the ePDCCH with enhanced coverage to derive a DCI from one or more distributed ePDCCH sets of the ePDCCH and enable an loT uplink communication based on the DCI.

[00117] At 1 104, the process flow includes increasing a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH based on one or more mechanisms of generating the one or more ePDCCH sets. These mechanisms can include extending or leveraging power from RBs or non-used or vacant subcarriers of PRB pairs, such as by increasing the number of RBs for ePDCCH or aggregating sets per transmission over the same or different TxOPs. Repetitions can be generated according to one or more aspects / embodiments that correspond with the PDSCH / PUSCH generation. Further, channel selection can also be utilized based on an SINR, interference or other parameter such that determine a noise figure of a plurality of channels can be determined so that a channel can be selected that is lower in noise or better quality than others.

[00118] At 1 106, the process flow can continue with transmitting, or causing to transmit, the ePDCCH.

[00119] In other embodiments, the process flow 1 100 can also include extending a number of PRBs to 10 PRBs or 16 PRBs to enable a power boosting gain of the ePDCCH transmission as the one or more mechanisms. At least two distributed ePDCCH sets can be generated to transmit the DCI, including a frequency gap between two PRBs of any one distributed ePDCCH set of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets, by jointly encoding the DCI among the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area. The distributed ePDCCH can also be applied with the power boosting gain to either a unicast control information or a broadcasting control information. [00120] The process flow 1 1 00 can also include configuring a PRB pair index of the distributed ePDCCH, and an aggregation level of a broadcasting control channel with the distributed ePDCCH being scrambled based on at least one of: UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC-RNTI), a cell-RNTI (C-RNTI), a paging RNTI (P-RNTI), or a system information (SI-RNTI). In response to the repetitions exceeding a transmission opportunity (TxOP) period corresponding to the at least one of: the ePDCCH or the PDSCH, transmit the one or more repetitions across a plurality of TxOPs or drop the repetitions of the at least one of the ePDCCH or the PDSCH that are beyond the TxOP period.

[00121 ] In a first set of examples to the various aspects / embodiments herein, the below examples are envisioned further.

[00122] Example 1 may include a method of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) design with enhanced coverage to support the internet of things (loT) application for MulteFire systems.

[00123] Example 2 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein one distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) set can be used to transmit the downlink control information (DCI) with range extension.

[00124] Example 3 may include the method of example 2 and/or some other example herein, wherein the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) configured by higher layer can be extended to 10 resource blocks (RBs) or 16 RBs to fully explore the power boosting gain.

[00125] Example 4 may include the method of example 2 and/or some other example herein, wherein different PRBs are allocated by eNB through high layer signaling in a UE specific way, where the frequency gap between two PRB pairs are larger than x MHz, e.g. 1 MHz, so that the power can be focused onto the valid subcarriers under the PSD limitation.

[00126] Example 5 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein two distributed sets can be configured to transmit the DCI information, while the frequency gap of any two PRBs of any set are larger than x MHz, e.g. 1 MHz. One DCI can be jointly encoded in the two distributed set to extend the coverage.

Higher layer constraint on the aggregation level of each set are possible to limit the UE blind decoding search space. Two ways of joint encoding are described herein. [00127] Example 6 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the DCI information can be generated based on the aggregation levels Li + L ₂ , where L _1r L ₂ are the aggregation level of different distributed ePDCCH sets (set #1 , set #2), respectively. Note that Li and L ₂ may be different or may be the same. Figure 2 provides an example, where Li = L ₂ = L. After generating the control data symbols, and determining the available physical REs, the symbols will be mapped to the available REs with the rule that frequency first, and then time domain.

[00128] Example 7 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the DCI information can be generated based on the aggregation level L, where L are the aggregation level of set #1 , #2. After generation the control data symbols, and determining the available physical REs of set #1 , the mapping is performed firstly in the frequency domain, and then in the time domain. And the same procedure is performed for set #2.

