PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/455,439, filed February 6, 2017, entitled "RELIABLE UPLINK TRANSMISSION WITHOUT GRANT IN NR URLLC," which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] Embodiments pertain to radio access networks. Some embodiments relate to low-latency communication and in particular to ultra- reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) in cellular networks, including Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) networks and LTE advanced (LTE-A) networks as well as legacy, 4 ^th generation (4G) networks and 5 ^th generation (5G) networks.

BACKGROUND

[0003] The use of 3 GPP LTE systems (including LTE and LTE-

Advanced systems) has increased due to both an increase in the types of devices user equipment (UEs) using network resources as well as the amount of data and bandwidth being used by various applications, such as video streaming, operating on these UEs. As a result, 3GPP LTE systems continue to develop, with the next generation wireless communication system, 5G (or new radio (NR)), to improve access to information and data sharing. NR systems look to meet vastly different and sometime conflicting performance dimensions and services driven by disparate services and applications while maintaining compatibility with legacy UEs and applications. NR systems may be designed to increase available UE data rates to a peak data rate exceeding lOGps, support a massive number of machine type communication (MTC) UEs, and support low latency communications. Because of the variations in communication types, new types of communication, which include URLLC, may continue to be developed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0004] In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

[0005] FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture of a system of a network in accordance with some embodiments.

[0006] FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device in accordance with some embodiments.

[0007] FIG. 3 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments.

[0008] FIG. 4 is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack in accordance with some embodiments.

[0009] FIG. 5 is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack in accordance with some embodiments.

[0010] FIG. 6 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.

[0011] FIG. 7A illustrates grant-based uplink transmission in accordance with some embodiments; FIG. 7B illustrates grant-free uplink transmission in accordance with some embodiments.

[0012] FIG. 8 illustrates grant-free uplink transmission in accordance with some embodiments.

[0013] FIG. 9 illustrates a bitmap-based allocation in accordance with some embodiments. [0014] FIG. 10 illustrates time patterns for single transmission before acknowledgment/negative acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) feedback in accordance with some embodiments.

[0015] FIG. 11 illustrates time patterns for bundled transmissions with a single ACK/NACK feedback in accordance with some embodiments.

[0016] FIG. 12 illustrates time patterns for bundled transmissions with multiple ACK/NACK feedback in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture of a system 100 of a network in accordance with some embodiments. The system 100 is shown to include a user equipment (UE) 101 and a UE 102. The UEs 101 and 102 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but 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.

[0019] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

[0020] The UEs 101 and 102 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 110 - the RAN 110 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. The UEs 101 and 102 utilize connections 103 and 104, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 103 and 104 are illustrated as an air interface to enable

communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to- Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a 5G/NR protocol, and the like.

[0021] In this embodiment, the UEs 101 and 102 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 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).

[0022] The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point

(AP) 106 via connection 107. The connection 107 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below).

[0023] The RAN 1 10 can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next Generation NodeBs (gigabit NodeBs - gNBs), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 1 10 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 1 1 1, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 1 12.

[0024] Any of the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 11 1 and 1 12 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 110 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0025] In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 101 and 102 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency -Division

Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 1 1 1 and 1 12 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.

[0026] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 to the UEs 101 and 102, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time -frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time- frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

[0027] The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 101 and 102. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 101 and 102 about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 102 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101 and 102. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 101 and 102. [0028] 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).

[0029] 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.

[0030] The RAN 110 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 120— via an S I interface 113. In embodiments, the CN 120 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment, the S 1 interface 113 is split into two parts: the Sl-U interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122, and the Sl- mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and MMEs 121. [0031] In this embodiment, the CN 120 comprises the MMEs 121, the S-

GW 122, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The CN 120 may comprise one or several HSSs 124, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 124 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

[0032] The S-GW 122 may terminate the S I interface 113 towards the RAN 110, and routes data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. In addition, the S-GW 122 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.

[0033] The P-GW 123 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN.

The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the EPC network 123 and external networks such as a network including the application server 130 (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. Generally, the application server 130 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 123 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 130 via an IP communications interface 125. The application server 130 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

[0034] The P-GW 123 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 126 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 120. 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 126 may be

communicatively coupled to the application server 130 via the P-GW 123. The application server 130 may signal the PCRF 126 to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 126 may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 130.

[0035] FIG. 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 208, one or more antennas 210, and power management circuitry (PMC) 212 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 200 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include less elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 202, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 200 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).

[0036] The application circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors,

application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with 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 200. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 202 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

[0037] The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband processing circuity 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a 5G/NR baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s) 204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 204A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 204G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 204E. 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 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 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.

[0038] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F 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 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

[0039] In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 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 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi- mode baseband circuitry.

[0040] RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 208 for transmission.

[0041] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include mixer circuitry 206A, amplifier circuitry 206B and filter circuitry 206C. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206 may include filter circuitry 206C and mixer circuitry 206A. RF circuitry 206 may also include synthesizer circuitry 206D for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206A of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206A of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206D. The amplifier circuitry 206B may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 206C 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 204 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 206A of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0042] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206A of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206D to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 208. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 206C.

