2 illustrated in FIG. 4B. When FD is enabled for both a gNB and a UE, a network may proceed with FD communication according to Use Case 3 illustrated in FIG. 4C.

Interference to a UE and/or gNB operating in FD mode may come in the form of CLI from neighboring nodes, as well as self-interference (SI). FIG. 5A, FIG. 5B, FIG. 5C, and FIG. 5D illustrate example interference scenarios for various FD communication use cases.

As illustrated in FIG. 5A, a first scenario is when FD is enabled for a gNB but disabled for each connected UE (which in turn may be enabled for half-duplex (HD) communication), a gNB communicates using FD capabilities according to Use Case 2 of FIG. 4B. In this case, CLI between UEs, SI from the FD gNB, and CLI between the gNB and neighboring gNBs interferes with FD communication.

As illustrated in FIG. 5B, a second scenario is when FD is enabled for both a gNB and a FD UE/customer premise equipment (CPE) connected to the gNB, the gNB communicates with the FD UE using FD capabilities according to Use Case 3 of FIG. 4C. If the gNB is connected to a HD UE alongside the FD UE, the gNB communicates with the HD UE according to Use Case 2 of FIG. 4B. In this case, CLI between UEs, SI from the gNB and the FD UE, and CLI between the FD gNB and neighboring gNBs interferes with FD communication.

As illustrated in FIG. 5C, a third scenario is when FD is disabled for two gNBs (e.g., in a multiple TRP scenario) and enabled at one UE/CPE connected to the two gNBs, the two gNBs communicate with the FD UE using FD capabilities according to Use Case 1 of FIG. 4A. If one of the two gNBs is connected to a HD UE alongside the FD UE, the one gNB communicates with both the HD UE and the FD UE. In this case, CLI between UEs, SI from the FD UE, and CLI between the two gNBs interferes with FD communication.

As illustrated in FIG. 5D, a fourth scenario is when two FD IAB nodes have conditional enhanced duplexing capability. Each of the two IAB nodes are connected to a parent node. Each IAB node may be enabled for FD communication and may communicate with at least two UEs according to Use Case 2 of FIG. 4B. In some cases, nodes involved in the FD use case depicted in FIG. 5D may support same frequency full duplex (SFFD) and frequency division multiplexing (FDM)/spatial division multiplexing (SDM) with resource block group (RBG) granularity. In this case, CLI between IAB nodes and SI from each IAB node may interfere with FD communication.

Aspects Related to Mitigating Cross-Link Interference Between gNBs

Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatuses, methods, processing systems, and computer-readable mediums for mitigating cross-link interference (CLI) between wireless nodes by implementing one or more action rules during full-duplex (FD) communication. The various techniques presented herein may allow for inter-gNB interference management and could help optimize FD and TDD communication sessions.

The techniques may help mitigate CLI, for example, when a gNB communicates in FD mode as illustrated in FIG. 6A or when a gNB communicates in HD mode but with flexible and misaligned TDD, as illustrated in FIG. 6B. CLI (denoted 602) may occur in such cases, for example, when gNB beams are not optimally selected to mitigate inter-gNB interference.

Aspects of the present disclosure may help mitigate inter-gNB in such cases, by providing a set of rules that helps dynamically determine which node should take action to mitigate the interference, when detected or anticipated. The determination may be considered dynamic in the sense that the rules may take into account current operating conditions, such as current uplink and downlink directional configurations and/or the relative priority of potentially interfering transmissions. For example, different nodes may be configured with overlapping slots as flexible. In some cases, these dynamic interference mitigation rules may be defined and implemented for different gNB operators that share same spectrum.

Example application of the dynamic interference mitigation rules presented herein is illustrated in the call flow diagram 700 of FIG. 7, which shows example message exchange between an aggressor wireless node and a victim wireless node. The victim and aggressor nodes may be any combination of gNBs/TRPs or UEs and may, thus, be configured to mitigate inter-gNB/TRP interference as well as inter-UE interference (e.g., in case UEs belong to different serving gNBs).

In the illustrated example, at 706, the victim node detects CLI (e.g., interference from the aggressor node. The CLI may be detected by any suitable technique, for example, based on the measurement of reference signals (RSs) transmitted by the aggressor wireless node. In some cases, the CLI may be detected based on an indication, received from another node (e.g., that detected CLI based on RS measurements).

