TRANSMISSION

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to United States

Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/417,173, filed November 3, 2016 and entitled "AUTONOMOUS UCI TRANSMISSION" and United States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/421,130, filed November 11, 2016 and entitled "AUTONOMOUS UCI TRANSMISSION." The content of both of these provisional applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirely.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Embodiments described herein relate generally to wireless networks and communications systems. Some embodiments relate to cellular communication networks including 3 GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) networks, 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks, and 3GPP LTE-A (LTE Advanced) networks, MulteFire™ (MF) networks, and fifth generation (5G networks, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. Some embodiments relate to sending and/or receiving uplink channel information (UCI) for an autonomous UL transmission to and/or from user equipment (UE) from and/or to a NodeB, including an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation Node B (gNB).

BACKGROUND

[0002] Expected increases in wireless traffic growth would benefit from increased transmission rates. The expected developments in the physical layer will provide some improvements in spectral efficiency but cannot be expected to support the anticipated increased data rates. Furthermore, for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) systems, the scarcity of licensed spectrum makes it difficult to increase transmission rates without allocation of additional spectrum One solution is to use unlicensed spectrum for LTE transmissions, either alone or in conjunction with licensed LTE spectrum

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] FIG. 1 illustrates a network in accordance with some

embodiments.

[0003] FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating downlink control information (DCI) including a downlink (DL) grant.

[0004] FIGs. 3A and 3B are timing diagrams illustrating DCI gap configuration.

[0005] FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating an embodiment in which upload configuration information (UCI) for autonomous UE transmission is sent in a shortened physical uplink channel (sPUCCH).

[0006] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing frequency and time illustrating transmission of UCI for autonomous UL transmission during a MulteFire (MF) extended physical uplink control channel (ePUCCH)

[0007] FIG. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating an autonomous transmission.

[0008] FIG. 7 illustrates an architecture of a network in accordance with some embodiments.

[0009] FIG. 8 illustrates example components of a UE device in accordance with some embodiments.

[0010] FIG. 9 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments.

[0011] FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating components of a computing system that may be used in some example embodiments. DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0012] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure, however, that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail.

[0013] Embodiments herein may relate to Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) including eLAA, LTE-Wi-Fi Link Aggregation (LWA), MulteFire™ and/or RANI with autonomous UL data transmission.

[00 14] The emerging interests in the operation of Long-Term Evolution

(LTE) systems in unlicensed spectrum has led to implementations such as Licensed- Assisted Access (LAA), defined in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 13. LAA enables LTE to provide expanded bandwidth by utilizing the flexible carrier aggregation (CA) framework introduced by the LTE-Advanced system to combine the licensed spectrum with unlicensed spectrum Enhanced operation of LTE systems in unlicensed spectrum is also expected in future 3GPP releases and 5G new radio (NR) systems. Potential LTE operation in unlicensed spectrum may include but is not limited to the LTE operation in the unlicensed spectrum via dual connectivity (DC), also known as DC based LAA. In addition, MulteFire systems implement LTE solely in the unlicensed spectrum (i.e. without an "anchor" in licensed spectrum). These systems combine the performance benefits of LTE technology with the simplicity of Wi-Fi-like deployments. [0015] Some embodiments may use the 5 GHz band as the unlicensed frequency band. The 5 GHz band has a wide spectrum and is available for unlicensed use in many countries, including the U.S., Europe, China, Japan and Korea, Each of these countries, however, has different use restrictions. The 5 GHz band in the U.S. is governed by Unlicensed National Information

Infrastructure (U-NII) rules by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In the U.S., WLANs, specifically those based on the IEEE 802.11 a/n/ac (e.g. Wi-Fi ^® ) technologies, are the main incumbent users of the 5 GHz band. Since WLAN systems are widely deployed both by individuals and operators for carrier-grade access service and data offloading, sufficient care should be taken before the deployment to ensure fair coexistence between the enhanced LTE systems and the existing WLAN systems. The Rel-13 LAA ensures this coexistence through a Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) feature in which the LTE system first senses the medium and transmits only if the medium is sensed to be idle.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 1 for example, in an LAA system and/or an enhanced LAA (eLAA) system, the channel occupied by eNB/gNB 102 can be shared by multiple UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 associated with that eNB/gNB 102. The eNB/gNB and the UEs may share the unlicensed spectrum with an unlicensed wireless network, for example an IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) system. The Wi-Fi system may include an access point 120 and a computer 122. As shown in FIG. 1, the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 may also use Wi- Fi to communicate with the access point 120 via the unlicensed spectrum In order to minimize interference between use of the unlicensed spectrum by the LAA and Wi-Fi networks, the initiating device may perform clear channel assessment (CCA) operations (e.g. Category 4 LBT) to ensure that the channel is clear before initiating transmission.