[00129] Example 8 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the search space of two sets are associated with each other, so as to reduce the complexity for blind detection. For instance, when aggregation level of two sets are the same, their candidate search space is one to one mapped, i. e. m m ₂ , where m m ₂ (m ₁ = 0, 1 ... M ^L) ; m ₂ = 0, 1 ... M ₂ ^(L) ) are ePDCCH candidate index of set 1 and set 2, respectively.

[00130] Example 9 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the mapping rule between m _? and m ₂ can be configured by high layer signaling.

[00131 ] Example 10 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the distributed ePDCCH with power boosting can be applied to either the unicast or the broadcasting control information.

[00132] Example 1 1 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PRB pair index, and aggregation level of broadcasting control channel, e.g. the control channel scrambling with CC-RNTI, P-RNTI, SI-RNTI can be pre-defined or configured by eNB through high layer signaling. Here, different broadcasting control channel, the PRB pair index, and aggregation level can be configured by eNB separately.

[00133] Example 12 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein two CPDDCH are transmitted, while the legacy UE still detects the CPDCCH in the conventional way, the new loT users detect the ePDCCH in the technique discussed herein.

[00134] Example 13 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the DCI within one subframe can be transmitted on multiple subframes, e.g. N ₂ , where the repetition times can be configured by eNB through high layer signaling, or be carried in the corresponding DCI.

[00135] Example 14 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repeated transmission of ePDCCH can be applied to either the unicast or the broadcasting DCI information.

[00136] Example 15 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of different broadcasting control channel, e.g. the channel scrambling with CC-RNTI, P-RNTI, SI-RNTI can be pre-defined or configured by eNB through high layer signaling separately.

[00137] Example 16 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein some repeated entries may exceed the given TxOP period. The repeated entries may be transmitted across multiple TxOPs, while the entries which may beyond any available TxOP can be either dropped, or be continue to transmit until the next TxOP.

[00138] Example 17 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein a single slot LBT can be performed by eNB following the given TxOP. The period of TxOP is equal to the remaining subframes to finish the whole repeated ePDCCH transmission.

[00139] Example 18 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, when the repeated PDSCH transmissions may exceed the TxOP, the remaining PDSCH subframes exceeding the TxOP can either be dropped or continue to be transmitted until the next TxOP.

[00140] Example 19 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of PDSCH can be either same or different as ePDCCH.

[00141 ] Example 20 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first subframe of PDSCH during the repetition can be the same or different as the first subframe of ePDCCH. [00142] Example 21 may include the PDCCH design of example 20 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of PDSCH is the same as the repetition times of ePDCCH, where the ePDCCH and PDSCH are transmitted at the same multiple subframes.

[00143] Example 22 may include the PDCCH design of example 20 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of PDSCH can be larger than the ePDCCH, where the starting subframe of PDSCH and ePDCCH are the same.

[00144] Example 23 may include the PDCCH design of example 20 and/or some other example herein, wherein the cross scheduling can be enabled, that is the ePDCCH and the corresponding data can be allocated at different subframes to reduce the required data buffer. UE firstly receives the ePDCCH, and obtains the assigned resource blocks for data, then UE will buffer the assigned resource blocks of multiple subframes for data demodulation.

[00145] Example 24 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of ePDCCH is indicated in the DCI, which can be used to calculate the boundary of ePDCCH.

[00146] Example 25 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the starting subframe of ePDDCH is pre-defined as the units of absolute subframes. When UE detects the ePDCCH within one window, together with the indicated repetition times, the start/end subframe of ePDCCH is calculated, and then the subframes for PDSCH combination are also derived.

[00147] Example 26 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of PUSCH can be either same or different as ePDCCH.

[00148] Example 27 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of ePDCCH is indicated in the DCI, which can be used to calculate the boundary of ePDCCH.

[00149] Example 28 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the starting subframe of ePDDCH is pre-defined as the units of absolute subframes, and the last subframe for ePDCCH transmission is viewed as the reference subframe. UE can calculate the so that UE can calculate the ending of ePDCCH, and derive the starting subframe for PUSCH transmission. [00150] Example 29 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the starting subframe of unicast ePDCCH can be configured by eNB in either UE specific or cell specific way.