In some cases, the victim node may notify the aggressor node of the CLI, as shown at 708. The notification may be via any suitable signaling, such as a wired or wireless backhaul message.

At 710, the aggressor node and/or the victim node determine which node is to take action to mitigate the CLI, based on one or more rules. Based on the determination, the victim node takes action to mitigate CLI at 712a, the aggressor node takes action to mitigate CLI at 712b, or both the victim node and the aggressor node take action.

In some cases, the CLI may be detected on a set of candidate resources (that were candidates for future scheduled transmissions. In such cases, mitigating CLI may involve restricting transmission or reception (Tx/Rx) on a reverse direction on its own candidate restricted resources. The rules may pre-determine which node is to take action based on various conditions, considering different factors.

In one example, the aggressor gNB may forbid a DL transmission from using the high-CLI DL beam in an upcoming time window (that may be subject to CLI). In other words, because of the potentially high directionality of transmissions, not allowing the DL transmission using a downlink beam subject to high CLI, the aggressor gNB may avoid interference to UL reception of a victim gNB.

In another example, a victim gNB may terminate UL reception due to high CLI from a high-priority DL transmission from the aggressor gNB. In either of these examples, interference mitigation may be performed by a gNB for inter-gNB use cases or by a UE for inter-UE use cases (e.g., UEs belong to different serving gNBs).

The interference mitigation rules proposed herein may be designed to determine which gNB should take action to mitigate CLI in a manner designed to optimize the impact on performance. For example, when neighboring gNBs interfere each other, the gNB (e.g., a centralized unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU)) taking action to forbid reverse link Tx/Rx may be determined based on rules that consider whether OFDM symbols in a slot are configured as downlink (D), uplink (U), or as flexible symbols (F).

Flexible symbols generally refer to symbols that are not dedicated as either downlink or uplink, via a common TDD slot configuration. Slots/symbols may be configured by a network as U, D, or F using cell-specific configuration (tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationCommon). UE-specific configurations may be used to adjust the slot DL/UL configuration based on current UE needs. In such cases, the network may send a UE-specific slot configuration (e.g., using an IE tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated) which modifies the flexible slots and symbols (as U or D).

FIG. 8 illustrates an example table showing rules for gNB interference mitigation action, based on the RRC configured symbols for the aggressor and victim gNBs.

According to interference mitigation rules, in a case where a first gNB has an RRC configured D or U symbol, while a second gNB has F symbol, the gNB having an F symbol may take action to mitigate detected CLI.

For example, as illustrated in the first row of FIG. 8, if an aggressor gNB has an RRC configured D symbol and a victim gNB has a RRC configured F symbol, the victim may mitigate CLI by terminating its DL transmission. As illustrated in the second row, if the aggressor gNB has an RRC configured U symbol and the victim gNB has an RRC configured F symbol, the victim may mitigate CLI by terminating its UL reception.

On the other hand, as illustrated in the third row, if the aggressor gNB has a RRC configured F symbol and the victim gNB has an RRC configured D symbol, the aggressor gNB terminates its DL transmission. As illustrated in the fourth row, if the aggressor gNB has an RRC configured F symbol and the victim gNB has an RRC configured U symbol, the aggressor gNB terminates its UL reception.

In some cases, both gNBs may have an RRC configured F symbol. In such cases, a slot format indicator (SFI) may determine whether the slot is used for UL or DL transmissions. FIG. 9 illustrates an example table showing rules for determining gNB action based on the SFI for each of the aggressor and victim gNBs both having an RRC configured F symbol. If a gNB has SFI indicating “D” for DL transmission or “U” for UL transmission, while the other gNB has no SFI, the gNB without an SFI may take action to mitigate CLI by terminating its Tx/Rx.

As illustrated in the first row of FIG. 9, when an aggressor gNB has an SFI indicating “D” and a victim gNB has no SFI, the victim gNB terminates its DL transmission. As illustrated in the second row, when an aggressor gNB has an SFI indicating “U” and a victim gNB has no SFI, the victim gNB terminates its UL reception. As illustrated in the third row, when an aggressor gNB has no SFI and a victim gNB has an SFI indicating “D”, the victim gNB terminates its DL transmission. As illustrated in the fourth row, when an aggressor gNB has no SFI and a victim gNB has an SFI indicating “U”, the victim gNB terminates its UL reception.