[0043] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206A 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 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206A 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 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206A may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 206A of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206A of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

[0044] 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 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 206.

[0045] 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.

[0046] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206D may be a fractional -N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 206D may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. [0047] The synthesizer circuitry 206D may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206A of the RF circuitry 206 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 206D may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

[0048] 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 204 or the applications processor 202 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look- up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 202.

[0049] Synthesizer circuitry 206D of the RF circuitry 206 may include a divider, a delay -locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0050] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 206D 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 206 may include an IQ/polar converter.

[0051] FEM circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 210, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. FEM circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 210. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the FEM 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the FEM 208.

[0052] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 208 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 206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

[0053] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 204. In particular, the PMC 212 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 212 may often be included when the device 200 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC 212 may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

[0054] While FIG. 2 shows the PMC 212 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 204. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 212 may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 202, RF circuitry 206, or FEM 208.

[0055] In some embodiments, the PMC 212 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 200. For example, if the device 200 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 200 may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

[0056] If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device 200 may transition to an RRC Idle state. In the RRC Idle state, the device 200 may disconnect from the network and avoid performing operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 200 may enter a very low power state and perform paging in which the device 200 may periodically wake up to listen to the network and then power down again. To receive data, the device 200 may transition back to the RRC_Connected state.

[0057] 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.

[0058] Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of the baseband circuitry 204 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 204, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 204 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.

[0059] FIG. 3 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 204 of FIG. 2 may comprise processors 204A-XT04E and a memory 204G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 204A-XT04E may include a memory interface, 304A-XU04E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 204G.

[0060] The baseband circuitry 204 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 312 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitry interface 314 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 202 of FIG. 2), an RF circuitry interface 316 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206 of FIG. 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 318 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 320 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 212).

[0061] FIG. 4 is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack in accordance with some embodiments. In this embodiment, a control plane 400 is shown as a communications protocol stack between the UE 101 (or alternatively, the UE 102), the RAN node 111 (or alternatively, the RAN node 112), and the MME 121. [0062] The PHY layer 401 may transmit or receive information used by the MAC layer 402 over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer 401 may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, such as the RRC layer 405. The PHY layer 401 may still further perform error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing.

[0063] The MAC layer 402 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be delivered to PHY via transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or more logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from the PHY via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

[0064] The RLC layer 403 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer 403 may execute transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC layer 403 may also execute re -segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0065] The PDCP layer 404 may execute header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0066] The main services and functions of the RRC layer 405 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in Master Information Blocks (MIBs) or System Information Blocks (SIBs) related to the non-access stratum (NAS)), broadcast of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, security functions including key management, inter radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE

measurement reporting. The MIBs and SIBs may comprise one or more information elements (IEs), which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures.

[0067] The UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may utilize a Uu interface

(e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack comprising the PHY layer 401, the MAC layer 402, the RLC layer 403, the PDCP layer 404, and the RRC layer 405.

[0068] The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols 406 form the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE 101 and the MME 121. The NAS protocols 406 support the mobility of the UE 101 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 101 and the P-GW 123.

[0069] The SI Application Protocol (Sl-AP) layer 415 may support the functions of the SI interface and comprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An EP is a unit of interaction between the RAN node 111 and the CN 120. The S 1-AP layer services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services and non UE- associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

[0070] The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer

(alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 414 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the MME 121 based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP layer 413. The L2 layer 412 and the LI layer 411 may refer to communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) used by the RAN node and the MME to exchange information.

[0071] The RAN node 111 and the MME 121 may utilize an S l-MME interface to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack comprising the LI layer 411, the L2 layer 412, the IP layer 413, the SCTP layer 414, and the Sl-AP layer 415.

[0072] FIG. 5 is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack in accordance with some embodiments. In this embodiment, a user plane 500 is shown as a communications protocol stack between the UE 101 (or alternatively, the UE 102), the RAN node 111 (or alternatively, the RAN node 112), the S-GW 122, and the P-GW 123. The user plane 500 may utilize at least some of the same protocol layers as the control plane 400. For example, the UE 101 and the RAN node 111 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the PHY layer 401, the MAC layer 402, the RLC layer 403, the PDCP layer 404.

[0073] The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane (GTP-U) layer 504 may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. The UDP and IP security (UDP/IP) layer 503 may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and the S-GW 122 may utilize an Sl-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the L 1 layer 411, the L2 layer 412, the UDP/IP layer 503, and the GTP-U layer 504. The S-GW 122 and the P-GW 123 may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the LI layer 411, the L2 layer 412, the UDP/IP layer 503, and the GTP-U layer 504. As discussed above with respect to FIG. 4, NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE 101 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE 101 and the P-GW 123.

[0074] FIG. 6 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. 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 610, one or more memory/storage devices 620, and one or more communication resources 630, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 640. For

embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 602 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 600

[0075] The processors 610 (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 612 and a processor 614. [0076] The memory/storage devices 620 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory /storage devices 620 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.

[0077] The communication resources 630 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 604 or one or more databases 606 via a network 608. For example, the communication resources 630 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.