[00151 ] Example 30 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the repetition times of ePDCCH with CC-RNTI can be predefined or configured by eNB through broadcasting channel, e.g. PBCH.

[00152] Example 31 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the starting subframe of ePDCCH with CC-RNTI can be predefined or be configured by eNB through broadcasting channel, e.g. PBCH, SI.

[00153] Example 32 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the last subframe of ePDCCH with CC-RNTI can be utilized as the reference subframe to calculate the starting subframe of PUSCH if the ePUCCH trigger or PUSCH type B trigger is set to 1 , and derive the starting subframe of UL period.

[00154] Example 33 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the eNB may select less interfered channel such that SINR can be maintained higher than other channels.

[00155] Example 34 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the eNB may measure noise figure and select a channel with low noise figure such that SINR can be maintained higher than other channels.

[00156] Example 35 may include the PDCCH design of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the eNB may choose a channel with lower carrier frequency among available channels such that the path loss can be lowered and thereby SINR can be maintained higher than other channels.

[00157] Example 36 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1 -35, or any other method or process described herein.

[00158] Example 37 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 -35, or any other method or process described herein. [00159] Example 38 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1 -35, or any other method or process described herein.

[00160] Example 39 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1 -35, or portions or parts thereof.

[00161 ] Example 40 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 -35, or portions thereof.

[00162] Example 41 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[00163] Example 42 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[00164] Example 43 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[00165] As used herein, the term "circuitry" can refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry can be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry can be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry can include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.

[00166] As it employed in the subject specification, the term "processor" can refer to substantially any computing processing unit or device including, but not limited to including, single-core processors; single-processors with software multithread execution capability; multi-core processors; multi-core processors with software multithread execution capability; multi-core processors with hardware multithread technology;

parallel platforms; and parallel platforms with distributed shared memory. Additionally, a processor can refer to an integrated circuit, an application specific integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a field programmable gate array, a programmable logic controller, a complex programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions and/or processes described herein. Processors can exploit nano-scale architectures such as, but not limited to, molecular and quantum-dot based transistors, switches and gates, in order to optimize space usage or enhance performance of mobile devices. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing processing units.

[00167] In the subject specification, terms such as "store," "data store," data storage," "database," and substantially any other information storage component relevant to operation and functionality of a component and/or process, refer to "memory

components," or entities embodied in a "memory," or components including the memory. It is noted that the memory components described herein can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory.

[00168] By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory, for example, can be included in a memory, non-volatile memory (see below), disk storage (see below), and memory storage (see below). Further, nonvolatile memory can be included in read only memory, programmable read only memory, electrically programmable read only memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, or flash memory.

Volatile memory can include random access memory, which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, random access memory is available in many forms such as synchronous random access memory, dynamic random access memory, synchronous dynamic random access memory, double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory, enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory, Synchlink dynamic random access memory, and direct Rambus random access memory. Additionally, the disclosed memory components of systems or methods herein are intended to include, without being limited to including, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[00169] Examples can include subject matter such as a method, means for performing acts or blocks of the method, at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when performed by a machine cause the machine to perform acts of the method or of an apparatus or system for concurrent communication using multiple communication technologies according to embodiments and examples described herein. [00170] In a second set of examples to the various aspects / embodiments herein, the below examples are envisioned further.

[00171 ] Example 1 is an apparatus configured to be employed in an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB) comprising: one or more processors configured to: configure a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) with enhanced coverage to enable an internet of things (loT) communication by generating a distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) with one or more ePDCCH sets including a downlink control information (DCI); increase a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH based on one or more mechanisms of generating the one or more ePDCCH sets; and a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for ePDCCH transmission.

[00172] Example 2 includes the subject matter of Example 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: extend a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) to 10 PRBs or 16 PRBs to enable a power boosting gain of the ePDCCH transmission as the one or more mechanisms; and apply the distributed ePDCCH with the power boosting gain to either a unicast control information or a broadcasting control information.

