BACKGROUND OF DISCLOSURE

1. Field of the Disclosure

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of communication systems, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method of wireless communication, which can provide a good communication performance and/or high reliability.

2. Description of the Related Art

[0002] Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) refer to networks, or segments of networks, using a spacebome vehicle or an airborne vehicle for transmission. Spacebome vehicles include satellites including low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites, medium earth orbiting (MEO) satellites, geostationary earth orbiting (GEO) satellites, and highly elliptical orbiting (HEO) satellites. Airborne vehicles include high altitude platforms (HAPs) encompassing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) including lighter than air (LTA) unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and heavier than air (HTA) UAS, all operating in altitudes typically between 8 and 50 km, quasi-stationary.

[0003] Communication via a satellite is an interesting means thanks to its well-known coverage, which can bring the coverage to locations that normally cellular operators are not willing to deploy either due to non-stable crowd potential client, e.g., extremely rural, or due to high deployment cost, e.g., middle of ocean or mountain peak. Nowadays, the satellite communication is a separate technology to a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) cellular technology. Coming to 5G era, these two technologies can merge together, i.e., we can imagine having a 5G terminal that can access to a cellular network and a satellite network. The NTN can be good candidate technology for this purpose. It is to be designed based on 3GPP new radio (NR) with necessary enhancement.

[0004] In NTN system, an internet of things (loT) user equipment (UE) (including enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) and narrowband loT (NB-IoT)) may be configured to report hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) information for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception or not. According to two different configuration modes, a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring behavior can be tailored to have better power consumption.

SUMMARY

[0005] An object of the present disclosure is to propose an apparatus (such as a user equipment (UE) and/or a base station) and a method of wireless communication, which can provide a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, improve power consumption, provide a good communication performance, and/or provide high reliability. The present disclosure is applied for NB-IoT system, the PDCCH is equivalent to NB-PDCCH (NPDCCH) and the PDSCH is equivalent to NB-PDSCH (NPDSCH).

[0006] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method of wireless communication by a user equipment (UE) comprises receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission scheduling a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission and performing PDCCH monitoring after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0007] In some embodiments of the above method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, a first PDCCH comprises a first downlink control information (DCI) format, and the first DCI format further allocates a first resource for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) information.

[0008] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first resource is after the first PDSCH transmission in time domain.

[0009] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, performing PDCCH monitoring is after the first resource.

[0010] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with one HARQ process for PDSCH reception.

[0011] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is not requested to perform PDCCH monitoring from an end of the first resource for a first interval.

[0012] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval and/or the end of the first resource is defined in a UE downlink framing.

[0013] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval is equal to or greater than a value, and the value is derived from a first offset and/or a processing time.

[0014] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset is provided to the UE by a system information or a UE specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0015] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first offset comprises Kmac.

[0016] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side.

[0017] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time is predefined.

[0018] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the processing time comprises a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds.

[0019] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval and/or the end of the first resource is defined in a UE uplink framing.

[0020] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, a position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing ends in a position of the first resource minus TA in the UE downlink framing, where the TA is a UE timing advance. [0021] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval starts from the end of the first resource in the UE uplink framing with a length being derived from a round trip time (RTT) and/or the processing time.

[0022] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first interval.

[0023] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE expects to receive a second PDCCH after the first interval.

[0024] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with more than one HARQ process for PDSCH reception.

[0025] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE performs PDCCH monitoring from the end of the first resource plus a gap period in a UE downlink framing.

[0026] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the gap period comprises one or more subframes or slots.

[0027] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number of the first PDSCH transmission within a first interval after the first resource.

[0028] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval is equal to or greater than a value.

[0029] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the value is derived from a first offset and/or a processing time.

[0030] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset is provided to the UE by a system information or a UE RRC signaling.

[0031] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first offset comprises Kmac.

[0032] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side.

[0033] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time is predefined.

[0034] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the processing time comprises a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds.

[0035] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval is defined in a UE uplink framing. [0036] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, a position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing ends in a position of the first resource minus TA in the UE downlink framing, where the TA is a UE timing advance.

[0037] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after the gap period after the position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing.

[0038] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the first interval.