According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, certain interference mitigation rules determine which gNB takes action to mitigate CLI based on cell identification (cell IDs) associated with each gNB and/or based on priorities assigned to each the gNBs. An example of these cell ID/priority based rules is shown at 1010 in the example call flow diagram 1000 of FIG. 10.

As illustrated, rules based on cell IDs and/or priorities may be applied at both nodes and action(s) take accordingly.

In one example, the gNB that is to terminate Tx/Rx based on cell ID rules may be the one whose involved cell ID is either lower or higher, depending on the specific configuration of the rule. The Cell ID for purposes of applying such a rule may be a serving cell ID or a physical cell identifier (PCI). Alternatively, the gNB taking action may be determined by a pre-configured or randomly generated priority (e.g., per DU/CU).

In some cases, cell ID and/or priority-based rules may be implemented independent of any network condition, including RRC configured symbols for the aggressor and victim gNBs. In some cases, cell ID and/or priority-based rules may be implemented where both the aggressor gNB and the victim gNB have a RRC configured D or U symbol. In some cases, cell ID and/or priority-based rules may be implemented where both the aggressor gNB and the victim gNB have a RRC configured F symbol and either no SFI or configured D/U SFIs.

According to certain aspects of the present disclosure, the interference mitigation rules described herein may be indicated to the victim gNB and/or aggressor gNB. In one case, the rules may be defined in a standard specification (e.g., a NR Release). In another case, either the victim gNB or the aggressor gNB may signal the other gNB its recommendation or intended action (e.g., to forbid reverse link Tx/Rx). The various interference mitigation rules described herein may be applied in various types of aggressor and victim scenarios, such as aggressor and victim gNBs, an aggressor UE/CPE, a victim UE/CPE, an aggressor gNB, or a victim gNB.

Example Methods

FIG. 11 illustrates example operations 1100 for wireless communications by a wireless node, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. For example, operations 1100 may be performed by a base station (BS) 102 or a user equipment (UE) 104 of FIG. 1 for FD communications.

Operations 1100 begin, at 1110, by detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node.

At 1120, a wireless node may determine whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI based on one or more rules.

At 1130, a wireless taking one or more actions to mitigate CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI.

FIG. 12 illustrates example operations 1200 for wireless communications by a wireless node, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. For example, operations 1200 may be performed by a BS 102 or a UE 104 of FIG. 1 for FD communications.

Operations 1200 begin, at 1210, by detecting CLI between the first wireless node and a second wireless node.

At 1220, a wireless node may determine whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI based on based on a comparison of a cell identifiers (cell IDs) or physical cell identifiers (PCIs) of the first and second wireless nodes

At 1230, a wireless node may take one or more actions to mitigate CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI.

FIG. 13 illustrates example operations 1200 for wireless communications by a wireless node, in accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure. For example, operations 1200 may be performed by a BS 102 or a UE 104 of FIG. 1 for FD communications.

- Operations 1300 begin, at 1310, by detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node;
- At 1320, a wireless node may determine whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI based on based on priorities configured for the first and second wireless nodes; and
- At 1330, a wireless node may take one or more actions to mitigate CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI.
  
  Example Wireless Communication Devices

FIG. 14 depicts an example communications device 1400 that includes various components operable, configured, or adapted to perform operations for the techniques disclosed herein, such as the operations depicted and described with respect to FIGS. 11-13. In some examples, communication device 1400 may be a base station 102 as described, for example with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2.

Communications device 1400 includes a processing system 1402 coupled to a transceiver 1408 (e.g., a transmitter and/or a receiver). Transceiver 1408 is configured to transmit (or send) and receive signals for the communications device 1400 via an antenna 1410, such as the various signals as described herein. Processing system 1402 may be configured to perform processing functions for communications device 1400, including processing signals received and/or to be transmitted by communications device 1400.

Processing system 1402 includes one or more processors 1420 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory 1430 via a bus 1406. In certain aspects, computer-readable medium/memory 1430 is configured to store instructions (e.g., computer-executable code) that when executed by the one or more processors 1420, cause the one or more processors 1420 to perform the operations illustrated in FIGS. 11-13, or other operations for performing the various techniques discussed herein for mitigate cross-link interference (CLI) according a set of rules.