[00173] Example 3 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -2, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: extend the coverage area, or improve the link quality, by allocating different PRBs of the ePDCCH via a higher layer signaling based on a UE / loT specific allocation; generate the ePDCCH with a frequency gap between two PRB pairs comprising about 1 MHz or greater; and focus, or re-focus power onto valid subcarriers of the PRB pairs within a predetermined power spectral density from non-used or vacant subcarriers of the PRB pairs.

[00174] Example 4 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -3, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: generate at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to transmit the DCI, with a frequency gap of any two PRBs of any one distributed ePDCCH set of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets comprising about 1 MHz or larger; and jointly encode the DCI among the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area.

[00175] Example 5 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -4, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: generate the DCI based on an aggregation level of a first aggregation level Li of a first aggregation level and a second aggregation level L ₂ of the distributed ePDCCH sets, wherein the first aggregation level U is equal to, or different from, the second aggregation level L ₂ of the distributed ePDCCH sets.

[00176] Example 6 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -5, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: jointly encode the DCI among at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area to associate a search space of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets with one another as the one or more mechanisms, and reduce

complexity for a blind detection by an loT device configured for MulteFire

communications based on the jointly decoded DCI.

[00177] Example 7 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -6, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein an aggregation level of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets is equal, and the one or more processors are further configured to map candidate search spaces of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets based on a one-to-one mapping or a mapping rule provided by higher level signaling.

[00178] Example 8 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -7, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: configure a PRB pair index of the distributed ePDCCH, and an

aggregation level of a broadcasting control channel with the distributed ePDCCH being scrambled based on at least one of: UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC- RNTI), a cell-RNTI (C-RNTI), a paging RNTI (P-RNTI), or a system information (Sl- RNTI).

[00179] Example 9 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -8, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit the DCI of a subframe on multiple subframes based on one or more repetition times or number of repetitions of the ePDCCH configured through high layer signaling, or as an indication in the corresponding DCI, as the one or more mechanisms; and apply repetitions of the ePDCCH to a unicast DCI information or a broadcasting DCI information.

[00180] Example 10 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -9, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: transmit the DCI of a subframe by generating repetitions of at least one of: the ePDCCH or a physical downlink shared channel subframe (PDSCH) as the one or more mechanisms; in response to the repetitions exceeding a transmission opportunity (TxOP) period corresponding to the at least one of: the ePDCCH or the PDSCH, transmit the one or more repetitions across a plurality of TxOPs or drop the repetitions of the at least one of the ePDCCH or the PDSCH that are beyond the TxOP period.

[00181 ] Example 1 1 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -1 0, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: generate a single shot listen before talk (LBT) following the TxOP period, and extending the TxOP period to equal the repetitions, or by an amount of remaining subframes, to complete a transmission of the repetitions.

[00182] Example 12 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -1 1 , including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein repetition times of at least a part of the PDSCH are a same as or different from repetition times of the at least the part of the ePDCCH, wherein in response to the repetitions times being the same, the RF circuitry is configured to transmit the ePDCCH and the PDSCH at same multiple subframes, and in response to the repetitions times being different, the repetition times of the at least the part of the PDSCH is larger than the ePDCCH and a starting subframe of the PDSCH and the ePDCCH are same in time.

[00183] Example 13 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -1 2, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: perform a cross scheduling of the ePDCCH and corresponding data by allocating different subframes to the ePDCCH and corresponding data to enable a reduction in data buffering.

[00184] Example 14 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1 -1 3, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine a noise figure of a plurality of channels and select a channel from the plurality of channels with less interference, a lower noise figure or a lower carrier frequency than other channels of the plurality of channels to maintain a higher signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) with the selected channel over the other channels.

[00185] Example 15 is an apparatus configured to be employed in an internet of things (loT) device comprising: one or more processors configured to: process an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) with enhanced coverage to derive a downlink control information (DCI) from one or more distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) sets of the ePDCCH and enable an internet of things (loT) uplink communication based on the DCI; and increase at least one of: a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH in response to one or more mechanisms; and a radio frequency (RF) interface, configured to provide, to RF circuitry, data for the loT uplink communication.

