Abstract: A system and method includes implementing, by a base station (BS), a reliable ultra-low latency transmission mechanism in a grant-free uplink transmission scheme having defined therein contention transmission unit (CTU) access regions and a plurality of CTUs. Implementing the reliable ultra-low latency transmission mechanism includes defining a reliable ultra-low latency CTU (RULL-CTU) access region from a portion of the CTU access regions of the grant-free transmission scheme, defining an RULL-CTU mapping scheme by mapping at least a portion of plurality of CTUs to the RULL-CTU access region to define a plurality of RULL-CTUs, defining a reliable ultra-low latency user equipment (RULL-UE) mapping scheme by defining rules for mapping a plurality of RULL-UEs to the plurality of RULL-CTUs in an initial pattern for initial transmissions in a first transmission time interval (TTI), and a regrouped pattern for redundant transmissions in a second TTI subsequent to the first TTI.

Abstract: A two-stage DCI framework is provided in which the first stage DCI is carried by PDCCH, second stage DCI is carried by PDSCH. The first stage DCI is blind decoded. The second stage DCI is indicated by the first stage DCI and therefor no blind decoding is necessary. The size of the second stage DCI can be very flexible, can indicate scheduling information for one carrier, multiple carriers, multi transmission for one carrier. The first stage DCI can be compact in size to enhance reliability.

Abstract: Aspects of the present application relate to mobile communication devices having active device components and passive device components and, more particularly, to operation of the passive device components to form a backscatter signal from a received forward signal. Forming the backscatter signal may include generating the backscatter signal from the received forward signal without decoding a plurality of sub-signals in the received forward signal, the backscatter signal being a time-domain function of a contiguous subset of the time-domain plurality of sub-signals in the received forward signal. Upon receipt of the backscatter signal, a reception point may obtain information about the mobile communication device that contains the passive device components. Such information may relate to timing, position and identity.

Abstract: Current radio frame structures in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR) have some restrictions. A frame structure is disclosed herein that aims to provide more flexibility. Embodiments of the flexible frame structure include different parameters that are flexible, i.e. that are configurable. A non-exhaustive list of parameters that may be configurable include: length of the frame; length of a subframe (if a subframe is even defined); length of a slot and/or number of symbol blocks in a slot (if a slot is even defined); length of the CP and/or data portion in a symbol block, or ratio of CP to data portion, which may vary between symbol blocks; downlink/uplink switching gap length, etc.

Abstract: A method for an apparatus comprises obtaining a frequency modulation parameter corresponding to a frequency change rate of a frequency-modulated subcarrier; generating an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)-based waveform signal comprising a plurality of frequency-modulated subcarriers, the plurality of frequency-modulated subcarriers modulated according to the obtained frequency modulation parameter; and outputting the OFDM-based waveform signal. A plurality of modulated symbols may be generated from a sequence of bits and the modulated symbols may be precoded, according to the frequency modulation parameter, to generate precoded symbols. The OFDM-based waveform signal may then be generated from the precoded symbols. A corresponding method for detecting and decoding the waveform signal is also provided.

Abstract: Multiple communication paths are established for communications between a User Equipment (UE) and a wireless communication network, before switching between those paths is initiated. Signaling that includes an explicit indication that the UE is to switch between the multiple communication paths is transmitted to and received by at least the UE for which the multiple communication paths were established. Responsive to the explicit indication, communications are switched between the communication paths. At least one of the communication paths includes a relay path between the UE and the wireless communication network through another UE. Establishment of the multiple paths in advance of the switching may be useful in enabling fast switching with low latency and/or no traffic loss.

Abstract: Methods for transmitting and receiving downlink control information (DCI) are provided along with corresponding network devices and apparatus. A first stage DCI is transmitted that explicitly indicates a scheduling information of a second stage DCI. The second stage DCI is transmitted in a first physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), consistent with the scheduling information. The first PDSCH is a physical channel without data transmission. The receiving apparatus does not need to perform blind decoding of the second stage DCI because it is aware of its location from the scheduling information.

Abstract: Provisioning and communicating physical signals and channels in NR networks having a first subset of transmit and receive points that use a first cell ID and a second subset of transmit and receive points that use a second cell ID. Operations include transmitting from, and receiving from, a first transmit and receive point a first signal or channel wherein the first signal or channel is based on a first user equipment (UE) specific parameter assigned via the first subset of transmit and receive points and transmitting from, and receiving from, the first transmit and receive point the plurality of transmit and receive points a second signal or channel wherein the second signal or channel is based on a second UE specific parameter assigned via the second subset of transmit and receive points. A transmit and receive point and a UE for implementing the operations are also disclosed.

Abstract: Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide for configuration of a sensing signal on the basis of received information regarding a preferred direction or index of sensing signal. The configured sensing signal may be indicated to another device using a predetermined coordinate system. The indication may be transmitted over a communication link ahead of the transmission of the sensing signal.