In the depicted example, computer-readable medium/memory 1430 stores code 1431 for detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node, code 1432 for determining whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI, and code 1433 for taking one or more actions to mitigate CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI.

In the depicted example, the one or more processors 1420 include circuitry configured to implement the code stored in the computer-readable medium/memory 1430, including circuitry 1421 for detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node, circuitry 1422 for determining whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI, and circuitry 1423 for taking one or more actions to mitigate CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI.

Various components of communications device 1400 may provide means for performing the methods described herein, including with respect to FIGS. 11-13.

In some examples, means for transmitting or sending (or means for outputting for transmission) may include the transceivers 232 and/or antenna(s) 234 of the base station 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 1408 and antenna 1410 of the communication device 1400 in FIG. 14.

In some examples, means for receiving (or means for obtaining) may include the transceivers 232 and/or antenna(s) 234 of the base station illustrated in FIG. 2 and/or transceiver 1408 and antenna 1410 of the communication device 1400 in FIG. 14.

In some examples, means for detecting, determining, and/or taking action may include various processing system components, such as: the one or more processors 1420 in FIG. 14, or aspects of the base station 102 depicted in FIG. 2, including receive processor 238, transmit processor 220, TX MIMO processor 230, and/or controller/processor 240 (including full-duplexing (FD) component 241).

Notably, FIG. 14 is an example, and many other examples and configurations of communication device 1400 are possible.

Example Clauses

Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1: A method for wireless communication by a first wireless node, comprising detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node, determining whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI based on one or more rules, and taking one or more actions to mitigate the CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI.

Clause 2: The method of clause 1, wherein the CLI is detected, by the first wireless node, based on measurements of reference signals (RSs) transmitted by the second wireless node.

Clause 3: The method of clause 2, further comprising transmitting, to the second wireless node, an indication of the detected CLI.

Clause 4: The method of any one of clauses 1-3, wherein the CLI is detected, by the first wireless node, based on: an indication, received from the second wireless node, that the second wireless node detected CLI based on measurements of reference signals (RSs) transmitted by the first wireless node.

Clause 5: The method of any one of clauses 1-4, wherein the first wireless node and the second wireless node comprise a first base station and a second base station, and the one or more actions comprise at least one of restricting uplink reception by the first wireless node or restricting downlink transmission by the first wireless node.

Clause 6: The method of any one of clauses 1-5, wherein the first wireless node comprises a first user equipment (UE) served by a first base station, and the second wireless node comprises a second UE served by a second base station.

Clause 7: The method of any one of clauses 1-6, wherein the one or more rules comprise a rule that dictates that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI when the first wireless node is configured with a flexible symbol and the second wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol or a downlink symbol.

Clause 8: The method of clause 7, wherein the one or more rules comprise at least one of a first rule that the first wireless node is to refrain from transmission during the flexible symbol when the second wireless node is configured with a downlink symbol, or a second rule that the first wireless node is to refrain from reception during the flexible symbol when the second wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol.

Clause 9: The method of any one of clauses 1-8, wherein the one or more rules comprise a rule that dictates that the first or second wireless node that is to take action to mitigate the CLI is determined based on a comparison of a cell identifiers (cell IDs) or physical cell identifiers (PCIs) of the first and second wireless nodes when: the first wireless node is configured with a flexible symbol and the second wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol or a downlink symbol, the second wireless node is configured with a flexible symbol and the first wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol or a downlink symbol, the first wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol and the second wireless node is configured with a downlink symbol, the first wireless node is configured with a downlink symbol and the second wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol, or the first wireless node and second wireless node are both configured with flexible symbols.

Clause 10: The method of any one of clauses 1-9, wherein the one or more rules comprise a rule that dictates that the first or second wireless node that is to take action to mitigate the CLI is determined by priorities of the first and second wireless nodes when: the first wireless node is configured with a flexible symbol and the second wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol or a downlink symbol, the second wireless node is configured with a flexible symbol and the first wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol or a downlink symbol, the first wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol and the second wireless node is configured with a downlink symbol, the first wireless node is configured with a downlink symbol and the second wireless node is configured with an uplink symbol, or the first wireless node and second wireless node are both configured with flexible symbols.