[0017] As shown in FIG. 2 the eNB/gNB 102 may send downlink (DL) scheduling data (D) (e.g. a UL grant) at 202. The UL grant identifies one or more subframes at which one or more UEs may send UL data to the eNB/gNB 102 via a scheduled transmission. As shown in FIG. 2, the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 can share the occupied channel, sending uplink (UL) data (U) in subframes 204, 206, 208, 210, 212, and 214, respectively, according to the downlink scheduling data D transmitted by the eNB/gNB 102 in subframe 202. As shown in FIG. 2, a gap 220 (e.g. 4 subframes) may exist between the DL transmission 202 and the first UL transmission 204 within the same maximum channel occupancy time (MOOT).

[0018] Using unlicensed spectrum in L AA for both DL and UL transmissions may significantly degrade the UL transmissions relative to licensed LTE transmissions. One cause of this degradation may be UL starvation caused by the use of double LBTs. The double LBTs occur because the eNB/gNB 102 performs a LBT to ensure a clear access channel (CAA) before sending the UL grant, and at each of the scheduled UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 performs a LBT before its scheduled UL transmission. When a UE cannot obtain a clear channel due to interference from another user of the unlicensed spectrum, the UE misses its transmission opportunity and waits for another UL grant to send its accumulated data This problem occurs when a scheduled system (e.g. LTE) coexists with anon-scheduled autonomous system (e.g. Wi-Fi). Furthermore the LTE system also imposes the 4-subframe processing delay 220 between the UL grant and the first scheduled UL transmission. This may restrict communications such that a UL transmission cannot be configured during the initial four subframes following the UL grant.

[0019] The performance of uplink transmission in some embodiments may be improved by allowing autonomous UL transmission in the gap subframes. Autonomous UL transmission may be included in LAA, LWA, MulteFire and eLAA. In embodiments, the autonomous uplink may be initiated by the UE, so the related UL parameter information, e.g. modulation and coding scheme (MCS), resource allocation may be preconfigured between the eNB/gNB 102 and the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and 114 (shown in FIG. 1) using high- level signaling or via a DCI sent in the PDCCH from the eNB/gNB 102 to the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 and/or by UC1 parameters sent by one of the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, or 114 to the eNB/gNB 102. In connection with embodiments, the parameters sent by the UE may be configured as an autonomous transmission of uplink control information (UCI) for a UE through a physical channel (e.g. PUCCH, PUSCH, ePUCCH, and/or ePUSCH).

[0020] Performing autonomous UE transmissions during the gap may be advantageous in LAA, eLAA LWA, and MulteFire systems because it avoids the hidden node problem in which an autonomous UL transmission from a first UE interferes with a scheduled UL transmission from a second UE, where the first UE cannot sense signals sent from the second UE during a LBT. The problem is avoided because there will be no scheduled UL transmissions during the gap.

[0021] In order to enable UE to perform autonomous uplink transmission using the gap subframes, the eNB/gNB 102 and the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and 114 should agree on a gap length, a gap starting subframe, UCI

configuration parameters, and a physical UCI channel. FIGs. 3 A and 3B show examples of how UCI information may be conveyed. In these embodiments, the length of gap 220 can be configured through data in a common PDCCH

(cPDCCH), so that the UE may perform LBT and autonomous PUSCH transmission using the gap subframes 322, 324, 326, and 328.

[0022] In the embodiments shown in FIGs. 3A and 3B, the gap length can be transmitted within the cPDCCH of the subframe immediately preceding the gap, or be configured within cPDCCHs of multiple subframes preceding the gap. In FIG. 3A, the gap information is configured within multiple subframes preceding the gap. Each of these subframes includes a gap offset (e.g. the number of subframes, including the current subframe, until the gap), and the gap length. As shown in FIG. 3A, the cPDCCH of subframe 302 includes a gap offset of 2 subframes and a gap length of 4 subframes. Similarly, the cPDCCH of subframe 304 includes a gap offset of 1 subframe and a gap length of 4 subframes. These values define the gap including four gap subframes 322, 324, 326 and 328 between the downlink subframe 304 and the first scheduled uplink subframe 306. As shown in FIG. 3 A, the MCOT also includes six scheduled uplink subframes, 306, 308, 310, 312, 314, and 316. [0023] In the example shown in FIG. 3B, the UE is preconfigured to expect the gap information in the subframe 334 immediately preceding the gap. In FIG. 3B, the cPDCCH of subframe 334 indicates a gap length of 3 subframes. In this example, subframe 334 occurs immediately before the three gap subframes 352, 354 and 356 which separate the downlink subframe 334 from the six uplink subframes 336, 338, 340, 342, 344 and 346. In either of the examples shown in FIG. 3A or 3B, the UE can save the gap length and, optionally, the gap offset configuration upon decoding the relevant downlink subframe(s).