[00186] Example 16 includes the subject matter of Example 15, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: process the ePDCCH with power boosting leveraged from non-used or vacant subcarriers of PRB pairs of the one or more distributed ePDCCH sets as the one or more mechanisms.

[00187] Example 17 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 15-16, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: process the DCI from at least two distributed ePDCCH sets jointly encoding the DCI based on one or more aggregation levels corresponding to the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets as the one or more mechanisms; and in response to the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets comprising a same aggregation level, process the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets based on a one-to-one mapping of corresponding candidate search spaces, or another mapping ratio / rule indicated from an eNB / gNB / higher layer signaling.

[00188] Example 18 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 15-17, including or omitting any elements as optional,, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: obtain assigned resource blocks for data from a plurality of subframes including the DCI, and buffer the assigned resource blocks of the plurality of subframes with the ePDCCH for data demodulation.

[00189] Example 19 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 15-18, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: process repetition times of repetitions of the ePDCCH that are indicated in the DCI; and utilize the repetition times to derive a boundary of the ePDCCH.

[00190] Example 20 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 15-19, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: defining a starting subframe of the ePDDCH as a unit of an absolute subframe; and in response to detecting the ePDCCH within a window and receiving indicated repetition times of the ePDCCH, calculating start / end ePDCCH subframes and deriving at least one of: one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) subframes, or a starting subframe of a PUSCH transmission, based on the starting subframe and the indicated repetition times, wherein repetition times of the PUSCH transmission are a same as or different from the repetition times of the ePDCCH.

[00191 ] Example 21 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 15-20, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: utilize the end ePDCCH subframe with a UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC-RNTI) or a cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) as a reference subframe to calculate the starting subframe of the PUSCH transmission in response to an ePUCCH trigger or a PUSCH type B trigger being set to 1 , and derive the starting subframe for an uplink (UL) period based on the reference subframe.

[00192] Example 22 is a computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB) to perform operations, comprising: configuring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) with enhanced coverage to enable an internet of things (loT) communication by generating a distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) with one or more ePDCCH sets including a downlink control information (DCI); increasing a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH based on one or more mechanisms of generating the one or more ePDCCH sets; and

transmitting, or causing to transmit, the ePDCCH.

[00193] Example 23 includes the subject matter of Example 22, wherein the operations further comprise: extending a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) to 10 PRBs or 16 PRBs to enable a power boosting gain of the ePDCCH transmission as the one or more mechanisms; generating at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to transmit the DCI, including a frequency gap between two PRBs of any one distributed ePDCCH set of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets, by jointly encoding the DCI among the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area; and applying the distributed ePDCCH with the power boosting gain to either a unicast control information or a broadcasting control information. [00194] Example 24 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 22-23, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: configuring a PRB pair index of the distributed ePDCCH, and an aggregation level of a broadcasting control channel with the distributed ePDCCH being scrambled based on at least one of: UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC-RNTI), a cell-RNTI (C- RNTI), a paging RNTI (P-RNTI), or a system information (SI-RNTI).

[00195] Example 25 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 22-24, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: in response to the repetitions exceeding a transmission opportunity (TxOP) period corresponding to the at least one of: the ePDCCH or the PDSCH, transmit the one or more repetitions across a plurality of TxOPs or drop the repetitions of the at least one of the ePDCCH or the PDSCH that are beyond the TxOP period.

[00196] Example 26 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 22-25, including or omitting any elements as optional computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause one or more processors of an internet of things (loT) device, comprising: processing an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) with enhanced coverage to derive a downlink control information (DCI) from one or more distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) sets of the ePDCCH and enable an internet of things (loT) uplink

communication based on the DCI; and increasing at least one of: a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH in response to one or more mechanisms; and generating the loT uplink communication based on the DCI of the distributed ePDCCH sets.