[0078] Instructions 650 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 610 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 650 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 610 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory /storage devices 620, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the instructions 650 may reside on a tangible, nonvolatile communication device readable medium, which may include a single medium or multiple media. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 650 may be transferred to the hardware resources 600 from any combination of the peripheral devices 604 or the databases 606. Accordingly, the memory of processors 610, the memory/storage devices 620, the peripheral devices 604, and the databases 606 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. [0079] As above, with the advent of NR systems, additional types of communications beyond those developed for 4G systems are currently being developed. Such types of communication include URLLC and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communication. URLLC may have a very strict latency limitation of 0.5 - 1 ms (compared with more normal >4ms latency). Such a limitation may lead to support for both a dynamically scheduled uplink transmission and a grant-free transmission. These transmissions may exploit benefits of eliminating transmission of a Scheduling Request (SR) from the UE to the gNB on a PUCCH to schedule uplink (UL) resources for a new transmission from the UE and transmission on a PDCCH of a grant from the gNB to the UE to access resources.

[0080] FIG. 7A illustrates grant-based uplink transmission in accordance with some embodiments; FIG. 7B illustrates grant-free uplink transmission in accordance with some embodiments. The transmissions may be in a FDD system based on mini-slots of 0.071ms. By using dynamically scheduled uplink and grant-free transmission, the latency target may be achieved within about 99.999%. As show in FIG. 7A, the grant-based uplink transmission 710 may be triggered by transmission by the UE to the gNB of the SR 712 on an UL channel to indicate that the UE has data to transmit to the gNB. The gNB may respond with transmission of a grant 714 to the UE on a downlink (DL) channel a predetermined amount of time (e.g., 2 subframes) later. The grant 714 may indicate timing for the UL transmission, as well as the UL channel to use. The UE may respond to reception of the grant 714 with transmission of the data 716 on the allocated UL channel (shown in FIG. 7A as the same UL channel on which the SR 712 was transmitted). The gNB may subsequently transmit another grant or ACK/NACK 718. In comparison, in FIG. 7B, the grant-free UL transmission 720 may merely include the UE transmitting data on a

predetermined UL channel (e.g., as provided in RRC signaling). The gNB may transmit an ACK/NACK in response to the data. Like FIG. 7A, the UE may periodically transmit data and the gNB respond with ACK/NACK. [0081] URLLC may involve two general types of traffic: periodic and sporadic. For the periodic traffic, such as reference signal and reporting transmission, arrival time and packet size may be known to the gNB. In this case, a grant-free transmission scheme with orthogonal reservation of resources may be optimal. For sporadic traffic, a message can be generated in a random moment of time with generally unpredictable packet generation rate. In this scenario, reservation of resources in orthogonal manner for each associated user may lead to unsatisfactory resource utilization and system capacity. Non- orthogonal (contention-based) grant-free resource allocation may provide better resource utilization for the sporadic type of traffic. However, care should be taken designing grant-free resource allocation to meet the above reliability for URLLC. For example, the grant-free transmissions of Semi-Persistent

Scheduling (SPS) may not be suitable for NR URLLC services due to periodic resource reservation and mandatory UE transmission even when the UE does not have data to transmit. Moreover, SPS may employ DCI activation and deactivation (layer 1 signaling), unlike the grant-free resource allocation that once scheduled can be used immediately by the UE; that is transmission by the UE using the grant-free resource allocation may be free from layer 1 signaling in the UE. Alternatively, a contention-based grant-free transmission with random resource selection may be used, but may not guarantee the reliability targets due to uncontrolled interference and probability of persistent collisions.

[0082] Thus, a framework of resource configuration and adaptation for grant-free transmission, including resource configuration, signaling, and retransmission schemes, with sufficient control are provided below. These schemes may provide ultra-reliable and spectrum efficient operation for grant- free uplink transmission schemes. In some embodiments, these and other concepts may also be applicable to grant-based uplink operation or a combination of the grant-free and grant-based schemes.

[0083] FIG. 8 illustrates grant-free uplink transmission in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 8 may indicate a frequency-time resource configuration 800 signaled by the gNB shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6 to a UE shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6. The gNB may transmit an indication of the resource configuration 800, as above, in control signaling, such as RRC signaling. The resource configuration 800 may include a transmission resource pool 808. The transmission resource pool 808 may be a subset of resources from a common transmission resource set (e.g. from all uplink shared channel resources). In various embodiments, the transmission resource pool 808 may be UE-specific, UE-group-specific (for a specific group of UEs associated with a particular group ID) or cell-specific. The transmission resource pool 808 may be used to allocate exclusive or partially overlapped resources for grant-free transmissions in a cell or to organize frequency/time reuse between different cells or parts of a cell (e.g., cell-center and cell -edge) as discussed in more detail below. One of the IEs in RRC signaling may be used to provide the active carrier for the bitmap, although other IEs may be used to supply the carrier range.