[00 24 ] As described above, in addition to the location and length of the gap, the eNB/gNB 102 and the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and 114 agree on UCI configuration parameters that allow the eNB/gNB 102 to decode the autonomous UL transmissions. In the embodiments described herein, some or all of the following information for uplink transmission can be transmitted by the eNB/gNB 102 to one or more of the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 or by each of the UEs to the eNB/gNB 102. These parameters at least partially define the UCI for autonomous UL transmissions. The parameters include: Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS); New Data Indicator; Resource Assignment (e.g. the interlace number and the covered resource blocks (RBs) within the interlace); Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) Process ID; Demodulation

Reference Signal (DMRS) configuration (e.g. cyclic shift, and Orthogonal Cover Code (OCC)); Redundancy Version (RV); UE identity (e.g. C-RNTI, Cell ID or a special RNTI for autonomous UL transmissions from the UE); and the duration of the UL transmission.

[0025] In one embodiment, the parameters can be configured by the eNB/gNB 102 through higher layer signaling (e.g. Radio Resource Control (RRC), Media Access Control Element (MAC-CE) and/or broadcast signaling, for example, using a master information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB)), and when one of the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 or 114 occupies the channel based on a category 4 LBT or a one shot LBT, the autonomous UL data may be transmitted using the default parameters configured by the eNB/gNB 102. In another embodiment, some of the parameters can be configured by eNB/gNB 102 through higher layer signaling, and the remaining parameters may be determined by UE. For instance, the HARQ process ID, and the DMRS configuration, may be configured by the eNB/gNB 102, and the resource assignment may be conveyed by one or more of the UEs 104, 106, 108, 110, 112 and 114 through the UCI channel. Alternatively, all of the

configuration parameters described above can be determined by one or more of the UEs autonomously and may be transmitted to the eNB/gNB 102 using the UCI channel.

[0026] Within one UL autonomous transmission subframe (e.g. the first gap subframe), the first OFDM symbol can be reserved for LBT, so that the LTB, and the UL autonomous transmission may be constrained within one subframe boundary. FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment in which at least some of the UCI parameters are transmitted to the eNB/gNB 102 within a sPUCCH 414, which may be followed by the corresponding PUSCH subframes 416, 418 and 420 containing the autonomously transmitted data. In this embodiment, the sPUCCH 414 is preceded by an LBT 412 in the first subframe. The mapping of the autonomously transmitted subframes onto the PCell gap subframes 402, 404, 406 and 408 is also shown in FIG. 4. In this example, the C-RNTI for the UE and other UCI parameters may be transmitted within the sPUCCH 414. In one embodiment, the eNB/gNB 102 can detect the autonomous UL transmission detection based on the preamble sequence of the sPUCCH 414. Alternatively, the eNB/gNB 102 may blindly detect the sPUCCH 414. To acquire the UCI parameters for use in demodulating the data in the PUSCH subframes 416, 418 and 420. In some embodiments, the UCI parameters may be scrambled by a cell ID, instead of the UE specific C-RNTI. Alternatively, or a new RNTI for autonomous UL transmission can be introduced to avoid the relatively high complexity of blind detection of the C-RNTI.

[0027] In some embodiments, at least some of the UCI for autonomous

UL transmission can be pre-defined or configured by eNB, including Intra/Inter symbol OCC, cyclic shift of the DMRS sequence, Length of the MulteFire (MF) sPUCCH Interlace number, and the starting resource block

(RB) index.

[0028] Some embodiments use formats 1 , 2 and/or 3 of the MF-sPUCCH

(also referred to herein as sPUCCH) for UCI transmission, and, thus, the format of the sPUCCH can be pre-defined or can be configured by eNB/gNB 102 through higher level signaling.

[0029] As an alternative to transmitting the UCI configuration parameters in the sPUCCH, in some embodiments, the UCI configuration parameters can be transmitted within the MulteFire extended PUCCH (MF- ePUCCH or ePUCCH), which may be frequency-division multiplexed with corresponding extended PUSCH (MF-ePUSCH). As shown in FIG. 5, each ePUCCH 502, 504, 506 and 508 is followed by a respective ePUSCH 512, 514, 516 and 518. Also as shown in FIG. 5, the UE performs a LBT over the frequency range covered by the multiple ePUCCH and ePUSCH channels. The C-RNTI and other parameters may be transmitted within one or more of the ePUCCHs 502, 504, 506 and 508. The eNB/gNB 102 can perform the autonomous UL transmission detection based on the DMRS sequence of the ePUCCH 502, 504, 506 and or 508 or can blindly detect the ePUCCH, to acquire the UCI parameters used to demodulate the data in the ePUSCH.

[0030] In some embodiments, the block of bits defining the UCI parameters may be scrambled by the cell ID, instead of by the UE specific C- RNTl, or by a new RNTI for autonomous UL transmission, introduced to avoid the relatively high complexity of blind detection of C-RNTI.