[00197] Example 27 includes the subject matter of Example 26, wherein the operations further comprise: processing the ePDCCH with power boosting leveraged from non-used or vacant subcarriers of PRB pairs of the one or more distributed ePDCCH sets as the one or more mechanisms.

[00198] Example 28 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 26-27, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: processing the DCI from at least two distributed ePDCCH sets jointly encoding the DCI based on one or more aggregation levels corresponding to the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets as the one or more mechanisms; and in response to the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets comprising a same aggregation level, processing the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets based on a one-to-one mapping of corresponding candidate search spaces, or another mapping ratio / rule indicated from an eNB / gNB / higher layer signaling.

[00199] Example 29 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 26-28, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: obtaining assigned resource blocks for data from a plurality of subframes including the DCI, and buffer the assigned resource blocks of the plurality of subframes with the ePDCCH for data demodulation.

[00200] Example 30 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 26-29, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: processing repetition times of repetitions of the ePDCCH that are indicated in the DCI; and decoding the repetition times to derive a boundary of the ePDCCH.

[00201 ] Example 31 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 26-30, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: defining a starting subframe of the ePDDCH as a unit of an absolute subframe; and in response to detecting the ePDCCH within a window and receiving indicated repetition times of the ePDCCH, calculating start / end ePDCCH subframes and deriving at least one of: one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) subframes, or a starting subframe of a PUSCH transmission, based on the starting subframe and the indicated repetition times, wherein repetition times of the PUSCH transmission are a same as or different from the repetition times of the ePDCCH.

[00202] Example 32 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 26-31 , including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein the operations further comprise: decoding the end ePDCCH subframe with a UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC-RNTI) or a cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) as a reference subframe to calculate the starting subframe of the PUSCH transmission in response to an ePUCCH trigger or a PUSCH type B trigger being set to 1 , and derive the starting subframe for an uplink (UL) period based on the reference subframe.

[00203] Example 33 is an apparatus configured to be employed in an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB) comprising: means for configuring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) with enhanced coverage to enable an internet of things (loT) communication by generating a distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) with one or more ePDCCH sets including a downlink control information (DCI); means for increasing a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH based on one or more mechanisms of generating the one or more ePDCCH sets; and means for providing data for ePDCCH transmission based on the DCI of the distributed ePDCCH sets.

[00204] Example 34 includes the subject matter of Example 33, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for extending a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) to 1 0 PRBs or 16 PRBs to enable a power boosting gain of the ePDCCH transmission as the one or more mechanisms; means for generating at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to transmit the DCI, including a frequency gap between two PRBs of any one distributed ePDCCH set of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets, by jointly encoding the DCI among the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area; and means for applying the distributed ePDCCH with the power boosting gain to either a unicast control information or a broadcasting control information.

[00205] Example 35 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-34, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for configuring a PRB pair index of the distributed ePDCCH, and an aggregation level of a

broadcasting control channel with the distributed ePDCCH being scrambled based on at least one of: UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC-RNTI), a cell-RNTI (C- RNTI), a paging RNTI (P-RNTI), or a system information (SI-RNTI).

[00206] Example 36 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-35, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: in response to the repetitions exceeding a transmission opportunity (TxOP) period corresponding to the at least one of: the ePDCCH or the PDSCH, means for transmitting the one or more repetitions across a plurality of TxOPs or drop the repetitions of the at least one of the ePDCCH or the PDSCH that are beyond the TxOP period.

[00207] Example 37 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-36, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for generating at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to transmit the DCI, with a frequency gap of any two PRBs of any one distributed ePDCCH set of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets comprising about 1 MHz or larger; and means for jointly encoding the DCI among the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area.

[00208] Example 38 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-37, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for generating the DCI based on an aggregation level of a first aggregation level /. _/ of a first aggregation level and a second aggregation level L ₂ of the distributed ePDCCH sets, wherein the first aggregation level Li is equal to, or different from, the second

aggregation level L ₂ of the distributed ePDCCH sets.