[0039] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval comprises a length derived from an RTT and/or the processing time and the first interval starting after the position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing.

[0040] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with one HARQ process and a HARQ-ACK feedback disabling.

[0041] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after a second interval after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0042] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission within the second interval.

[0043] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the second interval.

[0044] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a base station.

[0045] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the second interval length is related to a UE processing time.

[0046] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE processing time depends on a UE capability.

[0047] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with more than one HARQ process, and the first PDSCH transmission is associated with a HARQ process configured to be HARQ-ACK feedback disabling.

[0048] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after a gap period after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0049] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within a second interval, where the second interval starts after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0050] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH transmission with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the second interval.

[0051] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the gap period comprises one or more subframes or slots.

[0052] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a base station.

[0053] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the second interval length is related to a UE processing time.

[0054] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure, the UE processing time depends on a UE capability.

[0055] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method of wireless communication by a base station comprises transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission scheduling a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission and controlling the UE to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0056] In some embodiments of the above method according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, a first PDCCH comprises a first downlink control information (DCI) format, and the first DCI format further allocates a first resource for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) information.

[0057] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first resource is after the first PDSCH transmission in time domain.

[0058] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, performing PDCCH monitoring is after the first resource.

[0059] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with one HARQ process for PDSCH reception.

[0060] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is not requested to perform PDCCH monitoring from an end of the first resource for a first interval.

[0061] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval and/or the end of the first resource is defined in a UE downlink framing.

[0062] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval is equal to or greater than a value, and the value is derived from a first offset and/or a processing time.

[0063] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset is provided to the UE by a system information or a UE specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling. [0064] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first offset comprises Kmac.

[0065] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side.

[0066] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time is predefined.

[0067] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the processing time comprises a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds.

[0068] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval and/or the end of the first resource is defined in a UE uplink framing.

[0069] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, a position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing ends in a position of the first resource minus TA in the UE downlink framing, where the TA is a UE timing advance.

[0070] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval starts from the end of the first resource in the UE uplink framing with a length being derived from a round trip time (RTT) and/or the processing time.

[0071] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first interval.

[0072] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE expects to receive a second PDCCH after the first interval.

[0073] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with more than one HARQ process for PDSCH reception.

[0074] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE performs PDCCH monitoring from the end of the first resource plus a gap period in a UE downlink framing.

[0075] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the gap period comprises one or more subframes or slots.

[0076] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number of the first PDSCH transmission within a first interval after the first resource.

[0077] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval is equal to or greater than a value.

[0078] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the value is derived from a first offset and/or a processing time. [0079] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset is provided to the UE by a system information or a UE RRC signaling.

[0080] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first offset comprises Kmac.

[0081] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side.

[0082] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time is predefined.

[0083] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the processing time comprises a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds.

[0084] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval is defined in a UE uplink framing.

[0085] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, a position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing ends in a position of the first resource minus TA in the UE downlink framing, where the TA is a UE timing advance.

[0086] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after the gap period after the position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing.

[0087] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the first interval.

[0088] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the first interval comprises a length derived from an RTT and/or the processing time and the first interval starting after the position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing.

[0089] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with one HARQ process and a HARQ-ACK feedback disabling.

[0090] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after a second interval after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0091] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission within the second interval.

[0092] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the second interval. [0093] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a base station.

[0094] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the second interval length is related to a UE processing time.

[0095] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE processing time depends on a UE capability.

[0096] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE is configured with more than one HARQ process, and the first PDSCH transmission is associated with a HARQ process configured to be HARQ-ACK feedback disabling.

[0097] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after a gap period after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0098] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within a second interval, where the second interval starts after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0099] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH transmission with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the second interval.

[0100] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the gap period comprises one or more subframes or slots.

[0101] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a base station.

[0102] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the second interval length is related to a UE processing time.

[0103] In some embodiments of any one of the above methods according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the UE processing time depends on a UE capability.

[0104] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a user equipment comprises a memory, a transceiver, and a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver. The processor is configured to perform the above method. [0105] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a base station comprises a memory, a transceiver, and a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver. The processor is configured to perform the above method. [0106] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium has stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the above method.