[0031] In some embodiments, the UCI autonomous transmission parameters in the ePUCCH can be pre-defined or configured by the eNB/gNB 102. These parameters may include the Inter symbol OCC, a cyclic shift of the DMRS, a length of the ePUCCH the Interlace number, and

the starting RB index.

[0032] In some embodiments, the UCI for autonomous UL transmission can be transmitted within the PUSCH. In these embodiments, the first subframe of the PUSCH may be scrambled by the cell ID of the UE or a newly introduced RNTI (e.g. an RNTI for autonomous transmission). The subsequent PUSCH subframes can be scrambled by the cell ID, the newly introduced ΚΝTI, or by the C-RNTI. Then eNB can perform the autonomous UL transmission detection based on the DMRS sequence of PUSCH, and acquire the parameters for the corresponding PUSCH demodulation.

[0033] Alternatively, a mapping from the DMRS sequence to an RNTI

(either a newly introduced RNTI or the existing C-RNTI of the UE) can be introduced. The scrambling of the PUSCH by the RNTI may be the same across all subframes. The eNB/gNB 102 may perform blind detection on the DMRS sequence, and based on the mapping of the detected DMRS sequence, the eNB/gNB can infer the RNTI used to scramble the data in the PUSCH subframes.

[0034] In some embodiments, the cyclic shift of the DMRS and/or the OCC applied to the DMRS can be pre-defined, or configured by the eNB/gNB 102 through higher layer signaling. In another embodiment, UE can select the configuration of the DMRS (e.g. cyclic shifts/OCC) autonomously. In this embodiment, the eNB/gNB 102 may perform blind detection on all possible DMRS sequences.

[0035] In some embodiments, the time/frequency resource for UCI within PUSCH may be pre-defined or configured by the eNB/gNB through higher layer signaling. In one example, the UCI bits may be denoted as

The UCI bits are stored in J columns, where J can be

predefined. The J columns may be arranged by sets of (Qm●NL) rows, starting from the last (or first) row and moving up (or down) according to the same rule as the ACK/NACK multiplexing defined for the PUSCH.

[0036] For the resource element (RE) mapping, the following operations can be adopted: In one embodiment, the UCI and PUSCH can be jointly encoded, and joint encoded bits can be mapped to resource elements (REs) according to the existing PUSCH RE mapping. In another embodiment, the UCI and PUSCH can be separately encoded, as in existing LTE. In some

embodiments, the RE mapping of the UCI parameters can be a frequency first mapping. In another embodiment, the RE mapping of UCI parameters can be time first mapping (e.g. the RE mapping can be similar to the mapping of the UCI to the PUSCH in MulteFire 1.0.

[0037] In order to enable eNB/gNB 102 to acquire the length of autonomous transmission as quickly as possible, the eNB/gNB can prepare the scheduling information for the PUSCH PDSCH and can add, an operation to indicate the length of the autonomous transmission. In some embodiments, one or more sequences (e.g. DMRS) can be transmitted prior to the PUSCH autonomous transmission. The particular sequence is decoded by the UE which uses it to reserve the channel, assist eNB/gNB to detect the existence of an autonomous transmission, and or to indicate the length of autonomous transmission, (e.g. sequence #1 indicates a l ms transmission while sequence #2 indicates a transmission that is greater than 1ms).

[0038] In another embodiment, the Rank Indicator (RI) field in the

PUSCH can be utilized for length indication. Since the RI bits are separately coded, and span four specific OFDM symbols, the eNB/gNB 102 can detect the RI prior to receiving the whole subframe. In one embodiment, two bits of the RI field can be reserved to indicate the length of the autonomous transmission (e.g. "00" for 1ms; "01" for 2ms; "10" for 4 ms; "11" for greater than 4ms).

[0039] Various ones of the embodiments described above may be implemented in systems including air interfaces 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. FIGs. 7-10 illustrate components of an example system. [0040] FIG. 6 is a timing diagram showing an autonomous UL transmission from UE 116 to eNB/gNB 102. At 602, the eNB/gNB 102 optionally sends UCI parameters for the autonomous transmissions to the UE 116. As described above, the UCI parameters for the autonomous transmissions may be sent by the eNB/gNB to the UE, by the UE to the eNB/gNB or both. At 604, the eNB/gNB 102 sends the cPUCCH 620 including the UL grant to the UEs 104 and 116. In the first gap subframe following the cPUCCH UE 116 has UL data to be sent and, at 606, performs an LBT during a first part of the first gap subframe 622. Finding the channel clear, at 608, the UE 116 optionally sends UCI parameters for the autonomous transmission to the eNB/gNB 102. As described above, these parameters may be sent in a sPUCCH in the second part of the first gap subframe 622. At 610, 612 and 614, the UE 116 sends gap subframes 624, 626 and 628 with data encoded in the PUSCH. The first scheduled UL transmission is at 616m when the UE 104 sends a subframe with PUSCH data to the eNB/gNB 102.