[00209] Example 39 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-38, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for jointly encoding the DCI among at least two distributed ePDCCH sets to extend the coverage area to associate a search space of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets with one another as the one or more mechanisms, and reduce complexity for a blind detection by an loT device configured for MulteFire communications based on the jointly decoded DCI.

[00210] Example 40 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-39, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein an aggregation level of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets is equal, and the one or more processors are further configured to map candidate search spaces of the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets based on a one-to-one mapping or a mapping rule provided by higher level signaling.

[00211 ] Example 41 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-40, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for extending the coverage area, or improve the link quality, by allocating different PRBs of the ePDCCH via a higher layer signaling based on a UE / loT specific allocation; means for generating the ePDCCH with a frequency gap between two PRB pairs comprising about 1 MHz or greater; and means for focusing, or re-focusing power onto valid subcarriers of the PRB pairs within a predetermined power spectral density from non-used or vacant subcarriers of the PRB pairs.

[00212] Example 42 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-41 , including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for transmitting the DCI of a subframe on multiple subframes based on one or more repetition times or number of repetitions of the ePDCCH configured through high layer signaling, or as an indication in the corresponding DCI, as the one or more

mechanisms; and means for applying repetitions of the ePDCCH to a unicast DCI information or a broadcasting DCI information.

[00213] Example 43 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-42, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for generating a single shot listen before talk (LBT) following the TxOP period, and extending the TxOP period to equal the repetitions, or by an amount of remaining subframes, to complete a transmission of the repetitions.

[00214] Example 44 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-43, including or omitting any elements as optional, wherein repetition times of at least a part of the PDSCH are a same as or different from repetition times of the at least the part of the ePDCCH, wherein in response to the repetitions times being the same, the RF circuitry is configured to transmit the ePDCCH and the PDSCH at same multiple subframes, and in response to the repetitions times being different, the repetition times of the at least the part of the PDSCH is larger than the ePDCCH and a starting subframe of the PDSCH and the ePDCCH are same in time.

[00215] Example 45 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-44, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for performing a cross scheduling of the ePDCCH and corresponding data by allocating different subframes to the ePDCCH and corresponding data to enable a reduction in data buffering.

[00216] Example 46 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 33-45, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for determining a noise figure of a plurality of channels and select a channel from the plurality of channels with less interference, a lower noise figure or a lower carrier frequency than other channels of the plurality of channels to maintain a higher signal-to- interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) with the selected channel over the other channels.

[00217] Example 47 is an apparatus configured to be employed in an internet of things (loT) device comprising: means for processing an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) with enhanced coverage to derive a downlink control information (DCI) from one or more distributed enhanced PDCCH (ePDCCH) sets of the ePDCCH and enable an internet of things (loT) uplink communication based on the DCI; means for increasing at least one of: a coverage area or a link quality of the ePDCCH in response to one or more mechanisms; and means for providing the loT uplink communication based on the DCI of the ePDCCH sets.

[00218] Example 48 includes the subject matter of Example 47, further comprising: means for process the ePDCCH with power boosting leveraged from non-used or vacant subcarriers of PRB pairs of the one or more distributed ePDCCH sets as the one or more mechanisms. [00219] Example 49 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 47-48, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for processing the DCI from at least two distributed ePDCCH sets jointly encoding the DCI based on one or more aggregation levels corresponding to the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets as the one or more mechanisms; and in response to the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets comprising a same aggregation level, means for processing the at least two distributed ePDCCH sets based on a one-to-one mapping of corresponding candidate search spaces, or another mapping ratio / rule indicated from an eNB / gNB / higher layer signaling.

[00220] Example 50 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 47-49, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for obtaining assigned resource blocks for data from a plurality of subframes including the DCI, and buffer the assigned resource blocks of the plurality of subframes with the ePDCCH for data demodulation.

[00221 ] Example 51 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 47-50, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for processing repetition times of repetitions of the ePDCCH that are indicated in the DCI; and means for utilizing the repetition times to derive a boundary of the ePDCCH.