Clause 11: The method of clause 10, wherein one of the first wireless node or second wireless node comprises a distributed unit (DU) and the other of the first wireless node or second wireless node comprises a central unit (CU), and the priorities are pre-configured or randomly generated by the DU or the CU.

Clause 12: The method of any one of clauses 1-11, wherein the one or more rules comprise a rule that dictates that, when the first wireless node and second wireless node are both configured with a flexible symbol: the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI when the second wireless node has received a slot format indicator (SFI) indicating its flexible symbol is an uplink symbol or a downlink symbol and the first wireless node has not received an SFI indicating its flexible symbol is an uplink symbol or a downlink.

Clause 13: The method of any one of clauses 1-12, wherein the one or more rules comprise a rule that dictates that the first or second wireless node that is to take action to mitigate the CLI is determined based on a comparison of a cell identifiers (cell IDs) or physical cell identifiers (PCIs) of the first and second wireless nodes when the first wireless node and second wireless node are both configured with a flexible symbol and neither the first wireless node nor the second wireless node has received an SFI indicating its flexible symbol is an uplink symbol or a downlink.

Clause 14: The method of any one of clauses 1-13, wherein the one or more rules comprise a rule that dictates that the first or second wireless node that is to take action to mitigate the CLI is determined by priorities of the first and second wireless nodes when the first wireless node and second wireless node are both configured with a flexible symbol and neither the first wireless node nor the second wireless node has received an SFI indicating its flexible symbol is an uplink symbol or a downlink.

Clause 15: The method of any one of clauses 1-14, wherein the one or more rules are defined in a standard specification.

Clause 16: The method of any one of clauses 1-15, wherein the one or more rules are based on a recommendation or indication from the second wireless node.

Clause 17: The method of any one of clauses 1-16, further comprising transmitting the second wireless node a recommendation or indication regarding the one or more rules.

Clause 18: A method for wireless communication by a first wireless node, comprising detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node, determining whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI based on based on a comparison of a cell identifiers (cell IDs) or physical cell identifiers (PCIs) of the first and second wireless nodes, and taking one or more actions to mitigate the CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI.

Clause 19: A method for wireless communication by a first wireless node, comprising detecting cross link interference (CLI) between the first wireless node and a second wireless node, determining whether the first wireless node or the second wireless node is to take action to mitigate CLI based on priorities configured for the first and second wireless nodes, and taking one or more actions to mitigate the CLI when the determination is that the first wireless node is to take action to mitigate the CLI.

Clause 20: The method of clause 19, wherein one of the first wireless node or second wireless node comprises a distributed unit (DU) and the other of the first wireless node or second wireless node comprises a central unit (CU), and the priorities are pre-configured or randomly generated by the DU or the CU.

Clause 21: An apparatus, comprising: a memory comprising executable instructions; one or more processors configured to execute the executable instructions and cause the apparatus to perform a method in accordance with any one of Clauses 1-20.

Clause 22: An apparatus, comprising means for performing a method in accordance with any one of Clauses 1-20.

Clause 23: A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform a method in accordance with any one of Clauses 1-20.

Clause 24: A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium comprising code for performing a method in accordance with any one of Clauses 1-20.

Additional Wireless Communication Network Considerations

The techniques and methods described herein may be used for various wireless communications networks (or wireless wide area network (WWAN)) and radio access technologies (RATs). While aspects may be described herein using terminology commonly associated with 3G, 4G, and/or 5G (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)) wireless technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may likewise be applicable to other communication systems and standards not explicitly mentioned herein.

5G wireless communication networks may support various advanced wireless communication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), millimeter wave (mmWave), machine type communications (MTC), and/or mission critical targeting ultra-reliable, low-latency communications (URLLC). These services, and others, may include latency and reliability requirements.

Returning to FIG. 1, various aspects of the present disclosure may be performed within the example wireless communication network 100.

In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a NodeB and/or a narrowband subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell” and BS, next generation NodeB (gNB or gNodeB), access point (AP), distributed unit (DU), carrier, or transmission reception point may be used interchangeably. A BS may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cells.

A macro cell may generally cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a sports stadium) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs having an association with the femto cell (e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) and UEs for users in the home). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto BS, home BS, or a home NodeB.