[0107] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a chip includes a processor, configured to call and run a computer program stored in a memory, to cause a device in which the chip is installed to execute the above method.

[0108] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored, causes a computer to execute the above method. [0109] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program product includes a computer program, and the computer program causes a computer to execute the above method.

[0110] In a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program causes a computer to execute the above method.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0111] In order to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure or related art more clearly, the following figures will be described in the embodiments are briefly introduced. It is obvious that the drawings are merely some embodiments of the present disclosure, a person having ordinary skill in this field can obtain other figures according to these figures without paying the premise.

[0112] FIG. 1A is a block diagram of one or more user equipments (UEs) and a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB) of communication in a communication network system (e.g., non-terrestrial network (NTN) or a terrestrial network) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0113] FIG. IB is a block diagram of one or more user equipments (UEs) and a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB) of communication in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0114] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0115] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of wireless communication performed by a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0116] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a communication system including a base station (BS) and a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0117] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating that a BS transmits 3 beams to the ground forming 3 footprints according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0118] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an uplink-downlink timing relation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0119] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0120] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0121] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0122] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0123] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a system for wireless communication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0124] Embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail with the technical matters, structural features, achieved objects, and effects with reference to the accompanying drawings as follows. Specifically, the terminologies in the embodiments of the present disclosure are merely for describing the purpose of the certain embodiment, but not to limit the disclosure.

[0125] FIG. 1A illustrates that, in some embodiments, one or more user equipments (UEs) 10 and a base station (e.g., gNB or eNB) 20 for transmission adjustment in a communication network system 30 (e.g., nonterrestrial network (NTN) or terrestrial network) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure are provided. The communication network system 30 includes the one or more UEs 10 and the base station 20. The one or more UEs 10 may include a memory 12, a transceiver 13, and a processor 11 coupled to the memory 12 and the transceiver 13. The base station 20 may include a memory 22, a transceiver 23, and a processor 21 coupled to the memory 22 and the transceiver 23. The processor 11 or 21 may be configured to implement proposed functions, procedures and/or methods described in this description. Layers of radio interface protocol may be implemented in the processor 11 or 21. The memory 12 or 22 is operatively coupled with the processor 11 or 21 and stores a variety of information to operate the processor 11 or 21. The transceiver 13 or 23 is operatively coupled with the processor 11 or 21, and the transceiver 13 or 23 transmits and/or receives a radio signal.

[0126] The processor 11 or 21 may include application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), other chipset, logic circuit and/or data processing device. The memory 12 or 22 may include read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, memory card, storage medium and/or other storage device. The transceiver 13 or 23 may include baseband circuitry to process radio frequency signals. When the embodiments are implemented in software, the techniques described herein can be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The modules can be stored in the memory 12 or 22 and executed by the processor 11 or 21. The memory 12 or 22 can be implemented within the processor 11 or 21 or external to the processor 11 or 21 in which case those can be communicatively coupled to the processor 11 or 21 via various means as is known in the art.

[0127] In some embodiments, the communication between the UE 10 and the BS 20 comprises non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication. In some embodiments, the base station 20 comprises spacebome platform or airborne platform or high altitude platform station. The base station 20 can communicate with the UE 10 via a spacebome platform or airborne platform, e.g., NTN satellite 40, as illustrated in FIG. IB. In NTN, different satellite deployment scenarios can be used. When LEO satellite is deployed, the satellite velocity can augment up to more than 7 km/s, which is greatly beyond a maximum mobility speed experienced in a terrestrial network, e.g., high speed train has a maximum speed of 500 km/h. For this reason, the transmitter as well as the receiver will face a much wider range of Doppler shift. This Doppler shift, due to high velocity of satellite motion, will become a severe issue to be addressed in the NTN network. However, in the legacy terrestrial, there is no specified work on the Doppler shift mitigation, and in this disclosure, some examples present some methods for dealing with the Doppler shift issue.