[00222] Example 52 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 47-51 , including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for defining a starting subframe of the ePDDCH as a unit of an absolute subframe; in response to detecting the ePDCCH within a window and receiving indicated repetition times of the ePDCCH, means for calculating start / end ePDCCH subframes and deriving at least one of: one or more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) subframes, or a starting subframe of a PUSCH transmission, based on the starting subframe and the indicated repetition times, wherein repetition times of the PUSCH transmission are a same as or different from the repetition times of the ePDCCH.

[00223] Example 53 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 47-52, including or omitting any elements as optional, further comprising: means for utilizing the end ePDCCH subframe with a UE specific radio network temporary identifier (CC- RNTI) or a cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) as a reference subframe to calculate the starting subframe of the PUSCH transmission in response to an ePUCCH trigger or a PUSCH type B trigger being set to 1 , and derive the starting subframe for an uplink (UL) period based on the reference subframe.

[00224] It is to be understood that aspects described herein can be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, functions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media or a computer readable storage device can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD- ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory medium, that can be used to carry or store desired information or executable instructions. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.

Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer- readable media.

[00225] Various illustrative logics, logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with aspects disclosed herein can be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other

programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform functions described herein. A general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but, in the alternative, processor can be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Additionally, at least one processor can comprise one or more modules operable to perform one or more of the s and/or actions described herein.

[00226] For a software implementation, techniques described herein can be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform functions described herein. Software codes can be stored in memory units and executed by processors. Memory unit can be implemented within processor or external to processor, in which case memory unit can be communicatively coupled to processor through various means as is known in the art. Further, at least one processor can include one or more modules operable to perform functions described herein.

[00227] Techniques described herein can be used for various wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system can implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA1800, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA. Further, CDMA1800 covers IS-1800, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA system can implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile

Communications (GSM). An OFDMA system can implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.1 1 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.18, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA, which employs OFDMA on downlink and SC- FDMA on uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). Additionally, CDMA1800 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). Further, such wireless communication systems can additionally include peer-to-peer (e.g., mobile-to-mobile) ad hoc network systems often using unpaired unlicensed spectrums, 802. xx wireless LAN,

BLUETOOTH and any other short- or long- range, wireless communication techniques.

[00228] Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), which utilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization is a technique that can be utilized with the disclosed aspects. SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially a similar overall complexity as those of OFDMA system. SC-FDMA signal has lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) because of its inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMA can be utilized in uplink communications where lower PAPR can benefit a mobile terminal in terms of transmit power efficiency.

[00229] Moreover, various aspects or features described herein can be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., EPROM, card, stick, key drive, etc.). Additionally, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data. Additionally, a computer program product can include a computer readable medium having one or more instructions or codes operable to cause a computer to perform functions described herein.

[00230] Communications media embody computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery or transport media. The term "modulated data signal" or signals refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

[00231 ] Further, the actions of a method or algorithm described in connection with aspects disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or a combination thereof. A software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium can be coupled to processor, such that processor can read information from, and write information to, storage medium. In the alternative, storage medium can be integral to processor. Further, in some aspects, processor and storage medium can reside in an ASIC. Additionally, ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, processor and storage medium can reside as discrete components in a user terminal. Additionally, in some aspects, the s and/or actions of a method or algorithm can reside as one or any combination or set of codes and/or instructions on a machine-readable medium and/or computer readable medium, which can be incorporated into a computer program product.

[00232] The above description of illustrated embodiments of the subject disclosure, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. While specific embodiments and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, various modifications are possible that are considered within the scope of such embodiments and examples, as those skilled in the relevant art can recognize.

[00233] In this regard, while the disclosed subject matter has been described in connection with various embodiments and corresponding Figures, where applicable, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments can be used or modifications and additions can be made to the described embodiments for performing the same, similar, alternative, or substitute function of the disclosed subject matter without deviating therefrom. Therefore, the disclosed subject matter should not be limited to any single embodiment described herein, but rather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims below.

[00234] In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a "means") used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component or structure which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of the disclosure. In addition, while a particular feature can have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature can be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as can be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.