Base stations 102 configured for 4G LTE (collectively referred to as Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) may interface with the EPC 160 through first backhaul links 132 (e.g., an S1 interface). Base stations 102 configured for 5G (e.g., 5G NR or Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)) may interface with 5GC 190 through second backhaul links 184. Base stations 102 may communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC 160 or 5GC 190) with each other over third backhaul links 134 (e.g., X2 interface). Third backhaul links 134 may generally be wired or wireless.

Small cell 102′ may operate in a licensed and/or an unlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell 102′ may employ NR and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum as used by the Wi-Fi AP 150. Small cell 102′, employing NR in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage to and/or increase capacity of the access network.

Some base stations, such as gNB 180 may operate in a traditional sub-6 GHz spectrum, in millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies, and/or near mmWave frequencies in communication with the UE 104. When the gNB 180 operates in mmWave or near mmWave frequencies, the gNB 180 may be referred to as an mmWave base station.

The communication links 120 between base stations 102 and, for example, UEs 104, may be through one or more carriers. For example, base stations 102 and UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, and other MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction. The carriers may or may not be adjacent to each other. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated for DL than for UL). The component carriers may include a primary component carrier and one or more secondary component carriers. A primary component carrier may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and a secondary component carrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

Wireless communications system 100 further includes a Wi-Fi access point (AP) 150 in communication with Wi-Fi stations (STAs) 152 via communication links 154 in, for example, a 2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum. When communicating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the STAs 152/AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) prior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel is available.

Certain UEs 104 may communicate with each other using device-to-device (D2D) communication link 158. The D2D communication link 158 may use the DL/UL WWAN spectrum. The D2D communication link 158 may use one or more sidelink channels, such as a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), and a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH). D2D communication may be through a variety of wireless D2D communications systems, such as for example, FlashLinQ, WiMedia, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi based on the IEEE 802.11 standard, 4G (e.g., LTE), or 5G (e.g., NR), to name a few options.

EPC 160 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 162, other MMEs 164, a Serving Gateway 166, a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Gateway 168, a Broadcast Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) 170, and a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway 172. MME 162 may be in communication with a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 174. MME 162 is the control node that processes the signaling between the UEs 104 and the EPC 160. Generally, MME 162 provides bearer and connection management.

Generally, user Internet protocol (IP) packets are transferred through Serving Gateway 166, which itself is connected to PDN Gateway 172. PDN Gateway 172 provides UE IP address allocation as well as other functions. PDN Gateway 172 and the BM-SC 170 are connected to the IP Services 176, which may include, for example, the Internet, an intranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS Streaming Service, and/or other IP services.

BM-SC 170 may provide functions for MBMS user service provisioning and delivery. BM-SC 170 may serve as an entry point for content provider MBMS transmission, may be used to authorize and initiate MBMS Bearer Services within a public land mobile network (PLMN), and may be used to schedule MBMS transmissions. MBMS Gateway 168 may be used to distribute MBMS traffic to the base stations 102 belonging to a Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area broadcasting a particular service, and may be responsible for session management (start/stop) and for collecting eMBMS related charging information.

5GC 190 may include an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 192, other AMFs 193, a Session Management Function (SMF) 194, and a User Plane Function (UPF) 195. AMF 192 may be in communication with a Unified Data Management (UDM) 196.

AMF 192 is generally the control node that processes the signaling between UEs 104 and 5GC 190. Generally, AMF 192 provides QoS flow and session management.

All user Internet protocol (IP) packets are transferred through UPF 195, which is connected to the IP Services 197, and which provides UE IP address allocation as well as other functions for 5GC 190. IP Services 197 may include, for example, the Internet, an intranet, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a PS Streaming Service, and/or other IP services.

Returning to FIG. 2, various example components of BS 102 and UE 104 (e.g., the wireless communication network 100 of FIG. 1) are depicted, which may be used to implement aspects of the present disclosure.

At BS 102, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a data source 212 and control information from a controller/processor 240. The control information may be for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), group common PDCCH (GC PDCCH), and others. The data may be for the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), in some examples.

A medium access control (MAC)-control element (MAC-CE) is a MAC layer communication structure that may be used for control command exchange between wireless nodes. The MAC-CE may be carried in a shared channel such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH).