[0128] FIG. IB illustrates a system which includes a base station 20 and one or more UEs 10. Optionally, the system may include more than one base station 20, and each of the base stations 20 may connect to one or more UEs 10. In this disclosure, there is no limit. As an example, the base station 20 as illustrated in FIG. IB may be a moving base station, e.g., spacebome vehicle (satellite) or airborne vehicle (drone). The UE 10 can transmit transmissions to the base station 20 and the UE 10 can also receive the transmission from the base station 20. Optionally, not shown in FIG. IB, the moving base station can also serve as a relay which relays the received transmission from the UE 10 to a ground base station or vice versa. Optionally, a satellite 40 may be seen as a relay point which relays the communications between a UE 10 and a base station 20, e.g., gNB/eNB. Spacebome platform includes satellite 40 and the satellite 40 includes LEO satellite, MEO satellite, and GEO satellite. While the satellite 40 is moving, the LEO satellite and MEO satellite are moving with regard to a given location on earth.

[0129] Spacebome platform includes a satellite and the satellite includes low earth orbiting (LEO) satellite, medium earth orbiting (MEO) satellite and geostationary earth orbiting (GEO) satellite. While the satellite is moving, the LEO and MEO satellite is moving with regard to a given location on earth. For GEO satellite, the GEO satellite is relatively static with regard to a given location on earth.

[0130] IoT operation is critical in remote areas with low/no cellular connectivity for many different industries, including e.g.: Transportation (maritime, road, rail, air) & logistics, solar, oil and gas harvesting, utilities, farming, environment monitoring, mining, and etc.

[0131] The capabilities of NB-IoT are a good fit to the above, but will require satellite connectivity to provide coverage beyond terrestrial deployments, where IoT connectivity is required. There is an urgent need for a standardized solution allowing global IoT operation anywhere on Earth, in view of other solutions already available. It is important that satellite NB-IoT be defined in a complementary manner to terrestrial deployments. [0132] In some embodiments, the transceiver 13 is configured to receive a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission scheduling a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, and the processor 11 is configured to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first PDSCH transmission. This can provide a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, improve power consumption, provide a good communication performance, and/or provide high reliability.

[0133] In some embodiments, the transceiver 23 is configured to transmit, to the UE 10, a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission scheduling a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, and the processor 21 is configured to control the UE 10 to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first PDSCH transmission. This can provide a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, improve power consumption, provide a good communication performance, and/or provide high reliability.

[0134] FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 of wireless communication by a user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 200 includes: a block 202, receiving a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission scheduling a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, and a block 204, performing PDCCH monitoring after the first PDSCH transmission. This can provide a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, improve power consumption, provide a good communication performance, and/or provide high reliability.

[0135] FIG. 3 illustrates a method 300 of wireless communication by a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the method 300 includes: a block 302, transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission scheduling a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission, and a block 304, controlling the UE to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first PDSCH transmission. This can provide a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, improve power consumption, provide a good communication performance, and/or provide high reliability.

[0136] In some embodiments, a first PDCCH comprises a first downlink control information (DCI) format, and the first DCI format further allocates a first resource for hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) information. In some embodiments, the first resource is after the first PDSCH transmission in time domain. In some embodiments, performing PDCCH monitoring is after the first resource. In some embodiments, the UE is configured with one HARQ process for PDSCH reception. In some embodiments, the UE is not requested to perform PDCCH monitoring from an end of the first resource for a first interval. In some embodiments, the first interval and/or the end of the first resource is defined in a UE downlink framing.

[0137] In some embodiments, the first interval is equal to or greater than a value, and the value is derived from a first offset and/or a processing time. In some embodiments, when the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset is provided to the UE by a system information or a UE specific radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In some embodiments, the first offset comprises Kmac. In some embodiments, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side. In some embodiments, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time is pre-defined. In some embodiments, the processing time comprises a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds.

[0138] In some embodiments, the first interval and/or the end of the first resource is defined in a UE uplink framing. In some embodiments, a position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing ends in a position of the first resource minus TA in the UE downlink framing, where the TA is a UE timing advance. In some embodiments, the first interval starts from the end of the first resource in the UE uplink framing with a length being derived from a round trip time (RTT) and/or the processing time. In some embodiments, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after the first interval. In some embodiments, the UE expects to receive a second PDCCH after the first interval. In some embodiments, the UE is configured with more than one HARQ process for PDSCH reception.