[00411 FIG. 7 illustrates an architecture of a system 700 of a network in accordance with some embodiments. The system 700 is shown to include a user equipment (UE) 701 and a UE 702. The UEs 701 and 702 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non- mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

[0042] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 701 and 702 can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which can include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as machme-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 IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet inf astructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

[0043] The UEs 701 and 702 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 710— the RAN 710 may 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 (e.g. LAA, LTE Wi-Fi, LWA, MulteFire, and RANI). The UEs 701 and 702 utilize connections 703 and 704, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 703 and 704 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 5G protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

[0044] In this embodiment, the UEs 701 and 702 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 705. The ProSe interface 705 may 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).

[0045] The UE 702 is shown to be configured to access an access point

(AP) 706 via connection 707. The connection 707 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 706 would comprise a Wi-Fi router. In this example, the AP 706 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). The AP 706 operates in an unlicensed frequency band and may interfere with

[0046] The R N 710 can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections 703 and 704. 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 710 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 711, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacit , or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 712.

[0047] Any of the RAN nodes 711 and 712 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 701 and 702. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 711 and 712 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 710 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. As described above, the RAN 710 may also coexist with one or more unlicensed RANs such as the AP 706.

[0048] In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 701 and 702 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division

Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 711 and 712 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. The spectrum used by the RAN 710 may include both licensed and unlicensed frequency bands.

[0049] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 711 and 712 to the UEs 701 and 702, 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 (RBs), which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements (REs). Each RB comprises a collection of REs; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

[0050] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 701 and 702. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 701 and 702 about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 102 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 711 and 712 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 701 and 702. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 701 and 702. [0051] The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=l, 2, 4, or 8). As described above, the DCI may include the UL grants. As described above, the cPUCCH may include at least some of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmissions.

[0052] Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

[0053] The RAN 710 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 720— via an SI interface 713. In embodiments, the CN 720 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, aNextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment the SI interface 713 is split into two parts: the Sl-U interface 714, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 711 and 712 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 722, and the Sl- mobility management entity (MME) interface 715, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 711 and 712 and MMEs 721. [0054] In this embodiment, the CN 720 comprises the MMEs 721, the S-

GW 722, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 723, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 724. The MMEs 721 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 721 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 724 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The CN 720 may comprise one or several HSSs 724, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 724 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

[0055] The S-GW 722 may terminate the SI interface 713 towards the RAN 710, and routes data packets between the RAN 710 and the CN 720. In addition, the S-GW 722 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0056] The P-GW 723 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN.

The P-GW 723 may route data packets between the EPC network 723 and external networks such as a network including the application server 730 (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 725. Generally, the application server 730 may 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 723 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 730 via an IP communications interface 725. The application server 730 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 701 and 702 via the CN 720.

[0057] The P-GW 723 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 726 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 720. In a non-roaming scenario, there may 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 may 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 726 may be

communicatively coupled to the application server 730 via the P-GW 723. The application server 730 may signal the PCRF 726 to indicate anew service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 726 may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 730.

[0058] FIG. 8 illustrates example components of a device 800 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 800 may include application circuitry 802, baseband circuitry 804, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 806, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 808, one or more antennas 810, and power management circuitry (PMC) 812 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 800 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 800 may include less elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 802, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 800 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

[0059] The application circuitry 802 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 802 may include 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 (e.g., graphics processors,

application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory /storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 800. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 802 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[0060] The baseband circuitry 804 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 804 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 806 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 806. Baseband processing circuity 804 may interface with the application circuitry 802 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 806. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 804A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 804B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 804C, or other baseband processors) 804D 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 804 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 804A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 806. In other

embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 804A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 804G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 804E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 804 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 804 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

[0061] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may include one or more audio digital signal processors) (DSP) 804F. The audio DSP(s) 804F may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 804 and the application circuitry 802 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0062] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN).

Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 804 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi- mode baseband circuitry.

[0063] RF circuitry 806 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 806 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 808 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 804. RF circuitry 806 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 804 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 808 for transmission.

[0064] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry

806 may include mixer circuitry 806A, amplifier circuitry 806B and filter circuitry 806C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 806 may include filter circuitry 806C and mixer circuitry 806A. RF circuitry 806 may also include synthesizer circuitry 806D for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 806A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806 A of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 808 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 806D. The amplifier circuitry 806B may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 806C may be a low- pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 804 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 806A of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[006S] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806A of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 806D to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 808. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 804 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 806C. [0066] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 806 A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 806A of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 806A may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 806A of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0067] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 804 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 806.

[0068] In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0069] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 806D may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 806D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0070] The synthesizer circuitry 806D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 806A of the RF circuitry 806 based on a frequency input and a d vider control input In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 806D may be a fractional N/ +l synthesizer.

[0071] In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 804 or the applications processor 802 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 802.