[0084] The transmission resource pool 808 may contain one or more frequency resource units 802 and one or more time resource units 804. The frequency resource unit 802 is the minimum portion of logical frequency band assumed as a single frequency resource. The frequency resource unit 802 may be measured in physical resource blocks (PRB), for example. The logical to physical resource mapping may either be distributed or localized in frequency. The time resource unit 804 is the minimum portion of time assumed as a single time resource. For example, duration granularity of the time resource unit 804 may be a mini-slot, a group of OFDM symbols, a slot or a subframe in different embodiments. The transmission resource pool 808 may contain one or more transmission resource units. The transmission resource unit may be a schedulable time-frequency resource unit. One frequency resource unit 802 allocated in one time resource unit 804 may compose a minimum transmission resource unit. A set of transmission resource units within a transmission resource pool 808 available for transport block transmission and retransmission. The set of transmission resource units may be called a transmission pattern 806 and may be UE-specific or UE-group-specific. One or more transmission patterns 806 for one or more UEs or groups of UEs may be present in a single transmission resource pool 808. As shown in FIG. 8, the transmission patterns 806 may comprise the same number of frequency resource units 802 and/or time resource units 804, although in other embodiments, the number of one or both may differ between transmission patterns 806. Similarly, the transmission patterns 806 may be disposed in the same frequency resource units 802 or time resource units 804, although at least one may differ for different transmission patterns 806.

[0085] The resource pool configuration may be based on a determination of resources for transmission for each time instance. In some embodiments, a bitmap approach may be used for a frequency domain resource pool configuration; FIG. 9 illustrates a bitmap-based allocation in accordance with some embodiments. The bitmap-based allocation may indicate a frequency-time resource configuration used by the gNB shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6 for a UE shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6. As shown in FIG. 9, one or more bit strings may be used to determine logical frequency resources assigned to particular resource pool. The number of bits used for each of the frequency bit strings may be less than or equal to the number of resources in the transmission resource pool. The bit strings may be of equal length in some embodiments, while in other embodiments the bit strings (e.g., those used to indicate the time pattern) may be different. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a "0" in a particular position in the bit string may indicate that the resource is not allocated for transmission by the UE, while a "1" may indicate that the resource has been allocated for transmission by the UE.

[0086] In another embodiment, the resource pool configuration may be indicated by a starting frequency resource unit index and a number of consecutive resource units allocated to a particular resource pool. Additionally, the resource pool configuration may span multiple sub-bands. In one example, an end index may be used to indicate where the second part of resource pool ends, therefore providing two sub-bands (of the same number of consecutive resource units) in a transmission resource pool. Each sub-band may contain the same number of frequency resource units. In some embodiments, transmission patterns may be indicated by multiple start and number of consecutive frequency resource units. The number of consecutive frequency resource units may be different for different start frequency resource units. In addition, the start and/or number of consecutive frequency resource units may be different for different time resource units.

[0087] Alternatively, the resource pool may be configured as all frequency resources. In this case, the access to the frequency resources may be controlled by transmission patterns.

[0088] Similarly, a bitmap approach may be used for a time domain resource pool configuration. As shown in FIG. 9, a bit string may in addition or instead be used to determine time resources assigned to particular resource pool. Mapping of the bitmap to the slots or mini-slots or groups of OFDM symbols indicated by the individual bits be performed by the gNB using a modulo operation of the bitmap size. An offset relative to an anchor time instance (e.g., system frame number zero) may be configured for mapping of the bitmap. The individual bits may have the same size (e.g., slot) as that of the frequency mapping or may have a different size (e.g., the frequency bitmap may be a subframe).

[0089] Alternatively, the time domain resource pool configuration may use a periodic equation approach. In this case, a regular mapping rule, which may be described by an offset, number of consecutive time resource units and a period may be used. For example, a resource pool that comprises each second mini-slot in a slot may be indicated by an offset of 0 or 1, by a period of 2 and by the number of units in an occasion of 1.

[0090] In some embodiments, the resource pool may comprise all available time resources in the uplink spectrum. In this case, the access to the time resources may be controlled by transmission patterns configured to a particular UE.

[0091] The bitmap approach may be able provide the best tradeoff between signaling overhead and flexibility. The bitmap approach may signal the frequency and/or time resources similar to signaling of Almost Blank Subframe (ABS) patterns or sidelink resource pools. In some embodiments, the resource pool configuration may be a semi-static parameter of the cell. When a semi- static parameter, the resource pool configuration may be indicated in one or more IEs of a RRC message, such as a RRCConnectionReconfiguration message. In some embodiments, both system information and UE-specific RRC messages may be used. The bit strings (or periodic equation, depending on the approach) may be stored by the UE in memory after reception. In some embodiments, the gNB may reconfigure the transmission parameters for the UE after unsuccessful reception of a transport block by the UE.

[0092] Different cells may be configured with a set of resource pools, which may be different. The configuration of pools in general may be left to gNB implementation and vendor-specific inter-cell optimizations. However, in case gNBs from different vendors operate nearby, the configurations of pools may be coordinated using inter-gNB communication protocols, such as X2-AP interface. In this case, the resource pool configurations may be exchanged using X2-AP messages. This may be desirable for UEs at a cell edge or in networks with multiple small cells.