[0139] In some embodiments, the UE performs PDCCH monitoring from the end of the first resource plus a gap period in a UE downlink framing. In some embodiments, the gap period comprises one or more subframes or slots. In some embodiments, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number of the first PDSCH transmission within a first interval after the first resource. In some embodiments, the first interval is equal to or greater than a value. In some embodiments, the value is derived from a first offset and/or a processing time. In some embodiments, when the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset is provided to the UE by a system information or a UE RRC signaling.

[0140] In some embodiments, the first offset comprises Kmac. In some embodiments, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side. In some embodiments, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time is pre-defined. In some embodiments, the processing time comprises a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds. In some embodiments, the first interval is defined in a UE uplink framing. In some embodiments, a position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing ends in a position of the first resource minus TA in the UE downlink framing, where the TA is a UE timing advance. In some embodiments, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after the gap period after the position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing.

[0141] In some embodiments, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the first interval. In some embodiments, the first interval comprises a length derived from an RTT and/or the processing time and the first interval starting after the position of the first resource in the UE uplink framing. In some embodiments, the UE is configured with one HARQ process and a HARQ-ACK feedback disabling. In some embodiments, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after a second interval after the first PDSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH transmission within the second interval. In some embodiments, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the second interval.

[0142] In some embodiments, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a base station. In some embodiments, the second interval length is related to a UE processing time. In some embodiments, the UE processing time depends on a UE capability. In some embodiments, the UE is configured with more than one HARQ process, and the first PDSCH transmission is associated with a HARQ process configured to be HARQ- ACK feedback disabling. In some embodiments, the UE starts to perform PDCCH monitoring after a gap period after the first PDSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the UE does not expect to receive a second DCI format in a second PDCCH scheduling a second PDSCH transmission with a same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within a second interval, where the second interval starts after the first PDSCH transmission.

[0143] In some embodiments, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH transmission with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH transmission within the second interval. In some embodiments, the gap period comprises one or more subframes or slots. In some embodiments, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a base station. In some embodiments, the second interval length is related to a UE processing time. In some embodiments, the UE processing time depends on a UE capability.

[0144] FIG. 4 illustrates a communication system including a base station (BS) and a UE according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Optionally, the communication system may include more than one base station, and each of the base stations may connect to one or more UEs. In this disclosure, there is no limit. As an example, the base station illustrated in FIG. 1 A may be a moving base station, e.g., spacebome vehicle (satellite) or airborne vehicle (drone). The UE can transmit transmissions to the base station and the UE can also receive the transmission from the base station. Optionally, not shown in FIG. 4, the moving base station can also serve as a relay which relays the received transmission from the UE to a ground base station or vice versa.

[0145] Spacebome platform includes satellite and the satellite includes LEO satellite, MEO satellite and GEO satellite. While the satellite is moving, the LEO and MEO satellite is moving with regards to a given location on earth. However, for GEO satellite, the GEO satellite is relatively static with regards to a given location on earth. A moving base station or satellite, e.g., in particular for LEO satellite or drone, communicates with a user equipment (UE) on the ground. Due to long distance between the UE and the base station on satellite, the beamformed transmission is needed to extend the coverage.

[0146] Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 5, where a base station is integrated in a satellite or a drone, and the base station transmits one or more beams to the ground forming one or more coverage areas called footprint. In FIG. 5, an example illustrates that the BS transmits three beams (beam 1, beam 2 and beam3) to form three footprints (footprint 1, 2 and 3), respectively. Optionally, 3 beams are transmitted at 3 different frequencies. In this example, the bit position is associated with a beam. FIG. 5 illustrates that, in some embodiments, a moving base station, e.g., in particular for LEO satellite or drone, communicates with a user equipment (UE) on the ground. Due to long distance between the UE and the base station on satellite, the beamformed transmission is needed to extend the coverage. As illustrated in FIG. 5, where a base station is transmitting three beams to the earth forming three coverage areas called footpoints. Moreover, each beam may be transmitted at dedicated frequencies so that the beams for footprint 1, 2 and 3 are non-overlapped in a frequency domain. The advantage of having different frequencies corresponding to different beams is that the inter-beam interference can be minimized.