Abstract: Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide for configuring devices to passively identify themselves even while not actively engaged in accessing a network. Upon receipt of a sensing signal, passive device components of a given device form a backscatter signal that is an altered version of the sensing signal. The source of the sensing signal, or an appropriately configured network node, upon receipt of the backscatter, may identify the given device by the nature of the alteration. The source of the sensing signal, or the appropriately configured network node, may then be considered to have gained information on the existence of the given device as well as a general location for the given device. The network may enlist the help of other devices to sense the environment and, by doing so, may ultimately achieve a greater degree of resolution of the sensed environment.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and devices for enabling transmission of a pattern of pilots in a reference signal in which some of the pilot symbols are transmitted on established pilot sub-carriers and other pilot symbols are transmitted offset from the established pilot sub-carriers. This transmission pattern of pilots allows beneficial results such as 1) maintaining a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) in the pilot symbols and 2) reducing resource usage for the pilot symbols as the pilot symbols have a shorter symbol length.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure provide a manner of associating a physical layer channel, such as, but not limited to, physical broadcast channel (PBCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a receive beam assumption. The beam assumption may, for example, relate a receive beam direction with a reference signal transmitted by a base station in which the reference signal is used for any of multiple uses by a user equipment (UE), such as beam management, multiple BS, including terrestrial BS and/or non-terrestrial BS, and UE mobility.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses and methods for providing flexible initial access processes in a wireless communication system are disclosed. These initial access processes may flexibly implement multiple frequency resources and/or multiple beams, which may improve spectrum utilization, improve load balance for a random access channel (RACH), reduce RACH collision and/or improve wireless coverage. According to one example method, an apparatus may receive, on a first downlink carrier and/or bandwidth part (carrier/BWP), a synchronization signal block (SSB) and first information. The first information indicates a plurality of RACH resources corresponding to a plurality of carriers/BWPs and/or to a plurality of beams. The apparatus may also transmit, on a first uplink carrier/BWP, a first message using a first RACH resource of the plurality of RACH resources.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure provide, in a system that uses multiple radio link types for different networks within the system, methods for selecting more than one radio link type for transmission and acknowledgement of a signal to overcome a problem of mismatch of RTT of signaling over the different radio link types. As a particular example, in an integrated system including both a terrestrial network (TN) portion and a non-terrestrial network (NTN) portion, after an original signal is transmitted over the NTN portion, acknowledgement of the original signal, and retransmissions as necessary, can be carried out over the NT portion.

Abstract: Aspects of the present application provide methods and device for use in User Equipment (UE) cooperation. UE cooperation may include the cooperating UEs (CUEs) forwarding traffic to or from one or more target UEs (TUEs) with redundant signal transmissions or receptions. Methods involve a base station transmitting configuration information to at least one cooperative user equipment (CUE) and to a target user equipment (TUE). The configuration information includes an indication of resources for a sidelink (SL) transmission and a redundancy parameter for the SL transmission. The SL transmission is a transmission for the at least one CUE to forward a packet intended for the TUE. The base station also transmits the packet intended for the TUE, to a plurality of UEs comprising the at least one CUE and the TUE.

Abstract: Embodiments of this application provide data transmission methods and apparatuses. In an implementation, a method includes: determining information about a first modulation constellation diagram and communicating with a first device based on the first modulation constellation diagram, wherein the first modulation constellation diagram comprises M constellation points, and wherein the information about the first modulation constellation diagram comprises one of: a value range of M1 constellation points in the first modulation constellation diagram, wherein M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M; offsets of M1 constellation points in the first modulation constellation diagram relative to M1 constellation points in a reference modulation constellation diagram, wherein M1 is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to M; or a rotation phase of the first modulation constellation diagram relative to a reference modulation constellation diagram.

Abstract: Data is scrambled at a transmitter according to one of a number of predetermined scrambling sequences which are associated with a particular one of a number of predetermined transmit antenna diversity schemes (i.e., a specific number of transmit antenna ports). Received data is decoded using one or more of the known transmit antenna diversity schemes and the scrambled data is descrambled according to a corresponding descrambling sequence (related to the scrambling sequence). Based on the descrambled data, the receiver determines which transmit antenna diversity scheme (i.e., the number of antenna ports) is used by the transmitter. In one specific embodiment, CRC parity data is scrambled in the transmitter and the receiver descrambles the recovered CRC parity data according to a descrambling sequence, computes CRC parity data from the received data, and compares the descrambled CRC parity data to the newly computed CRC parity data.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to communication methods and apparatuses. In one example method, a first access network device determines configuration information, and sends the configuration information to a terminal. The first access network device is connected to a first core network device, and the first core network device uses a first or second communication standard. The configuration information includes status indication information of a first protocol layer (for example, a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer) of the second communication standard, and the status indication information indicates the terminal to perform or not to perform a function of the first protocol layer. The first access network device determines a state of the first protocol layer based on a protocol layer specified in a communication standard of the core network device.

Abstract: This application relates to a cell selection method and apparatus. In an example method, a terminal device performs measurement based on measurement configuration information of N cells and determines M candidate cells based on a measurement result. N is an integer greater than 0, and M is an integer greater than 0 and less than N. The example method further includes the terminal device selecting a target cell from the M candidate cells based on first information. The first information includes coverage information of at least one candidate cell in the M candidate cells.

Abstract: The technology of this application relates to a method for determining a feature of a terminal and a communication apparatus. A mandatory feature set in a feature set of a terminal determined by the terminal or a network device is related to a type of the terminal. In this way, a mandatory feature set may be separately defined for different types of terminals. This customizes features of the terminals, helps minimize the features of the terminals, meets feature requirements of the different types of terminals, reduces chip costs and terminal implementation processing complexity, and implements terminal energy saving.