[0093] As above, the transmission resource pattern configuration inside different transmission resource pools may differ. For URLLC, two types of transmission patterns can be applicable in different situations: Orthogonal Transmission Patterns (OTP) (type 1 transmission pattern) and Quasi- Orthogonal Transmission Patterns (QTP) (type 2 transmission pattern). OTP may be a set of transmission patterns that do not overlap with each other. This set may be cell-specific or cell-group specific. In some embodiments, the cell- specific or cell-group specific transmission patterns may be located within the same transmission resource pool as at least one other gNB. This type of pattern may provide fully orthogonal resource allocation between associated UEs if there is sufficient number of resource and a relatively small number of UEs. In QTP, each pattern may overlap with one or more other patterns. In some embodiments, the overlapping order N (i.e., overlap with at most Ν resources of other patterns) may be limited to a small value e.g. 1 or 2, where NF-1 may be the maximum value. Note, that if N = 0, then the set becomes a Type-1 transmission pattern. In some embodiments, the gNB may use interference cancellation or rejection techniques when a high N is used.

[0094] Discussion of the patterns may be split into frequency domain patterns and time domain patterns. Either or both OTP or QTP may be used. OTP may be used when sufficient resources exist and a relatively small number of UEs are present, which may be served in orthogonal manner. QTP may have a higher number of patterns than OTP, and thus may be used to improve resource utilization and spectrum efficiency for grant-free transmission of sporadic traffic. The potential collisions between patterns of different UEs transmitting simultaneously can be resolved by gNB receive processing and retransmission scheduling.

[0095] Frequency-domain transmission patterns may be defined by the variables: NF - the number of frequency resource units in a transmission resource pool, and KF - the number of frequency resource units in a transmission pattern. The number of orthogonal patterns may be ^ ^ρ /κ _ρ ■ The number of quasi-orthogonal patterns with at most KF-1 overlapping resources may be nchoosek(NF, KF). AS an example, a transmission resource pool size may be 24 PRB. If a frequency resource unit is 3 PRB, there are NF = 8 units in the transmission resource pool. If each transmission pattern has two resource units, KF = 2. In this case, the number of orthogonal patterns is 4 and the number of quasi-orthogonal patterns is 28 as illustrated in Table 1 below. 1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0 1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0 1,0,0, 1,0,0,0,0 1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0 0,1, 1,0,0,0,0,0 0, 1,0, 1,0,0,0,0 0, 1,0,0,1,0,0,0 0,1,0,0,0, 1,0,0 0,0, 1,1,0,0,0,0 0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0 0,0,1,0,0, 1,0,0 0,0, 1,0,0,0,1,0 0,0,0,1, 1,0,0,0 0,0,0, 1,0, 1,0,0 0,0,0, 1,0,0,1,0 0,0,0, 1,0,0,0, 1 0,0,0,0, 1,1,0,0 0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0 0,0,0,0,1,0,0, 1

0,0,0,0,0,1, 1,0 0,0,0,0,0, 1,0, 1 1,0,0,0,0, 1,0,0

0,0,0,0,0,0, 1,1 1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0 0, 1,0,0,0,0,1,0

1,0,0,0,0,0,0,1 0, 1,0,0,0,0,0, 1 0,0,1,0,0,0,0, 1

Table 1 : frequency domain transmission patterns with NF = 8 and KF = 2

[0096] A set of frequency domain patterns may be configured by a gNB to a UE using RRC signaling. Different cells and/or UEs may have different sets of patterns. Sets with different numbers of KF may be configured to UEs depending on channel quality and traffic demands for each UE. For example, a UE using a larger data rate may be provided with a pattern having a larger KF than a UE with small data rate. A rule to select one pattern of the set may be defined and controlled by gNB.

[0097] Similarly, time-domain transmission patterns may be OTP or

QTP. Alternatively, a default scenario of time-domain transmission patterns may be that every time unit in the transmission resource pool is available upon packet arrival at the UE and possible collisions are resolved by frequency domain partitioning. However, OTP or QTP time domain patterns may be useful to randomize interference and collisions in both intra-cell and inter-cell communications. The function describing time domain patterns may count from the first slot or mini-slot in a subframe or in a frame. The time domain patterns may be configured by bitmaps or by a periodic occurrence equation

characterized by period value, offset and number of slots/mini-slots in an occasion.

[0098] The time patterns may also indicate resources for both initial transmission and retransmission. In this case, the round trip time for

ACK/NACK feedback or retransmission grant (DCI) can be taken into account. FIG. 10 illustrates time patterns for single transmission before ACK/NACK feedback (or a new grant) in accordance with some embodiments. The time patterns may show an initial packet (data) transmission 1002 by a UE shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6 and a single ACK/NACK 1004 transmitted the gNB shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6. Note that the packet and ACK/NACK, as other transmissions, may be generated and encoded at the source (whether UE or gNB) and decoded and further processed at the destination (whether gNB or UE), each by processing circuitry in the respective device.

[0099] In FIG. 10, one mini-slot may be assumed for processing of the initial transmission, one mini-slot for ACK/NACK/grant transmission, and one mini-slot for processing at the UE. In total, there may be a 3 mini-slot gap between the initial transmission 1002 and the feedback-based retransmission 1004. In these conditions, the time patterns may have at least 3 zeros, assuming there is no automatic repetitions/retransmissions, that is, repetitions/ retransmissions that are not based on feedback. In FIG. 10, a single transmission may be permitted before a ACK/NACK is received.