[0147] In some embodiments, a moving base station (BS), e.g., in particular for LEO satellite or drone, communicates with a user equipment (UE) on the ground. A round trip time (RTT) between the BS and the UE is time varying. The RTT variation is related to a distance variation between the BS and the UE. The RTT variation rate is proportional to a BS motion velocity. To ensure a good uplink synchronization, the BS will adjust an uplink transmission timing and/or frequency for the UE. In some embodiments of this disclosure, a method for uplink synchronization adjustment is provided, and the uplink synchronization adjustment comprises at least one of the followings: a transmission timing adjustment or a transmission frequency adjustment. Optionally, the transmission timing adjustment further comprises a timing advance (TA) adjustment.

[0148] FIG. 6 illustrates an uplink-downlink timing relation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 illustrates that, in some embodiments, downlink, uplink, and sidelink transmissions are organized into frames with 7 = ( / _max 7V _f /100)-7’ _c = 10 ms duration, each consisting of ten subframes of T _sf = ( _ma x^ _f /1000)-T _c = l ms duration. refers to a radio frame duration. A/ refers to subcarrier spacing. n _f refers to a system frame number (SFN). T _c refers to a basic time unit for NR. T _sf refers to a subframe duration. The number of consecutive orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols per subframe is refers to number of OFDM symbols per subframe for subcarrier spacing configuration refers to number of symbols per slot. refers to number of slots per subframe for subcarrier spacing configuration . Each frame is divided into two equally-sized halfframes of five subframes each with half-frame 0 consisting of subframes 0 to 4 and half-frame 1 consisting of subframes 5 to 9. There is one set of frames in the uplink and one set of frames in the downlink on a carrier. Uplink frame number i for transmission from the UE starts TTA=(NTA+NTA,offset)T _c , before the start of the corresponding downlink frame at the UE where N _{TA offset} is given byTS 38.213, except for a message A (msgA) transmission on physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) where T _TA = 0 is used. T _TA refers to timing advance between downlink and uplink. /V _TA refers to timing advance between downlink and uplink. N _TA>offset refers to a fixed offset used to calculate the timing advance. T _c refers to a basic time unit for NR.

[0149] The examples given in this disclosure can be applied for loT device or NB-IoT UE in NTN systems, but the method is not exclusively restricted to NTN system nor for loT devices or NB-IoT UE. The examples given in this disclosure can be applied for NR systems, LTE systems, or NB-IoT systems. Further, some examples in the present disclosure can be applied for NB-IoT system, the PDCCH is equivalent to NB-PDCCH (NPDCCH) and the PDSCH is equivalent to NB-PDSCH (NPDSCH).

[0150] Example: One HARQ process for PDSCH reception

[0151] FIG. 7 illustrates a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG.

7 illustrates that, in some examples, when a UE is configured with only 1 HARQ process for PDSCH reception and the UE receives a PDCCH ending in subframe or slot n that schedules a PDSCH transmission ending in subframe or slot n+k. The PDCCH also allocates a first resource for HARQ-ACK information and the first resource ends in n+m, where n+m is from a UE downlink framing perspective as illustrated in FIG. 7. The UE may not need to monitor PDCCH from the subframe or slot n+m+1 for an interval. This interval is equal to or larger than a value. The value may be derived from a first offset and/or a processing time. When the value is derived from the first offset, the first offset may be provided to the UE by system information or UE specific RRC signaling. In some examples the first offset is Kmac. In some examples, the Kmac is an offset between a downlink framing and an uplink framing at a base station side. In some examples, when the value is derived from the first offset and the processing time, the processing time may be pre-defined. In some examples, the processing time is a number of subframes or a number of milliseconds.

[0152] In some examples, the interval is defined in UE UL framing as illustrated in FIG. 7 lower part. In this case, the first resource ends (in UL framing) m+n-TA, where TA is the UE timing advance. For this example, the interval is increased and the interval starts from n+m-TA with a length being derived from a UE-eNB round trip time (RTT) and/or the processing time. Then, the UE may start to monitor PDCCH after the interval. In some examples, the UE expects to receive a PDCCH after the interval.

[0153] Example: More than one HARQ process configured for PDSCH reception

[0154] FIG. 8 illustrates a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG.