[00 72] Synthesizer circuitry 806D of the RF circuitry 806 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0073] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 806D may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include an IQ/polar converter. [0074] FEM circuitry 808 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 810, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 806 for further processing. FEM circuitry 808 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 806 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 810. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 806, solely in the FEM 808, or in both the RF circuitry 806 and the FEM 808.

[0075] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 808 may include a

TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 806). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 808 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 806), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 810).

[0076] In some embodiments, the PMC 812 may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 804. In particular, the PMC 812 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 812 may often be included when the device 800 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC 812 may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0077] While FIG. 8 shows the PMC 812 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 804. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 8 12 may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 802, RF circuitry 806, or FEM 808. [0078] In some embodiments, the PMC 812 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 800. For example, if the device 800 is in an RRC Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 800 may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

[0079] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device 800 may transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 800 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 800 may not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, it transitions back to RRC Connected state.

[0080] An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

[0081] Processors of the application circuitry 802 and processors of the baseband circuitry 804 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 804, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 804 may 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 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

[0082] FIG. 9 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 804 of FIG. 8 may comprise processors 804A-804E and a memory 804G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 804A-804E may include a memory interface, 904A-904E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 804G.

[00 831 The baseband circuitry 804 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 912 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 804), an application circuitry interface 914 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 802 of FIG. 8), an RF circuitry interface 916 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 806 of FIG. 8), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 918 (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 920 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 812).

[0084] FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1000 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1010, one or more memory/storage devices 1020, and one or more communication resources 1030, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1040. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1002 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1000 [0085] The processors 1010 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 1012 and a processor 1014.

[0086] The memory/storage devices 1020 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1020 may include, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random- access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0087] The communication resources 1030 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1004 or one or more databases 1006 via a network 1008. For example, the communication resources 1030 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[0088] Instructions 1050 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1010 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1050 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1010 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1020, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1050 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1000 from any combination of the peripheral devices

1004 or the databases 1006. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1010, the memor /storage devices 1020, the peripheral devices 1004, and the databases 1006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media

[0089] Examples:

Example 1 may include an apparatus of user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: an interface; and processing circuitry, coupled to the interface and configured to: receive, via the interface, an uplink grant from aNodeB, the NodeB including at least one of an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB); decode a gap length indicating a number of gap subframes between the UL grant and a first UL subframe indicated by the UL grant; encode data for autonomous transmission in the gap subframes on an unlicensed frequency band according to upload control information (UCI) parameters for autonomous UL transmission; and send the autonomous transmission data to the interface for transmission to the NodeB.

[0090] Example 2 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure during a first portion of the gap subframes and encode the data for autonomous transmission during a second portion of the gap subframes.

[0091] Example 3 may include the apparatus of example 2 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first portion of the gap subframes is a first portion of a first subframe of the gap subframes and the processing circuitry is configured to encode at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission using a shortened physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH) during a second portion of the first subframe.

[00 92] Example 4 may include the apparatus of example 3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to encode the data for autonomous transmission in at least one physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) subframes of the gap subframes, the at least one PUSCH subframes occurring after the first subframe of the gap subframes. [0093] Example 5 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to decode the gap length by decoding a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) from a downlink (DL) subframe occurring before the gap subframes [0094] Example 6 may include the apparatus of example 4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to decode the gap length by decoding the DL subframe occurring before the gap subframes, the DL subframe including the number of gap subframes and an offset from the DL subframe to a first subframe of the gap subframes.

[0095] Example 7 may include the apparatus of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission include: a parameter identifying the UE, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process identifier (ID) parameter, a new data indicator parameter, a Redundancy Version (RV) parameter, and parameter indicating a duration of a UL transmission including at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission.

[00 96] Example 8 may include the apparatus of example 7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the parameter identifying the UE includes at least one of a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), a UE specific RNTI, a cell ID, or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS).

[0097] Example 9 may include the apparatus of example 7 and/or some other example herein 9, wherein the plurality of UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission further include at least one of: a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) parameter, a resource assignment parameter, or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) parameter.

[0098] Example 10 may include the apparatus of example 7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to decode at least one of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission from at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration message, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE), a master information block (MLB), or a system information block (SIB).

[0099] Example 11 may include the apparatus of example 7 andor some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate at least one of the UC1 parameters for autonomous UL transmission and to encode the at least one generated UCI parameter for autonomous UL

transmission for transmission in one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), shortened PUCCH (sPUCCH), extended PUCCH (ePUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or extended PUSCH (ePUSCH).

[0100] Example 12 may include the apparatus of example 7 andor some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: decode the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission including an intersymbol orthogonal cover code (OCC), a cyclic shift, a length of an extended physical uplink control channel (ePUCCH), an interlace number and a starting resource block (RB) index; and encode the data for autonomous transmission in extended physical uplink shared channels ePUSCHs for transmission in the gap subframes.