[00100] In some cases, however, it may be desirable to increase the link budget of FIG. 10. FIG. 11 illustrates time patterns for bundled transmissions with a single ACK/NACK feedback in accordance with some embodiments. The time patterns may show an initial packet transmission by a UE shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6 and a single ACK/NACK transmitted the gNB shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6. In FIG. 11, like TTI bundling and unlike FIG. 10, a plurality of (K, where K>1) automatic retransmissions may be scheduled before the time instance of feedback reception to improve link budget. Thus, the initial transmission and at least one retransmission may occur before reception of the ACK/NACK/grant corresponding to the initial packet transmission.

[00101] In some cases, multiple ACK/NACK/grants may be used in response to the initial transmission to improve the link budget of the

ACK/NACK/grant, rather than a single ACK/NACK/grant transmission. FIG. 12 illustrates time patterns for bundled transmissions with multiple ACK/NACK feedback in accordance with some embodiments. The time patterns may show an initial packet transmission by a UE shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6 and a single ACK/NACK transmitted the gNB shown in one or more of FIGS. 1-6. As shown, instead of transmitting feedback only after the last transmission inside the K retransmissions, a single ACK/NACK/grant transmission may be sent by the gNB after each UE transmission. Multiple ACK/NACK/grant transmission may be used if there is no limitation in DL ACK/NACK/DCI reliability and capacity.

[00102] In some embodiments, the K retransmissions may not be consecutive to the initial transmission. This may be used to further randomize potential collisions and interference between UEs. The randomization may be controlled by the time-domain transmission pattern component as discussed above.

[00103] In some embodiments, the value of K may be configurable for initial transmission and retransmissions separately. The initial value K may be determined by the gNB based on, for example, quality of service (QoS) parameters, for example channel quality estimation and target block error rate (BLER) or packet error rate (PER), which may be higher than the target reliability of URLLC service. In other words, the K may be determined assuming a particular BLER, for example 1% or 10% BLER. The value of K for retransmissions, (Ki, K2... ) may be calculated to fulfil the reliability taking into account already transmitted number of Ko TTIs. In some embodiments, the value K may be dynamically signaled in a DCI for retransmission along with the transmission pattern, as discussed above. The parameters for retransmission in this case may be adapted based on instantaneous channel and interference measurements performed by the UE during the initial transmission.

[00104] In some embodiments, a dedicated DCI format can be defined to carry the information to reconfigure grant-free transmission parameters. The size of the DCI may be minimized to indicate only a limited set of changed transmission parameters and/or offsets to the previous parameters, thus improving the reliability of such compact DCI reception.

[00105] Alternatively, for grant-free transmissions, the set of K values, [Ko, Ki, K2,..KM] for each of M possible retransmissions may be configured in advance using higher layer signaling in RRC message or MAC control element (CE). This may be less spectrum efficient than dynamic adaptation to channel conditions, but may forego signaling of a DCI for retransmission. In this case, NACK signaling may be sufficient. Note, that transmission parameters other than K values may also be configured for each transmission. These transmission parameters may include modulation, code rate, resource allocation, and power, which may be preconfigured using higher layer signaling.

[00106] To combine the frequency and time transmission patterns components described above, the gNB may assign to a UE an index of frequency and time patterns which the UE is to use when the UE has traffic to transmit in a grant-free manner. The assignment of the pattern index may be indicated by a DCI using physical layer signaling, by an RRC message or using a combination thereof. For example, the RRC may state a default pattern index while the DCI signaling may override the RRC configuration in dynamic manner. In addition, a hopping equation may be defined to change the pattern indexes over time. A hashing function can be applied. The hashing function may be dependent on one or more UE-specific and/or UE-independent variables, such as UE ID, slot/mini- slot index, cell ID. Different cells may have different sets of patterns or different hopping behavior to randomize inter-cell interference. The time pattern may be changed by a DCI, which schedules a retransmission belonging to the initial transmission in a grant-free manner.