8 illustrates that, in some examples, when a UE is configured with more than one HARQ process for PDSCH reception and the UE receives a first PDCCH ending in subframe or slot n that schedules a first PDSCH transmission ending in subframe or slot n+k. The first PDCCH also allocates a first resource for HARQ-ACK information and the first resource ends in n+m, where n+m is from a UE downlink framing perspective as illustrated in FIG. 8. The UE may need to monitor PDCCH from the subframe or slot n+m+1 plus a gap period, where the gap period may be one or more subframes or slots. However, the UE is not expected to receive a second PDCCH that schedules a second PDSCH with the same HARQ process number of the first PDSCH within the interval after the subframe or slot n+m. The derivation for the interval of time. The interval derivation is explained in the above example as illustrated in FIG. 7, that is the example for one HARQ process for PDSCH reception.

[0155] In some examples, the UE monitoring is defined in UE UL framing, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the first resource ends in n+m-TA. The UE starts to monitor PDCCH after the gap period after m+n-TA, but the UE is not expected to receive a second PDCCH scheduling a second PDSCH with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH within the interval, where the interval is of length derived from the UE RTT and/or the processing time and the interval starts after n+m-TA.

[0156] Example: UE is configured with one HARQ process and is configured with HARQ-ACK feedback disabling

[0157] FIG. 9 illustrates a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 9 illustrates that, in some examples, a UE may be configured with HARQ-ACK feedback disabling for a given HARQ process, which means that the UE does not report HARQ-ACK information if a PDSCH reception is scheduled with the given HARQ process. When the UE receives a PDSCH reception ending in subframe or slot n+k, as illustrated in FIG. 7, and if the UE is configured only 1 HARQ process for PDSCH reception, the UE may start to monitor PDCCH after a second interval after the subframe or slot n+k. Optionally, the UE does not expect to receive a PDCCH within the second interval. Optionally, the UE does not expect to receive a second PDSCH reception with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH within the second interval. In some examples, the interval length is pre-defined or configured by a network such as a base station. In some examples, the second interval length is related to UE processing time. Optionally, the UE processing time may be depending on UE capability.

[0158] Example: UE is configured with more than one HARQ process

[0159] FIG. 10 illustrates a UE PDCCH monitoring according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 10 illustrates that, in some examples, when a UE is configured with more than one HARQ process, and the UE receives a first PDSCH ending in subframe or slot n+k. The first PDSCH is associated with a HARQ process configured to be HARQ-ACK feedback disabling. After UE receiving the first PDSCH, the UE may start to monitor PDCCH after the gap period after the subframe or slot n+k, where the gap period is defined in our previous examples. Optionally, the UE is not expected to receive a second PDCCH scheduling a second PDSCH with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH within the second interval, where the second interval starts after the subframe or slot n+k and the second interval has a length as described in the previous examples. Optionally, the UE is not expected to receive a second PDSCH with the same HARQ process number as the first PDSCH within the second interval.

[0160] Commercial interests for some embodiments are as follows. 1. Providing a UE physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring. 2. Improving power consumption. 3. Providing a good communication performance. 4. Providing a high reliability. 5. Some embodiments of the present disclosure are used by 5G-NR chipset vendors, V2X communication system development vendors, automakers including cars, trains, trucks, buses, bicycles, moto-bikes, helmets, and etc., drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), smartphone makers, communication devices for public safety use, AR/VR device maker for example gaming, conference/seminar, education purposes. Some embodiments of the present disclosure are a combination of “techniques/processes” that can be adopted in 3GPP specification to create an end product. Some embodiments of the present disclosure could be adopted in the 5G NR unlicensed band communications. Some embodiments of the present disclosure propose technical mechanisms.

[0161] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an example system 700 for wireless communication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Embodiments described herein may be implemented into the system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 11 illustrates the system 700 including a radio frequency (RF) circuitry 710, a baseband circuitry 720, an application circuitry 730, a memory/storage 740, a display 750, a camera 760, a sensor 770, and an input/output (I/O) interface 780, coupled with each other at least as illustrated. The application circuitry 730 may include a circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors, such as graphics processors, application processors. The processors may be coupled with the memory/storage and configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems running on the system.