Example 13 may include an apparatus of a Node B, the Node B including at least one of an evolved NodeB (eNB) and a next-generation NodeB (gNB), the apparatus comprising: an interface; and processing circuitry, coupled to the interface and configured to: encode a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of a downlink (DL) subframe occurring before gap subframes, the PDCCH including a gap length parameter indicating a number of the gap subframes between a DL subframe including an uplink (UL) grant and a first UL subframe scheduled by the UL grant; provide the DL subframe to the interface for transmission to a user equipment (UE); receive, via the interface, autonomous UL data transmitted to the NodeB by the UE in the plurality of gap subframes; and decode the autonomous UL data, according to uplink control information (UCI) parameters for autonomous UL reception. [0101] Example 14 may include the apparatus of example 13 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to encode the gap length parameter and a respective offset index from the DL subframe to a first subframe of the gap subframes for transmission in a PDCCH of the DL subframe occurring before the gap subframes.

[0102] Example 15 may include the apparatus of example 13 and/or some other example herein wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure before encoding the PDCCH.

[01031 Example 16 may include the apparatus of example 13 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to decode the autonomous UL data by decoding a first subframe of the gap subframes, the first subframe including a shortened physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH) and decoding a plurality of further gap subframes occurring after the first subframe of the gap subframes, each of the plurality of further gap subframes including a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0104] Example 17 may include the apparatus of example 13 and/or some other example herein, wherein the UCI parameters include: a parameter identifying the UE, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process identifier (ID) parameter, anew data indicator parameter, a Redundancy Version (RV) parameter, and a parameter indicating a duration of a UL transmission including at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL reception.

[0105] Example 18 may include the apparatus of example 17 and/or some other example herein, wherein the parameter identifying the UE includes at least one of a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), a UE specific RNTI , a cell ID, or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS).

[0106] Example 19 may include the apparatus of example 17 and/or some other example herein, wherein the plurality of UCI parameters for autonomous UL reception further include at least one of: a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) parameter, a resource assignment parameter, or a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) parameter. [0107] Example 20 may include the apparatus of example 17 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to encode at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL reception in at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration message, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE), a master information block (MIB), or a system information block (SIB).

[0108] Example 21 may include the apparatus of example 17 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to decode at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL reception from at least one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), shortened PUCCH (sPUCCH), enhanced PUCCH (ePUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or extended PUCCH (ePUCCH).

[0109] Example 22 may include a method for encoding autonomous uplink (UL) data for transmission over an unlicensed frequency band from a user equipment (UE) to a NodeB, including at least one of an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB), the method comprising: determining a first gap subframe of a plurality of gap subframes following a subframe including an uplink grant; and encoding data for autonomous transmission in the plurality of gap subframes according to upload control information (UCI) parameters for autonomous UL transmission.

[0110] Example 23 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure during a first portion of the gap subframes; and encoding the data for autonomous transmission during a second portion of the gap subframes.

[0111] Example 24 may include the method of example 23 andor some other example herein, wherein the first portion of the gap subframes is a first portion of the first gap subframe and the method comprises encoding at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission in a shortened physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH) during a second portion of the first gap subframe. [0112] Example 25 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, wherein encoding the data for autonomous transmission in the plurality of gap subframes includes encoding the data for autonomous transmission in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of at least one subframes of the gap subframes.

[0113] Example 26 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, wherein determining the first gap subframe of the plurality of gap subframes includes decoding a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) from a downlink (DL) subframe occurring before the gap subframes

[0114] Example 27 may include the method of example 26 and/or some other example herein, further comprising determining a number of gap subframes in the plurality of gap subframes by decoding the cPDCCH of the DL subframe occurring before the gap, the cPDCCH including the number of gap subframes and an offset from the DL subframe to the first gap subframe.

[0115] Example 28 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, further comprising decoding at least one of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission from at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration message, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE), a master information block (MIB), or a system information block (SIB).

[0116] Example 29 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: generating at least one of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission; and encoding the at least one generated UCI parameter for autonomous UL transmission in one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), shortened PUCCH (sPUCCH), extended PUCCH (ePUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or extended PUSCH (ePUSCH).

[0117] Example 30 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: decoding the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission, the UCI parameters including an intersymbol orthogonal cover code (OCC), a cyclic shift, a length of an extended physical uplink control channel (ePUCCH), an interlace number and a starting resource block (KB) index; and encoding the autonomous data for transmission in extended physical uplink shared channels (ePUSCHs) for transmission in the gap subframes.

[0118] Example 31 may include a computer-readable medium including program instructions for encoding autonomous uplink (UL) data for transmission over an unlicensed frequency band from a user equipment (UE) to aNodeB, including at least one of an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB), the program instructions configuring processing circuitry in the UE to: determine a first gap subframe of a plurality of gap subframes following a subframe including an uplink grant; and encode data for autonomous transmission in the plurality of gap subframes according to upload control information (UCI) parameters for autonomous UL transmission.