[00107] In some embodiments, NR uplink grant-free transmission may comprise a gNB configuring a resource pool for grant-free uplink transmissions and a set of quasi-orthogonal transmission patterns. The gNB may also configure a transmission pattern index of a UE and reconfigure transmission parameters after unsuccessful reception of a transport block. The resource pool configuration may comprise a frequency- and a time-domain resource pool configuration. The frequency-domain resource pool configuration may comprise a bitmap of frequency resources, where zero indicates that a corresponding unit is not included and one indicates that the corresponding resource unit is included in the resource pool. The frequency-domain resource pool configuration may comprise a start index, end index and a number of frequency resources units. The time-domain resource pool configuration may comprise a bitmap of time resources, where zero indicates that a corresponding resource unit is not included and one indicates that the corresponding resource unit is included in the resource pool. The bitmap may be repeated over a defined period and start from an offset relative to an anchor time instance. The anchor time instance may be system frame number zero. The time-domain resource pool configuration may comprise an offset, period, and a number of resource units in an occasion. The UE transmission patterns may comprise frequency-domain patterns and a time domain pattern. The frequency-domain patterns may be orthogonal to each other. The frequency-domain patterns may be quasi-orthogonal with a limited number of overlapped resources between each other. The quasi-orthogonal patterns may comprise NF elements where there are KF ones and others are zeros. Different UEs may be configured with different KF values. Different cells may have different sets of patterns. The time-domain patterns may indicate resources for both an initial transmission and multiple retransmissions. Indexes of time and frequency transmission patterns may be signaled by the gNB to a UE in DCI. The time pattern may be represented by a number of K, which may comprise an initial transmission and retransmissions, and which may be signaled in DCI. Indexes of time and frequency transmission patterns may be signaled by the gNB to a UE in a R C message. The indexes for the initial transmission and retransmissions may be configured separately. The transmission pattern may be a function of mini-slot/slot/subframe index, of UE identity, and/or of cell identity. The resource pool configurations may be exchanged between gNBs using X2-AP interface messages.

[00108] Examples

[00109] Example 1 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a memory; and processing circuitry arranged to: decode from a gNodeB (gNB) control signaling that indicates a transmission pattern for a grant- free uplink transmission to the gNB, the transmission pattern indicated in the control signal as: at least one frequency resource unit (FRU) indicated within a frequency-domain resource pool configuration comprising a plurality of FRUs, and at least one time resource unit (TRU) indicated within a time-domain resource pool configuration comprising a plurality of TRUs, wherein the frequency-domain resource pool configuration and time -domain resource pool configuration is disposed within a resource pool that is a subset of resources from a common resource set available to gNBs, and wherein the transmission pattern is selected from at least one of a set of orthogonal transmission patterns (OTPs) and a set of quasi-orthogonal transmission patterns (QTPs) in the resource pool, the selection dependent on a number of UEs served by the eNB and size of the resource pool; store in the memory the transmission pattern received from the control signaling; and encode, for transmission to the gNB, a grant-free uplink transmission on the at least one FRU and TRU of the stored transmission pattern.

[00110] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes, wherein: at least one of the frequency -domain resource pool configuration and the time- domain resource pool configuration is indicated in the control message by a corresponding bitmap of resource units of the resource pool, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to determine at least one of the FRU and TRU using the bitmap of the at least one of the frequency-domain resource pool configuration and the time-domain resource pool configuration.

[00111] In Example 3, the subject matter of Examples 1-2 includes, wherein: the frequency-domain resource pool configuration is indicated in the control message by: a start frequency resource unit index that indicates a starting FRU, and a number of consecutive FRUs, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to determine the FRU using the start frequency resource unit index and the number of consecutive FRUs. [00112] In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3 includes, wherein: the frequency-domain resource pool configuration is further indicated in the control message by an end frequency resource unit index that indicates an ending FRU, the frequency-domain resource pool configuration comprises multiple sub- bands of the number of consecutive FRUs, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to determine the FRU using the end frequency resource unit index.

[00113] In Example 5, the subject matter of Examples 1-4 includes, wherein: the time-domain resource pool configuration is periodic, the time- domain resource pool configuration is indicated in the control message by an offset, a number of consecutive TRUs and a period, and the processing circuitry is further arranged to determine the TRU using the offset, number of consecutive TRUs and a period.

[00114] In Example 6, the subject matter of Examples 1-5 includes, wherein: the control signal is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message.

[00115] In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 1-6 includes, wherein: the resource pool is one of a plurality of cell-specific resource pools.

[00116] In Example 8, the subject matter of Examples 1-7 includes, wherein: the transmission pattern is one of a plurality of cell-specific or cell- group specific OTP transmission patterns of the resource pool.

[00117] In Example 9, the subject matter of Examples 1-8 includes, wherein: the transmission pattern is one of a plurality of UE-specific QTP transmission patterns of the resource pool.

[00118] In Example 10, the subject matter of Examples 1-9 includes, wherein: the time-domain resource pool configuration indicates resources for initial transmission and retransmission, and TRUs for retransmission are dependent on a time for round-trip acknowledgment/negative acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) feedback or a retransmission grant.

[00119] In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 10 includes, wherein: the TRUs for multiple individual retransmissions of the initial transmission are scheduled prior to reception by the UE of the ACK/NACK feedback.

[00120] In Example 12, the subject matter of Examples 10-11 includes, wherein: the TRUs for multiple bundled retransmissions of bundled initial transmissions are scheduled prior to reception by the UE of the ACK/NACK feedback.

[00121] In Example 13, the subject matter of Example 12 includes, wherein: a number of retransmissions within each retransmission bundle is dependent on at least one quality of service (QoS) parameter.

[00122] In Example 14, the subject matter of Examples 12-13 includes, wherein: a number of retransmissions within each retransmission bundle is indicated in a downlink control information (DCI) for retransmission along with the transmission pattern.

[00123] In Example 15, the subject matter of Examples 10-14 includes, wherein: the TRUs for multiple individual adjacent retransmissions of individual initial adjacent transmissions are scheduled prior to reception by the UE of the ACK/NACK feedback, the individual retransmissions and the individual initial transmissions.