[0162] The baseband circuitry 720 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processors may include a baseband processor. The baseband circuitry may handle various radio control functions that enables communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/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 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0163] In various embodiments, the baseband circuitry 720 may include circuitry to operate with signals that are not strictly considered as being in a baseband frequency. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry may include circuitry to operate with signals having an intermediate frequency, which is between a baseband frequency and a radio frequency. The RF circuitry 710 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 710 may include circuitry to operate with signals that are not strictly considered as being in a radio frequency. For example, in some embodiments, RF circuitry may include circuitry to operate with signals having an intermediate frequency, which is between a baseband frequency and a radio frequency.

[0164] In various embodiments, the transmitter circuitry, control circuitry, or receiver circuitry discussed above with respect to the user equipment, eNB, or gNB may be embodied in whole or in part in one or more of the RF circuitry, the baseband circuitry, and/or the application circuitry. As used herein, “circuitry” may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or a memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a comhinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the electronic device circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry, the application circuitry, and/or the memory/storage may be implemented together on a system on a chip (SOC). The memory/storage 740 may be used to load and store data and/or instructions, for example, for system. The memory/storage for one embodiment may include any combination of suitable volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM)), and/or non-volatile memory, such as flash memory.

[0165] In various embodiments, the I/O interface 780 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system. User interfaces may include, but are not limited to a physical keyboard or keypad, a touchpad, a speaker, a microphone, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, and a power supply interface. In various embodiments, the sensor 770 may include one or more sensing devices to determine environmental conditions and/or location information related to the system. In some embodiments, the sensors may include, but are not limited to, a gyro sensor, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a positioning unit. The positioning unit may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry and/or RF circuitry to communicate with components of a positioning network, e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) satellite.

[0166] In various embodiments, the display 750 may include a display, such as a liquid crystal display and a touch screen display. In various embodiments, the system 700 may be a mobile computing device such as, but not limited to, a laptop computing device, a tablet computing device, a netbook, an ultrabook, a smartphone, an AR/VR glasses, etc. In various embodiments, system may have more or less components, and/or different architectures. Where appropriate, methods described herein may be implemented as a computer program. The computer program may be stored on a storage medium, such as a non-transitory storage medium.

[0167] A person having ordinary skill in the art understands that each of the units, algorithm, and steps described and disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are realized using electronic hardware or combinations of software for computers and electronic hardware. Whether the functions run in hardware or software depends on the condition of application and design requirement for a technical plan. A person having ordinary skill in the art can use different ways to realize the function for each specific application while such realizations should not go beyond the scope of the present disclosure. It is understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art that he/she can refer to the working processes of the system, device, and unit in the above-mentioned embodiment since the working processes of the above-mentioned system, device, and unit are basically the same. For easy description and simplicity, these working processes will not be detailed.

[0168] It is understood that the disclosed system, device, and method in the embodiments of the present disclosure can be realized with other ways. The above-mentioned embodiments are exemplary only. The division of the units is merely based on logical functions while other divisions exist in realization. It is possible that a plurality of units or components are combined or integrated in another system. It is also possible that some characteristics are omitted or skipped. On the other hand, the displayed or discussed mutual coupling, direct coupling, or communicative coupling operate through some ports, devices, or units whether indirectly or communicatively by ways of electrical, mechanical, or other kinds of forms.

[0169] The units as separating components for explanation are or are not physically separated. The units for display are or are not physical units, that is, located in one place or distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units are used according to the purposes of the embodiments. Moreover, each of the functional units in each of the embodiments can be integrated in one processing unit, physically independent, or integrated in one processing unit with two or more than two units.

[0170] If the software function unit is realized and used and sold as a product, it can be stored in a readable storage medium in a computer. Based on this understanding, the technical plan proposed by the present disclosure can be essentially or partially realized as the form of a software product. Or, one part of the technical plan beneficial to the conventional technology can be realized as the form of a software product. The software product in the computer is stored in a storage medium, including a plurality of commands for a computational device (such as a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to run all or some of the steps disclosed by the embodiments of the present disclosure. The storage medium includes a USB disk, a mobile hard disk, a readonly memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a floppy disk, or other kinds of media capable of storing program codes.

[0171] While the present disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements made without departing from the scope of the broadest interpretation of the appended claims.