[0119 ] Example 32 may include the computer-readable medium of example 31 and/or some other example herein, further including program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to: perform a listen-before- talk (LBT) procedure during a first portion of the gap subframes; and encode the data for autonomous transmission during a second portion of the gap subframes.

[0120] Example 33 may include the computer-readable medium of example 32 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first portion of the gap subframes is a first portion of the first gap subframe and the program instructions further configure the processing circuitry to encode at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission in a shortened physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH) during a second portion of the first gap subframe.

[0121] Example 34 may include the computer-readable medium of example 31 and or some other example herein, wherein the program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to encode the data for autonomous transmission in the plurality of gap subframes include program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to encode the data for autonomous transmission in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of at least one subframe of the gap subframes.

[0122] Example 35 may include the computer-readable medium of example 31 and/or some other example herein, wherein the program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to determine the first gap subframe of the plurality of gap subframes include program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to decode a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) from a downlink (DL) subframe occurring before the gap subframes

[0123] Example 36 may include the computer-readable medium of example 35 and/or some other example herein, further comprising program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to determine a number of gap subframes in the plurality of gap subframes by decoding the cPDCCH of the DL subframe occurring before the gap, the cPDCCH including the number of gap subframes and an offset from the DL subframe to the first gap subframe.

[0124] Example 37 may include the computer-readable medium of example 31 and/or some other example herein, further comprising program instructions that configure the processing circuitry to decode at least one of the UC1 parameters for autonomous UL transmission from at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration message, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE), a master information block (MIB), or a system information block (SIB).

[01251 Example 38 may include the computer-readable medium of example 31 and/or some other example herein 38, further comprising program instructions that cause the processing circuitry to: generate at least one of the UC1 parameters for autonomous UL transmission; and encode the at least one generated UCI parameter for autonomous UL transmission in one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), shortened PUCCH (sPUCCH), extended PUCCH (ePUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or extended PUSCH (ePUSCH).

[0126] Example 39 may include the computer-readable medium of example 31 and/or some other example herein, further comprising program instructions that cause the processing circuitry to: decode the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission, the UCI parameters including an intersymbol orthogonal cover code (OCC), a cyclic shift, a length of an extended physical uplink control channel (ePUCCH), an interlace number and a starting resource block (RB) index; and encode the autonomous data for transmission in extended physical uplink shared channels (ePUSCHs) for transmission in the gap subframes.

[0127] Example 40 may include an apparatus for encoding autonomous uplink (UL) data for transmission over an unlicensed frequency band from a user equipment (UE) to aNodeB, including at least one of an evolved NodeB (eNB) or a next generation NodeB (gNB), the apparatus comprising: means for determining a first gap subframe of a plurality of gap subframes following a subframe including an uplink grant; and means for encoding data for autonomous transmission in the plurality of gap subframes according to upload control information (UCI) parameters for autonomous UL transmission.

[0128] Example 41 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for performing a listen- before-talk (LBT) procedure during a first portion of the gap subframes; and means for encoding the data for autonomous transmission during a second portion of the gap subframes.

[0129] Example 42 may include the apparatus of example 41 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first portion of the gap subframes is a first portion of the first gap subframe and the apparatus comprises means encoding at least a portion of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission in a shortened physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH) during a second portion of the first gap subframe. [0130] Example 43 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or some other example herein, wherein the means for encoding the data for autonomous transmission in the plurality of gap subframes includes means for encoding the data for autonomous transmission in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) of at least one subframes of the gap subframes.

[0131] Example 44 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or some other example herein, wherein the means for determining the first gap subframe of the plurality of gap subframes includes means for decoding a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) from a downlink (DL) subframe occurring before the gap subframes

[0132] Example 45 may include the apparatus of example 44 and/or some other example herein, further comprising means for determining a number of gap subframes in the plurality of gap subframes including means for decoding the cPDCCH of the DL subframe occurring before the gap, the cPDCCH including the number of gap subframes and an offset from the DL subframe to the first gap subframe.

101331 Example 46 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or some other example herein, further comprising means for decoding at least one of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission from at least one of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration message, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE), a master information block (MTB), or a system information block (SIB).

[0134] Example 47 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for generating at least one of the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission; and means for encoding the at least one generated UCI parameter for autonomous UL transmission in one of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), shortened PUCCH (sPUCCH), extended PUCCH (ePUCCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or extended PUSCH (ePUSCH). [0135] Example 48 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for decoding the UCI parameters for autonomous UL transmission, the UCI parameters including an intersymbol orthogonal cover code (OCC), a cyclic shift, a length of an extended physical uplink control channel (ePUCCH), an interlace number and a starting resource block (RB) index; and means for encoding the autonomous data for transmission in extended physical uplink shared channels (ePUSCHs) for transmission in the gap subframes.

10136 ] The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0137] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section 1.72(b) requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.