[00124] In Example 16, the subject matter of Examples 1-15 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: periodically decode a different pattern index, each pattern index configured to indicate a unique time- domain and frequency-domain resource pool configuration.

[00125] In Example 17, the subject matter of Examples 1-16 includes, wherein: the processing circuitry comprises a baseband processor configured to encode transmissions to, and decode transmissions from, the gNB.

[00126] Example 18 is an apparatus of a gNodeB (gNB), the apparatus comprising: a memory; and processing circuitry arranged to: determine transmission patterns for a plurality of user equipment (UE), the transmission patterns for grant-free uplink transmission to the gNB, the transmission patterns disposed within at least one resource pool that is a subset of resources from a common resource set available to gNBs, the at least one resource pool comprising a resource pool configuration, the resource pool configuration comprising a frequency -domain resource pool configuration and a time-domain resource pool configuration, the transmission pattern of the at least one resource pool selected from among at least one of a set of cell-specific or cell-group specific orthogonal transmission patterns (OTPs) or a set of UE-specific quasi- orthogonal transmission patterns (QTPs) in the at least one resource pool; store the transmission patterns in the memory; encode, for transmission to one of the UEs, control signaling that indicates one of the transmission patterns stored in the memory using the frequency-domain resource pool configuration and time- domain resource pool configuration; and decode from the UE a grant-free uplink transmission on the one of the transmission patterns.

[00127] In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 18 includes, wherein: at least one of the frequency-domain resource pool configuration or the time-domain resource pool configuration is indicated in the control message by a corresponding bitmap of resource units of the resource pool.

[00128] In Example 20, the subject matter of Examples 18-19 includes, wherein: the frequency-domain resource pool configuration is indicated in the control message by a start frequency resource unit index that indicates a starting frequency resource unit (FRU) and a number of consecutive FRUs.

[00129] In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 20 includes, wherein: the frequency-domain resource pool configuration is further indicated in the control message by an end frequency resource unit index that indicates an ending FRU, the frequency-domain resource pool configuration comprising multiple sub-bands of the number of consecutive FRUs.

[00130] In Example 22, the subject matter of Examples 18-21 includes, wherein: the time-domain resource pool configuration is periodic and indicated in the control message by an offset, a number of consecutive time resource units (TRUs) and a period. [00131] In Example 23, the subject matter of Examples 18-22 includes, wherein: the resource pool is one of a plurality of cell-specific resource pools.

[00132] In Example 24, the subject matter of Examples 18-23 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: periodically encode a different pattern index to a particular UE, each pattern index configured to indicate a unique time-domain and frequency-domain resource pool configuration.

[00133] In Example 25, the subject matter of Example 24 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: apply a hashing function to each pattern index prior to transmission of the pattern index, the hashing function dependent on at least one of a UE identity (ID), slot or mini- slot index at a time of transmission of the pattern index, or cell ID of the gNB.

[00134] In Example 26, the subject matter of Examples 24-25 includes, wherein: each pattern index is unique to the gNB.

[00135] In Example 27, the subject matter of Examples 18-26 includes, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: coordinate, with other gNBs through X2-AP messages, frequency- and time-domain resource pool configurations of the gNB and the other gNBs.

[00136] Example 28 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), the one or more processors to configure the UE to, when the instructions are executed: receive from a gNodeB (gNB) Radio Resource Control (RRC) message that indicates a transmission pattern for a grant-free uplink transmission to the gNB, the transmission pattern disposed within a resource pool that is a subset of resources from a common resource set available to gNBs, the resource pool comprising a frequency-domain resource pool configuration and a time-domain resource pool configuration indicated in the RRC message, the transmission pattern comprising at least one of a set of cell- specific or cell-group specific orthogonal transmission patterns (OTPs) or a set of UE-specific quasi-orthogonal transmission patterns (QTPs) in the resource pool; and transmit to the gNB, a grant-free uplink transmission on the transmission pattern.

[00137] In Example 29, the subject matter of Example 28 includes, wherein one of: at least one of the frequency -domain resource pool configuration or the time-domain resource pool configuration indicated in the RRC message by a corresponding bitmap of resource units of the resource pool, the frequency- domain resource pool configuration is indicated in the RRC message by a start frequency resource unit index that indicates a starting frequency resource unit (FRU) and a number of consecutive FRUs, or the time-domain resource pool configuration is periodic and indicated in the RRC message by an offset, a number of consecutive time resource units (TRUs) and a period.

[00138] In Example 30, the subject matter of Examples 28-29 includes, wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to configure the UE to: periodically decode a different pattern index, each pattern index configured to indicate a unique time-domain and frequency-domain resource pool configuration.

[00139] Example 31 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations to implement of any of Examples 1-30.

[00140] Example 32 is an apparatus comprising means to implement of any of Examples 1-30.

[00141] Example 33 is a system to implement of any of Examples 1-30.

[00142] Example 34 is a method to implement of any of Examples 1-30.

[00143] Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The

accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show, by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The embodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

[00144] The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37

C.F.R. § 1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.