Processor 220 may process (e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtain data symbols and control symbols, respectively. Transmit processor 220 may also generate reference symbols, such as for the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), PBCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

Transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) in transceivers 232a-232t. Each modulator in transceivers 232a-232t may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal. Downlink signals from the modulators in transceivers 232a-232t may be transmitted via the antennas 234a-234t, respectively.

At UE 104, antennas 252a-252r may receive the downlink signals from the BS 102 and may provide received signals to the demodulators (DEMODs) in transceivers 254a-254r, respectively. Each demodulator in transceivers 254a-254r may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM) to obtain received symbols.

MIMO detector 256 may obtain received symbols from all the demodulators in transceivers 254a-254r, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. Receive processor 258 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 104 to a data sink 260, and provide decoded control information to a controller/processor 280.

On the uplink, at UE 104, transmit processor 264 may receive and process data (e.g., for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) from a data source 262 and control information (e.g., for the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 280. Transmit processor 264 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal (e.g., for the sounding reference signal (SRS)). The symbols from the transmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 if applicable, further processed by the modulators in transceivers 254a-254r (e.g., for SC-FDM), and transmitted to BS 102.

At BS 102, the uplink signals from UE 104 may be received by antennas 234a-t, processed by the demodulators in transceivers 232a-232t, detected by a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by UE 104. Receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a data sink 239 and the decoded control information to the controller/processor 240.

Memories 242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 102 and UE 104, respectively.

Scheduler 244 may schedule UEs for data transmission on the downlink and/or uplink.

5G may utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the uplink and downlink. 5G may also support half-duplex operation using time division duplexing (TDD). OFDM and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) partition the system bandwidth into multiple orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones and bins. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. Modulation symbols may be sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers may be dependent on the system bandwidth. The minimum resource allocation, called a resource block (RB), may be 12 consecutive subcarriers in some examples. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover multiple RBs. NR may support a base subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 KHz and other SCS may be defined with respect to the base SCS (e.g., 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, 240 kHz, and others).

As above, FIGS. 3A-3D depict various example aspects of data structures for a wireless communication network, such as wireless communication network 100 of FIG. 1.

In various aspects, the 5G frame structure may be frequency division duplex (FDD), in which for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicated for either DL or UL. 5G frame structures may also be time division duplex (TDD), in which for a particular set of subcarriers (carrier system bandwidth), subframes within the set of subcarriers are dedicated for both DL and UL. In the examples provided by FIGS. 3A and 3C, the 5G frame structure is assumed to be TDD, with subframe 4 being configured with slot format 28 (with mostly DL), where D is DL, U is UL, and X is flexible for use between DL/UL, and subframe 3 being configured with slot format 34 (with mostly UL). While subframes 3, 4 are shown with slot formats 34, 28, respectively, any particular subframe may be configured with any of the various available slot formats 0-61. Slot formats 0, 1 are all DL, UL, respectively. Other slot formats 2-61 include a mix of DL, UL, and flexible symbols. UEs are configured with the slot format (dynamically through DL control information (DCI), or semi-statically/statically through radio resource control (RRC) signaling) through a received slot format indicator (SFI). Note that the description below applies also to a 5G frame structure that is TDD.

Other wireless communication technologies may have a different frame structure and/or different channels. A frame (10 ms) may be divided into 10 equally sized subframes (1 ms). Each subframe may include one or more time slots. Subframes may also include mini-slots, which may include 7, 4, or 2 symbols. In some examples, each slot may include 7 or 14 symbols, depending on the slot configuration.

For example, for slot configuration 0, each slot may include 14 symbols, and for slot configuration 1, each slot may include 7 symbols. The symbols on DL may be cyclic prefix (CP) OFDM (CP-OFDM) symbols. The symbols on UL may be CP-OFDM symbols (for high throughput scenarios) or discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols (also referred to as single carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA) symbols) (for power limited scenarios; limited to a single stream transmission).

The number of slots within a subframe is based on the slot configuration and the numerology. For slot configuration 0, different numerologies (μ) 0 to 5 allow for 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 slots, respectively, per subframe. For slot configuration 1, different numerologies 0 to 2 allow for 2, 4, and 8 slots, respectively, per subframe. Accordingly, for slot configuration 0 and numerology μ, there are 14 symbols/slot and 2μ slots/subframe. The subcarrier spacing and symbol length/duration are a function of the numerology. The subcarrier spacing may be equal to 2